Blasphemy!

There have been days when I find myself the older brother in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son - actually that is most days... grace is hard for me. I try so hard to be right. And it seems as though one of the reasons we are at Tierra Nueva is to begin to dismantle that as I am regularly confronted by a love and acceptance of others, and an accompanying theology (as it were) that scandalizes me. My friend and co-worker, Chris, is a wondeful vehicle of this for me. I find that one of my regular responses to some things he says is, "I'm really not comfortable with that idea." He smiles and says, "Let's dance!"

Last week I was reading in Mark 2, where the four friends bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus and tear the roof off the house so they can get him close to Jesus. This is one of my favorite encounters in the gospels. As I was reading, I was thinking my thoughts about it, thoughts I have had in the past, good thoughts, insightful thoughts, but my thoughts. I stopped and asked Jesus - "Jesus, I know what I think about this passage. What do You want to show me here?" And very quickly I heard Him say, "I want you to see that they called Me a blasphemer."

I realized that I have not been scandalized by Jesus - and that is a scandal itself. Other than His claim to being the Way, the Truth and the Life (an exclusive claim), my thinking about Jesus has often glossed over the things I don't understand or am not comfortable with. I have stuck with the things with which I am comfortable or feel I can explain. In other words, I have a Jesus that is made in my image. Jesus was considered a glutton and a sinner by the religious leadership. And I am part of today's religious leadership. Thomas Jefferson made his own version of the bible where he removed everything supernatural or miraculous, probably because that scandalized his intellect. But I think we have all edited the gospels and the person of Jesus to fit (or even justify) our religious and cultural worldview. We need to let Jesus expose those cultural justifications and versions of Himself in our thinking. And that is really hard while we are still immersed in that culture. It is so ingrained in our thinking and living that it is like asking a fish to describe water. I can talk about it as an idea but living it feels like it takes more and much will resist it. I feel the resistance in me even here. I am just like the disciples who don't get it, not just about Jesus as the Son of God, but about the scandalous love of God the Father that sent His Son into the world. Jesus, friend of sinners.

I think we need to leave. We have been given the gift of leaving and having our cultural and religious assumptions regularly exposed. It would be more difficult if Tierra Nueva had come to our Seattle church and done a conference and then left. It feels like Peter and James and John leaving their family businesses, and Matthew leaving his tax booth. Is Jesus calling you to leave in order to follow Him?

Troy's Art Show

It was really amazing how the crew at Tierra Nueva transformed our space into an art studio! This was the unveiling of the mural he has been working on for two years in its various manifestations - and it was truly astounding to hear him talk about all the things that had been part of his journey in living and working with people from the margins that make up the mural. It was the gospel message - we should have had an altar call instead of an auction! But the auction and sales of other of Troy's work will give him plenty of money for his trip. He leaves for France on Sunday for a year. I didn't really appreciate what a treasure he is. I will miss him.

Intercession

Twice now I have been on my way out the door on a Monday evening when our co-worker, Chris, stops me and asks me if I have time to pray for some of the guys he works with. Intercession is new for him. He says that most of his life he believed "praying for" people--from a distance--was kinda useless. "I'll keep so and so in my prayers," he'd always hear. Yeah, right. "Will you keep me in your prayers?" Um, probably not. What does that even mean or look like?

Chris heard from his friend's girlfriend that after finishing his first year at college (which is a miracle in itself, having gone through gang drive bys, hospitals, jail, deportation prison with me, and having lost all his scholarships all within six months before enrollment) he was back in his dad's trailer, drinking, drunk, being visited by the old gang members, and threatening to give up on everything before his immigration trial that is fast approaching. Chris freaked out.

Normally, he'd feel guilty, like he hadn't done enough, and jump in the car to go find him, scoop him onto his shoulders like a lost sheep, and bring him to some place of safety where he could try to fix all his problems in the name of Jesus. But something in him for weeks has been telling him he needed to learn how to intercede for guys, that the battle is a spiritual one devouring them, preying on them, and his footwork is pathetic against the principalities.

Now, I've been praying more in the past years but I quickly realized that I haven't been so closely attached to the "results" or fruit of my praying. But as Chris and I went to pray in the sanctuary I found myself with an ache in me for Jesus to really show up for this guy right then and save him from all that was coming against him. I felt powerless and overwhelmed. I knew my quiet praying was too small, so I crossed over and began shouting in tongues. I didn't know what else to do.

Then I heard Chris pray; Chris who doesn't feel like he knows how to pray. Chris prays scandalous prayers (he's a scandalous guy and works with scandalous guys). Chris prays, "Jesus, I tell these guys about You all the time; that You love them, that You show up to save, and if You don't do this I'm not sure I want to follow You." (!) My eyes sprang open! Dang, I'm not very comfortable with that, but it reminded me of one of David's psalms. My version is more like "come on God!" And I know how much Jesus loves Chris and Chris' guys.

Visitors

It's been a time of reconnecting.

Susan dove headfirst into Facebook and found connections with her old Camp Firwood - http://www.thefirs.org/index.php?page=camp_firwood - so we went down for late night on the Fourth of July, got to hear 4th graders talk about what they learned about God at camp that week and connected with old staff, some of whom are still there.

Kevin and Rachel Kreiss came up for the day on Saturday - our last opportunity to hang out as they prepare to go to Duke in North Carolina in August for Rachel to start nursing school and Kevin to discover the next thing God has in store for him and them.

Yesterday Jonathan, Tiffany and Madeleine Werner were our first visitors to not come to Bellingham, but who came to the English worship service at Tierra Nueva. It was great to show them around so they could see the place they were praying for.

Bondage Breaking

I've begun meeting with a couple of the young Hispanic men who are part of Tierra Nueva having come from the jail ministry, and started reading through Neil Anderson's The Bondage Breaker together. At the end of our first discussion and time of prayer, one man quoted, "there are many Christians like me out there leading lives of 'quiet desperation' due to the attack of demonic forces." He said, "that's me!" I told him that many people live in the quiet desperation because they don't believe in demons who come to steal, kill and destroy. He was amazed, "Don't they read the bible?" I said yes, but we have explained away demons with scientific and medical explanations. He said that we are supposed to believe the bible and then he laughed and said, "I think they have a demon." I agreed that it might be true. Then he said, "If I was a thief and was breaking into someone's house, I would wipe down my fingerprints and every trace that I was there."

Rosetta Stone

We are pretty excited that our edition of the Rosetta Stone language learning software arrived this week. Its as basic as it gets with vocabulary but uses no English, just pictures, reading, writing, pronunciation, etc. all coming from several angles and repeated plenty. We're looking forward to getting some of this under our belts. Salvio, one of the outreach workers who is originally from Mexico, encourages us as he works on his English: "Your pronunciation is very good," he says. We tell him "thank you for speaking so highly of the three words we have mastered!"

We've been talking about learning Spanish for years, with all the trips to Tijuana to build houses, but there is nothing like having it around you all the time to get you motivated!

Dios te bendiga!

Dialogical

So, I had my first opportunity to "preach." I put it in those terms because the sermon here is what is called "dialogical" or it happens as a dialogue. This is a style of teaching that you will find in books such as Reading the Bible With the Damned and The Academy of the Poor. To put it plainly, it functions as a bible study dialogue instead of a sermon monologue. I can work with that - the thing most challenging to me is the role of the "leader" is to facilitate engagement with the passage, not primarily to introduce ideas. The importance of this approach is significant:

• I have tended to read the Bible with people like myself looking for the "right answer" or to lead people to the "right answer." This approach disempowers people who have not been trained by the academy or the church and creates a culture that seeks someone in power to mediate the text rather than allowing and trusting the Spirit of Jesus to teach us. So the dialogical approach helps to give voice to those who have had no voice.
• Also, in reading the Bible the way I have, I have not humbled myself or opened myself to what the Spirit may say to me through people who have a different context or experience than I do. So the dialogical approach also says that I have much to learn from the poor and people on the margins that the lens of my small experience and context will not have taught me.

Walking that out creates a tension for me as I discover the gospel that is good news to the poor and still feel that there is a need or space for a more classical teaching. Ithink it is important to understand our contexts and to know that we engage the Bible through those lenses, but also to recognize that our experiences and contexts don't necessarily yield truth. There is my tension!

Anyway, it was a good experience. I worked with Salvio to translate my questions for the Spanish service - now that was challenging!