the Good Samaritan

Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)

The Good Samaritan

In the parable of the Good Samaritan two aspects of our fallen human condition appear, the propensity to do evil and the frailty of the human body. Having been robbed and beaten the traveller lies bloodied by the side of the path. Ironically it is not the religious fellow travellers who give him assistance but one with whom he might normally have no "dealings" - a Samaritan.

During Lent as we explore "our dust to dust" sojourns it would be important for us to work against these two aspects by setting a guard on our inclinations to sin, especially against one another; and to lend aid to those we pass by who have been robbed and beaten on life's journey. This will necessitate a certain slowing of pace and vigilance of attentiveness to those whose wounds may only be visible to the unhurried fellow traveller.

worms

"And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. For now is Christ risen, for now is Christ risen from the dead -the first fruits of them that sleep." This is the bold passage from Handel's Messiah that celebrates the assertion "I know that my Redeemer liveth!" The worms part is a rather

loose translation of the Hebrew in Job 19.26 where "worms" are not in the original but supplied in the oldest English texts. The verse, however, is a frank acknowledgement of the mortality of human flesh. Some Christians are concerned over the practice of cremation (I am not) but whether by the corruption of the body in the ground (worms or not!) or the consumption of the body by fire this body will be reduced "ashes to ashes and dust to dust" BUT with the "sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead." How many times I have recited these words at a grave, and how much present and powerful hope they bring. Our future is a physical, fleshly, material existence as proven by the physical resurrection of Christ. So Lent brings us to the grave, but only for a while.

human being being human

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

human being being human

Our Lenten teaching series is entitled "human being being human" as we centre our thoughts this season on the nature of human existence, living in the physical bodies which we understand are from dust and will return to dust. What is the nature of human life in these vessels of clay and how do we relate our day to day material lives with the spiritual realities of God and the future transformation of these bodies?

Ash Wednesday. "You are dust and to dust you shall return" was the declaration the first Adam heard after the great Fall. On Ash Wednesday we begin the journey of Lent, a season of humility and repentance. We remember indeed that we are dust and acknowledge that to dust we are bound to return. We meditate on the meanness of dust, its lowliness and lack of beauty. And know that we are such. The practice of marking the forehead with ashes, smudged in the form of a cross, begun in the seventh century, in the Catholic, Anglican and many other Protestant churches reminds us of our mortality, making the hope of Easter and resurrection all the more critical. In earlier days the imposition of ashes was part of an ecclesiastical penitential ritual for people who had been expelled from the church for serious sin -whereby they could make a public sign of their repentance. They then undertook acts of penance throughout Lent and were formally restored to the church community at Easter.

What will be your path through Lent? A sober remembering that we are mortal? A grieving period concerning the weakness of "human flesh"? A season of repentance over sinful ways? A season of penance? A season of simplicity and reformed spiritual disciplines? Let's walk and talk together on this Coracle Journey. 

PRESENCE!

Here's what our WHY is beginning to look like! HOW and WHAT follow closely as we re-imagine ourselves as church in missional mode. The dynamic idea is contained in the term PRESENCE! 
Now: artists- songsters, image-creators, wordsmiths, designers, architects, planners, painters, dancers, social media inhabitants, film makers, change agents, innovators, entrepreneurs, connectors, APEPTS- what could you do with this? 

In the common parlance, how do we BRAND this?

Start with Why

Simon Sinek's book Start with Why is serving as a sort of guide as we embark on a "branding" journey at Southside. His central idea is that "people buy, not WHAT you do, but WHY you do it. It's a fascinating idea and quite Biblical! Explore his ideas by watching the video and reading some of the stuff here: www.startwithwhy.com. So what is Southside's WHY? Join the conversation with the following prompters from our teaching and learning over the past year.

Jesus said that the Kingdom was "near." God's Kingdom is coming and already here. The Kingdom is God's future arriving in our present. We long for people to experience the reality of God's Kingdom in their lives. The Gospel is literally the "good news." It is the good news about the kingdom of God. What sounds like good news to the people in our neighbourhoods? in our town? in our country? in our world? What would it look like if the Kingdom of God arrived in their lives?

Why do we exist as a church? What is at the heart and soul of our lives individually and as a community? Our (draft) vision statement is to "realize God's Future arriving in our Present." Our (draft) mission statement is to "invite families to experience the reality of God's Kingdom in their lives." Our prayer is "Your Kingdom Come!" Does a WHY pop out yet?

Add to these the power of living out of the reality and strength of having been loved and forgiven by our gracious God and King. Gratitude! 

Covenant, Kingdom, Gospel

Gospel is quite literally "good news" but today there is lively debate about just what the good news is, exactly. The matrix above is an attempt to understand the Gospel in the intersection of Covenant and Kingdom. I'm posing the Gospel as the blue circle which, with some imagination, can shrink or grow, and can be moved up or down the axes and into any quadrant or combination of quadrants. 1 Thessalonians 1.5 gives us a full orbed description of the Gospel as it arrived via Paul. Notice how the text is spread around the poles of the matrix.

The conversation I hope to prompt by this matrix is about how the Gospel could be imbalanced if the circle is moved, and how the circle can be grown for fuller impact in and through our lives. Online teaching about this can be found at www.southsidecommunitychurch.ca Sunday teaching October 14th. Thoughts?

trades and tools

How do we sort out the various references to gifts in the New Testament? With the missional church emphasis on the APEPT giftings of Ephesians 4 it is increasingly important to get a grip on the Spirit's gifts so that we may be used by Him as workers to build God's arriving Kingdom. Let me offer an analogy from the world of "building" that might see us through. AnnaBeth and I live in a new residential area into which there is a daily procession of white vans :) To the uninitiated this might be a strange sight indeed. Strangely enough they proceed out of the area again at dinnertime. They are, of course, the vans of the various tradespeople who join forces to bring houses from the beginning to the completion of construction. There are carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers, painters to name only a few of over 50 construction trades! As the doors of these white vans are opened for business at the various building sites it's fascinating to peer in at the assortment of tools displayed inside, arranged for access and use throughout the day's work. From trade to trade the tools vary, but many are also common to more than one trade. The hammer, for example, is on the toolbelt of the roofer, the carpenter, the plumber, the electrician.. Here's the idea: Think of the the fivefold giftings of Ephesians 4 as the trades of the church and the various lists of gifts elsewhere in Paul's letters (Romans 12, 1Corinthians 12) as the tools of the trades. Each Christ-follower (yes, to every last one according to Ephesians 4.7) has a base calling, a trade identity as apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher. In each one's toolkit (or white van) is a set of tools that allow the trade to do its unique work. The result is a buzz of activity and the exciting, coordinated completion of the building. So, the uniqueness of the calling is contained in the APEPT design by which we exercise our home passions and abilities as innovators, provocateurs, promoters, caregivers and organizers. These are rather rigidly fixed in us, hardwired into our redeemed selves, mutually needed and valued. And we reach into the mix of tools for those with which we are familiar and those which we notice that seem just suited for the particular job we are on at the moment and offer a new way of getting it done.