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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    

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

R(EVOLuTionary ) Faith...in a crisis

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

 

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chick-Fill-A...another reminder of our terminal illness

Chick-Fill-A another reminder of our terminal illness...in the back drop of all the recent hoopla I'll share a story.

A couple of months ago, working in the emergency department we had a woman maybe in her seventy’s come in with her forty year old son. To look at him you would never guess he was forty. He looked older than his mother, he was thin, gaunt and literally wasting away. He didn’t have to say a word, you could see pain, suffering, shame and guilt written all over him. He was in the end stages of AIDS. Ravaged by the disease, he was severly dehydrated and dying of malnutrition…and his mom wasn’t coping with it all.

Around her neck, I could see she was wearing a cross, so I asked her if she was a part of a church and if she was getting help and being supported there. At this point it was as if I had touched an open wound. Tears started to stream down her face. Handing her some Kleenex she told me, no, that she couldn’t tell anyone about her son.

Even if it is not blatantly obvious, it is overt…maybe in her church, tucked in the corner you can see it …judgement. This lady knew it. Homosexuality she has been told is a sin, and it will be judged, and AIDS is the consequence, the earthly judgement. If that’s not bad enough her son still has the eternal torment of hell to face yet. And, of course this judgement I’m sure in her mind is partly about her. I mean, homosexuality is a choice…perhaps if she was a better parent her sons outcome would have been much better.

Who is ” this Jesus ” that many churches worship…I do not see him anywhere in the gospels ?

What did all this support of Chick-Fill-A really show the GLBTQ communities, was it really freedom of speech or something much more insidious and terminal.

And, all the time tumbling around in my mind is this image of Jesus…hanging out with the most marginalized in the world. Somehow, he always seemed to be in the midst of sick, the blind, and crippled beggars…those possessed by demons. He touched the lepers, he kissed and healed them. He touched prostitutes, he came to their rescue…they washed his feet with tears and perfume.

And here is this woman whose gay son is dying of AIDS and there is no one in her church that she can tell. I think, I know Jesus would embrace and love this man without any judgement…and then I see a church, the body of Christ unwilling to move it’s legs, to wrap its arms around this young man…or to move its lips and kiss him.

I know some one is going to say the trite, ” love the sinner, hate the sin.” Sorry, I’m gonna have to cry bull shit on that one. You can’t love and judge at the same time…that is a very tainted kind of love. Jesus says we are to simply love…the way he did. The gospels are permeated with this kind of radical scandalous redemptive love. Can we please just learn to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and LOVE till it kills us…a love that you sacrifice everything for.

When will we ever be cured of this terminal illness...and love. We worship Jesus the God-man, who was willing to risk, and give his life for love. Maybe it's finally high time we risk everything on love.

WTF !!! ...is going on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dangerous Memories...

 

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

Mary C Grey: The Outrageous Pursuit of Hope

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

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

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

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

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

"The Lord is exalted", proclaims Isaiah. " He dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness." ( 33:5 )

" I am the Lord " announces Jeremiah in the name of God. " I act with steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight." ( 9:24 ) 

Again Isaiah, " Is such the fast I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and lie is a sack cloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this fast that I choose; to break the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? ( 58:5-7 )

From Micah, " He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. ( 6:6-8 )

Lastly from Amos, " I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. ( 5:21-24 )

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He the God-man, the Son, Jesus was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his murder, torture, and suffering at the hands injustice. That God, shouted " No! " that the empires and principalities would not have the final say. He said " Yes!" to Jesus and the peaceable Kingdom, and resurrected creation anew.

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

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

 

God Bleeds Across Borders

In a weather beaten journal from a past hiking trip to the high country of Strathcona Park I have scratched in pencil this quote from Thomas Merton’s “ Mystics and Zen Masters.”

               “ The geographical pilgrimage is the symbolic acting out of an inner journey.”

Landscapes have always intrigued me, they have a mysterious way of shaping our lives, especially, cultural, and societal landscapes. Because, unconsciously navigating the world around us we create interior landscapes that restrict and confine our movement. My experience of growing up and living in the prevailing culture of that time, and religion shaped my interior landscape. I think there comes a point in everyone’s faith journey that the interior topography of the mind has been mapped out. This inner map comes complete with borders, boundaries and barriers, places beyond for which I’m restricted to enter. Safe places, dangerous places. Hospitable places, inhospitable places.

We only discover how good a map is, by when we start to move in the world around us, locally and globally. It’s when we try to orient the inner maps to the cultural and societal landscape around us that we discover a startling reality. The landscape of culture and society is constantly in a state of upheaval, shifting and moving. This is what it is to be lost...when our inner map no longer identifies or represents the landscape around us.

We are stuck. These inner maps with all their borders, boundaries have become obsolete, and nonfunctional. We can, try like when we were kids, to force a puzzle piece into a space that it doesn’t fit. From a distance it may look like you’ve completed the task. Close up, it looks like an act of force. Close up, it obviously didn’t work.

If I can, I’d like to share a very personal story with you. Growing up, for along time I was in place where everything fit. You could drape my inner map over top of my outer landscape in which I physically lived. They were identical. The borders, boundaries, all the network of routes of travel matched. I lived in an area where I was comfortable. There were many others comfortable in that area. We looked the same. We talked the same. We liked the same things. We believed the same things.

We knew there were people beyond our borders. They, talked different; looked different; liked different things and believed different things. It’s not so much we didn’t like them. We chose not to understand them.

In the military there really isn’t such thing as free will. They send you, and you go. There is no discussion of options, and other choices. There is only, “ Yes Sir “, you pack and you go.

In 1973, my inner map was about to be edited revealing a whole new landscape in which to live. I lived in Ismailia Egypt for a year, south of Cairo on the road through the Sahara Desert to Alexandria. I was living in a bombed out building just after the end of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Our responsibility was to secure a buffer zone for the UN,
between Israel and Egypt.

I was now in a place where I was truly lost. Try as I might, no matter which way I turned my inner map, I could not orient it to the landscape of the culture and society around me. I was outside of “my” neighborhood, “my” friends and “my” likes. I was outside of my comfort zone.

My religion told me Israel was good. God liked Israel, they were his chosen people. Through some mysterious adoption process, my religion was now a part of their family. So, now God had a preference to me...he liked me. Also, on my map in those regions beyond, those restricted areas were people God didn’t like. My inner map was telling me, I might be in one of those restricted areas. There was a sense of fear, anxiety of the unknown, of this totally foreign landscape.

In time, I met people that lived outside of the borders of my internal map. I discovered to that they nagivated their lives using an internal map whose borders were shaped by their culture and society. They lived their lives within the borders they had constructed. Soon I would discover it doesn’t matter what borders we draw on our maps, them or us . The reality of God bleeds across our borders in both directions.

Where I worked in Ismailia we tried to hire local people to work as laborers. It was supposed to be a win; win situation. It helped provide employment and some prosperity to the town, and to build a bridge of relationship between them and us. I got to know one family fairly well, the man’s name was Najeeb. He was tall and thin, wore tattered clothes and sandals. His dark skinned face was weather beaten, a smile filled with missing teeth. On his head he wore a tightly wound turban. He spoke mainly Egyptian infused with fragments of broken English. He was different, and lived well outside the borders of my internal map. Likewise, I lived well beyond the borders of his map.

But, here we were, not by choice, total strangers from far away lands with different maps who would have to navigate life together...here...now.

Like in all wars, the people living on the margins, living in poverty and injustice normally suffer the most. It was no different here. Driving around you couldn’t escape the poverty, it was every where. My working relationship with Najeeb was initially awkward. It was like two deaf and blind people learning dance. There was a lot of miscommunication, and of stepping on each others toes, but eventually we did find a sense of rhythm and began to move together.

In the warehouse where Najeeb and I worked, there was a constant flow of supplies coming in and going out. With that, also comes a constant pile of ever growing waste; lumber, cardboard and plastic. It was at the end of one day, Najeeb asked me what we did with the waste. The policy was to burn it. Najeeb asked if it might be possible for him to have some of it. So the next day, Najeeb and I loaded up one of our trucks with lumber from pallets, cardboard, plastic and wire. We drove to Najeeb’s neighborhood on the southern fringe of Ismailia. Najeeb’s plan was to use some of the material to renovate the house his family was living in. His home reminded me of something my daughters when they were little would construct in the backyard. Najeeb’s house was constructed out of every conceivable material you could think of, cardboard, plastic, corrugated metal, rope and a dirt floor. In this house he lived with his wife, three sons, daughter, two goats, and a donkey tied to a mill wheel outside.

Mysteriously, and slowly I was discovering a new map. It was the internal map that Najeeb navigated his life, shaped by his culture and society. Najeeb taight me so much; humility, hospitality, compassion, generosity, love, forgiveness...and abundant grace. His life was permeated with the presence of his God, in conversation and how he lived his life from moment to moment. His life revealed a gratitude that I have yet to experience, or have seen since. His five daily prayers were weaved into the fabric of his daily life. At first I saw it as some fundamentalist ritual, but for Najeeb it was a reality check to the presence of his God, and an acknowledgement to that presence through conversation.

We would make many more trips to Najeeb’s neighborhood sharing truck loads of recycleable material with his neighbors. I began to have meals with Najeeb and his family. Cooking on an open fire, sitting in a circle, cushions and carpet on the dirt floor, we shared stories and prayers. Into those dreams we prayed. Soon we discovered, we shared the same dreams. We were discovering a common humanity.

There was no holy war in Najeeb’s living, or his faith. There was no burning conviction to convert me. No conviction to kill me as an infidel when my back was turned. Nor did I feel I had to convert him to my faith. He befriended me...he loved me. I loved him.

How could this be? Somehow I and wandered outside the borders of my internal map into a restricted area, past the do not enter sign. That initial fear, and anxiety had evaporated like rain in the hot desert sun. Strangely in my mind, I looked back, and discovered all the borders on my internal map were erased. It was a map in which I looked around in all directions, as far as my eyes could see there was no borders.

Into my mind floods another desert scene, Jesus meeting the woman at the well. A meeting of faiths over water and thirst. There is a Samaritan and a Jew. Jesus doesn’t try to convert or coerce the young Samaritan woman to join the Jewish faith. There is a profound moment-of-truth from Jesus.

It doesn’t matter if you worship on your mountain, or whether you worship in the temple. What matters is, if you worship in spirit and truth. Because God is truth, and these are the worshippers he is looking for.

Was this similar to mine and Najeeb’s experience? We came together, both living lives, navigating with different internal maps. Both of which we thought was the correct map.
But because of circumstance, fate or by some mysterious divine appointment we crossed borders...onto each others restricted areas. Only to discover it was us that made them restricted areas.
God has no restricted areas. God bleeds across all our constructed borders, erasing all lines, no matter how hard we etch them on our maps.

There is profound wisdom to be found when our internal maps are confronted with the landscape of real life, different cultures, societies and faiths; places outside of borders we’ve constructed. It’s outside these borders we discover there is one God. It’s out here in our perceived restricted areas, in respecting and listening to each others humanity, and faith we find ourselves closer to the voice of God. It’s here we discover God bleeds across all our borders. It’s here Najeeb and I discovered we really are on the same map. The reality, Najeeb’s God, my God...is our God. In our relationship we saw the image of God in each other...both children of the same father.

It’s my prayer, that we would not fear our restricted areas. We could confront our fears, anxiety and enter. That there, we might discover God is already there. That we would look hard to see a humanity, all, created in the image of God.

A Jesus to worship...but to Godly to imitate

The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where christians ought to be and what christianity should be about. 

- George McLeod ( founder of Iona Community 1938 )

 A mysterious star navigates through the dark space of infinity, through the star fields that God told Abraham would be as numerous as his descendants. It stops on the fringe of humanity and it illuminates the spot where God will become one of us, taking on flesh and bones. I am always captured by the profound reality in the gospels that Jesus the God man is birthed on the periphery of humanity and religion and dies in the same place...abandoned by religion and humanity. Even in the gospel of John when the writer pens that he pitched his tent in the midst of humanity, into our neighborhood...Jesus lives on the margins.

It is easy when your stuck in the " church bubble " to forget what Jesus was all about. We have been indoctrinated to believe that Jesus is all about personal salvation, he died to forgive your sins, guaranteeing a ticket in your hand for flight and accommodation in that eternal retirement home called heaven.

We forget that Jesus was the culmination of the prophetic voices that still echo along the corridor of history. Like resonating sound waves that join in unison and finally collide with Jesus he speaks with crystal clear passion about one thing...the Kingdom of God, and his passion for justice.

We need pause, to be still and listen deeply to the prophets. They speak about God's passion, and Jesus is the fullfilment of the passion.

"The Lord is exalted", proclaims Isaiah. " He dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness." ( 33:5 )

" I am the Lord " announces Jeremiah in the name of God. " I act with steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight." ( 9:24 ) 

Again Isaiah, " Is such the fast I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and lie is a sack cloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this fast that I choose; to break the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? ( 58:5-7 )

From Micah, " He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. ( 6:6-8 )

Lastly from Amos, " I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. ( 5:21-24 )

 We forget Jesus the God-man lived on the margins of humanity. He lived amidst its poverty, its injustice, its oppression, its sickness and its sin. He lived so deeply in the midst of the human wreckage that the Pharisees could not really tell him apart of the sinners. As profoundly strange as it sounds he was one of them. We as christians have a real problem with a fully human Jesus, it's extremely uncomfortable to wrestle with that reality. We like a Jesus that is 90% God and about 10% human. That is a far more comfortable Jesus. We keep our distance from that kind of Jesus. We can worship that Jesus without having to imitate his life, and live out and reenact his profound mysterious parables.  

We have pulled Jesus out of the world, out of the stench, out the filth and brokenness of humanity and put him under house arrest in the church building convincing ourselves that Jesus is far more concerned about the sterile vacuum of a sacred holy space. Do we imagine him wandering around a church that stands empty most week days eagerly waiting for Sunday morning when he can inhabit the praises of "his" people?

And when did this Jesus of the gospels all of a sudden aquire an appetite for worship music to appease him, and keep him happy?The prophets seemed quite clear on the type of worship God desired and music didn't seem to make the cut. Jesus profoundly seems to inhabit a more worldy, a more human...a more secular worship space.

   I was hungry and you fed me,
   I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
   I was homeless and you gave me a room,
   I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
   I was sick and you stopped to visit,
   I was in prison and you came to me.'

 "Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me." ( Eugene Peterson's The Message; Matthew 25 )

We come to the profound conclusion that we worship Jesus in the face of broken humanity, not before the altar of the temple.

As christians we are very good at compartmentalizing life and people. We draw lines all through life, barriers, the boundaries of sacred and secular. We draw circles around people, groups of people...we have insiders and outsiders. Life in the context of the profound mysterious reality of Jesus is seen different way.

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. ( Eugene Petersons The Message; Colossians 1 )

Jesus is the intermolecular force, the gravity that holds all reality together, sacred and secular. Despite how tarnished, filthy, broken and cracked the human image was, Jesus could always see past it...and see the image of God hidden in everyone.

I want to encourage people to really think, reflect deeply on that reality...of finding Jesus in the midst of life. When I hear people say, " I wish we had a space where we could sing christian songs, worship songs." Or, " I can't sing those songs because there not christian." It saddens me deeply.

We forget in the gospels Jesus wasn't speaking christians. He didn't speak christianeze, theological garble when to talked to people. He used a mysterious language, of parable that captured the imagination of humanity. People had to wrestle with them, moving them into a liminal space where they saw God and humanity differently. Often it wasn't the obvious black and white, it was more color that spilled out over the lines...it was more mystery as truth. It gave people a glimpse of a new world, of abundant life. It left people in awe.

I think of how often I listen to music today, so called " secular music " and a line of lyrics will awaken me like a flash of light.  And at the same time the neurons in my brain begin to spark, and the harddrive in my mind begins to whirl...and I think. You could almost say it's an " epiphany."

1. a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; 2. an intuitive grasp of reality through something; 3. an illuminating discovery; 4. a revealing scene or moment; 5. an appearance or manifestation, especially of a divine being.

 

03 God Put A Smile Upon Your Face

Is it only in christian music, worship music that this can happen? I don't think so. There is so much good music out there, with profound, mysterious spirit-filled lyrics...deeply human and divine. We just need to have the same redemptive imagination as Jesus and engage people in conversation. Draw them into that mysterious place where the Psalmist proclaims. " deep calls to deep ", where spirit talks to spirit.

 

 

 As long as the church retreats, stays in the building, reinforcing and protecting itself, our culture will never experience an epiphany. 

Over the last few decades, the church has been pushed further and further onto the periphery of culture. Or in many instances, the church has retreated to the comfortable confines of its Christian subculture. So we are inside our churches looking out, but we really find ourselves on the outside looking in. God is calling the church out of the church and back into the midst of humanity that Jesus lived " in." 

Lost...explosive parables, and the fall out

 

 

 I was reading the "lost " parables last evening ( Luke 15 ); the lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son. And slowly in my mind I could feel things shifting, I tried to reach for something, a handle, anything...but it was too late. Here I was upside down, all perception had changed, I had to reorient myself. Now I was " lost " ... initially I saw from the point of view of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.  Now, it's this awkward view from being in the midst of the ninety-nine sheep that God doesn't seem to rejoice over, the nine coins that the woman just seems to take for granted, and the older son who humanly speaking seems somewhat justified for being overlooked.

 

In his home town of Nazareth, Jesus gives an inaugural sermon (Lk4:16-28) that gained him applause at first...until the people understood what in the heck he was saying! Then they tried to throw him over the nearest cliff.

 

Jesus began by quoting the familiar prophecy from Isaiah, about God's mission being aimed at poor people, the oppressed, the blind and the broken. Everybody said, " Right on! preach it brother." But Jesus made the "mistake" of turning the message around. He couldn't have jammed his foot any further into his mouth had he got up to address a white middle-class suburban congregation and said, " God doesn't care about this church,"

 

The " punch " of these lost parables comes when we turn them around, upside down. The parables are kind of like Trojan-horses. Jesus wasn't about to take the same approach that he took before the hometown folks. He wanted to make the same point to these cozy and comfy, " white middle class, suburban " church folk ", and to the " pastors " who came asking why he spent so much time with the out casts.

 

Jesus wanted to show them, " they " were the real " outcasts ", the prodigals that stayed at home. So Jesus lit a stick of dynamite, covered it with a parable, and tossed it into their midst. By the time the " good " people got the parable unwrapped, Jesus and his disciples were a few miles down the road. Perhaps they were still able to here the explosion. 

 

Maybe Sunday morning, between one of the worship songs...pause, and reflect. Maybe you'll here an explosion, and ask yourself. " whose more lost, the poor and homeless in the inner city, the addicts, the mentally ill...the marginalized community of divine nobodies...or is it the ??????

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.