For such a time as this

This phrase, and the related story from the OT book of Esther has probably fueled many passionate sermons.
“This is your moment to shine!”
“This is our time to take back our nation!”

I don’t know that it needs to be particularly apocalyptic, but I think these are very intriguing times in which to live.
I’m old enough to think about life before _______. Life before computers. Life before instant communication. Life before the world had shrunk to a global village.
And when I think of the ‘before’, I am usually grateful to be living in the ‘after’. Sure, life was simpler a few centuries ago, or even a few decades ago. Back in Norman Rockwell’s time.
But as we look at the incredible happenings of the past few months, as the people of nation after nation start regaining control of their societies, it’s an exhilarating time in which to live.
It’s tempting to be a spectator. To watch the news, maybe even drive by the nearest ‘Occupy’ settlement, and then go back to your suburban ranch house and wonder where it will all end.
Well, we have the opportunity to determine where it will end, or at least what the next steps will be.
We can choose to open our eyes and ears to the grassroots movement for change. And we can do some of our own research (thanks to the internet!). And we can decide to get involved.
As a follower of Christ, you can even look at it all through a scriptural, spiritual lens. And you may be shocked to discover that much of the cry from the faceless masses resonates wonderfully with what the OT prophets cried out for. With what Jesus castigated the Pharisees about. What some of the saints through the ages have worked for.

• Justice.
• Equality.
• Human rights.
• Our natural world.
• Compassion instead of greed.
• Sharing instead of hoarding.

Our local Occupy movement recently posted a “living, breathing document that can, should and must be amended through dialogue and debate” that contained the following paragraph:

“The establishment of a long-term democratic assembly in Centennial Square has underlined for us the necessity of addressing the pressing needs of many who have joined us: the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the mentally ill and those struggling with addiction in our city and beyond. We have been reminded that these brothers and sisters of ours are some of the most deeply affected by economic and social injustice.”

Now that is something that Jesus would have supported wholeheartedly. And something that strikes a chord in my own heart.
And that is by no means the only part of the document that should be preached from your nearest pulpit.

So, to not be a spectator pretty much demands that I become a participant.

• That I get off the fence.
• That I stick my neck out.
• That I open my mouth. (Or post on my blog.)
• That I tip over the odd apple cart (or table of a money changer. Matt 21:12)
• That I become willing to face the disagreement of those who aren’t yet ready to join me, or haven’t yet ‘seen the light’ that I believe I have seen.

Now this ‘such a time as this’ find itself at the altar of a wide variety of sacred cows—and some of them are very, very sacred (and scared).
Some have grazed on our land for generations, even centuries.
But it is time that they fought for their right to own the pasture—or land on my barbecue.
Theologians and thinkers from almost every stripe of the rainbow are skewering left and right. In fact, they come from left, right, and center, Catholic and Protestant, conservative and liberal, or whatever other spectrum you use.
And they aren’t doing it to erase the thought of God, or to minimize God’s influence in the world. Rather, they are pushing us to give God his due, to release God from whatever box you have tried to nail him into (including God’s gender). They are reminding us that Jesus taught us to love our brother—so it’s time we started doing just that.
It truly is a wonderful time in which to live, if you are willing to reassess your own life.
Many people have been feeling nudged to ask questions. Their satisfaction with the answers they were taught is turning into honest doubt.
Not that they are about to abandon ship, but when you finally recognize the sound deep beneath the deck you are standing on is the creaking and groaning of a ship in distress—then it is time to consider your options.
I’m so glad I was nudged (fairly gently) into discovering the underground world of life on the street. A few years back I discovered that not everyone lived in a traditional existence with job, house, family, etc. Through my experiences with CARTS, the Rainbow Kitchen, Occupy Victoria, and other connections, I am realizing that this is another ‘for such a time as this’ moment in my life.

How about you?

‘For such a time as this’ you were brought into this world. (You could have been born a thousand years ago.)
‘For such a time as this’ you are fortunate enough to live in this country—and to use that good fortune to bless others. (You could have been born in a third-world country).
‘For such a time as this’ you were nudged to look outside the box.
‘For such a time as this’ you have been invited to join the present, living, breathing kingdom of God.
‘For such a time as this’ you can take your place… or stay where you are.

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14.

Step into the messy

I like people. I have some awesome friends, friends that I love hanging out with. People that encourage me, challenge me, welcome me. People that are fun to be around.
But these are the easy ones. They don’t necessarily expect or need a lot of attention. They are pretty self-sufficient. They can make it without my help. They are low maintenance. They are my peers.
Sure, we are a blessing to each other. Being together feeds my spirit.
But they don’t require a lot.

Not everyone is like that.
Not everyone is safe within a secure environment.
Not everyone comes from a stable home life.
Not everyone is able to be planning for the future.

Some people are messy.
Their lives are filled with sadness.
They have a dark and sordid past—abuse, poverty, violence, brokenness, emptiness.
They don’t have the history of a secure childhood.
They struggle with mental or physical illness.
Their basic coping mechanisms involve addictions and dependencies.

Oh, they are often more self-reliant than the rest of us.
They can survive on the stuff the rest of us throw away.
They have a support network that gets them through the darkest of days.

But they are messy.
They are black holes that will suck up every little bit of love around, and still seem as sad and empty as before.
They don’t necessarily exhibit the social niceties that we tend to expect from each other—‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’, or ‘Excuse me’.
Not that they are boorish, they just live in a more gritty world where you need to move quickly to get what you can before it is gone.
They are often a little rough around the edges. Their language and behavior speaks more of the street than the board room.
They can be the nicest people you have ever met. They can be pleasant and polite. They can be very grateful.

But they are messy.
They require a commitment of time and love. Lots of time. Lots of love.
They require patience.
Because they often come from a history where trust has been broken so often, trust takes a long time to be built.
As much as they need to be able to tell their story, they are careful with who they tell it to. They don’t want to scare you off, or maybe they do. Some people have so little experience with genuine love that they don’t know how to handle it.

I invite you to step into the messy.
Put on your boots and get out into the real world.
Harden your ears to the coarseness of the language, but soften your heart to the rawness of the story.



Open your spirit to the hunger of their spirit.
Bridge the gap.
Enter their world.

Not as a savior.
Not as a deliverer.
But as a friend.
A friend that has no agenda other than being the best friend you can be.
As Gregory Boyle puts it, "Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a covenant between equals." from Tattoos on the heart
As The Message puts John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”
It’s not about ‘success’, it’s about faithfulness.
Again I invite you to step into the messy.
It’s actually holy ground.

What we really need

The world doesn’t need more experts.
Especially the kind that have it all figured out.
And know it.
And make sure that you know it.

The world doesn’t need more talkers.
It needs more listeners.

Sure, there are lots of people with lots of good things to say.

And that’s just it.
Not just one person has good things to say.
And no one person knows everything good that should be said.
We all have a piece of the whole picture.

So we all need to be heard.
And that means we also all need to listen.

It’s too bad that sometimes your good thing that needs to be said
doesn’t agree with the good thing that I need to say
because we tend to think that
one of us is wrong
and should shut up.

Instead, what we really need, is a place where we can all share our good things in safety.
And then sincerely and honestly look at what has been said
And encourage each other’s ability to see and understand and pass along good things
And help each other see and understand and adjust the parts that maybe aren’t so good.

Oh, it was so handy when we had an expert with his big black book.
An expert who knew exactly what the big black book said and meant.
We could pay him to tell us the good things we needed to know,
and the things we shouldn’t believe that someone else tried to tell us (because he was part of a cult).

But usually the person who was ‘wrong’ to our expert, was an expert to someone else,
And he was telling them
Not to listen to us (because we were a cult).

And more than once
They were both quoting from the same big black book.

So does that mean that everyone is always right,
Even if they don’t agree?
Or that the big black book is useless
Because every expert sees things
Just a little bit differently?

No!
But it does mean (at least to me)
That we need to very quickly
Dismount from our high horses.
And just as quickly
Walk together.

Together with the expert we disagree with.
Together with the expert we can’t see eye to eye with.
And be willing to learn from him.
Humbly.
Meekly.

And we need to follow the teaching of the Master in the big black book
When he said we shouldn’t be so quick to judge.
And that maybe what we should expect to see
Isn’t profound wisdom
But profound love.
(not only from our experts, but from all of us)

The kind of love that listens to someone with a different point of view.
The kind of love that tries to learn from someone who understands something from the big black book in a different way.
The kind of love that understands that being an expert
Isn’t really a good thing at all
If it comes across as being an arrogant know-it-all.

Because God knows there are way more than enough of those around already.
And for some reason we have tended to worship
The ground they walk on,
And the pulpits and TVs that they preach from.
And the books that they write.
And when the Great Moment of Truth comes,
And God sets us all straight,
Perhaps we will have to acknowledge why we
Exalted our experts
Over Him.
And worshiped our way of understanding the big black book
Over His loving character.

And why we didn’t even listen to the guy who disagreed with us
That God had sent to try to set us straight.
(although we certainly expected him to listen to us,
For the very same reason).

Yes, I’m sure there are absolute truths
Truths that cannot be denied.
But I doubt that any of us have really figured very many of them out.
You might have a couple,
And I might have one,
And some nice lady from India
And an old guy from Africa
Might have some more.

We really don’t have the right
Or God-given privilege
To claim that
My truth
Is better than yours
Because it was spoken from white lips of European ancestry.
Male lips
Straight lips
Rich lips
Conservative Evangelical Fundamentalist Born-again Christian lips.

‘Cause after all,
Our religion
Is (supposedly) based on the teachings of a guy
Who wasn’t European, white, rich, or a Conservative Evangelical Fundamentalist Born-again Christian.

He really wasn’t, you know.
He wasn’t even a Christian.
I’m not so sure if he would want to be if he was walking the earth today.
I kinda think Christians might well receive similar tongue-lashings
To what he gave the Pharisees.

The big black book says he is the Way, the Truth, the Life.

And I think that means that we aren’t.

Too often we are
In the Way,
Disguisers of Truth,
And more dead than Alive.

James says (near the end of the big black book);
“Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards. And none of us is perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths.” (James 3:1, The Message)
And from Richard Rohr’s The Naked Now” chapter called ‘Yes, but’ a few choice quotes:
“Yes, the mind is very useful, but when it does not recognize its own finite viewpoint it is useless.

Yes, the mind can serve the world, but in fact it largely serves itself.

Yes, the mind is needed, but we also need other ways of knowing or we will not know well, fully, or freely.

Yes, the mind likes to think, but until it learns to listen to others, to the body, the heart, and all the senses, it also uses itself to block everything it does not like to do or to acknowledge.

Yes, the mind is our friend, but when we are obsessive or compulsive, it can also be our most dangerous foe.

Yes, the mind welcomes education, but it also needs to be uneducated, to learn how much of what it "knows" is actually mere conditioning and prejudice.”
It is only as we are willing to listen to and learn from others that we really begin to “be the change that we wish to see in the world.” (Gandhi)

Dogs, cats, and the least of these

I just returned from a week back home in Alberta. My lovely niece got married, and that gave me a great reason to go back and visit the family. Once my sister had recuperated from her mother of the bride duties, I spent a few days out relaxing at their place in the country. I missed seeing some of the friends I usually get to see, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

My sister’s family includes two gorgeous Golden Retrievers. They are about 11 months old, close to full grown physically, but still puppies—and therein lies the tale.

The dogs are siblings—the male is larger than the female, and each has quite distinct personalities.

As most puppies, they are very playful and attention seeking. The female has this unconscious need to put her paw up on whatever is close—your leg, your arm, the chair, and she doesn’t realize that her claws have a bit of a bite. No matter how much love and attention she is getting, she seems to need to put her paw up to make sure that you know she is there.

And the male. He is definitely becoming an alpha male. He doesn’t do the paw thing. He doesn’t have to. He just barges into the middle of the action, pushing the female to the side.

In both cases, they seem to need the reassurance of your love. No matter how much you might be focused on them already—scratching, rubbing, talking, playing—they need to see that love in their own way.

It rather reminds me of God and us. No matter how much his love and attention are aimed our way, we seem prone to have to see it expressed in our own language. Even though we already have his undivided attention, we still barge in. “See me God? Here I am. I love you. See how much I love you? Do you hear me? Do you know I’m here? Did you know that I love you?” etc. etc.

And we don’t even realize it if we run over someone else as we push ourselves onto God’s lap. It’s not that we aren’t already the apple of his eye, but we need to be reminded constantly even when our methods might be a bit obnoxious like the incessant paw or constantly licking tongue.

We can rest in his love, we really can. Like a conscientious pet owner, God has our best interests at heart, loves us faithfully, and loves to be with us. We don’t need to fight for his attention, or try to put on the best show in order to be loved.

In the same household is a cat.

Cats, of course, are different. They don’t tend to ask for the constant affirmation, but they do like hanging out, being scratched and loved on. But the dogs run roughshod over the poor cat who often just walks away, back into her own little world. Just as appreciative of love, but not so pushy.

The cat is kind of like the ‘least of these’ the Jesus talked about. Not strong enough to push their way to the front. Not so self-centered as to expect to be the center of attention.

But just as capable of expressing love, especially when being cared for one-on-one.

And maybe that’s why I care so much for the ‘underdog’ (or under cat). I know how capable of love they are, how deserving, and yet how much of a challenge it can be for them to get treated equally.

Now, if only those two attention seeking canines would quit hogging the limelight, there would be space for the feline to get some loving.

Your love makes me…WHAT???

A few weeks ago I was singing the Doerksen/Brown song Hallelujah (Your love makes me sing). I’ve sung it millions of times (OK, perhaps only thousands), but this time one line really tripped me up.
-The song is about the awesome, amazing love of God. Check
-It’s strong, gentle, mysterious, good and solid. Check
-It hits us in many different times and circumstances of life. Check
-And as I realize how incredible this love is, when I begin to respond to it, when I recognize the magnitude of this love, what is the most appropriate, most stupendous thing I can do in response?
Sing.
Sing?

The most incredible demonstration of affirmation and compassion has exploded into my life, and the best I can do is get together with some other like-minded people and sing.
Does that sound rather feeble to you?
And perhaps less than appropriate given the power and purpose of love?
Sure, I have always loved music. There are wonderful examples of great music. And music is a great tool for communicating ideas.
But is a song the best way to respond to something as powerful as the love of God?

Here are some of my thoughts:
• In recent years the church has been inundated with ‘worship’ music. Worship (among other things) means worthship. But is talking/singing about something wonderful the best way to demonstrate that it is wonderful? Is the best form of worship our voices? Or is it our actions?
• We refer to God as Creator. Is talking the best way to honor the Creator? Or maybe being creative ourselves, and maybe by valuing the creation around us?
• We speak of God as gracious. Do we sing about grace? Or extend that grace to others?
• I believe the best way to honor the worth-ship of someone or something is to reflect that which we value back out into our world. We have experienced the love of God. We honor and desire to declare the worth of that love. What better way to demonstrate how incredible that love is than to reflect that same love to someone else?
• The love of God isn’t just to make us feel good, just to give us a theme for a song. It is to change the world, to bring the Kingdom.
• What do you think warms God’s heart more? Us gathering in our clubs, singing our pep rally songs, or us showing the value we place on His love by passing it along to someone else?

In Luke 6 Jesus teaches about trees being known by their fruit, and good men being known by the good treasure that comes out of their heart. Then he says; “Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)
As I thought about that verse, I wondered what Jesus would say about what we call worship. Are we just saying/singing nice things about him, or are we actually following his teaching?
When he tells us in Matthew 25 that we are to care for the least of these, are we putting our energy into doing that? Or are we spending our time, effort, talent, and finances singing nice songs in a nice sanctuary with some other nice people (not even aware of the least of these on our doorstep)?

What a riot!

Last night’s nonsense in Vancouver caused many of us to re-think some of our loyalties. Not so proud to be a Canadian male right about now. Of course, those few hundred testosterone and alcohol filled, brain cell emptied specimens are in no way representative of the majority, but they do raise a few questions.

Some I direct towards my 20- and 30-something friends. These fine upstanding citizens are from your generation. What can you tell the rest of us that will help us understand their psyche? I mean this question honestly—how do you read the general tone of your peers? What do you think last night’s shenanigans tell us is important to your demographic? Every generation likely has its own sense of what is important, and what isn’t. My generation needs to have a better understanding of yours, so help me out here.

My generation reacted to life around it with the hippy movement—a strong statement that the values of our parents weren’t necessarily our values. And each generation since is probably responding against what it sees are the errors of the previous ones.

So, does the apparent lack of valuing personal property say something about how your generation perceives the values of previous generations? How about the apparent lack of value for human life? What else do you see in last night’s actions--what motivated them? What about the apparent need to be part of the crowd, to be part of something bigger than oneself?

And how about the value being put on getting your face splashed across social media. That seems to be part of the goal—‘Look at me, I’m breaking a store window! I’m going inside and ripping stuff off of the shelves! And I’m proud of myself!!’ Or, ‘Look at me! I can tip a car over! I can light it on fire! Aren’t you impressed!!’ What does that say is important to your fellow humanoids? Let me repeat—I’m not saying everyone 20 or 30 years old is likely to cause a riot, but that generation has values that I am trying to understand.

To all of us I ask: What are we doing about it? If we see a negative shift in the things we feel are important, what are we doing to promote and revitalize what we see as valuable? If some of us are part of the generations that potentially gave rise to this shift, how are we making amends? If others are part of the generation that now is wreaking havoc, how are you influencing your peers in a positive way?

And what can we learn from this generation? Maybe we need to learn that there are more important things in life than possessions, and big corporations. Maybe we need to learn to live more in the moment, and less for the $$$.

What do you think? I’d really like some feedback.

So, what have we learned?

In the light of yesterday’s non-event (judgment day), what have we learned?
It seems every second month some self-proclaimed messenger of God makes statements that make many of us wince.
These past days it has been Harold Camping. Before that it was Terry Jones, the Koran burning pastor. Then it was Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church. In times past Pat Robertson made a stir with his words about Haiti. And on it goes.
But do we learn anything from the ill-advised comments/pronouncements of some who consider themselves followers of Christ? Are we gaining ground?
Or rapidly losing it?

For some, the back pedaling from Mr. Camping goes no further than repeating the mantra that the Bible itself tells us not to set dates. As if everything else Mr. Camping has been preaching is A-OK, but he shouldn’t have put a date on it.
And that Mr. Jones just shouldn’t have actually burned the Koran although his inflammatory rhetoric against Muslims is fine.
And that Mr. Phelps probably shouldn’t be picketing funerals—but his theology is otherwise kosher.
In other words, many are still holding to the main thrust of these ‘prophets’, just not the last step that put them over the top.
Many still totally see God as a terrible being, ready to toss his lightning bolts at anyone who doesn’t line up with some arbitrary interpretation of the Bible. They still preach that the ‘Good News’ of the Gospel is that God is anxiously waiting to judge almost everyone—except them. That his strongest desire is to populate hell with as many people as possible.

As long as we think the main thrust of the preaching of the Gospel is judgment,
we haven’t learned anything from the likes of Messrs. Camping, Jones, Phelps, Robertson et al.