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

A Jesus to worship...but to Godly to imitate

The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where christians ought to be and what christianity should be about. 

- George McLeod ( founder of Iona Community 1938 )

 A mysterious star navigates through the dark space of infinity, through the star fields that God told Abraham would be as numerous as his descendants. It stops on the fringe of humanity and it illuminates the spot where God will become one of us, taking on flesh and bones. I am always captured by the profound reality in the gospels that Jesus the God man is birthed on the periphery of humanity and religion and dies in the same place...abandoned by religion and humanity. Even in the gospel of John when the writer pens that he pitched his tent in the midst of humanity, into our neighborhood...Jesus lives on the margins.

It is easy when your stuck in the " church bubble " to forget what Jesus was all about. We have been indoctrinated to believe that Jesus is all about personal salvation, he died to forgive your sins, guaranteeing a ticket in your hand for flight and accommodation in that eternal retirement home called heaven.

We forget that Jesus was the culmination of the prophetic voices that still echo along the corridor of history. Like resonating sound waves that join in unison and finally collide with Jesus he speaks with crystal clear passion about one thing...the Kingdom of God, and his passion for justice.

We need pause, to be still and listen deeply to the prophets. They speak about God's passion, and Jesus is the fullfilment of the passion.

"The Lord is exalted", proclaims Isaiah. " He dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness." ( 33:5 )

" I am the Lord " announces Jeremiah in the name of God. " I act with steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight." ( 9:24 ) 

Again Isaiah, " Is such the fast I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and lie is a sack cloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this fast that I choose; to break the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? ( 58:5-7 )

From Micah, " He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. ( 6:6-8 )

Lastly from Amos, " I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. ( 5:21-24 )

 We forget Jesus the God-man lived on the margins of humanity. He lived amidst its poverty, its injustice, its oppression, its sickness and its sin. He lived so deeply in the midst of the human wreckage that the Pharisees could not really tell him apart of the sinners. As profoundly strange as it sounds he was one of them. We as christians have a real problem with a fully human Jesus, it's extremely uncomfortable to wrestle with that reality. We like a Jesus that is 90% God and about 10% human. That is a far more comfortable Jesus. We keep our distance from that kind of Jesus. We can worship that Jesus without having to imitate his life, and live out and reenact his profound mysterious parables.  

We have pulled Jesus out of the world, out of the stench, out the filth and brokenness of humanity and put him under house arrest in the church building convincing ourselves that Jesus is far more concerned about the sterile vacuum of a sacred holy space. Do we imagine him wandering around a church that stands empty most week days eagerly waiting for Sunday morning when he can inhabit the praises of "his" people?

And when did this Jesus of the gospels all of a sudden aquire an appetite for worship music to appease him, and keep him happy?The prophets seemed quite clear on the type of worship God desired and music didn't seem to make the cut. Jesus profoundly seems to inhabit a more worldy, a more human...a more secular worship space.

   I was hungry and you fed me,
   I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
   I was homeless and you gave me a room,
   I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
   I was sick and you stopped to visit,
   I was in prison and you came to me.'

 "Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me." ( Eugene Peterson's The Message; Matthew 25 )

We come to the profound conclusion that we worship Jesus in the face of broken humanity, not before the altar of the temple.

As christians we are very good at compartmentalizing life and people. We draw lines all through life, barriers, the boundaries of sacred and secular. We draw circles around people, groups of people...we have insiders and outsiders. Life in the context of the profound mysterious reality of Jesus is seen different way.

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 Petersons The Message; Colossians 1 )

Jesus is the intermolecular force, the gravity that holds all reality together, sacred and secular. Despite how tarnished, filthy, broken and cracked the human image was, Jesus could always see past it...and see the image of God hidden in everyone.

I want to encourage people to really think, reflect deeply on that reality...of finding Jesus in the midst of life. When I hear people say, " I wish we had a space where we could sing christian songs, worship songs." Or, " I can't sing those songs because there not christian." It saddens me deeply.

We forget in the gospels Jesus wasn't speaking christians. He didn't speak christianeze, theological garble when to talked to people. He used a mysterious language, of parable that captured the imagination of humanity. People had to wrestle with them, moving them into a liminal space where they saw God and humanity differently. Often it wasn't the obvious black and white, it was more color that spilled out over the lines...it was more mystery as truth. It gave people a glimpse of a new world, of abundant life. It left people in awe.

I think of how often I listen to music today, so called " secular music " and a line of lyrics will awaken me like a flash of light.  And at the same time the neurons in my brain begin to spark, and the harddrive in my mind begins to whirl...and I think. You could almost say it's an " epiphany."

1. a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; 2. an intuitive grasp of reality through something; 3. an illuminating discovery; 4. a revealing scene or moment; 5. an appearance or manifestation, especially of a divine being.

 

03 God Put A Smile Upon Your Face

Is it only in christian music, worship music that this can happen? I don't think so. There is so much good music out there, with profound, mysterious spirit-filled lyrics...deeply human and divine. We just need to have the same redemptive imagination as Jesus and engage people in conversation. Draw them into that mysterious place where the Psalmist proclaims. " deep calls to deep ", where spirit talks to spirit.

 

 

 As long as the church retreats, stays in the building, reinforcing and protecting itself, our culture will never experience an epiphany. 

Over the last few decades, the church has been pushed further and further onto the periphery of culture. Or in many instances, the church has retreated to the comfortable confines of its Christian subculture. So we are inside our churches looking out, but we really find ourselves on the outside looking in. God is calling the church out of the church and back into the midst of humanity that Jesus lived " in." 

Lost...explosive parables, and the fall out

 

 

 I was reading the "lost " parables last evening ( Luke 15 ); the lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son. And slowly in my mind I could feel things shifting, I tried to reach for something, a handle, anything...but it was too late. Here I was upside down, all perception had changed, I had to reorient myself. Now I was " lost " ... initially I saw from the point of view of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.  Now, it's this awkward view from being in the midst of the ninety-nine sheep that God doesn't seem to rejoice over, the nine coins that the woman just seems to take for granted, and the older son who humanly speaking seems somewhat justified for being overlooked.

 

In his home town of Nazareth, Jesus gives an inaugural sermon (Lk4:16-28) that gained him applause at first...until the people understood what in the heck he was saying! Then they tried to throw him over the nearest cliff.

 

Jesus began by quoting the familiar prophecy from Isaiah, about God's mission being aimed at poor people, the oppressed, the blind and the broken. Everybody said, " Right on! preach it brother." But Jesus made the "mistake" of turning the message around. He couldn't have jammed his foot any further into his mouth had he got up to address a white middle-class suburban congregation and said, " God doesn't care about this church,"

 

The " punch " of these lost parables comes when we turn them around, upside down. The parables are kind of like Trojan-horses. Jesus wasn't about to take the same approach that he took before the hometown folks. He wanted to make the same point to these cozy and comfy, " white middle class, suburban " church folk ", and to the " pastors " who came asking why he spent so much time with the out casts.

 

Jesus wanted to show them, " they " were the real " outcasts ", the prodigals that stayed at home. So Jesus lit a stick of dynamite, covered it with a parable, and tossed it into their midst. By the time the " good " people got the parable unwrapped, Jesus and his disciples were a few miles down the road. Perhaps they were still able to here the explosion. 

 

Maybe Sunday morning, between one of the worship songs...pause, and reflect. Maybe you'll here an explosion, and ask yourself. " whose more lost, the poor and homeless in the inner city, the addicts, the mentally ill...the marginalized community of divine nobodies...or is it the ??????

Being Jesus in Nashville...Jim Palmer

 If we we've hung around " church-ianity " for awhile we've heard the term " born again ". Jesus talked about it to Nicodemus during their roof-top meeting in the dark of night.

Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

Somehow, this became another commodity of church dispensed only under the right conditions, by the " right " people. Some hands and some God manipulation, Abracadabra! It's interesting think about birth, the 9 months inside the " mother ship " floating around in this deep dark void, our life supported by the umbilical cord. Suddenly the contractions of birth start and we are literally squeezed and pushed out into the world. The doctor grabs the scissors and cuts the cord, and there is that brief anxious moment...when the baby inhales that first breath of the world outside.

I think if anything, I didn't understand " born again " until I left the church. Inside the womb of the church, faith-life is pretty much supported by the nutrients it provides...it can become very comfortable. But when you leave the church, and you grab the scissors and cut the cord yourself it's that same anxiety...can I survive, and breathe...can faith-life survive outside the womb of the church. Many, many people are finding, yes it can...abundantly.

Jim Palmer said this in a recent interview with my good friend Bill Dahl...

Through religion people have absorbed a bunch of ideas and beliefs about themselves, God, others and life that govern their identity, relationships and way of being in the world. It’s as if we’re trapped inside a story that is rigged to never lead to the freedom, fulfillment and abundance that people want and Jesus promised.

 

I devoted a year of my life to being Jesus in Nashville, where I live. What I thought that would mean and what actually happened were two totally different things. That year flipped the religious script in my head, and gave me a new courage to be a fully expressed human being in ways I never imagined possible. I started the year convinced I needed to live the life of Jesus and then discovered that the life I needed to live was my own. Free at last! My story almost never made it to print. Despite two near-death experiences and being branded a heretic by my Christian publisher, the book came to fruition as a result of the encouragement and support of my divine nobody friends. 

You can read the full interview ( here ).

 Diana Butler Bass says this in her new book, " Christianity After Religion: The End Of Church And The Birth Of A New Spiritual Awakening."

" Have we lived the majority of our lives in the context of this awakening, struggling towards a new understanding of God, how we should act ethically and politically, and who we are deep in our souls? What if this awakening is not exclusively a christian affair, but rather a certain form of christianity that is playing a significant role in forming the contours of a new kind of faith beyond conventional religious boundaries? Is America living in the wake of a revival gone awry or a spiritual awakening that is finally taking concrete...albeit...unexpected...shape?

Strange as it may seem in this time of cultural anxiety, economic near collapse, terrorist fear, political violence, environmental crisis, and partisan anger, I believe that the United States ( and not only the United States ) is caught up in the throws of a spiritual wakening, a period of sustained religious and political transformation during which our ways of seeing the world, understanding ourselves, and expressing our faith are being, to borrow the phrase, " born again." Indeed, the shifts around religion contribute to the anxiety, even as the anxiety gives rise to new sorts of understanding of God and spiritual life. Fear and confusion signal change. This transformation is what some hope will be a " Great Turning " toward a global based community on shared human connection, dedicated to the care of our planet, committed to justice and equality, that seeks to raise hundereds of millions from poverty, violence and oppression.

This awakening has been under way for sometime now and has reached a crucial stage, as a new " Age of the Spirit " has dawned. Theologian Harvey Cox points out that this turn toward spirituality as the new form of faith started in the previous century. The 1970's were a significant period in a long process of moving away from old-style religion towards new patterns of faith. In the last decade, this shift has accelerated exponentially, sweeping millions more into both discontent and the longing for change. " ( Chapter One )

Millions of people are leaving the church searching to find real faith, and it is in this sea of discontent and longing for change that Jim Palmer pastors. Through his two previous books, " Wide Open Spaces " and " Divine Nobodies " he has strummed a chord that resonates with many many people. Jim is doing alot of life coaching, counselling, talking...helping people navigate these unchartered waters. Jim commented in a recent e-mail, " I feel like my upcoming book has the kind of message that could effectively be taking a stand on something that really matters. A lot of folks have shared this journey with me the last several years. They are ordinary people, many from a Christian background, who have been shedding religion and no longer support the view of Jesus promoted by the institutional church – one that leads to condemning people of other faiths, forces Christians to adopt beliefs and practices they often cannot live up to or support in good conscience, and requires people to promote a message that divides human beings in the name of Jesus, in the name of God. Jesus stood for the worth and value of every human being. What if this was our starting premise and we  courageously worked towards a world that works for everyone. I started the Occupy Religion effort because I believe that the 99% of those who follow Jesus want to embrace him as central to their relationship with God and spirituality without it creating division and hostility in the world. "

And again, from Bill Dahl's interview with Jim...

What I learned in my year of being Jesus is that Jesus was special, not because he was more divine then the rest of us, but because he was courageously more human than most. I wish I could convince people that they are born into this world as complete and whole human beings with equal worth to God as Jesus of Nazareth. In the eyes of the religious establishment we might be nobodies but we are divine nobodies, as much a child of God as that nobody Nazarene carpenter. This is the message I would like to get through to fellow survivors of childhood abuse. It’s the message I would have wanted to express to the 10-year-old girl sex slaves I encountered in brothels in Southeast Asia in my work as a human rights activist. As an ordained minister, it’s the message I wanted to deliver to a Christian friend who said, “I am a piece of shit to God, which is why I need Jesus.” It is very difficult to convince people that they are good and beautiful human beings when religion has sufficiently convinced them that they are “sinners” and despicable to God. It’s also difficult to deliver this message when institutional Christianity has convinced us that acknowledging the divine in every human is a betrayal of God.

 

People have Jesus so wrapped up in layers of religion that he and his truth are virtually unrecognizable. The prostitutes and notoriously irreligious people of Jesus’ day got Jesus better than anyone else, and were the people Jesus preferred to associate with. I think I’m going to go into the streets of Nashville today and beg the tattoo artists, single moms, waitresses, artists, and all the nobodies who wouldn’t be caught dead inside a church and beg them to share with the world who they know and have experienced God and Jesus to be.

I have been blogging here for almost ten years now. I think most readers will have seen my journey evolve to exactly where Jim Palmer is. I have written 1,774 posts on this blog, I have had 2,211 comments and 185,947 page views...I have never asked for anything, nor should I expect to get anything. But here's the thing, I really really believe in what Jim Palmer is doing. There are very few pastors that are in Jim's place helping people find faith, retain faith and live faith in the " Wide Open Spaces." Jim also said this to me last night...

Hey; it's Jim. I wanted to touch base with a few folks about, Being Jesus in Nashville. So, suddenly it was up on Amazon! Wasn't expecting that. I haven't broadcasted it publicly that the book is technically available for purchase because I am still working out the details with the International Justice Mission and the Tourette Syndrome Associationabout donating a portion of each book purchase to their efforts. As you might remember, for a season I traveled abroad with the IJM, and I have TS. But in anticipation of the official book release, I wanted to give you a heads up.

You can help me, you help Jim, you can help International Justice Mission and the Tourette Syndrome Association by buying Jim Palmer's " Being Jesus in Nashville "...it will challenge you to live your faith to it's fullest in the midst of your Nashville...your neighborhood.

 

wrestling with God, and pulling the fire alarm...

“To deal with the word of Jesus otherwise than by doing it is to give him the lie. It is to deny the Sermon on the Mount and to say No to his word...That is why as soon as the hurricane begins we lose the word, and find that we have never really believed it. The word we had was not Christ's, but a word we had wrested from him and made our own by reflecting on it instead of doing it.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I think there is only one outcome from wrestling with God...it is to be left limping, permanently. It is to be left exhausted in the struggle of clinging to the things that you thought were important. In the deepest and most profound sense, it is to be stripped naked.

For me , it has been about a 40 year wrestling match, and it's only been that past few years that God had pulled the last bits from my clenched fingers. I could have avoided the wrestling match altogther has it not been for John Dear, convincing me to spend a couple of years of reading nothing but the gospels.

I was 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 me who has 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' questions 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, and present new creative and redemptive possibilities.  He himself does not usually wait for or expect specific answers.  He hopes to tweek, or ignite a person's imagination.  He wants to engage a person, with the image of the Kingdom confronts the person, and with the process of transformation itself.  Thus his questions are worth examining because they, along with the parables, reveal his basic style of encounter with humanity.

It is to reboot imagination to an alternative subversive world, the Kingdom of God; to get people to reorient there lives as to live in the Kingdom now; to get people to redeem, and rebuild the world around them in the redemptive imagination of Jesus' Kingdom...on earth as in heaven; and lastly to draw humanity into this Kingdom exactly as Jesus did.

Instead, Jesus asks questions, good questions, unnerving questions, re-aligning questions, transforming questions.  He leads us into liminal, and therefore transformative space, much more than taking us into any moral high ground of immediate certitude or ego superiority. He subverts up front the cultural or theological assumptions that we are eventually going to have to face anyway.  He leaves us betwixt and between, where God and grace can get at us, and where we are not at all in control.

This was the reality of my wrestling match, I hobbled away limping...my forty years of, " yeah, you don't need to tell me, I've got it all figured out. " " Doctrine, I know it all front to back, side to side." All of this stuff in confronting Jesus in the gospels was ripped from my hands and vanished before my eyes. Because the reality was, I was more secure in the " stuff " than I was in Jesus.

I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in our doctrine, our theological correctness...that it becomes a blind fold from seeing the real Jesus, rather than the one we imagine.

Now I hobble around the neighborhood with nothing more than the Jesus of the gospels, his whole radical scandalous love-filled life ( all his actions, all his words ), and his relentless passion for the Kingdom of God. That is faith for me.

I know why the church avoids the gospels. Yes, I know it will read bits, and pieces, but to spend a great amount of time in the gospels is extremely dangerous. It's like pulling a fire alarm without no real evacuation plan. People only know one thing, " they need to get out of the building fast, there life and lives depend on it."

We have turned it into a bed time story. A comfortable story that lulls people to sleep to dream filled place that everything thing is all right and when they wake up " all " will be heaven. There is no where in the gospels where you come to the conclusion that Jesus came to tell a story to believe in. That we would just keep telling it over, over, over and over again almost like a hypnotic pendulum going back and forth. It was an earth shattering story that could only be lived to discover its profound mysterious eternal truth.

It's in living the gospels that we confront anew the questions of Jesus and his actions; unnerving questions, questions that move us out of our comfort zones into that liminal space where everything is realigned...in the laboratory of life it's in this reaction chamber where we are transformed. All the certitude, and concrete trite answers on which we stand crumbles under our feet. It's here living the gospels we confront our God assumptions, our cultural and humanity assumptions. It's here we are left to wrestle in the context of living life, where in that awkward space we are left teetering where we can only reach for grace and love.

If we read the gospels for a season, immersed ourselves into " all " of it...I have no doubt someone would have the courage to pull the fire alarm and evacuate the building...and live the fullness of Jesus and the gospels. 

AIDS...and confronting the terminal illness of judgement

 

Last night, working in the emergency department we had a woman maybe in her seventy's come in with her forty year old son. To look at him you would never guess he was forty. He looked older than his mother, he was thin, gaunt and literally wasting away. He didn't have to say a word, you could see pain, suffering, shame and guilt written all over him. He was in the end stages of AIDS. Ravaged by the disease, he was severly dehydrated and dying of malnutrition...and his mom wasn't coping with it all.

Around her neck, I could see she was wearing a cross, so I asked her if she was a part of a church and if she was getting help and being supported there. At this point it was as if I had touched an open wound. Tears started to stream down her face. Handing her some Kleenex she told me, no, that she couldn't tell anyone about her son.

Even if it is not blatantly obvious, it is overt...maybe in her church, tucked in the corner you can see it ...judgement. This lady knew it. Homosexuality she has been told is a sin, and it will be judged, and AIDS is the consequence, the earthly judgement. If that's not bad enough her son still has the eternal torment of hell to face yet. And, of course this judgement I'm sure in her mind is partly about her. I mean, homosexuality is a choice...perhaps if she was a better parent her sons outcome would have been much better.

Who is " this Jesus " that many churches worship...I do not see him anywhere in the gospels ?

And, all the time tumbling around in my mind is this image of Jesus...hanging out with the most marginalized in the world. Somehow, he always seemed to be in the midst of sick, the blind, and crippled beggars...those possessed by demons. He touched the lepers, he kissed and healed them. He touched prostitutes, he came to their rescue...they washed his feet with tears and perfume.

And here is this woman whose gay son is dying of AIDS and there is no one in her church that she can tell. I think, I know Jesus would embrace and love this man without any judgement...and then I see a church, the body of Christ unwilling to move it's legs, to wrap its arms around this young man...or to move its lips and kiss him.

I know some one is going to say the trite, " love the sinner, hate the sin." Sorry, I'm gonna have to cry bull shit on that one. You can't love and judge at the same time...that is a very tainted kind of love. Jesus says we are to simply love...the way he did. The gospels are permeated with this kind of radical scandalous redemptive love. Can we please just learn to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and LOVE till it kills us...a love that you sacrifice everything for.

the other side of the fence...

For the longest time, it was certainty of fact, staying within the chain-link fence of the doctrinal playground. But, it was weird, I started seeing Jesus on the otherside of the fence waving at me. It was like he was calling me away from my certainties to meet him in a new way. So I went. In the midst of the inner city it was like he was saying, " 'if you love me a lot...love these people the same'.... ' Do not love them even one ounce less than you love me." I can't express this " new way " of meeting him as a statement of certitude. But, in this collision of the least, the most marginalized, and Jesus...I have discovered a profound truth that has changed my life forever. I can't tell you exactly what it is...I can only say, " come see for yourself."

...So we cancelled it all!

This is a very telling video that I hope you'll take the time to watch, and really listen to. Shes is very distraught on the one hand about the things that aren't happening...but, in her conversation there are some beautiful vistas that we get a glimpse of...things that are really happening without her. And things, in which the people are learning far more.

 

 

 Well...any thoughts ???

OK! No more Kingdom language...something more culturally relevant and conservative.

 

There has been some grumbling, and whining around the word " Kingdom " the language and it's use, like ( here ) and ( there). For some it's just not culturally relevant enough...and for the Evangelicals are fearful it's just too liberating. So some, figure people just aren't smart enough to get " it ", and the others its just too grace-filled, like a house with an open door that " anyone ' can walk into. So, here is my attempt to help these people fix the problem of the " Kingdom."

So really if we really want to solve the problem you can't just do a patch job like repairing a leaky roof...as Mike Holmes says, " gut it ", you have to go right back to the start. Now, I'm not going to re-write the whole Bible...I could, but I'm not. I'll just sort of pour a foundation we can build on. Well, hang on, here we go...the beginning.

In the beginning God was lonely, productivity between the other 2 partners was down. Not much was happening except grumbling. The Spirit guy was like he had ADD, just couldn't settle down. " Let's build something ", the Spirit said. The Word guy, " OK, I'll say it and you build it."

Finally there was some creativity among the three partners. 

God said, "Light!" And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. 
God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning—Day One. " Now, we will have daily sales, weekly sales...seasonal sales " God looked at what he made and said, " This is good...very good."

 God thought. " Land to develop!" And the Word guy spoke, " Bulldoze." And the Spirit guy, frenzied went into action. There was dirt flying every where in all directions. " Not good enough!" shouted God. The Word guy stuttered momentarily, but out came the word, " Pavement." Again, the Spirit guy brooded over the ground waving is arms, and suddenly like rolling out carpet, there was a hard surface. God smiled, scratching his head and suddenly shouted, " Parking lot." Day Two. God looked at what he had made and said, " This is good...it is really getting good."

God thought, lost for words put his hand over his head, then moved his arms along his side. Frustrated like a game of charades, shouted out, " sounds like?" Mr. Word, excitedly jumped up and down, shouted, " Building!" Again, like a kid that had eaten far too much candy Mr. Spirit was spinning like a hurricane. Suddenly, there was an enormous building that seem to spread out for miles. God looked on amazed and said, " Yes!...W-mart." Day Three. God looked at what had been made so far and said, " This is better than good...this is freaking awesome."

God looked on stroking his long white beard, " It's a lot of empty space." Mr. Word closed his eyes as if imagining something . Suddenly, out it came, " lets fill it ", he proclaimed, " With stuff, crap and all kinds of junk." Suddenly, there was screaming and yelling, his body twisting and contorting like a crystal meth addict, Mr. Spirit was moving like the wind in and out of the W-mart. In a matter of hours it was filled with everything and anything imaginable. Again, God gave the partners the thumbs up and said, " Merchandise." Day Four. God looked at what had been made so far and glee-ly rubbed his hands and thought, " Marketing!"

Day Five was not a very creative day but it was productive. It was a round table discussion of what to do with this huge mega-building of stuff, the utopian garden, W-mart. The three partners wandered around the immense building, aisle after aisle counting and taking stock, and puting price stickers on all the merchandise. It takes a lot to impress this tri-union business team, but, they were astounded at what they had built. But they were still stumped as what do do with their creation. So God said, " let's call it a day." Day Five. God looked around at what he had made, his eyes flickering like candles ready to go out...suddenly he was snoring.

God dreamed all night, but in the morning he awoke bright-eyed and refreshed. He quickly nudged the other two partners waking them up. He then shared his dream, " let's make people that sort of look like us, but that aren't as smart...and really like the stuff in W-mart." Mr. Word looked at God, then at Mr. Spirit and said, " lets call them consumers." So God dug his hand in the filthy dirt and dug out a clump, coughed on it, threw it down. And there before there eyes stood the first consumer. Day Six. God looked around at everything he had made, and then looked at the first consumer and smiled from ear to ear saying, " I have a plan!"

This was the end of a busy busy week, so God said, " Let's rest...before we put our plan into motion." Day Seven.

God looked on at the male consumer wandering around W-mart confused and frustrated not knowing what to buy. This saddened God, but not only that, he was loosing on everything the partners had invested in. So he said, " It is not good for the male consumer to be alone, he needs a partner." So God created the female consumer...the ultimate shopper.

So God took the two of them aside and said, " all this is yours to manage...everything in the Mall." " But what ever you do, by no means open the safe in the middle of W-mart that contains the book of Knowledge, " The Perfect Business Plan ", God said looking at them sternly, " For if you do, you will surely die." " Now go forth and multiply, fill the earth with more and more consumers."

I think we know what happened...they did open the safe. It was her fault, always just had to have the best deal. God threw them out of the W-mart. And they did multiply...but it continued to be a series of failed small franchises, mom and pop operations. Finally sick of the failed operations, poor productivity and no profit, God decided to erase everyone of the face of the earth. But while fluttering around the earth Mr. Spirit happened to notice one consumer with potential so he went back and told God about Noah and his family.

God spoke to Noah and told him of his plan to erase this lot of consumers from the face of the earth. God told Noah to build a super tanker and fill it with two of everything from W-mart. When the task was completed it would rain for forty days and forty nights, the earth would be flooded erasing the old lot of consumers. At the end of the forty days, the earth would dry again. But God would make a promise, a rainbow would appear to indicate it would never happen again.

But as always, it's a continuation of the same old shit, failure after failure...failed businesses, poor productivity and no profit. All through history God sends prophets, or shrewd business managers to steer the consumers back in the right direction. It doesn't help...the unruly consumers beat, them up, kill them...and just run some out of town.

As the hands of time keep ticking along and history unravels, things just don't get any better. Thinking back to the beginning God wonders if he shouldn't have mixed a bit more " smart " into the consumers. But finally fed up with all the crap that has been going on...he sends Mr. Word to speak some common sense into the consumer. Mr. Word shares this parable with the consumers from Matthew...

Here's another story. Gather around and listen closely. There once was a an owner ( God, creator), a shrewd aggressive business man, abundantly wealthy, who built a mall, W-mart ( creation). He fenced it, with a cash register and safe, and turned it over to the managers and consumers ( humanity ) and then left for a far away trip.

When the time arrived for it to bear profit ( the fullness of the Kingdom ), he sent his regional managers ( the prophets ) to check on them. But the consumers ( humanity, the empire, religion ) beat some and killed others. The managers/consumers grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more regional managers. They got the same treatment.

Finally, the owner ( God ) sent his son (Mr.Word ), saying, “Surely they will reverence my son.” But this was not the case. They laid hold of him, cast him out, and killed him.

  "Now, when the owner of W-mart arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the mangers/consumers?" ( my paraphrase Matthew 21:33-46 )

OK. No more " Kingdom Language " because people just don't get it, can't relate to it. From now on the new Kingdom...is W-mart. We all get that. Also, to avoid any connection with the old Kingdom language being too liberating...now it is serious business.

 ( Remember, this is satirical writing...put down your stones )

(continued ) a parable:the murder of the farm owner's son

Continuing on from my recent post " a parable: the murder of the farm owner's son " investigating the crime scene. So the owner, ( God ), sends his son, ( Jesus ) into the midst of the vineyard, ( creation ) to confront the tenants ( humanity ) about the fruit ( the fullness of the Kingdom ) the tenants have produced.

In the reality of what the Kingdom should be, where the fruit that is produced by the vineyard produces abundant life for " everyone ", Jesus heart is moved with compassion to those who are left with little or nothing. He lives and moves among those oppressed, the sick, the blind and lame...those left to fend for themselves because of the systemic sin and corruption that infests and infects the institutions ( political, economic and religious ) that manage the distribution of things that sustain life...including God.

Jesus is consumed about the redemption and restoration of the Kingdom...what life would be like if God was King.

Every revolutionary needs a manifesto and Jesus proclaims his from the get-go. From a hillside surrounded by his followers, by waves of on-lookers they will hear words of shock and awe. It was as if Jesus was pushing the " reset " button on the operating software to human living.

These words...sent life as the status quo to a screeching halt.

From here Jesus moves into the midst of life, absolutely every moment of Jesus life is about the Kingdom and its fruit. But this is not the violent revolution that his followers, and many of the on-lookers expect. Even early on Jesus' cousin John, arrested for his part in clearing the road, and leveling the ground for Jesus' Kingdom revolution...has huge concerns as to the effectiveness of this Kingdom revolution.

When he got wind of what Jesus was doing, he sent his own disciples to ask, "Are you the One we've been expecting, or are we still waiting?" Jesus told them, "Go back and tell John what's going on: 

   The blind see,
   The lame walk,
   Lepers are cleansed,
   The deaf hear,
   The dead are raised,
   The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
"Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!"

But, it continues, Jesus life is a parabolic reality of the Kingdom. Every where he goes it is the Kingdom rubbing up against the world...it is the startling subversive truth of an alternative world of profound justice and grace where there is abundant life for " all." At the same time it is the authority of the Kingdom clashing with rulers of the worldly empire, and the franchise owners of God. It is here in the underbelly, in the shadows and dark corners where Paul talks about the principalities and powers of darkness where the systemic sin festers like puss in a deep infected wound. It's here something devious, a murderous plot is starting to hatch.

The reality of the Kingdom is not a new trend, a buzz word to get people fired up for a few days only to fade away. The prophets of past days always arrived in the midst of humanity to re-boot the hard drive from which they operate life.

"The Lord is exalted", proclaims Isaiah. " He dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness." ( 33:5 )

" I am the Lord " announces Jeremiah in the name of God. " I act with steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight." ( 9:24 ) 

Again Isaiah, " Is such the fast I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and lie is a sack cloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this fast that I choose; to break the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? ( 58:5-7 )

From Micah, " He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. ( 6:6-8 )

Lastly from Amos, " I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. ( 5:21-24 )

But the reality, the truth is, Jesus starts telling these wild scandalous redemptive parables, mysteries to capture the imagination of humanity...to God's justice. It was not just loving your friends, it was about loving people you can't stand, people you hate...your enemies. It was not just making sure your rights were protected...it was about becoming a voice for the widow, the orphan, the most marginalized people around you. It was about forgiveness, seventy times seventy...it was scandalous. It was about setting the captives free. It was universal health insurance where as humanity we tried to heal everyone...not the ones who could afford to pay. It was the miracle of feeding the masses...to the point of sharing your last scrap of food knowing you'd go hungry.  There was no in crowd; Jesus knocked down all fences, barriers and borders...as humanity we were one, and we were in this all together. And no one had ownership of God...it didn't matter where you worshipped...it was about doing it in a profound sense of truth. And well, right living, righteousness came down to...loving, God with all your heart, mind and soul...and loving your neighbor as yourself, almost echoing Micah's words.

This was all the " Stuff " this is what the fruit of the Kingdom looks like...this is the fruit that produces life for " All " humanity.

Could it be God, sends his son as humanity's last chance. At the game of life, God throws in all his chips to send his Son to finally reveal, and show humanity to live out the fullness of humanity in the Kingdom of God ? We see this all through the parables in the gospels. Jesus passion is his Fathers passion...the voice of the prophets passion...the Kingdom of God.

Could it be the same principalities and powers of darkness that have always roamed the earth, corrupted the empire of the day to inflict injustice, oppression...a life void of the abundant and just life that comes from being plugged into God ? Could it be the empire deceived by the principalities and powers of darkness accused Jesus...and murdered Jesus ?

 

Could it be not so much a sacrifice for sin...but a horrid murder by the principalities and powers of darkness ?

Could it be on the cross, the principalities and powers of darkness were high-fiving each other that they had finally defeated the Kingdom of God. That now they would control the mind and imagination of humanity...this would be the new world order ?

Could it be Miraculously, God smashed his fist on the " reset " button of evolving creation and said " Hell No!" and in the pursuing after shocks the stone rolled away...and God resurrected Jesus and the Kingdom. The principalities and powers of darkness were finally conquered ?

So, I think belief for me, moves me into the profound mystery of the cross, that Jesus did conquer death and evil ( the principalities and powers of darkness ) , and by faith, I move into the resurrection, I move into the radical scandalous life and teaching of Jesus found in the gospels. Through the spirit of God, that profound mystery is embedded in my DNA. It is no longer I that lives, but Jesus with in me.

Here plugged into this new life, the new creation, the kingdom of God...he calls me, and humanity to be collaborators with him building his Kingdom now...and at the same time pointing to when the fullness of his Kingdom will come into being.

It's almost as if it is that answering of those profound words in Jesus prayer, " Father, may your Kingdom come, on earth as in heaven." It is the profound redemptive mystery of God and humanity emerging into one.

I think , for me, christianity's greatest sin...is that we've made Jesus a scapegoat for " a murder " we committed. That we continue to comitt it by proclaiming his death was about nothing more than forgiveness for personal sin. And that we have very little passion for Jesus' Kingdom...the reality that consumed his life. The reality that he was willing to bet his life on...and the reality that most live like the Kingdom doesn't exist.

a parable: the murder of the farm owner's son

 

 

What is the Kingdom? we get our first glimpse in the garden…harmony, the reality of what communion really is, and should be…God, humanity and creation as one. We see the prophets continuously, like editors in the script of the human story popping up…to re-focus us to fix the injustice of broken communion. Not just make me better, me and God being soul mates...but this beautiful interconnectedness of the three, God, humanity and creation.

It get’s to the point much like the parable where after the vineyard owners have killed all the messengers…the master finally sends his own son.

Here's another story. Gather around and listen closely. There once was a an owner ( God, creator), a person with a green thumb, abundantly wealthy, generous and gracious who planted a vineyard ( creation). He fenced it, dug a wine-press, and put up a watchtower, then turned it over to his farmhands ( humanity ) and then left for a far away trip.

When the time arrived for it to bear fruit ( the fullness of the Kingdom ), he sent his servants ( the prophets ) to check on them. But the farmhands ( humanity, the empire, religion ) beat some and killed others. The farmhands grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more servants. They got the same treatment.

Finally, the owner ( God ) sent his son ( Jesus ), saying, “Surely they will reverence my son.” But this was not the case. They laid hold of him, cast him out, and killed him.

  "Now, when the owner of the vineyard arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the farmhands?" ( my paraphrase Matthew 21:33-46 )

This parable is directed at all of us, the empire of the day, the religion of the day and humanity that turns a blind eye to the witness of a brutal premeditated murder. Jesus is saying to us, " God leased this land to you. He entered into a covenant with you ( read Genesis ) in good faith, expecting you to carry out your end of the bargain. He sent his servants to you. These were the prophets. And what did you do to them?

" Well, we took up a " love offering " gave them an honorarium thanked them for their godly words, and told them to come back."

No that's not what they did back then. Back in those days, prophets understood the economy of language...they made every word count. The preached in a way that was as clear a bell, and everyone could understand. And by the time, Mr. prophet made is point. rocks were coming at him from all directions.

After God hadn't recieved any messages from home, concerned he sent more servants. So he sent Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Obadiah and Malachi. But the tenants took them too and beat and killed them. " Oh", God thought, " WTF! what kind of people did I rent my vineyard to?" " What am I going to do now, shit, if they won't listen to my servants...who's left?"

" I'm going to send my boy. And he'll carry my authority, and surely when they see him, and hear him, they will have the respect for him that they have for me." " Yes, I'm going to send my son."

God loved his creation, the tenants of his vineyeard so much that he sent his only son. He came into their midst, among his own and they did not recognize, greet or recieve him.  They took him outside the vineyeard, to a hillside, beat and lynched him...hanging him on a tree.

It is obvious this story Jesus tells is about himself, so I'll ask you as a crime scene investigator...is this a suicide, a ritual sacrifice for sin? Is it the scene of an irresponsible father who knowingly sent his son to be brutally killed? Or, is it premeditated murder by unruly tenants?

Think about...I'll pick it up tomorrow or the next day? Feel free to add your comment.