Ok, most of you who read this know about Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was the German pastor who radically opposed Hitler and compliant churches in WW2, right? Someone wrote a nice big biography about his life that will blow your socks off. Now, get this, I picked up the Shane Claiborne book The Irresistible Revolution, in which he quotes a Danish pastor who was preaching up a storm as the Nazi storm took over and he was killed by them in 1944. Here is a gripping clip of one of Kaj Monk's sermons that is as relevant today as ever was in the maelstrom of the 40's. Hold on to your seats, and take this ride to the streets:
"What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer; 'Faith, hope, and love'? That sounds beautiful. But I would say-courage! No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature...we lack a holy rage-the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity.
The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the earth...a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth, and the destruction of God's world. To rage when little children die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction of peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God.
And remember the signs of the Christian church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish.....but never the Chameleon."
Never the Chameleon. Word, bro.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Pumpkin Pie
This is a late nite post because I am bothered by a conversation I had with an old (like age wise, not that I've know him a long time) friend at a local cafe. Well, it was 90% him talking and a few "uh-huh's" from me for about 2 1/2 hrs. The patience ran thin at the end,but I know this guys heart and it so longs for change in a neighborhood that needs plenty of it. There was a story he told that come to the heart of what he is and was describing...and it means attitudes not just action.
Here's a guy who spent many years living in his car, and through a community program he was able to buy a house with low mortgage payments. With his gratitude and concern for the North End of Winnipeg, he's joined many neighborhood programs and has seen significant change for the better. He budgets (off pension, he's in his 80's I presume) 10 dollars a week for lunches and finds inexpensive places to find a muffin and coffee in the morning and a hot supper. He goes to two churches on Sunday and finds himself drawn to Christ and the Bible in a way he can't explain.
One Sunday a couple invited him to their house for supper. Very happy about that, he asked if he could bring something...they said, how about a pumpkin pie? and mentioned a local cafe to buy it at. He agreed and ordered it over the phone. As he went to pick it up, he pulled out his $10 (remember this is his week's lunch allowance!). He went to the counter and asked for his pie, it was ready and she rang it up for $20. Oh! he said, I guess it costed more then I thought (as he pulled out another $10 for his lunch money for week 2). He paid for the pie and as he was leaving the lady behind the counter said, can you bring back the pie plate? We need it make to use again. He thought, $20 for a pie and they want the pie plate back? Wow, this is turning out to be an expensive dinner invite!
They enjoyed the pie, and he politely told them they could keep the extra pie left over but would need to bring back the plate it came with! Needless to say, he wasn't too excited to go back to their place for another visit, or to buy anything at the cafe he was at. His vision continues to be that people, especially Christians would learn to listen and understand poverty and hard places and spaces. Some world views just don't take into account the hard work "the poor" go to to budget, skimp, give and deny themselves just to get by week to week. Few have the patience to really "listen" and "get it" when concerns like this come up, and find ways to continue relationship and purpose without alot of money or expectations. A cup of coffee, a small gift of money or even toliet paper or light bulbs....a ride to the store, or a walk to Timmies. These are thing much needed and appreciated but we learn them when we are listening, invited to share lives and stories....not bringing our own agenda into the mix.
So I am up late, thinking too hard about these things and the need for true engagement, love, understanding and less judgement and expectations. So lay down and sleep in peace, there is someone you will meet tomorrow that will reach into your life and ask you to attend to their soul, beware of the revolution it will bring into your world of safe assumptions and our shallow definition of love in action.
Here's a guy who spent many years living in his car, and through a community program he was able to buy a house with low mortgage payments. With his gratitude and concern for the North End of Winnipeg, he's joined many neighborhood programs and has seen significant change for the better. He budgets (off pension, he's in his 80's I presume) 10 dollars a week for lunches and finds inexpensive places to find a muffin and coffee in the morning and a hot supper. He goes to two churches on Sunday and finds himself drawn to Christ and the Bible in a way he can't explain.
One Sunday a couple invited him to their house for supper. Very happy about that, he asked if he could bring something...they said, how about a pumpkin pie? and mentioned a local cafe to buy it at. He agreed and ordered it over the phone. As he went to pick it up, he pulled out his $10 (remember this is his week's lunch allowance!). He went to the counter and asked for his pie, it was ready and she rang it up for $20. Oh! he said, I guess it costed more then I thought (as he pulled out another $10 for his lunch money for week 2). He paid for the pie and as he was leaving the lady behind the counter said, can you bring back the pie plate? We need it make to use again. He thought, $20 for a pie and they want the pie plate back? Wow, this is turning out to be an expensive dinner invite!
They enjoyed the pie, and he politely told them they could keep the extra pie left over but would need to bring back the plate it came with! Needless to say, he wasn't too excited to go back to their place for another visit, or to buy anything at the cafe he was at. His vision continues to be that people, especially Christians would learn to listen and understand poverty and hard places and spaces. Some world views just don't take into account the hard work "the poor" go to to budget, skimp, give and deny themselves just to get by week to week. Few have the patience to really "listen" and "get it" when concerns like this come up, and find ways to continue relationship and purpose without alot of money or expectations. A cup of coffee, a small gift of money or even toliet paper or light bulbs....a ride to the store, or a walk to Timmies. These are thing much needed and appreciated but we learn them when we are listening, invited to share lives and stories....not bringing our own agenda into the mix.
So I am up late, thinking too hard about these things and the need for true engagement, love, understanding and less judgement and expectations. So lay down and sleep in peace, there is someone you will meet tomorrow that will reach into your life and ask you to attend to their soul, beware of the revolution it will bring into your world of safe assumptions and our shallow definition of love in action.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
The Peace of Wild Things
Yesterday, as my friend and I drove his truck from Pinawa to Winnipeg, we marvelled at the construction going on just north of the perimeter. "Can you believe they have a car wash, all the way out here?", I exclaimed. "Well, seems like they are building new residences...." he said. "So a car wash comes first (no bus service out here, must be for car owners only), then what, a grocery store?". "I think they put in the SuperStore and Walmart next", he said. Can you imagine that, it's not a "grocery store" anymore, its the two biggest chains in Canada. I processed that for a few minutes, the spaces of land dug up and poured with concrete, and told him, "God creates earth, man creates Walmarts",
Since we both acknowledge the need for clothing and food at lower prices, being inner city folk....we analyzed the pro's and con's of Walmart, Superstore, Giant Tiger (no parking, people walk at least 5 city blocks to get there or take the bus), the new No Frills and the manager there (who says people leave frozen products around the store and he looses money), and then (as always) our hopes and dreams to eventually live on the land, grow food, hunt, share and take care of what God made....creation, His version of Walmart, and doesn't require credit cards.
The tension of living in the inner city and taking time to tend to our concrete exhausted souls in places that restore the soul (Whiteshell, lately Oak Hammock marsh in spring) is becoming more and more pronounced. This morning I woke up to a robin singing, crows, sparrows, squirrels...along with traffic down Sherbrook and the police helicopter blades whirring. I am so glad I didn't hear the fire engines roaring down Maryland to attend to the fire down past Portage at 3 am. Watching my compost decompose, my little garden plot unveiling itself and the chive plant starting to peek out is a taster for my land starved soul.
This morning, Earth Day (?) I have to decide....do I go to my workshop and prep the walls for painting in the smelly, basement room that is to be our work office or go to the neighborhood garbage clean up....both Kingdom things to do, renovating and improving a boarding house basement and taking care of the concrete places and urban grassland called boulevards. Decisions, decisions. And then I read "The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendall Berry, relating to every word and the line, "I come to the peace of the wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief".....if I don't clean the sidewalk it will look like I don't care about the environment, if I don't wash those grimy walls today, it will look like I don't care about smelly boarding house basements.
I know there is more to it then that, the tension eases when I think that whatever I do... the still water, the rest I look for is in front of me even here. Bird sounds, neighbors connecting, clean smell of a job well done, the burden lifts and I am allowed an Earth Day. And believe me, Walmart cannot compare to that.
Since we both acknowledge the need for clothing and food at lower prices, being inner city folk....we analyzed the pro's and con's of Walmart, Superstore, Giant Tiger (no parking, people walk at least 5 city blocks to get there or take the bus), the new No Frills and the manager there (who says people leave frozen products around the store and he looses money), and then (as always) our hopes and dreams to eventually live on the land, grow food, hunt, share and take care of what God made....creation, His version of Walmart, and doesn't require credit cards.
The tension of living in the inner city and taking time to tend to our concrete exhausted souls in places that restore the soul (Whiteshell, lately Oak Hammock marsh in spring) is becoming more and more pronounced. This morning I woke up to a robin singing, crows, sparrows, squirrels...along with traffic down Sherbrook and the police helicopter blades whirring. I am so glad I didn't hear the fire engines roaring down Maryland to attend to the fire down past Portage at 3 am. Watching my compost decompose, my little garden plot unveiling itself and the chive plant starting to peek out is a taster for my land starved soul.
This morning, Earth Day (?) I have to decide....do I go to my workshop and prep the walls for painting in the smelly, basement room that is to be our work office or go to the neighborhood garbage clean up....both Kingdom things to do, renovating and improving a boarding house basement and taking care of the concrete places and urban grassland called boulevards. Decisions, decisions. And then I read "The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendall Berry, relating to every word and the line, "I come to the peace of the wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief".....if I don't clean the sidewalk it will look like I don't care about the environment, if I don't wash those grimy walls today, it will look like I don't care about smelly boarding house basements.
I know there is more to it then that, the tension eases when I think that whatever I do... the still water, the rest I look for is in front of me even here. Bird sounds, neighbors connecting, clean smell of a job well done, the burden lifts and I am allowed an Earth Day. And believe me, Walmart cannot compare to that.
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