a christmas hmmm

This is incredible. My mom forwarded this to me...and I was moved to say the least. What are your thoughts?

Buy nothing for Christmas

December 5th, 2009
This is something different. It’s similar to the Advent Conspiracy, but I like it because it’s Canadian! What can I say?! I’ve been ecouraged by some of the Canadian sites popping up these days (makes me feel less alone in cyber land lol). Anyhow, my cousin sent to me via facebook. I was looking into it and thought it was interesting. What are your thoughts on it?

Buy Nothing Christmas is a national initiative started by Canadian Mennonites who offer a prophetic “no” to the patterns of over-consumption of middle-class North Americans. They are inviting Christians (and others) all over Canada to join a movement to de-commercialize Christmas and re-design a Christian lifestyle that is richer in meaning, smaller in impact upon the earth, and greater in giving to people less-privileged.

This is an Advent calendar that has a bite to it. On each day of December leading up to Christmas, count the appropriate privilege/blessing and pay the fine. Send the money to a group that fights poverty.

1. 10 ¢ for every hot water tap in your house
2. 75 ¢ for every vehicle your family owns
3. 5 ¢ for every pair of jeans you own
4. 25 ¢ if your family subscribes to the newspaper
5. 5 ¢ for every bed in your house
6. 3 ¢ for every /beauty makeup item you own
7. 3 ¢ for every pair of footwear
8. 3 ¢ for every light switch in your house
9. 20 ¢ for every tub/shower
10. 10 ¢ for every flush toilet
11. 2 ¢ for every bar/dispenser of soap
12. 15 ¢ if you have dishes to eat off of
13. 15 ¢ if you have cooking pots in your cupboards
14. 5 ¢ for every window in your house
15. 10 ¢ for every outside door
16. 20 ¢ for every television in your house
17. 5 ¢ for every magazine subscription
18. 25 ¢ if your family has more than 25 CD’s (music or video)
19. 5 ¢ for every meal you had meat with this past week
20. 10 ¢ for every non-water beverage you drank yesterday
21. 25 ¢ if you have a snow blower or a gas/electric lawn mower
22. 3 ¢ for every item of hair care stuff
23. 15 ¢ for every bedroom in your house
24. 5 ¢ for every blanket in your house
25. 15 ¢ for every gift you received this Christmas

From http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/

check out their catalogue: http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/catalogue/index.html It’s pretty neat! If nothing else, it sure makes me thankful and feel truly blessed for all that we have!

Jesus' Table...

Have you ever thought about Jesus’ first public expression of who He was to the people of Israel? Me being a ‘why’ person and all...chuckle:

Why a wedding?
Why that miracle?
Why the vagueness of purpose?

It is fascinating that the introduction of the Good News would begin to unfold at a wedding. Tracer is a photographer...and her life is weddings. And there is one thing that has struck me as I have looked through the hundreds of pictures she has taken.


A wedding is a microcosm of a life. It paints us a picture of life as it was, is and could be. Even today, amidst the dismal divorce and disaster rate, it is a clear expression of the hope of what is and could be! It is an expression of Love. Life. Community. Family. Faith, or lack of it.
A wedding has all the pieces of life. The misfits. The beautiful. The dysfunction. The joy of love. The old and young. The newly wed and maybe the nearly dead.

It’s here, in a celebration of one of the our basic human rituals that Jesus begins to reveal Himself. As if to say, ‘this is what I'm all about: All of life...every speck of it. This is where I want you to live life...and give life.’

This passion that Jesus had for feasting, for celebrating, for welcoming the unwelcomed, for being thrusting himself into the middle of the reality of our humanness weaves its way throughout the gospels. It is in these very settings that Jesus' followers would learn that missional may not be some arduous journey to a far off foreign land...that perhaps the longest journey maybe just sitting across the table of a stranger or a neighbour; the sick or those how seemingly have no need; the poor, and the oppressed or our families.

Whom you eat with defines whom you won't eat with. With Jesus it never appears to be a ‘social’ program...it is radical, scandalous, outrageous...it's the Kingdom. It is the servant returning to his master's table with unopened invitations and list of excuses, and the master sending him out again. This time the servant heads to back alleys filled with syringes, skid row hotels, park benches, under bridges...any where, so his masters table will be filled to overflowing. All are welcomed and all are invited. Here at this open table, we discover the world upside down...where suddenly the host is the guest, and the guest the host. Where the host is blessed more than the guest. Jesus entered into the other's world, and let them invite his followers as their house guests. In that way grace, life, healing, restoration could be poured back and forth. Wow. Does my heart ring with that.

Another story of outrageous food and faith is the feeding of the 5000. This table is not constructed of wood and four legs...it is ‘He’ standing on a hillside with 5 small barley loaves, and 2 fish, raising arms giving thanks and blessing. Two miracles here, one that 5000 people were fed...and the second, that 5000 people shared this table. There is the outrageous reality that in faith, that we often find surplus when we welcome those from outside our boundaries and borders to share what is ours.

These stories could be the reality of what this ‘missional’ conversation is really all about. It is sacramental living. Not as a ritual, but as the redemptive imagination that is spiritual truth. It is sad, in a sense, that we have ritualized the bread and wine. This ritual of who's in and who's not...who's welcome and who's not. I wonder if Jesus imagined it to be that. Jesus’ table, the meals of bread and fish always reflected the Kingdom...surplus, and food that fed the poor. Jesus’ table always reflected the truth of the Kingdom, the truth of what missional should be about...redemption, restoration, justice, community...the reordering of a new creation.

And how can we forget the table stories after Jesus' resurrection. Jesus cooking fish on a charcoal fire on the beach. The ultimate picture of failure in the disciples having gone back to their old jobs fishing on the lake and being plumb out of luck. Jesus calls out from the shore, telling them to drop their nets on the other side of the boat. They haul in an incredible draft of fish. Peter seeing his friend/messiah, wades through the water to shore. On the beach Jesus invites, welcomes, and cooks fish for his friends on an open fire. He turns to Peter and says, ‘feed....’ And I'm not talking just feeding food, a meal in the soup kitchen, I'm talking about feeding them the incarnational reality of the life of Jesus. In other words go and invite and celebrate.

To live in the neighbourhood of Jesus...is to live and believe that all the world is welcome...to go and to come. If the world is welcome to Jesus, if my neighbour is welcome to Jesus, then every living moment is a door of hope into which ‘other’s’ are welcome.

I love this quote that I heard from Ed Stetzer a couple of years ago, ‘it's possible to be a missionary without ever leaving your zip code.’ Missional is being dispersed in the midst of humanity. Jesus’ mission started with leading of the Holy Spirit. He sends us into the world under the leading of the same Spirit. To bear witness, to build, to expand His Kingdom ...to redeem, restore, to feed, and to heal.

re-positioned

The gospel spreads best not through force but through fascination. Jesus doesn't insist on who he is or isn't. When people asked Jesus, ‘Are you the Messiah?’ he would answer by asking. ‘Tell me what you see, what you hear.’

I can’t remember where I read that...but it has been percolating for a while....

Jesus never answered a whole lot of questions in the gospels. Jesus was asked 183 direct questions in the New Testament.

Do you know how many he directly answered? 3.

What a frustrating insight to ‘we’ who have grown up assuming that the very job description of a ‘Christian’ is to give people answers and to resolve peoples' dilemmas. Apparently this is not Jesus' understanding of the function of a ‘follower’.

I think Jesus' parables were designed to be re-positioners. As he illustrates, and probes, and articulates...He corners us and makes us own our unconscious biases, breaks us out of our dualistic mindsets, challenges our image of who we are, who He is in God and who the world is, ..and all the while He presents new creative possibilities.

I think, as I sift through the life of Jesus...even Jesus doesn’t usually wait for or expect specific answers.

His reality is an awakening of redemptive imagination.
His heart is relationship.
He fascinates us with the beauty and reality of the Kingdom; a reality that is captured by infinite hope and new possibilities.

For me, the parables of Jesus are a microcosm of His passion interacting with the truth of who we are. They reveal Jesus’ priorities in ‘evangelizing’. I think a better way to describe these ‘interactions’ would be conversations of fascination.

Jesus’ conversations were filled with purpose. It seems He constantly asks questions.
Good questions.
Unnerving questions.
Re-aligning questions.
Transforming questions.

He leads us into a liminal reality; a space that has the potential for deep transformation.
He leaves us betwixt and between, where God and grace can get at us, and where we are not at all in control.

Have we shaped Jesus into simply a systematic theologian who walked around teaching dogmas...and in the process lost some of the essence of the journey of the Great Pilgrim?
Have we forgotten that He is the engaging transformer of the soul? That it is His divine imagination excites and produces the flame of passion?

Could it be that the conundrum of the church began when we started looking for easy answers...instead of asking hard questions?

How many of us are laying in the ditch beside the tracks because we have pursued others in order to save them...rather than submitting to the journey of brokenness that allows Him to change us and in the process redeem the world?

a moving thought...

'it doesn't happen all at once,' said the skin horse. 'you become. it takes a long time ... generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. but these things don't matter at all, because once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.' ~ the velveteen rabbit, m. williams

when it's cold outside...

read the following excerpt in Brennan Manning's book, 'The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus', recently:
One hundred years ago in the Deep South, the phrase 'born again' was seldom used. Rather, the words used to describe the breakthrough into a personal relationship with Jesus were, 'I was seized by the power of a great affection.'
have been spending time thinking about my own relationship with Jesus, and whether i would characterize it with similar words. i find it curious that such mystical and deeply emotive language has been lost for so many of us. the common language of being 'born again' isn't entirely wrong or offensive, but in some ways it implies the not-so-practical notion that one's conversion results in an immediate alteration of who we are. theologically, i think our conversion choice does immediately realign us with God's redemptive mercy. but salvation really is more than just being born; it's a lot like growing up.
and maybe that's why i like the idea of being 'seized' by a 'great (and transformative) affection'...because it implies His inherent work in me despite my best efforts to screw it up...in spite of my consistent languishing and immaturity.
all this brings john wesley's language to mind...how he found his heart 'strangely warmed' when encountering jesus' powerful grace. and today, when it's cold and rainy outside, this is what i seek. i long for the mystery of His love to centre me...to seize me...to warm the cold and inflexible parts of my heart.
i want to trust His mercy more than my own efforts.

proof in the pudding?

some friends of mine are moving into toronto to plant a community of faith in the next couple years. they are currently doing some training in detroit, and regularly keep their friends/family updated through a blog (www.luvisaverb.com). recently, tim asked for comments on what markers a true follower of jesus can be identified by...which is something i thought we could 'converse' about.

here is a non-exhaustive list of some things i thought of:

-marked by an ability to love (John 13:35), manifesting the proof of Christ's Spirit working in their lives (Gal. 5)
-marked by tenderness and perseverance when facing adversity (James 1)
-marked by the practice of hospitality...both opening one's home, and comfortably being in the homes of others
-marked by an overarching sense of integrity...i heard it said once that the most 'mature' followers are those with the smallest gap between their knowledge and their actions...which means you don't have to have been following very long to be 'mature'
-marked by an increasing desire to see Jesus glorified in places where he is not...a longing to participate in the coming of Christ's kingdom that we pray for (Mt. 6:10)

a thought...

I saw this picture the other day.
Bono, blind folded, with the font of religious symbols and broken letters that speaks something far louder than any lyric or music.
On the site I found it, many posted comments of shock, horror, and judgement...not only was it a grammatical error in word structure...something had been put together that was, well, just humanly impossible.
It shocked all religious sensibility...and our unreal religious world view.

A couple thoughts...
The high school I attended did not have the question of faith really. We wrestled with theological dogma, the most serious of which was were you Penticostal or did you believe in eternal security.
There was little or no chance that we would be friends with someone with Islamic, Jewish or any other faith.

A generation later, my children have friends who are Islamic, Jewish, Shinto and the list goes on. We live undeniably in a world where ‘faiths’ are constantly intersecting. Interestingly enough, in this mosaic culture of faiths, there doesn't seem to be much dialog and conversation. We hunker down in our fox holes of fear and judgment, content with the isolation of our own traditions and stories. This is true in regards to how we approach other faith traditions, but I notice that it is often true of how we approach other traditions within our own faith. You know what I mean...Baptist vs. Penticostal vs. United Church vs. Alliance...

And maybe the more disturbing reality is that representative voices of faith tend to be the extremes. By their volume and actions they are usually seen and heard. Its the loud bully in the playground that is usually heard above everything else. He's usually what we remember, and fear...and want no part of. The reality is that the bully is only one voice. There are voices of humility, mercy, compassion, reconciliation...from all sides.

What does it look like(or feel like) to journey in love with people who do not share our 'faith' or faith perspective?
What does it mean to stay true to Jesus...and yet love others who are searching for Him...and maybe don't even know it?

thoughts?

a convo...

I have been reading much

listening much

reflecting much

And trying to digest all that I see, feel, and sense.

I have decided that I want to start writing some reflections and invite you to chew a little bit with us.

On what you ask?

I would like to wrestle with who Jesus is...and His reality versus what we have made Him personally...and corporately.

Still there?

Here is my initial thought:

Creating new structures in the Church is not our primary calling. Creating new programs, new orders of service, new strategic plans, or even having new visions or dreams are not our primary calling.
Our first calling is to belong to Jesus as Savior, Lord, Lover and Friend...and to continually find our lives nourished, enflamed, envigoured and satisfied at the well of His life. It is there that the call to partner with Him as He redemptively, compassionately and intentionally calls a lost and broken world towards Himself becomes life giving instead of guilt laying. It is in this place that we dream dreams and have visions that are motivated by love and not our need for significance.

To understand this is to allow the Christian disciplines to become places of life and not law...for how do we fulfill the command to love, except that we learn it of Jesus, and how do we learn it of Him, except that we pray, and live under His word and love His world?

I find myself asking the question often, “Would I rather be with people or with Jesus?” And unfortunately I often leave the question unanswered because it is painfully obvious.

I have lived lots of my life surrounded by books and people whose thrust has to do with ‘doing’ something significant for God. When I reflect, busyness often put me in good company...but stole the opportunity to connect easily with others because of our busyness and our collective shallowness. Religious nattering, including my own, wore me to the bone.

As I feel through this today, I find myself yearning for a ‘gray hair’ who knows and loves God, who would show me the way...the thought of which fills my heart.
How often have I exhorted, often prophetically, people to take full advantage of a liminal moment in their life and listen, listen, listen.

But what have I spent so much of my life doing? Plugging my ears and barrelling ahead hoping that my house of cards doesn’t collapse before I do.

Today I find myself longing to live a life that calls others back to where we belong and yet forget. In His embrace. Without a task list. Just an overwhelming awareness of, as Brennan Manning puts it, the furious longing of God.

Let me leave you with a poem I found...

Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness.
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered; involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered…

paradox… we wait and we long and this is good..
we strive and move.. this is also good..
if only we take the stillness with us as we go..

Thoughts?

Slavery

Thoughts...

I don’t know about you...but before about 6 months ago...i didn’t think about slavery very often. How often do you think about slavery? How often to do you think about it in terms of an issue that we must wrestle with today? Let me talk to you a little about the internal Pandora's box I have opened...
People trafficking is one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time. Millions of people around the world suffer in silence in slave-like conditions of forced labour and sexual exploitation.
In the West, slavery has been outlawed since the early 1800s. But the modern scourge of human trafficking is no less a form of slavery than the one endured by Africans and others at the hands of wealthy merchants and landowners two hundred years ago.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing areas of international crime - and, sadly, one of the most lucrative. Worldwide, people traffickers will make between seven and nine billion dollars every year, with very little outlay at all.
In fact, some crime syndicates are now switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, because the potential profits are higher.

According to the UN, there may be as many as four million people trafficked every year, 70 percent of them female and 50 percent children. Both groups are targeted mainly for pornography and prostitution. Yet it's difficult to be precise about the true scale of the problem and teenage boys and men are sometimes victims, too, being trafficked into forced labour.
There are more than 28 million slaves world wide. Perspective? There are more slaves today, by percentage to the worlds population, than at any other time in history.

Victims of people trafficking normally come from developing countries, but trafficking is also a problem for nations like the Canada and the US, where, according to the Justice Dept, as many as 250,000 American/Canadian children may be at risk of being trafficked into the sex industry within our own countries.
The Council of Europe has identified people trafficking as a major problem in Europe, too. It says that trafficking has hit "unprecedented levels" and acknowledges that it really is "a new form of slavery".

Human trafficking seems to flourish in societies that are going through, or have just come out of, long periods of conflict. For example, during the Kosovo conflict, women and girls were often kidnapped by armed gangs or enticed away from refugee camps. Today, the former Yugoslavia has become a primary trafficking destination and an important transit point for European trafficking.
Trafficking also increases when poor countries share borders with richer neighbours. Poor people look at the opportunities over the border and are easily lured by false promises of a richer life on the other side.

What can be done about the stain and horror of international human trafficking?

Some people might argue that since slavery has long been a part of human history, there's not much we can do about it. But we can't afford to be complacent or defeatist in our attitude. Either we shape the future of our world, or someone else's vision of that future will reshape us.

Some global thoughts first.
Governments NEED to maintain humane and sensible immigration policies.

Some people have tried to use trafficking as an excuse for closing borders altogether. But people will always want to migrate, especially if there are better opportunities abroad, and immigration brings many benefits. Denying people access through safe, legal channels only makes it more likely that they will fall for the false promises of the traffickers.

Governments also NEED to courageously tackle the problem of prostitution.
In 1999, the Swedish government made laws prohibiting the purchase of a sexual service, with the penalty of fines or imprisonment.
Since then, there has been a significant drop in the number of women in prostitution and a reduction in the number of men who try to buy their services. The fall in demand has also reduced the number of foreign women who are trafficked into prostitution.
Some governments NEED to reassess how they treat people who've already been trafficked into their nations. It's one thing to free a victim, but then they need to be re-educated, re-housed and basically given a whole new start, one without discrimination or legal hassles.

More Personal thoughts...

We NEED to begin to grapple with how trafficking is linked to economic reform and development programmes. Tragically, there are lots of cases where the sex trade has served foreign aid workers and even peacekeepers.

And we need more research into the factors that fuel the demand for people trafficking -- including the links between migration policies and the demand for cheap labour.

It took more than a generation for William Wilberforce and his colleagues to bring in laws banning slave-trade in the British domain. But their persistence - and their faith - paid off.
Ours is arguably a much more complex world and organized crime is the dark underbelly of globalization. But at ground level, in vulnerable areas, there are still things we can do to guard people -- especially the young -- against trafficking.

There are anti-trafficking charities that community groups can connect with. Some educate children in vulnerable areas, developing skills that will help them to avoid being trafficked. Others work to encourage children to stay in school longer, while create local jobs for when they leave school.

We NEED to be morality driven even in our necessary consumption. Meaning? Where you shop and what you buy has slave trade implications. Do we shop at stores that use Fair Trade goods? These products are traffick-free and buying them helps people to lift themselves out of poverty, making them less vulnerable, as opposed to purchasing and using goods that have used child labour and the slave trade to build their economic prowess.

We NEED volunteer more. For example, choosing to work in one of the projects that helps people find their way out of prostitution. We can donate to support a safe house for trafficking victims.

We NEED to write to local MPs on the issue, to keep the issue front and centre in political terms. Check out the following websites regarding how you can be involved:
www.freetheslaves.net
www.catwinternational.org/factbook/Canada.php
www.savethechildren.ca

EDUCATE YOURSELF. How often do we read stuff that turns our stomachs? How often do we choose to learn or push our way into understanding the dark underbelly of our world? What good is the light if it refuses to be used in darkness? If you would like a list of books that you could read, email me...i have many on this issue.
Finally, we can talk up the whole issue of people trafficking, through letters to local newspapers and the like - and even just in conversation with friends. John Pollock, in his biography of William Wilberforce, wrote that: 'One man can change his times, but he cannot do it alone.'

Like Wilberforce and his abolitionists, we must once again do whatever we can to end a vile trade, by standing for those who cannot stand for themselves...and standing alongside people and organizations who are giving their lives for others freedom.

I wanna change the world.
J

my name is don quixote

dar and i went to a show yesterday in rosebud, ab (http://www.rosebudtheatre.com/)...as part of our sixth anniversary (yeah baby!!!). as a sidenote/commercial, next time you're 'in the area', be sure to drop into the rosebud valley...i've never left the theatre here without being moved.
the premiere summer production here is 'man of la mancha', or the story of don quixote. its chief character is a man on a quest...searching (despite the dissuading of others) for meaning...dreaming (at the risk of sanity) of life's true meaning. good stuff. the title song is one that we come across with some regularity in our culture (youtube it)... "to dream the impossible dream". here are some of the lyrics...

to dream the impossible dream,
to fight the unbeatable foe,
to bear with unbearable sorrow,
to run where the brave dare not go;
to right the unrightable wrong.

to love, pure and chaste, from afar,
to try, when your arms are too weary,
to reach the unreachable star!

this is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right,
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!

it's crazy how theology can jump out of the margins in our lives...how meaning can arrest us when we least expect it. watching the characters and hearing the music yesterday, i was deeply moved by how our journey of faith should be marked by 'questing'. i found myself in that darkened theatre overwhelmed by the cry of a 'faith-filled' life...the beckoning voice of god luring my wandering heart to pursue life's dream. i heard a curious resemblance to jesus' teaching, and his invitation to be a seeker/finder of men whose hearts have lost their ability to hope. this is my quest.
any thoughts on questing? on how our faith looks less like a journey and more like a 'stay-cation'? on jesus' call to dream?

What I DO believe...at least some of it...

A number of conversations, real and virtual, have recently gotten me thinking through about "how far" should we go in a process of deconstruction. When we start process of dismantling previously held
convictions...you know what I mean, asking questions and wrestling with answers...it is painful and difficult. But when is the tipping point reached when it becomes easy and pain-free to be forever dismantling.

I want to guard against a glib iconoclasm(literally ‘image-breaking’): where the "old" and the "previous" is immediately disposable and somehow of no value. The great danger that we end up facing is that it can be satisfying to debunk narrowness and cultural exclusivity. That satisfaction that leaves us with our own new barriers and orthodoxy.

I think that with the wrestle of deconstruction there has to be a commitment to the elements of construction...of building.

So, as a corrective to constant affirmation of what I do NOT believe, here are a few provocations to ponder that might balance and present what I DO believe. This is not exhaustive...but off the top of my head thoughts, that may not be very well thought thru...chuckle....:

• The Christian faith is not just a matter of creeds and system of belief (it is way of life - worship, community, daily witness, a holy lifestyle etc etc)...BUT unless we can talk about the historic Jesus and connect our story with the life of the church through the ages, then we end up building a new "religion" (devising our own creeds, however palatable and "humane" they may seem) which is human-centered rather than God-centered.

• The church needs to be a place of safety, inclusion and welcome, NOT a place of judgment and exclusion...BUT unless we give and accept permission to each others pain, we cannot call each other to a life that truly reflects the reality of Jesus the risen Christ...and we will end up lost in our own brokenness.

• The church is a place of equality where the least is the greatest NOT a place of patriarchy and hierarchy...BUT unless we can model godly leadership and authority, we are denying the transformative effects of the gospel on the structures of human society.

• Teaching is just one of many gifts given to the church and should NOT be an opportunity for elitist (‘I am better than you’) monologues that are detached from the lives of real people living and working in a real world...BUT unless we build relevant means of discipling ‘Jesus followers’ in scripture and tradition, we will be left wallowing in the self-satisfaction of our own knowledge rather than sharing it with others and passing it on to future generations.

• Followers of Christ are NOT just adherents to a religious lifestyle that expresses itself with vehement arguments against the cultural and/or religious issues of our day...BUT they are people whose imaginations have been captured by the power of Jesus to hope in the greatest darkness. They are a people who ask the greater more personal questions of:

What does Jesus think about our consumptive lifestyles?
What does Jesus think about the enviromental crisis?
How would Jesus respond to the ever lowering standards of television?
What would Jesus’ response be to reality of our economic position in the world and the presence of poverty and injustice?
How would Jesus respond to the sexuality of our age?
What would Jesus’ comments be regarding the shallowness of so many of our relationships...and that we hide who we are behind the masks of addictive lifestyles?
...to name a few....

• Worship is NOT just a time to be joyful and proclaim personal truths but a space to come together in shared lament, protest, struggle and mystery...BUT if we lose celebration and the expectation of God joining with us by His Holy Spirit, we lose the source and energy for any gift that we may think the church has to offer the world.

• God is God and we dare NOT feel that we can package and own all the truth about who God is BUT we do know something and unless we own the story we are in danger of falling into the worship of someone or something else, (our spiritual search and journey is really about unmasking that which what we hold as most dear...its His kindness that draws us to Himself...and its His kindness that unmasks our true ‘affections’...and leads us to repentance – the great affection transfer).

embedded slivers

Just rambling unedited thoughts.

I was thinking this morning about life. Do you ever feel like it never plays out like you expect? You know what I mean. You are planning, preparing, expecting life to play out as it should and then BAM. Its like a bomb has gone off in a small space. And the splinters of your dreams are buried deep in your skin and in awkward places.

You too? Well then walk with me for a bit then as we chat.... When was the last time you looked at a diamond? In a catalog. A store window. Your mom's wedding ring. Or an earring.

How would you describe it?
Beautiful?
Strong?
Rare?
Wonderful?
Valuable?
Brilliant?
Shining?

How about tested by fire?

Do you know what diamonds are? They are precious minerals made of carbon. Deep within the earth's crust, these minerals work their way up toward the earth's surface when gases and heat combine. Through phenomenal heat and pressure, diamonds are born.

It's only after they are tested by fire that they become so beautiful.

In the New Testament, in the book of Romans 5:3-5 it says,
This doesn't mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys - we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. These very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop mature character, and a character of this sort produces steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us. Already we have the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.

Now here is the thought...Have you ever felt pressured as if you were being squeezed from all sides?
Have you ever had a day that was so tough you felt as if you would be crushed?
Have you ever sat in a puddle of tears, raging against life, because it just seems that the pain is too much?
Have you have just said, ‘screw it. I can’t do this any more’?
Have you ever felt as though you were being tested by fire?

And then you read or hear some idiot say 'turn your lemons into lemonade' or 'whatever doesnt kill you will only make you stronger'.

How do YOU deal with the darkness of life? Do you hide? Drink? Eat? Shop? Avoid? Work? ...the list is long, cuz we have all found ways to cope.

Have you ever tried this thing call rejoicing? Actually choosing to be thankful? I know its a stretch...but in the middle of the pain, suffering and hard times, finding a way to express love?

I hear the voice of the Lord Jesus beckoning me, "Try it...just try rejoicing...you will grow brighter and stronger if you do!"

Why? cuz you...I...We are God's diamonds.

Yes. You.

God polishes you with His love, grace and mercy. And the pressure...the struggle...the trial...the resistance makes you stronger...they make you grow. They call you (or maybe force you) out of the dark, dirty, lonely places where you are left as a piece of coal.

The great question of course is, 'Is God doing this to me?' I will venture out on a limb and say NO. Life is hard. And unfair. And cruel at times. But it is only the precious love of Jesus that is able to take the worst that life throws at us and turn it into something redemptively beautiful.

Henri J. M. Nouwen writes,
In this crazy world, there's an enormous distinction between good times and bad, between sorrow and joy. But in the eyes of God, they're never separated. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom.

See with new eyes today. Because the Father of Lights, from whom everything good comes down from, is looking at you...and me...and saying:

You are rare.
You are strong.
You are brilliant.
You are valuable.
You are wonderful.
You are loved.
You shine.
You are beautiful.
Did you catch that? YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
If you will allow Me, I will use ALL things for your good...and you will shine forth, brilliantly reflecting My light.
You are chosen.

Can you feel Him rejoicing over you?
I can.

Needing Him,
j

Emmaus

I love the story of the two the disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32).
Two men are walking on a road from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus.
Two days after the Crucifixion.
As Frederick Buechner says of these two, “There was nothing left to do that Sunday but get out of town.”

That Sunday? It is not hard to imagine the gamut of emotion they struggle with as they walked a dusty road. All the hopes and dreams that came with following Jesus. Watching Him heal and set free. Hearing Him speak to thousands, yet know He is speaking directly to you. The thoughts. The emotions. The tears.

So they went to Emmaus. And where was Emmaus and why did they go there? Emmaus was a place of short-lived military victory for the Jewish people of Jesus’ day. Judas Maccabee won a battle there in 166 B.C. BUT it was no place in particular really, other than it was some seven miles distant from a situation that had become unbearable.

I have walked that road with them. Emmaus can be a renting a flick just for the sake of seeing a movie or to a pub just for the sake of the beer. Emmaus may be the mall, with its many ‘treasures’ or a new car or eating more candy than you really should or more food than you want, or reading a second-rate novel or even writing one. Emmaus may even be going to church on Sunday. Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred, and numb the pain that echoes off the piles of broken dreams that mark all of our lives.

Maybe those two men went (fled is probably a better word) to Emmaus to try and forget about Jesus and the great “failure” of his life.

Sometimes we focus so hard on success, particularly spiritual success, that most of us do not know the first thing about what to do with failure.

But tonight as I sit here contemplating...and trying to feel through what it would have felt like to watch all I had to live for bleed and suffer on the top of a mountain, nailed to two pieces of wood...

I realize that the first mood of Easter was despair. By every account Jesus had failed, and these two men did what I know I have done at times in my life. Leave. Flee. Avoid. Run. Move on...and move on fast.

The story continues with a stranger joining the men on their walk. We, as readers, are told it is Jesus, but the two men walk all the way to Emmaus and still don’t recognize Him. Even though He does what they have seen Him do hundreds of times...He reframes who He is and who they thought He would be. But they don’t get it...until they reach Emmaus. They sit down to eat after Jesus breaks the bread and blesses it, the lights come on. They recognize him. And as soon as they do, he disappears.

Strange story.

All the stories about how Jesus appeared to people after his death are strange and maybe the strangest thing about them is how normal they are. How little fanfare there is attached to them.

I think I connect with this story because of where it happens: Emmaus.

The place of escape. I find it profoundly moving to realize that on my road to Emmaus, He has been walking with me, challenging me, pushing me, arguing with me, pulling me, engaging my heart, and reframing who He is and how He loves. And I am deeply moved to realize that I have often not recognized Him because of my own selfish anger. Anger directed at a world that has obviously been created to thwart ME and MY dreams. Anger that covers my pain because I do not understand the ways of Jesus and will never understand why He doesn’t DO SOMETHING.

Martin Luther said once, "If I were God, I'd kick the world to pieces." I know that feeling.

And so, I slow down to drink a coffee and allow my heart to still. I watch the sun rise, or set. I listen to the wind in the trees. I reflect on who I am and who I long to be. And the lights come on.

Jesus keeps re-entering my world in grace to help me realize that His heart is big enough. He pushes towards me, as He pushes towards all of us...with grace, and peace and hope. He meets us where grace and suffering intersect. On the road to Emmaus.

We all have an Emmaus in our lives...My prayer is that you would have eyes to see and ears to hear so that you may meet with Him there, cuz He is probably already there.

J

At the foot of the Cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me Your Love
Through the judgment You received

And You've won my heart
Yes You've won my heart

Now I can

Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross

At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death You bore for me

I'm laying every burden down
I'm laying every burden down
At the foot of the cross.
Kathryn Scott

Holy Saturday

Was just reading some thoughts of Henri Nouwen's this morning...which is never a good idea if one wants to remain the same. :)

He reminds me to be quiet today...to rest...to lay silent and still. why? Because today is the day in which God's voice was silent...the living Word lying cold and broken in a tomb.

I'm struck by how little of this season's rhythm i've grown to live in. The whole world knows it's Easter...but few of us absorb the meaning of these days. The season of Christ's passion is easily engaged on friday (in corporate 'celebrations' of his sacrifice) and on sunday (when our worship and liturgy announce his resurrection). But saturday...well...it's just saturday, isn't it?

Holy Saturday is a day of passion...but a quiet, subdued, broken pathos. Jesus' family, friends and followers wept...their hearts crushed by watching jesus suffer and die. Their dreams were shattered...all hope was dead. And everyone else likely went on with life as usual. Much like i have on this day...overlooking the fact that...

God the Father was still...His heart broken...His lips sealed. All of heaven stood in somber silence...raptly looking for any sign that the story wasn't over.

And while we know that with tomorrow's dawn comes the reminder of hope reborn...today's passion is silent, internal, and dark...in remembrance of Jesus' body held by the tomb's cold efficacy.

In waiting, looking, and weeping today, we engage the darkness in our hearts...the darkness that needs the piercing light of Easter morning.

Imaginative Missional Considerations...

Someone asked me the other day “what are the things that make a person ‘missional’ and how does one become missional”. Well, I have thought about it a bit, and here are my musings in task list form...chuckle.

1.) Leave the cycle of trying to find another way of doing ‘Outreach Events’. Instead focus your imagination on finding ways of connecting with people where they are.

2.) Unwrite the internal script that casts evangelism as a one time sniper hit on a target with a preconceived outcome. Awaken your imagination by seeing mission as part of regular daily, weekly and monthly life rhythms. That our job is not to take Jesus to people, but open their eyes to the reality that He is already at work in their lives.

3.) Rethink the strategic ministry model of building multiple use buildings, as if by building a gymnasium on the church campus, we will bring people into the orbit of the church. Could we engage the questions about resources that honestly asks us if we should build less third spaces, and maybe inhabit more the ones already there?

4.) Lets be clear that one-on-one evangelism and the techniques associated with such apologetic persuasion are hit and miss at best. Can we direct imagination at inhabiting places in two’s or three’s or more? Hospitals, recovery centres, the school systems, the park districts … truly believing that two or three lovers of Jesus together become an undeniable force in any environment when they are under His Lordship?

5.) Gently reject the Sunday morning gathering as an evangelistic event, for it cannot be that in the new post Christendom cultures. Can we truly imagine the spiritual formation that comes from a communal(together) encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ?

6.) Release the expectation that coercive persuasion and argument are our predominant or most effective witness. What would it look like for the people of God to be seeking “one person of peace” (Luke 10) among the lost of their neighbourhoods?

7.) Repent of the presumptuous postures of power as we live our lives among those who do not know Christ yet. Can we personally engage the way Christ always enters the human situation in humility? Can we learn to come to our neighbours humbly and in need? And instead of only offering them a meal, find ways to participate in a meal with them?

8.) Stop surveying the neighbourhoods – learn how to exegete the neighbourhood. Surveying looks at the neighbourhood as a place to market a church. To exegete a neighbourhood requires inhabiting the neighbourhood. Actually fully living there...discovering where the hurting are and where the unjust structures are...and becoming a voice of reconciliation and justice from within.

9.) Take the focus off of strategic planning and place it on thoughtful preparation. We really don’t know the future…but we know that the Spirit is birthing His kingdom among us as we respond faithfully day by day. There must be some merit to finding the rhythm of owning our brokenness on a daily basis...and discovering how to live in the joy of His grace. In doing so we learn how to be humans again, not caught in a state of denial as though we are no longer a people of need. Billy Graham described the journey like this, “I am just a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” The thoughtful reflection and preparation that needs to be central to the life of a true disciple prepares us for the unexpected ‘suddenly’s’ of God. Leslie Newbigin warned us that, “the significant advances of the church have not been the result of our own decision about the mobilizing and allocating of “resources” [rather] the significant advances have come through happenings of which the story of Peter and Cornelius is a paradigm, in ways of which we have no advance knowledge.” (The Open Secret)

J

living dangerously

snowy afternoon reflections on our journey...

I have spent copious amounts of time sifting through the chapters of my/our church leadership and strategy, desperately wanting to be positive and proactive. I wont dare to try to articulate all that I have concluded, as I am long winded to begin with, but I do have a couple things I think that I think.

I have figured out that we/churches don’t value people who won’t be at the majority of meetings, attend all the events, and make sure that all their significant friendships are within the congregation. The word ‘value’ may cause some tension in that sentence, but at the end of the day, its true. We feel frustrated, annoyed and down right indignant that they are not committed enough to the ‘vision’. The potentially spiralling vortex of ‘fellowship’ sucks you in, and requires all of you, leaving you completely socially disconnected from your neighbours, your community. And ‘we’ are not satisfied with half-hearted allegiance or commitment. It demands your all, always…

And in the process we often create cultures that will not allow questions, probing, or nay-sayers. We control with fear and in so doing, we loose the ability to inspire with faith.

And yet I find people all over our country who long for a community of fellow travellers. They long to journey with others of faith. They dream of ‘doing’ something of significance. The yearn to change the world with others. Unfortunately many of them have forgotten how to dream. They live in paradoxical frustration. Yearning to belong to something that transcends where we are and awakens the DNA of transformation that the people of God carry. Yet frustrated and angry because the only framework that we can see in our minds eye is what we have known the Church to be. And how many people do you know who at a gut level recognize that we are striking out at the plate?

I have looked for language to describe this. Alan Hirsch said something in one of his books that captures it for me. Its the ideas of God’s people developing communitas. Communitas is an intense community spirit, the feeling of great social equality, solidarity, and togetherness. It describes the dynamics of a Christian community inspired to overcome their instincts to look inward and 'structure in a way that serves US and to instead form themselves around a common mission that calls them on a dangerous journey to unknown places'.

A mission that demands that we shake off our collective security and to plunge into the world of action. Action that produces disorientation, experimentation, risk, and sometimes failure. But also allows us to encounter God and each other in a way that would have never been possible otherwise.

Michael Frost in his book ‘Exiles’, uses the illustration of the story of a community of rabbits in Richard Adam’s Watership Down . “Fiver, a small nervous rabbit, has a premonition something terrible is going to happen to their Sandleford warren. And he’s right; a housing developer is planning to build on their field. Fiver tells his brother Hazel and they try to warn their aging Chief Rabbit, to no avail—he doesn’t believe them. Hazel and Fiver decide they must leave, and are joined by other rabbits in their search for a new home. And no sooner than they have left, the bulldozers come and destroy the warrens and all the other rabbits. To cut the long story short, the adventure takes the rabbits out of the safety of their warrens where they do very un-rabbitlike things; like crossing rivers, fields, and roads. (Rabbits, like the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings), seldom travel far from their burrows.) At nights, out of their burrows, and feeling very insecure, they comfort and encourage each other by re-telling tales of the adventures of the great rabbit hero; El-Ahrairah and they are inspired by his story to continue their journey. They come across many other warrens and they try to warn them. They even get imprisoned and escape, but they eventually do get to Watership Down which becomes their new home, and once they find females to mate with, they settle down and start again.”

This children’s story accesses something in all of us. Its the same thing that is accessed when we watch movies about the belittled underdog who nobody thinks can win, and yet in epic fashion they dig deep down and pull out something so dramatic and powerful that we are all moved and long to be a part of THAT STORY. Its why we are moved by ideas and situations in stories that are related to adventure, the role of danger in personal growth, leadership, communitas, and the innate capacity of life to adapt when threatened by mortal danger.

What will it take to inspire us in such fashion? Where collectively we are moved to get out of our burrows and do things that defy our all too human instincts to burrow down in denial and our western 1st world penchant for safety and security.

We must be re-inspired for by telling again of the incredible and dangerous stories of Jesus Christ...the martyrs...the men and women of faith who throughout history responded to this same yearning in their own generation!

All our heroes are people. Just like you. Just like me. The only difference between them and where we are today is a decision. One that thrusts us into tomorrow, as Jim Elliot put it, with a willingness to ‘live to the hilt’. Living dangerously. What does that look like?
j

wow...lots to chew on here. dude...you gotta learn to break it all up into little chunks. :)
your comments about what our communities of faith often value are true...unfortunately. and like we've talked about in the past, this journey missionburnaby's on has exposed some of my own tendencies. by choosing to move away from a 'career' in Christianity (which isn't a derogatory term), i've had to wrestle a lot with how ministry is often shaped and scheduled by those who are 'centred' in the church. there have been many days in the last year that i've wondered... 'is this how most people live for jesus?' the fatigue and pressures of 'regular' life often create tension within communities of faith i think. how would this be different in 'communitas'? and are we being successful in sparking 'communitas'? hmmmmm...
you said... 'Living dangerously. What does that look like?' in studying the historical jesus, i've seen that regardless of what you reduce jesus and his teaching to, there are some 'basic' assumptions we can make. one...we know that jesus was executed by the Romans...most likely because he was causing popular unrest and religious 'instability', two things the Romans didn't like seeing in Jerusalem (for more, read a history text). second...we can see from the collected teachings of jesus an obvious criticism of nominal/political religion, an clear afront to what jesus saw as being the way to God. and third...we can hear a call to a different type of life...one surrendered to love and captivated by justice, two things that our holy texts show as God's primary character traits. in the end...jesus' life and teachings led him into opposition and murderous institutions...a life lived dangerously. looking at jesus this way leads me to the admission that...
lots of days i'm not sure how to answer your/jesus' question...of what it looks like for me to live for him. some days i feel like it's caught up in choosing to engage an education that regularly challenges some our core assumptions while making me feel like an idiot in the process. gulp. and other days it feels like i'm most like jesus when i'm caressing my tired wife...and when i'm comforting my shrieking kids. sigh.
and that's part of how i end up going full-circle...wondering where we are at as a community. wondering if the choices i'm making in the 'trenches' of my life reflect the 'danger' that jesus calls US to. i'm not so sure the decisions you mentioned are always grand...or even noticeable. i think that what makes them 'dangerous' is the meaning that they carry with them. the ins-and-outs of life can be monotonous...but our daily choices to be selfless, tender, and hospitable are what make us most like jesus. they are what mark us over the span of time. it's not as if we can reduce the life of jesus to one decision to die; i'm thinking he'd been making small choices (like putting himself second) for a long time. and that how i want to live...incrementally less and less religious.
enough for now.
sw