Reader's Review (in 500 Words or Less): Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now by Gregory Boyd

There is an ancient tradition stemming from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to "pray without ceasing."  Since prayer is all about relationship with God, speaking to and hearing Jesus, the concept of "practicing his presence" is crucial for Christians looking to journey through life with Jesus.  The foundation for "pray without ceasing" stems from waking up to the present moment, or as Greg Boyd states, "The only thing that's real is this present moment, and the only thing that matters is waking up to God's presence- now."   

One of the insights that I greatly appreciated is the call to "wake up" to the now.  Boyd states that "the present moment is all that is real.  The past is gone.  The future is not yet.  We remember the past and anticipate the future, but we always do so in the present.  Reality is always now.  And the single most important aspect of reality is that God is present in it every moment.  To forget that God is present in any given moment is to forget the most important aspect of that moment."

However, while knowing that God is present in every moment, Greg is very humble in his approach to help get us all to the place of living in God's presence (and more importantly being aware of God's presence), confessing his own struggles and failures at practicing this concept while also giving insight into the profound awesomeness that happens when we are able to wake up to God's presence.  He incorporates using one's imagination in prayer (58), understanding our own vanity and the importance of God (65-67), how to motivate ourselves by God's love (72), what our true self-identity is and how to handle our thoughts (94 - "The real "you" is the "you" that is defined by God's love, not the indicting thought"), and weaves in how practicing God's presence ultimately leads to submission and obedience in the most important "task of every present moment... is to love God and one's neighbor as oneself" (106).

Finally, the reason why we practice the presence of God is elaborated upon, in that the "purpose of staying attentive to the present moment is to cultivate a loving relationship with God" (158).  Love flows out of this relationship in faith that incorporates works.

Summary: This is a great book of reflections, exercises, and modern day experiences about "practicing God's presence."  It is definitely for anyone looking to further their relationship with Jesus by "praying unceasingly."  The insights into our present day U.S. American culture, habits, and identity issues, combined with pulling key understandings from earlier Christian Mystics (such as Brother Lawrence, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, and Frank Lubach) make this book a contemporary classic.  It's also only $5.98 on Amazon Kindle...an incredible price for the insights into the Christian life given here.

Book Reviewed: Boyd, Gregory.  Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010.  

Struggling with Scripture: 1 John 2:15-17

A reflection on Scripture through a letter and a prayer.  

Dear Lord Jesus,

I do not want to love the world or the things in the world, for I know your love is not in those who love the world.  Yet, I can't help but love your people and this beautiful creation that you have made as a reflection of your imagination and glorious splendor.  I enjoy your food, the pleasures you have given us, and the pleasures that we have made with the tools of intelligence and invention that you have furnished. 

Perhaps though we move to quickly to what is thought of as the "world."  That which is the "world" as seen by John is those things that the flesh desires, the desires of the eyes, and the pride in riches.  I am humbled beyond reckoning at this use of "worldly."  I have to ask myself, am I proud of the things I buy?  Am I greedy?  At first I compare myself to the society around me and I say, "Well, I'm not that bad."  Yet, my "to buy list" always seems to have something on it, always leaves me with one more thing that is a "necessity." 

I think I am proud of these things, or why would I buy them?  Not only this, but I am a glutton who eats far more than necessary - I look with my eyes and the desire of the flesh and consume until there is nothing left.  I use "my time" poorly, for most of my time is focused on things that have no value at all - things that will perish just as readily as stuff that I regularly throw away.

Lord, I find myself caught in an endless cycle.  May your grace consume me and make me new, may your love drive me to change, may your love be focused on doing your will.  Teach me as you would a child, be patient with my unhearing ears, my greedy eyes, and my unmoving feet.  Lord, craft me and mold me into your reflection, that I may look like Jesus. 

Love, 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  As we remember that Jesus Christ was born into the world, let us praise his glorious name, Immanuel - God is with us!

Reader's Review (in 500 Words or Less): The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann

The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann is a delightfully challenging book that looks to see how the prophets in the Bible can speak to our current context in the United States of America.  His hypothesis is simply this: "the task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us" (3).   Brueggemann proposes throughout that the United States is analogous in many ways to empire, that the culture of consumerism we live in is all pervasive, and that the church has become tired, weak, and worn because of identification with and saturation in this dominant culture.

In many ways, it is the prophets' ministry to break through to people and help to free them from the numbness that the empire requires to operate, to break through to people's hearts in order to stir them to create a new community that Jesus proposes.  Beginning with Moses and tracing through various prophets such as Jeremiah and Isaiah, Brueggemann arrives at Jesus as the final prophet explored.

There are several crucial ideas that stick with me from reading this book, especially the following points.  First, the language of grief helps prophets cut through "the royal numbness and denial" and allows people to identify what needs to collapse so the new Kingdom may enter in (46).  Along these lines, Brueggamnn states that "the riddle and insight of biblical faith is the awareness that only anguish leads to life, only grieving leads to joy, and only embraced endings permit new beginnings" (56). 

Second, prophets energize people to trust God and allow the new to supplant the old regime.  Brueggemann proposes that "the royal consciousness leads people to despair about the power to move toward new life.  It is the task of prophetic imagination and ministry to bring people to engage the promise of newness that is at work in our history with God" (59-60).  This impacts us directly today.  How many of us can see a way to escape consumerism, to live for each other and with each other when we work crazy hours, how many can see the way to not condemning by the law but living a life of service for each other that might cost us our lives?  In order to inspire, the prophet must then "bring to public expression those very hopes and yearnings that have been denied so long and suppressed so deeply that we no longer know they are there" (65).   

Finally, Jesus presents an alternative community and identifies with marginal people and the anguish that is denied in so many societies (81). Beautifully, the resurrection is the "ultimate act of prophetic energizing in which a new history is initiated" (113).

One Line Summary: Buy this book, read it slowly, pray over it!

Book Reviewed: Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. Second Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.

On Bended Knee

This weekend I went to the movies to see the Hobbit part 2: The Desolation of Smaug with my wonderful girlfriend.  I generally don't make it to the movies very often anymore.  I get bored very quickly, I find most plot lines boring and see-through, and feel antsy to stand up or curl up and pull out my Kindle to read something interesting during most movies.  The Hobbit, while long, was quite satisfying however.

Anyway, during the initial trailers for different movies, the screen flashed to an epic ancient Greek war scene, and I immediately became excited - this was the new   300 movie, 300: Rise of an Empire.  While noting my excitement over a war movie and asking the question, "Why is a pacifist getting excited about this?" I noted a distinct and very Americanized phrase tearing from the lips of one of the soldiers in the movie:  "Better we show them, we chose to die on our feet than live on our knees."  The movie trailer than portrays war as a way to keep freedom, do justice, and have vengeance all in one breathe.

I thought to myself immediately, "Therein lies the problems for Christians that many of us do not see, especially U.S. Christians. For Christians, we already live on a bended knee to THE LORD, Jesus Christ.  The issue then is not fighting to keep our freedom or stay out of servitude - we are already in servitude to Jesus and find our freedom in this service as well.  The real issue is that we refuse to kill to protect us from going into another's service.   We can neither be in another's service because we are already submitted to Jesus, nor should we balk at serving others - that is what we should be doing already. " We would die to stay in the service of Jesus, but can never bend the knee to another authority because we already live on bended knee to Jesus; at the same time, we are already serving others, just as Christ did.  

Simply something to think about as we continue to walk our on journey with Christ.  

Image taken from:

http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/300-rise-of-an-empire-poster.jpg

Struggling with Scripture: Hosea 10:11-15

I have been taught throughout Seminary that the process of becoming Christ like is one of transformation, especially being transformed by dwelling in and receiving Jesus' love.  I believe this completely - I find God's love much like the sun, giving warmth, light, and food to me who is much like a plant - needing the sun for life,  food, warmth, and being unable to grow without the sun's light (remember this is a metaphor and does not play out perfectly).

However, I also know and struggle with our own working out of our salvation with fear and trembling, acting out God's love in the world - empowered by God but working hard as well.  Hosea 10:11-15 helps me to articulate this struggle.  Ephraim, the major tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel, loves to rebel but God says, "I will make Ephraim break the ground" as in plow fields; this is then extended to the major tribe in the southern kingdom, Judah. 

Then God, after saying, "I will make," now says, "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you."  God, in the divine mystery and complexity, seems to be here about partnership - action on Judah's part in righteousness (acting out mercy and justice) will allow them to reap steadfast love bound within covenant to God; however, the Lord helps with this if we seek him, that he may come and "rain righteousness" upon us.

Yet, I wonder how many of us fall because we refuse to seek the Lord, to sow mercy and justice.  Instead we have a tendency towards sin (OK, more than a tendency) and we reap injustice from our wickedness.  Hosea further critiques all nations in verse 13 "Because you have trusted in your power and in the multitude of your warriors, THEREFORE the tumult of war shall rise against your people and all your fortresses shall be destroyed."  Ultimately, the nation of Israel is ended "utterly cut off" (historically this would be the extinction of the northern kingdom) because they trusted in their military might instead of in God (sound familiar?).  

Praise be to the Divine Trinity who blazed a new trail for us in the cross and resurrection, who rains mercy and grace upon us, and who helps us to work with love for righteousness. Lord...teach us to sow righteousness so we may reap steadfast love, teach us to seek you that you may rain down righteousness upon us.

Confession of Faith: Wrap it Up!

Wow!  Twenty-four confessions of faith and almost a month later and we have finally made it through!  I wonder, which is the confession of faith that you struggle most with?  Which is the one(s) that you don't understand? 

I know at different periods of my life these do come out simply as confessions.  Perhaps I don't understand them all, or perhaps I have doubts about some of them at different periods.  Yet confessing these points as truth helps to bring a sense of stability and faith even in the midst of busyness, doubts, questions, implications, and orthopraxy (or the living out of the Gospel as traditionally practiced). 

It's important to keep coming back to these confessions and reading them or speaking about them out loud.  They provide a mirror by which we can see our own thoughts, actions, and biblical interpretations and see if there is any room for humble questioning or correction among them.  The most important thing to do is to keep coming back to Jesus Christ.  He is really what it is all about!

The confessions of faith are beautiful confessions based on biblical scripture.  I hope you enjoyed these reflections!  Moving forward we will be tackling difficult concepts, Scripture passages, and book reviews. Let's keep on sojourning together!

Confession of Faith: Reign of God

Our last post about the Mennonite confession is the reign of God.  Mennonites place their hope in the reign of God and in its fulfillment in the day when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead, gather his church, resurrect the dead, claim and renew creation under God's rule.  We confess that Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God's reign and its future realization, its healing and its judgment.  Yet we also believe that we are called to live out the Kingdom rule here and now, to be a first-fruit of Kingdom life.

As to anything more, we don't affirm or deny what or how God will make the end come about.  Personally, the only thing I will state is, "Jesus Christ is going to return, fulfilling his promise of a new Kingdom rule, of resurrection, of eternal life, and a renewal of all things."  While I grew up extremely interested in the end times, looking for signs of the coming end, tracing prophecies and mapping out the symbols of Revelation with figures of today, something happened that changed all of the searching and longing: I experienced Jesus Christ's love.

Now I am far more interested in how to love Jesus and others now then I am worried about later.  I look towards the end with hope, but am less interested in how it's going to happen than the simple understanding that it will happen.   I spent too much energy and time trying to figure out the how about the end - and missed the point of life: a relationship with Jesus now.  Instead, I find the end to be much more to be about the hope that comes from knowing Jesus will return - this helps me live for God today, to pick up the cross today, to take the journey into the depths of God in order to better love God and the world around me.

Paul expresses this notion in his confession in 1 Corinthians 15:17-34.  He speaks about how the only hope is in the fact that Christ has already risen from the dead and is returning to take the rule of the world, to raise those who live in Jesus.  Then he states starting in verse 30, "And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour?  I die every day!...If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it?  If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'" I imagine Paul confessing this with pain and anguish, with a near broken heart glued together by hope and love of Jesus - especially the confession of "I die every day!"

This is the hope, the faith - Jesus will return to rule and renew all things.  The question is, "How will we live today in light of that hope?"

Want to learn more?  Here is Article 24 of the Mennonite Confession of faith:   http://www.mennoniteusa.org/about/confession-of-faith-in-a-mennonite-perspective-1995/article-24-the-reign-of-god/

Confession of Faith: The Church's Relation to Government and Society

The Mennonites believe that the church is God's holy nation, with Jesus as its King and Lord who demands total and complete allegiance.  Governments in nations of the world have been instituted by God for maintaining order in societies, but tend to demand total allegiance as well - and no person can serve two masters or two lords.  However, Christians are to respect government authority and pray for all people.  We (Christians) can live in obedience to the government as long as it obeys by the laws of love that Christ has set for the church; if the two contradict, we must live Jesus' commands, not government laws.

However, I (there are mixed opinions among Mennonites as a whole) affirm participation in government in so far as our jobs or positions do not break the law of love set up by Jesus.  I find Shane Claiborne's prayer over a solider (in Jesus for President) to be very helpful for helping all people decide whether or not their career (in government or out of government) to be Christ-like: pray the fruits of the Spirit and ask, "Can this position help me to, or allow me to express and cultivate, the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control?" (Galatians 5:22-23).  If not, then we will want to re-think our career choice in order to live for Jesus with all of our lives and not just parts of it.

A second thing to think about is how the church relates itself to policy making in governments which rule over believers and non-believers alike.  There is a plethora of different opinions among many smart, Biblically-orientated Christians on this issue.  Mennonites, I believe, would be cautious in this regard.  We want to speak into the government's life truth, caution, and love of Jesus and humanity; yet, we want to remain dedicated to Jesus Christ and him alone.

I personally struggle with this issue.  I am uncertain if it is our (Christians) place to demand obedience to a Christ-like life over non-believers through government laws.  I actually think dependence on the government strips the church of much of its power to help and show love to the hurting and poor...instead we push it off to the government to fix and solve.  The poor, instead of looking to the church for salvation, looks to the government for provision and ignores the church.  Instead of living a life different from those around us because of Jesus, we end up pushing laws through the government that forces everyone to look the same...at times this is to the detriment of the Kingdom of God because what is passed in law is not necessarily what Jesus' taught.  Certainly things such as murder, stealing, drug-dealing, violence and rape, and protection of the innocent is part of a governments duty, and should be.  However, I struggle with where we draw the line as Christians in our involvement with government.  Something to think on as we reflect on our life-journey towards and with Christ.

Want to learn more? Here is Article 23 of the Mennonite Confession of faith:   http://www.mennoniteusa.org/about/confession-of-faith-in-a-mennonite-perspective-1995/article-23-government/

Confession of Faith: Peace, Justice, and Nonresistance

The Mennonites believe that peace is the will of God, best revealed in and through God's son Jesus Christ.  As Jesus resisted evil without violence, living the command to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," we do the same.  We give our ultimate allegiance and loyalty to Jesus Christ, resisting evil non-violently (but not passively), pursuing justice in every way, and declaring all forms of violence as evil.  We work for justice through healing, reconciliation, and restoration.

As Bruxy Cavey, pastor of The Meeting House in Canada, continually states through sermons on peace and justice "Peace means that we are willing to die for a cause but we aren't willing to kill for a cause."  This is not cowardice: nobody would say that Jesus tackling evil head on through the cross and his death was a cowardly act.  It takes great courage, great love of God, and great trust in Jesus.

Peace comes from a deep and profound since of God's love for us - not just for ourselves but for every human being, all of whom are made in the image of God.  We are willing to be crucified on another's behalf, but are not willing to kill someone else whom God loves.

This is the call of the Kingdom of God in a world which likes to see themselves as God's "righteous hand of justice and fury" who like to "speak softly and carry a really big stick."  It is natural to want to retaliate against those who harm us, to want to inflict punishment on wrong doers, to enact the best defense of the innocent (and the best defense is a really strong offense of course!).  Yet, that is not the straight and narrow path that Jesus showed us; instead Jesus showed us the cross and told his followers to pick it up and follow him.

This is difficult to swallow and difficult to understand.  But I think a spiritual discipline here can help us to understand this - pray the prayer of St. Patrick and imagine everyone you meet to have Christ in them - even those who are seeking to harm you.  Then stop imagining, and when you are out and about, look at each person as someone made in the image of Christ, however lost they may be. How would we then act?

The prayer of St. Patrick:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

Salvation is of the Lord.

Salvation is of the Christ.

May your salvation, Lord, be ever with us.

Want to learn more?  Here is Article 22 of the Mennonite Confession of faith:   http://www.mennoniteusa.org/about/confession-of-faith-in-a-mennonite-perspective-1995/article-22-peace/

Bruxy Cavey's excellent sermons on peace are available on YouTube by searching "Peaceworks."  The first episode is linked below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuTBiX_rO_Q&list=PL7P2ScxKfB0AIV4zAJyYhVyeXU0OSErHT

Confession of Faith: Stewardship

Mennonites confess that all things belong to God - including stuff we legally own.  Stewardship is about how we take care of, handle, and use all that God has placed around us while we are journeying in this life.  This includes everything the church, our talents/gifts/abilities, our time, our money, our possessions, our bodies, our minds, our hearts Jesus' has given us, our world, our friends, our families and all else is under our stewardship - given to us for a time to use for God and to take care of, but not to keep.

Stewardship can sometimes be a difficult practice to implement.  How are we good stewards of our money?  It's often difficult to navigate the waters of how much we give, to whom, how much we save for later or emergencies, and how much we need to live on  It's difficult to partition our time.  How much do we work, play, rest, spend time with God, and serve?  It's difficult to care for our bodies - portion our food, eat healthy, eat small amounts at a sitting.  It's difficult to serve and care for our world - we have so much else to do.

In the United States it is difficult to be stewards because we have so much - in fact we have too much.  Everyday moves faster than the last with more to do and more places to go, more things to buy that are half as useful as what we have, more information we absorb with half as much truth, doing twice the work half as well as we could.  We work more for less, we pay more for things that ultimately don't matter, we are caught in the cycle of consumerism and can't break out.  In this situation, stewardship takes hard work in order to break out of the cycle of our culture to submit all we have into God's hands and use all that we have for God.

Want to learn more?  Here is Article 21 of the Mennonite Confession of faith:   http://www.mennoniteusa.org/about/confession-of-faith-in-a-mennonite-perspective-1995/article-21-stewardship/

Confession of Faith: Truth and Avoidance of Oaths

We, the Mennonites, commit ourselves to speaking truth with a simple "yes" or "no," avoiding the use of oaths.  We look to tell the truth, avoid profane language, attempt to compel God to guarantee the future through our oath.  We also give our allegiance to Jesus Christ, thereby avoiding oaths of allegiance to other things or people which may contradict our first allegiance to Jesus.

One of the most profound parts of this confession of faith are these words: "An oath is often sworn as a guarantee that one is telling the truth.  This implies that when one has not taken an oath, one may be less careful about telling the truth."  What this means is that if we swear oaths a lot in order to reinforce that we are telling the truth ("I promise I saw it!" or "I promise this time I'll be there!" or "I swear this happened...") we are elevating those portions of our speech above all of our other words as "more truthful" or "insisting they are true."  However, as the above confession points out, this simply implies that what we say at other times isn't as true, or is less trustworthy then, words we have said under oath.

This is quite profound for our society today.  In a job that I used to work, I used to hear oaths sworn on a regular basis as to someone's honesty in a matter - and have someone behind them swear the exact opposite thing happened.  We have arrived (or have already been) at a place where oaths aren't even a promise of truth, but everything is now suspect. 

Into this culture, Mennonites say, "We love you enough to truth-tell straight out.  We take responsibility for our actions, right or wrong, for where we have been and what we do.  You can trust us at our word." 

Want to learn more?  Here is Article 20 of the Mennonite Confession of faith:   http://www.mennoniteusa.org/about/confession-of-faith-in-a-mennonite-perspective-1995/article-20-truth/

Confession of Faith: Family, Singleness, and Marriage

The Mennonites believe that God intends humans to begin families and be blessed by them; in fact, all humans were created for relationship. Mennonites believe that marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman for life.  Family does not necessitate marriage however; the church is a place where people are family to one another, whether single or married, regardless of sexual orientation or single/married/divorced status - we are all walking the journey to Christ-likeness together.  We hold that being married or being single are equally good paths in life as long as we are following Jesus.

This is a powerful and controversial statement in today's society, one that can be hurtful if approached in the wrong manner.  Often, discussions on marriage or singleness simply boil down to who we are having sex with instead of looking at God's will for human life.  Humans are meant to live in relationship with one another, seeing each other as children of God who are worth-filled because God loves us.  If we saw each other as made in God's image, instead of someone who is sinning in a taboo way or is the next fulfillment of our pleasure, our relationships would change drastically.  If we also stopped condemning others but seeing everyone as on a journey towards Jesus (including ourselves), we would see that Jesus works in each of us one step at a time - none of us become sinless in a day.  It is important to note that both a single life and a married life are on equal ground in the New Testament - both are held as worthy paths to take in life.

Yet, an ever present and controversial issue for today falls upon the issue of marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman for life.  I confess that we as a church (universal) have not been loving enough about this, but we are growing in Christ all the time.  Jesus, when speaking about divorce in Matthew 19, places his stamp of approval on marriage between one man and one woman.   Anything outside of this box is considered "sin" just as all wrong doing is considered "sin."  Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring church, points out that sex outside of marriage (regardless of orientation) is wrong, but is also simply one sin among many sins all of us do, that our salvation still lies in the same place - Jesus Christ - and that Jesus himself was tempted by every sin (Hebrews 4:14-16). We are all children of God, all have sinned, and all have the same path to redemption and transformation: Jesus Christ.

We'll eventually tackle more of the issues surrounding marriage, divorce, and singleness in this blog.  I wanted to touch upon one of the more controversial issues here (sex outside of marriage), in this post.  Know that this is a subject that many people have deep wounds regarding - I confess the Mennonite confession with love, standing in the same place as everyone else: a sinner before the throne of grace.

Want to learn more? Here is Article 19 of the Mennonite Confession of faith:   http://www.mennoniteusa.org/about/confession-of-faith-in-a-mennonite-perspective-1995/article-19-marriage/