Where is the outrage for the Halftime show?

I loved the show. However, I wonder where the outrage is about the show? 

Ten years ago, the no infamous "nipplegate" happened. In which for a fraction of a second Janet Jackson's breast was exposed after Justin Timberlake ripped off part of her black leather costume. In 2013 Beyonce gave this sexually charged performance which some people were shocked by the outfit (which also was black leather). 

Then in 2014 we have the very talented Bruno Mars performance in which the only outrage I saw was related to the shirtless Anthony Kiedis and Flea. 

But did anyone listen to what was being sung during the show by Mars? It opened with a chorus of children holding hands and singing a song that talks about how desperately the song writer desires to be a Billionaire. This was then followed up with a song that talks about how having having sex. 

I am not a puritanical prude that believes that all the hip gyrating is leading these United States toward the path of destruction. Again, Mars is very talented and would enjoy having 1/4 of his musical talent. But when we are okay with kids singing about the desire for being super wealthy and a band singing about how not having sex would be like being locked out of heaven, but not okay when there is a "wardrobe malfunction" I have to wonder if there is a disconnect. 

I am not even going to talk about the male/female difference here. I am not saying that we are all okay with men preforming hetro-sexualized material but not okay with women doing it. I want to point out that this is an example of just how influenced we are by Plato.

Aristotle argues that what is real is that which we can see, touch and sense. The scientific community is built on this idea that what is measurable is reality and what is not measurable is theory at best. Because of the emphasis on the measurable (i.e. the material) it may be argued that science is the religion of the material. It is what can be seen and measured that really matters.

So when someone shows off some skin or dances provocatively then we "know" that the performer is moving in a specific direction. But when the performer uses the less measurable ethereal objects such as words to invoke something we are much better with it because we cannot measure words like we can an exposed nipple.

I don't know, maybe it was the upbeat tempo, maybe it was because the dancer dressed in a way to make physical connections to a more "pure" time in american music, maybe it is because Mars is male, maybe it is our connection to ancient Greece and a philosophy that places truth in the material rather than the "ideal", or some combination but I just wonder where is the outrage for the halftime show? 

Why the calling of Jesus is more about Jesus than the Disciples

It is common to read the Bible and think, where do I fit into this story? It is common to think, "this" is the life lesson from this story. It is common to read the Bible and put ourselves at the center of the narrative.  

When we read the story of Jesus calling some disciples in Matthew 4 it is natural to put ourselves into the story or to think the story is revealing about the character/actions of the disciples. Here is the text:

Jesus calling James and John

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

But it is worth repeating, and repeating, and repeating, and repeating the protagonist of the Christian life and the Bible is God - not you or me.

When we hear about Jesus calling the disciples we notice how obedient the disciples are or how quickly they abandon their tasks to follow Jesus. Perhaps the sermon is about how we need to abandon our lives and immediately follow Jesus. Perhaps we do. But that sermon is not the Good News. Jesus is the Good News. And if we preach the Good News then we need to preach Jesus. 

So what does this story tell us about the Good News of Jesus Christ? Allow me to get the ball rolling on your thinking. 

In a world that is set up to encourage the students to seek out the teachers Jesus inverts that and as the teacher he seeks out the students. The Good News is, in part, the fact that God in Jesus Christ seeks, finds and calls us. We get to respond. \

And as the one who is doing the main action, God is the protagonist in our lives. 

Is the Community the new Authority?

Recently I was invited by a friend and colleague, Rev. Ryan Kiblinger to share a bit more about my understanding of authority. In the course of writing a response to his interesting questions, a metaphor stuck me. 

Over the past several centuries in the Christian tradition we have been shaped by one of the cries of the Reformation, sola scriptura - Scripture alone. Which is the belief that the Bible contains all the knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness. And so for many Protestant traditions, scripture becomes the Ultimate Authority on all things. Perhaps not summed up any better than the bumper sticker which reads, "The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it." 

Over the years Protestants began to place more and more emphasis on the authority of the scripture to the point that some of us elevate scripture to the point of idolizing the Bible. The Bible has held the position of privilege as the primary authority for so long that it is hard to remember there was a time when the Bible was not the Ultimate Authority in Christianity. There was a time it was the Pope. There was a time it was the Church. There was a time it was the Emperor. 

Today the position of privilege the Bible has maintained is up for grabs. Not because the Bible is less True or less authoritative but that it is becoming more and more the case that the new authority is the "community". 

Some are threatened by this idea that the community is becoming the privileged position of authority because there is the fear of some from of relativism. However, I want to submit the authoritative community for the Christian is not a group of people. The authoritative community for the Christian is a broad group that spans time and space. The community includes but is not limited to:

• Jesus
• Holy Spirit
• God
• Scriptures 
• Tradition
• Reason
• Experience
• The Holy Spirit 
• Local customs and traditions
• Science
• The stories of the saints of the past
• Current incarnation of the Church

And so, just like any community, there are times in which one member of the community might have a greater voice in one area and a diminished voice in another. This does not mean the voice is not authoritative but that the voice is in conversation with other authoritative voices and the community in order to discern Wisdom, Beauty, Grace, Justice and Truth. 

This is why the Bible is not the Ultimate Authority for me. It is one member of the community of authority that guides and directs me. At times it has more weight than others, but even the Bible can be vetoed by other voices of the community (Jesus vetoed some of the way the Biblical tradition was understood).