Uffizi Mission Project

I believe Jesus would currently be spending time equally on Wall Street and Main Street as the United States navigates its way through this current economic crisis.  I am sure that this has affected you in some way.  I no longer have a pulpit anywhere, and usually I don’t use this site for “preaching” - but if I were invited to teach somewhere right now I would just encourage us all to “stay generous.”  Many of you who are reading this have lost work or income, and we have lost some supporters, so it is affecting us all.

At times like this, we may all tend to protect and bury our assets, and not to put them to use because we have to think about our future.  But for us who live in relation to Jesus, we know what He has to say about hoarding riches.  We have enough parables to consider on the topic of money and generosity.  I believe that our earlist creed was “Jesus is Lord,” which means that God is well aware of our circumstances.

I get the benefit of being friends with men, women, and families who have greater physical needs than myself, so it keeps me rational.  We started up “Holy Chaos” on Sunday, which is another gathering for our friends without homes.  I spent some time the week before going up and down State Street to see how our friends are doing.  What I heard the most was the need for socks, blankets, and sleeping bags as it is getting colder during the evenings.  One man who only had the shirt on his back and slept on newspapers, was literally still shaking as he was updating me on his life.

On the West Side, I heard a few chilling stories of some people in the apartments trying to sell their over the counter drugs to get some money.

I also watched the Colbert Report last night on Comedy Central - and he did a rather funny bit about how in America, the stock market is like God.  It was satirical and sad at the same time, because we have to face ourselves whether we are straying over to money as idolatry. 

 Perhaps this is a time for us to wake up and consider again our finances, our generosity or our greed.  It is definitely a reminder about our finite exisitence, and our dependence upon God.  It may also re-affirm our inter-dependence on one another.

Our meal sharing at Pershing Park is greatly related to our communal generosity.  It is a reminder of Acts 2, and what God-like community can be when there are loose hands on dollar bills.

We are tested in our faith.  Will God walk us through this time.  Our answer will be our willingness to still give and be stretched.

Your comments?

I would like to beg the church, plead with the church, fall at the alter at the church and weep until they welcome in the apostles and prophets.  It is partially for myself, and for the church itself, and for those outside the church that I dress up in rags and address the citywide church.  I don’t know how to do it.  How do I pull it off?

Part of it is because once again I lick my wounds.  I get tired of defending myself.  I had a conversation yesterday where I had to face the existing mind set and try to explain myself.  This is what I get all the time, “Well, what are you going to do with the people once you reach them?”  We have really messed this thing up with the missionary idea.

My reply is this - “How many missionaries do you think there are in any given church, by percentage?”  I would argue less that one percent of the church population is equipped, sent, and backed up by existing churches.  There are probably very few local missionaries here in my city. 

Here is another part of my answer.  The work of mission, incarnation is “our” responsibility.  It is the shared responsibility of the entire church to be missional.  Not that everyone has to be the ones to be sent out as scouts (like Joshua and Caleb), but when these scouts return, it is the responsibility of all the tribes to move into the promised land.  It was the responsibility of Israel to be a central blessing point for the entire world.

Our problem is the same - we don’t want to do the work.  Poor, poor us.  I mean that, because we don’t get to see what the Lord can do together, and we don’t get to see the literal kingdom of God now.  We wait for the banquet table up in heaven (which I am looking forward to), but we have table scraps now.

The church cannot mature without apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (along with the other gifts of course) getting along and working together.  Still I must defend myself, because people think somehow I left for some bizarre reason, either because I am a postmodern backslider or have some selfish have to do it my own way. 

Here is what happened to me - God, for whatever reason, switched gifts on me.  He gave me this apostolic call…  I didn’t get it then, but I do understand it now.  He also dumped a bit of prophet into the recipe and that sealed the deal.  This is not about better - it is about different but equal.

I stand on this soap box - if we do not find a way to get along, if we do not get and give equal voice, none of us will mature, including myself.  Right now the power structure is slanted - I pray for equal ground and equal voice.