Change

The Goose, The Plan, and The Dissenting Opinion

May 14, 2022 0 Comments

This week while making my way to UBC I came to a brief but dangerous standstill on 41st Avenue. In the approach to Cambie a driver had staddled two lanes and was stopping, starting, then stopping again and again. What the dickens?!

Then I saw him. A Canadian Goose had successfully stoped us. I’m not sure what he was protesting. The driver in the blue Subaru Forester was trying to shepherd the Goose to the side of the road. Like a western cattle rancher he applied force and size to drive the Goose away. But the Goose was having none of that. I smiled and nervously watched the approaching traffic in my rear view mirror.

Surely frustrated, the driver finally honked. Success. Something in the horn’s tone must have resonated with the Goose because he took off in a flash toward Cambie where he turned right toward City Hall.

The Broadway Plan

Did you hear about the Broadway plan? It’s all the rage as we plan for progress. Dense, denser, and densier.

I’ve been more interested in the minority opinion though. It calls for the Broadway Plan to be rejected. Expressed by Gabriella Peters and Ruby Langan, who serve as Commissioners with the Vancouver City Planning Commission they elevate their concerns to life and death. Perhaps it feels to some that they would stop progress, but that’s not their point. They want progress to include everyone. As I surmise their concerns are three-fold. 1. We are in an emergency. “Disabled people are dying now.” 2. The Broadway Plan provides lots of details on density but it doesn’t provide specific details for going beyond current inadequate building standards that harm the disabled. 3. The plan does not provide a plan that keeps us from creating a “poor door” out of the city for the current renters.

Here’s the Dissenting Opinion, please read it.

https://twitter.com/mssinenomine/status/1525189748716761088?s=20&t=liK5fK8vfkTuzoCoICu8jA

Minority Reports

Minority reports and dissent seem to stand in the way of progress or at least someone’s vision of security. Within the Scripture from which I speak each week, minority reports and dissent is the way of the prophets. To ignore their voice is to court disaster. Famously Joshua and Caleb provided a minority opinion when they urged Israel to trust God and enter into the land on the other side of the Jordan river; the majority said “no we will not go” and so they wandered in the desert for years. Not so famously Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethal the Levite, opposed Ezra the priest and the assembly who sought to compel the men who had “foreign” wives to send the wives and children away; their dissent was noted but rejected and so a vision of God’s inclusion of people in covenant was reduced to blood lines for a time until Christ.

From within my faith tradition I see land, inclusion and visions of progress and security often contested. The record speaks for itself. However, I know of a church here in the Lower Mainland that listened to a minority report once. The whole body was voting to sell the land and call it a day at their location. But one child raised her hand and voted no. They stopped to listen. Imagine that! Progress was stopped by one child. They listened, reconsidered, and voted to stay put. Today this property hosts multiple congregations and is stewarded through a multi-ethnic and multi-congregational board. It’s not easy, but it’s glorious.

Will Vancouver listen? It’s hard for Gabriella and Ruby to be heard. As far as I can tell the Vancouver Sun has not brought their concerns forward to the general public. But the general public is having a hard time on any day to hear, listen, and be engaged in the many decisions shaping the future of Vancouver. We’ve got our heads down and we are trying to make sure our circles of comfort survive.

But at least we have Twitter.

Hear! Hear! I raise my morning coffee to Gabriella and Ruby.

Change, Leadership, Society

,

Social Capitals

January 18, 2022 0 Comments

Babylon will burn and the corporate lament
shall not drown the cries of those
below their lines.

To be fair we might all benefit from ugly truth
‘less we are so damn sure that
our greed is just.

There is no social capital in hell; yet beyond
that fiery lake is a beach to a city
with an open gate.

So I look up and behold the God who came down.
So I look down and behold the souls bought at a price.

Now mercy brings me to this promised land but
Jesus reserved stern words for the mercied
who would not mercy.

The world watches social capitals work and
billionaires go green to make a deal
while the devil lies.

The Uyghurs cry out with Able. With Lazarus they sit
at the end of the drive waiting for golden warriors but
we are playing

games in social capitals.

***I felt enormous dismay at the interview confession with Chamath Palihapitiya in which he says, “Nobody cares about the Uyghurs.” This is a response to our common and dangerous situation: not caring.***

Change

, ,

Del Rio and our Haitian Brothers and Sisters

September 23, 2021 1 Comment

I have struggled to know even where to begin to express my deep dismay at the treatment of the dear people who have sought refuge under the Del Rio International Bridge. Many of them began their journey for refuge as many as ten years ago by departing from the shores of Haiti.

These are survivors. These are strong, ingenious, creative people who have learned languages, leaned into deprivation, and held onto hope.

Some blame their journey on an earthquake. But there are other factors too that contributed to the violence, poverty, and political alienation that compelled them to leave. America stirs the pot with the left hand and crushes the hearts of people who climb out with the right.

Our neighbours have come to the border asking for refuge. But, we treat them with contempt.

During the week in which men on horses chased down and flayed away at the backs of our sons and daughters, in which people where corralled onto planes and flown back to Haiti without due process, I began reading Dominique DuBois Gilliard’s book, Subversive Witness, Scripture’s Call to Leverage Privilege. He writes,

“Hosea 4:6 explains that God’s people perish because of a lack of knowledge, and the masses also suffer when they lack godly leadership.

Narcissistic political leaders fear losing their power, influence, and possessions more than they fear God. Their insecurities lure them into idolatry, fear distrusts their vision, and paranoia prohibits them from affirming the imago Dei inherent in all their neighbours. Consequently, their dictates exacerbate existing chasms between the privileged and disenfranchised.

Immoral leaders understand that when marginalized people are politically diagnosed as a social albatross, it becomes acceptable–if–not patriotic–to vilify them, infringe on their human rights’ and become apathetic toward their plight….”

Subversive Witness, p. 22.

Immoral leaders.


Today, Daniel Foote, the special envoy to Haiti, has resigned in protest of immoral leadership. No one is listening to him and the Biden administration seems to be intent on going ahead with the forced transport of people to Haiti. Daniel Foote describes the situation, “I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the dangers posed by armed gangs in control of daily life.”

Grieve and lament.

Affirm those who offer refreshment.

Call for the due process and kindness required to be given those who seek refuge.

Are you a follower of Jesus? Beware the evil wrapped up in patriotic justifications for the sacrifice of God’s dear children in order to “secure our borders;” it’s the siren call; it’s a tasty morsel; it bears death to the soul; it wounds the conscience and numbs the mind. It has nothing to do with Jesus. It’s a wooden idol; it leads us astray and we become unfaithful to God. It brings rot and eases all of us into a habitual rejection of the Kingdom of God.

Change

,

Cultivating Community For Good

May 7, 2021 0 Comments

Note to subscribers: Origin Church begins a series through the book of James this weekend. I’m providing an introduction to the series here:

HI Originals — We are getting ready to study the book of James together. And here’s the theme for our life together over the next two months. : Cultivating Community for Good.

James writes:

“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.” James 1:16-18

Community in the Church is a gift from the Father. It is produced, it is birthed, by the word of truth, the Gospel in our hearts. He has made us brothers and sisters in this new family. And it’s meant to be good! I’m convinced that community is a good gift and that God wants us to be a community for good. I’m excited about that and terrified at the same time. I’m excited because being a community that produces good fruit is what Jesus envisioned for the church. Goodness characterizes all that God makes. The good quality of God’s Creation is summarized in Genesis 1. After each day of Creation, God says, “It is good” and of people, “It is very good.” 

In good community diverse people are brought together by Jesus to become like Him and act like His family. lLves are restored, souls are saved, people are healed, kindness and generosity are common and gifts are redeemed. That’s exciting! 

But I’m terrified because I know we are not perfect. I know that goodness may not be the dominant memory or experience of the church for some people. With Jesus we know expectations are high. The followers of Jesus’ church are to be like trees producing good fruit. We must be realistic though — people are a mess and can be desperately wicked right at the core of who we are. Yes, to be in Christ is to know Jesus is changing us, Yes He has made us a new creation, but we let plenty of deathly rot creep back in. 

For every Christian leader that has abused their position, for the Christian parent who has resorted to violence or abandoned their spouse and children in neglect, for every church that has tried to cover up sexual abuse, for every community that has tolerated angry controlling malicious leaders, for every committee that has attacked, ignored, or discredited the messengers who were blowing the whistle— I’m sorry. It pains me. We should all be pained.

We have to be realistic about our situation. It’s not just that people are sinful. As Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer rightly observe in A Church Called TOV, church cultures, can become toxic. We know pollution kills. A toxic environment poisons the tree and therefore the tree yields bad fruit. And here’s the rub, toxic environments are not equipped to deal with sinful hearts and with leaders who are behaving badly. 

Jesus had plenty to say about trees and bad fruit. In Matthew 12 he says, 

33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Look, a church community is like a tree and the good person— we bring good things out of what is stored up in us and we are judged by what say and what we do. Sisters and brothers, a church that is cultivating community for good, that is cultivating good community is going to have to attend to the heart! But more than that — we are going to have to attend to the Father of Lights who reveals hearts, and who gives good gifts, He can “make a tree good.” But, he invites us to be participants in the process. Did you notice that? Jesus holds to the common  capacity of the farming community to make a tree good or to make a tree bad. The community is a system that feeds into itself. He says, “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good. Make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad.” What about our “making?”

What if we have allowed toxicity to infiltrate our cultures at home, at work, and even in church? Are we done for? Should we pack it in, chop it down and burn the orchard? One more tree parable offers hope to me. Changing culture requires continual prayer, nurture, truth telling, and action. Changing culture is not just one sermon series and then done! We know that — our adventure in 2021 is to Be More Like Jesus Together — but none of us believe that one series is going to complete that work. Cultivating Christ-likeness is an ongoing response to the grace of God in Christ and the whispers of His Spirit.

That’s why I’m encouraged by this parable from Luke 13 — God gives new chances to people and the church. When it comes to church and community do you come at it with an axe or with a spade? Here’s Jesus parable of hope but also urgency:

6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

8 “ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”

(Luke 13:6-9)


The person tending the vineyard hoped that changing the environment of the tree would ultimately change the tree. That’s cultivation. That’s what we could be doing for each other in the church. We could be cultivating goodness in the way we relate to each other. We can cooperating with the Holy Spirit to cultivating goodness in our hearts, so we yield or produce goodness in our community. But only if we will take the actions that cultivate our church culture towards goodness.

There’s so much available to us in the book of James — but here’s what we are going to focus on over the next two months. Church that cultivates goodness is able:
to Listen
to Include
to Act in Faith
to Speak
to Make Peace
to Humble Ourselves
to Pray and
to Restore.

It looks like we have a few more months of gathering online here in Vancouver. Our experience of christian community has been good but  variable over the past year. For some of us we have grown with Jesus by leaps and bounds ( we feel rich with Jesus), others of us have languished, and some have almost given up. (these feel impoverished). But James in the first part of Chapter One encourages us to not give up on Jesus or each other—instead we are called to persevere even though we are under pressure and facing trials of many kinds. 

Here’s what I’m trusting — even through this pandemic and the contraction of our liberties we can grow with Jesus! We can enjoy the gift of community that has been born among us through the Word of God sown into our hearts. God is creating good community in Jesus name now — if only we will remain open and responsive to Him and to each other.

Change

Prayer of the People, 30 April 2021

May 3, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

You are the Lord of all Creation; You spoke, “Let there be light” and there was light. Your Son Jesus is the Light of the World. And now, by His Spirit, His Word illuminates our lives. Thank you for this grace in which we sit, walk, and stand. 

Speak again Lord, to our dark hearts. “Let there be light.” Awaken us to you. Teach us to walk in Your light and to fellowship with each other in this world according to your grace and truth. We are longing for you and our spirit calls out, “Abba Father!”

We confess that having our lives exposed in your light can generate fear. First we tremble at the thought of your holiness. Save us according to your Word and not our word. Forgive our sins and may willful sin not rule over us. Second we tremble at the thought of being out of step with our world. Your light invites us into what is unfamiliar and makes us look peculiar. Please replace our fear of people with your perfect love. 

We long for leaders who walk in the light, who lead with wisdom and who pursue justice. We ask that You will bring Your comfort and help to those traumatized by violence, greed, and cold apathy. Both the one who raises the hand in anger and the one who receives it have suffered. It is your revealing light that can usher us all into healing and reconciliation. With your Spirit we groan with longing that we might be revealed fully as your children in your New Creation.

We cry out to you on behalf of the people of India who the many who have suffered under poverty and sectarian violence. But now Covid 19 has cut across many segments of this nation. Comfort those who grieve. Please bring healing to many suffering under the pandemic. Empower your Church to serve their neighbours and to share the promise of life in the Gospel of Jesus. Fill them with your Spirit and bring joy again to the lives of many. Come Lord Jesus Come.

We pray now as you have taught us — (Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 30 April 2021.

Change

,