December 3, 2014
Mary, Most Perplexed
Jim Tune, Mary, Luke 1, MMPI, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, perplexity, doubt, authenticity, Abraham and Sarah, Elijah, Jezebel,
Series: Jim Tune
November 19, 2014
Swords, Plowshares, and Evangelicals
By Jim Tune The Sermon on the Mount has been speaking to me in fresh ways lately. In the tradition of Alexander Campbell, I am trying to read these passages without viewing them through any particular Evangelical, sociopolitical, or theological lens. You can imagine how difficult this is to do. My biases rise up in protest””especially when I read what Jesus taught about peacemaking and loving enemies. Please don”t send me any hermeneutical treatments of the subject. I”ve read them all. But in times of honest reflection, I find myself pushing back when it comes to all the Evangelical escape
November 12, 2014
When You Leave Your Soul Behind
By Jim Tune Author Lettie Cowman wrote about a traveler visiting Africa who hired a group of guides. Determined to make her journey a swift one, she pushed her team to cover many miles the first day. On the second day, though, the attendants she had hired remained seated and refused to move. Frustrated, she asked the leader of her hired hands why they would not continue the journey. He replied that on the first day they had gone too far, too fast, and now they were waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies. Cowman reflected, “This
October 29, 2014
Rest
By Jim Tune Luke tells the story of a prostitute who was so desperate to see Jesus that she crashed a dinner party at a Pharisee”s house. Moved by Jesus” love for people like her, she began to sob, drenching his feet with her tears. Finally, she was embarrassed by her own lack of inhibitions. She started to dry Jesus” feet with her hair, and then, overcome with emotion, she kissed them and bathed them in perfume. This scene made everyone uncomfortable. To the Pharisees, her actions seemed inappropriate, scandalous, sensual. The host expressed his outrage, saying to himself, “If
October 22, 2014
Poetry Is Useless
By Jim Tune The wonderful thing about poetry is that it is at once both useless and utile. I love poetry. I am pulled to words in a powerful way. They draw me in with an almost physical intensity. Many of the greatest masters of the English language throughout history have been Christian poets. Think of John Milton, who composed the magnificent epic poem Paradise Lost in order to “justify the ways of God to man.” Think of John Donne, who wrote such memorable lines as “Death be not proud,” “No man is an island,” and “Never send to know
October 15, 2014
Living with Wonder
By Jim Tune In his book The Melody of Faith: Theology in an Orthodox Key, Vigen Guroian speaks of God as someone more like a musician than a manager, more like an artist than an accountant. He writes: “God is more like a cantor who chants his Creation into existence and rejoices everlastingly over its beautiful harmony. His song continues, and its melody moves and inspires humankind to restore beauty and harmony to a Creation that is fallen and misshapen.” I love the sense of wonder Guroian”s words evoke in my heart. Wonder seems to be in ever short supply
October 8, 2014
Capitulating to Grace
By Jim Tune It”s hard to get enough of something that almost works. Most people who have tried religion discover this sooner or later. I know this. I”ve tried life on the gerbil wheel of good works, knowing the futility yet running relentlessly to earn approval. Heaven knows I”ve tried””and still do. Reaching midlife and realizing I still fall far short has, in some ways, been a healthy discovery. I have not “arrived” spiritually; in fact, I”m as far away as I”ve ever been. That said, I”m not quite ready to capitulate to the demands of the flesh. Instead, I”m
October 1, 2014
At the Movies
By Jim Tune I”ve never been a television junkie. Five years ago a lightning strike took out our dish. We never replaced it. I don”t have a Netflix subscription either. I tend to be very selective about what I watch. Every summer my wife and I spend most of August at a secluded cabin on Cape Breton Island. We have a small television set there and a $30 DVD player. Most of our “media” consists of a steady diet of summer reading. However, we have allowed ourselves the indulgence of catching up on popular television series and movies. Based on
September 24, 2014
Living with the Tension
By Jim Tune Jesus Christ turned conventional views of power upside down. Jesus was remarkably indifferent to those who held political power. He had no desire to replace Caesar with his apostles. He gave civil authority its due, rebuking both the zealots and Peter for using the sword. This seems to have infuriated the religious right of his day. In an effort to discredit Jesus, the Herodians tried trapping him over the issue of allegiance to political authority. I am mystified by the Evangelical obsession with power and influence. A made-in-America Jesus seems more concerned with nationalism, patriotism, and power
September 17, 2014
Gospel Confidence
By Jim Tune I”ve often been asked, “Isn”t this the only thing that really matters to God in the end: whether or not you”re a good person?” This sounds great, and being good and doing good are central to what it means to be human, but this question masks a subtle belief system. Just below the surface of this sensible and conventional way of seeing God is the flawed idea that God operates according to a merit system. Do the good or right or religious thing and you will get the points you need to get on God”s good side.
September 10, 2014
Food Fight!
By Jim Tune I”ve been intrigued by the topic of health and fitness for years. That doesn”t mean I always lived or even pursued a healthy lifestyle, but over the past 11 months I”ve lost 60 pounds without crash dieting or riding some fad. I guess it was just time. The thing is, I”ll be 51 soon. I can no longer take my health for granted. Some effects of aging can”t be helped. Apparently I”m losing 1 percent of my testosterone a year. My bones are becoming porous and more fragile. My brain is shrinking, my arteries narrowing, and my
August 27, 2014
The Thread that Leads to God
By Jim Tune In Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Carl Jung wrote these penetrating words: “About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and the emptiness in their lives. This can be described as the general neurosis of our time.” The late philosopher and author Francis Schaeffer said, “The damnation of this generation is that it doesn’t know that it has any meaning at all.” Solomon put it this way: “Everything is meaningless. . . . I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all
August 13, 2014
Real Hope
By Jim Tune Last spring I taught a course on apologetics. We devoted considerable attention to the resurrection. I wanted students to sink deep roots in the ground of real hope””not optimism, not wishful thinking, but hope! I remember a story about a painful time in the life of a young missionary woman. This woman had married a Rwandan pastor, a Tutsi, and they had established a home together in that country. She was visiting Kenya on a mission trip when the dreadful Rwandan tragedy erupted. Hutu militia moved in, butchering men, women, and children wherever they went. The ensuing
August 6, 2014
Racehorses, Plodders, and Mules
By Jim Tune The words of James Denney ring true to me: “No man can give at once the impression that he himself is clever, and that Christ is mighty to save.” You can impress people with your cleverness or you can impress them with Jesus, but you can”t do both. It”s a common practice in church planting circles to search for a particular “type” of church planter. Competence, calling, giftedness””these characteristics matter when it comes to selecting a lead planter. The organization I lead uses a thorough assessment process to screen candidates for attributes that are useful in predicting
July 30, 2014
Celebrate Who?
By Jim Tune Most popular treatments of faith say it doesn”t matter what you believe. Just believe something“”whatever you want””and you”ll find the sheer act of believing will propel you to greatness. The parades and musical numbers at Walt Disney”s Magic Kingdom encourage visitors to believe in themselves and celebrate their dreams, whatever they are. As I left the theme park after a recent visit, the loudspeakers played a positively giddy song with the chorus, “In everything you do, celebrate you!” But life”s not an amusement park, and this endlessly narcissistic message will eat you alive if you attempt to
July 23, 2014
Hidden in a Field
By Jim Tune In 1989, the movie Field of Dreams was a blockbuster hit. Kevin Costner played Ray Kinsella, a 37-year-old man who always played it safe. He had never done a spontaneous thing in his life until hearing a voice one day that said, “If you build it, he will come.” After hearing the phrase several more times, he asked other farmers if they heard similar voices. Eventually Ray saw a vision of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson walking out of his cornfield. In the vision, Ray”s cornfield was transformed into a baseball diamond. When he actually “builds” a baseball field,
July 16, 2014
The Discipline to Discipline
By Jim Tune The words church discipline can conjure up vivid imagery that seemingly affirms the world”s worst perceptions of church. Nathaniel Hawthorne”s The Scarlet Letter serves up a twisted picture of the ostracizing of an adulteress by both church and community. Is this what we mean by church discipline””visions of Hester Prynne skulking around her nightmarish New England town? A solidly biblical approach to church discipline is the only way to heal fractures, restore right relationships, and ensure the health of the church. Discipline is not simply the unhappy task of ordering troublemakers out of the church. Indeed, discipline
July 8, 2014
My Only Hope
By Jim Tune When I read the Gospels, I encounter a Jesus who proclaims peace for the fringe dwellers. Indistinct and frequently offensive, they reached for his cloak, cried out in desperation, or fell forward to make contact with real love. Convention would treat them as nonpersons, insisting they be kept barely visible and hidden behind a veil of shame. But Jesus was unconventional. Life”s losers sense this. They crash the party and find themselves not only accepted, but favored and blessed as well. With Jesus, they get the seats of honor. For someone with as many opportunities as I”ve
