Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

[the only place?]


Rachel Held Evans recently said this about the church:
You can get a cup of coffee with your friends anywhere, but church is the only place you can get ashes smudged on your forehead as a reminder of your mortality. You can be dazzled by a light show at a concert on any given weekend, but church is the only place that fills a sanctuary with candlelight and hymns on Christmas Eve. You can snag all sorts of free swag for brand loyalty online, but church is the only place where you are named a beloved child of God with a cold plunge into the water. You can share food with the hungry at any homeless shelter, but only the church teaches that a shared meal brings us into the very presence of God.
(source)



And I think, yes! and then, I think, hmmmm, maybe church isn't the only place where these things happen....


You get ashes smudged on your forehead while running to catch the subway ...


We sing 40 in a stadium to the light of phone screens...


Someone calls me beautiful in a chat window...




Friends share a meal with Jesus at the local pub....

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

the true story of the prodigal son


There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

I am the son who went and asked his father for his share of the estate.

He gave it to me without hesitation, which surprised me.

It surprised me because I had never heard of a son ask for his share of the estate. Even more, when I asked some of my peers in the neighbourhood what would happen if a son asked for his share, they were horrified at the idea. They couldn't imagine a son ever asking his father for his share.

“That would be like wishing him to be dead,” they said. “No one would do that, and even if someone did, his father would beat him for it.”

So I was surprised when he gave me my share.

But I was also not surprised.

Monday, April 07, 2014

jesus senyonjo

jesus senyonjo and the second coming of Christ Keep Watch Centre, cartoon by robg


That priest is the retired Rev. Disani Christopher Senyonjo, a former Anglican Bishop in Uganda.

Photo of Rev. D.C. Senyonjo, by Washington Blade / Michael KeyHis "makeshift church in the Ugandan capital of Kampala has attracted many gays who are familiar with his sympathetic views in a country where anti-gay religious fervor has encouraged public anger and violence against homosexuals."

The AP reported,
"They said I should condemn the homosexuals," he said, referring to Anglican leaders in Uganda. "I can't do that, because I was called to serve all people, including the marginalized. But they say I am inhibited until I recant. I am still a member of the Anglican church."

The religious leaders in Jesus' day wanted Him to reject sinners, avoid lepers, ignore Samaritans, denounce women caught in adultery, and more... yet He stood with the least of these. Why is this so difficult to do for those who claim to follow Jesus?

How will you trigger the Jesus sensors today?


Background info:
In December 2013, the Uganda government passed the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which criminalizes same-sex relations and provides for penalties including life imprisonment. This bill was supported by many religious leaders in Uganda and some in other parts of the world.

Friday, March 28, 2014

primitive religion

primitive religion cartoon by robg

And as time has passed, it seems that many of us have not gotten past primitive religion....

There are exceptions, of course, going both ways -- some even more primitive, and some more Christ-like.


You may have heard about the recent death of Fred Phelps, the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, a church known for picketing at the funerals of gay people and soldiers, a church infamous for its "god hates fags" website.

As the news came out, there was a whole range of reactions, from those who proposed picketing his funeral in a similar manner to what his church had done, to others who hoped that Fred would finally understand God's grace.

My heart was most touched by what his granddaughter Megan Phelps-Roper, who left WBC a few years ago, tweeted:


An eye for an eye does leave the whole world blind.

Hatred for enemies leaves the whole world broken, no matter how we try to disguise it with "I love them but I don't love their sin".

Megan understands that Jesus has his arms wide open to all of us. Love and grace and mercy abound for everyone.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

but for the grace...

 there but for the grace of God go I, cartoon by robg

"There but for the grace of God go I...." How often have you heard someone say this, when seeing or hearing of someone less fortunate, someone in trouble, someone who's messed up their life?

What does it mean? It means that I could easily be there where they are, except for God's grace which has kept me out of that situation.

And what follows from this, is the unspoken conclusion: God's grace hasn't been there to keep them out of the situation.

Does this mean that His grace is selective -- it chooses some and not others? He gives grace to some and leaves others in the dirt? That He might be everywhere, but doesn't always take a supply of grace along? Spelled out like that, what do you think? Is this what you believe?


How about this idea instead:

Monday, February 03, 2014

dots and stars

what we spend our time doing, by rob g

We spend much of our time giving gold stars to people of whom we approve, who are doing the right thing and wearing the right clothes and believing the right beliefs. And we give grey dots to people who don't fit in, who are different, who make mistakes, who aren't as talented as everyone else.

God, on the other hand, is occupied with better things:

what God spends most of the time doing, by rob g


For a cool story book related to this, check out Max Lucado's book You are Special. (pics and summary).

Monday, November 25, 2013

[pure scum by mike sares]

pure scum book cover
"An exhilarating faith life is a tricky business. But ask anyone who's sought after it--from the founders and members of Scum of the Earth Church in Denver to the apostle Paul, from whose letters the church took its name--and they'll tell you it's worth it. In Pure Scum Mike Sares, pastor of Scum of the Earth, takes us along a faith journey, telling the story of how a pretty normal, middle-aged guy met and became friends with Reese Roper and other members of the band, Five Iron Frenzy, and got hoodwinked by FIF and the Holy Spirit into pastoring of a vibrant church full of artists and skater punks. For anyone--pastor, church leader or plain old Christian--who wants to share the amazing grace of God with the "left-out" and "the right-brained," Mike's story will show you what this kind of exhilaration looks like, and more importantly, what it costs. It's a tricky business, but it's worth every step and misstep."        (source).

From the reviews I had read, I expected this book to be amazing. It was certainly interesting, but unlike jesus freak and  fall to grace it did not pull me onward. Instead, I had to push through it. Maybe the writing style just didn't work as well for me. However, I include it here in any case because it is about a church that embraced others in ways which are far too rare, and that made it worth reading.

Friday, November 01, 2013

[enemies are our neighbours]

Jesus said,
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:43-45 NIV

"Opus Prize and UN Nansen Award winner Marguerite Barankitse, known as "Maggy," witnessed the murder of over 70 people in Ruyigi, during the civil war between Hutu and Tutsi tribes in Burundi. Maggy responded by founding Maison Shalom (House of Peace), “I am a tutsi woman. Before the war began I already had seven adopted children, four hutu and three tutsi." (more...).

In this short video and several others at Works of the People, she shares about loving others, particularly those who have committed horrible crimes....



Watch more at Works of the People.

Friday, March 22, 2013

no book burning this time



This past week, Rob Bell said the following at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco:
"I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”
And he has also endorsed a book called Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America. From the back of the dust jacket:
“In telling these stories–chief among them his own–Jeff has done an extraordinary thing, showing us all to the God who is big enough and loving enough and true enough to meet all of us exactly where we’re at. This book is moving, inspiring, and much needed.” (Rob Bell, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About God and Love Wins)
Quite astounding, but not surprising. And the reactions cover the full range from agreement and delight to disagreement and rejection (with some "kicking him out of evangelicalism" yet again). Rob Bell is the first high profile North American evangelical leader to be public about such views (Britain's Steven Chalke came out with a similar perspective earlier this year).



Hear Rob Bell speak for himself

Read more about what Bell said at Grace Cathedral, including his comments about a dying subculture: Greg Carey at HuffPo

About the cartoon: simply poking fun at the idea of being "progressive" because of recycling paper instead of burning it while at the same time suppressing differences and not being willing to engage in dialogue on important matters.

Friday, August 10, 2012

[a reckless, scandalous expenditure]

What are the hallmarks of the ministry of Jesus Christ? Do we embody them? Here is what William Stringfellow says about this:
Perhaps it is helpful to notice a few things about the ministry of Christ. One is that the ministry of Christ is a ministry of great extravagance--of a reckless, scandalous expenditure of His life for the sake of the world's life. Christ gives away His life. The world finds new life in His life and His gift of His life to the world. His is not a very prudential life, not a very conservative life, not a very cautious life, not--by ordinary standards--a very successful life.

He shunned no one, not even adulterers, not even tax collectors, not even neurotics and psychotics, not even those tempted to suicide, not even alcoholics, not even poor people, not even beggars, not even lepers, not even those who ridiculed Him, not even those who betrayed Him, not even His own enemies. He shunned no one.

The words that tell of the ministry of Christ are words of sorrow, poverty, rejection, radical unpopularity. They are words of agony.

It seems ridiculous to apply such words to the ministry of churches nowadays. Yet where these words cannot be truthfully applied to the ministry of churches today they must then be spoken against the churches to show how far the churches are from being the Body of Christ engaged in the ministry of Christ in the world.

As posted on Richard Beck's blog post The William Stringfellow Project: A Private and Public Faith, Part 4. Stringfellow quote from "The Fear of God", chapter 4 of A Private and Public Faith.

Monday, July 23, 2012

[the gospel of Rutba]

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove tells this amazing story of embracing one's enemy:

During the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Leah and I traveled with the Christian Peacemaker Teams to Baghdad, believing that the way of Jesus called us to interrupt the unjust war our country was initiating. Three days after U.S. planes bombed the hospital in Rutba, our American friends’ car hit a piece of shrapnel on the highway outside of town and landed in a side ditch. Iraqis stopped by the roadside, took our bleeding friends into their car, and drove them to a doctor in Rutba. “Three days ago your country bombed our hospital,” he said, “but we will take care of you.” He sewed up their heads and saved their lives. When we asked the doctor what we owed him for his services, he only said, “Please, go tell the world what is happening in Rutba.”

The more we told the story, the more it sounded like a modern day Good Samaritan story. A good Iraqi—a good Muslim—not only saved our friends’ lives; he also showed us what God’s love looks like. We can’t be saved apart from the stranger, even the stranger who seems to be our enemy. The gospel of Rutba is that hope lies in the “enemy.”


Read the rest of Jonathan's post about The Gospel of Rutba (on his blog)

Check out the Gospel of Rutba website and read the book.

Friday, July 13, 2012

[I'm sorry]

"Sorry seems to be the hardest word" – a line from one of the songs that played on the radio when I was growing up – is true of churches as well as individuals. But there are exceptions....

Here's an exciting story about Christians in Winnipeg stepping forward to say sorry to those they have hurt:

"On Sunday, June 3, a group of Christians from Little Flowers Community and Hope Mennonite Church said sorry to the lgbt people who have been hurt by the hatred and discrimination they've experienced from Christians and churches over the years. They went to Winnipeg's Pride Parade to "offer an unqualified, sincere apology."
The response was humbling. Hundreds of people marching in the parade stopped to thank us, hug us, take pictures and ask questions. However, most moving for me was the people who shouted out, “We forgive you!”. We were a small group and did not try to bring too much attention to ourselves (as the day was not about us), but made an intentional effort to let these neighbours know that we know we have done poorly and seek their forgiveness. That message seemed to be well received."
Read more about this, including concerns that some Christian communities expressed about participating and why saying sorry isn't enough, in the full post Why We're Sorry and Why It's Not Enough by Jamie Arpin-Ricci, "an urban missionary, pastor, church planter and writer living in Winnipeg’s inner city West End neighbourhood."


How often do we say sorry to one another?

How rarely do we see institutions such as churches and governments admitting wrong and saying sorry? Can you remember a time? The one that comes to my mind is when in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a formal public apology to former students of the native residential schools. Perhaps you know of some?

Monday, July 09, 2012

the Lord be with you

Amazing that the pastor is still in the pulpit. In the typical elder-ruled or vestry-run church, he'd be long gone, dismissed via a secret meeting to which he was not invited. After all, he confessed his sin publicly, didn't he?

But somehow, here he is, albeit unsure of himself and of what to say, the Sunday after having inadvertantly outed himself in front of the entire congregation. And it is reasonable for him to be unsure. Many of his previous sermons had an anti-gay tone or message. He hasn't been fired ... yet. And now he finds himself at the mercy of the congregation. Well, at the mercy of those who have stayed, anyway.



But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
I Peter 2:9 NIV
And here we have this verse played out, with a parishioner initiating the greeting with which a priest usually starts the eucharist (Lord's supper) in many liturgical churches. How fitting... a parishioner taking seriously hir role as a royal priest, using a phrase from the Lord's table at which all are welcome, the table of the Lord Jesus who broke stigmas and social rules and generally made the religious people of his day angry.

The Lord be with you.

Friday, June 08, 2012

[revolutionary grace]

Jay Bakker writes about the time he and his wife, Amanda, “were invited to a drag show by RuPaul, the famous drag queen (recording artist, supermodel, VH1 talk-show host) who did the voice-over for the 2000 documentary about my mom, The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”

After considering whether or not to attend, he finally decided they would go. Here’s part of what he says about the event:
The first half of the show passed without incident. Then, during intermission, I stepped outside to have a cigarette. While I was standing there, one of the drag queens—a seven-foot-tall black man in heels who was wearing a massive replica of the Eiffel Tower on his head—approached me to say that he was a preacher’s kid too and that he had grown up in the church. He went on to explain how much he loved my mom and how worried he was about her cancer.

“Please tell your mom that I’m praying for her and that I love her,” he said, Eiffel Tower bobbing as he spoke.

“Well, let’s get a picture together so I can show my mom who you are,” I said, letting my guard down a little and taking a photo with him. Stubbing out my cigarette, I went back inside for the second half of the show.

Near the end of the show, a drag queen got up on stage and began spotlighting the famous people in the crowd…. And all of a sudden he said, “Did anyone here ever watch the ministry show Praise the Lord?”

I thought, Oh, no, here it comes. But half the crowd raised their hands and cheered (and chuckled). I think they were expecting someone to come out and impersonate my mom or something. “Well, Jim and Tammy’s son, Jamie, is here,” the emcee said. And suddenly, this huge spotlight hit me.

As I blinked into the blinding light, the emcee asked teasingly, “Are you straight?”

“Yeah,” I said, blushing and pointing a thumb at my wife, Amanda.

“Lucky girl,” the emcee said….

And then the emcee got real serious. Standing there in high heels and a sparkly dress, he said: “You know, this is where Jesus would be if He were alive today. Jesus hung out with the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the sinners…” He then launched into a three-minute speech about how Jesus loved everybody without judgment.

Then he looked back up at me and asked, “Jay, are you still doing your church?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Oh, that’s so wonderful, best of luck to you on that.” And everybody clapped.

So there I was, stunned, not knowing what to make of this. One minute a drag queen was making cracks about whether I’m gay, and the next minute he was saying these really amazing things about Jesus and grace. I looked over at Amanda, not knowing what to expect, and she had tears in her eyes.

“This is incredible, Jay,” she said. “A roomful of people, where you don’t know who believes what, they are talking about Jesus. They’re talking about His love and grace and how much they appreciate the fact that you, as a preacher, are here with them, that you’re willing to come out to the show and share this with them… This is where we’re supposed to be,” she said. “This is where God has sent us.”

I realized she was right.

That night, in a burlesque club in Los Angeles, I saw people hungry for the love and truth of Christ. Not the judgment and rejection they’d experienced their whole lives in the church, but the real deal: revolutionary grace.

That’s what they welcomed into their midst. That’s what grace is all about: loving one another and understanding one another and sharing in Christ together, no matter who we are or what others might think about it.


From: Fall to Grace, by Jay Bakker. Chapter “Saint Paul and RuPaul”, pp. 104 - 107

I highly recommend this book!

Friday, May 11, 2012

go and sin no more


The story of the woman caught in adultery is amazing at many levels, from the trap the teachers of the law and Pharisees were trying to set to Jesus' way of exposing them:
At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
John 8:1-11 , NIV
But today, instead of seeing how life-giving this encounter is (literally and spirit-ually for the woman), some Christians have taken the phrase "go and sin no more" as the new golden rule. This is how it works: they identify people as sinners, and they apply the rule.

But Jesus said this once to one person, in a passage which is not found in the earliest manuscripts.  As someone named candeux said in a blog comment, "For one thing, we rarely read of Jesus calling individuals to repentance. In the case of prostitutes, I wonder if he recognized that these women were not choosing to be prostitutes because they were sex-starved but because they were forced into it for economic reasons (probably because they were unsuitable for marriage for one reason or another) and thus were in need of love and care more than they were in need of repentance." (comment source)

He saw, and sees, each person for who they are and where they are at. But many churches seem to have trouble with that, and I wonder if Jesus today might use the phrase one more time, addressing the church and its actions and attitudes toward lgbt people:



May 25th postscript: I also recommend checking out Richard Beck's post with accompanying comments on the topic of "Go and sin no more."

Monday, May 07, 2012

[why would I ever go there?]

grace: visual edition is an amazing book which combines the writings of Philip Yancey in his book What's so Amazing about Grace with great visuals. Here's one story which will give you a taste of the book and which also ties in with the theme of this blog:
"A prostitute came to me in wretched strait, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me that she had been renting out her daughter—two years old!—to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit.

I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable—I'm required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman. At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help.
I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face.

'Church!' she cried. 'why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse.'"

What struck me about my friend's story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift?

Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?
Yancey, p. 21

Thursday, March 22, 2012

man's best friend


Once in a while, Pastor Stickman's resistance to wearing his reading glasses does him good.

And further to dog's love for us, the Archbishop of Canterbury has asked,
What difference would it make if I believed I am held in a wholly loving gaze which saw all my surface accidents and arrangements, all my inner habits and inheritances, all my anxieties and arrogances, all my history, and yet loved me wholly with an utterly free, utterly selfless love? And what difference would it make if I let myself believe that each person around me is loved and held in the same overwhelming, loving gaze, and that this love made no distinctions of race, religion, age, innocence, strength or beauty?
(as quoted in a sermon by Bishop Jane on March 4, 2012).
And that is what dog is like, loving us with an utterly free, utterly selfless love, no matter what, and wanting us to do the same for others.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

even them


For those of you whose understanding or use of the Greek letter lambda is related to physics, biology, ecology, criminology or some other scientific field, here's an additional use which pertains to this cartoon:

According to Wikipedia, "The lambda was selected as a symbol by the Gay Activists Alliance of New York in 1970, and declared the international symbol for gay and lesbian rights by the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1974." And thus, it is not uncommon to find it in the names of gay conferences, businesses, etc. And, ironically, for those of you who are Anglican, it means that the name of the conference in the cartoon is quite close to the Lambeth Conference where bishops of the Anglican Communion are convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

p.s. this is not pastor stickman. Note the conference sign, the stand is at the side instead of at the center (though pastor stickman may occasionally have the stand at the side if he's using powerpoint), and there are no steps up to the stage

Thursday, February 16, 2012

[the Eucharist]

From Miroslav Volf's book Exclusion and Embrace:
Inscribed on the very heart of God’s grace is the rule that we can be its recipients only if we do not resist being made into its agents; what happens to us must be done by us. Having been embraced by God, we must make space for others in ourselves and invite them in – even our enemies. This is what we enact as we celebrate the Eucharist. In receiving Christ’s broken body and spilled blood, we, in a sense, receive all those whom Christ received by suffering.
Volf, p. 129

Interesting. Though Volf frames it the other way around, this quote reminds me of the verses in Matthew 6 and Matthew 18 that speak about God forgiving us if we forgive those who sin against us:

"If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matthew 6:15-16, NLT