Jeff Adams

Here it is folks — the mustache-free Jeff Adams. What do you think. This is the work of Sigi, a web designer in Germany who Photoshopped my photo. Thanks, Sigi. She thinks I look younger but less authoritative. Do I want to look authoritative?

Here it is the night before Easter and I am writing about mustaches! It’s a holiday weekend, so I guess a bit of levity is good. But, if you read Tina’s comments from yesterday’s post, what does this say about my readers? I can spill my heart about some deeply spiritual or intellectual theme and everyone is silent. I talk about food or mustaches and you people come out of the woodwork like cockroaches at night!!! Maybe I should write about food caught in mustaches and we would break all records! I love you all anyway.

I had a blast reading the comments from yesterday. J. Jonah Jamison even got a couple of votes in the Jeff Adams Look Alike Contest. I think I’ll keep the ‘stache for now. Unless, of course, I get an offer on the $10,000 donation to the campus expansion project. Or, as my dear daughter suggested, for $50,000 I’d shave the head, too! She also added Gomez Addams from the Addams family to the Look Alike Contest.

A final word of thanks to Amy for initiating this craziness.

I have learned it is dangerous and provocative to allow my dear readers to give too much input regarding the content of this blog. Amy Sides left a message on my FaceBook account suggesting a post on the joys of my mustache. She asked if I have ever shaved it off, or if I have a chilly upper lip. OK, Amy, fair questions.

My mustache was born in Central America many years ago when I would have been about 25 years old at the time. As I remember there was nothing chilly about my upper lip. We were living in Managua, Nicaragua at the time where the temperature sometimes got down to 100 degrees Fahrenheit by midnight and Hell was a local call. Maybe I thought a mustache would slow down the flow of sweat running down my face. I think I imagined that a mustache would make me look more grown up and mature and perhaps assist me in looking a bit more Latino and less Gringo.

No, I have never, ever shaved it off. It quickly became part of my persona. I can’t imagine myself without it. I’m afraid my dogs would not recognize me and bite me. Maybe my wife and daughters would not recognize me. I might not even recognize myself! That’s the most frightening part! Maybe I would consider shaving it off in exchange for a $10,000 donation to our campus fund. Do you think?

There was a time when I had no mustache. The world was simpler. Birds sang and children played in the streets. A few people picked up on my droopy eyes and said I looked bit like Elvis. (No jokes please).

One day I grew a mustache on a whim. My self-image changed. Dogs growled. I kept getting targeted for extra screening even before 9/11. Mothers clutched their babies tightly.

At least half a dozen security screeners have told me I look a bit like Tom Selleck. Others think I look like Saddam Hussein. Some say I look like “that guy.” I speak and some think I sound like Sean Connery. (Doesn’t he usually have a mustache?) One time a cop begged me to say, “Welcome to the Rock.”

A friend, Rick Johnson, had a mustache forever. Recently, he shaved it off. When I saw him, I thought I knew him but wasn’t sure. When I knew it was him, I wondered what was different. It took me a while to notice it was his mustache that was gone. He looks ten years younger. He dropped weight, too. Is the younger part the mustache or the weight? Maybe I should Photoshop my picture just for kicks.

So, what do you think? Keep it, shave it? Corn rows? Braids? Handlebars? Younger? Older? Goatee? No matter what you say, I probably wouldn’t have the guts to really do anything. … unless, of course, there was that $10,000 donation!

And, no, Amy, I do not decorate my mustache either for Christmas or Easter.

No, this is not political commentary. You know me better than that. I don’t do politics. I have political opinions just like anyone else; I just don’t let you know much about what they are. It doesn’t matter, but I do want to comment on something close to my heart that is connected to events of today.

Barack Obama made a critical speech yesterday in an attempt to calm the political storm caused by inflammatory remarks made by his pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright. I did not get to listen to Obama’s speech, but I could have confidently told you the reaction ahead of time. Some thought it was brilliant, as good or better than Martin Luther King’s “Dream” speech. Others thought he skirted the real issues, that he compromised without really resolving anything. I get the same reactions each and every Sunday morning!

I’ll be honest. I really like what little I see of Barack Obama as a person. He is smart, hip, cool, and one of the most eloquent and inspirational speakers you’ll ever hear. Not only that, he gives the impression he would be a heck of a lot of fun just to hang out with! I’m not sure I agree with all his political ideas. I’m not even sure I know enough about his political ideas to know whether I agree or not. Political campaigns aren’t really about ideas, are they?

As Mr. Obama attempted to explain the culture of African-American churches to those Americans not familiar with that culture, I sincerely find it sad that the man who pledged to move America past issues of race suddenly finds himself bogged down in a racial controversy. His bottom line conclusion seemed to be that we need to talk more about these issues.

There is no question that racial issues still exist in our nation. Are there people who are filled with hurt, hatred and bitterness? Of course there are. Should we talk about it? Sure. My question, though, is what should we do about it?

While some white folks like to speak glowingly of all the progress that has been made and how much better things are, their counterparts in the African-American community hold hard to the hurt and shame that no one else can understand. So, what do we do? Close our eyes to reality, smile and pretend the problems don’t exist? Just ignore the whole thing and hang around only with people who look and think like you? Live in hateful coexistence? Have another civil war, kill each other and whoever is left standing gets to make up the rules? Am I missing something here? Any more options?

What about the option of the Bible? Racial tension is nothing new. This is not even a black/white issue. It is a racial issue — the human race, and the fact tribal groups of humans have the propensity to suspect and hate other tribal groups of humans who are not like them.

Here’s what I find amazing. We read the Bible, all of us, red and yellow, black and white, and yet we don’t see one of the main emphases of the Bible that is right in front of our eyes. We see systematic theology, biblical prophecy, precious promises and personally appropriate application of biblical principle. Yet we fail to see or admit that a great part of the Bible is racially charged! I’ve not done an exact verse count, but I would wager that at least half the Bible deals with racial conflict. Let me lay out the racial Bible for you.

• In the beginning man was in a state of innocence. Sin soon entered the human race and people starting hating and killing each other. By Genesis 10 and 11 the human race had divided into 70 distinct groups of people. This was not the purpose of God’s plan.
• In the end of the Bible God shows us how it will look when his plan is accomplished.

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. Revelation 7:9

• The bulk of the Bible is about how the human race gets from the hatred and killing in the first part of the Bible to the great multitude of all ethnic, racial and lingual groups standing as one before God that we find in the final part of the Bible.
• The way this happens is that God become man in the person of Jesus Christ, dies for the sin of every human being, raises from the grave and makes it possible for every individual to experience new life from the inside out that totally transforms the way we see life, the world and those who share this existence with us.

Too simplistic? Think about it for a minute. Most of the Old Testament deals with conflict between different ethnic groups. The sons of Noah divided out into 70 tribes of people, and wars consumed the planet. Israel versus other groups of people occupies a major part of the Old Testament. Even the individual tribes of Israel had trouble getting on with each other. Check out the many conflicts between Israel and the Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, Hammites and all the other “ites.” There is Jonah the bigoted missionary and other such fine examples of humanity.

In the New Testament all four Gospels emphasize the multicultural ministry of Jesus and the prejudices that surfaced. Most people see the book of Romans as a great foundation of systematic theology. Few want to look at the bigger contextual picture and admit that Paul wrote Romans because as many as five distinct groups of believers in Rome from different backgrounds despised each other to the point of not being able to even take the Lord’s Supper together, all the while professing their faith in Christ. Acts, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians all share a common focus on the animosity, misunderstanding, stereotyping and other problems that existed between professing Christians who came from different racial, ethnic and lingual backgrounds.

Let’s talk, but I really think we need to take a closer look at the Bible no matter what our ethnic culture may be and see that biblical truth applies equally to us all. No matter what, as followers of Christ we have two great things in common: we are human and we are Christians.

This is what I find so precious and fascinating about what God has been doing in our church and mixing us up to look more like Revelation 7:9 than Genesis 10-11. That God would choose to do this in a Midwestern city noted for racial tension is very special. If we were in New York City, it would be because multiculturalism just happens in New York City. When it happens here it is only because God has done it.

We did not purpose to become a multicultural church. God just did it. Sometimes, I’m not even sure what all that means. I just love the way we look. When events like those of this week come along, it makes me realize even more just how important it is what God is doing.

Is it easy? No. Is it worth it? You bet it is!

Did you miss me the last couple of days? I try to put something up every day when possible, but the past few days have been difficult. I got home at midnight Saturday after my flight from Philadelphia was delayed. My Sundays start by arriving at the office around 7:00am. This Sunday, the running didn’t stop until late Sunday evening after the new member’s reception in our home — after making an appearance to speak to a mission prayer team, the youth league draft, visiting my father in the hospital, and teaching my Ezra class on leadership in the Shepherd School of ministry. Dad is doing much better by the way. Thanks for asking.

Monday was even busier. Today was only a bit less complicated. Add to the mix the fact that I am still trying to shake this coughing, wheezing hacking stuff that many of you have graciously shared with me, and I’m just not not feeling on top of the world. By the time I finish a couple of 14 to 15 hour workdays, I haven’t had much energy to do a post. Honestly, more than a lack of energy, my brain has been pure mush. So, that’s why you haven’t heard from me. I have some things whirling around in my head that I want to share, though. I just need another day or so to recuperate, and I appreciate your patience. Once I am thinking clearly, I might be able to express myself more coherently.

So, why do I need your help? Well, since I have no energy left tonight, maybe you would like to make a contribution yourself by leaving a comment. Maybe you have something profound to share with this blog’s vast, world wide audience. This is your big opportunity.  Or, maybe you would like to suggest something you would like for me to comment on in some future post. No promises, but all honest input sincerely appreciated.

See you tomorrow! Right now, I’m going to try and get some rest.

For whatever reason these past few days, I have posted some comments on stupid and dangerous games humans play. I was looking at John 5 this morning when it suddenly hit me that Jesus was not a game player. You probably already knew that, but this was a wonderful confirmation. People who are masterful game players irritate me. If I thought Jesus was a game player, I would have a hard time following him.

Jesus had just healed a man by the pool of Bethesda over by the sheep market in Jerusalem. For 38 years this man had been victimized by his infirmity, and Jesus healed him and set him free. Passing right by this amazing miracle, the Jewish leaders were infuriated because Jesus did this good work on the Sabbath. How dare he!

With my thoughts this week already on game playing, it occurred to me that if Jesus were just another man, he would have been a wonderful game player. Certainly he could have found some loophole in the law, some way to justify that what he did was really legal under the right circumstances or come up with some excuse that was perfectly plausible. None of that.

Instead, Jesus responded with a statement that was brilliantly simple, deeply profound and one that inflamed his enemies all the more. His response is also exceedingly difficult for those of us in contemporary Western culture to understand. Here is his response.

But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. John 5:17

Say what?

In ancient times, and until relatively quite recently, a son usually ended up doing exactly what his father had done, and his father before him. If your father was a cobbler, chances are you ended up a cobbler, too. If your father was a goat herder, you were going to spend your life herding goats as well. A man’s identity was intricately and totally absorbed in his family identity.

So, Jesus was not going to play theological games with these Jewish legalists, even though he no doubt could have. In the temple for his bar mitzvah at age twelve, Jesus astounded the learned doctors of the Law with his understanding. No. All Jesus did was claim to be the son of his father.

In essence Jesus was saying that God does not take the Sabbath off. He never stops being God. He never relinquishes his supernatural power. So, how could Jesus do anything different? He was merely following in the footsteps of his father and doing whatever his father did.

Don’t think for a minute that this was lost on these men who hated Jesus so. They immediately grasped the point.

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. John 5:18

They got the main point, but they misunderstood badly all that went with it. They were so convinced of their monotheism, that God is One, they thought Jesus was claiming to be another god. This is the same mistake Muslims make to this very day when they hear the phrase “Son of God” in association with Jesus. To them it sounds blasphemous, suggesting that God had sex with Mary and Jesus was the result. That would be blasphemous if that was what he was saying. It was not. He was claiming something even more. He was claiming perfect union, perfect oneness with the Father. This is the message of biblical Christianity.

This is one of Jesus’ great confessions of equality with the Father. This may be a bit too heavy for some to understand, but I am at least pleased to see that Jesus is not a game player like most of us.