Back as a 20-something I used to go with friends sometimes to “Dave and Busters” which is essentially Chuck E Cheese for grownups (yes, weird). I’ve probably been there 2 to 4 times, usually celebrating something with some other folks. Anyhow, one time at D&B I was winning at every game, it seemed. Are you familiar with the games that consist of a glass dome with a gazillion little lights that go around the inside perimeter of the dome, and they light up one at a time in rapid succession, and you have to hit a button at the precise moment that a certain light (say a red one) is lit up? Well, now you are. They often have some hokey scene in the middle like the statue of liberty or a hockey rink or whatever. Anyway, its absurdly difficult and winning is total chance. Through our own ignorance we decided to play this game, and we put $1 in, not realizing it only cost $.25 and we had unwittingly quadrupled the potential payoff. In addition, the longer a game had been played without anyone winning, the potential payoff increased, and this game hadn’t been beaten apparently in quite a while. I was clueless about all this and had never played this kind of game before. We just thought what the heck, lets try this one. The lights went around and I slapped the button and bells started going off, sirens, spinning lights, and tickets poured forth. And poured. And poured. WELL, we were quite impressed, and my buddy Joe (who loves the place and was the reason my wife and I were there) insisted I play again, and put in another $1. I did it again, and more tickets poured forth. I was standing with tickets piled up around me on the floor above my shins. We had not come to D&B to win anything, but to have quality time with Joe. But hey we were sure having fun by this time. The third time, I did not win. Joe and my wife tried and never came particularly close to winning. We walked over to another machine and I played that one and won on the first attempt. This one didn’t pay as well as the first one because we didn’t quadruple the payoff. The whole rest of the night I didn’t gather very many tickets but was walking around with a huge sack stuffed full of folded tickets. So I was absurdly rich in tickets. Instead of counting them when I cashed out, they weighed it, and we picked up some t-shirts and other garbage.

Now. Did I deserve my wealth? You talk about the “diligence” and “concentration” required to accumulate tickets. I demonstrated no more of those qualities than my fellow revelers, and yet I won 100 times as many tickets as they did that night despite their best efforts. I believe that the cattle on a thousand hills are the Lord’s, as is paper currency, and He causes the rain (or drought) to fall on the good and the bad. I believe that there is such an idol and an illusion made out of our individual power to earn and succeed and get ahead. Is that what we should strive for? You talked about the inherent awkwardness of voting for candidates who must compromise or selectively hide certain values and twist their words in order to be elected. I agree with that post (though I think we should still vote. Find a candidate who tells it like it is. They won’t win, but support them anyway. You can make a difference even without gaining office. If you can’t find any such candidate then I still think you should vote for the least of the bad choices. We’re called to love our neighbors. Out of compassion, pick the one who is going to be best for them. Not voting IS a vote you know, and may allow the worst candidate to win. And that was a totally off topic ramble, sorry, told you this was unedited.) So you think we shouldn’t vote because it means supporting dishonesty. But we should keep all of our money to ourselves? Isn’t that GREED? Obviously, God is the one who knows our motives, and each man has to look within to know where his heart lies. But I think the vaaaaast majority of the anti-tax crowd that has been throwing the “socialism” thing around lately is completely motivated by self interest (selfishness).

Now, there is some truth to what you say. Some people do choose to just eat pizza or lie around in the nasty ball cage thing (do they ever hose that place down I wonder?), and they don’t get tickets. And some people in this world are lazy. Most of us in this country maybe, to varying degrees. But some people are busting their butts trying to get tickets, and they have a few, but at the end all they can get is the smelly sticker while I heave my bag of tickets up on the counter next to them and survey the plethora of options afforded me due to my wealth. And some people even simply inherit their tickets. They essentially walk in to Chuck E Cheese with a suitcase (or 2, or 50) full of tickets because of the hard work and luck of their forebears.

Should they NOT care for the poor, for the widow and orphan? I’ll join the movement to end compulsory taxation when we the people start helping our fellow man voluntarily as we should. That slacker in the ball chamber is Jesus. Inasmuch as you’ve not done it unto the LEAST of these, you’ve not done it unto me. That’s the pete translation off the top of my head. What a brutal, head-exploding scripture. Jesus is awesome. We can argue that isn’t fair, or isn’t just, but aren’t we then saying that God is unjust? Doesn’t HE define justice? I remember in college studying about the workers in the vineyard who all got paid the same wage even though some only came and worked the last hour or so. But the one who controls the wealth and pays the wages can freely decide to give what he wants to the workers. It is not up to the ones who worked all day. They have no right to be angry, and they don’t get to define justice.

Another point. People up above were asking for your take on the year of jubilee (debt cancellation). How about on the early church model that held all possessions in common (book of Acts)?

Sorry to write such a ridiculous, rambling, long diatribe. Hope you can make heads/tails of it and that it does some good.

I’m so excited to see you pursuing kingdom studies in such earnest! I haven’t yet read your other blogs (the three part kingdom series) but you can bet I will. Its so important for us to come back to the humanity of Jesus. We loose so much of his significance when we forget. Like the Fathers said, he had to become that which he redeemed.

And to know that Jesus and his ministry (casting out demons, healing the lame, etc.) was not to manifest his deity (at least the early disciples wouldn’t think like this) but to show that he was the promised Messiah who was filled (at his baptism) with the eschatological Spirit, displaying that the kingdom of God was at hand (whether you understand that to be present or very near).

Miss you, buddy.

“We also, in our heart of hearts, tend to shur over the risen “manhood” of Jesus, to conceive Him, after death, simply returning into Diety, so that the Resurrection would be no more than the reversal or undoing of the Incarnation.” C.S. Lewis, Miracles

Fr. Robert

I definitely do NOT think you’re a heretic. I think you’re totally on the right track. As long as you are not saying that Jesus “became God” at his anointing by the Spirit, you’re a-okay in my book. Often, I think evangelicals are so eager to protect Jesus’ deity that they completely ignore his humanity. Among lay Christians, this emphasis even turns into a sort of docetism, which IS heresy.

I think the theological label for what you’re describing is Spirit Christology. I’m not sure who coined it, but Clark Pinnock has written some of the best work on it that I’ve read (Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit). You don’t have to be an open theist to appreciate his thinking in this area. He’s biblical and creative. I’d HIGHLY recommend it if you’re doing some thinking in this area.

Thanks for the good work, Joel,

Emily

Fr. Robert (Anglican)

Read your article, as someone who had a huge problem with alcohol from aged 13 and went into rehab aged 21 before I was a Christian and also drank after 10 years sobriety as a Christian for a short time. I now don’t drink and as a result find Christian ‘parties’ boring because of the over emphasis on drinking, and usually no good music just standing around drinking. I think you will find that a lot of ‘Christians’ who are not necessarily alcoholic drink to excess, ie suffer hangovers, have ‘one too many’, drink more than is the recommended medical limit etc. Alot of young Christians in age and salvation years also are still into the world’s heavy drinking culture ie clubbing and partying and many of them will pay for it physically and mentally as they get older – saved or not. You will also find there are ‘hidden alcoholics’ in churches ie people who drink alone and are secretly dying of it. Alot of churches also have a ‘drinking culture’ oddly and if you don’t drink you may be considered ‘excessively holier than thou’ even if you are not drinking to stay healthy and sane. I have to agree however, that the bible does not prohibit wine and the Jewish culture clearly celebrated it. I just think that in our culture the place of alcohol is very different, family and community has broken down and celebrations are a very different thing. Therefore to conclude the Western church could, in my opinion, benefit from an injection of holiness in relation to drink (and also to sexual matters on a different note) because it is so ’slidden’. I think many christian people find the line between having a social drink and getting into the altered euphoric mood state of alcohol, very difficult to walk. Bear in mind alcohol abuse also carries with it a symptom of denial. That’s where the protection of the ‘weaker brother’ comes in. Also many young christian people will miss out on huge opportunities with God and in this wonderful life from the hours and money spent on booze and will not be able to reclaim these years. Plus bearing in mind what a room or pubful of slightly inebriated christians looks like to the Muslim community – ok there is some hyprocrasy there because there is ’secret’ drinking in the Muslim community – but I would urge you to be careful of evaluating those who are opposed to Christians drinking, and check out the actual reality of the Western Christian church. Best wishes.

Lance