the Weary Pilgrim

Mirrors and Maps...inspiration from the margins

I know what you're thinking...Arghhhhhhh! not another conference. I think this one will be good on 2 counts; a great line up of speakers, and cheap. 19$ for Friday evening, or 49$ for both Friday evening and Saturday. Now, if I can just lay hands on my 92' Honda Accord and pray some healing into it...I just might be there. Anyways, if your looking for a weekend getaway this might be it.

In the 50s and 60s, when the music industry was in search of a breakthrough sound, they found it on the margins. Artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and other African American artists provided The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis the inspiration and songs that would become the soundtrack for the majority culture. Today, Jesus followers all over the world are looking for their own breakthrough sound – something that brings heaven to earth.

It turns out that once again the African American church has been developing this kind of spirituality on the margins for years.  What we call new, they call normal.

Elvis and The Beatles did pretty well drawing on this inspiration.

We think Jesus followers could as well.

The missional church that gave us Martin Luther King Jr. has something to say.

Join in the crazy creativity that happens when people from the margins get together.

You can check out all the details >>>> Here

virtual space...a fabrication of real life

Ok, here are some thoughts that are not fully prepared. So, beware. I'm just throwing them out on the table, not even serving them on a plate. They're just going to land where they may, some might even land on the floor. It's a mess, but, pull up a chair and pick through it with me.

the christian alternative to halloween...HELLOWEEN

"A part of Salvation is being afraid of going to Hell." Youth Pastor Tim Ferguson

In 2001, director George Ratcliff came out with his documentary entitled Hell House, on Christian haunted house attractions bearing the same name.

"Hell Houses are a distinctly American phenomenon which began in 1990 just outside of Dallas, at the Trinity Assembly of God Church. The original Hell House was conceived as a modern-day fire-and-brimstone sermon. Today, this religious ceremony of sorts is replete with actors, extensive lighting equipment and full audio-visual tech crews." (Hell House Site)

I first heard about this in the mid 90's, back then I thought it was nuts, But, Eruesso tells me this church in Dallas is doing " Hell House 19." That's 19 years of extreme tricks and "no " treats. But the vampires, ghosts, and demons of a traditional haunted house have been replaced by scenes of family violence, suicide, abortion, drug and alcohol use. Instead of scaring kids with Freddy Krueger their using real life situations and the fear of eternal damnation to spook them into salvation. Is Christianity really about being afraid of Hell? Is their any room for fear in a message of Love? What do we do with this message of Fear?

Here's a clip...

Eruesso tells of his experience of going through Hell House, he seems to have exited Hell unscathed, and appears coherent and relatively normal. He recommends going through one. I think I'll pass.

I find it interesting that any church that immerses itself in the truth of the Gospels could come up with the imagination to reveal salvation from such an extreme angle. I don't see anywhere, where Jesus scared the hell out of anyone. It was more He loved the hell out of them.

I wonder if you had a haunted house displaying scenes from the Bible of profound radical scandalous love what effect that would have. Probably not much, since post 9/11, and terrorism we seem content to imagine nothing but fear.

Bruce Cockburn...a creativity to help us see

Great interview with Drew Marshall and Canadian music icon Bruce Cockburn. Open, vulnerable, like sitting in your living room with a friend, Bruce talks about humanity, God, spirituality...and Christianity. He comments about in a Christian consumer culture, that the " Christian Music Market " is bankrupt in terms of creativity. Poet, artist, truth-seeker, a man alive to the nudgings of God...through music he engages God and man, bringing the two of us closer together. Just a beautiful conversation!

You can listen to it >>> HERE

thoughts half baked Oct.03...dinner in God's Kingdom

( image courtesy of the incredible creative mind of David LaChapelle )

That triggered a response from one of the guests: "How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God's kingdom!"

 Jesus followed up. "Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the suburbs, the burbs with invitations, saying, 'Come on in; the food's on the table.'

"Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, 'I bought a piece of investment property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.'

"Another said, 'I just made some plans for dinner with my friends, and I really like them . Send my regrets.'

"And yet another said, 'I don't know who your master is, and I'm not comfortable eating with a table full of strangers.' Send my regrets."

 "The servant went back with invitations still in hand and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, 'Quickly, get out into the city streets, back alleys, skid row hotels, under bridges, crack houses, ditches and gutters. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.'

"The servant reported back, 'Master, I did what you asked— and there's still room.'

 "The master said, 'Then go to the country roads, scour the ditches, vacant lots and prisons. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full! Let me tell you, not one of those originally invited is going to get so much as a bite at my dinner party.'"( Luke 14: 15-24 paraphrased )

Download 06 In My Father's House ( studio recording Dr Bones Blues Project )

From the beginnings of the Blues Project we always thought we'd find our niche' on the margins of society. " the house band for the homeless ", as one of our friends at The Mustard Seed Street Church and Food Bank called us. We also play the prison, more marginalization, chain link fence and barbed wire, them one side us on the other. Marginalization has the power to change your identity. Your worthless. You don't fit. You don't belong. In a sense, there is not much difference between the homeless person in abject poverty, the addict on the street, the mentally afflicted on the street and the inmate behind bars. There all prisoners to a false identity.

Some would frown upon my paraphrasing of scripture, that somehow I'm diluting the message reducing it's potency. Jesus told stories. I'm telling a story, that I believe is revealing the same underlying truth. All I'm trying to do is land the story in the context, into the lives of the people who are hearing it; people who are extremely marginalized, and excluded...those with no sense of belonging.

The thing that is challenging about the story is, that if you read it from one angle as already being invited, it's a nice warm fuzzy story that just makes you want to curl up in your church pew and wait for dinner to be served. But, can we see ourselves as the servant with invitations in hand. Or can we see ourselves as being invited, and filled with excuses as to why we can't go. Can we see ourselves as the extremely marginalized, the homeless, the addicted, mentally afflicted, and the inmates.

Reading the story from every angle should challenge everything about us. Just as the Kingdom of God is near, it's present; it is also coming a future reality. This story is a present truth, and a future truth. The challenge is, HOW DO WE LIVE THE STORY OUT FROM EVERY ANGLE, TODAY?

But what I love most about the story is that the marginalized are not on the fringe anymore, the excluded are included...they now have a new identity.

Dinner in God's Kingdom might be a real surprise. It is a dinner filled with the redemptive imagination of Jesus.

Here's Hope...

                                 

Interestingly, the by line of my blog talks about the journey of an ancient faith, into living the active practice of hope. I think there is something very attractive about hope. Not a sentimental hope, not the last ditch effort of " here's hoping ." But, something more profound, like re-booting your being. It's living in real hope. It's living in the hope that Jesus offers. It's hope that comes from living " IN " Jesus. It is a hope in which the little things in my life matter. It's talking to a stranger, to one person, who might be struggling in the ordinariness of life, in which like striking a match a conversation is kindled. It's when something beautiful happens in the conversation, when unexpectedly, and unannounced, Spirit filled words and human words touch, when Jesus mysteriously enters the conversation. It's at this moment " Hope " comes a flame, we see something before unimagined.

It's seeing a need on the street down town. It's seeing a need in your work place. It's seeing a need next door in your neighborhood. It is simply being the hands and feet of Jesus, stepping into circumstance and getting a little dirty. Sure, there is usually a cost. It might be a little money, or a little time. But again, as in the conversation, it's spontaneous. It's not telling the person, " I'm thinking about it, I'll get back to you." It is living in that moment " IN " Jesus, and allowing him to live in that moment. It is the profound mystery that the gospel can be preached with out words. Sure there will be an opportunity when the " why " arises out of a conversation. But in these seemingly small and insignificant responses to needs in your everyday life, it is just allowing the " being " of Jesus to speak. It's in these moments of being Jesus, that we ignite imaginations to a Hope beyond us.

We need to become portals of a Hope beyond us, beyond this world. I really do think we are surprised by hope.

From The Portal of the Mystery of Hope

By Charles Péguy

The faith that I love best, says God, is hope.

Faith doesn’t surprise me.

It’s not surprising.

I am so resplendent in my creation. . . .

That in order really not to see me these poor people would have to be blind.

Charity says God, that doesn’t surprise me.

It’s not surprising.

These poor creatures are so miserable that unless they had a heart of stone, how could they not have love for one another.

How could they not love their brothers.

How could they not take the bread from their own mouth, their daily bread, in order to give it to the unhappy children who pass by.

And my son had such love for them. . . .

But hope, says God, that is something that surprises me.

Even me.

That is surprising.

That these poor children see how things are going and believe that tomorrow things will go better.

That they see how things are going today and believe that they will go better tomorrow morning.

That is surprising and it’s by far the greatest marvel of our grace.

And I’m surprised by it myself.

And my grace must indeed be an incredible force.

radicals, and humanists...religion

                                                                   

Nathan Schneider interviews Terry Eagleton on his new book, " Reason, Faith and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate." Eagleton enters in the midst of the noise from both sides with what he calls, " a version of the Christian Gospel relevant to radicals and humanists. In a part of the interview Nathan asks Terry...

 Rather than focusing on “believers” or “atheists,” which are typically the categories that we hear about in the new atheist debates, you write about “a version of the Christian gospel relevant to radicals and humanists.” Who are these people? Why do you choose to address them?

Terry: I wanted to move the arguments beyond the usual, rather narrow circuits in order to bring out the political implications of these arguments about God, which hasn’t been done enough. We need to put these arguments in a much wider context. To that extent, in my view, radicals and humanists certainly should be in on the arguments, regardless of what they think about God. The arguments aren’t just about God or just about religion.

 Are you urging people to go to church, or to read the Bible, or simply to acknowledge the historical connections between, say, Marxism and Christianity?

Terry: I’m certainly not urging them to go to church. I’m urging them, I suppose, to read the Bible because it’s very relevant to radical political concerns. In many ways, I agree with someone like Christopher Hitchens that most religion is fairly hideous and purely ideological. But I think that Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are gravely one-sided about the issue. There are other potentials in the gospel and in the Christian tradition which are, or should be, of great interest to radicals, and radicals haven’t sufficiently recognized that. I’m not trying to convert anybody, but I am trying to show them that there is something here which is in a certain interpretation far more radical than most of the mainstream political discourses that we hear at the moment.

You can read the transcript of the interview ( HERE ), all very interesting, but I don't think he has the weight to knock Hitchens or Dawkins out of the ring. Fascinating he brings the gospel into the conversation as a bridge...very interesting.

Evangelicals...out of the box

James K.A. Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Congregational and Ministry Studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also serves as Executive Director of the Society of Christian Philosophers.

In a podcast from a few years ago in an interview with Krista Tippett at NPR's Speaking of Faith, he talks about "Evangelicals Out of the Box." An absolutely fascinating, and encouraging podcast. In this climate of extreme polarities, of conservative and liberal, where the Christian faith seems to be clenched in the fists of religious, and political fundamentalism. James talks with a humility of an evangelism of hope, of a way forward that loosens the grip of Christianity from these extremes. I wonder what it would be like now, if we could visit with James, and re-visit, if evangelicals have in fact moved out of the box? My sense is, maybe, if we have, we haven't wandered far, outside with anxiety, hanging on to its edge. Do yourself a favor, and have a listen, and come back...I'd love to here your comments. Below I've included some sound bytes from the interview.

An Intellectual and Spiritual Faith ( @ 9min.38sec )

Jamie Smith describes his discovery of the intellectual rigor of the Christian Reformed tradition, and how he has found this to be holistic, especially as practiced together with Pentecostal spirituality. Christian Reformed theology provides deep resources for "thinking about the hard things," he says, and this draws many Evangelicals. In Charismatic tradition, he values a "radical openness" to mystery and surprise.

Radical Orthodoxy ( @ 3min.18 sec )

Jamie Smith describes "radical orthodoxy" in more detail, including how this sensibility is helping him think about the core question of his identity in the contemporary situation. Specifically: what does it mean to be an Evangelical after 9/11 in the United States in the second Bush Administration?

The Fundamentalism of the Left ( @ 5min.50 sec )

Jamie Smith's observations on "fundamentalist Leftists" as well as an evolving "progressive Third Way" within the Evangelical and larger Christian world.

The Post Secular World ( @ 6min.23 sec )

Smith defines the post-modern observation that the idea of a neutral public sphere, governed by reason alone, is no longer tenable. The public sphere now is pluralist, governed by a broad range of commitments and agendas both religious and secular.

You can listen to the whole podcast ( HERE ) at America Public Media's, Speaking of Faith with host Krista Tippett.

Or try the

Download 1-04 Evangelicals Out of the Box

.

finding faith...when your heart stops beating

Maybe alot of people won't get this video below, but it resonated with me as I've come to work out my faith. But I think too, it reflects the journey of the church from modernity to post-modernity, or what ever you want to call it. You can become self-absorbed with the church, and the church can be self absorbed with itself. There was a time in which my heart stopped beating. Lifeless, I was in a state of metamorphis, a time of inner transition. It is a journey, and I think many of us go through this phase of working out what faith really is. Jesus said, " unless a kernel of wheat dies, it can not yeild any real growth."

engaged through fascination, beauty...the Kingdom

Randy, at church on Sunday engaged us in beauty through the lens of Luke's gospel, and quoted Shane Claiborne;

The gospels spread best not through force but through fascination. Jesus doesn't insist on who he is or isn't. When people asked Jesus, "Are you the Messiah?" he would answer "Tell me what you see, what you hear."

Jesus never answered a whole lot of questions in the gospels. I am told, for example, that Jesus only directly answers 3 of the 183 questions that he himself is asked in the four Gospels!  This is totally surprising to people who have grown up assuming that the very job description of religion is to give people answers and to resolve peoples' dilemmas. Apparently this is not Jesus' understanding of the function of religion because he operates very differently. 

Jesus' parables are to re-position you, make you own your unconscious biases, break you out of your dualistic mind, challenge your image of God or the world, or present new creative possibilities.  He himself does not usually wait for or expect specific answers.  He hopes to awaken redemptive imagination.  He wants to be in relationship with a person, he fascinates us with the beauty and reality of the kingdom, to see infinite hope, and new possibilities. Thus his parables are worth examining because they, reveal his basic style of encounter with the soul, or what we would call today, his style of "evangelizing". Maybe, instead of evangelizing, we should engage more in conversations of fascination.

Instead, Jesus asks questions, good questions, unnerving questions, re-aligning questions, transforming questions.  He leads us into liminal, and therefore trans-formative space. He leaves us betwixt and between, where God and grace can get at us, and where we are not at all in control.

You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. ( Eugene Peterson's, The Message, Matthew's Gospel Chapter 5 )

That short circuits the neurons in our brains, where is the sense of fairness, where is the justice? Love you friends, and, your enemies. Pray your enemies would be blessed. God gives his best, sun to warm, and rain to nourish, not just on the good, but...the bad and nasty also. That, should fascinate us, it should blow our minds, transforming it, into the mind of Jesus.

We made of Jesus a systematic theologian, who walked around teaching dogmas, instead of a pilgrim and engaging transformer of the soul, whose divine imagination excites us.  Easy answers instead of hard questions allow us to try to change others instead of allowing God to change us.

One of  my favorite stories in the gospels come from John's account of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. This is the longest conversation that Jesus has with any one person in all of the gospels. Through the fascination of " Living Water ", Jesus has captured the imagination of this woman, she begins to thirst for something beyond, to a source of such beauty that can't be described. She, is like so many who struggle to find identity in their culture, and then add to the mix, a painful past. Jesus weakens her grip on to what she has come to identify herself with, and opens her up to an identity with infinite hope and possibility.

Interesting earlier, I was talking about dualistic thinking, the idea of polarity, right or wrong. In this place, this space Jesus has brought her to, she asks the question...the " God " question. Are the Samaritan's right, or are the Jews right.

But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

 It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. ( Eugene Peterson, The Message )

Earlier in the conversation, it was God, suddenly it is Father. Surely, that profound word didn't float over her head like a passing cloud. It had to have captured her imagination, it had to have awakened her fascination to a whole new identity. There is another community!

God is not to be worshiped generically, but as the very giver of her life, as the one who knows her, watched over her, as the one who looks at her and says, " my beloved." This community is not just open to her, but it is the " Family " to which she belongs, " The Kingdom of God."

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
  to be out of your sight?
   If I climb to the sky, you're there!
  If I go underground, you're there!
   If I flew on morning's wings
  to the far western horizon,
   You'd find me in a minute—
  you're already there waiting!
   Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
  At night I'm immersed in the light!"
   It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
  night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you. 

 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
  you formed me in my mother's womb.
   I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
  Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
  I worship in adoration—what a creation!
   You know me inside and out,
  you know every bone in my body;
   You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
  how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
   Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
  all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
   The days of my life all prepared
  before I'd even lived one day. 

 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
  God, I'll never comprehend them!
   I couldn't even begin to count them—
  any more than I could count the sand of the sea. ( Eugene Peterson's. The Message )

Jesus does not just save her from her sin as an individual, he offers her a place to belong. We need to fascinate people's imagination with this place of belonging.