Seeking the Peace of the City

Public policy: “The set of decisions that we make as a society about how we care for one another, our communities and the land.”

This definition was taken from a workshop on “Getting to Justice” as part of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) 20th Annual Conference in Miami http://www.ccdamiami08.org/ last Saturday. I joined Robin, Matt, Beth & Flavio there for the last day of the conference, along with other friends from Love Bags.

I am committed to avoiding expressing partisan political opinion on this blog. This post will be as close as I get to doing that on the Saturday before a historic election, but still remaining consistent with that guideline. However, any discussion of making decisions about public policy inevitably leads us to think about politics, and how Bill Moyers once described it: “Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism.” Partisan comments are welcome by the way, as long as they are respectful.

I was asked to summarize my first experience at CCDA for a new colleague who wanted to know what went on there. I told her that 2,300 persons for faith came together to learn about, and put into practice, such things as racial reconciliation, social justice and how to advocate for issues based on principles such as that “government budgets are moral documents.” Here are some take-aways:

John Perkins (pictured at top) is the founder of CCDA. He spoke about racial reconciliation and shared a story from when he was a pastor in Mississippi in the 1960s. He said he started meeting with two white pastors in his community to discuss ways to work together to share the Gospel in their small town. They knew that only the Gospel (in its fullness) could lift people out of the various forms of bondage they saw all around them. Racism is a huge form of bondage and the two white pastors were confronted with such vicious hostility from their congregations to this simple idea of interracial Christian cooperation…that they both eventually committed suicide.

Brian McLaren, http://www.brianmclaren.net/ provocative as ever, followed Perkins and asserted that, “The God of the scriptures is primarily a God who liberates slaves.” I think of Egypt and Babylon and Rome and the many in bondage who Jesus healed. He led us through some stark data on war, poverty, consumerism and pollution and said that the dream of God is a world restored to “shalom.” Shalom was the big word of the conference and the closest thing I could compare it to is Scot McKnight’s “Atonement in all four directions,” - peace with God, within ourselves, with one another and with God’s creation. McLaren said, “We’re looking for a plan, and party, a program, a candidate or a strategy to get us to shalom. And we need them all. But above all we need to live in the way, the heart and the attitude of Jesus: with our families, our parents, our children, our churches, in our denominations and movements, in our community and our nation.” He closed reminding us of Philippians 2, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” I later thought of where it adds, “…in which you shine like stars in the universe...” when McLaren applied exegesis to the lyrics of Woodstock by Joni Mitchell to help us understand the situation we find ourselves in: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/joni+mitchell/woodstock_20075381.html

We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

In the “Getting to Justice” workshop, a Baptist pastor (I arrived late and didn’t get his name) with Sojourners http://www.sojo.net/ challenged us to go beyond soup kitchens and also work for systemic change. He listed kinds of “faith” that keep our focus too narrow to do so:

Privatized faith: It’s just me and Jesus
Prosperity faith: Conspicuous consumption is evidence of blessing
Apolitical faith: Withdrawal from the the process
Apocalyptic faith: Exonerates us from responsibility in the here & now
Constantinian faith: Religion of the empire

We were reminded that the Gospel is not just “fire insurance,” but an ushering in of the Kingdom of God now and for eternity, and of the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool.” We’re not called to create a “religious left” as a balance or counter to a “religious right,” he said, but to interject our faith perspectives to help transform politics. One speaker hit home when he told us, “We all capitulate to a system that says it’s O.K. to be mentally ill and living on the street.”

Finally, Shane Claiborne, http://www.thesimpleway.org/shane/ author of Jesus for President, told us to ask him who he voted for on November 5th, but suggested we listen more often to our neighbors on such matters (Shane moved into inner-city Philadelphia). He started out comparing the symbols used in the Gospel of Mark with symbols of the Roman Empire at the time when “anti-imperial” talk could get you imprisoned or executed. The symbolism used during Roman occupation was reminiscent to me of spirituals sung by slaves in the American South which allowed them to communicate secret messages and information to each other about the Underground Railroad. He also reminded us of some of the criticisms leveled at the early Christian church, such as, “They love each other before they even know each other!” That should be the kind of rap we earn today. Instead, I learned that 90% of Rwandans, in both tribes, were “Christians” at the time of the horrible 1994 genocide. Shane told of growing up in East Tennessee in a Christian family and how he learned to be “anti-gay,” until one day when he met a gay kid who told him that God had made a mistake when He made him and that he wanted to kill himself. Shane reminded us that the closer we get to God, the less we should want to cast stones.

I am not normally among the paparazzi but I did take some pics http://emergentchristian.meetup.com/29/photos/466828/ and I did (with some help :^) ask Brian McLaren to sign my copy of The Secret Message of Jesus. I loved what he wrote, “to Steve – plotting goodness!” That’s how we should all want to be remembered.

So, informed by Christian values, these are some of the kinds of issues we don’t commonly hear from North American Evangelicals around election time. If you haven't been a part of the work of CCDA before it’s worth checking out. Their 2009 conference will be Oct. 21-25 and the theme is, "Kingdom People Pursuing Kingdom Priorities."

Plotting goodness!

Steve

Oct 08 Meeting

Ten of us met at Laura’s Cuban Restaurant last Tuesday night. Wendy and her husband Tarlton were newcomers, both to this area and to our conversation. We all enjoyed getting to know them.

After a brief re-cap of the article we’ve been discussing, “Five Streams of the Emerging Church.” Steve F. and Flavio shared their “stories” of the spiritual journey that led them to this table tonight. While neither this writer, nor this format, can do justice even to a ten minute summary of a person’s life’s journey, here were some themes:

Steve F. spoke about his “radical” dedication to the cause of Christ since “saying the sinner’s prayer” at a young age – living in community with other young Christians who were recovering from any variety of life’s scars, touring with a Christian rock band, and spending so much time “being all that” for Christ that he missed some of the basics along the way. In fact, he was stopped in his tracks one day when he discovered that one true meaning of the word “radical” was not what he thought. It actually meant “basic…fundamental.” He took a break from all the activity to explore the basic fundamentals of Christianity: to learn to love God and others and to grow to be more like Jesus. Ironically, in doing so, he was criticized by those in his church. Maybe that’s because now he really was being radical according to another definition, “Favoring or effecting fundamental or revolutionary changes in current practices, conditions, or institutions.” Steve shared how he’s “served” the church for many years, but one reason he came to this table is that he simply wants friends. How radical is that?

Flavio grew up as part of a missionary family in Brazil. By the time he got back to the U.S. he discovered that although he was American by passport and heritage, he was “an invisible immigrant” since he didn’t know the ways of American culture. So, you know how kids get treated when they don’t quite fit in. Flavio’s experiences gave him a greater empathy for the marginalized in society, as well as an analytical mind. He’s seen church done all kinds of ways, and can rank them according to a number of attributes: doctrinal purity, worship, community, missional focus, hospitality to strangers and how decisions are made – ownership (with the later becoming more important and the earlier less so as time goes by). The question of how we can participate in and impact the Body of Christ (the “church”) and through it, those around us, is one thing that led Flavio to the emerging conversation. But his continues to be a journey which has not reached a destination. Should we ever feel we’ve “arrived?”

Flavio and Steve both shared of themselves, and we got to know them better. Church is relational. We’ll try to have one person share their story each month.

How we participate in the life of the church led us to the next part of the discussion, about “leaderless organizations.” Flavio and Matt shared some of the principles found in The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom who applied their business know-how to promoting peace and economic development through decentralized networking. In short, “spider” organizations are characterized by top-down hierarchies and communication, centralized knowledge, power and resources, rigidity and clearly defined membership. One major weakness? If you thump it on its head, it will die. By contrast, starfish organizations, like the animals they are named for, can regenerate if one part is cut off. In fact, these are their strengths: Distributed knowledge, power and resources, direct communication (not depending on intermediaries), flexibility, fuzzy boundaries and interchangeable roles based on the participants’ abilities, talents and giftings.

How then do we apply starfish or spider models to the “church?” We just got started on this fascinating topic. It was pointed out that starfish organizations can make decisions by consensus. Participants are then more invested in the decisions of the group, which makes it stronger. Wikipedia is one model here. Common goals are key. What are our goals in the church?

If church can be a decentralized network, how do we deal with “error?” What happens if participants start to embrace downright harmful beliefs and behaviors? Well linked communication is vital. Who are they talking to? Who’s talking to them? And where do we all get our instructions from? Jim pointed out that none of Paul’s epistles were addressed to “church leaders.” Is there really a Holy Spirit “…whom the Father will send in my name, [who] will teach you all things and … remind you of everything I have said to you.”? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you, and to us?

I know many of us are looking forward to continuing the conversation. We’re planning to do so again back at Laura’s on Tuesday night, November 11th.

Steve

Sept 08 Meeting

Seven of us braved the rain last Tuesday night to continue our discussion on what emerging or missional church should look like. Steve F.’s wife Linda joined us along with Flavio’s friend, Shannon, as newcomers. Robin M. started us off by introducing church boundary concepts from “Who is in? Who is out?” http://files.meetup.com/1198907/Who%20is%20In%20Who%20is%20Out.doc based on Stuart Murray’s book Church Planting: Laying Foundations, paraphrased below:

Bounded set – there is a clear line between the church and the world outside the church. Church members are required to subscribe to these boundaries and violation leads to exclusion.

Fuzzy set – there is more room for ambivalence, where doctrinal and ethical issues are open to debate rather than being resolved. There are still boundaries that can be violated, but these are less clear.

Open set – There are effectively no boundaries except those which are self-imposed. Belief and lifestyle are not matters of community concern.

Centered set – a dynamic, rather than static model, where the direction in which a person is facing is more important than their distance from the center. With Christ as the center, where a person is in relation to them is not as important as the direction that their life is traveling. This idea may result in someone whose lifestyle seems good, but is moving away from Christ, while someone who is new to the faith (or even still seeking) is moving towards.

While knowing Christ, and being a disciple or Christ-follower, is still paramount, some said churches can overemphasize the boundaries rather than the journey (Centered set). This can result in a de-emphasis on the importance of community, once someone is “saved,” along with an overemphasis on conformity to the “club rules” as opposed to growing in the direction of loving God and loving others - the “Jesus Creed”. One person reminded us that from God’s perspective, “we’re all out,” (except for Christ in us).

Shannon, who works as a DJ, said he was “saved” (and glad he was) a few years ago in a mega church, but found himself not only alone in a crowd but being told he could no longer associate with the friends he used to have. He explored a small local emergent church community (which was rejected by the mega church) and found real friends. How so? They are authentic, open, non-judgmental, and rather than having all the answers, “…can disagree at times, but all stay centered in God.” Shannon said being part of such community helped him…grow closer to God and to others.

So, do numbers matter? If mega churches can miss community, is church growth important? We were reminded of the fellowship of believers in Acts 2 where, “…the Lord added to their number daily…” When Shannon did meet up with his old friends, now as a Christ-follower, his love extended to one friend who he allowed to detox on his couch. The hope is that one day this friend can similarly reach out to others in need of God’s love and healing. Steve F. reminded us that God’s love starts with those closest to us, and that we can be more intentional about how we relate to those our own homes. He gave an example of how he relates to Linda. Church is in the end relational: Us toward God, and toward each other.

Flavio mentioned a "community experiment," "Buy Nothing New in October" ("NoNO") http://mennohaus.com/ which led to a discussion on social justice. How can American Christians look at global poverty and justify lifestyles of consumerism? Jim offered that “tithing” can be graduated: the more you earn above median, the higher you go above 10%…”giving to those as have need.” (Acts 2:45)

We also talked about how some “club house” churches can create barriers to ministering to the poor and homeless. But can it work the other way? Can there be churches where persons of upper socio-economic status might not “feel the love”? Its possible congregations can become “boutique” churches, catering to certain ethnic, age or socio-economic demographics rather than the diversity found both in our communities as well as in the Body of Christ. This led us back to what’s important. In “Five Streams,” Scot McKnight writes, “First, the emerging movement becomes missional by participating, with God, in the redemptive work of God in this world. In essence, it joins with the apostle Paul in saying that God has given us "the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18). Second, it seeks to become missional by participating in the community where God's redemptive work occurs. The church is the community through which God works and in which God manifests the credibility of the gospel.”

McKnight would, “…ask churches to begin by spelling out outcomes (and [he’d] want them to be loving God and loving others) and [he’d] ask pastors and leaders and churches to shape everything in that direction. How often have our churches been taught ‘how’ to love and ‘what loves looks like’ and ‘how we can become more loving’ (of God or others)? If this is the Jesus Creed, then why is it not more central to our focuses?”

What has love looked like in your life, and in our broader church?

Peace & Blessings,

Steve

P.S. Since Tuesday night, the after-conversation has been provocative, and I think ultimately bodes well for future discussion and Kingdom building. Some people have suggested that at our next meeting, a few of us “share our stories” of what led us here, in some depth. This will no doubt lead us into a variety of topics. And after all, “church is relational.”

Watch The Skies

“Most people think, Great God will come from the skies,

Take away everything, And make everybody feel high.

But if you know what life is worth, You will look for yours on earth:

And now you see the light, You stand up for your rights.”

Bob Marley & Peter Tosh – Get Up Stand Up

Another lunch…another post. This time, while the Wailers’ eschatology is not exactly my cup of Soursop, I am reminded of the lyrics to Get Up Stand Up when confronted by the following quotes from conversations I’ve had:

“The quicker the environment is ruined and WWIII comes, the sooner Jesus will return.”

“The Anti-Christ? We should vote him in! That means the Second Coming won’t be far behind.”

And, “We have to be careful not to make people too comfortable in this life, they’ll miss that they need Christ.”

I find the last paraphrased quote that came up in a recent lunch with another good friend especially ironic considering Jesus’ announced raison d’être in the 4th chapter of Luke’s Gospel:

“And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.’”

I also thought the quote suggesting that we hasten environmental degradation and war on behalf of the coming Kingdom of God ironic since it was stated by the social services director of a large homeless shelter in our community. I asked him, so why help the homeless? Wouldn’t it follow that the more homeless people we leave on the streets the sooner the Lord’s return? We reached an impasse.

I fully grasp that hardship often opens people up to spiritual realities, and to reach for things beyond our material lives, but at its worst, this approach reminds me too much of the abuses of the Church of England during the Irish Potato Famine. That was when Irish Catholics were only fed once they converted to Protestantism. More recently, I have sat in the back of missions with homeless Rastafarians as they muttered curses under their breath because they had to endure one more, long, ranting “sermon” before they could get a meal.

I wouldn’t be writing this post if these weren’t real conversations I’ve had with real Christians of late, or even if they were isolated ones. But they’re not. I grew up in the Late Great Planet Earth generation where Hal Lindsey’s book predicted the imminent return of Christ...say, oh, by the late 1980s. And that got a huge amount of traction and influenced evangelical thinking to this day. There is a real school of thought out there that if we hasten the collapse of western civilization, we’ll simultaneously hasten the rule of God. What if that’s wrong?

In their book, Adventures in Missing the Point, Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren weigh in on the “Second Coming.” Campolo writes regarding the “end times” that, “It has traditionally been perceived as a time when Christ would return, join the efforts of his people who were trying to bring in a just social order called the kingdom of God, and thereby bring those attempts to a glorious completion (Philippians 1:6).” This a very different approach than letting the world “go to hell in a hand basket” in order to somehow hasten our redemption. While he struggles to integrate them, McLaren writes, “When I read the Bible, I see a mingling of both streams of prophesy. One stream plants in us a dream of a just and peaceful society on earth (as in heaven), a hope within our history. The other stream emphasizes an eternal destiny, a hope beyond history as we know it.” These two streams are not mutually exclusive. They are parts of what make up the whole, and consistent, narrative. Or as Scot McKnight says in A Community Called Atonement, “…the atonement is designed for both an earthly realization and an eternal destination... [it] is not just something done to us and for us, it is something we participate in – in this world, in the here and now. It is not something done, but something that is being done and something we do as we join God in the missio Dei.”

Campolo continues, “Rather than the Dispensational idea of fighting battles in a war that ultimately goes so bad that Christians must be raptured out of it, the Second Coming promises that if we do not grow weary in well doing, in due season we shall reap (Galatians 6:9)…'Jerusalem' [in Revelation] is the kind of society that Jesus promised when he declared the Jubilee, the city in which [getting back to Luke 4] the poor would have good news, the oppressed would be set free, and the broken hearted would be healed. This ‘Jerusalem’ is the social system that the whole of history points toward, that is in fact the very goal of history - a kingdom that will be realized at Christ’s physical return.” In the meantime, to Camplolo, we are part of the mission, “…the history of the world is infused with the presence of God, who is guiding the world toward becoming the kind of world God willed for it when it was created.”

So, rather than waiting for “Great God to come from the skies,” maybe our focus should be on being the type of missional church that Rick Meigs (“The Blind Beggar”) describes at Friend Of Missional http://www.friendofmissional.org/ One that “…is evangelistic and faithfully proclaims the gospel through word and deed. Words alone are not sufficient; how the gospel is embodied in our community and service is as important as what we say.” So, let's not be afraid of making people "too comfortable." Maybe in comforting them, they will come to recognize the face of Christ. And maybe in doing so, "our redemtion draweth nigh."

What do you see when you look up?

Troddin down Babylon,

Steve

Organic Church

I had another great lunch conversation with a good friend, Rob, last week. We talked for an hour about finding common ground on “emerging Christianity,” and the continuing discussion from our August meeting on “How we do church”.

From my perspective (and I won’t speak for Rob but I believe this was true of his) we found we agree on the centrality of Christ, but have different perspectives…different lenses... through which we see experiences, expressions and framing stories of the Gospel.

Take church authority for instance. First, we agreed on the need for Christians to look to authoritative sources in their life’s journey: Scripture, pastors, church tradition, the Holy Spirit, that “still small voice.” But we clarified the distinction between our sources being “authoritative,” meaning we yield respect because of the inherent qualities we trust and admire in the authority, versus “authoritarian” power which demands and coerces obedience regardless of the quality of leadership or the respect of those yielding.

Then we also discussed the “relationships” of church authority in our lives (Here I also include some references that another good friend, Robin M., sent me after the lunch). “Institutional churches,” according to author Frank Viola http://www.housechurchresource.org/ are characterized by a top-down hierarchical organization. For some, there may be a fear that unless this type of top-down control is in place, chaos ensues. For me, having no authority allows us to stray, but relying too much on hierarchical authority dismisses the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, which is here to teach us, and it can dismiss our uniqueness and freedom in Christ, along with many other legitimate ways that God speaks to each one of us. Viola proposes an alternative he calls “organic church.” He says, “By ‘organic church,’ I mean a non-traditional church that is born out of spiritual life instead of constructed by human institutions and held together by religious programs. Organic church life is a grass roots experience that is marked by face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings (opposed to pastor-to-pew services), non-hierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional Leader and Head of the gathering.” Viola goes on to use different types of plants as an analogy for different types of organic churches.

I compare organic church to a grapevine. Jesus said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Grapevines, as we know, are disorganized tangles of trunks and leaves and stems and grapes. They are not straight, tall trees with neat radial branches. My “church authority” might include all of the sources mentioned above, and I might add to that, my friend who the Lord led to start a men’s fellowship in his home. At another time, it might include a different friend who recently graduated from seminary and has demonstrated his pastoral care for me… and then he might yield authority to me in other areas where I have matured more. At other times, my church authority might extend to trusted authors or bloggers who have sewn into my life. I've quoted or gleaned from many of these different sources in this post. So here, church authority is not “linear” but “distributed.” Much like the grapevine.

Speaking of plants, this also makes me wonder about fig trees and the incident in Mark 11:12-14 and other Gospels where Jesus curses the barren fig tree and it withers. Some have said this could symbolize the barrenness of the teachings and authority of the Temple priests due to their lack of true faith, and being cut off from the true vine... Jesus.

Grapevine relationships then become not just vertical (me and God) or even additionally horizontal (me and others in God’s house) but now includes personal wholeness and relationship with the world and all others around me. Or, as Scot McKnight puts it in his book A Community Called Atonement, redemption goes in four directions, “…resolving sin and bringing humans back home in their relationship with God, with self, with others and with the world.”

Rob is faithful to remind me that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) when he hears certain “emerging church” expressions about things like "organic church," "simple church," "house church," etc. (I'm reminded here of David Bowie's line, "...same old thing in brand new drag"). But while God is steadfast in his love, there are again new perceptions, lenses, experiences and framing stories that I believe help us to grow closer to God, and keep reforming, in each generation. There were even “new covenants” and “new commands” throughout the thousands of years of the Bible. And there will be “a new heavens and a new earth…and a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.” Ultimately, if we simply dismiss new conventions, we discount the value of any religious writing, art, thought, or practice after the last words in Revelation (or even the four Gospels).

What then do we do with church tradition, including its modern “institutional” paradigms? The fear of change on the one hand is of, “throwing the baby (Jesus in this case) out with the bath water” vs. pointing to the baby (the church, the “body of Christ” in this case) and saying, “the baby’s sick, we need to change the bath water and take the baby to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment." Baptist author Reggie McNeal says in his book Present Future, “The current church culture in North America is on life support. The plug will be pulled either when the money runs out or when the remaining three-fourths of a generation who are institutional loyalists die-off, or both….The church established by Jesus will survive until he returns…[but] the church culture in North America is a vestige of the original movement, an institutional expression of religion that is in part a civil religion and in part a club where religious people can hang out with other people whose politics, worldview and lifestyle match theirs.” Powerful words these (and this is but a sample from McNeal) but words that are resonating with an increasing number of Christians and that is probably one reason you are reading this post.

But what of the many good church traditions through the past two millennia? Want to drive a Catholic-basher crazy? Tell them there were Christians, real saved going-to-heaven Christians, around a thousand years before the Reformation began. And that they were Roman Catholic (and Eastern Orthodox). The church has always had rich and wonderful spiritual meat for its members. And still does. But which denominational "doctrine" do we follow?

In Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy, he extols some of the best of nearly every major Christian movement since the church began. McLaren “celebrates orthodox doctrine-in-practice,” and “while not burying doctrinal distinctives, puts them in their marginal place.” This has been my approach, and it has made it impossible for me to rationally choose to adhere to one denomination over all others. It used to be that “full Gospel” referred to the charismatic movement. Perhaps now this term could apply to a non-denominational, emerging church movement that embraces every expression, perception, lens, experience and framing story of Biblical narrative - focused on the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Balance again is the key. In some ways we can minister to, or with, institutional churches. In some ways we must work around them, as the Lord leads us, to…the “full Gospel," and to the true vine.

Deriving the benefits of church authority in our lives, using a distributed authority model, naturally requires conversation. Such conversation can often be hampered by strict denominational constraints, and when “church” is limited to a lecture format (pastor-to-pew services). Again, what McKnight says about atonement is useful here, “Our grasp of atonement is partial; the God we are grasping for is complete and whole. In God there is absolute truth; in our articulations there is always something lacking, something partial, and something still yearning for yet more. A proper confidence in God who atones reminds us of this and keeps us humble – and in conversation as we work this atonement thing out in each generation.”

Steve

Stones

“The people worked together
And they lifted many stones.”

Neil Young - Zuma

I’ve had some amazing lunch conversations lately. One of them was with Gordon. Gordon is a retired gentleman who I see whenever I join with other Christians during the one hour a week on Sunday many call “church” (I am also blessed to have “church” frequently, throughout the week, whenever two or more are gathered in His name. And they are wonderful gatherings). I am sharing this with Gordon’s permission.

While we were having lunch after “church,” Gordon was telling me how it is hard for him sometimes to have faith in Jesus as a friend, and to know that Jesus will always be there for him. I compared having this confidence to how a friend is gained, through memories of interactions we have with a person who proves through life experiences to be loyal and faithful to us (and we to them), and whose company we enjoy.

Gordon brought to lunch a purple velvet pouch full of stones. He explained to me that he has been buying polished river stones at the local Dollar Store that remind him of specific instances of God’s intervening in his life. He related this to passages in the Bible such as in Joshua 4 where it says, “…and [Joshua] said to them, …Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them …These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

Gordon shared about both physical and emotional pain he has endured for most of the past fifteen years. He said that after a Catholic doctor examined him once, he told him he was “blessed,” because of his pain. Blessed are those in pain, for they shall be healers of others. Gordon showed me a kidney shaped stone. He said it reminded him of when he asked for the gift of healing because of the suffering he has known for so long. He said that the only thing that relieves his pain is when he serves others. He said he prayed once for someone who was sick, and they were healed.

He next showed me a “pretty white rock” which reminded him of Joshua 21:45, “Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”

Gordon then showed me a flat dark rock. He was visibly upset as he shared that it reminded him of a time that he wished someone ill … and ill came to them. Now, he always remembers that there is power in our words, and that we can use them for good or ill.

Gordon showed me a white stone, with an indentation, where some power had worn away a hole. This stone reminded him of the power of God to wear away seemingly solid surfaces.

Then he showed me a small black stone, smaller than all the others. That reminded him of life’s storms.

Finally, Gordon showed me a round stone. A lighter mineral formed an “s” shape right through the middle. It reminded him that he and God are inseparable. One side was light and pure, but the other side had a dark area that reminded him that he is “not there yet,” but the two halves together remind him that in spite of that, Jesus is with him... all the time.

I gave Gordon my Prayer of St. Francis bookmarker, because it reminded me of some of his stone stories.

In his book, Ancient-Future Faith - Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World, Robert Webber writes in his chapter titled, “Recovering Symbolic Communication,” “…in these symbolic ways God’s presence and truth are mediated to us.”

What are God’s stones for your life?

Steve

What's Left?

As of this writing, Category 3 Hurricane Ike is trending ever so slightly south and away from where many of us live in South Florida. But still, by early next week, a little jog in course could result in the buildings we see around us being flattened, our stuff getting blown away and drenched, and our finances and how we spend our time all changing for years to come. Injury… and even death… could happen to us, or those close to us, as a result of a natural disaster.

What’s left?

Such uncertainty was also the rule of the day in Judea 2,000 years ago. The Roman oppressors, and their surrogates, could at any time take your money, your freedom, or even your life. How, in such conditions, could Jesus challenge us not to worry and speak about inner peace, and even inexplicable joy?

Well, here are a few thoughts…I was having lunch the other day with a friend and the conversation turned to poverty. We agreed that while there is real injustice that God would have us work to make right, poverty, or wealth, can also have a much broader definitions. I recalled a trip to El Salvador in the 1980s when I saw so many people living in houses made of sticks, thatched roofs and dirt floors. What did they have left? By contrast, at least to my North American eyes, they wore the cleanest, brightest clothes and the happiest countenances. What did they have, but God and each other? What else did they…need?

In his book, A Community Called Atonement, Scot McKnight writes, “…atonement is only understood when it is understood as the restoration of humans – in all directions – so that they form a society (the ecclesia, the church) wherein God’s will is lived out and given freedom to transform all of life.” Or, as Dallas Willard puts it in The Divine Conspiracy, “Jesus came among us to show and teach the life for which we were made. He came very gently…and set afoot a conspiracy of freedom in truth among human beings. Having overcome death he remains among us. By relying on his word and presence we are enabled to reintegrate the little realm that makes up our life into the infinite rule of God. And that is the eternal kind of life.” (Emphasis added)

Again, for McKnight, “Jesus’ kingdom mission …comes to fruition in Christian community described in Acts 2…The same can be said for Acts: 32-35. Here we have a society in which God’s will is understood in terms like equality, social justice, economic availability to and liability for one another, and fellowship. Jesus’ vision was coming into existence in the growing clutch of Jesus’ followers who were experiencing the empowering graces of Pentecost. The church is the alternative society to the structures of power found in the Roman world.”

So, if we find ourselves next week with as much…or as little…as the campesino families in El Salvador, is that really all we…need? Immanuel, God with us, and each other, from which nothing can ever separate us. Is that what’s left? And is that all there really is, for which we can be joyously thankful every day?