Ron Cole : unplugged, unorthodox, sacrilegious

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 ??????

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. 

life beyond the belief meter...

 

One wonders if there isn't one of these parked at the entrance of " heaven's gate ", or on the front porch of that mansion with many rooms. We are led...maybe not led, coerced into believing that an absolute positive outcome on the belief meter is what gets you " in."

What's the pass mark going to be? I don't know. I would assume 50% would just being lowering the bar to much. Heaven forbid, that low, someone could trip over it and accidentally fall in. But, I'm sure you can imagine the hooting and hollering, and high-fiving on the "right side " of the divine gated community, and the jeering and laughing at the folks that will have to take the elevator down to the eternal fire in the basement of existence.

You read the gospels and you wonder, " how in the heck did we come up with a faith that has such an emphasis in absolute belief. If anything Jesus mission was not about belief. ( You might want to read that again really slow ) It wasn't about what you must believe or how you must behave in order to get "in " heaven. Rather his mission was about the character of God, away of centering in God, and the Kingdom of God. It was a mission far more concerned about " living " than " believing."

From the outset after Jesus has collected his band of " Divine Nobodies", his rag-tag band of " Ragamuffins" he doesn't head to a classroom in the local synagogue for a three year course in Hermeneutics, Epistemology...the proper way to cook lamb on an altar. He took his disciples on the road, into the wide open spaces of their world, their neighborhoods not to construct a new religion around a whole new set of rules...but to rediscover a simple faith of living and becoming fully human.

The first place Jesus takes his disciples, he immersed them into the midst of life, the wedding at Cana. It was a microcosm of the world, there were friends, family, the town...the black sheep of the family, weird uncles, all the little family clicks...and all the messy dysfunction of real life. It was the good, the bad and the ugly. And just when the party starts to fizzle out, Jesus makes wine, gallons from water...new wine poured extravagantly into the midst of life. It wasn't " certain " guests that received this extravagance...the " in " crowd, the " correct " believers...it was for everyone, all you had to do was accept it. Many likely started rubbing their eyes in disbelief as to what was going on. You kind of couldn't put it in words. Whatever truth came out was from simply living in the moment.

Jesus had to reboot peoples imagination to what the character of God really is. After God being out of the picture for some 400 years, the proprietors of religious goods and services ( aka Pharisees, Scribes, Priests, Religious Scholars ), sort of cherry picked through the old texts and came up with a God that...well, lets say, served them quite well. Here you might insert many proprietors of the religious goods and services of our day.

It was the God that was pretty well disgusted with us, really couldn't bear to look at us. The only way we could get close to him, even in the tiime of Jesus was to create a smoke-screen. It was buying your pound of flesh from the temple priest ( yes I think they sold it by the pound ), and through it on the temple BBQ and create enough smoke that God couldn't see you.

It seemed the only people this God liked was the religious proprietors of goods and services and if you wanted God to like you, you bought what these salesmen sold. It was a life in which the average person lived while being tethered on a short leash to the temple. It was life dictated by rules, and amendments to the rules, and amendments to the amendments. It was living life as a ritual, eating off a menu where the content never changed.

It was also a God that didn't seem to give a crap about the poor, the homeless, the marginalized, the oppressed; the sick, lame and blind...another faith, an outsider...a foreigner. It was a God who likes the people we like. And there was no getting around it, God had his favorites...he loved some, and hated his enemies. It was the prosperity God, the God of investments...if you put 10 danari in the temple offering basket Sunday, God gave you double or triple back Monday morning.

It's not hard even to look around us today and see that this is the same God many churches project into the world. But Jesus, becomes God in the flesh and bones, the God-man and moves into the " hood." This is the God who doesn't need a smoke screen to draw a curtain between himself and humanity. This God moves right in, no, he jumps in heads over heels into the messiness and brokenness of humanity. He doesn't wait for an invitation, for people to repent...shave their heads, wear sack cloths and roll around in ashes. He invites himself, to eat with, to drink...to rub elbows with the sinners, the outcasts, the marginalized. Simply he is a friend of sinners. This is the God of extreme, scandalous grace and love. This is the God that says love your enemies. This is the God that says never tire of forgiveness. This is the God that tears down all the fences, the walls and barriers that are erected in the midst of humanity. This is the God  who says the profound reality to abundant life can be found in something as small as a Tweet, " Love God with absolutely everything you have, and Love your neighbor the same way " #extreme love @God.

This was the character of God that Jesus came to reveal...a God a world away from the god the proprietors of religious goods and services were selling. But, a God that was infinitely and intimately close to humanity...camped in the midst of the worst of it.

And what's this mission of God. Well we get a really good idea from where Jesus pitched his tent. He was camped out on the extreme fringe of society...it was with the people of no worth. It was the sick, the lame, the blind, the oppressed, the poor, the homeless, the sinners...on the ladder to success these people were stepping stones for others to reach that first wrung. This was the God of the Old Testament prophets that continually tried to reboot the imagination of humanity to justice, and mercy...for the very people Jesus camped out with. This missional strand of justice weaves itself through the whole story and is connected the very DNA that is the reality of Jesus' life. These prophetic words still echo down the corridor of history...

"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 is the essence of the " Kingdom of God " stuff...it is the very heart-beat of the Gospels, and Jesus life pulsated with passion for the Kingdom. God's mission is establishing the Kingdom of God, on earth as in heaven.

And lastly Jesus came to show us how to center our lives in God...Jesus called it abiding. You sense in abiding that it is effortless, you just had to rest in the profound reality that Jesus is...simply as branch on a tree. Life comes from Jesus, pure and simple. I love Jesus encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well and her struggle of trying to get it right...of connecting with God. Do we need to go to some mountain, or do we need to go to the temple? She is asking God standing right in front of her, Jesus, " how do I do it right...give me the formula?" Jesus says it simply doesn't matter, it is about doing it, living life in a spirit of truth...these are the people God is looking for."

I don't know how we read the gospels and come up with the idea that Jesus came to make us believe. That somehow he came to pound the " word " into us. Profound as it seems God came to reveal the " word " to us not by writing it out on a scroll, or in a book...but by making the word " flesh " and placing it in our midst. I know that for a lot of people absolute belief is important. We need doctrine, we need creeds...we must have a statement of faith. It's not that I don't believe them, I just don't believe in them in the same way. I am not willing to waste my energy, and exhaust myself fighting to get people to believe. I don't think Jesus was about belief...I think Jesus was about living. The more and more I read the gospels I find something " beyond belief ." I find something that must be lived, something that must be discovered. Jesus said, " follow me." One thinks if he wanted mere belief he could have just set up shop like the rest of the proprietors of religious goods and services. But it's only in following Jesus into the midst of the world, our neighborhoods, the inner city...and love our neighbor as much as we love God. It's in this divine redemptive reactive interaction I find truth...something I can believe in beyond mere words.

In the gospels, I find the greatest story ever told, I am consumed by Jesus and it's cast of characters. It is truly beyond belief, but yet I know for certain, without out a doubt if we dared live the story in our own lives the world would change. It is in this incredible profound mysterious truth that I have come to believe...this incredible power and redemptive imagination that creates new possibilities. I don't believe in the simplicity of doctrines...I believe in the greatest story ever told..."all" of it. If you want to know what I believe, it is the whole gospels, and only as much as I live it. The world will know Jesus not by what I say I believe, but by how I live. So please don't ask me simply what I believe anymore...because I've moved some where way beyond that.

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 ???

church...at the crossroad

 

There may have been a time when the church had an impact on the traffic in the crossroad of everyday life. Insiders, have huddled around their sacred story formulated by the early church fathers for centuries, we have defended and protected our theological thinking...even to the point of killing those who would dare tell a different story. We may not kill today, but, we have ways of sending our dissidents in to exile.

If this early church story is that good...why is it having no impact in the crossroad of everyday life?

Is there a better story that would engage the imagination of humanity to envision life, life for " all " humanity filled with hope beyond anything we are imagining now?

I think there is...but, the insiders are not going to like it.

First it will demand the church re-discover its prophetic voice again. That same sacred cry of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Amos, Micah and Hosea. This proclamation from Isaiah is as relevant today as when it was first spoken. If we put our ear to the ground, we can still hear it ringing down the corridor of history.

"The Lord is exalted", procalims 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 sck 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 )

This voice of justice and righteousness cries out the voice of God all through the Old Testament, to miss it...is to be both deaf and blind. This voice takes on flesh and bones in the life of Jesus.

 As Isaiah proclaimed, " That on high Zion is filled with justice and righteousness." Jesus would pray, " Your Kingdom come, on earth as in heaven." The profound redemptive imagination of Jesus Kingdom is about two things...justice and righteousness. The Kingdom is not a final destination to an eternal resort, for saved souls waiting patiently in a church for the glory train to pull up out front.

I honestly don't believe we can speak prophetically today, while still holding tightly to our old story. If believing, being saved, having your sins forgiven, and eternal life is the best we have to offer...then, the church deserves to die. Even now it is like a geriatric patient on life support, the latest technology keeping it going...and a spurt to life every time old memories are rekindled. Is anyone gathered around this death bed? Does anyone care?

I don't believe anymore Jesus died for my sin. I believe he was killed by the greatest act of injustice imagined...by worldly empires, political and religious. And, if were really honest, all humanity had a role in this violent injustice. Because, really, we like injustice if it serves us.

Was Jesus death required by divine necessity, predestined and pre-meditated murder? I'll let my fundamentalist friends fight over that one...I can safely say it was virtually a human inevitability. This is what systems of domination and oppression do to people who challenge them, publicly and vigorously.

Jesus was not simply an unfortunate victim, a peasant who stepped out of line, a sinner who committed a religious crime that needed a death sentence. It was much much more. He was a protagonist filled with passion. His passion, his message was about the Kingdom of God, the abundant life found in justice and righteousness. He spoke to the peasants, the hungry, the homeless, the oppressed, the poor and the sick, as a voice of religious protest against the economic, political and religious institutions of his day. He attracted followers, disciples taking his movement to Jerusalem during the feast of the Passover. He challenged the economic, political, and religious authorities with living out the reality of the Kingdom, and speaking about the Kingdom using the redemptive imagination of parables. All of this was the passion of God, lived and spoken through Jesus...God and the Kingdom of God, God and God's relentless passion for justice.

Jesus passion got him killed. His passion for the Kingdom of God, his passion for justice led to his death and suffering. To think of Jesus passion only in the terms of Mel Gibson's " The Passion of the Christ "...is to completely remove Jesus from the passion that filled his life.

Did Good Friday have to happen? As Divine necessity?

Good Friday is the cosmic collision between the passion of Jesus and the domination system of his time. Or, prophetically it is the collision between the Kingdom of God, and the empires of the World. Many, will say I'm going lightly on sin...that there is no sin in this alternative story. No! there is sin and it looms large. Jesus died because of sins of the world.

The sin,the injustice of the domination systems of politics, economics and religion killed him. Injustice so routine that it is apart of the world's status quo.  But, so radical, so scandalous and dangerous that we had to kill him to protect our interests.

Interesting that the church covets the cross, this religious icon cast in shiny gold and sliver. The irony is that it was political, and instrument of death used on dissidents that opposed, or who were a threat to the empire. It was an instrument of oppression, and injustice...a public act of oppression by the empire. Any understanding that negates the political meaning of his death on the cross betrays the very passion for which he was willing to sacrifice his life. His passion was the Kingdom of God...it led to his execution by the " powers that be." The domination of a worldly empire killed him. God did not kill Jesus.

God raised Jesus from the dead. The followers of Jesus continued to experience him after his death. They coninued to know him as a figure of the present " now ", and not simply a distant memory of the past. The resurrection, meant God had vindicated Jesus. That the empire would not have the last word. That the prophetic Word made flesh would not be muffled, silenced. God said " yes " to Jesus and the Kingdom of God and God said " no " to the powers of injustice that killed him.

The resurrection means the powers of this world do not have the last word. As the writer of Colossians puts it, " God disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them triumphing over them in the cross." The resurrection is about " Christus Victor "...God in Jesus triumphed over the powers that enslave and afflict " All " creation.

We can have abundant life now, eternal life now. We find it in taking up the cross of Jesus...the path of confrontation with all systems of oppression and domination, its injustice and violence. His passion was the Kingdom of God, what life would be like on earth if God reigned over all creation, and the rulers and systems of this world were not. It is that world the prophets spoke of, a world Jesus imagined and lived out of. It is a world of distributive justice in which everyone has enough, where war is no more, where all fear dies and hope lives. It's not a political dream...it is the reality of the Kingdom of God.

This dream can only be realized by our being grounded more deeply in God whose heart is justice. Our only hope is to believe, to enter in to the reality of the gospels...and follow into the life of Jesus. To live the gospels...build the Kingdom that Jesus imagined. Mysteriously we will find eternal life...on earth as in heaven. Now and forever.

perfecting our idea of perfection...

                      

‎Dwight J. Friesen the Inhabit Conference resident facilitator speaking on perfection.

All too often, we get this " be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect " to be nothing more than a pious act of self-righteousness. Do we even comprehend how Jesus was the perfect reflection of the Father. Perfection, looks nothing like self-righteousness...it's messy, radical, scandalous. It's God turning " our " little worlds upside down...to see his. It's the last being first. Forgiveness in the realm of infinity. It is redemptive imagination that blows the mind of humanity. To be consumed by Jesus, where he takes up residence, to where we say, " take over...live your life through me." It's then we start to scratch the surface of perfection. It is getting past my mere belief...to where I follow. It's there, Im led to finding perfection.

Christmas...for Christ's sake let's leave Jesus out of our ritual

Yeah, I Know...Bah! hum bug. I'm a party pooper. I haven't always been this way...it's been a forty year journey to this point. It's been processing, digesting the word of God. Sometimes it stays down. Sometimes you puke it up...because it's too unsettling in the pit of your stomach. But this year, what I've metabolized has likely turned into what for many will be a heretical revelation. For anyone that would like to hear, join me...for those of you that don't, press escape.

I've never been big on predestination. That life is somehow a scripted play, that we are all actors living it out on a big stage word for word. Do we really enter and exit the stage as directed? Can we the actors change the course of the play, or are there really strings attached to each one of us that limits our movement.

Maybe...there is no script. Maybe, it is one of the most mysteriously profound relationships that anyone of us can imagine, including God. Maybe, faith is this fragile relationship in which we are willing to chance trust in God...and God trust in us.

And, if there is something that holds this relationship together...it is " Justice and Righteousness ." This is the strand, more than anything that seems to knit God and Humanity together. Through the prophets, through to the prophetic revelation of Jesus becoming a fulfilled reality. The strand of Justice and Righteousness holds it all together.

How often, maybe we unconsciously recite the Lord's Prayer, the opening words...

 

Our Father, which art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done,

in earth as it is in heaven.

 

The words of Isaiah and Jeremiah should haunt us. " The Lord is exalted," proclaims Isaiah, " He dwells on high; He filled Zion with justice and righteousness." ( Isa 33:5 ) And, Jeremiah speaking in the name of God, " I act with steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight."

The reality, and life of the relationship is that Justice and Righteousness flows from God to us...and from us through out all creation. This is the reality of " Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In this profound mysterious truth " God and Humanity " dwell together in the most powerful vibrant harmony. This is the power and beauty of the Kingdom that defies all imagination.

Prophet after prophet spoke the same thing, God's will for " Justice and Righteousness." Our lofty worship, our pious words, our legal rituals and laws...our sacrifice...brought no delight to our heavenly Father. One thing he delighted in, and one thing he desired...Justice and Righteousness.

But in our " Self " fixation. We with our myopia have only been able to see Justice and Righteousness as being about " Us." The apple thing in the garden. Bad deserves punishment. If the bad are punished, justice has been served...things are made right.

Big question...could things be put right if humanity radically took God at his word and lived out " Justice and Righteousness." You can't help but listen to the prophets...and begin to think, maybe.

Micah, I think wondered and asked the same question...

How can I stand up before God 
   and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings 
   topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, 
   with buckets and barrels of olive oil?
Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, 
   my precious baby, to cancel my sin?

 But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, 
   what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, 
   be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously— 
   take God seriously. ( Mic 6:6-8 )

And from the prophet Jeremiah, " This is God's Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don't take advantage of the homeless, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!" ( Jer 22:3 )

I think the tragedy of Christmas, is it is so much about " us "...God entered into the midst of humanity to forgive us our sin. When incredibly it is about the divine redemptive imagination of the God of ALL creation, birthed into the midst of humanity...recreating, speaking and breathing a new Genesis into humanity. It is the pulse, and passion of His heart...His delight in justice and righteousness. It is the profound reality of His Kingdom."

That has become our fixation, " Sin. " Him being punished on our behalf, our debt to God paid.It is something we worship so much that we are blind to Justice and Righteousness...the reality that truly restores our relationship with God.

Could it be God grew weary of sending prophets, repeating the same message over and over again...to a humanity that was growing increasingly deaf to anything God had to say.

Could it be that God got to some point between the beginning and the end and said, " @#$% ^* ", And grabbed his mustard seed of faith...a profound incredibly mysterious part of himself...birthing himself into the womb of humanity. 

If humanity couldn't listen to the prophets words about Justice and Righteousness...maybe humanity could see and hear the reality of God's Justice and Righteousness in their midst. That seed that was birthed into the womb of humanity was the Son of God. Jesus was birthed outside religion, birthed on the margins of humanity, birthed in poverty, injustice and oppression. It was here Jesus became the living reality of God's Justice and Righteousness. It is here, he called humanity to follow into God's Righteousness and Justice. If we believed, if we followed, if we lived it...it would be God's Kingdom on earth as in heaven.

The question that haunts me this Christmas is...could it be that Jesus didn't sacrifice himself for our sin, but we killed him, because...Justice and Righteousness are just too costly? This Christmas, are you thinking more about worship...or Justice and Righteousness? I wonder what gift God would delight in?

 In the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of Jesus...I think he imagined that something would be birthed much more redemptive than a christmas ritual. Sadly, we think he came for our forgiveness...when he came to reveal the Father's will, the Father's passion, what the Father truly delights in. Justice and Righteousness for " ALL " humanity.

Advent...waiting, impregnating humanity with God

    ( image courtesy of Ben Bell )

 

 

It, defies logic, but, I believe.

I believe the mystery of Advent is new creation.

I believe in the Spirit of God, as in the beginning,

hovered over a poor marginalized girl on the fringe of society.

I believe in her vulnerability, openness and willingness,

the Spirit impregnated her with the presence of God.

I believe the same Word as in the beginning became flesh.

I believe for a time humanity nurtured God.

I believe as in the beginning the Word spoke creation into existence,

and from the womb of humanity, the Word made flesh speaks a new creation.

I believe now through God the Father, and Son the Word...the Spirit hovers,

speaking, ready to bring the new creation into being.

God with us, God within us,

building a new creation.

The Kingdom.

I believe.

( by Ron Cole ; 30th November 2009 )