Serendipity on a Subway Platform

I had one of the more pleasant experiences of life the other day. Two friends and I were on a day trip to DC and were between trains on the DC Metro subway platform. It was around the end of the work day, so the platform was crowded with people leaving their jobs, heading home with hearts and minds full of the days activities, both their triumphs and struggles.

Over the dull murmur of muted subway platform conversation, I began to hear the echoes of a quartet. Maybe I picked up on it first because I sang in a quartet for 3 years in college, but it was unmistakable. Four African-American gentleman--all in their late 40's and early 50's--were standing in close proximity mixing tight harmony into the air of the day's burdens and blessings.
And they were good. Really, really good.

Without really thinking about it, the thought crossed my mind "I'll gladly pay a $1 for that kind of joy being added to my day." So I got out my wallet and walked to their begging basket and dropped in my dollar. I don't know if my physical token of appreciation was some sort of necessary catalyst, but something happened.

To say that the mood on the platform was transformed into something glorious and sublime is an understatement. A kind of gentleness and peace swept the place. Body tensions relaxed, smiles began to appear, genuine appreciation wafted through the air. It was a moment of sheer grace. Almost in unison, people began reaching for their wallets. They were responding to grace, and I'm sure the guys made a killing.

From my perspective, I don't know what makes those moments happen, but I know that grace is the Great Reality, existing before and beyond all of our activities and plans and dreams and burdens and struggles. And for whatever reason, that Great Reality became visible for a short while on a subway platform following a long day in the most powerful city in the world.

When We Disagree

I had an email dialogue with a friend about the whole marriage amendment thing that's such a hot button in America right now. We have a lot of people in our congregation that have very strong feelings about the issue and about the Church's involvement in the issue. Not everyone who loves God holds that same position. How do we talk to each other amicably and with love and respect when we disagree? If we can't do it inside the Church, how do we expect to do it with those outside??

This comment gave me significant pause to think about the issue:

It's hard to love people when you're thinking about how wrong they are. Where's the line between righteous indignation and letting anger rule our hearts?"

My Beloved Son in Whom I am Well Pleased

This is my son: Hudson Taylor (named for the pioneering, mold-breaking, convention-defying, mission-focused missionary of the same name to inland China 150 years ago). I call him my little container of joy.

I couldn't be more proud to know him, love him or be his dad. Maybe it's cliched to say it, but I've learned more about God and what God is like since Hudson came around than in my 32 years previous. The love of a Father for his son is a profound thing

I wanted to post this just because...

(One more reason) why we need community

I'm a big fan of Henri Nouwen. I'll read anything he writes because he writes from the heart with piercing insight. This is from his Genesee Diary written during his time in a Trappist monastery. What if our communities had this attitude and spirit about them?

"Today: The feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. During a dialogue...two of the monks remarked in differenct ways that although Thomas did not believe in the resurrection of the Lord, he kept faithful to the community of the apostles. In that community the Lord appeared to him and strengthened his faith. I find this a very profound and consoling thought. In times of doubt or unbelief, the community can 'carry you along,' so to speak; it can even offer on your behalf what you yourself overlook, and can be the context in which you may recognize the Lord again."

This leads me to ask; What if instead of ranting about correct belief, we practiced correct living?

How to Die

I'm currently meditating on this passage of Scripture from John's Gospel (chapter 12) in the New Testament, which was brought to my attention by a visit to Sacred Space (amazing online prayer and meditation):

Jesus said "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour."

The editors of Sacred Space make this profound and difficult insight into the passage:
"The grass sheds its seeds on the soil before it withers. The salmon swims up the stream to die. It is harder for us humans to accept the law of nature, that we too must fade away and find happiness in passing on our riches to others."

I have to admit, that's a tough invitation. But Jesus seems to be saying, hey, this is a fundamental reality of life: deal with it. Want a productive life? Die. Want to increase the happiness of the world around you? Die. Want to get at what life is actually about (as opposed to what I think it's about)? Die.

Now, "dying to self" is a concept firmly rooted in the tradition that nurtured me in my youth. And the concept goes something like this: Give God the "unknown bundle," that is, all the things you don't know you don't know before you know. But the reality is difficult. What does it mean to die to myself?

Jesus isn't talking literal death here, he's talking volitional death. Death of my will asserting itself in every one of my interactions in favor of my way over against some other way. So this is forcing me to wrestle with a whole set of questions.

How should I die? How does that work out with maintaining healthy boundaries? What does that mean for my marriage? My work? My hobbies? My interests? The way I spend my money? The things I allow to rattle around in my head? The emotions I indulge? The emotions I neglect? The thoughts I shove aside? My relationships with my superiors? My relationship to the marginalized and disenfrachised? My relationship to other religions?

This is, as Jesus understood, a core issue of life (as opposed to some minor, comparmentalized religious issue) that most people (including me) are generally never willing to confront.

Christians Gone Wild (in cities)

Tim Keller, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC, gets it.

What the Gospel is, what it means and how we are to live it. This article (A New Kind of Urban Christian) is part of the Christian Vision Project: An attempt to reenvision the Christian faith for our day and time.

Read it.

Church: The point

I like it simple. Not simplistic, simple.

I ran across this quote by Rob Bell that for me put the whole church-and-why-I-am-here-on-the-planet-thing in perspective. This was from an interview in a Houston paper about his everything is spiritual tour wrapping up this month.

"We are passionate about people being healed on the inside,
and we are passionate about society being healed on the outside," Bell said.
"We would call that the whole Gospel."

John Wesley Rides Again, Part 1 of ?

John Wesley has got to be one of the great figures in the history of the people who follow Jesus. Among other things:

• He is credited with keeping England from a civil war (as happened "across the pond").
  
• His life, thought, preaching and ministry was seminal in helping England abolish slavery without said civil war.
  
• He understood that the message of Jesus meant physical ramifications for people or it wasn't the message of Jesus. His message: "there is no holiness apart from social holiness."
• He wasn't afraid to throw-down with the big boys. The churched gentry (the power-brokers in English society) would have nothing to do with the coal miners or any other group who couldn't appropriately find their way into a church building. As a result, there was an ever widening gap between rich and poor, upper and lower class--all in the name of God, culture and social acceptability.
  
• In contrast, he preached (against his own preferences) outdoors to the coal miners. He had no idea he was getting through until he saw tears coming down their blackened faces.
  
• He made increasing amounts of money each year, but continued to live on the same amount, giving the rest away. He died with no substantial financial assets to speak of.
  
• He exercised regularly and was in excellent physical health into his 70's.
  
• He was fluent in Greek, Hebrew and Latin and required that all who served with him be the same.
  
• His letter writing to people needing spiritual counsel was nothing short of remarkable in its scope and breadth.
  

Single Again...for a little while

My wife if leaving me for six weeks.
It's a work thing that has great possibilities for the future. Hudson is going with her.
When she's gone, I feel like a lost puppy. And I think about the fact that many, many people live with that kind of loneliness all the time. Mother Theresa was right: loneliness is a cancer. A great chance for me to do a ridiculous amount of work though...

The (uninterpreted) Parable

We're getting ready to do a 6-week series at our church on the revolution of God.
For it, I'm putting together brief sermon recap videos for use in our Small Groups, and I;m thinking of using this parable in one of them.
It's one of my favorites from Soren Kierkegaard.

When I searched for the exact wording of it on Google, I found the parable explained away ad nauseum. I'll spare you that silliness. Which leads to a ministry take-away for me: Don't ruin something profound by your explanation of it.

There was a little town of Ducks. Every Sunday the ducks waddled out of their houses and down Main Street to their church. They waddled into the sanctuary and squatted in their proper pews. The duck choir waddled in and takes it place, then the duck minister came forward to preach.
"Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings and you can fly like birds!" All the ducks quacked their amens.

Then the ducks walked home.