For instance, lets say that seven people wanted to share a five bedroom house. I looked up one in my hometown of Santa Maria that is running for $545,000. Alone, none of us would be able to afford the house, but let’s say for the sake of the scenario that each person in the group contributed $10,000 to the down-payment and was given 14.2% ownership of the house. That would come out to a $70,000 downpayment with each person paying a monthly payment of $870 over ten years (about what you would pay to rent a two bedroom house). Imagine, instead of a 30 year fixed mortgage, paying a house off in ten years! Paying off the house in ten years instead of 30 is a savings of almost $600,000 in interest.

The next question people might ask is, “Well what happens when one family or person wants has to move on because of work or other circumstances?” The nice thing about being tenants in common is that the other tenants can buy out their share. Thus, the person leaves with a nice check for their share of the property (14% or about $76,300). The others can absorb this debt or add someone else into the mix to take over that person’s share of the house. It is somewhat like diversifying in the stock market because you have others to help you if one of the people has to leave the house. It works as a good community should.

But just living together does not automatically create Christian community. In fact, the creation of genuine community, as I’ve come to find over 23 years of existence, is not something that ever just “happens.” It is work. It has always been the work of God to try and bring people together and living in a house, where one is dependent on the others for the payment and upkeep of the house, can be quite a body-stretching experience. Dependence is not something we strive for or teach in our public schools. In fact, it seems that we teach just the opposite. To stay away from one another and to keep afloat “on our own.” What might this intentional Christian community look like as we all share in the hard times and the good?

I am afraid that I will end up alone in a house that alienates me from any kind of Christian community.

I am afraid that expectations of friends and family will always expect me to get bigger and better things in life for no good reason.

I am afraid that I will grow stagnant and stop wanting to constantly learn new things and engage with others concerning what the kingdom of God should look like here and now.

But at the same time I am excited to try and form some kind of community wherever I end up.

At the same time, I think I can rise above the expectations and the stereotypes to create a world that thinks and acts justly in an unjust world.

At the same time, I think there is a way to take time out of a busy life to be a lifelong learner and talk with others in a way that leads towards a Kingdom lifestyle.

I suppose I just need to find the right people in the right place…

Should we see God’s economy as some from of social communism? Some have interpreted the early church — with the mutual sharing amongst all the members — as the way for the church to be. To take a modern example, perhaps everyone in a church might put their money into a ‘common pot’ and people would take money out of the pot as need be.

Should we see God’s economy as some form of investment in which we “put in” and then receive “dividends” later on. There are many trustworthy places to invest within our economy which pay out dividends throughout the years as a kind of “profit-sharing.” Can we read stories like the parable of the talents to mean we are to invest our money and make interest on it?

Or should we see God’s economy as some kind of place where we try to create an entirely new kind of economic system that derives its value from human interaction and less from annuities, capital, and other forms of equity? Should we be a people more concerned with brokenness, poverty, and social justice within our world? Should we pray that God’s kingdom truly would come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven? And yet how do we do that in a world so consumed with money and where money is sometimes needed to bring about these human interactions we speak about?

Some questions I am pondering and would like responses to if you are so inclined to leave comments on this blog:
1) Should Christians make more money in order to give more of it away for causes of social justice?
2) Should Christians invest in the stock market?
3) How do retirement plans fit in with the kingdom of God (if at all)?

In our fragmented and broken society a wedding is a sign of healing–two people, two families, two communities being made one. Two people come together, with their unique histories, bringing together two families positioned in the context of two communities which might otherwise, if left to their own devices, remain disconnected and disinterested. The sort of healing which Christ came to bring was and is the kind of healing that breaks down barriers and draws all people together–people who might otherwise, if left to their own devices, never be united. Marriage, therefore, is a foretaste of reconciliation–the mending of the world. Of course it comes with its trials and pains (if it didn’t, we might simply say “in health” and leave “sickness” out of the equation) for, as Thomas Merton wrote, the world is “a body of broken bones” and broken bones, when they are reset, tend to hurt. Divorce is simply the refusal to accept healing.

Marriage is Eucharistic insofar as it is an image of an invisible truth. It reveals the healing of the world which would otherwise remain concealed in the midst of brokenness and curse. In that sacramental moment when the two are united, the world is made right, the world is made one–the broken body of Christ is re-membered. Marriage calls a future reality–the reality of the fulfillment of Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one”–into the present and it, as it is lived out daily, refuses to accept the present brokenness which is so persistently pressed upon us day by day. Marriage is a counter cultural expression of love and faithfulness. Marriage refuses to accept the world as it is. It refuses to give in to cynicism and lesser visions. As the world comes together in and around the sacrament of marriage, we fulfill that for which we were created. In marriage, we reflect the image of the triune and eternal God of all creation.

It’s not just because we love each other (although we totally do!), it’s not just because it’s better to have a partner (although I imagine that it must be)… We’re getting married because we believe that God is healing the world and is reconciling all creation, through Christ’s physical body, to Himself. We are created in the image of God and we will reflect that image through unity and through the hope that is expressed in covenant. We deny brokenness, we reject the fragmentation, and we clearly and unabashedly proclaim redemption as we point with our bodies toward a world filled with the image of a loving God.

[this post was originally published at Living in the Kingdom on May 31st, 2010... this is the updated version (since the wedding is closer now than it was in May)]

Not the French kissing kind of tongues, but the tongues of fire.

I always had a hard time imagining this in Sunday School. I’m also a bit overwhelmed by tongues. So many people have interpreted this idea so many different ways. The Pentecostals have come to understand it as being slain in the spirit. The Baptists have come to see it as some sign of the incoming of Christ’s kingdom that was for that time period, but not for now.

And there has been so much head-splitting over what it means for “today.”

I heard a story once of an old man who covered himself in dirt and sat in front of a church.

No one helped him on their way into church.

Little did they know he was a candidate to be the new pastor of that church.

He never came back saying:

“If the words of Christ do not come in bodily form to those in need, then Christ is not present, no matter how much you sing about him.”

To the risen Son who now sits
back turned to the salty sea
making breakfast for the seamen
returned to shore. we ask
slowly but surely you would bless
us as a Peter. and nothing more.

2012 follows in the line of many biblical narratives which emphasize apocalyptic literature. In the story of 2012, there are two clear-cut sides, not unlike the sheep and the goats in the synoptic gospels. One side is interested only in preservation of human life (no matter what the cost), and the other side is interested in common decency and human love. If you are interested in seeing which one prevails, I would suggest seeing the movie. It is not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but the story has some interesting biblical parallels that is interesting to watch if only for theological reasons.

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald J. Sider is timely even now, 5 years since it has been written. Sider unabashedly calls out injustice and points out the problems with our personal life styles, our churches, and our systems in the U.S.. And he doesn’t stop there. He actually takes the risk of offering specific suggestions as to how we might implement structural changes.

In four parts; Poor Lazarous and Rich Christians (where he discusses the economic divisions in the world between wealthy Western Christians and the more than 1 Billion starving people in the world), A Biblical Perspective (where he reveals the Biblical concern for poverty plastered throughout the texts of scripture), What Causes Poverty (a close look at the structural and systemic issues which perpetuate the kind of economic divisions the world is facing), and Implementation (where he suggests ways by which we might seek justice for our 1 Billion hungry neighbors) Sider takes us on a journey from conviction to hope. His thorough investigation, if taken seriously, could offer folks at every level of political involvement–from average Joes and Janes to Politicians and Presidents–a renewed ordering of priorities, which might place those in greatest need as the greatest priority, as well as a greater vision and hope for social change. Surely we can change, otherwise there is no hope for the world’s poor or for the credibility of the gospel itself. At the heart of this change must be the heart for jubilee (Leviticus 25).

I am quite certain that many will read the early pages of this book and cry out, “socialist,” as so many have trained themselves to do with the help of radio and television pundits. But if we can rise above the rhetoric and face the music, then we may be able to do something beautiful. Rich Christians is a must-read… especially now!

“At a time when Marxism has collapsed and democratic capitalism is in danger of an overconfident neglect of its own failures, we must continue to re-examine economics from a thoroughly biblical perspective. We need economists immersed in biblical faith who will rethink economics as if poor people mattered… at the heart of God’s call for jubilee is a divine demand for socioeconomic structures that provide all people with the opportunity to acquire the capital necessary to earn their own way. We must discover new, concrete models for applying this biblical principal in our interdependent world. I hope and pray for a new generation of economists and political scientists who will devote their lives to formulating, developing, and implementing a contemporary model of jubilee.” -Sider (Page 266)

“Proclaim liberty throughout the land” -The inscription on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia from Leviticus 25:10

Sin is when we take something good and turn it in the wrong direction and redemption is when things are pointed in the right direction again.

Here in San Diego there is one story painting all the headlines. A young girl named Chelsea from Poway went missing not long ago, the response to which was a community-wide search. The search ended tragically with the discovery of her body. An arrest was made of a man named John Gardner, a registered sex-offender. About a year ago, a girl from Escondido named Amber went missing. Upon the arrest of Gardner in Chelsea’s case, the search for Amber was renewed and finally reached tragic closure yesterday when her body was discovered. Gardner is now in custody and is facing serious charges which may, if not certainly, sentence him to capital punishment.

The other night as I sat and watched the news, I was overwhelmed by the ugliness of the situation. I felt sick to my stomach thinking about the tragedy of it all, the pain that the families must be feeling, and the hopelessness of it all. As I sat and thought, “what could we possibly do to turn this in the right direction? How can hope be brought to such hopelessness?” they began to interview people from the community and show their reactions. One woman said that she didn’t think that Gardner should even be put on death row, “we should just kill him now.” Another man said “he deserves to be treated the same way he treated those girls.” Another woman even used the term, “an eye for an eye.” On the garage door of Gardner’s parents’ home, vandalism was discovered. In red writing it read, “Chelsea’s blood is on you.” And when two young men went to paint over the vandalism, a fight almost broke out and they were rebuked by the neighbors. The overall reaction from the community was anger, vengeance, hatred, and contempt for Gardner and his family.

What Gardener did was so ugly, the situation is so hopelessly ugly, and people’s reactions are yet so ugly as well. Can’t there be some reaction that brings life and hope to the situation? Yet the vengeful and angry reactions of the community are still so hopeless and empty.

We so often turn good things in the wrong direction–anger becomes hatred, hatred becomes violence, and violence becomes death–when anger, turned in the right direction, can be so life-giving. After all, it is our anger towards injustice which leads us to do justice. Can we sometimes turn bad things in the right direction?

In the face of sin, injustice, and even the horror of something like rape and murder, we as followers of Christ have a strange opportunity, perhaps our greatest opportunity, to turn things back in the right direction. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’… You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matthew 5:38-48). In some way Jesus calls us to see the face of God even in the most horrific people, even in the face of John Gardner. God calls us to love that person, to pray for them. Such a loving response would be void of sanity if it was void of hope. Jesus, having been tortured, hanging on a cross of crucifixion, cries out “Father, forgive them…” (Luke 23:34). What kind of insane love would prompt such words of forgiveness in the face of such terrible injustice? Should they not pay for what they’ve done? What kind of hope could lead someone to love even when love seems impossible and irrational?

Jesus’ response to horror and tragedy was the response of resurrection. Oh, what hope in such hopelessness! What forgiveness in the midst of vengeance! Jesus’ response brought hope and restoration. What does our response bring?

Sin is a destructive pattern and our reactions to it, our reactions in the midst of our grief, can either continue the pattern of evil or they can break it and redeem it. Forgiveness is perhaps the most radical kind of redemption. Forgiveness is perhaps the greatest opposition to the pattern of sin. Forgiveness sends the whole thing, all of history, back in the right direction. Forgiveness offers hope in the midst of hopelessness and therefore it is the only truly Christian response to injustice.

Paul wrote, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil… Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath” (Romans 12:17-19). Revenge is different from wrath. When we seek “an eye for an eye” and when we take vengeance and refuse to forgive, we stand in the way of God’s wrath. Now, God’s wrath is not like ours. Wrath, for God, never comes without restoration. God’s justice always ends injustice. When we take wrath into our own hands, we simply perpetuate the hopelessness and horror of the situation. God’s wrath is soaked in love and clothed in forgiveness but God does not turn his head to the situation, his forgiveness does not simply shrug off sin. On the contrary, God’s forgiveness and his wrath are one. God’s forgiveness is about offering the freedom of reconciliation, and there’s work in reconciliation. There’s hard, painful, and sometimes nearly torturous consequences to sin, these consequences must lead to redemption. God’s heart breaks over the consequences which must be suffered in order to reach true restoration and in order for amends to be made. For us to leave this kind of wrath up to God, we have to get out of the way and we have to forgive. I’m not saying that we should do nothing, in fact we should respond to injustice swiftly but not without forgiveness and love. Therefore there is a role for the justice system and it is a good one. The role of the justice system should be to create space for God’s wrath and to implement the kind of consequences which lead to restoration. These would likely be painful consequences for someone like John Gardner but (and it is nothing less than scandalous to say this) God will go with him. Gardner may very well reject God’s presence, but God won’t give up on him even if we’d want him to.

Many of us don’t want to forgive. Some of us are not ready to forgive. But the only way to peace, the only way to true justice, and the only way for us to find freedom from our anger is through radical forgiveness and love. This is the only life-giving response. Rather than crying out “crucify him” or “kill him” we should pray for him, pray for his family, pray for the families of the girls he’s killed and look with broken hearts toward the consequences he must now face. Ultimately we should pray for true redemption and that we might be a part of it. We must turn the situation back in the right direction. We need to see the face of Jesus even in the most morally bankrupt people and in the faces of the most wretched. Our capacity to love must exceed their capacity to destroy.

Most of all, we must pray for the families of Chelsea and Amber. We must pray that they find freedom, closure, and peace. Our hearts should break for their loss and for the pain that has been inflicted on them. Pray that God will be with them on this journey and that we, the church, might offer them healing wherever we are given the opportunity.

God of comfort and rest, fill us with hope in hopelessness and forgiveness where there is nothing but vengeance. Give our tired souls rest from our anger, frustration, and bitterness. May we be filled with the same love that caused you to speak words of forgiveness from a cross. Amen.

Wright writes, “I am convinced that when we bring our griefs and sorrows within the story of God’s own grief and sorrow, and allow them to be held there, God is able to bring healing to us ans new possibilities to our lives. That is, of course, what Good Friday and Easter are all about” (from the introduction). Wright rightly suggests that when we go through the process of actually “owning up to the grief which we often hide,” without pretending that it isn’t there or simply bottling it up, allowing it to play it’s melody alongside Christ’s passion, we can find creative new possibilities, even new creation, on the other side.

This is a powerful collection of reflections, one for each day of Holy Week, which gives new life to the story of redemption and to the meaning of each day of Holy Week. I would recommend this as a great devotional for Holy Week this year or for any week of the year for that matter.