Yesterday I preached during the weekly chapel service at Anderson University School of Theology. I have attended there since 2006 and am now a senior M.Div student with three (3) classes to go to graduation. Unfortunately I take just one (1) class a semester, so that means I won't graduate until spring of 2013.
I must say that these years of continued formal education have been just in time for me. The Anderson SOT students and professors have been amazing resources. I hope that I have been a similar blessing to them. It is more evidence to me that God is working in me (even at the age of 54) to will and do His good purpose.
I would be honored if you would listen to my chapel message by typing this address into your browser:
http://ausotchapel.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/russ-jarvis-mdiv-student-at-ausot-1-thessalonians-51-11/
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Ten Years Since
Tomorrow will be a big day for me, so I post this on the eve of 9/11. Franklin Roosevelt said of another deadly day that it would "live in infamy." I wonder if anyone held a special remembrance on December 7, 1951? Maybe not because by then the US was involved in another conflict, this time in Korea. Over 50,000 Americans died in that war then ended in an armistice that has never turned into a peace treaty. As I look back over my 53 years, I find few years when the shadow or reality of war -- hot or cold -- hasn't been there.
It will soon be ten years that the US (and other nations) have been fighting in Afghanistan (and later, Iraq). Days after the planes hit our leaders were urging us to continue life as usual, "lest the terrorists win." I don't believe the terrorists have won, but life has never been the same since. None of us have been untouched by either the military, economic, or political consequences of 9/11.
Tomorrow I will teach a Sunday school class at my church on Matthew 24:1-14. Jesus announces to the disciples that a day would inevitably come when their society, symbolized by Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, would come tumbling down. In those days the love of most will grow cold through exposure to increasing and seemingly unrelenting "wickedness." This prophecy was immediately fulfilled in the Roman siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, but it has application to any age characterized by "wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes." Sounds a lot like the last ten years to me.
What does Jesus counsel his people to do? Escape to a bunker? Take over the government? Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die?
No. He counsels two things of us:
1. Remain a people known for love. During the fall of Jerusalem and the later collapse of Rome itself, the Christians engaged in amazing works of self-sacrifice that helped preserve some manner of order as western culture fell back into barbarism.
2. Remain a people known for hope. Keep proclaiming the Gospel. In today's sectarian environment, this is crucial. This is not proselytizing. This is simply telling the story of human history from the perspective of the Jewish and Christian Scripture. The theologian Robber E. Webber died in 2007. His last book was titled "Who Gets to Narrate the World?" His answer? Whoever tells the better story. These days, Christianity is known more for shouting moral advice at the world rather than sharing good news. In bad times like ours, people need a reason to hope.
I'll finish tomorrow at a prayer meeting. I hope it will be a service that is careful to keep the "stars and stripes" lower than the cross. I hope it full of personal repentance, not political tantrums. I hope it is a moment when Spirit of God casts down our temples and warms our hearts to each other.
It will soon be ten years that the US (and other nations) have been fighting in Afghanistan (and later, Iraq). Days after the planes hit our leaders were urging us to continue life as usual, "lest the terrorists win." I don't believe the terrorists have won, but life has never been the same since. None of us have been untouched by either the military, economic, or political consequences of 9/11.
Tomorrow I will teach a Sunday school class at my church on Matthew 24:1-14. Jesus announces to the disciples that a day would inevitably come when their society, symbolized by Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, would come tumbling down. In those days the love of most will grow cold through exposure to increasing and seemingly unrelenting "wickedness." This prophecy was immediately fulfilled in the Roman siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, but it has application to any age characterized by "wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes." Sounds a lot like the last ten years to me.
What does Jesus counsel his people to do? Escape to a bunker? Take over the government? Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die?
No. He counsels two things of us:
1. Remain a people known for love. During the fall of Jerusalem and the later collapse of Rome itself, the Christians engaged in amazing works of self-sacrifice that helped preserve some manner of order as western culture fell back into barbarism.
2. Remain a people known for hope. Keep proclaiming the Gospel. In today's sectarian environment, this is crucial. This is not proselytizing. This is simply telling the story of human history from the perspective of the Jewish and Christian Scripture. The theologian Robber E. Webber died in 2007. His last book was titled "Who Gets to Narrate the World?" His answer? Whoever tells the better story. These days, Christianity is known more for shouting moral advice at the world rather than sharing good news. In bad times like ours, people need a reason to hope.
I'll finish tomorrow at a prayer meeting. I hope it will be a service that is careful to keep the "stars and stripes" lower than the cross. I hope it full of personal repentance, not political tantrums. I hope it is a moment when Spirit of God casts down our temples and warms our hearts to each other.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Sacred Ground
This is the title of the Star Trek: Voyager episode I watched on Netflicks the other night. Please don't stop reading if you are one of those who consigns everything Star Trek to the cosmic wastebin (i.e. gehenna). There's wisdom here.
I thought about calling this post "The Bottom Line" because when you are face to face with your own bottom line or that of another person's, you're on sacred ground. In the episode, Captain Janeway is helped to experience the paradox that is faith. While faith exercises itself to some degree through reason, it is based upon something that transcends reason. She discovers that faith is not pre-rational or irrational, but what some theologians terns transrational.
She wants to save the life of a crew member and sets about to scan, research, and otherwise cogitate her way through the mystery that is called "speaking to the ancestral spirits" by the natives of the world on which her crew member got in trouble when she acted like a tourist where holiness was required. Janeway's motivation is pure: she is ready to do "whatever it takes" to save her crewman's life.
A "guide" is provided for her and tells her that she already has what she needs to secure the healing. Janeway comes to the end of her ability to "understand" and steps into the normally deadly energy with nothing more than a beginning trust that the spirits are really there. She literally puts herself at their disposal, prepared to live or die with her crewmate.
Being a Star Trek episode, it all ends well, especially for Janeway who has a taste of life that is based not on prideful rationalism, but on trust in another realm that cannot be measured, quantified or turned into a formula.
Whether one is modern, post-modern, or prehistoric, God's invitation remains the same: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He shall direct your steps." (Proverbs 3:5-6)
I thought about calling this post "The Bottom Line" because when you are face to face with your own bottom line or that of another person's, you're on sacred ground. In the episode, Captain Janeway is helped to experience the paradox that is faith. While faith exercises itself to some degree through reason, it is based upon something that transcends reason. She discovers that faith is not pre-rational or irrational, but what some theologians terns transrational.
She wants to save the life of a crew member and sets about to scan, research, and otherwise cogitate her way through the mystery that is called "speaking to the ancestral spirits" by the natives of the world on which her crew member got in trouble when she acted like a tourist where holiness was required. Janeway's motivation is pure: she is ready to do "whatever it takes" to save her crewman's life.
A "guide" is provided for her and tells her that she already has what she needs to secure the healing. Janeway comes to the end of her ability to "understand" and steps into the normally deadly energy with nothing more than a beginning trust that the spirits are really there. She literally puts herself at their disposal, prepared to live or die with her crewmate.
Being a Star Trek episode, it all ends well, especially for Janeway who has a taste of life that is based not on prideful rationalism, but on trust in another realm that cannot be measured, quantified or turned into a formula.
Whether one is modern, post-modern, or prehistoric, God's invitation remains the same: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He shall direct your steps." (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Monday, September 5, 2011
Salsa Day!
Today is our annual salsa making day at our house. Nearly everything in
it comes form our garden. Nadine and I have made salsa for years and
each batch is good while a little different from the others.
Life is like crafting salsa from scratch-- you expect the best but you never know what you're gonna get.
Every "Mexican" restaurant offers you salsa and chips. I reflect on the salsas that have been set before me -- the salsas of my life. Many were unremarkable, a predictable combination of sweet and heat. However, I remember two salsas that represent the bookends of life experience of sad disappointment and surprising life change.
The former happened several years ago when the server set down a basket of freshly fried chips and a cold squeeze bottle of red paste. Enjoying salsa and chips is not supposed to remind the diner of preparing to brush one's teeth. This low point of my salsa experience was seared into my memory as I smeared a crimson bead across an otherwise worthy chip. Oh well -- make the best of things until my fajita order arrives.
Years and bowls of salsa later came the moment in a little Colorado Springs cantina when the waiter brought us a bowl of something I had never seen before. It was as much white as red and boy was it chunky! My wife and stared at it for a moment before one of us tentatively dipped a chip and took a bite. Cilantro, tomatoes, onions, and slivered cabbage. Surprisingly delicious! I broke chip after chip in my enthusiasm while Nadine scribbled an ingredient list onto the back of a Kroger receipt. Since then it has been our privilege and joy to bring a bowl of "Ambrosia Salsa" to family gatherings.
But then there was the time in San Antonio when the cook added guacamole to his salsa recipe. I believe that Guacamole could qualify as the tenth fruit of the Spirit. Guacamole is good for you. The oil contained in avocados ranks among the healthiest types of fat. The other ingredients in guacamole are highly alkalizing and loaded with phytonutrients. Learn more at
Life is like a batch of salsa. Whether life brings disappointment or ecstasy, look to God to stir in a special ingredient of His own and turn everything into something that is good for you.
Life is like crafting salsa from scratch-- you expect the best but you never know what you're gonna get.
Every "Mexican" restaurant offers you salsa and chips. I reflect on the salsas that have been set before me -- the salsas of my life. Many were unremarkable, a predictable combination of sweet and heat. However, I remember two salsas that represent the bookends of life experience of sad disappointment and surprising life change.
The former happened several years ago when the server set down a basket of freshly fried chips and a cold squeeze bottle of red paste. Enjoying salsa and chips is not supposed to remind the diner of preparing to brush one's teeth. This low point of my salsa experience was seared into my memory as I smeared a crimson bead across an otherwise worthy chip. Oh well -- make the best of things until my fajita order arrives.
Years and bowls of salsa later came the moment in a little Colorado Springs cantina when the waiter brought us a bowl of something I had never seen before. It was as much white as red and boy was it chunky! My wife and stared at it for a moment before one of us tentatively dipped a chip and took a bite. Cilantro, tomatoes, onions, and slivered cabbage. Surprisingly delicious! I broke chip after chip in my enthusiasm while Nadine scribbled an ingredient list onto the back of a Kroger receipt. Since then it has been our privilege and joy to bring a bowl of "Ambrosia Salsa" to family gatherings.
But then there was the time in San Antonio when the cook added guacamole to his salsa recipe. I believe that Guacamole could qualify as the tenth fruit of the Spirit. Guacamole is good for you. The oil contained in avocados ranks among the healthiest types of fat. The other ingredients in guacamole are highly alkalizing and loaded with phytonutrients. Learn more at
Life is like a batch of salsa. Whether life brings disappointment or ecstasy, look to God to stir in a special ingredient of His own and turn everything into something that is good for you.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
A Constipated Government
Are you as tired of the disunity, controversy and dysfunction as I am? Jack Nicholson said it best as the Joker in the original Batman -- "This town [country] needs an enema!" When you perform an enema you get a bucket load of #@$*%. It's stinky for a while, but it does the body good in the long run.
There comes a time when it no longer helps to add what you think will be helpful. You've swallowed enough Pepto-Bismol. It's time to take away the blockage. US citizens are losing hope that the system as it is can produce the change the country needs. This citizen believes that our elected government officials are no longer responsive. The federal government has become too big to fail. It exists to serve itself instead of "we the people."
Here's my prescription:
1. Eliminate the federal income tax and replace it with a "national sales tax." This will restore economic power to the people. Learn more about this at www.fairtax.org.
2. Establish term limits upon congressmen and senators. This will take government out of the hands of "career politicians" and return it to citizen legislators where it belongs. Learn more about this at www.termlimits.org.
3. Pass the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring the federal government to operate within an annual Balanced Budget. This will restrain those who are tempted by the power they have been given. Learn more about this at www.balanceourbudget.com.
OK. I feel better getting that out.
The common frame of reference here is the hope that the USA can become a moral leader in the world once again. It won't be easy to find our way forward with these changes, but that's what we elect these people for. As Viktor Frankl wrote, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."
I'm ready to do my part to bring about this kind of change. How about you?
There comes a time when it no longer helps to add what you think will be helpful. You've swallowed enough Pepto-Bismol. It's time to take away the blockage. US citizens are losing hope that the system as it is can produce the change the country needs. This citizen believes that our elected government officials are no longer responsive. The federal government has become too big to fail. It exists to serve itself instead of "we the people."
Here's my prescription:
1. Eliminate the federal income tax and replace it with a "national sales tax." This will restore economic power to the people. Learn more about this at www.fairtax.org.
2. Establish term limits upon congressmen and senators. This will take government out of the hands of "career politicians" and return it to citizen legislators where it belongs. Learn more about this at www.termlimits.org.
3. Pass the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring the federal government to operate within an annual Balanced Budget. This will restrain those who are tempted by the power they have been given. Learn more about this at www.balanceourbudget.com.
OK. I feel better getting that out.
The common frame of reference here is the hope that the USA can become a moral leader in the world once again. It won't be easy to find our way forward with these changes, but that's what we elect these people for. As Viktor Frankl wrote, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."
I'm ready to do my part to bring about this kind of change. How about you?
Monday, March 28, 2011
Creation and the Children of God
You never know what will spark a hopefully meaningful thought. I was driving home from a consult with my college adviser when I turned on the radio and heard yet another round in the ongoing debate going on these days over the ways human beings treat the environment.
In this corner, weighing in with over four thousand years of western progress based on conservative Biblical interpretation, the Dominator. His opponent, weighing in with science that exposes climate change caused by five hundred years of industrialized pollution, the Conservator.
There is an often overlooked passage Bible passage that reads, "The creation (i.e. nature) waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed." (Romans 8:19) The Christian concept of salvation is not concerned with only human beings. God created all the universe, including the flora and (non-human) fauna on planet Earth. It is a Christian belief that the present world is not as God intended. It needs salvation and re-creation. For human beings, death will be no more. For the environment, there will be a day when all weather and geologic forces will cooperate for the ultimate good of all and to God's praise.
But what about the passage quoted above? Does this refer only to the moment when reality will be changed in the end? I am thinking that there is something essential that can happen here and now. Everyone agrees that creation/nature is in trouble. The debate is over how much can be laid at the feet of human beings. People are uniquely made in the Divine image, but those image-bearers are not to lord that fact over other living things. I'd like to think that it is also "children of God" that will bring about the renewal of nature. "Children of God" are those who have been empowered, authorized, and equipped to change things for the better. They are the representatives of the One who started it all in motion in the first place. When human beings take their cues from their Maker, creation will notice and respond.
I believe that these cues are best exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, the Son (i.e. first child) of God. He restored what was broken and called life out of death. Miracles flowed from his hands as he demonstrated what he called The Kingdom (one of several ways of describing the new world).
Then he said an amazing thing: "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these." (John 14:12) What safer place for creation to be than in the hands of those who know the heart and mind of Christ?
Whether it is a commitment to recycle, use low energy bulbs, build efficient (and eventually economical) electric cars, or simply pick up after oneself -- let us see God as the motivator, the inspiration, and the promise of our success. His redemption of human beings is not the cause of our planet's problems, but rather the solution.
In this corner, weighing in with over four thousand years of western progress based on conservative Biblical interpretation, the Dominator. His opponent, weighing in with science that exposes climate change caused by five hundred years of industrialized pollution, the Conservator.
There is an often overlooked passage Bible passage that reads, "The creation (i.e. nature) waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed." (Romans 8:19) The Christian concept of salvation is not concerned with only human beings. God created all the universe, including the flora and (non-human) fauna on planet Earth. It is a Christian belief that the present world is not as God intended. It needs salvation and re-creation. For human beings, death will be no more. For the environment, there will be a day when all weather and geologic forces will cooperate for the ultimate good of all and to God's praise.
But what about the passage quoted above? Does this refer only to the moment when reality will be changed in the end? I am thinking that there is something essential that can happen here and now. Everyone agrees that creation/nature is in trouble. The debate is over how much can be laid at the feet of human beings. People are uniquely made in the Divine image, but those image-bearers are not to lord that fact over other living things. I'd like to think that it is also "children of God" that will bring about the renewal of nature. "Children of God" are those who have been empowered, authorized, and equipped to change things for the better. They are the representatives of the One who started it all in motion in the first place. When human beings take their cues from their Maker, creation will notice and respond.
I believe that these cues are best exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, the Son (i.e. first child) of God. He restored what was broken and called life out of death. Miracles flowed from his hands as he demonstrated what he called The Kingdom (one of several ways of describing the new world).
Then he said an amazing thing: "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these." (John 14:12) What safer place for creation to be than in the hands of those who know the heart and mind of Christ?
Whether it is a commitment to recycle, use low energy bulbs, build efficient (and eventually economical) electric cars, or simply pick up after oneself -- let us see God as the motivator, the inspiration, and the promise of our success. His redemption of human beings is not the cause of our planet's problems, but rather the solution.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Changing the World for Good
Imagine that the leader you have followed for three years was arrested, wrongfully condemned, and executed by the authorities. Since then you've been living on the lamb -- hiding out until things cooled off and you could return to your old job. But then the unimaginable happens: he shows up alive again!
Yes, I'm talking about Jesus. His one solitary life changed the world.
But you and I are not Jesus. Maybe that's what those first followers thought as they heard Jesus talk about the kingdom of God coming to pass at long last. It was hard enough for them to believe that Jesus was alive again. Now they hear that they are to take everything about Jesus to the world and that would change everything.
There are so many other powerful stories already at work. Political, cultural, ethnic, positive, negative. All entrenched for good or ill. Matthew puts it well: "Some doubted." (28:17) What makes these fishermen and tax collectors so special? Why does Jesus entrust everything to them? I think one answer is in Luke 24:44-49.
If we're going to change the world for good we need a message that is connected to everything that has come before. Jesus does this for his first followers: "Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he [Jesus] began to explain to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27). The gospel is the most recent chapter in the story God has told since Genesis 1.
If we're going to change the world for good we need to have personally experienced what we're talking about. You cannot be like I was one summer between my sophomore and junior college years when I sold memberships in a grocery buying service for my uncle's company. On one of my calls the customer asked, "Are you a member of this?" I had to say "no." I tried to explain that I was just a college student and it wasn't practical (or affordable) for me. No sale.
Christ's followers had lived with him for three years. "You are witnesses of these things." (Luke 24:48) If we want to convince someone of the power, love, or presence of God, we had better have experienced it.
If we're going to change the world for good, we probably need to wait. So many of us run off half-cocked with what we think is the best idea since the Internet. It sounds unfaithful or negligent to not act right away. Waiting can mean bouncing the thought off some trusted people or bathing it in a season of prayer. Someone told me recently that before she buys anything online she lets the item sit in her cart for three days. If the need is still there by then, she gets out her credit card.
"I am going to send you what my Father has promised. Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:49) Since God has created the world it makes sense to me that real world change only happens when Divine power is at its core.
They say that change is good. God-inspired, recruited, and empowered change is best.
Yes, I'm talking about Jesus. His one solitary life changed the world.
But you and I are not Jesus. Maybe that's what those first followers thought as they heard Jesus talk about the kingdom of God coming to pass at long last. It was hard enough for them to believe that Jesus was alive again. Now they hear that they are to take everything about Jesus to the world and that would change everything.
There are so many other powerful stories already at work. Political, cultural, ethnic, positive, negative. All entrenched for good or ill. Matthew puts it well: "Some doubted." (28:17) What makes these fishermen and tax collectors so special? Why does Jesus entrust everything to them? I think one answer is in Luke 24:44-49.
If we're going to change the world for good we need a message that is connected to everything that has come before. Jesus does this for his first followers: "Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he [Jesus] began to explain to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27). The gospel is the most recent chapter in the story God has told since Genesis 1.
If we're going to change the world for good we need to have personally experienced what we're talking about. You cannot be like I was one summer between my sophomore and junior college years when I sold memberships in a grocery buying service for my uncle's company. On one of my calls the customer asked, "Are you a member of this?" I had to say "no." I tried to explain that I was just a college student and it wasn't practical (or affordable) for me. No sale.
Christ's followers had lived with him for three years. "You are witnesses of these things." (Luke 24:48) If we want to convince someone of the power, love, or presence of God, we had better have experienced it.
If we're going to change the world for good, we probably need to wait. So many of us run off half-cocked with what we think is the best idea since the Internet. It sounds unfaithful or negligent to not act right away. Waiting can mean bouncing the thought off some trusted people or bathing it in a season of prayer. Someone told me recently that before she buys anything online she lets the item sit in her cart for three days. If the need is still there by then, she gets out her credit card.
"I am going to send you what my Father has promised. Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:49) Since God has created the world it makes sense to me that real world change only happens when Divine power is at its core.
They say that change is good. God-inspired, recruited, and empowered change is best.
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