Sunday, June 07, 2009
What i DO believe...at least some of it...
A number of conversations, real and virtual, have recently been gotten me thinking through about "how far" should we go in a process of deconstruction. When we start process of dismantling previously held
convictions...you know what I mean, asking questions and wrestling with answers...it is painful and difficult. But when is the tipping point reached when it becomes easy and pain-free to be forever dismantling.
I want to guard against a glib iconoclasm(literally ‘image-breaking’): where the "old" and the "previous" is immediately disposable and somehow of no value. The great danger that we end up facing is that it can be satisfying to debunk narrowness and cultural exclusivity. That satisfaction that leaves us with our own new barriers and orthodoxy.
I think that with the wrestle of deconstruction there has to be a commitment to the elements of construction...of building.
So, as a corrective to constant affirmation of what I do NOT believe, here are a few provocations to ponder that might balance and present what I DO believe. This is not exhaustive...but off the top of my head thoughts, that may not be very well thought thru...chuckle....:
What does Jesus think about the enviromental crisis?
How would Jesus respond to the ever lowering standards of television?
What would Jesus’ response be to reality of our economic position in the world and the presence of poverty and injustice?
How would Jesus respond to the sexuality of our age?
What would Jesus’ comments be regarding the shallowness of so many of our relationships...and that we hide who we are behind the masks of addictive lifestyles?
...to name a few....
convictions...you know what I mean, asking questions and wrestling with answers...it is painful and difficult. But when is the tipping point reached when it becomes easy and pain-free to be forever dismantling.
I want to guard against a glib iconoclasm(literally ‘image-breaking’): where the "old" and the "previous" is immediately disposable and somehow of no value. The great danger that we end up facing is that it can be satisfying to debunk narrowness and cultural exclusivity. That satisfaction that leaves us with our own new barriers and orthodoxy.
I think that with the wrestle of deconstruction there has to be a commitment to the elements of construction...of building.
So, as a corrective to constant affirmation of what I do NOT believe, here are a few provocations to ponder that might balance and present what I DO believe. This is not exhaustive...but off the top of my head thoughts, that may not be very well thought thru...chuckle....:
- The Christian faith is not just a matter of creeds and system of belief (it is way of life - worship, community, daily witness, a holy lifestyle etc etc)...BUT unless we can talk about the historic Jesus and connect our story with the life of the church through the ages, then we end up building a new "religion" (devising our own creeds, however palatable and "humane" they may seem) which is human-centered rather than God-centered.
- The church needs to be a place of safety, inclusion and welcome, NOT a place of judgment and exclusion...BUT unless we give and accept permission to each others pain, we cannot call each other to a life that truly reflects the reality of Jesus the risen Christ...and we will end up lost in our own brokenness.
- The church is a place of equality where the least is the greatest NOT a place of patriarchy and hierarchy...BUT unless we can model godly leadership and authority, we are denying the transformative effects of the gospel on the structures of human society.
- Teaching is just one of many gifts given to the church and should NOT be an opportunity for elitist (‘I am better than you’) monologues that are detached from the lives of real people living and working in a real world...BUT unless we build relevant means of discipling ‘Jesus followers’ in scripture and tradition, we will be left wallowing in the self-satisfaction of our own knowledge rather than sharing it with others and passing it on to future generations.
- Followers of Christ are NOT just adherents to a religious lifestyle that expresses itself with vehement arguments against the cultural and/or religious issues of our day...BUT they are people whose imaginations have been captured by the power of Jesus to hope in the greatest darkness. They are a people who ask the greater more personal questions of:
What does Jesus think about the enviromental crisis?
How would Jesus respond to the ever lowering standards of television?
What would Jesus’ response be to reality of our economic position in the world and the presence of poverty and injustice?
How would Jesus respond to the sexuality of our age?
What would Jesus’ comments be regarding the shallowness of so many of our relationships...and that we hide who we are behind the masks of addictive lifestyles?
...to name a few....
- Worship is NOT just a time to be joyful and proclaim personal truths but a space to come together in shared lament, protest, struggle and mystery...BUT if we lose celebration and the expectation of God joining with us by His Holy Spirit, we lose the source and energy for any gift that we may think the church has to offer the world.
- God is God and we dare NOT feel that we can package and own all the truth about who God is BUT we do know something and unless we own the story we are in danger of falling into the worship of someone or something else, (our spiritual search and journey is really about unmasking that which what we hold as most dear...its His kindness that draws us to Himself...and its His kindness that unmasks our true ‘affections’...and leads us to repentance – the great affection transfer).
first MB bbq of the summer!
the last sat in may most of us from the team got together for a BBQ.
saweeeeeeeeet. :)
and the girls found a callapillar, which halley still talks about.. :) so sweet.. :)
happy summer!
saweeeeeeeeet. :)
and the girls found a callapillar, which halley still talks about.. :) so sweet.. :)
happy summer!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
a little update from Brian
well it has been quite some time since i have put anything on this blog and i think that i should.
i hope that it hasnt been this long but in october i got a job in the school system as an E.A. and i was at this one school filling in for someone for 7 months until the end of April. Since then i have been on call and have been going to various high schools and elementary schools in the area. It has been nice to be able to check out some different schools and working with different types of kids.. I am not sure what the summer holds but i am going to trust that something will come up and it will be great.
as well at the end of March we moved to a 2 bedroom basement suite just down the road from the apartment we lived at before. it is great to have space for guests and just some more room to move around. it is over 1200 sq.ft and about the same cost as our other place, plus washer and dryer which is a big bonus. if you go to Meryl's facebook, in her latest videos there is a little 2 min. video of our new place. we have an extra room so if you want to come visit just let us know.
Thats all for now. take care and for those of you that read this, thanks.. i hope you are doing well back home and wherever you are.
i hope that it hasnt been this long but in october i got a job in the school system as an E.A. and i was at this one school filling in for someone for 7 months until the end of April. Since then i have been on call and have been going to various high schools and elementary schools in the area. It has been nice to be able to check out some different schools and working with different types of kids.. I am not sure what the summer holds but i am going to trust that something will come up and it will be great.
as well at the end of March we moved to a 2 bedroom basement suite just down the road from the apartment we lived at before. it is great to have space for guests and just some more room to move around. it is over 1200 sq.ft and about the same cost as our other place, plus washer and dryer which is a big bonus. if you go to Meryl's facebook, in her latest videos there is a little 2 min. video of our new place. we have an extra room so if you want to come visit just let us know.
Thats all for now. take care and for those of you that read this, thanks.. i hope you are doing well back home and wherever you are.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
garage sale!
so we all got our stuff together that we NEVER use and had a garage sale on saturday.
it was awesome!!!!
our goal was to make money to redo our front lawn which has been a work in process since we moved here..
so...we made enough to sod it! woot woot!! thanks god! :)
it was awesome!!!!
our goal was to make money to redo our front lawn which has been a work in process since we moved here..
so...we made enough to sod it! woot woot!! thanks god! :)
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
my most treasured...
i shot some photos of my kids on their last day off of their 4 day weekend. i am so incredibly proud of them. they are such amazing and good kids. :) i know i'm biased. but really...they are remarkable.
getting my son, however to let me take photos of him, is another story..i got a few shots. he HATES getting his photo taken - wonder where he got that from!?? and miss rosie - she's so fashionable, and is posin' and stuff..she rocks it. :)
here's a few from our mini-session.. :)
getting my son, however to let me take photos of him, is another story..i got a few shots. he HATES getting his photo taken - wonder where he got that from!?? and miss rosie - she's so fashionable, and is posin' and stuff..she rocks it. :)
here's a few from our mini-session.. :)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter Thoughts
I love the story of the two the disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32).
Two men are walking on a road from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus.
Two days after the Crucifixion.
As Frederick Buechner says of these two, “There was nothing left to do that Sunday but get out of town.”
That Sunday? It is not hard to imagine the gamete of emotion they struggle with as they walked a dusty road. All the hopes and dreams that came with following Jesus. Watching Him heal and set free. Hearing Him speak to thousands, yet know He is speaking directly to you. The thoughts. The emotions. The tears.
So they went to Emmaus. And where was Emmaus and why did they go there? Emmaus was a place of short-lived military victory for the Jewish people of Jesus’ day. Judas Maccabee won a battle there in 166 B.C. BUT it was no place in particular really, other than it was some seven miles distant from a situation that had become unbearable.
I have walked that road with them. Emmaus can be a renting a flick just for the sake of seeing a movie or to a pub just for the sake of the beer. Emmaus may be the mall, with its many ‘treasures’ or a new car or eating more candy than you really should or more food than you want, or reading a second-rate novel or even writing one. Emmaus may even be going to church on Sunday. Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred, and numb the pain that echoes off the piles of broken dreams that mark all of our lives.
Maybe those two men went (fled is probably a better word) to Emmaus to try and forget about Jesus and the great “failure” of his life.
Sometimes we focus so hard on success, particularly spiritual success, that most of us do not know the first thing about what to do with failure.
But tonight as I sit here contemplating...and trying to feel through what it would have felt like to watch all I had to live for bleed and suffer on the top of a mountain, nailed to two pieces of wood...
I realize that the first mood of Easter was despair. By every account Jesus had failed, and these two men did what I know I have done at times in my life. Leave. Flee. Avoid. Run. Move on...and move on fast.
The story continues with a stranger joining the men on their walk. We, as readers, are told it is Jesus, but the two men walk all the way to Emmaus and still don’t recognize Him. Even though He does what they have seen Him do hundreds of times...He reframes who He is and who they thought He would be. But they don’t get it...until they reach Emmaus. They sit down to eat after Jesus breaks the bread and blesses it, the lights come on. They recognize him. And as soon as they do, he disappears.
Strange story.
All the stories about how Jesus appeared to people after his death are strange and maybe the strangest thing about them is how normal they are. How little fanfare there is attached to them.
I think I connect with this story because of where it happens: Emmaus.
The place of escape. I find it profoundly moving to realize that on my road to Emmaus, He has been walking with me, challenging me, pushing me, arguing with me, pulling me, engaging my heart, and reframing who He is and how He loves. And I am deeply moved to realize that I have often not recognized Him because of my own selfish anger. Anger directed at a world that has obviously been created to thwart ME and MY dreams. Anger that covers my pain because I do not understand the ways of Jesus and will never understand why He doesn’t DO SOMETHING.
Martin Luther said once, "If I were God, I'd kick the world to pieces." I know that feeling.
And so, I slow down to drink a coffee and allow my heart to still. I watch the sun rise, or set. I listen to the wind in the trees. I reflect on who I am and who I long to be. And the lights come on.
Jesus keeps re-entering my world in grace to help me realize that His heart is big enough. He pushes towards me, as He pushes towards all of us...with grace, and peace and hope. He meets us where grace and suffering intersect. On the road to Emmaus.
We all have an Emmaus in our lives...My prayer is that you would have eyes to see and ears to hear so that you may meet with Him, cuz He is probably already there.
J
At the foot of the Cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me Your Love
Through the judgment You received
And You've won my heart
Yes You've won my heart
Now I can
Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross
At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death You bore for me
I'm laying every burden down
I'm laying every burden down
At the foot of the cross.
Kathryn Scott
Two men are walking on a road from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus.
Two days after the Crucifixion.
As Frederick Buechner says of these two, “There was nothing left to do that Sunday but get out of town.”
That Sunday? It is not hard to imagine the gamete of emotion they struggle with as they walked a dusty road. All the hopes and dreams that came with following Jesus. Watching Him heal and set free. Hearing Him speak to thousands, yet know He is speaking directly to you. The thoughts. The emotions. The tears.
So they went to Emmaus. And where was Emmaus and why did they go there? Emmaus was a place of short-lived military victory for the Jewish people of Jesus’ day. Judas Maccabee won a battle there in 166 B.C. BUT it was no place in particular really, other than it was some seven miles distant from a situation that had become unbearable.
I have walked that road with them. Emmaus can be a renting a flick just for the sake of seeing a movie or to a pub just for the sake of the beer. Emmaus may be the mall, with its many ‘treasures’ or a new car or eating more candy than you really should or more food than you want, or reading a second-rate novel or even writing one. Emmaus may even be going to church on Sunday. Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred, and numb the pain that echoes off the piles of broken dreams that mark all of our lives.
Maybe those two men went (fled is probably a better word) to Emmaus to try and forget about Jesus and the great “failure” of his life.
Sometimes we focus so hard on success, particularly spiritual success, that most of us do not know the first thing about what to do with failure.
But tonight as I sit here contemplating...and trying to feel through what it would have felt like to watch all I had to live for bleed and suffer on the top of a mountain, nailed to two pieces of wood...
I realize that the first mood of Easter was despair. By every account Jesus had failed, and these two men did what I know I have done at times in my life. Leave. Flee. Avoid. Run. Move on...and move on fast.
The story continues with a stranger joining the men on their walk. We, as readers, are told it is Jesus, but the two men walk all the way to Emmaus and still don’t recognize Him. Even though He does what they have seen Him do hundreds of times...He reframes who He is and who they thought He would be. But they don’t get it...until they reach Emmaus. They sit down to eat after Jesus breaks the bread and blesses it, the lights come on. They recognize him. And as soon as they do, he disappears.
Strange story.
All the stories about how Jesus appeared to people after his death are strange and maybe the strangest thing about them is how normal they are. How little fanfare there is attached to them.
I think I connect with this story because of where it happens: Emmaus.
The place of escape. I find it profoundly moving to realize that on my road to Emmaus, He has been walking with me, challenging me, pushing me, arguing with me, pulling me, engaging my heart, and reframing who He is and how He loves. And I am deeply moved to realize that I have often not recognized Him because of my own selfish anger. Anger directed at a world that has obviously been created to thwart ME and MY dreams. Anger that covers my pain because I do not understand the ways of Jesus and will never understand why He doesn’t DO SOMETHING.
Martin Luther said once, "If I were God, I'd kick the world to pieces." I know that feeling.
And so, I slow down to drink a coffee and allow my heart to still. I watch the sun rise, or set. I listen to the wind in the trees. I reflect on who I am and who I long to be. And the lights come on.
Jesus keeps re-entering my world in grace to help me realize that His heart is big enough. He pushes towards me, as He pushes towards all of us...with grace, and peace and hope. He meets us where grace and suffering intersect. On the road to Emmaus.
We all have an Emmaus in our lives...My prayer is that you would have eyes to see and ears to hear so that you may meet with Him, cuz He is probably already there.
J
At the foot of the Cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me Your Love
Through the judgment You received
And You've won my heart
Yes You've won my heart
Now I can
Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross
At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death You bore for me
I'm laying every burden down
I'm laying every burden down
At the foot of the cross.
Kathryn Scott
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Holy Saturday
Was just reading some thoughts of Henri Nouwen's this morning...which is never a good idea if one wants to remain the same. :)
He reminds me to be quiet today...to rest...to lay silent and still. why? Because today is the day in which God's voice was silent...the living Word lying cold and broken in a tomb.
I'm struck by how little of this season's rhythm i've grown to live in. The whole world knows it's Easter...but few of us absorb the meaning of these days. The season of Christ's passion is easily engaged on friday (in corporate 'celebrations' of his sacrifice) and on sunday (when our worship and liturgy announce his resurrection). But saturday...well...it's just saturday, isn't it?
Holy Saturday is a day of passion...but a quiet, subdued, broken pathos. Jesus' family, friends and followers wept...their hearts crushed by watching jesus suffer and die. Their dreams were shattered...all hope was dead. And everyone else likely went on with life as usual. Much like i have on this day...overlooking the fact that...
God the Father was still...His heart broken...His lips sealed. All of heaven stood in somber silence...raptly looking for any sign that the story wasn't over.
And while we know that with tomorrow's dawn comes the reminder of hope reborn...today's passion is silent, internal, and dark...in remembrance of Jesus' body held by the tomb's cold efficacy.
In waiting, looking, and weeping today, we engage the darkness in our hearts...the darkness that needs the piercing light of Easter morning.
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