the Weary Pilgrim

letting it read you...

"We come to a biblical text, raising questions about its relevance to our present daily lives, only to find that the text questions us about our relevance to the way of Christ.

...The thick impenetrable nature of these texts may be by conscious design. A difficult to understand text catches our attention, begs for attention, and engages our natural inclination to figure things out. On the other hand, the texts may be difficult, obscure, and distant simply because they are talking about what is true, whereas most of what we live is false."

-Will Willimon, Pastor 

I have to be honest, there was a season early in my journey where I just read scripture...edited, cut and pasted. It led to a pretty comfortable faith. I did nothing more than download my edited version of the word onto the harddrive of my brain. Faith was not even faith, nothing more than building blocks of knowledge neatly packed in a box...the lid, tightly sealed shut. It really led no where...a dead end street. 

Then something weird happened, sort of like Psalmist talking about " deep calling to deep ". The biblical text started reading me, or should I say the inspiration, the wind that inspired it's writers started to read me. It's a little un-nerving to discover relevance is'nt about me...it is all about the way of Christ.

With the building blocks of knowledge scrambled around my feet like rubble...I discovered I was a lie. But, now, I could embrace every thing; the difficult, the obscure and the distant. The things I couldn't understand, the difficult passages that left fragments and holes, I embraced with faith, rather than belief, if that makes sense.

But having the text read me, to undo me, moved me beyond myself to Jesus. It became faith, it became a journey. Deep calls to deep; the breath of God, Holy Spirit; ... " Christ in me ", as Paul would say..." I will write my laws on their hearts." Having the text read you, is discovering the Living Word within, and being able to live and walk from that space.

Being read...have you?

"We come to a biblical text, raising questions about its relevance to our present daily lives, only to find that the text questions us about our relevance to the way of Christ.

...The thick impenetrable nature of these texts may be by conscious design. A difficult to understand text catches our attention, begs for attention, and engages our natural inclination to figure things out. On the other hand, the texts may be difficult, obscure, and distant simply because they are talking about what is true, whereas most of what we live is false."

-Will Willimon, Pastor 

at the cross road...lost in translation

So, on the weekend I'm listening to someone talk about how in the coming years the church and Christians are going to bear much hardship. I'm thinking, well, if we carry on doing what we're doing...yep, that's the truth. Church numbers will continue to dwindle, enrollment in bible colleges and seminaries will continue to drop and more churches will have financial difficulties. The hardship won't be from the message of the gospel...or from persecution...it will be because we've bought into the same culture, the same economy and the same empire.

Lost in translation...that's where were at. It's like Jesus was speaking a foreign language ( which he was ), and we had to translate it so it was understandable. In doing so, THE GOOD NEWS, is nothing more than a sales pitch for a better life...a philosophy...a more social conscience.

Last week, I shared this quote by Walter Wink about wrestling, and the Holy Spirit being there the whole time strengthening us both. How much do we let the Holy Spirit strengthen us...and just let Jesus speak to us afresh again. Jesus said if we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear the knowledge of the Kingdom of heaven would be given to us.

Maybe it's time to spend more time immersing ourselves in the Gospels...listening to Jesus...seeing and hearing the Kingdom. Do we really need to have the voice of Jesus filtered through that of man? Do we need some one to put a lens over the scenes in the gospel to create a more comfortable cultural image?

Read it...look at it...the scenes are vivid, and clear...and his voice left people in awe. If your having problems understanding, pray for the friend, the counselor that Jesus promised...go to your room, pull out your mat and wrestle...the truth will come.

It becomes startling clear in the gospels that Jesus pitched his tent in the midst of the messiness of humanity...the unacceptable, the oppressed. There were no boundaries, no borders, all lines of exclusion were erased...His table an open invitation. We read and we see the Kingdom, Jesus says, " I only do and say, what my Father is already doing and saying." How can we ignore that reality...how do we distort the voice of Jesus, how do we filter the life out of such images.

Thats why I say we are lost in translation, we've downloaded our version into our culture co-opting a mere glimpse of the Kingdom with the power of earthly empires.

When Jesus called together his band of stumbling misfits, his message wasn't for them to hang in there until the Godhead decided to pull the final curtain on the stage of life and picking everyone up at the front door, taking them home.

Reading the gospels, you just might get the crazy idea that the Kingdom was about Now...as much as it was about the future. You could get the idea that Jesus was in favor of outrageous hospitality, and scandalous forgiveness and grace...where the last were first, where those that did a half days work got paid as much as those who worked all day...where the sinners where saints. Small radical communities that were criticized for there extravagant giving, for accepting the wrong people...for pouring out grace as if it were free. Also reading the gospels you might even come to believe that the sacred could be found outside the temple, in back allies filled with dumpsters and dirty syringes, and skid row hotels. That glimmers of light could be found in the darkest places of the world.

We don't need to translate the gospels, use a lens to filter their images. We need to live them. The more we live them...the more the Kingdom becomes visible. And when the Kingdom becomes visible it will subvert the empires of the world.

Jesus in the Gospels, says we will do even greater things. Well, as a church we need to immerse ourselves in the gospels again, and pray earnestly for the same Spirit that brooded over creation, the same Spirit that filled Jesus, the same Spirit that resurrected Jesus from the grave...if that Spirit does not fill His church, it is dead.

We don't need a better, a more cultural understandable translation of the gospel...we need to be transformed into the gospel through the living reality of Jesus...and the power of the Holy Spirit. Only then will His will be done on earth as in heaven...thy Kingdom come.

From Genesis...to BiosLogos

Just finished reading Francis S Collins book, " The Language of God." Francis S Collins is one of the worlds leading Geneticists, the leading scientist in the " Human Genome Project." A follower of Christ, and a passionate scientist who seeks to merge creation and evolution.

Having  a post-secondary education in Biochemistry and Cellular Biology, and working in a clinical laboratory for almost 25 years, I have never been at odds with the idea of creation and evolution not being compatible...that they are not a threat to each other. In fact in my mind, they express a more awesome, and mind boggling image of a creator God. Anyway, below is are a few word bytes of Francis S Collins...

A God, who is not limited is space or time, created the universe and established the natural laws that govern it. Seeking to populate this otherwise sterile universe with living creatures, God chose the elegant mechanism of evolution to create microbes, plants and animals of all sorts. Most remarkably, God intentionally chose the same mechanism to give rise to special creatures who would have intelligence, a knowledge of right and wrong, free will, and a desire to seek fellowship with Him. He knew these creatures would ultimately choose to disobey the Moral Law.

Francis S Collins proposes to name theistic evolution as BIOS through Logos, or simply BiosLogos. Bios as the greek word for " Life ", and Logos as the greek word for " Word." To many beievers the Word is synonymous with God, as powerfully and poetically expressed in those openninh lines of the Gospel of John, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Woed was with God, and the Word was God." " Bioslogos " expresses the belief that God is the source of all life, that life expresses the will of God.

Bioslogos doesn't try to wedge God into the gaps of our understanding of the natural world; it proposes God as the answer as the answer to the questions science was never intended to address. such as " How did the universe get here?" " What is the meaning of life?" " What happens to us after we die? Unlike the theory of intelligent design, Bioslogos is not intended as scientific theory. Its truth can be tested only by the spiritual logic of the heart, the mind, and the soul.

How is this consistent with the theological concept that humans are created, " in the image of God." Well perhaps one shouldn't get to hung up on the notion that this scripture is referring to physical anatomy...the image of God seems alot more about mind and spirit than body. Does God have toe nails? A belly button?

How could God take such chances? If evolution is random how could he really be in charge, and could he be certain of an out come that included intellegent beings at all?

The solution is readily at hand, once one ceases to apply human limitations to God. If God is outside of nature, then he is outside space and time. In that context, God could in the moment of creation of the universe also know every detail of the future. That could include the formation of the stars, planets and galaxies, all of the chemistry, physics, geology and biology that led to the formation of life on earth, and the evolution of humans, even right to this moment and beyond.

In that context evolution could appear to be driven by chance, but from God's perspective the outcome would be entirely specified. Thus God could be completely and intimately involved in the creation of all species, while from our perspective, limited as it is by the tyranny of linear time, this would appear a random and undirected process.

In the twenty first century, in an increasingly technologiacl society, a battle is raging in the hearts and minds of humanity. Many materialists, noting triumphally the advances of science in filling in the gaps of our understanding of nature, announce that belief in God is an outmoded superstition, and that we would be better off admitting that and moving on. Many believers in God, convinced that the truth thet derive from spiritual introspection is of more enduring value than truths from other sources, see the advances in science and technology as dangerous and untrustworthy. Positions are hardening, voices becoming more shrill.

Will we turn our backs on science because it is percieved as athreat to God, abandoning all of the promises of advancing our understanding of nature and applying that to the alleviation of suffering and the betterment of humankind? Alternatively will we turn our backs on faith, concluding science has renedered the spiritual life no longer necessary, that the traditional religious symbols can now be replaced by engravings of the double helix on our altars?

Both of these choices are profoundly dangerous. Both deny truth. Both deminish the nobility of humankind. Both will be devasting to our future. And both are unnecessary. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. He can be worshipped in the cathedral as well as the laboratory. His creation is majestic, awesome, inticate, and beautiful...and can not be at war with itself. Only we humans can start such battles. And only we can end them.

Saint Augustine writes, " What kind of days these were, it is extremely difficult, or perhaps impossible for us to concieve. " He admits there are probably many vailid interpretations of the Book of Genesis: " With these facts in mind, I have worked out and presented the statements of the book of Genesis in a variety of ways according to my ability; and, in interpreting words that have been written obscurely for the purpose of stimulating thought, I have not brashley taken my stand on one side against a rival interpretation which might possibly be better." ( Saint Augustine, The literal meaning of Genesis 20:40 )

The book is a great read, a combination of CS Lewis's , " Mere Christianity ", and NT Wright's " Simply Christian ". The book is beautifully written, a great merger of science and faith...all weaved through Farncis S Collins own conversion.

crossing personal exit strategy ...into incomprehensible glory

It's interesting I'm in the midst of writing some liturgy for an alternative worship event put on by Poasis around the theme of " Sorrow to Glory." The challenge has been to look at the cross, and get beyond just me...making it so personal that it leaves everyone, and everything around me out of the picture. Sort of like thinking I can save a fish by not having to worry about the fish bowl and everything else in it...if that makes sense. Anyways, I'm reminded if these great thoughts by Christopher J H Wright...

Most of all, we need to go back to the Cross and relearn its comprehensive glory. For if we persist in a narrow, individualistic view of the Cross as a personal exit strategy to heaven, we fall short of its biblical connection to the mission purpose of God for the whole of creation (Col. 1:20) and thereby lose the Cross-centered core of holistic mission.

It is vital that we see the Cross as central to every aspect of holistic, biblical mission—that is, of all we do in the name of the crucified and risen Jesus. It is a mistake, in my view, to think that while our evangelism must be centered on the Cross (as of course it has to be), our social engagement has some other theological foundation or justification.

Why is the Cross just as important across the whole field of mission? Because in all forms of Christian mission, we are confronting the powers of evil and the kingdom of Satan—with all their dismal effects on human life and the wider creation. If we are to proclaim and demonstrate the reality of the kingdom of God and his justice, then we will be in direct conflict with the usurped reign of the evil one. In all such work, social or evangelistic, we confront the reality of sin and Satan. In all such work, we challenge the darkness of the world with the light and Good News of Jesus Christ and the reign of God through him.

By what authority can we do so? On what basis dare we challenge the chains of Satan, in word and deed, in people's spiritual, moral, physical, and social lives? Only the Cross. The Cross must be as central to our social engagement as it is to our evangelism. There is no other power, no other resource, no other name through which we can offer the whole gospel to the whole person and the whole world than Jesus Christ crucified and risen.

from the Da Vinci Code, to the Gospel of Judas...to a hole in the ground

Have we found the tomb of Jesus and his wife?

"I feel sorry for Simcha, but I know how these things happen. One’s enthusiasm for a subject propels one into over-reaching when it comes to drawing conclusions. The problem with keeping these ideas secret for the sake of making a big splash of publicity, and lots of money, is that peer review by a panel of scholars could have saved these folks a lot of embarrassment down the road. ‘C’est la vie."

So my response to this is clear--- James Cameron, the producer of the movie Titantic, has now jumped on board another sinking ship full of holes, presumably in order to make a lot of money before the theory sinks into an early watery grave. Man the lifeboats and get out now."

Ben Witherington has serious doubts.

News story from Canada's Global National .... Here

Frank Viola's...God's Ultimate Passion

I have to apologize, this book was sent to me after christmas from Frank Viola, and Present Testimony Ministries in which I offered to read and review Frank's book, " God's Ulitimate Passion." So after minor disasters, illness, the business of life...and yes, procrastination...I read it over the last couple of weeks.

Does this book tackle some of the issues that are popping up in emerging conversations of faith...probably not. Is this book of value to the emerging church...most definitely! its about THE CHURCH. Frank sidesteps the maze of ecclesiastic labels to get to the heart of what church really is and how God sees it. Using the biblical metaphors of church, and fleshing them out with the whole sweep of Scripture, Frank gives us fresh insight into the church as Bride of Christ, House of God, as Household, Body of Christ and the Family of God. He even takes the term "deep ecclesiology" ( from Andrew Jones ), around the block and imbues it with a stronger sense of Christ centeredness.

Viola does an exceptional work of unpacking metaphors and connecting biblical threads that deal with Christ and the church. Concrete. Poetic. Transforming metaphors. From Genesis to Revelation, Viola pulls together the sacred plans that God unveils for the Bride of Christ. Pushing in full force the concrete elements and literary connections of Christ and the church–the piece de resistance of the biblical narrative–Viola makes a substantial plea for the church to live in its true identity.

“According to Scripture, the church is not a human creation. Instead, it existed before creation (in Christ) and before culture began. God created the universe for the church and not the other way around. To put it another way, God created the universe so that He might have a Bride, a Body, a House, and a Family. This is the metanarrative that permeates the entire Bible.”

My only critique: some of the language in the first few chapters did seem a little prosy and familiar, like you've read in every other book dealing with passion, but there was still enough to keep me hanging on, though. But the middle and the end is what drives this book, for sure. And, Viola saves his churlish critique of the modern church for the end, almost as a separate essay from the rest of the book. I liked that–it gave you a chance to process the Scriptures and connections on your own.

I highly recommend Frank's book, " God's Ultimate Passion, unveiling the purpose behind everything " ...a great read to recapture the imagination of the church.

The folks at Present Testimony Minstries have informed me the book won't be out anywhere, even Amazon.ca , in Canada until April or May...but you can order it in Canada through Greg Gamble at Oldepathsbooks@gmail.com.

the urgency...of imagination

Sort of working on my paper and talk around " God, creativity, imagination and the church," at this point lots of fleeting thoughts scribbled on paper, but the following thoughts that I've dug from my book shelf really spoke to me of the urgency...

In his stirring book The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann says, “We need to ask if our consciousness and imagination have been so assaulted and co-opted by the royal consciousness [popular culture] that we have been robbed of the courage or power to think an alternative thought.” Those filling the pews every Sunday may be full of information about God, and they may be expertly trained to obey God, but without an imagination enraptured by God they will be powerless to live the life he’s called them to. They simply cannot imagine living any differently than the culture around them.

Without significant re-cultivation and sanctification of the imagination, aided by God’s Spirit, a disciple will be incapable of weeding out sin and living obediently. Oswald Chambers understood this reality. He knew that if “your imagination of God is starved then when you come up against difficulties, you have no power, you can only endure in darkness.”

Thankfully many are coming to recognize the importance of imagination in spiritual formation. Dr. Kevin Vanhoozer, author of The Drama of Doctrine and professor of systematic theology says:

“Imagination has been a dirty word for too long…The imagination enables us to see the parts of the Bible as forming a meaningful whole. But we can go further still. The imagination also enables us to see our lives as part of that same meaningful whole. This is absolutely crucial. Christians don’t need more information about the Bible, trivial or otherwise. What the church needs today is the ability to indwell or inhabit the text.”

Some radical voice from years back spoke of the urgency of recapturing the imagination of Christ...that under Constantine, the marriage of church and state, we gave up the kingdom of God, for christianity.

in search of truth...

Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you." (John 8:31-32)

And for that matter so does Christ Himself. A.W. Tozer writes:

“Let me say boldly that it is not the difficulty of discovering truth, but the unwillingness to obey it, that makes it so rare among men. Our Lord said, ‘I am the Truth.’ And again He said, ‘The Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost.’ Truth, therefore, is not hard to find for the very reason that it is seeking us!”

“So we learn that Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must harken! In the New Testament, multitudes came to Jesus for physicial help, but only rarely did one seek Him out to learn the Truth. The whole picture in the gospels is one of a seeking Savior, not one of seeking men. The Truth was hunting for those who would receive it, and relatively few did, for ’many are called, but few are chosen.’”

I love the thought of the Truth constantly pursuing us. Postmodernism desperately searches for it, looking for something it can grasp, cling to, download...and just click to save. It is much more challenging to follow the Truth...to have faith in the Truth...to have hope in the Truth.

If I'm honest, the Truth is something I just want to tuck in my back pocket, and sit on...Lord forgive me.

Jesus...on theological reform

Jesus met with the religious scholars of his day and introduced them to how reduce the work of the scribes, and save on ink and paper. Rather than carry scrolls, you could tuck it in the pocket of your robe.

old school wisdom...across the postmodern threshold

You'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God's master stroke, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.

I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else...Paul speaking to the Church in Corinth ( 1 Corinthians 2 : 1-5 ; Eugene Peterson's The Message )

There is no doubt Paul took criticism from the polished, highly-trained, well-rehearsed and jealous masters of the communication arts. According to them, his style, his management of material, and his presentation were weak and fell far short of the canons of their craft. Paul's self- depricating comments, clothed in the foolishness of his own boast, are actually the Spirit's protest against the demagoguery of these snobs, a protest aimed at exploding the pretentions of those who figured they had God and the Kingdom all figured out.

Maybe we need to hear the simplicity, the foolishness of Paul's conversation again. While the Emerging church  occupies itself with deconstructing modernism and reassembling something in the land of postmodernity, and while the missional church formulates a manifesto and a plan of strategy...our conversation is falling apart, it has lost meaning...we seem to stand dis-connected from its reality.

I don't see myself as a fundamentalist...I understand and know where I am, having crossed over the threshold into postmodernity. Some might call me a dinosaur stepping out of the receding ice age of absolute truth of modernity... I hope not. Sure, I'm a little old school, but maybe that is a blessing. As I look back over my journey I have tried to carry with me the things I cherish, the wisdom I find most valuable as I learn to navigate in this new land. One of the things I value is what Paul talks of in the opening paragraphs of this post. It is what I hope the emerging/ missional church will always keep central to there conversation.

I guess I seek a radical orthopraxy...that they would be inseparable. That the radical orthodoxy of Paul's message would be carried in my mind and heart, that the Spirit would constantly reveal that truth...and give me the power to carry out the Missio Dei.

I think it also, urgent to stop the conversation of individual spirituality especially in the midst of community. We fragment ourselves from the reality of the story of God's people...it is communal, community story in which we are part of...it is the conversation that we must recapture.

I love this quote from Miroslav Volf, as he reflects from 1 Peter, on the birth of a new community...he uses the anaology of a new baby...and talk of a soft difference...

It seems that, through the new birth into a living hope, a "sect" was born. And indeed, before the newborn child could take her first breath, her difference, her foreignness, was manifest. As she was growing up, there was no question that she did not quite fit into her environment.

Soon, however, she began to confuse observers by provoking uncertainty about her sectarian identity. It looked as if she did not forge her identity through rejection of her social environment, but through the acceptance of God's gift of salvation and its values. She refused to operate within the alternative "affirmation of the world" versus "denial of the world," but surprised people with strange combinations of difference and acculturation. She was sure of her mission to proclaim the mighty deeds of God for the salvation of the world, but refused to use either pressure or manipulation. Rather, she lived fearlessly her soft difference. She was not surprised by the various reactions of individuals and communities among whom she lived because she was aware of the bewildering complexity of social worlds in which values are partly the same, partly different, sometimes complementary, and sometimes contradictory. And so it gradually became clear that the child who was born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into a living hope was not a sect at all. The unusual child who looked like a sect, but did not act like a sect, was a Christian community-a church that can serve as a model even for us today as we reflect on the nature of Christian presence in modern, rapidly changing, pluralistic societies that resist being shaped by moral norms.

Our conversation again must capture the " Living Christ ", it must be the pulse of the community that surges and brings it to Life. Good Preaching, conversation does not make the text meaningful for us in our contemporary situation ( the scriptual texts that we cut and paste for life application); rather good conversation makes us and our contemporary situation meaningful in the texts ( the community lives its life between the lines, rather than some abstract story...it claims it as theirs ). In other words, good conversation doesn't pull the word into our world as if the word were deficient in itself and in need of our applicatory skills. Instead good conversation, testifies and declares to us we have been pulled into the " Living " word that has its own marvelous sufficiency.