Insurrection and Pyro-Theology review

Today, my friend Jason Clark - lead pastor at the Vineyard Church Sutton on the outskirts of London - reviews Pete Rollin's underlying 'pyro-theology' that moves in Bonhoeffer's direction of a "religionless Christianity", asking whether religion is necessary to follow Jesus and participate in His Life.  I have talked in this direction a bit previously at the Not-the-Religious-Type blog.  So make sure to check it out!

Would we recognize them?

Perhaps what we need…is a new wave of prophets, people willing to speak God's truth into action in our current world. We are not short on secular prophets - their prophecies of everything from the financial future to the globalized world line the bookshelves of our stores.

But if we are to get back to living in rhythm with God's heartbeat and finding answers to our questions of what is enough, we must find the farmers and shepherds, or in our case, the lawyers and Starbucks baristas and stay at home moms or dads, who are willing to speak prophetically as followers of Jesus back into our culture and especially into the church.  Would we recognize them? Who knows? God’s people did not always see or hear the prophets, unless they walked naked through the streets. (That wasn’t a suggestion, by the way.) How would God speak through the prophets today? What would that sound like? What would prophets look like today?

It seems that we constantly need prophetic reminders, ways of calling ourselves back to the narrative. We need to be reminded, in fresh and contemporary words, what kind of people we are being called to become.

~ Will Samson, Enough: Contentment in an Age of Excess

the Pitt 55: "Our practices are often smarter than our ideas"

As we've talked about several times in this journey - we've been in a Quaker State of mind; and we've been digging at the Quaker roots of the Vineyard; we've listened to Carol Wimber's reflection on our Quaker roots and the counter-cultural ways of worship; as well as the embrace of living the questions with our lives.

Ok...OK, so I've talked a lot about this, but have we done anything about this?, because as Miroslav Volf said at the Vineyard Seminarians Summit: "Our practices are often smarter than our ideas."

Well, recently I have been secreting away to attend some Friends meetings in Annapolis, Maryland. Some simple words of immediate reflection: refreshing. sincerity. humility.

My experience has been really great, and while I don't want to hype or glamorize these experiences in any way, as I reflect on practicing these ways of following Christ, of worshipping Christ and honoring others, Volf's statement about how practices are smarter than our ideas keeps ringing in my head. The practices I am referring to primarily include communal silent worship, an orientation toward deep listening, and honoring the Imago Dei inside each one of us.

Equally, the 'spiritual-formation-nerd' in me leans back and says: "Wow, what kind of people do you become by gathering in sheer silent expectation of the Divine with others every week...? It must deeply affect people." And I see that it does, or at least my perception is that it does...from my new acquainatnce Mardi, who when we talk, deeply listens to what I say. And Phil, whose intensity for seeking first God's Reign and His justice/righteousness burns through his easy, laid-back manner.

There just seems to be a...depth...a simplicity...a joie de vivre that resides with and through these people. And when I think of that, this electricity crawls up and down my spine and I just desire that so much for our community in Pittsburgh...

Have you ever been to a Friends/Quakers meeting? What was your experience?

[to be continued...]

Praying by Mary Oliver

Praying
by Mary Oliver

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but a doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak

the Pitt 54: threading our lives through the eye of the needle

Our friends who are all moving to Pittsburgh were gathered in prayer recently, and reflecting on prayer times and sacred conversations, I just really feel like God has given us really good instincts...and I want to continue to ask God to bless those good instincts!

 

Yet our instincts are taking us in risky trajectories. 

 

it's. just. not. easy. 

 

 

In fact, it's terribly difficult, especially in this transitional time...and to be honest I have moments where I think: just go with the flow...but Something won't let me!

 

Thus, my instincts tells me that this cruciform-way of authenticity will witness to a deeper complexion to our shared reality, just as Jesus witnessed to and enacted this and called it the Realm/Reign/Kingdom of God. 

 

If we can just open ourselves together so that God can thread our lives through the eye of the needle and weave a tapestry of hope for the people of Pittsburgh, that's what we want. 

 

The reality of the world we see via the media and wrestle with every day is shallow and in many ways denies the true depth of reality in our world. The deeper reality is touched upon and flows out of self-giving love together - just as Jesus taught us - and the way to let this reality wash over into the shallower level is not through violent political upheaval, but through re-orienting our minds and our lives - by living according to the deep reality, being transformed and a catalyst of transformation; 

 

I like what Jacques Ellul once said, "[The Christian] is one who already lives it, and already makes it actual and present in his own environment. Consequently it means bringing the future into the present as an explosive force…it means understanding the present in light of the future..."  

 

I also love how Walter Wink dovetails with that in saying, "Hope envisages its future and then acts as if that future is now irresistible, thus helping to create the reality for which it longs."

 

[to be continued...]

 

 

homeric quote

...from the wedding invitation of myself and Chaundra 12 years ago, a Homeric quote from The Odyssey:

There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.

how a man loves a woman

words of agur ben jakeh:


there are three things which are too wonderful for me,

yea, four which I do not comprehend:

how an eagle glides through the sky,
how a snake slithers on a rock,
how a ship steers on the oceans

...and how a man loves a woman.

echo of our life

the echo of our life lived as one

is heard across the mountains of joy

and resounds in the valley of the shadow of lamentation

pretense has been undressed in our very presence

eyes that have witnessed our best and our worst

yet in loyalty and laughter we are tangled – naked but unashamed

who knows the lives that have listened to this echo

wisdom gleaned from wisdom given and lived

in a life bound from a beginning in simple flirtation

O, one day, in wrinkled eyes will we see

each other in a new light to appreciate

but for now - as closer to beginning than end – we revel in the journey of our redemption

generous beauty

…a blue-green sea

…flecks of amber sunlight

inviting eyes highlight your generous beauty

outer banks

as the setting sun sighs its last

and tumbles over the precipice once again

i lap up the gentle break of the surf

from my sandy cloister of quiet

the thought of you occurs to me

as my face is embraced by a gentle wind

swirling off the sea and salt

i think of you and then

revealed by a most delicate tremor

as if the gentlest breath has kissed my neck

awareness of your approach descends upon me

as if you were drawn to me thinking of you

in the blue tone and silhouette of dusk

have you come to witness the fading illumination

upon the ever deepening shadows of sea

notice the white crests of waves

how they strike the shore

displaying such a deep contrast with easy rhythm

that refuses to be banished in the encroaching darkness

just like your simple presence now nestled close

as a salty breeze discovers our hidden haunt

touching with approval

our instance of evocative connection

cafe au lait

there are times

that i sit there and steam

like a mug of French roast

dark and brooding

yet you

beautiful you

like rich smooth cream

you temper my bitterness

and turn our life from

a cup of joe

into
café au lait

a little golden finch

On this coming Sunday, Chaundra and I will celebrate 12 years together...we go to 12 now!  In celebrating that, I will be posting some wordcraft this week reflecting on our life lived as one...

_________________________

a little golden finch

joined me this morning

as i sat outside

deeply embracing

my first cup of coffee

she looked at me

this way

and that

sizing me up

it seemed to me

then she chirped at me

so as to get my attention

as if i was ignoring her

and there was a moment

as we looked deeply

at one another

a breathless moment

when it came down to just us

we saw each other

in reflection

the moment with my finch

was much like so many moments

between my wife and i

breathless

mysterious

curious

looking at each other

waiting for the other

to speak our heart

before the moment

flies away

like that little finch did

encounter with an old oak tree

early one morning

I came across death and life

in an old oak tree

who seemed so gravely stricken 

as he looked straight into me

with a windy, ever-so-slight shrug

and a firm grip, deeply rooted as it was

ever-reaching, ever-searching

for the rations delved out

by a wayward earth

yet I could have sworn

I heard it groan

with an ancient etched-wisdom

of an old bluesman:

‘O, reveal thyself bastard son’

the hairs standing

on the back of my neck

knew it to be true

just as I felt the stone roll away

with a shout

I was freed from the shackles

in that moment

a liberation

confirmed by the

breaking dawn

redemption drawn near

for the old oak tree

through a revelation of me

always getting ready

 

 

We are always getting ready to live, but not living.

 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson