Affluenza and Stewardship

The Rich Young Ruler – Luke 18

18A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. 20“You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’” 21And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 22When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24And Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! 25“For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Three insights: (summarized from Relevant Magazine, May-June 2007) 

Donald Miller – “This guy had said ‘I do everything right,’ and Jesus said ‘ well, do this.’ And he couldn’t do it. Jesus was trying to say, ‘ See you aren’t ok; you are sick just like everyone is sick.’ Then He says, ‘I’ll heal you.’ But the young man said, ‘no thanks, I want to stay sick.’ The real problem is addiction, and the addiction is money. We live in a culture that’s addicted to money and to what money can buy us.

Tony Campolo – “There is no doubt that this story is about money. He goes on in the rest of the chapter when the apostles are asking Him about the meaning of what he just done. He says specifically about riches, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus asks us if we will settle for the material aspects of your life, or are you going to live for spiritual gratifications? Are you going to be My disciples?”

Shane Claiborne – “He says, ‘Sell everything and give it to the poor.’ He doesn’t just say, ‘Sell everything; He says, “Give it to the poor.’ I believe that – from over and over in Jesus’s teaching – Jesus is showing that our faith has to be connected to the poor.” A certain posture is needed to make the connection. “I think it’s so important to not get stuck in. ‘Oh, I’ve got to give up everything out of duty.’ Just as the Scriptures say sell everything you have and give it to the poor, they also say we can sell everything we have and give it to the poor, but if we don’t have love, it’s meaningless.”

Money is the drug of our culture, and we are all addicts. And, just as addicts must detoxify and go through withdrawal, Miller believes that God gives us the principle of tithe to help us. Just as in the OT and God asks for the first fruits (10%), He also asked the farmers to let their fields die every seven years. This odd request actually benefited the farmers because it served to fertilize the land which ended up producing better crops. We too must learn that giving to church communities begins to teach us withdrawal and through it we begin to live life as givers rather than takers.

In the second chapter of Acts, this was evidenced in the lives of the first Church. They shared everything in common, selling all their possessions. This is the NT law that Jesus gives us, not just a hard 10% but a life of giving to others. Imagine our communities living life together in servanthood to each other, and to those outside of us! Where needs of the other take precedence over personal desires.

Cathedrals With Doors That Open Out

“Cathedrals are a fist of faith in fear.”

Len Sweet talks about a small cathedral in eastern Washington state. A man Dr. a. Caleb White has been creating something organic and new out there. One of the beautiful aesthetics of the structure is that they intentionally make their doors that open out rather than in.

He integrates the indoor and outdoors. He brings a garden indoors. But it’s the image of a missional church who’s doors can open outwards, rather than attracting people in.

The beautiful thing about cathedrals is that they point heavenwards so that our attention becomes distractive from the self to the divine. It’s a beautiful thing.

As I re-engage Christians, I will be taking note of their architecture. Doug Pagitt told me to read a book years ago called “When Church Became Theater.” It is an architectural book that studies the morphing of worship space. The author makes a remarkable proclamation in it, she says “everything inside your worship space says something about your theology.”

How true.

It is rather telling to look around a gathering space a think of what that means about their image of God. Sitting at Mars Hill in Grandville says something different than sitting in a living room with Enoch’s Path. Not that one is more “correct” or whatever, just different. Mars’ shed is a box of a room that once housed a JC Penny (I believe) and has been painted white. In the center, they have a squared off circle with screens facing outwards at the roof. The worship band faces in rather than outward. There are twelve sections which represent the twelve tribes of Judah. Then, on each door frame is a Mezzuzah. It all says something about who they are, how they think of God and who they are becoming.

Similarly, at Enoch’s Path gatherings, you will find typical furniture, living space. Not much different from any other home…yet, that’s the point. At our gatherings, the focal point isn’t aesthetic, it is our life’s together that matters. That says something of our view (s) of God.

Next time you gather w/ other people of faith look around and ponder the theology of what you see. Do you see icons, crosses, paintings, sofa’s, coffee, holy water, incense, bands, organs, choirs, high back chairs, pews, pulpits (and the size and position of them).

Then, I’d invite you to begin to see the world around you as your cathedral. Begin to take account of what the world around you says about God. The buildings, the businesses, the people, the clothing, the music, the trees, sky, clouds…

It’s amazing what you notice when you take time to look around.

Anna’s Baptism

Tonight, we celebrated Anna’s  baptism together.  I captured the evening in photo’s. Here are some to enjoy!

   

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Webber Dies

Another leader in the conversation has passed. According to the Webber Institute, Robert Webber died on friday at 6:10pm. Webber had been fighting cancer for some time, but finally lost that battle last night.

Good bye Bob, we’ll miss you.

 

Technorati tags: robert webber, ancient-future, bob webber

What is a "Missional Church"? Allelon Video

Our friends at Allelon have put up the first of two video casts with Ryan Bolger (prof at Fuller) and Alex Roxburgh (like I need to explain who he is). They are talking about what it means when we say “Missional Church.”

Check it out!

link

 

 

Technorati tags: Ryan Bolger, Allelon, videocast, Missional Church

Brian Mclaren: Sorrow Can Make Us Better, Not Bitter

From Sojourners:

 

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

When tragedies like the Virginia Tech massacre occur, we all share certain questions.

Why did this happen? How could this happen? Should anyone be blamed? Should someone be punished?

Often these questions lead us to seek a kind of rational explanation – so that the irrational can be folded into our sense of order in the universe. Often these questions send us on a search for someone to blame – a person, a group, the devil, even God.

I have found that our understandable need for an explanation – often including the need to name someone to blame – springs not just from our rational minds, but also from our hearts, from levels we are barely conscious of.

We feel grief at the loss, pain for our neighbors who suffer, confusion at the irrationality, and anger at the injustice of it all. Sometimes all of these emotions seem to coalesce in a kind of vague rage that simmers inside us, building up like steam in a closed chamber.

We hope that the pressure can be released and the rage relieved by finding an outlet in explaining … or in naming, blaming, and shaming someone for being at fault.

There is certainly a time for seeking explanations, including investigating fault.

But I find we make a mistake in believing that explaining and blaming will help us escape our pain. Pain in times like this, I believe, is not simply something to be escaped, resolved, fixed.

Instead, it is something to be suffered, something that must, in a sense, crash over us like a wave or knock us down like a fever, shake us so that we truly feel our feelings and name them; so that we can speak of them and share them and feel an exchange with others of sympathy, empathy, common grief, and common sorrow.

This kind of sorrow doesn’t make us bitter; it makes us better. It doesn’t make us smug at having an explanation; it makes us humble as we understand our shared vulnerability. It doesn’t make us put up walls of blame; it tears down walls as we feel our common humanity. In so doing, it teaches us wisdom – wisdom that, in the scriptures, is often associated with pain and struggle. It softens us, makes us more sensitive to the pain that others suffer but we often ignore. It forms compassion in us.

We often are tempted to run from this softening process, which is understandable. But as we all share in this experience of tragedy, as we walk through the un-rushable process of feeling and then healing, may we allow the spirit of God to form us into more gracious, compassionate, and wise people. Doing so will raise other questions:

How can I help? Who around me needs to talk? What question can I ask that will allow my neighbors to share their pain, their fear, their anger, their sorrow? How can we open ourselves to the healing presence of God so we can walk together through “the valley of the shadow of death” – so that, even in great sadness, we “fear no evil?” (Psalm 23)

I found myself looking back today on other moments of shared sadness – the terrible assassinations of the 1960’s, the loss of the space shuttle crews, the terrorist attacks of recent years, the outbreak of wars, the 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina … there have been many. I find myself now praying that our current shared sadness will do in us what it can and should. We’re all in this – all of us, all of this – together. Lord, have mercy.

Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is an author, speaker, Red Letter Christian, and serves as board chair for Sojourners/Call to Renewal. His next book, due out in October, will be called Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope.

Too much

Lately things have been too much.

We’ve found out that too many people in our lives our sick. My brother-in-law has melanoma cancer so we are taking him to UofM hospital next Friday to get it cut out of his back. My great nephew is back at UofM hospital with heart problems, and was supposed to be released today but is backsliding. My mother-in-law needs a new hip, and to top it off someone very dear to me (who I promised I wouldn’t mention their name) has vascular disease, diabetes and other complications.

Too many people have already died in this un-winnable war, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear way to end it. It seems like we’ve lost our faith in our own government, perhaps for good reason.

It’s in times like this that I have to ask God if He’s forgotten us. I know that sounds heretical and all, but really, how much more? I know God loves everyone and all creation, I do. I also realize that He entrusts us to tend to all people and creation…but what about those in power who use their power to kill others? What about those who say that God has called them to kill Americans, for being American? It’s too much.

I know that change starts with effort from myself to change things. I understand it, but feel powerless in the face of all that needs changing. Our state government is tedering on the brink of a shut down because two parties can’t get along enough to approve the budget…which means that hundreds, thousands of people will be out of work, not getting pensions…and so on as of next Wed! That is too much.

Then, there’s still an illegal slave trade in the world. There’s a preventable AIDS crisis going on in the world. There are people in the world who don’t have food to eat. Kids dying of cureable disease. There’s so much consumption from the US that we are literally sucking poor countries ability to light their own homes, gas their cars, fuel their economy…and we don’t change. This is all way too much.

But I have to believe that this isn’t a surprise to God. I have to believe that this saddens the Creator and Sustainer of all things. I have to believe that God longs to intervene but can’t understand (yet) why He doesn’t. I choose to believe that the way of Jesus is a way to a better life for human kind…but I see Churches more interested in attendance and money than making positive change happen in the world around them. What good is it to fill a huge building with 10,000 people? What good does it do if all people see Church is a place of goods and 12 step programs to make them better rather than the arm of God for good in the world? If that’s all there is than I’m out. To be honest, I’ve been “out” for many years. While I’ve started creating new space for spirit living and belonging, it isn’t enough. There’s way too much, but I have to believe as the Bride of Jesus, we could all make the war end, feed the kids, heal the world, and bring about a radical change to our land, and the globe.

Like Jeff Daniel sings, “If you’re coming, Jesus…come on”

Stations of the Cross and Prayer Resources

Stations of the Cross downloadable for your computer.

Meditations on Jesus’ Last Hours.

Participation, Connection, Kingdom Living

 I will admit part of my life is very connected to the tastes of a two 1/2 years old appetite. I am a proud parent of two wonderful boys who are 2 1/2 and 8 months old. My world as a stay at home, Jesus follower in a simple church often collide in many different ways. I often find the prophetic word of God can come from the lips of sons mouth as he discovers his world around him. Belive me there are times when the opposite is true also. The other day I was cleaning up (a endless task in my house) while Braden was watching a PBS show called “Its a big, big world”. 

In this show their is a sloth which sings a song in the end of the show.  Part of the songs goes like this :

“I’m a big old sloth
I may be slow
But see my friends
Swing high and low

Come to the big world
It’s a big, big world
Come to the big world
Such a big, big world
It’s a big world

It’s a big, big world”

At the end of the song the sloth puts his hand on the screen and then waves good bye. My son no matter where he is or how busy he is he runs over to the screen.  He loves to participate by reaching his hand up to the screen placing his hand on the sloths hand and then waves good bye.

This reminds me that God has invited and invites us continully into full participation, and connection with him in his kingdom. Just like the Sloth he reaches out his hand as a invitation to join God in the here and now. He does not just send us out all alone offers his hand to us and empowers us to be part of the work in the kingdom today. Do we run in enthusiasm to actively participate, connect with the living God in the Kingdom or community we live in our daily lives? Lets all run and reach out to the hand of God to shape and mold us to live in this big big world. 

                    

 

Matthew 5:47-48 (The Message)

43-47″You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

48″In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

Hello from Michigan

As you may have noticed, I’ve been limiting my posting lately. Partly it is due to lack of energy. The other reason is due to the fact that I’m trying to only post things that I care about (yes, and REM, the Police and so on are things I care about).

My life has taken a weird twist in the past week. I’ve been needing to take a sleep test for a LONG time, and I’ve finally taken it. I discovered that I have sleep apnea and now have a C-PAP machine to help me breate at night.

Another shift is coming in the broadening of my/our vision for Tapestry. At first, Eric and I felt God calling us to create a network of simple churches in Lansing. Then, we decided to create a community around some friends in Grand Rapids. Then, we decided that we were being called to also include creating some non-profits out of this new way of being Christians in our local context. Now, it appears as if God is continuing to stretch this vision to include Flint (an area I’ve had a burden for for a long time). This change, makes us scratch our head and say, perhaps we need to stop limiting the scope of this vision. Maybe we need to simply respond to WHEREVER God leads!

More details will follow, and I’m wanting to protect the people that we are in discussion with so that they can make their decisions privately as needed. But, we are thrilled with this prospect!

So, it looks like God has more up His sleeve. Now, only if I can have the faith to follow it.

I will talk to you all soon.

Chad