From whisper to print then back to whisper.  Living and life giving, the Scriptures are a collection of images, a series of revealing finger prints that tell of the Divine Mystery. But this isn’t the kind of mystery that is to be solved, instead, it’s a mystery that permeates all, revealing and inviting humanity into God’s staggering care for the world.

Open to interpretation, but bound to community, the Bible transcends language and context to become an experience. Tragedy, comedy, fairy tale woven together from past thru present and into future – It’s God’s epic in progress.

These stories are Handled. Handled in the sense that they’ve intentionally been passed down to us through human hands – for better or for worse. But also Handled in the sense that one needs to know how to pick them up in order to be fed and not burned.

In this light, it’s not so much we that read the Scripture, but the Scriptures that read us. Signaling who we are, where we’re from and where we’re headed, it’s these whispers from the Divine Mystery Himself that cut and heal, break and form.

Something’s cooking. Pull up to the stove and see for yourself.

"You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature." -Gandhi

Jeremiah 29:4-14 tells an old story that intersects with our present day story. Israel’s elite were in exile, God’s divine relocation program. We too can find ourselves in places of physical, emotional or spiritual exile. Dislocated from where we feel at home, removed (sometimes by choice, other times by force) from where we really want to be. Yet for whatever reason, God allows or sees fit for us to walk through these seasons of discomfort. Most often, its in these times that God gets our attention, or at the very least, we’re finally able to see what’s been in front of us the whole time.

It’s in this space/exile that God challenges us to create dangerous memories. Life altering, game changing, course correcting happenings that not only influence but also set the trajectory for our lives, and the lives of those we love. Exile thus becomes a sweet spot, where we (re)engage our own stories and context, ever attentive to God’s holy interruptions.
Its in this physical and spiritual space that we become conscious of the stories we are writing, and the stories that will be told about us on our shift as citizens and as the church.

You are here. Wait, trust, be aware, join in. It’s where you’re supposed to be, even if its just for now.

Below you’ll find some of the ideas and authors that helped us out this month:

“The exile was the crucible of Israel’s faith.  They were pushed to the edge of existence where they thought they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth, and they found that in fact they  had been pushed to the center, where God was.  They experienced not bare survival but abundant life.  They now they saw their previous life as subsistence living, a marginal existence absorbed in consumption and fashion, empty ritual and insensitive exploitation.  Exile pushed them from the margins of life to the vortex of where all the issues of life and death love and meaning, purpose and value formed the dynamic everyday, participation-demanding realities of God’s future with them.” (Eugene Peterson)

“The Church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of non-members.”  (William Temple)

*Britain had animal welfare laws before it had child welfare laws

*American couples now find just twelve minutes a day to talk to each other.

Over the last generation, the time parents spend with their children has declined by as much as 40%

*Time diary expert John Robinson says family time spent together is of a different quality – now much of it consists of parents chauffeuring their children from one event to another

*Kids are terribly overscheduled as ‘market values have invaded the family.’ Parents often see family life as about instilling competitive values in their children so they can compile the best resumes to get into the best colleges to get the best jobs to earn the most money.  Meanwhile, the number of families regularly eating dinner together and taking vacations together has dropped by a third since 1970.

*The new homelessness: We have people living in houses with one another but not connecting with one another. They’re not interacting because, quite simply, they all have their own toys to play with. Dad is on the internet, mom’s upstairs watching a movie, the kids are downstairs playing video games. Everybody is connected to something outside the home even though they are physically within the home

*In 1967 2/3 of American college students  said developing a meaningful philosophy of life was ‘very important’ to them, while fewer than on third said the same about making a lot of money. By 1997 those figures were reversed. A 2004 poll at UCLA found that entering freshman ranked becoming ‘very well off financially ahead of all other goals.

*Asked about their highest priority in a 1999 poll taken at the university of Washington, 32 percent of those surveyed cited ‘looking good/having good hair” another 18% listed ‘staying inebriated,” while only 6 percent checked ‘learning about the world’

“God is always at work. We can never walk into a situation where that is not the case.” (Mindy Calguire)

Sarnia Stats

"It's a complicated area that includes whether people feel they have opportunities," he said. Those who engage in "risky behaviour" may feel that no matter what they do, others will be much better off than they are, he said. (Rod Beaujot, a sociology professor at the University of Western Ontario)

*Sarnia-Lambton also led the way amongst similar-sized communities when it came to impaired driving charges in 2008; stats going up, province down

*Our community also has a large number of high-risk drinkers, according to a recent Canadian Community Health Survey. Thirty per cent of residents admitted to downing five or more drinks in one sitting at least once a month, the second highest percentage in Ontario.

*As for over-eating, a Canadian Community Health survey found that 49.6 per cent of adults in Lambton County are either overweight or obese. That's one in seven who are obese and one in three who are over-weight.

“Jeremiah’s letter is a rebuke and a challenge: “Quit sitting around feeling sorry for yourselves. The aim of the person of faith is not to be as comfortable as possible but to live as deeply and thoroughly as possible – to deal with the reality of life, discover truth, create beauty, act out of love…Don’t just get along, waiting for some sort of escape. Build houses, plant gardens, marry, have kids, pray for the wholeness of  Babylon, and do everything you can to develop that wholeness. The only place you have to e human is where you are right now. The only opportunity you will ever have to live by faith is in the circumstances you are provided this very day: this house you live in, this family you find yourself in, this job you have been given, the weather conditions that prevail at this moment.” (Eugene Peterson)

"My whole life, I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted until I discovered that my interruptions are my work". (Henri Nouwen)

“…there is none of this passivity in the Scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing. If we wait in the conviction that a seed has been planted and that something has already begun, it changes the way we wait for the future. Active waiting implies being fully present to the moment with the conviction that something is happening where we are.” (Henri Nouwen)

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”
(Corrie Ten Boom)

“Normal life is full of distractions and irrelevancies. Then catastrophe: Dislocation. Exile. Illness. Accident. Job loss. Divorce. Death. The reality of our lives is rearranged without anyone consulting us or waiting for our permission. We are no longer at home. All of us are given moments, days, months, years of exile. What will we do with them? Wish we were someplace else? Complain? Escape into fantasies? Drug ourselves into oblivion? Or build and plant and marry and seek the shalom of the place we inhabit and the people we are with? Exile reveals what really matters and frees us to pursue what really matters, which is to seek the Lord with all our Hearts.” (Eugene Peterson)

Joe was interview for a series that Royal View Church is doing in London.

 

Wrong place at the wrong time. It’s unavoidable, but most if not all, of us have been there at one time or another. Feelings of powerlessness, second-guessing and ‘what if’s’ dominate our minds as we cobble together a method of escape. Things are out of place. We’ve been Dis-Located, and it hurts. Israel knew this pain well. Better known as exile, their Dis-Location (particularly) in Babylon created a ripple effect of anger, self pity, false hopes and sheer misunderstanding. In addition to these uneasy feelings, Jeremiah the prophet delivered a message from God that was less than expected: Sink roots. Plant gardens. Have kids. Love your neighborhood. This is where you’re supposed to be…oh, and by the way I put you here Myself. This month, we’ll be using Jeremiah 29:4-14 as a springboard into an honest and transparent conversation about what it means for us and our church to truly be the local, flesh on bone incarnation of the living Christ. To move away from the anti-kingdom notions of self-centered, escapist, Dis-Located lives. To move from just living here, to being invested here. From merely tolerating Sarnia to taking a bullet for her. To be mindful of God’s bigger plan, and not just our own personal welfare. We’re not meant to Dis-Located lives. Sink roots. Plant gardens. Have kids. Love our neighbourhoods. This isn’t the wrong place at the wrong time. This is where we’re supposed to be. This is where God has put us.

When the teenage girl missed her period, all the world could do was wait.

Advent is the season of active waiting for Christ’s arrival. We intentionally relive and remind ourselves so as to not forget. We bare ourselves to the good news of the coming arrival permitting it re-order our lives and communities.

While there is an expectation for the culmination of prophesies and promises, at the same time there’s a raw humanity to it all: A teenage girl is expecting – morning sickness, cramps, unreasonable cravings. In her belly, a fetus develops in stages; In her belly she incubates hope. As Mary and Joseph sneak into Bethlehem under the stars, Jesus smuggles himself into humanity.

Amidst the busyness of the next few weeks, may our hearts and minds be in a place of expectancy for the one who has come to make all things new.

*Special Note* As a special project for this month, our goal is to raise $1000 for the Inn of the Good Shepherd. They do great work locally amongst the poor in Sarnia, and it would be swell if we could pitch in during this Christmas season.

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Being in sync with God is less like stringently following a playbook of do’s and don’ts and more like humming that tune that’s stuck in your head and allowing it to put a directional spring in your step. That spring leads us in the direction of sacred rhythms…rhythms of grace, awareness, surrender and peace. Conversely, modern society cultivates and infects us with its violent rhythms…rhythms of production (you’re only as valuable as what you can do) rhythms of speed and space (always moving at an insane clip, ultimately concerned with filling our space with stuff) rhythms of fear (you're not good enough, so what are you going to do about it?)

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Life is a dance: An improvisational, unscripted work of art set to sound and tempo. When Creator and creation are in tune and step the display is magical. Love and hope, pain and grief are key changes taken in stride. All of life harmonizes in a ode to joy.

This is made possible only because art, at its best, is not measured by a score or a judge. Value cannot be attached because calculators don’t go that high. And even if they could, it wouldn’t matter, because that’s not the point.

That said, beware of counterfeit, cheap imitations of true life - cheap knock offs, a million sold, paint by numbers copies. This type of existence is a violent one. Immersed in a cult of speed, productivity, efficiency, gain and growth, insanity is touted as normal…or at the very least, strongly suggested.

Is this really how we were meant to “live”?

This month, we will explore the rhythms of grace, peace and rest. We will share stories of inner lives that run deep and outer lives that spread wide. Together, let’s find our tune and part in the Spirit’s song.

"Above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live it as if it were a work of art. You're not a machine." (Abraham Heschel)

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The tension between doubt - hope - questions - faith is a very Christian one. Unfortunately, the latest breed of Christianity (in fear) has tried to snuff this tension out. Our inherited enlightenment sensibilities have no room for mystery, dialogue or pain, thus any talk about Heaven and Hell intersecting on planet earth makes for less than thoughtful conversation.

Our default (over the last hundred years specifically) has been to grin and bear this life until we can finally escape this planet. Here vocal branches of Christianity have assumed the role of fear mongering, doomsday prophets announcing a ‘turn or burn’ vendetta from a blood thirsty God.

Thankfully, the Bible makes no mention of such things. Instead we see a pattern, a series of course corrections, and a divine check mate from the Grand Master Himself. The Scriptures tell the story of a God who methodically and ultimately has and will cure humanity of its sin. It’s a tale of a people and planet reclaimed, restored, redeemed and reinvented.  A narrative where humanity is invited, yet free to choose, whether or not to participate in the fix-it job. In fact, everyone is in unless they opt out.  To opt out is to move in the opposite direction of God’s healing work which ultimately results in humans moving in the opposite direction of who they’re intended to be. So far removed in fact, as CS Lewis puts it, we stop being human all together. Separated from God and distanced from our true selves.

From here the big picture gains new clarity. We track with what God has done; biblical flash-forwards reveal what is to come, and in turn we become aware of the part we were always meant to play.

And what part would that be?

Renewal Artists, working hand in hand with God for the redemption of all things.

Here are some thoughts and ideas from outside sources that have helped influence our learning and action.

"I am and I am not a universalist. I am one if you are talking about what God in Christ has done to save the world. The Lamb of God has not taken away the sins of some — of only the good, or the cooperative, or the select few who can manage to get their act together and die as perfect peaches. He has taken away the sins of the world — of every last being in it — and he has dropped them down the black hole of Jesus’ death. On the cross, he has shut up forever on the subject of guilt: “There is therefore now no condemnation. . . .” All human beings, at all times and places, are home free whether they know it or not, feel it or not, believe it or not.”

 

But I am not a universalist if you are talking about what people may do about accepting that happy-go-lucky gift of God’s grace. I take with utter seriousness everything that Jesus had to say about hell, including the eternal torment that such a foolish non-acceptance of his already-given acceptance must entail. All theologians who hold Scripture to be the Word of God must inevitably include in their work a tractate on hell. But I will not — because Jesus did not — locate hell outside the realm of grace. Grace is forever sovereign, even in Jesus’ parables of judgment. No one is ever kicked out at the end of those parables who wasn’t included in at the beginning."
(Robert Capon)

“Humans give glory to God by excelling at who they have been created to be – by loving one another, by enjoying themselves and each other, by reaching out to one another in cooperation and service, by tending the earth by participating in worship and fellowship, by embracing joy and forgiveness and generosity by seeking the good of all in the good of each.”
(Michelle Bartel)

“Understanding your place within Creation means that you see yourself as a part of some greater organism, that the presence of something very holy permeates and unifies all being. It means that you play a sacred role in Creation’s unfolding. And that, when viewed from a point of high enough vantage, everything is revealed to be in the hands of God.”
(Rabbi Lawrence Kushner)

“Even when sin is familiar, it’s never normal.”
(Platinga)

“Our concern is not finally the origin of evil, the appearance of death or the power of the fall…it is rather the summons of this calling of God for us to be his creatures to live in his world on his terms.” (Walter Bruggemann)

 

“Hell is where sin eventually leads; it is the endpoint of the path away from God—a state of being outside the presence of God.  When we see the worst of what goes on in this world, we can see that hell is not only a place people might go after death, but the condition of destruction and utter misery in which people can find themselves here and now.”
(Debra Rienstra )

“In what sense, then, did Jesus declare that the Kingdom of God was present? Our answer must at least begin with His own answer to John: “The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the poor have the Gospel preached to them.” In the ministry of Jesus Himself the divine power is released in effective conflict with evil.”
(CH Dodd)

“God will redeem the whole universe; Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of that new life, the fresh grass growing through the concrete of corruption and decay in the old world. The final redemption will be the moment when heaven and earth are joined together at last in burst of God’s creative energy for which Easter is the prototype and source.”
(NT Wright)

“Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? 
Ooh heaven is a place on earth 
They say in heaven love comes first 
We'll make heaven a place on earth 
Ooh heaven is a place on earth”
(Belinda Carlisle)

“When you set the table

When you chose the scale

Did you write a riddle that you knew they would fail

Did you make them tremble

So they would tell the tale

Did you push us when we fell?”

(David Bazan)

“When Jesus directs us to pray “thy kingdom come” he does not mean we should pray for it to come into existence. Rather, we pray for it to take over all points in the personal, social, and political order where it is now excluded: “On earth where it is in heaven”. With this prayer we are invoking it , as in faith we are acting it, into the real world of our daily existence.”
(Willard)

“The gospel, you see, is not just a message for individuals, telling them how to avoid God’s wrath. It is a message about a kingdom, a society, a new community, a new covenant, a new family, a new nation, a new way of life, and therefore, a new culture. God calls us to build a city of God, a New Jerusalem.”
(John Frame)

“The church latched on to that old doctrine of original sin like a dog to a stick, and before you knew it, the whole gospel got twisted around it. Instead of being God’s big message of saving love for the whole world, the gospel became a little bit of secret information on how to solve the pesky legal problem of original sin.”
(Brian McLaren)

"Even a commitment to an inspired bible is not a commitment to inerrant interpretations."
(Gregory Macdonald)

"The christian understanding of hell is crucial for understanding your own heart, living at peace in the world and knowing the love of God"
(Tim Keller)

"The concept of eternal punishment does not occur in the Hebrew Bible, which uses the term Sheol to designate a bleak subterranean region where the dead, good and bad alike, subsist only as impotent shadows. When Hellenistic Jewish scribes rendered the Bible into Greek, they used the word Hades to translate Sheol, bringing a whole new mythological association to the idea of posthumous existence. In ancient Greek myth, Hades, named after the gloomy deity who ruled over it, was originally similar to the Hebrew Sheol, a dark underground realm in which all the dead, regardless of individual merit, were indiscriminately housed."
(Stephen Harris)

"The only resource powerful enough to both passify the human hearts desire for justice and at the same time keep us from getting sucked into that cycle of blood and vengeance is to say there is a God and he will put everything right. If you think not believing in God is going to keep people from being sucked into the cycle of violence, you're wrong. If you don't believe that there is somebody that is going to make everything right, then you will pick up the sword and you will get sucked in. If you don't believe that the doctrine of of God's judgment is a resource for living at peace on earth you've had a sheltered life. Belief in a God of judgment is crucial for a Croatian to live at peace on earth."
(Miroslav Volf)

"First they would threaten sinners with hell. Second, they would extend the reward of resurrection from the heroic martyrs to all good people--good meaning those who fulfilled the Pharisees' idea of good. Finally, they would use the language of hell to accomplish what they felt they needed to accomplish--to frighten sinners enough to repent and change their ways for the good of the nation."
(Brian McLaren)

"We tend to try to turn the rich and varied biblical lexicon into a limited range of synonymous technical terms. For example, judgment for us equals hell or condemnation. Condemnation equals hell, etc. We should be more careful than this in assuming words are synonyms, because the Bible is horribly disappointing as a modern-style technical textbook, even of theology. The Biblical lexicon of judgment includes sheol, hades, tartarus, gehenna, the abyss, death, darkness, fire, lake of fire, unquenchable fire, where the worm does not die, the Day, the Day of the Lord, etc"
(Maundet)

"Most of the passages in the New Testament which have been thought by the Church to refer to people going into eternal punishment after they die' is not about Heaven and Hell at all. The great majority of them have to do with the way.
(NT Wright)

"There was no single concept of hell in Second Temple Judaism but a cluster of images and concepts that held in common the claim that God would bring the wicked to account and punish them. Jesus and his followers took and made use of some of the language and images employed in the discourse of the time without endorsing every aspect of Second Temple Jewish beliefs about this fate."
(Gregory Macdonald)

"The Pharisees used hell language one way. Jesus turned it around and used it in the opposite way. They threatened marginal people will hell unless they submitted to their religious dominance. Jesus threatened the religious establishment with hell unless they showed compassion for the marginal people. Hell has been used and abused, back and forth, ever since. He uses power language of hell to disempower the injustice of the powerful and to empower the disempowered to seek justice."
(Brian McLaren)

"Contrary to the usual opinion that the good go to heaven and the bad go to hell, Jesus sets up his stories so that goodness and badness don’t count at all in the final judgment. The only thin judged at the end of these parables is faith, not works."
(Robert Capon)

"The doors of hell are locked from the inside."
(CS Lewis)

"Like the Kingdom of God, the subject of Hell is treated differently among the gospels and other NT writings. In the synoptics, the primary command of Christ seems to be to follow and do the will of God. In John, and in Paul's writings, the prime detective is more often to believe in Jesus, or the gospel. Evangelicals tend to conflate the former into the latter, so that believing in some ways seems to negate the need to follow and do the will of God. Meanwhile, even in Paul's writings, judgment is consistently associated with the phrase 'according to their deeds,' not 'according to their beliefs.' Also, while the synoptics frequently use similar language regarding hell, John uses a different kind of language. So, it seems to me that we are left with an embarrassing failure to take all of Scripture seriously, and we are left with a difficult challenge: how (or whether?) to integrate the various approaches to hell found in scripture."
(Maundet)

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In the words of a distressed George Costanza, from a now famous Seinfeld episode, "World's are colliding Jerry!" Who knew such a profound theological statement could come from a 90's sitcom?

 

Worlds are colliding - Heaven and Earth; Hell and Earth. Daily. Each realm leaves its mark on our planet, and as humans we become the vehicles for the arrival and departure of both. Thus from this vantage point, Heaven and Hell are more present day realities than post-death destinations. To focus on the future at the expense of the present would be missing the point completely. So with this shift in perception, as Christians, we move from being escape artists to renewal artists.

 

Deeper still, any thoughtful conversation about Heaven and Hell eventually leads to a curiosity around God's credibility and character. On a good day, God appears to be a hero, saving the day for helpless humanity. Hymn writer Fanny J. Crosby put it this way:

 

To God be the glory, great things He has done;
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.

 

On a bad day, He's a backstabbing traitor. Hymn writer David Bazan adds this observation:

 

When you set the table
and when you chose the scale
Did you write a riddle
that you knew they would fail?
Did you make them tremble
so they would tell the tale
Did you push us when we fell?
What am I afraid of?
Whom did I betray?
In what medieval kingdom does justice work this way?
If you knew what would happen and made us just the same
then you, my Lord, can take the blame

 

It's going to be an interesting series to say the least.

 

Be sure then to be part of our Sunday gatherings this October as we talk about "Intersections: Where Heaven, Hell & Earth Collide"

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