Work

Inflection. Sunshine & Sovereign is God.

April 7, 2021 0 Comments

One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.

All sunshine and sovereign is God,
generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
Psalm 84:11-12, The Message

I remember feeling shock when those words went from my eyes to my mind to my mouth for the first time, “All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions…” Who writes this way? Is this ok? This is the Bible! I don’t know why I started reading The Message in the Psalms, but that’s where I cracked it open. Dr. Peterson would have approved.

The writers of the Psalms wrote for the dramatic conveyance of their souls and Eugene Peterson did too. I was a slow fan of Eugene Peterson. After reading, A Burning In my Bones, The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, by Winn Collier, I am assured that Dr. Peterson would have been happy with that — with the slow warm up.

Dr. Peterson was not a fan of celebrity life. He would have rather been with the Lord, alone in Montana, with his wife and family, with his church, intently present and listening to another person sort their soul with Jesus. Peterson knew that affection for the rave was toxic for the soul. He was not a fan.

Throughout my years of service to Jesus and His church I have felt tension between pastoral care and active entrepreneurial mission leadership. Sometimes I created an internal voice of condemnation and would alternate between these two ways of being in search of some kind of recipe for success.

Over the last week while reading Winn’s account of Eugene’s life I became aware that the Lord has helped me bring what might be considered “opposite” ways of being together. Loving people and joining Jesus in building a congregation in a university setting has let me grow pastoral roots in community while simultaneously entering into the annual renewal and experimental aspects of mission.

I was glad for this realization. So there it is even in Psalm 84: A house and a journey, a life and people of worship. My life with Christ doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s, nor does anyone else’s need to look like mine. The same God-of-the-Angel-Armies is sunshine and sovereign for us all! One of the benefits of reading biography is the inflection made possible by observing another person’s life. The words I had been using to describe my own life are given a new voice and new perspective as I listen into the other person’s journey with God.

I never met Dr. Peterson when he was teaching at Regent in Vancouver. But his influence has been all around me. While I completed a Doctorate of Ministry through Golden Gate Seminary, two of the students in my cohort had Dr. Peterson as their field supervisor. They met regularly with him at his home in Montana. I was so impressed and I was so happy. From a distance our whole cohort benefited from the realism provided by his hospitality. Because a “celebrity” made time for two very normal fellows we were all reminded to keep it real: love Jesus, love people.

Every normal life in Christ is meant to be a new song. I have come to believe that one of the evidences of new life in a local congregation are new songs. While pastoring at Cityview, previous to Origin, my friend Lalpi wrote new songs. Here’s one — I offer it again in honour of Dr. Peterson, “Sing to the Lord a New Song.” The lyrics written and performed by Lalpi Guite include this phrase that took my breath away: sunshine and sovereign.

Change, Work

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Noah’s Trauma

February 5, 2021 1 Comment

I’m praying for health care workers, nurses, doctors today. The Covid-19 Pandemic is taking a toll. And its not over. When it is “over,” it will likely not be over for many of them even if it is over for us.

If you are not sure that our health care teams are under a rising and constant stress from the pandemic just a run a search for it. The articles and the stories of tragedies among health care providers are there in many countries.

Recently a parent in our congregation sent me an email with their child’s inquiry. “Why did Noah curse his child?” I had an answer but I framed it within my belief informed by exposure to trauma based care.

I think Noah was wrong; he made a mistake. Even though God called him and God preserved his life, Noah may have carried in his body the mysterious weight of surviving and of leading through the flood. Noah a man of the soil (Genesis 9:20) knew what he was doing when he planted the vineyard, waited a few years to harvest the grapes, and then made wine.

This builder of the ark had become a man of the sea. Where he may have once felt in control on life on land, he experienced an utter lack of control on the seas of judgment. The experience was likely traumatic. Yes, I wonder, what grace from God was available to him. But Noah, even a few years after the flood, after running a ship made for survival, “became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.”

Ham discovered his father, and told his bothers Shem and Japheth. They covered their father with a blanket, but only after walking in backwards, so they would not see their father naked. When Noah “awoke from his wine” he heard what the “youngest had done to him” and cursed him.

I think Noah’s response is actually a reaction to shame and he brought God into it. Ham stumbled into the moment that Noah had created. I think surely Noah was still working out what he had lived through.

The write of Hebrews reminds us that by faith, “in holy fear” Noah “built an ark to save his family.” (Hebrews 11:7) But what was he doing by faith now?

I’m not sure of all the motivations for health care providers. But perhaps most entered in order to save us. The pandemic has complicated and frustrated that desire. They would like to keep us out of the hospital so they affirm and calls us to the preventative actions we can take. Frustration rises when we don’t act like the pandemic flood is real. And then there is the actual care. The doors of their ship, the hospital, are still open for the sick and dying. So we go and some of us are restored to health.

This pandemic will draw to the close. I’m concerned for the health care providers who have carried the weight of our survival. What safe places of refuge will be created for their soul care?

Dear Health Care Providers, My neighbourhood doesn’t do the 7 O’Clock Health Care Provider Salute anymore. But I haven’t forgotten you. I’m praying for you today.

Relationships, Society, Work

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Wait and Listen

May 14, 2020 0 Comments

What is your smaller world of interaction teaching you?

Some of you may have discovered a neglected discipline as your world has become smaller during the pandemic. Maybe you have cooked more, baked more, practiced an instrument more, gardened more, or perhaps you have rested. But my guess is that the discipline of waiting and listening for Jesus’ voice has not become “easier.” I pray that we would all be given grace to increase our capacity to listen to Jesus. If we don’t, we will miss out on so much joy.

John the Baptist’s life is full of so many discipleship lessons for the followers of Jesus. When his disciples are all stirred up by comparison and jealousy John responds with contentment, jubilation and joy.

His contentment had been nurtured through surrender and faithfulness.

He says, “A person can only receive what is given them from heaven.” Without this surrender and perseverance in relationship to God John would not have had joy.

John’s joy has been nurtured through clarity and conviction.

He is clear about who He is and what is about. His identity flows from His relationship with God and the unique time in which He has been situated in God’s plan. John richly describes his relationship with Jesus, with himself, and his relationships with people and the stuff of earth through the metaphor of the wedding party. John says,

“The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:29-30)

The Friend of the Groom

When you are part of the wedding part, the groom’s men or the bride’s maids you have certain responsibilities and roles to play. At the wedding the point of focus is not you; it’s the groom and bride. As the friend of the groom you are not trying to upstage him; you want to attend to his needs and to his purposes in loving, celebrating, and building up his bride.

John says he has been attending to Jesus, the Messiah. John has been waiting for Jesus. John has been listening for Jesus. And when Jesus speaks, John has joy. When the bride moves toward Jesus John celebrates and feels a sense of completion in his life.

Are you learning to wait on and listen for Jesus? Our joy is in hearing his voice and responding to Him in obedience.

Waiting and listening are not passive; they require attentive effort.

At at wedding celebration the friend of the groom may be seen sitting, walking, and standing. Sometimes he appears to be alone — but he may actually be on task for the groom. Sometimes he appears to be with the groom: sitting, walking, standing. Sometimes the friend of the groom may be attending to a need of the groom’s bride on the groom’s behalf. There is joy in all of it.

But all the activity has as its point of reference that the friend of the groom has been able to wait and to listen.

Even while active in mundane or once-in-a-lifetime tasks, the friend of the groom is mindful to listen for the groom’s voice.

This is John’s internal posture: attending to the voice of Jesus.

Is it yours?

You can nurture this kind of attention through:

daily surrender to Jesus.

daily openness to His Spirit filling you.

daily feeding on His Words and the stories of Jesus’ life.

daily mindfulness to His nudge drawing your attention to people so you can participate in what He is doing in their lives and yours.

celebrating the union of the Church with Jesus the Lamb of God!

Discipleship, Jesus, Leadership, Work

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Earth Day with Jesus

April 22, 2020 0 Comments

I remember learning to read blueprints. They were spread out on our the kitchen table and the four of us stood above them. I studied them meticulously. I was enthralled. Envisioning a house set into the mountain was fun and a family adventure. But then, it all came to a halt. 

A drunk contractor on an excavator toppled trees and tore an angry red strip across the land. My mother and father banned him from the scene. The contractor’s violence uncovered my parents’ values for the land.

The house was never built.

But a finer experience emerged from the pain. A wee camper redeemed from my uncle’s back yard was set back into the woods above the hole. The hole in the side of the mountain became a play-space preserved for years, even as the forest sought to reclaim it. My sister and I spent hours traipsing around this patch of earth. Camping, gardening, and working with my family in this space without the confines of a house was an unexpected gift. Besides learning the joy of smores, I learned to anticipate the fingerprints of God in everything.

The stuff of earth came alive for me.

I have grown up in North America where Christians have not appeared to be on the front lines of “earth” initiatives. The stereotype of Christian capitalistic consumption is built on a narrative of dispensational nihilism: The stuff of earth will burn; it will all dissolve like snow; so, let’s be powerful and eat drink as much as we can and be merry while we can; Jesus is Lord. Really? I don’t really know anyone who believes all this so neatly but it’s attributed to us.

Some Christians may be raving industrialists pressing for the consumption of as much as possible in a most expedient manner. Many have been baptized into Jesus and hope to do good with what they make. Making money is turned into a “holy” pursuit and it’s draped in a perverted form of puritan work ethic. Other Christians who also reside in “Babylon,” have been quietly and steadily pressing for the conservation of the land, air, and water because they see  stewardship as a moral imperative flowing out of a life of loving God and loving people with Jesus.

American Christian discipleship built on the Roman Road, the Bridge Illustration, or even Three Circles has had to labour hard to recover all four dimensions of relational Christianity. The way one comes to Jesus in the Gospel preached seems to create a trajectory of blindspots. Some of us don’t see the earth and the connections between Jesus and what we build, drive, and eat. If Jesus is just good for life-after-death insurance, then we can live as best we see fit on earth secure in the hopes of mansions here and mansions there.

I believe Jesus saves us in all our relationships. A four dimensional and relational discipleship presents salvation as participation in the life of Jesus the King in all our relationships. His kingdom includes the “heavens” and the earth. We live with anticipation for the new heaven and new earth. People, lovingly created by God, have for four relationships — with God, with self, with people, and with the stuff of earth (or the cosmos) as we participate in the communion of God — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A thorough reading of the Old and New Testaments presents a cosmic conflict into which Creation is cast; it is finished in Christ at the Cross but is not yet finished in Creation as the agents of the conflict still seek to diminish the glory of God in all creation while God is patient.


Theologies of discontinuity disconcert me. Justification by faith is not meant to be a theology of discontinuity. Yet, if we unhitch any consequential implications for life “here” with Jesus with life “there” with Jesus then what we do and what anyone does in their lifetime doesn’t really matter and a whole slew of passages and parables are trivialized. This disconnection leaves our relationship with the stuff of earth behind. Grace is not a theology of disconnection. Grace in the Gospel is a theology of connection. The Gospel presses us to respond to God by wisely stewarding our common ground. Jesus is good news for all our relationships — our relationship with God, with self, with people, and with the stuff of earth.

It’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. It’s been part of my life for almost all of my life. I regularly read some followers of Jesus being critical of and fearful of association with the day. Of course Earth Day matters to folks for a whole lot of reasons and with a whole lot of spiritual frameworks undergirding their affections. That’s how it is when anything belongs in the “commons.” It is not somehow disloyal to Jesus if we care about the earth. Nor is it particularly becoming as a follower of Jesus to treat scientists, farmers, poets, and other concerned residents who care about the Earth as if they are a threat to the knowledge of God because they care.

We don’t have to create a dichotomy between caring for Creation and walking with Jesus as a way of protecting the Gospel. Caring about the earth is not somehow going to ruin our lives with Jesus. A full-bodied discipleship can include theological reflection on our bodies, our work, our food, and the ground we walk upon, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. We do not have to romanticize and place some kind of utopian vision upon the indigenous people’s or their histories in order to care for the earth and each other. I believe we can be realistic about people as people since we are all infected with sinful capacities AND we can celebrate or critique the values within people groups (including my own) that affect creation-care negatively or positively.

If our discipleship and our presentation of the Gospel does not include the stuff of earth I believe we are doing people a dis-service. The Gospel majestically ushers us into the love of God. Now we know God loves. Now we know I am loved. Now we know there is power available to love people. Now we know we can love creation. All these loves matter forever.

Wonder, beauty and mystery are very much connected to the grace of God.
And the grace of God is very much connected to the earth.
Yet, this Earth Day we groan.

The stuff of earth was never meant to bear the weight of our souls. It so easily betrays our misplaced affections and reveals our need to surrender to God. But our surrender need not be made in despair. Rather our surrender may be informed by the resurrection of Jesus. Until He sets all things right, we shall continue to labour for the benefit of all. We do not surrender to death. We do not surrender to thorns and thistles. We do not surrender to greed. Rather we steward our lives and our work under Jesus the Lord so generosity and abundance may abound. Our labour is not in vain. Even our labour to live rightly on the earth in the grace of the Gospel is a exercise in faith. (Suggestion: Read the Gospels again and explore Jesus’ relationship with and stewardship of the stuff of earth.)

So Earth Day — it’s a day of faith for me. It’s a day of yearning with faith for justice — the justice contained in loving our neighbour, the justice proclaimed in the Cross of Christ, the justice of properly stewarding the stuff of earth, the justice anticipated in the restoration of all things in Jesus’ return.

“The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” 1 Corinthians 15:47-49

Creation, Discipleship, Work

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What you don’t see

April 6, 2020 3 Comments

To be fair I should tell you what you don’t see in the picture.

What you don’t see in all my beautiful posts from yesterday is that on Sunday, 5 April, something in my soul cracked and my 12 year old told her mother “I’ve never seen daddy cry before.”

My body was wracked by gut-wrenching, breath-stealing sobs that would not be contained.

The dam broke.

I hate covid-19.

I hate the stress of wanting to do better and feeling woefully inadequate for everything that matters because of love:

husbanding-parenting-householding-pastoring-friending-broadcasting-distancing-togethering-financing-interneting-zooming-learning-teachering-homeschooling-discipling-tracking-the-church-that-has-scattered-to-the-four-corners of the globe-goodbying-grocery-shopping-without-getting-sick-and-dying-praying-staying-healthy-securing-the-broken-in-garage-from-more-thieves-teching-wondering-about-parents-who-are-isolating-planning-producing-content-leading-comforting-mobilizing-communicating-partnering-staying-on-mission-serving-my-neighbours-without-making-them-sick-empathizing-and-i’m-supposed-to-do-something-great-in-isolation-right?-comparing-and-knowing-i’m-not-supposed-to-AND-wanting-to-be-an-expert-but-the-only-thing-i’m-an-expert-at-is-being-me-and-i’m-not-doing-that-very-well-right-now-ing.

I’m already sick of all the gurus telling me how to do this. If I get another email from a church specialist telling me or even offering how to do better… Oh wait that’s all I’m getting these days — FROM EVERYBODY! How to do better.

I’m angry about that too.

Enough.

And yet there in the midst of my deluge of grief: hugs from my family; assurances—it’s ok we are all trying; Psalm 46:1 offered by the 12 year old; and “He Will See You Through” from Rhiannon Giddens album ‘There Is No Other’ with Francesco Turrisi. (Listen to it below)

God is good

And. I’m. still. angry.

Change, Relationships, Work

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