GraceStreet- a company of exiles

Do you see this woman?

The quote is from Luke 7:44 when Jesus asked Simon the haunting question, "do you see this woman..." Religious people do not see people, they see causes, growth statistics and success ratios. They hear village talk about there own importance but always from inside the village itself. It is a royal consciousness that hears the edicts or, Lord save us, the "vision casting" of the king, but not the cry of the peasants. Walter Brueggemann rightly claims that the sin of Isreal in the OT was it's failure to notice. It's failure to "see this woman".

Missional is devoted to the idea God in this world, (Newbiggin) rather then the churches effort to extend itself. It's not a word or a worldview we adopt to get more milage out of our new Missions or Outreach efforts. Sadly, the church growth movement for all its contributions has fallen to one of the oldest and grandest forms of Idolatry, the belief that they (we) are architects of the work of God...it has the image of transferring christians from the dingies to the cruise ship...the focus seems to be on church itself.

"The term missional asks this question: What is the purpose of the church? [Is it] to enfold and warehouse Christians for heaven, protecting them from damage and spoilage until they reach their destination? Or to recruit and train people to be transforming agents of the kingdom of God in our culture? The missional church understands itself to be blessed not to the exclusion of the world, but for the benefit of the world." —Brian McLaren

Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the "go and be" command to a "come and see" appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people. Here's a bit a of wisdom...

It’s not the Church of God that has a mission, but the God of mission who has a church. —Rowan Williams

“Church is the shared weakness of man, which becomes the gathered power of God.” Richard Rohr

Margins

Beldon Lane says that Jesus is "always redefining the nature of center." Jesus moved regularly beyond the safety and exclusiveness of the Jewish homeland in Galilee to include Gentiles in outlying regions where his disciples are reluctant to go. He functions repeatedly as a boundary crosser. Consider the invitation to the woman at the well in John 4. In a land of the halfbreed he welcomes this broken woman back to justice and compassion. It is in these liminal places that God's power is exercised on behalf of displaced persons. Think of this woman's life and the extraordinary invitation back to wholeness. B. Lane notes that in this desert world we "most encounter wholeness when we recognize our poverty and not our capacity".

The Hebrew word for wilderness is midbar or "the cut-off ones," those "driven out" from society's mainstream. Isa 32:16 suggests that it is in that wildness that justice comes to live. On her way to get her daily ration of drinking water this lady encountered mystery in the form of hospitality and redemption...from a stranger who was in the beginning, and who was far from the symbols of where he was presumed to live.

Greetings

I thought I'd begin a blog again. To quote Anthony the Abbot:

"Every day I say to myself,
Today I will begin."

It's such a wonderful worldview and one that I think fit's nicely into the idea of recovery.  The grace of the words above make yesterdays failure and success meaningless in the face of God's presence. It leads away from domestication into a frail but elegant liberty.  I like it because it has a traveling  identity  and all  great adventures begin with a walk. Some might call it a dangerous departure (Frodo and Sam) but our scriptures have much to say about departure and return, about empire and homecoming and a caring promise of belonging. I hope you find this small virtual spot a place of sanctuary and rest.

Departure is an invitation of sorts. It is a new song rooted in an old story.

"Every one who thirsts, come to the waters:

and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Why do do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

...Incline your ear, and come to me;

hear, that your soul may live."

                                                                                (Isa. 55:1-3

Imagine that.