Coming soon to Amazon.com and (hopefully) a bookstore near you...

I'm excited to announce that I'm getting my first book published!

There. I've said it. I've been wanting to say something for months, but have resisted the urge because I wanted to be sure it was a done deal. But now that I've got a book contract and I'm working with an editor to fine tune the manuscript, I'm excited to let everyone know.

The book is tentatively titled The Jesus Sessions. It was birthed out of an article I wrote last year for the Burnside Writers Collective, entitled "The Magic Words Jesus Didn't Use." In the article, I wrote about three encounters Jesus had with different people in the Gospels - Nicodemus, the Rich Young Ruler, and Zacchaeus. To each, he offered a response that met the longing of their hearts, but to each he provided different instructions and a different path to peace. It occurred to me that we in the American Christian subculture often oversimplify and overpackage the Gospel. The effect is often that we miss the very heart of God; no small thing to be sure.

The responses to the Burnside article confirmed that a lot of people are troubled by this, so I began looking at other encounters that Jesus had with people during his earthly ministry, and I began writing. What resulted was a series of essays about the various aspects of the Gospel and how Christ meets people wherever they are, without formula, cliché, or altar call. As I continued to write, I found a common thread and the essays appeared more like chapters. And so, a book emerged. As it turns out, I discovered I am the greatest author in the world. Seriously.

There is no release date yet, but stay tuned. As things progress, I'll be posting updates. I'm looking forward to sharing my work with you. I hope you like it. And for those of you who've known about this little project for some time, your support has meant a lot to me.

Why the Pharisees would've liked the 4th of July

So, this past weekend we celebrated the anniversary of our nation's birth - when America's founding fathers sent a colonial "up yours" to the motherland of England in the form of the Declaration of Independence. I really like the 4th of July - I like the food, the fireworks, and the fact that the holiday has yet to be commercialized to death. However, I think it's odd how most churches interact with the celebration.

It seems like Christians feel the need to commemorate the 4th, but it's not clear how the Christian faith and the birth of a nation - one that's not specifically Christian - intersect. The Declaration of Independence does have magic words that preachers cling to in order to draw out the sacredness and uniqueness of America... "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." Right there, in the text of our nation's first official document was an acknowledgement of God. And that makes America special, right?

That question about God's blessing being upon America has probably been debated since 1776. And I'm sure the discussion started much earlier actually - when the first European settlers came to these shores and found beautiful landscapes, abundant resources, and religious freedom - oh, and those pesky Native Americans already living here. A quick glance at the history books will show some amazing accomplishments for a young nation. In fact, if one believes that there is a God and that He takes an interest in human affairs, it would be hard to argue that this land hasn't been blessed by God, regardless of one's specific religious orientation.

Still, it seems that in the minds of many people, America's best days are behind her. Things have gotten a bit out of whack with our economy, with our culture, and with our security. No one knows what will happen in the next several decades, but things seem a little out of control these days. That very freedom that was once proclaimed in the Declaration of 1776 seems under fire from forces both within and without of our borders.

When we arrived at church this morning, it actually slipped my mind that this was Independence Day weekend - probably because there was no rousing chorus of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." But then, when I saw the text for the morning's sermon, 2 Chronicles 7:14, I remembered. This gem of a verse has long been a staple in the pulpits of churches when it comes to patriotic events. If you're not familiar with the reference, it says this: "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (NIV).

Though the original recipients of the promise were the people of Israel - a people chosen by God to be a special nation of blessing to all the nations of the world - pastors often make the quick jump in applying it to Christians in America. The idea is simple: If we acknowledge our sins and pray to God for forgiveness, God will do his part and fix the problems in our country. Oh, and there's one other thing - the "turn from their wicked ways" part; we need to stop sinning - at least stop the really blatant ones.

This all sounds very good and very spiritual, right? The problem is that we need to understand what is truly wicked in the eyes of God. Yes, I realize that all sin is wicked, and breaking one of God's commandments at even one point makes us guilty. But still, we must understand what God expects of us.

There was once another group of people who took this 2 Chronicles 7:14 promise very seriously. They got a lot of bad PR in the Gospels; they're called the Pharisees. They too were very patriotic, wanting the best for the little nation of Israel. And Israel, like America, had fallen on some hard times. Many in the nation had economic woes, but their security situation was much worse than ours - they had been conquered by the Romans and lost their national sovereignty altogether. They were, for all intents and purposes, slaves in their own land.

But the Pharisees remembered God's promise to heal their land if they would just turn back to Him. And they got busy with the task: they had laws for worship, laws for the Sabbath, laws for eating and drinking, laws for mourning, laws for giving, laws for marriage and relationships, and laws for going to the bathroom. You name it; they had a law for it. These people were very serious about being holy. Except for one important thing - the most important thing, actually: they forgot about the heart of God.

As a result, they often missed the point of their outer purity. And worse than this, they lost all sense of what it means to love one's neighbor. They instead treated their neighbors with contempt. Anyone who was not as "sinless" as they were was considered unclean, and they were blamed as the reason God had seemed to abandon them. Remember, God had promised to heal the land of Israel if the people who were called by His name would turn from their wicked ways. Yet, here were prostitutes, tax collectors, and criminals in their midst. No wonder God had not yet delivered the nation of Israel.

Jesus had some harsh words for the Pharisees of his day, and I suspect he would have some harsh words for many of us today. Every time we take the easy path of the Pharisees, instead of the loving path of the Good Samaritan, we proclaim religion, rather than the heart of God. Every time

we say that the problem with this country is the ____________ - you can fill in the blank with any group you like - we miss the example Jesus left us. He didn't avoid the tax collectors or prostitutes, and he didn't keep his distance from the poor and the diseased - those considered stricken by God. Instead, he embraced them.

If you research the history of Israel, you'll find that the Pharisees failed. They never did bring the people around to a place of "good enough" holiness, so that God would deliver them from the Romans. In fact, the nation of Israel was lost for 1,900 years, and though it's borders have been restored (to a certain degree), there is hardly lasting peace. Jesus, however, succeeded. He brought a new nation - a kingdom - that began in his ministry and continues to this day. This kindgom exists without the threats of terrorism, recession, or violence. The good news of the kingdom is that it exists without physical borders and is not dependent on the personal and external holiness of its citizens - because the kingdom of God reflects its King. If we know Christ, our hope is not in the healing of our land; it's in the citizenship that we've been given in a land that needs no healing.

Jon & Kate + 159,000,000

So, here's my obligatory blog post about Jon and Kate Gosselin (of Jon & Kate + 8)'s recent divorce announcement. Over the last few days, I've read the blogs and the articles and the tweets about the couple. Some folks point out what the couple should have done. Others are focused on the marriage problems that parents of multiples often have. And some insist that the major problem was the cameras, so they discussed the responsibility Jon and Kate have to their children, as well as the responsibility TLC has not to exploit the situation further.

If I'm honest, the thing that bothers me most is that Jon and Kate confess to be believers. Anyone who watches the show has seen Bible verse T-shirts and wall decorations. Kate's latest book was published by Zondervan, a large Christian publishing house. Watching Jon & Kate + 8 even made the list over at Stuff Christians Like. The couple has freely discussed their faith on and off camera. So, while divorce is always sad, there's something in me that just says this shouldn't be when it happens to committed Christians. (And of course, I am giving Jon and Kate the benefit of the doubt; I have no personal knowledge of their relationships with God.)

So, rather than writing one more piece on what they should have done or what they should do now, I want to ask another question: What should the Church's response be? The title of this post is "Jon & Kate + 159,000,000" because that's how many people call themselves Christians in the U.S. And I wonder how the church should respond to people like the Gosselins and others struggling with marriage problems. It seems like we've got the easy part down - that divorce is a bad thing - but what are we doing to support and help the marriages of people in our congregations?

My guess is that most people would say that the church is limited in what it can do. Marriage is between one man and one woman after all. Certainly, pastors should make themselves available for marriage counseling, and many churches have small groups for married couples that can be a source of encouragement, but I'm thinking much bigger.

I believe that the local church should be revolutionary and counter-cultural, that it should be a place characterized by real community, and where life is done together. I believe churches should be the most honest and safe places in the world, where people are free to share their struggles, their challenges, their fears, and their doubts - and where people judge their own sin, not the sins of their neighbors.

I know - what I'm describing sounds like a fantasy - and if I ever found a church like that, I would ruin it by becoming a member. True, but that doesn't change the fact that the New Testament is chock full of "one another" statements. I just did a quick search on Biblegateway.com and found 36 references in Paul's letters to New Testament churches, exhorting believers to love one another, to bear one another's burdens, to encourage one another, to submit to one another, to forgive one another, and to make peace with one another (setting aside the first Pauline occurrence of "one another" in Romans 1:27 of course). That's just in Paul's writing; and that's just when the actual words "one another" are used in the ESV. There are many more similar sentiments throughout the New Testament. The point is that the church was never meant to be a one-hour-a-week commitment where we purchase religious goods and services, and it was never intended to be a place to show off just how "Christian" you really are. Instead, it was to be a place where people live life alongside one another, where people live the teachings of Jesus in direct contradiction of the world system that would tell us personal pleasure and security are the most important things. The church is supposed to be a place that causes the world to do a double-take.

Again, I don't what Jon and Kate's church situation is like, but I imagine things might be different if they had a place to go where they could be real, where people would support them if they made the difficult choice to turn off the cameras (even if that meant foregoing the big paychecks), and where people would lend a hand so that their eight children could be cared for while they worked on their relationship problems.

But this kind of support can never happen when many local churches simply mirror the larger American culture. So, my simple plea is this: Can we get real... Please?

The Way

In the book of Acts, we read that the followers of Jesus who lived in Antioch were the first to be called "Christians" (Acts 11:26), and it appears that the label has stuck. Today, billions of people, hailing from just about every corner of the world, refer to themselves as Christians. But the book of Acts also uses another term to describe believers. In several places, they're called followers of "the Way" (19:9, 19:23, 22:4, 24:14, 24:22).

What's the difference? Well, initially, there wasn't much. "Christian" meant "little Christ." The label was intended as a way of mocking Jesus' followers by noting how they imitated him in word and deed. And, similarly, "the Way" was a designation of the path of true life and righteousness. Both terms were about lifestyle and action. Followers of Christ weren't considered peculiar, dangerous, or a threat to the status quo because of their beliefs, but because of what they did and said.

I just got back from a trip to Charlotte and Atlanta. I had to go to Charlotte to attend a class (Exegesis in the Elijah-Elisha Narratives if you really want to know), and I decided to tack on a few more days to my trip to visit my sister and her family just north of Atlanta. As I drove my rented Toyota Yaris down the familiar path from Charlotte to Atlanta, I was once again struck by the unique way of life in the Bible belt. The drive on I-85 is spotted with churches large and small. A sign for one had bright flames and warned that there are only two choices in life - heaven or hell. Another had a giant picture of a pastor with plastic-looking hair and freshly bleached teeth that seemed to say, "Come to my church. I promise to let you in on the secret of my bright and shiny smile."

I wonder if we'd still refer to the South as "the Bible belt" if the signs were gone and the steeples were no longer visible. There's a cheesy Christian T-shirt/bumper sticker that reads, "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" And as I drove down the highway, I thought about that question. Lots of people claim to be Christians; they wear the T-shirts, they have Jesus fish on their cars, they go to church, and they carry around giant, worn, leatherbound Bibles. And this isn't just found in the South; I pick on Dixie because the area seems to have been saturated with the American Christian subculture more than any other.

I was reading the book of James earlier. Whenever I read this letter, I am struck by the practical and convicting instructions I find. In fact, there is very little doctrine at all - at least not without being attached to ethical teaching. For someone trying to uncover what it means to live life as a Christian, the book of James draws stark lines between following the ways of the world and following the Way.

I think about my own life and the compromises I make every day. I think about the communities of faith of which I've been a part, and I wonder if anyone looking in ever thought we were following a truly different path in this life. I think about the personal and corporate decisions we make everyday regarding money and I think about James' words: "Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days" (James 5:3, ESV).

I admire folks like Shane Claiborne who have given up lots of potential comforts to identify with the poor. I think about friends who will soon travel half-way around the world to adopt a child (or two) from Africa to give him or her (or them) a better life in the suburbs of Connecticut. I wonder if I would do the same, but most of all I wonder if all the external ornaments were gone, would I be thought of as peculiar, as dangerous, as a follower of the Way?

Graduation Day

So, I've been a big slacker with this blog, partially because I've been really busy, but also because there are things I'd love to write about, but can't just yet. Still, it's June now, so I thought I would post a small update of sorts.

Today is graduation at CHS. I think I've got most of the wrinkles out of my robe. Since the class I taught was for grades 9-12, only two of my students are graduating. I keep thinking to myself, They don't know what they're in for. Life's going to change so much in the next few years. I hope they enjoy the ride. I still don't know for sure if I'll be teaching there next year. The Bible curriculum has not been finalized yet, so with the exception of the final exam period I need to proctor next Thursday, this might be the last time I'm at CHS as a teacher.

I have really enjoyed the experience. Sometimes a student or two can make you crazy. And this is why I think it took so long for society to force the retirement of "the paddle." I don't believe anyone ever really thought it was an effective form of discipline; it was really just a good stress-reliever for the teacher. Handing out a detention slip will never be that satisfying.

But I digress. Teaching the Bible is about so much more than inflicting pain on children. It's about sharing the story of redemption. And that was definitely my favorite part. Some people travel to distant lands and learn exotic languages to reach an obscure people group. I drove five minutes from work to teach for forty minutes a day, four days a week. I hope my students got as much out of it as I did.

One student, yesterday, as we were walking out of the classroom, said, "Thank you, Mr. Greco. You're a good teacher. I learned a lot." He didn't have to say that, and it was somewhat like something you'd hear in an after-school, made-for-TV movie about troubled kids from the wrong side of the tracks and the one teacher who wouldn't let them give up hope (aptly played by Meredith Baxter). Anyway, it was nice to hear that.

I do hope I get the opportunity to teach again. The experience of finishing out the year is like the first

time you got to play Super Mario Bros. When you first start out, you don't know that you can break bricks or that the turtle shells can be used as a weapon. You die a couple of times trying to get the hang of it. It's fun, so when the screen reads "GAME OVER," you just want to give it another shot; you know you can do better now.