the honor of serving in the household of God

...and to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (Yad Vashem) that shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 56:5

יד ושם‎
'yad va-shem' - literally: 'hand and name".

not being cut off...that is certainly a good thing. yet, God is still pursuing so many of us...but we try to cut ourselves off.

we isolate...and our "american" way of life makes that easy.

when i get a chance to really have a heart-to-heart with most people, i find that so many of us are isolated.

now, i'm not talking about the healthy practice of solitude, i'm talking about a personal inclusion in a cultural policy of isolation.

...you see its dangerous here in the suburbs. with our pretty landscaping, 'safe' neighborhoods, easy automatic garage-door openers, internet access to virtually anything (pun intended) and our "everything's on sale at the mall" lives...we are lulled into empty, isolated living in suburbia...and it's "easy" to fall prey to this...to default to this because it becomes familiar...

i like what eric sandras says in his expose of faith and discipleship in suburbia, Plastic Jesus:

"How simple it is to serve by default, and not just in things we do at church. We can live by default in our jobs or careers and in our volunteer activities. We get a job and work our tails off just to stay afloat financially, and may even try our best to do some good things for God in the process. But we never become fully alive in our souls because we never fully become what God has created us to be."

...did you notice that i said it's easy to "fall prey to this"? that's because suburbia is unreal. especially in the sense of obscuring the reality that we are at war...kingdoms are in conflict...we are easy prey for the fallen powers

so is it just a matter of waking up to our dilemma? maybe that's a start to really becoming fully alive...

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life. For this reason God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him. It is impossible to live without life, and the actualisation of life comes from participation in God, while participation in God is to see God and enjoy his goodness.
from 'Man Fully Alive is the Glory of God' by Irenaeus of Lyon

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'
Revelation 3:5-6

...i think that to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ in present-day american suburbia, we actually need to be more radical...more fully, radically alive. that's right...radical...or as merriam-webster might say: "marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional: EXTREME"

how about extremely radical...

...or radically extreme: most people think radical discipleship is set aside for those urban trend-setters who - Shane Claiborne-like - go into the blighted and deeply-in-need-of-hope inner city environs to bring again good news.

...and truly, they need to be radical to do that.

but what most fail to realize is that they are actually taking water to people who mostly know they are thirsty.

now, it isn't without its dangers and challenges, but i contend that living as a disciple of Christ in suburbia is at least equally challenging, if not more-so.

so what do we do? how do we overcome? sheer will power? "let go and let God"? maybe a little of both...because i like what the early apostle Paul says:

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me."
1 Corinthians 15:10

a mysterious both/and in this: my first quarter in VLI , dave nixon taught the spiritual formation module. dave was a wonderful teacher. i was somewhat familiar with this because i had read richard foster and dallas willard years before. we talked a lot about spiritual disciplines. i think too many people stay away from 'spiritual disciplines' because of "grace, grace...God's grace..."

yet, i love the phrase dave quoted from willard: 'grace is not opposed to effort. grace is opposed to earning'

the spiritual disciplines of the life of a disciple of Christ have aided the work of grace in my life as i battle and fight at times for every inch of my journey of faith... dave also recently wrote about how community matters

...to be forthright, the two cardinal vices that beseige and beset my journey of faith have been lust and pride. i suppose lust (especially in America...and especially in internet acces in suburbia) is 'every man's battle'...

...yet in my battling pride/arrogance, i have found spiritual disciplines and wise words that have helped (of course, honest, transparent and accountable relationships, as well as confession, help a whole lot too...)

Mary D wrote a wonderful article that i have gone to again and again for sound counsel on the Christian virtue of humility. it's called: "Anonymity: The practice of Christian humility"

in her article, she tells a brief story of one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: "The terminally ill Dr. Bob S. politely turned down the well-meaning offer of friends to build a monument to him, appropriate to his status as founder of A.A. "Why don't you and I get buried just like other folks?" he asked his old friend Bill . His simple gravestone makes no mention that he co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous."

The practice of anonymity must come from a humble heart, a heart that knows its true place in the order of things. We are neither the best nor the worst. Whatever we may accomplish, it is through the gifts and talents given to us by God. He will provide all that we need, and his love will sustain us as we work. If we are not successful in the eyes of others, we are not devastated. We see our efforts as God sees them and as they truly are: our loving response to his invitation to serve."

ok, after all my rambling, let me get back on track in what struck me today:

i am a foreigner...'goy' in Hebrew...a stranger sojourning...wanting to be righteous...seeking His Kingdom...

and as a foreigner, i have joined myself to the Lord...to serve Him...and i have had the honor of serving Him...

and i serve the Most High in any and all environs that He calls me to...yet without doubt, i serve and love because He first loved me...

i pray that my service to the Lord be acceptable in His sight and that one day Jesus will confess my name to His Father and that i should not be cut-off from the righteous among the nations...


[there is a Jewish organization quite well-known called 'Yad Vashem'. Yad Vashem is located at the foot of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem; the organization has a large complex containing a history museum, memorial chambers, art galleries, archives, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Destroyed Communities, a synagogue, and an educational centre. Non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust of WWII, often at great personal risk, are honored by Yad Vashem as the "Righteous Among the Nations."]


" For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,
Even to them I will give in My house
And within My walls a place and a name
Better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
That shall not be cut off.
"Also the sons of the foreigner
Who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him,
And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants-
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And holds fast My covenant-
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations."
The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
" Yet I will gather to him
Others besides those who are gathered to him."

Yesha'yahu 56:4-8

a little blog-keeping

ok, a little blog house-keeping...

throughout the summer i will be posting a series of poetic wordcraft (usually tagged: verse) that i just finished writing...i'm calling it (and tagging it) visionquest, which will be posted every wednesday from june thru august.

[if interested: previous wordcraft series have been tagged: shir-ha-chaundra and do-you-ever-think-of-me]

we will also be keeping with the liturgical calendar, so besides the past seasons of advent and lent, i will also have some feast wordcraft throughout the summerway, alongside some regularly tagged material lectio-provacateur and verve, as inspiration strikes me.

i'm not sure if that is the equivalent of shoving everything under the bed to make my room clean, but i think that's it for now...

peace

just another day with Jesus

just another shot of red wine
to chase down the broken bread
so i can bleed again on the streets
following my Saviour’s precious bloodshed

just another soul forsaken
by a world too busy to care
so i cast this bread on the waters
alongside hope in the public square

just another day with Jesus
staking my tent at the gates of hell
invading the enemy territory
me and you and Immanuel

the disorientation of moths

[i talked about doctrine and the mystery of God before, ...but]


last week, in the midst of our own little flood, i sat one evening enjoying a beer and a cigar

and as God met me in that moment of smoke rising, an image caught my eye...it was a moth at the street light, flying around it, and into it, and crashing, crashing, crashing into it...

...and i remembered something and thought of something almost simultaneously...

i remembered: someone telling me that moths use the moon to navigate

the moon does not move out of position if the moth flies in a straight line, thus they use it to navigate...but

but street lamps tend to confuse moths...if the moth flies in a straight line, it thinks the lamp's position has changed, and as the moth continues, the lamp "moves" again; thus the moth flies in circles, moving closer and closer until it is trapped...crashing into the street light again and again...

this moon theory says that moths know that the brightest light at night-the moon-is always "up." but if they mistake a street lamp for the moon, they find themselves in the utterly confusing position of flying above or past what they understand to be the "moon."

thus they can no longer navigate. but also, the brightness of the light at close quarters makes them think it's daytime, so they go to sleep.

i thought: we are just like that moth some times. while we use the Greater Light of Christ as our guidance on our journey of life and adventures in faith, it is well

but it is when smaller lights (like some of the doctrines we hold to...both the true and false ones) get in the way, they eclipse Christ and the greater light and we get confused or disoriented

and while some of our 'doctrines' are well-conceived and based in truth, they are not the Truth, and thus they can easily de-center Christ

and we are busy circling our lives around something that is not Christ...we get disoriented, but cannot quite put words to this strange feeling that something is out-of-place...

and/or possibly, we begin to sleep in this dying age...we lose track of 'what time it is'

...wake up, O sleeper!!

please rouse me O Lord...let me not lose my way in the smaller lights, but navigate my way with You as my Center

i can see clearly now the rain has gone

well, the flood-waters in my basement have receded (as well as having most of it pumped out)

...but in the midst of the crisis and the back-breaking work, some fog lifted, God was doing something in me while i was bailing

...i'm still putting words to it, but i began reflecting on it the other evening, He-Who-Lives-Above-The-Stars-In-Me was speaking to me while i puffed on a cigar and enjoyed a cold beer...

i'll have more to say on that later

but for now: i can see clearly now the rain has gone...i can see at least some of the obstacles in my way

an inconvenient inundation

we are currently recovering from the record rainfall here...which has created our own little swamp in our basement...so i'm bailing (literally)

peace

bearing the consequence of God...pentecost-edition

...for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
1 Thessalonians 1:5


i had some additional thoughts on bearing the consequence of God...

• part one
• part deux
• triple-play

today though, i kind of vere-off in another direction...kind of a post-Pentecost direction...

because i have faith that God is working in my life...and as i follow Jesus, i join Him in that work cooperatively (rather than opposing it...well, sometimes)

you see, i bear the consequence of God...which for the most part is Christ living in me or to say it another way: His Living, Holy Spirit in me...

the thing is in my life i am bearing the consequence of God working around me...through me...in me...

really, we all bear it in many ways...

for me, i was raised in a good church. lots of great expositional, exegetical teaching that fed the souls of the hungry and watered the spirits of the thirsty with scripture...and i was both hungry and thirsty (still am!)

yet, for much of my early life, while i grounded in the scriptures regarding God, i realize now that i was more like a disciple of John the Baptizer (ironically enough i was raised in an independent church of the Baptist persuasion...)

see, i knew the good news...tried to live the good news...loved God...tried to love my neighbor...yet something was missing: empowerment or the Holy Spirit

He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they {said} to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism." Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus." When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they {began} speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about twelve men. And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading {them} about the kingdom of God.
Acts 19:2-8

now, it was not the fact that i wasn't saved in Christ...i was! truly, it was not the fact that i wasn't living as a "Christian"...i was. but there was no power besides some inferential Providence (through which God still works powerfully)...and yet i hadn't accessed the power and love of God available to me and through me in His Holy Spirit

now i have to admit: i wasn't your typical baptist.

many times when the minister was preaching and i got bored, i would open up my Bible and read through the exciting stories (like in Judges and the books of Samuel and Kings as well as Acts and Revelation...) and somehow in doing this, i missed the part where we really weren't supposed to believe that the Holy Spirit could 'light-us-up' so-to-speak and give us these amazing gifts, like prophecy and wisdom and healing, but also physically gift us with enhanced-strength (like that hall of faith judge Samson) or speed (maybe like Elijah when he outraced the horses of Ahab...although perhaps they were just stuck in the mud). then again maybe i was reading a lot of comic books at the time also...

my aunt jessie tells the story of my mother: margaret ann. they were driving one evening in a convertible, hot-rodding the dirt roads just south of St. Louis with two of their cousins. as they came around one curve, they lost control and the car flipped over several times, throwing my mother and the two cousins out and then trapping my aunt jessie underneath. as it was crushing my aunt jessie, my mother jumped to her feet and lifted the car...by herself. she then ordered my two counsins to crawl under and pull my aunt jessie from underneath...to which they did. my aunt jessie loves telling this story of my super-hero mother. it was always my assumption as a child, and i still hold to it today that the Holy Spirit (whether through supernatural means or by invisible angels helping or just by pumping her full of adenreline..this is less the point to me) empowered my mother to lift the car while her two boy cousins crawled underneath to pull jessie out.

i have other stories of my mother's enhanced strength (she saved my life a few times)

i am reminded of my kingdom acquaintence in vermont: eric keck. he self-published (through lulu.com) his doctoral dissertation on the Holy Spirit and the issue he saw in the present emerging church context, that the theology of Academia was lacking appropriate metaphors and abstracts to demonstrate, embody and announce the kingdom of God. (definitely worth the read!)

"How can leaders move from being ideological practionaers in talking shop if they have never been taught to hear God's voice? I am not proposing gaining intellectual understanding of biblical texts and dogmatic teachings; literally and specifically, I mean hearing God's voice. There is much literature regarding inner journeys, retrospection, and the inner voice; however, the praxis and instruction to answer this question have not yet emerged, and neither have methodologies which incorporate the metaphors to accomplish this. If we are called to prophesy, where are the "how to" books of the emerging church? The ideological thought fomenters are visible, but where are the practictioners? Who in this emerging paradigm is working through this? Who is hearing God's voice, audibly, silently, through dreams, visions, and prophetic words of understandings? How can we as the Church have interpretation for unknown cultural knowledge if we do not know how to hear God's voice? The concept of waiting upon the Spirit or leading within a corprate setting, which borrows from the Quaker and Brethren notion of "corporate guidance," presumes that those who speak to or for the group are following the Spirit. This clearly is not normative in teaching of prominent emergent church voices. Who is equipping the church to use this vastly undernourished tool? How can we be complete without it? How can we be led if we do not know how to see the leader?"

for me, i was no lettered, academic theologian, but because the church environment/community of my youth did not live out "doing-the-stuff-that-Jesus-did" in terms of modeling that kind of life...well, i didn't embody it either

which brings me back to my original thought this morning: since i wasn't living/embodying the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus through His Spirit, rather my love grew cold, and thus i was not bearing the consequences of God, i was bearing the consequences of living out the metaphors of the American dream.

[sidenote: there is a great book i read recently called 'Metaphors We Live By', by george lakoff and mark johnson, which is an outstanding treatment of how we live our lives based on the metaphors we embrace, consciously or even unconsciously (like our early models: our parents...and later others we take in (like tv dramas, MTV, movies, etc.)...(tolkien and lewis understood the power of story and myth and our we live after these kind of metaphors)...anyway really great stuff!]

...but then Jesus came and wrecked my life again. He did, He utterly wrecked it...and it has been wonderful/beyond comprehension ever since...and then i asked specifically for His Spirit...and He re-opened those long-filled up wells deep within me...and 'my heart was strangely warmed'

and more and more i bear the consequence of God in my life...we, the Church bear the consequence...His Spirit moving us onto His missional Agenda...His will being done on earth as it is in heaven...

[i've become quite the hope-filled pearl merchant since Jesus wrecked my life...and i say that in a way that hope is a very hard thing indeed...even as i hold to hope in Jesus in the midst of angst over calling and taking up my cross to follw him]

...and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:5

twoshirts

And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise."
Luke 3:11

my friend jason coker began this great project called twoshirts.org just a few years ago...

as his mission statement says so eloquently:

"Twoshirts is an attempt to create a community of generosity that will be a transforming presence in society. Many of us have more stuff than we possibly need, while people living right in our own towns go without. Practicing generosity is a way of rejecting the consumer-oriented lifestyle that traps so many in cycles of greed, hoarding, and debt. Even worse, this kind of materialism deepens the problem of poverty.

We tend to think of the poor as simply lazy, but the reality of poverty is far more complicated. Look around your community. People in need aren't just the homeless and destitute. It has been said that the average American household with a credit card is in debt over $9,000. The "working poor" are those stuck in low-paying dead-end jobs, or single-parents struggling to make ends meet, or the injured and ill scraping by on disability, or even the middle-class family hopelessly trapped in a cycle of debt. Often these are the hardest working people in our towns, and many are only a paycheck away from being homeless and destitute."

we must meet the challenge of our age, to not be overwhhelmed to the point of paralyzed despair by extreme poverty in the world, and also to not despise the working poor...

jason just began a quarterly journal called 'The Gift', the first issue of which is free, so check it out (not to mention two of my own thus-far unpublished poems 'an elusive dewpoint' and 'life support' are included in this introductory issue)

[also, jason and his wife jenell are moving to san diego to cultivate a gathering of Jesus followers...so please pray for them, and if you want support them through participation and giving through twoshirts.org!!]

peace

the touch of God

. . . "The Lord YAHWEH says this; I am not acting for your sake, House of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name . . . I shall pour clean water over you and you shall be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your filth and of all your fool idols. I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you . . ."
Ezekiel 36:22, 25-26

Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven,* and whose sin is put away!
Psalm 32:1

precious was my reading this morning

particularly dwelling on the passages above...

i got me a serious showering with the Holy Spirit today as i prayed these passages

i love it when God surprises me with His touch that seems to scrub my soul clean...

and so some wordcraft to that end...'the texture of eternity'

in honor of Christ, with the Lord YHWH and His Spirit, one God:

with the oil of gladness
burning on my brow

alight with anointing
i get caught up

in the embrace
of such instance

i could never be content
…with indistinct distance
…with inadequate detachment

rather than the demonstration
...Your Holy Touch
...Your Love Divine

that sprinkles mercy
upon my face

while liquid joy
runs up and down my spine

embracing me
with the texture of eternity

coals of my soul

a whispering hope smoulders
in these glowing inward embers
…waiting for the eternal breath
to blow on them
bringing new life
and flame within

fire and wind
propel one another
…the ancient mystery
stoking the coals
of renewed flesh and spirit
now fueled with wildfire within

a liturgy of certitude, the myth of doubt

a blog acquaintance of mine, scott aitken in australia, recently had a post of his thoughts

after reading alistair mcgrath's book 'doubting'

...it resonates deeply, as i have been wrestling with calling recently...

just as scott posted, there are a few quotes that stand out, because really, some have taken hold of certitude rather than faith, and certitude so easily crumbles in our hands the tighter we squeeze...

"In the first place, doubt is not skepticism- the decision to doubt everything deliberately, as a matter of principle.

In the second, it's not unbelief- the decision not to have faith in God. Unbelief is an act of will, rather than a difficulty in understanding."

"In the words of Blaise Pascal, "In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't"

i find it hard to swallow [although i witness to it being true] that many christians have so little tolerance for doubt, which possibly harbours a secret fear so as to be utterly threatened by someone wrestling with doubt...and so they make no room for those who wrestle, and perhaps they return to their liturgy of certitude, while we remain outcasts, embracing the myth of doubt...

"If you can do anything, do it. Have a heart and help us!" Jesus said, "If? There are no 'ifs' among believers. Anything can happen." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the father cried, "Then I believe. Help me with my doubts!"
from Mark 9 in The Message