I have been chosen!

As you may know, Becky and I have moved to Chicago in order for me to do a year of "Lutheran studies" at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago [LSTC] Then after that will be a yearlong internship and, God-willing, ordination. In the meantime, me and six other students have been chosen to write on a blog that will be advertised to prospective students, for them to get a feel for life here at LSTC. So if you want to get a 'taste' of my life here in Chicago, check out the blog!

http://tasteandseelstc.blogspot.com

Switchfoot's Hello Hurricane

It's been interesting to see the mainstream music community's views on Switchfoot change over time since 2003's breakthrough album The Beautiful Letdown. At that time, it seemed most reviewers figured the band to be a one-time crossover hit wonder with "Meant to Live," and didn't bother to explore the rest of this 'Christian band's' music too fully. Those same critics may have been a bit surprised by the hit "Stars" off of the band's follow up, Nothing is Sound, but they still didn't take the band too seriously.

Then when Oh Gravity! hit shelves in late 2006, the lack of an overpowering lead single forced critics to give the entire album a listen. Across the board, those reviewers were pleasantly surprised by what they found. That disc, combined with lead singer/guitarist Jon Foreman's solo albums released last year, have led many in the mainstream music community to see what those of us who have been listening to the band since 1997's The Legend of Chin have known all along: Switchfoot is a group of immensely creative musicians, and Jon Foreman is one of the most talented and prolific songwriters of our generation.

And now comes the highly anticipated Hello Hurricane, the first album since hitting it big that Switchfoot has made without record label executives peering over their shoulders. Musically, this album continues in the direction Oh Gravity! started them on. Gone is the pristine production and mixing of John Fields, who oversaw the recording of Beautiful Letdown and Nothing is Sound (the latter takes it to the extreme--the first couple tracks are some of the cleanest rock ever recorded). The result is a sound that betrays any accusation that Switchfoot is overly careful and calculative--this is simply a band having the time of their life playing music they love.

But while Gravity has a very natural, free-flowing feel, Hurricane wrestles a bit more. Nearly every song has its own style, making the album feel a bit disjointed at times. The first five tracks alone give you the delayed guitars and soaring chorus of classic U2 ("Needle and Haystack Life"), a ballad Christian radio will love ("Your Love is a Song"), and a mid-tempo retro 80's track ("Enough to Let Me Go"), broken up by two of Switchfoot's most aggressive tracks yet, lead singles "Mess of Me" and "The Sound (John M. Perkins Blues)." Here's the thing that makes it work, though: it's all really good. What excites me most is the classic rock flavorings more evident here than any of the band's previous work. "Free" and "Bullet Soul" sound like they could have been written in the early 70's.

Lyrically, there are two dominant and interconnected themes on the record. First, Foreman feels stuck, bound by his own sinful nature and the trappings of culture to live in a world he knows is far less than ideal. While this is certainly familiar territory for him, he pushes out toward facets of this not previously explored, like racism ("The Sound") and our culture's fragmentary tendency to prescribe a drug for any perceived problem ("Mess of Me").

Second, he is convinced of the overwhelming power of love to overcome. "The Sound," co-named for racial reconciliation and community development advocate John M. Perkins, is a case-study in this theme. The love Foreman is singing of (and of which Perkins writes) is not the sentimental, I-wish-we-could-all-get-along kind, but the subversive kind that loves in the face of hate and refuses to participate in its violence. Foreman sings, "John Perkins said it right...Love is the final fight...let it rise above, rise above...there is no sound...louder than love!" This theme is repeated later in "Bullet Soul": "Love is the one true innovation...Love is the only art."

The only qualm I have has to do with the first theme, and it's more of a question than an actual qualm. Multiple times throughout the album, Foreman seems to be singing of being stuck inside the "cage" of his body. This idea is certainly borrowed from the apostle Paul's writings in the New Testament, but I fear they reflect a common misunderstanding of those writings. In the second verse of "Mess of Me," Foreman appears to be lamenting that our essential selves are stuck in our sinful nature (exactly what Paul was saying). In "Free," however, when he sings "Inside this shell there's a prison cell," or in "Red Eyes" when he sings, "All of my days are spent within this skin; within this cage that I'm in," he's a bit too close for my comfort to the body-soul dualism of Greek and Enlightenment philosophy. I know this may be a bit too complex an issue to try and distill from rock lyrics, but it's such a dominant theme on the album--I wish I could have a conversation with Jon to find out what his perspectives are.

In short, where else do you expect to be than in your own skin? The orthodox Christian belief about afterlife, contrary to popular opinion, has always been in the resurrection of the body. We're not just souls caged inside of a body that one day we'll escape from. I am my body. My body is me. I can not be separated from it. One day are bodies will be made perfect, Paul writes, but our 'souls' aren't going anywhere. The soul is not a substantive object. It doesn't exist somewhere inside our body - it's a metaphor for our essential selves.

Alright, enough of that for now. This is a CD review (a long one, I know), and the CD is a good one. I would give you the highlights, but I would have to name at least 8 or 9 songs. I've yet to hear a song written by Jon Foreman that was uninteresting, and Hello Hurricane contains no exceptions. Right now my favorites are "Your Love is a Song" and "The Sound," but ask me next week and they might be different.

Acoustic Show Friday

Just a quick note for those of you in the Thousand Oaks area - I'm playing a solo acoustic show at the Starbucks at Ventu and Hillcrest (the one I work at) in Newbury Park this Friday (Nov 20). I'll get going around 7:30 and probably play until 8:45 or so. It's been a while since I've played some of my own stuff with the band, so I decided it's time I go out and play on my own a bit. The address: 587 N Ventu Park Rd (next to Ralph's). Come stop by and hang out!

I know it's been a while since I posted...more to come soon!

Sermon Audio

Here is a link for the audio of the message I gave last Saturday at church. It's actually the audio for more of the service--so skip ahead to about 4:20 if you just want to hear the sermon. You can stream it or download it.

http://www.ascensionlutheran-church.org/pages/podcast.htm

-matt

The Scandalous Savior: John 6:56-69

A couple people have asked me if I could post a summary of the message I gave at church last Saturday night. At some point I'll obtain the audio and post it here, but for now here's a (hopefully) little summary. This is obviously a paraphrase of ideas, not the actual words I used.

The sermon was on the text of John 6:56-69. Our church generally (though not always) follows the Revised Common Lectionary, and this was the gospel text for last Sunday. The text (NRSV) follows, but I suggest grabbing a Bible so you can follow the different places in the text that I reference without having to scroll back up.

⁵⁶Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” ⁵⁹He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

⁶⁰When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” ⁶¹But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶²Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.⁶⁵And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” ⁶⁶Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. ⁶⁷So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” ⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

This is the fifth straight week we are in John 6, and in preparation I got to wondering why the makers of the lectionary would have us spend five weeks in this chapter. Perhaps they figured it would take pastors and preachers five weeks to explain this somewhat difficult text! But really, I think it's because this text really contains the heart of the Christian life; the core of what it really means to be a Christian.

John 6 is a turning point in John's gospel. Up until this point, following Jesus has been a relatively easy thing to do. He's the "cool new prophet" of Israel. Earlier in this chapter he fed thousands of people with one kid's lunch. He's already healed some people that were on the brink of death. So if you follow Jesus around, you'll see some pretty cool stuff - rumor has it he's even the life of the party. He even turned water into wine at a wedding!

But Jesus' message in the synagogue at Capernaum changes everything. He said, "In order to be my follower you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. Earlier, in 6:30, the people want more signs - more proof that Jesus has come from God. But instead of offering more signs, Jesus offers himself. This is a difficult teaching for the people that hear it, and many of them turn and walk away at this point. It's no longer cool to follow Jesus. And before long, people are going to be trying to kill him.

Why are Jesus words so difficult? Well, they're strange for us today, even when we can hear them through the lens of the bread and wine of communion. But here, Jesus is speaking to Jewish people with strict dietary laws. They couldn't even eat meat with blood in it! And here Jesus asks them to drink his blood and eat his flesh? And this teaching would have legs - a few years later the early Christians would be accused of cannibalism. But even if the people can get past the strangeness of his words and call them metaphor, he's committing a worse offense - he is dangerously close to claiming to be the source of life - God himself.

Editor's note: this is getting long already, I'm gonna try to skip parts to shorten in a bit...

Take a look at Jesus' response to the complaint that his teaching is difficult: "Does this offend you?" The word translated 'offend' is a form of the Greek word skandalon, from which we derive english words like scandal and scandalous. It literally means "stumbling block,", which recalls Isaiah 8, which prophesies, "he will be a stone that makes them stumble...and a rock that makes them fall."

Coming to Jesus always causes us to stumble, because we were always expecting something different. The Jewish people learned very quickly that Jesus was not what they were expecting in a Messiah. The religious leaders saw his words as offensive from the beginning. In Mark 3, Jesus' family comes out to take him away, thinking he's gone crazy. In Matthew 11, even the John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way for the Messiah, wondered whether Jesus really was the one who was to come, sending word to him from prison. Jesus is never what we expect.

In the present text, there are two groups of people. Many 'disciples' walk away (v66) - the scandal of Jesus is teaching is too much to bear. But 'the twelve', represented by Peter, profess faith in the face of this hard teaching. Later, of course, they too would stumble, abandoning and denying Jesus as he is led away to die. We, like Peter would do eventually, also try to tell God what is best, consciously or not. We're still looking for signs. And Jesus still offers himself.

The question is not whether you will stumble - you will. The ways of God are not our ways. The question is what happens after you stumble over something unexpected. Will you be like the many who leave, staying firm in your own expectation of how things are supposed to go? Or will you be like the few who, tripping over Jesus, allow your expectations to be broken so that Jesus can rebuild them?

Thanks be to God, it doesn't depend on us. That's the gospel. That's the good news in this story. If it did, we would all walk away. But the good news that it is God who calls us, draws us, and allows us to follow his ways is sprinkled all over this text. Verse 65 is the most obvious--no one can come to Jesus unless it is granted by the Father. But it is also in v63 (flesh vs. Spirit) and v70.

What causes you to stumble? Is there something in your life causing a crisis of faith? Whatever it is, let it go, and fall into the arms of Jesus. You don't have to have it all figured out. In fact, if you think you do, that's when you know you're in trouble. You're holding on to your own expectations so tight that when you stumble over something unexpected, you'll be falling onto that rock instead of into the arms of Jesus. Sometimes you have to give up faith in order to gain it - faith in yourself, in your own ideas of how things are supposed to go. And Surrender into a deeper commitment with Christ, a deeper trust in Him.

Peter says, "Yeah your teaching is difficult, but where else are we gonna go? We have come to believe and know that you are the holy one of God" The word "believe" is a form of the Greek word pisteau, and commonly means "to believe; to have faith in, to trust." But another meaning, and the one I like best in this context, is "to be committed to". The text mentions that Jesus knew who would betray him, and pisteau can be seen here as the opposite of betrayal - total commitment. In effect, Peter is saying, "We have come to being committed to you and knowing that you are the Holy One of God."

So how do we surrender into this deeper commitment to Christ, this deeper trusting relationship? Jesus has already told us in v56: "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." Here in this verse is the core of the Christian life: Word and Sacrament. "Word and Sacrament" is not boring church-speak, it is the dynamic, living presence of Jesus. Jesus wants to get inside of us, and the two ways he does that is through our ears - through hearing the Word - and through our mouths - through the receiving of his body and blood through the bread and wine at communion.

In John 1, Jesus is called the Word. Here he says that in order to be his follower, we must eat his flesh. We must consume theWord of God. In a Jewish worldview, blood is the seat of life. That's why they weren't allowed to eat meat with blood in it - that would be taking in the life of another being. But here Jesus, says, "I want to be your very lifesource." In drinking his blood, Jesus is asking us to make the deepest-level commitment possible.

The Word is the voice of God, and the Sacraments of baptism and communion are his presence. To read the Word is to hear God’s voice, and to participate in the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion is to be filled with the very life of God. So when you stumble over something unexpected that doesn’t fit with your idea of what it means to walk with God, don’t hold onto your expectations so tight that you fall onto them. Instead, surrender. Fall into the arms of Jesus, and fall into the arms of grace, a grace communicated and experienced through God’s life-giving Word and through the dynamic, powerful Sacraments.

Rob Bell/Revelation

I found a video of a message very similar to the one Rob Bell gave the first time I heard him speak, at a Youth Specialties conference in 2003. This is at Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago that same year.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1465663627958239828

This is why I enjoy listening to Rob Bell.

Preaching

I'm preaching at our church next Saturday night. If anyone wants to make the trip up, we'll get together afterwards. 6:00pm @ Ascension Lutheran in Thousand Oaks (www.alcto.org)