Enchanted Community

BLOG 4.24.16. IS ANYONE ASKING YOU A REASON FOR YOUR HOPE?

Once upon a time (several decades ago) there were a group of us, who were more mission-minded Protestants, who had been invited by some members of the Vatican staff in Rome (who had never had communication with such as we) to come and discuss two subjects with the: 1) evangelism, and 2) the ministry of the laity in the workplace. It turned out to be a fascinating two weeks for both them and for us. We had to learn each others’ terminology and traditions. Among other pieces of that which I carried back with me was their sense that God’s people needed to have three formations (as they called them): 1) spiritual formation, i.e., are you rightly related to God through Jesus Christ? 2) Biblical-theological formation, i.e., do you have your data-information-facts straight? And 3) formation for Christian apostolate, i.e., are you equipped to engage in your mission to church and world?

I like those. But … I think that there are a couple of other formations that I would add: 4) formation for Christian community, i.e., do you understand the dynamics of relating in love to the mosaic of persons (mature and immature, disciplined or messy) who make up the Christian community? And 5) formation for wholesome communication of your Christian hope to those outside i.e., your free, sensitive, and contagious conversation with curious folk you meet along the way? It is this last one that I want to raise to your consciousness in this Blog.

Those around the globe who are fruitfully engaged in the contagious spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ avoid being manipulative or confrontational ‘like a plague.’ What they look for is what they call men of peace, i.e., those who are genuinely open and curious about the issues of meaning and hope, and whatever is ultimate—something like that. One of the purposes of the personal incarnation of God’s New Humanity that is embodied in you and me, is that we are to be those people of hope, of peace, who incite genuine curiosity in others who are still searching.

The apostle Peter states it like this: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that war against the soul. Keep your conduct among (those still outside the household of faith) honorable, so that when they speak against you as evil-doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God (i.e., know that somehow God is responsible for the good stuff they are witnessing) … Now who is there who to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. … always be prepared to make a thoughtful defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect …” (I Peter 2:11ff and 3:13ff).

Here’s what I think: I am convinced that if we are responsible and trustworthy and caring fellow-workers, citizens, associates, neighbors, etc. that there will come occasions when we stop for a break, and others will be interested in ‘what makes us tick.’ I have a personal rule that I will not initiate serious conversation, but that I will respond. I find that at coffee/beer breaks I can ask those who are my company: “Tell me about yourself,” and get them to begin to give me a peek into their lives, and I can pursue questions about what their dreams, vision, ambitions, disappointments, stumbling-blocks, etc. might be.

So many times, they will sooner or later, reverse the questions on me. That is when I know that I have found a man/woman of peace. Again, I avoid putting them on the defensive. I will simply say something like: “Well, the one thing about me that you might not understand it that I am an incorrigible follower of the life and teachings of Jesus,” … and just leave it there. They  can pick it up if they choose. But wholesome conversation in an over-connected, iPhone-texting obsessed populace is a gift worth retrieving.

I want my life to make folk curious, and to provoke them to ask me the reason for my hope. To be continued …

BLOG 4/20/16. I VOTE FOR WHATEVER IS TRUE, HONORABLE, JUST, PURE, LOVELY, COMMENDABLE, … AND EXCELLENT. AM I BEING NAÏVE?

Full disclosure: I am a news junkie, and a political junkie. But once in a while I get ‘OD’ed on all of that. There is so much focus on all of the discontent, the cynical appraisals, the tragedies, the crimes, the wrecks, the arrogance of the plutocrats and the power-brokers, the charges and counter-charges of the political candidates … that I wander out to my patio and wonder to myself: “Something good must have happened in this city today.” Or: “There must be some good, positive, creative political folk seeking the welfare and common good of all of the people.”

And then you come across a good neighbor, or some helpful person in the midst of your busy day, or some gifted medical person, or some guy who is really an engaging conversationalist, … and you respond: “Yes, there really are some super-cool folk out there who make life more beautiful. You are blessed by them and thankful for them.

Also, in the midst of the tragic earthquakes and floods and natural disasters, the nightmare of tens of thousands of homeless migrants, there are those humanitarian workers, the Doctors Without Borders folk, the relief agencies, along with so many ordinary people who come to the relief of the victims, who offer hospitality, who care, who become instruments of healing and help.

Add to that all of the natural beauty. Here in Atlanta the dogwoods and azaleas and so many flowering plants are in full bloom and the beauty is almost overwhelming. “All nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres.”

When I stop to reflect on all of that, and to take time to observe the beauty of God’s creation, I also am overwhelmed by the realization that my calling, our calling as God’s New Creation people (God’s New Humanity), is to walk as children of the Light where we are—right here in the social and cultural darkness that is so evident. We are to be the incarnation of the peace and beauty that Jesus came to inaugurate, … and this is a discipline. My life, your life are, in a very real way, sacramental. We are to point beyond ourselves to the ultimate beautiful design of God for his creation.

The apostle Paul, out of a prison cell could write to the believing folk in Philippi: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true. whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). The result of marinating in such thoughts is that we begin to incarnate them, and to be those living expressions of the Kingdom and will of God right here where we are, right in the midst of so much that is distressing and apparently hopeless–often in dark nights of the soul. That should not surprise us. We are called to walk as children of the Light—not in ideal circumstances or always pleasant pastures, but in the realities that are so often discouraging.

Our calling as God’s children is to live our lives by his own Spirit, and that Spirit will be producing in us the fruits of God’s New Creation (of God’s own nature displaying itself in us). Paul even gives us a punch list of what that looks like: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …” (Galatians 5:22-23).

The Psalmist states that those who seek God’s presence produce springs in the desert, they leave behind them pools of water. I have to remind myself of this morning by morning. We who are God’s children are to be his encouraging, positive, hopeful, loving ‘instruments if his peace.’ In this confusing election season, I vote for this kind of life for myself and my fellow children of light in order that we be God’s light in the darkness, and a blessing to all whom we encounter. Does that sound like an OK platform? Or am I just being incurably naïve?

BLOG 4/17/2016. “ASLAN IS NOT A SAFE LION”

In C. S. Lewis’ wonderful children’s stories: The Chronicles of Narnia, the Christ-figure is the awesome lion Aslan. When the Pevensie children are first introduced to the other world of Narnia, they keep hearing about this lion and they are confused about who he is and what he is like. One of them asks Mrs. Beaver: “Is the safe?” Her response is that of course he isn’t safe. “Oh, he’s good, but he’s not safe.”

I think of that often in these days of this presidential campaign when many of those who are strident political conservatives identify themselves as “evangelicals” by horribly misappropriating that noble word that classically is used to speak of the thrilling and saving work of Jesus, and of his life-giving teachings. Their use is about as oxymoron-ish as one can get. Here are those who are by their own platform quite judgmental, discriminatory, prejudiced,  and uncompromising… and have obviously totally missed the whole point of kthe role of Jesus as the life-giving and forgiving and compassionate Son of God. Here is One who came not to condemn, but to save.

Here is Jesus, who at separate points indicates that he has found more faith in a Roman centurion and in a Syro-Phoencian woman than he has found among among the ostensibly religious and self-righteous Israelites. Here is One, who uses for his example as a true neighbor, a Samaritan, which Samaritans were among the most despised and compromised (maybe half-breed) foreigners.

Here is Jesus who inaugurated his public ministry by preaching good news to the poor, help to the imprisoned and the debtors, along with healing of the sick. His most familiar sermon begins with the sobering words: “Woe to you rich!” and continues “Blessed are you poor.” Here is Jesus whose call for lives of justice, of suffering for righteousness sake, of love for enemies and for those who dispitefully use us, for lives of peacemaking, and of mercy. That doesn’t sound like a conservative, or safe agenda. It is the Jesus who met with a notoriously dishonest official who had made a fortune ripping-off his fellow Jews, and the result of Jesus spending time with him was a life of repentance in which he promised to return all of that which he had defrauded from others, and in addition to give half of his fortune to the poor. Here is Jesus who, when a very attractive young man of wealth wanted to know how to become Jesus follower, instructed him to go and sell all that he had and give to the poor and then come and follow—knowing that the young man was wedded to his great wealth primarily.

Just this much of Jesus teaching is so obviously other to so much of the political agenda of many of those who call themselves evangelical, that one could almost conclude that the participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement were more evangelical than those who hijack that designation and are indifferent to the poverty, the economic injustice, the arrogance of the very wealthy, the helplessness of the un-employed, and the homelessness of so many. One wonders what motivates them to want to rescind governmental help for the healthcare of the populace, … or to have such animosity to immigrants.  Or the loveless discrimination against those whose lifestyles don’t suit their self-righteousness. This not to mention many desperate immigrants.

Building a political platform around the life and teachings around the teaching of Jesus  would be like Aslan: it would be good but it would not be safe! It would be quite radical in its legislation to seek the welfare of all of the people. It would be unselfish and merciful and peaceable. It would be hard on greed and injustice, on racism and prejudice, … but it would be good, even in not safe and even if costly.

So, I for one, and incensed at the obscene misuse of those who call themselves evangelicals while contradiction that very evangel by their political prejudices—Democrat or Republican. God’s people are not primarily American citizens, but citizens of God’s New Creation, but are to be his people of salt and light in the midst of this nation. But its not a safe agenda. It is more like Aslan: good but not safe. It is, however, the place of our present incarnation.

BLOG 4/13/2016. LONELINESS: FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN TO iPHONES

As an octogenarian I am continually fascinated, as I sit several times a week in my favorite coffee shop, at the proliferation of information age equipment in operation there. I’m looking at folk much younger than I who have on their iPhones more information than we had in my college library, and those iPhones are like appendages to their bodies. The problem comes however, in the studies that show that for all of their connectedness, and access to awesome resources, the information-age folk continue to be those with an endemic sense of loneliness. They are still those who, for all of their ostensible relational quests, have a very difficult time entering into fruitful interpersonal and emotional relationships of true intimacy.

This, admittedly, is not a new problem. A generation ago there was the best-selling book, The Lonely Crowd, or T. S. Eliot’s poem, The Wasteland, with its inhabitants of “hollow men, headpieces filled with straw.” … But to get to the root of it all, one goes back to that primordial word in the creation story/myth in Genesis in which God declares that “it is not good for man that he be alone,” and so made a complementary companion for him, so that initially humankind was intimately and joyously and transparently in harmony with both their creator God and with each other. Then, the explanatory tragic moment came when those first humans succumbed to the temptation that if they declared their autonomy, that they could be their own gods. And so it has been the impossible attrmpt to play god that has alienated them from one another, and from the God who created them for love and for true relationship both with each other and with God-self, i.e., we can’t both be god! (And we can question whether even God is god over us).

It is also true that such a quest for authentic and sensitive and intimate emotional relationships with others is still present in most normal men and women. They can be the most exciting and erudite persons, or the most wonderful contributors to the general welfare, i.e., artisans, scientists, innovators, clerks, IT wizards, etc. … and yet be desperately lonely, and awkward at relationships, and lonely when all is quiet and their iPhones are put aside.

What is worth pondering is that when God became incarnate in his broken creation, and with his design to inaugurate his New Creation/Kingdom, that a huge dimension of this was the reconciliation and restoration of true human community. Jesus came quite knowingly and sensitively in out-of-the-way places as teacher, healer, miracle worker, etc. … but he also knew that those observing and listening were formed by the culture of god-players what with all of the snarls and conflicts and frustrated dreams and brokenness of this age, and that it would take significant time to enable them to both know and understand who he was, to understand the implications for their own lives, and to be formed in what following him would  bring about. He knew that making disciples and forming them into new creation persons was not going to be a quickie operation. So what did he do? He invited a group of twelve to “come be with me.” He invested such significant time (over two years) with them that they they were formed into his image, and so into reconciled relationship, and the motivation to love one another as he had loved them. These loving reconciled relationships would be the foundation of his new humanity.

And this formation, this disciplemaking discipline, continued from the earliest days of the Christian community (after Pentecost) where we read that the thousands of new converts in Jerusalem not only were together in crowds for instruction, but were regularly together in homes, in koinonia (intimate, caring relationships), around common meals, and in the apostles’ teachings, and none considered his/her possessions their own, but mutually cared for each other.

The institutional church of today has lost that call out of loneliness, and that sense of koinonia, so that participation in many church institutions can be sterile experiences in religious loneliness. True discipleship has the blessing of calling us out of loneliness into love of others.

BLOG 4/10/16. THE NIGHTMARE OF HAVING NO HOPE

Interviewer Charlie Rose asked Secretary of State John Kerry what he thought the greatest threat to the United States might be, was it ISIL? Kerry’s surprising response (to me) was that it was not ISIL but was the reality that over half of the world’s population was under 25 years of age, and in much of the world they were living in hopeless situations and yet had access to social media so that they knew what others in the world did have, … so that they were quite willing to do radical things to escape their hopelessness, such as join radical extremist organizations.

At the same time we need to be quite honest that hopelessness among the under 25 generation is a very present reality in an advanced country such as ours also. We see it in technology and politics and in general. We have a generation of those young adults who are incredibly gifted, are making breakthroughs in information technology and other mind-boggling fields, and yet in large numbers are clinically depressed according to recent studies. They are motivated by challenges, they have access to more information than any generation before them, they can engage in long hours of work in sophisticated workplaces, … then they have enough income to engage in every hedonistic compulsion imaginable—physical fitness, gourmet dining, compulsive sexual entertainment, lovely homes and vacations, etc. … but when they put their iPhones away, and it is quiet and dark … that haunting reality of hopelessness creeps in, that absence of anything that produces in them true human flourishing, true meaning and hope. What is the real purpose of it all? What is the telos, the compelling purpose of my existence?

This is not at all a new issue. Walker Percy’s novel, Lost In the Cosmo is a brilliant foray into this existential issue for so many. Why do suicide rates seem to often escalate among so many gifted young adults? It is so easy for the information age Millennials to stay lost in their iPods, and so to escape the issue of meaning and hope—but it’s always there. The New Testament writer, Paul, gives one of the most poignant portrayals of this in the brief description of those who are “without God, and without hope in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Or as one of my mentors described it: “Being adrift on the boundless, bottomless sea of chance.” Life with no guiding purpose, and no capacity to conceive of what might give hope … is a true nightmare.

Face it: life has never been lived in ideal circumstances, more frequently it is in the midst of the tragic. There are many false and deceptive gods, promises, gospels, tantalizing myths, along with all of the humanly impossible injustices and destructive realities, and huge challenges out there. But is there hope? Is there  that which produces  true human flourishing?

From its very beginning the Christian faith has been a message of hope. It has always said that in the midst of very worst of human emptiness and lost-ness and depravity, that Jesus has come as the Light in our human darkness, and has spelled out God’s purpose in his inaugurating a whole New Creation. It has always been a message of hope. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing by the power of the Holy Spirit so that you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). Because “by the power of the Holy Spirit” (ah! supernaturally?) people in the darkest and most tragic circumstances have been able to live purposefully and fruitfully and redemptively—engaged in unselfish  lives of love and humanitarian ministries whether in the slums of Calcutta, or the glamour of Silicon Valley, the message of Jesus gives us a compelling and formative telos, a perspective and motivation. It has also, therefore, made true colonies/churches to be colonies of hope, good neighbors, agents of meaning and love. Where such hope exists in God’s people of hope it is contagious, it is the truly good news that those lost in the cosmos are seeking. It is what we all long to realize in our daily existence. Hope. What a beautiful word.

If you tune it to this reality, then pass it along. That is certainly my design in writing these Blogs.

BLOG 4/6/16. RECONCEIVING (AND MAYBE REINVENTING) WHO WE ARE AS CHRISTIANS AND AS NEIGHBORS.

Mercy! A guy can have all kinds of sympathy for the confusion that the folk in our North American society must have when the media, and so much of the popular conception that is abroad, have when one speaks of ‘Christians’ … given all of the weird things that go on under that rubric. So incredibly much of the claim to be ‘Christian’ is so foreign to the life and teachings of Jesus.

For starts, there is a vast confusion inside of the ostensible Christian community about the conception that so many have about what it means to be a Christian, or what is the purpose in identifying as a follower of Christ, … what is the telos of Christian faith. My experience has been that all too many folk inside all of the ‘church’ never even ask the basic questions. They never want to look at anything that resembles a contract of what is expected by way of discipline, or obedience, or knowledge if one decides to follow Christ and identify as his disciple.

Take, for-instance, the teaching that spells out God’s plan for his people though their faith in Jesus as the One in whom and by whom and for whom all things exist. It says that those who are to be a part of Christ’s design for the church are ultimately called to be “conformed to the image of God’s Son” (Romans 8: 29 in loc.). Hello! What does that mean? Well, scouting it out in other teachings it would indicate that those called (note: the word church means a called-out people) are to incarnations o the image of God’s Son in the way they think, in the way they behave, and in their intimacy with the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Or, in the classical theological language of the church: in knowledge, true righteousness, and holiness. Did you even come to grips with that?

There is not to be fuzziness in our sense of calling to new life in Christ. It is a calling into a whole New Creation that becomes our formative motivation, our telos, i.e., where our heart/gut is. And that is modeled and taught by God’s Son himself. Paul, the early missionary, would tell his respondents: “Be imitators of me even as I also am of Christ” (I Corinthian 11:1). Don’t rush past that. Those who declare themselves to be those who are followers of Christ are to be the veritable incarnations of that New Humanity, that community formed in the image of Christ, that is the visible demonstration of the life and love of God in Christ. This means that we are to be more than prejudiced religious question marks, or sanctimonious and negative voices in the neighborhood, but rather those agents of God’s reconciling love right in the midst of the often grim political, economic, moral, and existential tragedies of our present scene.

When Jesus teaches his people that they are to be those who love their neighbors as they love themselves, he also redefines our neighbors as those very real others with whom we come into daily association, … and this can contain some difficult and broken and purposeless and contentious folk (or maybe some really cool ones!). But, … when we know who we are, and to what purpose we have been called by Christ, then we will always be seeking ways to engage in those relationships that display the same love and caring and warmth that defined Jesus’ relationships as he displayed God’s love for the world. This is not about clergy and church meetings, but about intentional living out the image of God in the streets and neighborhoods and cultural realities that are our daily marketplace. May God give to us the grace to be those models of Jesus who un-confuse those around us, and cause them to see Christ alive in way we think and behave and in the mystery of that which has seized our hearts, … and maybe whet their appetite for Him.

Maybe a good place to start is to continually marinate in the life and teachings of Jesus, … or maybe (to use a more rustic and colorful word) to ruminate his teachings and those of his apostles until they become incarnate in us. Peace!

BLOG 4/3/2016. THE PRESENCE OF THE CHURCH: A CULTURAL ANALYSIS

We were sitting over brunch last week, and the lawyer-friend at whose house we were meeting asked me the question: What do you think the role of the church is in this current confusing presidential race? There isn’t any simple answer to tha questiont, because the whole phenomenon of the church is so enigmatic, so ambiguous and complex. There is no simple or single description by which to answer such a question. In missiology we insist that cultural analysis is always essential in understanding the potential of the church in any given culture. So let me ramble a bit. There are several different ‘church’ phenomena to keep in mind:

• There are all of the un-churched Christian believers, i.e., those folk who sincerely and thoughtfully hold to the faith of Jesus Christ, but have found organized churches as not being too helpful in their life of discipleship. The number of such is legion.
• There is that huge phenomenon, which one can footnote back to Soren Kierkegaard and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the last century, of unconverted church members. Maybe religious Christians, those who know the data of the faith, but it certainly is not what forms their lives, so folk indulge them but don’t take them seriously. (Ah, yes! There are many very commendable church institutions, thankfully).
• There are all of those spiritual seekers who sense that there must be something of ultimate value in the church, and so turn up in church meetings somehow assuming that their presence in those church meetings will satisfy their heart’s desire, … and may even join briefly, but are continually disappointed.
• There are those lonely folk needing some kind of social contact and community, and so sign on, but are quite frequently disappointed at the superficial, even hollow, level of the relationships and activities, and soon depart.
• There is that vast number of venerable old church institutions across the cultural landscape which are idolatrous about their buildings, their heritage, their particular denominations and traditions but which don’t form the participants into contagious colonies of God’s New Humanity, and are now rapidly fading off the scene. They, in my own mind are best described by Tolkien’s Lord Faramir (Book II of the Rings Trilogy): “We are a failing people, a springless autumn. (Again, so many remarkable exceptions to this sweeping generalization–but such are a fading expression of the church in the world).
• There is that distressing phenomenon of folk whose fervent, even psychotic identity as: evangelical is not informed by the the data of the New Testament and the teachings of Jess, or the praxis of God’s New Humanity people—seemingly devoid of God’s reconciling love, of warmth and hospitality and caring—and so are an offense to secular folk with any sense of justice and the welfare of God’s creation.

… But then, without fanfare, often right behind those dying old church institutions, there are emerging vital new colonies of God’s contagious New Humanity people, meeting in a condominium or an apartment, … or maybe around a table in some public place, who take Jesus seriously, and are formed by his teachings, and who love one another, their neighbors, strangers, broken and hurting people … and are intentional in incarnating those teachings in reconciled communities. These are where the church is growing like Jesus’ image of leaven in the loaf. It is a community where the springs of living water are flowing in mutual encouragement and mutual provocation to be the communal incarnation of God’s New Creation in Christ. They are creative.

What is the role of the church in the present scene? Much more that you will ever read of in the daily press, but quietly much more transformational and intentional than so many traditional church institutions—they are a sweet smelling aroma of Christ unto God, and in their hiddenness, are awesome. [I’d be please if you would recommend this to your friends.]

BLOG 3/30/16. THE BEAST AND THE LAMB ARE STILL WITH US, ALAS!

Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal, has just won plaudits from the editors of the New York Times and many others for vetoing the so-called Religious Liberty Bill passed by the Georgia legislature at the insistence of those who ostensibly were acting out of some kind of Christian zeal to preserve the integrity of Christian leaders. In so doing they proposed discriminating against all kinds of persons, whose way of life seemed not to conform to the prejudices of those particular legislators. One wonders what such legislators’ understanding of the Christian faith is all about? what their concept of God’s Kingdom? or God’s infinite love for the brokenness of this world and its human community unfolds itself in the behavior of his people?

This twisted understanding of Christian faith is before us almost ad nauseam during these wearying months of political campaigning. It’s not the outsiders, the alternative lifestyle folk, or the ethnic minorities, or terrorists, or whoever who disturb me so much. The world has always been filled with human depravity, and folk who had all kinds of alternative religions. This is the world that Jesus came into, and which he died to reconcile to God and into God’s shalom. What, indeed, is human flourishing? What is your/my purpose/telos? What takes me captive and forms my life and attitude and behavior? What is God’s ultimate good news?

First off, I am one of those weird people who has always been hugely blessed by the final book in the Bible: The Revelation. I think it is the necessary capstone on the canon of scripture because it spells out in colorful apocalyptic style the battle that shall be with us through this present age until Christ has put all of his enemies under his feet and the new heaven and the new earth comes down from heaven. But, … meanwhile there is a cosmic battle going on between the beast and the Lamb. There is a perennial warfare going on, beginning at the birth of Jesus, when Herod sought to kill the infant Jesus, and climaxing on the cross where Jesus triumphed over Satan on the cross, and made a show of him, i.e., disarming and dethroning him, so that Satan ultimate destiny is the lake of fire. But meanwhile … we are between the ages.

Ah! But meanwhile the Beast makes war on the people of the Lamb, who often are the victims of brutal assault, martyrdom, and horrendous persecution, … but note: … ultimately they overcome him, note again: “by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony (i.e., words and behavior/lifestyle), for they loved not their lives even unto death:” (at the risk of their lives). [Revelation 12:11]. If you’re looking for ‘comfort-zone’ Christianity, forget it! This is a calling to life for, and to suffer with, Jesus in the battle against all that is engaged with Satan’s kingdom of darkness. God’s saints are never, never, promised temporal or political or popularity power—we are only called to be faithful in our calling to b conformed to the image of God’s Son, and to be the incarnation of God’s New Humanity. And in that calling we are also called to often suffer with him. That is nearly always in very complex and ambiguous cultural and ethical settings.

So what, in brief, is that lifestyle? Try the opening of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew) or Sermon on the Plain (Luke). Those followers of his who are authentic, who have kingdom integrity, and who are the blessed, are those who identify with the poor, those who mourn over the tragedies of themselves and in lives of others, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for justice/righteousness, those who are merciful, those who are single-minded / pure in heart, those who are peacemakers, those reviled and persecuted for righteousness sake … for their reward is great in heaven. But more than that, even those hostile to them (according to the following verses) they are the very salt of the earth, and people shall see their good works and give God praise for such.It is in such lives that we are the present people of the Lamb of God, and who overcome … even if it costs us our lives.  The warfare between the Beast and the Lamb is ongoing. But Easter ultimately sealed the doom of the Beast. That is our great confidence. We are those who are always in readiness to be agents of God’s gospel of peace!

BLOG 3/27/16. GOD’S NEW CREATION PEOPLE ARE ENCOURAGERS, NOT COMPLAINERS. CREATIVE NOT WHINERS, OK?

I see myself as a teaching-shepherd of God’s people, and my calling as that of equipping those people to be demonstrations of the whole demeanor and lifestyle of God’s New Humanity. So I get restive with all of that negativity that has been so pervasive in our society of late. We have been described as a culture of dis-satisfaction. So, of course, there is a lot of disheartening, frustrating, really crappy stuff going on out there. So what’s new? But complaining really doesn’t accomplish anything. The Tea Party mentality that pervades so much of the political scene has it counterparts in all segments of society (including the church), and in every nation and culture. Yes, it is abundantly present in all too much of the church, and among those who are ostensibly Christian folk, alas! But it doesn’t resolve anything. It is totally uncreative.

This first began to dawn on me as a young pastor in a very troubled church community. As we began to patiently put together some encouraging and creative solutions within our leadership team, there was one elder who was obsessed with his ‘power’ at having been elected an elder, who was total against everything that the rest of the leadership team of elders was proposing. And as the church began to respond and to emerge into a degree of harmony and fruitfulness, this guy was quite certain that all which we were doing was going to have disastrous consequences, and was very vocal  about it. It became more and more obvious to me, as I began to get some feel for my pastoral leadership role, that the guy had never proposed any positive and creative alternatives. He was just opposed to what we were attempting. It came to a head one Sunday morning when he waited for me until every one had left and assaulted me with the charge that I was making grave mistakes. My circuit-breaker snapped. I backed him right up against a wall and asked him what positive solution he would propose. He had none. So I said: “Carl, the day you have one positive idea for God’s purpose in this congregation, I will listen to you, but until then I can’t take you seriously.”

Maybe a bit strong, but it reinforced in me that you cannot bring about positive health or creative solutions by being always negative and complaining. So churches may be inefficient or forgetful of their calling, and floundering in inertia, … what is my role, or our role, as those who desire helpful, purposeful change. Perhaps a whole new paradigm is required. Think of the Silicon Valley/digital culture folk who sensed needs and put genius to work, and so have created a whole new way of living for this 21^st century. I frequently access the website: Singularity which reports on all of the awesome discoveries and practices of an emerging generation. See a need/problem—find a solution. I am blessed by the writings of Alan Roxborough and Mark Lau Branson as they probe new forms of being a faithful church. I read the news of those who see the U. S. Congress as currently dysfunctional, or similarly their state legislatures, and so do ‘end-runs’ by developing local, mutually encouraging community-focused solutions which avoid all of the fruitless partisan frictions that have ruled in the past.

You and I, as representatives of God’s New Humanity in Christ, are called to be a life-giving, creative, innovative force … beginning where we are in this imperfect, often frustrating scene. We are to be a people of hope, of love, of alternative solutions and new forms to bring into being the fruits of the Light—humanitarian, collaborating, righteous, non-discriminatory agents of strategic innovation, of faith, hope, and love. That should always keep our juices flowing.

… And, by the way, if you find these Blogs provocative, suggest to your friends that they subscribe also. Then I always appreciate the comments you can feed back to me. Do it. Thanks.

BLOG 3/23/16. DO WE HAVE SOMETHING TO LEARN FROM OTHERS?

I received an interesting number of visitors to my last blog on living realistically and radically as God’s children of light right here in this present scene, what with all of its challenges. This came home to me again as I read in the morning paper about the parents in a neighboring county who were quite upset over their children’s school’s use of yoga, which these well-meaning parents felt “endorses a non-Christian belief system.” Alas! we do not live in some some hermetically sealed-off Christian context, but are called to live right in the midst of this (what the scriptures call) “present evil world,” i.e., a world that has also been defined in scripture as the dominion of darkness. But this world is also “my Father’s world.” It has a sacredness to it.

But, … in reading this newspaper account I thought of two dear friends (both recently deceased) who give alternative examples of fruitful encounter with those of differing belief systems, one, in fact in his participation in a yoga group, which he joined for the physical exercise and help it would provide for his busy life. The yoga instructor was, yes, a disciple of oriental religion, but was also aware of the positive fruits of yoga practice. So my friend would go one evening each week to engage with this group of other men to learn about, and engage in the yoga disciplines. The others in the group, to be sure, had no contact with anything Christian and so were fascinated by my friend who was the president of a theological institution. They became social friends. (They had never heard of a ‘theological seminary’—what is that?)

Communication ensued. From time to time they would socialize over meals. It was a two-way street. The others wanted to know what in the world a theological seminary was, and this gave him occasion to ask them questions about the purpose of their lives and their motivations in daily life. So my friend was helped by yoga and by its instructor,  but it was also an occasion to be a witness to the Light with his new found friends. We are called to be salt and light in the midst of many non-Christian belief systems.

The other example that this news article called forth from my memory was my question to a distinguished (and brilliant) Christian professor and department head in philosophy in a west coast university. My friend, I seem to remember, was something of a whiz in phenomenology. My question to him was how he related to the other non-believing members of his department, but hugely qualified in their philosophical fields. In all modesty, my friend acknowledged that he had to realize that he probably had something significant to learn from them, since they were so gifted. But then he added that he also had to assume that perhaps he had some insights, as a Christian intellect, that might be useful to them, so they were collegial, had mutual respect, and were mutually supportive.

Back to the newspaper article about the upset parents and their children’s engagement in the practice of yoga at their public school. If we Christian parents try to protect our children from any encounter with the influences of this secular society, we will first of all surely fail. But even more tragic, we will deprive them of their capacity to discern and resist that which is counter  to  their Christian faith. In our zeal to immunize them against the thought patterns and lifestyle of this secular age, we will leave them even more vulnerable. Rather, parents and children together need to discuss all of these things, and to learn the realistic nuances of their particular setting. This will be challenging. The internet means that there is not much that our children cannot be exposed to, and we certainly don’t want them to be totally vulnerable to all of the challenges that they will confront socially, philosophically, sexually, politically, ethically, … you name it. Robust Christian faith comes from robust fruitful engagement (as Christ’s followers) with the persons and daily realities we, and they, face inescapably each day. Salt and light! That’s us.