Archive for June, 2009

Simply Jesus

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

I have been wondering about Jesus of late, let’s say I am curious about Him.  I think it is all right to be curious again.  I have been reading a book about Leonardo da Vinci – his curiosity lead him to all those inventions.  I am seeking to reinvent Jesus, but rather to discover Him again.

Not only have I been seeking to understand who He is, but I have been begging Him for wisdom and mercy, in the midst of a tense existence.  It is a tension between church and culture, which I live within every day.  Now, I have asked God to take it away, but it hasn’t happened.  It may be a sort of thorn in the flesh for me, which pushes me forward even in the midst of it.

I believe, God is asking for reform – that is the bottom line.  That might also be termed repentance.  I think repentance is always good for us all the time, whether we are talking about individually, church, or culture.  Everything must adapt and change – we actually thrive in times of change.  

Leonardo’s inventions came within a huge time of change, as did the early reformation.  I believe we are in those times again.  

My friends in the younger generation look around and see that things just are not working – they are curious for new ways.  I am in between of course, being 45 (still young!).  I have to admit that I am looking to create new ways and things, while also trying to pull together the generations to communicate and work together.  This is some times working both within grassroots tweeting and facebooking and at the same time within churches and existing organizations.

All this comes back to Jesus because I am dazed and confused between how this all works, and how do you go about justice nicely and still be prophetically poignant and straight.  Honestly I think we like prophets once they are dead.  Not to say that I am at all in the prophet line of the biblical epic, but I sense something is wrong and it has to do with our neglect of the poor.  We do this at our own peril and risk.

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Poem About Damon

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Here is a poem that Christie shared about Damon, who passed away a week and a half ago.  We held his memorial at Pershing Park last Wednesday:

 

Damon's face
a gentle place of light
wild humble smile
a dreamer

I miss you
the way you described
the harshness of your life by
looking to the light
by thanking Jesus

you knew
bitterness could eat you
you knew
you did not belong to
wharves
parks
or addiction

you belonged to God
You belong to God

You have gone
but you have not left us
empty handed

We have our memories
your fire-flame hair
your toothless grin

your gentle way of telling us
it's going to be okay
it's going to be okay

because
this life is like grasses in the wind
the spirit can move us into
grace
forgiveness
newness

like fire
like rain
like ocean wind

Damon's gone
to newness

 

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Death and Birth and An Invitation to Chaos

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Last Wednesday we found out that one of our long time friends from the park passed away.  Damon was a friend on the streets who I knew for about 3 years, because he was one of our original friends at Pershing Park.  He fell down, suffered some head trauma, and was on life support at Cottage hospital.  He was in a coma that he never recovered from, and his family made the call to remove him from life support.  He passed away Thursday morning at 3:30am.  We all grieve our loss, because he was a gentle and kind man who could not kick an alcoholic habit.

On the same night, I found out that Victoria had started going into labor in Colorado, and that she gave birth to Addison about a day or so later.  The little girl is healthy and about to begin her life with Victoria and Michael’s family there.

Welcome to the roller coaster of life in Chaos.

If you read The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch, you will read in his chapter on Organic Systems that the church needs to return to the edges of Chaos.  It is where I am, and I agree.

If you return, expect high highs and low lows – but a pretty wild and wonderful ride.  And it is part of the reason I find it so difficult to live long term in the building, because it does not speak to my reality.  Is this some kind of missional addiction?  Will I be on a new drug later in life because of it?  Probably…

In the beginning, God created… out of chaos.  He hovered over chaos and made some kind of order out of it.  I just don’t believe now that the order that He needs to make out of chaos, is always the same thing.  He made insects, fish, animals, plants, stars, and suns – so why do we keep creating the same model out of chaos?  We don’t always need buildings in chaos, but we always need people who will join with God and travel off the map.

You create order out of chaos with grace, generosity, prayer, friendship, truth conversing – recapturing the magic of Jesus right smack center in the midst of culture.  The New Order results from The Golden Rule.  I believe that if everyone just lived this one command, then the world would look much like that which Jesus lived and described.

Which of us would like to be alone, on the streets, without health insurance, 3 families in an apartment, bi-polar with no cash for medication, ashamed, isolated… not me.  So, I must go into chaos – will you join me?

Join us this Wednesday, June 17 at Pershing Park at 5:30pm as we have a memorial for Damon.

Join us this week this Thursday at 3:00-4:00pm on 1490am KIST as Nick and I describe who we meet on the streets during our summer of love.  Join Nick and Jeff’s Summer of Love on Facebook as well for updates.

 

 

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