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

dwindling economy...missions in the economy of the Kingdom

Andrew Jones aka Tall Skinny Kiwi shares this today...

If you had a million dollars (and only a million), what would you do to help alleviate the pain of the current economic crisis?

Paul Watson asked this question on his blog a week ago. This his how I answered it.

I would "probably find a way to help the churches and mission organizations retool with an eye towards microbusiness and social enterprise in order to emerge from the recession equipped for long term sustainability. What about a million for 100 10k micro-loans for that purpose? Track all 100 of them and create a community blog so everyone can cheer them on and learn from them.

Here I want to weave into the conversation something Don Crawford shared last week.

                   Freeset Kolkata

This is really, " the economy of the Kingdom ", it's planted in their neighborhoods, it redeems and restores, it's sustainable, there is ownership, they are co-heirs and co-creators in the process. It's a reflection of the parable of the talents, an investment in the multiplication of life. 

In the this down turn, or the crash of finances the first thought that always comes to mind is " cutback." But in the economy of the Kingdom, Jesus challenges us to do more with less. We are entering an era when we really need to be rethinking, and re-tooling they way we do mission. Green, sustainable, renewable resources are not just words of the secular world...they too, are part of the redemptive imagination of the Kingdom.

Homelessness and Thanksgiving...measuring a good society

 As we groan and digest Thanksgiving Turkey and Pumpkin Pie in the confines of warm homes, likely we will not give a thought around the plight of our friends living rough on the streets, parks and back alleys in Victoria. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

A good society, is measured by the extent to which those with responsibility attend to the needs of the weaker members, especially those most in need. A good society is one in which all benefit from the common good, and nobody is left outside the common concern.

We often don't think in terms of society, its easier, a more convenient truth to make yourself apart of something much smaller...everyman is an island, a mans home is his castle...even suburbia is small thinking.

My imagination has always got the best of me, and sometimes the worst...it's got me in trouble. But I dream often of the redemptive imagination of Jesus. What would happen if this " Body " under went a great transformation, when all the members like cells in a healthy body worked together, communicated, supported and revealed the incredible life of Jesus.

Inner city poverty is just not an issue for churches in the downtown core. It should be an issue for the suburban churches, penninsula churches. A good society is one in which all benefit from the common good, and nobody is left outside the common concern.

There is a growing disease of poverty, illness, homelessness, injustice...its spreading. You can retreat to the suburbs, the tranquility of the the rural peninsula but even there, it will eventually spread.

I've been all around your dirty old city
been all around your dirty old town
i've slept in your alleys, i've slept in your subways
hunger and cold, they follow me down

hunger and cold, hunger and cold
i wouldn't mind but i'm growing so old
but as low as i am, you know i'm still a man
and i wouldn't mind but i'm growing so old

only last year i was rolling in money
only last year the good times would roll
only last year my friends were so many
but only last year was so long ago


it's all so easy to throw me in prison
it's all so easy to just walk on by
but it's not so easy to see a man hungry
it's not so easy to look in his eye


yes there's poison in my cheap rotten liquor
there's poison in every old garbage can
but the worst kind of poison
is in your own brain
when you look at me and forget i'm a man.

( Phil Ochs...a great protest singer from the 60's )

We, look at these people and forget their humanity.

I dream of God's Kingdom where all benefit from the goodness of God,

and nobody is left outside...absolutely no one.

That the church would live this dream, 

building the Kingdom Jesus imagined and lived in constantly.

Word up!!! ....on the financial crisis

From Michael Spencer aka the Internet Monk :

What does the Bible say about our current financial crisis?

Evangelicals who want to know how to pray for our economy and its leaders deserve to hear the Bible’s message for these financial times.

As a result of in-depth study on the subject of Biblical Principles for Financial Success, your Internet Monk can now release to the public the definitive teaching on “What The Bible Says About The American Economic Crisis.”

This is teaching you won’t get anywhere else. Be sure and read it all!

What the Bible says about the Wall Street crisis , read the rest of the entry.

A few people in the comments on Michael's post saw it as humorous, a joke...Internet Monk says this is reply:

I’m not here the argue Revelation. I’m an amill, and I believe the Apocalypse is always describing now.

If a person doesn’t believe that the US is Babylon and are economy isn’t being described here, I don’t think they will ever see the message of this book.

Babylon is the spiritual/economic/cultural empire raised up against Jesus, and he will- sooner or later- bring it down as he will all the world’s economic/spiritual/consumeristic/idolatrous systems.

the fruit of social injustice...

Christ is not only the healer of individuals. He is also a prophet to the nations. While he walked on earth, Jesus delivered people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy, suppurating wounds, deformity, and muteness. But again, and again in word and deed he returned to the plight of the poor, whose poverty in true prophetic fashion, he considered no historical accident...but the fruit of social injustice.

What would he say and do in our hard and uncertain times, in a world of thirteen, a world one-half of whose children never so much as open their mouths to say " aah " to a doctor, a world in which almost every country is robbing the poor to feed the military?

And would he not pronounce our own nation a greedy disgrace?

Whole cites could live on the garbage from our dumps, on the luxuries we consider necessities. The world with its triumphs and dispairs, its beauty and ugliness, has today moved next door to every one of us.

Only spiritual deafness can prevent our hearing the voice of God in the clamour of the cities. Only blindness of a willful sort can prevent our seeing the face of the Risen Lord in the faces of the suffering poor.

The Glory of God is the human race fully alive, and that means at least minimally fed, clothed and housed.

( William Sloane Coffin 1924-2006 )

The Upside of Down...Thomas Homer-Dixon @ Uvic :: Saturday

Saturday May 19th 7:30 pm @ the University of Victoria

University Center :: Farquhar Auditorium                           

Cost :: Free

Details here to resereve your seat

In The Upside of Down, political scientist and award-winning author Thomas Homer-Dixon argues that converging stresses could cause a catastrophic breakdown of national and global order — a social earthquake that could hurt billions of people. But he shows that this outcome isn't inevitable; there's much we can do to prevent it. And after setting out a general theory of the growth, breakdown, and renewal of societies, he shows that less severe types of breakdown could open up extraordinary opportunities for creative, bold reform of our societies.

Homer-Dixon contends that five "tectonic stresses" are accumulating deep underneath the surface of today's global order:

• energy stress, especially from increasing scarcity of conventional oil;
• economic stress from greater global economic instability and widening income gaps between rich and poor;
• demographic stress from differentials in population growth rates between rich and poor societies and from expansion of megacities in poor societies;
• environmental stress from worsening damage to land, water forests, and fisheries; and,
• climate stress from changes in the composition of Earth's atmosphere.

Of the five, energy stress plays a particularly important role, because energy is humankind's master resource. When energy is scarce and costly, everything a society tries to do — including growing its food, obtaining enough fresh water, transmitting and processing information, and defending itself — becomes far harder.

The effect of the five stresses is multiplied by the rising connectivity and speed of our societies and by the escalating power of small groups to destroy things and people, including, potentially, whole cities.

Drawing parallels between the challenges we face today and the crisis faced by the Roman empire almost two thousand years ago, Homer-Dixon argues that these stresses and multipliers are potentially a lethal mixture. Together, they greatly increase the risk of a cascading collapse of systems vital to our wellbeing — a phenomenon he calls "synchronous failure." Societies must do everything they can to avoid such an outcome.

On the other hand, if people are well-prepared, they may be able to exploit less extreme forms of breakdown to achieve deep reform and renewal of institutions, social relations, technologies, and entrenched habits of behavior. This is likely our best hope for a prosperous and humane future.

relationship...faith and the environment

tomorrow Sunday April 22...is Earth Day

Blind Beggar, Rick Meigs offers some great ideas on how faith communities can less there impact on the environment. Ancient monastic communities seemed to live in relationship with the environment that surrounded them.

This, I believe is an awakening call to the Christian in the street, to an environmental ethic and through this a recognition of the problems that our own planet faces.

The Celtic Church had a deep connection to the world around it. As farmers and labourers they would’ve understood the seasons, how to work the land which they tended and cared for. They could see the goodness of the creator in his creation; some early writings show a deep and vibrant love of the environment, an understanding of God at work in their surroundings and in their everyday life.

As a congregation, as part of the body of Christ we need to accept responsibility for our environment, that is too say God creation. If we can do this we are more than likely to put renewed effort into caring and tending for our local surroundings.

Anyway Rick has started the ball rolling with come great ideas...and looks forward to some added conversation...over here.

an emerging/missional theology...that captures the imagination of Christ

My friend James Kingsley is a panelist at one of the group discussions at the Forum for Ethical Purchasing this weekend up at the University of Victoria. The goal of the group discussion will evolve out of the following goal...

Faith communities have been involved for decades in promoting ethical purchasing through starting up organizations, holding markets and providing resources to ethical purchasing and fair trade organizations e.g. The Mennonite Central Committee started Ten Thousand Villages as a way to market the goods produced by its development projects around the world. Some of the questions this panel will be exploring are: Why are most faith groups interested in the way that consumer decisions are made? What do ethical purchasing and fair trade have to do with religious beliefs? If some faith groups promote ethical purchasing and responsible consumerism, while others suggest that wealth and consumerism are proof of God’s love, how does this contradiction impact the development of ethical standards for purchasing?

During the week James tossed out these questions on his site for some feedback...

2.What are the challenges to incorporating these issues within a/the church's practices and values?

3. What are the theological roots to ethical purchasing practice from the perspective of your faith (evangelical Christianity)

Great questions, questions 2 and 3 have intrigued my thinking for years especially in terms of theology. Since the beginning of " christianity's birth redmption and salvation have been pretty myoptic in terms of vision...saving the individual soul. One of the biggest challenges for the emerging/ missional church will be to develope a theology that is cosmic where redemption is about " ALL " of creation, and how that will play out interms of the church's missiology...so that is the challenge of question 2.

As far as question 3 goes, we need to re-read the creation story of Genesis...waking up to the reality that we're not outside of it, innocent by-standers...we're actaully in the midst of it.

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

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

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

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

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

18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross .

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

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

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

Black Gold Screening Tonight @ Hermans

Just in...the screening is sold out. Awesome news...but also bad news, I forgot to make my reservation. Arghhhh!!!

The Place has been serving up Level Ground's Fair Trade Coffee for a number of years now, and seeing as how they have also started a great relationship with a community in Ethiopia, they thought you might be interested in knowing that The Ethical Purchasing Forum and Victoria's Open Cinema and have come together for a screening of Black Gold: A Look at Fair Trade and the Global Economy of Coffee on Tuesday February 20th at Herman's Jazz Club (map)...tonight at 7:00pm.

The film traces "the trade route of Ethiopian coffee beans through various middlemen to your friendly neighbourhood cafe or supermarket shelves, and drives home the human value of fair trade, " and the night will also feature a man familiar to the Place (he spoke at our last retreat after all!) Stacey Toews.

If you're interested in going, come early for food and conversation , as Herman's is open for dinner beforehand and it'd be fun to get a crowd down there early. Tix are between $5 and $10 and you can read more about the evening here.

(ht: The Ethical Purchasing Forum )...and James Kingsley