Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

the mystery of...Presence

 

I know Hugh Hollowell of Love Wins would hate to be put on a pedestal, what he does is so down to earth, so humble and beautiful that it comes out of the midst of everyday living. Living conscious each day of what it is to live in the midst of a broken neighborhood. Brokenness that is so impoverished in all aspects of reality and spiritually. It's not something that we can wave a magic wand over and fix, but, also it is not something we through our hands in the air and walk away.

As soon as he said, " ministry of presence " some thoughts came to mind like a flash bulb going off. A few years ago when we first started going to the Paquachin First Nations Reserve the first thing you notice is the level of poverty. Dilapidated houses, broken plumbing, poor nutrition, alcoholism, broken family relationships, teenage pregnancy,illiteracy, high school drop outs...and a deep mistrust of white people, and religion. If you were to assess it, add the brokenness up you would never come back after the first visit. Where does one even begin to fix?

It did take time. There were the initial weeks that we were completely ignored. I still remember the first time being called " white trash...what are you doing here." But we came back, and we kept coming back week after week; same time, same place. We were becoming a " presence."

First it was a few young kids, we played games; soccer, road hockey, and dodge ball. We ate snacks, just hung out and talked. Next it was elders, and single moms and babies coming; we did crafts...ate more and talked more. We started doing home work with kids. It was a chance to talk about issues in the community. It was a chance to hear their stories. It was a chance for us to listen and learn. It became a chance for " all " of us to pray together. " Presence " was becoming " relationship."

Another story from CARTS, and inner city street ministry where we see a lot of the same folks week after week; working poor, drug addicts, alcoholics, mentally ill, homeless...people down in their luck. Again it is a level of brokenness that can overwhelm you. But we keep coming back again, and again...out of love. The reality is, we may never " fix " any of our friends, but, that doesn't stop us from coming back. Some might say it is a waste of time, resources and money, but, we still keep coming back. The weather might be bitter wet and cold, but, we still keep coming back. We might not have any socks one week, or underwear the next, but, we still keep coming back. This is what " presence " is. I have made a lot of friends over the years, if I don't see them on a Sunday I miss them...I worry about them.

A few weeks ago one of our friends ( S ) showed up quite intoxicated. ( S ) is an alcoholic who occasionally falls of the wagon, and this was one of those nights. He took nothing from us, no food, lemonade, socks, underwear...nothing. He just sat on a park bench in our midst. One of the ladies went over and talked to him for quite a while before we moved on the Salvation Army Hostel on lower Johnston.

 It was interesting last Tuesday I had to go into town and pick up some art supplies for some paintings I'm working on. Well, who did I bump into on the street...it was ( S ). He looked much better, clean shave, no smell of alcohol...and happy. We had a great talk, and it was interesting, he mentioned the Sunday a few weeks ago. He felt really bad about it, about showing up that way. But he said, " I just had to go...it was like I  was being drawn there." A pause, and again, " I just had to be there with you all."

I think that is the profound mystery of what Hugh calls the ministry of presence. There is an incredible power in it beyond us...it has a gravity that pulls us together. It knows brokenness better than we do. It doesn't need a whole lot of " push this down your throat " type of fixing. It doesn't need me casting a stone of scripture at the person. Its a power that comes from us knowing we need each other. As much as ( S ) needs us...we need him. Presence is sitting with one another...and knowing in the midst is God. In presence there is always that tender embryonic shoot...that becomes relationship.

I know presence has the power to fix things...with out anyone pushing an agenda.

Everyone is BEAUTIFUL...

 

Listening to Jean Vanier made me think of this quote from Thomas Merton's book " No man is an Island."

                   " Every person becomes the image of the God they adore."

Some fleeting thoughts...

The beauty of God is as near as the next person you come in contact with...if your willing to be humble, gentle like whisper allowing a breeze of something beyond you to lift the veil...you will see God.

We are only fully human to the point at which we include...we only reflect God to the point in which we include. Only in inclusion do we discover the profound truth and reality of what ONE can be.

 

Everywhere...Everyone

If we have the ears to listen, and the eyes to see,

BEAUTY

is Everywhere.

Little, tender

embryonic 

shoots of God

in EVERYONE.

To nurture

to cultivate

to grow

God.

In our midst

EVERYWHERE

God in EVERYONE.

 by Ron Cole 

Gettin' down...the Kingdom

Pfleger raises another passage, this from the book of Revelation: " I saw a new city, a holy city coming down from heaven -----coming down!" He shouts, " Hear me, St. Sabina. Heaven is not where I'm going up to. Heaven is coming down to the earth to invade earth, to impact the earth, and the government shall be on his shoulders...If the Kingdom is getting ready to come down, we are called to begin to establish the Kingdom right now, right here on this earth. Look at the person next to you and say, " Neighbor, you are supposed to establish the Kingdom now." ( Radical Disciple: Father Pfleger, St Sabina Church, and the Fight for Social Justice )

Hell...more our playing with fire

Once there was a wealthy Wall Street CEO, he put on his three piece Giorgio Armani suit, the shirt with a really stiff neck, gold diamond cuff links and alligator shoes. Every day was a big costume affair as he prepared to enter Life's stage. And every day as backed his Lamborghini Countach out of the drive way, he nearly ran over the poor homeless street person laying at the side of his gated real estate. The guys name was " Laz ", most just called him lazy for short. He was covered in sores, and so hungry, all he wanted was scraps from the rich guy's grabage can.

It did happen that " Laz " did succumb to his poor health and starved to death. The angels came to " Laz' " aide and carried him away and seated him at banquet table along side Abraham. With time, the rich man did pass away, leaving all his toys and wealth behind.In the hereafter, up there, out there, somewhere, the rich man in great agony looked afar and saw Abraham and " Laz " enjoying fellowship at the table.

So he shouted at him at the top of his lungs, " Excuse me... Mr Abraham, please take pity on me and send " Laz " to bring me a sip of Perrier with a slice of lemon and rub it over my tongue, because I'm scorching in this heat."

Abraham replied, " Man! you remember that when you were alive, you had it all; the mansion, the cars, the good job, bank account, health care, big pension, bonuses, fine school, gourmet meals...you went with out nothing friend.'  All the while " Laz " had to dig through your trash, eating scraps to survive.' ' But now he's got it made, and you're scorching.' ' And on top of all this " somebody " has dug a huge yawning chasm between us and you. so that people trying to get through from here to you can't make it; neither can they get through from there to us.' "

The rich man said, " Well, then, Mr Abraham, will you please send " Laz " to my family's home to warn my wife, kids, and grand-kids; let him thoroughly warn them so they won't come to this hellish condition.

Then Abraham said, " They've got the bible and they've heard preachers...and Jesus' teachings and his living. Let you family take all that in." But the rich man said, " No, they won't do that, but if " Laz " came back from the dead, that would scare the shit out of them, then they'll change their ways."

Abraham said, " If they won't listen to the word, the prophets, or even Jesus...they won't be persuaded by a dead man. ( Paraphrase Luke 16:19-31, by Ron Cole )

If you don't like my paraphrase of Luke, dig out your favourite version and have a read...and reflect. And then think about this;  Who has dug this huge yawning chasm between the rich man; Abraham and Lazarus? Did God? Did God create Hell?

I wonder some times if we don't create our own hell right here on earth by how we live now. If we choose to separate, create our own chasms between them and us...the poor, the oppressed, the homeless, the sick, the marginalized, the weak, our enemies, other faiths...those we just plain don't like. Why should we think that we would not bring this chasm into the next world, that all of a sudden in the blink of an eye we're rubbing elbows with those we ignored most of our earthly lives.

 Maybe, hell is about more our playing with fire...and burning bridges.

If Darwin Prayed...

I want to consider preaching as a poetic construe of an alternative world. The purpose of such preaching is to cherish the truth, to open the truth from its pervasive reductionism in our society, to break the fearful rationality that keeps the news form being new... After the engineers, inventors, and scientists, after all such control through knowledge, ‘finally comes the poet’. The poet does not come to have a say until the human community has engaged in its best management. Then perchance comes the power of poetry - shattering, evocative speech that breaks fixed conclusions and presses us always toward new, dangerous, imaginative possibilities. ( Walter Brueggemann, Comes the Poet; P.6 )

 

                                                

In my previous post, I shared poetry by Bruce Sanguin. The book is called, " If Darwin Prayed:Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics." Prayers yes...but much more. Like Walter Bruggeman puts it, there comes a point when the human community is at best just managing, and along the corridor of history as so many times before a side door opens, and...someone calls. In the past it has been the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel calling from the margins of communities that were lost. Jesus came speaking wild, scandalous redemptive parables filled wonder and hope that captured the mind of humanity.

Bruce Sanguin, is the prophet, poet of our age. We are at a time, when at best, we are barely managing. Politics are becoming more more polarized. Religion is at best trying peddle its wares from days gone by, like a junk shop the shine of its trinkets is gone. In a society that has spent beyond its means, filled with anxiety, it digs deep into its pockets trying to find that last penny to carry on the only thing it seems to know how to do...consume. The " Green Movement " seems nothing more than camouflage, clever disguises in which corporations and politicians can hide behind while carrying on business as usual...the continual rape of Mother Earth...as her children watch and say nothing. In an age where polarization is ripping society apart at the seams...the middle ground for any type of " real " conversation is empty. The emperor marches through the nations streets, horns blaring, drums pounding, shouting the new and improved version of the " american dream ", while everyone lining the side walks dressed complacantly, and afraid to say the " emperor has no clothes ". In a deep sleep, and a daze they just sing the song. Science and religion have traveled side by side down the free way for miles and miles always suspicious looking at each other, pointing, shaking fists at each other...have suddenly come to a dead end. They scratch their heads, stomp their feet...still miles and miles away from any real " Hope."

Walking in from the desert, appearing at the end of the dead end freeway comes Bruce Sanguin. Using the power of poetry - shattering, evocative, mysterious language he breaks fixed conclusions and gently moves us like summer breeze toward new, dangerous, imaginative possibilities...where hope brilliantly rises like the sun on a new day.

With out a doubt this is the most provocative, beautiful, mysterious, dangerous, challenging and hopeful book I have read in years. I can not thank Bruce Sanguin enough for what this book does...it closes the margins; it brings the poles closer togther; science and religion can grasp hands...he has opened up the middle ground, where we sit in the midst of creation, where galaxies and stars pin around us...where we can again have hope filled conversation. All while a creator beyond us, in us...looks on and smiles.

 

Apocalyptic Awakening

Isaiah 64: 1-8

O Holy One,

we are a sleepy lot,

slow to stir to the calling of the cosmos,

deaf to the cries of the Earth,

and the forgotten ones, 

human and other-than-human.

 

We distract ourselves,

with trivialities that have become idols,

while the sun and the moom darken,

and stars fall from the skies, 

we are mesmerized by the markets aluring power, 

eyes unflinchingly fixed upon the naval of our own net worth.

 

" O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, "

cries the prophet,

or at least tear open our hearts, pry open our eyes,

and end this slumber that blocks out pain, 

but with it, wonder.

 

Our hope, O Holy One, is found in eyes wide open,

in hearts linked in a common cause, 

in small gestures of compassion,

and in alertness to you coming, 

again and again.

As fire kindles brushwood

and causes water to boil,

so we await to be set on fire

with hope and gospel passion.

Amen.

( Bruce Sanguin, If Darwin Prayed: Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics, pg 11, Advent )  

 

              

Buy it, read it...and wonder...you will not be disappointed.

The parable of the Cookie...lived by Justin

Then he looked up and saw church folk, good-doers, owners of inner city ministries thinking they had a God franchise doling out God on their terms. Then he saw a poor young man, long hair, a infectious smile filled with broken teeth...handing out a package of Oreo cookies. " The plain truth is that this young man has given by far the largest offering today. All these other people made offering they'll never miss. But this young man gave extravagantly, infectiously filled with joy, and grace what he could barely afford. If they had the eyes to see...they would have seen the Kingdom in there midst. ( paraphrase Luke 21: 1-4 : mine ) 

Justin is part of Victoria's street community that we've have seen every week for years. One Sunday a few weeks ago he bought some cookies to give out...and to show us the Kingdom of God. Thanks, Justin that night is forever etched in my mind.

emergence, evolutionary faith and life...

      

 

 

An Architect's Eye

Genesis 6:13-22, John 5:10-16

O Holy One,

Faith is an awesome gift:

not that we believe in you,

but that you believe in us!

You have set within us the awesome power of creativity,

entrusting us to shape a holy future.

 

Within us is the renovating vision of Jesus.

enable to enlarge the room we call reality,

replacing walls with floor-to-ceiling windows,

installing skylights to see, 

the view above our heads.

 

Respectfully, we remove the ancient symbols

from our sacred table

to spread out the kin-dom's blueprint,

knowing that Jesus is present,

with a shapened pencil

and an architect's eye

for symetmetry of the sacred.

 

With plans in place,

We take up the hammer

in the Spirit of Noah,

carpenter of a divine restoration,

and on the behalf of all creation, 

we build on your belief in us.

Amen.

( By Bruce Sanguin: If Darwin Prayed; Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics, pg 124; Season of Emergence )

 

Evolution, (from its literal meaning of "unfolding" of something into its true or explicit form) carries a connotation of gradual improvement or directionality from a beginning to an end point. Reality for me is composed of three dimensions...faith, science and life. It's interesting that much of my past christian life was lived essentially in one dimension...basically horizontally. It was God " up there ", and the hope and constant struggle of ensuring my final place of residence was " up there." It seemed the other two dimensions were always at odds with " up there." Science always seemed to be trying to prove that God didn't exist, and some how if we focused more on life " down here " we were taking our eyes of the finish line and would never get " up there."

But in this new kind of post-christian faith I find myself is very 3 Dimensional...I need to embrace all three in order to discover this fullness of life that Jesus talked about. This Kingdom, or as Bruce Sanguin eloquently puts it...a Kin-dom reality. You get a profound sense of paradox, mystery, and a profound sense of interconnectedness that ignites the imagination of what it is to be human.

From Genesis, the opening moments of creation, the Spirit brooding, hovering over this dark mirky soup of nothingness. This evolution of existence, of reality begins to unfold in all directions. In the opening words of the John's gospel;

 The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God,in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him.What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out. ( Eugene Peterson's The Message )

And from Colossians...

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. ( Eugene Peterson's The Message )

There is a fabric holding existence together...something, or someone who has meticulously weaved it.

To me, these are key-hole moments where we catch glimpses of all 3 dimensions. Watch, the following video clip ( 3 minutes approx. ), undeniably it confronts faith, science and life...and it does it...mysteriously. There is a fabric to existence, something holding it " All " together...and the precision at which it does is mind boggling.

 

 

 A post-christendom faith must be 3 dimensional, not so much to solidify " truth " like pouring concrete, but to better understand the " fullness of life ", our place in, and our future in it. In Jesus' " I am, the way, the truth and the life ", understood this mysterious fabric that holds "all" together. In embracing the reality of Jesus, his teachings, his life, his Kin-dom...we discover the eternity in now. The reality is how we live determines the stability of this fabric. Whether it tears, unravels or disintegrates depends on how we live.

I love the following musings by recent neighbor in Vancouver, Theo-poet, Jason Derr who writes about seeing the future in 3-D...

The future opens up but does end up there, though it does begin now. The sputnik moment is a moment of incarnation and intention. If we are honest then we can say the world is pregnant with sputnik moments. Information technology is making us rethink how we think and interact in the world, the environmental crisis is allowing us the space to rethink our technologies and resource management and the economic crisis is allowing us to rethink how we view wealth and capital in a world of dwindling resources. And that is just North America.

The Middle East and Africa are facing challenges of a generation-defining nature and the future that will emerge -- is yet to be defined. The call is upon all of us -- Prime Ministers and Presidents, citizens here and abroad -- to enter into the future not as spectators awaiting the end of things but as co-creators and participants who have an opportunity to take part in the start of things. The future is incarnate in the present. So, how will we answer the call? ( from theopoetic Jason Derr/ Seeing the Future in 3-D: Incarnation and the Sputnik Moment )

Horizontal only thinking would have us abandon hope in the " Now ", trading for an exit strategy and lottery for occupancy in the " Up There." But  in the reality of " all " that  is " In-Jesus " in the profound mystery of his Kin-dom...the interconnectedness of " all " creation...we learn how to navigate within this fabric. In a sense we can act as seamstresses, like the initial creator, weaver...that we can mend, and stretch this fabric of reality. 

Brian McLaren in his book A New Kind of Christianity refers to this idea as a three dimensional universe, a universe with no predetermined ending, not like the made for Hollywood movie " Left Behind " ending in raptures and in a catastrophic display of fireworks. Brian defines this three dimensional matrix as a space of continual unfolding, a liberation that unshackles us from hopelessness. Brian asks us, that we think of creation ,the unfolding evolving creation -- as height, liberation as length and peaceable kin-dom as infinite width. The open, three dimensional universe is one in which existence bends towards justice...and in which justice mends, and bends the fabric of life in all directions.

We discover that when we live " Jesus-like " lives, filled with the Spirit, filled with the mysterious redemptive imagination of the creator, the weaver of the fabric of life...there will be moments in which the divine will ask us to particiate...to grab a needle, to weave and mend. The future does not have to be predestined. There doesn't have to be an expired, best before date...as particapants, co-creators we can bend, we can stretch time. The kin-dom, this profound mysterious interconnectedness is an ever expanding space of particapation where we " all " join together as one. Every day we have moments where we " all " can impact the future, the end does not have to be the end.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life...it is way outside the lines of mere belief...it is embracing the fullness of life and living in 3 dimensions.

My faith is in a constant state of emergence and evolution...a 3-dimensional Jesus found in science, faith..and life.

We should get a bus, and bring them to church...

  

Last Sunday while on the streets with Victoria's innercity community and CARTS  someone made the comment to me, " We should get a bus and bring them to our church." Our CARTS community, I call it that because that is what it is...volunteers, and our inner city friends; homeless, poor, addicted, mental health issues, working poor...or a mix of everything. Some we see on a regular basis. Some for 5-7 years. Some we connect with during the week on the street. Some at the Rainbow Kitchen. We have built up a relationship over time. We've seen each other in the good times and the bad times. We've seen each other on sunny days, and we've seen each other in the bitter cold and snow. We've gone out with abundance, and we've gone out when the cupboard has been bare. The point is we've gone out because it has been more about love and friendship than anything else. When we've run out of that we'll put the CARTS away.

" We should get a bus, and bring them to our church." Really! My biggest question would be why? Would it be anything more than hanging a trophy prize on your wall like some hunter would. Nothing more than " Poverty Pimping " to make the church look good. Would it be just to bring them in for some cutting edge worship music, and a three point sermon where they could get some sound bytes to plug into there lives, push play and make their lives better. Would that be why we would get the bus.

Ok, church...I'll get the bus if...

1. Your willing to can the music...can the sermon. They've been preached at enough.
2. Your willing to serve an extravagant meal. But don't sit off on the sidelines, or watch from the kitchen door. Sit down and listen to their stories...you might find God is already there.
3. Your willing not look at this a " short term " mission, something you'll do once a month. Think " relationship ", long haul...relationships take time, effort, commitment. They've had enough people dump and run, come once or twice and never again.
4. Your willing to provide shelter for some on a permanent basis.
5. Your willing to provide food, clothe and quench their thirst ( Matthew 25 ) on a regular basis.
6. Your willing to find help for their addiction, mental health and health issues. Mentor, build deep friendship...live life together in real community in real time, not just Sunday, or once a month.
7. Your willing to see your church financial statement go into the red for awhile.
8. Your willing to see things get a little messy for awhile.
9. Your willing to be taken advantage of...be willing to understand servant-hood, and sacrifice in a whole new reality.
10. Most of all, if your willing to understand grace and love in dimensions never before seen.
11. Your willing to discover Jesus in a whole new way.
12. Your willing to be their advocates, to be thier voice in places where they have no voice at all.
13. Your willing speak, and act against injustice...speak against the power of the day, religious or political.

Ok, church...do you still want to get the bus?

Atonement...a Kingdom Perspective

From a Kingdom perspective atonement is not about personal sin...it is cosmic justice.

" He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. " ( Eugene Peterson, Colossians )

In Christ, it is our part to be radical scandalous redemptive bonds reactive, interactive, subversive reagents bringing " ALL " the broken dislocated pieces together...anything, and absolutely everything together...not just souls. This is atonement, when all reality comes back together in Christ, who from the beginning has held creation together. This is the reality of Kingdom justice. This is the fulfillment of. " May your will be done on earth, as in Heaven...Your Kingdom Come on Earth as in Heaven.

 

Bono...find out what God's doing

Absolutely nothing to add...watch, listen, but, as you do...think locally, and globally.