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Prayer of the People, 12 June 2020

June 15, 2020 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

We open our mouths to you. We open our hearts to you. And we cry out!

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
The one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.

Thank you for including us in your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our life with you rests in your love toward us. You moved first. You have shown us your love through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You have brought us into the communion of your love even now through the Holy Spirit who pours you love into our lives. Thank you! You do not disappoint!

Grant us strength to persevere. Grant us the encouragement of the Spirit. Grant us the compassion of your Son. Grant us the welcoming heart of the Father.

On our own we are powerless to rid ourselves of the creeping overtaking entanglements of sin. So we cry out to you for the regenerative power of your Spirit in our lives. We cast them off and desire to run the race with Jesus. Forgive us Lord. Cause your Word to flourish in our hearts so that our attitudes and actions are shaped by grace and truth. This is what we want:

Real love, in real places, with real neighbours. Show us how O Lord.

We lift up to you our campus community. Encourage students as they study to study with you. Encourage graduates to trust you for their next steps. You are our Provider. Your wisdom though foolish to the world has become our delight.

We lift up to you our policy makers and authorities tasked with governing. By your Spirit compel them to make decisions without regard for the next election but for the common good.

We lift up to you our brothers and sisters in Iran. Encourage them and fortify them with your love and the grace of your Gospel that they may persevere under hardship and even imprisonment. You are their refuge O Lord.

We lift up the churches of Vancouver and pray that you would cause them to flourish after this season of pruning. May our roots run deep into you. May we bear the fruit that you intend.

So we pray as Jesus 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.

Prayer

Arch Towards Hope & The Resurrection

June 10, 2020 0 Comments

I have been reflecting on a question asked by Dr. Willie Jennings in his commentary on Acts. “What would it mean to educate people inside this hope?

Jennings speaks of educating people inside the hope of the Resurrection of Jesus. The context for his question is Paul’s case before Felix in Acts 24. Tertullus represents the argument of the state. Paul represents himself. 

Jennings writes, “We don’t know whether Tertullus is Jew or Gentile, but that is not important for understanding his purpose in this story. What is crucial is that he is intellectual and legal power being marshalled against an innocent man. Luke here marks judicial sin that speaks to a wider condition—intellectual prowess in league with death. How many women, men, and children have been sentenced to prison, torture, and death through this kind of demonic connection? How many well-trained men and woman have used their gifts to destroy life? Here we see the discursive arts fully corrupted, and what makes that even more horrible is that such corrupted discursive arts are being used by the people of God.”

Over the last several years I have watched and listened as people who name the name of Jesus post and repost to their platforms without reflecting theologically about the topic for themselves, or even demonstrating Jesus’ compassion for people. They are very concerned for their political side and have crafted an identity in which Jesus is their politician of choice.  Oh not that they are voting for Jesus. It’s just that their hope seems to be that Jesus has ordained their leader. A look down their feed reveals a famine of the Word or of Jesus’ compassion. I really wouldn’t know that they know Jesus or reflect on His Word much at all. Jesus allows no proxy. Could we be in “league with death” when we do such?

Through the memes and the outrage I have wondered if there is a way through this. “What would it mean to educate people inside” the hope of the resurrection of Jesus?

Why hasn’t the church done better?

I have tried to do two things along the way with Jesus and His Word: 1. Every day, listen to people I don’t reflexively agree with.  And 2. Practice what Dallas Willard calls the “habit of not having the last word.”

That means I have at times allowed others to work out some things in conversation online with me. And I didn’t agree. And I didn’t keep taking them on. I left it. It also means that I have taken the conversation behind the scenes in private messages and that every once in a while I have had to remove a post from my wall. But in general, I’ve tried to remain friends with folks I don’t agree with.

I’ve tried to deny myself. Like a mad farmer, I’ve tried to practice the call of Kentucky’s Wendell Berry: Practice Resurrection.

Not everyone can take it. Some defriend and defund if their loyalties to state or denomination are tested. But still I find myself asking not for my own benefit alone, but for us all: what are we to do with the eloquent arts of this day that come to us in crafted videos and sound bites?

When the religious people joined Tertullus in Felix’s court, Jennings writes, “They build on the discursive power of Tertullus. This is the way of the world, and it has historically been also the way of many churches in many places, operating alongside and inside the machinations of brilliant but evil orators, lawyers, advocates who become our hired guns. Yet what has been more damnable has been our failure, a Christian failure to dedicate against the misuse of intellectual skill, verbal dexterity, and eloquence. Too often we have been mystified by such gifts and have idealized them abstracted from the real history of the horror they have created and the suffering they continue to inflict. We have been too quick to rush to their defence, announcing the inherent goodness of such gifts and the glory of those who exhibit them without counting the cost of their use. Tertullus has become a weapon of unrighteousness, and we must always ask ourselves, how might we prevent creation of such weapons?”

In Acts 24 Paul launches his defense. He states the facts and he moves beyond the facts to weave the gospel into his argument. How are we to think about the skills of Tertullus and Paul. Are they only duelling minds or there another conflict present?

Jennings writes, “Tertullus and Paul represent intellectual life before cross, resurrection, and the coming of the Spirit and intellectual life after these world-shattering and life-creating realities. Paul now speaks inside the hope of resurrection and as one who yields to the Spirit. His words aim at faithfulness and gesture divine presence. He certainly wants to win, finding justice against false accusations, yet the arch of his discursive work bends toward the resurrected body of Jesus. He speaks in witness to the hope of the resurrection.”

Don’t you love that?

Jennings continues, “What would it mean to educate people insider this hope? What would it mean to immerse, that is, to baptize intellectual ability, verbal dexterity, and eloquence inside the body of Jesus, inside his death and resurrection and his sending of th Spirit, so that our words, no matter of what we speak arch toward hope and give witness to resurrection?”

O Glory! What would it be to always speak no matter the subject in such a way that my words arch toward hope and give witness o the resurrection of Jesus?

In these days I’ve been on the look out for anyone who speaks of the pandemic, racism, and the protests of police brutality with an arch toward hope and so they give witness to the resurrection of Jesus. I am not comparing skills. I am looking for the Spirit of Jesus.

Today. Here is an example. Dr. Esau McCaulley writes,

“Racism sweeps our land, and the weakest among us suffer the most.

As I watch the news these days, I see genuine expressions of sympathy for the black situation in America. But I don’t simply want people to feel sorry for us. I want freedom. And in my best moments, I remember where that hope for freedom resides. It resides in the God who conquered death. Although the full fruition of that freedom will not come on this side of heaven, nonetheless, I am not forbidden the beginnings of it here and now. By desiring freedom now, I am not turning America into the kingdom. I am demanding the right to live and love and work as a free black child of God.

The defeat of death is God’s great triumph. It reshapes the Christian imagination, forever obliterating the limits we place upon our Creator. As the protests press on, then, I pray today and every day that we remember the Resurrection, when the entire cosmos became something different. We have yet to realize the full scope of that change.”

Esau McCulley, I Have Only One Hope for Racial Justice: A God Who Conquered Death, Christianity Today, 10 June 2020Esau McCulley, I Have Only One Hope for Racial Justice: A God Who Conquered Death, Christianity Today, 10 June 2020

Arch toward hope and give witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

Willie James Jennings, Acts, in the series Belief: A Theological Commentary On The Bible, 2017, pages 212-215

Change

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Personal Responsibility and Systems

June 8, 2020 2 Comments

Among some of my friends in the face of racism today there’s a call to just take personal responsibility for being a good person. That’s a good start, but they want to deny “systemic racism.”

I don’t think we get a pass as followers of Jesus on not seeing the systems we are a part of. A reading of Revelation in the New Testament is actually meant to disciple us so we can see the systems. Re-look at the use of “Babylon.” We are meant to understand that “powers and principalities” animate our society that includes us.

As to Canada we do have systems that have codified race. Our system was even held up as a model to be copied. I keep hearing folks calling the identification of systems and the codification of race a “liberal” idea. That’s not an idea, it is a reality.

“Canadians were among the most vocal opponents of the South African apartheid system. What’s not so well known is that the South African apartheid system was based, in large part, on the Canadian Indigenous apartheid system.

In the 1940s, when white South African politicians were designing a system that would keep people of different races separate, they came to Canada to study our system: its Indian Act, status cards and reserve system.”

Canada’s persistent apartheid system. Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and senior fellow with Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

These SA politicians in the 1940’s actually came to British Columbia for their learning tour.

So, yes let’s take personal responsibility for our internal beliefs, attitudes and actions that are racist. And let’s keep examining our systems with a new vision of life together. The examination will help us recognize that some policies and structures need to be dismantled. But we are resistant to examining systems if we have benefited from them. We are inclined to attend to our “self-interests.” And here’s why protesting is so important: If we do not accept why remaining at “System R” is untenable we will not exert the will to accept the pain and long journey for change — to move toward “System Y.”

The Lord’s Prayer is a protest prayer. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we express a yearning for a system change.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

A kingdom is a system. Jesus is teaching us to pray. Praying the Lord’s prayer has become so habituated that we fail to let the Spirit of God disrupt us so that we pay attention to why in this world we yearn for Jesus to show Himself as King. But this prayer is not just a yearning for the future. It locates us in the present and in our neighbourhoods where in following Jesus we take up His Cross. The prophetic voice and activity of God’s people is meant to be for a whole-bodied salvation. The Lord’s Prayer is meant to bring us into a life fortified by the Presence and Provision of God in the face of the evil one. If that evil shows up in the systems that we are stewards over shouldn’t we do something with God about it?

Society

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Prayer of the People, 5 June 2020

June 8, 2020 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

We humble ourselves before you. There is no one righteous. No not one. You are proved right when you judge. Jesus, born, crucified, and buried, has been raised to life as judge of both the living and the dead. We stand before Him and declare, He is Lord.

In Him you have mercied us. In Him you have forgiven us. In Him you have graced us with your Presence. Thank you for delivering us from the kingdom of darkness and securing us in the Kingdom of Your Son. We have crossed over from death to life. We enjoy now and for eternity your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yet, we live and breath in a broken world. Our systems reek of death. We can’t get it right. We are drawn to call evil good and to dispose of what is true. We hate our brothers and sisters. Oh Lord help us.

Oh Lord help us. Our thoughts and feelings conform to Babylon and all her empires. We strive for power. But may our strivings cease for we know in Christ there is the victory. 

Oh Lord help us. Your Spirit seeks to shape us into the image of Christ, but we are reluctant to be so humble. Why do we resist the way that would release the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control of Jesus into our lives and into our relationships?

Oh Lord. Help us.

We lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ and their neighbours — we seek your intervention. Empower your church to love others with real presence, the proclamation of the Gospel and in  refreshing works of service in Hong Kong, in New York, in Minneapolis, in Toronto, in Sanaa, in Mbandaka, in Sao Paula, and in Vancouver.

Oh Lord Help us. We need you.

And so we pray as you 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.

The Prayer of the People from the Origin Weekend Broadcast on 5 June 2020.

Prayer

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To understand — Breathing While Black — Some testimonies

June 6, 2020 0 Comments

This is an artist’s rendition of Joseph, The Carpenter, entrusted with parenting Jesus with Mary. We don’t know a lot about him. But, I find Christians are able to imagine a lot about his life and feelings; they are even able to put themselves in his shoes and wonder what it was like to be him. Unfortunately I don’t find this kind of Christian imagination comes easy among some white people to imagine what it’s like to be black in North America. So, I’ve gathered up some of the articles by black men in North America reflecting on their experiences and the deep feeling of menace that accompanies them everywhere.

Breathing While Black.

Here in their own voice and script.

I invite you to pray with me before you listen:

Ô Maître, que je ne cherche pas tant
à être consolé qu’à consoler,
à être compris qu’à comprendre,
à être aimé qu’à aimer…

Willie Jennings —
My Anger/God’s Righteous Indignation. 2 June 2020. Listen to the podcast or read the transcript.


Shai Linne
George Floyd and Me. Gospel Coalition 8 June 2020.


Timothy Peoples —
Ahmaud, Breonna, Christian, George, and The Talk every black boy receives. Opinion article in Baptist News Global, 29 May 2020


LeAlan M. Jones.
Breathing While Black. 28 May 2020, The Nation


James Ellis III —
A lowdown, dirty shame: Ahmaud Arbery’s murder and the unrenounced racism of white Christians. Opinion article in Baptist News Global, 15 May 2020.


Steve Locke —
I fit the description. Personal blog 4 Dec 2015.


A growing list of events and stories —
Absurd America, collated by Sergio Peçanha. Washington Post, 5 June 2020.




I will continue to add to this post so we can listen.

Note:
The picture above is a small inset of “Joseph The Carpenter” from Annunciation Triptych, by Robert Campin on display at The Cloisters. What do you know about Joseph? Not much right? We don’t have much of his story but we have been able to imagine plenty. Unfortunately many of us have not been able to imagine what’s its like to be black in North America and then be angry about our common situation.

Prayer, Relationships