Stay The Course Joseph !

This last week I’ve been reading again the account of Jesus’ birth in Matthew’s Gospel. Talk about living life in circles… This is my 41^st Christmas and I know this story like the back of my hand. It’s all there…

There’s the angel appearing to Joseph saying, “Stay the course Joseph. Mary is pregnant and you are not the father but hang in there. This child is special. This baby is destined for great things.”

Then there’s the wisemen, the Magi who arrive in Jerusalem from the East. They’ve come expecting to find a kingdom in the middle of a party. And they come asking, “So are we too late ? Where is this baby who has been born King of the Jews ? We saw his star rising in the East. We want to meet him and we… have… presents !”

And then there’s the startled King Herod. He’s hosting no party. All he seems to want to give the wisemen is his suspicion and his forty questions. And then Herod sends the wisemen on their way with murderous intent. He’s says, “Look, you keep following your star. When you find this royal child, you let me know. I have something special I want to give him !”

And the wisemen… well they just keep following their star & searching, till they find the baby Jesus. He is certainly not living in a palace but the wisemen are certainly not disappointed. Scripture says they are overwhelmed with joy.

Yet despite their joy, despite their celebrating… the many threads of this story begin to unravel. Herod is filled with murderous intent. He is anxiously waiting for news of the location of the child. The wiseman are warned via a dream. They do not return to their country via Herod’s palace. And when Herod finds this out he unleashes his murderous rage.

One night soon after, Joseph is woken up from restful slumber by another angel. The angel says, “Wake up and run Joseph. Take Mary and the baby and go far away from this place. Go to Egypt. Herod is coming to kill the baby. Run Joseph, run away now!”

I said before, I know all these aspects of the story like the back of my hand.

However, the part of the story that rings the most true with my experience of the world is also the most terrible. It’s Herod’s slaughter of the infants. In response to the arrival of the wisemen, Herod is threatened at the most fundamental level. In fear & fury he unleashes infanticide on all the toddlers and babies 2 years and under in and around the town of Bethlehem. It’s a monstrous act of political expediency.   

Can you imagine it ? Can you imagine the impact, the pain of this action rippling through a community, through an entire district ? Can you picture the mass of mothers weeping inconsolable in their grief, over their lost children ? All that hope, all that potential wiped out in one callous and capricious act. It’s breath taking in its sheer horror. 

And the wonder of it, is that Jesus, the helpless & unknowing infant survives. God intervenes and Scripture gives us the image of this one who is born King of Jews fleeing with his parents. They run like refugees and their only protection is the cover of darkness.

For a time this fragile royal family become aliens and strangers in the land of Egypt. But the world turns. Scripture says Herod dies but Joseph is still afraid to return to his own country. Again Joseph is woken from peaceful slumber. And the angel says, “Get up and go Joseph. It is time to return home. Take the child and his mother and go back to Israel!”

So Joseph gets up and again he goes. And when Joseph finally arrives back home, I get a sense he continues living anonymously and below the radar in Nazareth. Even at this point, you can still see the consequences of Herod’s actions… rippling out in all directions, affecting Joseph’s choices long after Herod is dead. Jesus, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the King of the Jews, becomes Jesus the son of Joseph, a carpenter living in a rural Jewish backwater.  

“Kill Me, I Am Going To Kill You !”

During the week one of those tragic news stories we here about all too often came close to home…

Just over a week ago now I heard the tragic story of Tyler Cassidy. Tyler was the knife-wielding boy of just 15 who was shot dead by police near a skateboard ramp in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Evidently, Tyler had just stolen two knives from K Mart, when he was confronted by the police. He was confused and agitated and ranting. And four policemen were trying to calm him down. Then the situation deteriorated. Tyler started yelling… “Kill me, I’m going to kill you”… And then 3 of the 4 policemen decided the only way to contain this rather short & weedy 15 yr old, was by firing 10 bullets into him.

Tyler died alone, gasping for his last breathes… His life flowing out of him through the bullet wounds in his chest.

And we are left dumbfounded and shaking our heads… “How is such a thing possible ? How can this happen in our so called sophisticated & civilized society ?”

I said before that during the week this story came close to home. My church supports Scott & Cathrine Girvan who have been working for many years now with GiA in Africa. Tyler Cassidy was Scott and Kathryn’s nephew.

Catherine emailed us during the week… “Please remember us in your prayers. Late Thursday afternoon, Scott’s 15 year old nephew was shot and killed by police in Victoria. As you can imagine his sister and mother are overcome with grief at this time…” Then the email finishes off, “Pray for Scott as he tries to find a way to fly back to Melbourne…” And I say pray for Catherine as she and her 2 girls wait disturbed and anxious and questioning in Africa…

It’s at times like this that you realise how the consequences of our decisions & of our actions ripple out in all directions, long after they are done.

It reminds me of what God says to Cain after he murders his brother Abel. He says, “What have you done ? Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” It’s like he is saying the violent actions of men continue screaming out to God – long after they are finished.

And don’t you get tired of the violence upon violence, the screams and the left over cries of pain ?

Of Five Blind Men and an Elephant

 

blind_men_and_an_elephant

One day five blind men, who knew nothing about elephants, went to examine one to find out what kind of a thing it was. Reaching out randomly, each began touching & feeling it in a different spot. One man reached out and felt the vastness of its side, while another grabbed onto its ear. The third blind man stretched his arms around a leg, while another was feeling along the cool smoothness of a tusk. The fifth blind man became fascinated and entwined in the trunk.  

When blind men were all satisfied that they now knew the true nature of the beast, they all sat back down to discuss it.

“We now know that the elephant is like a wall,” said the first blind man. “The evidence for it is conclusive.”

Then ear toucher corrected him saying, “I believe you are mistaken, sir, the elephant is more like a large fan.”

“You are both wrong,” said the third blind man who felt a leg, “the creature is obviously like a tree.”

“A tree?”, questioned the tusk feeler. “How can you mistaken a spear for a tree ?”

“What?” exclaimed the fifth blind man who had felt the trunk. “A spear maybe long and round, but everyone knows it can’t move by itself. Couldn’t you feel the sinuous muscles of this creature ? It’s definitely a type of snake! Even a blind man could see that!”.

The argument grew more & more heated, until it erupted into a violent scuffle. The five blind men were punching off into the air as much as they were hitting into one another. All the while they were still arguing their particular points of view.

I really like the story of the five blind men and the elephant. I like what it says about the nature of truth… what it says about the enormity, the complexity of the reality we experience… moment by moment. I like what the story says about the nature of people – of men particularly.

How is it that people become so convinced about their own point of view ? How can they become so blind & stuck and hold onto their partially formed ideas to the exclusion of all others ? 

I like what the 13^th century Persian poet Rumi says about this story. He says, “The sensual eye is just like the palm of a hand. The palm does not have the means of covering the whole beast.”

I have been a Christian for twenty-plus years now and I have a similar sense about being a follower of Jesus. I agree with the Apostle Paul, living in the presence of an unseen God is like seeing through the glass dimly.

The Guardian

                        

Recently, I was watching ‘The Guardian’ – an American Coastguard movie starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher.

I was reminded that to be plunged into an angry sea is to be immersed in life beyond my control – to be treading water in a world that doesn’t think a moment on my comfort or safety. To be effective in such a place is about self-care & preparation – a learning that leverages presence & possibility out of otherwise annihilating conditions. There is an intuition at work here, a determined purpose of fixed focus & particular choices. There will always be the other others but out here I attend to those in close proximity. Always my own safety is paramount – my health and effectiveness depend upon it.

An angry sea is a reminder of the fragility of life, of my nakedness – my exposure in the world. There is a destructive randomness & violence about this planet – a tremendous power that puts men in their place. For those who dare to dwell here – legends attach themselves like molluscs – accretions of men being more – intensifying their presence.

The world of technology, of structure on the edge of chaos allows men to get unnaturally close to raw nature. Yet to enter the angry sea, the fisher of men takes an old fashioned jump – a leap of faith beyond comfort & safety – the possibility of death increasing exponentially – extinction – irrelevance – a step beyond rationality, a dunking in the death zone.

Ours is a fragmented humanity, broken by circumstance, traumatized by incident, marked by particular choices. The chance of redemption is life for those past the point of no return. To save the ones you can and to let the others go is the choice of one who would be a Guardian.

Walking On Water

There is a narrative whose presence in the Gospels leaves me feeling slightly off balance. Its like a splinter in my imagination…

6 times the story of Jesus and his followers out in a boat on wind blown waters at night appears in the gospels. In each telling some elements of the story remain the same – the disciples, a boat, the wind, their unbridled fear – yet the identity of Jesus is elastic and ambiguous !

In some instances Jesus is in the boat and in other instances he is out of the boat walking on the water. The disturbing thing is that when Jesus is in the boat up close and personal, those who know him best are left asking the question, “What sort of man is this ?”  Out of the boat he appears at distance like some kind of ghost or phantasm and the disciples cry out in fear and terror. Neither option brings relief.

As the boat moves out onto the water, away from the crowd and the safety of the known, it is as though it slipped through a crack between the worlds. The disciples took Jesus out in the boat ‘as he was’ yet out on this margin Jesus expands and intensifies. In sleep his dreams evoke the restless, primordial, creative possibilities of Genesis – the storm like ‘a wind from God over the face of the waters’ – pregnant with change & newness. Likewise his prayer alone on the mountain evokes Moses and encounter with holy Otherness – the storm moving before him like ‘the voice of the Lord… over the waters… the God of Glory… thundering’ – powerfully declaring the One who walks on water.

John captures this ‘holy otherness’ when he tells the story. In his telling, Jesus doesn’t calm the storm. He instead reveals himself to them as ‘I am – do be afraid’ & when the disciples try to take him into the boat, they instantly arrive at the their destination. What happens in-between happens on Jesus’ terms. And Jesus will not be contained or domesticated.

Wonderfully Held

I am a fragile vessel and the world pours through me, unrelenting sometimes – with such a force, I become pitted, cracked & worn down, so everything comes gushing out in the broken places.

The wonder of it all is that I do not break… I do not break because I am wonderfully held!

Arms Wide Open

The Sermon on the Mount. These words of Jesus are life… life lived abundantly, generously, with arms wide open. They create the space for us to live life BIG, to embrace today – even when the storms of life come. These words are demanding because every stroke and letter is absolutely brimming with the merciful, compassionate and grace-filled way that God deals with people. These teachings of Jesus are what it means to live life naked and exposed in the very presence of God himself.

That’s why everyone who hears these words of Jesus and who acts on them are like the wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rains came down and the floods came up. The winds blew and beat on the house but it did not fall because it was founded on a firm foundation. I like what Rob Bell says about storms. He says it’s not like the storms might come. Storms come. The difference between a wise and a foolish man is in their ability to weather the storm. 

Truth Stranger Than Fiction

Sometimes, when I read the local paper, I am overwhelmed by the violence, by the screams and by the left over cries of loved ones struggling with their grief…

I mean it can be a brutal read. Take one recent Friday. The lead story was about Luke Hankey, a popular 24 yr old surfer from Bateau Bay. Luke was in the carpark of the local bar, when a fight erupted involving up to 25 males. When it was over, Luke was laying in a pool of blood, dying right there on the asphalt.

On the same page there was another story about a man from Wyong – aged 35 who murdered his 25 yr old partner, during a domestic dispute.  In his rage he stabbed her several times.

A couple of pages on, there was the story of police being called to a house in Umina Beach. Following an argument with his wife, a 37 yr old man, dragged an LPG gas bottle & a jerry can full of petrol into the house. He was feeling so overwhelmed that he was threatening to blow himself up. His wife escaped with their two girls but it took the police another eight hours to talk the guy around.

A few minutes later, I went looking for news about a murdered toddler I had heard about – Dean Shillingsworth – whose body was found in suitcase in a pond in South Western Sydney. I googled ‘dead boy found in suitcase’ only to find a bigger, more grisly story about five dead newborns babies found in a plastic bag in a cellar in Northern France. A 35 yr old woman admitted giving birth to the babies between 1999 and 2006.

Don’t you get tired of the violence upon violence, the screams and the left over cries of pain ?

It reminds me of what God says to Cain after he murders his brother Abel. He says, “What have you done ? Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground”. It’s like he is saying the violent actions of men continue screaming out to God – long after they are done.

In God’s reality, actions truly speak louder than words.

Oh My God !

I remember my wife being away at a conference and being busy preparing dinner in the kitchen. I was focused and safely immersed in the mundane activities of domestic bliss, when all of a sudden I could hear a high-pitched cry from the garage.  I thought nothing of it because my two boys playing, regularly involves rather loud high-pitched yelps of both pleasure & pain. The problem was that 15 seconds later the noise of it was still there and it was becoming more earnest by the second. It made me come out running, muttering under my breath.

I opened the side door of the garage and the scene unfolded before me. Both boys were crying but my older one was lying on the ground thrashing about grabbing at his neck. At first I thought he was fitting or that he was choking on something but then I was reminded of his high pitched screaming. I rushed to his side and tried to move him and found the situation even more sinister.

Both of my sons had become entangled in a deadly web of almost invisible nylon kite string. Now keep in mind one is six and the other is only four. The older one had the string dangerously wrapped a number of times around his neck. The string was also wrapped tightly around the younger one’s arms and torso and every time he moved in panic, trying to help his brother, the string would pull tighter, cutting into his older brother’s neck.

In those desperate moments my vision narrowed and I felt myself rushing to the precipice of unspeakable horror. My heart was beating out of my chest and I felt sluggish in my thinking.  It took me what seemed forever to break those deadly cords.

When I had finally freed both my boys, I held them tightly, speaking to them quietly, reassuring them with tears streaming down all our faces…

I was very fortunate that day, life isn’t always so forgiving !

You know, it is in those moments, when we are immersed in overwhelmingly difficult circumstances, beyond our control – that Jesus’ cry from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me ?” seem most accessible & resonate deeply within me. 

You know life wasn’t supposed to be this way. In a more just world, a life lived well is supposed to bring blessing & the favour of God. It is the ones who deliberately pursue their selfish & evil ways that are supposed to suffer and to perish.

Yet as the writer of Ecclesiastes observes the world is rather more topsy-turvy. There are, “righteous people who perish in their righteousness and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing.” 

These last words of Jesus resonate within me for all the times I have been pushed around and broken by a capricious and self-centered world. A world where God sometimes seems distant, even disinterested. 

Jesus Yolk

Jesus didn’t leave much behind. It occurred to me the other day, he didn’t bequeath any property or buildings, any wife or offspring, Jesus didn’t write anything down, he didn’t leave behind any revolutionary guerrilla army, he didn’t leave behind a new religion or liturgy.

Remember Jesus said, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it. Truly I tell you, not one stroke or letter will pass from the law until it is all accomplished”.

What Jesus left behind was his yolk… his interpretation of the Scriptures and a rather disturbing life lived in the light of those interpretations.  It was a life lived in contrast and challenge, dissenting against the status quo and the prevailing power structures of the day.  It was a life lived swimming up stream against the status quo.

Instead of an Adventist Jesus walking along all serene and white and surrounded by smiling children and adults and wild and tame animals, think of a Jesus filled with righteous anger overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple causing disruption and chaos in all directions.

Let’s face it, if you were a reputable lending institution, would you approve a home loan for such a person ? As disciples we are called to take up our Cross and follow this Jesus – not just to believe. If we are truly Jesus disciples then why have so many of us been granted home loans ?

The only tangible thing Jesus left behind were his band of disciples and his final instructions, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them everything I commanded you”.

If all Jesus left behind his yolk, his disciples and his instruction to make more disciples, then why do we hold on so tightly to our property, to our buildings & particular ways of doing things; whether we sing particular songs in particular ways, how many times we come to church, the particular ways we dress ? Why do we hold so tightly onto these things when Jesus modelled living life in the face of a deep and passionate embrace of the Scriptures, a life in the intimate presence of the Father, in actual connection to a circle of disciples ? My question is why don’t we grab more tightly onto these things ?

Jesus reaches down from the Cross, he grabs hold of us and he says, ‘Come and die’ ! The challenge of that is which Jesus do I believe in ?

Is it gentle Jesus meek and mild, who I adore and contemplate or is it the grubby, human peasant Jesus -  with the roughened hands of a carpenter in the Gospels who calls me out to follow ?

I believe in the Jesus who, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but instead emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born on human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross”.

I pray for the courage to travel where he leads and to do so just as lightly ! 

The Friend I Sleep With

I have a friend who I sleep with who is the mother warrior, with the strong spirit of Africa beating within her. She is the stone woman, fertile yet unshakable. To be enfolded in her arms is to be enfolded into a soft and cooling place – safe & truly nurtured.

I have a friend who I sleep with who is like the sun in morning – arisen and bright. She is like the sun in the evening too – hibernating, spent and wrapped in velvet darkness. To be beheld by her big compassionate eyes is to glimpse the vast capacity of her overflowing heart.

I have a friend I sleep with whose beautiful form has been etched and truly formed by the experiences of living. To be massaged by her fingers is to ‘BE’ in the presence of exquisite pleasure – content & blessed. To be caressed and loved by her is to be transported and to die a little.

I have a friend that I sleep with who I love mostly unworthily – yet I am drawn to her like a moth to the fire. I am fascinated and drawn in to the dance. Truly I am refined in her presence.

Tower of Babel, Translating Genesis 11

”What happens when mission comes home ?”

The story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 captures for me the essence of the answer to this question. It begins with the Shems. Long ago, they came to the great plain of Shinar and they settled there. Now the Shems were an industrious people. They were clever & resourceful and they said to each other, “Come let us make some bricks and fire them in the fire…”. So the Shems got working and in time they built a safe and a functional town with a wall all around.

The Shems took great pride in what they were able to achieve together. Their confidence grew and so did their vision. They said to one another, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches up into the skies”. So they got working. And as each building was completed, the Shems grew in learning and wisdom and civic pride. Finally, they had the courage to begin working on the centrepiece of the city – the Great Tower. Day after day they worked on the foundations. Then, they began working on the tower itself and soon the tower was dwarfing every other building in the city.

Spurred on by their ever-expanding vision, the Shems grew bolder still. They said to one another, “Now that we have our city and our tower, let us make a NAME for ourselves, so that we are not scattered over the face of all the earth.”

In this moment the Shems came to the particular attention of God. God descended from heaven and God saw their handiwork. Heisenberg’s principle says the act of observing a phenomena changes it. God saw the city of the Shems, with its tower reaching up into the skies and God discerned the future. He said, “This is only the beginning of what they will do… soon nothing they propose will be too hard for them”.

So God acted. He said, “Come, let us go down and confuse their speech so they will no longer understand each other”. God drew near to the city, he confused the speech of the Shems and they stopped building their tower. God confounded the words of the Shems and he scattered them over the face of the earth. That is why the city is named Babel – ‘City of Confusion’ and why people speak with such a diversity of languages.

I really like that this narrative makes abundantly clear what happens when the Spirit of God comes near to a group of people who have become self-satisfied, complacent and who have closed the circle. It’s a missional story because this is what happens whenever people allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the Spirit of God.

Traditionally we tend to view God’s scattering of the Shems as punishment. Yet for me, this idea of the Spirit of God drawing near and breaking open the circle… this image of tremendous energy and diversity being released; of the Shems moving outwards, speaking a great diversity of languages… all of this sounds like an amazing outpouring of God’s blessing. It sounds like Pentecost in Acts 2.

This is what happens when mission comes home. 

The Undecidable Ghost or Derrida Revisited

I have been thinking about life out on the margins. For a while now, I have been particularly interested recently in what lies beyond the boundary of the margin – chaos. It strikes me that Jesus walking on the water in the storm is Jesus at ease in a field of chaos. Jesus deliberately takes his disciples into that place. There Jesus is neither terrified or diminished. We usually talk about the Jesus who calms the storm – what about Jesus creating the storm ?

When Jesus is walking out on the water and the disciples see him they think he is ‘a ghost’. Jacques Derrida says there is something interesting about ghosts – he calls them ‘an undecidable’. The figure of a ghost seems to be neither present or absent or it is both present & absent at the same time. There is a tension – a dissonance in this in-between place that breaks open the meaning of things. 

Life has many such tensions. The story of Jesus – the ghost – walking on the water is one. Our faith is based on the rock-solid idea that Jesus is the God-man ! Think about that tension – the church fathers argued about how that was possible for nearly three centuries. As Derrida says there is an uneasy tension in those kinds of paradoxes and for me that isn’t rock solid – that is dynamic & fluid – expanding and intensifying then contracting again – forming and un-forming – like Galadriel when she is offered the ring by Frodo in the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’. 

When I think about Jesus as the Rock, it makes me think about perspective. For example, from a distance a large company like Walmart appears rock solid – institutional, a solid pillar of free market retailing. Yet I wonder if the daily experience of Walmart up close is more asymmetrical & dynamic – a lot less certain. Jesus called Peter ‘the Rock’ and he was all over the place.

When the disciples respond in terror to Jesus walking on water and in fear to the storm – Jesus’ movement is toward them and His words restore peace – easing their discomfort. Jesus is rock solid & consistent in his expression of the pathos of God – God’s compassion & care ! Yet peace on the waters comes at the expense of stepping away from the experience of Jesus in his Glory !

GK Chesterton in his book ‘Orthodoxy’ says, “… the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”

Give me a Jesus who is rock solid but also give me an elastic Jesus who expands and intensifies to become a volcano in full vent !

 

You May Freely Eat… But

The Tree of Life… Eve could have eaten from this tree but she chose to pursue the fruit of tree of objective & distant knowledge instead.

For me, Genesis 3 is the story of a woman talking herself into rebelling against the one & only condition that God has set for living in the garden. God’s first words to Adam were expressed as freedom with minimal rules, “You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of good and evil, you must not eat…” Instead of being the story of the woman who enjoys the same intimacy with God in the garden as Adam, this is the story of a woman who remains where she is. Eve allows herself to be overwhelmed by the tyranny of her own ego.

Here we arrive at the heart of the matter. When we open ourselves up to the stranger and the alien, when we allow ourselves to be penetrated to the heart by another – we are shaped and formed by those experiences. We have movement and life and meaning and purpose in the world.

However, when we confine other people and different places to the edges of our self-same world, when we close the circle, and build a structure of meaning with ourselves at the center – well that’s the pathway that we traditionally call sin. The snake speaks truly, ‘If you eat the fruit… you will be like gods’. Sin is the sum of all those selfish and manipulative actions that gather momentum when the self is elevated to the position of a god. 

Remember the Sabbath… Keep It Holy

The Sabbath… Abraham Heschel calls it ‘God’s architecture in time’. The Sabbath creates the regular rhythm of a space in-between. This is the context where local, individual moments touch eternity. This is truth local & asymmetrical brought into proximity with truth unchanging & persistent. The habit of regularly entering into that space is the discipline of perspective. It a journey towards difference and holy otherness where the revealed and the mysterious are held in tension. Derrida says, “there is a duty to translate and not to translate, to understand, to enter into relation with another but at the same time preserve the otherness of the other”.

It’s interesting… truth local, pitted and asymmetrical is often overwhelmed by a seemingly wanton, unpredictable vortex of violence and dislocation. It is that sometimes intensified aspect of chaos where there is a mischief and a vandalism in its milder forms and terror & death at its most determined. 

Tragedy is potential dissipated, opportunity lost, beauty erased in a vacuum untouched by meaning.

The result of truth tinged with violence, overwhelmed with chaos is theodicy. The affective response to the harshness of local truth is, “Where is God ?” or the cry of Psalm 22, “I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it has melted within my breast… my God, my God, why have you forsaken me ?”

The Sabbath reminds us that not all truth is local. For the sensitive ones who create the space, it is the possibility of continuing revelation. It is the reminder of the close proximity of God’s glorious presence in the fabric of time. The Glory of God lightly touches the world and for those who engage in the holy habit of attending, of offering hospitality to the presence of God, this translates truth local & unrelenting into glorious possibility & a future punctuated with hope.

Every instant is an act of creation. There is a pilgrim journey, a constant and continuous movement that is made possible by the Sabbath – a journey towards otherness and difference away from our man made structures. Those who take this journey find day after day they are sustained, inspired and led by a God who is undiminished by truth local, pitted and unpredictable. This is the God whose glory is most easily perceived in the chaos.  

The World Breaks Everyone

‘Myanmar Refugees’, May 2008

We live in a fallen world – a world where we fall often and hard… a world where survival depends on learning to get back up again.  There is harshness, rawness – an ever so sharp edge to just plain living. When the elemental forces of nature gather, concentrate suddenly and unleash their power, people perish in great numbers. This is life annihilated, extinguished without meaning.  Survivors stand on the edge of a great abyss & question the very presence of God in the world,

“How could a God of mercy & compassion, the very ruler of the universe allow such a thing to happen ?”

The fragility of life on this ball of rock we call Earth, hurtling moment by moment through space. The invisible forces that hold it in relation to the sun in such a way that biological life is sustainable – mostly not too hot and not too cold – that is as amazing as it is precarious. Indeed that there is life on this planet in the midst of the vast darkness & coldness of space is a miracle. I like what Ernest Hemingway says about suffering. He says,

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry…”

There is an inherent vulnerability and weakness in living. Yet it is also built into us to fight and resist almost to the last breath. It is our survival instinct – the quickening that courses through our veins whenever we are in proximity to death.  The truth of life is its tenacity, its vigor in the face of death. Maybe that’s what it means to stamped with the image of God.

The good news of the Scriptures is that the suffering of people invokes the pathos of God.

God says to Moses, “I have observed the suffering of my people… I have heard their cry… I know their sufferings and I have come to deliver them…”.

The good news is God hears the cries of the suffering ones. God is not an abstraction dwelling in the lonely splendor of eternity. God is concretion itself – present and accessible – suffering alongside his people. 

Moving Towards Others

At its core, mission is all about moving away from the familiar, the safe & the predictable. It is about resisting the strong drive to remain where we are. Mission expresses itself concretely as moving towards people and places that are different. Effective mission always involves taking on the role of a learner. It requires acquiring new ways of speaking and doing, so one can thrive in that other place. The aim is to interact & communicate meaningfully with the people we are moving towards, out of the very fabric of everyday life – for the sake of the Gospel. Within this dynamic of moving away from ourselves & towards others, the Kingdom of God spreads like wildfire.

On the two occasions where I have been immersed in living in another culture – I have to admit to it not being an easy place to choose to stay. In both of those places I have been mostly weak and awkward, often overwhelmed and stammering, sometimes even exhausted by the experience.

You might think that in such a place, one’s sense of identity could be in danger of being scattered or even lost. Yet I have found the opposite to be true. Immersing myself and embracing other people and their cultures, has put me profoundly in touch with the person God has shaped me to be. How much more difficult it is to become conscious of your shape and your purpose in the world, when you remain at home.

It is this persistence, this movement towards the not-yet-known stranger that shapes us & concentrates our presence in the world as disciples of Jesus. Think of it like God’s calling of Abraham. He says, “Go from your country… and your Father’s house to the land that I will show you… I will bless you… so that you will be a blessing… In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  

So Abraham goes. He begins a journey and most of the time he is so barely faithful. God promises he will make a nation out of Abraham’s decedents but his son isn’t even born until Abraham is a very… old… man. Yet from such a fragile beginning, a story that twists & turns with every possibility of failure, becomes the revelation of God himself – the gospel that is good news for all the families of the earth.   

Dangerous Saying

Sometimes, I see the world as one standing on a grassy hill among ancient manicured burial mounds. The sun is high overhead. A breeze lightly caresses my face. In those moments, I stand content & sure as the stream meandering through lush green fields of ancient battle below me. There is continuity in it, that speaks as surely as the flow of river waters, glinting all the way to the sea.

Yet what if a lone red doorway suddenly breaks in on my peripheral ?  What if in my boundless curiosity I walk over, turn the handle and step through it ?
 


‘You may open any door in the garden but this one… if you open this particular door, you will surely die !’

In that moment of dawning knowledge, I see the world as one standing on the same grassy hill. The sun is still overhead. The breeze is lightly bracing my face. Again I am lulled into contentment… until I am not ! I am anxious. I have a jarring sense of discontinuity. I scan those green fields of suffering & the fallen then out on the edge of perception I see it. It is the river. It has changed its course. Now it rushes back to meet me. 


Facing such eruption, instinctively I turn towards the safety of home. But I stop ! Through the door, in my home, within my hearing… unbidden – a deafening roar is rushing to meet me. I see that in that once sure place, far off on the edge of the boundless, the mountains are skipping like rams, the ancient hill is trembling and the glinting river bursting its banks. A battle again rages in an overflowing torrent that reaches up to the neck !  
 


Behind me, a surge of words thunders… “Do not walk in the way of this people or believe in what they call a good outcome. Do not fear what they fear or be in dread. See it is the Name of the Lord coming from far away, his nostrils burning, thick clouds arising, his lips boiling with rage… His tongue is like a devouring fire & his breath – his breath is like an overwhelming stream reaching up to the neck”. 
 

Edge of Chaos

In the last 100 years science has shifted from a more structured view of the universe to one filled with chaos. It seems the universe is constantly forming & unforming, generating & expending tremendous amounts of energy creating and destroying the stars. According to chaos theory the universe is filled with the almost infinite possibility of the next unpredictable moment.

Today, the biological sciences are hotly debating that nature is at it’s innovative best near the edge of chaos. When a natural system fails to position itself in this in-between place it becomes static, out of balance, unhealthy. Eventually it dies. However moving to the edge of chaos creates fluid movement – even upheaval – where both order and disorder are present. Nature itself is suggesting the edge of chaos is the sweet spot for productive change. It seems that chaos is woven into the very fabric of life and the universe.

The Scriptures are filled with a similar notion of the edge of chaos. Alan Hirsch says, “the theologically most fertile parts of the Scriptures are all, yes all, set in the context of the people of God facing significant danger & chaos…”.  Whether it is Abraham being called to leave home and journey to a new land or the harrowing experiences of the Exodus and the Exile, whether it is David’s adventures in becoming king or Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels or even just the book of Acts… none of these describe stable situations. They are dynamic, even life threatening and chaos is ever present. 

Small Boat, BIG Sea…

We all live on margins of chaos. Like Noah floating on waters cocooned in his boat, we too create microcosms of order and pray to our Maker for preservation. To dwell on the edge for a while pushing outwards, encountering difference violently rams chaos back into our imagination – shocking, even paralysing creative, playful action.   



When Peter stepped out of the boat it was two steps beyond the reason of a smart fisherman. It was an illogical step towards a dangerous Jesus who was filling that place with His glory & their boat with water. It was also a second step towards encountering Jesus on his terms. In that place a fisherman can walk on water. Yet we read that fear overtakes Peter. He ‘noticed the strong wind’ & was overwhelmed by a fisherman’s chaos. Suddenly Peter is the wily fish catcher being swallowed by an angry sea.
 


Jesus presence out on the lake expands & intensifies in the storm and though this movement is towards the Holy – towards otherness – he is never out of reach. The overwhelming compassion of Jesus is the redemptive action that restores equilibrium, brings back peace – calms the storm. 
 


The patience of God & the opportunity of another chance…
 
How often am I limited by what I believe without question ? When newness & difference draws near, intensifying feeling to anxiety & fear, so often I retreat back into the safety of the known. During those times I am conservative & less perceptive. I hang on tightly to structure & boundaries until I fight chaos back to the margins.
 


The story of a leaky boat and BIG waters says there is a tension in being a Jesus follower. Beyond Rock and Redeemer – the safe and familiar Jesus is forever restless, intense & dangerously Holy. Sometimes he compels us to experience his Grandeur through all 5 senses with the volume turned right up – like a splinter in the imagination.
 


Six times this rather annoying narrative appears in the gospels. Each time Jesus rises up and the followers of Jesus retreat back. How many times must such story be told ? Seventy times seven ? 
Until his disciples find courage to STAY & embrace missional action !

Storm’s Coming…

There are 6 stories about Jesus immersed in a storm that appear in the Gospels. Like all good stories about chaos, these stories get told from different perspectives.

In Mark’s telling of the story, Jesus sends his disciples out in the boat, and he goes off to a nearby mountain to pray. Soon, the disciples are out in the open water, it is dark and the wind starts whipping the waves up into a frenzy. We are given an image of the disciples straining & struggling to control the boat in the large swells. Off in the distance they notice a figure walking towards them on the water and they are terrified because the disciples think it is some kind of ghost. Jesus calls out to them, “Don’t be afraid. It’s me !” Then he gets into the boat and the storm ceases. And we are told that the disciples are utterly astonished.

The good news is when the storms come – not ‘if’ they come but ‘when’ they come – when chaos descends and overwhelms our lives – Jesus is not diminished or made irrelevant. Far from it, Jesus is at ease and amazingly present and powerful in those places.

In Mathew’s telling of the story, he focuses on Jesus’ disciple Peter – who is an experienced fisherman & a close friend of Jesus. In those moments after he sees Jesus walking on the water in the storm, Peter steps out of the boat and starts walking towards Jesus. What amazes me about this picture, is that while this is 2 steps beyond the reason of a smart fisherman, Peter has begun to encounter Jesus on his terms. Think about that for a moment, Peter is encountering Jesus on his terms when he steps outside of the boat. And what happens ? In this God space of holy chaos, a fisherman can walk on water.

For some reason Peter takes his eyes off Jesus – Rob Bell says he begins doubting himself. Peter notices where he is standing and he is gripped with fear. As Peter begins to be swallowed up by the angry water, Jesus reaches out his hand and grabs hold of Peter and together they return to the safety of the boat.

The good news is that when the storms of life come, Jesus is powerful and present and we are wonderfully held.

In GK Chesterton’s book ‘Orthodoxy’, he says, “… the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”

Give me a Jesus who is rock solid but also give me an Elastic Jesus who expands and intensifies when all about me is a storm of chaos !