It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. -Jesus
We have become so numb to the reality of our situation that we really do not comprehend how incredibly rich we really are; at least in the terms of conveniences’. Even the lowest classes of our society have access to luxuries that 200 years ago kings and queens would of envied. And when Jesus spoke these words 2000 years ago the emperor of Rome seated on his golden throne, surrounded by thousands of slaves could not imagine the conveniences’ that we take for granted today.
I don’t believe that prosperity in its self is wrong, but there is most definitely a point were we fall into the pit of “riches” and become the rich men that Jesus admonished.
Jesus said something else, he said that “we can not serve God and mammon.”
So my question is; who do we serve, God or mammon?
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
a Godsend
I've been away from the blogging world for some time on account of a busy schedule, but I've been wanting to blog on a few topics that hopefully I'll get to one of these days.
BUT we did have a big event happen in the life of our group here lately that needs to be blogged about, and that was the weekend visit from Dan and Jeanine and some of their community members from Canada.
Dan Lowe spent some years as a member of Communality, an intentional community in Lexington Kentucky where Jese has visited a few times. We got to spend a few months with Dan a couple of summers back while he was taking care of business to get to Canada and needed a place to stay. We estabished a quick friendship with him because he's not only a likeable and outgoing guy, but also an incredible source of knowledge and insight. When our group was first opening ourselves up to the concepts of community/new-monasticism, Dan served as an encourager and mentor. So we were incredibly stoked when we learned that he and his wife that we had heard so much about would be visiting us with some members of their newly established community out of Edmonton.
Truth be told, it has been a helluva hard year for our group, from personal crises to our collective struggle to hang on to our original ideals. After finishing up our big summer project ( the community garden, which needs a post of its own) we were a little bit aimless, wondering where to go from there, what was next, and especially, why? Why were we striving toward this nebulous goal of "community" that none of us really knew what looked like or how to get to? Why were we spending all of our energy battling against a church body ? Why were people not interested in the ideas that had taken our breath away and got us dreaming of a better way to follow Christ than we had ever known? It was a discouraging time.
Enter Dan and Jeanine's group. I was initially worried about the weekend, feeling like there wasn't much optimism we could lend to this budding community. But as the weekend played out and we ate together, talked together, and listened to their stories I was revitalized. Rachel, one of their members, shared about their groups formation and about the house she shares with her husband, another married couple, and three bachelors. Her eyes lit up as she talked about how "beautifully messy" it was and I experienced anew my own enthusiasm. There's something unquestionably spiritual about this kind of get together; a hospitality from each party that is as willing to receive as it is to give. Luke and Heather graciously shared their home and we all pitched in to cook - the Edmonton folks split us a winter's worth of firewood. I was given an armful of new books!
The more I process through the weekend and the conversations, the more I realize what a great gift it was. We connected with amazing people, rekindled our dreams, strengthened our resolve... it was truly a godsend.
BUT we did have a big event happen in the life of our group here lately that needs to be blogged about, and that was the weekend visit from Dan and Jeanine and some of their community members from Canada.
Dan Lowe spent some years as a member of Communality, an intentional community in Lexington Kentucky where Jese has visited a few times. We got to spend a few months with Dan a couple of summers back while he was taking care of business to get to Canada and needed a place to stay. We estabished a quick friendship with him because he's not only a likeable and outgoing guy, but also an incredible source of knowledge and insight. When our group was first opening ourselves up to the concepts of community/new-monasticism, Dan served as an encourager and mentor. So we were incredibly stoked when we learned that he and his wife that we had heard so much about would be visiting us with some members of their newly established community out of Edmonton.
Truth be told, it has been a helluva hard year for our group, from personal crises to our collective struggle to hang on to our original ideals. After finishing up our big summer project ( the community garden, which needs a post of its own) we were a little bit aimless, wondering where to go from there, what was next, and especially, why? Why were we striving toward this nebulous goal of "community" that none of us really knew what looked like or how to get to? Why were we spending all of our energy battling against a church body ? Why were people not interested in the ideas that had taken our breath away and got us dreaming of a better way to follow Christ than we had ever known? It was a discouraging time.
Enter Dan and Jeanine's group. I was initially worried about the weekend, feeling like there wasn't much optimism we could lend to this budding community. But as the weekend played out and we ate together, talked together, and listened to their stories I was revitalized. Rachel, one of their members, shared about their groups formation and about the house she shares with her husband, another married couple, and three bachelors. Her eyes lit up as she talked about how "beautifully messy" it was and I experienced anew my own enthusiasm. There's something unquestionably spiritual about this kind of get together; a hospitality from each party that is as willing to receive as it is to give. Luke and Heather graciously shared their home and we all pitched in to cook - the Edmonton folks split us a winter's worth of firewood. I was given an armful of new books!
The more I process through the weekend and the conversations, the more I realize what a great gift it was. We connected with amazing people, rekindled our dreams, strengthened our resolve... it was truly a godsend.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
hell, y'all
This is a thought-provoking article on hell by a guy named Jason Boyett. It touches on some of our discussions about modern day interpretations of various books in the Bible. Lots of folks assume that the way today's Christians understand things is the way people always have. Not so, good people. Not so.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/features/18239-one-hell-of-a-question
Here's a teaser from the article:
"I heard a lot about hell growing up, particularly about how awful the eternal burning would be. I spent too much of my childhood fearful that somehow my salvation wouldn't take and I'd end up there. The horrors of hell are seared into my psyche.
So I was pretty annoyed to discover the biblical case for the hell of my imagination to be less than airtight. Along with this annoyance came some serious questions."
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/church/features/18239-one-hell-of-a-question
Here's a teaser from the article:
"I heard a lot about hell growing up, particularly about how awful the eternal burning would be. I spent too much of my childhood fearful that somehow my salvation wouldn't take and I'd end up there. The horrors of hell are seared into my psyche.
So I was pretty annoyed to discover the biblical case for the hell of my imagination to be less than airtight. Along with this annoyance came some serious questions."
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Bitter Sweet
Hey I just wanted to post a heartfelt thank you and good luck to Jason and Lori Stoffer. We have appreciated you two so much (and my girls love Zora!). Our little group has been tremendously blessed to have you folks around and you have impacted all of us deeply. Thank you for your lended ears in our venting sessions, your deep wisdom, your friendship, for singing to my girls, and for good ol fashioned garden/chicken talk! I hope this next chapter in your lives goes painlessly and may you find peace (and I hope Jason finally gets his degree - lol). I also hope you two hurry back and please don't stop being a part of this blog! We love you all!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
health care and faith
For an interesting discussion on the proposed national health care system and how it relates to faith, check out this link on Tamie's blog. Read the comments at the bottom of the post, and if you have a fresh perspective or different information, chime in! The more, the merrier, I say.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Unstructured Free Truth - The Next Generation
Why are young people leaving the church? This seems to be the hanging issue that pokes church folks square in the eye. I’ve heard people’s opinions on this ranging anywhere from how our generation has been corrupted by evolution to blaming it on the Ten Commandments being removed from court house walls…. And the response, at least here in our own valley, has been to shoot up huge ten commandment signs and ridicule teachers from the pulpit. I have yet to hear anyone from the traditional Christian realm, who seems to be pushing the question the most, take any responsibility for the roles the church has played, which to me have been the most vital. One of the many reasons that our fellow peers have struggled with the church is this intense way of acting as if they have already figured it all out. It’s as if to say that any new revelation has to be blasphemy. It takes all questions and squashes them with annoying worthless answers, ever so condescendingly, “You just have to have faith,” or “I’ll pray for you”, forcing us to feel really messed up for sincerely questioning what those around us are calling “faith”. As I have pondered these questions and responses for the last month the thing that keeps reeling through my mind is the verse in Luke 18: 15 -17 “People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. "Let these children alone. Don't get between them and me. These children are the kingdom's pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in."
Here you see Jesus telling us to model the open mindedness of children. If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own. We listen to people in other denominations and religions. We don't find demons in those with whom we disagree. We don't cozy up to people who mouth our jargon. If we are open, we rarely resort to either-or: creation or evolution, liberty or law, sacred or secular, Beethoven or Madonna. We focus on both-and, fully aware that God's truth cannot be imprisoned in a small definition. It’s not that I think there isn’t an Absolute Truth. It’s that this isn’t something we are capable of laying claim to. To allude to the “fact”, that we have unveiled Absolute Truth only continues to support our arrogant white American attitudes. I wonder how we are finding humility amongst all of the debate. Why hasn’t anbody asked us why we have sidestepped traditional structured church? For one sect of people to say that they hold the patent on Truth they create a ripple in two ways: First they state that they are the end all, declaring themselves above everyone else, secondly, they squash equality and create a relationship that can only exist as that of a slave and master. A teacher can learn from his student, through humility, because out of the mouth of babes God said he would shame the wise. We can learn from our neighbors…. That’s all the book of Proverb’s is. A book full of sayings stolen from wise people from cultures and religions differing from that of Solomon’s all over the world. To say we hold Absolute Truth is to tell Gandhi his way of life was wrong (though it was closer to that of Jesus than most of ours) and to tell Mother Theresa everything she did was in vain (though I can’t think of any other living example who did a better job of displaying perfect religion and loving the poor).
What I am seeing with this topic is a filtering problem. We all understand how filters work in cars, vacuums, air conditioners, etc. – They filter the air of all the small “harmful” particles that would damage the motor, the mechanism responsible for making the product function properly. The thing about filters, you can get several different stages - some more dense than others designed for a more zero tolerance motor. If you put a filter that is too dense on a motor it's not designed for - it can actually suffocate it causing it to stall. The bottom line, if you aren't a mechanic extremely knowledgable on all types of motors, you can't properly connect the right filter with the right motor. Sure it may run well for a while, but eventually.....
I’m going to pause here and post this – I’ll post the rest tomorrow.
Here you see Jesus telling us to model the open mindedness of children. If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own. We listen to people in other denominations and religions. We don't find demons in those with whom we disagree. We don't cozy up to people who mouth our jargon. If we are open, we rarely resort to either-or: creation or evolution, liberty or law, sacred or secular, Beethoven or Madonna. We focus on both-and, fully aware that God's truth cannot be imprisoned in a small definition. It’s not that I think there isn’t an Absolute Truth. It’s that this isn’t something we are capable of laying claim to. To allude to the “fact”, that we have unveiled Absolute Truth only continues to support our arrogant white American attitudes. I wonder how we are finding humility amongst all of the debate. Why hasn’t anbody asked us why we have sidestepped traditional structured church? For one sect of people to say that they hold the patent on Truth they create a ripple in two ways: First they state that they are the end all, declaring themselves above everyone else, secondly, they squash equality and create a relationship that can only exist as that of a slave and master. A teacher can learn from his student, through humility, because out of the mouth of babes God said he would shame the wise. We can learn from our neighbors…. That’s all the book of Proverb’s is. A book full of sayings stolen from wise people from cultures and religions differing from that of Solomon’s all over the world. To say we hold Absolute Truth is to tell Gandhi his way of life was wrong (though it was closer to that of Jesus than most of ours) and to tell Mother Theresa everything she did was in vain (though I can’t think of any other living example who did a better job of displaying perfect religion and loving the poor).
What I am seeing with this topic is a filtering problem. We all understand how filters work in cars, vacuums, air conditioners, etc. – They filter the air of all the small “harmful” particles that would damage the motor, the mechanism responsible for making the product function properly. The thing about filters, you can get several different stages - some more dense than others designed for a more zero tolerance motor. If you put a filter that is too dense on a motor it's not designed for - it can actually suffocate it causing it to stall. The bottom line, if you aren't a mechanic extremely knowledgable on all types of motors, you can't properly connect the right filter with the right motor. Sure it may run well for a while, but eventually.....
I’m going to pause here and post this – I’ll post the rest tomorrow.
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