let justice roll like a river . . .

This is a quote from Justice in the Burbs. I linked it in someone else's post about a year ago, but thought it was worth posting the actual quote.

Jesus lives next door. He's an eight-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother. The Son of Man looks like those starving Ethiopian children. He only gets breakfast and lunch at school, when he makes it. His mama is a crack whore. Nobody knows where his daddy is. I heard his mama lets her "Johns" do things to him.

Poor King of Kings.

Jesus is two houses down and has six children. Now he's pregnant with the seventh. I don't know if he hasn't figured out what birth control is, or what, but how does he expect his husband to feed all those babies on that salary? And you know with all those kids the Lord of Lords can't work. That means hardworking taxpayers' money has to go for Christ's food stamps!

He needs to get fixed.

The Lord is a crazy man—paranoid schizophrenic. If he doesn't take his medication, he walks up and down the street, cussing and spitting on everybody he passes. He's homeless. Nobody knows where his family is--if he's got one. Digs out of the trash cans for food. Somebody ought to get him off the street.

Jesus is nothing but a nuisance.

I'm starting to see the Son of God everywhere I go. He's always crying or begging or looking pitiful. Why doesn't he pull himself up by his bootstraps? This is America! Makes me mad. He's ruining our neighborhood.

Somebody ought to do something about him.

Somebody.

Try reading this out loud to your spouse. I dare you not to cry.

Book Club Announcement

I've started a new blog for the book club as indicated earlier this month. It is linked at the side under Book Club under Readings of Note. Anyone is welcome to read it, but you need to email me if you want to be a member and to be able to add comments. The first post will go up later today. Also, let me know at that time if you want to receive an email when new comments are made.

Beacon of Hope

Some of you may be aware of Heidi's activities in Moçambique before she met me. One of the many things she did there was to partner with another young woman named Angie to start a ministry called Beacon of Hope. The intent was to help prepare some of the orphans for life as an adult in MZ by taking them to a residential farm (which BoH purchased) away from the orphanage to train them in various life-skills from interpersonal relationships to farming and other trades to allowing them space to finish high school (a rarity in MZ). They themselves are also involved in various service efforts to the surrounding impoverished community. The need for many many more ministries like this is paramount in MZ and other places in the developing world. Angie has run this ministry very well with some very promising results in the lives of the children she cares for.

Various factors have come to bear upon the feduciary aspect of the ministry and it is in dire need of some new funding (which we just found out from and emergency email she sent us). I'm posting this in hopes that some of you out there, after becoming aware of the ministry and the need, will decide to help her out either with a one time gift or on a more permanent basis, both of which are needed urgently right now. Click on the link above for more information on the ministry and how you can help.

On a similar note, I would like to recommend two books by Tom Sine for those who are looking for a good read: Mustard Seed versus McWorld and The New Conspirators. Pick up a used copy, read it and pass it on. I hope to do a minireview of them sometime soon.

Holy Saturday, 2008

On the seventh day God rested in the darkness of the tomb,

having finished on the sixth day all his work of joy and doom;

Now the Word had fallen silent, and the water had run dry;

The flock had lost its shepherd, and the seed was sadly sown,

the courtiers had betrayed their king, and nailed him to his throne.

O sabbath rest by Calvary, O calm of tomb below,

where the grave-clothes and the spices cradle him we did not know!

Rest you well, beloved Jesus: Caesar's Lord and Israel's King,

in the brooding of the Spirit, in the darkness of the spring.

-from Bishop Wright's and Paul Spicer's Easter Oratorio

I think we are are too familiar with the Resurrection story, to the effect that we miss the distinct poetry in each of the gospel versions. John's is full of New Creation analogies, calling up images of the first Creation. The above account does a beautiful job of highlighting  the 'week' imagery, recalling that, in the imagery of the first creation, the task was completed on the 6th day (Friday) and God rested on the 7th day (Sabbath/Saturday). The anticipation, of course, is for what the new 'week' will contain, the NEW creation. On Holy Saturday we remember the Sabbath from God's work of dealing with the brokenness of the 1st Creation. From his perspective, we contemplate what new work that means must begin on the 1st day of the new week.

But I don't find myself thinking from God's perspective this Holy Saturday. I find myself identifying more with the heartbroken, spent, puzzled, and, quite likely, angry Jesus-followers who did not understand yet the plan of a new creation. I'm 'on call' tonight, and H and A and I have no Jesus-followers with whom to share the celebration of Resurrection Sunday, and I'll likely be too tired to, from call, anyway. We are not those people who 'shop' for a believing community in the sense of looking for an organization that 'meets my needs' or 'has a relevant message' or 'has a great children's ministry' or 'has great music', although all those things would be great and I empathize with those who are. And it's not that we haven't met people that are passionate about their love for God or who are active in service to the community. I can't really put my finger on it. And I've been trying to. For a long time now. Why does 'church' turn me off? Why can't I get over my detest for the current organization? (unlike a friend of mine who once retorted that he loves 'the local church,' I just don't buy his definition of local church) Why can't I just live with the status quo, or even 'join' with the hope of change from the inside. We feel alone, isolated, friendless. And, we know, it's our own fault. But I don't like the solutions that are currently available to us. It's something about joining the system that makes me feel like I'd be selling out.

And so today I feel like a Jesus-follower on Holy Saturday, before they knew it was holy in an entirely new way (not merely "remember the sabbath, to keep it holy"): ashamed, embarrassed, wondering how I could be taken in so easily, in the dark, overwhelmed, wondering what to do after the day of rest--in what way should life proceed, who, or where, are the people who have been around me, scattered, confused, lonely, heartbroken, angry, wanting answers but not really expecting any, scared, vulnerable, defenseless. What will tomorrow bring, if this dark night ever ends? Sleep is far from me.

christmas eve

Pre-Communion

Almighty God,

you make us glad with the yearly remembrance of your son, King Jesus:

grant that, as we joyfully receive him as the one who rescues us from the tyranny of sin,

so we may with sure confidence behold him

when he shall come to be the just judge of all;

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the holy Spirit,

one god, now and forever.

Communion

Post-Communion

Eternal God, for who we wait,

you have fed us with the bread of the life of the Age to Come:

keep us ever watchful,

that we may be ready to stand before the "Son of Man,"*

King Jesus, our lord.

see Daniel 7

fourth sunday of advent

I'll be on call, so I need to post this one a little early.

Pre-Communion

God who makes way for our exodus from the slavery of brokeness,

who prepared the young virgin, Mary,

to be the mother of your son:

grant that as she looked for his advent to be the savior of Israel,

so may we be prepared to greet him

when he comes again as the just judge;

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the holy Spirit,

one god, now and forever.

Communion

Post-Communion

Heavenly Father,

who chose the young virgin

to be the mother of Israel's promised deliverer:

fill us, your servants, with your grace,

that in all things we may embrace your holy purpose

and with her rejoice in your salvation;

through King Jesus, our lord.

second sunday of advent

Pre-Communion

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power

and be present in a fresh way among us,

and with great might rescue us;

that, since through our sins and wickedness

we are grievously hindered

in running the race that is set before us,

your bountiful grace and mercy

may speedily help and deliver us;

through King Jesus, your son, our lord,

to whom, with you and the holy Spirit,

be honor and glory, now and forever.

Communion

Post-Communion

Father in heaven,

who sent your son to rescue the world

and will send him again to be our judge:

give us grace so to imitate him in the humility and purity of his first coming

that, when he comes again,

we may be ready to greet him

with joyful love and firm faith;

through King Jesus our lord.

Advent day by day

A very dear friend of mine just referred me to this link—an Advent calendar. It has some really cool resources for those who want to do more with Advent throughout the entire week, even if it is a bit too 'reformed' in the negative sense of being overly systematic rather than more naturally narrative. I'll put it to the side bar, as well, under "Advent Calendar".

first sunday of advent

Happy New Year! (tomorrow, that is.) I'll be posting some links that might be helpful for those celebrating Advent over there to the right. Hopefully I'll have time to post some thoughts/reflections as well. In the mean time, here is pre- and post-communion prayer that I've modified from the Anglican Common Worship:

Pre-Communion

Almighty God,

give us grace to cast away the works of darkness

and to put on the armor of light,

which we so desperately need now, in our mortality,

in which your son, King Jesus, came to us in great humility;

that on the last day

when he is present in kingly splendor to judge the living and the dead,

we may be raised in new life with your gift of immortality;

through him who is alive and reigns over all with you,

in the unity of the holy Spirit,

one god, now and forever.

Communion

Post-Communion

O Lord, our god,

make us watchful and keep us faithful

as we await the presence of your son—our lord;

that, when he shall appear,

he may not find us sleeping in our brokeness/sin

but active in the good works you have prepared for us to do

and joyful in a right understanding of your greatness;

through King Jesus, our lord.

Reconstruction: Renewal, not Escape (or, Tithing part 3)

I believe the properly told Christian metanarrative is liberating, not oppressive, and actually deconstructs the notions of power/weakness and authority that my PoMo peers shun with their deconstruction of all metanarratives. But this post is not meant to be an apology for promoting a metanarrative, merely an attempt to summarize what I think the Christian story is (of course, after a lot of my own deconstruction of how it is usually told). So on we go . . .

I have written a lengthier discussion of the Christian story that was written in format of a week-long devotional. One can access it here, and click on the file called "devotions." Briefly, the story is as follows (with many important details missing in the summary version): The cosmos owes it's existence to the Creator of everything. The Creator made the creation very good. The Creator's position toward the creation is one of complete love. It was within the loving, good plan that the creation should be cared for (looked after, stewarded, ruled wisely) by a creature that would reflect the creator's own love and wisdom. This life and task was given to humanity, who has since turned away from the creator and ceased to reflect it. Humanity has thus become inhuman and creation has been thrown into chaos. Because of the Creator's love for creation and desire to see order restored for the benefit of what was originally created good (and still has wonderful echoes of that goodness in it), the original plan has never been abandoned. Humanity will, God determines, reflect goodness and love and justice and wisdom and thereby order creation properly. A man and his family are chosen to carry on this plan (Abram and the Hebrews). They fail as miserably as original humanity. But the plan is not abandoned that it will be through this family that all the families of the earth, and thereafter all of creation, will receive the wonderful life that only God can give. All the failure of humanity and Israel, and all the power of God to undo that failure, are focused on one Man, Jesus, whom God has chosen to be the truly Human One, the true Israelite, the human that rightly reflects God's own character and nature, intended for humanity all along. The crucifixion if a reflection of what it means to be god . . . and human; powerful; authoritative; in control. The misery and futility of creation are exhausted in Jesus' death, and then reversed in his resurrection. The body, God's creation, is not abandoned, but given new life, fuller life, death-conquering life. The Resurrection was the beginning of God's promise to renew, to make new, his creation. The Age to Come has arrived and now the Messiah's people are given the task of looking to that event in the past and anticipating how that will work itself out in the future. Please see the devotional I mentioned for a fuller exposition of all this.

What that means, then, is that Christians, the Messiah's people, should not be looking to escape the rest of creation that is doomed to destruction (as in many Evangelical tellings, including the Rapture theory). Nor is our goal to live an eternity in some place called Heaven. Our mission, our raison d'être, is to be the people who, while looking to what God has already done in Jesus, anticipate it's final outworking in the present. We are called to live the life of the Age to Come now, the life in which justice prevails, the poor and widows and orphans are cared for, the rest of creation is tended wisely and taken care of, heaven comes to earth. That is, after all, what we should hear when we say the prayer the lord taught us to pray. We are not called to 'tithe', as if 10% is God's and we can do what we like with the other 90%. Our entire lives, including our finances, need to be reordered around the fact that our lives are not our own; that we were chosen, as was Abraham and his family, not merely for our sakes, but for the sake of the rest of the world (human and nonhuman creation). It is not merely about proselytizing enough people to get them out of an eternal hell, it is about reflecting God's love and wisdom to the rest of creation and thereby partnering with the Creator in that plan to have creation rightly cared for, reflecting God's own beauty. The 'tithe' doesn't have a place in this story. Only a creative reimagining of what it means for each of as individuals and as a community of faith to participate with God in his New Creation project.

The Wrong End of the Telescope (or, Tithing part 2)

Thanks to those who participated in the previous post about tithing. I ended that one by indicating that I wasn't bashing giving, but that I didn't think tithing fit with a properly told Christian story. This post is meant to expand on that idea of a properly told story. Mind you, it is difficult to be brief and thorough with this stuff, so please forgive me if some of it appears to be a caricature.

Most Evangelical Christians, and many Christians who are not Evangelical (but since I grew up Evangelical, it is the sub-culture with which I am most familiar) tell the following story: God (in three persons) is holy and just and all-loving. Mankind was created with the intent of relationship with God which has been destroyed as a consequence of sin (which God cannot tolerate because of his holiness and justice). God chose Israel as a special people so that he could eventually be incarnated as a Jewish person who would then bare the penalty of humanity's sin by dying on the cross (to satisfy God's justice and love, which demand that he both act to do something about the situation and that there be a legal substitute for humanity). As a result, those who ask God for forgiveness, who accept that Jesus is God's only way of undoing their own personal sin, are guaranteed not to go to hell (the just consequence of sin) but rather may go to heaven when they die. Some would then add, or at the rapture. The mission of the Church, then, is to get as many people as possible out of hell and into heaven before their death or Christ's return. Tithing fits uncomfortably into this story as a throwback to the Jewish laws that is necessary for promoting church mission. Sunday morning 'church' (or Saturday for SDAs) is a given and the tithe is important for perpetuating that event.

I propose that this story is only a small part of the larger story and that, because it has focused on a microcosm of the larger, it is in many points mistaken, having drawn faulty conclusions from too little data. In particular the question of tithing misses the point of who we are entirely.

But it's late and I'm tired, so tomorrow I will post a summary of what I think a more complete story sounds like. Goodnight!

On Tithing (or Another Example of How We Are Telling the Wrong Story)

OK. A bit of seriousness tonight. Have been meaning to blog this for awhile, but schedule has been busy. But it is even busier next month, so 'no day like today.' I have had questions about tithing put to me quite a bit lately, so I figured getting something general in writing would make specific responses easier. The following are some of my thoughts and reasons for thinking them, but with an eye to being brief. Therefore, references and full proofs are at a minimum, but you are free to comment and I can begin a new post with specific questions/concerns/comments.

Introduction
The tithe is an ancient Jewish concept/tradition. It means 'tenth' and refers to the Old Testament (OT) practice of giving a tenth of one's crop to YHWH (although the very first tithe mentioned was the spoils of war that Abraham gave Melchizedek). It was the last of the levitical codes to be given. How one 'gave' to YHWH was by giving it to the priesthood serving at the Tabernacle/Temple (Levites) who were therefore unable to support themselves by other means. Why one gave to YHWH seems in order to be a reminder that YHWH had given them all that they have, anyway.

Current Practice
It is currently generally accepted in much of Protestant Christianity (I am not sure about Orthodox or Roman Christianity) that this practice was meant to continue after the Messiah's enthronement, except that the 'local church' or 'church' leadership replaced the priesthood and money replaced crops. In some circles this idea is hinged strongly to the concept of duty/obligation. In some circles of those circles it is hinged to the concept of blessing and curses: if you give a tithe, you will be blessed by God, but if you don't, you will be under a curse. The basis of this is usually explained by Malachi's prophecy to the newly returned from exile Jews who were rebuilding the Temple (about 400 years before the Messiah). In som other circles it is taught that a tithe is required of everyone, regardless of your situation. It is often taught as a means of testing your faith/faithfulness.

Objections
The following are some reasons I think the concept of tithe needs to be rethought:

1. There is no NT mandate for such a practice. We are not Hebrews living within the covenant anticipating its eventual fulfillment. Rather, we are the worldwide family who is living in the reality of the fulfillment of YHWH's covenant with Abram in the Messiah and who are called to celebrate, embody and proclaim the reality that the Life of the Age to Come ('eternal life' in some translations) has already been given and we are living it.

2. The early church practiced much giving, and of more than, but certainly not less than, just money, but never felt compelled to explain it in terms of tithe. Likewise, there was no expectation that the poor among them would give, rather they were to be the recipients of what was given.

3. The idea of 'local church' seems to ignore the fluidity of the community of the people of God renewed and established in the Messiah and through the holy Spirit. It necessitates giving to structures with the name 'church', but really mean the organized, often self-appointed, hierarchy usually called 'leadership.' It denigrates the support of other believers who are in hard circumstances to be something less than giving to the church (even though this is more in line with the early church practice and mandates, and even though 'the church' is really the community of believers, not who is 'leading' them).

4. The analogy of Temple priesthood and church leadership ignores one of the biggest and most cataclysmic shifts that occured in early NT thinking, namely, the Temple, though appropriate for one act of the story, was passing away and was not fit for the next stage in the Creator's plan to restore his creation. The Temple system was not only corrupt and stood under Jesus' judgement as rightful king of Israel, but also he himself and the community he was forming around him were the actual REPLACEMENTS of the Temple. The Temple would soon be destroyed in judgement, but the community that was the fulfillment of what the Temple always anticipated would survive the cosmic judgement about to come (which came in 70 A.D.). The priesthood was therefore passing away as well, since Jesus became the priest for all and perpetually. The new community was not to model itself on the Temple system, but to be the enitrely new creation entity of hope in a despairing world. They were the place one could come to to receive forgiveness and to see the image and likeness of God--they were to be where the Presence of God dwelt and could be met face to face.

5. It is hopelessly caught up in biblical interpretation that finds it too easy to pick a scripture and generalize it to find a truth that is supposed to be true for everyone everywhere, and ignores the significance and uniqueness of historical events. In other words it feeds into an entire way of reading the Bible that repeatedly ignores things like #1 and #4 above.

Preliminary Conclusion
That's enought to get started. The next chance I get I will post some thoughts on a way forward for reimagining what it means to be God's people and what place giving has in that scheme. It may be awhile before that appears, but please don't think that I think everyone ought to stop giving. But as a foretaste of what is to come, it is not just one of many duties we perform: "to give," but the entire purpose God has renewed us for is to bless others, and especially the poor and orphans and widows and those unable to fend for themselves. Getting rid of the tithe doesn't make the Christian life easier, it prepares the way for a more arduous and all-consuming role God's purposes.