12 Lessons from the Mountain

Here are 12 thoughts, lessons, reflections, and observations from a week of climbing Mount Arkansas in Colorado with our youth group and a few adults. Some are more profound than others. Some are simply about bears and pooping.

1. God is not found on the mountaintop, but in the struggle of the journey. OK, God is not ONLY found on the mountaintop. Sometimes we assume the only places God is experienced are in the triumphs of life. We become triumphalistic and don’t create space for us all to be raw and honest about the despair that often accompanies life. Yet, it is in these very places that God is often experienced in the most intimate ways. It is not that pain is the preferred place to experience God, nor is God always immediately felt in pain. Sometimes God seems profoundly distant in our despair. Yet, I believe that the overwhelming presence of God can come in surprising ways out of our cries of his absence. The One who cried “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” is the one who cried in the next breath, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.” If Jesus shows us anything, it is that God walks beside us on the steep and rugged roads and through the dark and barren lands. In fact, we may not find him on the mountaintop at all, because he has descended to the valley to walk with those desperately clawing their way out of the pit.

2. The mountain doesn't show you who you are, but who you want to be. Sometimes in struggle we hear the words, “This will show you what you are made of.” I don’t think so. I know what I am made of and it is often not very much. I’m not that interested in who I am, but who I am becoming and will one day be. The stumbles and outright face-plants along the way have more than adequately revealed what I am made of. I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in what this next step will be. I’m interested in going farther and higher than I have gone before. I want to push through and experience a depth with God that I haven’t before. I don’t want to go where I’ve been and merely rehearse what has been, I want to go where I haven’t been and reveal the desire for God I have, and take the steps that make that a reality. The person I am now and the height I have climbed to this point is not where I want to end the journey. It may show where I’ve been, but the next step I take will show where I’m going. The road is narrow and hard that leads to eternal life, don’t let anyone tell you it’s not. In North America, Christianity has developed a cheap grace.  It’s free, but it isn’t cheap. We have forgotten Jesus who said, “If you want to follow me, take up your cross.” Notice he said, “take up your cross.” Not “a” not “the,” but “your.” It is a steep and rugged and hard and long journey. And that is the journey I really care about.

3. Don't just yell down, but go down. It's one thing to yell down the mountain and say, "Hurry and come on up!" It's another to go down and walk beside others up the steep and rugged road of life. Such it is with God and us. He came in Jesus and walked with us. He calls us to walk with others.

4. OK, NOW WHAT? The trek from low camp to high camp was THE most physically demanding experience of my life, other than brain surgery and recovery. From high camp to summit attempt was scary because of the steep grade and loose rocks but not like hiking all day through the narrow path and brush with full pack up to high camp. The spiritual application is: THAT struggle represents the challenges of life; physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Some of these we cause ourselves, some are caused by others, and some just happen, maybe by God's hand and maybe simply a cosmic hiccup. We bring all these challenges to God in lament: health, job, family, friends, enemies. God wants to hear of the struggle. But, then, there comes a point when God says, "OK. NOW WHAT?" This all may be true, now what are you going to do about it? We can moan and groan, and complain about how hard life is, and how the world is against us, but then we've got to suck it up and put one foot in front of the other and keep moving up the mountain. The mountain isn't going anywhere. Where are we going?

5. Reach for God. God certainly invites us to embrace our lives as a pathway to a new life (as steep and rugged as it may be) but he also invites us to turn the hidden despair, anxiety, and frustration, over this pathway, into a holy longing where we reach, not for different circumstances, but for more of God than we have right now. May we seek to fill that empty place in our lives where we despair, and where we long for something different, with God, not a particular resolution to our circumstances.

6. The Crowded Alone Time. The intentional 3 hour solo time on the hike is a challenge because even when we get away, we are still left with one of our greatest enemies...our own thoughts. We are faced with all our oughts, musts, should-haves,might-have-beens, disappointments, internal aches. We hide behind these voices because they keep us from going to that terrifying place that is our true, vulnerable self standing before a holy God. But if we can stay there long enough, we'll hear the still, small voice of God whispering to us all along that these broken aspects of our lives don't define us. The voice says, "what defines you, the truest thing about you, is that you are mine and are deeply loved."

7. If God's only goal was to get us to heaven, then why didn't he create us there in the first place? Our summit attempt was just that, an attempt. We got close but our guides (who are absolutely amazing by the way) decided we shouldn't go on. When the guides told us this was "our" summit, I waited for the groans. They never came. I was so proud of all the kids and their maturity. They spoke of "our" summit and were thankful to be where we were. All week we told them it wasn't about the summit but the journey. They got it. If the goal was to summit, then we could have driven up another mountain or be taken up on pack mules. Sometimes as Christians we speak and act as if our only goal is to get to heaven. The fact is, there is much to taking the journey. If God's goal was only to get us to heaven, then why didn't he create us there in the first place? God invites us to walk with him and others on this summit attempt of life, knowing that one day we'll top the hill and a wounded hand will be there to help us up and congratulate us for making the climb. But for now, it's enough to hold each other's hands and put one foot in front of the other learning lessons and being transformed along the way.

8. The joy of the hard road. We can’t always choose the path we take. Sometimes we do choose our path and our lives are exactly as we have designed them to be and we live with the consequences of that, for good or ill, but sometimes other people insert themselves. Sometimes, things just go wrong with our bodies and the laws of physics come into play, and we have no control over those things; health, family, accidents, jobs, relationships. But, though we often are not in complete control of the journey, we are in control of our attitude along the way. Sometimes the path is so rugged, steep, and treacherous, and our bodies are on the brink of giving out, we can't imagine going on. One more step seems to be the one to do us in. We can stop and refuse to go on, never knowing how far we could have gone. Or, we can inch our way forward complaining the entire way making those around us miserable. Or, we can take a deep breath, suck it up, shut it up, and keep inching our way up knowing that the strength to climb is in there, we just need to dig it out. It really is the ultimate metaphor for the Christian life, when we not only see the struggle as something to be endured, but as a joy to be embraced. "let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Heb 12:1-2

9. Yes, you can do a "twosie" on a mountain. I'll reserve this one for private replies as it pertains to the convergence of three realities; one being the fact that there is no indoor plumbing on the mountain; the second being the physiological necessity of the elimination of nutritional by-products by the body, otherwise known as "pooping," and the third, being on said mountain for almost a week. As we began our meeting for Trek earlier in the year, one of the main questions was, “How does one use the little boys or little girls room, are their rest stops that have been strategically positioned on the mountain with facilities, running water, indoor plumbing, vending machines? No, there is just a mountain. "Well, then how do you.....? And then what about......?" Yes, all on the mountain, behind a tree, leaning against a tree, hanging from a tree, really, however you can. In the wise words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I've got to say about that."

10. Don't allow the experience to be wasted. Many people walked many steps. Many knees endured many scrapes. Many laughs billowed through the valleys. Many tears were shed around the nightly devotional ring. Many sacrifices were made by others for us to make the journey there and back. Many who were stronger could have gone faster and farther. But, we made it to OUR summit. Embrace the experience. Learn from it. Grow from it. Allow it to transform you. Step away from the mountain a different person than when you stepped on it. The predictability of life, the well worn ruts of life say, "The mountain didn't mean much. Just a small experience." NO! It was your experience. You can't take the mountain with you, and honestly, most of us wouldn't want to, but you can take the experience, you can take the emotion, the relationships, the pain, the feeling of accomplishment, the feeling of defeat. They make up you now. Embrace it, and from this day forward, live differently, live the mountain.

11. Bears generally don't like you, just your food. 

This observation is mainly for our teenage boys in the group: When someone tops the hill and yells down, "BEAR," that generally is not an invitation to run up the hill with your camera to take a picture of said bear. Bears on mountains are not like bears in zoos. They are not caged, they do not like you, and they will eat you. Yes, we did come face to face with a bear. Well, I didn’t. I bravely waited with the rest of the group, far away from the bear, so as to protect them in case the bear circled back around. It had gotten into our packs the night before; unzipped the zipper, stuck his hand in and enjoyed our food. The next evening while we were having devo (it was still daylight mind you) he was up the hill getting into our packs once again. When a group of kids went to their packs they came face to face with it. My son was the first in line to encounter it. They mostly froze, but one girl yelled down "BEAR!" Some boys told her to not yell because they wanted to get a picture, others ran up to see. Again, I don't think they grasped the concept of "WILD" bear. Our Youth Minister did get a picture while it was running over the ridge. The guides estimated it to be 400-500 pounds. Oh, and this was only the second time in thirty years that a Wilderness Expeditions group had encountered a bear. 

12. Walking off a cliff. We spent some time repelling. I was not the first to go down. In fact, I was very reluctant. I knew I would do it, but was not that thrilled about it. I get vertigo very easy and the thought of falling back first and splattering what brains I have left on the rocks below was not that appealing, though the guides assured me it didn’t happen often. I did realize I had an advantage, because it would seem that the more brains one had the less likely one would be to walk down a cliff backwards (ever seen the Darwin awards?). So, I stood and watched. I watched people not think much about it and practically jump off the ledge. Then I saw people like me who gingerly tiptoed their way to the edge only to be paralyzed by the thought of becoming vulture food. Being the analytical type, I analyzed the situation and realized there were really only two things necessary to standing on the edge, leaning back and walking down a cliff backwards. First, do not look down. That seemed to be the point at which people froze. The place to look was in the eyes of the guide who was directing you down. Listen carefully and do exactly as the guide says. It became impossible to listen to the instructions as long as the repeller’s eyes were not locked in on the guide’s. The second necessity was trust. You had to trust that the system you were attached to was not going to fail you. If one could block everything else out and focus on those two things (the eyes and voice of the guide, and the trust in the system) then walking down a cliff backwards was not an issue. I did that very thing and had no problem repelling down the cliff. A couple of obvious applications: First, that really is a good starting point in our relationship with God. Trust, listen to him, do what he says, and don’t look down. If we can’t get passed that basic starting point then the rugged journey ahead of us will likely not even get started. Second, one of the hardest parts of repelling was watching my boys do it. I knew I had to let go of control and apply the same trust application for them. I will admit that I did go up to them and give an extra little tug to tighten their harness and make sure it was secured correctly. But, ultimately, I had to stand back and watch them go off the side of the cliff. I realize that they are on their own journey with God. I can influence as much as possible, but I have to be willing to allow them their own journey. I can’t go down the side of the cliff for them. Ultimately, I must stand there with everyone else and watch them take the leap. It is that way in our relationships with all people in our lives. We can’t take the journey for them. They have to step off the edge for themselves. Oh, and by the way, everyone in our group made it down, though some did take longer than others…that also is a spiritual application.

A Few Words on God's Redeeming Justice

It seems the word “Justice” is getting a lot of attention when it comes to Christians speaking about the whole Bin Laden ordeal. Here are a few thoughts I’ve had on the idea of justice as it is played out in Scripture. I feel like we are throwing the word around in relation to God a little too freely. I’m concerned anytime we start defining God’s justice in relation to the human forms of justice. Or worse yet, defining God’s justice in relation to punishment here on earth that may or may not be divine acts, but merely part of a fallen world, or even the natural order of things.

I’m certainly not saying a human form of justice wasn’t served when the Al-Qaida leader was taken out. I’m not even saying it wasn’t divine justice. I’m just wanting to be cautious about defining this definitively as God’s justice. God’s justice has much deeper spiritual overtones and purposes than a very earthy, human sense of someone getting what is due.

If there is one requirement from God, it is that his people seek justice and act justly. But justice is not simply, “to each one that is due.” It is a very deep, very ethical topic. I believe it is one of the weightier matters, yet one that may surprise us, when we see just what God is talking about when he mentions justice and what justice requires of us. Justice is from the same root as just, justification, and righteousness. It means, “that which is right.” God is just. God is righteous and from his being comes the standard for Justice and Righteousness. One only needs to look back at the record of God and we will declare what Nehemiah declared in 9:33–“In all that has happened to us, you have been just, you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.” Or the Psalmist 89:14–“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.” Or in Revelation 15:3–“Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, king of the ages.”

And God as one whose being is defined by justice and righteousness requires this from his creation. Justice is a requirement to sustain the eternal relationship between God and mankind. Yes, a requirement. In Amos 5:21-24 Israel has turned away from God. The lack of justice as you read through is the overarching problem, especially the Lack of justice for the poor, oppressed, and afflicted. “Let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness an ever flowing stream” God says. Justice and righteousness are the same thing, same idea. That which is right and just. Let that roll on like a river and a never failing stream. Let justice reign in the courts. But, more than that let justice and righteousness reign in relationships. That’s what is really the issue. Justice in relationships. We’re not talking about “that which is due” but the idea that Justice is brought to culmination in the restoring of relationships. Not simply giving or getting what is due, but the restoring, or the building of relationships. Relationships that are right. Relationships that are just and righteous. Justice as the reconciling of relationships is by far the weightier matter in Scripture than merely, “getting what it due.” In Micah 6:6-8 it is asked what God wants? “Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” God wants Justice, mercy and humility in the community of Israel.

This definition of justice fits Jesus call to ministry in Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus ministry was a ministry of justice, that is, setting the world right. Jesus reached out to the poor, oppressed, hurting, afflicted, and held authorities accountable.

I am convinced that there is an irony of justice. And that irony is that justice being served is not one getting their do, but the complete reconciliation of the relationship. Let me explain.
What we normally think of when we hear justice is retribution. Someone did something and they deserve to be punished. But what about loving, forgiving, and working for the wrongdoer and the wronged to have a right relationship with each other. Could this be an accomplishment of justice?

Person-to-person reconciliation is the practical form of Justice modeled by Christians as we emulate the diving reconciliation we have received through Jesus Christ. Paul’s declaration to the Corinthians 2 Cor 5:20, “Be reconciled to God” has broad and deep implications to the church. It would not be an overstatement to say that the defining event in all of history and creation is the death of Jesus Christ. And that death of the Son of God was brought by justice. A justice that had and has at its very core, love for us. A love of Christ that says, “not them, me.”

The Justice of God seen in the Christ event has as it’s motivator, reconciliation. It wasn’t some arbitrary sacrifice to satisfy God’s law. It wasn’t simply a requirement to appease God’s burden. It wasn’t simply a payment for sin. Here is sin and it needs paid for so here’s the payment. As if God is some pawn dealer and Jesus is coming to pay the price for sin to settle up with God. No, justice as it is seen in the Christ event has as it’s purpose reconciliation. Reconciliation of the eternal relationship of God and mankind.

2 Cor 5:17-21 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The greatest act of justice of all creation was when God’s justice was met through the sacrificial death of Christ, and that justice is complete when humankind comes to God and is reconciled to God. When the eternal relationship is restored and when the individual is given the ministry of reconciliation.

Moreover, the ministry of reconciliation is complete when that which is spiritually reconciled with God is lived out in our relationships with each other-when we dispense the justice of God that restores relationships, and seeks the good of others and does not harbor bitterness or seek revenge.

For the Christian, justice, is going beyond our mere requirements. Justice is considering ourselves as nothing and others as most important, especially the poor the oppressed, yes even those who are getting what they deserve. Justice isn’t just giving what is due. Christian justice is a love that is so great it moves one to sacrifice for another’s good.

A justice that is so rooted in the love of God that it pursues reconciliation in all relationships. We’ve got a ways to go before justice rolls down like a river. I must confess, I don’t know that I know this kind of Justice. But anyone who receives the true justice of God, the reconciling of our eternal relationship with him, must be ready to let that justice flow through them like a river and a never failing stream.

Susan Boyle

Gospel sighting, or exploitation of our prejudices?

The Road

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The Lanyard

The Lanyard

Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Theology or Ideology

I found this observation below to be quite helpful. I have wrestled over the years trying to work out a theology (what I believe about God and his interaction with me and creation) that is consistent with how life really works out. I've felt that my theology has always been just one more fix away. If I or the world would just, "x," then we would see our theological constructs play themselves out. It seems to me a theology that does not account for the way things actually are is actually an ideology masquerading as theology.

By ideology I mean a theoretical statement or system of interpretation that functions for its adherents as a full and sufficient credo, a source of personal authority, and an intellectually and psychologically comforting insulation from the frightening and chaotic mish-mash of daily existence. For the ideologue, whether religious or political, it is not necessary to expose oneself constantly to the ongoingness of life; one knows in advance what one is going to find in the world. In fact, the psychic comfort of ideology lies just in its protective capacity, its property as mental and intellectual insulation: one clings to one's system of interpretation as a refuge from the ambiguous, unsettled, and largely undecipherable fluxus of the actual. The ideological personality (and in our time there are many such personalities) is constantly on guard against the intrusion of reality, of the unallowable question, of the data that does not "fit" the system; therefore the repressive and suppressive dimension is never far beneath the surface of the ideological inclination. Jose Miguez Bonino writes of "the ideological misuse of Christianity as a tool of oppression," because he knows that the line between theology and ideology is a very fine one, easily and sometimes unknowingly transgressed.

Douglas John Hall, The Cross in Our Context: Jesus and the Suffering World

A New Gospel Sighting

I don't think this dad is sitting around waiting for God to make the world right. He's participating with God to make it right. I hope I can become half the dad he is.


We could wait. We could wait for that day when God makes all things right. We can sit around and complain that the world is messed up, that we are messed up, that the church is messed up. We can wait for God to make all things right, when there will be no more death or crying, where the lame will walk, no, where they will win. We could wait for the day the hungry will be fed, the marginal will be given a place at the head of the table, when those with no family will sit around the table of the Lord. We could wait for the world to be right. Or, we can join with God in his work to make all things right, right here right now.

Romanticized War

This picture represents the romanticized image of war.
This story about the soldier in the picture represents the reality.

Finally, a topic other than war, immigration, and gas...

Faith-based initiatives...

The Baby Who Almost Wasn't...

Failed abortion leads to healthy baby. 

Testimony

Watching this made me ask myself, "What is my testimony? How has my life been impacted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ?"

Our job is praise...

"Praise is the duty and delight, the ultimate vocation of the human community; indeed of all creation. Yes, all life is aimed toward God and finally exists for the sake of God. Praise articulates and embodies our capacity to yield, submit, and abandon ourselves in trust and gratitude to the One whose we are. Praise is not only a human requirement and a human need, it is also a human delight. We have a resilient hunger to move beyond self, to return our energy and worth to the One from whom it has been granted. In our return to that One, we find our deepest joy. That is what it means to 'glorify God and enjoy God forever.'" Walter Brueggeman, Israel's Praise

A life in pictures.

What kind of mosaic would our lives produce if they were recorded in daily snapshots?

EVERYTHING

Everything

The Blessed...

“With so much effort being poured into church growth, so much press being given to the benefits of faith, and so much flexing of religious muscle in the public square, the poor in spirit have no one but Jesus to call them blessed anymore.”

Barbara Brown Taylor’s Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

Center of the Universe...NOT!!!

Tonight our family watched a special on the universe on the History channel. It's hard to believe that if our sun was the dot on the letter i on a piece of paper, then our galaxy would be comparable to the size of North America. Moreover, that galaxy is one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. Who can even fathom that? We are very small indeed. Yet, we act as though we are the center of the universe. We act as though our recognition and our affirmation are the prime concern of our lives. I can't help but contrast this to the position Jesus took as he came to us. "Though he was in his very essence, God, he did not consider equality with God as something to be held on to, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant he humbled himself." Why do I drive over the speed limit, and pull out in front of people, and get mad when people with 11 items enter the 10 items or less lane, and direct conversations toward what I have done, and down play the successes of others, and gossip? It's because I think that I am the center of the universe. Is life, not, trying to become less and less? As John says, "He must increase and I must decrease." It seems to me that growth in Christ finds a person, more and more, giving up privilege for the sake of others.

Resident Aliens

Resident Aliens

“To the chosen exiles of the Dispersion, destined by God...live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear...as aliens and strangers abstain from sinful desires. 1 Peter 1:1, 17, 2:11

Why has God acted in unprecedented ways to save his people? From the Exodus out of Egypt to the triumphant victory in the resurrection of Christ, God has acted on behalf of his people to redeem them and save them from the oppressive powers of this world. Why has God done this? Is God a mere super hero? The Incredibles taught us that it is hard to be a super hero and be a part of the community. Super heroes are supposed to sweep in and fix our problem, then get out until we need them again. God hasn’t just delivered his people as a super hero might sweep in and rescue the damsel in distress and then fly away never to be seen until he is needed again. No, God is creating a people, a community of his very own. He’s forming a community of faith that will follow him, obey him, declare his wonders and praises, a people who will point the world to God, to show the world what God is like, a people who will live out their reason for existing. He’s creating a community of people who he can point to and say, “now that’s what humanity should look like.”

God is creating the church to be his contrast community. Jesus didn’t come as a super hero… "He is God-man, able to walk on water, turn water into wine, make blind people see with mud he makes from his own spit, able to rescue us from our sins and transport us safely to the other side." Jesus is not some mere super-hero, he is our savior, he is the author of our faith, he is the reason we go to church and join together as a community. God, through Christ, is now creating a community of people who will announce what God has done and is doing by drawing all people to himself. Peter writes to such a community. Peter calls his community “aliens and strangers” in this world. Meaning, our lives should point to something different. The world is watching, and wondering what God is up to. This people that claim to be his people, what makes them so different? Is there a noticeable difference in how we treat each other, how we treat the weak, how we treat the earth, how we treat those outside our community?

God has always been creating a people for himself, setting them apart from the world given to them on a daily basis. These “resident aliens,” as Hauerwas and Willimon call us, are to live as exemplary aliens in a land that does not welcome them. Yet, they are to live in such a way that they are different, but not in conflict with the dominant culture. They are to return good for evil, blessing for slander, hope when there is no hope. This is the community Peter is writing to, a community that is finding itself more and more on the margins. There isn’t organized persecution at this point, but the marginalization has begun.

For the past 1600 years our world could be drawn like this: Christianity at the center. From the time of Constantine, Christianity has been at the center of our existence. However, this privilege Christianity has had in Western culture is dying. Christianity is being pushed to the margins. It doesn’t die easy, however. Even today we struggle with how much we should be involved with politics. Countless para-church organizations are lobbying the government to legislate the Christian ethic on all of us. Some of it is good and holy and right. Some of it is a Christian power-grab. My question, though, is this: Where is Christianity meant to exist? Is Christianity to exist in the center of society? Is it where we should be moving? If we are in the center, is it where we should dig in our heals and stay? I believe Christianity functions best on the margins.

This is where Peter finds his communities of faith, sitting on the margins. It is here that Christianity stands or falls. When Christianity is in power, it exists out of privilege. But, when it is marginalized, it exists out of its radical claims of Jesus Christ, and his call for the church to live as aliens and strangers in the land. It is when Christians embrace their marginal status, live faithful lives as disciples of Jesus, that the world sees them and “glorifies God in heaven.”

Human Capacities...

Is this not how we approach human nature and aspirational church teaching? We constantly tell people how horrible, rotten, depraved, and venomous humanity is and then say, "But, get out there and serve God and do some good." One rule of theological anthropology is: If you have a low view of humanity, then don't get upset when it lets you down. It's only doing what its nature demands. I'm convinced, however, that cynics are merely ticked off optimists. They have this view of the world and reality keeps drawing it down. That’s why they’re mad.

I, for one, am still under the impression that good is possible. Peter says that through the promises of God we might "participate in the divine nature (II Peter 1:4)." Paul says that God's eternal plan and purpose is that we become "conformed to the likeness of his son (Romans 8:29)." To live out our true humanity is to be drawn into the life of God. Jesus is human. He showed us what it is to live as a human. We live below our humanity. Yet, even though we are old broken down clay pots, God may actually make something beautiful out of our lives after all.

Some Thoughts on Church...

Here are some ideas that have been rolling around in my head lately:

Whatever we believe the Good News is, will be how we enact church. What this means is, the image of salvation that is at the core of our Christianity (forgiveness of sins, new creation, victory over sin, victory over oppressive powers) will directly influence our initiatives at church. We will interpret our role as a church in direct relation to how we believe God saves us in Jesus Christ. If we believe Jesus negotiates the legal transaction between God and us and the only requirement is to believe that, then we will spend our time trying to convince people to believe it. If we believe Jesus delivers us from the power of sin, then we will seek to deliver those bound by sin. If we believe Jesus offers us a new creation, then we will seek to initiate spiritual formation activities. If we believe Jesus overcomes the oppressive powers of this age, then we will seek those who are marginal and oppressed. Therefore, a healthy view of the church starts with a healthy view of salvation.

I believe the spirit of God lives among the people of God. Therefore, I also believe God’s preferred future for any particular church lives in the imagination of the people of God. Leadership, then, must create processes for that imagination to give birth to values and ministries. Moreover, the leadership must find ways of empowering and equipping the people of God to live into God’s future. There must be a balance between strategic planning on the leadership’s part and freedom for members to step out and engage in missional activities on their own. I also believe God is at work in the communities where we live, so leadership must also find ways of tapping into the imagination of the community.

Rather than trying to discover what kind of church our community would go to, we should try to discern what God is up to in our communities and join him in that. North American Christianity has turned consumeristic in many respects. The church will often see itself as mere vendors of religious goods and services. In an attempt at church growth the church will initiate programs they feel will attract outsiders. This views the guest as a mere consumer. I believe a more theologically sound approach is to engage our communities in missional activities and invite them to participate in the mission of God. Instead of asking our neighbors "What kind of church would you go to?" We could ask them "What would be evidence that God is working in this neighborhood?" This changes our orientation from “church builders for God” to “fellow travelers with God.” Rather than merely receiving what we have to offer, the community participates in what God is doing in this world. I am convinced this will go farther in forming disciples of Jesus, than trying to woo our community with the best programs. This doesn’t mean we don’t have programs, of course we do. But, we initiate programs because we believe it is what God is doing in our community, not because we believe it will attract the biggest crowds.

A Life Spent...

Below is part of a sermon I preached yesterday at a funeral for a dearly loved sister of our church. She was 83 years old and was part of five living generations.

When the family was sitting around trying to think of characteristics of Faye, the same theme kept coming up. Faye loved her family, especially all those grandkids. She worked hard and loved her church. That was her life, her vocation as a humble beautician, her church community and her role as a mother and grandmother. That’s what she did. That’s who she was. That is the difference she made in this world. And, that really touched me. Because, so often we want to point out the spectacular. We all want to do great things. We want to get to the end of our lives and have people stand here and be able to say what great things we've done. To get to the end and be able to point to spectacular ways we changed the world. And, we pursue after these things.

Image I like to use is our lives are like having a $1000 bill. We can hold that treasure as a thousand dollar bill. But, how often are we going to use a thousand dollar bill? We would like to spend that $1000 bill (which is our life) on something spectacular. But, for most of us, we don’t have many opportunities for that. We certainly don’t want to get to the end of our lives and look back and realize we didn’t spend our lives on anything because we were waiting for the big event, the grand accomplishment. No, days and weeks and years will go by before we have a chance to use it. People looking for our treasure will pass by and never know we have it. But if we go and cash that in for quarters. We can use quarters on a daily basis. 50 cents here, a kind word there. 75 cents here and prayer for a neighbor there. 43 cents here and a welcoming hand to a stranger there. $1.82 here and a meal to the family down the street there. $1.25 here and a swift kick in the pants to a grandson there, and without even realizing it we get to the end of our lives, and we find we’ve spent them for the sake of others and have accomplished something great after all.

That’s what I heard from the family. Faye, giving herself in small ways over a lifetime, (which turn out to be not so small ways)…until we come to today. And we look back, and see Faye spent her $1000, not in one lump sum, but in a thousand smaller sums as she served others, encouraged those she encountered, corrected those she was closest to. We don’t come today to remember some grand accomplishments, but a life of giving herself a little here a little there until a life is spent.