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The Stranger Friendly Campus

September 25, 2019 0 Comments

Stranger Friendly Campus: Theological Pressure Points for Christians

Recently I hosted a discussion with the University Multifaith Chaplains Association at UBC. This lively group of people meet twice a month forming a learning and leadership community.

We live in an age that has never had such easy access and opportunity to appreciate and value the differences and commonalities in the world’s ethnē. Yet we also live in an age in which it remains just as easy to demonize the stranger as it has always been. Openness to the stranger is something I believe we want in the commons. Creating a stranger friendly campus is not easy and it will surely be challenged further in the days to come.

As nationalism raises its voice as an expression of xenophobia I have been searching for theological pressure points within the Christian conversation that lead might lead a person toward becoming a raging xenophile.

I chose only six pressure points for our discussion. Each pressure point is accompanied by Scripture. I am not providing the theological work but hopefully you as readers can make the associations. The first pressure point may be the most important one for creating movement and a willingness to encounter a stranger. It requires me to humbly manage the tendency to promote my opinions and quick judgements as truth. This questioning of my own assumptions creates generosity, invites trust, and leaves room for God to show up. The Emmaus Road (Luke 24:13-35) encounter is the account of Jesus, the Resurrected Lord, showing up and being received as a stranger by two disciples on their journey. I believe we will have to train ourselves for this pressure point in an age of manipulated feeds and censured news. This first pressure point is the required posture for every picture and byline we read on the Internet. Pressure point #1 is the growth mindset applied to relationships.

Pressure Point #1. My assumptions about the stranger are probably wrong.

“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”  Hebrews 13:1-3, NIV

Pressure Point #2. I am part of a minority story… too.
“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” Exodus 23:9, NIV

Pressure Point #3. Perceived weakness is not all about a lack of personal responsibility.
“Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”
Acts 5:42-Acts 6:1, NIV


Pressure Point #4. The academy is a transactional relationship yet has potential for genuine friendship.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my  commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down on’e life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.” John 15:9-17, NIV

Pressure Point #5. The stranger may be the one from whom I receive and share in God’s blessings.

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, or all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:26-29 NIV

Pressure Point #6. Being “sent” requires becoming the stranger who is received.

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” Matthew 10:40-42, NIV

Extra Thoughts and Music

Unfortunately, some places develop a hostile and pervading ethos of suspicion toward the stranger. These places seem to know and perhaps relish in their stranger-unfriendliness. I grew up with two phrases that treated being the stranger as a common experience and as a spiritual experience. These phrases have been memorialized in songs. “Rank Stranger” tells of leaving a community, coming back and then experiencing “home” and its people as strange, even objectionable. A second song is confessional too. “I’m just a Wayfaring Stranger,” I’m just passing through. These confessions do not guarantee empathy for the stranger or outsider but they do tap into pressure points within my theological stream.

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Prayer of the People, 22 September 2019

September 23, 2019 0 Comments

Not to us, LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.

We praise you O God, in the glory of your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Fill us and cause your name to be known among the peoples. For your sake raise up your servants in the forgotten corners of this campus and this city.

How forgetful and sleepy our spiritual life becomes when work for the disintegrating prize of our own fame, seeking to turn our names into a brand. Forgive us Lord. We want you to be the source of our comfort, our joy, and our zeal.

Free us from the idols we have raised for our own glory. Redeem the good work of your creation in our lives and establish the work of our hands. Unless you build the house we labour in vain, we stay up late, and we get up early for nothing.

So Lord, not to us. Not to us, but to your name be the glory. Let your love and faithfulness be the beauty of your people.

We lift up Zeidan and Dahlia and our friends at the Athens Ministry Centre in Greece. Encourage them Lord and grant them wisdom to serve people on the journey for refuge and to  make your kindness known. Fortify them with your love; let them rejoice in your lavish love and may the great truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ be an anchor for their souls even as turmoil washes over them and through their community.

We lift up uVillage Church and ask that you would bless Peter and Michaela, and Ian and Sophie, as they follow you and pour their lives into the next generation on campus and in Burquitlam. Make the freedom and power of your Spirit evident in their congregation and encourage your people today.

We lift up our campus Lord and thank you for the enthusiasm and energy with which many students and faculty lean into your Creation — exploring and learning, sharing concern for what people have done with it, and generating urgency about our common situation. Let your justice roll like a mighty river and revive us because of your love and faithfulness.

We seek you — for your glory.
We seek your Kingdom and righteousness — for your glory.
So we pray as Jesus taught us:

(Please join me in praying 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.

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Meditation on Joy

August 26, 2019 0 Comments

God is doing a good work in you. He provides us with many reasons to rejoice through the good times and the challenging times of our lives. Joy has become a topic of philosophical and self help discussion. Our joy in Christ comes from the overflow of our relationship with Him, even as the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our lives.

In the last few years Miroslav Volf, professor at Yale University, has been working on a theology of joy. He was asked the question, “Why isn’t happiness enough?” “Happiness,” he says, “generally is today understood as a kind of pleasurable feeling… Joy has something specific about it. We rejoice when we are united with the object of our love, with things that we love.”

Jesus often speaks of God’s joy.  Read Luke 15:1-7, NIV.

1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Notice the joy in Jesus’ parable. In this parable and in the next two we see Jesus confronting the “joy-killers” with the Father’s joy.

The Joy of finding–God feels it.
The Joy shared–God invites it.
The Joy multiplied–Lots of joy in Heaven when we repent.
Lots of Joy and delight–When we turn to God.
Lots of Joy–when we return to Him.
Lots of Joy–When we take a step of faith.
Lots of Joy–When we respond to His love.
Lots of Joy–When we abide in His love.

Let us enter into His joy by listening to the Holy Spirit, returning to God, agreeing with God, and changing our lives in response to His grace in Christ Jesus. He embraces us joyfully.

God has a specific joy in being united with you, the “object” of His love.
Do I have joy in being united with Him?
If not, what would Jesus have me know?

The promise of joy fortified Jesus for the suffering of the Cross. The author of Hebrews writes:  (Hebrews 12:1-2, NIV)

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing 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. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.


Jesus is my specific source of joy. I am included in Jesus’ specific sources of joy. Possible?

Yes! This is the real — The joy of your salvation!
Oh God, grant me this mercy that like Jesus I shall not lose heart!
I receive and abide in your joy.


Read more of Volf’s interview published by RNS.

Change, Discipleship, Jesus

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Factions — a work of the flesh

July 13, 2019 0 Comments

The works of the flesh are obvious… factions… I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19, 20, 21 NIV

Here’s what I’ve been asking myself.

Are you often keyed up about who is more right, more holy, and a more legitimate group to be a part of rather than being keyed up about what is right, holy, and a legitimate fruitful response to knowing Jesus and His Word? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you divide the world up into “them” verses “us?” If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you often find yourself drawn to and attached to public figures and leaders as a part of your identity and security in life?  If yes, that factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you automatically criticize and demonize people and their activities who are not on your side, without suspending judgment until you have truly heard and understand them? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you automatically assume that your group is always right and a perfect expression of what is on God’s mind? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Does your social media account echo with the sounds of self-righteous outrage and condemnation for one political party over another? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you quickly write off a person as unworthy of love and consideration because of their identification with one group or party? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Have you stopped respecting some people, because they don’t fit in your party’s vision of life together? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

The Apostle Paul identified “factions” as a work of the flesh. It’s not how followers of Jesus are to live. Instead we are to live responsive and free, not bound up in a faction. The freedom of the Spirit comes from a full-on celebration of Jesus and His love! Then in response to Him and as a forgiven person alive to Him and dead to the flesh we are keyed up about being fruitful in our relationships in the world and in the church rather than on being in the most powerful group.

Those who continue to depend on and promote “factions” will not inherit the kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul keeps warning us as does the Spirit of God. Factionalism has nothing to do with the Father’s heart or the Kingdom of Jesus.

The prophetic and priestly work of Jesus the King in our lives really depends on us being free. Free to offend all parties in our association with Jesus and with His Kingdom.  Without this freedom you and I will not actually enter into the command of Christ to care for the perpetuators of all kinds of fleshy and damaging acts. The fear of antagonizing “our side” will keep us from empathy and even forgiveness of our enemies. We will easily become puppets of power and trumpets of half-truths and lies. And then before you know it, we will abandon the Gospel for the pleasure of having power.

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

So this is complicated:

Now what are we to make of the common and God-given need to organize?

What are we to do in the Spirit in order to keep the creative and redemptive work of God in relation to powers and principalities?

How can we speak truth to power and organize people without falling into factionalism?

Change, Society

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Mindfulness and the who.

June 17, 2019 0 Comments

Chalkboard at UBC, Mindfulness

Ronald Purser is pulling back the curtain on mindfulness; his book will be released in July. I am surrounding by mindfulness talk. This past year, reading Paulo Freire brought me to say to myself, “Mindfulness is not conscientization.” Maybe I should start saying that out loud so we can challenge this thought… so here we go.

In my work with students I find that mindfulness has become the mantra of the academy especially as it relates to student stress. That’s convenient isn’t it? Mindfulness changes the geography of a problem. It allows the university to off-load responsibility from the faculties so they don’t have to change the demands they are putting on students, staff, and even administrations. Instead the student bears the weight of being stressed out. The student bears the weight of not being able to learn fast enough. The student is solely and personally responsible. The student just needs to be trained in how to cope.

It’s a perfect storm. Top ranked universities are supposed to launch top notch students to the world (to the employers waiting on them.) At the same time, there is more to learn; the sheer amount of information and the depth of that information has made for enormous silo’s of specialization in university degrees. And yes, students may be showing up at universities with a lower threshold for some kinds of stress.

I’m all in for a holy pause. However, mindfulness is not helping address the conditions that a student may become aware of when they stop moving. I fear that mindfulness without an ethic for evaluating the world forces coming down on us may indeed be making us sicker. The source of some problems are located outside of us. However, mindfulness as a new technology for health has no authority for identifying oppressive forces.

Is mindfulness conditioning us to be passive?

While there may be some good brought through “mindfulness” maybe it doesn’t go far enough. If mindfulness does bring some pause and some space for restoration, maybe it just centres us in our selves. And here’s the catch: If its always our neighbour’s fault that they are not able to cope, then love for neighbour only means that I have to help them cope. That’s a small view of love isn’t it? I find that so unsatisfying. True love means that I may sometimes need to do something to lift the burden or to address a system that is arrayed against. True love will find a way for mercy to do its work.

Mindfulness as it has been constructed in public discourse creates a vision of society and what it needs. Ronald writes, “Underneath its therapeutic discourse, mindfulness subtly reframes problems as the outcomes of choices. Personal troubles are never attributed to political or socioeconomic conditions, but are always psychological in nature and diagnosed as pathologies. Society therefore needs therapy, not radical change.”

I read this article and feel primed to read Purser’s book when it comes out.

Be mindful of God.

In Vancouver I feel like I’m surrounded by the mindfulness mantra. It’s been a topic of conversation in our household. So here’s what I have been saying, “Be mindful; but be mindful of God.” I’ve been saying this to myself and to my kids while they are growing up in the school system. Be mindful of the God who has been revealed in Jesus Christ. The One who cares. The One who enters into life. The One who has moved into the neighbourhood. The One who is active, challenging, and prophetic toward the powers and principalities arrayed against the glory of God finding its home in people. Be mindful of God so you can live loved. Be mindful of the One who loves you.

The Apostle Paul lives out of this kind of mindfulness and encourages us: Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Phillipians 4:5)

See what this kind of mindfulness does?

We are to become a gentle force against that which would destroy people. So, be mindful of God. Being mindful of God unveiled through Jesus Christ fortifies us to love and to pray.

What’s your take on mindfulness?

Change, Education, Work

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