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

Disarming faith...tough love

 

Let’s not forget the Christian demand of discipleship: “Love your enemies.” Central to the Gospel announcement of Jesus is the nonviolent love of those who would oppose us: sometimes physically and other times ideologically. At the center of discipleship is love–love for God and for neighbors. And lest we forget the criteria for a “neighbor,” Jesus makes that clear in the story of the Good Samaritan: a neighbor is the person we naturally hate. For a Jew in the first century to even acknowledge a Samaritan as anything but a despised traitor to the God of Israel was unthinkable! Yet that is exactly what Jesus called his hearers to–to equate enemies to the status of neighbor. Therefore, a neighbor is any and every person on the face of this earth that we like, dislike, or would even consider an enemy. We are called to love our enemy-neighbors.

The full meal deal...

The great challenge today is to convert the sacred holier than now bread into real bread; the theological jargon of peace into political and social peace; the worship of the out there, up there, somewhere cosmic ruler and judge into reverence for humanity, the exclusive one way, our way community into an authentic all-inclusive human fellowship. It is risky to celebrate the Eucharist, the radical scandalous Jesus meal of love. We may have to leave it unfinished, having gone first to give back to the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the other...what belongs to them.

 

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.

September 11th...don't burn, buy a copy

At first, I was filled with anger in response to the Florida Pastor who plans on having a Koran Bonfire to commemorate the terrorist attack of 9/11 on the World Trade center. Despite what this pastor believes it will do nothing more than fuel the flames hatred, misunderstanding, fear, oppression...and isolating, separating humanity into us and them...those we like, those we dislike. This act greatly diminishes the sacredness of "all" humanity. I have shared my story here before, of my Islamic friend Najeeb whose community I lived in for a year.

It is one thing to speak out against terrorism...but burn, destroy the sacred story of faith community in the context of the global village is itself an act of terrorism.

It uses fear and threatens to intimidate or coerce for political/religious purposes. To blame what happened on 9/11 on the Koran would be incredibly simplistic. It was done by a small radical fundamentalist element of the Islamic faith. That have twisted, distorted and manipulated sacred texts for the own purpose out of context. It is no difference than the long list of atrocities committed by Christians using the Bible for centuries.

Maybe the Florida pastor should read the list and meditate on its content for a while. There is bad element with in the Islamic faith...but our hands are not clean either. But the good news is, it is not the dominant element with in either faith. The majority that seek to find common ground, to share stories of compassion, hospitality, grace, mercy and God's abundant love need to be more vocal. I love this story of St Francis during the crusades. We need to get to know one another, interfaith co-op's and partnerships with our communities. We need to have meals with one another...enjoy the flavours and sounds of each other's cultures.

I can not find anywhere in the gospels where Jesus engaged in another faith in this manner. The story of the Samaritan woman at the well certainly blows our minds as the what the redemptive imagination of what interfaith conversation might look like.

Anyways, enough said. I suggest rather than burn a copy of the Koran, buy one and read it. Or if your going to burn one...burn a copy of the Bible at the same time. We've certainly done enough evil with it in the name of God.

There is a nice interview with Carol Off of CBC's " As It Happens " talking to another Gainesville Florida pastor, Larry Reimer, about Pastor Terry Jones plan to burn the Koran. It's nice to hear progressive voices of faith and compassion in the midst of the craziness. (Listen to Part Two)

God's Economy...the redemptive imagination of the Kingdom

The tactics of Jesus have the power to liberate our imaginations and inspire creative subversions of the status quo. They carve out a space where we can ask questions we never knew we could ask:

What if it's possible to live as citizens of

God's abundant kingdom no matter

what government we live under?

What if it's possible to work against the

principalities and powers of this age

without being captive to them ourselves?

What if it's possible to live God's good life

here and now, no matter what economic

situation we find ourselves in?

What if another world is possible?

What if it's already here?

To interupt the logic of scarcity by trusting Jesus in our homes, churches, and communities is to proclaim the only true economy --- the Kingdom that has broken into this world and will one day utterly consume it in a new heaven and earth. ( God's Economy: Redefining the Health and Wealth Gospel by Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove; pg 75 )

2010, Faith, Hope...and challenge

Well we've just ticked across the threshold of a new year, and a new decade in which I think of hope. Not just sentimental hope, but hope which requires faith...and which challenges me. It challenges me to live better, to live life that makes a difference. To realize that how I live has an impact, even if I can convince myself that I can't see it. That humanity and creation are woven into such an intimate fabric, that even the smallest tear effects us all. That we, all humanity, are brothers and sisters and need to live as a family. I need to live differently. I need to move from being a Christian, to being a radical disciple of Jesus. I need to move from believing the gospel, to living it fully no matter how difficult it might seem. That the more I live the gospel, the more the Kingdom comes into the world around me.

2010, Hope, Faith and challenge...to live life better.

Think of no one as " them"

Don't confuse your comfort with safety

Talk to strangers

Imagine other cultures through their art, poetry and novels

Read the sacred texts of other world religions

Have an inter-faith conversation

Get involved in inter-faith missional projects

Listen to music you don't understand

Dance to it

Think local and global...Act in both worlds

Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture

Question consumption

Know where your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation

Look for fair trade

Help build economies from the bottom up

Acquire few needs

Learn a second ( or a third ) language

Visit people, places and cultures...not tourist attractions

Watch films with subtitles

Learn people's history

Re-define progress

Know physical and political geography

Look at the moon and stars and imagine someone else, somewhere else, looking at it too

Read the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Understand the global economy in terms of people, land and water

Know where your bank banks

Never believe you have a right to someone else's resourses

Refuse to wear corporate logos: defy corporate domination

Question military/corporate connections

don't confuse money with wealth, or time with money

Have a pen/e-mail pal

Honor indigenous cultures

Judge governance by how well it meets all peoples needs

Be skeptical about what you read

Eat adventurous

Choose curiosity over certainty

Know where your water comes from and where it goes

Pledge allegiance to the earth: question nationalism

Assume that many others share your dreams

Know that no one is silent though many are not heard: Work to change this

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

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

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

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

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

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

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

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

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

Jesus...his political disciplines

Randy said this in the comments on the last post...

I think we have to face the fact that Jesus was killed because he was perceived to be a political threat ("King of the Jews"). His language was more political than it was religious. His manifesto (Luke 4) was political in nature. A de-politicized gospel is no gospel at all. But what kind of politics did Jesus practice? Ah ... now there's a question.

Jesus certainly understood politics. From political science in which we examine the acquisition, and the application of power. From political philosophy which seeks a rationale for politics, and an ethic for public behavior. From political economy which seeks to understand the relationship between politics and economy and the governance of the two. And, from a public administration understanding the practice of governance.

I don't think you can read the gospels and not see it's political nature. Jesus understood the politics of earthly empires. But Randy raises an extremely important question. What kind of politics did Jesus practice?

A couple of years ago Jim Wallis was asked by a reporter, was Jesus a politician? Here is Jim's answer...

Of course not. But he had a vision of the Kingdom of God which was spiritual, personal, relational, social, economic, and yes, political, because it talked about allegiances and loyalties and authority, and if Jesus was Lord, Caesar was not. His confrontation that he provoked in Jerusalem was with the religious and the political leaders. They saw him as a political threat. If they saw him just as a private pietist, why would they worry? [If he was] helping people get their lives together, helping their marriages, making them better parents and make them go to less Roman orgies and drunken parties, why would that have been a threat to the ruling powers? They regarded him as a threat. I remember I was at Wheaton College once and I asked this class, "Why was Jesus killed?" and they had no idea. They just couldn't comprehend the question. And then one young student said, "Well, to save us from our sins." And I said, "So you think Pontius Pilate was sitting there thinking, 'How am I going to save these American evangelicals from their sins? I'm gonna kill this guy and that will do it.'" Albeit that our theological understanding of the cross and our redemption -- I'm orthodox on all those questions, but he was killed because he was seen as a threat to the rulers both religious and political. In the book I talk about how Jesus confronted the major political options of his day. All four of them were there, they're always there: One was collaborationist, one was pietist, one was withdrawn -- you know, the kind of counter culture -- and one was political insurrection, or revolutionary violence. He confronted them all, he rejected them all. There was a fifth option called the Kingdom of God, and that's our option.

Jesus death was political. Jesus was killed because of his politics. He was killed by the religious and political power of the day. Jesus was sentenced to death because he was a threat. The kingdom is a threat to any empire.

Interestingly Jesus didn't merge, entering into the political arena of the day to reform politics to give the roman empire a more liberal tone. He did the same with religion. As Christians, we are delusional if we think we can vote and elect the Kingdom into being. The Kingdom can only be lived into being. Jesus lived and spoke the Kingdom into being on the fringe of empire. It was not to be seen of as part of the empire, but to be seen as a profound alternative, " the city on a hill."

There is only one ruler in the Kingdom, It is not a democracy. If it is a democracy, it is a democracy of 3; Father, Son and Spirit. Always as one, in perfect unity. If we are Kingdom people, this is where our allegiance lies. And if we want to practice the disciplines of the Kingdom, be disciples of it's ruler...then we try to the best of our ability to live the gospels on a daily basis. We live them out in the comings and goings of our day, we live them out as individuals, and live them out as a community. On earth, as in heaven...may your Kingdom come.

UPDATE...

James Kingsley, graphic artist extraordinaire puts the thrust of the post in an image.

(After reading Ron's post I just couldn't resist adding a little twist to Fairey's Hope poster)