of dragons and would-be heroes

so i thought it might be interesting to explore the whole idea of dragons- but discovered early on that there are some key differences between how different cultures portray this mythological creatures, as well as the powers and such ascribed to them. rather than go on and on, let me say this about that:

go to wikipedia and type in 'dragon'
now read the entry.

there- so in order to move forward, let me just clarify... the dragons of which i speak are not the oriental ones- (probably the subject of a whole nother blog). no, we're looking at the horrific creatures that lace european mythologies with a larger than life, manifest evil presence. the stuff that jabberwocky (from lewis carroll's through the looking glass) and smaug (from jrr tolkien's the hobbit) are made of- the stuff that the great heroes like saint george and shrek have always had to defeat in order to save the girl.

(interesting: read revelation 12.1-17 with this idea in mind)

in his Complete Guide To Middle-Earth, robert foster defines the word Dragon as follows:
"Evil creatures of northern Middle-earth, huge, powerful, scale covered, long-lived, greedy for treasure and full of malice. They could bewilder anyone who looked in their eyes and their words were cunning and seductive…"

these giant villains of western myth are the ultimate self-serving consumers: destroying, controlling or hoarding all that is in their path, choking off life and freedom and while cultivating a stockholm syndrome-like bond of fear and appeasement, requiring absolute servitude of those who live within their realm. they create slaves- they always have.

it's funny how certain ideas act as hyperlinks to other experiences. all week long, i've been thinking of a certain bruce cockburn song which has embedded in it the title of the album in which it appears. the tune is called 'hills of morning' and the record is dancing in the dragons' jaws- very strongly based on and alluding to the writings of charles williams.

(tangent: no surprise that the quote in the previous blog entry is from the same record. sometimes we read a book or listen to a song or see a film and we receive one idea- other times the aesthetic leads us in a number of different directions through a number of different topics simply because we continue to be willing to receive more from the larger work.)

Women and men moved back and forth
In between effect and cause
And just beyond the range of normal sight
This glittering joker was dancing in the dragon's jaws
(bruce cockburn)

this song seems to hint at hope that lies beyond that which we readily perceive, but which is nonetheless real. it and the works by charles williams that inspired it "explore the sacramental intersection of the physical with the spiritual while also examining the ways in which power, even spiritual power, can corrupt as well as sanctify." (WIKIpedia, of charles williams)

the really cool thing is that, unlike his oxford writers' guild (self-dubbed Inklings) contemporaries c.s. lewis and j.r.r. tolkien, williams' fantasy pieces take place in our contemporary world- which perhaps invites the question:

what ARE the dragons of today? two rather nasty ones come to mind, along with a third that is unmatched in its subtlety:

• Economics: commerce, trade and credit (affluence/ disparity)
• Politics: abuse of power, influence and resource leads to injustice
• Substance issues: counterfeit gospels offering temporary peace from the other two (and countless others) all the while establishing its own realm and subjects.
  

but with the identification of some rather heinous dragons, comes the responsibility to somehow fight them. how do we, the church, deliver hope and freedom to those who are held captive today? how do we, the church, bring a dance of freedom and hope into the very jaws of today's dragons?

well, first of all, we need to remind ourselves that it's not our fight. it’s a Spirit thing

matthew 28.18-20 (famously referred to as the great commission) speaks of Christ's authority, and of the need for those who follow him to go out into all the world. luke 24.45-49, tells the same story from the perspective of another, with certain nuances draw to the fore. in the luke version, Jesus speaks of going out, but reminds his followers that there is an order to things, and that they are to wait until they receive that which is promised to them from the Father: 'power from on high.' acts 1.8, (traditionally held to be written by the same author as the gospel of luke) records the words of Christ more directly related to this promise of power and authority: 'you will receive power when my Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses...' and so on.

see, without that power there is no authority and, one could contend that when there is no authority there cannot be any real victory over a dragon. mere mortals are limited in strength and resource and dragons seem to be these horrible things that know and respect no limits. the merely natural cannot prevail- the supernatural must engage for it is a supernatural battle.

so how do we engage supernaturally? how do we receive this promise of dragon-thwarting might? well, it seems to come through agreement entered into with God. it seems to come with being in league with good rather than evil, and being in relationship with the source of the good... without this relationship, there is no witness to bear.

the challenge (arguably greater, even, than the challenge posed by the dragon itself) is to actively cultivate conversational intimacy with God- to speak regularly with, not to God. speaking with connotes a dialogue in which both parties are engaged, taking turns, alternately speaking and listening. this allows God to draw up divine plans with his servants which enable these servants to be in agreement with and fully used within them.

it's not enough to be ready to fight.
we must needs be ready to be part of someone else's fight- God's.

so what does one wear to someone else's war?

i read this and thought this 1

i read this:
Many of us are refusing to allow distorted images of our faith to define us. There are those of us who, rather than simply reject pop evangelicalism, want to spread another kind of Christianity, a faith that has as much to say about this world as it does about the next. New prophets are rising up who try to change the future, not just predict it. There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of. (Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution, http://www.amazon.ca/Irresistible-Revolution-Shane-Claiborne/dp/0310266300/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233676295&sr=8-1)

and thought this:
sun's up- mm hmm- looks okay
the world survives into another day
and i'm thinking about eternity
(bruce cockburn, wondering where the lions are)

eternity- not the forever and a day kind, but the here and now kind. hope is a ray, having a beginning and no ending point, traveling towards a vague horizon.

what mission am i to fulfill at this point in time and space to actively participate in the sharing of hope and the moving forward of a people into a new day, prepared by God to be lived out to the realization of God's dream for us all?

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)

... and the art of bicycle maintenance

the idea of the superhero has been a rich part of our cultural backdrop since before people were writing history down. cave paintings depict a coming together of worlds- great hunts involving great hunters. the timeless conflict in art and literature has been over whether it is more valuable, indeed more human, to depict that which is in the natural world or to depict that which could exist within the realm of the supernatural.

the monty python sketch Bicycle Repairman is sublime. in it we find a world of superheroes, all dressed like superman, living everyday lives through commonplace experiences: waiting patiently at the laundromat, taking the bus to the office, badly repairing potholes in the road, riding bicycles. yet when one particularly poor bicycle rider goes careening into a fence and wrecks his bike, none of his superpowers will save him.

he needs a new kind of hero- one who may not be able to fly or see through walls with x-ray vision, but who is gifted with deep insight into the principles governing how bikes work.

1 Corinthians 12.14-31 is the classic spiritual gifts passage, likening people and their respective giftings to basic body parts, reminding us that we are not to look down upon others because of their lack of expertise and giftedness in our areas of strength and blessing. however, upon closer look, there is a message at the beginning that is often overlooked...

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

see, many of us are terribly good at missing the affirmation here. we think that because we don't play an instrument or pray well in public or possess the unique ability to motivate 13 year-olds to actually read their bibles, our role in the church is probably somehow secondary.

yet in the world of supermen, the humble servant diligently using his gifts is the hero… regular people have within themselves the capacity to be instrumental in the realization of God’s redemption dream. could it be that we are all unwittingly superheroic, having been entrusted with gifts and endowments granted by God’s grace and mercy, and equipped and empowered to employ these gifts in a life-changing work, that we would see with our own eyes the day of the Lord?

perhaps our identity issues arise from growing up in smallville- a place where nothing amazing ever happens- a place where our true self is denied expression to the point where we forget who we truly are? perhaps we deny our superheroism- diminish it and understate it, rendering it fruitless by our own volition to the point where we no longer see our role in the work God intends to do here?

What are the characteristics of Clark Kent?

He’s weak… he’s unsure of himself… he’s a coward.

Clark Kent is superman’s critique on the whole human race.

(Quentin Tarantino)

contemporary christian recording artist michael w. smith put the proverbial question of existence into words and music, effectively deconstructing the loaded "why am i here?" question into something so familiar to so many that it became a hit crossover single on secular radio in the early 90's...

The wind is moving but I am standing still
A life of pages waiting to be filled
A heart that's hopeful- a head that's full of dreams
But this becoming is harder than it seems
Feels like I’m looking for a reason
Roaming through the night to find my place in this world
My place in this world
Not a lot to lean on
I need your light to help me find my place in this world
My place in this world

If there are millions down on their knees
Among the many, can you still hear me
Hear me asking where do I belong
Is there a vision that I can call my own
Show me… (Michael W Smith)

the quest begins with the questions. through them, God is given voice to speak in response… speaking our role in his work back into us, calling us into active service and reminding us of the things we’ve always known…

not tonight, darling

in the secret
in the quiet place
in the stillness you are there
in the secret
in the quiet hour i wait only for you
i want to know you more

i am reaching
for the highest goal
that i might receive the prize
pressing onward
pushing every hindrance aside out of my way
i want to know you more

open the eyes of my heart, Lord
open the eyes of my heart
i want to see you
i want to see you

see you high and lifted up
shining in the light of your glory
pour out your power and love
as we sing 'holy holy holy'

i want to know you
i want to hear your voice
i want to know you more
i want to touch you
i want to see your face
i want to know you more

holy holy holy
holy holy holy
holy holy holy
i want to see you...
(andy parks/ paul baloche respectively)

we need to be careful what we ask for, lest we get where God will open our eyes… we invite God to come and manifest himself when we join the elders, the angels and the heavenly creatures in singing “Holy Holy Holy”…

BUT when we sing this- when God may well intend to respond to our prayerful call/cry for vision and insight- we check our watches and start to get our stuff together so that we can do whatever it is that we’ve planned to do next…

what if, on this day, God said:

I want to pour vision and insight- my word and manifest presence- into this place to ready you for a work that I intend to do through you in this community, this city, this province, this country and to the ends of the earth…

Wait- where are you going? Don’t you want to see me? Don’t you want to hear my voice, touch my face, all like you said?

What do you mean ‘that was just a song?’

in the movie 'the notebook', james garner's character, noah, reads a love story to this elderly woman (played by gena rowlands) named allie that he regularly visits in a hospice. as the story of two young lovers progresses, the audience begins to pick up hints as to the identities of the characters in the story: the young man and the young woman in the story are noah and allie long before a debilitating mental illness claimed huge portions of allie's memory and personality. he reads to this stranger in hopes of calling back to himself, if only for a few minutes, the girl he fell in love with and has been with for decades. he reads the love story to call her back to her true identity and their mutual love. he reads and hopes.

near the end of the film, the veil falls and the recognition in her eyes and the warmth in her voice authenticates the transformation. she asks him how long they have (for she is, in the moments of lucidity, aware of her condition) and he confesses that the last time she returned it was only for five minutes.

all that hope and tireless perseverence and waiting for five minutes?

five minutes of what?

of true intimacy

of things being the way they were meant to be.

of relationship restored

of paradise regained

as heart wrenching as it seems, it appears as though five minutes of these things is worth it all...

they put some music on (irving kahal's I'll be seeing you) and dance together, sharing sweet words of love and intimacy, but when she starts to dream and to plan for a future, he cautiously says 'not tonight, darling'

but she's already gone. the time counter on the player says we're at about three minutes this time. his heart breaks yet again, and with it, the hearts of the audience watching the film.

i suspect this is a poignant enactment of something that takes place unendingly between God and his beloved- us. God moves closer and we, in a moment of lucidity recognize his face, giving both ourselves and God a taste of what once was; what was always meant to be; what can't really take place again until death from our fallenness reunites us forever.

and God's heart breaks again and again as he whispers 'not tonight, darling' while i'll be seeing you plays in the background. someday it will be different. someday it will be forever.

but until then, God keeps visiting, inviting us to remember by reading us an unending love story until that day when all the veils fall and the light and freedom of the eternal now replaces the shadows of this temporal causality cage that is life just east of eden.

I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through.

In that small cafe;
The park across the way;
The children's carousel;
The chestnut trees;
The wishin' well.

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.

I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.

I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day;
In every thing that's light and gay.
I'll always think of you that way.

I'll find you
In the morning sun
And when the night is new.
I'll be looking at the moon,
But I'll be seeing you.
(irving kahal)