_awakening

Viva La Mexico.

The DeVries tribe is invading Mexico for the next week as I'm doing some teachings for Azusa Pacific University's Mexico Outreach in Ensenada. We're looking forward to exposing our kids to what God is doing outside of So Cal, giving them a bigger picture of God than just the "American-ized" version of Jesus and the Kingdom that is so prevalent in our culture. This will be their first trip outside the country. All of ouir paperwork is in order, except my FM3, which is some green passport thing that allows me to be sanctioned by the government to teach there... oh, well. I guess that makes me a undocumented worker in Mexico...

I'm also excited about bringing some new teachings on the advancing the Kingdom of God, living the way of Jesus and of love, and what it means to experience the incarnation as an everyday experience. Some of these teachings have been brewing over the past four months or so, so I'm excited about finally being able to deliver them. All that being said, since there's no internet access in the outlining areas of Ensenada... no blogging until next Saturday. Hopefully we'll have some amazing stories to tell.

Until then...

Live from Kinko's in Grand Rapids... Rob Bell.

So about 75 of us packed into a room at Azusa Pacific University this morning for the satellite simulcast thing with Rob. It was a technological wonder. There was Rob and Troy Murphy in some kind of sound proof cubicle like room in a Kinko's in Grand Rapids, while we were in small lecture hall at APU seeing a larger than life Rob Bell waving to us on the screen. I must say that I've been a part of quite a few of these things and most of them are technologically challenged. The question of the day would be would we be left staring at a stilted, puppet-like rendition of Rob, or would we actually see him move somewhat fluidly? Well the verdict was that it was, well, amazing. We could actually see his lips move, not like some badly dubbed japanese samurai flick, but really move... almost in time with what he was actually saying. Hhhmmm, Kinko's may be onto something here.

Anyway, what was discussed was brilliant, affirming, and challenging. Here are a few thoughts Rob shared with us on ministry, leadership, and that thing we do called teaching...

Weekly teaching can be destructive to creativity.

I don't teach something that has not been a part of me for six months to a year. You need to live the text... let it ferment in your soul. People will know whether you have lived with the text. Think about it, if I asked you to talk about your wedding or something else that has changed you, would you really need notes?

As a teacher, you need to live with a text - allow it to ferment in you, take up residence in you - then connections begin to be made.

The old way of teaching was to set aside a “prep” time and seek God to act in that moment. A new way of teaching is to let the text speak. Let God speak to you over time, then document how the text is being lived out in real life.

What would happen if on Monday morning you sat at your computer and instead of staring at blank screen, you're already looking at ten teachings that could take place and decidiing which one was the most ready to be taught, or most needed to be taught?

The best messages are not purchased off a shelf or a website, but are grown in your own backyard.

The question in teaching is this... is it real in the real life that I am living right now with my family and friends? If the gospel doesn’t work there, then forget it.

We have people who can sing notes, but where are the soul singers? The pulpit has been the home of technicians and analysts, but where are the prophets and poets - the wide eyed crazy people? Teaching should be a dangerous and daring art form, not a science.

Bible is to be experienced communally – in Jesus’ day, if a village could even afford one Torah scroll (held together by wood poles called the ‘trees of life’) it would be amazing. Therefore, the text was not accessible to average person... that’s why it was memorized. We need to realize that personally reading the Bible is only a recent phenomenon... about 500 years. Even the concept of a “quiet time” is a new phenomenon... over the past 200 years. The Bible is not individualistic – it is to be read, debated, discussed in community.

The Bible is about real people in real places in real times. It's taking place in an on-going historical narrative. What we need to remember is that we are in the same historical flow. Teaching is about connecting real people in real places in real times with us, here, today. We live in the same flow of what God is doing in history.

If you are a teacher, assume you are going to offend people – know that they killed Jesus too. Be a prophet. You are not running for office. You signed up to speak for the revolution. Don’t be a politician or be driving by the need to keep people happy.

Being a teacher is a horrible job – it is lonely, you pour yourself out, you bleed in public. If all goes well, the next week is even harder.

Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God made you to be... to be about anything else is sin.

Are you teaching because you have to say something, or because you have something to say? People, especially outside of "Christianity" know when you are passionate. That kind of passion makes them say, "Maybe this stuff really did happen.

Gathering [pt. 2] - The Holy Longing.

Okay, so the chapter on A Spirituality of Ecclesiology alone is worth the price of the book. In a world desires a sense of the Kingdom, but not necessarily the Church - this chapter explores some spiritual images of the Church and why every follower of Jesus needs to be a part of a faith community. Here's a quote we used in last night's teaching at South County United...

To be in an apostolic community, church, is not necessarily to be with others with whom we are emotionally, ideologically, and otherwise compatible. Rather, it is to stand, shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand, precisely with people who are very different from ourselves and, with them, hear a common word, say a common creed, share a common bread, and offer a mutual forgiveness so as, in that way, to bridge our differences and become a common heart. [p. 115]

The gathering of God's people is a beautiful and terrifying thing.

Gathering - The Holy Longing.

With all that has gone on in our relationship with "church" over the past year of our spiritual journey, Jamie and I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the institution called "church". So when I was reading The Holy Longing and came across this, I really resonated with it... perhaps you might too.

How much I must criticize you, my church and yet how much I love you!
You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to anyone.
I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.
You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.
Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful.
Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face - and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your arms!
No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you.
Then too - where would I go?
To build another church?
But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ's church.
No. I am old enough. I know better!

Ever been there?

So lately I've been awakening to the realization that I am deeply drawn to Jesus and those who want to seek him. I am drawn and captured by the ekklesia, but not the traditional institution that often masquerades as the ekklesia. I truly believe that Jesus is inviting us into a community of faith - a community of the King and his Kingdom. I meet so many people who are drawn to Jesus, but not to the "church" as they have experienced it. I want my life to be spent, burned up in the pursuit of seeing a new expression of a faith community. I want to be a part of a faith community that proclaims the Kingdom breaking into this world - a movement of people who have oriented their lives around the person and treachings of Jesus. I love the ekklesia. I love the church - with all it's imperfections... because the church's imperfections are my own. We are the church. We cannot escape the community of faith.

So may we be the kinds of people who re-imagine for a desperate world what the church is all about. May we be the kinds of people who embrace each other, with our imperfections, in beauty and forgiveness. May we be about inviting people into a refreshingly hungry community of people who are consumed with seeing this world become all that God has in mind.

Incarnation - The Holy Longing.

Last night our Community Group explored the concept of the Incarnation - what observations we can make about it and our role in it. What birthed our discusssion were some thoughts from Rolheiser...

The central mystery within all of Christianity, undergirding everything else, is the mystery of the incarnation. Unfortunately, it is also the mystery that is most misunderstood or, more accurately, to coin a phrase, under-understood. It is not so much that we misunderstand what the incarnation means, it is more that we grasp only the smallest tip of a great iceberg. We miss its meaning by not seeing its immensity. [p. 75]

The problem, Rolhesier observes is that we think of the incarnation as a one time historical event in the past.

The incarnation is still going on and it is just as real and as radically physical as when Jesus of Nazareth, in the flesh, walked the dirt roads of Palestine. How can this be so? The mystery of the incarnation, simply stated, is the mystery of God taking on human flesh and dealing with human beings in a visible, tangible way. [p. 76]

The ascension of Jesus did not end, nor fundamentally change, the incarnation. God's physical body ius still among us. God is still present, as physical and as real today, as God was in the historical Jesus. God still has skin, human skin, and physically walks on this earth just as Jesus did. [p. 79]

Therefore, in a mysterious sort of way... the incarnation is not about a one time historical event, but is a present reality - an everyday event. The incarnation is still happening. Whenever and wherever human flesh acts on behalf of the invisible creator of the universe, there is the incarnation. What kind of observations can we make from this?

Life is loaded with incarnational opportunities. Just as Jesus gave us a glimpse of what God is like, so we offer the world a glimpse of what Jesus is like. What the world needs is good news, the good news of Jesus and the Kingdom - we are the ones who literally embody that message, bringing hope and love to this world. The pages of the gospels are filled with incarnational moments, when God touches the world through Jesus. Christians are people who have embraced the life of Jesus and chosen to live as God with skin to this world, mediating the life of Jesus to this world.

As followers of Jesus, do we live with that kind of radar on? What became apparent last night to our group was that central to the gospel was not the "gospel" we hear proclaimed often, but rather it was the mediating of life and the Kingdom to this world - inviting others to be the incarnation to this world. The gospel is something that changes this world, inviting this world to be the kind of world that God intends. The gospel invites people to live, really live, live eternally... and that starts in the here and now. Christians are people who not only realize the incarnational opportunities, but act. Where in our lives is the touch of the incarnation needed?

Maybe we are the ones we've been waiting for. Often we hear people say, "God, where are you?" In a world of tremendous suffering and pain, its easy for us to somehow see God as absent. Rhwanda. Darfur. AIDS. Poverty. Hunger. Divorce. Cancer. Broken lives. I wonder, as we are crying out for God... perhaps he is inviting us to be the very answer that we are looking for. If we are the incarnation, then perhaps our involvement is the very answer to our own prayer. God acts through humanity.

All of this lead us to some profound moments last night. All of us wanted to be the kinds of people who are the incarnation of wholeness and healing to a world that is broken and fractured. Most of all we wanted to a faith community that is the incarnation - that are sensitive to places and situations that need the touch of the incarnation. Yet the question came up... how can we be that in a very practical sense? After some discussion, we came to the realization that all we could do was what the disciples did - watch and imitate Jesus, our Rabbi. So we decided that for the next season of our group we're going to do just that, observe the life and teachings of Jesus by exploring the gospels together. My prayer is that our group would come to a rich understanding of what it menas to to be the incarnation - living the message of the Kingdom in this world in rich and profound ways.

Wrestling with the Questions.

If you think about it, we live in a world that is obsessed with knowing all the answers. Mastery for us comes when we can conquer all questions with the right "answers". But I wonder, do our "answers" really address the questions? I've been thinking lately... answers that are not earned are rarely ever owned. If we want to truly know something deeply, I believe that we need to wrestle with it deeply. If your questions do not bring about a profound sense of uneasiness or internal struggle - then you're not asking true questions, you're only playing a game with yourself.

I believe that faith and life are filled with paradoxes. If at some point we have not seriously questioned God and life - truly wrestled with God, then I wonder if we truly have embraced the mysteries of God. I believe that the Scriptures, more than giving us all the answers [like some spiritual God for Dummies] is about asking the right questions.

I love being around people who are truly asking questions, wrestling with the text and God. It makes me feel energized. So I figured I broaden the conversation a little that I've been having with a friend. Here's what he emailed me a few weeks back. I asked his permission to drop his questions and thoughts here and let some others dive into the discussion... so have at it! Any thoughts?

Hey Mike,

I've let this question swish around my head for a couple months... and maybe I can pick your brain on this one. Maybe you let this fester for a while, and let me know what the overflow is.

Movements, creeds and streams of Christianity are usually birthed out of a specific stance in favor for or against a specific blasphemy, doctrine or issue (more or less).

I for one would be willing to entertain the notion that the new or next true reformation could come from within the post-modern or Emerging church (even before someone told me someone wrote a book based on that premise). However, the one thing I generally see as a lack is specific stances. I don't see people standing up for or against anything specifically, more so just an antsy disdain for the direction Evangelical Christianity is heading, but with no specific rebuke or conviction in a particular direction.

As a group which is clearly open to a broad spectrum of new ideas and experimentation, I find a lot of what I read to vary between bizarre and revolutionary, but I clearly have not read as much as you. Do you think that there is a specific direction that the Emerging Church is headed, or is that specific direction merely to continue in it's experimentation?

Sorry if this email seemed formal... but somehow when I write late into the night, I get more intellectual sounding. Still praying for you and your house.

Haste the Day,
Glen

Justice - The Holy Longing.

Lately I've been slowly reading Rolheiser's book, The Holy Longing, letting it sink deeply into my being. It's a pretty amazing book. It's make me awaken to the realization that the Catholic tradition has a more profound grasp on contemplative spirituality and social justice than the Protestant tradition. I wonder if in actuality the act of the reformation, the Protestant tradition walked away from some very essential teachings and understandings about this world and our role in it.

As I've read the ancient texts lately [as well as Rolheiser], I've noticed again that our lives as Jesus followers are not meant to be merely about individualism and a future destination, but are meant to be very communally focused, marked by a deep desire of wanting this world to be the type of world that God intended it to be. It more about being invited into a mission, or a movement, than being a part of a redeemed people waiting for eternal rescue.

Something to consider...

Moreover, the call to do justice as an integral part of relating to God is already strong within the Jewish scriptures. Beginning about 800 B.C., the Jewish prophets made one truth central to their teaching. They taught that the quality of faith in the people depends upon the character of justice in the land - and the character of justice in the land is to be judged by how we treat the most vulnerable groups in society, namely, the widows, orphans, and stragners. Thus according to the Jewish prophets, where we stand with God depends not just upon prayer an d sincerity of heart but also on where we stand with the poor.

Jesus never disputes that. He takes it further. He identifies his own presence with the poor and tells us that, ultimately, we will be judged on how we treat the poor. Bluntly put, we will go to heaven or hell on the basis of giving or not giving food, water, clothing, shelter, and justice to the poor. How we treat the poor is how we treat God.

The call to become involved in helping the poor to find justice is a nonnegotiable pillar within Christian spirituality. Much of our culture today, and conservative Christianity in particular, struggles with this, protesting that this is really a question of politics and not something that lies at the very heart of religion. When we make spirituality essentially a privatized thing, cut off from the poor and the demands for justice that are found there, it soon degenerates into mere private therapy, an art form, or worse still, an unhealthy clique.

God cannot be related to without continually digesting the uneasiness and pain that are experienced by looking, squarely and honestly, at how the weakest members in our society are faring and how our own lifestyle is contributing to that.

Readings.

A few thought provoking readings that are out there right now...

With much being said about emergent stuff, Brian McLaren answers 10 Questions. [Props to Brother Maynard for this find.]
Great introductory article on The Sabbath Promise.
N.T. Wright on How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?.

Read. Consider. Be Stretched.... a mind is a terrible thing to waste!

Thoughts on Rabbinic Literature.

So I'm doing this independent study over the summer to get one more class out of the way. It's a readings in New Testament, which means my advisor and I decided what would be a great topic to study. I've been fascinated with the work of E.P. Sanders for quite a while. He's the Arts and Sciences Professor of Religion at Duke University. He's also has held visiting professorship and lectureship at Trinity College in Dublin and at Cambridge University. He is one of the foremost theologians in the study of Judaism and Christianity in the Greco-Roman world. All that to say that the bro has a brain.

Anyway, he is the one who has done the leading work in understanding the rabbinic thought in the day of Jesus and Paul. He's the one who pioneered much of the recent scholarship in America on historical Judaism and it's relation to Jesus and Paul. Very insightful stuff. I was doing some reading today in my favorite Starbucks by my house and came across this nugget...

In studying rabbinic literature, a few observations rise to the surface...

1. All the rabbinic school had a certain coherence. They approached Torah with the same purpose and passion. Their desire was to be found to have a life that was Torah observant. They also strived to see others have that distinction. They approached Torah, not with a systematic approach, but one that was more open, which asked questions of the text. Their desire was to see how one should obey the teachings, as well as who should obey certain teachings.

2. Despite this coherence, however, the rabbinic schools formed a sort of hermeneutical community, all of which adopted a certain "lens" through which they read and understood Torah. Some read it through the emphasis of justice, some read it with the emphasis of God's lovingkindness, while still others read it through the emphasis of Israel. These emphases became the dominant lens by which the rabbis read and understood the text. The fascinating thing is that each rabbinic school thought that they saw the text in part. Conflicting readings and understandings were embraced, as they were open to paradoxical positions on a certain text.

This all got me thinking today. I find it fascinating how we talk about what we believe - especially how we arrive at our theological understandings. Lately I've heard various people talk about their understanding of God as "coming from the Bible" and that "community-based theological development" is dangerous. I wonder do we really mean what we are saying? In fact I would say that most of our theology is derived by a sort of hermeneutical community, a reading and understanding of the text that is derived by the community we associate ourselves with. Think about our seminaries, or denominations... are they not hermeneutical communities that formulate our reading and understanding of the text? Our theology is most definitely shaped by our community's reading and understanding of the text. Much like the rabbis who have gone before us, all of us have been given a hermenuetical lens by which we read the Scriptures. Yet unlike the rabbis, we do not have their appreciation for conflicting readings and understandings. For most of us, our "lens" is the right one and everyone else is wrong. Sad, is it not?

So I was thinking, and it seems that the following issues form the lenses by which we read and understand the text.
1. Our understanding of atonement. [Do we read everything through the lens of substitutionary atonement, or some other understanding of atonement?]
2. Our understanding of the nature and mission of the church in this world.
3. Our understanding of what the Scriptures are.
4. Our understanding of the Kingdom [Is salvation all about the future, or does it have some present ramifications for this world?]

Thoughts?

$40 Billion - A Good Start.

In light of comments made at last night's lecture, this just in...

Leaders Agree on Debt Relief for Poor Nations [New York Times]
G8 Reaches Deal for World's Poor [BBC News]
G8 Ministers Back Africa Debt Deal [CNN]

I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. [_psalm 140.13]