Quit small expectations

2 02 2012

If a single mustard seed was sitting on the table you would miss it.  However, you won’t miss the big shrub growing in your garden.  The parable of the mustard seed in Mark 4 conditions us as followers of Jesus to quit underestimating the impact of the Kingdom of God as its announced and displayed in the context of our usual relationships.

30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth,32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”  Mark 4:30-32

3 observations:

  1. This big shrub was not a usual garden plant.  However, Jesus has it planted in the frequently visited place — the garden.  So it is with the Kingdom of God, when we proclaim the Kingdom through the Gospel of Jesus, it is to be in the normal pathways of our lives.  Our relationships in the normal patterns of study, work, life, and play become our “garden” for the Kingdom of God.   Quit diminishing the value of your normal and usual relationships.
  2. The seed contains immense potential.  Although the seed is not the focus of this parable it is important to note that the big “change” that is the focus of the parable starts with the seed.  Mark 4 has conditioned the followers of Jesus to view the seed as the Word of God — the word of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Jesus.  The Gospel story of Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection has a power of its own to bring change in the lives of people.  Quit diminishing the value of the Gospel.
  3. The growth of the Kingdom is not only for our benefit.  Jesus describes the impact of the seed’s great growth as the creation of a refuge for the birds of the air.  Jesus may be drawing an allusion to the birds of the air references in Ezekiel and Daniel.  The nations shall take refuge in the Kingdom of Jesus.  We don’t get to choose who we are nesting beside.  By design others are to benefit from the change occurring in the lives of those who take refuge in Christ.  Quit diminishing the Kingdom call for open engagement with people who are “not like you;” then, we will experience the blessings of the Kingdom of God together.

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chaplains today

2 12 2011

Mark Gali writes of the need for more chaplains:

We find ourselves in an odd period of church history when many people have become so used to large, impersonal institutions that they want that in their church as well. Thus the attraction of megachurches, where people can blend in and not be seen if they want. Many thought leaders who ponder church life naturally end up championing massive institutions and denigrating (inadvertently, to be sure) the healing of hurting souls. And this in a community whose theology is supposedly grounded in the universal and cosmic love of God who gives attention to each of us as individuals.

There may be something else going on as well. A chaplain is a minister in the service of another. A chaplain at a hospital or in the military is clearly not the highest ranking member of the institution, clearly not the person in charge of running things. The chaplain’s job is defined by service—service to the institution’s needs and goals, service to the individuals who come for spiritual help. The chaplain prays for people in distress, administers sacraments to those in need, leads worship for those desperate for God. In short, the chaplain is at the beck and call of those who are hurting for God. He’s not his own man. She is not her own woman. There’s no mistaking a chaplain for an entrepreneurial leader, a catalyst for growth. No, the chaplain is unmistakably a servant.

Read the whole article here.


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I want a career…

24 03 2011

You know the moment.  The person across from you has been talking away and the moment is serious.  But your mind is light-years away from their concern.  Rather your mind has been hijacked by another concern.  In fact you showed up for the conversation with another agenda.  And finally the person takes a breath and you cross the threshold and carve out a doorway to your heart.  ”I want… Please tell… Do this for me!”

People like me interrupted Jesus. He often used the moment to address the heart concerns of many other people.  In Luke 12 Jesus had been teaching the crowd to avoid hypocrisy by trusting God with their fears, when a man in the crowd revealed his distress.  “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.“

Practical Security

An inheritance in Jesus’ day was most often held in the family property or land holdings.  Traditionally the first son would receive two-thirds of the property as his inheritance.  The remaining one third would likely be sold and divided among all else who had a claim to it.  The “wisdom” of this approach developed out of the desire to maintain the ability of at least one member of the family to secure a future, a lifestyle, and an income for the family through the property that remained.  This younger brother’s request was likely driven by the desire to also have some security for the future.

When I poll University students at UBC and in Vancouver as to why they are pursuing school, its most often because they “want a good job” in the future.  They want a career that will bring some sense of security for themselves and for their family.  Although “the career” may be fading as a sure promise of security, it still holds power over many–especially those who are about to graduate.  The stress created moves them into the realm of worry.  Worry habituates us to what Jesus calls greed and a view of life because it rules out God from the equation.  Worry moves us to the center and displaces Christ.

Greed Consumes

A flashback to Wall Street reminds us that our societal message is that greed is good.  However, Jesus tells us “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:13  A career can be a wonderful journey.  However, we can miss the joy of work and the real purpose of life when wealth position, and security become the end-goals.  The story Jesus told of a  successful rich man getting ready to retire, yet dying “prematurely” was meant to confront the prevailing narrative of both brothers and the rich and poor in the crowd.  Life is about more than securing wealth for ourselves; wealth will fail us; life is about being rich toward God.

What happens when greed dominates life?

1.  My wants exceed my needs and become supreme.
2.  I will use people rather than love people.
3.  I will sacrifice the most important for the mundane.
4.  I will have a shrinking faith in God and His providence.
5.  I will create a self-righteousness that allows me to judge others who have less.
6.  I will fail to enjoy giving.
7. I will view hospitality as a chore or a way to ingratiate myself to others.
8. I will be possessed by my possessions.
9. I will be deceived into become small and insignificant rather than great.
10. As greed is a form of violence I will become habituated to injustice.
11. I will be persistently pre-occupied with security and therefore fear-full.

Jesus secures life

Greed is contrary to the knowledge of God.  In fact Jesus’ view of life and career is so different from ours and He knows it.  In light of who God is Jesus then exhorts His disciples:

1.  Not to worry about their life; what they will eat, drink, or wear.

2.  Not to set their hearts on what they will eat, drink, or wear.

3.  To pursue the Kingdom of God.

4.  To live generously–to sell their possessions and give to the poor.

So when thinking about our careers, Jesus would have us re-examine the question of WHO we are living for.  If we are at the centre you can be sure greed will find open space to take root.  If Jesus and His rule and reign is at the centre greed will find little rest.  I pray that we would truly know Jesus.  ”For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”  2 Corinthians 8:9  When Jesus tells us to pursue the Kingdom first, he then reminds us that our loving Heavenly Father has in fact and will continue to “give you the Kingdom.” Luke 12:32  Jesus has secured what a career will never give us.


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On Death and Dying at UBC

8 02 2011

Blaise Pascal commented on the propensity of people to avoid the great issues of life.  “Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.  We run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us from seeing it.” (Pensees)

Plans to construct a fifteen-bed hospice in the UBC campus community have been delayed because of concerns by local residents.  The concerns fall into two categories: 1. Investment anxiety–will the proposed hospice reduce property values?  and 2. Death anxiety–will proximity to death and the dying bring misfortune to the residents because of exposure to ghosts or “bad luck?”  The residents in question believe the proposed project is culturally insensitive and inappropriate for the University to pursue.

I believe it is appropriate for the University to lead its community both intellectually and practically into the compassionate care of the dying.  In doing so I believe they will help us all live better.  As Gay Klietzke writes recently in the Vancouver Sun,

If we judge a society by how it treats its weakest, we would currently have to give Vancouver’s a failing grade. We provide schools, swimming pools and yoga studios to support the living in every neighbourhood, but fail to provide hospice homes and supporting programs that would allow the dying a similar opportunity to live their lives fully in their communities, to the end.

In addition to our vision, we have a dream: A hospice home in every neighbourhood in Vancouver. Not only would this fulfil a need, but it would also assist in normalizing the natural cycle of life. A cultural shift away from viewing death with aversion and fear, to a healthier focus on living life as fully as possible, to the last breath, will be a welcome result.

We live in an international city that is admired by many across the globe. By creating a ‘hospice culture’ in Vancouver we would model a culture of compassion for the world at large to follow.

As a church pastor and as a chaplain, my perspective on death and dying is being shaped by the Gospel of Jesus.

1.  The Gospel challenges our preference for the strong.

Generally those who are dying are viewed as “weaker” than the rest of us.  However, compassionate society recognizes the continuing worth and value of people even if they are not perceived to be a big contributor.  In fact Jesus indicates that our care for the weaker reflects the very heart of God for people.

In His great parable of The Judgement known as the Sheep and the Goats, Jesus said, “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?40 And the King will answer them, Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”  Matthew 25:37-40

The Gospel compels me to recognize God’s solidarity with the weak, poor, sick, and dying and their enduring value because of His love for us.  The movement toward hospice leans into this value and confronts our culture.

2.  The Gospel confronts our  preference to ignore our own mortality.

Our society has gone to extraordinary lengths to insulate itself from the reality of death.  The Gospel is God’s intervention in human history and participation in death, even death on a cross through Jesus Christ.  If Jesus was not spared the reality of death I am compelled to take seriously the reality that I am going to die.  Jesus regularly told stories of disturbance built around the reality of death and God’s judgement; these stories were intended to disturb the hearer’s misplaced sense of security.  Security in life would not be had by ignoring death, but rather by letting death compel one to think seriously about Jesus’ teachings and their implications for how we live.  Jesus used death to provoke awareness of our resistance to the first commandment.

We do a dis-service to  ourselves and the dying when we avoid death.  During a season in which people require honour they receive shame.  The “living” live without wisdom; we overvalue the small things and ignore the ultimate questions.  Hospice creates the space for a community to participate in the seasons of life and metabolize the lessons for living that dying may give us.

3.  The Gospel frees us from unmitigated fear of death and the forces of darkness.

In general, our western cultural and societal intellect tells us that “there is nothing else out there.”  However, we do maintain a curiosity about what others do accept as real.  ”Superstition” and fear of spirits, darkness, evil, or bad luck is not difficult to uncover in our media.  Therefore, everyone of us who has experienced a wave of unmitigated fear in the middle of the night should find some empathy with our neighbours who fear that the presence of the dying will usher them into the presence of ghosts.

The Gospel declares that Jesus is Lord of both the living and the dead.  By faith in Jesus, the same power that delivered Him from death in His resurrection delivers those who believe from the powers of death.  The Apostle Paul inspired by the grace that has ushered him into a relationship with Jesus writes:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?36 As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.  37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:35-38

While the Gospel also compels the followers of Jesus to fight for life, we also know that in Christ the sting of death has been removed.  Though death comes we know our final address is secure.  For the follower of Jesus death is not just the end.  Rather death for the Believer is a type of healing–in that we are then ushered into Jesus’ Presence, our faith becomes sight and we continue to enjoy the full benefits of eternal life in Christ.  Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”  John 5:24

While we may not “enjoy” being confronted by death and our own mortality, the Gospel of Jesus will gives courage to receive the gifts hospice brings to our communities and to participate in the development of communities full of compassion and wisdom.

 


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The Soul of Hip-Hop

25 01 2011

I’m making my way through Daniel White Hodge’s book, The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology.  Hodge declares with Russell Potter that Hip Hop is the voice of post-moderns.  Its definitely the defining sound on the edges of the last twenty five years of my life.  He identifies four key postmodern elements.  The following is directly from the book, pages 67-68.

1.  Restoration.  The goal of Hip Hop culture, especially in many spoken word venues, is that the authentic self be restored and built up from its broken state.

2.  Self-awareness.  For Hip Hoppers, to be self-aware simply means to go deeper into who you are as a person while continually being transparent and open to new ideas.  This is nothing new for Christians either.  Jesus challenges us to probe deeper and ask the hard questions by giving us multifaceted parables and complex statements about his gospel message.

3.  Power, control and institutions.  Most of the people I interviewed who agreed that no matter the type of rap genre, “questioning authority” still remains widespread.  Hip Hop continues to ask the question, “Whose authority/power/institution should we follow?  And what makes them right?

4.  Recovering empty answers.  Hip Hop is about making some “right” in a world that is not “right.”  Rap artists such as Tupac, Ice Cube, Church D. Eminem and David Branner challenge the broken promises given by politicians, church officials and other people in control.  A crucial scene in the film Freedom Writers (2007) takes place when students ask why they should “respect” the teacher.  Was it simply because she was a teacher–in charge, having institutional authority?  The students then proceeded to break down their life and struggles and how so many “adults” had let them down.

Hip Hop culture speaks for those who need a voice in the public sphere.  Many urban youth do not have this “voice.”  Rap music and Hip Hop culture provide that outlet and medium in which to argue, love, hate, yell, whisper, chill, eat, sleep, walk, talk, confide and build community in a postmodern world.  This function of Hip Hop culture is not articulated by many living in the ‘hood; it is more felt than talked about.  But suburban youth are looking for that transcendence too.  The postmodernism of Hip Hop gives meaning, voice and connection to a widespread community–Black, Brown and White, urban and suburban, wealthy and poor alike.

 


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Eat More Garlic Bread

23 01 2011

Today in the preparation for our lunch with friends we ran out of time to prepare our own garlic bread so I sent one of the kids out to Buy Low on Fraser St.  In reading the directions for heating from the packaging I read this:

Origin of Garlic

Garlic has been a prized ingredient for thousands of years.  Ancient cultures valued garlic for many reasons including its ability to ward off vampires.

A study found that serving garlic bread at dinner enhanced the quality of family interactions.  Researchers at an American Psychosomatic Society meeting reported that when 50 test families were served garlic bread, they enjoyed 8% more positive interactions and 22% less negative ones.  That means garlic bread can help promote and maintain shared family experiences around the dinner table.

Source:  Smell and Taste ____ Research Foundation, 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society, March 2000.

Everyone at our table agreed: more garlic bread at family meals would be good.  However, there must be adequate provisions of garlic bread!  We had tears and gnashing of teeth when some members of the family were confronted with a two-piece limit.

Try it yourself.  Improve your family life!  Eat more garlic bread–together–at dinners–sans the vampires.

 


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Media & Being “Proximate”

12 01 2011

If you turn your ear and eyes to media today it will be difficult to miss that this is the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti.  I still find the images painful to watch and the ensuing devastation in the lives of people feels like a weight even though I am thousands of miles away.

I’m now 100 pages into Tony Blair’s biography, “A Journey, My Political Life.”  In his chapter, The Apprentice Leader” he reflects on the impact Steven Spielberg had on him through the movie Schindler’s List.  He writes,

“There was a scene in it I kept coming back to.  The commandant, played by Ralph Fiennes, is in his bedroom arguing and she is mocking him, just like any girlfriend might do.  While in the bathroom, he spies an inmate of the camp.  He take up his rifle and shoots him.  They carry on their argument.  It’s her I think of.  She didn’t shoot anyone; she was a bystander.

Except she wasn’t.  There were no bystanders in that situation.  You participate, like it or not.  You take sides by inaction as much as by action.  Why were the Nazis able to do these things?  Because of people like him?  No because of people like her.

She was in the next room.  She was proximate.  The responsibility seems therefore more proximate too.  But what of the situations we know about, but we are not proximate to?  What of the murder distant from us the injustice we cannot see, the pain we cannot witness but from which we nonetheless know is out there?  We know what is happening, proximate or not.  In that case, we are not bystanders either.  If we know and we fail to act, we are responsible.

A few months later, Rwanda erupted in genocide.  We knew.  We failed to act.  We were responsible.

Not very practical, is it, as a reaction?  The trouble is its’ how I fell.  Whether such reactions are wise in someone charged with a leading a country is another matter.”  A Journey, p. 63.

Fortunate for many people around the world, the global connections media and the internet have created for us make us proximate.  Unfortunate for us, I believe, is that we are being conditioned to violence, awfulness, tragedy in a way that makes us inactive though proximate.  Unfortunate is to retreat to self-righteousness as a form of reason for non-action.  Compassion for others moves us to participate in both relief and development.  What we do with others more proximate than us, i.e. in this instance with Haitians on the ground in Haiti is I believe an essential though difficult process.  Leaders whose hearts are moved will do it.

Looking to take share in the responsibility of “proximate” try these organizations out:

haitipartners.org

worldvision.ca

churcheshelpingchurches.org

baptistglobalresponse.com


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The Origin of Love

7 01 2011

I have been reflecting on God ‘s love for us in Christ and am drawn steadily back to 1 John 4:10.  ”This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  These reflections on the Gospel truly show us the good news of Jesus’ kingdom.  To be governed, constrained, compelled by this great love is much greater than the self-loathing so easily generated by our efforts at being loveable.

I was delighted today to read in James Bryan Smith’s book, Embracing the Love of God” how God had moved him from self-loathing and earnest promises to “do better” to rest in the love of God shown us in Christ.  Smith quotes Soren Kierkegard’s prayer:

You have loved us first, O God, alas!  We speak of it in terms of history as if You loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing.  You have loved us first many times and everyday and our whole life through.  When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You–You are there first–You have loved us first; if I rise at dawn and at that same second turn my soul toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me, You have loved me first.  When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You, You are there first and thus forever.  And we speak ungratefully as if You have loved us first only once.

May this truth of Jesus become our on-going reality and experience.

 


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Building Trust by Building Connections

7 07 2010

We build trust in relationships in at least two ways.  I am most comfortable with “doing what I say I will do.”  However, it’s the second that is a growing edge in my life:  building trust by building connections.  A connection occurs when another person knows we understand their heart.

Henry Cloud writes about building trust through connection in his book Integrity.

“Fundamentally, what undergirds this component [building trust through connection] is involvement in the “other.”  Connection is the opposite of “detachment,” whereby a person is a kind of island unto him– or herself.  Now, don’t confuse that with being introverted or extroverted.  Those are styles that can be used in the service of either connectedness or detachment.  You can be very extroverted, and even nice to people, and never establish a deep bond.  In fact, an extrovert’s wordiness can even serve to keep people at bay and never allow them in.

Detachment is about not crossing the space to actually enter into another person’s world through curiosity and desire to know them, to understand them, to be “with” them, to be present with them, and ultimately to care for them.  Sadly, a lot of loving and nice people are detached in this way, and their relationships suffer for it.

People feel cared about, and trust is built, when they know that we have a genuine interest in knowing them, knowing about them, and having what we know matter.”  Dr. Henry Cloud, Integrity, p. 56.

Because I am an optimist I often fall into the trap of dismissing how my wife, children, or friends feel by saying something like, “Oh that’s not too bad.”  or “Oh that will surely work out.”  or the real connection killer, “You don’t really feel that way.”  Each of these statements dismiss or minimize not just the feelings of the other, but the connection opportunity that we had before us.

The Gospel presents us with Jesus who “sympathizes” with us through His incarnation and therefore is able to connect.  Most often my unwillingness to enter into the emotion of another is really a reflection of my own discomfort with emotionally realities in my own life.  The grace of God expressed through Jesus presents me with a saviour who gives me a new heart for Him and for people.  Now as a responder to grace I am looking to give this grace to others around me.

There is nothing like “being understood.”  It can be both a freeing and scary experience.  Understanding is one of the best gifts you can give to your spouse, children, friends, or coworkers.  Francis of Assisi asked God to help him so that he “would seek not so much to be understood as to understand.”  The writer of Proverbs identifies both elements of trust essential for healthy growing relationships.

The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters,
but a man of understanding draws them out.

Many a man claims to have unfailing love,
but a faithful man who can find?  Proverbs 20:5-6 NIV

Drawing out what is in the heart of another person requires that we have an internal attitude like Christ, of having an interest in the other.  (Philippians 2:3-5)  But it is also a skill.  When we hear the emotive language of another acknowledging that we have heard and understood the feeling this person has is part of building trust.  For the “older brothers” among us saying, “Wow, you must feel really angry about that,” or “I can see how you might be very worried about this situation,”  sends fear down to our toenails, because we are afraid that acknowledging a feeling means that it is “right.”  Not so, acknowledging the emotion of another’s heart gives the gift of understanding and reduces anxiety so that you and the person across from you can grow.

Try it out with those close to you:  seek to connect to their hearts by hearing the emotion conveyed in their verbal and non-verbal cues.


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We need a compelling vision!

5 07 2010

We need a compelling vision for our life together.  Marriage, family, friendship, and neighbours need a vision for life together that extends beyond being happy or getting rid of problems.  Without a vision of why we are doing life together most of us will grow weary, disillusioned, and ready to move on to next new and more exciting venue.

As responders to the grace of God through Jesus we seek to honour Jesus Christ with our lives and our relationships.  In marriage we seek to heat up a vision for oneness.  In family we seek to heat up a vision for stewarding the image of God.  In friendship we seek to heat up a vision for creating an environment that welcomes and makes room for the stranger.

The apostles spent a great deal of energy communicating a compelling vision for people who were under stress.  Stress and distress erode our vision for relationships–with God and with each other.  It requires some disciplined thought to remind ourselves that we are called to face painful realities together in order to bring glory and honour to Jesus Christ.

The writer of Hebrews writes to a people facing some duress:  ”See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”  Hebrews 3:12-13

My assumption in relationships must be that others need encouragement too.  They need it daily.  The danger of losing heart or courage is that we become unbelieving, untrusting of God and thus hardened toward a course of action and habits of emoting and thinking that fuel decay and destruction rather than freshness and life.

James 5 highlights some temptations we face when we are under duress.

  • We are tempted to compare our lives with others who seem to have life easy and discount the value of building our lives on Christ.
  • We may become impatient with waiting and therefore abandon the “field” or calling God has giving us.
  • We may grumble against other people, lashing out at them verbally.
  • We may seek to manipulate others through grand, extravagant, or angry speech full of promises or curses.
  • We may abandon our very life-line:  prayer, conversation with God.

If you recognize any of these in yourself or in those closest to you it is time for you to point yourself and others toward your compelling vision.  ”Fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.”  Hebrews 3:1

Encouragement takes many forms:

  • We need reminders of who we are in Christ.
  • We need reminders of how valuable we are in these relationships.
  • We need reminders of the importance of our personal diligence and contribution.
  • And we may need help sorting out how to adjust our behaviour to match our belief in Jesus and His Word.

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