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." 

Being Jesus in Nashville...Jim Palmer

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

You can read the full interview ( here ).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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.

lifting the roof on the proprietors of godly goods and services...

It was about a few days later, and Jesus returned to Capernaum. Word spread like wild fire that he was back home. At first it was a slow trickle, a few people started hanging around outside the house. Then it was as if someone slashed an artery, people were spilling out from everywhere. There was so many people around the house, it was like a plugged sink nothing was getting in or out. Inside the house, Jesus the Kingdom story teller was rebooting the imagination of humanity telling radical, scandalous redemptive parables of an alternative world that turned this one upside down. But there they were four men and a paraplegic weaving through the crowd like a drunken seamstress with a needle. They got as close as they could and couldn't poke their way any further. Sometimes when desperation strikes you have to break something open and create your own window of opportunity.

Walking around the perimeter of the crowd there wasn't even a crack to squeeze through, and that is when up became the only alternative. So scaling the side of the house with their limp, and lifeless friend into the reached the summit. Here, they knocked...punching their way through the roof of the house. They lowered there friend into the midst of Jesus and the front row spectators. Seeing the friends incredible act of faith Jesus said, " Son, your sins are forgiven."

The religious professionals, the proprietors of godly goods and services in their usual front row seats taking notes, squawked among each others like crows, " He can't talk that way! That's blasphemy! God and only God can forgive sins...we manage that business."

Jesus knew right away what they were thinking , and said, "Why are you so skeptical?, you think it can't be done without a middle man. Which is simpler: to say to the paraplegic, 'I forgive your sins,' or say, 'Get up, take your stretcher, and start walking'? Well, just so it's clear that I'm the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both . . ." he looked with compassion, a smile filled with grace at the paraplegic, "Get up. Pick up your stretcher and go home." 

 And the man did it—got up, grabbed his stretcher, and walked out, with everyone there watching him. They rubbed their eyes, incredulous—and then it was electrical, the buzz of people talking about God, saying, "We've never seen anything like this!"

At this point, religious professionals, the proprietors of godly goods and services were fuming mad, they glared at Jesus...knowing this was going to have a huge impact on the religious business. ( my paraphrase Mark 2:1-12 )

This is one of my favourite stories in the gospels. It confronts our theology from all sides. It's like when you were a kid, and your friends would grab you and spin you around and around and then let you go. You would take a step or two, dizzy and wobbly you would fall on your face...your world spinning around you. Jesus often has this effect on our theological mindset. We don't know much about these four guys and their paraplegic friend, mysteriously weaving their way into the story, literally falling into center of it through the roof.

Amazingly the forgiveness formula is challenged, the A + B = C, repent + belief = forgiveness. These guys haul their neighbor in and the first thing Jesus says, " Son, your sins are forgiven." The guy didn't even ask to be forgiven, didn't make a confession of faith. If we are only forgiven by belief that Jesus " died " for our sins, what's going here? Was he just being forgiven for the instrusion? Here again, grace, like divine lighting unexpectedly strikes...without the religious professionals, the proprietors of godly goods and services giving directions making sure the guy has obeyed all the road signs. We really don't give Jesus very much credit that he infact can do things without our help.

The most profound reality in this story is this nuclear explosion that releases a cosmic redemptive energy that changes everything. Jesus talks about it constantly in the gospels. When we hold to and live out Jesus great command constantly in our comings and goings, in our daily momentary living...loving God to the max, and loving our neighbor to the max. These four guys showed that, their risky love for their lame neighbor, and unwavering love for God brought them to their roof top experience. The redemptive imagination of Jesus comes to life...Jesus comes to life. It's here Jesus doesn't need the religious professionals, the proprietors of godly goods and services, we just need to live in the moment. So much of faith is about things we don't control, that this thing called " grace " like divine lightning can strike anywhere at anytime...forgiving, and healing.

Risk, just living out loving God with absolutely everything you have, and loving your neighbor with everything you have. You might be surprised. 

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.

a journey into Advent :: The Place

A special evening of creativity to journey across the threshold in to the profound mystery of Advent...

Hi - Thought you might like to know about a special event we're having for Advent in Cafe Suburbia at Lambrick Park Church.  

I've attached a couple of posters here that have the details on where, when and what.  As to "who":  we've got Cindy Davis,  Ryan MacLeod (music), Matthew Davidson (music and spoken word), Carla Funk (poetry),  Kristy Westendorp (spoken word), Janet Doherty,  Jason Nobel & James Nesbitt (art), Rob Campbell (photography)...

The evening starts at 7 PM and will include a 1 hour Advent program /service.

If you would like to know more, feel free to contact me.   And please - spread the word / share the poster to others you think might be interested to come.

peace, hope, joy and love,

Christine Neufeld 

transformation...

I do dimly percieve that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying, there is underlying all that change a Living Power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves and re-creates. That informing Power or Spirit of God. and since nothing else I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He is alone.

And is this Power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent, for I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the supreme good.

But he is no God who merely satisfies the intellect, if he ever can. God to be God must rule the heart and transform it. This can only be done through a definite realization. more real than the five senses can ever produce. It is not proved by extraneous evidence but in the transformed living and character of those who have felt the presence of God within.

(The Essential Ghandi...pg 18)

I was once found...now I am lost

 

Until a few years ago I hadn't even heard of the term " Theopoetics " until I started reading Callid Keefe Perry, and being turned onto authors such as Stanley Hopper, David Leroy Miller, and Amos Niven. Todays explorers of theopoetics like Peter Rollins, Catherine Keller, John Caputo and Philip Clayton continue to stretch me, providing kindling, sparking and igniting my imagination to discover a langauge of theological mystery.

The word Theopoetics is derived from the Classic Greek noun poema and the verb poiein; "a created thing" and "to make," respectively. And " Theo " is Greek for God. 

The English author Samuel Johnson wrote, "The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new."  

Percy Shelley added, "Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world."

Theopoetics is to work in the intersection of these ideas: theopoetics is the theory and practice of making God known, particularly through language.  

I think it is easy to mix theopoetics up with " Negative Theology or Apophatic Theology." In negative theology, and I think we would a agree that God is ineffable, unknowable. In Jesus, we have seen, and heard God, but even in that we swim on the surface of the infinite mystery of God.

We wrestle with the existence or non-existence of God, but it takes us to the outer limits of our imagination where we are literally on the very edge of knowing, where we have to let go and reach for something beyond, something we can not confine and capture in human words. We can not say God exists in the usual sense that something exists.

Even with our Trinitarian theology, we can't confine God as one, or three...or really any type of being. It's like trying to stop an atom in motion to look at an one particle...as soon as that happens, the atom no longer exists. It is best to leave God as being simply divine.

Even the challenge of knowing the " Wisdom " of God...can we really claim to know what wisdom is on a divine scale. Maybe diving into the depths of Jobs story will remind we really are ignorant in terms of knowing God.

We can't say God is a creation, or is creation...but is much more. We wrestle, and reach to try and define how God exists and operates in the context of creation and humanity.

Can we really define God in terms of location and space. God lives in Heaven, and not hell. God is only seen in light, not dark. God only occupies the sacred space, and not the secular. 

For me, all this is where I've come to understand " Theopoetics." 'Once I was found...now I am lost' ;' Once I was blind...now I am blinder' ", could certainly sum up my faith journey. I think for many who are comfortable in " church " culture " Theopoetics " is dangerous. It is like lifting anchor, untying the rope from the dock and drifting into the profound mystery of the divine. But, I really believe if we want to engage the world in the new Millenium, we will have to loosen our grip on our " theology ." There is a spiritual hunger in the world...but we will not satisfy its craving with a language, and theological constructs from days gone by. We can tie more ropes to our ship, throw out heavier anchors...or we can drift, engage in a new kind of God Talk.

Jesus didn't die for sin...

 

" The End...or a New Beginning "

I am a " heretic "...for forty some years of reading the gospels ...Jesus consumes me. It's all I really think about. I continue to pick it apart like a mad man, a man possessed looking for a treasure. I know it is like the ocean, depths, fathoms of endless mystery. I dive off the edge of everything I know, holding my breath kicking pulling myself into it as far as I can go. I come up gasping for air drained by the experience...but excited to see something I hadn't seen before. 

Jesus did not die for sin and forgiveness. There you go, I said it...my bad. God, the infinitely divine creator knows the condition of the human heart. You would think this cosmic creator, author and director of the human play could have fixed that little glitch before he pushed the start button. He didn't, and we can assume " all knowing " he knew what the outcome was going to be. Or, was it more magic rather than being wonderfully made and now he's thrown his arms in the air consigned to say " shit happens." A thought that keeps coming into my my mind like someone waving their hand in my face is, Jesus had the same heart. We're told he was fully God, and fully human. Think about that...it was not Jesus with maybe a God brain, and a God heart...and maybe God feet because he walked on water. It wasn't Jesus with some human bits, and a whole lot of God bits. Ok, go look in the mirror. There, that's what Jesus looked like...the ethnicity, gender might be different, but Jesus was no less human than you.

So there you have it, shit happens...God knows my heart. I'm going to screw up, I'm going to sin sometime today, tomorrow, the next day. So " no " I'm not saved from sin. And for all you religious folk, this might be my biggest sin..." I don't think Jesus cares." 

Jesus was consumed with earth and all humanity...his did not come to turn us into some " pious and holier than thou gods ", and once we'd reached a certain level of sprituality we be ready to enter heaven's gates...which I believe is somewhere just left of " cloud nine."

In our world of sound bites, headlines, facebook status and tweets...today Jesus would likely post exactly what he did in the opening of Mark's Gospel ; "Time's up! God's kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message."

This post, proclamation did not come from the temple, the synogogue, the pulpit of a church, from the recliners of the philospohers den...it came into the midst of humanity. Jesus words engulfed all humanity, all religion and all philosphy. If Jesus the Word in Genesis spoke the embryonic beginnings of creation into existence, this was the Word with flesh and bones speaking a new creation into existence. It was all creation being re-iamgined in the profound mystery of " The Kingdom."

To change one's life is not to focus on sin. Remember, God knows the condition of the human heart, and shit does happen. But, when we constantly focus on sin, it is like being trapped in a spinning washer. It is a life constantly revolving around fear. It's feeling like dirt, guilty...to forgiveness, being momentarily clean...until the cycle repeats itself again, again and again. As much as you think it won't, it will, because that's life.

But something even more incideous is, you begin to think you got your shit together. Forget the log in your own eye, you begin to see with crystal clear clarity, the speck of saw dust in your brother's eye. Or in the context of religion, you really begin to think you've got this " God Thing " figured out. You own the story, the story is only about you and your people...truth has been formulated, you own it...and you have all the answers. And the greatest tragedy is, you really begin to believe God likes you more than everyone else...suddenly it is a world of us and them. It is the world of the sacred / secular divide, the world of boundaries, barriers...of black and white.

Jesus did not die for sin and forgiveness. What he died for( THE KINGDOM OF GOD ) was mind boggling, it was something so redemptively imaginative that rather than embracing the thought of re-creating humanity...we'll settle for the perpetual cycle of sin and forgiveness.

Jesus died because we caught him red handed, we caught him proclaiming the Kingdom with these crazy wild scandalous parables that began re-capture the mind, heart and soul of all humanity. We saw and caught him in the act of living out the Kingdom...eating with drunkards, prostitutes, loan sharks. We saw him heal the sick, we saw the lame walk...we saw an incredible multitude fed with five loaves of bread and two fish.

When you start to give humanity an alternative story to live by, the story of the Kingdom, of profound redemptive imagination, rather than the story of the prevailing world power that as enslaved humanity, that accepts the status quo...as " Life " as a whole lot less...the story of the Kingdom must be erased.

They say never mix religion and politics. The Kingdom confronts both. Jesus and his Kingdom pissed off the religious and political establishment of the day. That's who killed him...and that is why he died. The real sin for christians is...we're afraid to say that. The reality we've bought more into the story line, the philosophy, the ideologies of world power...than we have, the profound redemptive imagination of the Kingdom.

We might believe in Jesus dying for sin...but dying for the Kingdom...that's just crazy. Like I said earlier, I'm a heretic. You better grab a stake, rope, firewood and matches, because I'm not going to stop talking like this.

My imagination has always been captured by the scene in the upper room. This rag bag tag of raggamuffins has been hanging out with Jesus for three years wandering the countryside and sea shore. They've heard the insanely beautiful redemptive stories of the Kingdom in Jesus parables...of a world re-created. They have seen Jesus act out the Kingdom in his miracles. And yet, this night in the upper room just before Jesus death...I really don't think they get it.

Jesus and his friends gather around the Passover meal. This story would have been etched in their minds, as if carved in stone. I find it fascinating again, even here...we've turned it into a story about sin, rather than the redemptive beauty of the Kingdom.

The Passover was not about sin, It was not a lamb, slain for sin. It was a lamb slain for a journey in to the profound mystery of a promised land.

Jesus spoke of a new covenant for " all " humanity. He took bread, something that was very much a substance of everyday life. He took it, showing all life was in his hands...and broke it, revealing the brokenness of " all " humanity. His body broken, for the brokenness of " all " humanity. ( Jesus did not die just for Christians ) And he took wine, his blood poured into the midst of the brokeness, to bring healing and wholeness for " all " creation, and " all " humanity.

That night the Passover became a Kingdom story. Jesus would be the lamb slain for the journey. The cross would become the lintel, the door post on which is blood would be spread. This would be the threshold into which humanity would cross on a new journey. This would be the beginning of the new creation, the Kingdom that filled Jesus' divine redemptive imagination.

The world powers of the day thought they had erased the Kingdom. The worldly empire said a resounding death blowing, No! Three days later God said, yes to the Kingdom. That day the Spirit blew, and continues to blow across all creation, in the midst of all humanity...as in Genesis, the Spirit broods over all creation, ready to bring the Kingdom into being.

When we consume Jesus, the lamb of the Passover meal...we are consumed with a journey of bringing the fullness of the Kingdom to the world now.

Jesus did not die for sin and forgiveness. What he died for was mind boggling, it was something so redemptively imaginative that rather than embracing the thought of re-creating humanity...we'll settle for the perpetual cycle of sin and forgiveness.

faith-filled conversation...flying into the 21st century

(Artistry/Image above by Rob Woodrum with Bill Dahl: All Rights Reserved)

To say these are turbulent times would seem an under estimate...politics is becoming much more polarized than ever as left and right get deeper entrenched in their fundamentalist ideologies. The noise of religious fundamentalism has become a constant static drowning out those who would seek a place of open conversation. To put it mildly...creation and humanity are coming apart at the seams.

My dear friend Bill Dahl, prolific reader, commentator on culture, faith and economics is an imaginator. Bill constantly pushes the envelope of thought, and does it with a crystal clear voice of compassion and encouragement. In Bill's most recent article " Air God Flight # 21: or where is the plane of faith taking us in the 21st century ", he cut's through what's clouding our thinking, cuts through the noise of the sqeaky wheels revealing away of faithful conversation into the future.

I encourage you to read Bill Dahl's most recent article...read it again. Think about it, and pray about it. Re-post it, send the link to friends, tweet it, Facebook it. Bill Dahl has turned off all the warning lights in the cabin, he's asked us to unbuckle, get out of our seats, move around and get to know our fellow passengers.

If you read anything today...

read Bill Dahl.