against the weir

turning and turning

sight alight with the burning

a shining pillar standing alone

tower of strength

in the midst of lawlessness

booming waves crash against the weir

o, the falling shroud of fear

hides a most vicious leer

a descending veil of secrecy

chokes and obscures precious clarity

persuasion surging to-and-fro

conviction proves elusive

the stormgales swell their number

and refuse to remember

yet bring their friction

uneven is their sway

the velvet crush

of wind and flame

burning and burning yet again

terrible in beauty and bearing

awaken, o sleeper

revelation has not abandoned us

augur of an end

to slumber’s caress

disturbed with great distress

the illusion so captivating

clearer still

is the mystery

beyond our time and history

illuminating such manner of effects

the stone weighing in the pit of my stomach

beyond the compartmentalized

vicissitude of unthinking certitude

i arise

from a sticky cob-web vision

utterly off-balance

an instability accentuated

by the stone weighing

in the pit of my stomach

that fiend uncertainty – she who gnaws

at my delicate act of

putting one foot in front of the other

where have You hidden Yourself

O Visioncaster?

have i left You in the deep crevices

of bed-clothes slumber

while i awake to wrestle

mountains and molehills

emerging among the topography of life

courtesy of fertile fears

now set aside by fragile faith

as i am roused

to wonder at the transition

from a sacred moment so profound

to the vague indifference

of the here-and-now

groping wideawake for deliverance

from the grayscale

of living

which tosses me to-and-fro

upon the undulating waves

as i cling to my tenuous conviction

in the beholding

hushed reverie
                 candlelight licking at my skin

shadows leap and pirouette

behold beauty
                 the path of a thought arrested, abandoned

immanence immediate
                 respite from the journey


in the beholding, You are where I seek

in the beholding, You remain familiar…intersected

in the beholding, You pervade my presence

in the beholding, You linger close…despite the distance

in the beholding, You traverse the vastness between

in the beholding, communion…together

in the beholding, time poised… a breath breathed

a change has occurred/occurring/yet to occur

in the beholding

recitare: rock of ages

O abiding Rock of ages,
i am crushed yet caressed
in our enduring encounter
driven by the risk
of an illuminating trust

i cannot fully grasp
daring me to enter

the relentless quest
an invitation beckoning
still, relishing the velocity
in my unsettled convergence
i continually catch the sympathetic echo
of my own previous prayers (again and again)
as i twist in the spin-cycle of life
left to blindly grope for a holding
even so, change – my constant companion
casts me into
my own era of tumultuous vertigo
so as to lead me to the edge of our yawning subsistence
decorated with suffering cries and laughing eyes
compelling us to a place of interruption
while we weep and rejoice as one

exquisite erosion

in the exquisite erosion

of my own painted desert

the tattered edges fray

leaving me to wholly face

the grit that has decorated my own remnant

with grains carried along by an abiding wind

given to such coarse chastisement

that extravagantly veils the sacred

just below this surface

depths seldom envisioned

nor cresting zenith imagined

in the devotion of convoluted conduct

the acuity of which strikes suddenly

within the wandering hush of wilderness awe

so as to breed multi-hued insight

threaded into the tapestry of a life

that cloaks the appearance of such luminosity

shimmering underneath

ashes await

ashes await such specimens of survival

soil and spirit mingled by Another

 dirt in our wake

as we march together

of earth we are

as we kneel…dust upon dust

 a frail finger of ash upon ash

marking me…

a touch felt in my depths

 

how is it that such as we reside in the heart of Love Itself?

the Pitt 62 - Community Beyond Development

I want to bring together or perhaps integrate the last several posts on the missional-orientation of discipleship, diversity and development (development part deux here) and our last post reflecting on the neo-Reformed/neo-Anabaptist/neo-Quaker conversation. 

A few months ago, I had a brief exchange with Jeff Heidkamp.  We were talking about another blog I was developing (the Vineyard Urban Underground blog), and Jeff's basic response was: great...is it just about ministry to the poor or will it develop and embrace a larger more holistic theology of the city that includes people who aren't poor and marginalized?  What about Community beyond development?  I thought this was quite an insightful question, because it was indeed something I was all ready considering and the subject of on-going conversation with friends.  It's about Transformation, but transformation that comes from the Reign of God. 

One of the very things I appreciate about our Scriptures is their honesty.  Walter Brueggemann has pointed out one aspects of the honest and messy understandings of scripture: the biblical "have's", and the biblical "hane-not's":

For the biblical "Have-Not's":

• Faith begins with a 'cry' out to God from a place of oppression/desperation
• They are concerned with questions of lament and survival

For the biblical "Have's":

• Faith begins with a 'song' to God from a place of blessing
• They are concerned with questions of stewardship and celebration

What I have found most beautiful in scripture is how God continually is seeking to connect the two.  Perhaps we can see this most prominent in the "2nd" (Hebrew: ma'aser sheni) and "3rd" (Hebrew: ma'aser ani) tithes in the Hebrew scriptures. 

The people of God are called to celebrate “the second tithe” with your “household,” which included slaves/servants, the multiple generations that lived together and anyone you had a lot of relationship with who would be unable to celebrate; thus in generous hospitality include the priest, the widow, the orphan, the sojourner.  This tithe (tenth) went to get you “whatever your heart desired” when the household went to Jerusalem for bigtime feast and festival.  I suppose for us nowadays, this basically looks like saving for a “vacation” and/or “celebration/party,” inclusively so.

In terms of the 3rd tithe, every thrid and sixth year (of the 7-year cycle), the people of God were to give the "first tithe" to the poor and do it locally (scripture says “those within your own gates.”)  This means that titheing was supposed to put you in direct contact with those in need…and this is really important for us to understand: titheing was relational!

This is ground we've sort of covered previously, but this is so key to Kingdom of God-oriented transformation that I wanted to reiterate the actual relational aspects of the "have's" and "have-not's".  All good, right? 

So, back to Heidkamp's question...what about community beyond development?  Being involved with others not like us helps us transform...it can help us see and understand what the Father is doing with others and with us.  Further, I really appreciate James Hunter's To Change the World as well as James K A Smith's Desiring the Kingdom as they both move toward something that has been a constant theme for our group going to Pittsburgh: Faithful Presence.

Here's a quote from a Hunter/Smith article that says this so well: "Needless to say, it is important not to be utopian.  Christians would be far from perfect but the church would be at the center of their lives, for worship and formation.  These churches would be multiethnic but also multiclass; their population, not unlike the population of the larger community.  They would resemble the neo-Anabaptists in their creative care for the dispossessed, but their engagement with the world would not end there.  They would be active and productive in every sphere of life - the service industry, skilled labor, education, business, philanthropy, science, medicine, law, the arts, academia, and, yes, politics too, and at every level, for there would not only be theologies to support them but resources to prepare, launch and sustain them.  They would be active in overlapping networks, institutions, and communities that are local but that also transcend region, and because they pursue excellence in all spheres of life, they would be engaged in the most difficult problems of the day...Yet, like the Jewish community, [the churches] influence would be disproportionate to its size.  The ambitions to dominate America would be gone, but the public sphere would in no way be neglected."

This goes to the heart of what we're talking about here.  We transform as we engage the Agenda of the Father...being on Mission and being with God transforms us.  Previously I mentioned Quaker practices mentioned by David Fitch: simplicity, cultural engagement (via Micah 6:8), listening and humility: this is the  Faithful Witness/Faithful Presence (being People of the Presence).  I think community (or should say a community of disciples) beyond development moves toward something along this trajectory, and Quaker author Brent Bill grapples with this via the oft-used Quaker statement, “Let Your Life Speak.”  This phrase urged Quakers to show God at work in their lives; to let your life speak was a reminder that most times “your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear what you are saying.”  In order to let our lives speak well, we also need to be able to listen to our own lives, and Bill suggests habits of listening that are helpful in this journey.  They include: reflecting on our lives in light of what we understand through our faith, seeking God’s perspective; searching scripture; praying; and talking to spiritually wise friends.

This then, is the trajectory we'd like to explore regarding "community beyond development"...

[to be continued...]

the Pitt 61: Emergence of Neo-Reformed, Neo-Anabaptist, and ....Neo-Quaker?

I've been following and reading a lot of David Fitch the last few years.  His musings and critique have found resonance with me and have actually helped to flesh out some of what we hear God calling us toward in urban Pittsburgh.  The most recent post on his blog recounts an interview regarding the emergence of the Neo-Reformed (whom I've critiqued here a bit here, and here, and also here and here...) and the Neo-Anabaptist (which is how Fitch describes himself). 

A few lines of this interview really struck home:

"In regards to the Neo-Anabaptists, I would say this group has responded by stressing a renewal of the embodiment of the gospel in local contexts. Here, we need to pay attention to the “witness” of the gospel in the rhythms of our everyday lives. There is a push to figure out traditional Anabaptist themes for today: themes such as a.) Community together for God’s Mission, b.) Discipleship, c.) the subversive yet non-coercive ways of service, reconciliation, and peacemaking in the neighborhood. The gospel is defined here more broadly than for many Neo-Reformed– think Scot McKnight or N. T. Wright. We Anabaptists, I suggest, are more happy to accept the post-Christendom state of things. This however requires new modes of cultural engagement, listening, postures of humility. This is not the sectarian Anabaptism of times past."

In a nutshell, this really describes the "sweetspot" of where we are as a little band of missionaries to Pittsburgh.  These are the very type of things we've engaged, from embodying the good news, to community and mission, cultural engagement, listening and postures of humility.

I find it interesting that the emergence of these (and perhaps re-engagement with these by those who have inhabited other traditions in the Church) is a response to cultural shifts and on-going change.  It seems to me that the “neo-anabaptist” Fitch describes, of course, aren’t your father’s anabaptsist. I’ve always been fond of the enduring relationship between the Society of Friends/Quakers and the Anabaptists, and maybe the neo-Anabaptists exemplify the cross-fertilization of the two beyond their bonds as “peace churches”. His description above seems to engage is classic Quaker ways – cultural engagement, listening, posture for humility. As I've mentioned before, I think the Vineyard movement was a neo-Quaker movement.  What do you think…?


[to be continued...]

The Most Creative Power

The most creative power given to the human spirit is the power to heal the wounds of a past it cannot change.

~Lewis Smedes, The Art of Forgiving

treasure vault

wordcraft for a valentine:

memory is a treasure vault

that I unlock to wander its depths

in the times and the seasons of my beloved

she whom my heart does adore

remember our limbs entwined

in the garden of our delight

…the offering of devotion was ours

the curves of your flesh

on which my eyes did feast

…and the fragrance of your skin upon my lips

O, my beloved…

remembrance of your ways

steals my heart from its place

as enchanted

it has taken to following after you

the line of your neck…encircled by silver

from which in ecstasy I was clothed

…yet rested with the ease of our collective breath

it was under the canopy of desire

we did exchange vows

…a sacred union to uphold

the simplicity of your fingers

knotted with tenderness in mine 

a love called together

our eyes as one

shining with a wondrous gaze

on a  fuller vision of a life yet to come

The Relational Heart of Social Reality

It is widely recognized that covenant receives its definitive voicing in Deuteronomy, the covenant tradition par excellence.  "Covenant" is not to be understood as simply a religious slogan, nor as one model among many for Israel's faith.  It is rather the quinessential, normative theological-ethical accent of Israel's faith.  Deuteronomy offers covenant as a radical and systematic alternative to the politics of autonomy, the economics of exploitation, and the theology of self-indulgence.  The model of social reality offered in Deuteronomy is that this community - in all its socioeconomic, political and military aspects - is relational, with members taking responsibility for their neighbors.

~ Walter Brueggemann