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

It really is love... absolutely nothing else

 

Ever notice how good theology is found in life and not the bible. This week, Fred’s wife died suddenly. He tried his best to be with her, but somewhere between Sidney and Victoria on a Handy Dart Bus she drifted out of this world across the threshold into what I can only imagine as infinite mystery.

Fred is ninety-four and in this past year has been like that wobbly toy you had as a kid, no matter how hard you tried to stand it up, it would fall over. An old war wound, years of hard work and worn out parts had taken their tole. Alice eighty-nine, diagnosed with renal failure a few years earlier spent as much time in the hospital, as she did at home. Dialysis three times a week, a constant fight with fatigue after the treatments left her with little energy to care for Fred. Fred ended up moving into an extended care facility about 10 or so miles away.

I can’t imagine how devastating this had to have been after living, eating, sleeping...hugging and kissing the same person for almost seventy years. Last week Alice, getting of the bus that transports her to her dialysis, fell and broke her hip. Even without this accident Alice’s life from day to day was fragile.

Fred arrived at the hospital not knowing Alice had passed away. There was a reception of social workers, nurses and doctors...I suspect by the crowd Fred new something was up. They told Fred the news in the most humble, loving and compassionate way they could. There really is no easy way...no words really buffer anyone from the shock. Fred, hunched over lost it. Like a ballon suddenly punctured, life seemed to leak out of him. People helped steady Fred before he collapsed.

With help, they took Fred into Alice’s room. He shuffled over to the bed, and took Alice’s hand and climbed-up onto the bed beside her. He hugged, and kissed her...tears rolling down his face he couldn’t stop kissing her. 

It is a very sad story, but this image has captured my mind this week. Thinking about love. Jesus, this profound mysterious God-man that mused, “ God is love.” 

This image of Fred blew my mind, this act of endless love. Maybe in the most profound deepest sense Fred’s love, their love...all love is eternal. Maybe, just maybe it is only “ love “ that crosses the threshold of this life into the next. 

We fight, we argue to believe certain things to get across the threshold into eternity, when the reality is...all we have to is love.

As mysteriously as Jesus did...thank you Fred for showing us the way.

CARTS...practicing resurrection

"We have longed to taste the resurrection... the insurrection of life... We have longed to welcome its thunders and quakes, and to echo its great gifts. We want to test the resurrection in our bones. We want to see if we might live in hope instead of in the ... twilight thicket of cultural despair in which ... many are lost." - Daniel Berrigan, priest and radical peace activist.

 

Faith should be filled with redemptive imagination we need to envision  the reality of the resurrection " now ", for out the the resurrection comes the inauguration, the revelation and the building of the Kingdom Jesus imagined, and lived in.

There was nothing special about the parking lot behind the Capitol Six Theater, and the transition to the Traveller's Inn. What was special was that a few people took likely what they thought was a mustard seed of faith and planted it. They nurtured it, cultivated, prayed and loved and it grew. There was a vow of commitment, of faithfulness, that despite cold, rain, wind they would be there. The same time, same day, week after week, year after year.

There was a profound evolution of borders and boundaries being erased. What was once "us " and " them " became a community of friends. It became an anticipation and expectation of watching, and looking for the arrival of friends. It was hugs, it was conversations and prayer. It was the worry of wondering about someone if they failed to show up on Friday...to now Sunday.

It was a circle of friends, holding hands, it was faces, it was eyes and smiles. It was improvisation of a God talk, a few minute sermon that sparked imagination. It was communion with the street community distributing the sacraments. It was the parable of the feast, the servant with invitations in hand going to the back allies, the gutters, skid row hotels, anywhere and everywhere so his Fathers table would be full.

It was hot chocolate, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, baked goods, cookies, fruit, socks, mitts, toques, blankets, sleeping bags, shoes, under-ware, clothing. It was, I was naked and you clothed me, I was hungry and you fed me. It was whatever you do for the least of these you do for me.

" What is this ", the young man kept saying to me." I've never seen anything like this." I really believe it was the reality of the resurrection, the " now " presence of Jesus risen in the midst of a community living out radical scandalous faith. He caught a glimpse of the Kingdom now. He saw people acting as co-creators in the revelation and building of Jesus' Kingdom. He saw a place with out borders, boundaries...a place where people aren't reduced to labels and stereotypes. He saw radical hospitality, grace, and mercy. In his " lostness " he felt the loneliness and separation of the prodigal son. But, more, he saw God in that parking lot with open arms welcoming him home. My son which was once lost, is now found.

For me CARTS has become a wild and crazy church. We long to feel the resurrection in our bones.We long for the Kingdom. We long, and welcome its thunder and quakes, and to echo its great gifts. The Kingdom coming into being can seem messy and chaotic. But as someone once said, at the Rainbow Kitchen...even in chaos there is beauty yet to be recognized, if we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

Practice resurrection in your daily life...simply let your life be your religion.

Slip...sliding away...into (Be)living

 

 

I am told, that Jesus only directly answers 3 of the 183 questions that he himself is asked in the four Gospels! This is totally surprising to me who has grown up assuming that the very job description of religion is to give people answers and to resolve people’s dilemmas. Apparently this is not Jesus’ understanding of the function of religion because he operates very differently.

Jesus’ questions are to re-position you, make you own your unconscious biases, break you out of your dualistic mind, challenge your image of God or the world, and present new creative and redemptive possibilities.  He himself does not usually wait for or expect specific answers.  He hopes to tweak, or ignite a person’s imagination.

Reading the gospels moves you into this profound liminal space. Some people call it the ” slippery slope “, but maybe it is more circumventing obstacles around struggling with truth and suddenly loosing your footing. In reading the gospels you come to the reality what once made sense no longer does. What caused the fall might have been that for years, and years there was only one way to look at something. But, in your pursuit for something deeper you started looking at the obstacle from different angles…and you slipped.

And you thought, Sh……..it! now I’ve done it, I’ve lost my faith. All the questions like lightning begin to strike you from all angles. How long will this free fall last ? Will I land on anything solid?

Christianity for years has been about ” orthodoxy “, right belief. You read the gospels and you can’t miss the only thing Jesus was orthodox about was living. It wasn’t really ” what ” to believe it was ” how ” to believe. And today more and more people don’t really care about ” what ” you need to believe…they want to know how. After we let go of the ” what “, we are left with the ” how.” We grab the profound mysterious ” how ” and throw it into the midst of life. There its, ” how do I believe?” How did I ever believe that? ” How does believing this change the world around me?

It is the ” how ” of belief, that is more about ” orthopraxy ” the right practice of belief…Or simply how do I live like Jesus, and believe in the things he believed in. “How”, is a question that is far more profound and far more life giving than ” what .” ” How “, implies a sense of purpose and pushes us into a deeper engagement with the world in which we live. Diana Butler Bass says, ” What is a conventional religious question, one of dogma and doctrine; how is an emerging spiritual question, one of experience and connection.” How is the struggle of a new way to belief.

You read the gospels and you simply see, it becomes blindingly clear Jesus doesn’t fight for anyone to believe anything. All through the gospels it is Jesus telling profound redemptive stories, acting out the drama of abundant living in the midst of a broken world. Jesus simply fights for us to ” live ” differently as ” on earth as in heaven.”  It is simply about living a radical scandalous redemptive love to the point of self sacrifice.

It became apparent for me when Jesus is arrested by the Roman soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane, when Peter grabs the soldiers sword and cuts his ear off. Jesus tells Peter to put down the sword…and replaces and heals the soldiers ear. We will never convince the world to believe in Jesus by defending, and fighting about right belief. We will convince the world of Jesus when we are willing to put down our swords, and willing to sacrifice our lives…for Love.

I “NO” longer care or focus on what I believe…I only care about how I believe…how that might change my neighborhood, and world…and how it will reveal Jesus and his kingdom.

 

 

 

 

The Invitation...

The Invitation

"It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."

(Oriah Mountain Dreamer)

" Forest Life: by Shane Crash "...radical, scandalous redemptive imagination

For years I have been exploring the idea of faith on the fringe of church-ianity and beyond. I like to explore what I call, " radical, scandalous redemptive imagination." I believe our old maps are worn out, in a landscape that has changed dramatically, and continues to undergo rapid change...old maps can not take us into new lands. I believe poets, story tellers and artists have the uncanny ability to be new world prophets...to resurrect old myths, create new metaphors to recapture the imagination of humanity towards a horizon of hope.

Shane Fulgrum ( Crash ), is a new world prophet. I was away from the computer, cell phone and all forms of social media last week and immersed my self into a draft copy of Shane's upcoming book, " Forest Life."

Shane said, this as to " Why I Wrote Forest Life "...

Even after all this time, I still don’t know how to live. There are moments here and there when I understand some of the things that I need to live. I need good friendship. I need to write and I need quiet emptiness. Unfortunately, I still spend too much time thinking about things that make my brain bleed. Sometimes I just think so much that my brain will shut itself down in a futile attempt at self-preservation. I haven’t been able to transcend my frustration and anger for society and its inability to match up with my ideals. My ideals being peaceful coexistence and productive progress. Some people reconcile this sadness by telling themselves that God’s gonna come back and fix things up real nice. I want to believe nice things like restorative theology, but I just can’t. I am understanding of those who subscribe to comforting narratives. I’d rather not see the world as cruel and chaotic, but I digress. Hence, my attempts to understand how I should live in a world that doesn’t make sense.

Although Forest Life is almost entirely fictional, the frustration and struggle of the lead character often mirrors my own irreconcilable sadness and confusion. Existence is a strange thing. It was on a cabin porch in the Tennessee dusk, nearly three years when I realized that my experience was a universal dilemma for conscious freethinkers. And so as the sky grew salty and the winds picked up, the rain began to fall through a halo sunrise and I found my story – the story of Emmett.

I have had the opportunity to follow Shane through his website, and musings on Facebook...he thinks deeply, he struggles and wrestles with life, any idea of faith can not be contained to a building, a book or any system of salvation. Shane's musing are messy...sometimes it looks like vomit on a page. They may not be attractive, but, they are shockingly real.

" Me? I'm afraid if God does exist, if there is a creator, he's just as confused about life and death and love as I am. Mostly I'm afraid that I'll continue to exist after I die."

" Why are you afraid of that?"

I'm silent for a moment. I collect my thoughts and wait for the desperation to recede.

" If I do continue to exist, if my reality and perception continues on in some other plane, it means that everything happening here means something. I'm worried I won't figure out what it all means in time. Sometimes I feel like I'm doomed to screw it up and be punished for it. Maybe I'm already being punished." I can hear the emotion in my own voice, making it a shade huskier. I wonder if Maraye notices. ( Forest Life, page 64-64 )

Emmett, is the main character in this story, and if we're honest we'll see a bit of Emmett is us, or in the friends around us. If we're honest Emmett's story is " our " story...a story deeply embedded in life, and the struggle to make sense of life, here, now...and somehow beyond.

This was probably one of the most faith-filled books I have read in a long time...maybe somewhere along side " William P. Young's, The Shack." If you have all your theology nicely sorted out in your " God-box ", this book will stretch you...maybe get rid of your box all together. This book looks at guilt, forgiveness, hope, redemption, love, pain, suffering, death, life, heaven, hell...but it does it not in a nicely mapped out theological landscape...it does it in the messiness and chaos of real life.

There were times I was reading and I had to remind myself that this is the writing of a 25 year old young man. Shane is wise beyond his years...he is a wise spiritual sage in a young man's clothes. For the life of me, I can't remember wrestling with such thoughts at a young age.

Before I sleep I normally lie awake and think of the future. I've resolved I can't understand life the way I can understand an equation or formula. For so long I've wanted to find concrete answers or die trying. It's hard at first to find comfort in not knowing or to make peace with it. But I think it is the only way to make it in this life. Getting stuck on a question only makes me estranged from the world. ( Forest Life, page 174 )

I can not say enough about this book...buy it, buy a copy for friends...have conversations over coffee, re-kindle some redemptive imagination, discover a new kind of faith in the midst of this profound human drama called life.

Oh yeah, Shane said this about writing the book...

" When I started writing Forest Life, I was suicidal and drunk because I had lost someone I love to a tragedy. Afterward, my question was this: why love when death and suffering are inevitable? I won’t reveal my solution to this problem, but I do present it in the pages of the book. These are only a few of the issues I grapple with in the story and I hope that you’ll read the story and consciously address your own uncertainty and fear."

You can pre-order the book...here.

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 )

God? ... ... ... are you out there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Night without you, and the dog barking at the silence,
no doubt at what’s in the silence,
a deer perhaps pruning the rhododendron
or that racoon with its brilliant fingers
testing the garbage can lid by the shed.

Night I’ve chosen a book to help me think
about the long that’s in longing, “the space across
which desire reaches.” Night that finally needs music
to quiet the dog and whatever enormous animal
night itself is, appetite without limit.

Since I seem to want to be hurt a little,
it’s Stan Getz and “It Never Entered My Mind,”
and to back him up Johnnie Walker Black
coming down now from the cabinet to sing
of its twelve lonely years in the dark.

Night of small revelations, night of odd comfort.
Starting to love this distance.
Starting to feel how present you are in it.

— Stephen Dunn, Summer Nocturne