Tag Archive: Jesus

Our No Name Life

July 1, 2020 0 Comments

I have a friend who found life in Vancouver and particularly life in the UBC campus community disturbing. Her move from a country in Eastern Africa did not prepare her for just how economically segmented life can be here. It is possible to go about life in Metro Vancouver unaware of economic disparity and the impact of poverty. It’s possible to not the know the stories of people and families bearing up under the weight of scarcity. One could live in the campus setting of UBC without getting to know the poor and sharing life with them. 

While one might speculate that my friend’s participation in the apparent uniformity of university life only cloaked the poor, that would belie the reality: it is possible to believe that one has no relationship with the poor or to live as if the poor do not exist or matter in any neighbourhood. But she is right, for many of us in Vancouver we live very segmented lives. Our homes and hospitality are not graced with the poor. We are not doing life “with” each other.

Yet, Jesus believes we have a relationship with the poor. He said as much in the story of Lazarus and the man with no name. Apparently the quality of our relationship with the poor reflects whether or not we have a name in Kingdom of God. Do you have a name? (Read Luke 16:19-31)

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

My friend — she does have a name, but in respect to her I am not calling her here — found it strange that her daily life did not obviously intersect with the poor. She was disconcerted with the fact that daily life was not shared communally across economic lines. Her disturbance has stayed with me all these years. Why aren’t more of us disconcerted too? How can we read the Bible and feast on the teachings of Jesus without being disconcerted by a no name life? How can we know Jesus the Risen Saviour and have no real passionate movement toward the poor?

This week I had two encounters with a poor man called Alex. In my heart as I pray for him, he is Alex the Great; he could be my son. The ravages of drug addiction are apparent and hunger stalks him. In our first encounter after a conversation about how he was doing, where he was staying, and how he felt about the day, I asked his name and told him mine. We chatted a bit more and then I made to leave. I was a few steps away, and praying for him, when he called out to me, “Hey what’s your name?”

Ah, that question stirred up life in me and my soul rejoiced as I answered, “My name is Craig.”

Relationships

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LJWJ — Resurrection Authority

May 13, 2020 0 Comments

A few weeks ago we made a shift from Journey Through John to Life Journey With Jesus (LJWJ). I haven’t abandoned the Gospel of John! Instead of blogging or creating a video unpacking the text during the day I made a shift to begin a new series on the first Sunday after Easter to explore the Gospel of John in our Weekend Broadcast. The Broadcast has been designed to assist people in having a House Church experience on the weekend anywhere around the world.

So here’s Resurrection Authority, from 2:13-25 taken from the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 17 April 2020.

Jesus, Journey Through John's Gospel

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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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Passion Week Lessons — All at once

April 8, 2020 0 Comments

Passion Week Lessons

Every attempt at writing or creating video about the “lessons” in each day of this Passion Week has so far fallen flat. Neither I nor my products could escape the inner critic. I couldn’t push publish. So I’ll just summarize the “lessons” of Monday – Wednesday and give your Thursday’s as well.

To call these days between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, Passion Week is to emphasize the passion of Jesus — His suffering emerging from who He is and the love permeating all His relationships: with His Heavenly Father, with Himself, with people, and with the stuff of earth. Suffering extends to the depths of soul beyond the flesh and the nerve endings. Jesus was not detached; he was deliberately engaged. So, Jesus loves and His love is what He taught.

The lessons I have been drawn to in His teaching in this week show us the way of Jesus’ love.

May these lessons bear the fruit Jesus intends.

Monday — Impressed with the image of God.
Reading: Matthew 22:15-22

Our obligations to the crown and its coin do not exceed the greater obligation to the image before us in humanity — the image of God. “Give back to Ceasar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” What is God’s? What must be given to God? The body and the person meant to flourish there. The bodies of humanity and the communities taking root here. I’m sure the rest of our relationships will follow when our value for giving God what is God’s is moved to the top. The secret of giving and I suspect the secret of loving is to give ourselves first to God.

Tuesday — The greatest commandment
Reading: Matthew 22:34-40

 An expert in the law tests Jesus with a question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” I’m not sure which options for great commands the expert thought might compete for the top spot. But Jesus chooses the first and second commands and then says “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Here you go — let’s organize our lives around these beginning with our closest relationships (starting at “home”).

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

Love God with your all.
Love people as yourself.

So much growth required!
So much grace necessary!

Wednesday — Humble service flowing from the inside out
Reading: Matthew 23:1-12

Jesus finds no fault with the Law and the Prophets nor with the teaching that might emerge from their teachers on how to live in relationship to God, to self, to people and to the stuff of earth. But Jesus does find fault with the teachers who do not practice what they preach. He says, “be careful to do everything they tell. But do not do what they do.” Jesus does find fault with teachers who do everything for people to see so as to garner honour and adoration.

Humility among the communities of Jesus is founded on allegiance to Him.

So in the communities of Jesus no one needs to be called “Rabbi;” we are all brothers and sisters and we have one Teacher.

No one needs to be called “Father” because we all have one Father and He is in heaven.

No one needs to be called Instructor because we all have one Instructor, The Messiah.

If anyone needs to be great — become a servant by humbling yourself.

Thursday — The urgency of loving now with integrity
Matthew 23:13-39, Chapters 24 -25

Jesus sees ahead and he sees into the hearts of people who claim the name of God. He knows what has been entrusted to us and he discerns our spiritual complacency and inertia.

Jesus is direct and then he moves to what I call the parables of disturbance. These parables are meant to disrupt our complacency and generate urgency for relationship with God and for responsive living in all our relationships.

Wisdom, stewardship and service flow out of our worship of God as participants in Jesus’ Kingdom.

Wisdom: The urgency of time. The Parable of the Ten Virgins.
“Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or hour.” Matthew 25:3


Stewardship: The urgency of wealth. The Parable of the Bags of God
“For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” Matthew 25:29


Service: The urgency of people. The Parable of the Sheep and The Goats.
“‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25-45-46


Quotes

“A common usage of the word neighbour today locates the neighbor as one who lives “next door” or close by. A “next-door” neighbor is one with a special degree of intimacy, in this understanding, and there is something to that. But in this understanding my most important neighbour is overlooked: the one who lives with me—my family, or others taken in by us. They are the ones I am most intimately engaged with in my life. They are the ones who first and foremost I am to love as I love myself. If only this were done, nearly every problem in families would resolved, and the love would spread to others….

“As we go about these exercises it will become increasingly clear how necessary it is to practice a range of what we think of as standard disciplines for the spiritual life (silence, solitude, fasting, prayer, study, and so forth) in order to receive the compassion, grace, and growth required to live a life of neighborly love. We may never feel adequate to such a life, in view of the depth of need that surrounds us. But it is right and good to understand that we aren’t adequate to love as we should and could! Instead we are to stand with others in the fellowship of disciples of Jesus Christ and under the presence and resources of the kingdom of God.”

Dallas Willard, “How to Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” Renewing the Christian Mind, p. 132, 133-4.

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“Freedom is a terrible gift, and the theory behind all dictatorships is that ‘the people’ do not want freedom. They want bread and circuses. They want workman’s compensation and fringe benefits and TV. Give up your free will, give up your freedom to make choices, listen to the expert, and you will have three cars in your garage, steak on the table, and you will no longer have to suffer the agony of choice.

Choice is an essential ingredient of fiction and drama. A protagonist must not simple be acted upon, he must act, by making a choice, a decision to do this rather than that. A series of mistaken choices through the centuries has brought us to a restricted way of life in which we have less freedom than we are meant to have, and so we have a sense of powerlessness and frustration which comes from our inability to change the many terrible things happening on the planet.”

Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. p. 103

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“The walk of Jesus as He lived among people was not an aimless walk. He was more or less constantly touching people, and they were conscious of that touch. Do we need to emphasize again that as Jesus’ followers, our walk, our lives should not be aimless? We who have been brought into union with the resurrected Christ should be so responsive to His touch on our lives that naturally and inevitably we will unconsciously seek to live the kind of life He lived. We will permit Him, more and more, to touch the lives of others through our touch with and on them. Also ‘others’ will be constantly enlarging, including family, friends, neighbors, church members, casual acquaintances, and total strangers.”

T. B. Maston, To Walk As He Walked, p. 129

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“When we decide that the weak are not only objects of our charity but also subjects who teach us needed wisdom, it makes new relationships possible. After all, people sense when the time you spend with them is a chore. They might smile and say thank you ‘onstage,’ but you can be sure that the poor will cuss a patronizing church like a sailor as soon as the members are out of earshot. When we enjoy the time we spend with others and honestly value their wisdom, we don’t gain only new knowledge. We gain something far more valuable: a friendship that wasn’t possible before…

The tactic of eternal investments involves learning to entrust our future to God, believing in an economics of providence. The tactic of economic friendship is similar, but it emphasizes this: God’s economy comes to us as a community of friendship. Though Jesus made it clear that miracles happen, it’s not God’s standard operating procedure to rain bread from heaven or provide money from a fish’s mouth. Instead, God invites us into the abundance of eternal life through economic relationships with other people.

Some of us might be slow to call this friendship. Friends, we think are people we connect with on a deep level—people who understand us and with whom we can share our most initiate thoughts. ‘You can’t have many true friends,’ we sometimes say, thinking about the time investment these special relationships require. I have a few intimate relationships like this, and I’m deeply grateful for them, but I don’t think these are the sort of people Jesus is talking about when he tells us to use money to make friends.

Economic friendship is a lot more like being a good neighbor.”

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, God’s Economy: Redefining the Health and Wealth Gospel, p. 146, 147-8.

Discipleship, Relationships

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Journey Through John, #10, John 1.35-43

March 31, 2020 0 Comments

Hi Friend,

If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a part of the movement Jesus started. If you are new to this movement  you may have heard church people talk about discipleship. 

A disciple is literally a student-follower. When we talk about discipleship we are not talking about life in a classroom. Rather we are talking about a life in relationship with Jesus — in real time and in real life.

The text for today is John 1:35-43  — Pause now and read it.

35The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”37When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”39  “Come,”he replied, “and you will see.”So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon

.40Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which when translated is Peter).


This passage has all kinds of discipleship moves:
John has disciples; but he keeps pointing to Jesus: “Look, the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples then leave John and follow Jesus.
Jesus turns around and sees them following and asks, “What do you want?”
The two disciples call him Rabbi and ask, “Where are you staying?”
Jesus says, “Come and you will see.”
Jesus spends the day with them.
One of the disciples, Andrew goes to find his brother, Simon.
Andrew announces the possibility that Jesus is the Messiah they have been expecting.
Andrew brings Simon to see Jesus.
Jesus looks at Simon and says, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated is Peter).

So many discipleship moves here. For the Church in the world we keep pointing to Jesus. We are not looking for disciples for ourselves. We are actually discipling people to Jesus. Jesus is The Disciple-Maker. I believe Jesus is still doing what he does in this text and we get to be a part of it.

Three Discipleship Moves we make with Jesus


Jesus keeps asking: “What do you want?”  — This is the first direct word we have from Jesus in the Gospel of John. A question: What do you want? Every disciple of Jesus must answer this question. Do I really want to be with Jesus. What are the desires and affections of my heart?

Jesus keeps spending time with people:  He invites those who wonder about Him and what He is up to in the world, to “Come and see.” — Every disciple of Jesus must settle into being with Jesus and being where Jesus is taking them in the world.

Jesus keeps changing lives: Every disciple of Jesus must be in relationship with the One who can change their character from shifting sand (this is what the name “Simon” portrays) to being a person with a rock-solid and well defined core (this is what the name “Cephas” or “Peter” portrays). 

As friends of Jesus we keep pointing people to him. Sometimes they must “leave us” to follow Jesus for themselves. We may experience some grief in that. But, we can rejoice because we are together in the Fellowship of the Lamb. That’s what its like to really be the church. We must always anticipate and rejoice in the allegiance of each disciple to Jesus. It’s this freedom in discipleship that calls the church back from being cultish, controlling and toxic. It’s this movement in discipleship that spreads the Gospel around the world and in each generation.


Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, We come to the fellowship of Jesus the Lamb by your invitation. Thank you for this grace. Transform our lives and make us solid people who are able to join you in the life-changing movement of redemption and love. We want to be with you! Grant us the courage and the capacity that John the Baptist had to treat people as friends who belong to Jesus.

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

Take time now to write your own prayer and response to God from this text.

Our next reading will be from John 1:43-51.

Change, Discipleship, Journey Through John's Gospel

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