vineyard bible study blog

i have posted the first of a 4-part series, beginning in 1 Samuel called: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

it's my first attempt at something like this, so if you are interested...

check out the Vineyard Bible Study blog

non faute de mieux

wordcraft for the feast of st. catherine of siena:

cloister of quiet
taste the total love for God
non faute de mieux

the other side of the world cup

South Africa is currently preparing for the World Cup 2010, not only one of the biggest events of the world, but an opportunity for improving lives of the citizens. The South Africa government is committed to improving infrastructure and security to ensure Africa's first Fifa world cup event.

As South Africa is preparing for this big event, awareness needs to be brought to this potential violence lurking in the shadows. According to an article posted on 3/27/09 on Dispatch Online, World Cup 2010 may be promising more than economic and national growth for South Africa. There is a growing fear of human trafficking emerging ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, much like the organized sex trade that Germany had when they hosted the event in 2006.

The area most likely to be targeted for prostitution is the Eastern Cape, which has recently been named as the worst slave trade province in the country. This is due to the high poverty rate and lack of resources. Tourism and prostitution tend to go together, mainly in poverty stricken areas, where the lure of money is attractive to young girls. But in a country with already astronomical rates of HIV, AIDS and sexual violence, this projection can't be ignored.

As South Africa develops better sports facilities and transportation system, and improves its roads and telecommunications infrastructure, we hope that the government is not ignoring the needs of the poverty- stricken areas not in the media spotlight.

http://www.southafricaproject.org/blog/2009/04/the-other-side-of-the-world-cup/

guest blogging - the bystander effect

just a quick FYI:

i am guest blogging - one post, today only - over at dave schmelzer's blog not the religious type;

my entry is called: Stage 4 Faith and the Bystander Effect...check it out

also, dave is the senior pastor at the greater boston vineyard...check them out

beyond evidence...deep witness

throughout this past Lenten season, i read through and reflected on the gospel of john. there is just so much..such richness and depth...but i wanted to share some of my thoughts and thoughts from others like criag hovey and the monk fr. demetrius r. dumm, whose book on john's gospel i also read along with the sacred scripture.

yet while all this good material in the gospels has been worked and re-worked into rational "apologetic" literature to "prove" certain faith issues in many books...what i am understanding more and more is that it has to go beyond mere information. it's not that information isn't important, it just isn't enough.

as an historian, i understand this is really vital information, especially for intellectual-types

...but is it "evidence that demands a verdict"?

beyond this "evidence", can we see and be a deeper "witness"?

for i would say that we are the evidence: the people of God

...and as my erstwhile acquanitance eric keck always says: we are to proclaim, demonstrate and embody the good news of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus. we may explain it also, but we have to live it, experience and witness to it!

the greek word for 'witness' is 'mardus', from which we also get martyr and martyrdom.

nowadays martyrdom is thought of, rightly so, as people who die for witnessing to their faith. yet, as craig hovey notes: are Christians worth persecuting? he thinks the answer is quite clearly: no. at least in the rich, western nations. yet, we are called to follow Jesus, not just to distribute literature and tracts in His wake, but to take up our cross and follow Him, the new testament seems to assume persecution and martyrdom.

we - the Church - the Body of Christ - are supposed to be the evidence that demands a verdict

• as we interact with people in the rhythm of our daily lives
• as we reach out to comfort the least and the lost in suffering love
• as we pour ourselves out to follow Jesus in His Mission

what is our witness? the witness of Jesus from the 1st century is that the pattern of the life and ministry of Jesus...the kind of life Jesus led...the quality of His Life threatened the powers-that-be so much so that they executed Him.

c'mon, we talk a lot around here about justice and sacrifice...but who is willing to live their lives in a new way - in the Way of Jesus

• in the way of taking up our cross and following Him
• in drinking the cup He drinks
• in living life in such a way that eventually the evidence of your life demands the verdict from the powers-that-be that you are a dangerous threat to the status quo

yet as chesterton pointed out years ago, the facts remain: christianity (not just the religious practice in His Name, but the actual doing of it, the actual following of Jesus and His Way) has not been tried and found wanting, but rather, has been found difficult, and not tried.

Jesus' way is the way of love, yet love is difficult...suffering, self-sacrificial love is difficult...forgiveness in the face of hatred and persecution is difficult.

i agree (and i am working hard and both failing and succeeding) in seeking to practice the liberation of biblical justice and forgiveness. just as in john chapter 20, verse 22: Jesus breaths on His disciples to receive the Holy Spirit, and His immediate instruction has to do with forgiveness:

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. - John 20:23

this is not about authority to "lord it over" others. this means the primary effect of receiving the Holy Spirit is also having the love and willingness to forgive others...this is an awesome responsibility and calling. this is more than just reconciliation. every one of us is offered the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we may have the courage to forgive and, if we do not do so, in some very real and tragic way, healing and reconciliation will be thwarted. as fr. demetrius claims: sometimes i think that the only question that we will be asked at the last judgment will be, quite simply: did you let my people go? was the overall effect of your presence in this world, and my presence within you, to liberate or to hold in bondage? were you a moses - a friend of God - or were you a pharoah - holding others in slavery? forgiveness can be so difficult, but that is why we have the Spirit to empower us and guide us.

...can we even imagine loving our enemies? loving terrorists? loving human traffickers?

now, that's quite threatening, isn't it? it takes true grit, real fortitude, and the abundance of sacrificial love that comes from Jesus to overcome evil with good. that's real strength.

can i get a witness?

in order to live I have to die

"In order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be, and in order to find myself I must go out of myself, and in order to live I have to die."

- Thomas Merton, poet, activist, student of the contemplative life and Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky

What is the Aroma of Justice?

this is an article on biblical justice and human trafficking recently published by VineyardUSA from my friend Kathy Maskell...enjoy:


Kathy Maskell is a core team member of the Elm City Vineyard, and the U.S. Advocacy Director for Love 146, a non-profit organization dedicated to the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation.

What is the aroma of justice?

Justice is what love looks like in public, and love begins with a cry for help.
Five years ago, my husband Caleb and I waited impatiently for a Cambodian taxi to whisk us to the airport, onward to our next leg of adventure in Vietnam. The world’s smallest girl, in a discarded Michael Jordan T-shirt, sidled up to me and tugged at my elbow. She feverishly pointed with her other hand at my plastic bag, which contained a baguette. She was hungry. I easily surrendered the bread; my gesture of charity, of sympathy, of pity. In a flash at least ten other children scurried over to tear at the bread, and just like that it was gone.

I cried throughout the flight to Saigon. So many questions haunted me: Does she have parents? How many hours a day did she beg? Was she going to eat dinner? While this wasn’t the first time I had been confronted by the face of extreme poverty, there was something about her. In that moment, I was confronted with a choice to care, to say “Yes! I see you. Yes! You have been fearfully and wonderfully made.”

After college, I taught public school for three years in the “murder capital” of the south Bronx…but it hardly prepared me for the moment of encounter I experienced in Cambodia. It brought into stark relief my desire to find a vocation that insisted on the work of justice, mercy, and transformational love while not objectifying and reducing the poor to statistics, to an it. To borrow from Martin Buber, I sought real relation to a you, and subsequently to a divine You, in my encounter. I yearned to enter into communion with God by allowing myself to really see that little girl. Her real face and real story allowed me to enter into the real stories of millions of street children who are most vulnerable to the abhorrent injustice of sexual slavery. My current work as U.S. Advocacy Director at Love146, a leading modern anti-slavery organization, has challenged me to examine my framework of faith and demanded that I strive towards a practical, practicing theology of humility, compassion, and power.

The parallels between the neighborhoods of Southern Boulevard in the South Bronx, Svay Pak in Phnom Penh, and The Hill in New Haven, do indeed “flatten” my worldview and reinforce my conviction that it is only through redemptive communities of faith and action that we can hope to see the justice and righteousness of God’s Kingdom break in to our globally networked culture. This conviction undergirded my sense of calling to core leadership in the Elm City Vineyard Church in New Haven. Our community strives to seek the shalom of the city through incarnational ministry and lives empowered by the Holy Spirit.

What is the aroma of justice?

The truth is messy, but the truth will set you free.

Here’s an example from Cambodia, a rough-edged story of slow hope on the issue of human trafficking. My friend Pastor Yeng trains community leaders how to prevent human trafficking. He trains them to think not only about the act of human trafficking but also about the “push factors” that increase the vulnerability of a child to being trafficked. Societies that ignore systemic vulnerabilities, that turn a blind eye to risk factors, are quixotic in their hope to fight injustice. During one of Yeng’s seminars, a local pastor fell to his knees in grief as he realized that he had been tricked into selling several of his own children to traffickers. He simply had not understood what was happening. In another church community, Yeng provoked frank discussion of the correlation between sexual abuse, sexual addiction, domestic violence and the trafficking of children for sex. The veil of shame and social taboo was lifted, truth and light came in, and hope began to dawn. Truth hurts. Truth terrifies. Truth is often tragic. But without truth, there is no hope. After another training, one villager identified a trafficker within her community and literally ran him out of the village.

Jesus’ parables speak of the reality of the Kingdom of God in the messy, ambiguous present.
It has been incredibly encouraging for me to see how folks within Vineyard USA are also making the connection between our call to radical acts of justice with radical repentance and vulnerability. The “Love Justice” Taskforce at the Boise Vineyard, in their work to fight human trafficking, bravely ventured to address why there is a demand for children and women to be trafficked into the sex trade in the first place: men’s desire and demand for commoditized sex. The film highlighted the intersection between the use of pornography and prostitution and how it cultivated the perfect environment for the trafficking of children and women to create more pornography and to feed the demand for their bodies. The group organized a screening of a documentary on demand in conjunction with the church’s “Celebrate Recovery” ministry. Following the film, individuals from the ministry shared about their addictions to pornography and their journey with making the connections between a seemingly victimless act and modern-day slavery. I applaud the work of the “Love Justice” Taskforce and the Boise Vineyard for helping to lead the way in the spiritual transformation that leads to the long-term renewal of a community, and, I pray, a nation.

Justice smells fragrant and sweet.

What is the aroma of justice?

Justice IS the Kingdom of God and Vineyard is a Kingdom movement.

There is a new economy, a new system of justice that begins when we breathe the air of a new environment: the Kingdom of God. This invisible fresh air strengthens us to visibly proclaim and execute Biblical justice: we are not activists who just want to “do something.” To paraphrase Ron Sider, we are not social activists, we are followers of Jesus. We respond to Jesus’s invitation to be filled up by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit to live justly in the world—an invitation to enlarge our imaginations and actions to go beyond the Facebook Cause of the Day or our spasms of compassion.

Slowly, sometimes steadily, more often haphazardly, we walk the narrow path that enables us to seek God’s kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven—a kingdom where we find our shalom by seeking the shalom of our community. It is incredibly exciting to be a part of the Vineyard movement as we lay hold of the invitation to participate in the kingdom of God through the work of justice and reconciliation. For me, and I know for so many of you, it is the aroma of justice that beckons us close to Jesus, that compels us to say, “Holy Spirit, come!”

My prayer is that the Vineyard movement will pursue a vision of being world-changers through the lens of justice, mercy and the power of the Holy Spirit. People who do not yet know the Lord will be attracted to this "aroma of Justice" and will find themselves embracing the Father of Love, Mercy, and Justice.

http://www.vineyardusa.org/site/about/article/what-aroma-justice

garden at sunrise

garden at sunrise

linen in a rich man's tomb

witness to new Life

He must be

batter, bruised...brutal

[brutal work is this...my lot]

broken He must be

flesh flayed with piercing iron
a barbaric hate exposed

nostrils flare with the stench of raw flesh

yet something different with this one...unfamiliar

powerful men gawk amazed with loathing

taunting even at the edge of such...sacrifice

disgust and shame caught in their eyes

mocked and quiet

He must be dead, but nay

He stirs...breathes heavenward

words stumble in that harsh, tragic tongue

cries of mercy or cries of death

i do not discern

[lost in the brutal decay of duty]

yet the wailing of women finally penetrates my armour...undressing my very soul

[now naked like He am i]

swiftly earth shifts and sky speaks...a thunderous calamity

[fear grips...awe ensues]

i hung Him there...yet the Son of...God He must be

aftermath

blood falls from God's Son

aftermath of killing fields

sound of sheer silence

thunderous is the threnody

thunderous is the threnody
mourning the death of infinity
in the midst of a revelation of divinity
still hidden was essential identity


[thus advances the scheme of the ages
o, release us from these cages,
for not our own empty wages
but what You intended in the pages]


foretaste was for you to unfold
covering eyes yet being told
conceiving the need yet again to scold
through it all, remaining bold


[thus advances the scheme of the ages
o, release us from these cages,
for not our own empty wages
but what You intended in the pages]


as evidence of the ache
creation on your shoulders did quake
yet from our collective stupor shake
triumph glimpsed over the treachery of the snake


[thus advances the scheme of the ages
o, release us from these cages,
for not our own empty wages
but what You intended in the pages]


can your intent be more renown?
even as you wear our most cruel crown
nevertheless we wager for thy gown
in our own wounds, will we yet drown?


[thus advances the scheme of the ages
o, release us from these cages,
for not our own empty wages
but what You intended in the pages]


defanged was the coiled asp
his strike at us was thus harassed
in defeat victory was grasped
until we stand with thee at last


[thus advances the scheme of the ages
o, release us from these cages,
for not our own empty wages
but what You intended in the pages]

bloodshot sunrise

in the midst of a bloodshot sunrise
seen through tired, bleary eyes
the mountains still echo
with His painful cries
that mingle with the wind
so much so as to find us
deaf and numb before the dawn
who beckons us with
the whispered hope
of an ancient utterance
yet shame perches
on their tear-stained shoulders
witness to the wreckage
of those scattered
with fallen countenance
unaware of the fiends and villains circling above
even as mercy silently hovers in the distance
a primeval conflict observed from beyond eternity
as she-who-has-seen-the-Master
joins mercy moving toward their side
and her witness from the garden
too wondrous for their ears
stirs a restless hope
resulting in a footrace
to the emptied tomb
our Future has come to meet us
in this evil age
while the powers cast down to earth
are filled with bitter rage
for their time is fleeting
in this now-and-not-yet age
where His sojourners
continue to flood the world
with the knowledge of the Holy
and amid such precious good
become merciful martyrs
who rest but a little longer
while blood remains the currency
of our violence
and such a forthright testimonial
to a perpetual and incidental blasphemy
erupting from avaricious merchants
mourning in shallow waters

the reaping

the cords of the wicked entangle
as the sons of disobedience
come to reap what they have sown

yet loosed by an Unseen Marksman
the arrow of mercy
pierces the heart of many…even One

lo, the consequence of eternity
death – no longer the end
simply a new beginning

even as the blood cries out:

Father
forgive them
for they
know not
what they do


astounding grace
beautiful dignity for the unrefined

amazing grace
devourer of transgression

astonishing grace
reaping where she has not sown

strengeth gathers

tending to matters unseen

in the midst of such a garden

bearing whispered prayers
upon humble shoulders

strength gathers in the waiting

a diamond formed
through the pressure of patience

labour-pangs inaugurated
as blood-stained sweat collects

in the midst of this beginning
to a crushing finish
moonlight revealing the frail tears

slowly gathering
in the sleeping shadow
of this grove now ripe with fruit

heavy-laden potency garnered
before the climax
of a piercing journey

while shadow looms
in advance of the pinnacle
of an exquisite pursuit

even amongst disappointment

and a cheek that must burn
with the lips of betrayal

passion overcomes
with the vision of vulnerability

and eyes turn with renewed intent
empowered by the eternal ambition
flowing in such veins

is the frailness of malformation our experience
of suffering assuaged too quickly?
does the depth of transformation emerge
from the embrace of such anguish?

branch of the beloved

a vision of a cruelly crafted crown
built for One bearing a battered cross to the skull mound
cup in His hand does this crushing King embrace
daring to drain it all in our place

excruciating is the potent potion worth
frail Word falls to the fertile earth
guileless He bears forth this Branch of the Beloved
Haven for the Hungry and the Unloved

is the strength of the brave born anew costly?
just as He spread His arms out wide like a tree
kindness and protection now found in He

lamenting the Lord of the Living and the Dead
mourning a God crucified in our stead
not without Hope is He nailed to a cross
offering Himself, the very Logos

perfect is His plan to redeem His beloved
quiet He stands as mocked and shoved
redemption His goal to be achieved
scarred in His scheme to save those who cleave

the sound…an eternal echo of a curse rended
unbound are the bonds with precious blood shed
vindication and the sting of death defeated

wake the dead with His humble cry as the
xenophyte was He out from Mary’s side
yet in His cry we hear it clear and true
Zion – it is finished, in His Glorious Virtue