Alice in wonderland...post mission reflection

God is always fair. He will remember how you helped his people in the past and how you are still helping them. You belong to God, and he won't forget the love you have shown his people... Hebrews 6:10

As I reflect on our trip up to the north island, reality sets in, it has been atleast thirty years since I have navigated the roads beyond the fringe of Campbell River. My brother after graduating high school had worked in the forests around Woss and Nimpkish. Sometimes, I think we take the beauty of this island for granted. The crystal clear lakes, cascading rivers, jade green forests, snow capped rocky mountain peaks and the vast serrated coast line...it all took my breath away.

All creation is a song of praise to God.(Hildegard of Bingen, Mystic)

Psalm of the Cosmos

Loving God, loving God, all creation calls you blessed, and so do we, and so do we. Loving God, your creation calls you blessed. Your spirit imprints the whole universe with life and mystery. Yes, all creation proclaims your love. We now join this chorus of praise.

Loving God, all of nature calls you blessed, and so do we. For you have woven an intimate tapestry and call it life and called it good. In love you have formed a universe so diverse yet so related, and into its web you call us forth to walk the land and swim the sea with all our natural brothers and sisters. To the stars we seem no more than blades of grass. Yet to you, each of us, as each blade of grass and each star, is an irreplaceable treasure, an essential companion on this journey of love.

Loving God, as you lure the whole world into salvation, guide us with your Spirit that we might not be only pilgrims on the earth, but pilgrims with the earth, journeying home to you. Open our hearts to understand the intimate relationship that you have with all creation. Only with this faith can we hope for tomorrow's children. Amen. Alleluia!

Loving God, loving God, all creation calls you blessed, and so do we, and so do we.

Source unknown

We trailed everyone on the way up, but because of the luck of the draw we got our menus first at Bo-Banees in Port McNeil.( The food by the way looked so good, I almost ended my fast ) There were more people in the cafe' than menus, so yes scriptural truth...the last shall be first. From our stop at Port McNeil, it was a short drive to the Port Alice turn off, and then a further 10k of twisting roads descending into Alice. When we arrived at the little church of Ocean View Christian Assembly , Jason was busily stoking up the wood stove down stairs. Bent over, filling the mouth of the wood stove, the first impression did not give as an idea of Jason's age. But as Jason turned to face and greet us, I was caught off guard by his youth. He is 28 years old, but looks quite a bit younger. As we talked, I began to understand Jason's circumstance up here, why he felt like he was treading water, struggling to stay a float...in over his head.

Here is a very young man, fresh out of Bible College , in a village just climbing out of a depression after the sole employer in the town, the mill had been closed for close to 2 years. Many people in the town that could not hold out the 2 years had packed up and walked away from property. Even the church could not escape the same depression that hit the town. Here was Jason, his very first church, I kept wondering...what bible college class would he have learnt about this reality. Even as he talked about having not been paid a salary, a monthly paycheck for quite awhile...he talked about his greatest possession...this mustard seed that he clutched with everything he had. I kept on thinking about God's people in the wilderness on the way to promised land, the manna falling from heaven. Each day they took only what was needed in order to survive. This was how Jason was living his life...God seemingly, always providing at exactly the right moment. Whether Jason knew it or not, it wouldn't be the knowledge that he learnt in bible college...it would be the profound wisdom of his living faith that would be his leadership.

During the conversation, the others started to arrive...my minds eye was filled with the image of Paul, the great encourager and missionary of the early church...the air was filled with grettings, hope and encouragement...I felt we were surrounded by that great cloud of witnesses, all the saints who had gone before us were also here.

Dan, Richard, Ryan and myself began to get organised with our music and instruments for the evening. He had an awesome time of prayer, and prophetic song during our rehearsal time. Down stairs in this little church,( which by the way sits right on the edge of the ocean, footsteps from the beach ), the beautiful fragrance of community was beginning to permeate the building. The smell of food from the kitchen, was like incense rising, that was magnifying my hunger and appetite due to the fast I had been on. I was sensing, that a great spiritual hunger was also present, many in the church had been on a fast, and had been in prayer for the past 40 days. Isaac ( or Ike ), who came with us prayed over our meal. Ike has a passion for our Jewish roots, and always has a beautiful way of capturing it and expressing it into the context of what were doing...the beauty and reality of God's people.

The food, well maybe it was a glimpse of what the wedding feast in heaven might be like...extravagant. Even coming up, I knew in a little coastal town there would be salmon, and there they were, two huge filets...my anticipation and expectation were not for nothing. It was beautiful, to watch community happening, conversations and friendships like little seeds being planted and tenderly nurtured. There were 15 of us that went up; grandparents, a family ( John Liira and his wife...this had been his very first church some 18 years ago ), boomers, young adults, teens. It was great how God had formed our little group, there was no recruiting...it was as if He picked and chose who needed to be there. And here we were, spread through out this little community at different tables, sharing stories and lives...this was church...we were one...it was seamless, like the garment that Jesus wore. As they say in the Master Card commercial...priceless.

After we cleaned up, it was time for worship, prayer, ministry...we would be sensitive to the Spirits leading, in the presence of Jesus, and just follow...He would be the High Priest. In my prayer the weeks before coming, I sensed this community had been through alot. It was not a place where Pastors settled for any length of time, it was an entry level job...a stepping stone in which to jump from into something better. I had a burden in my spirit for thier pain, thier suffering, thier hurt...wounds that were never treated, never allowed to heal...of messes that were just swept under the carpet for the next generation to clean up. There was nothing I could do, except try and express the truth that Jesus was with us, among us, and in us...that He was here to do what only he could do. Tonight too, was very different for this community. They had not had a worship team, musicians for years, they used a cd player most Sundays. Only less than 2 months ago had Thorston, the young mill manager arrived who played guitar,but, was still busy getting acquainted with the mill. But as we worshiped and prayed, we were led to this place when these words came...

I want you to close your eyes, make sure you are holding someone's hand. Jesus had such a hunger for community, and of unity. As you feel in your hand, the hand of another...sense what it means,  to love another, to love God.

For the past weeks as I’ve prayed, meditated and reflected about this journey to Port Alice, the Spirit of God has flooded my mind with the image of foot washing, because here, the greatest truth of the Kingdom, of community…and of healing is found. In the Upper Room with sand slowly running through the hourglass, Jesus looks around at these friends, this band of ragamuffins he has lived with for three years. Now with only hours to go…school is coming to an end. Class is being dismissed. No more tests. In the background, beyond the Upper Room, the cross begins to cast its shadow.

Jesus has to show them the greatest truth of our faith, the greatest truth of the Kingdom…the greatest truth of communal living. So He washes feet. Jesus taking up the servants towel, a picturing of what His whole career has been: a laying aside of divine prerogatives to become a servant to us…to wash us from head to foot, from outside to inside, to clean places we didn’t even know were there, much less that they were dirty. Deity has bonded itself to humanity; majesty had humbled itself to be born in our likeness; infinite power had tethered itself to the way of obedience; pomp had yielded itself to the circumstance of our desperate need.

In the humility of his incarnation and in the abject humiliation of the crucifixion for which He was preparing His disciples in this act of foot washing, Jesus so identified himself with men and women and the depths of their agony, shame and guilt, that no one can now sink so low that God has not gone lower. It is profound that this foot washing precedes the last supper, communion. Spiritual truth would have us believe, that real community cannot happen until this is the ultimate truth…it must be what defines community. In this incredible act of humility, of submission, of obedience, of being vulnerable…every need is fulfilled.

John, who came to this community some 18 years ago, also his first church, took the towel and basin and washed the feet of Jason. It was an extremely powerfull scene, if a picture is worth a thousand words an eternal image of divine truth blows our mind, expanding it into the realm of the Kingdom. As the Spirit of God moved amongst us, John washed the feet of a precious friend who had been there when he first arrived many years ago. I wonder why this act that was so much a part of the last supper seems to be hidden away as if embarrassed by it? It is such a profound scene of what our faith, the Kingdom, and community are all about.

The Spirit moved us into a time of intimacy of communion. Here Isaac ( Ike ) led us in the last supper, communion, weaving in the Jewish roots of the pass over meal. Ike grabbed 3 pieces of unleaven bread, wrapping each in a piece of clean white linen representing Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He then took out the center piece of bread breaking it in half, and saving one half...setting it aside. This was special, it was saved for after the meal...it was the dessert bread. This was the piece of bread Jesus used, and broke with the disciples...making the new covenant.

Ike also tied in how house in Hebrew is Beth, and Lehem is bread. Jesus being the bread of life. The manna that fell from the heavens to the Israelites in the wilderness, that would sustain them daily for their journey to the promised land. As our spiritual eyes opened to the reality of communion and the new covenant, we really sensed the nearness of the Kingdom. In all my years, I have never experienced an evening of such intimacy, communion and community, It still overwhelms me just thinking about it.

After a restfull night sleep a Thorston and Kary's house, Dan and I were up around 8:00 to spend some time talking, sharing stories with them and thier 3 young boys. Dan and I then headed back to the little church. The grey skies that had surrounded us during our journey up, now had give way to glorious sun shine. In the distance we could see a dusting of snow on the hill tops, as if someone had sprinkled them with icing sugar.

Worship in the morning reminded me of hanging out in someone's living room, which in a sense we really were. There was music, and through it all people just spontaneously shared what was on there heart. John also shared his journey of starting off in Port Alice, of ending up in Parksville, coming to the end of his rope of self-sufficiency, of self expectations, of his plans and vison. He told of deep depression, of walking away from ministry for 3 years...of walking back into it...the reality that the only thing he had to offer was a broken man who loved God and his fellow man. The discovery of Jesus + nothing = everything, but to find that he had to come to the end of his rope, we all need to come to the end of our rope.

After worship, it was another agape' meal, fellowship and conversation...unloading the truck load of food we brought up. As we packed up, and said our goodbye's...a young lady whom I had met during dinner the night before came over to talk with me. I had felt compelled to pray for Terene the previous night, and had asked her if she would come up for prayer. As we talked, she told me, she had been very new in her faith journey, lots of questions, still struggling, thinking of leaving town, not knowing where to go...but she spoke about how she had heard lots about church, christianity, had heard sermons, had bible and verse thrown at her. But last evening, she said, with the foot washing, the communion, the fellowship...I saw Jesus, the Kingdom and the faith He spoke about. What she saw was beyond words, she was overwhelmed and in tears...she told me she never knew it could be so beautiful...that she felt we had come all this distance just for her. Well, maybe, Jesus had.

This is just a snippet of the weekend, it was awesome...the Kingdom was very, very near.

Comments

[Richaard]

Thanks for recounting this so vividly Ron! May we not forget what the Lord did that weekend... and kudos to the title of the blog - so fitting!!!!

Bless ya Bro,
Rich

[chris]

Wow, what a great story. Thank you for reminding us how to live the Kingdom here and now. May God continue to encourage His people to love eachother with His love.