God Likes Our Neighborhood

From the moment I found out that we were having a daughter over 4 years ago, I began to pray that she would be my little Feminist Theologian. And sometimes she says things that make me think God might just answer my prayers. Just the other night we shared one of those moments where I realized that Gracie may actually believe some of the things I say and pray a little more than I do.

Out of the blue Gracie looked at me with her deep, beautiful, inquisitive eyes and declared "God likes our neighborhood!!!"

In her mind this little profound statement was just a simple expression of reality as she understands it. This is the narrative that she experiences life through, and it it beautiful. While I say that God loves our neighbors and neighborhood there are many times I wonder how he could.

For many of us we have been told the wrong story, given a poor narrative to live by. We have been convinced that there is not enough, that we ought to judge and hate people for their mistakes/addictions/flaws, that we are right and so they must be wrong, that we belong here and they do not, that the world is out to get us, that there are a lot of bad people, that we have no responsibility to anyone but ourselves, and worst of all God loves us but not those who are different than us. We have sadly believe that God does not actually like our neighborhoods.

God does love our neighborhood, he even likes it. The people here are a delight to him, and this is the type of place I think Jesus would want to live. I think Jesus would find great joy in every single person who lives here, and I think he would always be dreaming with people of a healthier life. He would be in the work of restoration, the work that requires eyes always looking for the good and beautiful hidden in the dilapidated and broken.

Jesus was always announcing this overflowing, inclusive, generous love to people. My daughters question first made me wonder if I believed it, then caused me to wonder if the people in my neighborhood know it. To often there are people speaking judgment, intolerance, and even hatred against people in the name of Jesus. This is blasphemy, this is violence being committed against the kingdom of God. We may not like who all God has invited to the great banquet of his love, but what a horror it would be if we missed the banquet because we didn't think the guests were deserving enough. I want to announce this, to creatively encounter my neighbors and neighborhood in a way that communicates "God likes you, and he really likes our neighborhood."

Most of all I am realizing how God allows me to raise my daughter in a way that calls me into honestly living out the radical love of God. Kids have a funny way of reflecting back to you what you say in a way that catches you off guard and actually operates as a critique of your practical theology. I hope my daughter Gracie leads a revolution. I hope her love for God, for people, and for the world leads her to critique the broken systems that would make room for oppression, poverty, exclusion, and hatred. I want her to be a radical for love, not because she is trying to be a radical, but because she is so compelled by love that their is no other way for her to live. I want her to grow up in a world where people know that God likes them, and I want here to be a continual call to me to live into that vision also.

The Unknown Familiar Places

The other day I found myself walking down a trail I have walked a thousand times. At one point though, about 2 miles in, I realized that I was now walking where I had never walked. I would say that I know this trail, and I do, yet here I was in an unknown familiar place. It was a space that my mind easily imagined the contours of, but my feet had never felt. My awareness of the beauty around me was heightened as I started to know it in a new way.

Neighborhoods can be this same way, a space that is entirely familiar to us and yet remains unknown. We know the streets, we know the parks, we know the house that leaves their Christmas decorations up until Easter, we know the house that always throws parties, we know the house with the beautiful community garden, we know the streets we choose to avoid, we know the streets we wish we lived on, we know where the schools are, we know our way around, but the people and the space remains in this unknown familiar place.

While walking on the trail I became aware of this, aware of the fact that most times I live in my neighborhood but don't really inhabit it. That I wave at people and say hi without really knowing them. I could tell you a lot about my neighborhood, and even the people that live there. But if you spent a week with me how many of their stories would you hear? How many houses would you walk into? Would you be impressed with my familiarity or confused by how little I really know? This takes time, it takes a continual entering of that space, and it is never ending. I had to walk that trail into the unknown, and I am realizing more and more how much I need to walk my neighborhood. I need to pay more attention to my surroundings, and I am realizing how much more I need to listen. My desire is to inhabit this place, to be a part of the fabric of the Roosevelt Neighborhood, and to have my life intertwined with the real lives of others.

A little after the two and half mile marker I stopped and turned around. I thought it might be a good idea to leave some of the trail undiscovered, it might remind me that I don't really know this trail as fully as I could. I think I also stopped there and turned around because it would have been harder to appreciate my new discoveries if I just charged on, I wanted to take this place in, to fully savor its beauty. In the same way, I am venturing out to savor the beauty of my neighbors and neighborhood as I dig in deeper to inhabit the space where I find myself, and where I imagine my life rooting down for many years to come.

What's a Peacemaker?

The other day as my daughter was going to sleep I prayed over her as I do every night, but something I said caught her attention. When I was done praying she asked me what a Peacemaker is, because I prayed that she would be a peacemaker. All of the sudden I had to explain this idea to a 3 year old and tried to give a simple answer that she could understand. I’m not sure my answer made as much sense as I had hoped.

A few days later we were watching “How to train your dragon” and I quickly realized that this was a picture of what I had tried to explain, and I talked with my little Gracie about how Hiccup was a peacemaker. In the movie Hiccup goes against what everyone else is doing and creatively finds a new way to relate to dragons. He chose friendship and relationship over violence. That is what a peacemaker is, someone who seeks to know and understand the other rather than violently responding out of fear. It is someone who seeks a new way through the complex tensions of relationship.

Maybe this tree is what Peacemaking looks like. It is called the Tree of Life, and was created out of weapons that had been used as the instruments of war and violence. Around the world there are many places that have become memorials to a variety of wars and violence. I find that these memorials tend to serve the purpose of reminding people of historical horrors and acting as a warning to future generations. But this tree of life is a memorial of hope, it is a symbol of resurrection where death has turned to life. It does not call the viewer back into the suffering, it does not stand as a warning, instead it offers hope and beauty that violent men and women cannot silence. This is what peacemakers create in our world. This is what Jesus has called us to. To point the way forward into a prophetic vision of Peace.

The cross is a horrible thing, and yet it is a beautiful thing. In the midst of its violent reality springs hope and beauty. It was created to be a symbol of shame and defeat, but has become a call to hope and a symbol or life. My prayer for my daughter is not just that she would lay down all weapons and be a pacifist (although I do dream this for her), but that she would participate in the beautiful creative act of redeeming the tools of violence in our world into symbols of hope and life. That's not something I can explain to my beautiful little girl, but it is something I can attempt to model for her.

Wisdom On Display

I hate those moments in life where I get the awkward feeling that I have to do or say something really great. Mostly it has happened in classes. My mind spins as it considers if there is anything up there that might make me look really smart. My heart races. Then I usually say and do nothing because it seems like even my best ideas would come off as awkward and foolish.

Insightful revelations never seem to come when I want them most, they tend to hit me out of no where. The church celebrated Epiphany last week and it made me think about what the church is displaying to the world. What does the world see, hear, and experience through us. How can our awkwardness display the wisdom of God? Can God's extravagant love and forgiveness shine through a people who are more known for being judgmental and exclusive? Is there still surprising beauty emanating from a people who continue to choose power, violence, and comfort over sacrifice and suffering?

Paul is talking about how God's mysterious plan has been revealed in Ephesians 3. This mysterious plan is so awesome because it shows that God's love is not reserved for the insiders, there is no longer an us and them. There are no longer Gentiles, no longer outsiders, there are only those God loves. There are only children of God. Maybe this is how it was always supposed to be, but history shows how difficult it is to embrace such a great gift without becoming entitled and isolated. Eph. 3:10 says that God actually shows his beautiful wisdom in all its variety through the church, and it blows away all of the universe.

His beauty is revealed in a Mega Church that brings thousands into the Kingdom, where hundreds are baptized. His wisdom is revealed through the tiny church that has learned how to love the elderly well. His beauty is reveled through a Young Life leader who is willing to do the grossest, wildest, most embarrassing things imaginable in order to earn a place to speak God's love into the real heart of teenager. His love is revealed in the church that sits together over a meal and allow joyful laughter to spill all over the table. His wisdom is revealed in the church that has a passion for the homeless or passion for prayer or passion for world missions or just the simple passion to persevere as a healing presence in their neighborhood. We'd like to imagine that the church that reveals God's wisdom looks like the one we go to (or even lead) but the truth is our churches are a part of the rich variety of God's wisdom, we can play no more than the part we were called into being to play.

Our foolish, awkward churches display the beauty and wisdom of God in all of its variety. His mysterious plan is that we should all make up something so strange, so diverse, so complicated, so dynamic that the overlaying theme of love would draw the worlds eyes away from all of our misguided attempts to bring the Kingdom in our own way. It's like those painting that look like a ton of dots. The real picture isn't seen on the surface because the dots distract. But when you relax your eyes and ignore the details, a picture pops out at you. I don't want to pastor a perfect church, just a church that is a faithful witness to the extravagant, generous love of Jesus the Messiah. We want to declare to our neighbors and neighborhood that God loves them. And we pray that they might see beyond all of our failures in order to catch a glimpse of the the beautiful wisdom of God.

Coaching, Cussing, Swearing, Loving

I love watching football. I don't want to love it as much as I do, but one of the most wonderful things in the world is to cuddle up with my wife on that couch and lazily enjoy a game. Lately I have been paying more attention to the way different coaches act and respond. Some yell, some swear, some throw things, some look like they have no idea what they are doing, and some look like little kids playing with their friends in the back yard.

It makes me think of pastors. Some yell, some get angry, some laugh, some seem preoccupied with other things, some look confused or awkward, and other appear to be filled with childlike joy. Specifically, it seems that there are some who feel that the way to motivate people is make them feel like crap. Both coaches and pastors use the negative approach at times (yelling, judging, threatening, and putting the fear of God in people). While others can be overly positive, so that even when a person screws everything up its as if the coach or pastor didn't even notice.

In football, a good coach should know what their players need. Some players perform the best under coaches who cuss and swear and yell at them. But other players will never be able to flourish under that type of coaching. And then there are some players who become their best through encouraging and positive coaching, while others would never be motivated by that style. The coaches job is to help their players be the best they can, so they must learn to coach them in a way that most resonates with the player.

Pastors often have one style, and assume it is what their people need. I have heard some say that people ought to leave church aware of their sinfulness (almost leave feeling guilty and fearful), while others do everything to make sure their people leave feeling really good about themselves. Both rub the other the wrong way, both seem to reject the other as a true representation of the Gospel. But maybe, as leaders, it is more important to know our people and lead in a way that helps them the most.

All this to say that I love me some good old fashion preaching filled with fear and trembling, but I am pretty convinced that is not the mode or message that the Gospel can most effectively be communicated in my neighborhood. So I want to learn more and more how to know the People God has placed around them, to catch a vision with them of what God's dreams for them are, and then to work with them to live into that dream. I don't want to be a yeller, I don't want anyone to fear anything, I don't want people to live in or act out of guilt. I want to inspire, I want to encourage, I want to re-imagine being human in the way of Jesus. I want the Good News to be mind blowingly good. I want to guide us together to the path of peace, to the life giving way of Jesus, to love, to hope, to joy.