northVUs: party line

redeeming those gift cards

2011-01-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

i was working on a talk which seemed to turn scripturally on the word redeemed.

that's when the voices started.

southern gospel quartet voices, each carrying its own old-time harmony to new levels of sentimentality.

redeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEmed

redeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEmed...

(wait for it)

his child, and forever, i am

i had to make the voices stop and the only way to do it was to arrange the classic Fanny Crosby song differently. Hymn #382 in the hymnal got 2 or 3 passes before i hastily hit 'record' on my laptop.

the first recorded version was probably performed better, but the sound quality was terrible because the microphone hadn't been set properly. the second one ended up on youtube.

peace at last.

still, the words continue to reassert themselves:

Redeemed- how I love to proclaim it

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb

Redeemed by his infinite mercy

His child, and forever, I am...

all this proclamation seems to be a bit lost in today’s context. i mean, apart from Christmastime when we hold our heads high and boldly sing of the ‘reason for the season’ do we do a whole lot of proclaiming these days? and yet, there is a sense that failing to proclaim God’s work in our lives is like keeping a gift card in the drawer... the gift giver didn’t pay to establish the value of a piece of plastic so that it could sit in the drawer unused.

the gift card is a token, representing the price paid by another... when produced and redeemed by the recipient, the gift card is exchanged for goods and services at no charge to the bearer. it represents an intended gift not yet received in fullness. on its own or in a drawer with a bunch of others, it is merely a piece of plastic, but redeemed it brings the realization of the intended gift.

perhaps our lives are tokens, representing the price paid by Christ... not only to truly establish our value, but also to bring to realization God’s intended gift: complete and uninhibited relationship for all with the creator of the universe. Jesus has given us life and has paid the price for our freedom- the freedom offered to us all to be used of him by being selflessly given to people in need of that which we’ve already received.

huddled together, though, the freedom to be used is forfeit.

redeemed as his child.

redeemed forever- with no expiry date.

redeemed to be used now.

LOVE

2010-12-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

Somebody left a note on my facebook page this morning about how they still feel John Lennon's love today.

At the time I read it, I had remarks to make which i kept to myself. After all, most things I've read or viewed do not portray John as a particularly loving guy...

(these weren't simply McCartney-sanctioned communiques either)

But then I started listening to my Lennon records in an effort to somehow commemorate the 30-year anniversary of his murder, remembering how I felt as a sixteen year-old, working a grill shift at McDonald's when I heard the news. Beginning with the most recent album I had (John Lennon Collection), I proceeded chronologically backwards in my listening. Next was, of course, 'Double Fantasy', the intended comeback and yet final studio album, credited to 'John Lennon and Yoko Ono'.

That's always bugged me. Yoko always bugged me. Forget 'breaking up the Beatles' and all that. From the time John Lennon met Yoko Ono in 1968, she was inescapable for any Lennon fan. Double Fantasy was supposed to be this great Lennon event, but we all saw the credit and the cover art and knew that it wasn't going to be the record we had hoped it would be. I mean, Avant garde is cool and everything, but why did her avant garde stuff, complete with vocal panting and grunting and optional singing, set to silly 50's rock standard forms have to be strategically placed inescapably between Lennon classics like (Just Like)Starting Over, Watching The Wheels and Woman?

The answer?
Love.

Many wedding liturgies contain a question of intent that is worded this way:

"Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"

Forsaking all others.
ALL others

Yep. Lennon forsook the Beatles, the critics, the fans, the right wingers, the left wingers, the punters, the sycophants... even the little people like me who felt we had rights to what his art should sound like and what songs should be included on an album he had created. All for a girl.

Paul (the apostle, not the Beatle) wrote that "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails..."

And whereas John Lennon may not have been a particularly loving guy to many, he certainly seemed to be loving towards Yoko and their 5 year old son, Sean. Just listen to 'Double Fantasy' from beginning to end. The sound of Love is unmistakeable.

What is Love without object and expression anyway?

I guess I can still feel the love too- just needed to figure out how to enter its presence.

***

so long, johnny. sorry you were stolen from us the way you were.

number 27

2010-11-30T11:09:00.000-08:00

Life was filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor

I wish we'd all been ready

Children died, the days grew cold- a piece of bread could buy a bag of gold

I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind- the Son has come and you've been left behind.

A man and wife asleep in bed, she hears a noise and turns her head- he's gone

I wish we'd all be ready

Two men walking up a hill- one disappears and one's left standing still

I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind- the Son has come and you've been left behind.

Life was filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor

I wish we'd all been ready

Children died, the days grew cold- a piece of bread could buy a bag of gold

I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind- how could you have been so blind?

The Father spoke, the demons dined, the Son has come and you've been left behind.

***

Sadly, there were no cameras running during Larry Norman's epic 1979 tour. It was my first ever rock concert ever, and my first road trip with no 'adults' present. My life was never the same after that.

After playing the hits with an all-star band consisting of other Solid Rock Records feature artists -Tom Howard was on keys and Alex MacDougall of Daniel Amos was on drums- 'the Hairy Mormon' (as my friends and I had jokingly dubbed him) launched into an ultra heavy version of 'number 27' from our youth group's worship music duo-tang: I Wish We'd All Been Ready. At the end of the song, while the band riffed and rumbled underneath, the singer assaulted the audience by shouting the big question of the song over the din: WHY?

Scared the hell out of me.

The clip below is fairly tame by comparison, but affords us a glimpse of the kind of singing/preaching that established Larry Norman as a founding father of the fledgling genre that would become Jesus Music and would give a whole new generation of musical believers hope of moving beyond the old-time gospel expressions that were the only legitimate musical forms prior to the early 1970's.

Guys like Larry, Randy Stonehill, Barry McGuire, Randy Matthews, Phil Keaggy and others were all on that cutting edge that separated what had already been done from what could be done. They were responding to Jesus' words by writing songs and playing them wherever they could with an urgency that was infectious. Lives were changed, not because these musicians were perfect or because their message was, as I shared in my talk, a terrifying endtimes message of Christ's immanent return. Lives were changed because the Holy Spirit was using these guys and their music to get people's attention in ways that were relevant to the day, effectively challenging the indifference of man to the things of God with a holy dissonance that demanded decision-making. Christian Kids shared these records with their 'non-Christian' friends and talked about the lyrics, discussing what they might mean and, more importantly, what their message might imply.

I know of at least one other kid who was drawn slowly, but purposefully towards that gospel light simply through sitting around listening to records and talking. Eventually, when a moment of decision presented itself at a concert, my friend was ready to move into it. Even though years have passed and we don't see each other anymore, there is this great satisfaction in my heart that somehow, just by sharing my love for Jesus and my love for music with a friend simultaneously, God was able to move. On that day of days, whenever and however it comes to pass, I will look over to see a man with whom I grew up, with whom I walked up many a hill, standing in paradise wearing, perhaps, the same look of bewilderment that is upon my own face.

We are who we are for God's glory, to be used of him to bring the world to an understanding of his love and of the possibilities that lie within reach of realization for those who accept it, having pushed past the indifference that is too often the human condition. In what ways are we, today, walking on the cutting edge that separates that which has already been done from that which could be?

nothing to kill or die for

2010-11-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

i had the opportunity to do some community service

as part of a remembrance day observance in a local school, i got to accompany a choir of charming 11 year olds as they sang of the utopia that they will hopefully build for themselves (as it doesn't look like they're going to inherit it from those of us who have come before them.)

imagine there's no heaven
it's easy if you try
no hell below us
above us only sky
imagine all the people living for today

imagine there's no countries
it isn't hard to do
nothing to kill or die for
and no religion too
imagine all the people living life in peace

you may say i'm a dreamer
but i'm not the only one
i hope one day you'll join us
and the world will be as one

imagine all possessions
i wonder if you can
no need for greed or hunger
a brotherhood of man
imagine all the people sharing all the world

you may say i'm a dreamer
but i'm not the only one
i hope one day you'll join us
and the world will live as one
(lennon)

interesting how some things get diluted as they are shared from person to person; generation to generation. it's a huge game of 'telephone'.

a friend was recently telling me of how her husband and son attended a paul mccartney show, and bought a t-shirt. the son wore the shirt to school and began to receive flak from another kid in the class over it... this other kid was wearing a lennon shirt.

it kinda figures that the lennon kid would give the mccartney kid a hard time. the conflict was legendary and whereas mccartney was probably more controlling, lennon was definitely more confrontational. for a guy whose most memorable statements were about peace, he sure did have a way of getting in people's faces about it. the fact that many of his disciples would get it all wrong seems about right.

kinda like Jesus

Christ was a confrontational contrarian whose way is carved out fairly clearly in his manifesto as a pushback against all that was wrong with organized religion circa 30 a.d... but as often happens, his message and his methods became confused over time, moving from a spiritually transformative underground justice movement that served as such a threat to the empire that involvement in it was seen as treason and punishable by death, to the state-sanctioned religion of the empire in less than 300 years... and an empire of its own in less than 500 years more.

a progressive or regressive legacy?

What if the religion generally associated with Jesus neither expects nor trains its adherents to actually live in the way of Jesus?

(brian d mclaren)

to live that manifesto- there's the challenge.

either/or

2010-11-01T08:13:00.001-07:00

clear or clever?

pick one

in most cases communication can't be both

justice monster

2010-09-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

recently i was introduced by my son to a really interesting TV show called 'dexter.' after viewing a couple episodes rented from the local blockbuster, i was kinda hooked.

the show is not what one would expect, given the title. this is a superhero show for a new millennium, telling the story of a serial killer named dexter morgan who does forensic work for miami PD, always on the scene but too close to the action to be that cool about it- something's a bit off. in a rather wild spin on clark kent's work in the newsroom, peter parker's photography or bruce wayne's direct line to the police, dexter works for the police in order to know where he can serve humanity. see, in order to satisfy his bloodlustful urges and still somehow be able to sleep at night, dexter morgan only kills other serial killers.

the obvious hypocrisy aside, this is an attempt at redemption. the guy recognizes that being a sociopathological murder machine is clearly antisocial, and struggles to understand himself and his secrets before he makes that one mistake that will ultimately lead to their exposure. dexter races against time and circumstance, making breakthrough after pyschological breakthrough, moving evermore towards becoming human, all the while taking what he feels is the moral high road and restricting his murderous appetites to those who 'deserve to die' (IE: those who prey upon the innocent, rather than the guilty.)

but what about us? this is a fictional character that we as a culture have created for our own entertainment, yet it is one who looks suspiciously like ourselves. we have this understanding of right and wrong and are able to discern between the two most of the time- at least in our actions. under the surface, however, we sometimes judge people unreasonably and subject them to harsh scrutiny, violence and humiliations galore within our heart of hearts. occasionally, we even share these negative perspectives with others, and in so doing, pollute them with the same toxins that are burning holes into our own ability to love and offer grace, help and support.

could it be that we create characters like dexter morgan as projections of what we wish we were cold enough to be for real sometimes? have we taken the whole superhero thing to startling new vigilantic heights, nobilizing sociopathy by creating a new type of superhero- a justice monster that needs no help in taking out the trash?

as we vicariously commit murder after murder, allowing ourselves to be entertained by the darkness that requires carnal satisfaction in the name of justice, Jesus' words in his famous sermon on the mount pose a challenge to us:

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

in this small portion of Jesus' greatest oration, he acknowledges that murder is the ultimate outcome of something more subtle but nonetheless antisocial- the ability that human beings have to measure and evaluate each other, finding others lacking in worth. it is at the centre of our greatest crimes against one another and against God. perhaps if we could just stop deeming others 'unworthy' of blessing, favour, love, life and dignity (often because they fail where we fail) and see their inherent value, we wouldn't need to work out our issues by creating stories where killing others, rather than acting justly, even heroically on behalf of those in moral need is the solution.

i wonder what we'd watch on TV then...

or if we'd even have the time or interest to bother with it?

mine is in the mail

2010-08-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

it might be preachy, or even condescending but it was something I thought to be pretty self-evident. Seems I was wrong. So I'm heart broken and 30 dollars lighter

inception and some things already seen

2010-07-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

row row row your boat

gently down the stream

merrily merrily merrily merrily

life is but a dream...

ever wonder if there is any significance to the fact that this song works really well as a round?

in french, deja vu means 'already seen' and often when we describe the phenomena that we have identified with this moniker, we dovetail the experience back to the whole experience of dreaming: "wait a minute- i dreamt this!"

it's not new- people have been trying to figure out what their dreams may have been telling them since before history became that which was written down for posterity and reference. the fact that people often try to write down their dreams in order to understand them, or that people like sigmund freud and carl jung have developed whole new psychological fields based on the premise that dreams are not merely the random test-firings of neurons across the synapses, but are in fact the subconsciousness mind's means of communicating important inner truths and keys to self-knowledge with the conscious mind, takes dream study beyond the realm of simple curiosity.

even much of biblical scripture would not exist without the confounding picture-shows that so many 'holy men' throughout the biblical ages had experienced and/or interpreted. jacob's ladder; pharaoh's seven skinny cows; nebuchadnezzar's statue; the ongoing guidance afforded joseph, mary's husband; the warnings to the magi; peter's unthinkable buffet blanket... on and on.

so, informed by all of this, i recently went to a movie on dreaming that reminded me of a bunch of other movies also on dreaming...

(note: there are, no doubt, thousands of small-budget indi-films and the like that explore similar themes and devices. however, because the chances of seeing them either when they were given limited release are so slim, i'm going to ignore them here! ha ha)

Inception (2010, christopher nolan) this film starring leonardo di caprio, works with the whole topic of dreams and dreaming in a way that feels fresh and new, while still prompting a fair bit of deja vu of its own. apart from some really obvious comparisons to The Matrix Trilogy and the tim robbins film Jacob's Ladder, there are some other films that i think go to similar places and tell similar stories in them...

Spellbound (1945 alfred hitchcock) ingrid bergman's character digs through the dreams of a very young and troubled gregory peck character, searching for answers that will clear him of a murder he is convinced he has committed, but can not remember. this film features a fair bit of psychobabble in its dialogue, but boasts dreamscapes designed by salvador dali and even has a frame of subliminal interest inwhich the face of the murderer is flashed over a half an hour before the murderer's identity is disclosed. this was 1945... cool.

Dreamscape (1984, joseph rubin) dennis quaid's psychic character is invited by his mentor max von sydow to engage in some rather unorthodox counter-espionage, preventing an assassin from murdering a world leader within the victim's own subconscious mind. unlike the recent film Inception, however, in this dream film, the old theory that if you die in your dream, your body believes it and follows is the modus operandi of the bad guys. otherwise, there is a lot going on that cinematic audiences would see again 26 years later.

What Dreams My Come (1998, vincent ward) is based on richard matheson's book of the same name which seems to be attempting to synthesize the main afterlife premises of every major world religion and philosophy, and doesn't deal so much with dreaming as with the rescue of robin williams' wife, annabella sciorra from hell. the hell depicted and the impact it has upon the conscious mind of not only those who are condemned to spend eternity there, but also any who might venture there to rescue another, has much in common with Inception's limbo. the fact that max von sydow is in this one as well (as a wisened, mentor-type old boatman) is just a fun bonus.

The Cell (2000, tarsem singh) is a Silence of the Lambs-type thriller with a twist: instead of a serial-killing bad guy getting into jennifer lopez' mind, she needs to get into his in order to find out where his final victim is hidden before time runs out. the answer is, of course, buried deep in his subconscious and special machinery and psychic technique is applied to crack the symbolic code. with arresting visuals and an urgent, time-sensitive plot, this film shares a fair bit with Inception as well.

and yet no one is standing up and crying 'foul.' somehow the recent nolan offering takes us somewhere we want to go and because it is of such great interest to us, we don't even mind the familiarities... they give the film a strange kind of street cred because the story is told skillfully and promises to bring us some comfort by offering some explanation for the things that we who dream find so simultaneously fascinating and frustrating.

but for real movie reviews, go somewhere else. my point isn't to review films, nor is it to endorse some with the old 'if you enjoyed this one, you may like these' deal. my reason for punching out these lines is more personal...

in this post from february, 2005 i explored some of the thoughts in this film. i guess i'm just comforted to know that i'm not sleeping alone

***

"he knew how to read and write; therefore he had a heavy responsibility: to catch with his pen all that was about to perish and by placing it on paper, to make it immortal" (nikos kazantzakis)

in his book 'the last temptation of Christ', kazantzakis explores his own faith, telling the story of Christ as though it were his own. i think his reasoning goes this way: if Jesus' life were to be a relevent testament to the power of God, and if Jesus' death and resurrection were to have any personal significance for an everyday person, then his story would have to be somehow interchangable with ours... not in the details, obviously, but in the grand themes, trials, doubts, temptations, victories etc. in order for the gospel to be good news, its central character needs to be accessable for the everyman. although the idea is probably off a bit in the finer doctrinal points, i find the heart of the idea touching and biblical (philippians 2.5-11)

sometimes your exploration can take you in strange directions that require some reeling in... exploration and doubt are very different. please do not doubt my faith as i explore it.
***

"all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" (Edgar Allan Poe)

now what does this mean to me? as i open up to ideas from which i once would have turned in closed dismissal, i find options which do not necessarily contradict my faith.

am i becoming more 'liberal?' i don't think so.
am i becoming more gracious? i hope so.

what if this life is but one of many dreams experienced by an eternal soul? what if the notion of reincarnation is merely the sleep cycle of a soul in slumber- or worse: comatose?

what if the call of Jesus is the only thing that will truly rescue a soul from an eternal swoon? what if damnation begins as the pointless cycling through of life dreams which are ultimately of no consequence- each one ending more or less the same way: the soul awakens from physical life knowing that once again he or she failed in answering the call of God through the blood of his son with the voice of the Holy Spirit, and having to return to the physical dream in order to hopefully accept redemption this time through?

and what if the cycle ends with the acceptance of the redemption offered by God- at the conclusion of this somatic dream the soul is permitted to live without further physical interruption for all eternity outside of time in the presence of God?

is this road really that different- or is it simply unorthodox?
what does scripture say?

wondering again.

waiting

2010-07-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

faith fills the space between believing and receiving

(related post)

lessons on fairness

2010-07-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

as with pretty much everything, the challenge has come in my heart:

"i know you're having fun and everything, but what does this have to do with being a community pastor and sharing God's light?"

see, i have become involved in a community theatre project. we are doing My Fair Lady

although i've directed shows and helped out with characterisations and such, even played in the orchestra pit, i haven't actually played a part in a musical in over 30 years. (the only bit i ever did was playing a biblical character in a musical that our youth group put on when i was 15.)

over the course of this particular show, i've found that, for me, acting is much more difficult than directing because as a director you work with the raw material brought to you by others- working it, shaping it, molding into something that works with everything else you've been molding and shaping as part of your larger vision. as an actor, you bring your own raw material. way tougher- not because you don't have any but because it's so much more difficult to find it within oneself.

many of us are way better at spotting things in others than we are at spotting them within ourselves- both good things and bad things, i suppose. life is the process of self-discovery. a young friend told me that about ten years ago, back when he was probably just a little older than i was when i took that one and only musical role and discovered that i could sing a bit.

in this show, the characters i get to portray are not particularly self-aware, nor holy: one is a drunken street performer whose hero and role model is a moral-less, opportunistic garbage man; the other is a shallow, pompous, judgemental, upper class twit whose acceptance of others is based on whether or not people speak well, carry themselves with style and class in social situations, and keep unsavoury details about their lives well-hidden.

but these roles are just background colour in a larger show which has a powerful message of grace and hope and dignity to the 'others' while issuing a challenge to those of us who get distracted by outward appearances and decorum, rather than seeking the realization of God's greatest dreams for those unlike ourselves.

there is a great moment near the end of the play which drives home a valid point that we as followers of Christ can embrace. in the show, the flower girl turned debutante, eliza doolittle says that "the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated" she goes on to say "I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to Colonel Pickering, because he always treats me as a lady, and always will"

(or something like that... i'm always lurking in the wings at this point.)

there's something powerful locked up in the word 'always.'

the desire to become better at treating people as God's beloved drives much of what i read and speak. besides all the new relationships in a pre-existing community that has embraced me warmly even though i have so much to learn about performing in live theatre, perhaps the big lesson of the show is a key to why i've found involvement in this project so satisfying.

(i've posted a related piece on another blog)

blue- no, yellow

2010-04-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

been thinking about this scene over the last few days. i think that there's something subtle and very true to life going on behind it that we might be missing because we're busy laughing loudly and speaking with outrrrraaageous accents.

too many double entendres and jokes about mothers and psychoanalytic couches have made the work of sigmund freud, the father of modern (?) psychology, nearly unusable in a conversation. it's hard to remember that, back in the day, his ideas revolutionized our understanding of how the mind works... not the brain; the mind. he asserts in much of his writing that there's always something going on behind our scene, whether we are simply watching it, acting in it or living it out for as close to real as we can manage. well if that's true, perhaps there's something going on behind this one and perhaps if we rob this scene of its laughs, we can come to understand the spaces between friends.

***

the bridge of death fords the gorge of eternal peril. this gorge would be daunting if not for the bridge. the quest for the most holy grail cannot continue except for crossing the bridge and before gaining access to this causeway, the noble knights must pass a simple test: just answer correctly the five questions (three, sir) THREE questions posed by the bridge-keeper. should be easy stuff. however, because each of the knights is different, each knight's encounter with the bridge-keeper is different.

sir launcelot: in this particular reading of the legend (for there are, of course, many which contradict each other- that's how legends are) launcelot is a man of simple action, brave and forthright, full of purpose. he has no trouble with the questions because he is confident in the quest and his role in it. off he goes.

sir robin: it has already been well-established in the film, right down to the coat of arms on his shield, that robin is a coward- if not quite so brave as launcelot. so when king arthur suggests robin go first, he volunteers his braver colleague. once launcelot proves that the encounter with the bridge-keeper is nigh as perilous as was first presumed, robin steps right up- only to fail miserably and is cast into the gorge of eternal peril because the bridge-keeper changes the rules midway through and asks a more demanding final question. see, nobody really likes robin.

sir galahad: galahad is a conflicted guy. immediately likeable, he is probably the most accessible of the knights except for one key difference: he has taken vows which are meant to free him to be all that he can be in his king's service without distraction. other than one episode earlier in the story in which he finds himself in grave danger of breaking these vows, he moves with arthur's entourage with humility, an almost childlike innocence and naivete that suits him. at the mouth of the gorge, he steps up to the bridge-keeper and begins to answer the questions. surprisingly, though, he fails to answer correctly, stumbling indecisively over whether his favourite colour is blue or yellow, and is cast into the gorge of eternal peril. freud would have something to say about this slip. it may be the key to understanding a great many things...

scroll back a few chapters in the DVD to galahad's encounter with the maidens of the castle anthrax.

galahad arrives at this castle legitimately, enough. his quest has led him here. however, grail-shaped beacon and silly-bugger name games aside, he faces a situation here which will be his undoing in the end. before he is dramatically rescued by his friend, the brave but dangerous sir launcelot, he finds himself growing weaker and weaker in his resolve, enjoying the ready company of all that from which he has vowed to abstain. he doesn't do anything wrong- he just doesn't get out on his own. without being ridiculously metaphoric regarding the possible significance of the gorge itself, i posit that the experience at the castle anthrax affects galahad so deeply that he actually wants to fail at the bridge and be cast into the gorge of eternal peril.

it's right there in the script- let's pick it up just after the rescue:

CUT TO outside.

LAUNCELOT:We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril.

GALAHAD: (dragging his feet somewhat) I don't think I was.

LAUNCELOT:Yes, you were. You were in terrible peril.

GALAHAD: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril?

LAUNCELOT:No, it's too perilous.

GALAHAD: Look, it's my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can.

LAUNCELOT:No, we gotta find the Grail. Come on.

GALAHAD: Oh, let me go and have a bit of peril?

LAUNCELOT:No. It's unhealthy.

and so on...

count how many times the word 'peril' is used. even more if you read the preceding scene as transcribed here... and note how the word's meaning has changed. galahad has come too close to the fire here and it has warmed him, shaking his resolve, leaving him a bit confused and conflicted because everything that used to be so clear now suddenly isn't.

in addition to the rather unfortunate name of their home, the maidens of the castle anthrax have their own problems but it's not that they are 'foul temptresses' as launcelot shouts during the rescue. as one of them puts it simply, they are

"but eightscore young blondes and brunettes, all between sixteen and nineteen-and-a-half, cut off in this castle, with no one to protect us.  Oooh.  It is a lonely life ..."

the problem here is galahad's, not theirs.

it's classic.

but whatever the case, when the ultimate test of character comes at the bridge, he bites his lip and steps up, responding to the question regarding his name differently than earlier on.

he is now sir galahad of camelot,

not sir galahad the chaste.

from there, it's only a matter of time until his inner compromise is found out and he finds himself swallowed up by that which he tried desperately to keep himself from. his own part in the larger quest, it appears, is at an end.

wow. that's not funny at all.

ha ha- go to the top and watch the clip again...

it will still make you laugh, just from a different place.

zombie apocalypse?

2010-04-19T19:46:00.001-07:00

i couldn't help noticing this easter that one or two remarks have been made online concerning the whole zombie element to the easter story. however, rather than be shocked by the 'irreverence' of this idea, i decided to push the metaphor a bit and see where this led me... mainly because, as leonard sweet recently said in a talk that i attended:

"our currency is no longer words, but images,

and the essence of change is reframing with new metaphors."

so here's some spin on the zombie heresy that i left on my facebook page:

Christ rose from the dead, beginning a movement of spiritual transformation which begins with an albeit symbolic death to self, offering its adherents both a fearless existence and immortality in exchange for their autonomy. these followers are everywhere, inviting others to enter into the same experience which appears, to all outside of it, to be a form of spiritual fanatacism at its best, super-holy madness at its worst...

before Jesus’ resurrection, life led to death...
after Jesus’ resurrection, true life begins with death:

not a physical death, but a death to the temporal in exchange for the eternal... to self-satisfying behaviours and habits and all that crap that we cling to which inhibits the expression of the life and light within us that has been put there by Almighty God.

some of the zombie culture rhetoric refers to zombies as 'life-impaired.'

in this new metaphor, i almost wonder if the life-impaired are those of us who still insist on running things ourselves, informed by incomplete or otherwise flawed intel and powered by emotional, neural, cardiovascular and respiratory human batteries that eventually run down to expiration.

please tell me life isn't simply the sum total of our biological processes and body functions. please tell me there is something more- something eternal that continues on even after we have, as shakespeare put it in hamlet and monty python's john cleese shouted it in the parrot sketch, "shuffled off this mortal coil"!

one final thing occurs to me as i consider the zombie Jesus. within zombie literature and films, there is this time coming when everyone in the world falls prey to the zombie condition and unity is once again established. it is called zombie apocalypse.

however, if Jesus is patient 0 or, as we read (and warp a bit here) in revelation 1.5 firstborn of the dead, then what is the zombie apocalpyse but an event of unprecedented revival?

arise my love, oh beautiful one, and come with me...

there's a new world coming

;)

synchronicity

2010-01-14T01:34:00.000-08:00

this fall, after throwing out every excuse in the book (and there were A LOT in that list), i found myself saying yes to taking a class that was being offered at our church. this class is different than anything i've ever taken. it brought me out of my comfort zone, on many levels, right from the start. but now that i'm 3 1/2 months into it, i look back and realize that it's been a very good thing.

i had a conversation with a friend the other day about the fact, that more than once what's been discussed in class has come up in our church's Sunday morning sermon, which has allowed the dialogue to continue on in my brain.

"see, that's the kind of synchronicity we can expect when we're letting God speak through seemingly random spiritual disciplines."

my friend answered back about how cool the synchronicity is that happens when we let God speak through seemingly random things. yeah it's very cool...on multiple levels. that synchronicity has me thinking often on the gravity of being open enough to let God speak through every aspect of life, even the ones that don't have any connection in our mind or those that we don't really think anything could be spoken through. it comes with the responsibility of being prepared to go deeper...and to embrace all that entails. to look deep within...to hear the, "Whys and questions" which will inevitably come out of that process. being prepared to face those, "Whys and questions" that surface and both the good & the bad that comes from that. it means being willing to peel away the layers of this life and honestly find answers...not to just fly off quick and easy surface responses, but instead to allow deep and purposeful responses to arise.

what i'm finally beginning to realize, is that the journey deeper is one which will eventually bring you to a place of realizing how awesome His love is for each one of us. it will bring forth the challenge to see yourself through His eyes...to see all that He sees when He looks at you, rather than viewing yourself through human eyes.

for me, even though it's a really cool process to experience, i also find it very scary at times. but then i look back and see where i've come from and that brings forth strength to journey on...to jump the hurdles of fear and continue to penetrate deeper. inevitably i've found myself going down some of the tunnels of life i said i would never visit again...sometimes coming back out of them seeing things in a very different light than i ever saw them before or simply coming back out feeling a little less entrapped by the anger, pain, confusion, etc. of some of those tunnels.

“You’re my son (daughter). I’m crazy about you and well into everything you do.” (Rob Lacey)

this quote was read at the end of our service on Sunday...the daughter portion was added in for those of us who were of the female variety in the crowd. i found a lot of comfort in it...in knowing that no matter what, i have a Heavenly Father who's crazy about every aspect of me. and i was challenged to begin living my life with that same kind of love. to live life with a deep love...in every circumstance i find myself. A deep love that i'll readily offer to every person that crosses my path, including the one i see in the mirror each day and also to the Heavenly Father who never leaves my side.

nativity scenes

2009-12-23T15:05:00.001-08:00

while stopping in at some friends' the other evening for eggnog, i noticed something for the first time. my friends collect nativity scenes. displayed there on the header, these are engaged in a veritable parade of nativity, each float telling the same story but doing so with style and aesthetic nuance that separates it from the others.

now THERE’s a collection idea: something that you can bring out once a year at a time when everyone displays theirs…i have some Christmas albums (in no particular order) that accomplish the same thing:

Band Aid:
Do They Know It's Christmas? (1984)
a band of pop musicians drawn together by bob geldof (of the boomtown rats) and midge ure (of ultravox) on november 25, 1984 to record a special benefit song written by geldof and ure to raise money and awareness for the victims of a famine of biblical proportions in ethiopia that year. a larger live concert event called Live Aid was staged the following summer for the same cause. through the concert tickets, recordings, books and other merchandise, as well as the benefit moneys that were raised during the actual global 'telemiracle'-type concerts, over $300 000 000 was raised. the band aid record and the live aid concerts, although not the first benefits of this type (george harrison of the beatles staged The Concert for Bangladesh on august 1, 1971 which probably served as a helpful model for geldof's Live Aid event) they seemed to usher in a new era where pop musicians began to use their celebrity and their influence as a conversive, rather than subversive force for world change.

Various Artists:
A Very Special Christmas (1987)
many pop stars who met each other for the first time either in the recording of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' , the american music industry's benefit song 'We Are The World' (written by Michael Jackson) the canadian music industry's contribution 'Tears Are Not Enough', or in the blur that culminated on july 13, 1985 with Live Aid, rallied to put together an album of Christmas favourites old and new for Special Olympics.

Jon Anderson:
Three Ships (1985)
the singer of the progressively epic art rock band 'yes' and longtime collaborator with vangelis (electronic composer of the oscar awarded soundtrack to the film Chariots of Fire) put together a particularly spacey, mid 80's-esque collection of Christmas songs and justice anthems. The record was dedicated to raising awareness for 'Beyond War' which continues to be a voice for justice and peace even today.

John Denver & The Muppets:
A Christmas Together
the soundtrack of a 1979 television special of the same name, this muppet record features a rollicking version of the beach boys' christmas hit 'little saint nick' (which follows the same formula as their earlier tune 'little deuce coup') that i worked up with a group of grade 7's during my internship at lakeview school in 1987. yep, our performance featured puppets as well. those 'kids' are now all 34 years old... 11 years older than i was when i taught them.

Boney M:
Christmas Album (1981)
okay, i do NOT know why i have this album. i've never actually bought the record, yet have somehow owned 3 copies. however, speaking of christmas concerts, how would we live without 'mary's boy child' at least once in the holiday season?

Zero Mostel/ Alan Mills:
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957)
the grinch story is great, but only takes up one side of the record and, in truth, i've never played it. i bought this record at value village because of side2: Christmas Songs From Many Lands, Sung In English by Alan Mills. see, my brother-in-law used to play this folk record when we would come to visit at Christmastime to play games and drink egg nog. terry was twelve years older than his baby sister, my wife vonda, and was the closest thing to a true modern day renaissance man that i will probably ever meet. a brilliant artist, athlete, musician, leader, mathematician, educator, dad and friend, his friendship and approval were kind of a big deal to me as i was trying to find my place in my wife's family...we played tennis together and talked about God and the beatles and i always said i wanted to be like terry when i grew up. he was killed with his wife by a drunk driver on october 11, 2003.

George Frederick Handel:
Messiah (1741)
handel wrote this entire oratorio over a three week period. a powerfully spiritual encounter for the composer resulted in one of the most famous and well respected pieces of music ever to feature words and music by God.

Michael W. Smith:
Christmas (1988)
orchestra, choir, synthesizers and some basic guitar, bass and drums come together in an album so rich in classical texture and (with the exception of, perhaps a painfully 80's rendition of 'angels we have heard on high') timeless in its delivery that it can be played outside the Christmas season and still bring about a rich awareness of the presence of God in the room.

each of these tells the same story- albeit the details and priorities may vary from telling to telling, each one of these bears tidings of great joy which shall be to all people…for unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying
‘Glory to God in the highest- and on earth peace, good will towards men!’ (luke 2.10-14)

i know these words almost verbatim because linus has recited them yearly as part of A Charlie Brown Christmas since 1965.

crazy thoughts

2009-12-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

my friend posted a note on facebook one day, inviting anyone in the online network/community to comment on why her brain must be 'filled with craziness…' i wondered if she was looking for a serious answer or an ironic one, but realized that my most serious answer was inescapably ironic:

truth can be used to misdirect us, leading to the intense inner conflict that is the direct result of the right things being used the wrong way in order for the wrong conclusions to be drawn from the right arguments… that’s why we call it crazy.

the irony is that somehow it’s what we want.

if this misdirection feeds our misery, it’s because we somehow find comfort and stability in that; if it feeds our faithlessness, it’s because we prefer the doubts- embrace them even; if it feeds our sense of self-loathing or worthlessness or victimization, it’s because these things appeal to us more than their alternatives.

this irony is the thing that I find more perplexing than pretty much anything else in the human condition... but paul did too. in his letter to the roman church, chapter 7, verses 15-25, he shares probably the most frank and encouraging thing he has ever written.

it's a source of real hope as long as we can make it all the way to the end... to push through the despair that causes one to shout "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (7.24) to finally conclude with "Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (7.25)

***
it's just an ordinary day on the prairie
i feel the wind blow through my hair
and i know you use these times when i feel lonely
to show me that you really care

and i can feel your spirit just like the power of the wind
and i can hear you whisper as you call my name
i'm beginning to understand

the daily burdens, they grow so heavy
at times i feel i may stumble and i may fall
then to feel your presence there to remind me
that i don't have to bear it all

and i can feel your spirit just like the power of the wind
and i can can hear you whisper as you call my name
i feel it when you take my hand

(selah)

but you know me, sometimes i get bothered
and i get feeling that all i can do is wrong
finally in my anguish i cry out to you
only to find that you were waiting there all along

('windsong' was the first song i wrote in this part of the country. i was 19 and had just left home for college. apparently some things never really change... nor do some people. i'd probably choose different words today, but be saying basically the same thing.)

how do they know it's christmas?

2009-12-13T04:43:00.000-08:00

i'm just listening to my 12" EP of band aid's 'do they know it's christmas'. on it, in addition to the song that raised millions of dollars and millions of prayers for those in ethiopia enduring a famine of biblical proportions, there is a lengthy 'bonus track' which contains spoken yuletide greetings from a number of musicians participating in the recording.

here's one:
'It's Christmas 1984 and there are more starving folk on our planet than ever before. Please give them a thought this season and do whatever you can, no matter how small, to help them live. Peace be with you.' (David Bowie)

so where are we a quarter of a century later? have we, with all this talk about being global villagers and the like, been moved to live Jesus' gospel of hope and justice in our everyday living?

John 3.16 does state very clearly that this 'only begotten son' and the 'everlasting life' promised should be available to 'whosoever believeth.'

the challenge is to make this gospel of grace believeable for all, through generous living and loving that touches others, wherever and whoever they are.

any colour you like

2009-12-09T15:30:00.001-08:00

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (revelation7.9-10)
it's nice to just take an idea and run with it a ways; see where it goes. i was thinking about this big worship gathering revealed by God and described by john when something gelled...

the apostle john, exiled on the island of patmos while his faith brothers are all being systematically murdered for their terrorist ties with the rabbi known as jeshua ben joseph, describes the worship crowd gathered as multicultural, multi-ethnic, multilinguistic and so on. a fairly heterogenous group, all standing there waving palm branches just like when Jesus arrived in jerusalem, only instead of crying 'save us' (hosanna) they are proclaiming to whom salvation belongs.

but it's the white robes bit that really caught me, in light of all that comes before it. i suppose it's fair to say that white is Jesus' team colour, what with all that 'washes white as snow' talk. however, one might lose track of another possible significance of the multitudes clothed in white, defaulting to the simple truth that white shows dirt and can therefore only be seen as white when it is pure... the white stands for purity.

not that there's anything wrong with that.

so many things in our physical realm are not necessarily restricted to being only what they seem: take a simple beam of white light. we all remember the science class project where a beam of white light is directed into a glass prism which separates the colour spectrum of that beam of light and projects these colours on the wall adjacent to it. then there is, of course, the classic pink floyd album cover...

here's the thing, though: when we perceive a colour, we are really perceiving how just that band of the spectrum reflects back off of the coloured object: a green object only looks green because it is treated with something (paint, dye, whatever) that reflects only the green in a beam of white light.

a beam of white light contains all the colours of the spectrum in perfect balance and unity. it reflects off of the surface of something conducive representing this perfect balance and unity.

that the great multitude that no one can count, with representation from every nation, tribe, people and language, is singing salvation songs wearing white, reflecting the perfect brilliance of almighty God who is the only source of true light in the cosmos, suggests more than purity.

it speaks of perfect communion.

escape from this mind prison?

2009-11-25T07:39:00.000-08:00

last week, vandals left a simple but poignant message on the steps of the church:

Escape from this Mind Prison

i almost put it on the sign out front, not as some kind of a thumb-your-nose-back gesture against those who took the care to stencil the letters and then spray paint them, but as an invitation to those carrying a load or burden that continues to box in their perspective, framing it in pain, fallenness, broken faith, betrayal and resultant mistrust, as well as basic lack or loss of hope.

the writer of the book of hebrews challenges us (in hebrews 10.25) to be instrumental in opening each others’ minds, inspiring each other to revolution and beautiful action.

(this is explored a bit further in the blogpost 'you say you want a revolution' and can be found by clicking here. )

when I think about the message that was neatly and poetically written on the sidewalk, I am reminded once again that the power of darkness in our world has some struggling with the difference between freedom and slavery: the worship gathering affords us the opportunity to escape from the prison of hopelessness and pain that masquerades as life here, just east of Eden, gaining some perspective in order to more meaningfully serve love and hope to those still pacing back and forth in their cages.

there's a reason that the word sanctuary is used.

a long ride down a curvy road

2009-11-18T09:56:00.001-08:00

a friend was in my office one day and he presented me with a poser:

when you buy a car, you need to take it in every six months or your warranty is void. some employers require employees to get a yearly physical as part of their contract agreement. so why doesn't the church require people to come in for a check up on their marriage once or twice a year?

it was a good question, for which i did not have a good answer.

***

in his classic book zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, robert pirsig discusses what he believes are the fundamental differences between classicism and romanticism.

The romantic mode is primarily inspirational, imaginative, creative, intuitive. Feelings rather than facts predominate. 'Art' when it is opposed to 'Science' is often romantic. It does not proceed by reason or by laws. It proceeds by feeling, intuition and aesthetic conscience...

The classic mode, by contrast, proceeds by reason and by laws- which are themselves underlying forms of thought and behaviour...

Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic.

There is a classic aesthetic which romantics often miss because of its subtlety. The classic style is straightforward, unadorned, unemotional, economical and carefully proportioned. Its purpose is not to inspire emotionally, but to bring order out of chaos and make the unknown known. It is not an aesthetically free and natural style. It is aesthetically restrained. Everything is under control. Its value is measured in terms of the skill with which this control is maintained...

Persons tend to think and feel exclusively in one mode or the other and in doing so tend to misunderstand and underestimate what the other mode is all about... (Pirsig, p67)

i was intrigued by the common thread that seemed to be pulling some personal reading, a personal conversation and a pile of relational circumstance together, synthesizing them into an idea that i could grasp. as i thought about marriage relationships and the need for ongoing and intentional connection within them, as well as regular diagnostic exercise, the thought crystalized:

in order to enjoy a longer ride (romantic), we need to tend to the necessary maintenance (classic). classicism is the key to a more satisfying and prolonged romance.

not wanting to oversimplify relational dynamics, i would contend that, in some way, every action and interaction taking place between a man and woman contributes to either a bond between them or its opposite: a rift.

looking closely at the biblical story of david and michal (2 samuel 6.14-23) i recognized a single, rather straightforward problem that results in a fight so final that a rift is formed between them where a bond once existed- a rift which endures the rest of their days and leaves them childless together. the problem is this:

somewhere along their way, they stop relating to each other.

they lose track of the fact that they are one flesh, meant to share intimately together on all levels. they stop connecting. they stop feeding the living thing that is the relationship which has been established between them over years of knowing and growing.

having not attended to the basic classical maintenance needs within the relationship, the romance has ended, leaving a man and woman shouting at each other in the same street that, just hours earlier, has been the location for a great celebration of God's favour and restorative power.

it's a sad story and the sadness is increased by two things:
1) its preventability- things didn't need to go this way
2) its familiarity- we see the same things happen daily within our relational circles. just as i sat in my office listening to my friend share of his own marital journey, we all find ourselves sitting together, either sharing our own tales of marital disappointment, confusion and pain, or listening to those of another. the story of david and michal is neither the first, nor last story of distance that has opened up between a man and a woman.

No one can escape ‘bad’ moments in marriage, but no one is meant to drown in the difficulty. (Dan B Allender)

in his book The 10 Conversations You Must Have Before You Get Married, dr. guy grenier opens with a list of 15 rules of good communication (which are really strategies for meaningful discourse) and they are fairly predictable:
7 productive communication strategies to embrace
4 destructive communication tendencies to avoid
2 anger control strategies to apply, and
2 long-term maintenance strategies to lock in...

long-term maintenance strategies?
yep, with a rather familiar analogy that brings us full circle:

You've probably heard that changing the oil in your car is the single most useful thing you can do to maintain your vehicle. Every five thousand miles or ten thousand kilometres, you're supposed to do this basic, standard maintenance. Depending on how much you drive, this typically means an oil change every three or four months. Metaphorically, this type of regular maintenance is what you want to be doing with your relationship as well. To extend the metaphor a bit, in the same way that a regular oil change is perhaps the best thing you can do for your car, checking in with your partner as to the ongoing status of the relationship may also be the best possible approach to long-term relationship maintenance you can take...

"How we doin'?" conversations prevent lingering resentments from coming to full flower by ensuring that there are regular opportunities to deal with upsetting issues. They demand a culture of problem solving in the relationship and dramatically reduce the possibility of issue avoidance and the use of passive-aggressive strategies. Essentially, "How we doin'?" conversations make being frank and candid with each other a regular and expected event rather than one that's exceptional. (Grenier pp63-64)

so what if everyone who is married made a 'diagnostic' appointment once a year to spend an hour just talking together with someone who was there to help them explore the existing relationship between husband and wife and attend to some possible maintenance needs that exist within the marriage and which may be keeping that thing from really flying down that curving road that stretches from now 'til death do us part?'

*note: to celebrate their 30th anniversary, my mother and father rode a motorcycle diagonally across the continent, from british columbia to the tip of the florida keys. it took them thirty days to make the round trip. that was twenty years ago and they still ride the bike together. that's what i'm talking about.

who am I?

2009-11-15T22:49:00.000-08:00

Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell's confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
Compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

eating words for breakfast

2009-10-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

at the recent Global Leadership Summit, i found myself sitting, once again, in a session where someone smart and together challenged the rest of us to embrace balance in our lives if we are to succeed beyond mere survival in our leadership exploits.

being what i like to call chronically overextended, i heard the message, recognized it was for me, and logged it away. so when the guy who had been charged with transitioning us from session to session through some presumed teachable moments said 'let's take a couple minutes to just hear from God' i was ready to check out because, after all, i had already heard from him and he was reminding me of some things of which i was already aware and in a perpetual battle with the demands of life to apply.

but in the few minutes taken, God said something else.

the message was rather simple and direct:
go to bed at night and read your bible in the morning.

i did NOT see that one coming.

see, late at night is when i often play catch-up ball. answer emails, read books for classes, blog, listen to music- i've always stayed up late. late at night is even when i have historically read my bible...

except when its too late and i'm too tired, having attended to everything else. that's when the justifications defaults pop-up. the best one is

in the interest of balance, i should probably just go to sleep now.

there are a couple of compromises that are tied for second, should the best one not be able to continue its reign. they both involve doing spiritual disciplines like prayer or bible reading for a minute or two before falling asleep.

not much of a spiritual growth regimen.

so when God invited me to just switch it up, going to bed at night and reading my bible in the morning, i found myself and my life radically reoriented in a couple rather necessary ways:

1) going to bed at a decent time is an act of faith- a form of ongoing sabbath that implies by its practice that i believe in my God to sustain me- indeed, in some cases to speed me- through the responsibilities and challenges of each day, attending to it all in the time allotted. this has required greater discipline and some important reprioritization with careful attention to the time wasting that needs to be trimmed off of the edges of things.

2) beginning each day with scripture has become like starting it off with a good, balanced breakfast. i have fuel for the day which powers me through it with the perspective that i need in order to make the very action of living, worship offered in spirit and in truth.

and living life- giving away love and hope in service of the people placed in our path- is that to which we've been called into existence to do by God's power for God's glory, right?

God's eyebrows?

2009-06-17T23:30:00.001-07:00

i had an opportunity to engage in some interesting dialogue with a friend of mine the other day. it all began with a link to a fun site called The Brick Testament.on this site we find edited highlights of the bible, all illustrated with tableaux created out of lego blocks.

but why is God frowning?

it's not that i think God always smiles- that wouldn't be a real person. however, neither is a God who is perpetually frowning. i mean, why would God say that everything was good and very good if the divine was actually uniformly displeased?

my friend shared some thoughts:

I do believe that God does not have a lot to smile about when He looks at Canada.

Let's be honest about it - we are a nation of luke-warm believers. I don't think He is smiling much when He thinks about spewing us out of His mouth.

When the Bible tells us to "run the race", how many of us do you feel are actually running to win? I think we are power walking at best some of the time. How many of us praise Him as we should - He created us and protects us . How many of us truly walk in obedience - He sacrificed his only Son for our sins. How many of us search the scriptures daily and spend a significant amount of time in prayer - can any of us say as the Psalmist "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee" or as Paul wrote "That I may know Him and the power of His resurection and the fellowship of His suffering"

The race that I am in - I certainly am not running. I know that is a choice of mine - I own that 100%.

I am placing no judgement or condemnation on anyone - this is just my perspective and I thought I would share it with you as my friend.

yeah, there is much to frown at in canada and around the world.

however, as he pointed out, the lordship issues are our own. the fact that we are unfaithful, disobedient and spiritually flacid is due to the choices we make- our stewardship of God's greatest gift next to life itself: our free will.

when our kids make decisions that represent some kind of sell out or compromise- the turning from what they know to be true in favour of what they just want to do- i think that we as parents typically have some degree of frustration, sure, but we also love our kids and try to walk them through this stuff, affording them grace and mercy that is only God's to give.

i think that in light of all the willful disobedience and disregard for love and provision, it's more likely that God's eyebrows / \ in sadness, disappointment and teeth gnashing pain, than they go \ / in anger, judgement and retribution. that's how i, with only a small portion of love, grace and mercy, respond to mistakes in the lives of those i love...

Jesus had a bit to say on this one in matthew 7.9-11

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

interesting- this passage directly follows some of Jesus' teaching on judgement.

here's something to think about: God has agreed to withhold judgement from the earth until that final day. see, grace is really a breach of justice... 'unmerited favour' of God. God cannot be both gracious and impartial because they are polar opposites. we don't get what we deserve and will continue to live under the canopy of God's mercy until there's nothing left to say, no cases left to plead, no intercessions left to be made. then, and only then, will God rise up from the mercy seat and separate the sheep from the goats... yet even then, i can't imagine his eyebrows furrowed with the chill of retribution. not when it means losing his beloved forever. i think the expression of God will contain much more pain and sacrifice and utter hopelessness than sanctimonial fury.

speaking from experience, i think we frown at ourselves far more than God frowns at us.

the good news that is pizza

2009-04-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

it is on cold, dark, rainy nights when i am deeply in need and yet find the prospect of venturing out into the abyss for a dine-in experience overwhelming, that i am most ready for the good news that is pizza, and it is at these times that i am most grateful for those who will bring the pizza to me free of charge.

free delivery is awesome.

it’s not that i want my pizza free- i’m happy to pay for it- i just don’t have what it takes on nights like that to go get it myself… i’m more likely to just be hungry and miserable.

that’s why, if we had a family pizza place, i would offer free delivery… because i know what it’s like to need something and yet to be overwhelmed by the things that stand in the way of getting what i need. see, it’s not that people are avoiding the transaction- that exchange where they give of that which they have in exchange for that which they need- it’s that they are more likely to engage in this life-giving transaction if the transaction itself is brought to them.

sure- we could stick to our guns and keep our exclusively dine-in establishment going for the regular dine-in crowd (for both those our regular clientele and those who like to sample a variety of dine-in experiences) OR we could also endeavor to make our pizza available to those who are hungry and are, for reasons of their own, unable to or uninterested in coming to our fine restaurant.

it would all come down to this: what’s the focus of our pizza business:
to provide a dining experience or to get our pizzas into people?

two prayers

2008-12-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

two monks went up onto a hill to pray on a windy day.
at the insistence of the one, they both brought pillows.

upon attaining the summit, the other monk sat down and began to ready his pillow for a time of lengthy prayer and meditation. the one, however, remained standing. with his eyes he followed the wind as it bent the trees and brushed the weeds back and forth in waves through the valley below.

the seated monk began to pray and meditate.
the standing monk continued to stand, looking down.

after awhile, the seated monk hazarded a glance, with one eye, towards his standing comrade. with a swift and decisive motion, the standing monk produced a knife from beneath his habit and cut open his pillow, releasing the feathers, surprisingly multi-coloured, into the valley, carried by the wind.

the seated monk stood up and walked to his friend's side. the standing monk, whose idea it had been to bring pillows this day on their prayer walk, remained silent.

the wind continued to blow and the feathers continued to drift to and fro for quite some time, each one eventually finding the ground on the terms established for it by that wind and of course by the spinning of the earth.

the once-seated monk finally asked:
brother, how will you pray in comfort, now that you have no pillow?

his teacher replied:
i would rather sacrifice to make this world a softer place
than pray comfortable prayers.

The State of the Church These Days...

2008-10-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some blogging around the net and because I am one person with one set of experiences - I cannot speak for the whole state of the church (as much I try to anyways). I am going to ask a series of questions - answer if you want - and let me know how you see the church.

(1) What programs are offered at your church for people that are struggling with poverty in your community?

(2) How many people attend your church and how many of those people do you have close relationships with?

(3) Do you think church has made you a more ethical person? If so, why?

(4) If I had to ask you a % - what % of people in your church do you think are very moral people and would not hurt another soul?

(5) How do you wish the money in the church was being spent?

(6) What aspect of church do you find most rewarding?

(7) Concerning church focus - what % is on spiritual matter and what % is on here and now matters?

300+1

2008-08-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

so this is the 301st post on northVUs.
cool.

what have we learned so far?

not everyone who reads writes.
not everyone who writes reads.
not everyone who argues fights.
not everyone who fights bleeds.

fair enough.

a movie that found its way into a lot of dialogue awhile back was '300.'

no doubt pretty much everyone has seen it in whole or in part by now. we've certainly seen the 'WE ARE SPARTA!' kick-the-guys-into-the-well trick spoofed ad nausium .

perhaps the reason that the movie wins for most of us has nothing to do with the fact that the underdogs lose but do so heroically. perhaps the movie works because audiences embrace the art of larger than life storytelling- and delight in the whole idea that it is the telling of the story that determines the impact of it, not necessarily the details, factual or fictional, that are covered.

the facts are historically chronicled and anyone with access to an encyclopedia can check 'em...

(you remember those epic, leather-bound, pre-internet, paper compendiums of all the most useful and useless information a baby-booming household could possibly ever need in order to participate knowledgeably in the realization of optimistic post-war self-actualization dreams)

...but the facts are embellished in the telling to the point where
xerxes is a godlike giant 9 feet tall
his troops are darkly intimidating and mysterious
his concubines mind-bendingly exotic ...

(interesting, considering this is the environment in which a biblical heroine named esther does some pretty great work as wife of this very same godking, saving her countrymen from a jealousy-inspired act of state-sanctioned anti-semitism)

and the simple warriors of sparta are commonly steeped in enough uncommon valour that their six-packs are denser and more well-defined than batman's body armour.

basic fruit drink facts but with redbull intensity.
scandalous pulp publication story telling..
pain and promise
treachery and triumph
hope, hype and heroism
alliteration galore and rumours of glory

yeah, like that.

but we recognize that the spartans fail, right?
miserably.
they die like dogs...
courageous, stubborn and proud dogs
but dogs nonetheless.

so why does a story of failure, gloriously told or not, captivate us?
because failure is not an option- it is a necessity. (Rev Edwin Lee)
because increscunt animi virescit volnere virtus (Friedriche Nietzsche)
(the spirit grows- strength is restored by wounding)

because we need to be inspired beyond failure and disappointment, lest we curl up in the fetal position and let life on fallen planet earth have its way with us again and again and again. we need to know that something good can come out of something bad... that the bad guys don't always win any more than the good guys always lose. that there is hope lurking in the backstory of even the most hopeless of life's episodes.

take, for example, the couch i recently bought.

i was excited because i knew that bringing this sofabed down into our basement would allow us to more hospitably open our home to travellers and such than the current lumpy futon situation. so when i saw this couch that appeared to match the rest of our basement in both function and form, and realized that it was even on sale, i jumped at the paperwork.

i knew it was perfect because it needed to be ordered.
no problem.
it would not be here for three weeks.
great- more time to get things ready.

so three weeks later, when the thing arrived, i had already arranged to borrow a truck from someone to pick it up, and had secured the helping hands of another to help get the thing out of the truck, through the door, down the stairs, around the corner, through the pocket door and into the media room where it would rest.

it was a bit of work getting the thing through the door. had to take the door right off, as it was a bit bulky to go through.

we had to lift it over our heads in order to angle it right down the stairs.

halfway down i realized that the packaging (all that clear plastic and cardboard that had served as protection during shipping) was making the thing bigger than it actually was, so i removed it while my friend balanced the couch in the stairwell.

that was went the bed opened up. we were, after all, holding it upside down and tipped to one side. springs will be springs.

so i tied the thing closed and then discovered the awful truth...
this couch wasn't going to go around the corner.

i should maybe step back and say that, after many more trials, new angles, greater force and such, i discovered that this now rather roughed up couch was not going to go around the corner.

back up the stairs it went, and around the front of the house to the garage, where it still remains to this day.

not that there's anything wrong with our garage... i had just envisioned something a bit nicer for any guests that might happen to roll through town and were in need of some free accomodation.

upon telling many others, i learned that pretty much everybody measures a couch before they buy it. even the good people at the furniture store were surprised that i hadn't measured first. by the time i came to ask them directly, news of my dilemma had already circulated amongst them.

granted, this is not exactly an epic battle. it is the everyday kind that we all face... but where is the hope? if i am to be numbered with the spartans, the 301st to fall in this, the 301st post, then i need to know that somehow my suffering has not been in vain; that there is something good that is to come of this...

the best i could do was to find an allegory

see, there is a way to get this couch into the basement.
essentially, what we need is teleportation: we need to disintegrate the couch on one side of the corner and then reintegrate it on the other side of the corner, through the door. we are in need of a carpenter.

now to find a saviour who will do this for free...

it's your jump

2008-08-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'
(Jeremiah 6.16)

the crossroads has become a traditional place for us- a recognized symbol of those times when one’s life transitions from one phase to another by his or her own volition. it involves decision- the active engagement of free will.

and we come to crossroads many times over the course of a life. there are always options to consider, factors to calculate in, outcomes and consequences to weigh out and ultimately a choice to be made.

at the crossroads of life, we selah.

another transitional symbol is the bridge. bridges are typically these carefully constructed causeways which join two very separate lands that are divided by some type of water hazard which is impossible to cross on foot, but even a huge log laying across a fast-moving channel can serve as one. whatever the form, the function remains the same because, like crossroads, bridges are essentially about movement into a new land.

for my family, a certain bridge plays a very significant role in the transition from childhood to manhood. however, instead of crossing it, the point is to jump off of it…

every culture has them... these things that young men do to prove they are old enough and old men do to prove they are young enough. they are portals which lead to that elusive and undefined wormhole in the space-time continuum called 'our prime'

this bridge, some sixty feet above the thompson river (depending on time of year), is such a portal.

What does it mean to be a man? Am I a man? What should I do in this or that situation? These boys are growing up into uncertain men because the core questions of their souls have gone unanswered, or answered badly. (John Eldredge)

on holidays recently back in my hometown, my sons and i went bridge-jumping. the first time i had jumped off of this thing was when i was about 12... i dragged my younger brother up and off with me a couple years later.

however, that was very long ago. at the time of our holiday, i had not been 'in the air' for about fourteen years and so my boys had grown up on the mythology, having never actually seen me or my brother actually jump. so we decided, amidst some well-meaning protest from both their mother and mine, to take the historic leap together. it was time. my younger brother went ahead of us and then the three of us jumped, hitting the water in order of age (or weight).

the boys will never be the same... nor will i.

somehow their passing through the portal also changed me- can't explain it really, other than to simply acknowledge that when we see something or someone differently, it usually means that change has happened on both sides of the lens.

anyway, a couple days after successfully conquering the height and gravity of the bridge, we decided to paddle a canoe out to copper island and go cliff jumping (something else i hadn't done since the last time i went over the side of the red bridge.) this jump was more precarious because, although it was slightly lower, there was the fact that in order to clear the rocks and safely hit the water some fifty feet below, the jumper needed to hurl himself more than ten feet forward from only a two-step approach.

after i had gone to essentially prove two things to the guys: that it could be done and that i had the jam to do it (yeah, i know- so lame), it was time for my older son to go. in order to tap into a little external motivation through sibling pressure, he asked for a countdown, and his younger brother obliged. he jumped, arms and legs flailing, whooping and hollering all the way to a rather uncomfortable enema that resulted from landing a bit wrong.

by this time i had made it back up the rocks and was ready to film my younger son- the one that had been just two months old the last time i had been here. he asked for a countdown and i refused.

refused?

it just seemed wrong to me to be somehow putting that kind of pressure on my boy to be like his old man, or even like his older brother. i was holding the camera, documenting (rather poorly, i might add) the whole thing, but it was his jump... it had to be his call when and how he addressed the challenges that were presenting themselves.

and anyway, there were enough boats anchored in the bay to provide plenty of external pressure to conquer this... nothing like moving through a rite of passage in front of a live audience.

so when he was ready, he took it on his own terms, silently but with perfect form. his brother, still in the water, could be heard loudly and proudly proclaiming 'he's only fourteen!'

every culture has them...
these things that young men do to prove they are old enough
and old men do to prove they are young enough.

all this business of growing up and never growing old seems to plague some of us to no end, but within all the confusion and quest for an identity that ascends to relevance and remains that way, never growing obsolete or otherwise outdated, there is the volition factor that has been in heartbreaking play since the beginning of human history:

you can do whatever you want.

the fact that we often want the wrong things out of life is probably a whole nother blog, but certainly the establishment of oneself in the bigger picture, having a role and a sense of identity within this role, has to do with the fact that, in the end, it's your jump...

Parashot Chukkot (Numbers 19-22:1)

2008-07-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to introduce the Torah reading tomorrow at shul so thought I'd share here what I've written. At shul we have two talks during the course of the 3 hour service. The one I will be giving is just prior to the Torah being chanted and is an overview of the reading with comments of course. Later on someone else will give a d'var Torah which is more like a short sermon.

This week’s parashah, Chukkot, is a fascinating parashah with speaks of death and dealing with death, of battles avoided and battles fought, of songs of triumph and voices of complaint.

The parashah presents a series of perhaps contradictory images. There is a red heifer ritual which makes an impure person pure while at the same time rendering a pure person impure. There is the rod which was instrumental in gaining our freedom but which now contributes to the downfall of the very leader who led us to freedom. There is a bronze snake fashioned to bring healing to those who spoke against God, yet which we see later in Tanakh being destroyed for leading people away from God. There is the avoidance of conflict with Edom which leads to complaining while the battles fought against the Amorites lead to singing.

The parashah begins with a ritual for being cleansed after coming in contact with a corpse. Three pages in our Chumashim are devoted to describing this mysterious ritual, yet even though the parashah then tells us of Miriam’s death followed shortly thereafter by Aaron’s, we never read of this ritual actually being followed. It remains a bizarre ritual which midrash teaches not even King Solomon could understand!

Immediately following these instructions for the red heifer, we read a very stark statement: Miriam died there and was buried there. That’s it. It seems her death had little impact on the community, yet perhaps the text gives a hint of her value when immediately following this brief statement of her death we read that the community was without water. Our tradition teaches that the well which provided us water in the wilderness was Miriam’s contribution. Her brothers were the leaders, the greatest prophet and the Cohen Gadol, so perhaps the terse statement of Miriam’s death shows how little she was appreciated while she was alive while the subsequent events show how quickly her presence was missed. Perhaps as is often the case with behind the scenes people, her value was not recognized until after she was gone.

The loss of Miriam, of Miriam’s water, led to a thirsty people and an angry brother. The brother’s mourning the loss of their sister, missing the water she provided for them as well, were perhaps not ready to deal with all the stresses of leadership. Perhaps that is why when Aaron dies, 30 days of mourning follows; a result of what we learned from Miriam’s death, that we need time to mourn before we’re required to once more take on the responsibilities of every day living.

When Miriam died there was no mourning period, only complaining people, angry leaders and a rock. One might well wonder what God was thinking in telling a frustrated leader to take a rod and produce water from a rock! Surely it is asking for trouble to put temptation right in someone’s hand! Nevertheless, God holds Moses and Aaron responsible for striking the rock. Moses is told to bring Aaron and Aaron’s son to Mount Hor. Aaron will die there and Aaron’s son will carry on in his father’s stead. Perhaps this is something we also learn from Miriam’s death, that we need to pass things down generation to generation so that the community can carry on even after the loss of someone as valuable as a Cohen Gadol. Aaron dies, his son takes on his role, every one mourns for 30 days. Perhaps it is suiting that the death of a peacemaker was followed by days of peace rather than the upheaval we see after Miriam’s death.

Afterwards Moses alone is left to carry on. The people aren’t allowed to pass through Edom and begin to complain, again, as they are skirting the land. This time God sends serpents and many people die. Moses again intercedes for the people, but this time only after they ask him to do so and this time something is required of the people. If they’re not willing to at least lift their eyes and look at the snake, they will not be healed. In previous intercessions Moses asked for forgiveness for the people and it was granted; Moses had Aaron run through the camp with a fire pan to make expiation for the people. Perhaps this time, with Moses alone and knowing he would soon be joining his siblings, it’s time for the people to start taking some responsibility for themselves and their actions.

The people complained as they avoided conflict with Edom, yet once they were able to fight the Amorites, to conquer land and destroy people, we find bards reciting poetry, a bit of a disturbing, but all too human, image I would say.

The parashah comes to an end with us sitting on the opposite side of the Yarden from Jericho, seemingly poised to enter the land, yet as you can see, Torah, which ends with us still on the opposite side of the Yarden, if far from finished. So close, yet so far. It’s sort of like when Rabbi says, “Let me just say a few words and then we’ll go in for kiddush….”

Smudge Walk 2008 - Cultural Acceptance

2008-06-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Smudge Walk 2008
Thursday June 5th
Scott Collegiate Grounds
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
***Walk starts at 10:00 am

I don't normally ask people to attend events but this one makes sense - and I want to explain why (for those in Regina).

(a) The walk is a symbolic action being taken for the North Central area of Regina and the Aboriginal community therein - and showing a solid effort from the citizens of Regina in the support of positive actions being taken in that neighborhood. A lot of stuff that comes out of there is not positive and people are even scared to 'walk' there at night - and we need to stand solidly against the idea this what we want for that community.

(b) Smudging is an Aboriginal ritual that is like the idea of prayer - or cleansing. The walk is about the symbolic idea of cleansing the neighborhood and praying for it - and in this case - praying with our feet.

(c) It's also a good chance for the churches to get into the good graces of the Aboriginal community and identifying with their causes. The churches have a very weak history with this community and the best way to show solidarity is to participate in events like this. It's a step in the right direction for the church in it's efforts to partner with this community.

It's a great event and chance for people that have not experienced the Aboriginal community in a positive way to find that connection - whilst walking with the community in unity.

PS: I won't be there this year - I really wanted to go - but I have to help with an Aboriginal Leadership Conference at the U of R which is also in solidarity with 'June as Aboriginal History Month'.

Here's one of our chances to truly bridge the gap between the communities.

Getting Along

2008-05-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

A video I saw on another webiste, this week's Torah portion and an ongoing discussion on Jason's blog have all seemed to converge on one theme, finding a way to get along while remaining true to who one is, true to one's purpose in existing.

Jason has been reading through a book, "You Don't Have to Be Wrong For Me to Be Right" by Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, a title that says it all as far as what the book is about. I read the book myself and found it quite intriguing, the idea that there are ways people from different religions can interact and even inspire each other without their religions turning into a pile of mushy nothing.

This week's Torah portion, Bamidbar, the beginning of Numbers is about a census and the assignment of location and tasks to the various tribes and families within tribes. There was a census taken in Exodus, but only of the people as a whole. In Numbers another census was taken only this time people were counted according to their tribe. The question of why the difference was taken up by Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky:

“Until it was established that the central motif in Jewish life is the Sanctuary, there was a danger that one’s identification with his own tribe would lead to “nationalism” and factionalism. Once it was established, however, that all the tribes looked to the Tabernacle as their primary unifying force, the establishment of separate tribal identities would be healthy. Then, each tribe would realize that its individual abilities should be developed for the service of Israel’s national goal of Heavenly service. Then, the tribes would be separate only in terms of the unique roles they were to play in realizing the national destiny.” (The Stone Edition Artscroll Chumash p. 727)

Surely this image can also be projected onto the world of religions, that if we realize we share the common center, we can each focus on using our unique abilities, our religion's unique abilities, in service of that center and the world around us.

In this Torah reading we also note that the tribes were spaced around the Tabernacle in a certain order, There was a reason they were located where they were. For example Judah, the tribe of kings, was directly in front of the entrance to the Tabernacle. Immediately behind Judah was Issachar, which according to Jewish tradition was the tribe of scholars and right behind Issachar was Zebulon, which tradition says was a tribe of merchants. It was best for the king to be closest to God on the one side and to scholars on the other, while remaining somewhat separated from wealth. Yet wealth was needed close at hand to support the scholars and the king. I will not go into the details for every other tribe but suffice it to say, they, too, were grouped together for good reason and placed around the Tabernacle in a manner that would take advantage of their unique talents.

For me this is a beautiful picture, that we are in our unique places for a reason, that our places and talents aren't the same, nor should they be. Yet all of who we are and what we do relates to that same center, the Tabernacle, the place of God's dwelling so that even though we may be very different, that's not a bad thing but is instead the very way that the world was designed to function.

Another lesson from the Torah reading was that we are not allowed to take on the roles assigned to another. "But let not [the Kohathites] go inside and witness the dismantling of the sanctuary, lest they die (Numbers 4:20)." In another post I briefly touched on some interpretations of this verse, but here I would point out that perhaps our death is due to lose of uniqueness. 'They' here could be ambiguous, it could be those whose job is to dismantle the sanctuary as well as those who encroached on another's sacred task. Surely when people lose a sense of the specialness of being who they are supposed to be, they are as one dead to the world? Especially when their demeanor is compared to the life and vitality displayed by one who has that sense of unique purpose, that sense of mattering?

The final piece for me this week was a youtube video of a Rabbi talking about plurality within Judaism. He brings up a wonderful teaching from Kabbalah about how God once filled the whole universe, but then contracted in order for there to be room for us as well. If God can do this for us, surely we in our different religions can do the same for each other? Rather than having to have all space be for us and ours, for us to instead be willing to contract, to leave a space for the 'other' and thus emulate God and God's concern for us.

It is a very tough thing to interact meaningfully across religious boundaries. Most of the time I give up on it as a waste of time and energy, yet perhaps, just perhaps, I have missed seeing the big picture of Bamidbar projected onto our lives today. It's something to think about.

paradise regained?

2008-04-29T07:29:00.003-07:00

'sing with me!
na naa na naa
na naa na naa naa
na naa na naa
na naa na naa naa
louder!
(continues)

in harmony!
(continues)

with dancing!
(continues)

one two three four...

and in comes the band, hurling itself into the final song of the night.

this is a rich worship moment in a rather unlikely place...

the cover band i play with was winding up the evening at a local bar, and the crowd dancing and singing in front of the stage was, for the most part, not going to remember a whole lot in the morning. i looked at the dancers, smiles, arms waving in the air, hands open, voices hoarse from singing this wordless refrain over and over again at the top of their lungs, and felt a strange love and compassion that was, for me, a God thing... a moment of revelation.

in that moment i realized that leading worship can take place anywhere. as a matter of fact, i would contend that it must needs take place anywhere there are worshipers to be found.

and there are worshipers to be found everywhere.
we were all created for this.

not necessarily for singing and dancing and such, but for the celebration of life and love through community fellowship and service to one another. God is glorified whenever these things happen because, in my view, all good things are of God and all bad things are good things that have been somehow compromised.

singing, dancing and celebration of life and love is a good thing.
often when we think of the word 'worship' we default to ideas like singing and dancing and celebration of life and love.

now whether this worship is qualified or informed by knowledge or experience or even intention is probably a whole nother blog, but the notion that human beings can be engaged in the worship of God simply by partying is probably one that will raise (or furrow) some eyebrows unless i qualify it a bit.

see, every time i step onto a stage and strap a guitar on, whether it is at a church or a cabaret, there is this opportunity to lead others in musical worship. for me, it comes down to simply recognizing the opportunity to unite people rather than divide them, using this gift that has been entrusted to my care. i remember a lyric from a latter day larry norman song (scroll back a couple posts for more tribute to his wisdom and impact upon my thinking and believing) which states that Jesus is still the only reason I pick up my guitar.

that statement need not be cheesy... it could be a simple truth of intention, embraced and given open-ended expression.

don miller, on the last page of his book prayer and the art of volkswagen maintenance writes about a similar moment of revelation that arrested him while thoughtfully gazing at a sunrise:

These mountains , which have seen untold suns rise, long to thunder praise but stand reverent, silent so that man's weak praise would be given God's full attention.

It is a great wonder that those exposed to such beauty forfeit their obedience in the face of this miraculous evidence.

indeed. Jesus echoes the same sentiment in luke 19.37-40. it appears that all of creation waits to sing the praises of almighty God, but God prefers to hear praises from humankind.

so why do we remain silent most of the time?
and why do we need to be half smashed in order to sing and dance without inhibition?

perhaps it is because we are still so self-conscious (not to be confused with self-aware) that we need some form of external social lubricant to get over ourselves enough to engage in a freedom dance without feeling awkward. i mean, after the fall chronicled in genesis 3, the first thing that the people in the story do is look down and fixate upon their own shortcomings!

(thanks for that one, david niven, 46th annual academy awards... google it)

it is from the fall that we have learned to live here
not in healthy humility,
but in unhealthy humiliation.

and again and again we see examples around us of situations where life on fallen planet earth is so characterized by pain, fear and failure that people need to deaden the feelings of these things significantly in order to relate, to connect, to even talk to each other- much less worship together. we have become so disconnected from God and each other through our own disobedience and stubbornness that the garden seems like little more than a distant dream- an idyllic paradise myth at best; a metaphor for either the loss of innocence or the awakening of metacognition at least.

but as i looked out from that stage at the dancers with the smiles on their faces, the hands in the air and the mouths open in song, i wondered if our local pub was not just another outpost of the rock and roll babylon franchise, but was in fact a twinkling glimmer of hope- or paradise regained- that, in this sphere, can only be embraced and experienced for many while slightly merry, but which will one day be the way of things once our fallenness has truly fallen away and we are left completely naked before God and man, having no shame- only freedom.

when God winks

2008-04-23T07:11:00.000-07:00

it was my pleasure to accompany my son's high school band and choir on their recent trip to disneyland in order to participate in disney's magic music days (google it- it is pretty awesome). there are times when serving your community is an incredible hardship, an exercise in well-meaning faithfulness and obedience. this was not one of those times... to be permitted to be included as a chaperone felt more like the smile of God than anything resembling service.

perhaps all service is supposed to feel like the smile of God. probably a whole nother blog.

in any event, as is my custom, i found myself on the flight reflecting upon things that had taken place during the trip. here is a journal excerpt, chronicling my thoughts on one event in particular...
***

after lunch and a little bit of time spent at hermosa beach feeling conspicuously canadian amidst the perpetual tans of those who probably spend every sunday afternoon there, it was back to church...

the crystal cathedral was a place where God ambushed us with a rich outpouring of divine favour and presence. i will admit that going into the place i wore a bit of a smirk on my heart, in that what i saw was a big fancy building erected by the tax-deductable donations of many a feelgood-fixated, positivity-leads-to-prosperity predisposed, tvchurch-going, right wing republican, socially disconnected religious person... however, i repented of this pride upon being given a glimpse of God's sense of humour here.

(for more on what i think God's sense of humour looks like, go to
http://northvus.blogspot.com/2005/03/laughing-god.html)

the choir was slated to sing in the crystal cathedral alright- in between services while the cleaning staff vacuumed in another part of the church; in the south balcony- the cheap seats, as it were- with no cameras running but our own and none of the faithful in attendance apart from a handful of tourists and those we brought with us.

my smirk remained- i can be such an arrogant little jerk sometimes.

yet the kids were encouraged to embrace the experience and so i noted that the cathedral was very big, very bright and very beautiful, housing the fifth largest pipe-organ in the whole white world.

the choir moved into place, as did its attending fans. as our cameras rolled, swells of harmony began to touch the many corners of the room, warming them, sticking to them, colouring their glassy surfaces with the rich sound of a bunch of school kids who had begun singing together as strangers to each other as well as to their directors, but who had been united by countless hours of practice and performance and who now experienced a sense of fellowship, belonging and identity that would survive even the imminent closing of the school that had brought them together.

there was something deeply redemptive and passionate moving behind the rich sound of these teenaged voices from this terminal public high school singing praises (in many cases uniformed and unqualified by any type of personal or professed faith relationship or experience) to God.

the beauty was both transcendent and innocent;
both luminescent and reflective...

and it had nothing to do with buildings built by human hands- neither the school building and name, so often given perhaps more credit than warranted; nor the nearly empty church of glass that now resonated with the sound of community.

and this community continued to grow.

among those in attendance was a russian family visiting from sacramento... what a delight it was for them to hear, from somewhere in the south balcony, the sound of ave maria (the sergeii rachmaninoff version) sung in their mother tongue- the very same version that had been part of their provincial church services so many years ago.

also moved to join in was the organist and music director of the crystal cathedral who had happened to be passing through the big room... greeted not by silence or the sound of a vacuum cleaner in the distance, but by a rich and unexpected vocal polyphony. so delighted was he that he was prompted to interrupt the music with a blast through the majestic pipes... a choir like this should be singing from the choir loft in the morning service, not from the south balcony to a nearly empty room, he said. perhaps there was something more meaningful to the statement than a simple complement. whatever the case, the choir found themselves invited to sing from the choir loft with accompaniment by the 8000-some pipes of this incredible instrument.

and on the final 'amen' of the Lord's prayer, God winked.

tears flowed as performers and audience found themselves in a moment of inexplicable, spiritually profound import, united in worship and communion with each other and the divine, afforded a glimpse of heaven perhaps... or to at least hear, with our human ears, that which we imagine to be the sound of it

many in the room will spend the rest of their lives trying to make sense of what they experienced that moment in spiritual terms; others will default to deeply satisfying aesthetics... but this is for certain: although many will interpret it differently, no one present will dismiss it.

certainly not i. there was a sense that this was the purpose for which this big glass room had been built- for celebration of life and love, grace and holiness- and that we had been afforded the opportunity to participate in the realization of this purpose.

this was
God's house and
God's song was being sung here, so
God responded. so it goes when
God decides to be playful
in a house made of glass.

local newspaper coverage of the same can be found at
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=ecd7c339-3d62-4fe3-80e4-cf220b6e90db&k=39538

this thieving heart

2008-03-19T09:13:00.001-07:00

break this thieving heart and place it in the ground
turn and walk away as darkness falls all around
pick up all the pieces of your life
as if we'd never met
and maybe then i'd know how to love

crucify this thieving heart-bind it with thorns
strike it with your fists, subject it to scorn
pledge undying faithfulness
and then betray it with a kiss
and maybe then i'd know how to love

take this thieving heart and do with it what you must
feast upon the flesh, forsake its every trust
drink deeply from the cup
it laboured so earnestly to fill
and maybe then
just maybe then
and maybe then i'd know how to love
(1999)

for some futher context and such, click here: whole nother blog

rich man

2008-03-04T08:49:00.000-08:00

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
(romans 12.15)

i don't think i've ever been afforded the opportunity to experience a passage of scripture as literally as i was this past weekend with this particular soundbyte from the apostle paul.

an old friend of mine gave away his daughter in marriage to an amazing guy. i was invited to perform the ceremony. the wedding was saturday.

the same day, a lady from our church family had a birthday. she turned 80.
there was a big party that afternoon.

my 16 year old son was competing at a provincial level in soccer.
his tournament was saturday and sunday.

a dear friend of mine lost his wife to cancer on thursday. she was only 46.
i was honoured to be asked to officiate at the funeral. the funeral was monday.

but it was not the events that marked the weekend for me.
it was the people.

so many people, so many social circles, like a massive venn diagram illustrating how important people are to other people. some, like me were in the common space shared by all four circles, whereas others were in one or two or three circles, some were only in one. there were some that were at the soccer games and at the funeral. there were some that were at the birthday, the wedding and the funeral. some were only at the wedding, but knew people at the birthday and the funeral.

you get the idea...interesting: the most common connector was the funeral. nothing brings people together like grieving- but that's probably a whole nother blog.

so many combinations. try to do the math.
so many relationships in so many different contexts.
so much rejoicing, so much mourning.

one thing is for sure: i am a rich man.

if i could lend someone a hand, i'd be a rich man
if i could help someone to stand, i'd be a rich man
(sammy hager, circa 1978... the band was called 'Servant')

the distance of celebrity

2008-02-26T08:46:00.001-08:00

I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home. (Larry Norman, April 8, 1947- February 24, 2008)

i was thirteen years old and had just returned from a camp where a kid had stirred my curiosity, citing the lyric...

sipping whiskey from a paper cup
you drown your sorrows til you can't stand up

... as being by the same guy that wrote i wish we'd all been ready

(note: i wish we'd all been ready was a big camp and youth group favourite in the 70's due to evangelical christianity's mildly obsessive answer to the uncertainty of the cold war: end times prophecy and the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine. nothing like giving young christian kids a thrilling spiritualized alternative to the basically godless paranoia regarding an impending nuclear holocaust... existential anxiety is, after all, supposed to draw us towards God!)

i went down to the christian record store in kamloops (it was called 'the real thing' and sported a rather suspiciously coca-cola-esque logo on some of the signage) to see if they had any of this guy's stuff. the church lady behind the counter, taking note of the only other customer in the store at the time- a rather elderly little woman with a big purse- hesitantly put needle to vinyl and the opening guitar statement of the rock that doesn't roll clumsily broke the silence until the first full band shot and a rather barbaric 'wooh!' challenged the wall that had, up until that point, separated my faith and my aesthetics.

no one has ever been able to rebuild that pallisade...

the fact that only three years later i would hear the call of God to a life of ministry during the song 'one way' at a show he did at the orpheum in vancouver is just part of the impact of this guy's loaves and fish upon my own terrestrial visit.

those of us on the perimeter recognize but fail to realize the loss that is experienced by those within the small circle...

still, i sent a text to my brother this morning:
Dang... Larry Norman is gone. I'm really sad...
like when Freddie (mercury) died.
Something important to who I am is lost.

so much for the distance of celebrity.

we'll have to do a few more tests

2008-02-13T12:18:00.000-08:00

(i posted this on a different blog, but thought that it might be fun to talk about here...)

in a talk i gave recently, i began with a little quiz.

the idea was to establish that, with regard to the Bible, we all have defaults within us that are imprinted through our socialization, and often these defaults affect us the way 'blind spots' do... our picture of things (in this case, our interpretations of passages of the Bible) is distorted by them or, perhaps more accurately, riddled with holes by them.

the challenge is to know ourselves- to know where we tip in this way or that- so that we can more objectively (if that is possible) deal with the revealed word of God and receive the blessings of grace, wisdom, insight and perspective that are to characterize our every thought and action...

at least that's the plan.

so anyway, i presented a couple questions from Scot McKnight's Hermeneutics Quiz as presented in the winter 2008 leadership journal (volume 29 no.1)... the idea is that a (1) for any given question represents a more conservative spin, whereas a (5) represents a more progressive approach. (3) would indicate moderation- somewhere in the middle.

there are no white hats or black hats here. it is not that (1) is Christian and (5) is heretic, or that (5) is cool and relaxed while (1) is uptight. these questions are posed mainly to raise some key issues regarding how we interact with scripture. in scot mknight's words:

This quiz is designed to surface the decisions we make, perhaps without thinking about them, and about how we both read our Bible and don't read our Bible. Some will want to quibble with distinctions or agree with more than one answer. No test like this can reveal all the nuances needed, but broad answers are enough to raise the key issues. On a scale of 1-5, mark the answer that best fits your approach to reading the Bible. (If, for example, you fall between response 1 and response 3, give yourself a 2.) Then total the points and your score will reveal where you land on our hermeneutical scale. (mcknight)

ha ha- important to indicate that it is, in fact, the writers' scale. the results of an instrument like this are largely inconclusive, but they do provide us with a picture- even if the picture is drawn in one's wrong hand using crayon!

anyway, here is the rest of the quiz. take it with someone fun.
see it as an alternative to playing scrabulous for hours on end!

feel free to take it on your own and then log onto www.LeadershipJournal.net (http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2008/01/the_hermeneutic.html)
to compare your perspective place in the hermeneutical cosmos to some 'big names' in the parallel universe refered to as 'the church.'

***

A. The Bible is:
1) God's inspired words in confluence with the authors.
3) God's inspired words that arise out of a community and then are written down by an author.
5) Words of an author who speaks out of a community's tradition, but which sacramentally lead us to God.

B. The Bible is:
1) God's exact words for all time.
3) God's message (instead of exact words) for all time.
5) God's words and message for that time but need interpretation and contextualization to be lived today.

C. The Bible's words are:
1) Inerrant on everything.
3) Inerrant on matters of faith and practice.
5) Not defined by inerrancy or errancy, which are modernistic categories.

D. The commands in the Old Testament to destroy a village, including women and children, are:
1) Justifiable judgement against sinful, pagan, immoral peoples.
3) God's ways in the days of the Judges (etc): they are primitive words but people's understanding as divine words for that day.
5) A barbaric form of war in a primitive society, and I wish they weren't in the Bible.

E. The story of Hosea (the prophet) and Gomer (his wife) is:
1) A graphic reality that speaks of God's faithfulness and Israel's infidelity.
3) A parable (since, for example, God would never ask a believer to marry a prostitute).
5) An unfortunate image of an ancient prophet that stereotypes women and too easily justifies violence against women.

F. The command of Jesus to wash feet is:
1) To be taken literally, despite near universal neglect in the church.
3) A first centruy form of serving others, to be practiced today in other ways.
5) An ancient custom with no real implication for our world.

G. The gift of prophecy is:
1) Timeless, despite lack of attention in the church today.
3) An ancient form of communication that is seen today in proclaiming scriptural truths.
5) No longer needed and dramatically different from today's preaching.

H. Prohibitions against homosexuality in the Bible are:
1) Permanent prohibitions reflecting God's will.
3) Culturally shaped, still normative, but demanding greater sensitivity today.
5) A purity-code violation that has been eliminated by Christ.

I. The unity of the Bible is:
1) God's systematic truth that can be discerned by careful study of the Bible.
3) The gospel call to living by faith that is expressed in a variety of ways by different authors in the Bible.
5) Not found by imposing on the integrity of each author in the Bible to conform to overarching systems; the unity is in the God who speaks to us today through the Word.

J. The Holy Spirit's role in interpretation is:
1) To guide the individual regardless of what others say.
3) To guide the individual in tandem/conversation with the church.
5) To guide the community that can instruct the individual.

K. The injunctions upon women in 1 Timothy 2.9-15 are:
1) Timeless truths and normative for today.
3) Culturally-shaped but, with proper interpretation and transfer, for today; e.g. we can learn from how Paul address a situation with uninstructed women in Ephesus.
5) Need for early Christians, bound in the first century, but not for today.

L. Careful interpretation of the Bible is:
1) Objective, rational, universal, timeless.
3) Dialectical, relational, culturally-shaped, timely.
5) Subjective, personal, culturally-bound, time specific.

M. The context for reading the Bible is:
1) Solely an individual's responsibility.
3) The individual in conversation with, and respect for, church traditions.
5) The confessional statement of one's community of faith.

N. Discerning the historical context of a passage is:
1) Unimportant since God speaks to me directly.
3) Often or sometimes significant in order to grasp meaning.
5) Necessary and dangerous to avoid in reading the Bible.

O. The Bible:
1) Can be examined and understood without bias.
3) Can be understood but with biases.
5) Can be partially understood by a reader with bias.

P. Capital punishment:
1) Should be practiced today because the Bible teaches it.
3) Should be examined carefully to determine if it is the best option today; some instances of capital punishment in the Bible are no longer advisable.
5) As delineated in the Bible, pertains to ancient Israel; such practices are no longer useful and should be universally banned.

Q. Tattoos:
1) Are forbidden because of Leviticus 19.28
3) Are forbidden in Leviticus as idolatrous marks, which we know from study of the ancient Near East.
5) Are permissible because the purity codes are not for Christians today.

R. The requirement of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 5.29) not to eat any meat improperly killed (strangled instead of having the blood drained properly)
1) Is a permanent commandment for all Christians today.
3) Is for Jewish Christians only.
5) Is a temporary custom for first-century Jewish Christians, and is no longer a concern for Christians.

S. Adultery
1) Deserves the death penalty, as stated in the Old Testament
3) Was not punished by death when Jesus confronted it, and therefore death is not a Christian punishment.
5) And divorce were governed by Old Testament laws from a primitive culture, very different from our own; just as these concepts developed within Bible times, our understanding of proper punishment has been improved.

T. Sabbath
1) Was never eliminated by New Testament writers and should be practiced by Christians (on Saturday).
3) Developed into a Sunday worship observance for Christians, and Christians should not work on that day.
5) Turned into Sunday for Christians, who need to worship together (weekly, on any day) and can work if they think they need to.

so there you have it.

there are some guidelines and such at the end of the article, but being that Leadership Journal is a rather tough magazine to find anywhere, i will summarize and then encourage anyone reading to go online to find out more... intellectual property what it is and all...

(note: i have tried very hard to not project my own opinions on the followup here, offering instead a 'zip file' of the article- an 'executive summary' of sorts. remember that the results are skewed if you started working the numbers creatively by going off the scale- higher than 5 for 'extreme-sports progressive' or integers etc for 'radical right wing' responses! ha ha)

idea: count how many 1's, 3's and 5's you marked... the category with the highest number of responses is probably your default.

idea: add up the points... the total scores range from the low 20 to a possible high of 100...

consider:

the conservative hermeneutic group scores 52 or lower, with an emphasis on the authority- ongoing and normative- of scripture, tending to hold to the maxim if the Bible says it, that settles it. literal readings can lead to rather literal applications.
the moderate hermeneutic group typically scores 53-65, and could be seen as the voice of reason and open-mindedness, being conservative on some issues and progressive on others. moderates can often be open to charges of inconsistency because of a flexible hermeneutic.
the progressive hermeneutic group typically scores 66+, but there is quite a dramatic difference between 66 and 92 in perspective. the progressive tends to see the Bible as historically shaped and culturally conditioned, but still considers it the Word of God today. the challenge to the progressive is to not allow the Bible to be swallowed by a quest to find modern analogies that sometimes minimize what the text seems to clearly say.

Wherever you land on this scale, it is my hope we all will engage the seriousness of how we read the Bible- and don't read the Bible

(Scot McKnight, professor of religious studies at North Park University in Chicago, blogger on JesusCreed.org)

Christian Persecution - What Should We Do?

2008-02-08T07:25:00.000-08:00

Over the past 2 years - and mainly in this last one - I notice my blogging efforts into the more conservative arena of the Christian faith is met mainly by scorn (and mainly by those professing to hold the 'true faith'). I do believe I am up to 8 bloggers banning me, condemning me, insulting me, and denying me as part of the faith. Question is - what can I do?

Here are a few statements from 2 fellow bloggers (names won't be mentioned):

"proves to me that you are not interested in God’s Word as the principle truths from which you debate from. And to use your words: “…this stuff is brought to my rememberance.” No wonder you are confused. To bad you don’t think you can learn more by studying the word. To bad you think you got it all...I will not bother you again"

"SAM, I hope you see the hypocrisy in that statement. He is coming back to his own thinking and not what scripture says...And for Societyvs to make such a big admission that he doesn’t hardly ever study scripture and relys on his remembrance for debate, well, you can have it. I will not cast pearls….”"

"Societyvs, OSS - At times I may read a good point or two… but it seems more often than not, yall about make me sick...your blatent disreguard for the inspiration of New Testament sickens me...reasoning things out is fine, but twisting scripture to fit your reasonings is not. - So you make me sick and I do not want to debate you further."

As Elton said 'Can you feel the love tonight?' Thanks Yael and Just1 for these comments:

"Society…, Society…, Society…., Wow! you got flamed big time" (Just1) and "You’ve got one on me, Jason, I didn’t get the ’swine’ insult at least" (Yael)

This isn't new to me - everytime I set foot into Conservative lands I always end up getting people seriously steamed. Late in 2007 a prophet and his pal pretty much judged me to smithereens (over Halloween) and another blogger refused to be associated with me (over defending gay rights). I have this weird feeling - this ain't going to stop sometime soon?

So I ask - why do Christians persecute other Christians - and for that matter - people in other faiths? What is it about our own teachings that drive us so bonkers to judge another person so harshly we can have not a single thing to do with them (which to me is pretty much condemning an individual)? What is it in our faith that makes us say we love but hate instead?

Anyone care to be honest at the altar today?

dashboard confessional

2008-01-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

okay, so what is it about anger that makes it so inspiring?

seriously, i was at a conference this weekend and was afforded the opportunity to sit under the teaching of an ardent biblical scolder.

yes, correct... not scholar- scolder.

you know how it can go: a strongly opinionated, well-studied and proof-texted presentation from a very right-wing, fundamentalist Christian faith and belief system that seems to be a bit lacking in the grace elements of the gospel (grace being the only thing that actually makes the news good)... i found myself wondering if there is any room for grace when we've drawn the bible-belt so tightly around us that
the circulation is cut off to our legs, rendering us
missionally disabled
mere recipients of fellowship and favour
recievers who no longer give anything but advice and admonishment
from seats set upon high-sounding, morally authoritative pedestals
of our own design.

with verbal shock absorbers like
'do we know God well enough to spot what is wrong-
not to judge but to discern?'
i found myself imagining how awfully perilous it would be for me if, for some reason, the speaker were mad at me.

scary is as scary does. lucky for me i'm a heterosexually married, white, anglo-saxon, protestant guy with a job in the church and a happy, healthy family or i might just be outside of the margins. good thing i've got my genetically latent alcoholism under control and my love for celebratory cigars held in check by the basic infeasibility of celebrating anything with a cigar in forty degrees below zero plus wind...

lest i fear the sting of that same bible belt across my own back.

but why did this all make me so angry? why did the words of a complete stranger who reads the same holy scriptures as i so inflame my own sensibilities to the point of returning violence with violence?

is it simply that whole 'righteous anger' thing? that if you can somehow inspire some well-intentioned aggression then people will often mistake their passion for purpose and principle, moving to act in the moment of this passion using means which are, for the most part, embarrassing because they are so 'typical.'

the statement is made:
'when you presume to teach the Word, you face greater condemnation
for mishandling God's word...'

and suddenly my back's up, going
'that is exactly right, and there is some rather intense mishandling based on some rather exclusive social and cultural defaults going on here."

violence, say hello to violence.

for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
(newton's third law)

somewhere in the scriptures is the challenge to begin with love, that all the actions which follow the hearing of this word need to be somehow characterized and in all ways recognizable by the love from which we all begin and through which our greatest self is realized.

somehow, purity and love only matter
when they split the rent in the same heart.

me? i'm still trying to give them enough room in there to work that out. there's a lot of stuff out in the dumpster, left in my heart by the former tenants and tossed out by these ones.

however, i am deeply indebted to that speaker for reminding me that earnestly studying scriptures and thoughtfully working through the lessons contained within them- making sure that what i hold to believe is consistent with the scriptures from which i draw this believe- is my responsibility... recognizing that the teachings of one are in all ways informed by the personality, experience and relationships of the teacher, just as the learnings drawn from the teachings presented are informed by experience and relationships of the student.

it is not about agreement.
it is about being able to grow within challenging social contexts as well as simply mystical ones.

still working on that one. thank you for hearing my confession.

scripture?
jude- especially vv4, 21
1 corinthians 6.9-10
the good people at biblegateway.com will be able to provide online reference...

people person

2008-01-22T14:22:00.000-08:00

recently a friend of mine sent me a sad email. there was further breakdown in an old relationship that had remained damaged for months, and it seemed that the other person involved wasn't interested in restoration of any kind. my friend had tried everything...

everything, that is, except letting go.

it hurts to be hated. there's no way around that one.
you can push it down, back, away, whatever seems to work...
but it takes nothing to bring it right back to the front of the emotional line.

absolutely nothing.
even the tiniest of nothings is something, is enough.

so where is the peace?

for me, it has been in embracing the reality that there are things that extend way beyond my control to fix them, and yet are still within my realm to affect negatively.

what?

yep- the harder a person tries to fix a situation that is not theirs to fix,
the worse it has the potential of becoming.

wow- that sucks.

yeah, it does.

remember the old serenity prayer?

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

this is the part that we all remember, having read it on kitchen magnets and plaques on the walls of the homes of many a grandmother... but there is more to it:

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

"as it is, not as i would have it..."

especially in the area of relationships, it is really important to remember that others are actually involved- that others' free will is part of the context in which i find myself. i can want whatever i want, good or bad, but this doesn't have any impact at all on what the other wants.

so how do i serve the other in this case? with my well-intentioned designs on restoration, how do i work towards their realization?

the rather easy answer is to meet the other person halfway- although, for a number of reasons, this one is nowhere near as easy as it looks.

within the safety and seclusion of my own house, i am free to sort out what this all means to me... i am free to attend to the needs of my own heart- especially the need for restoration. however, it's really important to remember that the other person also has a house, and that there is a road between the two of us that is maintained by both of us through the taxes we pay.

somewhere between one person (A) and the other (B) is the point where the interpersonal friction stops being about the one and starts being about the other. the 'middle' may or may not be exactly halfway on the road- depends on the road.

more than likely, it is not.
(see the thrilling diagram above, created at great expense for this post)

more than likely, the geometric bisecting point between A and B has more actual road on one side of it than the other. this is because the road between our two houses has many curves and hills and we are trying to see the journey the way the crow flies. the road is different between every pair of houses. sometimes, my side is the shorter side, other times, my side is the longer one.

as i shared this idea with another friend of mine, he confessed that his side of the road between his house and the house of a person with which he has been struggling probably looks more like a twisting, turning, knotted ball of string than a road. wow- such insight!

a lot of our effort (not to mention a lot of our interpersonal grief) seems to ultimately be about our attempts to fix something that is not ours to fix or otherwise take upon ourselves something that is actually someone else's burden to shoulder... if there may very well be more road on the other person's side of the 'midpoint' than on mine, then traveling their road back to where they are may be intrusive, causing resistance or resentment or worse. it is probably more important that everyone travels their own piece of road, than it is that restoration be swift. most journeys take time and cost us all something- especially if one is making this journey in such a way as to become intimately acquainted with the road itself.

growing up in kamloops, british columbia, i was very familiar with mountains and valleys- particularly the set of them that connects kamloops to kelowna, which is roughly ninety miles away in the okanagen fruit belt. as a family, we must have made the trip by car or volkswagen van at least a thousand times.

i was sure that i knew the road, but only when i rode my bike that distance as a 14 year-old kid did i actually come to know it intimately. suddenly every hill had new meaning and every tree that offered shade in the summer heat was sent by God. with that trip came an incredible understanding of that road that has never left me, the kind that only comes from actively owning the journey.

to try to explain it to another with words falls short.

to try to convince another of its depth without affording the other the opportunity to actually take the trip is rather presumptuous. perhaps well-intentioned, but presumptuous nonetheless.

tangent: it could be similar to trying to talk someone into converting to a religion when they are not ready to do so. we've all seen how well that works- probably from both sides of the line drawn in the sand by the person doing the talking. i mean, apparently free will characterizes all of our actions and all of our relationships, whether it is a relationship with God or a relationship with another person, and the true restorative power is that of the Holy Spirit...

whatever the difference or conflict separating our two houses, i need to let the Holy Spirit do the Holy Spirit's job on the road of the other while i wait on my side of the signpost that marks the continental divide, having journeyed with this same Spirit of unity there.

my desire to own the road together cannot really be addressed until we both meet together at the point of restoration. the one who gets there first may need to wait all day, all month, all year, all life... letting the other person gain the wisdom of traveling their own road in order to meet in the middle.

in conflict, perhaps the greatest grace we can offer is the grace we extend to someone who requires more travel time in order to make it to the meeting.

i have a quote on my facebook page that has been there awhile:

Homer, how can one man have so many enemies?

I'm a people person.

The Plague of Darkness

2008-01-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

It's always the darkest time of year when we read about the plague of darkness in Parashah Bo during the yearly Torah reading cycle.

I've always been fascinated by the Torah teachings on darkness since there are two contradictory images to be found. One is the image of darkness as a place devoid of God's presence; the other is of darkness as a place where God hides. In today's parashah a plague of darkness descends of the Egyptians. Darkness is a part of everyday living, however, so why is this plague considered so awful? If it's dark out why not light a lamp? And don't our eyes adjust to dark after awhile so that we can see? It seems like darkness that goes on for days would be frightening, but why would it be considered worse than all the plagues which preceded it?

Rabbi Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio taught: From here we learn that they were terrified by strange visions until fear made it impossible for them to move from place to place, as happens to a person who is frightened by a catastrophe.....that there was no darkness in the land, but only in the eyes of the Egyptians.

Rabbi Lisa Gelber teaches: The Torah reminds us that the Israelites were afflicted with hard labor and spiritual strain. The Egyptians did not see the despair of the people of Israel. They could not look into the eyes of their fellow human beings and acknowledge their pain. They stumbled about in the darkness, tripping over the core institutions of respect and freedom. “No one could see the other. And no one could rise from his or her place for three days (Lo ra’u ish et ahiv. V’lo kamu ish mitachtav shloshet yamim)” (Exod. 10:23)....How does darkness become a plague? By blocking the light, turning off our awareness, shutting down relationships, and preventing us from becoming agents of change.

Midrash: The plague of darkness is 'the darkness of Geihinnon'. It connects the darkness that afflicted the Egyptians with the primordial darkness that existed before God said, "Let there be light." Just as the light of Shabbat is a foretaste of the world to come, the reward that awaits the righteous, the darkness of the ninth plague is a foretaste of Geihinnon, the punishment that awaits those who cannot truly see their neighbor, who cannot feel the pain and recognize the dignity of their afflicted neighbors.

Rabbi's comments: And so, the pure righteous ones do not complain about darkness, instead, they add light. They do not complain about evil, but instead add justice. They do not complain about heresy, but instead add faith. They do not complain about ignorance, but instead add wisdom.

Yael's thoughts: Always in religion we talk about lighting the world, about darkness being something to overcome. Yet, I find darkness fascinating. Darkness is easy on the eyes, bright light is so harsh and glaring. With darkness we can see eternity, the moon and stars, forever. In light we can only see the earth around us. In darkness we can be honest and open, intimate. In light we are vulnerable, barriers appear, we withdraw into our own worlds of busyness. Darkness can be a plague, a thing to fear, but it doesn’t have to be. God hides in darkness, one of my favorite images. In the dark God is near and there is a peace I seldom find in the light….Perhaps darkness is only a plague to the person totally alone, with no sense of God or community?

living the list

2007-12-04T09:05:00.000-08:00

a number of years ago, when our church was without a pastor, i sat down and wrote an itemized list of attributes that i felt the church needed in her new leader. i prayed the list diligently, with faithful expectation...

this morning i woke up with that list on my mind.

the challenge for me, as the current pastor of this same church all these years later, is to try to prayerfully live this list, God being my helper...

for leadership that is both Spirit-driven and Christ-centred, yet is also relevent for people who don't know Christ
for leadership with integrity and a shameless daily walk with Almighty God
for leadership that leads from the scriptures, making them breathe for those who are unfamiliar with them
for leadership that knows how to personally worship and is not intimidated or fearful of a movement of God's Spirit in the lives of the people because it is only in the infilling that there is enough to actually affect spiritual change in any given life
for one who will take this church out of the wilderness into the land that God has prepared

songwriter matt redman, penned a song ten years ago that seems to complete these sentiments, especially in my own personal case... the challenge for us all is to say whatever we have to say, but at the end of the day, to live the life.

many are the words we speak
many are the songs we sing
many kinds of offerings
but now to live the life

precious are the words we speak
precious are the songs we sing
precious all, these offerings
but now to live the life

now to go the extra mile
now to turn the other cheek
and to serve you with a life
let us share in fellowship
even of your sufferings
never let the passion die

help us live the life
all we want to do is bring you something real
bring you something true
(c) matt redman, Kingsway's Thankyou Music, 1997

disappointment with God

2007-11-23T07:47:00.000-08:00

i was thinking about the giving and receiving of gifts the other day...
it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas?

sometimes we receive something from somebody and it's like
yeah! thank you SO much! i love this! i know just how i can use it!
and there is this embracing and a sense of connection.

but there are also those times when it's like
uh- yeah. thanks, i guess... um... what the hell IS this?
and you walk away wondering if the person even knows you...
much less cares.

that's probably why gift cards are so popular now.

anyway, we tip our head a little to the side when the uh-yeah, thanks gift comes from God. we get feeling like God doesn't even know us, doesn't even care.

i see this often in meeting with people. there is this ongoing motif that seems to be running through a lot of the appointments and such i have been sitting down to lately. a strong sense of is this as good as it gets?

there are a lot of things that we pray for and receive answers for. jobs, relationships, holiday opportunities... all of these things seem to be important enough to us to pray about and even important enough for God to acknowledge with a yes answer. yet we, in our delusions of entitlement, start to grow disappointed with God when the requisition form we prayerfully submit comes back marked backordered or no longer available as ordered or some such thing and for the prayerfully petitioned something, God substitutes something else.

i don't have a problem with being disappointed with God.
in my view, disappointment with God is simply about being really small and yet trying to relate to someone really big.

where it starts to move a little off the mark is this embarrassing expectation that presumes it is appropriate to requisition gifts in the first place. a good friend of mine once told me, in a conversation about spiritual giftings and such, that it is rude to ask for a gift. hadn't really thought of that at the time, so his words have resonated in my heart for years since we had the conversation.

there is something else that may be a bit presumptuous here, and may be part of the problem: our expectations of God that seem to be always somehow locked into providing us, blessing us, serving us.

as a little boy, i had a stamp collection that had been started for me by my grandfather. my northstar binder contained stamps dating back to the early 1900's in canada, because he went tirelessly to stamp auctions and such in search of this or that stamp that would complete this or that page in the stamp album that he would bring out to show me proudly whenever we came to town. i still remember how he turned the pages with tweasers.

on one occasion, i went with him to a stamp auction. because my grandfather was really good at spoiling me, i had grown accustomed to some things within our relationship that were probably standing in the way of the two of us relating to each other more deeply.

so i wanted a stamp from this stamp auction. honestly, i don't think it really mattered which one- i was only seven years old and didn't have a clue as to the value of any of the items up for auction. i just wanted a stamp. why? because my grandfather bought me whatever i wanted when i was with him. i had grown accustomed to receiving something just for the pleasure of my company.

and i was disappointed when stamp after stamp came up for auction, only to be sold to someone else. i was disappointed in my grandfather who didn't even bid. there was no drama, no excitement, no payout and no explanation- just nothing. we drove back to my grandparents' house in a silence that remained unbroken except for the rhythmic cadence of the windshield wipers of his 1964 valiant, lazily but effectively keeping the windshield clear enough to see where the puddles on the street were.

but my understanding of the way things were changed that evening. although i was provided with no followup conversation- in truth, my elderly grandfather probably didn't give it any thought at all- i came to understand two things that night:

1) my grandfather knew what he was looking for in stamps... not just any stamp would complete the gift he was preparing for me because he had a clear picture of what it was he was preparing for me.

2) my grandfather wasn't going to just do whatever i wanted him to do or give whatever i asked him to... although he recognized that i had my own desires about things, he was also trying to set up some other things that i would appreciate more later, with some experience of my own.

okay, so the God-character in the story happens to be a kind old man. my bad. we'll have to get past that. the point is the learning that is represented by the story, not the age and gender of the person that taught me the important lesson about entitlement.

i recently read something in a book that made a little sense in the larger dialogue respresented here:

Disappointment is the difference between our expectations and reality.
(John Maxwell, Thinking For A Change, p126, 2003)

so what does this current gift received have to offer me in the area of insight and growth?

better question: who is God really?

Broken Pieces - A Jewish View

2007-11-15T02:35:00.000-08:00

The image of the broken tablets in Torah appeals to me on many levels. The first time I encountered it I was hooked. If it doesn’t describe life I don’t know what does. I wrote about them initially almost two years ago and what follows is an updated, slightly modified version of that post:

Moses came down from Mt Sinai carrying the tablets on which God had written commandments for us but when Moses saw the people dancing around the Golden Calf, Moses threw the tablets on the ground and broke them. Later God had Moses write new tablets and place them in the Ark along with the broken pieces. Both the broken and the whole are kept for reminders.

The broken pieces were still there, God didn’t have Moses try to put those tablets back together, but God didn’t have Moses throw them out either. Both the broken and the whole give meaning to life, but only the whole tablets are used for guidance. The broken pieces go with us, but what’s broken in our lives does not direct us. And that is probably one of the hardest things to do in life, keep those pieces in their proper place.

I find it interesting that God wrote on the broken tablets but Moses wrote on the ones which remained whole. It’s like God gives us our life, we are created a certain way, but then things happen along the way in life and we become broken, our dreams and illusions, our hearts, our very souls, are often broken. We stand there looking at the mess of our lives, the sadness, the regrets and we don’t know what to do next. We might pray that God would put the pieces back together for us, but that’s not what happens. Instead, God expects us to get to work. God isn’t doing the work anymore; now it is up to us.

So, out comes the chisel. It’s time to get to work making something of life again, perhaps this time it will remain whole? The broken pieces come along with us as a reminder, but ever after the whole tablets on which we wrote are to be our guide.

I suppose many of us think no one’s life could possibly be as messed up as our own but I don’t guess broken tablets are all that unique or this story wouldn’t have been included in Torah. It’s tough though to keep working on those whole tablets, slowly chipping away with that chisel while those broken pieces keep getting in the way. Times have changed. I don’t know why we’re not allowed to just use a laser, zap, we’re done and moving on….but I don’t suppose it can ever be quite that easy….nor should it be.

(Originally posted on No Mechitza In My World)

we all wore black

2007-11-14T07:23:00.000-08:00

it’s exciting to sit at a kitchen table and hear an accounting of the life of a complete stranger from those who knew him best… quite engaging to witness the sharing back and forth of memories as loved ones volunteer experiences and insights in the many different aspects of a man who was known to all of them, but who shared a unique and fulfilling relationship with each one.

the opportunity to be a fly on the wall like this was afforded me recently as i was asked to preside over the celebration of life service of a man i had never met.

many times, as we sat around the table the other day, a brother or sister or another brother would toss a story into the middle that represented an element or aspect of their father’s character not experienced by the others. so the family sits down at the kitchen table to do a jigsaw puzzle together, only this time each, having many pieces entrusted to his or her care, finds where each piece fits in the picture of an extraordinary life.

but men like this one are hard to summarize. full lives like his take full lives to recount, although the sharing cannot be complete until everyone who has experienced this person has shared everything they know with everyone else.

such is the richness and character of relationships with ‘renaissance men’ - with men like this one who seem to always be changing, always moving, always heading somewhere, having come from somewhere else.

as i listened, one observation came to me… knowing a guy like this is probably a lot like having a relationship with a freight train: depending on where he has just been and where he’s going, his cargo will be heavier or lighter but one thing is certain- there will be a story to tell at the next stop… one of those stories that is so good that even the teller begins to believe it, with all the facts and an extra portion of flavour. one thing everyone agreed on was that their father had a gift for telling a good story.

now, as the presiding minister, you have the responsibility to somehow offer hope, peace, strength and comfort to the assembled family and friends, but to do so legitimately and meaningfully. there can be no glib pronouncements, no prepackaged, processed little sunday school-type lessons that ring hollowly in the hearts of those who are deeply engaged in the big dialogue, having been transported there against their will by simple mortality and the fact that someone that they are used to having around is now gone.

so what to say? i sat at my desk yesterday, the service just hours away, staring at some pages of handwritten notes with nary a clue as to what to do with them. all earlier attempts had yielded nothing, but we were approaching the eleventh hour.

for some preacher like me to try to find a single bible character or passage to apply to a life so full seems absurd. as i sat and listened to the yarns being spun, it occurred to me that there might be a theme which is more appropriate to focus upon than any one character or teaching.

theme? for this fellow, having ridden the rails in the thirties, become a pastry chef while in the army due to some rather strongly held opinions resulting in a need for 'constant supervision,' climbed telephone lines in the fifties, farmed in the sixties and so on... the most applicable theme seemed to be that of continuous movement and growth that we find so evident in the teachings of another story teller: Jesus.

Jesus’ words are always laced with a sense of journey, of movement, of progress, refining, defining and then redefining. he speaks of being the way to God more than actually being God. he speaks of the kingdom of God being near, or at hand, rather than giving a list of things for people to do in order to get there. when asked what the most important commandment is, instead of giving one definitive answer, he summarizes all the law by painting a picture in broad strokes (Mark 12.28-34)

it’s not that Jesus is dodge-y or evasive (although many would probably disagree with me on this one). it is simply that he challenges people to never feel that they have arrived, to never feel that somehow God’s greatest desire for them is realized and there's no adventure left, no grander vision to be pursued, no further work to be done. there is always hope and challenge, walking side by side down the railroad tracks of time.

for the man whose life was being celebrated yesterday, hope and challenge remained ever together, with a gaze fixed on moving on. to those who knew him, life never seemed to be about any kind of arrival, only the next departure. in his later years- from 2003 and on- however, the challenges were different, and there was a deeper and deeper sense by those who loved him that he was being slowly imprisoned by health conditions that are part of having lived a full life. the hope became represented by something else too.

a music lover, one of his favourite singers was johnny cash- a man whose own life seemed to be marked by dramatic changes and constant hope and challenge. in preparing for the celebration of life service, the family gathered around the table with me agreed that one song would be appropriate to close with. it is a song that tells the story of a man who needs to be moving. a man who has made mistakes and recognizes that we need to own them and then move beyond them.

we all wore black.

AND IF THEY FREED ME FROM THIS PRISON
IF THIS RAILROAD TRAIN WAS MINE
I BET I'D MOVE IT ALL

A LITTLE FARTHER DOWN THE LINE
FAR FROM FOLSOM PRISON

THAT'S WHERE I WANT TO STAY
AND I'D LET THAT LONESOME WHISTLE

BLOW MY BLUES AWAY...

hyperlink

2007-11-08T06:27:00.002-08:00

Answers make me suspicious. I was never good at math. Maybe my aversion to answers stems from that. I have come to be a little more friendly to the answers in math books in my old age but I still can't stomach answers when it comes to religion; too often people wind up dead because of them. Let's wrestle like Jacob and pray the answers never arrive.
(hineini)

as is often the case with me, the words of another become a pilot light in my soul which burns for awhile on its own before eventually igniting the whole furnace. in this case, it was the idea of the beautiful, unanswered question.

not mere rhetoric, presuming answers even in the asking,
but a desire to keep looking
to keep growing
to persevere in one's pilgrimage.

in my view, the unanswered question is the exploration of that which is yet to be revealed, not the continued fortification and defense of the things that have been somehow established by someone...

to seek the heart behind the face
to be ever searching
to be fine with unexplainable truth
to make this profound truth, explained or not, part of oneself.

awhile ago, a friend gave me a copy of augustine's 'confessions'.
speaking of confession, i must confess that i am probably the slowest reader in town, taking forever and a day to finish even the shortest, simplest of books. so, over a year later (oops, just defined 'awhile ago') i'm still reading this little 4th C gem. in one of the later chapters ('Book of Memory') i came upon a beautifully crafted section of dialogue between the writer and creation. the writer is trying to sort out just who God is to him and what part all of creation, in its sensate glory, plays in his faith experience.

My contemplation of creation posed my questions.
Their beauty gave the answer.

and as he explores his faith through nature, he receives the answer again and again:

We are not your God. Seek above us...
I am not He, but He made me

notice it? in the answers afforded the seeker by nature, the challenge is made to look beyond that which is immediately revealed, that which is naturally evident... to see these things as mere signposts on his journey, verifying that the seeker is simply on the right road, but nowhere near its end.

put another way, these things are hyperlinks to understandings
about God.

the hyperlink isn't actually as bad an analogy as one might first believe. i mean, a hyperlink is a means by which we get from one place in cyberspace to another without extensive calculation and endless code, right? they are great, but they are not the destination, they simply assist in our navigation by providing a direct route. honestly, i love hyperlinks.

i do grow frustrated, however, when a link leads me to a rather blank page that has another link on it.

how long would i patiently click and reclick link after link in a quest for something online before abandoning my search? four clicks? three? two?

and yet our journey towards some kind of contemplation, some personal theology based upon interaction, study and personal experience involves endless clicking on hyperlinks to God... never really arriving at a destination, but nonetheless engaged in a lifelong journey through truth, not towards it.

a dear friend of mine is currently processing some life and career change issues that are effectively dismantling the absolutes upon which he has built his picture of God and his faith in that God over the last twenty five years. the way he prays, the way he engages- in truth, even the way he believes- has been profoundly challenged by some of the plot twists in this chapter of his own lifestory. the phrase i've heard him use a lot as we have spoken of this is his disappointment with God.

but really, if one's faith is built upon the experiences of a mildly charmed life that has unfolded in the affluence of the canadian version of the bible belt, then it is probably due for a bit of a bump. together, we both agree with the idea that God is this ultimately loving, ultimately just, ultimately everything good and holy person who cares deeply for us as individuals. however, like most rich kids (and i need to say here that most of us are hopelessly rich and completely unaware of it because plenty has become the feeling of life) my friend is being challenged in his faith by the reality that this God in whom he has built his faith is actually the same God who deeply cares for my friend in sri lanka who recently discovered a live grenade carefully placed at the door of his church; the same God who deeply cares for the person who placed the grenade; the same God who deeply cares for the Christian Peacemaker Team-members kidnapped and tortured by Swords of Righteousness Brigade terrorists for 140 days in 2005; the same God who deeply cares for members of the Swords of Righteousness Brigade that did the kidnapping.

this same God has been 'worthy of praise' for people enduring adversity, injustice and pain since the beginning of time. what have their faith questions been? if we deconstruct our own faith, especially in times of adversity, and then reconstruct it using only the blocks that seem to be true to our experience with God in times of strife as well as times of opulence, perhaps the conclusions that we draw are a bit more truthful than the faith that was once held but not tested... at least until the next testing of it.

so anyway, as i thought about the questions posed by augustine and those posed by my friend, i picked up my guitar, my bible and my notebook and began to pray...

WHAT DO I LOVE WHEN I LOVE YOU?

WHAT IS THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION?

GOD? WHAT IS MY GOD?

WHO DO I LOVE WHEN I LOVE YOU?

WHO IS MY HOPE AND MY SALVATION?

LORD? WHO IS MY LORD?

YOU SHINE INTO MY SOUL WHERE SPACE CANNOT CONTAIN YOU

YOU SPEAK WITH THE SOUND THAT DOES NOT FADE WITH PASSING TIME

THE FRAGRANCE OF YOUR PRESENCE REMAINS WITH ME IN ESSENCE

THE SWEETNESS OF YOUR NAME DOES NOT GROW STALE

WHAT DO I PREACH WHEN I PREACH YOU?

WHAT IS MY MESSAGE OF EXHORTATION?

WORD? WHAT IS MY WORD?

SALVATION BELONGS TO OUR GOD AND OUR GOD ALONE

ALL HONOUR AND PRAISE TO THE ONE WHO SITS ON THE THRONE

“WORTHY IS THE LAMB- WORTHY IS HE”

IS THE ETERNAL SONG OF A SOUL SET FREE

WHERE DO I GO WHEN I SEEK YOU?

WHERE DO I SEARCH FOR YOUR REVELATION?

GOD? WHERE IS MY GOD?

*ideas and inspiration drawn from Augustine of Hippo’s ‘Confessions: Book of Memory’ (circa A.D. 4^th C) and from Revelation 5.11-13; 7.9-12

wink

2007-11-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

if you start winking at things that are important,
eventually you are just living with your eyes closed.

"Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins the movie by telling you how it ends. Well, I say there are some things we don't want to know. Important things!" (ned flanders)

photomosaic

2007-10-22T15:54:00.001-07:00

www.twittermosaic.com
quite awesome for those of us that find photomosaics to be kinda cool...

so here are a few notes from this past weekend. i have been thinking for awhile now what the implications of all that this 'image of God' talk that we read in genesis 1.26-31 could/should imply with regard to who we are from day to day... for visuals, as i shared some thoughts on image cultivation and such, i had random self-portraits done by familiar names in music, art and film shuffling across the screen. in conclusion, i had the image above...

when we read of how to treat another, we need to see that we are being commanded to go beyond the golden rule… Jesus, citing the prophets, citing God, speaks of loving…

this neighbour-person of whom Christ speaks bears the very image of God upon his or her life and ways. in recognizing in one’s own identity the ‘image of God,’ one must needs also recognize this in every other human being ever created.

“the other is not God, but is the face of God” (levinas)

perhaps the only way to perceive the face of God is to gaze upon the collective face of humanity, acknowledging the rich diversity and beauty that is evident there- that is re-presented there.

put another way, perhaps as God gazes into the mirror of circumstance, God is able to perceive in humankind, an image, reflecting back the glory that is to be realized and released in each of us and all of us collectively…

of what kind of God do we bear an image for all to see?

RE: genesis 1.27; matthew 22.34-40; deuteronomy 6.5; leviticus 19.18

yeah, i know that God is presented here as an elderly male authority figure with a beard (taken from michelangelo's 'creation of adam' fresco found on the ceiling of the sistine chapel) but the idea of seeing the face of God when gazing at a crowd was impacting, and when i found this photomosaic i knew that i had found a nice illustration of a rather difficult idea for many to grasp without a visual.

by the way, hineini, thanks for regularly tossing small doses of levinas in my direction.

offensive defense?

2007-10-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

There is nothing I haven't already heard. Unfortunately there are those out there who cannot respect this and think they will be the one with that magical piece to the puzzle. I find this quite demeaning... (Yael)

so the phrase 'defenders of the faith' keeps bouncing around in my head.

i have no idea where it comes from, only where i think it leads.

to be thinking 'defender of the faith', is to presume that one's faith requires defending and that somehow one has the insight and the resources to somehow defend it.

defend it against whom?

hmmm... to presume certain things is to be presumptuous, right? typically when people are using such adversarial rhetoric, all the indicators are there that they are, in fact, the ones who need to be defended against, not that they are the ones doing any defending.

i have been thinking a bit over the last couple of days about the 'great commission' as spoken by Christ at the tail end of matthew's gospel. in common interpretation of the bit where he says 'go out into all the world, making disciples and baptizing them...' there always seems to be this sense of conquest. like somehow those who believe in Christ's words and way are to be going out there and winning something. i know that i have heard the phrase 'winning souls for Christ' a lot over the course of my lifetime as an evangelical christian. the whole winning and losing mentality, as though somehow the accomplishment of everything that God intends to do is contingent upon our little efforts and agendas, feels a bit... er... self-centered to me. what if Jesus meant something else?

what if Christ was prompting people to go and share the truth of their experience, to be dialogued and exchanged back and forth thoughtfully together with others? what if he was inviting his followers to speak in faith and love, allowing room for the Holy Spirit to actually prompt the heart of other person in the conversation to receive and weigh against his or her own experience and need just how this sharing was to meaningfully impact life from there? would the bit about making disciples lose any of its thunder? i don't think so.

in my view, discipleship is not intellectual, philosophical or spiritual cloneship. it is an ongoing, back and forth dialogue as the disciple seeks to embrace and apply the teachings of the master to real day to day life- to make the way of the master one's own.

in my view, Jesus wasn't, with his final words, imploring his followers to presume some violent and self-important role of moral authority or spiritual law enforcement for the whole planet... he was imploring his followers to engage in doing life with their neighbours, and being spiritually accessible, open and vulnerable when the opportunity to share the spiritual colour of their experience with their neighbours as a natural part of this doing life thing presented itself.

the decision to accept or reject these teachings and this way of life is, after all, the sole property of the individual, but should not disqualify this individual from continuing to be in fellowship with the follower of Christ.

Jesus didn't walk away from others, they walked away from him for reasons that were their own.

The Line Drawn in the Sand...

2007-09-28T15:04:00.000-07:00

From: Losing my Religion (a SVS excerpt)

On another blog they slightly went into agreeing about the 'right belief set' for the faith. I am not sure I can be down with that idea altogether - since it very human nature to disagree on certain ideas - ex: predestination.

Also, to put it bluntly, predestination as a teaching has very little relevance as compared with teachings about 'do not judge unless you want to be judged or do unto others as you would like done to you'. There is something different about those sets of teachings (which really hits home in the gospels) we all need to start to realize - one requires us to be involved and the other is a random theology play with no bareing on how we will live.

So even if predestination was found to be true - there was nothing you or I could do to make that any less true (or more true). However, with the other teachings (ex: do unto others) there is something we can do to make that more or less true/real. Those teachings are not true/real unless we we can live them out and see the procedure happening and what it does.

That's why I think 'what we do with truth' is more important than what 'we believe is truth'...it's really something huge that church doctrine is stumbling over hard-core right now - I think it is the central problem in most church teachings or doctrinal statements. But if we figure that issue out and get back to the basics of the gospels - we will find that what Jesus taught he expected to be lived out first and foremost. That also why I think 'belief requires itself to produce something or it is not a belief at all'.

EX 1: Someone can believe that Adam and Eve are literal people- okay cool. That belief requires nothing on your part - as in - what do you do that makes that any more real? It kind of just 'is'. That's one form of belief - it's like a 'faith' belief - we just don't really know and in the end - doesn't matter a whole speck of a lot.

EX 2: Now someone can believe that being responsible for the wrongs they did (repentance) and they have to make them right. This requires actual action on the part of the 'belief' or one could say 'they say one thing but do not do it at all'. If this is treated like example one (a faith belief) - then in the end you are a hypocrite (an actor). I would say firmly that a person that claims to be repentative and does nothing to make right the situations they wronged in - is lying and does not believe their own words - therefore - there is no belief existing (just some hot air).

Do you see the fine line I just made out in the sand there?

salvation sales rep

2007-09-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

i've taken the bait.

after literally months of absenteeism i have been drawn back into the dialogue. nice to see someone has kept a candle burning here at northvus.

i would've been more talkative, except that i've been busying 'pastoring.'

dang, and i really thought that i was impervious to this kind of temptation, yet here i am, off the wagon, typing away.

the catalyst? the question about pastoral role and responsibility posed in the previous northvus blogpost.

see, i don't think a lot about what a pastor should be- to think this way is to somehow willingly accept the imposition of the realization of someone else's calling upon my own life and to begin to simply run this person's script. in my first while as one who has accepted a call in this way, i tried a lot of things and watched them fall flat, only to realize that these were things that others (in my view) had done well which did not necessarily have anything to do with the man that i was sensing God calling me to be. for my part, i just try to prayerfully respond to the present need using the gifts entrusted to me.

God is not templative. i would even risk sounding like a bit of an existential relativist and say that God seems to be very situational. immutable, sure. holy, definately. but the only reason that i can come up with why there are so many different pictures of God is that God's character is far too deep to summarize as 'this but never that.'

so, the call of God is probably as diverse as dialogue between this creator and the diversity of his created can be.

however, for me to aspire to be the Jesus representative in the crowd is a bit too ad hoc messianic for me- my feet just aren't big enough or beautiful enough to fit into those sandals, much less be wept upon and anointed with myrrh. for any of us to accept the mantel of 'salvation sales rep' is to presume some things that will probably end up burning us to a crisp down the road.

yet it is in our vernacular. i know that i have heard myself extol the brethren in the past with that classic we are the only Jesus some people ever see speech...

(yeah, i know- the representative bit probably comes from the commissioning time when Jesus sends out ministry teams in luke 10, the 16th verse in particular)

... and we, clergy and laity alike, bear words like 'ambassadorship' freely without, perhaps, considering the depth of what it is we're claiming or accepting responsibility for. is it any wonder that Jesus' words to peter and the boys seem to be a bit harsh whenever they start arguing about who was the greatest?

'boys, boys, boys, believe me- you have no clue...'

in my view, the best example of this ridiculous egocentricity is found in matthew 20. on the road to jerusalem, the culturally significant city in which he will be executed shortly for speaking openly in the temple and being kind to the outcasts left outside of it, Jesus has been sharing that he is about to die when he notices a bit of a stir in the group. now, prior to all of this passion prophecy on the path, he has been talking about how important it is for those who would follow him to be more interested in putting others before themselves. so his frustration seems warranted when those into whom he is investing great amounts of time and teaching completely miss the point of the dialogue over the last half hour or so, hearing only an opportunity to be somehow exalted over their peers in paradise.

this means he has to reteach the lesson.

again and again he teaches it using different examples and again and again those listening seem to miss the intended learning.

in his famous 'sheep and goats' speech, found five chapters later in matthew 25, Jesus refers directly to isaiah 58, a passage that everybody in his listening audience will readily recognize. in this great challenge to make a difference in the world, he doesn't even hint that we are to be his representatives... in this passage he is the one who comes with nothing but a need and is served by those who would be faithful to the Way.

the deceptively simple lesson:

the Jesus in life's interactions is always the other guy.

serving the other guy is serving Jesus.

yet it seems to be easier to make everything about us.
it even seems more natural to do so.

but, defaulting to the notion that everything is about us, and then having to yet acknowledge that in spite of this we are incapable of both successfully pulling off the salvation of others single-handedly and accepting the efforts of others to rescue us from our own calamity, we heat up the tar and unpack the feathers when it comes to those who have agreed to try to help.

in short, if we can't be God's salvation sales rep, then nobody else can either.

somehow the picture of one called of God to serve others is only permitted positive expression and depiction in the media and the occasional blogpost where it does not include the stewardship of a leadership gift- using the gift of leadership to serve others by providing direction for them seems a bit culturally suspect. this suspicion is portrayed brilliantly in terry gilliam's time bandits film:

Randall: "Look, do you want to be leader of this gang?"
Wally: "No, we agreed: no leader."
Randall: "Right. So shut up and do as I say.

hmmm. we have so much trouble trusting other human beings.
so much fear of each other.

so much fear of ourselves.

so all of the other giftings are valued and celebrated, but love-driven spiritual direction is questioned, devalued, scandalized and ultimately relegated to something reeking of spiritually justified codependency. this indirectly asserts not only that the meeting of basic physical need is important and real (no argument there- not even from Jesus) but also that attending to the social need for leadership is merely opportunistic exploitation and never legitimate in its expression. boy, you'd better not admit to having been apportioned a spiritual leadership gift or your journey will be frought with fear and mistrust or pedestalization from others until the day of the Lord.

too bad. we could use some love-driven leadership.

Role of the Pastor in a Church?

2007-09-13T08:52:00.001-07:00

I have been considering this for some time now - but what do you see the role of a pastor in the church to be? Are they your equals or someone with a position slightly 'higher than yours'? Does a pastor need to be involved in every single decision a church makes? Should the pastor be very knowledgeable about church history and many the views taken on the scriptures?

Just what is a pastor supposed to be?

untouchables

2007-08-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

"Often freedom is seen as the ability to do whatever you want. But freedom isn't being able to have whatever we crave. Freedom is going without whatever we crave and being fine with it."

~ Rob Bell

allegory

2007-07-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

wearing only his underpants, the jackass is required to crawl on his hands and knees through a room full of mousetraps.

it is surreal.

the traps are snapping as he moves, setting off other traps as well as causing the jackass to writhe and convulse.

pain is an advance on the wages of sin, but this advance is quickly spent. the whole spectacle lasts only about thirty seconds and showing the traps going off repeatedly, even in slow motion, does not actually increase or prolong the pain.

thirty seconds over the course of a lifetime is a relatively small affair.

the crawling jackass does not go to the hospital to be treated or anything because, all totaled, it's a gag that has one important characteristic which allows us to laughingly embrace its slapstick nature:

ultimately, no mousetrap can catch man or mule.

How to Get to Heaven? (A Tract from Baptists)

2007-06-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

A tract landed on my front doorstep this morning entitled 'Heaven...how do I get there'? Let me know if you agree with the interpretation within the tract - and what needs to be changed.

"Heaven, how do I get there?" is one question we all have to ask ourselves. Our society has been filled with one person’s teaching after another. We have to remember that eternal life depends upon the very Word of God. The way to KNOW how to get to Heaven is by going to the Word of God, not another man’s teaching. To get to Heaven we must know and believe these 4 things:

(1) WE ARE ALL SINNERS
Romans 3:10: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one."
Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
Every person who walks the face of the earth has done wrong. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever taken something that was not yours? Have you ever had a bad thought? Everyone has done wrong. Do you believe this?

(2) THERE IS A PENALTY FOR OUR SIN
Romans 6:23a: "For the wages of sin is death…"
Revelation 21:8: "But the fearful,and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
We all know that we must die physically someday. Just pick up any newspaper and read the obituaries and we see that people die every day and at every age. After physical death, there is also spiritual death. We decide now while we are living, the place where we will live after physical life – Heaven or Hell. The penalty for our sins is death in Hell. If we get what we deserved it will be death in Hell.

(3) JESUS CHRIST PAID THAT PENALTY FOR US
Romans 5:8: "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 6:23b: "… but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
God loved us so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for us.
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Jesus Christ is God’s gift to man. A gift is FREE. All you have to do to receive a gift when someone is handing it to you, is to reach out and take it.

(4) TRUST AND TAKE JESUS AS YOUR PERSONAL SAVIOUR
Romans 10:9, 10, 13: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Friend, why don’t you bow your head right now. Pray, and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins to come into your heart and save you.

(5) SINNER'S PRAYER
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I deserve Hell. I realize that You died on the cross to save me. Please forgive me. Please come into my heart and save me now. I am trusting only in You for my eternal salvation. Help me now that I am saved to serve you faithfully. Thank you, Lord Jesus. – Amen

Did you do the above? You will go to Heaven; not by what man teaches, but by God’s Word. Titus 1:2: "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began."

What do you think...way to heaven or mis-interpretation of the gospel?

dry

2007-06-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

“Being created in the image of God means that we were created to look like God – not on the outside, but in our character and in our souls.” (Point of Grace)

i've been dry of words for a while, but i'm gonna try and break that. i came across this quote about a month ago, right after i had spoke a word to an awesome group of teen girls. i spoke at probably what's been one of the lower points of my life, where i was doubting...not my belief in Him, but more so my life purpose and portrayal of Him. my life felt out of control and i couldn't even voice it to those around me. as i look back, i realize that some of my clearest words come out of the low points, because i've been stripped of everything that really shouldn't be there in the first place.

this quote spoke deep...even when things seem out of control and i feel further away than ever from who i deem myself to be, His image does shine through. should i already have know this? yeah, but who says i didn't...sometimes, i guess my eyes just need a reopening...thank goodness that grace on more than a one-time basis.

jolly and jack

2007-06-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

i stumbled upon this letter a while back- it's from may 2000. thought i'd post it today, on father's day...

Hey Dad
I have been thinking about you these last few days, and so I thought that I'd send you a note. I am really proud of you (THAT sounds lame!) and I bring you up continually in conversation. I'm not sure you knew that, so I thought I'd fill you in : )

A friend of mine and I were talking about our Dads the other day, and he asked "What exactly does your Dad do?"

I thought about it, and in a moment of startling clarity, I realized I had the answer:"He leads people."

For years I have known this, and yet not known it. You see, in the 70's nobody that I knew was talking about leadership... they only talked about being boss. In today's vernacular people address, indeed actively PURSUE the same qualities more positively under the more socially acceptable umbrella of LEADERSHIP. People want to be led by strong leaders who have vision.

Leadership is something that makes my heart beat fast. The idea of rallying a pile of amazing people around me who are all uniquely qualified to meet the challenges associated with whatever mission I happen to be on is thrilling. I even take pride in knowing that there are things that people can do that they are not even aware of which I can spot. Leading people towards God, then, is something that, for me, far surpasses anything else I've ever done because the mission itself is so perfect.

In digging through the Word over the last couple of years, I have discovered three recurrent themes that can be summed up in the two phrases that are repeated throughout the Book:

1) "That they would know that I am God"... that God would be glorified.
2) "That they will be my people and I will be their God"... God's greatest glorification comes from communion with his crowned of creation: us.

and although it is not explicitly in there, a third theme would be:
3) "That they would bring a friend"

To lead people in this direction is, for me, more satisfying than anything in the world. BUT I am a leader because of you.

I think that it has always been easier to see the ways that I am NOT like you (which has always been hard for me, as a boy wants to be like his dad) because I have always looked at skills, not qualities. As we all know, I will NEVER possess the skills of basic physical problem-solving that have paved a career and post-career highway around the planet for you... your understanding of the principles that drive this physical world is unparalleled and your genius continues to be rewarded. How can an artistic son live up to that? However, I've just been looking in the wrong places for the bloodline. You have always led people toward your visions. You have always been able to draw people around you who could see your vision and embrace their role in it. That has always been leadership- they just called it supervision... okay, "Super-Vision"

In other words, the things that I am the most- the qualities that drive me to do almost everything I do well- come from my Dad. They just find different expression in me because the skills are different.

I think I get it now.
Thanks Dad.

the Jesus pavilion (part 1)

2007-06-11T10:24:00.001-07:00

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (colossians 2.8)

in looking at this passage, i was drawn towards a couple phrases that were challenging. i love that scripture can be this living, breathing revelation of God which invites interaction, depending on what we bring to it when we read.

because it often makes more sense for me to work backwards through something, the first challenge came at the very end:

'this world rather than on Christ'

now, typically, believers in Christ read the phrase this world as referring to that great big dark evil place where gargoyle-like human caricatures live out these fallen sex, drugs and rock and roll lives dedicated to hedonism and self-destruction. however, as i read this passage with different eyes (or perhaps just somehow receiving it with a different heart) i noted something troubling.

see, christians are notorious for creating their own little worlds, complete with culture, language, art, social networks... the full meal deal. now, whereas this should, i guess, be a good thing in that it should be a social and spiritual alternative to godless living or whatever, in many cases it is simply another thing. alternative, sure, but not a whole lot different than any other coming-together of human beings. instead of being somehow missional and impactive, faith communities can run the risk of being reactionary and exclusive, communicating either indirectly or directly through its social distinctives (referred to as convictions) that others must somehow resort to this strange self-imposed ethnic cleansing, giving up their friends, their culture, their recreation etc in order to take part.

better be a pretty darn amazing church service.

where it gets a little crunchy for me is the idea that this Jesus Pavilion approach to the spiritual journey isn't actually based on Christ... not really. i would even venture to say that it's based more on human tradition and the basic principles of this (new but not really that improved) world rather than on Christ.

hollow and deceptive? all ethnocentricity is.

helpless

2007-06-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

Friday June 1, 2007

10:55pm

It is with great sadness that I let you know that Jayda passed away and left her earthly home tonight at 10:55pm local time.

However, it is with great joy that I announce Jayda has arrived in her new heavenly home. She has received her miracle; salvation and a new body in glory.

Thank you for all your prayer and please continue to pray as we walk through these next weeks.

God Bless,

Chris

it is with profound dismay that i receive notes like this.

on friday i sat helpless, watching my friend remain wearily vigilant as his beautiful wife lay sighing in a palliative hospital bed underneath a borrowed quilt.

in one of those moments i was struck with the cruel irony of mortality. on the one hand, i just wanted jayda to be free. go- dance with God. i whispered courageous words in her ear about how chris and their little toddler son kiel would be okay because they were surrounded by incredible love and support from the people around them.

you gotta wonder who you are trying to convince with stuff like that...

these words were betraying what was on the other hand: this heavy awareness that the time for father and son to be without wife and mother was fast approaching. and my friend sat quietly stroking the face of his beloved, fingertips caressing a bare arm, imprinting as deeply as possible these last tactile experiences, these final moments of physical warmth and exchange.

the irony of mortality is so often found simply at the centre of the conflict between what one wants for oneself and what one wants for another. i mean, does the loving husband pray in that moment for the final healing miracle- death itself- for his soulmate, while clinging desperately to even the most minuscule slivers of life together that remain, holding dear even the lightest touch, grimly resigned to the fact that each of these may be the last?

reminds me of those waking moments as a child when i used to try desperately to hold onto the things from the dream that had made that dream so great- only to fail every time as conscious mind and physical reality once again took their rightful places as prime interpreters of the life experience, banishing the unconscious to darkness and silence once again, save for the occasional random interruption in the form of some weird deja vu thing.

all these things poured out of a snapshot moment in someone else's time that was burned indelibly into my own personal hard drive. everything seems to be rehearsal for everything else as our hearts try to make sense of the heaviest circumstances and situations from a distance. the questions we pose are posed by our hearts in response to the calamity of others in the hope that somehow we'll have what we need when it's our turn.

yeah. mortality leaves us feeling way out of our depth.

how common is this experience?
how many have lain under this quilt

while others have helplessly by their side attended?

reverently overwhelmed

2007-05-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

I acknowledge that God, by his grace and mercy, is making headway in helping me to see with greater clarity that in his Son, Jesus, I have a reliable and completely trustworthy advocate who not only can teach me what it means to live and be fully human, but also what it means to love deeply and be loved unconditionally. Some may question, "You mean you haven't understood this about God until just now?"
My response: Maybe in theory I understood but my understanding did not reach into the deepest part of who I am. It's sinking in now and to no surprise, I’m finding it both scary and satisfying. (torchie)

scary and satisfying? perhaps that's why we often read about fearing God... because the implications of calling him 'Lord' go so far beyond anything our flimsy little minds can truly comprehend that this holy fear is the only appropriate response.

didn't somebody once say 'we fear what we don't understand' only to have everyone else turn it into a cliche?

okay, call it reverently overwhelmed...
or better yet, just refer to it has having gained some perspective.

SocietyVs Quote of the Week

2007-05-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

"We must start to deal with our own hate, or after a while we might find out the saddest thing - that's all we have left to build from"

honestly?

2007-05-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

i would rather be surprised by the ongoing fallenness of a friend
than be lied to anyday.

torchie's top 10 belief system balderdashes

2007-05-01T05:45:00.001-07:00

my friend torchie does not have a blog of his own but he sent me this note the other day. i've been threatening to post his stuff for months. i'm finally making good on my threat... (jb)

I fed my heart today by reading 1 Corinthians 15.1-34, worshipping with
Delirious, and just a few minutes ago, MSNing with an accountability partner. That was an unexpected treat and very encouraging conversation that reminded me once again that Jesus is great beyond description.

My readings of late have been helping me to think about, and hopefully apply to my life, how to live the power, or reality, of Jesus' resurrection.

I wondered St Paul meant by the statement in 15.2, "Hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain."

I prayed for nearly 2.5 hours over this little line as I thought about
WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE A VAIN, OR POINTLESS, BELIEF SYSTEM
(ya, I was surprised too).

Let me give you the highlights.

1. It means believing that certain actions or behaviour will merit God's favour. Verse 1 clearly indicates that resurrection reality hinges upon understanding that God's favour is something to be "received."

2. It means believing anything that robs Jesus of his divinity or of his humanity. Take away Jesus' humanity and his defeat of death (and our defeat of death too) becomes irrelevant since humans are all subject to death. Take away Jesus' divinity and the resurrection becomes an impossibility.

3. It means believing that sin is nothing more than little indiscretions. Speaking from experience, minimizing sinful thoughts and behaviour often unleashes a series of inestimably serious consequences. St Paul said "Stop sinning" (v.34) for a very good reason.

4. It means underestimating the importance of Jesus' resurrection to our lives. St Paul states in v.14 that his life and ministry would be useless if Jesus had not risen from the dead. I couldn't help wonder how many things done in Christ's name are useless because they are "done" without recognition of the living presence of Christ.

5. It means believing paid, "professional Christians" (clergy) are the ones who are responsible for the articulation and witness of the gospel in our city and beyond.

6. It means believing that faith can be practiced in isolation from the community of faith. I am not pointing fingers at the monastic movement here but rather the idea that one does not need to practice the disciplines of accountability, confession, receiving service, and 360-thinking. St
Paul reminds his readers (v.5) that following his resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter and the Twelve and then others. The Risen Christ often manifests himself in places where his followers are gathered.

7. It means withholding forgiveness. Again, v.5 is a reminder that by example, Jesus sought out those who had forsaken, or wronged, him. And in the seeking, forgiveness and reconciliation are implied.

8. It means trusting in sources that are antithetical to Jesus' teachings from Holy Scripture. St Paul warns his readers about those who were raising doubts in their minds about the resurrection of Jesus. "Don't be misled," St Paul says. "Bad company corrupts good character." This is a tough one especially when it is someone we like who is leading us into theological oblivion.

9. It means having a purely subjective belief system that is not open to scrutiny. This does tie in to point #6. Verse 12 gave me the impression St Paul was in the habit of asking people questions. I gather, too, that he was okay with being asked questions about his beliefs. I feel openness to the scrutiny of those who love us is one of the most important, albeit difficult at times, activities in the life of faith.

10. It means trusting more in oneself than god and for believing divine invitations to adventure are too risky to get involved in. Again, the Apostle amazes and inspires me: “Why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day…just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (v.31) Once again I am confronted with this matter of trusting in God. St Paul was able to face “wild beasts” not because he was an adrenaline junkie or simply just unlucky, but because he trusted in the Risen Christ. The assurance of Jesus being alive compelled St Paul and gave him the assurance to be daring in living his life in service to God. This daring faith does not come at a little price. It requires from me a daily death to self; a dying of my proclivity to play God whilst, at other times, to play it safe.

Hmmm. I think I should not have stopped praying!

directionality

2007-04-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

"The greatest thing in the world is not so much where we stand, but in which direction we are going."

northVUs: party line

redeeming those gift cards

LOVE

number 27

nothing to kill or die for

either/or

justice monster

mine is in the mail

inception and some things already seen

waiting

lessons on fairness

blue- no, yellow

zombie apocalypse?

synchronicity

nativity scenes

crazy thoughts

how do they know it's christmas?

any colour you like

escape from this mind prison?

a long ride down a curvy road

who am I?

eating words for breakfast

God's eyebrows?

the good news that is pizza

two prayers

The State of the Church These Days...

300+1

it's your jump

Parashot Chukkot (Numbers 19-22:1)

Smudge Walk 2008 - Cultural Acceptance

Getting Along

paradise regained?

when God winks

this thieving heart

rich man

the distance of celebrity

we'll have to do a few more tests

Christian Persecution - What Should We Do?

dashboard confessional

people person

The Plague of Darkness

living the list

disappointment with God

Broken Pieces - A Jewish View

we all wore black

the opportunity to be a fly on the wall like this was afforded me recently as i was asked to preside over the celebration of life service of a man i had never met.

but men like this one are hard to summarize. full lives like his take full lives to recount, although the sharing cannot be complete until everyone who has experienced this person has shared everything they know with everyone else.

such is the richness and character of relationships with ‘renaissance men’ - with men like this one who seem to always be changing, always moving, always heading somewhere, having come from somewhere else.

so what to say? i sat at my desk yesterday, the service just hours away, staring at some pages of handwritten notes with nary a clue as to what to do with them. all earlier attempts had yielded nothing, but we were approaching the eleventh hour.

for some preacher like me to try to find a single bible character or passage to apply to a life so full seems absurd. as i sat and listened to the yarns being spun, it occurred to me that there might be a theme which is more appropriate to focus upon than any one character or teaching.

we all wore black.

AND IF THEY FREED ME FROM THIS PRISON IF THIS RAILROAD TRAIN WAS MINEI BET I'D MOVE IT ALL

A LITTLE FARTHER DOWN THE LINEFAR FROM FOLSOM PRISON

THAT'S WHERE I WANT TO STAYAND I'D LET THAT LONESOME WHISTLE

BLOW MY BLUES AWAY...

hyperlink

wink

photomosaic

offensive defense?

The Line Drawn in the Sand...

salvation sales rep

Role of the Pastor in a Church?

untouchables

allegory

How to Get to Heaven? (A Tract from Baptists)

dry

jolly and jack

the Jesus pavilion (part 1)

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (colossians 2.8)

helpless

reverently overwhelmed

SocietyVs Quote of the Week

honestly?

torchie's top 10 belief system balderdashes

directionality

AND IF THEY FREED ME FROM THIS PRISON
IF THIS RAILROAD TRAIN WAS MINE
I BET I'D MOVE IT ALL

A LITTLE FARTHER DOWN THE LINE
FAR FROM FOLSOM PRISON

THAT'S WHERE I WANT TO STAY
AND I'D LET THAT LONESOME WHISTLE