Here is the continuation of Brian Walsh’s video below.
As always, very thought provoking ideas and realities being brought to light. In particular, for me at least, are his thoughts on covenant, marriage, and the violence of humanity towards God. I wrote my Masters thesis on the biblical imagery of marriage, especially in the gospels with Jesus and the church portrayed as bride and bridegroom. Very, very loaded images and analogies happening there.
Check out the video.
Any thoughts?
Here is Brian Walsh – theologian and author – discussing the epic narrative of Scripture in terms of “home, homelessness, and homecoming.” It is from the Parish Collective’s Vimeo site and is well worth the 3 minute watch.
I especially enjoy the “earthiness” of his metaphor. As one who is thinking through Scripture, church, theology, and all of their public practices I find this very helpful.
Any thoughts?
“So let us always reflect the image of God in these ways:
I do not swell up with the arrogance of pride;
nor do I droop with the blush of anger;
nor do I succumb to the passion of avarice;
nor do I surrender myself to the ravishes of gluttony;
nor do I infect myself with the duplicity of hypocrisy;
nor do I contaminate myself with the filth of rioting;
nor do I grow flippant with the pretension of conceit;
nor do I grow enamored of the burden of heavy drinking;
nor do I alienate by the dissension of mutual admiration;
nor do I infect others with the biting of detraction;
nor do I grow conceited with the vanity of gossip.
Rather, instead, I will reflect the image of God in that I feed on love;
grow certain on faith and hope;
strengthen myself on the virtue of patience;
grow tranquil by humility;
grow beautiful by chastity;
am sober by abstention;
am made happy by tranquility;
and am ready for death by practicing hospitality.
It is with such inscriptions that God imprints his coins with an impression made neither by hammer nor by chisel but has formed them with his primary divine intention. For Caesar required his image on every coin, but God has chosen man, whom he has created, to reflect his glory.”
- Homily 42 from the Incomplete Work on Matthew
But Jesus says: ‘They [the meek] shall inherit the earth.’ To these, the powerless and the disenfranchised, they very earth belongs. Those who now possess it by violence and injustice shall lose it, and those who here have utterly renounced it, who were meek to the point of the cross, shall rule the new earth. We must not interpret this as a reference to God’s exercise of juridicial punishment within the world, as Calvin did: what it means is that when the kingdom of heaven descends, the face of the earth will be renewed, and it will belong to the flock of Jesus. God does not forsake the earth: he made it, he sent his Son to it, and on it he built his Church. Thus a beginning has already been made in this present age. A sign has been given. The powerless have here and now received a plot of earth, for they have the Church and its fellowship, its goods, its brothers and sisters, in the midst of persecutions even to the length of the cross. The renewal of the earth begins at Golgotha, where the meek One died, and from thence it will spread. When the kingdom finally comes, the meek shall possess the earth.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship
I saw this video, which is for some health company and I can’t edit it to not show that part, at work the other day. It was being shown to demonstrate the new technology being added to our classrooms and the help that would come with it. Teachers need not fear the new technology for the tech specialists were always around ready to guide, lead, and aid them into the future.
Of course, as I watched it all I could think about was how might this be interpreted in relation to God and the Church. These types of things happen regularly with me, especially since I finished seminary a few years back.
It seems to me that many, many people are riding along the escalator their church has determined is the correct one. It is the proper path heading to the proper destination. Now, without going into the horrendous theology that makes the purpose of Christianity a destination, i.e. heaven, we’ll push ahead to another reality present in a large portion of churches.
Just as in the video, many people in the church are merely riding the escalator as passive spectators. Rather than being active participators many church-goers are simply that: church-goers. They religiously show up every Sunday morning for their hour and a half of churchly duty. They interact with each other and wonder who made the coffee this week because it is unusually weak. They sit as if at an entertainment venue (ever notice how even our architectural design perpetuates a passive stance?) where everything is done up front and on a stage. Emotional music, pseudo-therapeutic/self-help sermons, and tv screens all push us, whether we’re aware of it or not, into a passive posture. We come, we consume, we go home. We’ve been conditioned by our culture to be passive and, unfortunately, many of our churches are doing the same.
So instead of being able to simply walk up the escalator-turned-stairs, we become stuck and wonder where the help is. We idly stand by awaiting the professional with the answers. Unfortunately, again, when the paid professional shows up, he too cannot help. From a church perspective, why is this? Why do we get stuck in our Christian lives and await the paid professional (pastor) to get us out of our stagnancy, just to find out that he/she can’t get us anywhere?
I think the problem lies in the lack of discipleship within the Church. As passive spectators we expect the professional, gifted, ultra-spiritual ones to put on “church” for us. We expect them to “do” church for us. We show up, easily enough, for the worship service and head home. Discipleship is tacked on as a by-product or as a secondary result of the worship service rather than the other way around. As has been said elsewhere: You make disciples, you’ll always get a church. You make a church, you won’t always get disciples.
A reality that is becoming more and more prevalent, however, is the lack of discipleship within the ranks of those attempting to lead a church. I have spoken with many pastors, and I include myself in this group, who get to a point where they have graduated from seminary, have gathered people, have taught them, but then hit the wall. There is somewhere or something they have envisioned, but can’t seem to take others there. The problem? Most pastors, especially younger ones, haven’t been made into disciples who make disciples. We have become passive spectators. Just like the mechanic who came to fix the escalator, we get leaders who can lead, but who can’t make others simply walk off of the escalator because they can’t walk off it themselves. People end up hurt, confused, and, in many cases, walk away from their faith because it, like the escalator, seemed broken.
As I said, I consider myself in this group of undiscipled leaders. Discipleship was always a secondary thing compared to Sunday-morning-only “church”. Sure, there were moments here and there, but never any intentional discipleship. Therefore, I have made intentional steps to remedy this. I don’t want to be another Christian who “does church” instead of being the church. I don’t want to be able to put on the worship service and tack on discipleship somewhere. I want to make disciples and then go from there. Simply put, I want to be a disciple who makes other disciples. But I’ll get back to these steps at a later date.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? Does this resonate with you? What am I missing? Thoughts?
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. – Ephesians 3:20
Part of my daily morning routine is to get up a little earlier than I need to. I do this because it’s typically quiet and I can sit downstairs in stillness and silence. Part of this daily rhythm is centering myself around and in the story of God. I do this through readings and prayer as found in the Book of Common Prayer. I use the Daily Office as my primary tool of establishing daily rhythms of reading Scripture and praying for the world, both globally and locally.
One of the closing, short sections of Scripture is the verse quoted above. It is one the verses that are used to show us what we are entering as we close the office. It is used as a sending verse as we enter into the day and its work. It reminds us that we don’t just merely read and pray, but we are to embody these things in our lives as we journey with each other in our following where the Spirit leads.
This verse has become particularly important and fleshed out for me as of late. Let me give some examples, not in an effort to pat myself on the back, but to show how the Spirit works ahead of us and within us in ways we couldn’t imagine.
1. A little over a month ago, we had our second daughter, Ava. Now giving birth is an amazing spectacle and event in anyone’s life. We should all be thrilled when any new life enters the world. Having Ava reminded me of the reality that we don’t just celebrate healthy lives, but we celebrate the birth of every life, regardless of health or not. We would be thankful for Ava if she were healthy or if she were born with difficulties.
Beyond her entrance into our life, it is beyond imagination how her birth has brought people together in our life. We are part of disparate groups (I’m an interim pastor, lead/participate in, what some call, a house church, work in a public school, etc.) that all came together to provide us with meals, gift cards, hugs, and other well-wishes. The outpouring of love for us and our new daughter is something that we are extremely grateful for and humbled by.
2. The other week I was sent a Friend Request on Facebook. It was from someone with whom I had some mutual friends. This was different though because our mutual friends weren’t people from college or work or some random Kevin Bacon-esque connection. All of the mutual friends were either well known pastors, theologians, or bloggers. So as any good Facebook friend would, I accepted her request, but I had to know how in the world she had found me. Apparently, she had read a comment I left on someone’s blog and had followed the link to my blog. From there she read some of my posts and enjoyed what she had read. As we continued to email back and forth on FB, and much to my humbling surprise, she had been giving out printed versions of some of my blog posts to the homeless people she works with in California. Homeless people on the opposite coast of America are walking around with some of my blog posts and (hopefully) finding encouragement and peace: beyond my imagination. I began blogging hoping to get some ideas out there; ideas that would prod people towards deeper action. Never would I have imagined something like this to occur.
I write this to encourage those who blog, preach, answer phones all day, mentor, home-school, stay at home with kids, share lunch with co-workers, have dinners with their lonely neighbors, or have decided to share their lives with others in ways that perhaps go unnoticed. Continue your good work. It is not for nothing.
3. Besides being an interim pastor at St. Andrew’s Anglican, I have been blessed to lead/participate in, what we have called, Dinner and Discussion. Basically, it is a group of people who get together every other Sunday night either at our house or another house from within the group. We all have dinner together, we discuss a biblical/theological topic, pray, and see what ways we can help those outside of ourselves. We are learning how to live life together and do so that makes us better disciples of Jesus. It is slowly evolving, nowhere near perfect, and can be exhausting (at times) to put together.
Thankfully, these past few weeks have produced some encouragement. I have had many conversations with people, including a dinner with some very like-minded folks who don’t know where else to turn to outside of the established evangelical churches in our area and with a Anglican/house church minded dude from Texas. Some folks within the group have shown me, both verbally and by their actions, that God is at work in their life and that the Dinner and Discussion community has aided in that.
Now how in the world did this happen? I have no idea. I know it isn’t all from me and my efforts. Not by a long shot. I am merely trying to be faithful with the vision and call Jesus has on my life. It is my job to listen, follow, and call others to do the same. All of this has gone beyond my imagination and I am humbled to be able to participate in it.
May we all continue to do the work of the kingdom, for there are no meaningless tasks the Spirit calls us to.
Found below is a complete copy of N.T. Wright‘s reflections on Osama bin Laden’s death. It is taken from Kurt Willem’s blog (The Pangea Blog) in its entirety. For those who don’t know, N.T. Wright is considered one of, if not the, world’s premiere New Testament and Early Christianity scholars. He has written an amazing amount of books and articles, which has resulted in his influential voice being found across the world. Not only is he a scholar, but he recently left his position as the Bishop of Durham in the Anglican Church. Feel free to comment below.
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N.T. Wright comments below on the recent situation with Osama bin Laden in light of the Myth of Redemptive Violence. I think we Americans need to listen to relevant evangelical Christian voices from across the pond.
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Former Bishop of Durham Dr Tom Wright has sent us this:
By Tom Wright
(Rt Revd Prof N T Wright, formerly Bishop of Durham, now Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews)
Sunday night we heard the breaking news that Osama bin Laden had been killed. Not only had he been killed, but it was at the order of President Obama and carried out by an elite team of Navy SEALs. In response Americans began to celebrate at Ground Zero in NYC, in front of the White House, Shanksville, PA where Flight 93 crashed, and during the 9th inning of a Phillies-Mets game. American flags returned as the images and emotions of 9/11 flooded the communal memory of most Americans. In a wave of – depending on your view – relief or vengeful delight or fearful dismay or sorrow the events of the day had culminated with this news.
Now before I carry on I want to say that what follows doesn’t mean that I abhor America, our troops, the government or anything like that. I went to Ground Zero shortly after the attacks; I walked through the corridor in the Pentagon where the plane crashed soon after reconstruction began; I mourned at the grave site of Todd Beamer (one of the many who died in Flight 93) one year after 9/11. I have dear friends and family members who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What I offer below are mere thoughts and reflections on how I, as I attempt to follow Jesus, view the events surrounding Osama bin Laden’s death.
I was rather amazed at the reactions that sprang forth on the news. The celebratory delight that came as a result seemed to be founded upon the death of a man. I can understand this (as much as one can understand death and war) from the perspective of national or governmental relations. According to the narrative that the West lives out of, we were attacked and the natural outcome of this is to return violence with violence. The aim of our government is to obviously protect its citizens and its interests. Since we killed the enemy of the state before he was able to inflict more pain and death upon us we win. We win because he lost. He is dead and therefore we are alive. This is the Western narrative in which celebratory actions embody its ideals. So, as an American, I found some relief in his death. But is life really that easy? Is it really that violent? Is life actually that flat?
As a Christian, I cannot accept this because Jesus could not accept this. The narrative that Christians should be living out of has a Jesus at the center of it who tells us odd, countercultural, non-instinctual things. He tells us that when we are hit to turn the other cheek. He tells us that when someone takes away our shirt, we should offer them our jacket as well. Jesus takes things even further when he tells us that we are to love and pray for our enemies. Sure, says Jesus, most people will do this for their friends and family, but, if you are going to follow me, you will go the extra mile and will do this for your enemies.
And why should we do this? Because this is what Jesus did. He turned his other cheek when he was hit. He offered his jacket when his shirt was torn from him. He loved his enemies to the point of actually dying. And in the midst of taking upon himself the violence of the religious, political, social, and supernatural of the world, he humbly forgave the ones doing this to him.
Therefore, I can’t take pleasure in the death of an enemy. And, to be quite honest, as a Christian first and foremost, was he an enemy of Jesus and the Church? Or was he an enemy of the country I just happen to find myself in? A huge problem I see this event pointing out is the true allegiance of people. For quite some time I saw myself as an American Christian, emphasizing the nationality aspect of my identity. The truth is my allegiance is to Christ and the kingdom he brings, which includes loving my enemy. This is the challenge I try to make small steps towards every day.
As Stanley Hauerwas has said,
“I have argued that Christians’ first political responsibility is to be the church, and by being the church they should understand that their first political loyalty is to God, and the God we worship as Christians, in a manner that understands that we are not first and foremost about making democracy work, but about the truthful worship of the true God.This is a deep misunderstanding about how Christianity works. Of course we believe that God is God and we are not and that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit but that this is not a set of propositions — but is rather embedded in a community of practices that make those beliefs themselves work and give us a community by which we are shaped. Religious belief is not just some kind of primitive metaphysics, but in fact it is a performance just like you’d perform Lear. What people think Christianity is, is that it’s like the text of Lear, rather than the actual production of Lear. It has to be performed for you to understand what Lear is — a drama. You can read it, but unfortunately Christians so often want to make Christianity a text rather than a performance.”
Perhaps part of the problem in our world is that we have mistakenly separated out the beliefs of Christianity with the embodied life and practices of Christianity. We all seek peace, regardless of ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, but how can a world believe in a Jesus whose church doesn’t embody its ideals?
Perhaps speaking about loving an enemy, like an Osama bin Laden, seems rather outlandish. And perhaps it is since, in all likelihood, he wouldn’t have had a great influence on our day to day lives. So, for me, I have to wonder how this is actually lived out in my day to day life. It makes me wonder about the reality that there is a convicted felon in my neighborhood. He moved in, fixed up a house, and seems to be contributing to our small neighborhood. Then everyone found out that he is a convicted pedophile who committed an atrocious crime. In many ways, he could possibly be my enemy. Yet, when the rest of the neighborhood has been attempting to evict him from our community, how am I to apply Jesus’ command to love my enemy?
How am I to love a pedophile? Or what about the known drug house down the street? Or the kid who speeds past my house when my daughter and I are outside playing? These are questions I must wrestle with in light of Jesus’ high call to love them.
Can we imagine this? Can the church really be a people that loves that those who are different than us? Are we Americans first and then Christians or Christians first and then Americans? What would it look like if we had actually loved Osama bin Laden? When was the last time you prayed for Osama bin Laden?
How do we come to grips with the reality that Jesus loved Osama bin Laden?
If you haven’t been made aware of it yet, our world is quickly becoming glocalized. I know it sounds like a made up word, and I suppose in some ways it is, but the importance of being familiar with its meaning is paramount. Nearly everywhere we turn we are seeing its affects, resulting both in new challenges and new potentialities. Whereas in days gone past, people were relatively isolated geographically, resulting in their cultures, personalities, and goals being bound locally. Towns, villages, counties, states, and perhaps your country were generally your realms of knowledge and experience. Sure there were people, places, and things “out there” somewhere, but you only read of them or, until relatively recent times, watched them on television.
With the onset of technological innovation, our geographical boundaries, and therefore our cultural ones as well, have exploded. Events happening half a world away now affect you in your local grocery store. Think it isn’t true? Recall the recent Egyptian turmoil mixed with the following government upheavals in the general vicinity of Egypt. Now think about your vegetable and fruit prices. Now think about your gas prices. (Is this starting to sound like an Old Spice commercial?) They are all linked and have multiple networked results in a glocalized world. So that hand grenade thrown at anti-government rebels in a small town in Africa may very well mean your vacation plans going down the tubes.
But this doesn’t just have to discussed negatively. There are multitudes of positive examples. Think about all the aid that has been put together through the glocalized networks of our planet. The other day I heard of a little elementary school boy collecting money for people struck by disaster in Japan. For this little boy, his neighborhood has been drastically altered from his actual neighborhood to a global one in which he, a young American white boy, can actually do something for people in Japan. He is thinking locally while acting globally.
Another example, and one that directly impacts me, has been the glocal relationship between the Anglican Church of Rwanda and the Anglican Mission in the Americas. Not only did the Rwandan church come to the aid and rescue of Episcopalians looking for refuge from heretical bishops, but in turn they came to the rescue of many people who have met Christ through AMiA. Without going into great detail, the Anglican Rwandan church, in the poorest country on Earth, welcomed orthodox Anglicans into their fold in order to send them back to America as missionaries to their own country. Not only did this free them ecclesiastically, but more so missionally for the sake of others. If you want the entire story, I highly recommend Never Silent, which narrates the story of the glocal efforts of the Rwandans and a small band of Americans.
As a result of this, we in AMiA, have taken on some of the Rwandan liturgy. This is just another example of the life-giving result of being connected relationally in a global-local way. Below is the Post-Communion prayer and the Blessing given to end the liturgy every Sunday during Lent. It beautifully captures the essence of why we gather and then are sent out as missionaries to our communities. Thus, together, as a local congregation and a global church, both in America and Rwanda, we are lifting our voices and our lives, in unison, to the God who is community and love. In a very real way, the Eucharist itself is that which glocalizes the world.
“O God of our fathers, before whose face the human generations pass away: We give thanks that in you we are kept safe for ever, and that the broken fragments of our history are gathered up in the redeeming act of your dear Son, remembered in this holy sacrament of bread and wine. Help us to walk daily in the Communion of Saints, declaring our faith in the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the body. Now send us out in the power of your Holy Spirit to live and work for your praise and glory. Amen.”
Then the one leading the service gives the final Blessing, which is responded to by all with an “Amen”:
“May God the Father, who does not despise the broken spirit, give to you a contrite heart. Amen.
May God the Son, who bore our sins in his body on the tree, heal you by his wounds. Amen.
May God the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth, speak to you words of pardon and peace. Amen.
And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.”
Rather beautiful, isn’t it?
One of the fundamental qualities of Ecclesia is the importance of being relational. Trainings, conferences, and other events are infused with times of getting to know one another. Intentional periods of discussion around meals supplemented by impromptu introductions between newly made friends are definitely highlights found within the Network.
While I was at the National Gathering I met people from Los Angeles, Hollywood, Denver, Brooklyn, Chicago, along with people from Iowa, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and New Jersey. Basically, nearly every area of the US was present. This not only enables everyone to get a little synopsis of the life and culture of these areas, but also what God is doing in these areas. The differences in context are certainly there, but the commonalities are rather surprising too. Churches are experimenting with different methods and thoughts; no one is copying each other in an effort to expand the kingdom. Yet, most people are very aware of our common mission: to make disciples.
I truly did enjoy all the random conversations I had with people. I have always been a relational person and feel that everyone has a story to tell. However, there was one conversation I had with my new friend Dave Kludt that sticks out.
I met Dave on Wednesday night as he sitting with my roommates from Denver for dinner. (My new friends Stephen and Jason are pastors at New Denver Church. Check it out.) Dave is an equipper with Kairos Hollywood out in California. (He blogs at Can’t. Catch. My. Breath.) We talked briefly that first evening, but it led to a deeper conversation Thursday during lunch with Dave and his fellow equipper, Audrey.
We discussed a variety of things, but stayed focused on the ideas surrounding what is typically called being bi-vocational. This is, typically within church circles, designated for pastors who get paid by their churches and also have an outside-the-church job. Usually, the nonchurch job takes up the majority of the week’s time. For myself, I work in a Special Education classroom, interim pastor at St. Andrew’s, and lead/partake in a smaller faith community. Dave works at Fuller Seminary while working with a team at Kairos.
The main thing that stuck out during our conversation was the reality of bi-vocationalism. More and more pastors, especially young pastors, come out of seminary, which is typically required by churches, under the load of school loans and looking for pastor jobs. Most churches require an MDiv (Master of Divinity) also known as 3 years of grad school in which you end up with 90-92 credits under your belt. Now since it is 3 years of grad school, most people come out with nearly $30-40,000 in debt. Now don’t forget, this is on top of the debt typically accumulated after 4 years of undergrad work. I have friends who have done both their undergrad and grad work ALL through school loans. For those who don’t know, this means they now owe well over $100,000. That means every month they pay between $1500 and $2000 in school loans. Furthermore, from what I have seen, most churches don’t start young guys with educations and little experience anywhere near enough to balance out their budgets. Needless to say, something has to give.
This isn’t what stuck out, however. Dave told me about his conversations with non-white pastors in California and how being bi-vocational affects them. I had never really thought about it, mainly because I’m a young white dude who grew up in the middle class suburbs, but for many, many non-white pastors being employed by different places has been a reality for quite some time.
We didn’t talk about this much, but Dave’s passing comments really stuck with me. Why is it that most non-white pastors practice a trade that pays the bills while pastoring their church? Why is that our non-white brothers and sisters have been out of their studies and offices meeting people and being influences in their communities while most white pastors have been isolated inside the church walls? Perhaps it is because so many predominantly white churches, especially suburban middle class churches, have had plenty of financial wealth. So much so that they employ multiple pastors with larger paychecks and benefits. (Please don’t hear me saying anything negative about this reality. I’m merely pointing out the bi-vocational situation among white and non-white pastors based on a simple conversation.)
I recently read The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity. It addresses the fact that the Western, especially the American, white church is declining in population while the non-white population is rising. Basically, the underlying premise of the book is the lessons in faith and practice we white Americans can learn from our non-white church family. Such is the case with being bi-vocational. What can we learn from those who have had to be bi-vocational? How can we humbly discuss our struggles and anxieties in ways that can result in them turning into strengths and possibilities? What strategies could we take away from those who have been expanding the kingdom year in and year out in both the pastorate and in public?
There are many other questions that come from this. Hopefully, we can all learn for the benefit of others.
Thanks for the conversation Dave. It was appreciated.
