Office supplies, love, and little glimpses of grace

Office supplies, love, and little glimpses of grace

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forgiveness

I have been thinking much about forgiveness over the last few days. This is not something that is easy to do, but it is something that we are called to do.

One of my seminary profs said that forgiveness is “reliquishing our right to retribution.” It is letting go of our need for justice and extending mercy to the other person. This may include reconciliation, but it may not either.

Sometimes hurts are too big to overcome.

“In the Bameba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every many, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, each recalling the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy, is recounted. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths, and acts of kindness are recited carefully and at length. This tribal ceremony often lasts for several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe.” (from The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace by Jack Kornfield)

Too often when someone hurst us we go over the ways that person has failed.

What if we remembered the good things they have done instead of the bad?

virtues unknown

Image via Wikipedia

My parents live at the top of a coulee in Southern Alberta that leads down to the Old Man River. The coulees leading into this river bottom got there start at the end of the last ice age when a lone glacier rolled down the prairies cutting a channel in the rich black soil. Over the years this channel was changed into a valley with coulees lining its edges.

At the bottom of my parent’s coulee is a large patch of thistles.

There are few weeds which frustrate a farmer more than thistles. Some say that thistles can regrow if even a quarter inch of root is left in the ground, and that thistle seeds can remain in the soil for decades before a timely rain makes them spring from the earth.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

This patch of thistle, though, is extremely beautiful. The green spiny stems which bear purple flowers on their heads. The vibrant colours which give way to a gorgeous thin white down bearing seeds.

Thistle seeds; the beloved food of finches.

Sitting out in my parents front lawn, looking out over that patch of thistles I came to appreciate them for more than just their beauty. Without the thistles and their seeds there would be no beautiful flashes of yellow which dart around the yard.

Too often we are blind to the value of things because we refuse to really look at them.

Too often we are blind to the value of people because we refuse to truly look at them.

Every time we vilanise another people group; someone who is different than us, someone who does not live like we do, someone who does not keep their house as clean, someone who comes from a different cultural background, someone who thinks about God differently than we do.

Every time we do this we refuse to really look at them.

Who is the “other”? A person whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

Take time today, this weekend, to really look at others. To try and discover the virtues that God has planted in all people.

After all, we are all made in his image.

guarding our lips

Image by victor_nuno via Flickr

In this world of technology, perhaps we should talk about guarding our keyboards, or our screens. When we are able to say whatever we want to the world on blogs, vlogs, twitter, facebook, … we tend to say more than we should.

I have found this tendency in me, which is part of the reason I have not been posting as often as I was before. The other part is that during the summer I will be occupied with others things, such as family visits and travel.

He who guards his lips guards his soul, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin. (Prov. 13:3, NIV)

I wonder sometimes how much thought is put into what we say. Our world seems to be so full of noise that it is hard to find those who have something really insightful to say; something worth listening to. It seems fewer and fewer of us, myself included, spend a sufficient amount of time in silence to dig deep into ourselves and God to come up with something born of that connection.

Too often it turns out to be simple prattle.

Abba Isidore of Pelusia said:

Living without speaking is better than speaking without living. For a person who lives rightly helps us by silence, while one who talks too much merely annoys us.

The funny thing is, for the number of times I have been annoyed with the chatter of another, I am sure there are many who have been annoyed with mine. It is very hard in this world to live without speaking, but doing so gives honour to the others in our lives, especially to God.

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finding the groove: a review

Why is it important that I come to grips with what the Church has thought about God throughout history? What does it mean for my life?

No doubt many Sunday School teachers and parents have heard these questions, or questions like them. There are still times when I see people becoming trapped by their tradition rather than freed by it. I feel this temptation in myself, a temptation to make certain statements about God more important than God himself.

Of course, we cannot know God outside of somekind of statements about him, and this is the paradox. Robert Gelinas, author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz Shaped Faith, argues that knowing our tradition can actually provide a way to develop a living faith that plays within the boundaries of our faith.

Gelinas is not only a devout lover of jazz music, he also argues that it can provide a great metaphor for Christian faith.

A jazz-shaped faith is worth pursuing because it balances freedom with boundaries, the individual with the group, and traditions with the pursuit of what might be.

Gelinas argues that the Christian life is far from being something static, but it more active and dynamic. When a jazz musician decides to play a certain song, no one expects her to copy the song exactly. Everyone expects her to put her own stamp on it, to pour her soul into it and let the song pour her out to the audience.

In a jazz ensemble the musicians are all playing the same tune, but they are using their own instruments, playing from their own backgrounds and influences, and improvising within the structure of the group. Gelinas wonders what would happen if we approached faith like this.

What if you and I experienced church like a jazz ensemble (listening to the beat of the image of God in each of us) and community meant that you and I felt connected, not only to those we can see, but alswo with those who have followed (in past generations) and have yet (in future generations) to follow Jesus? (emphasis original)

This may seem very strange to some who would get very nervous talking about “improvising” with the Christian faith. This may very well sound like another way to ignore some of the core Christian truths in order to make the religion more palatable.

This, however, is far from what Gelinas is arguing. In fact, he urges us to become more rooted in our tradition than many of us already are. Just like a jazz musician can only start to improvise after they fully understand the structure of the art, we can only start to improvise once we have fully grasped our tradition.

We need basic spiritual disciplines such as participation regularly in corporate worship and Bible reading, practicing generocity, and engaging in a life connected to the poor. … If we are rooted in the historic faith, basic Christian doctrine, and community, then I think we are ready to experiment a little.

Gelinas is lead pastor of Colorado Community Church, a multicultural, inter-denominational church, and so is careful to avoid some of the more divisive comtemporary issues regarding Christianity. He attempts to present something which will help all of us who call Jesus Lord and Messiah to develop a deeper, richer, more meaningful connection with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.

Drawing on Eugene Peterson’s book Working the Angles, he says there are three stories for which we need to develop our ear.

first, the story of what God has said to those in the past (the Bible); second, the story of what God is saying to us; finally, the story of what God is saying to those around us.

Developing our ear to listen for the call in all these stories and preparing to respond by accenting the unexpected (synopation) or allowing God’s voice to speak in creative and dynamic ways (improvisation) is crucial to developing a jazz-shaped faith.

If you decide to adopt a jazz-shaped faith, you will become a statement. No longer will you be satisfied with a series of propositions or the status quo. Rather, you will begin to sense current realities, anticipating the Spirit of God as the old passes and the new arrives.

Listen to IT. Respond to IT. Live IT.

What is IT? IT is not a question; IT is a statement. Jesus and his gospel was and is a proclamation. IT is the radical, life-altering, world-shaking assertion that the kingdom of God has arrived. The good news that Jesus announced with his lips, demonstrated with his life, sealed on the cross, and inaugurated with his resurrection is nothing short of the reality that the way and the will of God is here for all people.

Then he brings it home.

A statement needs to be made in the midst of the consumeristic, power-laden, individualised culture in which we swim. We know it. But what is the statement that a jazz-shaped faith will make? … renaissance.

A renaissance, a re-birth, of that faith in all of our lives.

Gelinas issues a great challenge to make our faith our own. To take our traditions and to struggle with them, to wrestle with them, to listen to the voice of God in scripture, throughout history, and today, as we seek to anticipate what he might be doing in the future.

This is a great book that encourages us to take Christianity and our traditions seriously enough to use them, rather than simply know them.

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