Mary's Liberation Theology

And Mary said,
'My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.'
Luke 1:46-55 (NRSV)

ok, I admit it...I love liberation theology...not the 'che-guevara-wannabe' kind, but more to the essence of what I hear Gustavo Gutierrez getting at: the vast liberation of knowing God, being known by Him, and making Him renown in the earth through joining His Liberating Mission.

Mary knows this type of theology as she utters the so-called 'Magnificat Prayer'; a magnificent prayer that echoes that prayer which Hannah uttered from the scroll of Samuel.

I like what Jane Schaberg says in reference to the Magnificat: "...the great New Testament song of liberation - personal and social, moral and economic - a revolutionary document of intense conflict and victory."

Scot McKnight adds this: "This Mary utters poetry fit for a political rally, goes toe-to-toe with Herod the Great, musters her motherliness to reprimand her Messiah-son for dallying at the temple, follows her faith to ask him to address a flagging wine supply at a wedding, and then finds the feistiness to take her children to Capernaum to rescue Jesus from death threats. This Mary followed Jesus all the way to the Cross—not just as a mother, but as a disciple, even after his closest followers deserted him. She leads us to a Christmas marked by a yearning for justice and the courage to fight for it."

...ah, we glimpse a Kingdom come and coming here, don't we? And its all-encompassing... and it turns things upside-down:

• you have to die to live
• you have to give to get more
• you have to surrender to live free
• you have to lose yourself to find yourself
• you have to be weak to be strong
• the poor are rich in faith

We see the mercy and love of God as catalysts of His Kingdom...His will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

His love promises the kingdom and with Christ Jesus coming into the world, the future has broken loose in the present according to the ancient promise He made that echo even today.  And we rejoice in God our Saviour and the sound of His revolution...

...even so, come Lord Jesus!

Be awake to the Divine Mystery wondrously Present

"Take time to be aware that in the very midst of our busy preparations for the celebration of Christ's birth in ancient Bethlehem, Christ is reborn in the Bethlehems of our homes and daily lives. Take time, slow down, be still, be awake to the Divine Mystery that looks so common and so ordinary yet is wondrously present."

 - Edward Hays

come forth fresh

wordcraft for Advent:

resting Son
of the Ancient One

come forth fresh
from chosen flesh

beyond our imagination
is He, the Incarnation

Life turned toward
a people adored

enmeshed in our circumstance
threshed in His glorious dance

with Love does He chase
until eternity to embrace

all bundled in this cloth
this newborn doth

hold the future and past
light and fire to cast

upon a people hallow
sitting in dark shadow

hoping for this very One
and a curse to be undone

Stoking the Fire of Advent

"Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent.  If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. Ours is a great responsibility not to waste this Advent time."

- Edward Hays

the Pitt 21: Close Encounters of the Incarnational Kind

It's Advent right now...the season in which we wait for the Lord anew, even in our now-and-not-yet place between the Incarnation and Jesus' coming again.  For us, incarnation is our way past the old categories of sacred/secular, where all of life becomes sacred....and as Eddie Gibbs has said: Everywhere we go, we are His church, His Body, His life with skin on. We are on holy ground everywhere that we are because He is with us, in us, and working through us. In this way, there is no sacred verses secular because our whole lives, even as we are out in the cultures we live within, are organically connected to His kingdom life. Dwight Friesen, in his article Living Incarnationally describes what we aspire to as we foster and cultivate a loving incarnational faith community in urban Pittsburgh:

"When Christ is incarnated through you and me, we will be looking for ways to empty ourselves in the service of the Father by serving others as the Holy Spirit guides us. We become active participants in a divine dance through which all of creation is being reconciled to Christ. This is a dynamic faith process that will always find unique expression through each follower of Christ and each cluster of Christ-followers."

Thus our dream - perhaps not so unique, but the discovery and expression if it will be - is of hitting the 'sweetspot' where (1) the Father is already at work, (2) the World might be missing it, and (3) the Church is out there doing it's best CSI-imitation living and seeking to discover God at work in the world and surprisingly connect the two.

I've also been thinking about this statement from Jesus lately:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." - John 13:34

...and this morning, I got to wondering: How is this a new commandment?  How is this differentiated (even if it stands in conjunction with) from Jesus' summary of the Law and Prophets: Love the LORD your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul and love your neighbor as yourself? 

I'll go with my immediate thought and throw it out there: loving incarnational community.  So we have God, Neighbor and then our own invitational and inclusive Spiritual Community; and perhaps, just perhaps there is this sweespot where all three overlap:

To do this, we'll need to discover what the Father is doing and join in the Father's business.  I'm a big-picture guy, that's for sure, but I've come to discover that to get on the Spirit’s global agenda, I need to look and join what He is doing locally.  So much of my spirituality nowadays has to do with letting go.  I need to let go of my need for control and utter comprehension when it comes to the work of the Spirit.  It’s not that I give up trying to see the forest for the trees (because I think this sort of wisdom has a place in our emerging/missional people of God contexts), but the Spirit is working it out on a global/cosmic scale, and while I can look to discern a pattern, I need to trust Him.  My starting place is to get on the Father’s agenda, with what He is doing right in front of me…in my own neighborhood.  For when we get on His agenda, we are cooperating with His Reign.  Thus, this is about discipleship, but equally about leadership.  But here's the rub: it’s really difficult be a leader and lead people to follow Someone else.  Thus, my leadership looks more like what they call becoming an "early adopter".

Not only that, but let’s point to the elephant in the room: alas, the evidence is thin in missional church circles, or any church circle for that matter that “matters of the Spirit” are being engaged anew missionally.  Aside from some good talk and encouragement from people like Brother Maynard and Emerging Grace, among many so-called practitioners, the Spirit goes missing as a fundamental element of pursuing God's agenda much too often; and though I appreciate the hip endeavours of those like Mark Driscoll in talking about spiritual gifts on his TheResurgence blog, I admit to being nonplussed by the result.  In fact, it seems like a regurgitation of what has come before (which I guess can be helpful).  Maybe I am just more radical than that, because I think there is more freedom to be explored in which the Spirit calls us; but we seem to be stuck in the old models or fearful of venturing off into the wilderness and out into mission…but perhaps this is where the Spirit is driving us, just as the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.

Speaking of the Spirit and gifts, I also feel like we in the West - given the cultural environment and formation of consumer-identity – have over-commodified the ’spiritual gifts’ in some of the faith communities I have participated.  This commodification can be witnessed in those who market ‘gift-inventories’ – a test that pigeonholes you or perhaps labels your ‘gift/gifts’ and determines how you will serve and 'fit-in'.  This example probably outs my rebellious base nature, but when given this kind of test about 12 years ago – I cheated. 

It’s actually not that hard to cheat (if you’ve ever taken one of these standardized gifts test, you know what I mean).  Whatever I really wanted to be perceived in being strong, I answered positively.  Of course, maybe the test-makers were smarter than I and graded the test with that in mind.  I also probably needed a good dosage of 1 Corinthians 13 at that point!  I admit that all these ’spiritual-gift-inventories’ which more and more churches tend to give to people joining their fellowship, move them in somewhat of a direction toward embracing more of the Spirit and the Spirit’s expressions; and yet, while moving some distance away from old-school cessationism, I wonder if rather than embracing an all-encompassing Spirit empowerment (in both sacred and what we think of as secular realms) they are embracing a new, kinder but more subtle cessationism?  Or perhaps at least limiting (rather than imaginatively expanding) the re-imagining of 'spiritual gifts' and of how the Spirit can move.  

I keep coming back to something Emerging Grace said in her article Why Charismissional?: “Why aren’t charismatics missional? If the function of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the heart of the Father, and the heart of the Father is the reconciliation and restoration of all things, why have we, who claim knowledge and intimacy with the Spirit, missed the missional leading of the Holy Spirit?  I am sorry to say that the charismatic church has not represented the function of spiritual gifts very well. While we pursue the supernatural aspect of our inheritance, eagerly desiring the gifts of the Spirit, for the most part, our expression of the gifts has been self-serving.  As a friend, I would like to issue this missional call to the charismatic church. Let us open our eyes and hearts to what God is doing.”

So it's as simple as 'Just Do It', right?  It reminds me of a simple yet elegant Chinese poem that George Hunter III quotes in his book The Celtic Way of Evangelism:

Go to the people.
Live among them.
Learn from them.
Love them.
Start with what they know.
Build on what they have.

- Chinese poem

God is love, and as John Beck is fond of saying: when we are moved by love, speak love, embody love, enact love, transmit love, and show love, we are doing nothing less than expressing the Kingdom of God.  Or as Bono is fond of saying: " Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen.  There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh." 

So this Advent and Christmas season, incarnate some love!  Merry Christmas!!

[to be continued...]

invasion of love

wordcraft for Advent:

heavens’ heart descends
a King in swaddling clothes
invasion of Love

the Pitt 20: ...and I lay them both at His Feet

Two recent events have driven me to prayer and deeper reflection regarding this endeavour to cultivate a faith community in Pittsburgh.  My good friend Jason Coker - involved in leading great things like the Micah Film Festival, but who was planting a missional church within the Vineyard community of churches in San Diego - announced that they have closed down their church-plant. 

Within the comments of that announcement, I read that another missional church-planter - Keith Seckel - who was endeavouring to plant a Vineyard missional church in Oregon, has also withdrawn from the process and is reflecting on how to move forward.  Discouraging news to say the least.

And I'm not convinced that the old adage provides any comfort: Better to have risked and failed than to not risk at all! 

I appreciate what one commenter said in response to Jason:

"Jason, I admire you’re upfrontness about this. It takes a lot of balls to own up to pulling the plug on a missional project, particularly when you’ve been the primary person articulating the vision.  As someone who’s gone through something similar (albeit, Ikon had made it farther along than the Anchor), I feel for you, but I also know it’s a good time for learning. Don’t be afraid to grieve friend, it’s wholly appropriate for something that you’ve invested so much in.  I’m also interested in hearing your post-mortem and encourage you to do so. Blessings man."

Here's what I love about it: failure is seen as an opportunity for learning, not an end-point in itself.  We've clearly bought in to the Capitalist-DreamVision if we believe that never-ending progress and always-ever-success and growth equals good leadership.  We cannot equate leadership with "whatever is always successful"...clearly that does not line up with our trusted scriptures at all.  Just skimming the new testament scriptures and getting the apostle Paul's own reflection should be enough:

"I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.  I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.  Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger?  If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.  God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who is worthy of eternal praise, knows I am not lying." 

Thus, in that spirit, I'm looking forward in the coming weeks to Jason blogging about his experience, and in the spirit of shared-wisdom, share with us the post-mortem reflection of what has happened there.  In all of this, and I'm sure Jason shares my own opinion in this, I turn to a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: "My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents; and I lay them both before his feet."

[to be continued]

the Pitt 19: Gathering the Courage to Scatter

I'm big on ambiance, just ask my wife. (we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary this year, so we now "go to eleven"!)

[definition: ambiance - the mood, character, quality, tone, atmosphere, etc., particularly of an environment or milieu; that which surrounds or encompasses; environment]

...so whether it's a candle-lit romantic dinner or a candle-lit prayer room, ambiance helps to usher me into that intimate, relational openness/mood.  I'm kind of a hopeful romantic that way...but the point of the relational intimacy and authenticity are not found in the candles or music or food...it is shared experience of intimacy with the other person - whether my wife or Jesus - that is the point of it all...ambiance is just an aid that sets a certain mood or postures us toward a trajectory.  Yet like the Holy Spirit, ambiance defers attention from itself, but it does add depth and can be significant. 

OK, so why all this talk about ambiance?  I'm frustrated today, and this is also what frustrates me in most of my "church-planting" discussions with experts, advocates and other church-planters: the focus is almost exlusively on the ambiance, not toward what Gordon Cosby called essence, as Mike Bishop so eloquently portrays in his "What is Church?"   The focus everyone wants  to engage on is on how to "do church",  and almost no thinking towards how to "be church", this gathering...this community...this People that Jesus had in mind.   As I mentioned, I believe it's 'both/and', in fact I tend to think toward three-dimensional Church: Being, Doing, Knowing.  But herein lies my very present frustration: even in the conversations about "doing church", our conversation is flattened to "doing a Sunday Service".  Seriously?

I taught on the Sunday that I was ordained in the Vineyard.  Almost everyone there remembers (and was shocked) with what I said at one particular point (in fact, I repeated twice so everyone would get what I said): You have not been filled with the Holy Spirit in order to go to more Bible studies.  [Shocked silence in the room...as I let the silence linger with a Dr. Evil smile on my face...pinkie to the lips].  My point being that while going to Bible studies is a good thing that can equip us and can be a "faith-seeking-understanding" sort-of-thing, they aren't the main thing: living a life of dynamic expression of Christ living in, with and through us.  So whether ancient practice like candles and incense or modern practice like modern praise music and blue jeans: it is Christ dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit that is the reality and the heart of our experience of life.  Notice two things in that statement: "us" and "our".  C.S. Lewis explains it this way: "...when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being 'in Christ' or of Christ being 'in them,' this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him.They mean that Christ is actually operating through them..."

Thus, Hugh Halter goes in a similar vein: "Church gatherings were never the intended goal; they were the natural result of people finding others who were living their alternative Kingdom story.  The goal of our missional life is not to grow churches.  The goal of church is to grow mission aries.  The goal of the gospel is not to get people to church.  The result of the gospel is that people will find each other and gather because of the deep meaning of our common experience...[w]e're not anti-gathering"; we just don't care how many people gather, or when, or for how long.  We don't think smaller gatherings are better than larger gatherings.  Our main focus is on why we gather..."

By all of this I don't mean to say that rituals are not a meaningful part of Christianity, for I believe whole-heartedly that they certainly are. Equally, liturgies (repetitive worship practices) are of the essence of a faith community because they 'form' us toward Jesus (or should) instead of 'forming' us toward the goal of, say, "being good consumers".  Our Way of Life must offer an alternative while being radically invitational and inclusive, which means lots and lots of grace.  Otherwise - as my friend Jason Clark asks - are we offering those crushed by the pressures of a consumer society (demanding their time, energy and money) anything in the construction of a way of life other than merely support in that crushing process, but rather offering one that invites them into the "unforced rhythms of grace"?   But all that said, rituals do not in and of themselves constitute the reality of life in the Kingdom, even though they certainly can engage our affective subconscious (our default of what we love) and propel us in counter-cultural trajectories...it is still Christ living in us that constitutes the authenticity of Christianity and that of following Christ as Jesus followed the Father.  

Thus my hope and dream is that in cultivating a faith community in Pittsburgh we have all kinds of gatherings with rhythms of life and worship that propel us towards seeking the Kingdom of God, and while we attend to issues of "doing church" in these various gatherings, we never get lost in it.  We must earnestly seek to be and do and know, as well as being both gathered and scattered:

[to be continued...]

What I Meant to Say...

This past Sunday I taught at the celebration of the Lord's Supper at the Central Maryland Vineyard.  I wanted to show how this celebration (call it the Eucharist, Communion, the Lord's Supper, all of those are right) FORMS us toward an end, but also IS an enacted Alternate Reality (the Kingdom of God) in our on-going participation.  So in the spirit of Dave Workman's 'What I Meant to Say...' (in which he further elucidates what he taught the past weekend), I have a few more things to share that I didn't include on Sunday.


First, much of the inspiration for what I said came from the always illuminating William Cavanaugh and his work on the social and political significance of liturgy.  His insights and commentary on 1 Corinthians 11 and on the Eucharist were fantastic, read his paper for an enriching experience.


One of my other main points was that embodying the good news of Jesus is critical and takes an everyday faithfulness in how we are living life; this is not in just what we say or the occasional event that we participate in (which are all good things still, but lack depth without the further aspect of embodiment).  Of course, Jamie Smith - author of Desiring the Kingdom - says it much better than I:

"I also criticize North American evangelicalism, particularly in many of its megachurch versions, for unwittingly reducing Jesus to one more commodity precisely because, in the name of "relevance," they've adopted a worship "style" that simply mimics the mall. Since I think the form/content distinction is specious, you can't simply take Gospel "content" and drop it into the "form" of the mall's worship because that form is already loaded and primed to another end or telos. This doesn't make the church relevant; it reduces Jesus to a commodity.  So what to make of these irruptions of the Messiah in the food court? How should we think about these insertions of the church's music in the mall? Does this represent a little "redemption" of the mall, a reorientation of the mall's liturgies? I don't think so. For at least a couple of reasons.

First, while we might associate this with "liturgical," high-churchy music, in these flash mob performances it only functions as an event. Liturgies are formative precisely because they are repetitive, shaping us over time within the context of the Christian story as it is "carried" in the practices of worship. Too much of North American evangelicalism already thinks of worship as merely an expressive event, and these flash mob events do nothing to displace that. Second, these irruptive events do nothing to counter the formative effects and disordered telos of the mall's consumerism. Indeed if anything, they provide comfort to such practices--injecting a little dose of transcendence into the frantic pursuit for stuff, thus leaving the shoppers to happily continue on their way after the event. The church's worship cannot be reduced to--and should not be confused with--a flash mob. (I'm tempted to make a jab at Barthian notions of revelation as an "event" here, but will resist.) If the liturgies of the mall are going to be countered, it will take the plodding, faithful presence of the Spirit in practices that will never be exciting enough to go viral on YouTube."

[aside: Jamie Smith is going to be the keynote speaker at the forthcoming Society of Vineyard Scholars 2011 conference in Seattle, Washington this coming February.  Consider me psyched for it!]


So, not being quite the Calvinist that Jamie comes off as here (although he sure is brilliant), and also because I want to walk that radical middle of 'both/and' - because people can and should be jarred from their slumbering in line for a half-caf latte at Starbucks - perhaps in the prophetic irruption-tradition of Jesus up-ending money-changers tables - just for fun, here is a flash mob from the Cincinnati Vineyard from last year:

the invasion of the incarnation

wordcraft for Advent:

as a humble maiden prepares for birth
across the countryside of this fertile earth
an astonishing miracle of countless worth
abiding prince of peace will ascend and come forth


bothering not to tend their grazing sheep
but instead to inquire among those asleep
basking in the beauty of angelic glory deep
before the newborn King the shepherds kneel and weep


catching a glimpse of hope in these shepherds’ eyes
catastrophe for the evil kingdom does arise
careful was the Creators’ plan devised
crushing evil while dark dominions capsize


desolate God’s people will not remain
determined in devotion with His generous Reign
delighted to be free and released from chains
domain of His kingdom does Jesus explain


eternal are the repercussions of this infinite invasion
echoing will be His expressions spoken with persuasion
essence of His being does He extend without hesitation
endless and exquisite are the redeeming ramifications


fearful are the fallen beings before their fate and time
fretting over One who knows well their crime
found to be fostering hateful ways in a lifetime
feasting on the fetid fear they stir up in their pastime


gruesome and unholy is their intention known
great before Him is their grisly moan
ghastly is the noise of their blood-curdling sound
‘go forth’ echoes in deliverance for those unbound


heaven has happened and upon us did it alight
hands of mercy are His with such foresight
hearts handcrafted anew from a deep dark blight
horizon now shining in our renewed and hallowed eyesight


illustrious is His coming in this eternal yet humble invasion
insistent is our God with the wealth of merciful redemption
inciting us to see His fullness in meek incarnation
in the arms of a mother this Newborn delivers liberation


just as God planned it from time eternal
judging His scheme would release the shackle
jewel of His eye will He restore from the trouble
joy in the rescue over an enemy scornful


kindness He offers and with us to abide
karma undone with grace at His side
key to His mystery in Christ to confide
kiss of the Lover of our souls for His Bride


labour He does in His Strength ageless
loving and living is our Lord’s faithfulness
lasting shall be His Presence with us
lonely no more as we are filled with lavish lushness


mourning turns to dancing on a massive scale
mortal-to-immortal is the metamorphosis unveiled
moreover menacing malice shall be impaled
message on our lips of a hope that shall prevail


nevertheless in a now-and-not-yet age we yet walk
needing His covering shield of faith to block
knocking down the narrow arrows aimed at His flock
knowing we reside in this Messiah of bedrock


oneness with our God shall we know and taste
outside-in, inside-out and face-to-face
object we are of His loving embrace
our transgressions through His mercy utterly erased


pillaged is our dread enemy’s palace of shame
place of darkness invaded as Saviour reclaims
pursued and stirred until our hearts are enflamed
plucked from treadmill in this den-of-iniquity game


quickly come is His Kingdom Presence
quiet and calmed before Him in silent reverence
quarrelsome no more under His gracious countenance
quenched by this curiously quantum Essence


rebellion undone in a renewing wreckage
resolute is our Redeemer of royal lineage
reversed is the curse once so thorough and savage
reconciled to a God our lips praise in holy homage


salvation rings in Christ Jesus’ wake
sign of a Kingdom that is no mistake
simple and sincere is the rescue for creations sake
sacred is the faith in which we all partake


tending to His sheep in which a Good Shepherd delights
tattered on a cross to make us snow-white
turn from our own ways and in Him do we unite
torn from an old life which He makes aright


upside down can our perspective tend
unbeknownst to some His love yet befriends
upon all flesh will His Spirit descend
until in His compassionate Kingdom we all depend


victorious will forever be His praise
valiant warrior from the dead Christ is raised
victims of evil stand bewildered and amazed
voice of the Lamb released ablaze


will not this Child be triumphant
wondrous gaze of this Chosen Infant
with Living Spirit as His own choice Ointment
Word of Life alive with passion ardent


exile ended with strength hard to fathom
excruciating death will reverse the mortem
exodus from a dominion of cruelty and venom
exploring now the excellencies of Christ’s Kingdom


yonder Child so innocent and meek and mild
yet on this earth He releases fire so wild
‘yes’ will be the reply of many exiled
year of the Lord’s favour some will revile


zealous is the love of eternity’s Child released
zestfully dancing are the greatest to the least
zenith of His Reign never to be decreased
zion to host the feast of all great feasts