A prayer for Israel/Palestine…

O God of mercy, of hope, of redemption. We ask for your healing and your love to be poured out over the land of Israel and the places of conflict in this part of the world, God. I know you are the God of the oppressed and I know that you hear the cries of the oppressed. There is so much violence in our world, and we’ve heard whispers of a Kingdom where the tools for making war against our brothers and sisters are beaten and rendered into tools for cultivating the earth–tools once made for destruction become tools for creating life. God we look forward to that day! In jubilee we cry out for your life and your Kingdom to be made real in this place. In the midst of those who are broken: mentally, spiritually, and physically, I pray for courage and endurance in this particularly difficult time. God we hear the groaning! We hear the groaning and we are reminded that all is not well with this place. LORD, I lift up all those in Gaza, those whom you call beloved: the Israelite soldiers and the Hamas terrorists, for they know not what they do. Jesus I pray for healing and relief for all your children in Israel: for Muslims, for Jews, for Christians, for Atheists, for single-mothers, for parents and siblings who have lost love-ones in this tragedy, and anyone else who has been affected by these events. LORD, I pray for quick and decisive action on the part of our world leaders as a treaty between these warring groups is worked out and peace can be restored in this land. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.. I ask for your Grace and Peace to be present in this world. Amen.

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Israel, Palestine, Hamas, War, Middle East

What we discussed this morning in College Sunday School, if even briefly, has literally been on my mind all day…

For those who weren’t there… Stacey read an article from Relevant magazine about Twitter and Facebook and other various online communities functioning as a source of pride and in-a-sense fostering an anti-community among people. Stacey, I’d really like to get a hold of that article, is it in the most recent Relevant?

I had a discussion with my Sociological Theory professor this last semester about technology and what an impact it has had in our culture for the last 15-20 years. And as a result, in a large part, we really haven’t seen the end (or even the beginning) of how this onset of such a pervasive technology has affected our lives at a deeply social (and spiritual) level.

He told me it is up to my generation (our generation, to those who apply) of sociologists to theorize and conceptualize and really try and grasp the foundation of technology in our culture as it affects us on a social and personal level. So in a way, this idea has been planted in my mind.. because in a lot of ways we tend to take the technology around us for granted, and I’ll be the first to admit this.

I’m sitting at my desk typing on my brand new MacBook Pro, my iPhone docked, and listening to Bob Marley through iTunes. I have my twitter feed open in Safari and I just got done looking through a couple pictures on Facebook. And not to mention, I’m posting this on a blog as if I think someone’s going to read this and respond to what I have to say! I’m a technology/internet/social network fiend, but never once have I thought about how these things affect us socially and spiritually until my professor mentioned it to me and we discussed it today.

I know that technology has benefited society and provided a ceaseless integration of world cultures (through the internet), but I’m curious as to what the ultimate affect this integration will have on humanity.

I mentioned this morning an interview I heard with Rob Bell.. He was asked ‘Where do we go from here?’ He offers an embodiment of the Eucharist as the ‘action’ of the Church. We are to offer ourselves broken and poured out for the world. He even says that more and more in our technologically ladened world, we will need to be people of flesh and blood relationships. This seems to be a point of contention, I deeply want to agree with him because I recognize the deep deep significance in what it means to be incarnational. But my mind pushes back in the sense that if culture changes around us… we still have a story to tell, and the way of telling it may necessarily need to change. In essence, can we tell the story of Good News of Great Joy without being incarnational? Or can incarnational, as a method, be expanded? Maybe neo-incarnational means something in the cyber-realm.

As one can see there are many many different perspectives we can take to this and many avenues to engage in this conversation about culture and technology and spirituality, but the main one that has drawn my attention is the community vs. anti-community. Is Facebook viably a community? Are my ‘Friends’ on Facebook the same as having friends in actual physical space? Do those relationships constitute the same social/spiritual gravitas? How does this Facebook community interact and conflict with our gatherings as believers?

These are just some of the questions I have.. and really I could just write for hours about it, but I’ll spare you (and myself). I want to hear everyone’s opinion.. and I’ll work up a follow up after some questions and thoughts from others.

Grace and Peace,
Wesley

Being a person of faith means telling the story of hope, even when we don’t have the words or capacity to understand how that hope is playing out.

Doug Pagitt

I just finished reading Doug Pagitt’s, A Christianity Worth Believing, it was pretty good. I’m still unpacking it all… if anyone could express the anxiety and the disillusionment with Church its Doug. Excellent read.

Grace and Peace,
Wesley

I’m deeply troubled by what’s going on right now in the Middle-East… specifically between Israel and Palestine… I’m going to traveling to Israel in May, and I hope the country will be safe enough…

Please pray with me for the safety and peace of ALL people in the Middle East. Violence is the wrong answer, period. Every time.

Jesus told us to put down the sword… And we still fling it around flippantly.

-Wesley

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see– I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

Luke 2:8-18

Every time I read this passage, I can almost feel the sheer anticipation deep in my soul. I can imagine the sun setting on this night.. and darkness as it grips the landscape. Twilight finally fades and the heavens are lit up by brilliant stars. You can make out the milky way stretching across the sky if you focus enough. Maybe it’s a little chilly, as it often does in the desert at this time of night.

Then, suddenly, a man stands before the shepherds and THE GLORY OF THE LORD shone around them. What does that even look like? I don’t know, probably really bright light. Really really bright, I’m thinking.

So, who wouldn’t be terrified? Had I been there, I would have crapped my pants on the spot. Guaranteed. But the Angel responds… Do not be afraid. Those are the first words from the lips of the angel, the first words spoken of the Good News…. do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid. I bring you some great news. See, there’s this baby born in the city of David, tonight. Yea, it’s happened. He’s here. The shepherds don’t really know what to do with themselves. Every thought that comes to the surface trips over itself.

But what’s even greater is that these are shepherds whom the angels appeared to. Now, maybe you don’t know much about shepherds. But if you wanted to tell ANYONE, ANYTHING, especially something like this, a shepherd would be the last person you would want to tell (or maybe the first, depending on how you look at it). See, a shepherd in first century Palestine had virtually ZERO voice in society. It was an unclean job, and therefore they were outcasts–necessary, but outcasts none-the-less. If you wanted to tell someone important information, a shepherd would be the last person on the list because even their testimony was void in a court of law. They were that far rejected. But shepherds it is.

Because God likes to mix things up. He sends his son, the son of Man, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, to be born in a pile of shit and wrapped in cloth and put in a food trough. He’s not born in the hands of caesar, that’s not how this works. Because God is the God of the oppressed. The poor. The thirsty. The homeless.

And what do these voice-less shepherds do? They run to see what its all about. And then they tell everyone. They run to tell everyone. But who’s going to listen to a shepherd? Well everyone who heard it was amazed.. the story was that big. What had happened was that big. It began to change lives from the very beginning.

I hope, this Christmas, we remember that the greatest thing happened to the most unlikely people. The most beautiful thing imaginable happened to an unlikely people: shepherds and you and me.

I’m reminded of a prayer from St. Augustine:

Let the just rejoice
For their Justifier is born.
Let the sick and infirm rejoice,
For their Savior is born.
Let the captives rejoice,
For their Redeemer is born.
Let the slave rejoice,
For their Master is born.
Let free men rejoice,
For their Liberator is born.
Let all Christians rejoice,
For Jesus Christ is born.

The part about the slave and the captive hit me when I read this. I’ve been thinking a lot about human trafficking recently and what a crime and injustice it is. I’ve been thinking about how there are more slaves today than there have EVER been in human history.

Truly he taught us to love one another
His law is love, and his gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother
And in his name all oppression shall cease

O Holy Night is, quite possibly, one of my favorite songs. I hope this Christmas we will remember that Jesus came to the unlikely, to the undeserving. He came for us, good news of great joy for ALL men. He came for the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, He came for Barack Obama, and for George W. Bush, he came from the Pope, he came for Osama Bin Laden, he came for the 27 million slaves around the world today and included in that number he came for the 2.2 million children who are sold into the sex industry every year.

Jesus came for them. He took on flesh and blood in this world for the broken hearted and the oppressed. And in that moment, all the groaning and all the hurt of the world breathed a sigh of relief because all that weight found its salve in the healing and redemption of Jesus Christ. And its because of Jesus that we are empowered and moved, deeply, to do everything in our ability to free these people. Because when Jesus was born, I swear if you listened close enough you could hear all the chains of the world breaking.

That night, the crisp air, the twinkling stars, the shepherds, the worshiping angels.. the whole world changed. our whole lives changed.

Grace and Peace to each of you and have a blessed Christmas knowing that the Savior of all the world has been born to us and that is good news indeed.

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Christmas

I guess I’m just really on a roll with Pete Rollins.. but I’m diggin’ this video:

Very cool. Makes me think: what are we really doing? EV has some more videos up at: Their blog.

All these parables, if you haven’t heard them before, are written by Pete and will be released in a book called The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales coming out in April 2009. Yea. Definitely will be using these …

Grace and Peace,
Wesley

Technorati Tags:
Emerging, Peter Rollins, Postmodern

There are some incredible videos posted on the Emergent Village blog about Emergence. Check them out:

There were two moments I found particularly insightful. In the first video, Peter brings up two ideas about church structures within ‘Emergence’ … Some shared-values of ‘Emerging’ churches:

First …

“Suspended Space”

We try to create a space in our week, a liturgical hour, where there’s neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, Republican nor Democrat, employed nor unemployed, liberal nor conservative; where we can encounter each other at a deeper level than our mere affirmations. Not because they’re not important, but because we need to have a place where we can encounter each other at a deeper level.

He’s speaking, specifically, about Ikon–his gathering in Ireland he’s part of. But in a larger aspect, I think, he’s at least providing an example what we should strive for. How our gatherings should be centered on this space void of distinction. And I love that he says its not because they’re not important… because certainly we all experience God and the Gospel at different perspectives and different places in life and we should not forget those moments nor be ignorant of them. Yet, we also need to be deeply aware of the unity we have in Christ and that unity should be something expressed in our gatherings… beautiful.

“Donut Structure”

I love the idea of a community that has no center. The center is voided. The center is where God is. And we practice relational tithing and relational pastoring. … We call this the idea that the role of the leader is to refuse to be a leader, so as to push back and get a priesthood of all believers.

Another part of the Church, as we know it today, I (and others) have had issue with is the bureaucratic/hierarchical structures with a Senior Pastor and the ‘inferior’ Associate Pastors and all the way down to laity. I’ve experienced first hand the politics and the systems and the ‘oppression’ (if I dare go so far) experienced in these churches. I understand the desire for order, and efficiency as means of getting things done (which is another conversation in itself–why are we so driven to just get ‘things’ done, and ultimately are those ‘things’ even meaningful?). But I have to ask myself when is it too much? At what point do we need to (appropriately) kick back and resist these structures? I think, too often, we forget who is at the top of these ’structures’ we call Churches. And I’m not saying that every structure is completely ignorant of Christ, but too often we think that all of this is ultimately about us–our salvation, our deliverance, our comfort. It’s not. It’s about the God who is at the center and it’s about the Kingdom of God dwelling among us, and making that presence known.

Secondly …

In the (4th) last video, Phyllis and Peter expound on the ‘location’ of Emergence in our churches today… And how it’s not just a ’section’ or a specific moment of church. So often I see the desire to have an Emerging service or worship gathering, etc. But that gathering is set aside as something completely distinct, but still part of the whole-ness of the Church. I found it interesting for Emerging to be thought of something not separate, but as addressing the whole church. I could not agree with Phyllis and Peter more, but I sometimes wonder if churches are ready to hear something on that level. I know some more than others are open to such holistic ideas, and I think it’s our job to be discerning of the balance and to speak encouragement into that balance. To be a voice for Emergence–it’s how we participate in this conversation.

Anyway, watch the videos. They’re great.

Grace and Peace,
Wesley

Technorati Tags:
Church, Emergence, Emerging, Philosophy, Peter Rollins, Phyllis Tickle

It’s another end to a semester at Westmont, the fifth one. I really can’t believe that I’ve already spent five semesters in California. It really seems like just last week when I left Texas for the long drive out to California with my dad.

I can look back and realize how much I’ve learned, how much I’ve changed. I can see how much things have changed around me, and I have a feeling for how much things are going to change for us in the future. And I’m none but excited at the prospect.

This semester has been bar-none, I’d say, one of the best. I really enjoyed my classes, for the most part at least, and I definitely learned a lot about what I want to do when I graduate and what I would like to study if I decide to go the route of a Doctoral program in my graduate work.

I was reminded this semester of what it looks like to live in a community of people who claim to follow this man, Jesus. Now, my community is a little different that what one might expect, being roughly 1200 undergraduate students. When we were struck with the Tea Fire on November 13, 2008, something happened at Westmont. (And I’m not talking about a couple of buildings burning down.) We were presented with a difficult situation and we responded with mercy and love and I am so proud of our community for what we have done in light of what has happened. It hasn’t been easy, in fact its been pretty tough. But no one said it would be easy, and I know we hear this all the time, but its true.

I was reminded that we are a people of hope. With the release of The Dark Knight on DVD, I’ve been concentrating on one phrase Harvey Dent (Two-Face) says at the end of the movie: “You asked us to be decent men in indecent times, and you just can’t.” I refuse to believe Dent’s sentiment is our final answer. We are called to be decent people in indecent times. We are called to be peoples of hope in a time when the world doesn’t have the best sense of the word.

I feel like I could just ramble on, but my plane loads in 6 minutes.

When I say I had a good semester in California, I mean it. I’m just as excited about next semester: for the classes, for the opportunities, and for the stories. Even so, I’m starting to think about graduating.

I year from RIGHT NOW, I’ll be a college graduate. Graduate. How crazy is that? A B.A. in Religious Studies from one of the greatest undergraduate liberal arts colleges in the United States. Then what?

That’s what I’m starting to think about: the beginning of the rest of my life. I don’t know what I’ll be preparing to do in a year from now, but I hope its great. I hope I’m passionate about it, and I hope the people around me support me for it.

Yesterday, I did find out that I’m going to the Middle East next May for five weeks. I’ll be backpacking through Israel, Syria and Jordan with a group of 18 students from Westmont and Dr. Fisk (Religious Studies Professor) and Dr. Fikes (Psychology Professor) as we study the religion and culture of the Middle East and psychological narrative of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. I’m so excited about this trip, I absolutely cannot wait.

Well. They called for my plane. So I’m signing off for now. I’m headed to Houston, TX to meet up with my family. And then I’ll be in Tyler sunday evening.

Grace and Peace to each of you,
Wesley

Paul’s message stands: no matter how the world is divided–East and West, black and white, conservative and liberal, gay and straight, developed and developing, communist and free, democratic and nondemocratic–none of these categories are more basic to identity or formative of the self than belonging to God and one another in Christ.

A Peculiar People by Rodney Clapp (InterVarsity Press ©1996)

Why are there so many divisions in the Church? Why do we spend so much time arguing over what separates us and so little time focusing on what matters?

Grace and Peace,
Wesley

The office the President-Elect announced on Wednesday (12-17-08) that Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Southern California would be giving the Invocation at the Inauguration in January.

While some moderates and those dipping further right (especially those who claim Christianity as their faith) will see no problem with such a choice, it is needless to say that, this choice has vastly upset many people on the far-left. A left who, in a way, championed Barack Obama as their hopes for bringing a sound word of equality and justice into this country, which they believe to be conspicuously lacking in the last 8 years.

What I don’t get, is when people are utterly convinced that whenever Barack Obama (or whoever else could have won this election, doesn’t matter who’s side your on) doesn’t match up exactly with your perceived reality of said public figure, then obviously said public figure is entering into treacherous territory. We, as a country, need to get over the fact that we did not elect our ‘perceived reality’ of said President-elect, but instead we elected a President who stands with his own values, and we chose to espouse his values in hopes that he would serve us.

Would Warren have been my first choice for such an occasion? No. (Nor would he have been my fourth or fifth.) But am I angry? No. Disappointed? No. Rather, I am hopeful that Barack Obama is doing his absolute best to bring in all aspects of politics and faiths and understandings in this country in order to form a more coherent politics, a more coherent and appreciable way of running our country.

More important than who says a prayer, I think it’s profound the way Barack Obama has chosen to surround himself with people who disagree with him. I think it’s profound that those people will challenge him and I look forward to January 20, 2009 because I think he understands that the only way to have this conversation about Hope and Liberty, etc is to bring in everyone on all sides.

Grace and Peace to you,
Wesley

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Politics, Barack Obama, Rick Warren, Inauguration, Invocation