Thursday, August 22, 2013

Just A Touch of Mercy

Reading Richard Beck's Unclean, I have really been challenged with some ideas of purity, cleanliness and morality in view of hospitality.  I highly recommend this great book.  Chapter 5 starts with a quote that I have been wrestling with the last couple of days.

St Catherine of Sienna, when she felt revulsion from the wounds she was tending bitterly reproached herself.  Sound hygiene was incompatible with charity, so she deliberately drank a bowl of puss.
-Mary Douglas

I should have warned those reading that if they were eating, they may want to read this later.  Besides the immediate disgust that I felt when reading this, I also felt a real challenge.  "Sound hygiene was incompatible with charity".  Beck goes on to discuss the instances in scripture of Jesus being close to those who, for various reasons, were considered "unclean".  The prostitutes who were judged by the pharisees, even to the point that Jesus' purity was called into question as a result of his willingness to be close to them.  The woman with the issue of blood (Luke 8:43-48) who Jesus healed because of her faith.  You can almost feel the tension in this story as Peter says "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."  The healing of the man with leprosy in Matthew 8 where Jesus reaches out and touches him before he heals him.  Jesus sitting and eating with the "publicans and sinners" as the pharisees called them (Matthew 9).

It seems that Jesus made a habit of flipping the purity models of the time on their heads.  For the pharisees, that viewed many of these instances, there was a belief that what Jesus touched would make Jesus dirty.  To push further, there was a disbelief that what Jesus touched could be made clean.  Even Peter calls out to Jesus "the people are crowding and pressing against you".  If Peter had an understanding of what a touch from Jesus could do I believe he would have brought more people even closer. 

The story that I have been meditating on the most today is the story with the leper.  Jesus touched the man before he was healed.  That order of events is really speaking to me.  Jesus touched the unclean man.  Jesus could have healed the man and then comforted him and told him he had been made clean but Jesus touched the man, while a leper.  This man probably hadn't experienced the touch of someone for some time.  The leper would be expelled from the community and he would be considered spiritually unclean in addition to his physical aspect of being unclean.  Here the Son of God, Son of man, The Messiah, Jesus Christ Emmanuel, is touching the leper.  The call to me and the call to us all today, is to touch the unclean.  The pharisees thought that the filth would make them dirty.  It is that thought process that says that our models of purity are greater than charity, that physical or spiritual dirt is greater than mercy.  We don't have to drink a bowl of puss but I think we are being called to challenge our thought process on calling something dirty that Jesus has made clean (Acts 10:15)  "Master, the crowd is pressing against you."  I hear Jesus saying, let them be healed with just a touch of mercy.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A Simple Kind of Man

Since I started my Masters of Religious Studies in Missional Leadership,  I have been working with my cohort on a Rule of Life.  We have committed to hospitality, prayer, the reading of scripture, being agents of peace and to simplicity.  Though I have struggled in ways with all of these spiritual disciplines, I think I have struggled more with the concept of simplicity than the rest.  Our culture is in direct opposition to the idea of simplicity.  It's all about getting more, buying the newest, saving for the future and the American dream.  When you are taught by society and cultures that having the best, the most and the newest is the greatest sign of success you have to be very intentional to reverse that idea.

Luke 12-22-34

22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life[a]? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In reading this scripture over the last two weeks there have been a few verses that have suddenly jumped out and have helped me in a new way.  First, verse 24 says, "consider the ravens" and verse 27 says "consider the wild flowers".  In this busy world do we take the time to consider anything anymore?  Here we see two examples found in nature which would require getting out of the busy hustle and bustle of our daily existence but I suggest that there is much to "consider" no matter where we are planted.  There is something miraculous that happens as we observe God's creation.  As we take the time to look upon creation without saying a word.  It is in those moments, where we eliminate the distractions and focus only on divine distraction, that we can hear the voice of God.  He's been speaking all along but it is in the quiet of divine distraction that we can hear His voice.

I am being led to "eliminate the "storeroom and barns" so that I can truly be fed by God.  To stop the worldly "labor and spin" so that I can be"dressed in splendor", divine splendor.  Kierkegaard talks about the beauty of being human in his Spiritual Writings.  Part of the beauty of being created in the image of God is that we have the ability to think in concepts of future. This blessing has the ability to lead us to anxiety if we haven't intentionally removed the distractions, if we haven't put down our perceived worldly needs and placed them in the hands of God.  Because we have the ability to wrestle with concepts of the not yet, when we give those things to God we reveal His glory.  To know we may suffer, to know we may struggle to meet our needs, to know we will toil in the field and to still say "God is good", is all the more glorifying.  

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.  I believe a piece of that kingdom is simplicity.  To not live into simplicity is to say what the kingdom of God has to offer is lesser.  As we usher in the kingdom as participants with God by the power of His Spirit, through simple living, we take away the attention from our own clothed splendor and point to something much more glorious.

Friday, August 2, 2013

The Beginning of the Blessed Loser

It's interesting that looking back at my slow climb into social media, I have been somewhat critical of blogs and have even called them frivolous drivel from self absorbed people.  Just a confession.  What I have realized is that much of what I have read, especially from some recent missional blogs, has helped me as I have walked through some difficult times as a ministry leader.  Who was I to decide what needs to be written and what doesn't?  Just because it isn't for me doesn't mean that it isn't for anyone. 

So there was my confession, but on to the content.  The title, The Blessed Loser, comes from something that Randy Harris has to say about the sermon on the mount.  He equates, "blessed are the poor in spirit" with blessed are the losers.  I think in this current society it is extremely difficult to embrace the reality of our loserness (probably not a word but that's ok).  Many of the stories that we try to forget about ourselves are the things that reveal who and what Jesus came to bless.  I have spent most of my life trying to hide the fact that I have been picked last before, I have been the unpopular kid, the poor kid, the one who struggled with school, didn't get the job I wanted, and the list goes on and on.  Jesus comes and offers blessings to the losers like me.  I'm done pretending to be something that I am not.  In Christ I have a promise of something greater but in my own spirit, I am a loser.  Thank God because he offers me blessings, a hope and a future. 


Now that I have confessed and explained a little about the title of the blog. let me share a bit about its purpose.  I have been doing ministry in Pontiac and Waterford Michigan for the last three years and hope to graduate this year from a masters program in missional leadership at Rochester College.  God has slowly been pealing back layers that I have built up about my own absolute truths, the way church should be done, who's in and who's out, and the reality of who I have been to community, family and friends.  I want to share this process.  Partly because it will be therapeutic to me but also because I hope it may be therapeutic to some who may take the time to read it.  Join me as I dwell in the word and community, explore what God may be up to in my community and imagine what His preferred and promised future may mean for us now.