Society

How to save a city?

February 7, 2020 0 Comments

Do you know the parable of the poor wise man who saved a city?

I’m reading through the Bible again. I love the moments where the Word of God catches me by surprise. What I used to blaze through quickly I find myself pausing over, praying over, meditating over, and bringing deeper into the marrow of my existence.

This week the Teacher of Ecclesiastes caught me by surprise. Is there anything that could truly impress this person equipped with all the privilege required to sample life without fear of social consequence? And then there is. He is “impressed with a great example of wisdom.” It’s an account of a poor wise man who saved a city. I’m sure I blazed through it in my former readings.

13I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.

17The quiet words of the wise are more
to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.

18Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroys much good.

Ecclesiastes 9:13-18

When the church has a full-bodied vision of discipleship it will seek out men and women of Jesus who are full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit. These wise folk may not be on the platform. We will probably need to get off the public ramparts and poke around in the corners of our congregations to find them.

We won’t elevate the wise unless we are willing to share life with those who seem “poor.” Unfortunately we seem to be more inclined to elevate the people who are able to make a good show. So many folks are looking for a leader who will save the day; yet, they love the shouts of a ruler who gives them reasons to feel good about being bad. Such a leader is “a ruler of fools” says the teacher. This kind of leader is puffed up and full of the celebrated strengths of humanity, willing to be combative and rushing to implement the weapons of war. One leader like this “destroys much good.” For this leader everything is about competition, being the survivor whose existence at the top must mean they were right, and who reflexively treats another’s commitment to righteousness and integrity as “weakness.” This leader shouts and will gain more applause from his or her congregation of fools.

Unfortunately our visions of leadership and even of discipleship do not lean toward the wisdom of Jesus. We are being trumped by our desire for a show. 

For any who lead and for any who have the ambition to serve (to make a difference) by being the person who invites people to do what they would never do unless a leader was present, this parable will strike deep into the desire for applause and position. Am I willing to be the poor wise man who saves a city but may be forgotten, unnamed, and even despised?

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Leadership, Society

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Catechism + Comment

July 16, 2019 0 Comments

I. O Mortal, what is required of thee?
To act justly.

When
the man at the top
refuses to be
the man at the bottom
he will not be
for the people.

II. O Mortal, what is required of thee?
To love mercy.

When
your counsellors have retired,
When
your news is on repeat,
When
your body has resigned,
do you sleep?

III. O Mortal, what is required of thee?
To walk humbly with my God.

When
the man at the bottom
refuses to be
the man at the top
he will not be
for himself alone.

Leadership, Poetry, Society

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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Temples and Borders

July 3, 2019 2 Comments

Reflections on John 2 and Jesus prophesying about “this temple.”

Borders define. Who is in? Who is out? Who belongs? Who does not belong? Who has power? Who does not have power? Whose authority are you under? Whose authority has reached its limit?

Borders easily become zones of violence. The authority to enforce and establish borders is usually external to a person. Border enforcement has to be granted. At a border it can feel like some bodies are worth less than other bodies.

Watch Jesus at The Temple.

13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

18The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

23Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.

24But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

John 2:13-25, NIV

Jesus walked right into the domain of the Temple border patrol. That’s why the authorities who observed Jesus clearing the temple courts were questioning him. He had run some bodies out of the Temple. He had made room for other bodies in the Court of the Gentiles. To progress through the thresholds of the Temple was to move across several border zones. The further in one went towards the Holy of Holies, the smaller the crowd. The Temple had clear borders: The Court of the Gentiles, The Court of the Women, The Court of Israel. The Court of Priests. Jesus had cleared the Court of the Gentiles, so they ask him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

Throughout his ministry Jesus entered the border zones of Israel and disrupted their  standard operating procedures. When he entered the Temple as a thirty year old he did not come with the questions and explorations of a twelve year old boy seeking to be about “His Father’s business.” Jesus entered and took up what appeared to his disciples to be a zealot’s reformation enthusiasm. They recalled, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

It was a busy day just before Passover when Jesus ran the sellers of sacrificial animals and the money changers for the temple tax out of the temple courts. He had cleared the Court of the Gentiles and was saying to them, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Perhaps Jesus had come there because the cry of the nations had risen up to the ears of the LORD. Now the persons of power were asking for signs, just as Pharaoh had asked.

What sign will you show us?

Jesus offered them one sign.

“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

His answer must of been shocking. The splendour of Herod’s temple was great. Even the disciples later sought to engage Jesus in consideration of its awesomeness. Those listening to Jesus blurt out, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”

Only when they could look back from the Resurrection and the Cross did the disciples begin to get Jesus. 

“But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.” 

Jesus treated His body as The Temple. Jesus treated bodies as temples. Yes, zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him. Jesus ached to see people become gloriously occupied as temples of the Holy Spirit.

The Temple was a border.

The Temple was a meeting place of Heaven and earth.

The temple Jesus had spoken of was His body.

Jesus’ body is a temple.

Having come from the communion of God, He embodied His own authority.

Jesus’ body crucified and resurrected is His promised sign.

The body is a temple.

When Jesus cleared the Jerusalem Temple He was making room for bodies.

Jesus cleared the Temple to make room for Gentile bodies.

The body as temple is of utmost concern for Jesus.

You are of utmost concern to Jesus.

There is no body that is worth less!

Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

You have been bought at a price!

Jesus has authority to make room for you.

But you have authority to make room for Jesus in the temple of your body.

The bodies of people at borders are temples.

The bodies of people at borders are sacred.

Where is our zeal for our Father’s house?

Jesus knows what is in a person.

Jesus can see into our temples.

We can’t easily see what’s in each temple.

But we can treat all bodies as temples, just as Jesus did.

Holy.

This the Way of all who are His Temple.

Temple politics are strangely differentiating.

So are borders.

Jesus, Relationships, Society

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Prayer of the People, 26 May 2019

May 27, 2019 1 Comment

Heavenly Father,

We set our hearts and our minds on You. You are seated in Your throne room, yet your majesty and glory fills the whole earth. We come without pretensions for our own righteousness. Instead we come with gratitude for the righteousness of Jesus in whom our lives have been hidden.  You are our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption. Thank you for this grace!

We sit with you and are fed.
We walk with you and have company.
We stand with you and have victory.

Thank you for this grace. In our weakness you are strong. You have forgiven our sins and have fortified us through many temptations. You have been our help and truly it is by your help that we have come this far.

These weeks we are celebrating with graduates of UBC.  We celebrate what is completed, and we look forward to a future with you. As these dear ones take next steps please remind them to set their hearts on things above even while they navigate all of the practical pieces of finding work, of moving, and of navigating change.  Remind us of Your glory in the midst of change and uncertainty. You are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

We seek to live as Jesus did, so we are not unaffected or unmoved by the ways powers and principalities animate the institutions of our world. O how the nations rage! But your Kingdom will prevail even as North Korea tests their missiles, and as tensions rise in Europe’s elections, and as Iran stretches its arms, and India abounds with voices of hate and suspicion that find a place in online streams to turn people against their neighbours.

Compel us again through the tremendous and surprising grace of the Gospel to love our neighbours and our enemies and to plead with you for the salvation of all who would turn to Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is by His grace that turn our hearts and minds to you and that we pray —

(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.

Prayer, Society

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