Seven Things Luke Wants Me to Know

I've been teaching Luke-Acts for four years now at Rochester College. The first three years I co-taught with my good friend (twice my boss--he's an elder at Rochester Church and V.P. of Academics at RC) John Barton. His missionary/global experience was a great match for my pastoral/local interests. To say it plain: we made a good team. It was comfortable, fruitful.

This semester, I taught the course solo. The students have been excellent. Diverse: urban/suburban, male/female, white/black, conservative/liberal--we made a pack to dive into the world of Luke-Acts to engage the questions of what it might mean to find Jesus alive in both scripture and today's world.

I learn something new every time I teach this course.

Here are the seven convictions I'm left with this "time around." I could say more about each one, but I'll refrain. You can use your knowledge and imagination to push each one further.

1. Christianity is built upon the premise of "narrative rupture."
2. The Spirit of God is the force behind, underneath, in front of all life.
3. Normal values are turned upside-down in Jesus' economy.
4 . This faith is public.
5. Witness is more important than objective/subjective truth debates.
6. Maturity happens by being commissioned.
7. God wants to save the world via an alternative community.

Is Christianity Good for You?

I attended L'Anse Creuse (pronounced lance cruise) North High School from 1993-1997. LCN is in Class A--the largest such specification in the Michigan High School system. A decent school for athletics, it was highly respected for academics (not that I contributed to that--I didn't become serious about school until my second and third year of college). While in school I enjoyed basketball and my social network. Those were essentially the two things I lived for. If you went back and asked many of the people I grew up, they might be surprised to know now that I'm a minister and professor of religion for a liberal arts college. There are not many all-state high school hoop players who enter into the ministry. Though I was baptized at a young age, my second conversion (during college) is what ushered me into a deep spirituality.

I can imagine one schoolmate asking me, "Josh, I respect your decision to be a Christian, serve a church, teach religion courses on spirituality, New Testament, as well as writing . . . but honestly, has Christianity been good for you? Don't you find it restricting, perhaps a bit smothering ?"

It's a great question for at least two reasons. First, it assumes that religion, regardless of the name it goes by, should be judged by the transformation (or lack of) it brings to its adherents. Second, so much of the public face given to Christianity, some deserved, some not, is a picture of judgment, anger, fear, arrogance, and narrow ideology.

I might respond like this.

"Has Christianity been good for me? It's a question I think about all the time. The answer is: absolutely. Not because it isn't full of mystery, complexity, and nuance but because Christianity is the means by which I've come into the teachings of Jesus."

"Though I have much to work on, I'm a far better neighbor to religious and non-religious persons alike than I was fifteen years ago. I used to make friends with people based upon what they had to offer me in return. Now I'm learning to see every person as a son or daughter--a person who bears the image of God. I pray daily that 'I would have no invisible people in my life.'"

"Tribalism dominates so much of American life. We associate with people who look, think, dress, talk, walk, live, and pray like we do. Christianity has brought me to Scotland, inner city Detroit/Philly, East Africa, Central America and beyond. I have rich friends because of Jesus. I have friends who are homeless. The Church, at least in Jesus' vision, is the one true inclusive community in the world. It's the one group that cuts through race, sports, politics, tradition, and geography."

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Mark Twain used to say that some people are religious in the "worst kind of way" . . . I'm acutely aware of this phenomenon in the human experience. The closer I'm drawn into the teachings of Jesus, the more I am alive the hope that exists for me, my neighborhood, church, and world.

Christianity has been good for me because the heart of Christianity is Jesus. The most important person to ever walk among us.

Introducing Jesus . . .