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They Know Not What They Do
May 6th
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. (Luke 23:34, King James Version)
I was recently listening in on a webinar where the above verse was mentioned. Mind you, it was not the main topic of conversation and, in many ways, it was kind of glossed over – not in an intentional way, but in the way that we tend to do when we’re covering a lot of information in a little bit of time. However, in that instant after hearing the words and before moving on to the next thing, I took a moment to jot myself a note. The note read “Forgive them, for they know not what they do. What does that say about God’s ability/willingness to forgive?”
Now, I don’t have an answer for that question, but I wanted to share with you some of the things that jumped out to me and that have stirred my heart about that verse. Here, Jesus is being tortured – he is being killed – by a group of people made up of those who should know better (religious leaders supposedly in tune with God’s ways) and those who have no reason to know right from wrong in this situation (Romans, who are uneducated about and/or ambivalent to Jewish custom, law or religion.)
In the midst of their derision, Jesus asked God to forgive them – not simply to spare their life or to not judge them harshly – but to forgive them. Presumably, the kind of forgiveness that we are told only comes from giving our lives to Jesus is here being dolled out to people who not only haven’t accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord, but to people who are actually murdering him. On the surface, it seems like a really kind gesture, but thinking deeper, a statement like this – an act like this – seems to suggest some things that are counter to popular theology.
We have been told and believe that the only way to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven is to believe in and follow Jesus. Those who do not follow him, we are told, don’t stand a chance in eternity. Now, there are different views regarding those who never got a chance to hear the message of salvation (some think those people are fine and others think they will rot in hell) but very few of us have held to a theology that says that those who have had a chance to encounter Jesus, but have rejected him, have any chance at salvation, redemption or forgiveness.
But here, Jesus asks God to forgive the people because “they know not what they do.” In other words, they are ignorant of what their actions really mean. They don’t know that he is the Messiah. The don’t know about his mission here. Even though they have had personal interaction with the Savior of the world, they don’t recognize him as such and, seemingly, Jesus asks God to let them off the hook.
This is an understandable request, given that the majority of the people in the crowd had been riled up into a frenzy by the religious leaders. But I have begun to wonder how that applies to us today. What about all the people who have rejected God and rejected Jesus because of some horrible example of “Chrisitanity” in their lives – people who wear the name of Jesus, but fail to exemplify his character. I mean, if someone was beaten and molested by her pastor father and, thus, rejects everything he claimed to believe in, would that person be extended the same kind of forgiveness as those who crucified Jesus? What about people who are being whipped into a frenzy by today’s religious leaders who tell them that following Jesus means hating illegal immigrants, inciting violence against Muslims and overthrowing government? Or, what about those Muslims who have chosen a level of devotion to God that most of us can’t even fathom, but have been led astray by their own religious leaders into extremist, Jihadist beliefs and acts?
All three of these examples fall into the “they know not what they do” camp. Their actions represent not the rejection of Jesus, but, in the first case, rejection of personal beliefs associated with an abuser, and in the second and third cases, adherence to an ideology espoused by religious leaders – leaders who have been entrusted with helping those individuals adhere to God’s way. They know not what they do.
Actually, there are any number of people of whom we could say “they know not what they do.” The question I have, that I have no answer for, is this: What does God do with those who know not what they do? What if our theology on eternal salvation comes with a big caveat regarding ignorance and knowledge? I’m sure somebody else has thought through these questions and has compelling revelation to share. For me, I’m just asking the question and thinking about this verse in a way that is completely new to me. I would love to hear from you.
REVIEW: Matt McCoy – Heaven Calling
Apr 19th
Rating: 
Heaven Calling
I have to admit, I’m not much of a “love at first listen” music consumer. Very rarely do I love an album the first time I hear it. Even the ones I like on first listen, I tend to like even more upon repeated listen. Then, there are those albums that simply don’t grab me at first, but sneak up on me later, when I least expect it.
Matt McCoy’s new release, Heaven Calling falls into the latter category. It’s hard to describe. It’s not that I didn’t like the record the first time I heard it. I actually really enjoyed the opening track “My Eyes Are Fixed On You” from the first note, but the album as a whole didn’t really grab me. Mind you, the production quality is great, mix is excellent, musicality is solid and the songwriting is mostly good. There just seemed to be something missing.
But I know Matt and I know him to be a great worship leader, so I continued to listen…and I wasn’t disappointed. What I found is an inspired album that, in spite of one significant flaw, which I will discuss later, manages to bring a lot to the table. Mentioned earlier, the opening track, “My Eyes Are Fixed On You” is one of the best on the album. It is a big song with big production and nice little aural touches that make it feel much more like a big-budget song than an indie record. “My Eyes Are Fixed On You” is followed by “Stronger Than The Storm” and “Sovereign King”, two songs reminiscent of some of Chris Tomlin’s early work. “Sovereign King” stands out, however, as a great congregational worship tune with emotionally charged verses, an anthemic chorus that begs to be sung by a crowd and great interaction between McCoy’s lead vocal and excellent BGVs provided by Lindsay McCaul.
Lindsay also lends a hand on the fourth track, “Alleluia”, which opens with a bit of a surprise for a solo album – someone other than Matt singing lead. It works for the record, though. A bit reminiscent of a Christy Nockels vocal in the midst of an otherwise male-led Passion record, the track benefits greatly from the female voice.
The next two tracks, “Take Control” and “You Will Be My Song” are solid in their own right, but not especially noteworthy. Track 7, “Will You Carry Me” is an honest conversation with God that reminds me of so many I’ve had – the thoughts and questions of a broken person and the recognition of an ever-present and loving God. It is the story of a prodigal returning home – or rather, of a prodigal recognizing the need to turn homeward.
For “I Know I’m Yours”, McCoy returns to the Passion ‘98 vibe in a way that almost makes me nostalgic. All that’s missing are several thousand other voices singing along in agreement. I can hear the crowd singing the tag – “So take the world, but give me You…” This is one of those “lost in worship” songs that could go on forever (at almost 6 minutes, it’s one of the longer songs on the record).
After “I Know I’m Yours” comes the pop-rock tune “Trust In The Lord” followed by the somewhat confusing “Kindness”. Don’t get me wrong, I like the song. The confusing part is the production choices made in the first 45 seconds. I must have listened to this track 20 plus times trying to find the downbeat in the first verse before ultimately pulling out the metronome to try to decipher the code. What I discovered was that either my ears were completely fooled, or Matt and the band weren’t actually sure of where the downbeat was either. About half way through the first verse, I think we all found it and the song progressed nicely from that point, but up until then, I was really lost. Now, I’ve had those times before when my mind was convinced that the downbeat should be in a certain place and I just couldn’t shake it. Admittedly, this may be one of those times and, if shown the correct position of “1″, I might reevaluate my previous statements, but nonetheless, this seems like a production decision that may have sounded cool in the studio, but served as a distraction to me.
But enough of that technical pissy-ness. “I Choose You” is a straight-forward presentation of the incredible choice that we are offered in Jesus. Stylistically, there’s somewhat of a Matt Redman quality to the song, especially in the verses. That is followed by the mysterious, atmospheric opening of “You’ve Given Everything”, which eventually builds into a furious, driving, repeatable chorus which, again, begs to be sung in a big arena with a big crowd, flowing into the album’s final track, “Calling Home”, which is more of an extended tag on the end of “You’ve Given Everything” than it is a stand-alone song.
The verdict: Yes, this album is full of Passion-esque songs and sounds. Just as songwriters and worship leaders of my generation and a little older were profoundly impacted by Vineyard Music and early Delirious?, so Matt’s generation and younger have been forever impacted by Tomlin, Crowder and the rest of the Sixsteps crew. I don’t have a problem with that, but if you’re not a Tomlin fan, you may not be a fan of this record. It’s certainly not “rehashed” in any way, but the style and sound are similar to what you would expect from the Passion folks. On the other hand, if you like Chris, David, Charlie and the gang (and many certainly do) then I would wholeheartedly suggest that you pick this record up.
“What about the one significant flaw?” Yes, I mentioned in my open that there was a significant flaw in this record (and no, it wasn’t the opening of “Kindness”). It took me a while to put my finger on it, but this is what I concluded: Matt seems to suffer from the same syndrome as many other excellent worship leaders. The passion, energy and authenticity he exhibits on stage in a live worship setting simply doesn’t come through in a studio recording. There is a huge gap between the Matt McCoy you get in a live setting and the Matt McCoy you get in the studio.
Fortunately for Matt, he is in good company when it comes to the live vs. studio disconnect. Two of the most influential worship leaders in recent history, Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman, both suffered (or still suffer) from the same issue. Fortunately for both of these artists, they had, in addition to studio work, live recordings which let people know what they could really do. Tomlin’s contribution to the live Passion records and Redman’s 2004 release Facedown allowed these two seminal worship leaders to exist in their comfort zone and allowed the listener to hear “what all the fuss was about”.
In McCoy’s album, you hear this familiar problem, which is often discovered when one tries to record a worship leader. Unlike the pop stars and TV creations found on hit radio, worship leaders tend to actually be better live artists than they are studio artists. Most worship leaders, after all, are playing live in front of large crowds on a regular basis long before they record an album. Take a guy or girl out of that in-the-moment worship setting, put them in a tiny box with a giant microphone and some engineer or producer yelling in their ear, and the whole experience loses something. The “something” could be called many things – maybe “passion” or “worshipfulness” or more mysteriously “the Spirit”. Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with musicality or technicality, but affects the overall sound just the same. Is that Matt’s fault? I don’t think so. Personally, I would rather go to a live event and hear something better than the record than to hear something worse. In short, I’d rather hear Matt than, say, Taylor, the Jonas boys or Miley.
In the end, this is a good record with some really good songs. It’s definitely worth picking up and is, I think, a taste of what’s to come from McCoy. Here’s to hoping we get live recordings of some of these songs in the future.
Mark Driscoll Thinks Stay At Home Dads Are Weak
Apr 7th
Thanks to Nicole Wick for directing my attention to this video. Visit her blog at nicolewick.com
OK, I realize that this is an old clip and perhaps Mark has changed his mind on this subject, but today was the first time I viewed this clip and it drew and immediate response from me (and from my wife who also viewed the clip). For those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you saw my first reaction (yeah for unfiltered tweeting!). Here’s the thing. As a general rule, I think Driscoll says a lot of stuff to get a “rise” out of people. Most of the time, it’s the traditionalists that are up in arms over his statements. In this video, however, Mark seems to have his feet firmly planted in a very foundational, fundamentalist reading of scripture and, despite his objections (“I’ve read the whole book”) I suspect that Mark has added quite a bit of his own personal philosophy about what a “real man” looks like.
James, a friend of mine who stays at home with is kids (but also goes to school and works a part time job) asked me for my thoughts on this subject and here is my reply.
Here’s my thought. Driscoll has spent several years telling us to be more “manly” and I guess that’s fine. But here, he equates “providing for the family’s needs” solely with working outside the home. What if what the family needs isn’t income from dad, but, instead, for dad to stay home because mom has a solid career?
He seems to give no credence to the idea that a particular woman may be more suited for the workplace than to be a domestic goddess. I think it’s great if a woman wants to be a stay at home mom. However, I don’t think the bible dictates that, nor do I think it rules out the idea of a stay at home dad.
In the times and culture in which the bible was written, I’m sure the idea of a stay at home dad wasn’t even a consideration. That doesn’t make it wrong any more than, say, driving a car, which also isn’t mentioned in the bible.
It fascinates me, given Mark’s loose interpretation of other portions of scripture, that he is so hard nosed on this issue. I wonder what his “church discipline” would be for me. I work two jobs to support my family, but I also “stay at home” (work from home) 3 days a week to care for my child. Does that mean I’m 3/5ths worse than an unbeliever?
I just think his statements are ridiculous and completely out of touch. I could understand them if we were talking about lazy or deadbeat dads (which is what he seems to think a stay at home dad is), but there are so many situations where that simply isn’t the case. To make the kind of statements he does in this clip based on generalities and stereotypes is either incredibly irresponsible or it’s simply malicious.
That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the issue. Some may disagree and that’s fine. I don’t have to agree with you on everything and welcome discussion on the matter. However, I went on to reassure James that he and other stay at home dads are more than welcome at our church.
Lessons from Lucy – Ep. 5
Mar 29th
When it comes to kids, there are certain constants – dirty diapers, middle of the night feedings, etc. One of those constants, doctor visits, struck us on Friday and taught me another lesson:
SOMETIMES, YOU’VE GOTTA TRUST YOUR GUT
You see, Lucy hadn’t been feeling well for a couple of weeks. Maybe it was allergies or a cold, but whatever the reason, she was congested, sneezing, coughing, and generally not feeling well. We discussed it with the doctor a couple of weeks ago and he told us to spray saline into her nose and to use what I affectionately call “The Sucker” to suck out all the juicy stuff, which we did. But something told us that there was more than just some nasal congestion.
As Lucy’s cough got worse, we became more and more convinced that there was something more than just a cold. When she began sleeping less and eating less, we decided to take her back to the doctor. So, on Friday, Melody took her in and guess what? Double ear infections!
Now, a few days and several doses of Amoxicillin later, Lucy is almost completely back to her old self. At the same time, Melody and I are emboldened as parents. We know our little girl and we know when there’s something wrong with her.
As I consider this fact, the pastor in me wants to say “And God knows us, even better than we know ourselves”. That’s true, but I think there’s another lesson here. It is this: For people who are actually following Jesus – people who are devoted to a relationship with God – it’s OK to just trust your gut sometimes. In other words, if you know God, stop waiting around for him to tell you what to do and, instead, follow your gut (heart, spirit, or whatever you choose to call it) and do the thing you know you should do.
Fear of the unknown can be paralyzing, especially when it comes to God. For people who view God as a stern disciplinarian, not knowing exactly what he wants you do to can freeze you in your tracks. Even people who know God as one full of grace and mercy can become like statues when faced with a decision. But the bottom line is that if we are in a relationship with him, then we already know a lot about him and about the kinds of decisions he would make.
Sometimes, we just have to trust our gut and move forward. If he wants us to do something else, he’ll certainly let us know.
The Greatest Motivational Talk Ever? Almost.
Mar 24th
This talk from the Web 2.0 Expo in 2008 may be the greatest motivational talk ever. Mom (and others) I apologize for his salty language, but Gary Vaynerchuck is a passionate guy. The funny thing is, I think he’s almost right. Almost. Here’s a guy who has (almost) figured it out. You take the thing you’re passionate about, add absolute determination and hard work, and you find yourself doing something significant.
But here’s why I say he’s almost right. Because the thing that he’s passionate about is boring compared to what I’m passionate about. His hard work is wholly unrewarding compared to my hard work. The significance of his legacy is not nearly as great as he thinks it is. Why? Because Gary Vaynerchuck still thinks it’s about him and about us.
But here’s the thing, I think every church planter and pastor needs to see this video. Everyone who has ever felt like God was asking them to do something and giving them a passion for it needs to watch this. Every missionary, human rights activist and college student determined to change the world needs to listen to the words Gary is speaking.
Why? Because he has tapped into something fundamental in the human soul. What he has stumbled upon is the thing that God has placed inside of us that allows us to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” He has found an echo of the voice of God inside of us.
Take his words and apply them not just to the thing your passionate about, but the thing that God has made you passionate about. “Hustle” at the things that God puts in front of you. You want significance in your legacy? Work for the only One who was here long before you and will be here long after you. The passion that Gary exhibits in this talk should be reserved not for Web 2.0, but for a king – for The King.
If we can become as passionate about Jesus as Gary is about wine, web and whatever else, we can absolutely change the world. Jesus isn’t about Web 2.0. That’s WAY too boring for him. What he’s up to is World 2.0. And we’ve been invited to be on his team of initial investors. Let’s sign up and take the plunge!