A Sunday of Palms

Luke 19:28-40 Who's sustaining whom? What does Jesus choose to sustain him into his final week? The cheering of the crowds waving palms? No! He chooses a measley donkey. What good is a donkey? What president, in their good mind, flaunts their great power by driving around in a pinto rather than a limo? The donkey is the key animal that carries Messiah's to their destination communicating their humble leadership. The donkey points beyond itself of course to the one it supports...the one whose very life speaks about being sustained by such humble means.

What does it look like for a community of faith to be sustained through humble resources? What changes would begin to take place in the life of church if the privileged infrastructure were more identified with servant, rather than corporate or capitalist, leadership? My guess is that a lot would change and with that change, frankly, a lot of people would be pissed off, kicked off their high horse. The ways in which pastors pastor would change. The ways in which people in communities of faith engaged as church would change. How resources were chosen to be used and distributed would change. The hierarchies of institutional church would change.

So what change is it that precisely occurs? I suppose there are numerous others more articulate than myself who could provide some semblance of an adequate answer to this question. But where I am tonight, I wonder if this occurrence speaks of a new kind of economics, a kingdom of God economics. Now I realize we can't subscribe to a high and lofty ideal since we remain in the world and value those things in the world as created and used by God. We do celebrate the fact that 'earthly elements' play a significant role in God's salvation efforts, for after all, even a donkey is chosen, in some way, sacramentally. In the end perhaps, sustainability comes by realizing that our integral role, the waving of our palms, our fleeting and enthusiastic efforts, our misguided motivations, are deeply and profoundly replaced by another who's palms are waved, not for his own sake, but for the sake of those who suffer.

Check out these articles...

I found this article, 'What is a missional community?', from a newly formed community in California. The article itself is a helpful primer on some distinctions between churches with a mission and the missional church. The emerging church can be understood to be a particular subset of the broader theological concept of missional church. Check out more about this missional community. There are certainly some emerging reverberations within this new kind of church. A second article on the same site by Brian McClaren helps to define some Emerging Values.

Lent 5: Sustaining Reflections

This fifth week of lent, John 12:1-8, we get two perspectives of what it means to follow Jesus. The first picture comes from Mary who, in response to tremendous gratefulness for her brother Lazarus' resuscitation by Jesus, baths expensive perfume on Jesus' feet. The cost of the perfume is considerably high, nearly a year's salary, given 1 denarii could cost a day's salary. This abundant and overly gracious shower of love is a sign of both her appreciation for Jesus' work, reviving her brother, and a look ahead to Jesus own walk toward the cross and ultimate burial.

Our good ol' friend Judas however snaps, and 'righteously' calls for better use of the money for the sake of the poor. Besides the textual comment suggesting that Judas' intentions are never quite right, what about his concern? Why is it not better to use the money for service to the poor? Should we not assist and sustain the resources of those 'without' by sharing the wealth?

This has been one of my many questions I've been curious about this week. Jesus commends Mary for her deed because, while the poor are always with you, "you do not always have me." Firstly, attending to the person of Jesus, the presence of God incarnate, is preferred over mere charity to the poor. I'm wondering this night how the center out of which we live and are sustained is driven first and foremost through the way we attend and listen at the feet of the holy one. Secondly, giving money to the poor isn't necessarily a long term solution although for many privileged ones such thinking is what we'd like to believe. Perhaps attending to the feet of Jesus, who is on his way through the most grueling week of his life, is to say, 'we take time to be present with those who suffer in this world.' What if sustainability is more concerned with the journey through something than the end product? Mary's life is sustained by her willingness to 'be' in Jesus presence not to suppose how things could get fixed or achieved. Mary's choice of extravagance will not be admired by many because it is pure foolishness in so many and various ways. And yet, it is her attentiveness to finding peace in and with one who suffers greatly, where her sustenance lies.

Lent 4: Self Sustaining...a sin?

location at writing: iglesia luterana cristo rey, el paso, tx

In preparation for the prodigal son text I was reading Mark Allen Powell's work around social location. It is a paper that describes interpretive moves around one's particular social outlook. Leaving out a great deal of detail for the sake of getting to the point, one particular culture identified the sin of the younger brother as leaving home and thinking that he could become self sufficient. Needless to say, I was taken by the idea. It was when he 'came to himself' that he decided to return home. The younger son is re-membered by returning home, only to find that a parent is more happy to have and hold, than he ever realizes is possible. Why could this be? Perhaps in recognizing, 'knowing again', that his only place is in the presence of the father where the father can hold him and sustain him. What does this say to those who advocate for self sustaining communities? Are those who become so self sustaining that they isolate themselves from everyone else, even the father, engaging in sin?

In conversation yesterday with pastor Rose Mary, here at Cristo Rey, she told me that we need to rethink the way we do mission and ministry with and for those on the fringes. Their mission here is not self sustaining but is supported by national and synodical efforts as well as countless grants with a budget around $200,000. Today, they celebrate closing on new property that will continue to be a space for grace, justice and peace. We've heard and will hear stories this week of those disenfranchized by the border immigration issues, real people's lives torn apart and struggling along. This place of peace is a mission of the true Jesus church but it cannot go on on its own, by itself. I am in agreement with pastor Rose Mary, mission is about the collective 'us' and our work together in God's name. May we seek and be open to new ways of being church that doesn't seek as a primary goal some economic achievement but some Spirit faithfulness returning back to God, being drawn back to God, through the ways we partner with each other.

What does liturgy, the people's work, look like in the gestation period of an emerging church?

"They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers." Acts 2:42

I've been pondering this question lately as we had our first gathering last evening. I find myself theologically over thinking everything, not that there's anything wrong with that, but when it comes to creating community, people aren't necessarily and initially interested in theory. They are interested in a meaningful encounter that is a lot more about belonging, the relationships and the heart than the head and the believing. Anyway, last evening was a decent start however it involved more explanation to the essence of this emerging 'thingy' than the actual 'being' of it. One of the participants even asked a great and exposing question, 'so, did we do it tonight? did we do 'emerging church?'

I replied, and hesitantly, "well, sort of, in the way we held common prayer." But I knew in many ways we hadn't because it was too formulaic, too 'figured out' as I presented a paper on what an emerging church is. We were poised and ready to engage and unfold ourselves through conversation, listening and sharing, and I ended up high jacking it all by talking too much with prefab constructs. eeeeesh! I won't get down too much as I did talk today with another participant who said it was helpful and I know he wasn't just being NICE.

Tonight, following our weekly campus ministry gathering, it dawned on me that, at least this evening, we did 'do it'. What we did was begin as we always do with a meal. The meal was made by students for students. After we put the tables away, we continued with a simple prayer and had some brief introductions since a new person happened to be in our midst. We debriefed on last week's great conversation with a community member sharing his life and faith previously in fundamentalism and then following it. Then we read and processed this week's powerful gospel lesson of the prodigal son. We spent a good period of time listening to each other and sharing insights and wondering together around the text. We ended with some simple common prayer around the celtic prayers from Iona as we did the week before. And then finally we shared announcements for the upcoming weeks.

The form I've just described is an expansive, and much more subtle and relaxed, form of our formal four-fold liturgical worship that we arrive at within the framework of scripture and the early church: Gather - Proclaim - Break - Send.

We gathered around fellowship and food being called together as friends and people of God. We had a long gathering time getting re-aquainted with each other and enjoying each other's presence.

We proclaimed God's word by creating space to wonder together through sharing and listening.

We experienced God's presence break into our midst through common prayer (we could certainly insert bread and wine here at another time) and in the breaking of bread over dinner, a helpful reminder of the sustenance that keeps creation going.

And we were sent on our way having been nourished in fellowship, the teaching of the apostles, community around breaking bread, albeit not the formal eucharist, but a meal of thanksgiving none the less and prayer.

I am beginning to wonder that this might be a good start for an initial form of liturgy for those who don't have any idea what we as church do or even who we are as church. I am beginning to think that this provides hospitable space for people to delve into the wonderful gift that is community in God, and that for now at least, is more than enough to embody a deeply incarnational encounter of Christ and the perichoretic God-between. It is quite simple really, and yet simultaneously, really quite profound.

Lord, help us to know that it is how you are holding us that matters more than how we are holding you, church and truth, amen.

Christological Ecclesiology not to be (dis)integrated

There have been numerous para-church organizations existing throughout the past decades which establish communities around a personal relationship with Jesus while isolating individuals from intentionally living as church communities. There is even a new book by Dan Kimball entitled "They Like Jesus but not the Church." While I haven't read this book and I am interested in hearing from those who have, one of my fears is that the emerging church is being confused as a movement toward a much more sophisticated version of a para-church system. If you've read this book please help me out and please tell me that Kimball is not promoting Jesus without the Church. I can understand the fact that people don't like church for various reasons some of which may include the idea that they don't like the institutional element of it, they don't like the idea of commitment beyond what they want to do, or perhaps they just don't like 'church' as they have experienced it. Regardless, the two go hand in hand, even as God's Spirit will work beyond them in cultivating God's work in the world.

I really believe that the best case scenario of emerging churches is not a glorified para-church organization, but a real, deep, authentic and incredibly incarnationally dressed expression of Christ living in and through Church for the world. I think that a lesser embodiment of church has been achieved through such methods and as such has created a wedge between the two, Church and Christ, perpetuating a mentality that Jesus can be known fully outside of a faith community. I'm not entirely convinced that that is true.

In his book Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith Forming Community Robert Webber shares that "faith is formed in the church and through its worship." He also says that we need to be creating congregations that grow disciples a venture which is not to be reduced by mere individualism. How then can congregations, as a body, do this? Webber quotes one of the goals of the International Consultation on Discipleship that met in 1999 and included 450 church leaders from 54 countries and 90 varying denominations saying "we will not water down the cost of discipleship in order to increase the number of converts. We acknowledge that part of making disicples is teaching people to obey everything Jesus commanded."

This is what Webber addresses as he proposes that churches rediscover the ancient catechumenate process. For sure, this as process, takes time and will not deliver the kind of numbers as quickly as some are interested in generating. At the same time, it does re-integrate the process of evangelism and discipleship, faith formation, back into the congregational/church context instead of parsing it out from church by merely teaching Jesus and his fabuously moralistc principles. The emerging church seeks to embody Webber's notion profoundly through a new kind of church living the way of Jesus in the world.

Jesus makes the news!

I didn't realize that Jesus and Scooter Libby had so much in common. That is, until Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report helped me to make the connections.

Check it out "Jesus Libby".