I'm a pharisee...aren't we all?

So this whole 'read through the Bible' thing has been going ok. We powered through Job, Jeremiah and Lamentations first (I guess getting through the really depressing stuff first). But today we started Mark. Mark just dives into the story of Jesus’ ministry with no back-story of his birth or anything like that. And he packs a lot of stuff in the first 2 chapters. The story of Jesus calling Levi is probably the hardest hitting for me. After Levi has Jesus and a bunch of his followers over for dinner, the Pharisees start calling Jesus out for ‘eating with sinners’ (not really all that hard to believe…we’ve all heard the whole ‘bad company corrupts good character’ bit applied to pretty much any interaction outside the church). But Jesus just comes back with this infamous line (2:17): “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” I say this is infamous because we as a church have flipped our theology in a practical sense. We really do teach that you have to fake it until you make it. We live and act as though behavior change fosters faith instead of flipping that and falling on the grace of God in acknowledgement of our depravity. Because deep down, we really don’t think we need him…we’re righteous enough, right? 'Empire' is a song by the band As Cities Burn that talks about this – “I was a Pharisee / I never saw my need for grace / then your love came to me / stood next to mine and I saw I was poor / show me I was poor / show us we are…” It’s so easy to shake my head and agree with all that, but if I take a step back and look objectively at myself, it’s tough to say that I live like I need somebody to save me (or even that I’ve already been saved). One of my biggest hopes is that I can see myself against the light of what is truly good through the filter of God’s grace…instead of seeing myself compared to the people I choose to bring to mind.

amazing weekend...

So this weekend has been pretty awesome. To start with Thursday, Sara and I went to a concert downtown. Got to see Fun. & Jack's Mannequin...I'm a huge fan of Fun's music. One reviewer described it as exhausting, but brilliant...just don't know what causes someone to write music that's so all over the place, but I love it. Anyway, Friday night was cool...we caught up on a few episodes of 24 (gotta love hulu.com). Saturday was quite possibly the best day we've had in D.C. as a family. First, we went to the National Archives. I've always heard it was a beautiful building, and I wanted to check it out. The building was great, but it was amazing to get to see a 500-year-old copy of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. It's one thing to see pictures, or copies of these things, but another to be right there with them. To see the actual signature of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and so many others was pretty awesome. Random side note...I'm not sure why they used such huge paper back then...must've been a pain to be the writer when everything was the size of an easel. Anyway, next we went to the National Sculpture Garden and took the kids ice skating (their first time). I was totally worried about killing myself or the kids (this was only my second time), but it felt like focusing on keeping them up made it alot easier for me to pick it up. After that, we dropped by the US Botanical Gardens. They had an orchid display going on that was phenomenal. There was one flower (I'll try to put the picture on this) that was unbelievable. Made me wonder what God was thinking when he created a flower like that...but it was beautiful. Anyway, there are pictures from yesterday on facebook.

Today has been pretty good too. Church was powerful this morning. Dave Schmidgall preached from the first part of Jeremiah. Seriously, it's not so infuriating as Job, but maybe more depressing. God is so pissed in this book! Anyway, one thing that Dave said really stuck with me. He asked if we mourn for those who are going down a harmful or destructive path. Most of us find it easy to judge people, or feel pity on them, or try to fix them, but how hard is it for us to step back and see through the eyes of God? How different it would be if we could love people so much that it pained us to see them going the wrong way? Anyway, it was good. After church, we had brunch in Eastern Market with a great friend (Tim Welter). Great to catch up with him...so excited about Tim & Kim's daughter showing up next month.

To finish this book out...I was working out just a bit ago and listening to a podcast and this guy Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill said something amazing about our beliefs. He said that we believe that the Bible is infallible...and we incorrectly assume that our interpretation of the Bible is infallible. He also said that many of us go into every interaction looking for a chance to correct someone instead of looking for a chance to learn. Deep stuff...wish it was as easy to apply as it is to hear...