a piece from last night’s service.

A great bit of Capon:

And the mission of the church is not to be humanity’s bad cook, pushing at it the lumpy mashed potatoes of morality or the thin gruel of spiritual uplift; the mission of the church is to be the Lord’s own conspirator, sneaking to the world the delectability of grace, the solid chocolate good news that God, in the end, has a sweet tooth. Our joy as the stewards of the mystery is to have been in on the joke that God is just a big, bad boy. He doesn’t really care a fig for teaching the world lessons about what’s good for it; he only wants to make it smile.

benediction

We’ve been ending our services a little more intentionally lately, using prayers and benedictions that I’ve collected over the last few years.

A couple weeks ago now, I challenged myself to write a benediction as Peg and Dave were teaching, and spent the whole time scribbling around ideas and phrases that struck me, and then working them into a piece to share. It was pretty nerve racking to share something that hadn’t had the benefit of a few days (or even hours) to congeal, as it were, but it was neat to be able to close with something so tailored to the service we had just experienced.

Anyway, the teaching was about the parable of the King, about invitations to the party – an interesting distinction was made between showing up to the party and being dressed for the party. Can we really say we’ve joined in the party, that we’re living in the kingdom of God, if we are still dressed in clothes of the kingdom of Man? It got me to thinking about the difference between how I think of the kingdom of Man, and what I used to refer to as ‘the world’. I think that’s what brought out the first part of the piece, about loving the world. In hindsight, I did a much poorer job of connecting the two ideas than I thought – perhaps there are seeds here for two different pieces in the future.

Here’s what I shared:

may you learn to love the world
with all your heart
with all your soul
with all your strength

the world with all of its pain
with all of its learning
with all of its carnality
with all of its beauty

may you learn to accept the invitation
not once, but always
wearing the clothes for the occasion
leaving behind the clothes of contempt
of superiority
of discontent

instead, embracing grace
and wearing authenticity
may you engage with the kingdom of god,
with the created world
and with the life you were created for.

amen.

walter brueggemann on the Psalms

at The Work of the People

‘the nectar of the main message of Jesus’

This week at nexus we are going into what I believe is the most important chapter in the entire  bible. I know that is a grand, over the top statement, but I believe that Matthew 18 contains the nectar of the main message of Jesus. If you were ever thinking of inviting someone to nexus this is the Sunday to come. 

The chapter opens with the disciples asking the most religious question of all time – Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God? 

This question has been asked by humanity for thousands of years in different forms. Similar questions like: How do I get to heaven? What is required of me by God? Am I holy enough? Am I pure enough? Have I gained victory over sin enough? Who is IN and who is OUT? Which religion is better? All of these questions are based on a score-keeping universe. The answers to these questions continue to fuel book sales, sermon series, crusades, revivals and most religious activity on our planet. 

Jesus shocks us by his insistence that the question is out of order!  The question itself reveals so much about us as a human race. Sunday night we journey into Jesus’ 32 verse uninterrupted diatribe against the nature of religion. 

Don’t miss it!

Peg 

more from peg

This week it hit me that the whole garden of eden parable speaks to the kingdom of God in a unique way. We were made in relationship with God, saved, good, whole. But rather than relying on God to decide good from evil…the human race got in the game of scorekeeping and sorting. Eating of the tree was a metaphor for the biggest problem to ever face humanity…scorekeeping. This “knowledge of good and evil” is simply our human attempt to try to sort out and make levels of what and who we deem is good and what is evil. This error plunged all of humanity into a spiral of finger pointing, casting blame, and judging each other (the woman you gave me made me eat of the fruit…) etc. This kind of painful interchange lead to humans having to hide their true-selves from each other with fig leaves or whatever else we construct to pretend we are better than we really are. How can we be authentic when the way of humanity is judging and kicking people out. This whole game finally led to a religious war between brothers Cain and Abel, where one ended up killing the other because he wasn’t worshiping properly.

 

Christ, as the new Adam, solved this ancient religious problem. And when he hung on the cross and said it is finished, He really meant it. He meant that the salvation of the entire human race had been accomplished…past, present and future. There was nothing more to be done. The only thing left for us, is to wake up to the destructive game that religion loves to play and to begin to enjoy creation and the relationships all around us. Imagine how cool it would be if you could really tell people that God loved them regardless of anything. That His love was not dependent on their becoming a Christian or praying or behaving or anything. And that this love would never stop and that this love had saved them and secured them for eternity.   

 

If we are all IN…who cares about faith? Why bother? This week Dave is talking about Emotional Intelligence as the real work of the Kingdom. Don’t miss this incredible teaching.  

from peg

I am reading an interesting book called “the gospel of inclusion” by a pentecostal pastor named Carelton Pearson, who was kicked out of his denomination because he was teaching a gospel that was universal in its scope and saving power.

A couple things that hit me were the fact that for the first 400 years of church history many churches, pastors and thinkers believed the in before you are out belief. It wasn’t until Christianity became the official state religion and Rome became the official centre that this doctrine was considered heresy. In fact in the ancient catecombs where churches would bury people, you will find thousands of carved images of the good shepherd carrying sheep AND goats on certain graves. The idea was that regardless of belief the early church believed that God’s love would save EVERYONE not just the “sheep”. Salvation was more powerful than sin or “wrong” belief because it was God’s saving act not dependent on anyone or anything. Below are the verses that were most often used by the early church to support the IN before you are OUT position. Notice that when the bible talks about “world” it literally means everyone not just those that respond or those that repent.

Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
John 12:31-32

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22

Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the Sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme.
Mark 3:28

Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. Rom. 5:18

For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Romans 11:32

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:1-2

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:17 

that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:19

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
2 Corinthians 5:14 

In the parables we see that for Jesus the issue was never trying to get people saved. Instead the issue of the kingdom of God was trying to get people to accept the reality that God had included ALL. This was and is the message that many of us struggle with. The kingdom deals NOT with the question of salvation but instead of why we have such a hard time as a human race accepting this teaching.

Join us Sunday night as we have dinner together and then open up the floor to a general Q and A session on this topic.

on lent

 

This week marks the beginning of the season of Lent in the church calendar. Lent is a 40 day long season typically observed with fasting and prayer, in an effort to prepare for the celebration of Easter. I’m of two minds about lent. I think there’s a lot to be said for tradition, for giving up chocolate or red meat or whatever just because that’s what Christians have been doing for hundreds of years and continue to do today. There’s a sense of connection with my heritage (not so much the Mennonite or evangelical parts, in this case, but the bigger Christian heritage) that comes with observing the rituals that have been passed down, regardless of their reasons.I also think there’s value in a little bit of fasting – be it a full fast or simply a lent-style giving up one or two things. I think we can gain a lot of perspective when we are forced to re-evaluate things that we take for granted, and when we interrupt our sometimes unintentional routine in order to reflect on our worldview and our selves.   

On the other hand, maybe it’s just that I’ve seen Chocolat one too many times, but something about self-denial for the sake of faith really rubs me the wrong way. I guess I’m just reacting against the dualism I’ve so often encountered – the idea that the more of ‘this world’ I reject, the more I focus only on my ideas about Christ, the more spiritual I will be. I don’t believe that anymore, and I don’t want to behave as though I do. I agree with Pere Henri in Chocolat, at the end of the movie when he sticks it to the Comte:

I’m not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to speak of the miracle of Our Lord’s divine transformation? Not really, no. I don’t want to talk about His divinity. I’d rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life, here on Earth. His kindness, His tolerance… Listen, here’s what I think. I think that we can’t go around… measuring our goodness by what we don’t do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think… we’ve got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create… and who we include.

I think the common theme between choosing to focus on kindness and tolerance or giving up chocolate and coffee, is that we choose to be intentional for 40 days, in a way that we might not during other parts of the year. For lent, whether you choose to give up or to embrace, I would encourage you to be intentional about prayer, about reflection, about considering what kind of preparations or changes might need to be made in your mind and heart as we look to celebrate the victory of the kingdom of God over death.

 

 

the kingdom of god at the oscars

from Peg…

I have been noticing that in the gospels  Jesus simply ANNOUNCES things. He announces the kingdom is right in their midst…and announces the good news…he announces that people are healed …announces forgiveness.

 

There is never a deal struck…if you do this…or if you say sorry then you get forgiveness…or if you are really good..then I will heal you.  Notice the ten lepers…9 don’t say a thing…they still get healed…but only one comes back to say thanks. Or the man lowered down by his pals through the roof. Jesus simply announces that his sins are forgiven. This is the seed that is sown throughout the world. Everyone is Included in salvation. 

 

The issue is not the necessity of a response in order to get forgiveness or to get healed – those things happen because of God’s mercy…our response is about US. Our receptivity to the ideas of the kingdom of God…ideas of getting off Scot-free, of not score-keeping, not judging, not being contemptuous…are important because they produce and yield a harvest of 1000 fold in our lives.  A harvest of joy, of contentment, of beauty. Our lives get richer and more full. Our relationships get deeper, more transparent, more authentic. This is the benefit of the kingdom of God. Not some after-life streets of gold idea…but instead a life that is so rich and full of wonder.

 

This week we are looking at the themes of the kingdom of God within the Oscar nominated films. What we will find is that God continues to ANNOUNCE the ideas of the Kingdom in all of these films. These are stories full of the least, the last and the lost getting it…and scorekeepers having their lives exposed as small, shallow and pitiful.

 

Join us Sunday as we go the Movies…

peg on the kingdom of god

Dave and I have begun a series on the Kingdom of God. I think it is one of the most revolutionary and important series we have ever done. The ideas in this series have the potential to transform how you live every day of your life. Most of us have come to think of Christianity as essentially about getting “saved” and then getting everyone else saved through evangelism and missions. Even the motivation for ethical living came down to being holy so that others would see your holiness and therefore want to get saved like we are. We feel that the salvation language is deeply problematic. 

Jesus didn’t talk about getting saved. He talked about the kingdom of God and how it started right now, not after you died. The kingdom of God is a way of thinking about life.  It is an openness to God’s generosity and a willingness to accept the fact that we are in before we are out. That inclusion comes before exclusion. 
 
Yes he talked about being born again to Nicodemus in John 3 but when you really think about that conversation it is possible to see it in a different light. Nicodemus was a religious Pharisee who saw the world and God through an in/out mentality. He believed that he was in and that most everyone else was OUT.  Jesus confronted this person and said that he must be born again or renewed or changed in his thinking about God and the world if he was ever going to freedom and joy in this life and the next. Being born again does not mean accepting Jesus in your heart. It instead means to radically change how you think about God and the world. 

When Jesus said that he was the way the truth and life…and that no one comes to the Father but through him. I think he was indicating that there is no other way to understand God than through the Kingdom of God thinking. That is the only way…that is the only truth…that is the only thing that will produce life in us. The way of the Kingdom is open to everyone…every religion, every person is included in this radical kingdom. But Jesus kept on insisting…especially to religious people that there is no other way.

communion liturgy

I love the way we do communion at nexus. Have I ever told you this? I love it. I love that I can line up and choose to be silent and contemplative if I want, or chat to someone beside me in line, or to give or receive a hug from a friend. I love that the ritual is so well established with us – we know that as soon as ‘the nexus song’ (as Annie Peters has been known to call it) plays, it’s time to go up.

More often than not, my thoughts as I go through the line will be along these lines, about how appropriate this way of doing communion is, considering we view the Lord’s Supper as a table of inclusion, of an image of our belief that we are in before we are out. That’s why kids take communion with us. That’s why guests, even if we don’t always remember to tell them, are encouraged to take communion with us.

After last month’s communion service, we discussed as a staff the need to develop some sort of liturgy for communion. We wanted a statement that would explain, remind, and reinforce our beliefs around this ritual, both for our core community, and for guests and children as well.

With the parables of the workers in the vineyard and the two sons fresh in my mind this week, I sat down to work on some lines that we could speak together before we take communion. I wanted to share them with you here, to give you a chance to think them over in advance, before we recite them together, and also because I thought it would be neat to see what people had to say about them. So here’s draft 1 of a Nexus Communion Liturgy:

We come to the table today
alongside countless sisters and brothers
around the world
throughout history
remembering Jesus’ work
two thousand years ago
to bring about the Kingdom of God
amidst the Kingdom of Man

We come to the table today
a banquet in the Kingdom of God
a table of inclusion
for young and old
rich and poor
friends and strangers
healthy and unhealthy
where we are all welcomed, wanted, loved

We come to the table today
to join in the party
because we are all workers in the vineyard
because we have all been both brothers in the story
because we are all in before we are out

So come, one and all,
friend and stranger
healthy and unhealthy
share the body and blood of Christ together
broken and shed
for you