Archive of "Church" Category
09 is a good time to grow
I like the end of a year and the beginning of another.
I have some resolutions, but they never seem to matter, goals do…
The small steps toward wholeness, the completion of a task and the shaping of another.
Lately, I have been witness to hard times in relationships and I think that there is a depth to the human experience often forgotten.
Life does not get easier. Each day, each passing moment is a reminder of what’s to come…
Even the most fabulous lives in the world are not what they seem, we all create a reality outside of ourselves and look in on others to find who we really are. Even when we look at God or look for God, we can only understand that reality in part.
What is wild to me, is even after all the pain, and the pain to come, I still believe…
Because I want to, because there is something in my mind and in my experience that says God is love and he is best understood from my vantage point of Jesus.
I still like the church, in fact, I have been looking for a church for over a month now. What I am coming to believe is that I am all ready apart of a church and I am looking for validation of my identity in God/Christ/the church.
What I am finding is that I can not go back, I have come to far and scene to much to go back, but I can move forward, one small step at a time, into the great unknown.
Let the “No” define you and the “Yes” inspire…
I can not stop thinking about how good it felt after a sales meeting when a president of a local grocery store said, “I can not go with your coffee because It would be like shooting myself in the head.” What he was saying in my perspective is: you do not represent what I want.
Stop for just one min and contemplate that:
“Your product is not what I want.”
This is a phrase communicated though out the day in the economy of people. We are communicating all the time about what we want and what we do not want.
“Let the No define you and the Yes inspire you…” rang in my ear as I walked out that meeting late one night.
What people want defines who they are. When we cloud what we want with words from another vocabulary we miscommunicate to people. When we do not say what we mean we miscommunicate and confuse others. Then we become frustrated by the no, the passive aggressive no.
The metaphor of product as people is a bit controversial, and I enjoy entering in the conversation of consumerism a “buzz” word that interests me.
Here is what I hear when I listen to people talking about consumerism as bad.
I hear:
“you must watch what you buy”
“scrutinize every purchase”
“become a conservationist”
“don’t buy certain things”
I hear a generalization of the natural order of society, which is production and consumption.
I am a producer and people I sell to are consumers or customers. In order to make a transaction I need to connect to the basic need of that person, to consume what I produce.
What I am saying is this, most people are extremely picky about what they buy or do not buy, and in doing so, put people in catagories intentionally or unintentionally by what they buy. The conversation I have been apart of is more about categorizing people than it is about responsibility.
Here are some questions:
Is it more sustainable or socially responsible for a low income family to shop at Walmart?
Can the only middle and upper class families shop green?
A reflection on communion as talked about in the gospels/acts.
Jesus used the consumption language in communion and it dumbfounds me to this day.
Are we suppose to consume relationships?
Are we missing the point of relationships by categorizing people by what they consume?
For example:
Do we love overweight people less? (they consume a lot of food, right?)
Do we judge someone who wares a t-shirt that represents something we resent.
Have our judgments become resentments leading to categories for people? Affect they way we treat others.
Here is what I have observed.
People are starting to judge others and make cases against others,
The question being asked is who is in and out of their community.
Who is lost and does not get it?
Are they worth talking to and listening to what they say?
Is what they represent not what you are looking for and therefor like shooting yourself in the head?
Here is what I know:
Jesus brought those outside of the religious community in, and he even consumed or took part in unholly things, like wine and healing on the sabbath. I like how confusing Jesus becomes when we put him in our context and I like how simple the gospel becomes when we look at the gospel story literally.
Side note: I hope this was as fun to read as it was to write
When youtube becomes a preacher
Jim and Casper go to church on youtube is an off the map production.
There was a comment made at the end of this clip about how Casper is sure their are good things going on in some churches.
I am reminded of a life changing movie, “On the Waterfront” Here are some quotes:
Father Barry: Some people think the Crucifixion only took place on Calvary. Well, they better wise up!
Father Barry: You want to know what’s wrong with our waterfront? It’s the love of a lousy buck. It’s making love of a buck – -the cushy job – -more important than the love of man!
Edie: Shouldn’t everybody care about everybody else?
Terry: Boy, what a fruitcake you are!
Sometimes I feel like a “fruitcake”.
There is something stirring in my soul/spirit again.
My mind races with thoughts of friends in leadership at church’s around the country in crisis. Overall most people would say the American church is in Crisis, I tend to agree.
The clip from youtube gives me insight into what I have felt about the modern evangelical church.
There needs to be a response, a simple clear response like Father Barry confronting the Mob on the water front.
Father Barry: Isn’t it simple as one, two, three? One: The working conditions are bad. Two: They’re bad because the mob does the hiring. And three: The only way we can break the mob is to stop letting them get away with murder.
Or by confronting the religious complacency like Eddie:
Edie: What kind of saint hides in a church?
The movement needs all types of people:
Who will you be?
Remembering the Dream
St Augustine, in a memorable phrase, insists that God is not ‘an absent father.’ “Non enim fecit atque abiit.” – (“He did not just make us and go away.” Confessions, Bk 4, Ch. 12). God works with us and for us, and we see God’s hand not just in the sunshine and obvious blessings, but even in the dark times, in our sorrowful mysteries. God is always present to us. The prodigal’s father stayed on at home even after the boy brought shame and sorrow on the family. His older son and neighbours (and maybe his wife too) would have seen him as foolish and fond for letting the younger boy loose with money. When the prodigal returned, his father was waiting and watching. As a good father, he was there when he was needed.
This quote from the www.sacredspace.ie is a perfect representation of where I am in my Theology.
After returning from my trip to Switzerland and Italy over the Holiday, I find myself in a new space of thinking. There is more to the Theological conversation than the Missional/Emergent language passed from one to another. There is a world beyond our comprehension. A presence of being beyond ourselves.
My experience has been, when surrendering to the unknown and inverting the anxious feeling which come in the morning and evening like waves on the ocean, I find peace. This peace goes beyond words I can explain, but there is a picture I see in this moment. Jesus in the middle of a storm with his friends, creates an space for them to see a reality outside of the human realm of possibility.
I am entering possibility.
This was the most exciting revelation of my trip to Europe: the convergence of pieces from the Missional/Emergent conversation I have been and will continue to be apart of, because it is the context I am in, to the history of the Church and the artistic expression illuminated on the inside of the Sistien Chapel. The context of Christianity has changed and with it, examples of what it means to be “Christian”.
I fell in love with the Christian story that day inside the Chapel. The Bible stories depicted on the wall like a beautiful Children’s book, my perspective changed and I fell deeply in love with this tradition of story telling. Everyone through time putting meaning to words for the community of followers carrying the dream of the Kingdom which has come and will come again.
