Jesus, you pitched a plan and caused many in humanity to believe. You helped us hope that our creator is a good and loving father. You also told us that you would return quickly and well, where are you. For 2000 years we have been dying in this hope that you would redeem creation, all humanity and usher in your kingdom of peace. It is frustrating that you never came back, and your followers wait while scorned by scoffers and history a like. “Where is your teacher, where is your God,” they say. Jesus, you presented a wonderful plan, lead by example and it makes our hearts fear we live a lie, a false hope. “To whom else do we turn, who else has the words of life?” Apostle Peter.

Jesus, you speak hope and awe into my heart, yet at times you scare me in your apocalypse. Will you separate us in love and judgment and what the fuck does this mean? What is the afterlife, and did we just invent it? I trust you with most of my heart, but there is a part that is scared that you are petty and violent like Moses described your father to be. Im glad that you brought a new word after Moses! I think you are love… I hope you are… I hope this whole faith has a primary grounding in truth and what is. So much of religion is man made… Jesus, what about all this pain? What about injustice? What do we do with our pain, our broken dreams, our political preachers, our false dogma, and the tension your teaching places upon us? There is so much beauty, hope and faith in the storm and the quite river, but they can shift so fast and bring us to an end and the same thing that brings inspiration can bring suffering.

To be your follower, to place my hope in your teaching, to believe you will return in loving justice is my faith. I am still discovering what faith is and what it is not. I declare the words of our current poet, Alexie Murdach, “my salvation lies in your love.” I await your return as so many who have died in this same hope. Raise me from my slumber in this life and when I am gone. May I see things as they are, strong in faith, rich in love. Come Jesus come.

 

I like this quote by John Muir and it gives rise to hope in its dark muse.

“We soon cease to lament waste and death… and faithfully watch and wait the reappearance of everything that melts and fades and dies about us.” John Muir

 

 

The Teaching:

“Let not your heart be troubled… I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

 

The Practice:

Give your heart permission to contain the hope along side of the doubt. Let go of dualism (either or thinking) and allow what is to be. We can hope in the darkness, we can hope in the light, we can ask questions and still allow faith to exist. I give you permission to be human in case you are holding yourself and others to too high of a standard.

 

Lyrics by Alexie Murdach

“When I am alone

When I’ve thrown off the weight of this crazy stone

When I’ve lost all care for the things I own

That’s when I miss you, that’s when I miss you, that’s when I miss you

You who are my home

You who are my home

And here is what I know now

Here is what I know now

Goes like this..

In your love, my salvation lies

In your love, my salvation lies

In your love, my salvation lies

In your love, my salvation lies

In your love, my salvation lies

In your love, my salvation lies

In your love, my salvation lies

In your love, in your love, in your love”

 

 

The Resistance …“How long will they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look.” Bob Marley

A Prophet’s job is to speak, “Truth to Power.” Most self-serving politicians are not willing to utter these truths and line towing religious careerist will consider saying them. I know worship leaders who don’t believe what the pastor says, but if they say what they believe they will loose their jobs and it would end their career. I’ve met pastors who refuse to utter what they admit behind closed doors, leaders who don’t agree, but tow the line so they don’t loose their community and respect. If the leaders of our faith tradition became ruthlessly loyal, and gave up on human allegiance, we could create a community of faith that truly knocks upon the divine door.

 

Enter the Prophet:

Our faith traditions need holy people who will not settle for security and safety alone and these brave individuals embody the role of the prophet. They live on the borderlands, outside of groupthink and aim to be line with the divine arc of redemption. The divine arc of redemption is a slow evolution of man coming to see God as God is and less in light of our fears, projections and manipulations. The Arc of Redemption is inclusive, good news to all and Jesus is central to this projection of the redemption of all creation to her creator. The prophet is most likely killed, persecuted or socially marginalized on the outside of society or from faith communities. They get marginalized for good reason too as they speak with in the tradition, but challenge it to its core and orthodoxy. They often don’t fit the pre-packaged and polished view that the religious elite are selling to the public.

Venerating the Prophet as Gods voice to humanity

The prophet took extreme measures to be cleansed from the values of the frivalist, the materialist, and the marginally, comfortably religious. These individuals where not perfect or correct in all they uttered, but they often went to great efforts to be in tune with God’s hum. Preachers and teachers classically sanitize the prophets of all extremes when looking back. Modern evangelicals rant from the pulpits we cant question their writings and we conform hook, line and sinker. Those who refuse to go all in on this propaganda get kicked out, alienated, shamed, or manipulated to come back into line… and I feel this pain personally. Consider the example of Ezekiel for crying out loud! The dude stayed in bed longer than Gandhi and cooked over his own shit getting radical and crazy trying to break into the consciousness of the religious castle. These prophets have a job to shake up the faith tradition, but end up getting killed or venerated as God’s Perfect word! Hosea, marries a prostitute in the name of God, Jesus and John the Baptist chose homeless roaming to connect, Jeremiah was likely clinically depressed and locked up in the city sewage, Joana unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide to avoid his job as prophet, and Balem was called to order by his talking donkey. Today we would incarcerate these individuals and have them locked up or on meds.

America, a nation divided, needs the voice of the prophet today.

The voice of American Christianity is impotent and lost sight of the arc of loving redemption embodied in Jesus. We have become obsessed with right wing protectionism, patriotism, seclusion, fear, and being morally superior. None of these trite and passing issues have lasting value. Being in Tune with God, connected and united to our divine life giver is most important thing in this embodied state and the life that will continue in the next dis embodies reality. Being righteous, on top of the dog pile, in control of our kingdom of dirt, or religiously driving a sect of faith are not on Gods priority list but our petty agenda. We must respect our long faith traditions but learn to push past the boundaries too. The God who Jesus points to is still inspiring, illuminating and looking for brave souls to speak truth to power, but this comes at a great price. We must be willing to allow divine goodness to help us speak truth to power politically, socially, religiously, and face the reaction of those who currently clutch to their fleeting power. This brave life will disenfranchise you, cost you your life, but it’s true life. We need modern prophets today to die to conformity and come alive to the Spirit that still breathes.

 

Jesus’s Teaching:

We must loose our life in order to find it

 

The Practice

Read this song by Josh Garrels and let it move you today.

The Resistance

 

“I was born into a system constructed for failure

It’s a sinking ship manned by drunken sailors

An escape artist behind the bars of a jailor

An asthmatic attack when we forgot the inhaler

If the shoe doesn’t fit what good is a tailor

In the midst of a crisis please cancel the gala

Without a symphony there’s no need for a prelude

To foreshadow what’s to come.

See the secret committees, commence with their meetings

To make red tape in response to simple questions

Questions threaten the perception of the beneficial systems

A pyramid scheme with it’s cogs and it’s pistons

Mechanization of men, making more and more

Live in a miserable exhistance

How can so few, claim so many victims

And this begs the question

My rest is a weapon against the oppression

Of mans obsession to control things

Look at the long line of make believe kings

The lord of the flies want’s you to kiss his ring

Follow new rules with invisible strings

And become a puppet in the diabolical scheme

How do good men become part of the regime

They don’t believe in resistance.

 

Hold fast like an anchor in the storm

We will not be moved

 

Lesson number one, overcome

Every fear of regret and confusion

It’s all illusion, delusion

Sent to disconnect the holy fusion

Of spirit and the flesh

Every mortal breath, is meant to bring forth fire

But only when the fear of death, gets consumed

On the funeral pier

So let the flames rise higher

Let every man be considered a liar

If he doubts the goodness and faithfulness of God

Itching ears will compulsively nod in approval

When unbelief is taught in all our temples and schools

But God can restrain the madness of a fool

He can bring His truth through the mouth of a mule

You can move an mountain without any tools

It just takes the faith of a little seed

to make a way through what might seem to be

Impossibility,

And the ability will match the occasion

The outcome will defy explanation

The liberation will not be televised

When it arrives like lightning in the skies

 

Hold fast like an anchor in the storm

For your love, we will rise and overcome

Through the fire

 

Hold fast my people and sing

Through peace and through suffering

All for the joy that it brings, to be free

It’s gonna cost us everything

To follow one Lord and King

True love endures everything

To be free

 

Hold fast, like an anchor in the storm

We will not be moved”

credits

from Love & War & The Sea In Between, released June 15, 2011

 

https://joshgarrels.bandcamp.com/track/the-resistance

 

God In A Box,” is kind of like, “Jack in the Box,” in that its fast food for the soul, it smells good, but in the end doesn’t end up enriching to soul but clogs it with grease.

Religion is noble when it seeks to know and have union with its source. Religion is toxic when it becomes ridged, dogmatic and becomes an end unto its own creeds. Creeds and be helpful, but posses only the authority we surrender to them. Creeds are lifeless with out willing participants, so lets animate life giving creeds and not regressive and dark understandings of God as creed.

 

Examples from ancient Jewish Scripture of a tribal war god image:

Jewish story’s involving the arc of the covenant, (A Box they believed God dwelled in) illustrates not a truth, but a primitive and violent god image they held close. The Jews in this these stories encountered a truly divine deliverance from slavery. Like us, they filled in the blanks, couldn’t stand in mystery, and where far from capable of accepting a god image that Jesus would proclaim thousands of years later.

These Egyptian slaves easily miss understood grace for specialness. They championed God correctly as being for the oppressed. Then quickly miss took this revelation. They shaped this divine encounter and interpreted that this god was exclusively out to help only their tribe, and not all humanity. Even though Abraham the patriarch of this tribe) understood that his family, this new god image was to a blessing to all nations. The Jews began to fashion a god that was more relatable, more like the gods the tribes around them understood. This god image was predictably human and petty, but had some subtle and profound paradigm shifts that would begin to unravel in human consciousness for thousands of years. Its important to separate these tribalism’s and fresh revelation that where in the mix at the time.

 

What needed (s) to be undone:

A violent god

a god animated by petty human emotion

a punitive and petty god

a controllable god

a god confined to space

a temperamental god,

a god that needed blood (human or animal) to be ok with creation

 

What was being birthed:

a universal god for all

a loving and benevolent god

a stable god that doesn’t need appeasement

a god that wants relationship with creation and humans

a non violent god

 

 

 

A new understanding of the creator was being birthed as the Jewish story gives testimony to. When understood in the context when written Abraham, Moses, and the prophets inch humanity closer to the Jesus revelation. Jesus becomes the bridge out of the darkness into the light. God doesn’t live in a tribal box, a tent, a building or place. Holy ground is anywhere we wake up to the presence of the divine. God is in the storm, in the silence, in our suffering, even in the darkest night of the soul. We occasionally become aware and become aware of this truth and encounter it in moments of ecstasy, peace and inspiration. The entire universe is contained within the divine. No need to scrap all the sages, prophets, holy books, etc… God is alive, inspiring, present and filling all creation. We must not get stuck in orthodoxy, but dangerously, reverently, spring forward into a generous orthodoxy. For a soul stirring exploration of the term generous orthodoxy listen to, Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, episode on Generous Orthodoxy, https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/revisionist-history/id1119389968?mt=2&i=373983999)

Scriptures are a human story of people getting it all wrong and then having encounters with the creator in the most random spaces. Lets anticipate God to animate the most UN holy places, to shed is light in the darkness.

 

Jesus Teaching:

A time is here where all places are sacred, in Gods reality its being into tune with his spirit, not space and place.

(Regarding Gods box, building, or place) Jesus and the Samaritan women talk about holy space in John 4:19-24.

 

Practice:

Regard all people, places and situations as opportunities to discover scared space of worship. Open up in a poster that expects to be surprised and check in often on what spiritual fuel you are running on.

“Death paves the road to new life”

Jesus is born into social and political oppression that the original Hebrew’s lived. His first priority was to speak to the Jewish tradition because he is a Jew. He memorized the same laws, poems, teachings and faith of his people group I speculate that he felt the angst of violence preferred by Moses, and the prophets. Jesus affirmed his tradition when it was enlightened and speaks with fresh word and authority when clouded in regressive ignorance. His impact upon all of humanities God image has not gone unnoticed, this would be an understatement. As followers of Jesus we do have a faith that God became one of us in some mystical way in Jesus. I suppose in this life I will only guess at the oneness of Jesus and our creator he called, Father. As a man who is committed to understanding and flowing Jesus’s teachings I assert that his power and spirit is in our questions. Jesus is God with us in my tension, faith and in my own darkness. We are held and accompanied with all of creation in frustration, questions, hope, faith, love and even death. In faith we hold that behind all death is new life, and we get this model directly from Jesus. He embodied this teaching with his life and death. A seed must die, be buried, in order to grow into its fullest life.

 

Teaching:

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

 

Practice:

Daily and moment by moment be willing to die to ego, your illusion of being right, your pride and be willing to fall into the hands of the good father. In this practice we follow the example of Jesus in his life and death.

“What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us, trying to make his way home.” Joan Osborn

How did we all end up so fucking certain about our origins, the earth and settled on our ideas about God? Is life so stormy that we are ready to take refuge in any harbor we come upon? We are tangled and trapped by our limited perspectives. Some of us have been awoken to the reality that we are not alone in the universe and that this all did not happen by random chance. We cannot be certain of how it all came to be and religion and science are wonderful tools to use to seek for answers. As a Jesus person, I do celebrate and revere a very old creation poem that the ancient Hebrews passed down. This poem strongly suggests that humans have a designer, a master craft person, who possesses infinite creative talent. These enslaved Hebrews who passed it along orally for hundreds of years, professed a hope in a God who is concerned with the underdog, those marginalized, the poor and oppressed. It is not surprising that this God image arose with those who needed a hope in a unique redeemer that is with the oppressed. Their vision gives me hope and it has inspired humanity to hope in redemption for creation, the human condition. It’s understandable that humans would imagine a God that was like them in many ways. My friend Rob Bell says, “We have a crisis of imagination.” We have glimpses of inspiration where we can momentarily see beyond our nose. We must be willing to visit other harbors, consider how others find safety and meaning as we have in the storm of life. Its ok to enjoy the place you rest in, but we cannot war with others because they have found other territory.

Today in the modern world its easy to see the tribalism that dominated their God image, but it takes time and care to uncover the new revelation that they where uncovering at the same time. In good humor I would like to add this to the Jewish creation story; On the seventh day while God rested, humans created God in their image and said it was good. We each directly and unconsciously craft our understanding of God. It is hard to imagine a designer who is not inline with what we see, because like I said, we have a crisis of imagination. We desire revenge, struggle to forgive, recourse to systematized violence, oppress those weaker than ourselves and as humans have imagined God in the same fashion. I have a faith that the true God stands apart from my idolatry and patiently tolerates this ignorance. The true God allows evil to be done in his name, but his grace is ever present in our personal and cooperate violence throughout the pages of history. It seems the divine graciously understands our human condition and is patient with us in our dim understanding of reality. I hope and discover that God is present in our brightest hopes and darkest fears.

Jesus teaches his followers how to resist a financial oppressor using nudity as a comical way to fight back. If your creditor takes your jacket as collateral, give them your underwear too. This comedy would have brought deep belly laughs from people who where forced to give their coats as a deposit on a loan. Jesus was witty, provocative and called for revolution that leads with dignity, willing to suffer, willing to love even an enemy. “How can people who are engaged in repressive acts repent unless they are made uncomfortable with their actions,” Walter Wink. In his book, Jesus and non-violence, Walter illustrates how Jesus was sponsoring clowning as a way to fight oppression instead of violence. He also points out that Jesus wants those engaged in violence and oppression to be liberated from the tyranny that they operate from. Jesus was for the liberation and freedom of all parties involved in the human drama and invites us into what he calls, “The Kingdom of God.” I have never herd a preacher talk about how getting publically naked is apart of Jesus’s teachings. Most western evangelicals place moral formation as the path to redemption. However, I see Jesus and his teachings as provocative, dicey, risky and not good family values. Jesus teaches how to be subversive without being violent, how to live life a new way, a way that is bold. We now can add nudity as a tool under our belt as one way to fight injustice. Jesus asks us to use our imagination, humor, and to act boldly in the face of evildoers. Jesus invited to, “live as innocent as doves and as shrewd as a snake.” I believe the, “Get Naked,” principal here embodies this admonishment. I always have wondered what it means to live out the shrewd teaching and be innocent, Jesus show us one way in his, “Get Naked,” teaching. We are not called to just copy Jesus, but to operate with in the same Spirit, use the same principals, embody this comical way of bringing the kingdom of God to earth. May we discover fresh and creative ways to live this teaching out and bring about justice through our actions.

In the life and message of Jesus, he forbids the sword as a means to advance the kingdom of God, even in the face of a roman violent occupation of his homeland. Violent resistance and war is directly opposed to being a follower of Jesus. As a prophet Jesus spoke truth to power, and as a teacher demonstrated a new way to oppose evil, oppression and violence. Jesus illustrated to his followers how to move towards conflict with out mirroring it. To follow Jesus bravely moved towards conflict on behalf of the oppressed to embody the blessing of being poor in spirit and in tune with a gracious creator. The way of enemy love is heroic, but requires people to lay down their life to find it. Jesus did not teach his listeners to be morally pure, but to get dirty living a new life that breaks the rules, serves the greatest good, and stands against unjust social order. Modeling the real teachings of Jesus is down right scary. Gandhi said that violence was preferable over cowardice. Gandhi understood the teachings of Jesus to be difficult, for the oppressed and not for the compliant or the pacifist. What Jesus and Gandhi model is courageous and takes more guts than any armed conflict. They are asking us to trust that we don’t have to mirror violence to over come it. Violence begets more violence and to face violence with out violence requires the kind of bravery that Martin Luther Jr. embodied and died for. Luther like Jesus understood martyrdom was likely. However, if you consider these three non-violent revolutionaries, I believe its clear to see that their methods and spirit crafted social change that has been lasting, sustainable, progressive and worth modeling.

 

Armed revolt would have been a very dominant theme during the period Jesus lived and taught. He taught a new way to fight oppression without mirroring the violence that enslaved Rome and the Jewish people. He taught a way beyond submission, passivity or violence, he taught his followers how to resist those who violently subjugated them within a divine rhythm of Gods Spirit. His teachings where meant to absorb systematic evil and transform the situation into a world that flows with justice and grace. Only in Gods kingdom can we discover perfect justice and merciful grace. Following Jesus is what we are called to, not to admire his teaching or life, but to embody his teachings. We are violent to the core in our modern world and rather bath in the blood of our enemies than forgive them. If we are interested in the kingdom of God that Jesus invited us into, we must return to his teachings. Lets start over friends, like children, let us learn from the author of our faith and less from his way ward followers. We have been mislead and ill informed and we are called into a beautiful life of faith the requires a radical new understanding how to be here and now.

 

1. It’s not what we do not do that defines us as Jesus followers. It is what we embody makes us followers of Jesus.
2. Jesus did not model moral absence from violence, but a new way to get dirty, a new way to push forward.
3. Would Jesus support your politics? Consider that our understanding of Jesus may have led us far from his teachings and spirit. Try to embody his politics more and less of your churches, nations, and social politics.