the controversy of Zion

the willows, they do weep

and the river runs dry

shrug off the weight of sleep

can’t you hear the wind cry?

a storm, it is approaching

thick darkness upon the land

the generations are reeling

who can stand in the shifting sand?

draw near, O you nations

all peoples prepare your hearts

it is the Ancient of Days

from the high heavens He departs

whence cometh the Anointed

to resolve the controversy of Zion

when kings will be hunted

and angels released from prison

for a people bearing His witness

where is the recompense?

a trumpet notifying the menace

God judges the offense

how is justice done truly

while loving mercy enough

walking humbly with our God surely

while the fallen stir mischief

with an echo, Your vindication

the wind whispers in my ears

of a life of faithful dedication

while enduring patiently until Christ appears

some folk, they trust in power

to their own bitter shame

a Righteous King comes to conquer

His eyes and heart aflame

following the Voice on the wind

into a life borne anew

i see the blood on the robes tinged

O, the Day many will rue

a Day when the hosts of heaven fall

and the sky rolls up like a scroll

fallen powers no more to enthrall

the Lord of Glory shall we extol

therefore, pay heed to the voices

on the wind do they proclaim

glad tidings in which we rejoice

God’s people good news exclaim

then, the judgment on the horizon

will hold no fear for you and i

an end to the controversy of Zion

the Son of Man cometh in the sky

the eclipse of a dark reign

stolen lives plucked

from the cultivated land

the enemy has struck

clutched in his hand

yet bind the strong man

through the deeper subtlety

of One who lives amongst us

behold: Fidelity

dare we yet hope

for a ransom not scorned

the Son to offer His head

cruel crown of thorns

does His word still stand

as provoked we kneel

Life to truly overtake

in His encompassing appeal

still can redemption be found

for the lost and the least

can redemption be found

for the Powers that ceased

to follow the Most High

a dark kingdom unleashed

lo, a dark kingdom unleashed

perilously dim

is life so distant

how cold the fire seems

enflamed desire persistent

any way is the only way

in the journey’s suffering task

for such evil to lurk

in a dreadful and beautiful mask

yet in the decay of defiled light

my own passions ablaze

when first lured down

wide and crowded pathways

and so we yet pray

as we are gathered en masse

a Redeemer to appear

thus shall it come to pass

a raging lion devours the Lamb

the serpent strikes at His heel

the kiss of death and tree of pain

our Saviour will he reveal

passing from death unto life

crucible braved with great zeal

yes, crucible braved with great zeal

when death swallows whole

with its gruesome appetite

Eternity overcomes

the dictator of the night

the dark reign to interrupt

its eclipse has now begun

in the resurrection of Life

the dark reign is undone

for faint whisper of a Voice

as we lay awake

such souls treading the Way

the dark dominion to break

this joy now persistent

within our songs of lament

forgiveness we behold

to a much greater extent

this music inherent

in the rushing waters so clear

the song of many waters

it echoes so sincere

as i wake to this ode

embraced by He-Who-Draws-Near

thus, embraced by He-Who-Draws-Near

pilgrimage of the heart

“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.  Audacious longings, burning songs, daring thoughts, an impulse overwhelming the heart, usurping the mind- these are all a drive towards serving Him who rings our hearts like a bell. It is as if He were waiting to enter our empty, perishing lives.” 

~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is not alone

wind whispers wisdom

in the drum-beat of rain

the wind has a story to tell

while fire crackles in the hearth

storm swirls in a thunderous groundswell

the faintest hint you can catch

if you tilt your head just right

the wind whispers wisdom

and howls with insight

it tells of the coming

of a Redeemer clothed with might

yet also of a deceiver

fallen like lightning from heavens height

script of prophets and sages

the wind speaks anew with foresight

a hoped-for future breaking through

as a people gathers and unites

for a King from highest heaven

descends to take up the fight

for all creation enthralled

by the deceivers deadly delight

yet the Lion and the Lamb

did break through in the daylight

a Saviour’s redemption in death

and new Life in resurrection ignite

take hold of this redemption

the wind will not requite

and neither will His Love

as God judges all aright

thus a final battle rages on

but it’s coming to a close

as the birthpangs of a new age

the wind with ancient wisdom echoes

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 surges 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 weight of loves dilemma

gazing into the light

of daybreak’s panoramic height

i recognize the outline, a work of art

initiated by an ancient Artist

emerging from the weight of love’s dilemma

like the strong, safe arms

of a Father reaching to encompass

the menace that has burdened my soul

throughout the nightwatches

yet the light now shed from above

perceives the shadow of consequence

as this illuminating Artist enfolds my body

alighting my spirit within to rhapsody

casting me into His masterpiece

with tenderness amidst my perplexity

and while radiance rises within

to meet the dayspring without

i discover myself clothed

in the cool of mornings’ gentle breeze

but my lips burn nonetheless

while my eyes manifest

 as renewed witnesses

even as awe

(lightly holding my breath)

beckons me to wonder at

the spectacle of the will to love

so reminiscent of

the life of God and the tree of pain

borne along upon strong shoulders

just like the day you took my hand

and beckoned me to stand

then dance within sight

of a wondrous and glorious plight

beauty for ashes

and the budding of aaron’s rod

a soul summoned to behold

the ache of our God

then the ebb of darkness

let’s loose the crashing wave

of new mercies

running from morning’s horizon

to meet this prodigal

drawn by loving cords

to his Eternal Father’s

Divine Embrace

musings at twilight

we presume to dream

stirring hope

brewed slowly

in the flicker and pop

of wood fire

and rising smoke

bristling images

with indistinct edges

give voice to the best

and to the worst

and to the most perplexing

deep within all of us

yet the impossible

draws near

in the blink of an eye

or the turning of a season

and we recognize our Dream

entertwined

with our Reality

like lost lovers

on the verge

of reunion

a Mystery enfolds us

as we embrace the shared experience

this Iridescent Dream

this Familiar Dance

this Enveloping Song

in our fleeting embrace

we discover

the significance

of the texture in living

we discover

the rendering

of eternity dwelling within

we discover

the mundane elements

of our shared life

as they begin to shimmer

with a luminescence

we have merely half-forgotten

moment-to-moment

yet with surprising recognition

and astonishing resilience

we connect with the Other

who has met us

in the midst of our

musings at twilight

the stone weighing at 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

at 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

Learn to Listen

"We must learn to listen to the cock-crows and hammering and tick-tock of our lives for the holy and elusive word that is spoken to us out of their depths."

~ Frederick Buechner

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?

Lent Lectio, Schedule and Verse

As of tomorrow - Ash Wednesday - the Christian liturgical calendar turns to the season of Lent.  The season of Lent is a time-honored heritage with thick devotional practices embraced with the intention of the preparation of the disciple of Jesus— through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — toward Holy Week in which mnemonic and mimetic signs and events of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which repeatedly echo the Passion of Christ and culminates in the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  These mnemonic and mimetic practices propel us forward into a reflective life that, in turn,   propels us into a fuller, abundant life that - as Thomas à Kempis put it - imitates Christ Jesus.

This year during Lent, I will be taking a break from my regular blogging about life and move into posting some of my poetic verse and wordcraft throughout.  For those interested, the poetry will be posted for the most part on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule until the end of April.  I'll probably have a few other kinds of posts during this season - mainly significant citations and meangingful quotes, as well as an occasional meditation. 

Meanwhile, there is a team of friends that I will also be writing some Lectio's with based on the Psalm readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, over at Dave Nixon's Sustainable Faith blog.  Be sure to check those out every Friday throughout Lent. 

SVS: Response to Tanya Luhrmann's Study of the Vineyard

SVS 2011 Plenary #2 - Ken Wilson Response from Society of Vineyard Scholars on Vimeo.

SVS: An Anthropologist's Study of the Vineyard

SVS 2011 Plenary #2: Tanya Luhrmann from Society of Vineyard Scholars on Vimeo.

the Pitt 30: Chasing Francis

With my great friends' (and church-planting coaches) Dave Nixon and Kevin Rains help and wisdom, our pioneering Pitt friends have begun to have an initial direction and curriculum to walk through before we land in Pittsburgh.  Although we have visited Pittsburgh and have had some initial conversations and on-going prayer toward what the Father is calling us into, we began a new phase - much more intentional - with the fun, but thought-provoking work of fiction called Chasing Francis.  We've been discussing what this brought up for us for a few months. 

I think we'd all agree that it opened us up...it challenged our paradigms and got us imagining what Papa might be calling us to be about in Pittsburgh.  That is actually why we wanted to start our more intentional gatherings and conversations with it.  I think the themes brought out in the book resonate and will continue to resonate with us, possibly in surprising and significant ways as we journey together. 

So, great conversation and good momentum, and I think many of the issues we've been praying through and wrestling through and prayerfully dialoguing about also came up in an interview by Mike Morrell with the author of Chasing Francis, Ian Cron, so I thought I'd share:

___________________________________

Mike Morrell: Chasing Francis. It’s this novel about a minister on a pilgrimage, rediscovering and in many ways reinventing who he is, based on his encounter with the living memory of St. Francis of Assisi. So: Why did you choose to write about Francis?

Ian Cron: I heard Ronald Rolheiser along with Richard Rohr at a conference, and the two of them agreed that what the church, both Catholic and Protestant, needs today more than anything else is a the emergence of a new St. Francis. Some would say the Catholic Church has been kept afloat by Francis’ charism for the last 500 years. That Franciscan vision revitalized and rescued the church in the 13^th c and I think it could do the same thing today. When I first read about St. Francis, I was awestruck at how important and prophetic a voice he was for the contemporary church. It’s like what the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said in his speech “Changing the Landscape” He said there are so many people in the “postmodern emergent church world that think they are inventing something new, when in fact there were pre-modern people like Francis who were “emergent” long before we were, just in their own context. So, here’s this exemplar for us! We don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel. We can learn from the giants of our past.


MM: You call Francis the consummate postmodern saint. Why?


IC: There are so many compelling reasons for this. First he was the first environmentalist. Francis’ theology of creation was something I think we need to recapture. It’s all about getting in touch with the urgent immediacy of God in the natural order. We need more nature mystics; people who every time they go out into creation feel compelled to take their shoes off.

Second Francis is our first peace activist, in particular, with Muslims.


MM: Which is hugely relevant.


IC: Hugely relevant! You’ve read the book so you know that during the Crusades, Francis led a transcontinental peace delegation to extend an olive branch to Muslims and to try and persuade the Crusaders to repent and return home. That’s fairly amazing. It’s the first transcontinental peace delegation we know of in history.


MM: It is amazing, especially given the official stance of the church in his era.


IC: It was remarkably courageous. It could have cost him a visit to the stake.


MM: Probably not very good.


IC: Here’s another thing about Francis: he was radically committed to the poor at a time when the church had become garishly opulent and materialistic. It could be argued that it was the largest, most powerful investment bank in the history of the world.


MM: And what’s fascinating is that he did it without directly criticizing the church for its capitulating to culture.


IC: Now that’s fascinating, isn’t it? Here’s Francis’ strategy–if you want to critique something, just do it better. Don’t go off at the mouth criticizing everything that’s wrong with the Church. Just do it better. Let the excellence of your life be your highest form of protest.


Mike Morrell: St. Francis seemed to have a wise way of living the change versus being a “protest person.” If you start giving all of your energy to criticizing something, you set your self up to become the mirror image of the very thing you’re critiquing.

Ian Cron: I think that’s right. Francis did so many things that were important for us to consider today, especially in the spirit in which he did them. I felt it was important for people unfamiliar with his life to hear about them. The fact that he was an artist versus an academic I thought was important as well. In fact he was suspicious of academics, and the Academy as a whole. He was reacting to the rise of scholasticism, and the birth of universities. I think what he was afraid of was that Jesus was going to become a theological abstraction versus a living reality.


MM: Indeed.


IC: Which, in part, is what’s happened! So many of us relate to Jesus in theological debates as if he is an interesting idea, something notional.


MM: Right. And you end up viewing theology as though Jesus is not in the room with you; as though God is not present with you.


IC: Exactly.


MM: The radical commitment to the poor, his being an artist versus an academic, creation theology, peacemaking, treating Jesus as though he’s really in the room – as I re-read Chasing Francis three years later, these are some of the things that make Francis relevant.

IC: By the way, his relationship with women was really unusual for the time as well. His relationship with Claire, and his saying “Look, let me help you start an order for women based on Franciscan ideals” was revolutionary for that period. There are other wonderful things about Francis I talk about in the book but this gives you a flavor of it.


MM: So, you said something interesting in the beginning, that Ronald Rolheiser and Richard Rohr said we need more Francis’s today. Why do you suppose we don’t have more Francis’s today, or do we, and we pay less attention to them?


IC: Well, I am going to give you one answer that is somewhat tongue-in-cheek but its not completely facetious. The first one is this: there may be Francis’ out there, but they might be psychiatrically medicated.


MM: Oh my! I could see that, though…


IC: I’m just being completely honest. Today Francis would be considered delusional. Freud wouldn’t come along for 600 more years. There were no medical models for treating mental illness. Today, he would be diagnosed as having Bipolar Disorder, Frontal Lobe Epilepsy or some other ailment. Today we would pathologize his spirituality and medicate it away. That’s true of so many of the saints. Can you imagine what would happen to St. Theresa? They would have her on Haldol or Lithium in a heartbeat.


MM: It’s true. It seems like our thinking about what is sane and what isn’t does keep out some true craziness but it also keeps out a lot of genius.


IC: I also think Francis we don’t have more Francis’ out there because its just too costly. He scares the hell out of most people, me included. For centuries he’s been called “The Last Christian”, for embodying the gospel in a way that ‘s unparalleled. Some called him the “Second Jesus.” Most of us have been so co-opted by the powers and principalities of materialism, of modernism, of fear, that it’s really difficult to get to this kind of place. I think there are some who have the spirit of Francis out there, but they are mostly unsung heroes.


Mike Morrell: What about Francis and the institutional church? One would think he would have abandoned it.

Ian Cron: One of the things that makes Francis very interesting compared to a lot of what we’re seeing in the Post Modern Emergent conversations is that he was not anti-institutional. He actually honored the institution of The Church even in it’s screwed up state. He critiqued it with his life, not his words, and he wasn’t leaving it. He really felt like you could change it from the inside out. I recently read something by Jonny Baker about this very thing. Did you read that article?


MM: Yeah – the one in response to Kester Brewin’s series on Has What Emerged Retreated? Jonny says the idea of leaving institutions is, in his British parlance, “romantic tosh”.


IC: Heh – Yeah, he says it’s equally valid to change something from the outside and the inside. I agree.


MM: I think they both have valid points but Jonny’s really did stick out to me, that people who just want to damn “the man” and start their own thing do end up having to become institutions, and when they do, as often as not it can be just like what it replaced, if not more tyrannical, so why not at least try to make a good faith effort of working from within?


IC: This raises a really interesting point, too. One problem I’ve seen in the postmodern/emergent church conversation is you tend to have one of two different kinds of things going on: one is the emphasis on social justice. That’s a great thing unless you over-privilege social action and have no contemplative life. Someone who over-privileges social justice runs the risk of becoming an angry, disillusioned and very often, a smug activist. On the other hand, there are people who ignore social justice and only care about the contemplative life and this leads to a sort of saccharine piety. They start watching EWTN and saying the Rosary without any interest in the fact that so much of the world is starving to death.

MM: Yeah, I spent about a decade in a church movement that was very contemplative, and I feel like a lot of times we did veer into that danger where we really, at the end of the day, didn’t give a rip about what was happening in the outside world. I transitioned from that into this sort of Anabaptist, Anarchist, hardcore social justice world, and it was like a breath of fresh air to see people who really cared about what’s happening around the world, but, I did begin to encounter sort of an intolerance and almost a mocking of sincere expressions of love for God or spirituality that didn’t into the plight of the Post Modern world and things like that.


IC: Yes, you need both in tension. The commitment to social Justice should correct the excesses of the contemplative life and vice versa. That balance is very Franciscan.


MM: I can see that – there’s the deep impatience of the prophetic tradition, but then there’s the sense of “all will be well” in the mystical tradition; I think you need both to fuel the other.


IC: That’s right. And this is the beautiful polarity that Francis embodies so well.


[to be continued...]