Vik and I have been doing a lot of thinking as the end of our year looms. We’ve came to a few conclusions about our time here.
We’ve changed- This is apparent by our appearances alone. When we three volunteers came our hair was all long and flowing (we all three of us looked like rejected hippies). We will all leave St. Mark’s with hair cropped quite short. Beyond the apparent changes we’ve also been living in a very specific place, doing jobs that come with their own jargon. We’ve also been living together in tight quarters for the last year; our personalities are beginning to rub off on one another. And that doesn’t even get into the fact that poor Vik has been thinking and speaking in English for the last year.
The people we are going back to have changed too- My best friend has a fiancé; my dog is dead; I’m going to a friend from way back in Elementary school’s wedding. To top that off as Vik recently pointed out while I’m acting like a 50 year old my parents, who are now living in Alaska, are acting like 20 somethings.
We feel loyal to England- When we toast the Queen it’s more or less a joke, and we aren’t going to start singing impromptu choruses of "Rule Britannia" as he sees me off to the airport. That said we really feel close to Britain. For example, if we met someone from the UK in our homelands who was lost we would move heaven and earth to see them to where they were going.
Very few people will ever understand the things we have done here, and that’s okay- I think I may have gotten the first part of that statement from that WWI book I read for Novel Approach (not to mention the Gettysburg Address), but none the less it’s true. It would take a whole year to describe to someone what this year was like, and even after said description the poor power of words would show through and they still wouldn’t understand what we’ve done. I remember a specific episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Malcolm is visiting colleges. He meets this one girl who did an exchange year in Barcelona (she keeps pointing out it’s properly pronounced "Barthalona"), and she can’t shut up about it, every sentence she says starts with, "I remember when I was in Barthalona…" We realize we don’t want to be like that so we’ve decided to look at our time at St. Mark’s sort of like it was Narnia. That is, we’ve been through the Wardrobe and we realize anything we tell anyone about our time there will not really be understood. Therefore it is best for us just to be glad we’ve been to Narnia and treasure it in our heart until we return there for our next adventure.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
The sermon from the RYPpers worship
Romans 8. This is a strange bit of the bible to preach from about the Trinity; and suffering is a strange place to start such a sermon. Then again we proclaim a strange faith.
A faith- that professes that the Father, good, holy, the arbiter and foundation of all that is Good and Holy, created the world. Created Eden, created perfection, yet things are all messed up. There is murder in the garden; there is starvation in the garden. The garden is sick with pollutants and man is polluted with the sickness of sin.
A faith- in the Son, a man murdered by a powerful empire that has long since become dusty tomes in a dusty library.
A faith- that, in this loud and extraordinarily busy and self important world, where indifference trumps action, materialism trumps morals, and where it seems more important to watch Friends than make them, in this world where we attempt to drowned out the voice of God, we claim that the Holy Spirit is as close to us as our jugular vein.
A faith- that knows one God, and yet knows God as Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit.
A strange faith.
Yet a faith worth suffering for. A faith- with many martyrs. A faith- the first of those martyrs, St. Stephan was stoned for. A faith- the Apostle Paul was whipped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and eventually died, for.
While they are very important it is not just those noble sufferings of the saints of old that we should consider when reading this letter of the Apostle Paul. No, we ought also think of the perennial problems of life, the problems that make all of creation fall to futility.
All of humanity, each and every last one of us, is a card within a house of cards. We were all stacked carefully and precariously atop one another. Even the slightest breath, a slight jarring of the table, would cause the whole house to fall down. And that deck of cards has fallen down a long time ago, and we are constantly attaining toward a return to our original placement. Every personal sin is a card falling, knocking down the whole deck. This deck is in a constant flurry of motion, Jacks falling atop crazy eights, and twos upon Kings. Every time a wall of a house is reconstructed two more fall down. The interactions of these cards grow in intensity until they become a splashing, bubbling sea of black, red, and white.
But we can’t stop there, for we should consider the present sufferings/ be they physical pain, emotional ache, or spiritual distress. And we must realize suffering has meaning. It turns us back to what once was. It is the echos of Eden that makes us ache. It is a yearning for God.
More than that a calling from the Father. A calling to live as Children of God. To live into the goodness of creation as it was made by God.
So the Father has "subjected us to hope." So the Father has left us with a distinct feeling that things can, should, be better. That’s good news isn’t it? (ask again)
And still there is more gospel, more good news. God’s son, Jesus, entered into creation. He was born into this suffering as you and I were. He lived for some 30 years teaching about the Kingdom of God and the Love of God. He suffered on a Roman cross, and died there. Yet the "bondage of decay" would not hold him.
In this way the Son’s Life, Death, and Resurrection, bring us closer still to the new creation we yearn for. We have hope for "the redemption of our bodies." That is, death no longer controls our bodies because we have the hope of Resurrection and New Life. That’s good news isn’t it? (ask again)
And there is more gospel, more good news. After Jesus left his apostles they were gifted with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave them the ability to proclaim the saving message of Jesus to the ends of the earth, and were led by the spirit to do many things, including welcome non-Jews as equal followers of Jesus.
And we Christians today are heirs to those first followers of Jesus. And we still are animated by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit still helps us in our weakness, that we may be and become Children of God, and live in the new creation that we now "groan inwardly for."
God is still with us, the "Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words." That’s good news isn’t it? (ask again)
The good news today, more than any abstract, or even concrete, statement about the nature of God, any statement about the Trinity, is this.
"I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ our Lord."
A+A
A faith- that professes that the Father, good, holy, the arbiter and foundation of all that is Good and Holy, created the world. Created Eden, created perfection, yet things are all messed up. There is murder in the garden; there is starvation in the garden. The garden is sick with pollutants and man is polluted with the sickness of sin.
A faith- in the Son, a man murdered by a powerful empire that has long since become dusty tomes in a dusty library.
A faith- that, in this loud and extraordinarily busy and self important world, where indifference trumps action, materialism trumps morals, and where it seems more important to watch Friends than make them, in this world where we attempt to drowned out the voice of God, we claim that the Holy Spirit is as close to us as our jugular vein.
A faith- that knows one God, and yet knows God as Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit.
A strange faith.
Yet a faith worth suffering for. A faith- with many martyrs. A faith- the first of those martyrs, St. Stephan was stoned for. A faith- the Apostle Paul was whipped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and eventually died, for.
While they are very important it is not just those noble sufferings of the saints of old that we should consider when reading this letter of the Apostle Paul. No, we ought also think of the perennial problems of life, the problems that make all of creation fall to futility.
All of humanity, each and every last one of us, is a card within a house of cards. We were all stacked carefully and precariously atop one another. Even the slightest breath, a slight jarring of the table, would cause the whole house to fall down. And that deck of cards has fallen down a long time ago, and we are constantly attaining toward a return to our original placement. Every personal sin is a card falling, knocking down the whole deck. This deck is in a constant flurry of motion, Jacks falling atop crazy eights, and twos upon Kings. Every time a wall of a house is reconstructed two more fall down. The interactions of these cards grow in intensity until they become a splashing, bubbling sea of black, red, and white.
But we can’t stop there, for we should consider the present sufferings/ be they physical pain, emotional ache, or spiritual distress. And we must realize suffering has meaning. It turns us back to what once was. It is the echos of Eden that makes us ache. It is a yearning for God.
More than that a calling from the Father. A calling to live as Children of God. To live into the goodness of creation as it was made by God.
So the Father has "subjected us to hope." So the Father has left us with a distinct feeling that things can, should, be better. That’s good news isn’t it? (ask again)
And still there is more gospel, more good news. God’s son, Jesus, entered into creation. He was born into this suffering as you and I were. He lived for some 30 years teaching about the Kingdom of God and the Love of God. He suffered on a Roman cross, and died there. Yet the "bondage of decay" would not hold him.
In this way the Son’s Life, Death, and Resurrection, bring us closer still to the new creation we yearn for. We have hope for "the redemption of our bodies." That is, death no longer controls our bodies because we have the hope of Resurrection and New Life. That’s good news isn’t it? (ask again)
And there is more gospel, more good news. After Jesus left his apostles they were gifted with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave them the ability to proclaim the saving message of Jesus to the ends of the earth, and were led by the spirit to do many things, including welcome non-Jews as equal followers of Jesus.
And we Christians today are heirs to those first followers of Jesus. And we still are animated by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit still helps us in our weakness, that we may be and become Children of God, and live in the new creation that we now "groan inwardly for."
God is still with us, the "Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words." That’s good news isn’t it? (ask again)
The good news today, more than any abstract, or even concrete, statement about the nature of God, any statement about the Trinity, is this.
"I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ our Lord."
A+A
Monday, July 24, 2006
Hobnobbing with the High and mighty
The last few days things in my life have been very highbrow. On Friday I went to Cambridge and hung out with a bunch of cool-hyper-intelligent theology professors at Charlotte Hempel about 4QMMT Miqsat Maaseh Ha-Torah, a Dead Sea scroll, as well as meeting John Piper.
Then yesterday the St. Mark’s crew was invited to Lord Braybrook’s. The tea was a fundraiser for St. Mark’s so we went there to shmooze (which I found out yesterday from Vik, in German refers to foreplay, not socializing, so I use the word in it’s American context!) with all the posh people there. So now I can say I’ve had tea with an English Lord and Lady!
I have to admit rubbing elbows with the "high and mighty" was kind of fun, and it makes me remember more clearly that we as Christians are called to minister to the low and weak ones; to the Ungoogleable ones, so to speak!
Peace,
Chris
Then yesterday the St. Mark’s crew was invited to Lord Braybrook’s. The tea was a fundraiser for St. Mark’s so we went there to shmooze (which I found out yesterday from Vik, in German refers to foreplay, not socializing, so I use the word in it’s American context!) with all the posh people there. So now I can say I’ve had tea with an English Lord and Lady!
I have to admit rubbing elbows with the "high and mighty" was kind of fun, and it makes me remember more clearly that we as Christians are called to minister to the low and weak ones; to the Ungoogleable ones, so to speak!
Peace,
Chris
Thursday, July 20, 2006
With your mission coming to a close, what's next?-ZL
Thanks for asking. I’ll be flying into Eugene Oregon to see my friends there and give a presentation about my mission. Then I’ll fly into Cheyenne Wyoming, go to a friend’s wedding, preach the next day, and give a presentation about my mission. Then a week after that I go down to Denver for my Candidacy Committee meeting. Then I fly to Anchorage Alaska and spend some time with my parents. Then we take a 56-hour car ride to Minnesota for a heart check-up, and then I fly back to England on to start a Master of Philosophy of Divinity degree in Cambridge! My thesis is tentatively about Genesis chapter 22, the Binding of Isaac.
Peace,
Chris
PS it's HOTTT here in England. Being out in the sun isn't too fun. I've become a "redneck" in the most literal sense.
Peace,
Chris
PS it's HOTTT here in England. Being out in the sun isn't too fun. I've become a "redneck" in the most literal sense.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
I've never cut a sermon this close before
It's 1:19AM here. I've finished my sermon I'm preaching tomorrow morning at Abbey Lane URC. I've never been this close to not finishing a sermon, and my frantic haste by the end has made me lose some objectivity. I can't tell if it is brilliant or bumbling. I'm a little worried that I may have lost sight of a theology of the cross. By the end it became sort of a situational sermon, sort of a goodbye and thank you to Abbey Lane. I'll report on how it went after the fact.
Peace,
Chris
ALL THINGS SHALL BE UNITED AND HOLY IN CHRIST
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD.
There is a great division. A division as real as the severing of John the Baptist’s head. A division wider than the English channel. Greater than the divide created by the Great Wall of China, greater that the Grand Canyon. A division more vast than the Gobi desert or the Pacific Ocean. A division greater even than the space that divides Galaxy from Galaxy. This is the division between humanity and God.
It is an understandable division. God, after all, is the IAMWHOIAM. God doesn’t need a name to put in relation to reality, for the act of reality itself is of God. Even when we put names to God they are supremely exalted ones. The unpronounced tetragrammeton- Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, El-Elyon-God most high, El Shaddai-God Almighty, and Adoni Tzavot-The Lord of Hosts. The Psalmist sings of God’s unimaginable power and dominion when he writes, "The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof/ the World and those who dwell therein."
We who dwell therein, in contrast, are mere creatures; called into being by God’s Word, God breathed, marked forever with the image of our creator, yes, but creature none the less. We are finite, with limited vision. Yes, there is a definite division between heavenly things and earthly things, Things of God, and things of Man, of Spirit and of dust.
When Moses went up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments from God his face became bright, seared with the holiness of God, reflecting the holiness of God. To prevent this sanctity from spreading and becoming a deadly contagion amongst the people he would wear a veil.
Second Samuel Chapter 6, today’s Old Testament reading, which wasn’t read today because when I was planning the liturgy I didn’t see its connection to the other readings, deals with King David transporting the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem. The Ark, which according to the Epistle to the Hebrews contains Manna from Israel’s trek in the wilderness, Aaron’s staff, and the 10 Commandments given to Moses by God upon that holy hill, is seen as representing the very presence of God. The Ark is much more than just a box containing holy things, but the throne of God. God was thought to, at least symbolically, sit between two golden cherubim atop the Ark’s lid. In today’s reading Uzziah, the son of a priest, saw that the Ark was tipping as it was being transported to Jerusalem, and reached out his hand to steady the Ark. God struck him dead instantly. As I said, there is a great division between us and God.
Psalm twenty four, which I read for the scriptural sentence this morning, also has a connection to the Ark. This Psalm is thought to have been sung while the Ark proceeded into the Temple. Listen to the divisive challenge of these words, "Who shall ascend the LORD’s hill?" "Who shall stand in his Holy place?"
When I think about how people treat holy things my mind wanders back to childhood. My family and I spent three weeks in Egypt. There I remember touring a great mosque (Mohammad Ali Mosque) in Cairo. Before entering that holy place our feet were wrapped in cloth bags so we would not pollute that Muslim sacred space. Holiness isn’t something to be easily trodden on, it is not a gentle playmate, but a fierce, transcendence in the presence of which we must take off our shoes and make ourselves ready to experience God.
The best biblical example of this great division that I can think of can be found in the Book of Leviticus. This book is probably the most systematic working out of purity laws found in the Bible. Everything is covered there, from dietary laws, to how to deal with menstruation, to how to distinguish if you are pre-maturely balding, or have leprosy. All these laws and regulations can be summed up as an attempt to keep separate "the sacred and the profane, the impure and the pure" things of life and things of death, heavenly things and earthly things.
Yet in Paul’s letter to "the saints who are" he says to us in the form of an early Christian hymn that God’s plan was, "set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." In some ways we have the whole gospel right here in these 11 verses of Ephesians. Because God loves us we have been graced with redemption. This forgiveness of our trespasses comes through Christ’s blood. Because of this we are, and shall become, holy and blameless before the LORD. We are made Children of God. We will all be united in worshiping God.
All this starts with Christ. —If you will remember last time I preached here I mentioned an image of Christ from the mind of Karl Barth, the image of an hour glass. If God is the top half of the hourglass, and we are the bottom half, Christ is the center that unites the two halves. In Christ we see God.
In Christ/ the great IAM is given face and form, bones and blood.
In Christ/ Dustman and Deity are made one and holy.
In Christ/ the sinner, tax collector, and prostitute, are gathered in as God’s people. In Christ/ the stigmatizing uncleanness of leprosy is cured and the menstrual blood, that strange mixture of life and death, is stopped after 12 continuous years of flow.
In Christ/ we are "redeemed through his blood." In Christ/ we are "graced with forgiveness."
In Christ/ life overturns death.
In Christ/ all things shall be united and holy. In Christ/ we may come before God and worship.
Now let me be clear, as I talk about unity I am not talking about indifference. I am not talking about the lines blurring between "light and darkness, dusk and dawn, cruelty and compassion, good and evil." No, in Christ there is difference, darkness is made light, dusk emerges into dawn, cruelty is raised up and finds the high ground of compassion, and evil is transformed into good.
Nor when I talk of unity am I affirming some sluggish centrism where kinder gentler Tories live in a constant photo op with their perky smiling families or where muscular more military Labor party members hug nuclear weapons tight to their chest. No. Unity calls for a bold prophetic approach. After all John didn’t get his head chopped off for his half-measures, but for his giving of the full measure to God. If we take Paul seriously we have to act prophetic, we have to live into an Eschatology of Unity.
Let me unpack what I mean by an Eschatology of Unity. Eschatology means "dealing with end things." Dealing with where this whole wild ride known as history is going to, is headed toward. So, believing that God’s ultimate purpose is to unite all things in Christ is to have an Eschatology of Unity.
Why is this important? Because how we view God’s "plan for the fullness of time" will effect how we live, how we see the Spirit, and how we will respond to our high calling as Children of God.
For example, if we look to an end where evil is punished and good rewarded, where Jesus trades his meek donkey in for a war horse, where the prince of peace wades through the bodies of the wicked, we’ve went off track. With such a view the church quickly falls into a paralysis, spending all of its time trying to figure out who’s in and who’s out, who’s holy and who’s profane, and that’s a recipe for disaster. As my pastor back in Cheyenne always says, "when you draw a line in the sand to say who’s in and who’s out Jesus will always be on the other side of that line" ministering to the outcasts and the sinners.
If we look at the world through the eyes of an Eschatology of Unity then we find ourselves in line with the prophets and visionaries of every age. We find Zechariah looking forward to a day when every bell rings out the words, "Holy to the LORD," and the very scrubbing pots become holy vessels of worship. We find Isaiah looking forward to a day when, "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level and the rough places a plain." A day when "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." We too shall echo the words of John the author of Revelation; "there shall no more be anything accursed."
And you know what. No matter how inspiring, compelling, foolish, and utterly impossible, these words may sound, I believe them. More than that I see them today! In occasional flashes. In glimpses. Yes, the Spirit occasionally blows a little Galilean wind our way.
Over this last year my understanding of the global and universal nature of the church has blossomed. I have worshipped with people from 5 continents (maybe even 6! I unfortunately can’t tell the accent of an Australian from that of a Scotsman.) I’ve seen the healthy Eccumenicism of the churches of Saffron Walden. They are respectful of what each congregation is, and mindful of how they are connected to the whole. I guess that’s the blessing of being a stranger in a strange land. When your own tree disappears you can finally see the forest. I have went from being a Lutheran in the United States to being a Lutheran lent to an ecumenical British organization, lent to an Anglican Diocese, worshipping at the United Reformed Church.
And yes, I feel the Holy Spirit blowing here. When I think of the joint project you and the Salvation Army are endeavoring on, I smile. I feel the wind of God interspersed in the winds of change that are evident here by the construction back behind us. I think of the positive message of Christian Unity you are sending to Saffron Walden, which will combat the reputation that the Church has earned for bickering over minute points and trivialities.
They say Christians are known for the way they love one another. And I have to say I’ve felt loved here. I have seen Christ here, in your welcoming, in the friendships I have formed here, in your inviting me to preach today in this pulpit. Christ has told us to offer a cup of water in his name, and this church has done that for me. The water happened to be boiling and contained a tea bag, but you did it.
We will work toward unity, knowing that we have already been united in Christ, and that, despite all the upheaval that points to the contrary, we are headed toward a time where we shall be united in worship and praise of the LORD. A+A
Peace,
Chris
ALL THINGS SHALL BE UNITED AND HOLY IN CHRIST
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD.
There is a great division. A division as real as the severing of John the Baptist’s head. A division wider than the English channel. Greater than the divide created by the Great Wall of China, greater that the Grand Canyon. A division more vast than the Gobi desert or the Pacific Ocean. A division greater even than the space that divides Galaxy from Galaxy. This is the division between humanity and God.
It is an understandable division. God, after all, is the IAMWHOIAM. God doesn’t need a name to put in relation to reality, for the act of reality itself is of God. Even when we put names to God they are supremely exalted ones. The unpronounced tetragrammeton- Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey, El-Elyon-God most high, El Shaddai-God Almighty, and Adoni Tzavot-The Lord of Hosts. The Psalmist sings of God’s unimaginable power and dominion when he writes, "The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof/ the World and those who dwell therein."
We who dwell therein, in contrast, are mere creatures; called into being by God’s Word, God breathed, marked forever with the image of our creator, yes, but creature none the less. We are finite, with limited vision. Yes, there is a definite division between heavenly things and earthly things, Things of God, and things of Man, of Spirit and of dust.
When Moses went up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments from God his face became bright, seared with the holiness of God, reflecting the holiness of God. To prevent this sanctity from spreading and becoming a deadly contagion amongst the people he would wear a veil.
Second Samuel Chapter 6, today’s Old Testament reading, which wasn’t read today because when I was planning the liturgy I didn’t see its connection to the other readings, deals with King David transporting the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem. The Ark, which according to the Epistle to the Hebrews contains Manna from Israel’s trek in the wilderness, Aaron’s staff, and the 10 Commandments given to Moses by God upon that holy hill, is seen as representing the very presence of God. The Ark is much more than just a box containing holy things, but the throne of God. God was thought to, at least symbolically, sit between two golden cherubim atop the Ark’s lid. In today’s reading Uzziah, the son of a priest, saw that the Ark was tipping as it was being transported to Jerusalem, and reached out his hand to steady the Ark. God struck him dead instantly. As I said, there is a great division between us and God.
Psalm twenty four, which I read for the scriptural sentence this morning, also has a connection to the Ark. This Psalm is thought to have been sung while the Ark proceeded into the Temple. Listen to the divisive challenge of these words, "Who shall ascend the LORD’s hill?" "Who shall stand in his Holy place?"
When I think about how people treat holy things my mind wanders back to childhood. My family and I spent three weeks in Egypt. There I remember touring a great mosque (Mohammad Ali Mosque) in Cairo. Before entering that holy place our feet were wrapped in cloth bags so we would not pollute that Muslim sacred space. Holiness isn’t something to be easily trodden on, it is not a gentle playmate, but a fierce, transcendence in the presence of which we must take off our shoes and make ourselves ready to experience God.
The best biblical example of this great division that I can think of can be found in the Book of Leviticus. This book is probably the most systematic working out of purity laws found in the Bible. Everything is covered there, from dietary laws, to how to deal with menstruation, to how to distinguish if you are pre-maturely balding, or have leprosy. All these laws and regulations can be summed up as an attempt to keep separate "the sacred and the profane, the impure and the pure" things of life and things of death, heavenly things and earthly things.
Yet in Paul’s letter to "the saints who are" he says to us in the form of an early Christian hymn that God’s plan was, "set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." In some ways we have the whole gospel right here in these 11 verses of Ephesians. Because God loves us we have been graced with redemption. This forgiveness of our trespasses comes through Christ’s blood. Because of this we are, and shall become, holy and blameless before the LORD. We are made Children of God. We will all be united in worshiping God.
All this starts with Christ. —If you will remember last time I preached here I mentioned an image of Christ from the mind of Karl Barth, the image of an hour glass. If God is the top half of the hourglass, and we are the bottom half, Christ is the center that unites the two halves. In Christ we see God.
In Christ/ the great IAM is given face and form, bones and blood.
In Christ/ Dustman and Deity are made one and holy.
In Christ/ the sinner, tax collector, and prostitute, are gathered in as God’s people. In Christ/ the stigmatizing uncleanness of leprosy is cured and the menstrual blood, that strange mixture of life and death, is stopped after 12 continuous years of flow.
In Christ/ we are "redeemed through his blood." In Christ/ we are "graced with forgiveness."
In Christ/ life overturns death.
In Christ/ all things shall be united and holy. In Christ/ we may come before God and worship.
Now let me be clear, as I talk about unity I am not talking about indifference. I am not talking about the lines blurring between "light and darkness, dusk and dawn, cruelty and compassion, good and evil." No, in Christ there is difference, darkness is made light, dusk emerges into dawn, cruelty is raised up and finds the high ground of compassion, and evil is transformed into good.
Nor when I talk of unity am I affirming some sluggish centrism where kinder gentler Tories live in a constant photo op with their perky smiling families or where muscular more military Labor party members hug nuclear weapons tight to their chest. No. Unity calls for a bold prophetic approach. After all John didn’t get his head chopped off for his half-measures, but for his giving of the full measure to God. If we take Paul seriously we have to act prophetic, we have to live into an Eschatology of Unity.
Let me unpack what I mean by an Eschatology of Unity. Eschatology means "dealing with end things." Dealing with where this whole wild ride known as history is going to, is headed toward. So, believing that God’s ultimate purpose is to unite all things in Christ is to have an Eschatology of Unity.
Why is this important? Because how we view God’s "plan for the fullness of time" will effect how we live, how we see the Spirit, and how we will respond to our high calling as Children of God.
For example, if we look to an end where evil is punished and good rewarded, where Jesus trades his meek donkey in for a war horse, where the prince of peace wades through the bodies of the wicked, we’ve went off track. With such a view the church quickly falls into a paralysis, spending all of its time trying to figure out who’s in and who’s out, who’s holy and who’s profane, and that’s a recipe for disaster. As my pastor back in Cheyenne always says, "when you draw a line in the sand to say who’s in and who’s out Jesus will always be on the other side of that line" ministering to the outcasts and the sinners.
If we look at the world through the eyes of an Eschatology of Unity then we find ourselves in line with the prophets and visionaries of every age. We find Zechariah looking forward to a day when every bell rings out the words, "Holy to the LORD," and the very scrubbing pots become holy vessels of worship. We find Isaiah looking forward to a day when, "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level and the rough places a plain." A day when "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." We too shall echo the words of John the author of Revelation; "there shall no more be anything accursed."
And you know what. No matter how inspiring, compelling, foolish, and utterly impossible, these words may sound, I believe them. More than that I see them today! In occasional flashes. In glimpses. Yes, the Spirit occasionally blows a little Galilean wind our way.
Over this last year my understanding of the global and universal nature of the church has blossomed. I have worshipped with people from 5 continents (maybe even 6! I unfortunately can’t tell the accent of an Australian from that of a Scotsman.) I’ve seen the healthy Eccumenicism of the churches of Saffron Walden. They are respectful of what each congregation is, and mindful of how they are connected to the whole. I guess that’s the blessing of being a stranger in a strange land. When your own tree disappears you can finally see the forest. I have went from being a Lutheran in the United States to being a Lutheran lent to an ecumenical British organization, lent to an Anglican Diocese, worshipping at the United Reformed Church.
And yes, I feel the Holy Spirit blowing here. When I think of the joint project you and the Salvation Army are endeavoring on, I smile. I feel the wind of God interspersed in the winds of change that are evident here by the construction back behind us. I think of the positive message of Christian Unity you are sending to Saffron Walden, which will combat the reputation that the Church has earned for bickering over minute points and trivialities.
They say Christians are known for the way they love one another. And I have to say I’ve felt loved here. I have seen Christ here, in your welcoming, in the friendships I have formed here, in your inviting me to preach today in this pulpit. Christ has told us to offer a cup of water in his name, and this church has done that for me. The water happened to be boiling and contained a tea bag, but you did it.
We will work toward unity, knowing that we have already been united in Christ, and that, despite all the upheaval that points to the contrary, we are headed toward a time where we shall be united in worship and praise of the LORD. A+A
Here is another YAGM missionary website
Cool yeah? But now we're all ending our year of service. Sad. But good, we can now go and serve in differant capacities.
Peace,
Chris
Peace,
Chris
Friday, July 14, 2006
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Things are getting scary in Israel
It's a scary thing whenever armies go to war. Lebenon considers what Israel did an act of war. I see deadly days ahead.
Peace,
Chris
Peace,
Chris
Sunday, July 09, 2006
They may even have thought I could sing
Did a RYPpers service today. Hard core Trinity stuff. I started off with a latin Gloria! I nailed it, or at least it sounded like it should. That's saying a LOT for me, as I never have a clue what the first note out of my mouth will be, and the rest of the bit I sing will be higher or lower in relation to that first note.
I'm pooped, and next week I lead worship at the URC.
Peace,
Chris
I'm pooped, and next week I lead worship at the URC.
Peace,
Chris
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Law and Gospel fill in the blanks
Three names 1_____________ 2_____________ 3________(f)___
Three colors 4___________ 5_____________ 11_________
One something that makes a noise 6____________
One shape 8___________
One name of a ranch 9 ___________
One material 10___________
There was once a young cowboy named 1. He was the son of 2, the owner of 9 ranch. 9 was a dry place, treeless and filled with browned sagebrush and scraggly tuffs of buffalo grass. So in a lot of ways it was a place the total opposite of Essex.
Now 2 was an eccentric man. He wore a tall sloping 4 hat and he wore oversized clown-like cowboy boots made of 10. On them were spurs that jangled and sounded like 6 when he walked. And his pride and joy was 3, the buckingist, orneriest, mare that side of the Colorado. The horse was 5 with a distinctive 11 8 patch of fur between her eyes.
Now 1, impetuous young man that he was, wanted to be like his father. And 1 schemed and schemed and made a decision. He would take his father’s 10 boots, his spurs that jungled like the sound of, 6 and his tall 4 cowboy hat and head south to Texas.
And so 1 did just that. He got up well before the sun and snuck into his father’s room and took the 10 boots, 6 sounding spurs, and 4 hat. And then he went into the stables and took 3.
He put on his father’s clothing, saddled 3 and was off before the first fingers of sunrise had reached across the plains and touched 9 ranch.
Things went well for 1, at least at first. He had made it several dozen miles. Riding 3 was good fun and making her gallop with the spurs that jangled like 6s when he prodded at 3’s flanks was something 2 would never let him do.
By noon 3 was tired and 1 sore. They both were thirsty. 1, for all his planning, had forgotten to bring a canteen. And soon his father’s large 10 boots were hurting his feet. But he was ambitious and foolish, and continued on. And soon enough one of the boots fell from his foot, and when it clanged loudly, sounding like a giant 6 3 was spooked. She began to buck, and kick, and snort, and whinney into the air. 1 was thrown from the horse and his glasses flew from his face, smashing on a rock. Without them 1 was blind as a bat.
3 stopped and let her small rider back onto her back. They continued forward, their collective throats parched. They continued on like that for a whole day until 3 said, "We need to drink something or we’ll die."
1 was puzzled, "horses can’t talk," he said.
"I know," 3 replied, "you are just delirious from lack of water.
And 1 nodded and looked out hoping for help. All he could see with his blurred vision was a strange two headed monster. One head was 4, the other 5 with a strange 11 blot on it.
3 continued toward it.
"Don’t go that way. There’s a horrible monster there." 1 said. Yet 3 kept going.
Again 1 protested, "It’s horrible, and dangerous!" Yet 3 kept going.
And a third time 1 said, "It’s horrible and dangerous, and down right evil. We must stay away from it." And 3, with the last of her strength, broke out into a gallop toward the monster. And she nudged 1 off her back. And 1 saw that the monster was a reflection of himself in a cool still pond, which he drank deeply from and was saved.
Three colors 4___________ 5_____________ 11_________
One something that makes a noise 6____________
One shape 8___________
One name of a ranch 9 ___________
One material 10___________
There was once a young cowboy named 1. He was the son of 2, the owner of 9 ranch. 9 was a dry place, treeless and filled with browned sagebrush and scraggly tuffs of buffalo grass. So in a lot of ways it was a place the total opposite of Essex.
Now 2 was an eccentric man. He wore a tall sloping 4 hat and he wore oversized clown-like cowboy boots made of 10. On them were spurs that jangled and sounded like 6 when he walked. And his pride and joy was 3, the buckingist, orneriest, mare that side of the Colorado. The horse was 5 with a distinctive 11 8 patch of fur between her eyes.
Now 1, impetuous young man that he was, wanted to be like his father. And 1 schemed and schemed and made a decision. He would take his father’s 10 boots, his spurs that jungled like the sound of, 6 and his tall 4 cowboy hat and head south to Texas.
And so 1 did just that. He got up well before the sun and snuck into his father’s room and took the 10 boots, 6 sounding spurs, and 4 hat. And then he went into the stables and took 3.
He put on his father’s clothing, saddled 3 and was off before the first fingers of sunrise had reached across the plains and touched 9 ranch.
Things went well for 1, at least at first. He had made it several dozen miles. Riding 3 was good fun and making her gallop with the spurs that jangled like 6s when he prodded at 3’s flanks was something 2 would never let him do.
By noon 3 was tired and 1 sore. They both were thirsty. 1, for all his planning, had forgotten to bring a canteen. And soon his father’s large 10 boots were hurting his feet. But he was ambitious and foolish, and continued on. And soon enough one of the boots fell from his foot, and when it clanged loudly, sounding like a giant 6 3 was spooked. She began to buck, and kick, and snort, and whinney into the air. 1 was thrown from the horse and his glasses flew from his face, smashing on a rock. Without them 1 was blind as a bat.
3 stopped and let her small rider back onto her back. They continued forward, their collective throats parched. They continued on like that for a whole day until 3 said, "We need to drink something or we’ll die."
1 was puzzled, "horses can’t talk," he said.
"I know," 3 replied, "you are just delirious from lack of water.
And 1 nodded and looked out hoping for help. All he could see with his blurred vision was a strange two headed monster. One head was 4, the other 5 with a strange 11 blot on it.
3 continued toward it.
"Don’t go that way. There’s a horrible monster there." 1 said. Yet 3 kept going.
Again 1 protested, "It’s horrible, and dangerous!" Yet 3 kept going.
And a third time 1 said, "It’s horrible and dangerous, and down right evil. We must stay away from it." And 3, with the last of her strength, broke out into a gallop toward the monster. And she nudged 1 off her back. And 1 saw that the monster was a reflection of himself in a cool still pond, which he drank deeply from and was saved.
Apparently Presiding Bishop Schori is a Beaver!
The new Presiding Bishop of the Episcipalian Church graduated from Oregon State University.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
The July Edition of The Foundation is up
This month I've tried something differant. I've written out a speech Bush could give to the UN to explain the end goals of the War on Terror. Here is the start of the speech, for the rest of it click on the link.
"Two score and three years ago, a great American, to whom this nation owes a great debt, told America about a dream he had. This dream came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of African Americans who had been separated from the bright promises this nation has to offer and trapped in the darkness of humiliating, squalorious, conditions, that man was not made to live in. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of calamity. But forty-three years later, we must face the tragic fact that we have stopped there.
Forty-three years later, the lives of colored people all around the globe are still sadly crippled by the manacles of tyranny and the chains of oppression. Forty-three years later, the West lives on a lonely island of material prosperity, political justice, and individual freedom in the midst of a vast ocean of poverty, injustice, and cruelty. Forty-three years later, the majority of the world languishes under absolutists, theocrats, and poverty...."
"Two score and three years ago, a great American, to whom this nation owes a great debt, told America about a dream he had. This dream came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of African Americans who had been separated from the bright promises this nation has to offer and trapped in the darkness of humiliating, squalorious, conditions, that man was not made to live in. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of calamity. But forty-three years later, we must face the tragic fact that we have stopped there.
Forty-three years later, the lives of colored people all around the globe are still sadly crippled by the manacles of tyranny and the chains of oppression. Forty-three years later, the West lives on a lonely island of material prosperity, political justice, and individual freedom in the midst of a vast ocean of poverty, injustice, and cruelty. Forty-three years later, the majority of the world languishes under absolutists, theocrats, and poverty...."
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