Wheat and weeds…

The gospel lesson for this past Sunday was the parable of weeds among the wheat.  In the story Jesus tells, the slaves of the householder see this unexpected circumstance–weeds among the wheat–as one that requires action.  “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?”  They offer to go and remedy the situation–to gather the weeds from among the wheat.  A reasonable proposition.

The summer Heather and I were married I went to live in Louisiana.  That summer I was introduced to the unenviable task of pulling red rice.  July in Louisiana is typically a sweltering sauna, so the crew heads out to the field quite early to escape the fields by late morning as the sun begins to beat down more intensely and the heavy, sultry air seems to just stand still. 

We put on old jeans and covered our thighs with sacks tied on with pieces of cloth.  The rice stalk has a finely serrated edge which cuts through even denim as you walk through the field.  You pick red rice right before harvest, so the rice is tall–the golden heads reaching up to your waist.  We pulled on rubber boots that reached almost to our knees.  Althought the water (irrigation) is cut off, the soil is still muddy underfoot.  Each step requires extra effort as the mud sucks in your boots and the rice stalks cut against your body. 

And then there is the whole point of this task–to find the red rice…the counterfeit crop.  This too, for the untrained eye, is no easy task.  Even after repeated explanations from the crew-leader, my future brother-in-law, I was never quite sure if what I was pulling was red rice.  For a rice farmer, there is value in this labor-intensive step before the combines come through the fields to harvest the good rice.  Particularly if a field is being harvested for seed rice, the level of red rice diminishes its market value.

This seemed to be thinking of the slaves as they approached the householder, “do you want us to go and gather them (the weeds)?  The master replies, “No…let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Re-reading Hemingway…

Heading off to the shore last week, I went to my bookshelf to select some reading material.  Scanning the options, my eyes settled on The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway.  I purchased the book in 1990 at a book fair when I was at EMU.  It was like reconnecting with an old friend, who happens to be a great story teller. 

I read “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”  A wonderful tale that contains the classically Hemingway elements–the big game hunt, Africa, tragically flawed humans.

Francis Macomber was very tall, very well built if you did not mind that length of bone, dark, his hair cropped like an oarsman, rather thin-lipped, and was considered handsome. He was dressed in the same sort of safari clothes that Wilson wore except that his were new, he was thirty-five years old, kept himself fit, was good at court games, had a number of big-game fishing records, and had just shown himself, very publicly, to be a coward.

I found myself rereading this story I had read long ago with new eyes. Life experience has a way of sifting us.  The beautiful risk of life.  And so we read the stories of an old companion with a greater appreciation for the flaws of human beings.  The pathos of the human condition that Hemingway represents so masterfully in his characters. 

Perhaps we see more of ourselves in the characters.  We are drawn into the story because we see our own weakness reflected in the flaws of the characters.  We see how flaws of character contribute to the unfolding plot and narrative of life.  We are not sure whether to laugh or cry, but we are gentler with our judgments then when we read the same story in our early twenties.

I also read “The Capital of the World: which connects with my experiences in Spain, the bullfight, and teaching at Ephrata High School.  How quickly Hemingway establishes an authentic setting with believable characters and plot.  I was in Spain again. 

Second-rate matadors lived at that pension because the address in the Calle San Jeronimo was good, the food was excellent and the room and board was cheap.  It is necessary for a bull fighter to give the appearance, if not of prosperity, at least of respectability, since decorum and dignity rank above courage as the virtues most highly prized in Spain, and bullfighters stayed at the Luarca until their last pesetas were gone.  There is no record of any bullfighter having left the Luarca for a better or more expensive hotel; second-rate bullfighters never became first rate; but the descent from the Luarca was swift…

Submergent meeting in Philly…

I went to Philadelphia last weekend to be a part of the Submergent Next Steps meeting.  Jason Evans (Ecclesia Collective) provides some good reflections on the meeting as well as a way in which this conversation might be understood.  Eliacin (Mustard Seed Associates) provides a more detailed review of our time together. 

Conspiring together with Steve, Mark, Jessica, Hinke, Joe, Jason, Eliacin, John, Lora, Joel…

Appreciated the gracious hospitality of the brothers at Christian Brother Spiritual Center.

 

Change…

Someone asked me how they could pray for me as I transition into the role of lead pastor at SMC.  As I (and my family) have taken this leap of faith, it has meant so much to know that people are praying for us.  Here is a short list that I came up with for how people might pray for me:

1. That I would always see and relate to others as Jesus would.

2. That I would have grace, patience and love for the church and for all people.

3. That I would be merciful with others, just as God in Jesus Christ has been merciful with me.

4. That I might be given grace to speak clearly, listen well, and laugh a lot.

5. That I would remember that it’s Jesus’ church, I am just called to be faithful in the little things.

6.  That I might be able to recognize my limits and not try to do everything.

7.  That I would be present with my family as a husband and a father, never taking for granted my calling in our household. 

8.  That my imagination and living would not be defined by the Powers…the spirit of the age.  Rather, that I would be equipped by the Holy Spirit to live into a different reality–the Gospel of the Kingdom…the Story of the redemption of all things made visible in Jesus Christ and all who follow in his way.

 

 

España: Campeones de Europa

A por ellos, oé

Missional Cohort (Lancaster)…

The Facebook group Missional Cohort (Lancaster) gathered for the second time last evening.  Here is a bit of a summary of our conversation:

1.  Read this post by Greg Boyd. 

2.  We talked about the tension that tends to exist between “institutional/structured” expressions of church and “missional/incarnational” expressions.  We explored a number of side trails off this main theme. 

• Characteristics of “institutional/structured” expressions of church–sense of stability/permanancy; like order; buildings are important symbols and markers…
• Characteristics of “missional/incarnational” expressions of church–messy, grassroots, relational, contextual, de-centralized. 

3.  We reflected on this polarity as we examined the purpose statement of SMC.  “…we gather for worship and then scatter to be Jesus’ witnesses in our communities and around the world.”   Here are some questions that emerged:

• How can grassroots, incarnational expressions of church be seen to be of equal value/importance to the purpose and identity of a congregation as the times of gathered worship? 
• Do we have the imagination to see multiple grassroots, incarnational/missional expressions of living in the way of Jesus organically connected and drawing life from the structured/institutional church that gathers for worship? 
• Why do we tend to think primarily of the church in the ”gathered for worship” expression? 
• Why does so much of our primary identity and vision for the church center around buildings and programs?
• What would it look like if a congregation would find ways to balance both of these expressions of being church (gathering for worship…scattering for witness)?  How would our view of the building (as gathering place) change?  Would it be more or less important?  How could we possibly recalibrate our sense of identity and purpose as a missional community if the building wasn’t the primary symbol/place defining our communal rhythm? 
• Do buildings in of themselves have a tendency to co-opt and limit our imagination for what it means to be church so that gathering for worship becomes the primary way the congregation imagines itself being church?

Jesus’ Role in History–Tom Wright

Jesus’ Role in History 1 - Tom Wright

The politics of friendship…

As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other.  He said to me, ‘This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh.  Whereever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once the waters reach there.  It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes.

On the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food.  Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.  Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.             Ezekiel 47:7-9, 12

On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.                                     Revelation 22:2b

We had a picnic to celebrate Pashali’s graduation from McCaskey high school.  Pashali came to America with his Meskhetian family two years ago this coming September.  A group from SMC helped sponsor them in their transition to a new life in Lancaster.

Their story, as that of most refugees, is one of amazing resiliency.  Most of us can’t imagine what it would be like to pick up everything and begin a new life in a strange land.  Zhabir and Rakhima have walked that road with their three children–Pashali, Zulal, and Ibrahim.  This has involved learning a new language, new ways of life in a new home.  They have adjusted marvelously to the world of work, paying bills, keeping house, shopping and relating to the outside world.  So much change, and yet they are full of joy and hope.

We gathered in a pavilion at a local park.  I am greeted as a brother.  It is like a family reunion.  Each time together is one of discovering new fruit on the trees of our friendship.  English has come with hard work and dedication.  Zhabir points to his wife–several steps ahead in language development–as his teacher.  It is another point of wonder.  To think that in mid-life, they are programming their brains with another language to go along with the Turkish, Russian, and Khazak in which they are already proficient.   

They throw themselves into communication with the simple trust of children who must form phrases with basic building blocks.  And most of the time the words come together to express what they want to say.  The eyes always fill in the gaps.  The words come together in simple sentences to share news of a new job for Rakhima, of Pashali’s next venture at Millersville University this summer.  They are full of pride.  Gratitude. Joy.

So we celebrate another milestone in their resilient journey with a picnic (see photos).  We eat hamburgers, hot dogs, macaroni salad and watermelon alongside Turkish bread, rice and tomato-onion salad.  After table fellowship, we throw frisbee.  We play volleyball.  Dusk calls us back to the pavilion for cake and a few group pictures before we must leave the park.  We exchange embraces and new email information as we clean up and return to our homes.

España toma el primer paso…

You just have to appreciate the emotion of this announcer.  The clip is of David Villa’s second goal. 

just an apprentice blog stats…

It is probably of little interest to anyone other than me, but I thought I would post the data for which posts on my blog have had the most views in the last year. 

About	480
Christmas form letters…	464
On the life of the Trinity, mutual submi	436
A Christian pledge of allegiance…	389
Entrepreneurial church…	374
Supper at Emmaus	349
When you transplant a lilac bush…	347
Seek ye first…	323
On Setting, deconstruction and narrative	215
Orthodox Study Bible…	211
Gospel word pictures…	197
Michael Frost on Missional Church…	194
Women in missions, ministry and leadersh	188
God’s sacred ecosystem…	188
C.V.	184
Pauline theology of women and church lea	179
Notes from Emergent Theological Conversa	162
Emerging Church 101…	161
Emerging church and orthodoxy…	156
A disturbing conversation…	148
Orthodox-Mennonite Dialogue…	136
On feminism, Harry Potter, and spiritual	133
The problem in postmodern society from a	120
Jesus challenges traditional gender role	114
Walter Brueggemann’s 19 Theses…	110
The blessed Theotokos…	107
Both/And…Either/Or	107
The Politics of Jesus…	105
Litany of Penitence…	100