two nights ago, our community did some advent reading/reflection. this is my favourite time of the year...probably because i'm drawn most strongly to the mystery of our faith at christmas. and to be honest, sometimes i need that 'drawing' feeling. at the end of the day...it's an incredible story.
some of you may practice advent, so this is 'old hat'. but some of you might be clueless when it comes to the age-old traditions of liturgical practice. note: all the 'tradition' stuff becomes clearer/simpler when you realize that the church has been doing what it does for two millennia. this path we walk is well-trodden.
which is why one thought on friday really struck me. advent is not about celebrating Christ's birth/coming; that feast/celebration formally starts on christmas eve. no...advent is not technically part of the celebration.
it's a time of remembering...a time of awakening to how much we NEED him to come.
have you ever stopped in the furious activity of the season to think and feel through how badly our world needs jesus? HE is what we need...
his infantile innocence
his bold and abrasive disdain for religiousity
his care for lost and broken ones
his selfless sacrifice
our businesses, our schools, our relationships.
our hearts.
we need Him.
what do you think?
sw
I have often thought about the consequences of truly encountering Jesus in the everyday. I know I often get distracted by the comings and goings and doings and beings...that I forget that He waits for me in even the most simplest of tasks. Christmas makes this come alive in my heart...Jesus, in the simplest of ways coming to me...pushing for me to realize what only He can give. Peace. Not only for me...but through me.
This becomes painfully apparent for me as I reflect on some of my current relationships. The final vision of the dream of the Church is that not only will all men and women recognise that they are brothers and sisters called to live in unity but all members of God's creation will come together in complete harmony. Jesus the Christ came to realise that vision. Long before he was born, the prophet Isaiah saw it:
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the panther lie down with the kid,
calf, lion and fat-stock beast together,
with a little boy to lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze,
their young will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like the ox.
The infant will play over the den of the adder;
the baby will put his hand into the viper's lair.
No hurt, no harm will be done
on all my holy mountain,
for the country will be full of knowledge of Yahweh
as the waters cover the sea.
(Isaiah 11:6-9)
I am reminded at Christmas that we must keep this vision alive. “I am doing my Christmas dreaming a little early this year” is the lyric, but I think I would rather sing, I am Being His Christmas dream, a little early, and prayerfully all year...
Thoughts?
j
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
NEW
This is a poem written by our friend Jackie. It captures the heart of a journey...
thoughts?
Life is calling out
In a language I’ve never heard
Words and cadence
That frighten and excite me
That stir and entice me
Calling
To listen
Silent rhythm
Beating to be still
Ears that don’t hear
The usual
Eyes that don’t look
For what’s seen
Skin that feels
Unfelt
And disease free
The sky speaks no lies
And the truth of beauty
I can’t deny
Vastness and abundance
Drown pettiness
Until I die
And something better comes alive
Connecting with this
Naturally perfect
So forgotten
And overlooked
Grows in desire
Until life is not lived
Unless here
In the place of
This peace
With the silent rhythm
Life calling me out
With fear and trembling
I embrace.
thoughts?
Life is calling out
In a language I’ve never heard
Words and cadence
That frighten and excite me
That stir and entice me
Calling
To listen
Silent rhythm
Beating to be still
Ears that don’t hear
The usual
Eyes that don’t look
For what’s seen
Skin that feels
Unfelt
And disease free
The sky speaks no lies
And the truth of beauty
I can’t deny
Vastness and abundance
Drown pettiness
Until I die
And something better comes alive
Connecting with this
Naturally perfect
So forgotten
And overlooked
Grows in desire
Until life is not lived
Unless here
In the place of
This peace
With the silent rhythm
Life calling me out
With fear and trembling
I embrace.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
rubbed raw
I just finished watching a documentary called "When Shall They Ask". My grandpa recommended it to me as it tells the story of the Mennonites in Russia during the early part of the 20th century. This is where my family comes from, better said, where they fled from.
Our family roots lie in religious persecution. My great grandfather and his sister fled the vicious Bolshevik outrage at anything that smelled like religion and prosperity...both of which were found in the Mennonite communities. Great-Grandpa Neufeld fled after watching his family massacred.
He never talked about what happened. Ever. Not to his wife. Not to his kids. Not to his friends. What we know has been pieced together for 90 years.
It has started me thinking about the cause of the unrest and revolution amongst the peasants in Russia. They were starving and the rich were getting richer. And someone saw the pain and anguish...and acted.
The old Marxist slogan was “Rub raw the sense of discontent”. It motivated a people who had given up life to "this is just the way it is" to acting towards change...acting at all costs. Note: *This is not something I am writing in support of Marxist ideology but rather a reflection on what motivates people to act with such passion that entire nations shift? Early Marxists knew how to create the environment of unrest, of revolution, of passionate movement.
How do we become provokers of this sense of discontent and so awaken a hunger to move hearts towards what could be?
Holy unrest.
Unsettling dissatisfaction.
Passionate inquest.
Insatiable desire.
What keeps us in the 'system' of what is? Fear.
Fear that we will not be loved.
Fear that we will be rejected.
Fear that we will be refused the relationships we so desperately want...and need.
Fear of being unpopular, of being criticized, of being seen as trouble.
And just a note: how many of us have been reading this in from the perspective of the church vs. the world?
We must look our discontentment, and that of so many of our brothers and sisters who have walked away from what we have called 'the church', in the face and rub it raw.
And maybe find some salt and rub it in the wounds...not in anger or rage or vengence or selfish frustration...but simply to bring truth to what seems overwhelmingly real. We have to stop settling for what is as though we are powerless and without hope. Love pushes us to ask hard questions...and pushes us to ask them in a way that honours Jesus.
Could lots of this come down to self preservation? I just don't want to risk me. I think the word is selfishness.
Think about it like this (to take a step away from the personal nature of trying to grapple with the church as it is):
Why do I (personally) do very little or nothing about the great injustices of our day?
Poverty
Abuse
Child Prostitution
Widows
Orphans
Disregard for our bodies, our planet, and our fellow man
Shall I continue?
"But what can I do?" Well now...that is the question. Maybe Jesus knows.
I am realizing in my own heart, that the hinge of my future is 'when will I live as though I had nothing left to loose'? Could it be that the future swings on the hinges of :When will I stop living for me...and live for Him, and those He loves.
Greater love has no man than this...
This is how they will know you are my disciples...
Love.
Maybe then...the ‘church’ we so highly criticize will be the place where miracles happen.
Thoughts?
j
good thoughts.
i think i've said this to you before...
several years ago i was wallowing in dark clouds of frustration/disillusionment with 'church'. surprise surprise. :)
i was sitting in a gathering that had nothing to do with any of that, and i sensed the Holy Spirit gently prod my mind: 'Scott, remember...YOU are the church.'
all of sudden, the source of my 'discontent' came clearly into focus. it was all clearly 'reflected' from what i projected as the 'church's shortcomings' back onto my own lack and inconsistency. i'd been projecting problems as the "organization's"...when most of them were part of a large log-jam hanging out of my own eye. the 'church' can't have issues without me having issues.
sometimes i wonder how to rub raw the spots where 'we' have fallen short...
because, if i'm not honest, i loose perspective on how it's not really about 'the church'...
And it comes down to me.
sw
Our family roots lie in religious persecution. My great grandfather and his sister fled the vicious Bolshevik outrage at anything that smelled like religion and prosperity...both of which were found in the Mennonite communities. Great-Grandpa Neufeld fled after watching his family massacred.
He never talked about what happened. Ever. Not to his wife. Not to his kids. Not to his friends. What we know has been pieced together for 90 years.
It has started me thinking about the cause of the unrest and revolution amongst the peasants in Russia. They were starving and the rich were getting richer. And someone saw the pain and anguish...and acted.
The old Marxist slogan was “Rub raw the sense of discontent”. It motivated a people who had given up life to "this is just the way it is" to acting towards change...acting at all costs. Note: *This is not something I am writing in support of Marxist ideology but rather a reflection on what motivates people to act with such passion that entire nations shift? Early Marxists knew how to create the environment of unrest, of revolution, of passionate movement.
How do we become provokers of this sense of discontent and so awaken a hunger to move hearts towards what could be?
Holy unrest.
Unsettling dissatisfaction.
Passionate inquest.
Insatiable desire.
What keeps us in the 'system' of what is? Fear.
Fear that we will not be loved.
Fear that we will be rejected.
Fear that we will be refused the relationships we so desperately want...and need.
Fear of being unpopular, of being criticized, of being seen as trouble.
And just a note: how many of us have been reading this in from the perspective of the church vs. the world?
We must look our discontentment, and that of so many of our brothers and sisters who have walked away from what we have called 'the church', in the face and rub it raw.
And maybe find some salt and rub it in the wounds...not in anger or rage or vengence or selfish frustration...but simply to bring truth to what seems overwhelmingly real. We have to stop settling for what is as though we are powerless and without hope. Love pushes us to ask hard questions...and pushes us to ask them in a way that honours Jesus.
Could lots of this come down to self preservation? I just don't want to risk me. I think the word is selfishness.
Think about it like this (to take a step away from the personal nature of trying to grapple with the church as it is):
Why do I (personally) do very little or nothing about the great injustices of our day?
Poverty
Abuse
Child Prostitution
Widows
Orphans
Disregard for our bodies, our planet, and our fellow man
Shall I continue?
"But what can I do?" Well now...that is the question. Maybe Jesus knows.
I am realizing in my own heart, that the hinge of my future is 'when will I live as though I had nothing left to loose'? Could it be that the future swings on the hinges of :When will I stop living for me...and live for Him, and those He loves.
Greater love has no man than this...
This is how they will know you are my disciples...
Love.
Maybe then...the ‘church’ we so highly criticize will be the place where miracles happen.
Thoughts?
j
good thoughts.
i think i've said this to you before...
several years ago i was wallowing in dark clouds of frustration/disillusionment with 'church'. surprise surprise. :)
i was sitting in a gathering that had nothing to do with any of that, and i sensed the Holy Spirit gently prod my mind: 'Scott, remember...YOU are the church.'
all of sudden, the source of my 'discontent' came clearly into focus. it was all clearly 'reflected' from what i projected as the 'church's shortcomings' back onto my own lack and inconsistency. i'd been projecting problems as the "organization's"...when most of them were part of a large log-jam hanging out of my own eye. the 'church' can't have issues without me having issues.
sometimes i wonder how to rub raw the spots where 'we' have fallen short...
because, if i'm not honest, i loose perspective on how it's not really about 'the church'...
And it comes down to me.
sw
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