Waving or Drowning?

Salvos and Sex

Our friend Danielle Strickland can't seem to stay out of trouble. After doing great work for years in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, she found herself exiled to Australia. And there... well, just take a look:

Seriously, way to go Danielle.

An Ancient Voice Speaks to the Present

How think you that you obey Christ's commandments, when you spend your time collecting interest, piling up loans, buying slaves like livestock, and merging business with business?... And that is not all. Upon this you heap injustice, taking possession of lands and houses, and multiplying poverty and hunger.
John Chrysostom (c. 347 - 407 AD)

Mike's Heresy of... 2005

It's funny how things work. Here I am writing about love, and a post that is almost five years old just popped up on my stats.

In that post I made this rather bold assertion:

"I don't think followers of Christ have any business being generous."

Take a look if you like and see where I went with that thought. There was quite a vigorous discussion in the comments.

Love, Leading, and Following

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately on my assertion that as a Follower of Jesus I am not burdened with the responsibility of saving the world, but instead I'm simply commanded to love my neighbour. (The irony of course is in the fact that as more of us do love our neighbour, the world will be saved. But I digress.)

Elsewhere I've made the case that neighbour should be defined as everyone. The logic is simple and goes like this: Jesus said, "Love your neighbour", who could be described as those closest to us, not just physically, but also culturally and relationally. He also said, "Love your enemies", who could be described as those farthest from us, at least relationally. So we are to love those closest to us and those farthest from us. It seems to me that everyone between those two points should then qualify for love as well.

To put it simply we are to love everyone. (As I've said before this is a great relief because it removes the need to figure out who is worthy of my love and who is not.) This makes sense to me because it seems to line up with the radical love demonstrated by Jesus himself, over and over again. Love everyone.

Yesterday I was pushed further in this thinking by a brief post from Brian McLaren. He linked to the video of Bon Jovi performing "We Weren't Born to Follow" and referred to it as a musical commentary on Romans 12:1-2.

The word weren't really got me thinking. 

As Followers of Jesus we are born to, well... follow, aren't we? After all, when Jesus was alive he said just that. "Follow me."

Let's play with this a little.

Jesus walked the earth demonstrating radical love and inviting people to follow him.

And today, if the Apostle Paul is to believed, the People of God are to function as the Body of Christ. Could it be as simple as to say that today the physical manifestation of Jesus--that is to say, us--is to walk the earth demonstrating radical love and calling out to others, "Follow me."? Not me as in us, but me as in the one we represent. The analogy gets a little clunky here but I trust you see my point.

In that sense Jon and the boys from New Jersey are correct. We weren't born to follow, we were born to lead. To lead others to Love, to lead them to Jesus, to lead them to the God who is going to redeem it all.

(Click image below to go to the video)

The Downtown Eastside, the Olympics, and a Slice of Heaven

Today was a good day. I had lunch with Dave Diewert and two pastor friends of mine who wanted to learn more about the problem of the Olympics in the light of the Gospel, and how to start the discussion with congregations who may have never looked at the Games in that way. 

Part of our conversation touched on just what we will be doing during the Olympics to signify our refusal to participate in an event that further alienates the already marginalized. To that end, the Protester's Guide to the Law of Civil Disobedience in British Columbia, released today by Lawyer's Rights Watch Canada, may come in handy.

Speaking of Dave, he'll be attending tomorrow's press conference, as part of the coalition, on the Province's Olympic Kidnapping Act, otherwise known as the BC Assistance to Shelter Act.

Finally, I just put up a post on the Linwood House blog reporting on a groundbreaking act of radical hospitality put on in the DTES a few weeks ago. There is hope.

No One Ever Said This Was Going to be Easy

More great stuff from Brian Walsh:

No one ever said that this was going to be easy.
Not Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Not the faith that he there proposes.
Not the Jesus he calls us to follow.

I know that this stuff isn’t easy.
But if it were easy, it would be cheap.
Right?
I mean if it was any simpler,
then it wouldn’t likely be any more true
to the lives of those early believers in Rome
than it would be true of our own conflicted,
compromised,
complicit,
and contradictory lives.

Context, back story and full text here.

Force or Fascination?

From a great article in Esquire, written by Shane Clairborne:

The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, at least here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to disbelieve. And the sort of Christianity many of us have seen on TV and heard on the radio looks less and less like Jesus.

Read the rest here.

One Way to Change Behaviour

Love this. (h/t to Ewan McIntosh)

Once Upon a Time

Some incomplete, unedited thoughts for you this morning...

It seems to me that a key issue with the Christian faith is this: For a long time--probably back to Constantine--we have been living in the wrong story. Furthermore, we've located ourselves in this wrong story for so long that we've forgotten that there is any other. It's difficult to find the place where you should be when you don't realize you're someplace else.

Let's consider where we are-this wrong story. For the most part the western church finds itself defending a Christianized version of what we'll call The American Dream. It goes something like this: Go to a good school, find your life's partner, get a good job, buy a nice house, and gradually work your way up the food chain to acquire more (and bigger) stuff. We then 'sanctify' this story by adding, "And, oh yes, be a Christian." (Of course we never stop to consider if this addendum to the story is compatible with the story itself.) Perhaps we then self-identify by placing a Jesus fish on the trunk of our car.

The People of God are to be something wholly different. An alternative community, as Walter Brueggemann would put it. However it goes without saying that we can't be an alternative to the status quo when we are the status quo. And let's face it, the status quo, by it's very definition, is not interested in hearing about alternatives to itself.

Ultimately this renders us completely ineffective, as far as our primary purpose is concerned. That purpose? To assist in God's grand plan to redeem all of creation. To redeem is to transform, which is to change. The Body of Christ is here to change the world, just as Jesus himself did when he walked the earth.

(I'll resist the urge to drone on and leave it here. Thoughts?)

The Future

It seems more and more people are saying the same thing, in their own way...

I have looked down the long days of our lives together, she said & in all directions, there is no future without love.
(Brian Andreas, StoryPeople)

The Rich Young Ruler: Aftershock

(See the back story here.)

-------------------------------------------------

I walked away, disoriented and staggering under the weight of what had just happened.

"Go sell everything you have, then give the proceeds to the poor."

What? How could I be expected to do this? Why would I be expected to do it? How could this Jesus be serious?

The day started off with such promise. I began the morning meeting with my bookkeeper. Together we went over the accounts, and things looked very good. The harvest this year had been exceptional, and with my extensive land holdings my financial position is very, very strong.

Leaving that meeting, I stopped to speak with some friends in the marketplace. We all agreed that the harvest had been a good one, and our conversation was animated and lighthearted, full of laughter. I did note, silently, that one or two of my friends had been a little too happy. Money can do strange things to people, and I silently thanked God that my wealth had not gone to my head.

For my entire life I have kept the Law meticulously, and I still read Torah regularly. And despite my ever-expanding business interests I have refused to cut corners on my observance of the Sabbath. How could I? I work hard, I keep the Law, and clearly God has rewarded me for my faithfulness.

Or so I thought.

And why shouldn't I have thought this way? It is not as if I am greedy. I am generous, and I always give when I am asked. Despite my growing success and wealth, I have tried my best to be humble. I have noticed with discomfort that as my fortune grew, people started to make more of a fuss over me at Temple. Still, I refuse to take the places of prominence they offer me when I attend.

And then I heard about this Jesus character. Clearly this man has been sent from God, a prophet you might say. Some even suggest that he could be the messiah we have waited so long for. I first heard him speak a few weeks ago, teaching the people, and he was intriguing. He seems to have no formal education, yet he knows the Scriptures better than any Pharisee. He speaks with such authority. His teaching is hard though, and many have dismissed him out of hand, or have abandoned him after a short while.

I was not deterred. I knew this man brought great wisdom and I wanted more. Despite all my success, all my wealth, I am not content. There has to be more to life than this. I have felt this for some time, but when I heard Jesus speak, that yearning welled up in my soul and I just could not take it any longer.

Imagine then how thrilled I was when I saw Jesus in the street this morning. It seemed like we were meant to speak together, because there were none of the usual crowds around him, just a few close friends. Here was my chance, and I could hardy contain myself as I approached this simple, extraordinary man.

And then...

That encounter had only been a few, short minutes ago, and now I don't think life will ever be the same.

Everything is in ruins.

Sell everything? All I have is a gift from God, isn't it?

Isn't it?

The Rich Young Christian

I was already planning to do some more thinking and writing on the Rich Young Guy this morning, so it's a little ironic that I ran across this article first:

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?
by Hanna Rosin
The Atlantic, December 2009

America’s mainstream religious denominations used to teach the faithful that they would be rewarded in the afterlife. But over the past generation, a different strain of Christian faith has proliferated—one that promises to make believers rich in the here and now. Known as the prosperity gospel, and claiming tens of millions of adherents, it fosters risk-taking and intense material optimism. It pumped air into the housing bubble. And one year into the worst downturn since the Depression, it’s still going strong.

Sell everything you own and give it to the poor, and apparently you'll get back ten times as much. I must have a bad translation. I felt a little sick as I read through the piece this morning. And as Anne Lamott likes to say, I have a feeling this is the kind of thing that makes Jesus want to drink gin out of the cat dish.

God help us.

Apples Everywhere

Wes & Judy Roberts have stopped in at Delta House for a very quick visit, and we remarked this morning that with them in the house there are currently 5 Macbooks (and 2 of the other kind of computer) in the house.

Sign of the times.

Count Your Blessings?

(Mike's Note: I wrote this a couple of days ago, and at the time I had no intention of posting it. Well, I've changed my mind. It was a unedited, free-form, stream-of-consciousness thing, so please take it in that spirit. And as always I'd appreciate your reactions.)

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God has done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done

Like me, you may have sung this chorus in Sunday School. Well, I've been thinking about it again lately. It's sugary, and it's theology-lite, but I think in some ways it's worse than that. Much worse. It promotes the blasphemy of the western gospel that positions God as a holy Santa Claus, giving gifts to all God's children--those on the list, anyway--and perhaps leaving a lump of coal, or worse, in the stockings of everyone else.

If you look at the words of the chorus again you'll see that this is not really what it says. But it's what we often think it says.

Yes, I do believe that God does bless us, but not necessarily in the ways we think. And I call this the western gospel because the developed world is the only place where this "works".

These are broad statements I'm making, but if you ask a group of western Christians how God has blessed them, I have no doubt that in the various answers you will find all of the following:

• Good health
• Good family
• Good job
• Material needs

I have many Jesus-following friends in other parts of the world--I'm thinking of Africa at the moment--who could not answer the same question the same way.

Good health? I have friends who live with HIV and AIDS. Yes, they are learning to "live positively", and yes, anti retro-viral drugs are more readily available to many of them so AIDS is no longer a death sentence. But they are not in good health and they never will be.

Good family? I have friends who have lost children, siblings, parents, or all of the above. I've met elderly women raising six, eight, ten children themselves. I've met children raising other children, the responsibilities of parenting thrust upon them by circumstances at an age when they should be playing and going to school themselves.

Good job? I have friends who cannot find work, who would travel for hours or even days just for the hope of work. I know people who have been ripped off by unscrupulous employers and have had to return home to hungry families with nothing to show for their absence.

Material needs? Now, I don't really need to go there, do I?

The thing is, these friends of mine also consider themselves to be blessed, but their lists would very likely not line up with ours at all.

I know what some of you are thinking: God blesses different people in different ways. While I agree with that statement, I do not believe that God chooses to bless people, a country, a part of the world, with material needs, and ignores the plight of so many in the rest of the world.

And yes, I know that your cousin knows a guy whose sister is married to a very wealthy man who is doing great things for God. We all know people like that, and thank God for them. God uses people with wealth just as God uses the poor, but that does not mean that wealth is a "blessing". It does not mean wealth is something we should strive for.

Look at my biblical friend, the Rich Young Guy, a wealthy man. A man who knew what the religious rules were, and followed them, well... religiously. Using our western yardsticks we probably would have considered him "blessed". He probably did to, right up until Jesus told him to sell it all and give the dough to the poor.

Jesus never said, "Blessed are the rich." He did, however, say, "Blessed are the poor."

Jesus never said be proud of the number of wealthy people on your church membership roll. However James--reportedly the brother of Jesus--said that we should show no favoritism, and furthermore that God has chosen those who the world deems as poor to actually inherit the Kingdom.

Then again, Jesus did say, "Whatever you do for the greatest of these, you do to me."

Wait a minute... I think I've got that last one wrong.

Charter for Compassion

I've affirmed the Charter for Compassion. Have you?

Joel Salatin

If you've seen Food Inc. you'll remember organic farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms as one of the most articulate, thoughtful people in the film. Sojourners has posted an interview with this fascinating guy online in both audio and text.

On the audio portion Salatin was asked about the driving principle behind Polyface Farms, and he said, "Healing." I laughed when I heard that, as to me healing is just another word for redemption. I laughed harder when I turned to the web site and read this line:

We are in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture.

There's a little overlap, but check them both formats to hear Salatin talk about how his faith informs his actions.

Church Authority

Where does authority in the church come from? Real authority? Father Richard Rohr gives what I believe is the correct answer, although it would probably get you an 'F' on any seminary exam...

Why is it that Mother Teresa could stand up before crowds of thousands and simply repeat simple New Testament phrases, and blow people away?!

She didn’t say anything new: “Jesus loves you,” she assured us. “We’re sons and daughters of God and we have to love Jesus’ poor.” Yet people walked out renewed, transformed and converted.

She wasn’t a priest. She wasn’t well-educated. Her authority came from her life-style and her pure goodness.

Servanthood with basic holiness is the true basis of authority in the Church, much more than title, vestment, office, or ordination. It has the authority of Jesus himself.

Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, pp. 384-385
(Source: The Spiritual Family and the Natural Family)

Oh Can't You See What Love Has Done

I've been thinking a lot about love lately, which brought me back to this song, and the memory when I heard it this past summer for the first time in a long while.

It was another one of Those Moments When You Know You're Alive. Sitting in the terminal in Johannesburg, waiting for a flight out after a very profound three weeks in South Africa. I was reflecting on my time there, time with Tom Smith and his family and friends, the Amahoro Gathering, and a week hanging out with new friends in Cosmo City.

I was just about to burst with the joy and sorrow of it all, when these words came over the sound system:

The shackles are undone
The bullets quit the gun
The heat that's in the sun
Will keep us when there's none
The rule has been disproved
The stone it has been moved
The grave is now a groove
All debts are removed, ooh

Oh can't you see what love has done
Oh can't you see what love has done
Oh can't you see what love has done
What it's doing to me

Love makes strange enemies
Makes love when love may please
Soul in a strip tease
Hate brought to its knees
The sky over our head
You can reach it from our bed
If you let me in your heart
And out of my head

Oh can't you see what love has done
Oh can't you see what love has done
Oh can't you see what love has done
What it's doing to me

Please don't ever let me out of here

I've got no shame

Oh can't you see what love has done
Oh can't you see
Oh can't you see what love has done
What it's doing to me

Oh I know I hurt you and I made you cry
Did everything but murder you and I
But love left a window in the skies
And to love I rhapsodize

Oh can't you see what love has done to every broken heart
Oh can't you see what love has done for every heart that cries
Love left a window in the skies
And to love I rhapsodize

Oh can't you see

Still More Thoughts on The Rich Young Ruler, Again...

It's no secret that the Rich Young Ruler (an outdated identifier, but  nonetheless...) is one of my favorite Biblical characters. (Actually, 'favorite' is the wrong term. The fact is this guy scares me to death. But regardless, he is someone we simply cannot ignore. There is far too much going on in this interaction between Jesus and the man.)

You probably know the story. (I particularly love the way Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message.) This guy has done it all right. He knows the Law, and he has kept it meticulously his whole life, or so he believes. By that yardstick he already has the answer to his question, but there is more. Scripture tells us that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Such a curious statement! We're left to speculate, but I imagine that Jesus saw his heart, his sincerity, and perhaps his desire for more than just rules and regulations. Something deeper. And again, the specifics are not lined out for us, but I'd suggest that Jesus knew that the man's wealth was a trap, an anchor that would lock him in place and keep him from transforming into the life of "more" that he desired.

Sell everything you have and give the money to the poor. Then, come follow me.

Like it or not, here in the west we are all rich young rulers, and that is the lens we view this passage through. And that stands to reason; that is who the story is about, and he is in fact the only character in it. "The poor" in this exchange is some nameless, faceless entity. This entity simply serves the greater purpose of separating this man from his wealth, or so we believe.

Let me point out the obvious and suggest this is only half of the story.

This thought occurred to me yesterday. I had written about Mercy and Bill, and this got me thinking again about the incredible work that my friend Edward and his church community are doing in Kenya, hampered, of course, by a chronic shortage of funds. I thought about friends in Burundi, suffering with the same monetary affliction. I thought about the friend I will write about soon, a man with an incredible story, a pastor's heart, a vision for the youth of Burundi, and the constant worry of simply keeping a roof over his wife's head.

The lyrics of the Bare Naked Ladies hit If I Had A Million Dollars kept running through my head as I thought about these friends. If ten thousand, one hundred thousand, even one million dollars were to fall into my lap tomorrow I know exactly how I would spend it.

And then it occurred to me: These friends of mine--and the people they work with and for--they are the nameless, faceless poor in this passage. Except that they are anything but nameless and faceless. I know their names, I see their faces, and I ache for who they are and what they want to do.

Because we see this passage through our wealthy western eyes, the story is all about the the rich guy. His money, should he have chosen to obey Jesus, would have simply disappeared. But when I look at the other side of the story through the eyes of my friends, things look very different. Imagine how things would have improved for the poor who would have received the proceeds of the rich guy's giant garage sale.

We sometimes view this challenge of Jesus to the man as simply that; a test, a final hoop that he must jump through in order to get eternal life. But what if we have that all wrong?

What if it would have been through the very act itself, the transfer of wealth from the one who has more than enough to the many who lack, that the man would have been transformed, and the Kingdom of God would have been expanded and strengthened? What if it was as much about the poor receiving the funds as it was about the wealthy man giving them?

Too Much Stuff (The Double Entendre)

I try not to collect too much because having stuff takes more time than you think. But then again sometimes it's good to stay busy.

Brian Andreas, StoryPeople.com