from the rubble of rebellion is raised a tiny flower of hope

i realize that i don't think much about flowers. i rarely consider lilies, and when i do i'm not even really clear as to what it is i'm considering- i don't know what a lily is. luckily, that's not the point. the lily is a symbol that Jesus used in his familiar sermon on the mount to remind us that God takes care of that which is surrendered to his glory…

and fortunately, flowers have remained surrendered. they've never fallen in with rebels, never bought into lies about their identity, never fought against God’s established order of things, never brought death into the world…

no, we did that, and continue to participate in it.

disconnection took place and all that was meant to be was relegated to all that is now… in short, the world fell into disrepair, largely because we, in our desire for dominion and autonomy, took on more than we could handle by our own fallen natural means…

this has always bugged God.

and God has been saying within earshot of those writing his words down, since just after the beginning, "O, that they would be my people and I would be their God…I just want my people back."

this is God, creator of the universe, sovereign over all, confessing the desire of his heart-
his missio dei.

so if God’s mission is to reconcile that which was lost to him in death through death itself- the death and resurrection of Christ- then what is our mission, as those called out of darkness into new light and life, as part of that of The Plan?

the leadership of the church that i have been called to shepherd, has articulated its mission as
To be a missional-minded church of growing worshipers who befriend the spiritually disconnected in Regina and beyond.

but what does Missional even mean?

alan hirsch, in his amazing book Forgotten Ways puts it this way:
A missional church is a church that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose as an agent of God's mission to the world. In other words, the church's true and authentic organizing principle is mission. When the church is in mission, it is the true church. The church itself is not only a product of that mission but is obligated and destined to extend it by whatever means possible.
(http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Ways-Reactivating-Missional-Church/dp/1587431645)

perhaps that's what Jesus in foretelling in Acts 1.8 when he says with some of his final words on earth, that the Holy Spirit of God would come upon people, driving them beyond their own inward gazing and the self-concerned spirituality to something that would be the delivery system of God's hope of the nations, even to the ends of the earth.

missional guru, lesslie newbiggin, describes missio ekklesia, the mission of the church as:
the church's obedient participation in that action of the Spirit by which the confession of Jesus as Lord becomes the authentic confession of every people, each in its own tongue.

but how do we as a people, as a family, as ‘agents on God’s mission' actively participate in the realization of God’s redemption dream?

in the classic pink floyd tune, Us and Them, roger waters makes some observations about conflict and injustice that are poignant:

Us, and them
And after all we're only ordinary men.
Me, and you.
God only knows it's noz what we would choose to do.

Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died.
And the general sat and the lines on the map
moved from side to side.

Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who.
Up and down.
But in the end it's only round and round.

Haven't you heard it's a battle of words
The poster bearer cried.
Listen son, said the man with the gun
There's room for you inside.

Down and out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about.
With, without.
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?

Out of the way, it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind.
For the want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died.

it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that in an earlier breakout session of the same retreat that records Christ's words about considering lilies, he spoke quite directly to injustice and to the missio dei:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (matthew 5.9)

if we want to be part of the missio dei, we need to bring peace, sowing seeds of hope and justice in our community, our country and our world and then tending to these seeds. we are the hands of the gardener- we are how God intends to raise up new flowers from the rubble of a rebellion that is several millennia old.


perhaps this begins with tweeking our mission statement so that it reads to be a missional church rather than to be a missional-minded church.

there is often too great a chasm between thinking and being.

pillows and prayers

two monks went up onto a hill to pray on a windy day.
at the insistence of the one, they both brought pillows.

upon attaining the summit, the other monk sat down and began to ready his pillow for a time of lengthy prayer and meditation. the one, however, remained standing. with his eyes he followed the wind as it bent the trees and brushed the weeds back and forth in waves through the valley below.

the seated monk began to pray and meditate.
the standing monk continued to stand, looking down.

after awhile, the seated monk hazarded a glance, with one eye, towards his standing comrade. with a swift and decisive motion, the standing monk produced a knife from beneath his habit and cut open his pillow, releasing the feathers, surprisingly multi-coloured, into the valley, carried by the wind.

the seated monk stood up and walked to his friend's side. the standing monk, whose idea it had been to bring pillows this day on their prayer walk, remained silent.

the wind continued to blow and the feathers continued to drift to and fro for quite some time, each one eventually finding the ground on the terms established for it by that wind and of course by the spinning of the earth.

the once-seated monk finally asked:
brother, how will you pray in comfort, now that you have no pillow?

his teacher replied:
i would rather sacrifice to make this world a softer place
than pray comfortable prayers.

***

God doesn’t call us to comfort, but to make an impact.
Awareness is a big issue-
we all need to see that what we can do together is
bigger than what any of us can do on our own.
(Scott Ridout)

***

in order to make an impact, a force must be directed towards a target and released… we have some difficulty with releasing- with letting go…

Jesus points this out in his great story of stewardship, found in matthew 25.14-29. you remember- the one where the three guys are entrusted with gifts and the one 'wicked, lazy servant', fearing for his future lest the truth about his management skills be discovered and the gift be lost, buries his in the ground? well, there is a very strongly telling statement made at the end of Jesus' story which divides the world into two types of people: the HAVES and the HAVE-NOTS. he says:

For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (matthew 25.29)

so the orientation question hangs in the air:
am i a HAVE or a HAVE NOT?

see, i don't believe for a moment that this story is saying God is interested in a bizarro world robin hood thing, making the rich folks richer by robbing from the poor. it has to do with two basic mindsets: being able to see what one has (the HAVES) versus only being able to see what one does NOT have (the HAVE-NOTs).

it's like the difference between times of want times of plenty.
recession versus procession.

a recession can be described as a time of economic contraction- the time of withdrawal or cessation from the usual work or activity. in buying into a recession mindset- to that of being a HAVE NOT, we clench, going against the natural and healthy procession that takes us forward with courage and optimism in the direction of God’s dream of an end to disparity and injustice for all…

in a recession mindset, we can lose track of a crucial truth about all that we have: God owns it and it is given to us in trust. once we receive this truth, we become more generous, less clenched. we are even able to become less selfish and more aware of the needs of those around us. it probably has to do with maslow's hierarchy or needs: once the basic needs of shelter and sustenance are met, people start to become increasingly aware of community and of the role they are to play within community.

earlier on in matthew's gospel, Jesus says “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” it is in the context of sending his friends out to share the light and hope of the gospel with the people in their neighbourhood…

when we reorient to the God-honouring perspective of HAVE, we are more prone to live that out amongst those with whom we share this space... who may very well struggle with being HAVE NOT.

what will i do with my pillow and my prayer today?

hope and help

dancing is not something just anyone can do... it's sort of a 'many are called but few are chosen' kinda thing.

this past sunday, as part of our musical worship experience, a member of the worship band returned her microphone to its stand and came down off of the stage. once on the floor, she began to dance before the cross. it was beautiful and moving.

yet i found myself thinking about mosh pits and how the dancing is so different there. different movement done for different reasons, perhaps.

the mosh pit at a neil young show i attended in the early 90's ground to a halt as the band settled into the opening chords of his song 'helpless.' what had been, just moments before, a throng of pushing and shoving and bouncing and falling settled into a slightly swaying prayer meeting, as the people in attendance joined in with the chorus, singing their existencial confession of helplessness with one very full, multitimbral voice amidst a cloud of second, third, and fourth hand pot smoke.

helpless helpless helpless helpless...

i stood there, praying with and for this gathering, begging God to make himself known to those who were, in that very still and collectively shared moment, making their honest confession. the words of the psalmist in psalm 9.20 resonate in moments like this:

let the nations know that they are but men.

anyway, interesting how our language works. the words help and hope are often interchangeable. one receiving no help in this journey rarely holds any hope either.

Q: what robs people of their hope (rendering them hopeless)?
A: a lack of control- being subject to factors that cannot be negotiated with- the uncontrollables like gas-prices, harsh weather, investment portfolios, freak circumstance and unforeseeable hardship, other people's freewill, disease/death…

we need to move beyond the time of asking questions with no easy answers to a time of becoming God’s answers to the questions of those living in a world where every living thing dies…

the questions often spoken in the deepest recesses of our hearts.
the sounds of silence..
Does God SEE?
Does God CARE?
Does God HELP?
Does God LOVE?

it occurs to me that when we bring help we become hope for another and this silence is broken by the word of God, spoken through the life of one who bears his light in this present darkness.

We must become holy not because we want to feel holy
but because Christ must be able to live his life fully in us
(Mother Teresa)

this past new year's eve, three guys who are part of our church held a chemical-free house party/rave, posting notices around town and on facebook inviting all comers.

the idea? offer some hope to those who want to party in the new year, but don't want to kill brain cells or further the hold that certain harsh chemical slave-masters have upon their lives.

seventy kids showed up... many had never met the hosts, but joined the crowd and received grace and acceptance there, regardless of other lifestyle choices, faith journeys or socioeconomic strata.

and instead of crying 'helpless', they shouted blessing to and with each other: happy new year

it's part of our true restored identity to be hope for another. this is church.

the misseological question is posed in every new moment: how might we live amongst one another, that Jesus would be more real to all of us and those whom we influence?

whether it is across town or across the world, we are called to bring hope, celebrating their difference by offering ours.

Ephesians 1.3-14; 2 Corinthians 3.1-3, 5.14-18 (Message)