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

In God's mind...the Kingdom

The Kingdom is to ...

begin to bring in the shalom prophesied by Isaiah and embodied in Jesus. We'll keep on until we are interconnected and intertwined with the whole world. There is a new world coming. It must come because it is in God's mind and God has willed it.

What we do with intensity and focus in our own neighborhood, the one in which God has set our community--your community--will enable us to reach out in affection to the whole globe. To the whole human family. To the whole created order.

The time has come when all limited patriotic boundaries must be transcended. Everything is interconnected. We are related in affection to everything. ( Gordon Cosby )

The Kingdom, in God's mind...this was the vine that Jesus was attached, that he calls us to graft into...this is where the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of re-creation flows from.

May your Kingdom come, on Earth as in Heaven.

Tune in, Turn on, let it Flow...a new Genesis, a new Creation...The Kingdom of God.

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.

 

More questions that have changed my faith: the size of our table

Often I wonder why communion in the context of church is not a constant reminder of Jesus radical scandalous table fellowship, instead of a ritual that confirms what an exclusive dining club the church is.

Early on Jesus was making the " temple-folk " very uncomfortable with his eating habits. Early in Mark, The Pharisee's saw Jesus at Levi's house, Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riffraff?"

I love this quote, " My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of that same poverty.
They speak of homeland." Jesus made his home in the brokenness of humanity, it's filth and stench was like incense to him...worthy and acceptable. This was the Kingdom, it's glorious beauty coming to life in startling contrast to the exclusiveness of religion and society. It was Jesus turning the dining table of the world upside down.

Blessed are the poor, for the Kingdom of God will be theirs. I recall Bono saying, " God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."

Sometimes I wonder if God isn't camped out closer to hell than he is to heaven.

People at the margins, the needle strewn back alleys of the inner city, the drunk passed out in urine soaked pants in shop door way, the mentally ill, the poor and illiterate might not be able to follow our poetic, finessed, exegetical precise obstacle filled maze to getting it right with God, but they know poverty, and hunger...they know how to eat. They'll eat with a Jesus who invites them

It was the in-crowd, the spiffy and spotless religious know-it-alls who were to good to clink glasses and rub elbows with the dirty, rough around the edges riff-raff. " Why do you eat food with unlean hands. If you have ever served food to folks living on the streets in the inner city, the first thing you notice is their hands reflect their lives...filthy, cracked, dry, broken and bleeding.

Why do you food with drug addicts, homosexuals, prostitutes, drunks, thieves...social rejects? God just wouldn't eat with people like that?

Jesus...the religious folks thought he was a sinner. But he was God, in human flesh and bones camped out in the filthy, poverty and brokenness of the inner city of his day.

Here's the clincher. And I know for some it will go down like a bad meal, and you'll want to puke it right back up. There is no record they had to " repent " to eat at Jesus table. The fact that they accepted his invitation, they came as prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, lame, blind, diseased, poor and hungry. Could it be the fact they ate and enjoyed table fellowship with Jesus was repentance enough?

I really wonder if our communion doesn't say more about " us ", than it does God?

Collision:Jesus death...why?

For much of my life Jesus life and death has been a profound mystery that has consumed me. How do I come to terms with the "why"? For much of my " church-life ", I really didn't have to wrestle with it. I was told "why". I had to believe the "why" I was handed, and if I believed...Jesus accepted me.

But after 40 or so years, I'm not sure if even Jesus accepts this " why " he had to die. A God, a father, a creator of all that exists that is so angry, that the only way he can reconcile himself to humanity is to give birth to an only child, make him a scapegoat and pour out his wrath, and punishment...to appease his thirst for vengeance and justice. This is supposed to be some kind of sick love story, he did this all out of love. Is this really what that last mysterious week of Jesus life was all about...a premeditated murder by a sociopath god who has deep relationship issues?

I think about the start of this last crazy week, Palm Sunday. From the east Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem, while crowds through robes creating a " red carpet " and wave branches, shouting, " Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

Echoing in Jesus mind must be the words of the prophet Zechariah, "Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion! Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem! Your king is coming!  a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey." ( Zech 9:9 )

Why? I keep asking myself why? A King, a Kingdom...a good King who will make all things right. Could salvation be much much bigger than Jesus taking our punishment, bearing my sin and yours...just so dear old dad might accept, and love us.

But even more mysterious, if we read one verse more  Zechariah, the prophet says, " I've had it with war—no more chariots in Ephraim, no more war horses in Jerusalem, no more swords and spears, bows and arrows. He will offer peace to the nations, a peaceful rule worldwide, from the four winds to the seven seas."

What is going on? This seems far beyond just personal sin, it seems almost political, global...it has the appearance of a protest march that involves " all " humanity. Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees...what else is going on in Jerusalem?

Across the city, if you listen close enough you can almost hear it...the thunder of hoofs hitting the ground, the rhythmic shuffle of feet, soldiers marching from the west. There is the sound of war drums, the snap of whips cracking the air. There is the clanking of steel and armour. There is the glimmer of shields and swords in the bright sunlight. This is the emperor, the roman army...it is Pilate's procession the embodiment of power, glory and violence...the empire that rules the world.

This really is much bigger than an innocent man on death row on a suicide mission willing to die for me...the real convicted, and guilty inmate. This really is cosmic...it will be a nuclear explosion beyond human imagination...it is the collision of two worlds.

 On the one side you have a radical scandalous king revealing a kingdom amidst the powerless, the broken, the unloved, stumbling saints and sinners, the poor, the oppressed, the sick, the lame and the blind. It is a kingdom of non-violence, of love, and of grace. It is a kingdom of justice. It is this kingdom that moves humbly from the east.

The other side it is the power, wealth and might of a world empire. It is an empire of corruption. and oppression. It is an empire that consumes, and of greed. It will use the sword to maintain control. It will use war to spread it's propaganda, to own more of the world...to draw larger maps. There is no justice for all, it is a justice that is self serving...to protect those at the top. It is an empire that is concerned with wealth and power...more and more.

I really think Jesus death is about the collision of these two worlds, the Kingdom and the empire. It is in this collision that Jesus is murdered. But mysteriously resurrection happens...this powerless Kingdom can not be destroyed.

The big question for me is...how do I live in the midst of this collision, between Kingdom and empire? What will I resurrect with my life in the midst of the rubble around me? I wonder if the reality of what salvation is all about is found here?

 

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.

OK! No more Kingdom language...something more culturally relevant and conservative.

 

There has been some grumbling, and whining around the word " Kingdom " the language and it's use, like ( here ) and ( there). For some it's just not culturally relevant enough...and for the Evangelicals are fearful it's just too liberating. So some, figure people just aren't smart enough to get " it ", and the others its just too grace-filled, like a house with an open door that " anyone ' can walk into. So, here is my attempt to help these people fix the problem of the " Kingdom."

So really if we really want to solve the problem you can't just do a patch job like repairing a leaky roof...as Mike Holmes says, " gut it ", you have to go right back to the start. Now, I'm not going to re-write the whole Bible...I could, but I'm not. I'll just sort of pour a foundation we can build on. Well, hang on, here we go...the beginning.

In the beginning God was lonely, productivity between the other 2 partners was down. Not much was happening except grumbling. The Spirit guy was like he had ADD, just couldn't settle down. " Let's build something ", the Spirit said. The Word guy, " OK, I'll say it and you build it."

Finally there was some creativity among the three partners. 

God said, "Light!" And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. 
God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning—Day One. " Now, we will have daily sales, weekly sales...seasonal sales " God looked at what he made and said, " This is good...very good."

 God thought. " Land to develop!" And the Word guy spoke, " Bulldoze." And the Spirit guy, frenzied went into action. There was dirt flying every where in all directions. " Not good enough!" shouted God. The Word guy stuttered momentarily, but out came the word, " Pavement." Again, the Spirit guy brooded over the ground waving is arms, and suddenly like rolling out carpet, there was a hard surface. God smiled, scratching his head and suddenly shouted, " Parking lot." Day Two. God looked at what he had made and said, " This is good...it is really getting good."

God thought, lost for words put his hand over his head, then moved his arms along his side. Frustrated like a game of charades, shouted out, " sounds like?" Mr. Word, excitedly jumped up and down, shouted, " Building!" Again, like a kid that had eaten far too much candy Mr. Spirit was spinning like a hurricane. Suddenly, there was an enormous building that seem to spread out for miles. God looked on amazed and said, " Yes!...W-mart." Day Three. God looked at what had been made so far and said, " This is better than good...this is freaking awesome."

God looked on stroking his long white beard, " It's a lot of empty space." Mr. Word closed his eyes as if imagining something . Suddenly, out it came, " lets fill it ", he proclaimed, " With stuff, crap and all kinds of junk." Suddenly, there was screaming and yelling, his body twisting and contorting like a crystal meth addict, Mr. Spirit was moving like the wind in and out of the W-mart. In a matter of hours it was filled with everything and anything imaginable. Again, God gave the partners the thumbs up and said, " Merchandise." Day Four. God looked at what had been made so far and glee-ly rubbed his hands and thought, " Marketing!"

Day Five was not a very creative day but it was productive. It was a round table discussion of what to do with this huge mega-building of stuff, the utopian garden, W-mart. The three partners wandered around the immense building, aisle after aisle counting and taking stock, and puting price stickers on all the merchandise. It takes a lot to impress this tri-union business team, but, they were astounded at what they had built. But they were still stumped as what do do with their creation. So God said, " let's call it a day." Day Five. God looked around at what he had made, his eyes flickering like candles ready to go out...suddenly he was snoring.

God dreamed all night, but in the morning he awoke bright-eyed and refreshed. He quickly nudged the other two partners waking them up. He then shared his dream, " let's make people that sort of look like us, but that aren't as smart...and really like the stuff in W-mart." Mr. Word looked at God, then at Mr. Spirit and said, " lets call them consumers." So God dug his hand in the filthy dirt and dug out a clump, coughed on it, threw it down. And there before there eyes stood the first consumer. Day Six. God looked around at everything he had made, and then looked at the first consumer and smiled from ear to ear saying, " I have a plan!"

This was the end of a busy busy week, so God said, " Let's rest...before we put our plan into motion." Day Seven.

God looked on at the male consumer wandering around W-mart confused and frustrated not knowing what to buy. This saddened God, but not only that, he was loosing on everything the partners had invested in. So he said, " It is not good for the male consumer to be alone, he needs a partner." So God created the female consumer...the ultimate shopper.

So God took the two of them aside and said, " all this is yours to manage...everything in the Mall." " But what ever you do, by no means open the safe in the middle of W-mart that contains the book of Knowledge, " The Perfect Business Plan ", God said looking at them sternly, " For if you do, you will surely die." " Now go forth and multiply, fill the earth with more and more consumers."

I think we know what happened...they did open the safe. It was her fault, always just had to have the best deal. God threw them out of the W-mart. And they did multiply...but it continued to be a series of failed small franchises, mom and pop operations. Finally sick of the failed operations, poor productivity and no profit, God decided to erase everyone of the face of the earth. But while fluttering around the earth Mr. Spirit happened to notice one consumer with potential so he went back and told God about Noah and his family.

God spoke to Noah and told him of his plan to erase this lot of consumers from the face of the earth. God told Noah to build a super tanker and fill it with two of everything from W-mart. When the task was completed it would rain for forty days and forty nights, the earth would be flooded erasing the old lot of consumers. At the end of the forty days, the earth would dry again. But God would make a promise, a rainbow would appear to indicate it would never happen again.

But as always, it's a continuation of the same old shit, failure after failure...failed businesses, poor productivity and no profit. All through history God sends prophets, or shrewd business managers to steer the consumers back in the right direction. It doesn't help...the unruly consumers beat, them up, kill them...and just run some out of town.

As the hands of time keep ticking along and history unravels, things just don't get any better. Thinking back to the beginning God wonders if he shouldn't have mixed a bit more " smart " into the consumers. But finally fed up with all the crap that has been going on...he sends Mr. Word to speak some common sense into the consumer. Mr. Word shares this parable with the consumers from Matthew...

Here's another story. Gather around and listen closely. There once was a an owner ( God, creator), a shrewd aggressive business man, abundantly wealthy, who built a mall, W-mart ( creation). He fenced it, with a cash register and safe, and turned it over to the managers and consumers ( humanity ) and then left for a far away trip.

When the time arrived for it to bear profit ( the fullness of the Kingdom ), he sent his regional managers ( the prophets ) to check on them. But the consumers ( humanity, the empire, religion ) beat some and killed others. The managers/consumers grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more regional managers. They got the same treatment.

Finally, the owner ( God ) sent his son (Mr.Word ), saying, “Surely they will reverence my son.” But this was not the case. They laid hold of him, cast him out, and killed him.

  "Now, when the owner of W-mart arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the mangers/consumers?" ( my paraphrase Matthew 21:33-46 )

OK. No more " Kingdom Language " because people just don't get it, can't relate to it. From now on the new Kingdom...is W-mart. We all get that. Also, to avoid any connection with the old Kingdom language being too liberating...now it is serious business.

 ( Remember, this is satirical writing...put down your stones )

(continued ) a parable:the murder of the farm owner's son

Continuing on from my recent post " a parable: the murder of the farm owner's son " investigating the crime scene. So the owner, ( God ), sends his son, ( Jesus ) into the midst of the vineyard, ( creation ) to confront the tenants ( humanity ) about the fruit ( the fullness of the Kingdom ) the tenants have produced.

In the reality of what the Kingdom should be, where the fruit that is produced by the vineyard produces abundant life for " everyone ", Jesus heart is moved with compassion to those who are left with little or nothing. He lives and moves among those oppressed, the sick, the blind and lame...those left to fend for themselves because of the systemic sin and corruption that infests and infects the institutions ( political, economic and religious ) that manage the distribution of things that sustain life...including God.

Jesus is consumed about the redemption and restoration of the Kingdom...what life would be like if God was King.

Every revolutionary needs a manifesto and Jesus proclaims his from the get-go. From a hillside surrounded by his followers, by waves of on-lookers they will hear words of shock and awe. It was as if Jesus was pushing the " reset " button on the operating software to human living.

These words...sent life as the status quo to a screeching halt.

From here Jesus moves into the midst of life, absolutely every moment of Jesus life is about the Kingdom and its fruit. But this is not the violent revolution that his followers, and many of the on-lookers expect. Even early on Jesus' cousin John, arrested for his part in clearing the road, and leveling the ground for Jesus' Kingdom revolution...has huge concerns as to the effectiveness of this Kingdom revolution.

When he got wind of what Jesus was doing, he sent his own disciples to ask, "Are you the One we've been expecting, or are we still waiting?" Jesus told them, "Go back and tell John what's going on: 

   The blind see,
   The lame walk,
   Lepers are cleansed,
   The deaf hear,
   The dead are raised,
   The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
"Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!"

But, it continues, Jesus life is a parabolic reality of the Kingdom. Every where he goes it is the Kingdom rubbing up against the world...it is the startling subversive truth of an alternative world of profound justice and grace where there is abundant life for " all." At the same time it is the authority of the Kingdom clashing with rulers of the worldly empire, and the franchise owners of God. It is here in the underbelly, in the shadows and dark corners where Paul talks about the principalities and powers of darkness where the systemic sin festers like puss in a deep infected wound. It's here something devious, a murderous plot is starting to hatch.

The reality of the Kingdom is not a new trend, a buzz word to get people fired up for a few days only to fade away. The prophets of past days always arrived in the midst of humanity to re-boot the hard drive from which they operate life.

"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 )

But the reality, the truth is, Jesus starts telling these wild scandalous redemptive parables, mysteries to capture the imagination of humanity...to God's justice. It was not just loving your friends, it was about loving people you can't stand, people you hate...your enemies. It was not just making sure your rights were protected...it was about becoming a voice for the widow, the orphan, the most marginalized people around you. It was about forgiveness, seventy times seventy...it was scandalous. It was about setting the captives free. It was universal health insurance where as humanity we tried to heal everyone...not the ones who could afford to pay. It was the miracle of feeding the masses...to the point of sharing your last scrap of food knowing you'd go hungry.  There was no in crowd; Jesus knocked down all fences, barriers and borders...as humanity we were one, and we were in this all together. And no one had ownership of God...it didn't matter where you worshipped...it was about doing it in a profound sense of truth. And well, right living, righteousness came down to...loving, God with all your heart, mind and soul...and loving your neighbor as yourself, almost echoing Micah's words.

This was all the " Stuff " this is what the fruit of the Kingdom looks like...this is the fruit that produces life for " All " humanity.

Could it be God, sends his son as humanity's last chance. At the game of life, God throws in all his chips to send his Son to finally reveal, and show humanity to live out the fullness of humanity in the Kingdom of God ? We see this all through the parables in the gospels. Jesus passion is his Fathers passion...the voice of the prophets passion...the Kingdom of God.

Could it be the same principalities and powers of darkness that have always roamed the earth, corrupted the empire of the day to inflict injustice, oppression...a life void of the abundant and just life that comes from being plugged into God ? Could it be the empire deceived by the principalities and powers of darkness accused Jesus...and murdered Jesus ?

 

Could it be not so much a sacrifice for sin...but a horrid murder by the principalities and powers of darkness ?

Could it be on the cross, the principalities and powers of darkness were high-fiving each other that they had finally defeated the Kingdom of God. That now they would control the mind and imagination of humanity...this would be the new world order ?

Could it be Miraculously, God smashed his fist on the " reset " button of evolving creation and said " Hell No!" and in the pursuing after shocks the stone rolled away...and God resurrected Jesus and the Kingdom. The principalities and powers of darkness were finally conquered ?

So, I think belief for me, moves me into the profound mystery of the cross, that Jesus did conquer death and evil ( the principalities and powers of darkness ) , and by faith, I move into the resurrection, I move into the radical scandalous life and teaching of Jesus found in the gospels. Through the spirit of God, that profound mystery is embedded in my DNA. It is no longer I that lives, but Jesus with in me.

Here plugged into this new life, the new creation, the kingdom of God...he calls me, and humanity to be collaborators with him building his Kingdom now...and at the same time pointing to when the fullness of his Kingdom will come into being.

It's almost as if it is that answering of those profound words in Jesus prayer, " Father, may your Kingdom come, on earth as in heaven." It is the profound redemptive mystery of God and humanity emerging into one.

I think , for me, christianity's greatest sin...is that we've made Jesus a scapegoat for " a murder " we committed. That we continue to comitt it by proclaiming his death was about nothing more than forgiveness for personal sin. And that we have very little passion for Jesus' Kingdom...the reality that consumed his life. The reality that he was willing to bet his life on...and the reality that most live like the Kingdom doesn't exist.

Christmas...for Christ's sake let's leave Jesus out of our ritual

Yeah, I Know...Bah! hum bug. I'm a party pooper. I haven't always been this way...it's been a forty year journey to this point. It's been processing, digesting the word of God. Sometimes it stays down. Sometimes you puke it up...because it's too unsettling in the pit of your stomach. But this year, what I've metabolized has likely turned into what for many will be a heretical revelation. For anyone that would like to hear, join me...for those of you that don't, press escape.

I've never been big on predestination. That life is somehow a scripted play, that we are all actors living it out on a big stage word for word. Do we really enter and exit the stage as directed? Can we the actors change the course of the play, or are there really strings attached to each one of us that limits our movement.

Maybe...there is no script. Maybe, it is one of the most mysteriously profound relationships that anyone of us can imagine, including God. Maybe, faith is this fragile relationship in which we are willing to chance trust in God...and God trust in us.

And, if there is something that holds this relationship together...it is " Justice and Righteousness ." This is the strand, more than anything that seems to knit God and Humanity together. Through the prophets, through to the prophetic revelation of Jesus becoming a fulfilled reality. The strand of Justice and Righteousness holds it all together.

How often, maybe we unconsciously recite the Lord's Prayer, the opening words...

 

Our Father, which art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done,

in earth as it is in heaven.

 

The words of Isaiah and Jeremiah should haunt us. " The Lord is exalted," proclaims Isaiah, " He dwells on high; He filled Zion with justice and righteousness." ( Isa 33:5 ) And, Jeremiah speaking in the name of God, " I act with steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight."

The reality, and life of the relationship is that Justice and Righteousness flows from God to us...and from us through out all creation. This is the reality of " Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In this profound mysterious truth " God and Humanity " dwell together in the most powerful vibrant harmony. This is the power and beauty of the Kingdom that defies all imagination.

Prophet after prophet spoke the same thing, God's will for " Justice and Righteousness." Our lofty worship, our pious words, our legal rituals and laws...our sacrifice...brought no delight to our heavenly Father. One thing he delighted in, and one thing he desired...Justice and Righteousness.

But in our " Self " fixation. We with our myopia have only been able to see Justice and Righteousness as being about " Us." The apple thing in the garden. Bad deserves punishment. If the bad are punished, justice has been served...things are made right.

Big question...could things be put right if humanity radically took God at his word and lived out " Justice and Righteousness." You can't help but listen to the prophets...and begin to think, maybe.

Micah, I think wondered and asked the same question...

How can I stand up before God 
   and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings 
   topped off with yearling calves?
Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, 
   with buckets and barrels of olive oil?
Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, 
   my precious baby, to cancel my sin?

 But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, 
   what God is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, 
   be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously— 
   take God seriously. ( Mic 6:6-8 )

And from the prophet Jeremiah, " This is God's Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don't take advantage of the homeless, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!" ( Jer 22:3 )

I think the tragedy of Christmas, is it is so much about " us "...God entered into the midst of humanity to forgive us our sin. When incredibly it is about the divine redemptive imagination of the God of ALL creation, birthed into the midst of humanity...recreating, speaking and breathing a new Genesis into humanity. It is the pulse, and passion of His heart...His delight in justice and righteousness. It is the profound reality of His Kingdom."

That has become our fixation, " Sin. " Him being punished on our behalf, our debt to God paid.It is something we worship so much that we are blind to Justice and Righteousness...the reality that truly restores our relationship with God.

Could it be God grew weary of sending prophets, repeating the same message over and over again...to a humanity that was growing increasingly deaf to anything God had to say.

Could it be that God got to some point between the beginning and the end and said, " @#$% ^* ", And grabbed his mustard seed of faith...a profound incredibly mysterious part of himself...birthing himself into the womb of humanity. 

If humanity couldn't listen to the prophets words about Justice and Righteousness...maybe humanity could see and hear the reality of God's Justice and Righteousness in their midst. That seed that was birthed into the womb of humanity was the Son of God. Jesus was birthed outside religion, birthed on the margins of humanity, birthed in poverty, injustice and oppression. It was here Jesus became the living reality of God's Justice and Righteousness. It is here, he called humanity to follow into God's Righteousness and Justice. If we believed, if we followed, if we lived it...it would be God's Kingdom on earth as in heaven.

The question that haunts me this Christmas is...could it be that Jesus didn't sacrifice himself for our sin, but we killed him, because...Justice and Righteousness are just too costly? This Christmas, are you thinking more about worship...or Justice and Righteousness? I wonder what gift God would delight in?

 In the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of Jesus...I think he imagined that something would be birthed much more redemptive than a christmas ritual. Sadly, we think he came for our forgiveness...when he came to reveal the Father's will, the Father's passion, what the Father truly delights in. Justice and Righteousness for " ALL " humanity.

Living...radical christianity::podcast with Jarrod McKenna

 

I first came across Jarrod McKenna a few years ago reading the writing of John Dear. You could also say that Jarrod is the Australian version of Shane Claiborne. I don't think Jarrod would mind the comparison, seeing as he and Shane are good friends. He is part of a radical element on the the fringe of the church that sees faith and works, the practice and action of faith as being critical. The teachings of Jesus put into practice must be lived out, as radically today... to dilute them, co-modify and embed them in western church culture is not the redemptive vision and imagination of Jesus. This radical fringe believes Christianity is in trouble because it has become to passive and culturally accommodating. They are stirring the luke warm pot of status quo Christianity.

Jarrod is also part of " Empowering Peace Makers in Your Community." EPYC is an exciting initiative to give young people the opportunity to learn about nonviolence in theory and application. In our troubled world, this is a timely offer. We must find ways of dealing with conflicts at the personal and political levels other than through violence.

Around the world there is an emerging generation of young leaders who are rediscovering the radical implications of Jesus message and are letting their lives speak of these alternatives to the cycles of violence, poverty and environmental destruction. 

I invite you and encourage you to listen to a recent podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sunday Night with John Cleary where he interviews Jarrod McKenna. If your wondering what deep radical Christianity might look lived out today, Jarrod McKenna gives us a great vision, to encourage us all, to live and dig deep.

You can listen to it here, and come back...I'd love to hear your impressions.

the Kingdom...in God's mind

The Kingdom is to ...

begin to bring in the shalom prophesied by Isaiah and embodied in Jesus. We'll keep on until we are interconnected and intertwined with the whole world. There is a new world coming. It must come because it is in God's mind and God has willed it.

What we do with intensity and focus in our own neighborhood, the one in which God has set our community--your community--will enable us to reach out in affection to the whole globe. To the whole human family. To the whole created order.

The time has come when all limited patriotic boundaries must be transcended. Everything is interconnected. We are related in affection to everything. ( Gordon Cosby )

The Kingdom, in God's mind...this was the vine that Jesus was attached, that he calls us to graft into...this is where the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of re-creation flows from.

May your Kingdom come, on Earth as in Heaven.

Tune in, Turn on, let it Flow...a new Genesis, a new Creation...The Kingdom of God.