Supernatural

“The heavens are telling the glory of God… day after day pours forth speech…” (Psalm 19)

Supernatural… The other evening I was in an interview and I was asked what I understood by the idea ’supernatural’ ! Now I knew how I was supposed to answer but for a few moments my mind went blank. I was stuck ‘between’. I was thinking, “Why can’t I say something ?” Then in the expectant silence I realized I had moved on.

In the West we make a distinction between the natural and the supernatural worlds. The natural world is that which is – those identifiable rhythms that are part of the whop and weave of everyday life. The supernatural, on the other hand, implies a rather more occasional intervention on the part of a rather more distant God, like something from the twilight zone.

The problem with this dualism is that from our rational scientific viewpoint the supernatural becomes a rather exceptional blip on the horizon… a way of explaining the unexplainable. The supernatural ends up becoming a test for the true believers… those who embrace the superstitious and the magical !

Yet the Scriptures continually speak of the ‘Godness’ of the world… the intimate care and ultimate involvement God has with us and around us. I like what the prophet Hosea says. He says, “Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; for his appearing is as sure as the dawn”.

The possibility of knowing God isn’t exceptional. It is certainly God’s initiative but his ‘appearing’, his presence resonates with the rhythms of the natural world itself. That God would make himself known, that God would make himself available to us is as sure and consistent and wondrously filled with possibility as a new day dawning. There is nothing supernatural about that but it’s certainly not ordinary either.

The idea of responding in awe and wonder is the idea of heightened awareness of being overwhelmed by moments, by experiences, by phenomena, by encounters that are supercharged. But isn’t that the journey of a disciple… the idea of perceiving the world with new eyes and new ears ?  This is an intensifying of everyday experience. In God’s reality the world sparkles & glistens… it is all supernatural !

Outwards and downwards.

Unless You Become Like Children

Becoming like a child… Recently, I had the opportunity to sit and listen to my wife explain to my 4 year old son – Dawson – about the mysteries of communion…

With children everything is so literal… When Dawson started eating the wafer, he turns to my wife and says, “This doesn’t taste like Jesus’ body !” And Elizabeth quietly explains, “No… it’s not meant to taste like Jesus body… it helps us to remember him.” To which Dawson replies, “I can’t remember Jesus’ body because I don’t know what he looks like !” Elizabeth starts becoming more directive, “Look up at the Cross and imagine Jesus on the Cross”. So Dawson looks up at the Cross for a bit and then he turns to my wife and says, “I’m just going to remember him as a circle !”

A little while later the little cups of juice were given out and I see my wife take a breath. Before Dawson drinks he is asking, “Is this going to taste like blood ?” To which Elizabeth replies, “No, it will taste like juice”. “What kind of juice ?” asks Dawson. Elizabeth answers patiently, “Grape juice !” And Dawson says, “No, I want apple juice.”

‘Unless you change and become like children you can never enter the Kingdom of heaven…’ 

Hasidic Storytelling

One morning, the Rabbi was walking through an uninhabited region with his disciples. “I am thirsty,” complained one of the young men, “I am burning, I am dying of thirst.”

The countryside was like a desert. There was no sign of water anywhere.

“Don’t worry !” said the Rabbi, “When God created the world, He saw your thirst as well as its remedy.”

Shortly afterwards they came upon a peasant. He was balancing two pails of water on his shoulders.

“My Lord has gone mad,” grumbled the peasant, “this morning he sent me here to walk backwards and forwards with this load of water – just like that, for no reason at all.”

“You see,” said the Rabbi to the thirsty student, “when God created the world, He arranged all this madness, so you might quench your thirst.”

The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me

The good news of the Kingdom is that God wants us to participate with him… God didn’t just send Jesus to save us as individuals. God’s plan is much, much bigger. Jesus stood up and read from the scroll of Isaiah in the Synagogue in Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”  (Luke 4:16-30) because that’s God’s model for redeeming creation.

Jesus says, “You know all those things you have been longing for in a Messiah ? Today, those things you have hoped for begin with me. God’s reign isn’t just still coming, it’s here right now. And I want you to follow me, so by an effort together we can begin repairing a hurting world. We can participate with God in putting it all… back… together”. 

That’s the way that God is choosing to work in our world. It’s mostly anonymously and invisible and below the radar. You see when our actions on behalf of justice and mercy resonate in tune with the purposes of God, they become so much more. They ripple out in all directions. 

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 ?

A Virgin Shall Conceive a Son and They Shall Name Him Emmanuel

Jurgen Moltmann says when we celebrate Christmas, at its heart we are celebrating something almost unimaginable, “the Creator of heaven and earth, whom even the heaven of heavens cannot contain, becomes so humble and small that in this child Jesus, he is beside us and lives among us”.

Matthew’s gospel says, “Look, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel which means, ‘God with us’”. Yet what manner of child is this, in whom is expressed all the majesty and glory of God himself ? I don’t just stumble at the thought of that, I literally stagger at the possibility. 

Don’t worry about putting God into a box. When you consider the Creator and Sustainer of the universe freely packaged into a tiny, helpless frame of a baby – then God literally bursts out of the box of convention & cliché. And the unimaginable happens. Suddenly the God ‘whom even the heaven of heavens’ cannot contain is up close and personal.

Like Christmas wrapping after the presents are opened – there is nothing neat and tidy about it. I have my struggles with the logic of Incarnation as it is. Process it just for a moment – holy God and finite hormone driven, male humanity – packaged together in the God-man Jesus. The divine and human natures are united. At best this is holy irony – at worst it’s madness.

It leaves me feeling off balance & uneasy – almost overwhelmed at times with unknowing – like as though all I thought I knew has been erased back to ground zero. And what does that sound like ? 

In Old Testament language we would call this being humbled in the presence of God. And you know what ? I don’t think rationalism or logical argument quite cuts it in these places.

In moments and events touched by the finger of God, a more appropriate response is wonder, awe and radical amazement. Abraham Herschel says, “…wonder is the pre-requisite for an authentic awareness of that which is.” You see, when we use reason, we are trying to explain & adapt the world to our concepts. However, when we experience wonder – we make a significant shift. We begin seeking to adapt our minds to the world as it is. Herschel says, “Under the running sea of all our theories & scientific explanations, lies the original abyss of radical amazement”.

From the Stump of Jesse, From the Line of King David

Sometimes I think we live in a world of broken promises, a world of good beginnings and either bad or incomplete endings… It is a world where so often the people who lead us, disappoint us. They let us down.

Martin Buber says when you look at the Scriptures, “the history of the kings of Israel is the history of the failure of the one who is anointed to realise the promise of his calling. The rise of [the idea of a messiah] – is the hope of the coming of an anointed king who realizes the promise of his anointing”.

You know the prophet Isaiah lived during the reigns of 4 kings of Judah… King Uzziah, King Jotham, King Ahaz and King Hezekiah. They were all descendents from the stump of Jesse, from the line of David.

Now Scripture records problems with 3 of the 4 kings. While 3 of them did what was “right in the sight of the Lord”, they still mostly behaved and pursued the trappings of the kings of the lands all around them. Instead of placing their faith in the help of the Living God of Israel, more often they relied on their own success. They put their faith in political intrigue and timely alliances and their own ability to make war.

Take King Uzziah for instance… Under Uzziah, the Kingdom of Judah reaches the height of its power. Uzziah develops the economic resources of the country as well as its military might. He conquers the Philistines and the Arabians and he receives tribute from the Ammonites. Scripture says he was strong and prosperous because “… he did what was right in the sight of the Lord”.

Yet Uzziah’s success & strength became his weakness. Scripture says, “he grew proud… to his destruction”. Uzziah attempts to enter the Temple to burn incense on the Alter, a privilege reserved for the priesthood only. Azariah, the chief priest pleads with him, “It is not for you Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out from this place, for you have done wrong… it will bring you no honour from the Lord God”. 

Uzziah becomes angry and as his anger grows leprosy breaks out on his forehead. And Scripture says, “King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord”. 

And when things got really tough, when the Kingdom of Judah began paying tribute to the Kingdom of Assyria, King Ahaz from the stump of Jesse, from the royal line of David – even turned his back on the Lord. He desecrated the Temple & called on the help of other gods.

All of these events occurred during the lifetime of Isaiah. And as a prophet it was his duty to call people back to God. It was his calling to describe the visions he was given of God’s alternative reality. And while these visions filled Isaiah with hope, they also made him unpopular with the kings he served.

Isaiah 11:1-10 is a messianic vision of a peaceful kingdom. It is an alternate vision of a king of the stump of Jesse overwhelmed by the Spirit of God, who is both human and holy. This king is so singled minded in his zeal for God, that he realizes the promise of his anointing… he establishes the Kingdom of God… a kingdom of righteousness and justice and mercy. 

The Lion Laying Down With the Fattened Calf

It’s interesting… while Isaiah 11:1-10 sits well within history, it is ambiguous because it also sits above history. In a sense it defies time – it is ageless !  It’s like throwing a stone in a pond… The effect of that action is the release of a burst of energy that ripples out in all directions.

That’s the remarkable thing about the Gospel… When people open themselves to the Spirit of God there is something remarkably consistent about the outcome. It gives people particular priorities, the Gospel evidences itself in particular actions, it inspires people with particular visions… Over time the Gospel establishes itself in ways that turns everyday experience on its head…

Imagine for a moment the possibility of a lion laying down peacefully alongside a fattened calf…

I remember visiting a game park in South Africa once. We came upon a grouping of cars and 4wds all stopped along the side of the road. There were a bunch of adults & children all hanging out of car windows, standing out of top of their sunroofs. Some were even sitting on car bonnets. All were pointing admiringly and looking through their binoculars at some far off tree.

And at the base of the tree was a pride of lions all lazing about in the hazy shade. The lions were all stretched out around a stripped zebra carcass.

Then the male lion stood up and yawned and roared. It was a huge sound and he was huge lion! Latent power was oozing from every muscle and sinew. From gaping mouth to claw to tail he was one efficient lean mean killing machine.

Then the park ranger pulled up in front of us. He started berating the tourists who were hanging out their windows and sunroofs and sitting on their bonnets.

He was gesticulating wildly as he drove home his well rehearsed mantra… “Usually… lions who have just eaten aren’t interested in people but you just never know! If for some reason they feel threatened and the male charges… you would be pushing it to get back into your car and to close the doors and windows before he would be among you… and the rest doesn’t bear thinking about… So don’t be so reckless & stupid… Get back into your cars.” 

Now I ask you… if that is the way of the world, can you imagine a time when a fattened calf and a lion could lie down side by side ?

There is a predictable certainty about all the violence & the harsh edge of this world. And yet the writer of Isaiah says, “Behold the one who is overwhelmed and filled up with the Spirit of God… this one who dares to truly live life consistent with that relationship. Behold what he will do… Those things you thought that were so certain, will all change because of his actions. And the changes will be startling, unexpected and beyond your wildest imagining.

They will be glorious to behold and they will amplify the power and the majesty of God”. 

When the Gospel begins taking root, its like the yeast in the dough… a little goes along way and changes the flour fundamentally. It is like a lion laying down peacefully alongside a fattened calf ! 

And the Wolf Shall Live With the Lamb

When I read Isaiah 11:1-10 I notice its not like other narratives in the Scriptures. While it describes an event, it is one that bursts the bounds of everyday experience. In some ways this passage sounds like a mythical epic yet I know it’s also firmly embedded in Biblical history. If I you what this passage is talking you would probably say, “This passage is obviously talking about Jesus isn’t it !” And I would reply, “Well… yes it is and no it isn’t !” And then I would say, “Welcome to the world of the prophet Isaiah…”  

I like what Paul Johnson says about Isaiah… He says, “Isaiah was not only the most remarkable of the prophets, he is by far the greatest writer in the Old Testament”. That’s high praise indeed.

However while Isaiah’s writings may be among the best in Scripture, that doesn’t mean they are easy. There is a delicious ambiguity about this kind of writing.

For example in vs1…“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse… a branch shall grow out of his roots…” While the tree imagery is clear here, Isaiah isn’t talking about a tree.

What about vs6… “…and the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the baby goat, the calf, the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them…” Again the animal images and the child are all clear enough but Isaiah isn’t talking about a visit to the zoo.   

There is no doubting these verses are visually potent. Isaiah is describing something that he is seeing with prophetic vision. Something that is vivid and clear and evocative…

However while this passage might be clear in a visual sense, there is another sense in which these verses mean so much more. For example who is Isaiah describing here ? Is he looking 700 years into the future and describing Jesus in his glorious splendour or is he describing someone more general & archetypal?

I remember when I was at seminary, these kinds of passages would drive some students half crazy. They would keep trying to tie down the meaning of it and they just couldn’t.  And our wily Old Testament Professor would ask a student whose eyes were starting to glaze over, “And James, what do you think this passage is referring to ?” And if the answer came back ‘Jesus’, ‘God’ or ‘the Holy Spirit’ then you knew he was really struggling.

It’s interesting… while the passage is ambiguous, we are left in no doubt about the nature of the one it is describing. There is no sense of this one being merely a good boy or even just a really nice guy. This is a man of purpose and intention. What he sets about doing is an expression of the deep integrity of his character and his intimate relationship with God.

It pours out of him… filling the gap that so often exists between our words and our actions. 

The Heartbeat of the Universe

‘What is God doing among us ?’

I spoke in church on this topic yesterday. I thought it would be a great opportunity to look at the many changes the church has negotiated over the last twelve months or so. I thought it would be the perfect occasion to dream forwards, painting a picture of what I thought this church could become. But then I read the question… 

You know, it is easy to be apart of a faith community that declares Jesus is Lord, who worships and prays to God Sunday by Sunday, who are even effective in reaching out into their community. It is much more difficult to be apart of a community who are aware of what God is doing among them.  

It struck me in a way that left me feeling uneasy… I can become so busy personally doing ‘good’ for God – that I can so easily miss out on what God is doing.

I was chatting recently with a wise grey haired friend of mine who pastors a Baptist Church in Sydney. He said something during our conversation that stuck with me. He said, “All we ever have to truly concern ourselves with as a church is what God is doing among us and getting into sync with that… participating with God in that”.  

That sounds straight forward enough, even like common sense. Yet when you really think about it, when you reflect and ponder on it for a while… the practical implications are huge. This is about a community developing an exquisite sensitivity to the Spirit of God, so that God’s purposes and the intentions of the community are one. It’s about finding a way to resonate together, to vibrate in tune…

So the million dollar is, ‘What is God doing among us ?’ ‘Are we aware and sensitive and participating with God in that ?’ It’s like standing on the edge of a yawning abyss and trying to work out how the next few moments might pan out if you take a few steps forward. There is fear… there is anxiety… there is halting hesitation. 

Yes We Can

On Wednesday afternoon this week, I walked in from a day of being out & about. I turned on the TV and began watching the closing stages of the US presidential election. Seeing Barack Obama, listening to him speak and the crowd’s reaction was electric. I felt that tingling sensation of particularly significant moments in life. 

And I thought to myself, ‘Why am I responding this way ? This is an American election!’ (I live in Australia). Then I realised, this man inspires me…  He inspires me in a way the John Howards and the Kevin Rudds of this world don’t.

Now I don’t know if Obama can deliver on what he says he will do. Time will tell. Politically he is a lot less experienced than either John Howard or Kevin Rudd but the invitation of his victory speech in Grant Park, Chicago – was clear. It was to participate with him, to journey forward together. His message was despite the challenges, despite all the difficulties ahead, as Americans united together, our creed will be, ‘Yes we can !’

It’s interesting… the Jesus I read about in the Gospels also inspires me. As a follower of Jesus I don’t want someone on my side who necessarily has all the answers, who says, ‘Follow me because I know what to do’. I’m not sure I even want a hero – someone of amazing courage & strength to save the day!  When life gets tough, I want someone who stands right by me in solidarity, who listens to me and accepts the imperfect reality of who I mostly am.  

When I read the Gospels Jesus is like that… Sure, he is anointed by God and there is a thunderous voice from heaven saying, “This my son with who I am pleased… listen to him”. However what makes him a credible witness and so popular among the people is his accessibility. Jesus listens to people, he eats with social outcasts… his stories & his words inspire, offering hope and acceptance and healing.

The Jesus I encounter in Scripture is mostly weak and vulnerable. When they punch him he buckles over in pain, when they beat him he bleeds, when he looks out over Jerusalem… he cries out of a breaking heart… overflowing with compassion. 

Jesus’ invitation to people is no secret formula. It is no hidden way to a prosperous life. Jesus’ invitation is to follow him, to participate with him so that together following God in all his ways becomes a journey filled with possibility and hope. Our creed is, ‘Together, empowered by the Holy Spirit… yes we can participate with Him in repairing the brokenness of a hurting world’.

This is the Jesus who inspires me… the Jesus I want to follow. 

The Old Blind Woman and the Tree of Life

You know there is a second part to the story of the five blind men and the elephant. Remember that the men are arguing and fighting over their perspectives about the elephant. They are punching off into the air and into each other as they are driving home their particular points of view.

Now this scene would have been very amusing to the casual – sighted – observer. However, the next person to happen upon the five fighting men is a wily old woman, who is also blind. In the midst of all the confusion and arguing about the elephant, the woman decides to go & find out for herself what all the fuss is about.

So she gently and perceptively begins examining the elephant. Instead of feeling in just one place, the touch of the woman moves over the whole wondrous animal, from the long sinuous trunk all the way around to the tail, which feels like a gnarly piece of rope.

Then the blind woman turns around to the five blind men and shouts, “Enough ! I have discovered the truth. I know who is right.”

Shocked by the presence of a woman and the confidence in her voice, the five blind men stop their fighting and arguing at once.

“Tell us!”, they exclaim in one voice.

“I have examined this elephant with mine own two hands,” she says, “and I have decided that you are ALL right.”

“How can this be ?”, the blind men ask. “How can an elephant be a wall and a fan and a tree and a spear and a snake?” And they are all sorely confused.

The wily old woman explains, “You see, an elephant is a wondrous creature that is like a great tree. On this tree grows leaves like huge fans, giving the most wondrous shade and a continuous breeze. Then the branches of this tree are like long spears protecting it. For this is the Tree of Creation and of Eternal Life, and a great talking Serpent still hangs upon it”.

“Unfortunately, you have not known of this tree until today because it is usually hidden behind a great wall, that cannot be reached, save by the most worthy Son of Man”.

“However, with my wisdom & great insight, I have discovered a most holy rope, by which the wall may be climbed. And if one touches the tree in the correct manner which I alone have come to know, you will gain Eternal Life.”

The five blind men all become very interested in this, of course.

And the wily old blind woman then names an extremely high price for her services – Eternal Life doesn’t come cheap you know! – And she walks away wealthy & smiling from the five foolish blind men.

How easy it is for a woman to pull the wool over the eyes of a man… How easy it is to take dimly perceived notions and turn them into some grand systematic theology. How easy it is to live in this world and to not see. How easy it is to become so immersed in our own point of view, that we become blind to truth…

Oh to live life with our eyes wide open, steping forward into a greater awareness of God’s reality moment by moment… It reminds me of Paul’s words in Corinthians, ‘Now I only know in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known’ (1 Cor 13:12b). 

Unless You Become like a Child You Can Never Enter the Kingdom of God

Michael Frost says Jesus ordinariness invites us to follow him. It provides us with a template of how to be God-like even as ordinary human beings. Jesus is very clear. He says, “Unless you become like a child you will never enter the Kingdom of God.”

Jesus doesn’t just want our cognitive acknowledgement & acceptance of his work on the Cross. Life lived in close proximity to God is movement – it is movement outside of the box and away from ourselves. The impact of that kind of change in our lives is reflected in the magnitude of the changes that are brought about by the arrival of a new baby into the family.

When we allow God to become the Center, we find our lives being overwhelmed by a movement that goes beyond ourselves and out into the world of others. Isn’t that what babies force us to do in their very crying out, even in their cooing contentment – we are drawn into self-forgetfulness and continuous activity on behalf of their needs. Life in the Kingdom of God is no less demanding and constant occupation.

Don’t Judge and You Yourself Will Not be Judged

Have you ever noticed, when we judge others too quickly or much worse, when we label people, we freeze people and we stop moving towards them ? Instead of remaining complex subjects, judging objectifies people into caricatures and cardboard cut outs. And when disciples of Jesus stop moving towards people – the Kingdom of God is diminished.

It’s interesting… the Scriptures say all kinds of things about
 judging. In one place Jesus says, “Don’t judge and you yourself will 
not be judged. Don’t condemn people & you in turn will not be
 condemned. Give generously and, ‘a good measure, pressed down, shaken 
together & running over…’ will be given to you in return. Forgive
 others and you will be forgiven”.

It’s like as though judgment & labeling people are so engrained in
 everything we do, that the only possible way to undo it is to do it’s 
opposite.

Jesus goes further. He says if someone hates you, love them – if they
 curse you – bless them. If someone abuses you, pray for them. If 
anyone hits you on one side of your face, offer them the other side as
 well. The list goes on & on until the picture that is formed is one of
 overwhelming openness & generosity & movement towards people.

Jesus says, ‘If you love only those who love you, how is that
 different – even evil men love those who love them’. Jesus says that 
in his Kingdom, the thing that defines his disciples is not how they 
respond to those who love them but how they respond to those who don’t
love them – to those who even despise them.

You know, I used to think that when Jesus said ‘Love your enemies’ he
was speaking in exaggerated language about extravagantly loving your
 neighbor. Yet now I think Jesus is just saying, “Don’t judge, don’t 
label, give & forgive generously – love your enemies !” It’s that
 straightforward !

That we use our judgment to make decisions for living is natural 
however when disciples of Jesus judge and label others, they freeze 
people, they stop moving towards people and the Kingdom of God is
diminished.

Imitatio Dei

Mission as the Imitatio Dei… it is the imprint of God expressed in the total life of a person. It infuses life so that every act, every word, every gesture lends weight and intention to the Misseo Dei.

This is the idea of the whole, the One… focused into the part and the part giving focus & completion to the whole. It is the same as Jesus’ notion of abiding where he says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. While that might seem possible in the Messiah, imagine a company of disciples being called to the Apostle Paul’s standard of being of the same mind ‘that was in Christ Jesus’ (Phil 2:5). The Imitatio Dei is beginning to sound like some kind of dreamed up, idealized utopia… except for the inescapable fact that Jesus gave such focused attention to discipleship.

Jesus gave over the largest part of his ministry time to the practices of intentional concrete imitation. This is how we are to be his witnesses in the world. This is how the Imitatio Dei becomes possible. Jesus wanted it to become a reflexive action.

The question I have is, ‘Do I dare to pray that the same mind that was in Jesus Christ would also be found in me ?’

Jesus’ yolk may be lighter but his words pierce bone and sinew… all the way down to the heart.  Can I bear to have the mind of Christ, “who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as the main thing. Instead he emptied himself, to the point of taking on the very image of a slave. Jesus was born in human likeness & embraced the frailty of his humanity with his arms wide open. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross” ?

Jesus held this Imatatio Dei in exquisite tension within himself and as disciples we are similarly called into the same dissonance, always uneasy. We are like midwives, waiting patiently, expectantly, helping to birth a Kingdom that is long, long overdue. 

Dark Heart of Africa

“So Abram went down to Egypt [in Africa] to live there as an alien…”

The dark heart of Africa…  I remember being in a rural African village & watching a colleague, newly arrived from Australia, playing a game of bawo. Despite the excitement, I became aware I was staring at the feet of a young boy, sitting close by me. It must have been the contrast of the white soles against his richly tanned skin that got my attention. I found myself questioning, “What kind of place is this, that a young boy’s feet can look like those of an old man – cracked and eroded ?”

Suddenly my concentration was broken & I was looking up into the eyes of some children staring back at me. Instead of being a spectator, I was now the focus of many deep brown eyes looking my way. Each face seemed to be asking the same question, “Who are you ? What are you doing here ?”

I wish I could say that was the only time I felt like an alien in a strange land…

Paying Attention

“There are times when I feel transparent – almost invisible. It is a fragile state in which I am diminishing. I have this feeling of being stretched so thin, of being insipid, diluted – a lite version of me. It is like speaking in a crowd and the conversation continues right through me – no one hearing. It is like being one of the weathered, nameless ones, appearing at my car window begging & when sated, blending right back into the shadowlands. Where did she go ?”

“The transparency of God… Abraham Heschel says that life passes on in close proximity to the sacred, “You are not alone, you live constantly in holy neighborhood: remember: ‘Love thy neighbor – God – as thyself.’” The accessibility of God, God drawing near – holiness moving in next door”.

“The discipline of transparency is positional. It implies sensitivity to place & openness to otherness in close proximity. It has that sense of vibrating in tune, of being immersed, enveloped and eventually becoming at ease and purposeful there. It is relationally significant yet non-threatening – reflective yet non-judgmental”.

“Transparency has that sense of being pores & permeable – of light passing through the thing uninterrupted. Relationally it risks greater vulnerability and exposure of self”.

“Transparency pragmatically embraces truth; not so much truth – universal & immutable but truth – local and dynamic. It is at ease with a reality that is pitted, asymmetrical & irregular. I think transparency is a choice – I choose to be present, I choose to be open, I choose to immerse myself & to allow myself to be penetrated & shaped by this place !”

“As for those others dwelling out on the margins – disempowered and vulnerable - the anonymity of transparency is a discipline of necessity & survival”.

I remember when I penned these words I had been living in South East Asia just a few short months. Almost daily I was being overloaded with exotic and unfamiliar experiences in my new home. As I looked about me I saw people who were marginal and poor using transparency as a survival strategy. I was fascinated by it.

At the same time I encountered the idea in the writing of Thorleif Boman. He was suggesting the idea of ‘transparency’ as a theological expression that more accurately captures the way God’s presence and activity is revealed in the world. I was also in the process of reflecting on Jacques Derrida’s usage of the Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac and the Tower of Babel as metaphors in his philosophical wonderings. Abraham struck me as a person who understood this idea of ‘transparency’ as he wandered about as an alien in the world.

I think it is time to revisit this practice of transparency ! I suspected it was a missional practice in South East Asia. It is time to see if it has currency back at home.

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!

What If the Community Became Our Sanctuary ?

Since I have been back in Australia, I find myself looking at this country, looking at the church through the eyes of a missionary. I can’t help it and I can’t help wondering what is applicable from those experiences back here in Australia. I have a restlessness in my spirit because I think we have reached an edge place. How we respond to this margin in the next few years will determine whether the Kingdom of God gains or continues loosing significant ground in this country.  I have witnessed God working in amazing ways in the two-thirds world. It is time for those missional practices to come home. It is time for them to find local expression in the first world… in countries like Australia.

What impressed me in both Africa & South East Asia is that when you are in a place where the church isn’t, it makes you ask key missional questions. Questions like, ‘How am I prepared to change so I can connect the gospel with these people ?’ and ‘What am I prepared to do so that the Kingdom of God finds a meaningful & powerful expression in this place ?’, even, ‘How can I help people follow Jesus in ways that are natural, vital & life transforming – in both a personal and a communal sense ?’

It has been my observation and my personal experience that answering these questions has always involved a journey. This has been a movement away from what is familiar – a shift towards relearning the world from the perspective of the people I am serving. In both places our success has never been based upon our commitment to and the frequency of our team meetings, it has always involved deeply listening, being present and practically involved in the community.

If people were hungry – we found creative ways to feed them and develop more effective farming methods, if people were suffering from aids, that meant developing programs of support for those afflicted families, if people were troubled by demons, it meant prayer ministry, if people were troubled by their dreams it meant dream interpretation. We were always experimenting.  Failing forwards meant persevering with each other – finding ways to celebrate our differences. It meant praying – praying about everything – particularly all the obstacles and the resistance & sickness that seemed to come our way.

Always there is an emphasis on sensitivity, persistence, on generosity openness & intuition. Our weakness was our strength and our vulnerability guaranteed our dependence upon the Spirit of God. 

A few weeks ago I was reading a publication from Global Interaction, the missional org. of the Baptist Churches in Australia. They have as their mission statement, ‘Empowering communities to develop their own distinctive ways of following Jesus’. There is something very local and global about that statement that allows for difference and diversity.

Do you also notice there isn’t any mention of building great churches or even finding news ways of attracting people to come to church ? 

When the people won’t come into the church, the church must go to the people.

I keep finding myself wondering mischievous thoughts like what would happen if my local church choose a statement like this ? What sort of church or even network of churches might it become if the community became our sanctuary instead of our building ? 

Feeling The Weight of the World

Recently I came across Peter Rollins*  telling a yarn he calls, ‘The Parable of the 2 Camels’. It goes like this…

‘Once there was a merchant who was leading his two camels along a road. One camel was walking slowly because it was weighed down with packs of salt. The other camel moved along much quicker because it was loaded up with bales of cotton’.

‘Now along the way, the merchant came to a place where the road was flooded by a swollen river. As the merchant moved further along the road both he & his camels began being immersed deeper & deeper into the water’.

‘After a few minutes the merchant was swimming & the camels were almost completely submerged. But the merchant persisted. His livelihood depended on it.  Finally the merchant and his camels were back on dry road’.

‘As the merchant made the final trek to the bazaar, he noticed something had changed in the way the camels were carrying their cargo. The camel with the salt on it’s back seemed to have gained new strength & vigor. The merchant puzzled over this for a bit and then realised the water must have mostly dissolved the salt in the packs. However, the camel carrying the cotton was now struggling and groaning under the weight of its load. This was because the cotton had absorbed so much water’.

I like the parable of the two camels. I like it because it makes really clear a holy paradox that exists for people who embrace the Gospel.

I keep finding that whenever I encounter a paradox in Scripture, I need to pay attention because I have arrived at a place of significant spiritual truth. The way forward is not to decide between one possibility or the other but to try to a find way to hold the two in tension. These are places of tremendous spiritual dynamism.

The paradox of embracing the Gospel begins, when like the camel weighed down with the salt, we experience the river of God’s Grace. The mercy of God surrounds us & overwhelms us. We leave the weight and guilt of all our past selfish actions at the foot of the Cross. Our sins are washed away & we emerge on the other side with an incredible lightness of being that floods our very souls. It’s like the old hymn says, ‘My chains fell off, my heart was freed, I rose went forth and I followed Thee’.

This is the grace of the kingdom. This is forgiveness that makes us whiter than snow. This is love expressed as mercy… like being given a 2^nd, a 3^rd and a 4^th chance all at once.

Now the journey of discipleship is one where we keep following in the way of Jesus. So with that incredible lightness of being we enter back into the river – we continue embracing the Gospel with arms wide open. It is at this point that we experience the paradox. We begin to indentify with the experience of the camel who enters into the river with the cotton.

The more that we enter into and embrace the heart of the Gospel, the more we become weighed down with feeling the burden of a hurting world. 

I was talking to someone recently, asking them what their response has been to me talking for nearly 12 months now about mission. This person whose opinion I value said, “I feel exhausted !”

At first I found these words rather confronting. I started feeling a little bit anxious. Then this week as I have been reflecting on ‘The Parable of the 2 Camels’, I have been thinking maybe what my friend has been feeling, is a renewed sense of the weight of the Gospel.

You see, when we feel the weight of the Gospel, at first it can be overwhelming, even exhausting. Yet that burden we feel for a hurting world, that feeling of agitation, in the sense that I must… do… something… that’s not something I can claim credit for. That’s the Holy Spirit working.

This burden that we have for a hurting world, it changes our perception of the world we live in. It makes us see things that before were invisible. It makes us sensitive and aware of the needs of others… It opens us up to life lived beyond ourselves.

It moves us from being passive & selfish into merciful and inclusive action on behalf of others.

So how do you know a person is experiencing the paradox of embracing the Gospel with their arms wide open ?

Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruit”. He says, “Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles ? In the same way good trees bear good fruit… they cannot bear bad fruit”.

*from Peter Rollins’ book… ‘How (Not) To Speak of God’

Perfection = Mercy

The Sermon on the Mount has many demanding teachings. Perhaps the most confronting for me is Jesus’ injunction at the end of his teaching on loving enemies. He says, “Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect”. It’s interesting when you look at what Jesus says in his similar teaching in Luke’s gospel, instead of using the word perfect, Jesus says, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful”.

Perfection in Matthew equals mercy in Luke’s gospel. Being perfect just like our Father in heaven means being merciful.

So this is love expressed as mercy, generosity, openness, sensitivity & forgiveness… As disciples of Jesus, this our way of being in the world that impacts everything that we do.

Majestic, Potent, Personal

The Golden Rule again. This is Jesus take on it. He says, “In everything, do for others what you would have them do for you; for this sums up the Law of Moses & the teaching of the Prophets.”

So the idea here is that the whole of the majesty and potency of Scripture, is condensed into just one teaching.

It makes you sit up and take notice doesn’t it ?

This is the result of all the long history of God’s dealings with his people. A holy and sacred revelation. And the condensed down version translates into a simple, concrete way of regarding others that infuses and flavours our whole way of living.  

Last week I mentioned feeling the stretch of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. My uneasiness was mostly from the realisation of the gap that exists between the way I live my life & the bold expression of living that Jesus’ teachings open up for us.

This week however, when I look at Jesus’ teachings through lens of the Golden Rule, I notice something very different. The greater stretch of Jesus teachings is the way they refocus our sensitivity, our priorities, our openness, indeed our energy & resources away from ourselves and over towards others in everything that we do.

The Whole Torah

The Golden Rule. You know Jesus wasn’t the only one to commend the Golden Rule in his teachings. Hillel the Elder – a leading Rabbi of his Age – who was an old man when Jesus was just a boy – was once approached by a non-Jew and asked, “What is the defining essence, the kernel of the Jewish faith ?” Now the learned & wise man could have responded eloquently and long on the deep mysteries of Jewish thought and law. Hillel could have insisted that it would be an utter insult to reduce so profound a system of faith into one brief statement.

Indeed Hillel’s contemporary, the Great Rabbi Shammai, was infamously known for furiously driving away a man who asked a similar question with a stick.

However seeing the man really wanted to know, Hillel responded to the man’s question thoughtfully, saying,

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour: this is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary; now go and study !”

Why The Golden Rule is Golden

My grandfather sometimes used to get into fights with other boys on the way home from school. When I was young he used to tell me, the fights were always round the issue of him being Salvation Army and them being Catholic. The irony is that as an adult his sister Grace married a Catholic. My mother, whenever she speaks of her Aunty Grace always remembers her husband in those terms. I am sure she has mentioned his name but the stronger memory for me is Aunty Grace and her Catholic husband. 

I have a sense that you have only to scratch the surface of any one of us, & there is some kind of prejudice shaping our decisions. It’s natural ! It helps us to give order to the world. Prejudice gives us an efficient way of setting boundaries, of filtering experience – of keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe. Yet the effect of prejudice is that it always keeps the people we are stereotyping at arms’ length – typecasting them into caricatures and cardboard cutouts instead of living, breathing people like you and me – complex and conflicted.

I’ve been reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel this past week again, focusing particularly on the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule says, “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Mt7:12). This verse has it’s foundation in the much older book of Leviticus that says, “But the stranger that lives among you shall be like one born among you, and you will love them as you love yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev19:34).  So the sense of Jesus teaching here is an openness to others, that breaks down prejudice, creating space to encounter all people as image bearers of God himself.  

Over the years I have met too many evangelicals who are willing to right off a major part of the Church because Catholics don’t profess to be saved or born again like they are.

During the week I was reading a piece in the paper by a young catholic professional, Rachel Patterson.  After all the media hype surrounding the Pope’s visit and World Youth Day, I found it a refreshing read. Let me share some of the highlights…

“At the core of catholic faith is the belief that Christ is God and God is love. As followers of Christ we are called to love God and one another. As such, for Christians, life is not a meaningless experience but a beautiful, sometimes difficult thing to which there is a purpose other than mere self-satisfaction”.

“At the heart of Catholic moral teaching is an understanding of freedom that contrasts sharply with popular notions of choice. For most people, freedom is simply the ability to do what they want. For the Catholic Church, freedom is the is the ability to do good. It is easy to do what we want. It isn’t always easy to do what is right. And when we choose to do right by another, especially when it isn’t our inclination or in our interests to do so, we exercise our capacity for love. In other words, love isn’t just some gooey emotion we feel for our parents, children or significant other… ”.

“Some people… question why the church persists in having so many rules –especially when it comes to sex… [Why] does it ask us to keep sex within marriage [?]… Not because the church is scared of human sexuality. Sex is understood as something created by God and, therefore, a… good and beautiful thing. It can, however be misused and when it is we can hurt people and ourselves. Far from being oppressive, church teaching on sex is meant to be liberating”.

“It can be lonely leading a life that is counter to the prevailing moral norms. For many of the young adult making the trip to Sydney for World Youth Day, it is one of the few times in their lives that they will be surrounded by other young Catholics in a decidedly Christian atmosphere. To them I say, enjoy. Your faith is a gift and you do not need to apologize for it or isolate it from the rest of your life”.

“But the stranger that lives among you shall be like one born among you, and you will love them as you love yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”.

Allowing the stranger to draw near… This is why the Golden Rule is golden.

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.

Living Life BIG !

The Sermon on the Mount… I’ve been turning it over again and again and it has been tough reading. I’ve been trying to get a sense of why these words are so exacting.

Then I was reading a story in the newspaper last Saturday and things started to become a whole lot clearer.

In April 1979, under the cover of darkness, Samir Kuntar, along with three other men travelled by rubber dingy, from Lebanon – 5kms into Israeli territory. They came ashore onto the beach at the town of Narhariya. Keep in mind, Samir Kuntar was only 16 yrs old at the time.

It was close to midnight. At random the four – who were members of the Palestinian Liberation Front – chose an apartment block where a young Smadar Haran lived with her husband & two young children.

Amid gunfire & exploding grenades, Kuntar and his accomplices stormed the flat and seized Mrs Haran’s husband, Danny and their four year old daughter. Kuntar forced them down to the beach, where he shot Danny and threw his body into the ocean. The little girl – Einat was forced to watch her father’s die. Then with the butt of his rifle, Kuntar smashed little Einat’s head against a rock until she too was dead.

Back in their apartment, Smadar Haran was hiding in the attic, with a neighbour – cradling her 2 yr old daughter, Yael. Fearing her other daughter’s cries would alert the terrorists, she covered Yael’s mouth with her hand. She accidently suffocated her own child. By night’s end, Smadar Haran’s entire family was dead.

Overwhelmed by the immense tragedy, Smadar Haran faced two choices – to live or to die. Smadar chose life. She trained as a social worker, she remarried a psychologist and today has she two teenage girls.

For the past thirty years the terrorist Samir Kuntar has been a prisoner in an Israeli jail. This last week the Israeli cabinet decided to release Samir Kuntar in exchange for two Israeli soldiers who were taken prisoner two years ago in Lebanon & who are probably dead.

As much as Smadar Haran wanted to escape the ties that bound her to Samir Kuntar, she could not. Now there is an extraordinary twist to the story. The family of one of the abducted Israeli soldiers – Ehud Goldwasser – lives around the corner from her in Narhariya. The two families are close family friends and Smadar Haran even attended the abducted soldier’s wedding.

This last weekm the Israeli cabinet wanted to know how Smadar Haran would feel if Samir Kuntar was released from prison, in exchange for Ehud Goldwasser.

Smadar Haran took a while to answer…

Finally she said, “It’s so delicate and I can’t close my eyes to other people’s pain and I can’t close my heart… Sometimes the best interests might not be my interests, maybe.”

This last week she wrote to the Israeli cabinet freeing it’s members from any guilt they may feel, “Kuntar is not and never was my own private prisoner”.

 “Turn it over and turn it over again, for everything is contained in the Scriptures. Regard it, grow old in it and never abandon it, for there is no greater virtue.”

The teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount seems so demanding because most of us live life within a fairly narrow bandwidth… comfortably, safely ! We are careful with our relationships, associating mostly with people like ourselves.

Yet when I look at the gut wrenching, shattering life experience of Smadar Haran, whose family is murdered and who in fear and terror, suffocates her only other child, a watered down, less demanding version of the Sermon on the Mount just doesn’t cut it.

Jesus says don’t let anger be your response to the world because anger distorts your judgement, anger gives way to bitterness and shuts us down emotionally, even to the ones we love. Jesus says don’t strike back in revenge but give and forgive those who wrong you because revenge hardens hearts and sets up cycles of violence that take on a life of their own. Jesus says love your enemies because love even allows a poor widow to powerfully protest and transcend institutional evil and the selfish, conflicted ways of men.  

The Sermon on the Mount. These words of Jesus are life, abundant, generous & open. They create the space for us to live life BIG, even when the storms of life come.

He Who Saves One Life, Saves the World Entire

Living life naked and exposed in the presence of God himself. I think this is what Jesus has in mind in his teaching of the Sermon on the Mount… why it is so demanding. We are not merely talking about Jesus giving new order to the parameters of Jewish religious life or even temple worship, but the Spirit of God being granted access and transforming all areas of life. Anything that has God in such close proximity is deeper, wider and higher than ordinary living.

You see when we dwell in close proximity to the Scriptures, when we turn them over again and again, when look back over their writing down through the ages – something becomes very clear. God has priorities. God desires some things more than he desires others…   

Like the time Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector. Jesus is sitting eating a meal openly with a number of tax collectors and other social outcasts. Some Pharisees are walking by and they ask Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with those kinds of people ?” And Jesus, hearing what they are saying, turns to them and replies, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’”. 

Jesus says this because as a good Jew who had memorised the Torah, word for word – Jesus knows God’s priorities. God desires mercy more than he desires sacrifice. God desires compassion more than he desires contemplation. God desires our hearts more than he desires our intellectual ascent.

Why ? Because the goal of life isn’t purity and holiness – that’s a by-product. The goal of life is an intensity of living, a fullness of life, concretely focused into habits of action that help to repair the brokenness of a hurting world. It’s like the Jewish Talmud says, “He who saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Really Turning the Other Cheek

“You have heard it said, ‘You shall not murder’ and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment’. But I say to you that if you are angry with your brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment…”.

“You have heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye…’. But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also…”.

 “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”.

 

I really feel the stretch of Jesus’ teaching in these passages from the Sermon on the Mount. When I reflect on how my own life measures up to the Sermon on the Mount, I have a sense of missing the mark, of failing daily. In my darker moments I would be sorely tempted to just… give up !

Now, I also balance this with the tension of experiencing God’s grace, of my sense of assurance that the blood of Jesus covers my sin, that before the throne of God I am already declared pure, holy, acceptable, with a righteousness that is not my own. The freedom of it allows me to enter boldly into the presence of God Himself.

While the grace of God releases me from the overwhelming sense of guilt that comes from working hard for salvation, I also wrestle with the tension of scriptures like Mt 5:20, that says, “unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven…”. What about John 14:12 where Jesus says, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and in fact will do greater works than these…”. 

Words like these create tension, they create discomfort and uneasiness within us about the teachings of Jesus. I wonder if the anxiety & dissonance is Jesus’ intention, indeed God’s intention for Scripture in general ?  You see I think God can work with us in those places. He wants access to all areas of our lives. I think these are the teachable moments, the places where Jesus teachings can be translated into meaningful action that flavours our total response to living. 

Rather like a wise man who builds his house upon the rock….

 

Turn It Over & Turn It Over Again

There’s an ancient Jewish proverb from the Talmud I have grown rather fond of. It goes like this, “Turn it over and turn it over again, for everything is contained in the Scriptures. Regard it, grow old in it and never abandon it, for there is no greater virtue.”

During the week I have been reading through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. I have been turning it over again and again, I feel have been regarding it to the point where it has grown rather old. Thankfully, I didn’t abandon it.

For me the Sermon on the Mount has been personally demanding reading. It has made me feel contrite & reflective about the quality of my discipleship; even the integrity of my walking with God.

You can’t read very far into the Sermon on the Mount without starting to feel the weight of God’s glory, the light of his holiness pouring into all the nooks and crannies of our mixed intentions… even filling the yawning gap that exists between our words and our actions.

Like John Calvin before me, I notice that these series of teachings read more like a dense compilation of many teaching sessions, rather than one singular occasion. There doesn’t seem to be that logical, sequential development of an argument that one would expect from a master teacher, delivering his message.

Instead each topic appears like its own particular teaching, concentrated & hard-hitting – complete in and of itself. 

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. 

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. 

Go And Learn What This Means

Sometimes blogging intensifies the chances of people missing each other. At times it seems to lack the intimacy of two friends who through an effort together can clarify confusion or continue speaking about an issue until they vibrate in tune.

 

Recently I asked the question, “What would happen if we allowed mission to become the focus of our churches instead of worship ?” Out of the hit and miss world of the internet I got back this comment… “A church that is first and foremost mission-oriented is a church of works. Works are both wonderful and needed in the world but they must be God working through us rather than us doing what make us feel good…” Now keep in mind I titled my post, ‘I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice’… This is a direct quote from Matthew 9:13, where Jesus is being criticized by his rabbinic peers for eating with the wrong kinds of people. Jesus is reminding the Pharisees of a verse from Hosea that is saying that true knowledge of God translates into merciful actions on behalf of undeserving others rather than pious temple sacrifices.

 

I make no apology for saying it is time to refocus the church around the organizing principle of mission when the church is losing ground in this country. I’d have no trouble gathering around the organizing principle of worship if 80%, 70% even 60% of people in our communities declared the Lordship of Jesus. The problem is the truth that on any given Sunday there is less than 10% of people who do that.

 

Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice…” because fundamentally discipleship means being a sent one. The Kingdom of God propels people out into a hurting world to engage with those who don’t yet know Jesus, to stand in solidarity with them where they are, to serve them compassionately, mercifully. Amazing grace is the knowledge of God expressed as compassionate action among undeserving men. John 20:21 sums up this idea, “As the Father sent me, so I send you…”.  

“Doing what makes us feel good”… for me this kind of activity is costly, mostly sacrificial… going against the flow. When I think back to my experiences of mission in Africa and South East Asia sometimes they were oh so sweet, often they were just plain hard. Yet the stretch of those experiences made me more God dependent, more sensitive to what the Spirit of God was doing.  

I pray for the refocusing of the church around the organizing principle of mission because the organizing principle of worship isn’t releasing the Kingdom of God and holy bedlam into our communities.

 

“Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24) The prophet Amos spoke these words because his vision of Yahweh was the vision of the missionary God – the mystery of a never-ending surging, fighting movement.

Day After Day Pours Forth Speech

The lite touch of God’s glory in the world is like the unexpected arrival of rain. Suddenly, leaves are dipping involuntarily in asymmetrical acknowledgement of its presence – a persistent shower giving lustre to the world & heightening awareness. 
 
The Psalmist says that, “day after day pours forth speech and night after night declares knowledge… of the glory of God – yet there is no speech nor are there words…” While the lite touch of God’s glory is ever present, the sense of its arrival is always subtle. It builds in degrees, inhabiting the peripheral of vision or the graduated silences out on the edges of constant noise. 
 
That our vision and hearing are dim to its arrival is witness to our routines of busyness and distraction.  
 
That the activity of God’s glory in the world shapes our daily situation is beyond question. Glory lends intention to secret acts of mercy and kindness. Glory intensifies hope and endurance when the real is all too abrasive & unfriendly, Glory makes forgiveness the unthinkable possibility that dances in the midst of a hurting relationship At its most compelling the Glory of God ignites a passion for justice that burns & is vigilant, restless & creative.
 
When the dipping dance of the leaves ceases, the enduring effect of rained out rain is that cleansing wetness that soaks into every crack & crevice – absorbed into pores of everything it touches. 
 
Drips hanging like jewels are the multitude of mundane moments touched by the finger of God.

Sharper Than Any Two Edged Sword

Getting your head around the Cross is difficult. The Cross is really rather awkward in the sense of being clumsy & inelegant. Think about the metaphors we reach for to describe it. Think about the old hymn… “At the Cross, at the Cross – where I first saw the light & the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day…” What about the words from a more recent song, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound; amazing love, now flowing down. From hands and feet that were nailed to the tree… His grace flows down and covers me”.

Part of the awkwardness of the Cross, is the holy paradox… the place of God-forsakenness is also the place where God is profoundly present. The Cross describes the execution of a particular man but it also describes the possibility of the crucified God, the very pain of God…

The paradox of the Cross is dissonance & tension – even anxiety itself, like being on the knife edge of uncertainty. Remaining here means the knife cutting deeper, ‘…piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Hebrews 4:12).  Imagine a deadend place of such brutality and physical violence also being the place of safety, of confessional intimacy and so… much… more…

The awkwardness of the Cross is that it is not just some kind of splendid vision that we observe, we behold and we adore. Instead, the Cross is the beginning of a journey right now - that will eventually take us to an unbounded place, to a place that even death cannot hold us back from participating in. A place where we will see God face-to-face.

The irony of the Cross is that its very awkwardness, its enigmatic character speaks most plainly about the lengths God is prepared go in his pursuit of people.

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.  

What If Mission Came Home

Last Sunday evening I attended the commissioning of some friends who are preparing to serve in overseas mission. It was inspiring to here them speak with passion and honesty about their desire & intention to serve God in South East Asia. Their challenge came as a question, “How could we simply kick back into home renovation and career building when there are so many people who have yet to hear about Jesus right on our doorstep ?”

Over the last few weeks I have been reflecting on the question, “What happens when mission comes home?”  I have been seeking to challenge the idea that mission doesn’t just belong with the 1% of christians who leave their homes and travel to other lands where the Gospel isn’t. Mission and mission practices belong right here at home as well. Mission could be the organizing principle around which we re-orientate the whole church. Supporting missionaries in other cultures could be but one expression of our total mission vision.

I was reading back through the covenant that my wife & I made with our home church before we left for South East Asia in 2005. In that covenant we said the following,

“We identify the centrality of the missional task within our own lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. We reaffirm our desire to follow God where he leads and to be His witnesses & disciplers in those places. Through the Holy Spirit’s enabling we will seek to creatively evoke and to nurture the Gospel as a powerful & vital alternative to the dominant culture in which we will live. We renew our commitment to open our lives to otherness & difference so that we may authentically connect & participate in the lives of others”.

As a consequence of this statement we committed ourselves to a number of concrete practices. Firstly we committed ourselves to weakness that deliberately sort the role of a learner & a lifestyle of simplicity. Next we committed to listening & sensitivity that sort discernment from the Spirit of God, fluency in language learning & nonjudgmental insight into the cultural practices of the people with whom we will work. We committed ourselves to hospitality that sort to create nurturing & safe spaces where storytelling, discipling & worshipping communities could thrive. Next we committed to advocacy biased on behalf of poor and marginalised people that sort their participation in processes of reversal, empowerment, transformation, healing & reconciliation – so they could experience the presence of the Kingdom of God among them. Finally we committed ourselves to excellence in our professional roles.

As I read back through this list of concrete missional practices I find myself asking the question, “If we were prepared to commit ourselves to these things over there then why can’t we commit ourselves to those same practices back here in Australia ?”

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. 

Name Calling

Martin Buber says, “In the Torah, God makes no philosophical statements about himself & speaks no formulas.” The God of Israel – the LORD, Yahweh – is a name and not a notion. The difference between the two is perhaps the difference between Jerusalem & Athens. A notion like ‘god’ applies to all objects of similar properties. That’s where we get the idea of  ’the gods’ from.

A proper name, however,  applies to a unique individual. A notion describes, a name evokes. The name Yahweh applies to the one and only God of all people. A notion is attained through generalization – a name is learned through interaction. From a Hebrew perspective to know a name is to know the character of the bearer of the name. A notion is conceived, a name is called. Abraham Heschel says, “the notion of a god and The God of Israel – the Lord Yahweh, are profoundly incompatible”. The God of Israel is a comsuming fire (Dt. 4:24)… not an abstraction and definitely not a generalization. 

Holy Bedlam

Luke 4 describes Jesus spending time in the desert, out in a place where people and civilisation were absent.

Out in the desert under the blazing sun, Jesus is distilled & concentrated so that all that’s left is a focused and very determined Son of God who finds the heart of what his mission will be.

Scriptures says that Jesus returns from the desert filled with the Spirit of God, and the very next Sabbath he stands up in his hometown Synagogue and reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”

What is Jesus saying here ?

Jesus is boldly declaring what is called the Great Reversal. Essentially Jesus is saying that the Spirit of Almighty God is leading him to engage in concrete actions that will fundamentally reverse the status quo.

In other parts of the Gospels this movement to reverse the vast litany of injustice in the world is called the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God refers to a future time when all peoples will be united in all their diversity in a kingdom of justice and righteousness and mercy. There will be peace and equal prosperity and even harmony among men and women. Essentially the Kingdom of God is a future time when the reign of God will be universally recognized and established among people.

The message of Jesus was that this future is has made its beginning. It is breaking into the world right now in the person of Jesus.

What impresses me about Jesus is that he walks out from the Synagogue, through the middle of a murderous crowd & does exactly what he says he will do. And as he wanders about teaching his gentle message of freedom and justice and reconciliation, while he is healing people and working miracles – Jesus attracts a vast following of people from all walks of life. At the same time Jesus deeply offends other people… people of power and influence, people whose position is best maintained by keeping things exactly as they are.

Now the outcome of Jesus pursuing his mission was that the religious establishment conspired to killed him. And the outcome of that conspiracy ended with Jesus being killed off on the Cross.

What makes this Great Reversal so potent is that 3 days later Jesus began appearing again to his closest followers.

And you know what, Jesus’ message didn’t change after he was resurrected. Instead of saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…”, Jesus tells his followers, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon you because he has anointed you to bring good news to the poor. He has sent you to proclaim release to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”

“Go on, go and share this teaching with all people. Go make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…”.

By the time the Apostle Paul begins writing to the early Christian communities, this broad sweep of Jesus’ teaching has been distilled and concentrated again into a potent confession that propels would be disciples on their way. It says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord & believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.”

Here we have it… People who follow after Jesus, people who say Jesus is the main thing are people who deeply, truly, profoundly believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. As a result they begin to re-orientating their lives around the teachings of Jesus. They become participators in the Great Reversal. They seek to embody God’s justice and mercy and goodness. They group their lives together and they become God’s alternative community and the Risen Jesus is their ‘living middle’.

When people associate their lives together, when this Risen Jesus becomes the living middle, then it is possible for community to arise among them and the Kingdom of God spreads like a wildfire !

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.   

Breaking Open the Circle

I remember back in November, 2006. It was the evening of the first night of Idul Fitri – an all night of muslim prayer marking the end of the fasting month. I was standing on the roof of my house – immersed in the anonymity of the night. Here & there the mere suggestion of shapes & surfaces marked my particular place in the world but my hearing was telling me otherwise. I was immersed in a uniquely bounded moment of a tremendous speech act, a multitudinous calling of the name of Allah from mosques in all directions. From the front, now behind, to the side, the other side… came an unbroken multi-vocal charge of different utterances converging, rising to crescendo then falling again… a creative gaggle of voices congregating around the speaking of the name of God.

However, there is another kind of speech act. It is the unending calling forth of my name by God. It’s like God’s calling of Abram. 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.”  

Such a calling is a creative utterance. It is a never-ending self-involving unbounded moment. It calls us out from the anonymity of the night & into a world of light and encounter with particular other people. It calls us to become familiar with the sounds of their voices, engaging in their specific situation, immersing ourselves in their unique stories.


To be involved in a conversation with strangers, begins in speaking words with little meaning. The sounds are mostly harsh and unfamiliar. It is hard to remain in that place, like the smoke of burning leaves barbing my eyes or the pungent smell of rotting garbage taunting my nostrils. To remain in the creative gaggle of a continuing conversation with unfamiliar people, day after day, in situation after different situation, etches out a new space of shared meaning. Me and them eventually becomes us – a shared story. This is mission and it applies as much up close as it does far away.

I am shaped & held by the words and the stories of particular other people. That’s why God says, “Go from your country…”. The stretch of it, the leaving of myself behind, builds & intensifies my presence in the world & my relation to the One who calls me forth.

The Knife Edge Cutting Deeper

 “the Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his chariot drivers and his army…”

The image we are given is of Pharaoh relentlessly bearing down. He is rapidly advancing towards the Israelites with his murderous host. The Israelites can see the dust and hear the thundering chariots and they are afraid. They can do nothing because they are trapped on the edge of a very large expanse of water. This is being caught between a rock and hard place… between the devil and the deep blue sea.

And as the Israelites totter on the edge of chaos, their courage evaporating by the second, Moses says to the people, “Do not be afraid, the Lord will fight for you… stand firm!” And immediately God speaks. He says to Moses, “Why do you stand there and cry out to me – go forward !”

Now logic would dictate that ‘going forward’ would mean the Israelites moving into battle against the Egyptians. Scripture says that the Israelites went out from Egypt prepared for battle. However that wasn’t what God had in mind. Instead, God intends this mass of newly redeemed slaves to move forward, out into the sea ! 

The Israelites camped on the edge of the sea is a group of people who have pitched their tents on the edge of chaos. A tremendous mass of newly redeemed slaves moving out into the sea is like Peter the wily fisherman stepping out of the boat and into the angry water to walk to Jesus… It is beyond logic, it is beyond wisdom. This is a holy paradox. Yet in such a place a man can walk on water and a teeming throng of people & their vast menagerie of animals can walk through the banked up water on ‘dry ground’ to the other side.

Like the waters of baptism the Israelites went into the Red Sea as slaves and emerged on the far shore as a community of God’s chosen pilgrim people. Most of the time after that, while they wandered around with God in the desert, they whinged and they whined and they were so barely faithful. Yet instead of standing still, they were now a community whose identity was being forged on the way.

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. 

Pure Oxygen

Recently, a friend of mine asked the question, “If you were going to use a passage from Scripture to describe the kind of community you think God would like us to be, what passage would you choose?”

I had to think for a bit but the longer I did, the more I liked the Exodus image of being a pilgrim people in the wilderness. Lawrence Kushner says the wilderness is a place that demands being open to the flow of life around you. It’s a place “that demands being honest with yourself, without regard to the cost in personal anxiety… a place that demands being present with all yourself… possessions cannot surround you… preconceptions cannot protect you… guilt can no longer place you safely in the past”.

There is a sense of weakness and vulnerability, of depending upon God alone that goes with this image. It’s an idea of community that says if we don’t work this out together we are going to die here. This basic survival orientation focuses attention outwards, demanding openness to newness & difference. It is a picture of a community of people who are working out their relationship with God ‘on the way’.

Mars Hill is a church in Grand Rapids, Michigan – who have chosen to locate their story in the deep channel of the Exodus story. This grand narrative of Scripture lends movement, intention & focus to their community. It is the idea of having a deep story that they can keep checking in with to make sure their unfolding communal story is located in a place where God alone is the living center.

Kushner says of dwelling in the wilderness, “That such a way of being would be like breathing pure oxygen.” That we would long to breathe air of such intensity & purity in the Church. Amen, amen & amen again.