Zoe

I have a new website....

After nearly six years, over 100 posts and 15,000 hits. I figured it was time for a new look. I invite yu to join me at my new website:

www.tobinwilson.com

Pax Christi!

still learning

Michelangelo has a great saying, "I am still learning!"  I am in the middle of a number of situations related to my work where I am required to take a posture that is "from below" and illicit's humility. I admit that I really do not want to but it is the right thing to do. It is hard posturing oneself as a learner when we are usually asked to be a leader or a teacher which in some ways seems to mean from a position of power. I am discovering, in these circumstances that the power is found in the reduction of position. In other words, it is more powerful to posture oneself from the ground and be open to new possibilities. Even the places that require less of you than more.  I guess that I am still learning....which is not a bad thing!

Hungry is the wolf.....

A  Cherokee Indian tells a parable describing the nature of vice and virtue. It goes like this. One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, serenity, humility, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The grandson thought for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”   This is the nature of vice and virtue.  They are neither sin nor holiness, they are character traits or habits that can be formed and eventually become natural to our very nature. They are the total integration between ones will and volition and outer actions. It is the harmony and symphony between who one is in their soul to their outward behavior without even thinking about it. An excerpt from my book Arete Again: Missional Adventures in Theology and Ethics, coming soon....

Laugh a little

Paradox is the midwife of truth. Watching the scenes from Haiti remind me that there is much to tear up over. In a surprising moment of "smile" my middle daughter came in loudly like only she can do and I smiled and then laughed because she is just being her. Annie Lamott said that" laughter is carbonated holiness." We laugh far too little in a world of tears. An ancient Jewish proverb "tells it slant" (for you Emily Dickinson fans) with a reminder that "Humans think, God laughs." We take ourselves far too seriously. Meister Eichart a desert father and mystic said that "God created out of the laughter of the Trinity."  And Kierkegaard said that "laughter is the last great vestige before faith." In a world of tears, let an off balance in this day bring a smile to the corners of your mouth so that it becomes a gateway for faith. A faith that is alive in the presence of a God that dances and smiles as this God transforms the evil and chaotic tears to a smile through the process of redemption. So laugh a little....

Life in Dolby Surround Sound

I went to the Swithfoot concert earlier this week with my 13 year old daughter. I forgot how much I like extremely loud rock and roll.  When the bass kicked in I could feel my jeans shaking from the bump---oh yeah I was going to have a great night! My ears are still ringing a bit from the concert--hope its not permanent-as I am getting to that age. We were standing only about 45 feet from the speakers. Music  has always meant a great deal to me. It stirs me, awakens me, connects me, it helps me process emotions, and can be a healthy outlet for those feelings. There is a deep tune in the human soul that we are invited to remember. To remember that the words of life and the beauty around us come from the imagination of the One who spoke the lyric and it came into being. That there are two songs being played on the planet simultaneously the smaller song of Scripture and the larger song of creation and the cosmos. The one song give us the words and the other gives us the music and together they form a complete whole song called life. This synergy of lyric and music only come together in total through Christ. I found my head bouncing up and down to some pretty good rock songs like "Mess" and "Sound," a song written about John Perkins from their new CD Hello Hurricane. I even started to bounce up and down a little bit-not bad for a middle aged man with creaking joints. I think i need to get my ipod....Live life in dolby surround sound it think you will find that kind of awareness frankly-ROCKS! 

Standing with the Poor

In light of the events of this week in Haiti's devastating earthquake, I am reminded of a great quote by the man described as the Father of Liberation Theology, Bishop Helder Camara of Brazil. He once said, "When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist."  Isn't that we are all suppose to do, feed the poor? Aren't we called to stand with the poor, the widow, and the oppressed? Aren't we all suppose to work toward a just and right new world? Just saying...

Flourish

Ephesians 1:3-14

We are ready to live more fully and faithfully into the Christmas story.  The story is only beginning when we say with a great sense of relief, “God is with us.”  In what way is God with us?  What does it mean for God to be with us and to what extent? How can we flourish now that God has arrived and is in our midst? Is it a personal feeling that we receive a few times a year or in a lifetime; or is there something more radical and restorative at stake?  The Christmas story emerges with the incarnation and goes deep in the manifestation of the arrival.

Well meaning people have led us astray in their interpretations of key passages over the years. My goal is to offend just about everyone today and therefore reposition all of us in a journey that is less about what we think IT is all about and in line with what IT might be all about—perhaps anyway.

Sometimes we can get lost in trees in such a way that we are blinded by the smaller trees to the extent of the size of the forest. This is one such text that has a tendency to blind us to the bigger picture because we are so enamored by the wrong smaller things. In other words we get carried away by the distractions. My intent is to help us see with a new imagination that is in line with what the first listeners heard as a way forward for us in an as equally as complicated geo-political social setting. Are you ready?  You will have to pay attention to this one.

            I would like to begin with three fictitious interpretations of this introduction to Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. The first character is Terry the Traditionalist. S/he would read it as follows. In a nihilistic and self-centered world we need strong appeals to authority and hierarchy, So God the father is as good of a place to start as any. We are elected to our new stature of holiness through the blood offering of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. IT is all about the doctrine that is righted here in Paul’s letter. This stuff will preach!  Bring it Preacher man!

            Secondly we turn our attention to Progressive Pamela: Terry I think you exist to get under my skin. Your doctrinal platitudes apart from any relationship sound more like fingernails scratching across the chalkboard than anything else. Paul never wrote this letter and neither did any of his misogynistic co-horts. Not to mention the fact that you call God “Father” marginalizes and alienates over half of the women on the planet. This nonsense assertion that God had to redeem us with the blood of his own son makes all of us murdering child abusers and is quite offensive because it is the love of God that redeems not some blood-thirsty God bent on a new cultic substitutionary atonement and social justice theory. Not to mention this heavy deterministic language that imposes all western cultural practices on the less powerful and is what is wrong with all of the previous missionary movements on the planet. The importing of your cultural conditions on everyone else becomes the capitalistic survival of the strong over the weak and is hardly Jesus’ gospel. Arghhh…I am exhausted with this line of thinking!

            Finally our attention turns to Don the Deconstructionist. Frankly both of you are driving me crazing. Get over yourselves. It is not about either of these it is about getting rid of all grand narratives whether it is the doctrinal determinism of God or the people who bring about peace and justice through optimistic humanism. Neither approach worked; they both end in the same place—the bloodiest in recorded history—through Stalin, Hitler and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Frankly, any and all gods are killing us. The only way forward is to remove all metanarratives and let people live how they want to live. Period!

            Don’t you kind of pity the Pastor that has to swim in these waters—it is my/our blessing and curse to do so with what I think are some thoughts to help us move forward.

            I warned you that I would leave no rock left unturned. Here is my point why are all of these adventures in missing the point? While they each contain an element of truth, not one of them contains all of truth. I don’t have the time to successfully dismantle the failures of each although I do have enough sarcasm, but then I would be missing the point. In order to get this text and the point we have to unpack the culture at the time of hearing this text.

            Our cultural clash today is not so different from the day of Paul and the spread of early Christianity. Remember Paul is writing to Jews who live in Greek countries apart from their Jewish Jerusalem. AND Paul is broadening inclusion to Greek communities that had never been part of any Jewish community. This issue is who will one align with? What is the nature of our set apartness? What story will we align with? Jewish? Greek? Christian? Pagan? Syncretistic story? Where and how does one receive harmony in the midst of a choir of distinctive voices? The traditionalist aligns with doctrine not Emmanuel. The progressive aligns with science and human utopias not with Emmanuel. And the deconstructionist aligns with a no story story which is still its big picture story. All adventures in missing the point!!!!

            One more piece of history then on to answering our question-what does it mean to flourish today? Here is the issue. In 31 BCE Octavian defeated Anthony for control of Rome. He took the name “Augustus” whose name means “revered.” He was called the “savior” of the world who had brought “peace” everyone everywhere. Caesar Augustus became known as the gift of Providence equal in our text this day as the one who is “equal to the Beginning of all things.” Listen to what else he was said to have done in light of the phrases in our text this morning. Ready?  I hope so. Here is what Caesar Augustus allegedly did:

He “put an end to war and set all things in order”

He “gave to the whole world a new aura”

Beginning with his birth, marked the “beginning of good news.”

And thus was “god-manifest”

With citizens to celebrate his reign in “assemblies”

This is the essence of the Pax Romana; it was the Roman Empire that secured peace, security for all, and an expanding global economy through a common language, building of roads, and the fullness of times. The alleged peace came through power, violence and in-justice.

 

Paul is asking us to choose this Christmas which manifestation of God with us we will align ourselves with; the Pax Romana of our day usually robed in an American flag or the Pax Christi.  Is it any wonder why the first Christians called the first missionary movement the Pax Christi? It was in direct opposition to the Pax Romana and even used identical phraseologies. Paul asks us to do the same today. I ask you to do the same today. Which kingdom manifestation will you align with; Presidents and politicians or the peace of Christ? It is that simple. Do you want to flourish? Then align with the pax Christi.

FEAST

Colossians 3:12-17

  This advent season we have looked at key words each week to help drive the message of Christmas deeper into our capitalistic and consumer oriented souls as an alternative way to live into this season of the Coming of God. We began Imagining the world with God in it. We listened to the reality of the coming of God accepted in faith. Then on the third Sunday in Advent we exclaimed and loud “YES” when we knew the promise would become a reality and last week we started to search for the coming of God in his birth from the margins.  On Christmas Evening we were intrigued by the mystery and wonder of the arrival still remaining strong to this day over 2,000 years later. Today we feast on this new meal. The meal is called God among us. This meal has many names it is called sanctification, justification, reformation, reparation, reconciliation, the shift from the “old/previous” existence to the “new/transformed” existence available to us through Christ’s birth, death, resurrection and ascension.

  This text in Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae is THE text articulating the move from what was is to what can be, ought to be and should be. It is transformation. It is God alive in each of us and therefore, all of us. It is powerful as we wind up a year and begin a new one. This is how the church ought to get undressed and re-dressed. Pastors and elders must love people, pastor people into transformation at whatever age from the old to the new…

I.     Notice we get undressed of the old and re-dressed with the new (At this point I will be taking off my sport coat and tie and putting on my Doctoral robe with all of its adornments and even my hood) Sorry that I was running a little bit late today and didn’t have time to get all of this taken care of ahead of time…

a.   Negatively: take off anger, rage, malice, slander, lying, bigotry and prejudices, stereotyping, entitlements, compartmentalizing and all reductionisms of humankind.  Notice that these are all issues of misplaced power and expectations….IT is the abuse of power according to Walter Wink

b.   Positively: Putting on these new virtues; compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness.

c.    I saw the movie Invictus last Sunday it detailed the early days of the Presidency of Nelson Mandela in South Africa after apartheid and the rebuilding of a nation torn by abuse of power. I have been to Mandela’s home, the apartheid museum and wondered how black South Africa could so easily forgive? I even asked how you could forgive those who falsely imprisoned you as terrorists for 27 years.  The answer have you ever heard of the word forgiveness.

d.  As Christians putting on the new nature of Jesus Christ we are wearing a new groove in the snow of our lives…..

e.    This is not easy work. It is very difficult work. It is the work of transformation, spiritual growth, mission, living into our baptism, and remembering the sacrament of the Lord’s table.

II.      The Interior life will begin to flourish

a.    We will put on love, peace, gratitude, thanks, and a life style of worship through all events and seasons of life…

b.   The power of this text is that it is not just moralisms and vice to virtue it is change-radical painful outside-inside and inside to outside change. A reformation around Jesus Christ at the center. It is more than a mere y’all play nice church together or “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Feast on a meal that invites you to a table that is a radical re-orientation around a different principality and power—the cosmic God with us in Jesus. It is Emmanuel inside of us and outward to the world… Eat of this feast and you will never thirst or hunger again…

Intrigue

I for one am intrigued. An old story in an old place is surprisingly relevant for us on this Christmas Eve in 2009. I know what you are thinking how this guy can get away with talking on a text from the book of Titus on Christmas Eve. We want “little baby Jesus”, ala Talladega Nights and Will Farrell’s character Rikky Bobby, lying in a manger, with sheep, cattle, wise men, Mary, Joseph and a over worked and stressed out innkeeper. Give us that moralistic version, make me feel good and send me home to a glass of wine by the fire, presents, lots of food and football.

    Titus is starting a church on the island of Crete. I was there this fall but didn’t get off the ship—not much to see.  He is sent there to make a church out of Cretans. Cretans were known to be “liars, vicious brutes and lazy gluttons.” Not too much of a good time and feel good Christmas story here. However, it does sound a bit familiar to our contemporary culture, especially in Seattle of the last month or so with five police officers brutally gunned down. I am intrigued because there is probably a little Cretan in all of us? You have to give me credit for speaking candidly on this Holy of nights.

    Can you imagine the search committee on the island of Crete advertising for a new Pastor?

SOLO PASTOR wanted by small congregation in Crete. Our people are known to be liars, vicious brutes, and lazy gluttons. Their minds are constantly focused on themselves and corrupted. They claim to know God but live like God is taking a nap. They want you to do all of the work for them to pad their portfolio. This is a great challenge for the right person; Low pay and no house. Please submit your PIF and resume’ to www.cretanchurch.org.

That is the challenge for the church in this “post everything including certainty of anything” Cretan culture. So an honest question, can we really celebrate Christmas on Crete or better yet in Seattle?

    I think we can. That is why I am intrigued….We all still came tonight some as we do every week and others as we do every year.  Either way I would ask that you be intrigued. There is something about this time of year that gathers our attention. To wake us up to something greater than ourselves to Someone greater than you and me. I mean there is always something different in the air about this time of year, isn’t there?  There is more giving: giving of self, of gifts of love, of family, of the intangibles of life that are so UN Crete like and more Christ like.

That is because there is more to this time of year than just the “spirit” and “magic” of Christmas. There is God himself in Jesus Christ. God is among us, God is in this sanctuary that looks more like the movie Simon Burch than the special effects of Hollywood, so typical church, yet endearing in its own right. I believe that God is in your home, in your family, in your soul, in this neighborhood, in your life and on this planet. That is because for all of our best humanistic and atheistic tries to strip Jesus out of Christmas one just cannot. Crete doesn’t exist quite as much at Jesus does during this time of year. So I am intrigued.

Come to this table and enter in to a feast named intrigue. I challenge everyone here to pull their chair up no matter how dis-engaged you have been from this table and snuggle up to this advent meal and consider dining with God in Christ this night and this season.

    I am intrigued because the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all in total freedom, according to Titus 2:11. I heard the greatest true Christmas story this week that talks about this salvation that comes to all people – even to the Cretans.

A local family started a ministry a year ago called light under the bridge. They began by taking sandwiches to the homeless that live under the Seattle Viaduct near Safeco Field, loving them, talking with them, giving them a sense of dignity, and just noticing them. The founder of the organization started to put out press releases with pictures and stories of the homeless folks she met and learned to care for. She quickly became a mother Teresa of the homeless under the bridge.

They built a website and posted a couple of pictures of William, a man they had developed a strong relationship with since the beginning of the late night trips with sandwiches. He told Hope, the founder of the organization, “I have lived in 49 states, and you’re the first one that has shown real love to me and you love God.”  On Dec 7, 2009 the phone rang and a woman, named Marcie was calling from Ohio. She had divorced her husband 37 years ago and lost touch with her husband saw a picture of the man on their website. She and her 32 year old son, named Joe, were trying to locate their estranged father and former husband. They recognized this homeless man as the father and ex-husband. The son called and asked, “Is this man’s name, William? I think it is my father and I want a relationship with him for the time he has left.” It turned out to be the long lost father.

Hope said you have to understand your father is homeless. He probably has not showered, shaved or even cut his hair in 5 years, lives on the streets, is an alcoholic and is probably going to die soon. The son Joe said, “Please if I send you a plane ticket will you put him on a plane I want to be with my father until he dies.”

    The woman running the ministry said, “I will but you have to know I will not accept him back. You have to know this may be very difficult.” They all agreed. The homeless man was given a shower and clean clothes and a picture was taken of him just before he boarded the plane to return home to his family. He had a big smile on his face and said, “This is the best Christmas I have ever had.  I get to go home and be with the only woman that I have ever really loved and my son; the true desire of my heart.”  He is now home and reconciled with his family….

That is what God en-fleshed does. He shows up on the doorstep of poverty and marginalized places with a glass of fresh water to cleanse and forgive the soul. That is Crete. He shows up under the bridge where the helpless and homeless live. More Crete. He shows up in places where judgment and self-righteousness run rampant. Crete again. He asks the gossip to stop and the unfaithful to return. Crete yet again. He shows up and says no matter how far you may feel from me I am with you right now. No matter how marginalized, alone, afraid, and dis-empowered you may feel I will give you strength. If Christmas says anything at all it says God comes to Crete! Those are precisely the kind of people God came for those Cretans!  Oh wait- I am one of those Cretans!  God came for me, for you, and for us!

    The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. Even to Cretans! Even to me! And, Yes, Even to you! Thanks be to God!  Merry Christmas-You Cretan!

Tears

Every once in a while I come across a quote that just goes deep with me. Here is one by Washington Erving, "There is a sacredness in tears; they are not a mark of weakness but of power, they are a messenger of overwelming grief and of unspeakable love."   In other words tears are a gateway to immense gratitude, joy and love!  It is the primary place where God hangs out.....