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

CARTS...practicing resurrection

"We have longed to taste the resurrection... the insurrection of life... We have longed to welcome its thunders and quakes, and to echo its great gifts. We want to test the resurrection in our bones. We want to see if we might live in hope instead of in the ... twilight thicket of cultural despair in which ... many are lost." - Daniel Berrigan, priest and radical peace activist.

 

Faith should be filled with redemptive imagination we need to envision  the reality of the resurrection " now ", for out the the resurrection comes the inauguration, the revelation and the building of the Kingdom Jesus imagined, and lived in.

There was nothing special about the parking lot behind the Capitol Six Theater, and the transition to the Traveller's Inn. What was special was that a few people took likely what they thought was a mustard seed of faith and planted it. They nurtured it, cultivated, prayed and loved and it grew. There was a vow of commitment, of faithfulness, that despite cold, rain, wind they would be there. The same time, same day, week after week, year after year.

There was a profound evolution of borders and boundaries being erased. What was once "us " and " them " became a community of friends. It became an anticipation and expectation of watching, and looking for the arrival of friends. It was hugs, it was conversations and prayer. It was the worry of wondering about someone if they failed to show up on Friday...to now Sunday.

It was a circle of friends, holding hands, it was faces, it was eyes and smiles. It was improvisation of a God talk, a few minute sermon that sparked imagination. It was communion with the street community distributing the sacraments. It was the parable of the feast, the servant with invitations in hand going to the back allies, the gutters, skid row hotels, anywhere and everywhere so his Fathers table would be full.

It was hot chocolate, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, baked goods, cookies, fruit, socks, mitts, toques, blankets, sleeping bags, shoes, under-ware, clothing. It was, I was naked and you clothed me, I was hungry and you fed me. It was whatever you do for the least of these you do for me.

" What is this ", the young man kept saying to me." I've never seen anything like this." I really believe it was the reality of the resurrection, the " now " presence of Jesus risen in the midst of a community living out radical scandalous faith. He caught a glimpse of the Kingdom now. He saw people acting as co-creators in the revelation and building of Jesus' Kingdom. He saw a place with out borders, boundaries...a place where people aren't reduced to labels and stereotypes. He saw radical hospitality, grace, and mercy. In his " lostness " he felt the loneliness and separation of the prodigal son. But, more, he saw God in that parking lot with open arms welcoming him home. My son which was once lost, is now found.

For me CARTS has become a wild and crazy church. We long to feel the resurrection in our bones.We long for the Kingdom. We long, and welcome its thunder and quakes, and to echo its great gifts. The Kingdom coming into being can seem messy and chaotic. But as someone once said, at the Rainbow Kitchen...even in chaos there is beauty yet to be recognized, if we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

Practice resurrection in your daily life...simply let your life be your religion.

Slip...sliding away...into (Be)living

 

 

I am told, 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 people’s 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 tweak, or ignite a person’s imagination.

Reading the gospels moves you into this profound liminal space. Some people call it the ” slippery slope “, but maybe it is more circumventing obstacles around struggling with truth and suddenly loosing your footing. In reading the gospels you come to the reality what once made sense no longer does. What caused the fall might have been that for years, and years there was only one way to look at something. But, in your pursuit for something deeper you started looking at the obstacle from different angles…and you slipped.

And you thought, Sh……..it! now I’ve done it, I’ve lost my faith. All the questions like lightning begin to strike you from all angles. How long will this free fall last ? Will I land on anything solid?

Christianity for years has been about ” orthodoxy “, right belief. You read the gospels and you can’t miss the only thing Jesus was orthodox about was living. It wasn’t really ” what ” to believe it was ” how ” to believe. And today more and more people don’t really care about ” what ” you need to believe…they want to know how. After we let go of the ” what “, we are left with the ” how.” We grab the profound mysterious ” how ” and throw it into the midst of life. There its, ” how do I believe?” How did I ever believe that? ” How does believing this change the world around me?

It is the ” how ” of belief, that is more about ” orthopraxy ” the right practice of belief…Or simply how do I live like Jesus, and believe in the things he believed in. “How”, is a question that is far more profound and far more life giving than ” what .” ” How “, implies a sense of purpose and pushes us into a deeper engagement with the world in which we live. Diana Butler Bass says, ” What is a conventional religious question, one of dogma and doctrine; how is an emerging spiritual question, one of experience and connection.” How is the struggle of a new way to belief.

You read the gospels and you simply see, it becomes blindingly clear Jesus doesn’t fight for anyone to believe anything. All through the gospels it is Jesus telling profound redemptive stories, acting out the drama of abundant living in the midst of a broken world. Jesus simply fights for us to ” live ” differently as ” on earth as in heaven.”  It is simply about living a radical scandalous redemptive love to the point of self sacrifice.

It became apparent for me when Jesus is arrested by the Roman soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane, when Peter grabs the soldiers sword and cuts his ear off. Jesus tells Peter to put down the sword…and replaces and heals the soldiers ear. We will never convince the world to believe in Jesus by defending, and fighting about right belief. We will convince the world of Jesus when we are willing to put down our swords, and willing to sacrifice our lives…for Love.

I “NO” longer care or focus on what I believe…I only care about how I believe…how that might change my neighborhood, and world…and how it will reveal Jesus and his kingdom.

 

 

 

 

Redemptive imagination: the intersection of humanity and God...future faith

 

^{This is one of my favorite stories is the gospels ( John 6:1-15 ), everytime I read it, it is like a sun rise that slowly and mysteriously illuminates the landscape of reality to endless possibilities.}

 

^{It continuosly breaks the illusion that God is restricted to borders...that he graviates to those he likes. As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5:45, " In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike." Suddenly there is a profound redemptive spark that ignites the imagination...like the sun, and the rain, God orbits humanity and permeates everything.}

^{It's interesting that Tiberias is a jewish community but it is permeated and surrounded by a heterogenous population. In the days of Jesus many more religious Jews refused to settle there because the presence of a cemetery rendered the place unclean. Herod settled many non-Jews from rural Galilee and other parts of his domains to populate his new capital, and built a palace on the acropolis, " city on the extremity." Here Jesus finds himself in a collage, a landscape of diversity...of faiths, of cultures, of race and langauge. His presence embraces every inch of this human landscape.}

^{Also the teller of this story reminds us that it is nearly time for the Feast of the Passover. Again, my mind, my memory and imagination rewind to that incredible journey into freedom. It again was centered around a meal that would sustain God's people across a threshold, through a doorway into a journey where the horizon was filled with the hope of new possibilities. The God-man must have been acutely aware of this reality as waded through and was surrounded in this sea of humanity.}

^{This diverse mass of people has seen, and heard the word " miracle "...that more than anything it has been the magnet that pulls, and gravitates them toward Jesus. They want to see Jesus perform some God-tricks...and the crowd gets bigger, and bigger. The day is coming to a close, the shadows are getting longer as the creator pulls the curtain, and light dims.}

^{Jesus is profoundly aware of the moment and in it he sees the fullness of humanity...he sees the intersection of humanity and God. He more than anyone knows of the mysterious profound redemptive possibilities that can be found when the two interact and become one...he more than anything is proof of that reality.}

^{Jesus lights a match, trying spark some human imagination asking Philip, " Where can he buy bread to feed these people?" Immediately Philip is doing some calculations in his mind, counting on his fingers and finally coming to the conclusion, " we don't have enough money." Not the best answer, but at least he's absolved himself, and the disciples of any responsibility.}

^{There is a yound boy in the crowd with his bag lunch of five small loaves and two fish that he sees as a possibility. But, like a flickering candle about to go out, Simon readily admits it doesn't offer much hope.}

^{Jesus seats everyone on the ground and takes the bread, giving thanks passes it into the midst of the people. He does the same with the fish, and everyone ate as much as they wanted. When the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted." They went to work and filled twelve large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.}

^{To often in this story we want to fast forward, and hit stop...satisfied with the obvious conclusion it's " all " Jesus performing some kind of God-magic in a miracle. Now, I'm not saying Jesus can't, and didn't do miracles. I'm saying maybe in the profound redemptive imagination of Jesus he doesn't want us to stop there. Maybe there is another kind of miracle going on...a kind of God-man collaborated miracle. Maybe it's that profound interesction when God and humanity merge as one, and in the fusion something heaven-on-earth shattering happens.}

^{The young boy in this story ignites the redemptive imagination in my mind to a new generation that is not just on the fringe. But that they " get " Jesus and are close to him. They understand that Jesus was deeply and fully human more than he was religious. It's profound that the disciples didn't really grasp what was going on. But here is this young boy hovering close to Jesus saying here is my bag lunch...its not much, but I'm willing to share it.}

^{Can you imagine the look on the disciples faces, " Are you serious kid...there is 5,000 or more people out there." That would be like sharing a " Happy Meal " with a small town. But more than that the young boy doesn't just want to share it with his family, his friends, his tribe or even his faith. He wants to share it with everyone..." you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike."}

^{It is that profound mysterious intersection...if God is like that, humanity should be like that. It is when we live like that miracles are possible...heaven comes to earth, they become one.}

^{So could it be possible someone saw this young boy pass his meager bag lunch to Jesus, and whisper started through the crowd, and the whisper became a wind, like spirit touch everyone. Slowly people searched their packs, and there pockets, and everyone regardless of race, and religion started to share with one another.} 

^{It is that profound mysterious intersection...if God is like that, humanity should be like that. It is when we live like that miracles are possible...heaven comes to earth, they become one.}

^{I bumped into a friend a couple of months ago down town, a churchless follower of Jesus. He shared that he had went to Gurdwara at a Sikh temple in town. A part of the worship involved a meal in this large kitchen room. It is a meal where all are welcome regardless of faiths...it is here evryone sits together and shares a common meal. This profound act of worship is said to enable people to serve one another, and to banish all distinctions between people...its the profound mysterious realization in the midst of God's presence there is no circumference...everyone is in.}

^{More than every we must re-kindle redemptive imagination...and come to the profound truth there are many paths to God. But real faith is found in the intersection of humanity and God. Jesus the God-man came to reveal this to us...this is what is is to be fully human. And I believe it's in this intersection in our unique and diverse religions, and beyond our religions that miracles can happen today to change the course of humanity.}

^{I dream there is a generation of young people that are like the young boy in this gospel story that will lead us into a new journey of faith beyond mere religion but into the fullness of humanity that Jesus lived and spoke about.}

    

^{This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed non-conformists. The saving of our world from pending doom will come not from the actions of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a dedicated minority. (Martin Luther King )}

R(EVOLuTionary ) Faith...in a crisis

It's hard to imagine anyone coming across Jesus in the midst of the " world crisis " of his day thinking that Jesus was about reforming religion; maybe some institutional changes, a revamp of the worship style...more culturally relevant. They would have seen the tide changing, an uprising on the margins of an empire. It was simply a revolution.

 

 

 

Fast forward to today. Empire is still with us, and continues to spin a story of illusion, one of prosperity, security and hope. The empire parades through the streets of the the global village proclaiming capitalism and globalization are still the way forward. Through it's corporate icons, it's incomprehensible economics, it's military power and it's controlled media...a dumbed down world has been fooled.

Mass protests, throughout history have come at a time when enough of the population has been affected by policies of the rulers and elite. They have often been met with brutal, efficient crackdown by the guardians of the elite...as was the case in Jesus day. It was an empire with a global plan to expand it's borders, it's wealth and power...whatever the costs. Also, a religion, a faith community that collaborated with the empire...or at best washed its hands and turned a blind eye.

This was the situation in Jesus day, and certainly even more magnified and amplified today. If you want to get a grasp of what is going on in the world from social, political, economic and environmental issues that effect us " all "...I encourage you to browse " Global Issues."

Jesus, the God-man being birthed into the margins of humanity has always mystified me. We are so fixated with religion as a navigation tool to get from " us " to God. We all have our maps, and compasses and charted our bearings and declared " our " route the only way. But God, in a sense seems to ignore all paths and births the God-man of the grid. Jesus strangely is birthed outside of is own religion. God births the God-man in the humus of humanity...in the midst of the poverty, the injustice, the brokenness...in the midst of the unloved.

I wonder if God didn't birth himself outside of religion to show us that it really isn't that important? Maybe religion says more about us than God? Maybe we view Jesus like some helium filled balloon, that the more lines we have anchored to him, the less of a chance he'll drift off to non-existence. Maybe God won't allow himself to be owned like a piece of property by " any " religion? Maybe that is one of the most profound realities of the incarnation is that God puts himself into the midst of " humanity " not a religion.

Process theologian John B Cobb made this comment recently, " We become devoted to Christianity instead of Jesus. Jesus taught us to be faithful to Christianity is found no where in the Bible." And Bono reminds us, " God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house...God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."

We know where Jesus planted his life, and throughout the gospels we see Jesus not promoting, trying indoctrinate people into a religion...we see him revealing what it is to be fully human. We see Jesus bringing a new world to life, an alternative, subversive world that stands in stark contrast to the world of the empire. And around us today we see a church that continues to to sink into absolute irrelevance.

" In many churches today, the primary question being asked is, how do we get more members? Behind this is often a painful awareness of the patterns of institutional decline and the need for more bodies and buck's in the pews to sustain things. This is not the primary question we should be asking. Instead, we should be wondering, what is God up to in our neighborhood? How do we join up with it?" ( Dwight. J Zscheile )

God is not concerned about sustaining christianity, ensuring you have someplace to go on Sunday mornings. God is concerned about sustaining life...about redeeming the brokenness of the world around us into this new creation, this alternative world...where justice reigns; where oppression ends, where there is universal health care for all; where there is no hunger; where religion embraces " all " humanity...not the god's we've created; where we become stewards of the earth and it's resources again, where we truly love our neighbor...and where there is no more "us" and "them", but where we live life as one.

Christianity continues to decline in the west depite trying to make it more culturally relevant, putting a new coat of paint on the surface...people are still trickling out the back door. It's not that we've lost faith in Jesus...we've lost faith in the church. We are consumed with the idea that worship pleases God, if we can just get it right...sing the right things, say the right things, we'll turn it around. People will be pounding at our doors to get in.

Incase we've forgotten what pleases God...Jeremiah 7:5-7:11, Amos 5:21-24, Hosea 6:6, Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 1:11-17...one wonders if God hasn't left the building all together.

Today, to say, we stand in the midst of a crisis is an understatement...maybe it's time to awaken to the reality that God doesn't care about our religion, this Christianity that resembles so little of Jesus, and imagines so little of this profound redemptive alternative world he spoke about and lived in. It is time for a revolutionary Christianity that gets beyond faith in beliefs, but to risk faith on life. Jesus came that we might have abundant life...not just for church folk, nice behaving Christians...but for all humanity. It was about a faith that changed the world, literally to build a new creation. Jesus challenged the worldly empire of the day it's lie, its narrative of prosperity, and security and false hope for the deserving...he was constantly in there face telling a profoundly more redemptive story for everyone. But more than that he was willing to set aside religion this obsession of trying to turn ourselves into pious self-righteous gods...to just be more fully human.

God is out there in the brokenness, in the midst of the oppression, injustice and poverty in the global village...this is where revolutionary faith begins. Jesus was birthed, lived and died in this place. It is only here that the reality of any new kind of creation can take place. Jesus didn't come to start a new religion...he came to bring heaven to earth now. He came to start a revolution, to turn the world " right " side up...where a new alternative world would capture the imagination of " all " humanity.

 " For the revolutionary, those goals and objectives are directed toward changing reality and toward redemption of humanity. It is humanity itself, ones fellow human being, the redemption of ones fellow human being that constitutes the revolutionary's objective. If we revolutionaries are asked what matters to us most, we will say: the people, and we will always say the people. People in their true sense, that is, the majority of those who have had to live under exploitation and the cruelest neglect. Our fundamental concern will always be with the great majority of the people, the oppressed and exploited classes. We view evrything from this standpoint: Whatever is good for them is good for us; whatever noble, useful and beautiful for them , will be noble, useful and beautiful for us. If one does not think in this manner, if one does not think of the people and for the people, if one does not think and act for the great exploited mass of the people, for the great masses we seek to redeem, then one simply does not have a revolutionary attitude." ( Fidel Castro: Words To Intellectuals, Havana June 30 1961 )

" By breaking the rules of the game, he has disrupted the game as such, he has exposed it as a mere game. he has shattered the world of appearances, the fundamental pillar of the system. He has upset the power structure by tearing apart what holds it together. He has demonstrated that living a lie is living a lie. He has broken through the exalted facade of the system and exposed the real, base foundations of power. He has said that the emperor is naked. And because the the emperor is infact naked, something extremely dangerous has happened; by his action, the greengrocer has addressed the world, He has enabled everyone to peer behind the curtain. He has shown everyone that it is possible to live within the truth. Living within the lie can constitute the system only if it is universal. The principle must embrace and permeate everything. There are no terms whatsoever on which it can coexist wuth living within the truth, and therefore everyone who steps out of the line denies it in principle and threatens it in its entirety." ( Vaclav Havel: The Power of the Powerless 1936 )

Christianity will not save the world...living into Jesus as the way, the truth and the life...of what it is to be fully human...should spark the imagination of all humanity to where we look for hope on the horizon of history.

Chris Hedges says, this at the end of his new book. " Days of Destruction Days of Revolt "...

" They went first. We are next. The indifference we showed to the plight of the underclass, in Biblical terms our 'neighbor', haunts us. We failed them, and in doing so we failed ourselves. We were accomplices in our own demise. Revolt is all we have left. It is the only hope."

The revolutionary faith of Jesus is all we have left...his way, his truth and his life. A faith beyond belief...a faith profoundly and humanly lived. It really is our only hope.

WTF !!! ...is going on.

On July 26 2012 this was my status of facebook...

Many would say I've back slid; my compass is broken and I aimlessly heading off the edge of a cliff. But those close to me, my friends understand...I hope. That this has been a long process, at least 15 years...the last 5, immersing myself into the depths of the redemptive imagination and life of Jesus in the gospels. I will no longer be restricted by "christianity " in my pursuit of Jesus. I don't think he would restrict himself to "christianity", I think Jesus is bigger than any religion, and can't be contained by their barriers. I am more passionate than ever about Jesus, my faith has never felt more alive. I don't expect you understand...be patient. I'm free...and believe it or not, following Jesus.

Scarey stuff for sure. Many of my past church friends won't get this at all, your either in our your...out. Many would simply say I have left the faith. I would simply say I've left the church building, and navigating outside the barriers of Christianity. But it has taken 15 years to get here...it was an arduous journey of reading, reflection, conversations, prayer...and living. It was really about coming to terms of what faith is.

The big question...does Jesus occupy such a liminal place, where one is not anchored to much bobbing in this sea of questions. Fifteen years ago I would have said " no ", I would have been in the shallow end of the pool wearing a life jacket, and with in arms reach of the life guard at all times.

If any thing after reading nothing but the gospels for 5 years ( believe me my good friend Bill Dahl has listened to my musings for as long )...you can't reduce the gospels into a concrete block of theology. It's like this messy primordial mysterious ooze. Try as you might to shape into certitude, it squirts, and oozes through your fingers...the answer you thought you had is gone.

Something that really became clear was that Christianity's concern is the " church ", where as Jesus concern is the " Kingdom of God." And it also becomes apparent that there are clear solid lines as to who's in the church, and a lot less clearly defined lines as to who is in the Kingdom.

The challenge of the gospels is it's filled with paradox...one moment you think you've got the right answer squeezed tightly in your grasp only to open you hand and see it's vanished. Jesus, the God-man who could give an immutable answer doesn't. He tells these profound mysterious parables, stories, riddles...he lobbs them into the crowd like a grenade that has had the pin pulled. He, in many cases offers no answer. The crowd is left to try and defuse it.

In this search, this defusing of the parable they are drawn into a liminal space...where it is just them and God. And in this frantic search to find certitude to defuse... the only thing to be found is the mysterious redemptive power beyond human imagination called grace. The gospels are filled, over flowing with the stuff.

For the longest time " in " the church, I knew exactly who was "in" and who was "out". There were strict guide lines. Everyone had to believe certain doctrines, a statement of faith; behave a certain way...and you belonged. But the guidelines for who is "in" the Kingdom have been blown apart much like the crowd wrestling with the parables. The lines of the church were much like its walls, solid, fortified and impermeable. But there seems to be no lines fortifying the Kingdom, just this permeable redemptive membrane called grace...where we become profoundly surprised...or shocked by what can leak in.

I am the Good Shepherd and know and recognize my own, and my own know and recognize me. Even as truly as the Father knows me and I also know the Father...and I am giving my very own life and laying it down on behalf of the sheep.

And I have other sheep besides these that are not in this fold. I must bring and inspire those also, and they will listen to my voice and heed my call, and so there will be, and they will become one flock under one sheperd. ( paraphrase John 10:14-16 )

This is one of those stories that we want to read with our "church" default mindset...the certitude of knowing exactly who's "in." It's like were hanging on to our answer; dangling, grasping two fisted...and God cuts the rope.

WTF!!!...or what the flock is going on here? " I have other sheep besides these that are not in this fold. I must bring and inspire those also, and they will listen to my voice and heed my call." What kind of flock is this?

We know historically there were other faiths, and religions in the midst of the culture of Jesus day. So is this talking about some kind of conversion to " Christianity "? Remember at this point there wasn't any, and Jesus passion was the redemptive imagination and reality of the Kingdom...now, in our midst...among us. It's obvious there are other sheep that belong ( I have ), and they listen to his voice and heed his call. And Jesus is not forcing, trying to convert the sheep from different folds to change shepheds...he's asking his disciples to inspire, to maybe recognize that the God they have come to know through Jesus...is also the God of others.

Now, am I saying all religions premeate across the membrane into the Kingdom of God...I don't know? But I wonder if there might be sheep within those folds...that belong in Jesus flock?

Jesus says, " Who ever has seen me has seen the Father ", that the invisible God has been made visible in his life. It's like Jesus is say, " Hey, if you want to see what God is like, look at me; my life, my way, my deeds, my character...my truth.

Maybe, the other sheep have heard Jesus voice and heeded to his call, and are living...the way, the truth, and the life. Maybe our problem is we want to treat the Kingdom like church...where we have this tribal, exclusive, elistist view of God...where we have wire attached to our beliefs, our doctrines that prevent anyone from getting in but those that believe like us. Maybe the Jesus, of the Kingdom of God is more profound, more gracious...than the Jesus of the church.

Stories like the Good Samaritan...an other sheep besides these that are in the fold, that have heeded Jesus call. A person of another religion profoundly living...the way, the truth and the life of Jesus. He may not be in the "church ", but, mysteriously, I think he might be in the Kingdom of God.

And again, Matthew 25, and the thief on the cross all challenge are perception of what Jesus' flock may actually look like.

Brian McLaren says this about the Kingdom of God, and I wonder if Jesus does not look across this vast herd of sheep and think the same thing as to who get's in...

" it will not involve God ( please pardon the crudeness of this ) pulling down our pants and check for circumcision or scanning our brains for certain beliefs like products being scanned at the grocery checkout. No, God will examine the story of lives for signs of Christlikeness...for a cup of cols water, a plate of hot food given to one in need, for an atom of mercy shown to one who has been unkind or unthoughtful, or a visit to a prisoner or an open door and a warm bed for a stranger, for a generous impulse indulged and a hurtful one denied, like Jesus." ( A New Kind of Christianity; page 204 )

Will there be other faiths, other religions besides just Christians in the Kingdom of God...I don't know for sure. But the redemptive imagination that fills my mind explodes with excitement at the possibility.

I have seen that it is possible to be a Jew, a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu or an atheist and carry the cross. The words are different but the self-sacrifice and thirst for justice are the same. And these men and women, who may not profess what I profess or believe what I believe, are my brothers and sisters. And I stand with them honoring and respecting our differences and finding hope and strength and love in our common commitment. ( Chris Hedges )

 “Never be content with your current grasp of the gospel. The gospel is the life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than a diamond. It's depths man will never exhaust.”  ( CJ Mahaney )

Dangerous Memories...

 

Prophetic imagination, or prophetic dreaming, keeping visions alive, is what stimulates diverse groups forming society into becoming a culture of life, a biophilic, life-loving culture, to use an ecological term. It is also an authentic dimension of being and becoming Church. Together with the power of dangerous memory, these two activities are at the heart of a theology of hope. For prophetic imagination is outrageous—not merely in dreaming the dream, but in already living out of the dream before it has come to pass, and in embodying this dream in concrete actions.

Mary C Grey: The Outrageous Pursuit of Hope

Some say it is the end of Christendom, that the vessel we call " church " has been taking on water for years, and despite our attempts to bail and keep her afloat, she is sinking and being consumed by the world and culture she floats in.

I could make a list of the self-help projects we've done, and are still doing to make church attractive...but, I wonder. Have we as faith communities lost our power of dangerous memory. We've lost the reality, that our story is mysteriously weaved in the lines and between the lines of God's story. Somehow there is a disconnect, a radical editing, writing our own stories...more like a reality TV show as we fumble from episode. But it need not be that way.

How many churches spend time in the words of the Old Testament prophets? It's there we find our dangerous memory. It is dangerous because it always involved change, and because we have so much invested in the old way of life.

As faith communities we tend to live inside our comfort zones. We put our trust in what we've built, even sacred things like our faith communities.  I'm not saying church is bad, I'm saying when we live in dangerous memory, we dream and live the prophetic and redemptive imagination of God. Ironically when Jesus first calls his disciples it wasn't away of something bad. They were probably family guys try to make an honest living. But Jesus calls them into the redemptive imagination of God's Kingdom.

So we return to the words of the prophet. Ultimately the prophet could be called God's decontructionists. So if we think about decontructing church, it might be wise to return to the dangerous memory of the prophets words. They had the uncanny ability to stand above the faith communities time line and see its past, present and future. Through the imagination of God, like radical street poets there words creatively revealed the communities life in the stories of the past, the darkness of the present, and the glory of a yet to be lived future.  It leads the community into repentance, redirection, reconstruction...to let go of fear and find grace...and return.

"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 )

More than ever faith communities need to recover their dangerous memory, reboot the hard drive and go back to the prophetic imagination of God. We can continue the crazy reality TV show of deconstruct and reconstruct, change for the sake of change...religion for religion's sake.

Recovering our dangerous memory will always lead us to the hope and reality of God's Kingdom. We become his people, heirs, the community that dreams and reveals, redeems, restores...and builds His kingdom on earth now.

In God's mind...the Kingdom

The Kingdom is to ...

begin to bring in the shalom prophesied by Isaiah and embodied in Jesus. We'll keep on until we are interconnected and intertwined with the whole world. There is a new world coming. It must come because it is in God's mind and God has willed it.

What we do with intensity and focus in our own neighborhood, the one in which God has set our community--your community--will enable us to reach out in affection to the whole globe. To the whole human family. To the whole created order.

The time has come when all limited patriotic boundaries must be transcended. Everything is interconnected. We are related in affection to everything. ( Gordon Cosby )

The Kingdom, in God's mind...this was the vine that Jesus was attached, that he calls us to graft into...this is where the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of re-creation flows from.

May your Kingdom come, on Earth as in Heaven.

Tune in, Turn on, let it Flow...a new Genesis, a new Creation...The Kingdom of God.

In case you think I'm lost...I'm here

We don't want to just read about what God wants. We don't want someone else telling us what God wants either.... We want our eyes to be God's eyes so that we can see the world the way God sees it. We want our hands to do God's work. We want our prayers to be God's prayers. We want what God wants. If you become a servant of God, then your action is God's action. By repairing things here, we repair them above. ( Rabbi Lawrence Kushner )

 

About 5 years ago, I slowly started moving from the front of the church to the back. I wasn't long until the only thing left was the door...and I was gone. I really get what Rabbi Kushner is saying. We need to see the world the way God sees it. From hanging out in Cafe's and taking with folks, I sense a spiritual craving, I hear about compassion and social activism. There is a generation in the midst of our neighborhoods that would Identify with what Lawrence Kushner is saying. The God-man, Jesus pitched his tent into the midst of humanity, he moved into the neighborhood. He was passionate about humanity, and all creation, moving in to show us what the abundant life of humanity could look like...now. " Father, may your Kingdom come, on Earth as in Heaven ", was about the redemptive imagination of restoring earth in the mirror image of the Kingdom of God. For the most part the church has turned the wild scandalous redemptive imagination of the Kingdom into an exit strategy. We are quite willing to throw away the reality of the Kingdom, and settle to gamble our future on some bad theology.

I'm 58 years old, middle-aged, slightly over the hill, and sliding down the other side desperately trying to hold on. In the 25+ years that I called my self a " christian ", I had heard a lot of sermons. I have seen Scripture twisted and contorted beyond recognition to fit every aspect of life. If I had to sum it all up, it would be " individualized spirituality " for the most part, maybe a with a dash of " history ", and highlighted around the big Jesus events...Birth, Transfiguration, Death and Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost. It's like being stuck on a merry-go-round, in which the only way you can get off is to... jump.

I confess, I got to the point before I jumped that I would take my i-pod and as soon as the sermon started I played my podcasts...or I would bring something stimulating to read. I got looks and stares, to which I would pleasantly smile and wave. I would hope they would understand that it beat the alternative appearance of me... slouched, head drooping, drooling and snoring.

It's as if Sunday morning we tried our best to ascend to " some where ", to reach an altitude to which we were safely away from the world. We fired up the engines ( worship team ), hit the throttle and began to climb.  Some mornings we would encounter a little turbulence, but we'd strap ourselves in until it passed. Once we achieved a cruising altitude, the captain ( preacher ) would come over the PA system with inboard flight announcement ( sermon ). Some stayed awake during the announcement, but for others, this was when the blankets and pillows would come out...or i-pods and books. After a short domestic flight it was time to land, exit the terminal and do it all over again next week. In most cases, I think most passengers were led to believe these were all really training flights, in which the final one wouldn't be domestic...it would be extra-galactic flight to infinity and beyond.

My feeling of hypocrisy got the best of me...I had to do something. I quietly excused myself and left, telling people God was up to something and I was going to find out. Some understood, but not many. Many told me God would never call a person out of the church, out of community. Well...I'm not so sure.

I don't put myself up there with the Old Testament Prophets, but God called them out of their communities so they could speak back into it. God, called Jesus out of his family's religious community, and his family. He called the disciples out of their families, their community. So, I imagine that God does pull people out. Again, I reflect on Rabbi Kushner's words...

We don't want someone else telling us what God wants either.... We want our eyes to be God's eyes so that we can see the world the way God sees it. We want our hands to do God's work. We want our prayers to be God's prayers. We want what God wants. If you become a servant of God, then your action is God's action. By repairing things here, we repair them above.

For me this was my disconnect with sermons. Back to my flight metaphor, of the aircraft ( church ) flying to an altitude to separate itself from the world. Much of what I was hearing as the " on board " announcement was totally irrelevant to what I was seeing out the cabin window as I looked at the earth. Much of the talk was only relevant to the passengers in the cabin, or about the air craft itself.  I could not understand it...and I still don't. We exit the aircarft every Sunday and walk into the world...we see, we hear...and we are unmoved. We walk around our neighborhoods, our inner cities, we watch the news, we hear the news, we read the news...and we are unmoved.

Jesus walked around his neighborhood, our neighborhood...and was moved...moved to speak, moved to act.

Today, the church has no prophetic voice. If the church believes in the Kingdom of God...it must have a prophetic voice. If it continues to believe in an exit strategy...it can continue to wear a muzzle at sit in silence, irrelevant with little impact on the world. It can learn to speak prophetically as Jesus did, by immersing itself into the wisdom of what Rabbi Kushner is getting at.

The church needs to be in the brokenness of humanity...in the homelessness and poverty of the inner city, it needs to see the corruption and oppression of political and economic injustice, it needs to see the devastation on the environment, it needs to see prostitution, abuse against women, it needs to see the addiction of drug abuse, it needs to see racism ... ... ...

We can only gain the credibility to speak prophetically by living in these places. By living in them, we will see, and hear what God sees. The churches identity will be with them, in their pain, suffering, oppression, injustice. Only then can it have a true prophetic voice. Only then can it speak like Jesus.

For now, we speak much like the pharisees, thinking we can fix the world through morality. A moral world is a far cry from the Kingdom of God. 

God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

This paraphrase from Colossians has always stirred the redemptive imagination in my mind, and has ignited the passion in my heart to see as God sees...

He the God-man, the Son, Jesus 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 murder, torture, and suffering at the hands injustice. That God, shouted " No! " that the empires and principalities would not have the final say. He said " Yes!" to Jesus and the peaceable Kingdom, and resurrected creation anew.

Can the church embrace that profound mystery, that everything finds it place in Jesus. Can we embrace " all " of creation, and see the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe. Can we speak prophetically against the principalities and empires that perpetuate it's oppression, domination and injustice. Can we then act to fix it...bring it altogether in a vibrant harmony.

A church with this kind of wild scandalous redemptive imagination can not help but attract and engage the heart and soul of all humanity to see a future worth living.

 

More questions that have changed my faith: the size of our table

Often I wonder why communion in the context of church is not a constant reminder of Jesus radical scandalous table fellowship, instead of a ritual that confirms what an exclusive dining club the church is.

Early on Jesus was making the " temple-folk " very uncomfortable with his eating habits. Early in Mark, The Pharisee's saw Jesus at Levi's house, Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riffraff?"

I love this quote, " My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of that same poverty.
They speak of homeland." Jesus made his home in the brokenness of humanity, it's filth and stench was like incense to him...worthy and acceptable. This was the Kingdom, it's glorious beauty coming to life in startling contrast to the exclusiveness of religion and society. It was Jesus turning the dining table of the world upside down.

Blessed are the poor, for the Kingdom of God will be theirs. I recall Bono saying, " God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."

Sometimes I wonder if God isn't camped out closer to hell than he is to heaven.

People at the margins, the needle strewn back alleys of the inner city, the drunk passed out in urine soaked pants in shop door way, the mentally ill, the poor and illiterate might not be able to follow our poetic, finessed, exegetical precise obstacle filled maze to getting it right with God, but they know poverty, and hunger...they know how to eat. They'll eat with a Jesus who invites them

It was the in-crowd, the spiffy and spotless religious know-it-alls who were to good to clink glasses and rub elbows with the dirty, rough around the edges riff-raff. " Why do you eat food with unlean hands. If you have ever served food to folks living on the streets in the inner city, the first thing you notice is their hands reflect their lives...filthy, cracked, dry, broken and bleeding.

Why do you food with drug addicts, homosexuals, prostitutes, drunks, thieves...social rejects? God just wouldn't eat with people like that?

Jesus...the religious folks thought he was a sinner. But he was God, in human flesh and bones camped out in the filthy, poverty and brokenness of the inner city of his day.

Here's the clincher. And I know for some it will go down like a bad meal, and you'll want to puke it right back up. There is no record they had to " repent " to eat at Jesus table. The fact that they accepted his invitation, they came as prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, lame, blind, diseased, poor and hungry. Could it be the fact they ate and enjoyed table fellowship with Jesus was repentance enough?

I really wonder if our communion doesn't say more about " us ", than it does God?

Church...the challenge of Jesus passion

The more and more I immerse myself in the radical scandalous redemptive mystery of the gospels the more I come to realize it is a mysterious journey of discovery. It is not a journey into which we embed ourselves into " church-life ", but into which we immerse ourselves into every moment of life. With nothing more than the offer of come " Follow me ", the disciples dropped everything and walked with Jesus into life.

Jesus cuts us loose outside all borders, boundaries, and barriers...outside of our constructed comfort zones. It is here we come to discover that the Kingdom of God is an uncivilzed place. The church's struggle to make itself " culturally relevant " continues to tangle itself up in a so called civilized world. There is no redemption in cultural relevance. What we need is a wild radical scandalous...uncivilized guide. We need to recognize Jesus walking toward us, beckoning us " to follow " him into the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is not a low risk, blue chip investment created by the brokers of religion for consumption, to make life better...or for retirement in some eternal resort. It can't be calmly considered, and casually digested. God's Kingdom can not be domesticated, it can't be franchised and placed along side the other proprietors of religious goods. It's leader, Jesus can't be restrained, leashed and muzzled from his continuous challenge of our selfish way of life.

We have North Americanized Jesus, making him a Spiritual Guru selling the american dream. He comes rather tamely, in a three piece suit, or as cool hipster...to tidy up a few bad habits, make us better people, more prosperous, more cool...sending us back into the world grateful for the self-help. It seems the North American Jesus leads us every where except into the Kingdom of God. It's interesting that we have success at fitting " christianity " into our culture...but trying to fit the Kingdom into the world is like trying to hammer a square peg into our hole.

The reality is I think we've all caught glimpses of the Kingdom. It surprises us because often it is outside our comfort zones, beyond the barbed wire, the warning tape, the black and white lines we've etched our theologies. Often we are left unsettled, and have a difficult time understanding what we've found. But in our hearts we know we've discovered something so radical, so scandalously redemptive that it shatters our routine way of living.

It is like the man who has discovered a treasure in the midst of the brokenness of life. His shovel digs into the pavement of life and strikes something solid, glittering...it mezzmerizes him. He will sell out everything, sell out his old life to have this treasure.

There is nothing wrong with church, but often we're in danger of going to church, reading the bible, singing songs, saying prayers, doing good deeds, being baptized, having communion...that we risk not making the great discovery. Maybe, we have to leave the church to be startled by discovery, to hear the clink of the blade of the shovel against the glittering treasure. But, if you've made the discovery. Now the stakes are higher for you. Because, it's redemptive beauty will haunt you...you know it's worth, and you know it's power to transform everything it touches. Our lives, our imaginations will be ignited by the Kingdom of God.