This movie gets at the heart of Christ and Christian practice from where I sit. This is challenging to say the least.

Immanent and transcendent - truly the mystery of God.

Original Painting by Michael O’Brien

“Beyond Us (Only True God)”
Lyrics by Paul Baloche; from the album Our God Saves

Beyond us God within us
Revealed yet we see in part
Transcendent but so near us
Mystery dwelling within our hearts

Father Spirit Son
Only true God
Exalted three in one
Only true God only true God

Majestic God above us
Enthroned yet you wash our feet
Humble but so holy
All of creation bow when you speak

God of all things
God who saves us
God within us
You are God

The wisdom for today comes from Skylight Paths book, Philokalia (The Eastern Christian Spiritual Texts: Selections Annotated & Explained). The Philokalia is a very revered and important text in the Orthodox tradition. Briefly, philokalia is a greek word meaning, “love of the beautiful.” The work which bears this title contains stories and teachings from the monks on “the holy mountain.” The monastery on Mount Athos in Greece was/is known for it’s authentic spirituality, watchfulness, and practice of contemplative prayer - it was the combined wisdom from this well which flows to us through this ancient text (primarily from the 9th & 10th Century - although there are snippets from the 4th - 14th century that “sneak in”).

In the anonymous nineteenth-century Russian classic The Way of a Pilgrim, the pilgrim asks a staretz, or spiritual father, whether the Philokalia is “more exalted and holier than the Bible.” The staretz answers:

“No, it is not more exalted or holier than the Bible, but it contains enlightened explanations of what is mystically contained in the Bible, and it is so lofty that it is not easily comprehended by our shortsighted intellect. Le me give you an illustration. The sun is the greatest, the most resplendent and magnificent source of light, but you cannot contemplate or examine it with the simple naked eye. You would need to use a special viewing lens, which, though a million times smaller and dimmer than the sun, would enable you to study this magnificent source of all light and to endure and delight in its fiery rays. Thus the Holy Scriptures are like a brillant sun, for which the Philokalia is the lens needed in order to view it.” (The Way of a Pilgrim, p. 15)

So, take up the Philokalia and read it!

Our weekly wisdom from the Philokalia:

“Truly blessed is the man whose mind and heart are as closely attached to the Jesus Prayer* and to the ceaseless invocation of his name as air to the body or flames to the wax. The sun rising over the earth creates the daylight; and the venerable and holy name of the Lord Jesus, shining continually in the mind, gives birth to countless intellections as radiant as the sun.” (St. Hesychios the Priest; I On Whatchfulness and Holiness, sec. 196)

*The Jesus Prayer is a foundational practice in the Orthodox tradition which incorporates the following prayer into everyday living: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

So last friday - 7/11/08 was the “Feast of Saint Benedict.” I didn’t take time to call attention to this last Friday… and no I wasn’t too busy acquiring my free Slurpee from 7-11 [I was unpacking and “catching up” from a return from vacation]. But I did want to highlight this great hero of The Church. A true reformist who availed his life completely to God and now 1500 years later we are still learning from his writings, his life, and those who followed in his footsteps. Can anyone say, “legacy.”

Over the past few years I have become increasingly attracted to Benedict’s writings and his challenge to live a counter-cultural life. Benedict has become a mentor from afar and he has taken me on quite a ride.

I have posted on Benedict in the past - you can follow the two links below on some of my thoughts on Benedict of Nursia.

Them Benedictines!

Benedict for Beginners

ora et labora.

Today I want to continue to interact with Chris Folmsbee over at A New Kind of Youth Ministry on the topic of Five Dangerous Things. Here is how Chris introduced it,

So, here are five dangerous things I suggest we should let our students do (feel free to comment and add to the list!) Like Gever, I really have 6 but I think that 4 and 4.5 go hand in hand…

1. Dance with doubt
2. Discover truth for themselves
3. Disengage from reality every now and then
4. Dispatch their story, not someone elses
4.5 Determine their own future
5. Deconstruct what they are told, see and come to “know”

Today Chris and I are going to look at the second dangerous thing… helping students discover truth for themselves. Often when I talk with youth workers about their goals for students - they will talk about grand schemes of what they would like kids to accomplish and know before leaving (graduating from) the youth ministry program. They will speak of things like knowledge of the flow of the Bible, about wanting students to know how to “feed themselves” from the Bible, about how to share and defend their faith, and the list goes on - it sounds great! When I push further in this discussion and ask how they are accomplishing this, often the response is some curriculum used on Sunday mornings or Sunday nights where the main delivery of the information is a lecture (okay sermon or message).

I love to speak. I love to prepare and deliver a message. That being said, I know that it is a poor way to help another person come to own and obtain personal knowledge. A spoken message may be a great way to introduce new information. It may be good to survey lots of things - history, theory, interpretations of significant events; but if we want a person to go beyond “book knowledge” to a personal encounter where they know something from first hand experience - a lecture isn’t going to get us there.

Few people learn how to carve wood or play an instrument or paint or quilt or build a fire from reading a book or hearing a lecture (and few people learn to pray or learn to trust by hearing a sermon). These things are passed down from person to person (one to one) in a you watch me, now you do it kind of fashion. We discover by watching and doing it in an apprentice/master kind of experience. I discovered how to muck a horse stall - not by reading a book; but by watching my wife do it and then following her expert example. I had learned in a book and from common folklore - “to never walk behind a horse.” I also discovered in owning a horse that it is nearly impossible to get much work done in a barn full of horses if you never walk behind them! I learned from personal experience how to work with prey animals and come up behind them or walk around them without catching them off guard.

Those things learned in a book or heard in a lecture - I may know. I may understand or be able to sound intelligent talking about them. Those things I have a “personal knowledge” of - these are things I do, I wrestle with, I see shades and nuances about this, I continue to discover variations and subtleties, I experience and live out these subjects and topics. In youth ministry (and throughout the Church) I believe what we are aiming at is that individuals would wrestle with their Faith at the level of personal knowledge. To get to such a place demands that what we know or understand about Christ, God, the World, the Bible and our calling and identity will be truths that we have acquired through “personal knowledge” - not merely a second hand hear-say. That means, no, demands that we must help adolescents discover truth for themselves.

So how do we get teenagers out of circles of chairs or off the rows of couch’s and on the way to discovering truth for themselves? I believe one simple way is helping teens go out and find a mentor who will accompany them through life. The mentor’s job is to help their charge notice various truths and God’s presence when they are together. In the midst of this natural relationship as life happens it will highlight how the Christian faith operates and counters the struggles, inconveniences, celebrations, and mundane occurrences of everyday life. It is one way to help our young people move from a second hand faith to a personal knowledge by discovering truth for themselves in an apprenticeship (if you will).

Not a radical idea. Nothing we all probably don’t know. Yet for some reason there are still a lot of lectures and messages being given as the primary way for “learning” in our churches. I believe God uses sermons. I know that is true. It is interesting to me though that Jesus called the disciples to be with Him (Mark 3:13-14). I think we could help the teenagers in our church have a more independent and personal faith (personal knowledge), if we followed Jesus’ approach.

The question of “what is missional” I believe is more correctly answered by re-framing the question, “what is the mission of God?” For as I understand it - this is not about what is my vision, purpose or mission or our church’s vision, purpose or mission - but instead it is about joining up with God and what has been termed the missio dei (the mission of God). Making this a question that is more about theology proper (the study of God) than about ecclesiology (the study of the Church).

What is the mission of God?

The mission of God is only discovered when we understand who God is and what the Mystery is doing in our midst. When we join up with God reflecting the character and activity of the King of the Universe - this is when the people of God are being missional. So just looking at one story - the creation as related in Genesis 1 - what does this tell us about the mission of God? In Genesis one we see that God relates within the various parts of the Trinity. We observe that God creates. Finally God rests.

God is social. God is in essence a being who takes great care to relate. We see later that this relationship is one of unconditional love. God is committed to relationship and acts in creation with the intention of being in a meaningful relationship with creation.

God creates. In creation we see God forming a world of relationship and interdependence; reflecting the relationship and interdependence of the God-head. It also should not be skimmed over that God made all things good. Creation reflects not only that God is relational but that God is also benevolent. God made good works of art.

God rests. God establishes a pattern or a rhythm of work and rest. God took time out after speaking the universe into being to be silent and enjoy all that was made.

In light of this - does this call us to the priorities of being a social and relational community? Does this call us to focus on restoring the goodness of creation? Are we as a people to establish and observe a pattern or rhythm of work and rest? Is this the mission of God (or at least a part of it) as revealed in the work of Creation? Is this the work of God’s people: to carefully review God’s mission as revealed in Scripture and then reflect God’s character and God’s priorities in our everyday life?

To each of these questions I would reply yes. That is my understanding of being missional. It begins with who God is and appreciates what God has done and is doing; and attempts to reflect and join up in the same endeavor.

That is my 2 copper pieces on the topic… check out others - probably far more instructive and insightful!

Alan Hirsch
Alan Knox
Andrew Jones
Barb Peters
Bill Kinnon
Brad Brisco
Brad Grinnen
Brad Sargent
Brother Maynard
Bryan Riley
Chad Brooks
Chris Wignall
Cobus Van Wyngaard
Dave DeVries
David Best
David Fitch
David Wierzbicki
DoSi
Duncan McFadzean
Erika Haub
Grace
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Jeff McQuilkin
John Smulo
Jonathan Brink
JR Rozko
Kathy Escobar
Len Hjalmarson
Makeesha Fisher
Malcolm Lanham
Mark Berry
Mark Petersen
Mark Priddy
Michael Crane
Michael Stewart
Nick Loyd
Patrick Oden
Peggy Brown
Phil Wyman
Richard Pool
Rick Meigs
Rob Robinson
Ron Cole
Scott Marshall
Sonja Andrews
Stephen Shields
Steve Hayes
Tim Thompson
Thom Turner

So three weeks in and I missed a Wednesday already! Today’s offering is short but sweet from St. Evagrios of Pontus (345-399 AD). His writings have been passed on to us through the Eastern Church’s principal text The Philokalia. [I will post on the significance of this text in the very near future.]

Today’s wisdom:

“If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly you are a theologian.”

As I mentioned in the last post - over the next few days or weeks I want to interact with Chris Folmsbee over at A New Kind of Youth Ministry on the topic of Five Dangerous Things. Here is how Chris introduced it,

So, here are five dangerous things I suggest we should let our students do (feel free to comment and add to the list!) Like Gever, I really have 6 but I think that 4 and 4.5 go hand in hand…

1. Dance with doubt
2. Discover truth for themselves
3. Disengage from reality every now and then
4. Dispatch their story, not someone elses
4.5 Determine their own future
5. Deconstruct what they are told, see and come to “know”

So today I would like to explore why I think, dancing with doubt - is a necessary and important risky behavior for adolescents and adults alike to engage in.

It seems to me to be self-evident that to “live by faith” is to also “live by doubt.”

No?

In my limited experience as I look at the topic of faith - the shadow side of faith is doubt. Doubt comes with a healthy dose of faith. For to live by faith is not a life of certainty - but a life where we step into the dark (see Paul - “we live by faith not by sight”). To live by faith is to live a life of hope; a life of trusting that despite where I see things now - I choose to trust in a positive future. A life where we bank on what is to come; not what is. To live in such a way that we trust in what we “see” and believe if only in part; not completely known or clearly perceived.

To live such a life is one where questions, riddles and doubt are surely to arise. For faith is not fact. Facts are hard, provable, testable true-isms. Faith is not necessary in light of such evidence. God, on the other hand, demands faith - for without it we hear, it is impossible to please the Almighty. So it seems that with the life of faith we are destined to encounter moments, seasons or even years of doubt. I would assert though that doubt doesn’t need to be an enemy or foe to our faith.

Those who live a faith-full and authentic life seem to learn how to “befriend” their doubts. They seem to “dance with their doubts” in a sense. They see doubt as a necessary part of growing in their faith. For doubts can:

1. Test us and help us ask questions that lead us to see our own faults or misconceptions, and limitations.
2. Lead us up new pathways to new vistas from where we can see reality a bit more clearly.
3. Show us that our once dearly held values were actually wrong - that some questions are just not that important in the grand scheme of things.
4. Reveal that God’s ways are often hidden to us; but ultimately God’s Character reveals He is worth following.

As we explore our doubts our faith matures. Moving us from a childish faith to an adolescent faith to a young adult faith to a middle-aged faith and so on. It is often our doubts and “faith crises” that serves as the impetus to open our ears, hearts and hands to receive a greater and more vital trust in the Mystery.

Dancing with Doubt calls young people to risk befriending their doubts, to cooperate and even “follow” their quandaries rather than running from an imagined foe. Dancing with Doubt helps adolescents become familiar with the process of interacting with their questions and conundrums; not seeing them as fatal but as opportunities to face doubts faith-fully. For doubt is something that honest and maturing Christ-followers must engage in not just once; but often as they walk after the Master. If you have ever watched “dancing with stars” you can also appreciate that for the “non-dancer” - it ain’t easy; it is a lot of hard work. We need to help folks as soon as they are able to get used to the process and the disorienting feeling of living with and struggling with doubt, as people of faith. It demands that parents, youth workers, and caring adults are honest, reassuring, patient and not too quick to provide 3 steps to overcoming doubts kind of messages. I have found often with kids - listening and “being there” is often a wonderful remedy to helping young people be able to begin to befriend their doubt and realize that the issue isn’t as scary or as paralyzing as it first appeared (the dance begins!).

Let us consider how we can make such a dangerous activity a part of our ministry with adolescents. Let us model how we as adults have faced times of doubting. Let’s take the stigma away from doubting in our communities and let’s celebrate the value of the shadow side of our faith. Crank up the tunes and let’s dance with our doubts (I am doing the “how’d I get here hustle” as I write this!).

As summer approaches (culturally it is here - with Memorial Day behind us, school ending and AC’s humming all around) I return every year to meditate on the season of heat. With the earth rotating so that the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun - we have longer periods of sunlight, hotter temperatures and unpredictable storms. Growing up in Florida I have come to enjoy the changing of the seasons (in Florida there is one season - hot - okay two: hot and HOTTER & Humid). And it has taken me some time to “warm back up” to Summer. In the past few years I really have come to appreciate the warming of our days (It is still probably my least favorite season - but I appreciate it none-the-less).

With Summer we see the explosion of color - the grass and trees find the greenest of green and the flowers bloom with vibrant yellows, “radish-y” reds, plum-like purples and fiery oranges and every shade in-between. It seems to happen so quickly - one day you plant this tiny plant and it seems overnight what once was so fragile and on the edge of life has blossomed into a vibrant and vital flowering factory. It never ceases to amaze me. Now - I don’t go wild at my home. We are no burgeoning plant nursery or anything - but we plant a few annuals and try to keep up with a simple, tidy garden or two - but the bit we do does me good. It forces me outside. I am connected to soil, air, and water; pulling me from the artificial and controlled environment of my plaster and plastic world. It calls me to the now of watering, weeding, tending and noticing that is essential even in elementary gardening. It reminds me of God: The Gardner, the One who causes growth, the Creator, the Sustainer, and in a mysterious way - Life itself.

The seasons. Summer. Heat, light, sweat, thunder storms, wind, laughter, bright colors and nights full of stars - don’t miss it huddling next to the Air Conditioner, grumping about electric bills and the price of gas to take a vacation to the beach. Get outside your own four walls and put your toes in the soil and water a daisy. I have found getting outside in the summer time is not only fun, but it is good for our insides, as well.

Maybe it is just me. Probably.

I have noticed that I am more enamored or more drawn to the “prescriptions” or commands of scripture than to the promises or to the declarations. I think it may be a result of my penchant to act or “do something.” Maybe you can relate to this, as well.

Think about the great command (or the sh’ma as found in Deuteronomy 6).

The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12.29-30)

When you think about this statement do you hear the declaration or the command. (I hear some of you, “both!”) But I wonder when we think of the “great commandment” as it is called - what do we do with God’s declaration, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Another example that we probably know by heart, the great commission.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Again what are our ears drawn to - the declaration or the command; the prescription or the promise? I know we should be attentive to both, but where is our awareness greater? In my honest moments when I reflect on both of these passages, I hear the commands. I hear my duty. I hear my obligations. I hear the imperatives over the indicatives. I wonder in my reaction to act without really hearing the surrounding truths what am I missing?

Am I turning this vital faith into a human endeavor? Am I doing my own little thing oblivious to what God is up to in our world? Am I focusing on me rather than on Thee? Am I practicing a kind of deism, inattentive to the nearness and presence of God?

May I not glance past God’s promises and declarations - may I learn to like Mary ponder these statements and live out God’s commands in light of them. For if I “do” the commands - am I loving, if I am failing to listen for the one true God? Do I find myself so enamored or so focused on “making disciples” that I miss the presence of God in my midst (walking right by the figurative burning bushes around me)?

“If we take seriously the word of the risen Christ, ‘Know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time’ (Matthew 28:20), we should expect that He will be actively present in our lives. If our faith is alive and luminous we will be alert to moments, events, and occasions when the power of resurrection is brought to bear on our lives. Self-absorbed and inattentive, we fail to notice the subtle ways in which Jesus is snagging our attention.” [Brennan Manning in Abba’s Child p. 99-100]