Wednesday, May 20, 2009

of welcome and farewell





















the other day i mentioned that i had received an interesting message on facebook which explored this whole business of pursuing the restoration of shalom in our place of employment. the note led both to and from conversations on this topic and resulted in a deeply challenging and insightful interview on sunday morning in the big room with my friend, a nurse on the oncology ward in one of our local hospitals.

here is the entire facebook note...

***

“But I am among you as one who serves” Luke 22:27. These are the words of Jesus when he challenges how we usually think about who is greater and who is lesser.


As one who serves, the first and the only thing that I can offer is a greeting “Shalom“. A greeting to receive the guest, as a host to welcome them in. By welcoming the stranger, I am given the opportunity to receive them as a gift from the Divine. We are told that saying farewell is hard, but for me the welcome is much more difficult.


The difficulty is in knowing that in receiving this gift from the divine I am also welcoming the suffering in which we both must sit.


My work is the work of loss. Loss of control, loss of certainty, loss of routine, loss of life here on earth, loss of family, loss of dreams, loss of hope. Strangers given to me as a gift from The Divine, to help redeem pain, to help redeem loss and to help redeem suffering. And here I am, feeling, seeing, touching, holding the gift. The gift holding me.

Redeem-to obtain the release or restoration of, to off-set, to free, to liberate, reclaim.

I weep for the stranger that I welcome. I weep for the sorrow that we will endure. They welcome me into their pain and suffering, I am a guest in their life. Participating in their sorrow and suffering.

“when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled, and said “where have ye laid him?” They said unto him, lord come and see. Jesus wept.” John 11:33-35

My work is the work of hope. Hope of this moment, hope of showing mercy into this moment, hope of bringing shalom into this moment. The lives of strangers become part of me and I of them. We become intertwined like vines, with memories, tears shed, stories told, obstacles overcome, fear relieved, pain redeemed, hope exchanged.


As much as I would like it to be, this is not the hope of tomorrow or the hope of things to come.
My prayers for a tomorrow to offer have been answered with a resounding no and so here I am, left with what often seems so little, only a small, impoverished hope to offer. The hope I have access too is a short-sighted hope, the hope of a caress or a kind word that is perhaps all-to-soon forgotten. If I could offer a tomorrow I would, but it is impossible, impossible for so many reasons.

Tomorrows are a luxury that feels out of place between us, tomorrows would be a dishonest hope, a barbed hope that causes more damage then it can soothe. And so I am left without a future to point too, without deliverance and salvation from the sorrow.

With no future all I am left with is the unexpected greeting and the farewell that always comes too soon, the farewell that is there even in the welcome. The immediacy of my hope leaves me with only shalom, the welcome and the “go in peace” of parting.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

canteens of clay


paul writes that we carry the treasure of God in jars of clay (2 corinthians 4.7-12). the idea, of course, is hyperlinked back to those opening chapters of genesis where God picks up a lump of earth and breathes spiritual life, creating a ‘living being.’

in his book The End of Religion, preacher and teacher bruxy cavey posits an idea that religion is merely a container for the living water of God. however, this is still too far away from you and me. speaking of ‘religion’ allows us to distance ourselves from something very important contained in paul’s words here: WE are the containers, equipped, empowered and entrusted with this precious cargo that offers hope to the whole world. God’s hope of realized shalom is placed upon you and me.

being raised a pharisee, the apostle paul chooses his metaphors well in light of the scriptures. not only does he pick up on the Genesis connection, but his little analogy in his 2nd letter to the corinthian church is also informed by the words of the prophet isaiah. (isaiah 64.8) the fact that clay is molded and worked in preparation for its task should be hope to us all. we are clay first, and are formed into containers by the hand of God to carry out his purposes here. it's delightful to remember that, in the fashioning of clay, water is used... the living water which we are created to carry to the world in which we live is used in our formation. we are fashioned for the work we are called into being to do by that which which we are called to carry and share…

does that make you feel big or small?
most days it makes me feel both.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

phenomenal cosmic power- itty bitty living space



we are living in exponential times

exponential indeed.

still, people are always making ominous predictions which set the tendency towards paranoia in the masses on fire. i remember sitting around with friends in the late 80's yodeling the nitty gritty dirt band's turn of the century...

There'll be flying boats, and condos with moats;
Cultivated oceans, floating cities in the sky.
Living underneath a bubble, no more toil and trouble
Singin' 'bout that sweet ole by and by.

We'll all have lots of money that we won't have to spend;
You'll be given everything when everyone's your friend
Hanging out together in picture perfect weather -
This time 'round the party never ends.

Hallelujah, I can't wait to see it
Hallelujah, come on and go with me
Let me show you the way it's gonna be
At the turn, the turn of the century.

We won't need no TV preachers to ask how much we gave
We won't need no TV preachers, see, by then, we'll all be saved
No more fighting for a country - no child will go hungry
We'll be smiling from the cradle to the grave.

Hallelujah, I can't wait to see it
Hallelujah, come on and go with me
Let me show you the way it's gonna be
at the turn,
the turn of the century.


this song came from a record that i bought in 1989 when i was trying to learn guitar for the second time. it speaks of a time of utopic freedom and peace, when all brokenness in relationship and resource is restored- all disparity done away with. it speaks of community Shalom

in jeremiah’s 'epistle,' written to the exiles in babylon, we read some familiar words of encouragement (jeremiah 29.11-14)… yet just a few lines up the prophet issues some words of odd challenge to those who are living lamentation in exile (jeremiah 29.4-8)

jeremiah’s challenge to build houses, plant gardens and raise children is for us all. prophetic words often resonate as truth in many different contexts because God has inspired them as living words…they aren't expressions of what was or what will be- they are expressions of what is current and real in the spiritual and the prophetic, even if this reality has not yet come to be in the physical.

in any event, jeremiah's letter provides us with a framework for life in exile… life on fallen planet earth. within this framework we see three spaces that may not be clearly defined in a life and may not exist bereft of overlap and intersection, but which are very definitely part of pretty much every life in varying capacity.

space1: build houses:
where do you live? your home is arguably your greatest investment- you have literally bought into this neighbourhood and all that it represents.

space2: plant gardens
:
where do you work? Your workplace is the place where you are engaged in the commerce of the community. It is the place where your key role as a contributor is marked… that’s why you get paid to be there.

space3: increase in number
:
where do you recreate? your recreation reflects those special aspects of you that are uniquely relational. it is a unique subcultural context… the place where, together with others of like interest, skill, or personality you recharge.

see, where the church is not only proclaiming Christ, but also choosing to be part of the healing and well-being of the communities or areas in which it lives, there is God and so there is Shalom

Shalom mission means ‘heralding’ or announcing that God redeems- forgives, transforms, empowers or energizes, sanctifies…

* it means BEING the words of Christ
* it means DOING the works of Christ

particularly amongst the poor, helpless, needy, sick, sinful or, in other words, the lost. but not just doing something to or for someone else; rather- and this is important- working in such a way that we enable or empower the people amongst whom we work.

entrusted to our care is, as robin williams' genie in aladdin puts it, "phenomenal cosmic power- itty bitty living space." God has charged us with the restoration of shalom in the very community we've chosen to pitch our tent. we don't need to change the world- God will do that, as long as those who bear his name give themselves up to be used exponentially to this end in their small part of it.