Nope.

Is it worse?

Nope.

I only occasionally read articles online at Relevant, and I have never entered any discussion. For whatever reason though, this touched a nerve enough for me to make an account and respond.

I can remember having similar sentiments about marriage and women, and it’s probably all too recent that I’ve taken an arrogant tone as I “interpret” scripture to elevate my own way of life through various proof-texts and straw man arguments. Maybe it’s just a young man’s fallacy or perhaps it plagues us all.

Anyway, here’s my response to the aforementioned article:

“I appreciate the sentiments in this post…a desire to discern and to be faithful to God and to the scriptures. That said, I think this piece is the fruit of proof-texting and the equivalent of biblical sight-reading.

It’s probably a good idea to give context when quoting scriptures; otherwise we can’t properly understand the meaning. For example, you have quoted Jesus when he says in ch. 19 of Matthew that some have chosen singleness for the sake of the kingdom and that those who can accept that should do so. First of all, the entire passage is about divorce and how no one should separate what God has put together; he then says no divorce unless there’s adultery. Right after he says this, the disciples are like, “oh crap, if relationships are like this, then no one should get married, Jesus!” (literally, they say, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”)

And here’s the kicker, Jesus’ response, which is a mere one verse before the one you quoted is: “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.” That’s the key to the interpretation of the next line. Life-long celibacy is a gift of God that is given; so when Jesus says let those who are able to accept it, accept it, he is saying let those to whom this gift is given, take it on. The implication is that he’s not talking about all people. It’s his disciples who at first thought everyone should just be celibate since relationships are tough, but Jesus lessened their “standard” by saying all those who have received the gift of celibacy should live it.

Next, on to 1 Cor. Mrob4031 said above, “In fact, the first verse in chapter 7 is actually most likely a quote from the Corinthians letter of questions to Paul.” I couldn’t agree more; in fact, to make this even more clear, a lot of translations will put the phrase “it is good for a man not to touch a woman” in quotation marks, demonstrating that Paul is quoting the letter or message from the Corinthians. Everything afterward is his take on that saying, and his take is clearly not that people shouldn’t marry; rather he talks about how they should act as single or married.

If that doesn’t clear it up, go up just two more chapters for a fun little text (1 Cor 9), and you’ll find Paul saying, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Peter? 6Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?” It is funny that Peter discusses this so-called right, considering he thinks no one should marry. Also, it seems the Apostles weren’t just about constant action as single people considering they brought these dead-weight wives around to distract them from God. Of course, a few lines later, Paul does say, “But we did not use this right.” He is not talking about the right to marry here, though; he is talking about the right to receive financial support from the people he serves, but the implication is, however, that he has given up this right to support in the same way he gave up the right to so many things, including marriage. But this is because he has the gift and calling of celibacy.

I agree with a lot of points you wrote. God desires all of us. We shouldn’t just jump into marriage without discernment as if it’s just the automatic next step in life. Marriage divides our attention. Elbow is an incredible band. Etc.

However, I don’t agree with your reading of these scriptures or your use of altruistic straw men to represent married people. It’s not that I don’t agree with you because I think marriage is the most selfless thing or because love is just so wonderful. I disagree b/c the scriptures clearly imply we have different callings & gifts (including celibacy), and because scripture elevates marriage so very highly above where you placed it, making it one of the most definitive images for our relationship with Jesus.”

Well, reader, what do you think? Was I off-base? Too much edge? Is there more to be understood in this guy’s assertions about celibacy?

Oh, and just for the lulz:

oh, and if you go to the comic’s site, be sure to mouse over the little red button underneath for the hidden, bonus panel!

Last night, Gina and I had the pleasure of going to the first show in Derek Webb‘s Black Eye Tour following the release of his new album Stockholm Syndrome. The best part is that it was free since I won the first artifact in Louisville during the game leading up to the pre-release of the album.

The show was really different from any previous DW concert I have seen. I haven’t ever seen him with any accompaniment other than his wife on a few songs in the past. This time, however, he brought a drummer and Josh Moore of Caedmon’s Call and a whole new sound. Besides hardly using his characteristic acoustic guitar, Derek often didn’t use any instrument besides his microphone.

This highlighted the centrality and power of his lyrics in this album as well as the intimate connection between the words and Derek’s current, very personal views of what’s going on around us.

Adding to the impact were a set of undulating lights hung at the rear of the stage. They were pouring out what I felt were anti-hypnotic patterns that when paired with the meaning of the songs would finally undo the stockholm syndrome in which we find ourselves trapped in this americanized christianity.

It was compelling and personal as well as a little bit painful and shocking. There were parts of some songs that I felt alienated by as if the very music itself was challenging my way of life in deeper ways than even the lyrics. Other times I felt wrapped right up into the songs as if my heartbeat was following the lead of Derek’s bass.

Often when I let the songs in, no longer allowing myself to pretend they weren’t about me, it felt like Derek Webb was ripping off old bandages that had long since grown into the wounds. This is the kind of music that can find its way into your DNA and really transform you. Such a transformation can be exhausting, though.

He did, however, offer some respite and healing from this rough task halfway through the show by pulling out his acoustic guitar and playing audience requests. It was soothing to hear these old ballads and other tunes from several past albums. It reminded me how I could close my eyes and briefly feel at peace with the state of the church, our world, and my life when at one of his past shows. He also played “A Savior on Capitol Hill”, which was incredibly potent considering the current state of affairs.

After this break, he resumed with the new music, ultimately playing every song on Stockholm Syndrome. I had been worried about how this album would play out live since so much of it is produced. It turns out it is fantastic live, popping right out at you. I’m thankful we got to be there for such a powerful show. If it comes near you, you should definitely check it out. And if you aren’t afraid to be challenged and moved, buy that album ASAP!

It’s been a long time, and it’s about time to start posting again.

A couple of nights ago, I was thinking again about the church during my drive home. I have never felt so distant from the institutional, western church as now. I feel like the last ten years of my life, church has been at the center, and this is the first year the chain has snapped and I’ve drifted out into the wild blue yonder. Anyway, I wrote down my feelings about the church in my journal, and this is what is hidden away in those pages:

The church is no mere harlot; it is a brothel.
It is 1,000 gongs and 10,000 cymbals.
It is as much set apart as a rectum, which expels crap into the world daily.
It is shockingly profane.
The church loves its neighbors the way a bullet loves flesh.
The church is one catatonic body, many malignant parts.
The church is an alien in a strange land, though the planet of origin is certainly questionable.
The church consists of a priesthood that is royal in terms of height, distance, and peculiarity.
The gates of hell do not prevail against it for they do so often protect it.
The church is Chernobyl on a hill, radiating its message to all people.
Simply put, the church is not much.
Though often a thousand times more militant, we are lesser than Gideon’s army.
Thus it is a very good thing that God can do so much with so little.
We have given as little as possible, so perhaps he will give as much as possible.
And perhaps he already did.

Oh, and here’s the bonus panel!

note: just in case you go check out SMBC, sometimes he can be a bit raunchy

The Gall, The Chains

I am Simon.
The gall.
The chains.
The silver.
And all.
I am Simon.

My questions reflect something deeper in my heart;
Maybe I’ll play another trick for you
You’ll think I’m the Great Power
of the Great Knower
who knows I’m not

I’m not

Like Simon, the question
of my fate
of my state
is to be determined

I am not even as honest as Simon
He spoke up and asked.

I am his gall and his chains and his silver
and I will perish

Might Christ swallow my gall,
unwind my chains,
pay the price I cannot pay;
Might he awake before me that I awake,
Perish that I will not wholly fade to dust;
Fall first that I not fall in pieces;
And might I pray a salve for my sins,
a balm for my questions,
a cure for my heart
from him?

I am Simon.
What has and what will become of me?

I’m really feeling this today.

Well, Jimmy, grandma’s dead.

I was in a small group the other day. We read how Stephen had rocks chucked at his head until he “fell asleep”. Real pleasant. (see Acts 6-7ish if you like unpleasantries)

Someone asked why the text says he fell asleep rather than just saying Stephen died. Good question. I did a little research and some remembering of past things, so I wrote out some basic notes on this whole sleeping thing. The following are my notes as well as a brief excursus regarding a wonderful legend about the beloved Apostle John.

In America, we use a lot of euphemisms for death, because we want to avoid the stark reality of it. “He passed away.” “She moved on.” “Fido’s in a better place.” “Ol’ Jim kicked the bucket.” Those all sound a little nicer, a little easier on the heart, instead of saying, “Well, Jimmy, grandma’s dead.” So, at first, I wondered if “to fall asleep” was a mere euphemism used by Luke to smooth over the graphic death of Stephen. Stephen had a face like an angel, and he fell asleep like a precious little angel. Sounds dumb, huh? Well, it doesn’t fit well with a Christian view of death and of hope and of resurrection. I think it’s safe to say this was no euphemism.

As a sort of faith statement, however, I think it works well. This is where we can get some interesting word-history that will fill out our understanding of “to fall asleep”. The Greek word used is the verb koimao, which means, of course, to fall asleep and is related to the word “to lie down”. Now, early Christians started calling their burial grounds a koimeterion…do you see the root word koimao in there (koim + ending)? And if you transliterate it into the latin, the k changes to a c and you get coimeterium, and by the time you get to English the word changes to cemetery! Cemetery is synonymous with the word dormitory, both of which literally mean “a sleeping place”. So that graveyard out there is merely the dorm of the dead (not really a college I am looking to attend any time soon!).

Now, I share all of that to say this. We, Christians, put dead people in cemeteries, because they are just resting awhile and won’t be there forever. As sleeping people awake at day, a day is coming when the dead too shall arise from their slumber. This was such an important idea to early Christians that they created language for it, such as cemetery, and they also co-opted the idea of death being linked with falling asleep which had already been used in early Greek literature.

Referring to the dead as sleeping people, then, is a profound faith statement about resurrection. Death is supposed to be final, void, no mere rest, but not so in Christ.

1 Corinthians 15, which is what I was trying to recall last night rather than the version in 1 Thess which Micah referenced, is a great chapter to read for this idea. This chapter is Paul’s great defense of resurrection as one of the most crucial of Christian beliefs, and it makes a lot of references to those who have fallen asleep and how they will experience the opposite (resurrection = waking up). For now, we could just read v20-21: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.” Jesus was the first to wake up but definitely not the last.

Stephen, though brutally stoned to death, will wake up. And so will we.

I close the thought with a perfect parallelism that might have been a hymn used in baptism (which is an enactment of death in its own way). In Ephesians 5.14:

“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

On the Sleeping Apostle

(Note: There is a great, old legend that the Apostle John never died. Rather he stepped into his grave in Ephesus of his own accord and went to sleep. People knew he was sleeping under the earth because the ground would very occasionally make strange movements, and on the rarest of occasions a little puff of dust would rise up from John’s breathing in his slumber!)

And to further prove I am a nerd, here’s some info about the legend of St. John being asleep in his grave. The first piece is the gospel passage that is the foundation of the legend; the second piece is a website that describes the burial place of John and the legend in brief; and the last piece is a quote from Augustine, an early church father, who wrestles (in kind of hefty, difficult to understand language—maybe it’s just a wooden translation?) with what to think of this legend, especially since it comes from some “not altogether unreliable witnesses”.

See John 21.20-23 for the Origins:

“Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is going to betray you?’) When Peter saw him, he asked, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.’ Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, ‘If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?’”

A Brief Description of His Burial Site/Legend:

Click for the Website

Augustine, On the Gospel of John 124.2-3

“But let any one who so resists still refuse his assent, and declare that what John asserts is true enough, that the Lord said not that that disciple dies not, and yet that this is the meaning of such words as he is here recorded to have used; and further assert that the apostle John is still living, and maintain that he is sleeping rather than lying dead in his tomb at Ephesus. Let him employ as an argument the current report that there the earth is in sensible commotion, and presents a kind of heaving appearance, and assert whether it be steadfastly or obstinately that this is occasioned by his breathing. For we cannot fail to have some who so believe, if there is no want of those also who affirm that Moses is alive, because it is written that his sepulchre could not be found, and that he appeared with the Lord on the mountain along with Elijah, of whom we read that he did not die, but was translated, as if the body of Moses could not have been hidden somewhere in such a way as that its position should altogether escape discovery by men, and be raised up therefrom by divine power at the time when Elijah and he were seen with Christ just as at the time of the passion of Christ many bodies of the saints arose, and after his resurrection appeared, according to scripture, to many in the holy city. But still, as I began to say, if some deny the death of Moses, whom scripture itself, in the very passage where we read that his sepulcher could nowhere be found, explicitly declares to have died, how much more may occasion be taken from these words where the Lord says: Thus do I wish him to stay till I come, to believe that John is sleeping, but still alive, beneath the ground? Of whom we have also the tradition, which is found in certain apocryphal scriptures, that he was present, in good health, when he ordered a sepulcher to be made for him, and that, when it was dug and prepared with all possible care, he laid himself down there as in a bed, and became immediately defunct; yet as those think who so understand these words of the Lord, not really defunct, but only lying like one in such a condition, and, while accounted dead, was actually buried when asleep, and that he will so remain until the coming of Christ, making known meanwhile the fact of his life by the bubbling up of the dust, which is believed to be forced by the breath of the sleeper to ascend from the depths to the surface of the grave. I think it quite superfluous to contend with such an opinion. For those may see for themselves who know the locality whether the ground there does or suffers what is said regarding it, because, in truth, we too have heard of it from those who are not altogether unreliable witnesses.

Meanwhile let us yield to the opinion, which we are unable to refute by any certain evidence, lest we stir up still another question that may be put to us, why the very ground should seem in a kind of way to live and breathe upon the interred corpse. But can so great a question as the one before us be settled on such grounds as these, if by a great miracle, such as can be wrought by the almighty, the living body lies so long asleep beneath the ground until the coming of the end of the world? No, rather, does there not arise a wider and more difficult one, why Jesus bestowed on the disciple, whom he loved beyond the others to such an extent that he was counted worthy to recline on his breast, the gift of a protracted sleep in the body, when he delivered the blessed Peter, by the eminent glory of martyrdom, from the burden of the body itself, and vouchsafed to him what the apostle Paul said that he desired, and committed to writing, namely, to be let loose, and to be with Christ?* But if, what is rather to be believed, saint John declared that the Lord said not, he dies not, for the very purpose that no such meaning might be attached to the words which he used, and his body lies in its sepulcher lifeless like those of others deceased, it remains, if that really takes place which report has spread abroad regarding the soil, which grows up anew, though continually carried away, that it is either so done for the purpose of commending the preciousness of his death, seeing it wants the commendation of martyrdom, for he suffered not death at the hand of a persecutor for the faith of Christ, or on some other account that is concealed from our knowledge. Still
there remains the question, why the Lord said of one who was destined to die: Thus I wish him to remain till I come.”

I hope to sing this in church, in community, some day. Man that would be great.

Thanks Katie Herzig.

An experiment. Not a proclamation, but an idea. These are…

The Four Love Poems of God

I don’t love you.
I try to, but I can’t.

It’s not that I don’t want to,
I simply see too much
I know too much
I know your heart

I close my eyes
and I see all of it
All that you hide from them
And know you can’t really hide from me

I can’t not see it.
And so I don’t love you.

I really did love you once upon a time
But now it’s just that, a fairy tale
–Once upon a time–

I even pursued you
but now I realize
you’re just too much
even for me.

You killed all I ever made
My world
My heart
My son

And you’re still killing it.

And I know I’m supposed to love you
to love you all
And I guess I do love you all

Just like a mom has to love
all the children
she thinks maybe should
never have been born

I do love you all, but I’m sorry
I just can’t love you.

What am I saying here?
I love you so much
that I don’t want you
to doubt it for a moment

I will whisper it in your ear tonight
and this time you will hear me
–audibly–

I’ll come
to your side
and you can even place your fingers
into the gore
at my side

It’s bleeding just for you

I would bleed all my drops
into eternity
so that you would know I’m here

Even if you were the only one

Still, I would love you as much

I will tell you
how I see it all so clearly
all you hide behind
fig leaves and silence and plastic smiles

I see it

And it doesn’t mean anything to me
I love you just the way you are
And I don’t care whether you ever change

Because I love you.
Ceaselessly.
Recklessly.
Blindly.

I love you.

Now what was I saying?
I got rather emotional

Rather, let us speak of truth

I love you, don’t you know
Doesn’t your Bible tell you so

I love the whole world
so I gave my son

It doesn’t sound like poetry
so reduced as this

But I am love,
and thus I love you.

I haven’t yet told you everything

I know you wrestle
so much with
what you think
and what you wish
and what you believe

Because I haven’t told you everything

But just enough to let you know
you can trust me, segullah

But for now, hear me out
This is what I’ve been saying to you
for a long time

I created you
I formed you
I knit you

Above all that,
I redeemed you
so there’s no need for fear

I called and call you out by name,
because you are mine

When you pass through the waters
I will be with you
and when you pass through the rivers
they will not sweep over you

When you walk through the fire
you will not be burned
the flames will not set you ablaze

What are these promises
if not love?
if not true?
if not mine?

For I am your God
and your Savior
And I would give entire countries
as a ransom for you

Because you are precious to me
and because I love you
I would give men in exchange for you
and people in exchange for your life

And I did
I gave one man.

Because I do love you

And yes, I do see all;
I gave my son anyway

That’s what love is

It pursues you
even when you’re broken
and dirty
and alone

And it succeeds

But I won’t leave you thus;
I sent my Spirit your way

Because that’s also what love is

It transforms you
even when you’re broken
and dirty
and alone

And it succeeds

Hold on tight
This world, this life
will be tough for you

I know that

But I’m with you now
And I’m coming
And it really won’t be long

So cry out when you don’t remember
Groan so deeply when
you can’t hear
you can’t speak
you can’t feel

For
I am quick to love
I am quick to love
I am quick to love.

As I’ve mentioned before, some friends have got me into reading Acts. I’ve been trying to study the chapters in-depth ahead of time for two reasons: 1)So I can connect better with the stories and learn and better experience the corresponding bible study in a small group; and 2)So I can rekindle my ability to read/parse/comprehend Greek; I studied the darn language for 2 years and I should have never let 2 more go by without study.

Anyway, something always captures my attention when reading. This time, besides the wonderful homothumadon, I was captured by a brief section in the latter part of ch 3. It made me think of some of my struggles in this life and especially of some of my friends who have been going through rough times. So, these are some thoughts in honor of all my friends who hurt, who long, who question, who die a little inside some days like me.

Here is the word that I heard…in the word:
Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago.

I highlighted two phrases: times of refreshing (kairoi anapsuxeos) and time of universal restoration (chronon apokatastaseos panton). There’s a lot to be said of these two phrases. First, I will write of time. There are two concepts of time in the Greek language: kairos and chronos. Chronos is just normal time, chronological/sequential time, time you could measure on your watch or mark on your calender. 8 PM on Saturday, February 14 is chronos time. Kairos on the other hand is time of opportunity. It is a special moment filled with potential. It’s a crucial time when God acts. It is a time of quality rather than quantity.

Now, onto the word restoration, which is anapsuxis in the Greek. This is a neat word; the Latin equivalent is refrigerium…you know, we get the word refrigerator from it. Our refrigerators provide cooling refreshment. There is also an idea in there of gentle breathing and breathing space. The related verb, anapsucho, has the idea of being revived by fresh air. So these times of refreshment, these kairoi anapsuxeow, are special opportunities for us to cool down and to catch our breath, to be refreshed while we live this difficult life in a difficult world. If we are constantly running ourselves down as we struggle through life, then God is offering us opportunities for refreshment when we turn to him.

Furthermore, we can have hope that Jesus is coming back for the specific time (chronos) of the restoration of all things. That is, there isn’t just some vague concept, some weak hope of Jesus coming back and finally and ultimately fixing the mess we’re in. No, there is a strong and tangible hope because there is a time planned for it. A year, a day, an hour. And it’s coming.

So that brings me to all the stuff about hurting and struggling, about feeling unlovable or broken, about loneliness and emptiness, about the elements of death that begin in our lives long before the day we die.

I, for one, have found an interesting thing in my life. One of the most constant companions I have had over the years is my feeling of loneliness. It follows me everywhere, and sucks the strength right out of me. I have an incredible wife and have had some amazing friends over the years, and yet I often become overwhelmed with a sense of loneliness. It’s hard for me to understand, harder to articulate. It wears me out. But in turning to God, since I first started turning to him, I have found these rare and beautiful opportunities to catch my breath, where I feel filled and surrounded, loved and befriended, where I feel like someone is finally standing beside me in the deepest sense in this world. Those are the best moments in my life, the greatest memories.

I remember this time of playing croquet under the rain of giant water sprinklers with my wife and two friends in Colorado. It was a silly time of carefree laughter while we ran from those drenching arcs, trying to be the first to become the poison ball. It was a rare moment in my life where I felt free. Not lonely. Not broken. Just free.

Unfortunately, these moments are just that. Moments. They never seem to last. But that is the whole gospel in this passage. That in turning to Jesus, not only will we find moments of refreshment, but we will find a final and lasting time of total restoration. We won’t need to catch our breath any more, for God will give us new lungs. We can hope for that. The moments are to be signposts and reminders of what will come; these finite experiences point us to the infinite.

We will not hurt or long or struggle or question or die (inside or outside) ever again. We will be loved and whole, and together and filled, and fully alive, and we won’t just have to believe it. We will know it, because we will live it.

There is one more reminder of that great hope that is to come in this passage. It says our sins will be wiped out (exaleipho). This word is a word for erasing, smearing, blotting out, and it occurs in a couple places. Specifically, Colossians 2.14, Rev 3:5, and Rev 7:17 (see the bottom o’ the post if you want to read these now). In these four verses, God tells us three things he will blot out and one that he never will. He blots out our sin, erases the record or evidence of our sin that stands against us, and he will wipe away our tears once and for all, but he will never, never, never blot out our names from his book of life.

That is good hope. That is good news. That is gospel.

 
I leave you with a personal poem:

There are seven melancholy strands in my soul.
O my soul.

Even when the winds of life blow but gently,
dancing on these somber cords,
Even then my heart beats bruises in my chest,
and my legs are sore when I sleep at night,
and my sight seem blurry as my thoughts,
As a whispered tune of sorrow plays beautifully in my soul.
O my soul.

Why does this song keep playing all my life?
All I can do is sing along
or dance along
or hum along
or cry along
or die along

Or I can live on top of the song or under it,
or I can swallow its bitter notes deep inside
where no one can hear
Or I can live to its rhythm but add my own notes
Living in the midst of two married songs
a ballad of sorrow
hand in hand
note in note
with an overture of joy

Am I sorrow or joy?

I guess I am neither
but they both play in my soul
O my soul.

Colossians 2.14 …erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

Revelation 7:17 …for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Revelation 3:5 If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.

I had to show some restraint in order to start this post off right. I’m excited to talk about a word that jumped out to me recently when I was reading Acts ch. 4. The word is homothumadon. It’s a word used quite frequently in Acts to describe Christians as well as their opponents. The part that I needed restraint on comes from the fact that the two root words are homos (same) and thumos (seat of one’s soul, passion); basically I wanted to title this post: “Early Christians, Passionate Homos?”, and my first line would’ve been “And I hope to be one too.” That’s funny. But maybe unnecessarily obtrusive to what I want to say. Anyway, obviously I don’t have enough restraint to not even talk about it, but what can you do?

To the point.

In Acts 4.23-24ish, the apostles Pete and Johnny narrowly evade a catastrophe after they heal some guy who couldn’t walk. Basically, the religious leaders felt threatened by their teachings to the crowd that gathered following the healing, and so the leaders threatened them in return that they’d better not go on mentioning the name of Jesus or his teachings. Jesus is gone, yet they still have sand in their crack about him. So P & J come back to their friends and share what happened. And this is where it gets interesting:

v.24 says, “When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who…….” and they go into a big prayer together asking for help and boldness and God to take action. But did you catch the amazing thing in the quote?

Neither did I. When I read it, however, for some reason the phrase “raised their voices together” just caught my attention. Randomly? Holy Spirit-ually? I don’t know. But it did stand out.

So I read the sentence in some funky language, and came across that little gem of a word which basically gets swallowed up in our English translation…I mean, I guess we’re left with the word “together”. Well, that’s poop. Because the word is omothumadon, which does not mean mere togetherness. No, no, no… It is made up of two words, which I already briefly explained. But for the sake of redundancy and clarity, I will do it again. But for the sake of redundancy and clarity, I will do it again. (Ha! I will think that’s funny until the day I die.)

homos – We see this word that means “same” all the time. Homo-sapien, Homo-sexual, Homo-genous. Well, maybe we don’t use that last one too often.

thumos – This one is a bit more interesting and potent. This is the seat of one’s soul and one’s passion. Contrary to its meek appearance, it is a volatile word that can describe the origin of the way one might fly off the handle in angry passion, raging against the machine or the man or whatever it is that enrages you. It’s fiery passion. It’s intense. It’s awesome.

So when you cram these two words together, you get an adjective or adverb that means something like “same-passioned” or “fired up together”…or…or…”emphatically, unanimously pissed off”. Sometimes, Peterson gives us “wonderful harmony” in positive situations and a stampeding mob in negative. I like that. So in this verse, the Christians “lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer”, but in Acts 7.57 “the mob drowned Stephen out. Now in full stampede, they dragged him out of town and pelted him with rocks.”

And it turns out that these early Christians were doing things all the time in a homothumadon kind of way. I mean, just check out Acts 1.14, 2.46, 5.12, 8.6, 15.25 and Romans 15.6 (or look at the bottom of this post where I will list them out). And we read over and over again that they were filled with the Spirit, that they shared, that they were imbued with special gifts, and that they were making an impact on others, enjoying the fact that God was growing the kingdom of God all around them.

Wow. I mean, what if we acted in a homothumadon kind of way? What if, being filled with the Spirit, we were same-passioned?

It sounds beautiful. There have been a couple brief times in my life where I experienced feeling homothumadon with others…sometimes just one person, sometimes a group. And it was always very, very powerful…for me, for us, and for others. And that brings me to where my thoughts often go lately. I long for a same-passioned community. I long to be with people who laugh together, weep together, get pissed off together, cry out to God together in unified passion.

We probably won’t truly get that in a lasting way until we finally come home. But until then, I’d like to think we could pray together with hope that God will fill us with the Holy Spirit, making us homothumadon.

The Cross-references

From the NASB, if you’re into that (and you should be at least for now, b/c it’s one of the few translations that is paying any attention to this special word rather than just muting it in the text):

Acts 1.14 These all with one mind (homothumadon) were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Acts 2.46 Day by day continuing with one mind (homothumadon) in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart…

Acts 5.12 At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord (homothumadon) in Solomon’s portico.

Acts 8.6 The crowds with one accord (homothumadon) were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.

Acts 15.25 it seemed good to us, having become of one mind (homothumadon), to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul…

Romans 15.5-6 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord (homothumadon) you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you’re interested in the negative occurrences of this word, you can check out Acts 7.57, 12.20, 18.12, and 19.29. These are mostly verses about angry mobs on the warpath, stampeding over Christians. Which is neat. I mean. Uh. Yeah. No.

And finally, just a random thought for the few that made it this far: when we talk about hetero-(different) and homo-(same) sexuality, what would happen if we introduce the third facet of homoi-(similar). I mean, what the heck is homoisexuality anyway? And I’m done.