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

subverting Christ(mass) consumerism...

This image is from a news story from a couple of years ago of a local rural artist that wanted to say something graphically about the consumerism and over consumption of Christmas. So, he placed this piece of subversive art in his front yard. Over the head of the cross is written something to the effect, " King of the Empire; Sumptum Fac Donec Consumptus Sis." Which means " shop till you drop."

Some neighbors were outraged, local municipal politicians came to visit...and a local Anglican minister came to visit. But, the art stayed up.

My question to you is, is this subversive art ? Does it speak into the prevailing culture of rampant consumerism, and at the same time provide a revelation of an alternative. Or is it just tasteless and gruesome?

I couldn't find Canadian shopping stats for over the November/ December period, but this from USA Today, for expected American spending over those 2 months...

 

"U.S. consumers are expected to spend $437.6 billion in the November and December period, a 1% drop from $442 billion last year." This is one country, I suspect if we were to add all the rich nations spending to the tab...it would be mind boggling.

 

As for Santa, I guess it's not really fair to nail him to the cross, he is only the messenger...so to speak. But, I don't think we can avoid the cross in the face of Christmas, it truly is a revelation of an alternative way...of profound sacrifice. It seems at Christmas we don't sacrifice much.

This image is from a news story from a couple of years ago of a local rural artist that wanted to say something graphically about the consumerism and over consumption of Christmas. So, he placed this piece of subversive art in his front yard. Over the head of the cross is written something to the effect, " King of the Empire; Sumptum Fac Donec Consumptus Sis." Which means " shop till you drop."

Some neighbors were outraged, local municipal politicians came to visit...and a local Anglican minister came to visit. But, the art stayed up.

My question to you is, is this subversive art ? Does it speak into the prevailing culture of rampant consumerism, and at the same time provide a revelation of an alternative. Or is it just tasteless and gruesome?

I couldn't find Canadian shopping stats for over the November/ December period, but this from USA Today, for expected American spending over those 2 months...

 

"U.S. consumers are expected to spend $437.6 billion in the November and December period, a 1% drop from $442 billion last year." This is one country, I suspect if we were to add all the rich nations spending to the tab...it would be mind boggling.

 

As for Santa, I guess it's not really fair to nail him to the cross, he is only the messenger...so to speak. But, I don't think we can avoid the cross in the face of Christmas, it truly is a revelation of an alternative way...of profound sacrifice. It seems at Christmas we don't sacrifice much.

Lost...the voice, the cry, the shuffling feet of Climate Refugees

They are not victims of political upheaval or violence, who have access to financial grants, food, tools, shelter, schools and clinics through governments and international organizations. They are environmental refugees. Rising sea levels and catastrophic flooding, expanding deserts and drought...races of people are losing land in which they've lived in all their life. They are a people on the move in search of any piece of life sustaining land.

Lost in the economics of who's going to pay what, and lost in the science of whose at fault, and lost in the technology of can it save us, and lost in the voices babbling of politicians...is the voice, the cry, and the shuffling feet of refugees on the move.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
–William Butler Yeats, from “The Second Coming”

In Copenhagen we've assembled the rich, the powerful, and the brightest. It's my prayer we won't see the best, and worst...and have done nothing.

 

While the disastrous consequences of climate change may seem a ways off for some in the developed world, the International Organization for Migration reported today that it has already driven an estimated 24 million people from their homes--a number, they warned, that could rise to as high a billion people by 2050.

In most cases, these "Climate Refugees" are fleeing rural regions stricken by desertification, water pollution, and famine--problems caused directly or made worse by global warming--and heading into already crowded cities. As these factors become more common with the rise of temperatures in the coming years, the effect of these mass migrations on hard-hit regions will be devastating and eventually become worldwide.

The research sites that the number of people affected by natural disasters has more than doubled in the last 20 years as being a major cause of the migrations. Those impacted most are the poor, who have no means of migrating internationally, which tends to drive internal movement, namely into urban centers--many of which are unequipped to handle the influx.

As time goes on and the situation becomes more dire, these climate refugees may be ending up at the doorstep of the world's wealthier nations, so says the report:

While acknowledging that the impact of climate change on migration is predominantly internal movement, international migration is nevertheless likely to be increasingly important in the future and will necessitate policy and program responses that are currently lacking.

A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.

The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.

---

About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says.

I'm baffled that this is not seen as a crisis by the worlds faith communities. All faiths have a profound connection, woven into the very fabric of creation. On the deepest level we are all related, what ever your color, race, or langauge. Like DNA there is a divine strand of something beyond us that connects us. It is a global village in which we are all...neighbors. All God's people...or if you're an atheist we all come from one cosmic bang.

 

I'm rather shocked reading various faith based blogs, and websites for the past week that there has been a great void, a vacuum...lots of church stuff, lots of deep theological rambling and missional musings. But it seems there is no link between the church and creation, no link between theology and creation...and no link between mission and creation.

 

The plight of environmental refugees my friends is a crisis of faith of biblical magnitude.

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”

 

You can follow the United Nations Climate Change Conference news here on their site.

The research sites that the number of people affected by natural disasters has more than doubled in the last 20 years as being a major cause of the migrations. Those impacted most are the poor, who have no means of migrating internationally, which tends to drive internal movement, namely into urban centers--many of which are unequipped to handle the influx.

As time goes on and the situation becomes more dire, these climate refugees may be ending up at the doorstep of the world's wealthier nations, so says the report:

While acknowledging that the impact of climate change on migration is predominantly internal movement, international migration is nevertheless likely to be increasingly important in the future and will necessitate policy and program responses that are currently lacking.

A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.

The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.

---

About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says.

I'm baffled that this is not seen as a crisis by the worlds faith communities. All faiths have a profound connection, woven into the very fabric of creation. On the deepest level we are all related, what ever your color, race, or langauge. Like DNA there is a divine strand of something beyond us that connects us. It is a global village in which we are all...neighbors. All God's people...or if you're an atheist we all come from one cosmic bang.

 

I'm rather shocked reading various faith based blogs, and websites for the past week that there has been a great void, a vacuum...lots of church stuff, lots of deep theological rambling and missional musings. But it seems there is no link between the church and creation, no link between theology and creation...and no link between mission and creation.

 

The plight of environmental refugees my friends is a crisis of faith of biblical magnitude.

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”

 

You can follow the United Nations Climate Change Conference news here on their site.

(Hope)nhagen...a Genesis Accord, or exit theology

The original aim was to find a successor deal to Kyoto, which expires at the end of 2012. The international community had set a December deadline to make it happen.

However, a rift between developed and developing nations over emissions — who should cut, how much, and who should pay for it — has dampened expectations for what will come out of Copenhagen.

The words of yet to be Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2002 when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party, "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations." His rationale may have shifted slightly since then, but, Canada is still more of an obstacle to see constructive action in the Global Warming/ Climate Change Crisis. And with the down turn in the economy globally, the huge loss of jobs in the global work force, the continual shifting sands in the Stock Markets and national debts that are entering the realm of infinite...the reality to do something about Global Warming effects the climate of many many factors. Global warming is an insidious self inflicted disease that not only destroys life, but also spreads injustice especially in the poor marginalized spaces on the planet.

It is surely not a socialist scheme, I would like to coin the term a " Genesis Accord ". Above any thing it is about " All " creation, every speck...every race and language of people; beyond borders and boundaries; all land, all waters, all the landscape, the air in which we all breathe communally with each other. Without a an accord in which all inhabitants of creation take seriously as individuals and as countries...we can without a doubt say creation is coming to an end. It's Over!

Sadly a lot of the worlds faiths are not engaging their communities in the importance of this crisis. There are pockets of conversation and action, but not what you would expect. Especially when all faiths theologically are woven into the very fabric of creation.

Since the last reformation  " Christianity's theology of redemption and salvation have been pretty myoptic in terms of vision...saving the individual soul. One of the biggest challenges for the emerging/ missional church will be to develope a theology that is cosmic where redemption is about " ALL " of creation, and how that will play out interms of the church's missiology.

We need to re-read the creation story of Genesis...waking up to the reality that we're not outside of it, innocent by-standers...we're actaully in the midst of it.

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God's nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
      every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
   And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
      given them to you for food.
   To all animals and all birds,
      everything that moves and breathes,
   I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
      And there it was.

31 God looked over everything he had made;
      it was so good, so very good!
   It was evening, it was morning—

The above from Eugene Peterson's Message in Genesis chapter one. Another piece of scripture that I have often sited for a more cosmic approach to redemption is Colossians 1:15-18

15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18-20He 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 .

Emphasis mine of course, but in the context of above, people of faith can not ignore any part of creation. Lay hold of this thought...if Christ spoke all creation into existence, is in and holds it all together...on that cross it wasn't just your redemption and salvation that hung in balance...it was " all " of creation. So...the resurrection, the new creation...has to be about redeeming " all " of creation. This is the Missio Dei for people of faith.

I'm not a theologian...more of a dreamer, that prays that the same Spirit that filled Jesus would fill me with the imagination of Christ. The thought that Jesus spoke " absolutely everything " into existence, seen and unseen...and that when the Father saw it, he said it was good...very good. And, that even at this moment...He is in, and of all things...and holds it all together.

If I make " the theology of redemption " about " All " of creation, instead of just you and me...and people...am I diluting, watering down what the cross is about. And if the " new creation " in to which Jesus calls as as partners, to co-create to build the new creation " the Kingdom "...is about everything. Everything...from people, to the environment, to social justice, global equality, poverty, politics, wealth, ...what does that mean for the Missio Dei of the church, for your faith community and for you as an individual. Could it be our view of redemption is so incredibly shallow...compared to the imagination of Christ. The challenge for the missional/emerging church will be to write and live a theology...that captures the imagination of the Kingdom Jesus wants to live.

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

We can do nothing, justified by our faith alone and wait for the mass exit at the bus stop to Eternity...or we can act as partners, as brothers and sisters, as all God's children and redeem, restore creation...building a new creation.

Update from Mike Todd over @ Waving or Drowning...

Mike has a video posted of activist, writer and author Naomi Klein in a hard hitting, sobering and brutally honest video around the conversations, and dealings of striking an accord with substance. She mentions the Convergence of Movements, Mike asks, as I have, " Where is the Jesus Movement ", or broader, " Where is the voice and presence of faiths from around the globe."

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

We can do nothing, justified by our faith alone and wait for the mass exit at the bus stop to Eternity...or we can act as partners, as brothers and sisters, as all God's children and redeem, restore creation...building a new creation.

Update from Mike Todd over @ Waving or Drowning...

Mike has a video posted of activist, writer and author Naomi Klein in a hard hitting, sobering and brutally honest video around the conversations, and dealings of striking an accord with substance. She mentions the Convergence of Movements, Mike asks, as I have, " Where is the Jesus Movement ", or broader, " Where is the voice and presence of faiths from around the globe."

Mirrors and Maps...inspiration from the margins

I know what you're thinking...Arghhhhhhh! not another conference. I think this one will be good on 2 counts; a great line up of speakers, and cheap. 19$ for Friday evening, or 49$ for both Friday evening and Saturday. Now, if I can just lay hands on my 92' Honda Accord and pray some healing into it...I just might be there. Anyways, if your looking for a weekend getaway this might be it.

In the 50s and 60s, when the music industry was in search of a breakthrough sound, they found it on the margins. Artists like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and other African American artists provided The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis the inspiration and songs that would become the soundtrack for the majority culture. Today, Jesus followers all over the world are looking for their own breakthrough sound – something that brings heaven to earth.

It turns out that once again the African American church has been developing this kind of spirituality on the margins for years.  What we call new, they call normal.

Elvis and The Beatles did pretty well drawing on this inspiration.

We think Jesus followers could as well.

The missional church that gave us Martin Luther King Jr. has something to say.

Join in the crazy creativity that happens when people from the margins get together.

You can check out all the details >>>> Here

virtual space...a fabrication of real life

Ok, here are some thoughts that are not fully prepared. So, beware. I'm just throwing them out on the table, not even serving them on a plate. They're just going to land where they may, some might even land on the floor. It's a mess, but, pull up a chair and pick through it with me.

Here's Hope...

                                 

Interestingly, the by line of my blog talks about the journey of an ancient faith, into living the active practice of hope. I think there is something very attractive about hope. Not a sentimental hope, not the last ditch effort of " here's hoping ." But, something more profound, like re-booting your being. It's living in real hope. It's living in the hope that Jesus offers. It's hope that comes from living " IN " Jesus. It is a hope in which the little things in my life matter. It's talking to a stranger, to one person, who might be struggling in the ordinariness of life, in which like striking a match a conversation is kindled. It's when something beautiful happens in the conversation, when unexpectedly, and unannounced, Spirit filled words and human words touch, when Jesus mysteriously enters the conversation. It's at this moment " Hope " comes a flame, we see something before unimagined.

It's seeing a need on the street down town. It's seeing a need in your work place. It's seeing a need next door in your neighborhood. It is simply being the hands and feet of Jesus, stepping into circumstance and getting a little dirty. Sure, there is usually a cost. It might be a little money, or a little time. But again, as in the conversation, it's spontaneous. It's not telling the person, " I'm thinking about it, I'll get back to you." It is living in that moment " IN " Jesus, and allowing him to live in that moment. It is the profound mystery that the gospel can be preached with out words. Sure there will be an opportunity when the " why " arises out of a conversation. But in these seemingly small and insignificant responses to needs in your everyday life, it is just allowing the " being " of Jesus to speak. It's in these moments of being Jesus, that we ignite imaginations to a Hope beyond us.

We need to become portals of a Hope beyond us, beyond this world. I really do think we are surprised by hope.

From The Portal of the Mystery of Hope

By Charles Péguy

The faith that I love best, says God, is hope.

Faith doesn’t surprise me.

It’s not surprising.

I am so resplendent in my creation. . . .

That in order really not to see me these poor people would have to be blind.

Charity says God, that doesn’t surprise me.

It’s not surprising.

These poor creatures are so miserable that unless they had a heart of stone, how could they not have love for one another.

How could they not love their brothers.

How could they not take the bread from their own mouth, their daily bread, in order to give it to the unhappy children who pass by.

And my son had such love for them. . . .

But hope, says God, that is something that surprises me.

Even me.

That is surprising.

That these poor children see how things are going and believe that tomorrow things will go better.

That they see how things are going today and believe that they will go better tomorrow morning.

That is surprising and it’s by far the greatest marvel of our grace.

And I’m surprised by it myself.

And my grace must indeed be an incredible force.

the whole gospel...a revelation of The Kingdom

" So words without deeds are empty, but deeds without words are dumb. It is stupid to set them against each other. It is, for example, stupid to say: “The one thing that matters is to go everywhere and preach the gospel; all other activities such as schools and hospitals and programs for social action are at best merely auxiliary and at worst irrelevant.” Why should people believe our preaching that the kingdom of God has come near in Jesus if they see no evidence that disease and ignorance and cruelty and injustice are being challenged and overcome? Why should they believe our words if there is nothing happening to authenticate them?

On the other hand, it is equally stupid to say: ” Preaching is a waste of time. Forget it and get on with tackling the real human problems of poverty, injustice and oppression.” That is to repeat the folly of the people who are fed in the desert. It is to confuse the sign with the thing it points to. Our best programs are not the kingdom of God; they are full of our pride and ambition – as the world easily sees. But apart from these obvious inconsistencies, we surely know that human beings have a greater and more glorious destiny than even the best of our programs can offer. To a hungry man a good meal looks like heaven; when he has eaten it he knows that it is not. We know that our true life is beyond our grasp, and we are deceived when we invest all our hopes, and encourage others to invest all their hopes, in programs that do not reach beyond the horizon of this present age.

I know that some will denounce this language as escapist, but in fact it is simply realist. The best of our programs are still full of the seeds of their own corruption. We do not establish God’s kingdom. That kingdom, that kingly rule, has been given to us in the form of the suffering servant, the wounded healer, the crucified liberator. God’s kingdom is a given fact, and our actions for justice and compassion are at the very best only signs, pointers to help men and women to turn round so that it becomes possible for them also to believe in the reality of that kingdom, to have a foretaste of its liberating power, to follow in the way of the cross and to find in it life – a life that death cannot threaten.

Our preaching is mere empty words if it does not have behind it a costly engagement with the powers of evil, with the powers that rob men and women of their humanity, and if it does not call men and women to share in the same costly engagement…“

Mission in Christ’s Way by Lesslie Newbigin, and to Tony Stiff who has had some great posts on Lesslie Newbigin's thoughts on mission.

bringing inner city church...to suburbia

This isn't criticism, its awareness to the reality that it is easy to slumber into complacency, numbness when we retreat to our suburban getaways. For most of us, and for many suburban churches there is a disconnect from the inner city. Sure we catch glimpses of homelessness, poverty and addiction through our peripheral vision, or our rear view mirrors as we rush by it, or drive by it, during our shopping or dining excursions to the city. Somehow, the little glimpses over time are just enough to inoculate us, giving us a passive immunity to it's reality.

So on the weekend, to bring awareness to the inner city...to poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental illness, we brought a part of the inner city to suburbia. The event, which we're hoping will be come an annual event was called, " The Mustard Seed...more than a Food Bank ", hosted by Saanichton Bible Fellowship.

More than 20 years ago the Mustard Seed was planted in a prayer closet in a store on Government Street. The need of the under-privileged was so great that the ministry re-located into a building on the lower end of Pandora Avenue. It began its outreach to the community as a church which soon grew to include a food bank, clothing bank, counseling , advocacy service, prison ministry, and street ministry. Since 1995, the new facilities on Queens Street have brought an enlarged dimension to the existing ministries.

The current economic climate will only tax all Mustard Seed ministries due to the ever growing demand. More than 5,000 people use the food bank every month. The tragic reality is that around 1,500 are children. Sadly, more and more, single senior widows are finding their way into the daily line-ups.

So, we can't roll up the sidewalks, streets, and dimly lit alleys and load them into a van and bring it out to suburbia and miraculously set it up. But we can bring images, we can bring some of the people and their stories. And for 2 hours that is what happened. We opened with Chris Riddell, a pastor down at the Mustard Seed with worship and prayer...lyrics and words permeated with the truth of the gospel, that set the stage for the evening.

We heard the story of Bill Ganner, a 12 year addiction with cocaine and heroin, of sleeping rough on the inner city streets. Through being fed, and clothed he received the physical gospel, " I was hungry, I was naked, I was thirsty...you fed, you clothed, you quenched my thirst." Soon he would receive the living word, the truth...the ultimate life that the gospel is. Bill has been up at Hope Farm, the Seeds restoration center up in Duncan for a year now...his life changed.

We heard from Brooke Pepplar through her alternative acoustic folk music. Her music is weaved with the reality of her bother's addiction and living on the street. Lyrics filled with despair, suffering...but also with grace, mercy and hope.

I read the poetry of Al Kirkwood, who describes himself as an " urban prospector ". Al lives rough on the street, spending his day writing poetry, prose and short stories. Al, by the way, road his bike out from downtown to the peninsula. Again, Al's poetry is raw, it is graphic, there is a depth of spirituality that seems to come from where the psalmist would say, " deep cries to deep." It comes from a place most of us have never been, " finding yourself rich, with only a dime in your pocket."

And then there was the Dr. Bones Blues Project, house band for the homeless. We are honored, and blessed to have the opportunity to hang out with this community for Saturday meals down at the Seed. " In my Father's House, you don't need a membership card...you're always welcome in my Father's House." The lyrics of a meal time favorite song.

The tragedy of the inner city is like a cancer, it is growing, it is spreading...it effects the very young and the very old.  But, even away from it as we retreat to suburbia...it effects us. Because if we say nothing, do nothing...it speaks clearly what we think about the inner city.

The Mustard Seed is truly a small seed planted in rocky, hard, and seemingly infertile soil of Victoria's inner city. But even small, through faith it has grown and continues to grow...spreading the gospel into a world of injustice.

Maybe, you've thought, your church has thought about partnering, volunteering, time or money down at the Mustard Seed. What we do for the least...we do for Jesus.

The goal was to bring awareness to the Mustard Seed, its ministries...poverty, homelessness, addiction...social issues of the inner city.

The highlight...this little gathering raised 1,226.62 $

two way traffic...the Kingdom, and the world

Daryl Dash has some very thought provoking quotes from John Frame's book, " The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God."

It is arbitrary to insist that theology be written in a formal, academic style. Rather, theologians ought to make broad use of human language - poetry, drama, exclamation, song, parable, symbol - as Scripture itself does. (p.85)

The work of theology is to proclaim the old ideas of Scripture and nothing else. But the work of theology is, indeed, to proclaim those old ideas to a new generation. This involves application, and that demands newness, since every new situation is somewhat different from its predecessors... (p.340)

There is a great need for imagination among theologians today. There is a crying need for fresh applications of Scripture to situations too long neglected, for translating the gospel into new forms. The artistic gift may be well employed in the theological profession. (p. 343)

It was somewhere in the early years of the third century, the church father Tertullian mused, " What has Athens have to do with Jerusalem?" His question articulated the challenge that faced the church in his day and throughout the centuries since then. What relationship does the church...do Christians...have with culture.

For Tertullian, this question centered on the relationship between philosophy symbolized by Athens, the home of Socrates and Plato...and faith, whose home was in the holy city of Jerusalem. Tertullian answers his rhetorical question with a resounding " Nothing!"

Tertulian viewed the culture surrounding the church of his day as dangerous. This is the space that gives birth to the heretics. He added, it was a culture that was unnecessary. What need have we for curiosity since we have Christ.

A good question, but I can't help thinking, maybe Tertullian came up with the wrong answer.

A Christianity closed up in itself might be safe from heresy. For that matter, life without curiosity might even be safe. But such a Christianity, and such a life might also be suffocating, and stifling...so closed off that it becomes totally irrelevant, and has no connection to the world that surrounds it. Further, it's worth consider the impact of Tertullian's view on apologetics...and our own view on apologetics.

An unengaged approach to life and culture leaves the Christian with little ground in common with the non-Christian. The with drawl from engaging the world stymies finding inroads and connections for the gospel.

A church without curiosity, with out engagement to culture cuts off from learning anything from others who just might have something to teach us. I'm not saying the church become the culture of the day. I'm saying engaging the culture is a two way street, the church does not control the traffic flow, the conversation flows in both directions. We find common ground to speak the gospel to others, and from others we gain a better understanding of the gospel.

The culture of Athens has a lot to do with the holy city of Jerusalem...and the culture of our day has a lot do do with the church.

This is a paraphrased quote from Bonhoeffer, he said something like, " The Christ calls us to worldliness, to be worldly disciples, he does not mean for us to be accommodated to the world or merged or lost in it. Instead Bonhoeffer calls us to be fully engaged, to be incarnational..to be aware. Such an awareness as Jesus said, " the eyes to see, and the ears to hear ", it is then, we can speak. Such an awareness helps us to see what we would otherwise, due to to our limited experiences, prejudices, and biases...likely miss.

 As Christians, we need the theologians to become artists...and for the artists to become theologians. There is a great need for imagination among believers today. There is a crying need for fresh applications of Scripture to situations too long neglected, for translating the gospel into new forms.

Jesus told stories, parables that engaged people and the culture they lived in, stories about the Kingdom. Jesus not only told stories, he lived the reality of the story...by hanging out, and following Jesus they could see the Kingdom lived out...now...and look forward to the fullness of the Kingdom to come.

The challenge for the church will be to speak into the culture ( of consumerism, injustice, poverty, economic collapse, environmental crisis, globilization, pluralism ) in new way, with creativity and imagination, revealing the Kingdom. But the biggest challenge of the church, will be to live out the words it speaks.

the economy...faithful conversations

The following is from Andrew Jones, from a post titled, " Money, Debt, Recession and the Bible." He says...

I was reading a little on the relationship between the Reformation and capitalism, but not enough to speak fluently and with accuracy. It was interesting to see the Reformer's attitude towards "avarice" and debt and how churches would punish the money lenders for usury that went above acceptable levels - levels that we have seen recently. The church has not had much of a voice in the events leading to this recession [and many churches have bought into it] but maybe the church will speak wisdom into our currently circumstances and offer a way out that is not reliant on more debt, more buying, and more greed.

Ever since the economy started to unravel like cheap single ply toilet paper, it's has been an emotional storm deep deep inside, the place where the psalmist might cry, " where deep calls to deep." The reality is, that even amid the fallen pillars of the global economy, the rubble of greed and consumerism...is something even deeper. The brokenness of what it is to be human is completely lost, the operating system loaded onto our initial hard drive has been corrupted replaced by our own system of operation.

image courtesy Andrew Jones

 The church has not had much of a voice in the years leading up to the recession, but maybe the church will speak wisdom into the current and offer away out that is not reliant on more debt, more buying, and more greed.

Reality number one...we can not buy, borrow, spend our way out of this mess. That is what got us here. Money and science will not save us form our current situation. It won't prolong life, it will just prolong our death.

But amidst the the world's economists throwing gasoline on the meltdown of the global economy, the church needs to enter the conversation. This is about much more than money, it's about humanity. We need to enter the conversation faithfully. There needs to be an alternative world view, something sustainable, something filled with hope, something that engages and captures the imagination of all humanity.

For much of the church there will need to be a theological shift. " We got to get out of this place ", the lyrics of an old song by the Animals, and which we can all relate to. The season of redemption and salvation being a personal event must give way to something cosmic... something hat encompasses every speck of creation. The myth of Jesus dying on the cross for just "me" or "you" has to end.

15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

 18-20He 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.

On the cross it was not "just" my salvation, or yours that hung in balance. It was all creation...for Jesus is in, and of, and holds it all together...from every galaxy, to every quark. If Jesus spoke creation into existence in Genesis, in the NT and the gospels Jesus speaks the new creation into existence...The Kingdom of God. It is only by us entering into his death, and us dying to the old world, and receiving the same life giving Spirit that breathed creation, raised Jesus from the dead...that we can resurrect, redeem, restore, and build His Kingdom. The alternative world to where we find ourselves now...the Kingdom. For if redemption is about all the broken dislocated pieces of the universe, it will be about the environment, the economy, justice, community.

It will be about much sacrifice, servant-hood, love, our neighbors...global and next door. It will be about sharing wealth, resources and food. It will be about removing barriers of race, and religion. It will be about forgiveness, and more forgiveness. It will be about much mercy and love.

It will be about letting go of fear and anxiety...to dream, and to imagine the Kingdom that Jesus spoke and lived in.

It will be about building His Kingdom now, drawing others in to build with us...and at the same time pointing to the Kingdom that is to come.

Maybe, just maybe the church will speak wisdom into our current circumstances.