Wittingly or unwittingly, as a theologian he has exposed himself to this Word. He, at any rate, cannot possibly hide from himself the fact that this Word is directed precisely to his own world. This Word concerns mankind in all times and places, the theologian in his own time and place, and the world in its occupation with the routine Problems of the everyday. This Word challenges the world in which X, Y, and Z appear-with their own big words-to have the say and to determine the lot of all men and things as well as the lot of theologians. While the theologian reads the newspaper, he cannot forget that he has just read Isaiah 40 or John 1 or Romans 8. He, at any rate, cannot suppress the knowledge that the Word of God speaks not only of an infinitely deeper need but also of an infinitely higher promise than the sum total of all the needs and promises characteristic of his time and place. He cannot suppress his awareness that this Word is not only the word of God’s verdict and judgment upon all human existence and its perversion, but much more the word of God’s gracious covenant with man. He knows that this covenant is not only planned but already established and fulfilled. The Word to which he is exposed treats of man’s completed reconciliation with God. It speaks of the righteousness by which all human unrighteousness is already overcome, of the peace that has made all human wars (whether cold or hot) already superfluous and impossible, of the order by which a limit has already been set to all human disorder.

Source: Barth, Karl, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction, Eeardmans, 1963, p. 74-84. [http://solomon.dkbl.alexanderstreet.com/]

You can learn about the organizations behind The Girl Effect at http://girleffect.org. One of the reasons I like this video is because of CARE, a humanitarian organization I support. CARE fights global poverty by helping poor women around the world. As they say, “women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.” Read more here.

You can learn more about the project at www.socialjusticechristian.com. There’s also other resources for the “I’m a Social Justice Christian” campaign on their website. I’ve included the PSA in this post, as well as Brian McLaren’s response. Please pass the word about the project. Good work Ryan!

Second, what does the church have to say about living faithfully in earthquake country? Is this something we should be talking about with our congregations? If you’re a pastor, charged with protecting you’re congregation spiritually, do you have a responsibility to protect them physically as well. How about the rest of the community—in your church or not in your church? I say yes.

With all of the seismic activity around the world recently, many of us here in Southern California are wondering how long it will be until the “big one” hits us. It’s been relatively quite for fifteen years, but seismologists say a massive earthquake is inevitable. Will we be ready?

Will be ready physically? Will our earthquake kits be prepared (I am going to complete mine this week)? Will our homes be secured? Will our friends and families have a plan in place? I highly recommend “The Great California Shake Out”, I just registered this morning, and plan to encourage my congregation to do the same.

Will we be ready spiritually? Since the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year, I’ve wondered how I’d respond if I were a Haitian in the midst of such devastation.  What kind of a person would I be, what kind of Jesus follower would I be? Would I live courageously, or would I live in fear? Would I be willing to give my life away for the sake of others, or would I hunker down, looking out solely for my family and friends, myself? How would I respond to looting, rape, and fighting over rations, as we’ve seen in disaster like Haiti? Let’s not be so naive to think it couldn’t happen in Southern California, in our quiet suburbs. Going to the aid of those who suffer is one thing but what about when we’re suffering too? What then?

I think of Rodney Stark’s book, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History, where he writes about the way people responded to plagues in Roman cities during the first century. Relying on the observations of Thucydides’ about the uselessness of science and religion of the times, Stark writes:

Doctors were quite incapable of treating the disease, people became afraid to visit anyone, and as a result thousands of people died with no one to look after them, indeed, there were many houses in which the all the inhabitants perished from lack of any attention. Bodies dying were heaped on top of one another, half dead creatures were seen wandering an staggering in the streets. Catastrophe was so overwhelming that people became indifferent to every rule of morality, many pushed suffers away, even their own dearest, often throwing them into the roads hoping to avert being contaminated.

But there were a group of people who chose to live differently in the face of such great disaster. Stark goes on to write:

Most Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another, heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and many departed their life serenely happy, for they were infected by their neighbors and they cheerfully accepted their pain. They lost their lives in this manner and many of their elders and ministers did as well.

I think the question for us as followers of Jesus, is when do we become these kind of courageous people, willing to give our lives away at such times? Somehow I don’t think it happens in that moment, rather by the small choices we make each day to live like Jesus in all we do. God have mercy!

My new friend Maury Jackson, a professor of religion at La Sierra University, is preaching today about what to do when God is dead (He is preaching at the Kansas Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church in Riverside, CA). Yesterday Maury told me  he’s using the Holy Saturday text, Matthew 27:57-66, where Jesus disciples bury him with the help of Joseph of Arimethea. Maury made a good point that I’m still contemplating this morning: Christians often move to quickly to conclusion. We rush to wrap up the story with a happy ending. However the reality is we live in a world where God often seems silent. And dare I say it, God seems dead. What does it look like to live faithfully when experience this in your life?

I just read a quote, that today we are all atheists (I don’t have time to unpack that for you now—just put yourself in the disciples place two-thousand Saturdays ago and maybe that will help). The truth is I experience the death of God in my life a lot more than the resurrection of God. Even now I am tempted to add a sentence or a paragraph about hope. I’m not going there. Today everyone will be celebrating Easter in my church and I will too (but inside I am going to be contemplating on this Holy Saturday text—I am going to imagine what my faith would look like if I didn’t know Sunday is coming).

By the way, here’s an interesting link on the meaning of Holy Saturday, if you’d like to learn more about the meaning of this day in the Greek Orthodox tradition, also called Holy Pascha.

This has to be one of the most creative music videos I’ve seen! Check out the making of the video on YouTube (Seriously creative people – rock band + geeks = very cool).