Yet, when I walk – when I slow – I see the world move past me. Sometimes it’s the blur of a bike or a bus, or the very distant rumble of a plane flying far overhead. The monastic life invites me to move more slowly. It isn’t a slowness for its own sake. Instead, we slow down to see ourselves, our neighbors, our prayers, our work, and our God more clearly. There is no off switch for the background noise in our lives. Yet, going for a walk slows me down and helps me hear what is important. It is a way that I create silence and invite it to be a part of my life.

I love a good walk. I’m blessed to be able to walk. Sometimes I get to walk along dusty crushed gravel paths, and it feels a bit like I’m walking with Jesus all those years ago. Every step I take is an invitation to keep following Jesus. 

But the voice of God is most often a whisper dancing within the stillness of the breeze. Without knowing myself and creating silence in my life, it is easy for me to not notice what I haven’t heard.

Lord, I pray that I won’t again lead a life where You need to raise Your voice for me to hear You. Amen.

The post I Love a Good Walk appeared first on Paul Prins.

Listen to this Sermon

On March 2^nd, I was fortunate enough to give the homily to the Mustard Seed Church out of St Margaret’s Church in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. Thank you to Andrew Strutzenberg for the invitation, and to the whole church for such a warm reception. May these words also enrich your faith.

Jesus said, “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:25-27 from the New International Version

I’m so glad to be here with you all at Mustard Seed. My homily today is titled, Let us Pray. With a title like that I have no choice, but to start with a prayer.

Father, throughout the bible we see people praying. Your Son Jesus invited and called us to pray. You, the Holy Spirit, dwell within us, praying within us, and meeting us when we pray. Enrich the ways we see prayer, where we see prayer, and the ways we pray. Amen

Opening

Today we are going to spend time thinking about prayer. Let us reflect on prayer, on the call to pray. For many of us the first prayer we learned was the Our Father – the Lord’s Prayer. It is an amazing prayer I continue to pray everyday. Yet it is not the only way to pray. Today we can look through the horizons of the Scriptures. Through all the centuries, voices, genres, and moments we can see, we can sense, that God is ever present. That each page of the bible reminds us that God was there. That each page and day of our life can remind us that God is here. That our God welcomes us every time we pray.

With the vastness that Prayer encompasses, How might we summarize prayer? Within the work we are doing with Urban Monastics, we have a short way we describe prayer.

Being purposefully in God’s tender and loving presence where thoughts, emotions, and words can move in both directions.

There are kind of two pieces to this way of understanding prayer. The first is being purposeful, and the second is the ‘thoughts, emotions, and words’.

Let us start with purpose.

Purpose

Prayer invites us to be purposefully in God’s tender and loving presence. Purposefully. Again and again in scripture we see prayer requiring us to be purposeful. This should not be a surprise to us because relationships require us to be purposeful. Another way to think about this, is to be loving. We are purposeful because we are choosing to love. Love will always bring us to a purposeful life. Love is not passive, it is active. It requires us to be attentive, to feel, to see, and to be willing to move our bodies, minds. Love requires us to be open to our understanding shifting.

Prayer is the way that we get to communicate with our God. To Be with our God, to Love our God. Love requires purpose.

Think about this, with time you learn to hear the voice of someone you love in a crowded room. You learn the ways they make you feel safe, seen, and taken care of. Good love helps us see them, and it helps us see ourselves. It expands our horizons, and we do things we didn’t dream of before. There are rhythms and patterns to the ways we move through life with those we love. The same is true for our love with God.

I believe that there is nothing better in life than good love. The love of our God is exceedingly good. In fact, it is good beyond my ability to comprehend. It is an incomprehensible great love. Gods love genuinely asks nothing of us, but holds us gently, holds us tenderly.

Are you familiar with the Fruit of the Spirit in the book of Galatians? The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This fruit is the fullness of our God, and the way that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love us. Did you hear that God is patient? Kind? Gentle?

We need the help of the Holy Spirit to remind us of all that God has done and spoken. We need the Holy Spirit to prompt us to be purposefully present with God. We need the Holy Spirit to help us be purposeful, to teach us how we can be more purposeful with our God in prayer. God sending the Holy Spirit to dwell within you as His advocate for you is a purposeful act of love. An act of love, that places our feet on a sure foundation, that gives us confidence as we turn back to God in prayer.

Jesus is ever waiting for us to join Him. We join Him when we pray. When we find ourselves…

“Being purposefully in God’s tender and loving presence where thoughts, emotions, and words can move in both directions”

Let us turn to the second half of this description… ‘where thoughts, emotions, and words can move in both directions.’

Thoughts, Emotions, & Words

There is so much to learn in this life. More than we can ever learn. There is just as much to learn outside of ourselves as there is to learn within ourselves. Not one of us was born understanding our thoughts, or emotions. None of us was born ready to speak words. It takes time, effort, and practice to enrich our thoughts, emotions, and words.

Think back with me to how simply we saw the world as children. When we would draw trees they were brown with green leaves or needles. Rocks were colored gray. The sky was blue and the sun was yellow. Okay, maybe in Scotland the sky was gray and the sun was more of an abstract idea.

As we get older we start to understand that different shades and hues of blue have different names. The rocks are no longer simply gray, but rich with textures, colors, and danced over by light and shadow. There are colors that we take for granted today like Orange that was named after the ripened fruit. Until then, oranges were actually yellow and we were less able to see the diversity and richness of our world.

Here we need to take a breath.

If you felt like pursuing God was going to take effort, this will take even more. We need to depend upon and ask the Holy Spirit to help us learn to think, to feel, and to speak. There are new ways to think, emote, and speak that will change the way that we experience the exact same God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will not change, but our experience of them will.

The trees, rocks, sky and sun are the same as in our youth, but we experience them differently today. Some of this growth will happen naturally through life and our experience. Yet, over and over again in the bible we are told to Ask God who gives generously and gives good things.

So ask God to help us pray. Ask God to teach us to see our thoughts, our emotions, and our words. May our God help you to be present with your thoughts. May you find yourself ever more able to rest with your emotions. May you be more able to give care, love, and grace to your words. We have a lifetime of prayer to enjoy, and a lifetime to pray.

In all these things we also will experience the thoughts, emotions, and words of our God!

Conclusion

It is a lifetime of pursuing the tender and loving presence of our God through prayer. Here is my encouragement and guidance for you as you begin to experience the thoughts, emotions, and words from our God. Remember the Fruit of the Spirit from earlier?

That is the way our God meets with us. Meets with you. With: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

As Jesus spoke to us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Remember that Jesus Said • Peace I leave with you;
Remember that Jesus Said • My peace I give you.
Remember that Jesus Said • I do not give to you as the world gives.
Remember that Jesus Said • Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Remember that Jesus Said • Do not be afraid.

Let us Pray.
Amen.

The post Let us Pray – An Encouragment to a Life of Prayer appeared first on Paul Prins.

Listen to this Talk

This is a talk that I prepared and gave for a main session at Europe Connect 2023 in Malaga, Spain. It was presented on Saturday 29 July 2023 during the 10:00 session.

This is much longer than my usual refletions and essays.

I believe that there is something in this talk – The Church After Consumerism – for us, for the Church today. The more I have understood the insidiousness of Consumerism the more confident I am that we, together, collectively as the Church, need to stand against it. I want people to experience the love of God, to experience hope.

Our often unconsidered acceptance of consumerism within our cultures and churches has hindered our ability to make disciples that live and look like Jesus in our neighborhoods and our time.

So the question is: do we bring them to the unconditional-ness of God through transactions and consumption, or help them learn a way of just being.

For the yoke of Jesus is pleasant, and his burden is light.
For hope thrives in grace, and is suffocated by shame and hate.

So I invite you come with me. I ask that you do your best to stay with me. Let yourself imagine a future for ourselves, our communities, and all the people of God.

Prayer

Heavenly Father be present with us. Be gentle with us. We know in our minds that your ways are above our ways, but often our hearts and hands become confused. It is easy for our passions to become enmeshed in the patterns of our age. Yet, you call us to step outside of our age. May you give us a vision for a future, and the courage and wisdom for our next steps.

Amen

Spiritual Reflection

I welcome you to a guided spiritual reflection. You may close your eyes, and allow your body to rest & listen for the next 5 minutes.

There are moments. When the calm takes you. That you let the calm take you. There is something about laying on your back in a field. The grasses and plants enveloping you. Reconnecting with nature through all your senses. You let your fingers weave through the earth beneath you. Give it time.

(pause for a hot minute)

Notice the sky. How it stretches further than the horizons of your eyes. It wraps all the way around you. Let your head fall into the earth it is resting on. Slowly something shifts. Unseen. Everything is somehow different. The sky feels like it might consume you. Instead of laying flat on your back, it feel like you’re on the edge of a precipice, the edge of a cliff. That if you let go. Don’t let go. Hold on to everything. You might fall. Fall into the vastness of the cosmos before you. Around you. If you let go of the soil, you would be lost.

Open your hands.

Push against the earth.
Push against your home.
Push against all you have.
Push against all you have become.
Push against all you know.

Wait beloved. Please. Keep your hands open. Don’t stop now.

Let your mind wander and wonder. Let your soul find its way home into the cosmos beyond you, behind you, around you. Feel the terror of not knowing. Deeper you are falling into an unknowable expanse.

Wait beloved. Please. Keep your hands open. Don’t stop now.

It becomes so cold. I’m so sorry. This isn’t an end. But it is. Just not the end. Please. I know it can be a lot. It has to be. It is everything you built. Everything you had become. I know it’s cold. So cold. Don’t stop now. Let your soul find its way. I promise you, it knows the way.

Wait beloved. Please. Keep your hands open. Don’t stop now.

I know it’s dark. The space. So much space. Between all things. I know you’re alone. It’ll happen soon. I promise. I couldn’t tell you sooner. I cannot tell you quiet yet. I know it feels like everything is lost. Trust me, it is only you. You have been lost for a while now. You became so comfortable being lost you even forgot you weren’t home. I know it’s dark, please have faith.

Wait beloved. Please. Keep your hands open. Don’t stop now.

Shhhh. Be quiet. Be calm. Listen. Do your best to feel. It’ll happen soon. It flickers. You should be able to sense it. You’re cold enough in the dark. There is no sound here, but listen. It should crackle soon. There is nothing here between all things. The cosmos is now around and through you. There is enough nothing for it to happen.

Do you feel the numbness. It happens when you are this cold. Unable to tell what you are feeling. Is it pressure or warmth. It is warmth. Give it a minute. It’s not hot, but it is warm. Thats it. Perfect. Not long now.

Wait beloved. Please. Keep your hands open. Don’t stop now.

With nothing left between all things. Here it is. Don’t stop now. Stay here. Stay present. Everything is coming. With all of who you are gone, you’re ready. Here it is. Alone with no one left to impress.

Quietly you feel it begin. There is nothing to see, but you feel it. Warmth cascading through you and over you. Wave after wave. So tender, so loving, so knowing. Even though you fail to know yourself. Somehow you are known.

Welcome beloved. Please, keep your hands open.

You weren’t alone. Never. No one is ever alone. Just lost waiting to be found. To be found we must let go. Falling into the unknown. To keep going when all feels lost. That out of the depths of you comes life and love. That your life exists within love. A love that can guide your soul home. Every time you are lost. Every time you are found. Only then can you know. Know that you were always beloved. Tenderly. Gracefully. Softly. Divinely.

Welcome beloved.

Thanks for letting me invite you into that reflection. Try to hold onto what you may have felt.

Teaching

It will be helpful if we can, at least for this time, share some ideas and definitions. I am not expecting you to agree with me. My hope. My hope is that these seven foundations can help us dream and imagine a future that brings us closer to an experience of being, and presence. Let us now lay the ground work for the hope that making passionate disciples in our current age.

1) No form of society is right or ordained.

I think this is pretty straight forward. The Church and the work of God happens independently of what form society takes. People experienced and loved God, and continue to do so, under so many structures and systems. For our God is above all things, and is present in all times and circumstances.

2) The church should critique the failures of our social systems

There is a call for some of us within the Church to be set apart. To be voices in the wilderness. Calling us back into the love that compels us to selflessness, humility, and corrects our relationship to creation. These critiques will often be targeted. They will demand institutions do better. Hear their voices. Heed their words. Let us find courage to support them in realizing a more just world.

3) The church existed before Capitalism.

Capitalism took hold over the latter part of the 18th century. So we are here, some 250 years into our global system. The majority of the life of Gods Church didn’t know capitalism. The church has had its life and breath just fine without capitalism.

4) Capitalism is the elevation of Capital over People and Resources.

This system elevates capital above everything else. Now, I am not going to advocate for a different system. But we need to see that there is an interdependence between people (they call it labor to exclude anyone who is incapable of working), resources, and the capital needed to invest to animate the wheels of industry.

Capital has made everything else subordinate to itself. They have methodically influenced governments to entrench their power. Capital should never be the one in power over humanity or creation.

One simple example:
We now call it violence when someone destroys property. Historically violence was against other people or living things. Now destroying, or even defacing, property is violence.

This gives people/governments cover to use violence against people. Violence to protect capitalists investments, and assets. The story breaks down the when we use correct language. “The police used violence after the crowd destroyed some property.”

It has not always been this way, and will not always be this way. Capital should never be the one in power over humanity or creation.

5) Under capitalism the Church has been ravaged.

Hard truth time. Not only is runaway consumerism and capitalism destroying our plant – it ravaged the Church. At the start of Capitalism nearly everyone in Europe was Christian. You can play intellectual games if you want about if they really were or not. But the vast majority called themselves Christian. Today many countries in western Europe are falling into single digit percentages of practicing Christians. It is not as simple as blaming capitalism and consumerism. Yet often the adoption of capitalism is excluded from conversations of the decline of the western Church.

We should not be surprised. Consumerism tells people something contrary to God. That they are in need of what is being sold.

I’ve even heard voices say that the gospel has been animated by capitalism. It has not. We continue to be caught off guard by the power and destructive influence it wields against everyone of us, and the church.

6) Consumerism is a capitalist perversion of consumption.

I do not want anyone to leave thinking I am telling us to stop consuming. Thats not possible. It is possible to consume in subversive and more ethical ways. Capitalism has perverted consumption from a means to an ends. This has been done through any number of strategic and long term ploys.

Some Examples:

• You are incomplete
• Personal value being ascribed by what and how we consume.
• We build our identities through the brands we buy.
• Relationships are often based on similar levels of consumption.
• Learning, Personal Growth, and Education have become commodities that we purchase (often at great expense) to become more valuable labor to capitalists.
• Community is replaced with competition. Either as we fight for labor opportunities, or to consume.

(Prepare for the final foundation slide)
We are to the final point in this section. This is what I’ve been building to, and is the primary foundation we’ll rest on, build on, and is where I find my hope. The Hope that God has planted deep within each and every place He could find within me. Stay with me. After this I’ll invite us to dream of a better future.

What is the opposite of Consumerism? It cannot be anti-consumption since…. we need to consume to survive. One might think the opposite of consuming is creating. Yet, creating in this context only exists to take part of the market of consumption. So what is it that we are left with.

(dramatic pause for the big reveal)

7) Being is the Opposite of Consumerism

It is really that simple. Being. Existing. Living into the value and worth we have. That we have only because we have breath. Under capitalism we have value because we create or consume. In the eyes of God we have value because we are. Since our first breath until the last air leaves our lungs we are valuable for just being. We are engulfed in love, grace, and mercy for no reason beyond that we exist.

I really hope that you are still with me. I hope that you are feeling those flickers of possibility in your heart and mind. That means that, at least so far, I’ve been doing my job.

Time to Preach it!

Take a breath with me.

Now it’s time to preach. I don’t get to do this enough, so I’ve got stores of it for you. Let us turn to a few keys from the new testament that I believe can help us. Help us make disciples that live and look like Jesus in our neighborhoods and our time.

The first key is found here.

A Pleasant Yolk and a Light Burden

This is a passage that I have meditated on so much over the years. There is always more for us here. And Jesus is pretty savage against the establishment.

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. That you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this is the way that has pleased you. All things have been handed over to me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father. Neither does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.“

“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Indeed, my yoke is pleasant, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 [UMT]

Jesus invites us. He calls us into a different way to living. A different way of being. A different way of working. Pleasant work! Work with barely a burden. Working for people who are gentle and humble in heart.

For too long us and our communities have been crushed under the wheels of industry. It’s so engrained in our values and culture that Jesus points us all the way back to nursing infants. That is how far back they needed to go. How much they needed to unlearn. How deeply their minds needed to be transformed. How deeply our minds need to be transformed as well.

The realities of the Kingdom of God are hidden to those raised and working in the world. Just as we are. The yoke is an explicit reference to work. All of us are in need of rest. But there is great news! Jesus wants to give us rest, to have rest, to know rest, and to be a place of rest. Not only to rest, but to completely re-teach us about work!

How does the church orient its people towards work? Do we model work that is pleasant as Jesus taught? For us, our staff, and for all of our neighbors? When they come to us are we gentle and humble in heart? Do we believe that the redemption of the Cross is grand enough to overcome the fall of humanity into toilsome work?

I believe Jesus is inviting us to do less and be more. To be a place and people of refuge. Where the ‘work’ we do together is pleasant, and every burden is light. A pleasure. For God takes such pleasure in being together with us.

In light of this these words of Jesus just seven verses later after being confronted for doing “unlawful” work. Jesus says,

“If you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion rather than sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.“

Matthew 12:7 [UMT]

God does not desire sacrifice from us, but compassion. To abound in compassion for others, for ourselves. To start and end with compassion for the projects, work, and timelines that won’t happen. And for those that will happen.

No one is their work. Their value is not in their production or ability to create. Each of us are valued and loved by God because each of us exist.

This second key is deeply woven within many churches. It is intoxicating with its allure and notions of Gods favor and protection over us. It is a lie Jesus rebuked many time. One that keeps us from one another. And it is really just privilege people are fighting to sustain.

Family, Health, & Wealth is not a sign of Blessing

Explicitly and implicitly across the old testament we see this. One of the most focused tellings is the end of the book of Job. In the final chapter the Lord ‘blessed’ Job by restoring his family with new beautiful children (with their children, etc), from near death into health to live another 140 years, and his wealth with tens of thousands of livestock.

This is not how Jesus talked about family, health, or wealth. None of these things are signs of gods favor or blessing.

Let us start with family.

Family

Jesus radically redefines family. He invites us to do the same. Who is my Family?

While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds His mother and brothers were standing outside. They were wanting to speak to Him. Someone said to Him, “Look, Your mother and brothers are standing outside. They want to speak to You.” But Jesus responded to them and said, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” Then he stretched out His hand towards His disciples. He said, “Here, My mother, and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father, who is in heaven, is my brother, sister, and mother.“

Matthew 12:46-50 [UMT]

Again and again we see this disregard for biological family. To embrace the wholeness of those he was with. For the family of God supplants our families of origin. Jesus never had children, He is the only son of God, and we are all his siblings. One another’s siblings.

Take care of your children if you have them. But they are but a few faces within the sea of our family. Our true family. The family we are adopted into, grafted into, and that we can never loose.

Next up is health. To be healthy or not is not a part of being blessed.

Health

As He went along, He saw a man who was born blind. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned that he was born blind? This man or his parents?”
Jesus answered, “Neither that man sinned, nor his parents. Instead, it was so that the works of God might be revealed in him. We must do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.“

John 9:1-5 [UMT]

At a glance it might seem that he was sick so that God could heal him. If that was the case it would only be one work. Yet the text is clear that ‘the works (plural) of God might be revealed’. This blind man was a person of overwhelming worth. Of value beyond what the eyes of his disciples could see. One so worthy that the Son of God went to him, sought him out. Met him with tenderness, compassion, and love. Not because he was blind, but in spite of it.

Jesus responded out of his bottomless wells of love and compassion to so many across the gospels. The paralyzed, lepers, and many more were already full of worth and value. Worth and value that the disciples, and us today, fail to see. The fullness of God in the Spirit dwells within them.

Ones health is not a sign of Gods favor or judgement.

There is no greater blessing than Gods presence. Now and forever. Amen? Amen.

Now we get to wealth. I’ve got two passages here.

Wealth

The first passage is from Lukes account of the Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are the Poor.

Then He looked up towards His disciples, and began to speak.
“Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God….
But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.“

Luke 6:20, 24 [UMT]

This is very clear. Jesus is telling us, without condition, that the poor are blessed. That those who are rich will have exhausted their comfort. This is quite different from the account in Job and in other parts of the old testament.

Lets keep going.

The rich will not inherit the kingdom.

A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus replied to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, and honor your parents.’“
“All these things I have kept from my youth,” he said.
When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you possess, distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.“
But when he heard these things, he became deeply grieved, for he was extremely wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!“
Those who heard Him said, “Then, who can be saved?”
Jesus replied, “Things that are impossible for people are possible with God!“

Luke 18:18-27 [UMT]

Now none of us can know who Jesus would ask this of today. To sell all their possessions and to distribute the money to the poor. Yet it is clear that it is hard for wealthy people to enter the Kingdom of God. Even this person of exceptional character. Someone who was invited to follow Jesus just as the other disciples were. He couldn’t.

I wonder how many of our churches revere the wealthy and successful in their midst. How many are given places of privilege on boards, at banquettes, and in the life of the church.

It can be admirable to excel at the games of the world. But Jesus is clear – as followers of his we will be called to abandon the ways of the world. That we cannot build wealth on the abuse and subjugation of people. People of untold value and worth – Because they are loved by our God. Because they exist.

Instead of standing against consumerism. Large parts of the western church have given themselves over to Christian Capitalists, who create billion dollar markets. In the process they have crafted themselves as Saints in the eye of millions. Too many of us have forgotten that the way of Jesus is meek and humble. That the rich do not attain heaven easily. For the eyes of needles are small.

Rather – Shouldn’t the business world be learning from the Church how to be human. Instead it is often the church learning how to be inhumane from business leaders and their strategies. The business world thrives by sacrificing others, and in their lack of compassion. The business world could learn that “God desires compassion and not sacrifice.”

Let’s close up this second key. Family, Health, & Wealth is not a sign of Blessing.

Concluding this Section on Family, Healthy, and Wealth.

Hear me clearly:

Let us not conflate an easy life with God’s favor, and let us not see a hard life as one of judgement.

Let us not conflate an easy life with God’s favor, and let us not see a hard life as one of judgement.

That feeling you might sense in your gut in hearing this. Without putting words to it, it is wrong. Gods love is not vindictive. It is not conditional. It is not given out in parts or portions. The love of our God is abundant, undivided, and given to everyone in excess.

Let us not conflate an easy life with God’s favor, and let us not see a hard life as one of judgement. Our Gods love is abundant, undivided, and given to everyone in excess.

The third key. Churches as Embassies.

Churches as Embassies for the Kingdom of Gods Reign

This is another one of those passages and ideas that I regularly find myself meditating upon. It’s so simple, and can be so transformative.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Just as if God were making an appeal through us. We beg you, on behalf of Christ: “Be reconciled to God!” He made Him, who did not know sin, to be sin on our behalf. So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 [UMT]

Embassies and Consulates are outposts of one nation inside another. Ambassadors are physical representatives and embodiments of the kingdoms they are sent from. In the midst of a different culture and nation they embody the values of their kingdom. Not only to embody those value, but to promote them. To invite others to experience them. May we be a place of freedom out of the gracious and merciful love of Christ.

Oh, the dream I have. That our churches would be outposts – embassies for the Kingdom of Gods Reign. Where everyone is valued, loved, lifted up, and showered in compassion. Where the love of God animates our longing to dwell in His kingdom. A field of love within us that brings forth an abundant harvest of grace, mercy, compassion, and all the fruit of the spirit. That within the walls of our churches those who are high would be brought low, and those who are low are invited to the seat of honor at the great banquet.

This helps me encapsulate how to live in the world, but not of the world. That our lives might be living critiques of our contexts, and living invitations to a better way of being.

We are here now, at the conclusion of my talk. I have one more point to make. The point I’ve been building towards this whole time.
The place I think we need to start.
The place out of which the church can move past consumerism.
The place out of which we might make disciples that live and look like Jesus in our neighborhoods and our time – in any time.

The place is Incarnational Discipleship.

Incarnational Discipleship

For me, this idea of Incarnational Discipleship is not about learning, but about the slow, hidden, and difficult process of being transformed from the inside out. To incarnate the Kingdom of God, its values, its orientation to ourselves and others.

“How can you, being evil, express anything good? For the mouth speaks from the fullness of the heart. The good person brings good things out of their deposits of good. The evil person brings evil out of their deposits of evil.“

Matthew 12:34b-35 [UMT]

This passage, along with others point us to the fact that we must, as a church, as individuals, elevate and prioritize the inner work. It is slow, it is hard, and it is mostly unrewarded. You cannot buy your way through this. There is no certificate, and there are no shortcuts.

Yet out of this work flows life! This work embodies the value God sees in you, in each of us. It brings together connections between love, grace, compassion, mercy, and can give us hope. Hope that none of this is in vain. That God doesn’t need to win in the end, because God has won and raptured our hearts already. That the more we do the work, the deeper our deposits of good become. Deposits that we can nearly deplete for the sake of our siblings. Both lost and found.

I don’t want to end our time together with any confusion on the essentials. So hear me clearly.

Here the sacred doesn’t know scarcity.
Welcome beloved
Here Love always waits for us in abundance.
Welcome beloved
God doesn’t do supply side economics.
Welcome beloved
There is no waiting list with Jesus.
Welcome beloved
There has never been a day where Gods grace has failed.
Welcome beloved
No-one is ever turned away.
Welcome beloved
The way of Jesus is not available for purchase.
Welcome beloved
The fullness of the Holy Spirit was poured out within you.
Welcome beloved
To a life in Gods presence. A life discovering all of you is known & loved.
Welcome beloved
To the gifts of the spirit flowing from us when we learn how to let go of ourselves.
Welcome beloved
You can just be here. Nothing you do or don’t do changes who you are to God.

‌Wait beloved. Please. Keep your hands open. Don’t stop now.

Amen
Hallelujah

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 24 July 2023 in Nerja, Spain

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1) All translation is interpretation.
2) One translation can not be fit for every purposes.

If there is interest, I can expand on one or both of those points in the future. Instead, I encourage you to keep those thoughts in mind while we continue. For simplicity, I’ll break the process into steps, but they mush & smush not so cleanly in practice.

Role of the Finished Texts

Before you start, one needs to establish how the texts will be used. The six general journalist questions are helpful here – Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? These are quick answers for the Psalms in the Urban Monastic Breviary Translation.

Who (will use it): An ecumenical group of people. They have different life stages, reading levels, academic achievements, ages, and religious backgrounds.
What (is the result): To publish 150 Psalms (plus Canticles) into English & French for a monastic breviary online, in apps, in audio, and in print.
When (will it be used): The psalms are a part of each fixed hour prayer, every day of the year.
Where (will they be used): The psalms will be used for both private and corporate prayer in homes, and churches.
Why (will they be used): Our mixed & ecumenical group deserves beautiful psalms to pray together. Texts that are informed by our traditions, but not of one specific denomination.
How (will they be used): The psalms will be prayed (read silently, aloud, chanted, or sung) individually or together.

There is a page on about these Translations that shares our general guidelines.

Selection of Sources

This is far more complex than it might sound. It is difficult working from small fragments of parchments, establishing the various textual lineages, and discerning the textual changes. This is how we get to our modern Hebrew and Greek texts of various biblical sources. These compiled sources are also under various copyright protection and licensing schemes.

For this project, we have settled on the following five sources

• Latin: Thesaurus Liturgiae Horarum Monasticæ (1977)
• Latin: Liturgia Horarum (2000)
  • Using the Nova Vulgata (1979/86 – original text translation)
  • Gregorian Chant/Music by l’Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes
• Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (~1008)
• Greek: Septuagint (LXX)
  • Greek: Codex Sinaiticus (325)
• Greek: SBL Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)

Initial Translation

Working line by line through a passage, we get a first draft of a given passage or text. There is the grammatical work to understand the sources, and I make a rough attempt to synthesize the texts together. This helps me to hold them each in mind as I wrestle through phrasing into English & French.

With the rich monastic history of using these texts in Latin, we’ve made the decision to allow the grammatical structure of the Latin to inform most of our structure. This includes how the lines break and the placement of our midpoints (*) & daggers († – these indicate that the mid-point is on the next line instead of the end of the first line you would expect). The Latin was recently updated to use original source texts (in the 1970s) over the work of St Jerome of Stridon. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin from the Greek sources of 4th century.

The initial translation needs to be rough, but it gets us started. Sometimes I won’t even conjugate verbs and will just note something like – feeling generative 2nd person plural.

Depending on how your text will be used, the writing of footnotes or context notes can be really helpful. Here it does not make sense as the texts are for reading aloud.

On Biblical Grammar

There are no grammatical markings in the ancient Hebrew or Greek texts. I’ve included a sample from the Westminster Leningrad Codex, and the Codex Sinaiticus. This means we need to make interpretive decisions about the punctuation, sentences, and paragraphs.

Westminster Leningrad

Codex Sinaiticus

Revise for the Context

This is where those questions from earlier first come into play. There are often ways to render the same text in ways that are more simple, or more complex. In this case, we are choosing simplicity in vocabulary and structure. Beyond that, the texts are primarily going to be heard aloud. There is extra attention given to how they sound read aloud, chanted, and sung. This all starts to happen here.

Do it again and again

Keep going, and translating. As you do more in this segment, you may notice patterns or rhythms. If you do, try to find ways to let your words reflect this. One of the challenges is that Hebrew poetry has different patterns from modern English or French poetry. So we should try to bring in modern genre elements, lest we lose part of the experience of the original audience.

Revise the First Draft

When you get to the end of the passage, section, chapter, or book, you need to read it all. This process takes time, and we want to ensure the text itself sounds consistent. Now that there is more translated, we can do some intertextual work as well. Are the same ideas treated similarly? Did we render repetitive texts the same? Is the use of pronouns clear, or do some need to be replaced with their nouns? Are there sentences that just got away from us and need to be rewritten?

Contemporary Versions & Reference Work

We do not translate these texts in a vacuum. I have read the bible many times, in different languages, and in many translations. Those praying these psalms will be likewise diverse. We want to ensure that interpretive choices that were made are not going to be too jarring or dissident with the texts they may hear preached, or study in their bibles. This includes other prayer books like the Liturgy of the Hours, Book of Common Prayer, AELF, les Heures Grégoriennes, and others.

There is also the case of contemporary scholarship, and research. Are there things from other Ancient Near Eastern literature that might be informed/referenced by our text? Can that inform our rendering?

Closeness of English & French

This is unique to these translations in that we are attempting to keep the translations similar. The two languages have different grammatical structures, but I want to use this initial translation process to jumpstart both editions.

Usage of the Texts

After it has been translated, it needs to be used. In the process of using the text, you may discover issues with it. We should never expect a translation to be finished. We are imperfect people doing a very hard thing. Our cultures & languages change as well.

Most of the issues I have encountered in these Psalms have been around the flow of the texts, or a rendering that is too confusing. In the moment of the first draft with so much held in our imagination we can miss including something in the text. This can result in odd jumps, omissions, or clunky readings.

Peer Revisions & Review

No translation should be done alone. They are most often the work of a committee. I do not yet have that privilege. Our peer review will start after we make more progress, grow our community, and raise funds.

Concluding Thoughts

There are aspects of every translation process that are more art, and some that are more science. In light of this, these processes and approaches change and adapt with time. The scale and scope of this process may result in different approaches being used as we approach the end of the initial work. I have also not yet been a part of more revision & review processes.

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Listen to this Reflection

You may have heard the term Mystics before. This word appears in our media and culture. It describes someone other worldly, an ascetic, and with a strong spiritual connection. In my western context, these references often characterized mystics as exotic foreigners. It was a term I don’t recall hearing as a child in the Church.

It was during my study of Christian history that I discovered Christian Mysticism. It is a rich, long, and ongoing tradition. A tradition with roots in second temple Judaism. That expanded with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the spread of the early church. Weaving its way through nearly every denomination these past two millennia.

Christian Mysticism is a way of preparation, openness and practices that pursues direct and transformative experiences with God. Since the earliest days of the church, there have been people pursuing God in these ways. It crosses all denominations, even though the language used often differs. I invite you to look up a list of influential Christian mystics and their writings.

During the first centuries of the church, mysticism was spoken of in Latin as contemplatio – or contemplation. Contemplation in this context is another term that is misunderstood in common usage. To be contemplative involves sitting in silence, and quieting one’s body + mind. Allowing all thoughts and feelings to present themselves to you. Each one is seen, felt, and looked at to discern if it is from ourselves, or from God. This is often done explicitly without direction, context, or refrain. Mysticism can also involve much more vivid & felt experiences with God.

With Depths of Knowledge and Wisdom

In my experience of resting and silence with God, I find that I mostly meet myself. My thoughts, my bias, my feelings. This is why the greatest challenge to mysticism is ourselves. It is also why these practices have been so transformative for me personally.

My experience of Mysticism has been an exercise of “taking every thought captive.” To look for the ways I am showing up to myself. Seeing how God is showing me myself. A hopeful expectation that I will have the divine of God be present with me in ways that are certainly not myself.

For this to be done with confidence, we need to develop two things. We must deeply know ourselves, our emotional world, our biases, our leanings, our history, and our present context. We also must deeply know the person of Jesus from the Bible. God in the scriptures of the Bible is not presented in a single unified way. Instead, countless people speak of God from their understanding, perspective, and experience. Jesus is different. We still read of Jesus through the experiences and stories of others. Yet the cloudy veil between the divine and creation has never been thinner. As Jesus taught us, we see the Father in Jesus.

So we prayerfully and quietly rest. We invite the silence and experience it. We welcome ourselves, and we welcome God. We allow ourselves to pass through us and return to quiet waiting in the darkness with the Holy Spirit. That maybe today God will move us in quiet and subtle ways.

No Tradition alone

There are many traditions within Christianity. Each one of them invites us to become less, to be broken and humbled by the Father. Mysticism can mislead us. With its emphasis on experiences with God, it can easily become an idol for us. We can find ourselves believing that these experiences are the purpose of life. Elevating our hope for these moments over the very God who we hope to dwell with, to live with, and who gives us life. God’s love and presence are gifts one can never earn, deserve, or command.

Let us remember. To follow Jesus means that we continue his work. Let us reflect once again on the opening words from Isaiah 61. The words Jesus proclaimed over himself and the work he was sent to do. The work we continue to do with Jesus in our world.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
    because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to set free those who are oppressed,
    to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

Luke 4:18-19/Isaiah 61 (NASB)

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 23 August 2021 in ‎⁨Plougonvelin⁩, ⁨Brittany⁩, France

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Listen to this Reflection

This liturgy was written shortly after my father-in-law passed during the pandemic in fall 2021. At the time, I was a couple of years into translating and writing liturgies for Urban Monasticism. I have been given an ever deepening appreciation for liturgical prayers. To approach the page slowly, prayerfully, and full of reflection.

At their best, these prepared words invite us to be more fully present in a place we find ourselves. A place others have been, and we may again return. Feeling the fullness of life is a lot, and easily keeps us from the awareness a moment might ask of us.

So I took several days between his death, and our return for his funeral. I wrote these words to help me feel the reality of his passing, and to dwell for a moment on the hope I have in this eternity. This life we live with Jesus. This life without end – in spite of our bodies returning to dust.

I waited at the graveside as people returned to the cars and pulled out these words. I read them. I did my best to feel them. To imagine them. To remind myself of the hope we are invited to share in Jesus.

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 15 November 2021 in ‎⁨Wausau, Wisconsin, United States of America

A Prayer for a Recently Deceased Sibling in Christ

Audio of only the Prayer

Lord Jesus we need you now.

Our sibling has passed from this life,
their breath has stopped, 
their days have ended,
and their body will return to dust.
Memory of them will fade and vanish with time,
but you, Lord, never forget us.

Await their arrival and prepare their room,
hear their voice when they call your name.
Swing open the doors of your kingdom for them.
Welcome them, embrace them, and restore them.

Let them taste and know your grace and love.
Let your grace be enough to rapture their heart.
Let your love be the end of their fear.

Meet them again with your boundless forgiveness.
That their heart finds rest in your presence.
That their every longing will be fulfilled in you.

To all those who knew them, be tender.
Have compassion for those who will never know.
Have mercy for those who will grieve and hurt.
May we remember them for who they were.
May we meet them again perfected in your love.

Just as you have risen from the dead,
may we rise with you, into your eternal glory.

Together we pray with all the saints,
	who have been, who are, and who will be.

Amen

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Listen to this Reflection

It is almost too easy. Too easy to see myself in the person of Jesus. To pull the transcendence out of God. To believe that I see all of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

There are many voices bouncing around, soothing my soul. To quell the quiet stirrings of the spirit on the breeze of my life. Soothing our souls by turning from the wild transforming love of God. So we find ourselves with a question: Who is the Christ I follow?

Does Jesus act and believe as you do?
Does he love who you love? Hate who you hate?
Does he wield power over others?
Does he define love as narrowly as you?
Does he withhold grace and mercy until you act?

None of these questions are true of Jesus. Can we recognize that God is other than us? God has come to us, but is unlike us. God is beyond us. That God came to us and allows us to know him in part. That it is easier to conform God into our likeness, than to be transformed ourself. For the creator can only barely be known by the created.

Yet, our pride and power hunger bends and distorts God into our image. The Christ I follow often looks more like myself in a mirror. We fail to see this because the mercy of God understands our weakness.

Even as we torment our image of Christ, the true God of all things gives us Grace. This grace can feel like an affirmation that we know God. Yet, Gods grace is a gift we can never deserve.

May we, in humility, let Christ stay other than us. Let him show us how to love all, to start with grace, and to consider others as better than ourselves.

Marvel upon the one who rose from death. Who calls us to death of ourselves, and to life in Him. Let us follow the Christ who transcends our understanding. Jesus is love. A love for all of creation through all time. A love that found you, lifted you from death, and calls you beloved.

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 15 October 2016 in Glendalough, Wicklow, Republic of Ireland.

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Listen to this Reflection

From time to time something happens. Within us is a need to demarcate. To say, “I am unlike this other.” That we are not them because of that. This is important. Self differentiation is a critical part of cognitive and mental development.

We have always lived in a polarized world. Many people understand themselves more by who they aren’t than by who they are. It is easier to define edges in a high contrast world.

Who is Christian needs to be different. There are three important reasons to stop saying others are not Christian.

The Unlimited Grace of God

It implicitly states there is behavior for which the grace of God is insufficient. This is the opposite of my experience. Every morning, God has fresh grace is waiting for me. I awaken to more mercy than I need or deserve. It is there if I ask for it, or not. Appreciating it or not. Seeing it or not. Sensing it or not.

As I look at Jesus, I see our heavenly Father. One who is overflowing with grace. I cannot see how there wouldn’t be enough grace for someone. That someone has exhausted God’s grace. I remain undeserving, and yet the grace of God continues to find me. It continues to find us all.

We Lack the Power and Authority

Jesus was clear in many conversations with his followers that it was not for us to police the work of God. The following passage lets us see Jesus, expanding who was a follower.

John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to prevent him, because he does not follow along with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for the one who is not against you is for you.”
Luke 9:49-50 NASB

In this next passage, we see Jesus restricting who were followers.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23 NASB

Intertextually, we can see that there is not a way for us to discern who is a Christian and who is not. In both of these texts, there is even overlap. They both are casting out demons in Jesus name.

The power and authority to decide who is Christian was not given to the church, nor to individuals. Only Jesus has this right.

Respecting the Autonomy of Others

Furthermore, no one has the power or authority to define the experience of another. It is each person’s choice to describe part of their identity with the term Christian. There are few helpful empirical descriptions for people. Nearly every way we describe ourselves is subjective. Even our shared language can point to radically different realities and understandings.

Each person reserves the right to define themselves, and their experience. You have not been invited to oppress others by defining their experience for them.

We are our siblings keepers

We do not get to shed our responsibility. There are Christian groups, movements, and people which grieve my soul. Many atrocities have been done in the name of the Church. They continue to happen in our midst. I understand the impulse to say that a group, like Westboro Baptist Church, is not Christian. We are a part of the same family, and we have some responsibility for one another.

We do not get to define them. We are a part of a tradition spanning nearly two millennia. No matter your tradition, we have a responsibility to one another, to our ancestors, and those yet to come. People will grieve and apologize for the wrongs and harms I will cause in my life. I will do the same for many others.

It helps to humble us. It helps us live from grace and love. It helps Jesus be our Lord.

An Alternative: Point to Jesus

To be Christian means that we are following Jesus. Yet there has always been debate by what this means. It is more formative and helpful to reframe the conversation. It does not dismiss my responsibility. It doesn’t attempt to define their experience. It doesn’t limit the grace of God.

The Jesus I follow looks different from the German State Church during WWII. Or the church of the inquisitions. Or of the crusades. Of modern American Christian Nationalism.

There is at least a possibility for conversation. There is the reminder of what Jesus invited us all to. To pick up our cross and follow Him.

We can Ban Christians from our Local Communities

We cannot allow these realities to be manipulated and abused. Anyone can behave in a way which would disqualify them from participating in a Church. There being fresh grace does not mean that you are welcome back into community. There are predators. The local church does not need to be a hunting ground for their violence or abuse. It is their choice to call themselves Christian or not. Let ecclesial leadership be in communication for safety from predators.

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For in my life, I cannot recall a time I didn’t believe I earned all the affection I received. And was therefore to blame when I felt unloved. I am not the only one with this experience, and lived reality.

This belief was formed into me over the formative of years with restrained praise, and affirmation. That only some of my successful hard work was worthy. It didn’t matter the pride/value I placed in my work. That I was only the success others picked for me.

One of the hardest parts of responding to the call Jesus has placed on my life is the lack of affirmation and encouragement from others. It is so lonely, and I struggle to make steps forward, believing no-one will care.

So I’m doing the work in myself to turn the tide:

– I have created distance from some people in my life. Distance physically, relationally, and/or emotionally. I’m working to devalue their opinions, as they have (knowingly or not) wielded them as a weapon against me. I also have forgiven them for their harm.

– I have been trying to clearly state my need for affection & praise from safe people in my life. When that affection & praise does come, I do my best to let it confront the toxic belief within me. I am also asking for affection untied to my success.

– Most commonly, what I do is what I seldom received. I am trying to be quick with praise & affection (in a reserved and safe way) for others. To praise and affirm others for being, in their shortcomings, in their disappointments, and in their work. I speak to them, & to myself.

Related to this is attempting to break the cycle of unworthiness in others, and in myself. It’s been a hard year that has given me much practice in that. To try to stop shame or dismissal that robs us of love for ourselves.The frustrating thing is that my brain has wired in that the world is not a safe place for me. I’ll fight this, but these neural pathways are fixed. So let us work to create a world that is better for others than it has been for us.

To create space that they may flourish more naturally and organically. That they would be more freely able to accept the love, grace, mercy, hope, and faith that Jesus gives to us so freely. That their very breath might affirm the pride, & tender love God holds each of us with.

This is part of the reason I write reflections the way I do. It is why monastic rhythms, & patterns, are so important to me. They help me experience such a radical acceptance of myself. One that I’ve never known. It is why I invite people into the depths of themselves.

Our culture tells us that we need to go to God. Instead, I’ve found God waiting in the place of my biggest hurts, pains, & insecurities. There showing us that we are beloved. That none of our brokenness will change how He feels about, or sees us.

God loves us & we will be okay.

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Political ideologies that wield violence as power must be resisted and condemned. The willingness of the French to round up and ship to concentration/death camps those the Nazis found undesirable did not spare them.

In our contemporary world it is again the far-right in France, the US, and other western nations which are giving into these violent people and their exactingly narrow exclusionary civic understandings. Understandings which can only described as hateful, imperial, supremacist, and vile.

May we instead choose the path of love, respect, support, inclusion, and hope. We are better when we find ways to bring down those from their heights to life up those in need.

May we stand together oppressed against the oppressors.

May we not forget how the complicit and passive populace allowed the mechanized hatred of the Nazi regime to reach such vile heights.

To those who love violence in the hidden parts of their hearts – this may sound like foolishness. Yet, true power comes not from violence, but from the consent of all people. May we actively resist the nationalist, fascists, and despots with non-violence, peace, and hope.

78 years ago today, Paris was freed from fascism.

78 years later, fascism is again taking hold in the west.

Lord have Mercy on all people. #LiberationDeParis

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Grace had long been in my life.
I was taught that I was forgiven by the grace of God.
That grace was kept away in the confines of God.

It was to be dispensed at the pleasure of God. That grace was a treasure to me as my faith became more important, and as the world around me failed me in my dark moments. There were many times in the depths of night where I cried out for help to God. I’ve spent nights broken, bitter, and barely hanging on walking through forests, cowering in neglected storage rooms, or sitting on the floor next to my bed.

Unlike others, I was able to survive my dark nights. Yet I could not ask to be forgiven for this. It was nothing I did because it was who I am. How could I ask to be forgiven for who I am? I was encircled. I knew normal people didn’t try to kill themselves, lose themselves to the darkness within themselves, or seem to need to try so hard to exist.

It was within these oscillations that I began to sit in quiet, clearing my mind. I started wondering what the despair within me was. What it could be. In these quiet moments I found myself meeting with the divine. Stumbling into a tradition older than the Church itself. Over years I came to cherish myself along with the despair which I feel deep within myself. Finally accepting that which is always weeping.

It was here I met grace again. Years past acceptance, in calm and quiet moments there was grace waiting humbly to the side of all I was. I began treating this grace like a part of me that I could choose to use or not. Grace was there but it was not the heart of me. Rather, like a switch I could flip for those who were worthy. This is how I was taught grace worked. For even God had rules for his grace, and I longed to be like Jesus.

In silent moments of contemplation I continued encountering God.
It was here that grace continued to invite me deeper into myself.

I started to sense that grace wanted to become the central definition of myself. Making sense of how this could work kept me from accepting this invitation. Yet my faith started to grow stale as I continued to refuse this calling of grace. Slowly in small ways did grace start take precedence over more of my life.

Day by day this grace shows me that it is more that enough. It has been enough for everyday that has passed by. It shall be enough for tomorrow. I struggle to put into words this reality. Grace has transformed within me. From being something given as needed, into an invitation that lets me hope. That with a world swirling around me the grace within never wavers. Grace continues to be tender with me unlike other ways I’ve identified myself that demanded control and power in my life.

This grace at the center of myself embraces and
cherishes my despair and slowly turns my internal longings.
It is this grace which hopes within me, and believes in me.

Out of hope and belief is where these invitations of grace arise. To those looking in it may seem like I am working to attain God’s favor, forgiveness, or love. To me I am wandering and treasuring with grace. To wander and dance with grace who leads me into a life where I just want to rest in silence. The more I accept the invitations grace extends the easier they are to accept in the future. So far I’ve been invited to loosen my grip on authority, on power, on need, on want, and on fairness. That God’s grace is better than all else.

Grace allows me to long simply for community with God. To rest in the presence of the divine. To rejoice together, and to grieve with one another. To be present with one another. In these times of meeting God in his grief I have learned much about justice and hope. Seeing first hand how true grace invites us to action for the weak and against powerful people. I know that most of these powerful people will never see me, or hear my voice calling them to the way of the cross. I know that violence often meets those who call for justice. Yet here I am following the invitation of grace forward.

I expect this road before me will be long. That there is much before me, and untold invitations I cannot yet see or grasp. Yet with my brokenness I will continue to do my best to accept. To do that which grace asks. To that which grace invited me to. To let grace be my source of hope as longing, pain, and harm awaits me. May each of us find the grace of God within us, and let us be led by it.

May we, like Christ, embrace those who betray us, grieve when ministers lay a heavy burden upon others, proclaim hope in the desert, and understand how to follow the way of Jesus already beneath our feet.

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Over and over again Jesus is focused on the ‘good news of the kingdom of God’. Looking through the Gospel of Luke we see right away in chapter 4 Jesus responding to a crowd. He had just healed people. It was at that moment he told them that he must leave. Jesus gave this reason, saying “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”

Many of the parables go on to help us understand this kingdom. The miraculous works of Jesus can be seen as the present reality of this eternal kingdom breaking into our midst (if only for the briefest of moments). This was the message that the disciples were sent out to proclaim. That this divine kingdom was at hand, and that we are being called to allegiance to both this kingdom, and to Jesus its king. Allegiance to Christ our King.

At the onset of Acts (the second part of the Gospel of Luke) Jesus ascends to this Kingdom. The early creeds of the church affirm this, and that he now sits at the right of the Father.

Divine Right of Monarchs

Over its first centuries this new Christian movement was thrown out of the Synagogues for being decidedly not Jewish. To this day when individuals convert to Christianity they lose their Jewish faith. The act of proclaiming the kingdom of God drew people to live in solidarity with marginalized individuals, and to speak out against injustices which are not allowed in the Kingdom of God. Our ancestors in faith were trying to find ways to manifest the eternal reality of the kingdom of God when and where they lived. They saw the actions and teachings of Jesus as the realities of the kingdom of God which they could manifest today.

Over time Christianity came to dominate the religious landscape in Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. It supplanted the old pantheon of Gods from the Greek/Roman world, and those in leadership converted as well. This posed a practical problem for those leaders who were used to being revered as divine, or at least in close/special relationship with the divine. Anyone claiming divinity would be instantly tossed out of a monotheistic religion. Furthermore, all are children of God on the equal footing of grace in the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.

One of the new solutions to this was the Divine Right. This was based on the belief that today, just as in the Old Testament, God chooses leaders who therefore have a special relationship with God. The problem with this from a Christian perspective is that Jesus is the only king of the kingdom of God. There are no other leaders to revere, to pick, or to elevate. How can anyone demand allegiance when Jesus tells us that to follow him will cost us our lives?

Divine Right ignores that seismic shift Jesus brought to the Jewish/Roman world that, in part, lead to him being murdered by both the Roman State, and the Jewish religious leadership. While the Romans called him king of the Jews, we know him as Christ the King. As we jump forward to the Middle Ages we see Divine Right in full swing. The eternal and divine Kingdom of God was domesticated by mere humans with the force of the sword behind them. These earthly rulers would not be subjected to other kingdoms, and theology developed to support them and their positions.

Rather, every earthly nation will be forgotten. They are temporal blips on the eternal landscape overseen by the kingdom of God. The focus and care of the triune God is on the kingdom of God. That Gods jealously restrains God’s ordination, blessing, or selection of earthly rulers now that Christ is enthroned. Instead, those rulers must see themselves as stewards whose obligation it is to free and support all people in freedom, hope, and love. They should feel the overwhelming need to realize justice, and to ensure those who Jesus was most concerned about are cared for. They should be peacemakers.

So the “Good News” adapted, and in many ways grew out of this historic reality. It became palatable to those in power. These individuals and institutions created world views to simplify the gospel into something which would not threaten their reigns or rules. Instead of “proclaiming of the Kingdom of God being at hand” there comes the development of a transactional gospel. Instead of the resurrection of Christ proving his eternal kingship, and power over everything (including death – that ultimate result of sin) the “Good News” becomes – and is reduced to – a commercial/legal exchange of debts (sins).

Implications for Today

In Western Europe the majority of countries have become legally secular (I don’t know how to understand the English monarch as the head of their church). This creates an opportunity for us to rediscover the kingdom of God. How can we live, proclaim, and realize the kingdom of God today? There are so many opportunities for this. For us to embody our allegiance to Christ the King, by doing the work of Jesus in our midst. Leaving tastes, samples, and glimpses of the kingdom of God where we have been.

Proclaiming the kingdom of God demands that we dream bigger than the smallness of the gospel I had been told, taught, and proclaimed. The kingdom of God means restored relationship with the Father. It means acceptance, hope, grace, and love are given freely to all. It means that we become adopted children, and heirs to the promise God made to Abraham. The gospel means that the law was fulfilled in Christ, and that the cross has given us eternal freedom from the impact of our sin. When we talk of the kingdom of God we speak of the wide sweeping transformation of all things into harmony, into wholeness, into grace, into love, and into the holy presence of God.

Our call is not to abandon the reality that Jesus died on the cross for us. It is to embrace the full reality of what Christ has done. To accept that we fight against the Kingdom of God in our actions, our lives and in what we have inherited (systems, institutions, culture, etc.). To proclaim that the kingdom of God is near we must then follow our words with actions taken in faith with God to realize that hope.

We are called to get together every Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, and the affirmation that the kingdom is real. To preach in such a way that people can feel their souls resonate with their true home. As John the Baptist leapt in his mothers womb when Jesus was near, our charge in preaching is to bring the reality of this kingdom down into the room with us, so many can hear. That each of our souls may leap as the Kingdom draws near to us.

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Within the decade humanity will likely know life has existed off planet (Mars). The church needs to prepare for this reality. We need to teach that the creation myths in Genesis are not literal, but theological stories.
Stories that tell us about relationships with one another/creation, between us and God, and God and us. Ancient attempts to understand humanities place within creation, and our place of dominance over other animals and nature.

Failure to address many misguided teaching about creation will only accelerate the decline of the western church. We should instead celebrate that many major discoveries in science have been made by the church (like the Big Bang by Father George Lemaître).

We – leaders in the church – would do well to help those in our care to understand how interwoven and relational our theology should be. That we best know Jesus by living sacrificial lives for others as Jesus himself modeled. That we follow not Paul, but Jesus.

One of the key themes of Lent is a call to compassionate connection with the suffering in our world. Suffering which Jesus endured, and the very real pain Jesus continues to choose to feel. He continues to bare the wounds of his suffering by choice.

Let us likewise choose to join the grieving and mourning. For they are the blessed. The rich will go hungry and fail to enter the kingdom of God, but God is always with the poor.

The fight within myself is to live for this life, or for the Kingdom of God. On my better days I choose well, and I pray we all have more better days.

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God is all powerful.
God is all present.
Jesus died for our sins.
…

I picked statements that are very orthodox. These are unlikely to get much push back from my (mostly Christian) readers. Each statements is helpful. None of these statements help us understand the question/s they are answering.

Let us take a step back to address the question – what is theology?

Three Overarching Theological Questions

I’ve spent much of my adult life wrestling with theology. In that time I have found myself in the presence of these guiding questions. Theological inquiry attempts to answer one or more of three questions. Each question we seek to understand theologically need to exist within these questions.

1) How does God relate to people and creation?
2) How do people relate to God?
3) How do people relate to the rest of creation (including one another)?

We can see a strong mirroring of the two greatest commandment. Jesus told us that the first is to love God, and the second is to love others. Jesus told us that everything hung off of those two points. The three questions are build upon those two points.

Moreover, each of these questions is relational. Just as the call of Jesus is relational. To know or be known requires a relationship. I can only know myself in the relationship to others (or to my previous self). I can only know God as God relates to something or someone else.

These questions often drive us to look for differences. When I describe myself as being a tall person I am saying that this is how I am different. We often describe ourselves by sharing a short list of ways we are different. Yet the ways we are the same also matter. That I have two eyes, two ears, and skin over my bones also matters. It matters how people are different and similar to God. It matters how we are different and similar to the rest of creation.

Lets look at the first statement from above. When one says “God is all Powerful” they mean that God is more powerful than anything else in creation. If God was not then God wouldn’t be all powerful. It is the relational connection which allows us to make this statement.

“Jesus died for our sins.” This one is also relational. It is telling us something that Jesus did for us (in relationship to us and for us). It also requires us to talk about sin. This is not yet the time to dive into hamartiology (the study of sin). It is important to observe that sin is also only understood with relational language. Sin exists between a person and God, others, or creation.

Are there more Questions?

Yes, there are more questions we can ask. The three that I proposed above will capture the scope and scale of what I believe to be helpful. This is not to say that those who have come before us have not sought to answer other questions.

One famous question from the middle ages was ‘How many angels can dance on the head of a pin’. The answer to this question does not really fit within any of the three I laid out above. It is closest to the third in that is focused on how something created relates to something else created.

The lack of connection or impact on people is one of the reasons this question feels so disconnected for most of us. It is the relationships between things which make our theological work important.

The Bible is a theological text

Above all else the bible is a theological text. It’s primary concern is to address the questions above. Each book is an attempt by it’s author to guide us in to these complex relationships with God and one another. We should not forget that these texts are theological. Otherwise we want the texts to answer questions that it was not intended to. Some un-theological questions: how old the earth is, when does the world end, or where did Israel wander in the wilderness.

This makes more sense when we look at an example from the bible.

The Two Stories of Creation

The creation narratives in Genesis are a great place to start. It is where the first book in the bible starts. There are 2 separate and unique stories of creation in the first three chapters. We can say that these stories are trying to establish a baseline for why the world is the way it is. How is God related to creation? How is God related to us as people? Why are relationships between men and women like they are? Why do people seem to be masters over crops and animals? We know these are questions being asked because they are the questions answered. We will get to hermeneutics later (how we interpretate scripture).

Yet each story attempts to answer different questions. Thus the inability of these stories to be narratively harmonized is not a problem. This brief survey will briefly illustrate how these questions exist in biblical texts. Neither of these stories are presenting a historical account of how creation happened.

Survey of Genesis 1:1-2:3

Much of the first creation story is about how God relates to creation. If God is the one creating it that tells us a lot about the relationship God has with creation. That people were created together tells us much about how we need community. Not all animals are communal creatures, yet the author of this story tells us that people are.

It also explains why people are at the top of the food chain. People were created in Gods image (telling us to rule over creation). That people living in the Cradle of Civilization were given all of earth for their food. This first story is rich with some of the most basic answers to these three questions.

Survey of Genesis 2:4-3:24

The second story is much more intimate. God crafts a beautiful home in the form of a Garden. Lush with food, water, and beauty. It is at this point that God places a single person in the garden. Unlike the first story we see a sharing of responsibilities in naming the animals. God has an interest and care in the wellbeing of this person. After the creation of the second person we feel a sense of satisfaction. The community element from the first story is fulfilled again. Relationship and connection is clearly important. Yet it is within the relationship of these two that evil enters the world. There is trust between God and people, and between the people. There is deception, and consequences.

We also see the author attempting to explain some of the hard realities of life. Where does the toil of work, or pain of child birth come from. These are each relational questions about creation and others.

Yet even here in chapter 3 verse 21 God has compassion upon those who broke their promise and Gods trust. Clothing is crafted and given freely to them before they leave the garden. Here in the earliest pages of the bible we see God act out of grace after being betrayed.

Everyone thinks Theologically

No matter our background or beliefs we all wrestle with theological questions. How we relate to one another is a central question for living. It is present in the communities we are born into, choose, and find as we journey through life. For those who don’t believe in God some of the questions have less value. Often, but not always, God in these questions is replaced with another concept or idea.

The discipline of philosophy allows us to ask questions far beyond the scope of theology. Philosophy has fascinated me since my elementary school days discovering Aristotle and Plato. Questions about systems of governance, reality of objects/time, rhetoric, and much more. We need to be careful that we do not over extend the reach of theology into these conversations.

Good theology needs to accept its limits. For example I say it is not possible to theologically conclude what an ideal system of governance is. This question should remain beyond the scope of theological inquiry. It does not exist within the questions expressed above. History also shows us that God, faith, and theology have and will continue to function under many systems.

To the dismay of some there is much greater scope of inquiry for philosophy than there is theology.

How do we develop theology?

I felt it was necessary to start very simply. These three questions can guide our further inquiry and study. This conversation is a foundation for future conversations. The next level to add is an observation of how theology develops. What are the ingredients (or sources) we have at hand to answer all the ways these three questions come at us. After that we’ll look at why theology changes, and dig deeper into each of the sources of theology.

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Today we know the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is in large part because he denounced the fascists of his day while most of the church was silent and complict. I pray that this time there would be too many names to remember as we turn against fascism.

We must collectively denounce Trump. We must dismantle the continual swell of hateful rhetoric he rode to power on top of. Those who vocally supported him (proudly wore his merch, went to his rallies, volunteered, or donated to his campaign) must repent to stay within our churches. Silence is complicity with these domestic terrorists. Those insurrectionists believed that they were saving the country on behalf of everyone who voted for Trump. People did not vote pro-life, they voted for a seditious fascist. There has not been a seditious fascist on the ballot before in my lifetime. Many of us saw this coming and you dismissed our cries.

Large parts of the church have been complicit in this as well – for centuries. Many of us have been trained and instructed to allow “freedom” of thoughts and perspectives. We have been scared to anger donors and volunteers who have chose to follow Trump. We have allowed the insanity of anti-science, anti-vax, lust for violence (with its murder fantasies under the guise of protecting their families), and willfully ignored the racist and bigoted foundations our western churches have been building on since the 1600s (a christian Europe would never have gone along with slavery and colonialism without the church shifting the moral lens of the people). There have been few ecclesial exceptions, and nearly every one of our churches have been built upon toxic foundations of white supremacy and christian nationalism. The two key problems that we haven’t been willing to deal with (despite the urging of many leaders who get marginalized within the church).

Let me be clear. This is far beyond a heart issue. This problem is a systemic, structural, and cultural. We need not convince everyone in our communities to do this work. But we need our leaders committed to the work. We need to have the courage to allow others to lead us in change. The church in the west has been in near free fall – and the events of this week are only going to accelerate the fall.

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The long awaited king has come, humanity and divinity in one. He would proclaimed his kingdom that is, and is to come. Forever and ever. A king of grace, forgiveness and love. The kingdom where the least, the forgotten, the peace makers, and the poor come first.

His is a kingdom of peace. There are no weapons of war, and there are none to defend it. Even his own death did not end it. We are all invited to live in his kingdom today. To set our personal desires, safety, and hopes aside to make manifest the kingdom of heaven in our midst.

Jesus came that each of us might have life. As an ambassador of his kingdom, I must stand against oppression and the forces of death in our world. Together, with all the saints, we hope and work for a just world. That peace on earth would be real, and peace in the hearts of all.

For He taught us to pray, in part:

Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

For the kingdom,
the power,
and the glory are yours without end.
Amen

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This was my contribution.

Before I start I want to state something clearly. Every person who is drawn towards monastic patterns, rhythms, and ways of life does so for their own reasons, and from a unique divine leading.

This has been my journey and struggle.

Like many large life changes this began with a question. I was sitting in a coffee shop having just finished reading Mañana by Justo González. You might also know him from his seminal 2 part work on the history of western christianity. I was struck by how different their lived experience of our shared faith was in latin America that Justo described in Mañana.

As I reflected on Mañana and on the general western history of the Church I felt God lead me to a question.

“How did our christian ancestors live faithful lives pleasing to God for millennia?”

For over 10 years I have been unable to shake this question. It has challenged me, changed me, and is leading me away from what I’ve known. This question has ultimately led me to this conclusion:

That I need to radically restructure my life to align with the basics of my christian faith. That in response to the grace I’ve been given our God is worthy of all praise, glory, and worship.

Said another way: The more I am overwhelmed by the grace poured out for me, the more I am pulled to prioritizing being present with God, and offering prayers and praise to Him.

At this point there have been three areas I am wrestling through:

1) Respecting the scope and scale of the bible.
2) Re-prioritizing my daily life, focus, and energy.
3) How to give praise, glory, and worship.

Respecting the scope and scale of the bible

I started to believe that our Christian siblings long past lived faithful lives which were pleasing to God. Yet so much of our current theological understanding did not exist, and wouldn’t for centuries. The reintroduction of Aristotelian rhetoric, dialectic, and more systematic approaches to understanding God had not happened yet.

Moreover I believe that we are expecting answers to questions for which the biblical authors were unconcerned. There was no concern about sexual identity and orientation, there was no concern about abortion, contraception, or the minutia of at which point life begins. There was no attention given to how someone ought to vote in democratic systems.

There are many areas in which I believe the church has overreached for centuries. While this was likely a response to the vacuum left by the fall of the roman empire to help provide some stability and direction for people. It never the less was an overreach which I cannot see the apostles or Jesus endorsing. Later on their collusion with the state is regrettable, and we are still in the process of unrolling this failure in leadership. The clergy should never have been a part of anything called the ‘First Estate’ as they were in France, Scotland, and other places. This does not align with our ministerial calling to live into meekness, humility, and as servants of all.

The church has struggled to wield its political and social power over the last century in particular. Finally the church is being crushed by this overreach. I believe that in this moment we have a chance to rediscover a respect for the scope and scale of scripture. This will require us to tell people that the bible does not address many of the questions they have. While I am doubtful that many christians will be able to make this transition, to cead the power they feel a right too. We must let go for the Church in our contexts to have a future.

Beauty in simplifying of our theology

There is beauty in this respecting the scope and scale of the bible. There is freedom in allowing the mysteries of life to remain mysteries. Us protestants have been some of the worst at crushing all sense of wonder and mystery from our faith. We then celebrate those who have removed it.

Yet we need mystery, we need the unknown, and we the space that creates for us to wonder. As we accept more mystery and unknown we allow ourselves to rest in God to wonder.

We know that God is loving, a source of true hope, and abounding in grace. Everyday that grace is new, and I need it even more than I did the day before. I feel it in my bones that I am falling apart. I know that without the love and grace of God that I would perish. And even with his sustenance my day will come to return to dust. That somehow billions of years ago stars exploded untold distances away of which I will never travel. And that those heavy metals ejected into the darkness found its way through space and time into my very blood. It is beautiful.

I find myself often lost in this life. I wish that it was as simple as the wide and narrow paths which Jesus spoke. It often feels like there are so many ways forward that I just want to sit down and enjoy being on the road at all. That Jesus found me in the clutches of killing myself, and found a way to embrace me. It is beautiful.

The core of our faith is that we get to begin the eternal task of knowing, loving, and worshiping our God. The God of all, whom within all things exist. Whose kingdom is coming, and right now is breaking through. That we are invited to follow Jesus in his prayers, his fasting, his worship, and his mission.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

Jesus

What if following Jesus, in discerning which path to take was as simple as returning to what Jesus told us God is concerned about.

I want to be clear. I am Christian. Urban Monasticism is explicitly christian. Yet instead of a statement of faith, we each must affirm the Nicene Creed. There should be no question that I love Jesus, and that I praise the living God, and am filled with the Holy Spirit.

The reality is that I have yet to master the basics of faith: Grace, Forgiveness, Humility, Hope, Faith, and Love. These are the attributes I see define the person of Jesus. The man for whom I prefix my identity as a Christian. To be like Christ means to do the hard, and quiet work.

Greatest Challenge to simplifying

One of the biggest challenges I see is that of false piety. In many of our contexts those who are seen to be leaders are those with a wide array of highly developed opinions. This expands on a wide spread belief that understanding is the same as wisdom, and that understanding is the same as maturity. Yet none of this is what God asks of us.

However those who wield the power in many of our institutions and structures are these exact individuals. I do not expect that we would be able to stand against them. In many ways – I expect them to maline, and marginalize us who seek to respect the scope and scale of the Bible. Losing their ‘valuable’ insights, and the platform that has given them. Yet this is a path before me which I must take. It isn’t for a lack of interest or excitement about theologizing, or ethithicating? If that isn’t a word – it should be.

Yet it is not just that we need to strip back the scope of our theology, but also the scope of our lives, focus and energy.

Re-prioritizing my daily life, focus, and energy

In many ways this journey has been about a radical reorientation of my thinking and my life. As I took an assessment I realized that my life does not reflect my beliefs or values. While this is likely true of most of us, how sad it is to admit as a minister of Christ.

So this has been a process for me. It has been a process I’ve been on for the last several years. The hardest part has been to stop doing things. I am still wrestling with how to let go of more things. Before to long I expect that I will step down from my committee chair position at the American Chamber of Commerce here in Paris. I’ve also been working with Jordan on re-designing our company and work to be less intensive of my focus and energy.

Additionally I have continued to try and minimize my consumption. Both in terms of food, and of general buying.

In some ways the balancing and wrestling is defined by needing to stay in the city, and continuing to work. I am needing to fight my hermit like tendencies and desires. There are many times in a given month where I have to suppress the desire to just walk away, literally into the woods somewhere – not telling you where, it’s a secret so you can’t find me. I’d be a bad hermit if everyone knew where I was. It is this romantic notion I have to resit. God loves people, has called us to a beautiful and historic place, and that part of honoring that call is to do the work needed to stay and be present here.

In terms of re-prioritizing my focus and energy I think we should also touch briefly upon on capacity (both mental and physical). Within the last few months I felt God challenge me in this regard. Part of this has to do with my cognitive issues I’ve incurred since contracting Covid, but the challenge has existed prior to this. It is a mix of faith, trust, and priorities.

In short, I don’t give the best of myself to God. In moments of honesty that I should probably not verbalize, I don’t trust God to provide for me at all. I’ve been cultivating my skills since I was 14. I think that it is my smarts that I use these cognitive skills to pay the bills, to make friends, to create opportunities, and to court favor where needed. I’ve gotten to meet heads of industry, billionaires, and other heads of state. But it is all for nothing, because it was just of my self. Now I find that I am unable to even give God the left overs most days. The one who left heaven to meet me on my way to death, who was gentle with me, who let me feel as much love as my broken depressed body could hold. Now I cannot even put him first. My mind is overcome every night and day with the concerns of life to make it another day.

What I need to do – what I cannot yet do – is to give God the best of myself each day. Then allocate what is left to the rest of my life: to my family, to my work, to my friends. I know this is being asked, and in my idealized moments I see myself doing it, but I have yet to just do it. It’s hard to admit this, but my actions show that I don’t value God, and don’t appreciate all He has done for me.

God does deserve the best of me, the best parts of me, the best parts of my days, and is patiently waiting upon me to trust him.

pause for a moment

Similarly to the question I wrestled with about our ancestors living faithful lives, I have been wresting with the question of what it means to give worship worthy of God.

How can I give God the worship he is worthy of, and desires?

How to give praise, glory, and worship

The next question for me was to ask how Jesus, the apostles, and the early church responded to this same pull. What were the core rythmic practices that sustained them in their ministries. As I have looked I see three: Praying the Hours, Fasting, and Communion.

Opus Dei, the Divine Work, Praying the Hours

It is interesting that in the book of acts 2:42 we often translate it as:

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

Yet that last word is actually a plural noun in the greek (ταῖς προσευχαῖς). Our translations should say that they were devoting themselves to “the prayers“. And we know that the apostles were active in praying the hours as some key moments in Acts occur around this practice. The healing of the paralyzed man at the temple happened when they were going to pray, and Peters picnic vision took place as well during one of his prayers. This appears to be a strong logical connection that the origional readers would have made and understood. Luke was telling them to pray the hours.

This practice of Prayer was established under different names by the Coptic as Agpeya, the Byzantine as the Horologion, and the Roman as the Liturgiae Horarum Monasticae. In english it has a couple names that get used: Divine Office, or Liturgy of the Hours are the most common.

These prayers are about as different as I can imagine from how I was taught to pray growing up. They are liturgical. The bulk of our work is to reflect back to God the words that he has blessed as with. In doing this the word of God washes over us from inside out. It humbles my posture by actively showing that I have nothing to offer to God, but that which God has given to me. Finally, to pray prayers along with the my christian siblings. To pray across millennium with the saints of the church offering the best parts of my self, of my day, up to God. Who is worth immeasurably more than I can muster, and who has done more for me that I can ever repay.

So I invite you likewise to pray with us every day.

Fasting

Fasting also makes me a lot of friends (not really, people don’t like fasting). Yet we see Jesus tell the Pharisees that the only reason the disciples are not fasting is because Jesus is with them. We see that Jesus would regularly fast as well. Yet very few of us understand fasting in the way that I believe Jesus taught his disciples to understand it.

Yes, fasting can be a part of grief and lament. Yes, fasting is critical to mastering our flesh. Yes, fasting means going without food. Otherwise we are simply choosing to abstain – which also has its merits and place.

Yet I have come to understand the unique fellowship that I experience with the trinity when I fast. It is hard to express, but I see it in the passage I referenced before. There is an aspect of relationship, of community, of fellowship in fasting. That when we fast we are able to somehow have a closeness to Jesus. Not closeness like the disciples experiences with him as they walked the roads of the roman empire. But that with Jesus upon his throne at the right hand of the Father he joins with us. That our expression of physical emptiness, of rejection of one of my most basic needs, as a lived metaphor of dependance and trust. We are present with God. Not because we are asking God for something, but simply an act which proclaims that God is enough. That he sustains us, and that our hope is in Him.

So I invite you to fast with me every week.

The Divine Feast, Communion

How does flour and grapes become real sources of divine grace. Grace that we can see, touch, feel, and taste. That when it touches our tongue we know if it is warm, cold, moist or stale. We find in our lives such few moments when we can taste the divine. As a protestant it was not until seminary that someone told me what it meant for something to be a sacrament. It was in a history course of all things, and Dr Armstrong told us that it was a “tangible expression of the grace of God for us”.

This struck me. I can still visualize the whole room, and how no-one else was amazed by this. When we prepare the body and blood of Christ, these simple elements of bread and wine become divine. That God is present in ways I was never told, never appreciated, and struggle to communicate adequately. We are able to taste heaven while experiencing a morsel of the forgiveness, grace, and love God poured out through the Cross. It is the love of all loves and it is waiting for us whenever we come to the table.

So I invite you to taste with me, and see that it is good.

These three practices have sustained the church under persecution, through plagues, the falls of empires, ecological catastrophe we haven’t yet to experienced (ice skating on the Thames), and the overturning of whole economic systems. Those called as ministers of Christ have needed the hours, fasting, and the Eucharist to endure, to recharge, and to be reformed.

Finally, for the context in which our common ground within Communitas – Church Planting. It is an interesting historical fact that nearly all of Europe was evangelized through the work of Benedictine monasteries, and other monastic movements. Even the Reformation was birthed out of the Monasteries of Europe. There is something which God does through monasticism which results in expansive change, which creates the environments for people to fall in love with Jesus deeply, and profoundly.

Now it’s time to share a bit about Urban Monasticism.

So what is Urban Monasticism

The focus of Urban Monastics is to be:

Being present with God, and others through simple monastic rhythms in everyday life. Rhythms that help us reconnect with God, the cities we live in, and live more holistic lives. This is something that we do together and alone.

As I was being drawn in a monastic direction I was looking for groups to join. It was oddly difficult. As a protestant the pool of monastic movements becomes nearly non-existant. This set Jordan and I praying about what this could be. I felt a strong pull to honor, and respect the historic practices and rule of the main monastic orders, but with a few areas in which we would need to accommodate.

First: It would need to be ecumenical, and protestant friendly.
Second: It will need to be sensitive to the vocational needs of people who cannot become cloistered at a monastery.
Third: It must be accessible and inclusive. Everyone should be able to see themselves as a monastic, in our practices, and in our texts.

Our goal is that anyone who practices with us will understand these same practices when they are to visit a monastery. In a way we are a community of Monastic Oblates.

Furthermore, I did not want us to simply co-opt the term Monastic for our personal mission, or to drastically reinterpret the practices. It is okay to do that, but I don’t think it is fair to use the term Monastic to describe what you are doing. Simply living together does not make you monastic.

These led to our core values:

Our core values are Monastic, Urban, and Ecumenical.

Monastic
Within a monastic community each person must attend to work of both faith and vocation. Both tasks are spiritual. Each person would provide work that makes money to maintain the community. With a similar spirit each urban monastic should work to provide for themself. The practices and disciplines of faith help us to work well at our vocation. They keep our hearts focused on the kingdom of heaven while working in kingdoms that fade. Together we commit to a way of life – a rule – which we pursue with grace and humility together. This way of life allows us to be more present with God in our daily lives.

Urban
The movement of vocation into cities reshaped the way people live and work. We now find the vast majority of work opportunities in large urban centers. God is incarnate in the world, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us and others. To work and live within the city is to be in the midst of people God loves. For those of us called to the city together we commit to rhythms and practices. That in the midst of city life we do not lose our focus on the Kingdom of Heaven.

Ecumenical
Together we have no commitment to one christian tradition we are open and accepting of all who love Jesus. Embracing and rediscovering our shared Christian monastic history. Our rule does not call for communal living, poverty, or chastity as many orders do. We do share a deep commitment to rediscover the practices that sustained our monastic siblings from the early days of the church. Urban Monasticism is cenobitic, and practiced in the neighborhoods in which we live. No matter how far or close you feel to Jesus today, you are welcome to join us.

Living out our Monastic Rule

There are many different monastic commitments, or rules out there. The most well known is the rule of saint Benedict. We’ve relied heavily on his rule when setting up the 24 current points of our rule. It is published online if you are interested in looking it over. It covers a few main categories:

• Our relationship to God
• Our commitment to Practices
• Our commitment to living monastic values
• Our relationship with the world
• Finally some organizational details

While there are obviously some restrictions on our lives within the our rule, it is very simple, easy, and hope filled. If you are interested I would encourage you to check it out online.

Our Monastic Pilot

Since the start of Advent last year (2019) we have been in the midst of our pilot. It will end on Ascension next year (2022). The goal in this time has been to further develop our practices and our commitment with a group of interested people. It has been going well. We never would have guessed that a global pandemic would have appeared in the midst of this season, or that 2/3rds of our founders would get sick. But we are making good progress.

Every month we have been connecting online to pray Vespers, share in Communion, and have a conversation. We’ve made good progress in establishing our own urban monastic breviary – or prayer book. Having our own translations and texts will ensure we do not have any copyright issues to attend with as we repurpose and build upon our practices.

Right now Sheila, Jordan, and I are in the process of preparing for the concluding push of the pilot. From Advent through Ascension we are going to be actively inviting people to join us from all over the world. I am getting close to having our monastic platform online to generate our prayers – first in English, and after in additional languages. Once that platform is in place there are a lot of exciting and cool things we’ll be able to do with it.

You should join us!

Of course I am going to invite you to join us. You can join us at anytime, and when it no longer fits you are free to move on. There are three ways that you can be a part of Urban Monastics.

As a Monastic
Our hope is to have a community of individuals whom are actively living out our shared commitment.

As a Practitioner
There will be people who want to join with us in our practices without actively living out the whole of the shared commitment.

or As a Contributor
Throughout the life of Urban Monastics there will be needs that exist beyond our way of life. A contributor helps us create and realize these needs. Often there are projects we are working on which you could help us with. Right now a big need is for help with translations (my greek is pretty good, my latin is coming along, but I don’t really know much Hebrew yet), software developers, and with creating art.

If any of this is interesting to you please let us know! We would love to have you join us. There is a lot more information about the pilot on the website as well.

UrbanMonastic.org

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You are either anti-racist, or racist.

The years of me believing that racial justice wasn’t my fight are one of the reasons that George Floyd was murdered. I believed passive support of others was enough to bring change, and I also believed that the change needed was small. I am ashamed I once believed that. I actually one time thought we were close to justice.

I thought that if I wasn’t going to be a leader for racial justice, that it didn’t need my voice or support. I’m sorry. I was arrogant. I need to do better. We need to do better for those oppressed by racism. We cannot be quiet any longer or we stand with oppressors who have no problem murdering neighbors and friends.

I choose to amplify voices and support the systemic change needed to see Justice flow like a river to all those who thirst for justice. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” I am sorry I have not helped this river flow.

If this post offends you, I want you to think about why. It is Pentecost Sunday – the day we celebrate God pouring his spirit – the Holy Spirit – out on His Church. We must look at the pouring out of the holy spirit into our lives as a sharing of the anointing Jesus for which he proclaimed.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus starting his ministry by proclaiming his purpose and the heart of God

We must proclaim freedom for prisoners and set the oppressed free.

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Conversation Setup

As a preface to my thoughts today I want to remind us that our modern western hospitals came out of the church in the middle ages. As nuns and monks tended to the sick in the midst of their pandemics a movement of care took root in society that today is now a key aspect of our collective response to our pandemic. I do believe that a small chance exists for us as the church to again – that a new movement might be planted and begin to grow out of how we respond in this season.

Underlying the following conversation is a belief that a large part of our role as ministers is to model and invite people into a different way of living. To live a life which critiques society around us as we embrace a “true” reality of ourselves that we see modeled in Jesus – and lived out by the disciples unto their deaths. More than ideas or concepts, these where not intellectually ascended beliefs, but transformative realities they would die for. There are many aspects to their lives, and I am going to focus more narrowly in what follows.

As we talk about the chance and hope that something might arise from the church out of this pandemic, I believe it must come out of a radical self transformation and denial that will allow us to live into ways that are different than before.

Main Conversation Setup

For a long time I’ve struggled with a lot of the emphasis many churches place on celebration, glory, and fulfillment. This could be related to my struggles with suicide and depression. But I do believe there is something we need to give attention to here.

Jesus was no stranger to grief and lament. In his years of ministry we can notice a few things that I think might be over looked by us as ministers.

First, there was much more down time in his ministry than many ministers experience in the pace of their vocational lives. Some of this was likely due to the logistics of being an itinerant preacher and healer in the first century BCE. Yet Jesus would often leave alone, take his own path, or ask for healings to be kept secret. He also extolled his followers to ask of God in secret. As ministers I wonder how it might look to ensure space in our lives. Right now many of us are finding ourselves with an abundance of space. If you are like me, you are also struggling to use this time to disconnect from the world, and connect with God more intimately.

Second, Many of us want to act with those outside of our communities how Jesus acted with those who sought him out. Jesus was quite literally the savior of the world, and yet he responded to invitations. He did not force himself or his voice on others. As people queued up to be healed, he would heal them. Yet there were countless others who Jesus walked passed whom he did not heal. As Jesus spoke with the woman at the well their conversation slowly built to the point of her inviting Jesus to reveal who he was to her. And finally we see the raising of his friend Lazarus. As Jesus and the disciples left to go to the home of Lazarus Jesus told them his friend was sleeping. Jesus already knew that Lazarus would be resurrected. Yet when Jesus arrives he does not enter with this news. He understands that the invitation in that moment is to grieve and weep, and so he does. God weeps with us, he does not drag us out of our grief. After some time Jesus calls for Lazarus to rise up and come from his tomb – and he does.

Third, and lastly – We see in Jesus the ability to experience and join others in the extremes of emotion. He validates the experiences and feelings of those whom he is with. He is able to see the deep pain and scars within the souls of those he is with. While this last trait is beyond our ability, we even struggle with cultivating the relationships to be invited into those moments of presence. Jesus respected those who simply wanted to catch a glance of the healer and preacher coming through town. Yet in many ways I don’t lead a life worth notice.

I find myself more inclined to be present in grief and lament as my soul resonates more with the grief and lament of God that with His glory and splendor. Here seems to be an invitation for us to actively practice the full scope of lived experience with ourselves, and along side others. Jesus wept in the garden alone, and he wept with those who wept. Jesus celebrated weddings, and feasted with others, and invites us to feast with him at his table.

So here we are a week after Easter Monday. Christ is risen, and we are reminded again that we will also be risen like Christ. We are reminded of how our baptisms reflect our death and resurrection. We are reminded of the sacredness of communion as we take the blood and flesh of Christ within us.

And yet Lazarus died again, and everyone who was healed through Jesus has died. We ourselves will return to the dust we came from. That our very blood is filled with iron from the explosive death of unseen stars that will continue to be reused again and again as we become forgotten to time. Forgotten until we rise again. Raised again like Jesus, the same but different. Again ourselves, but at the same time transformed.

So as we are living through a collective resetting of our society we have a unique opportunity to create space for ourselves, and to celebrate and lament well.

Questions for us to reflect upon:

• In what ways should/can we as ministers – or as churches – be better at lamenting, celebrating, and present in the mundane day to day of life? How do we enter into these moments with others, honor their experiences, and their gift of inviting us to share in these moments with them?
• How can we separate ourselves from the self improvement and consumerist corporate culture around us?

The post From Lament to Celebration, can we as the church learn to do both well appeared first on Paul Prins.

• It is okay to not be okay right now.
• There will be voices which tell you that you should be doing more right now, they are wrong. Do what you can, and that is enough.
• Moments of existential crisis are not a good time for self improvement.
• Be gentle and gracious with others and yourself.
• Being alone, and being home can be difficult. If you can reach out to people please do. If you have no one to reach out to send me a message and we’ll chat.
• We will figure out how to move forward after this is done.
• We will figure out the economy and finances after this is done.
• We will figure out what mistakes and missteps were taken after this is done.
• We are in this together, across borders, tongues and generations.

Yet this is just a season, like the season of Lent we are also in. A season of grief, anticipation, heart ache, loss, and confusion. This season will too end one day in the future. It may be 2 months from now, it may be 12 months from now, but it will end. Another season will come. Breathe deep, and be gentle with yourself and others. We are where we are.

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Early Easter morning before dawn, the women arrived at the tomb. The stone was rolled away and their hearts broke again. Their unsettled grief pierced their bodies again. The disciple Magdalene ran for help and returned she again to the tomb – now alone. She fought a real fear. Fear that those in power had destroyed the body. Fear that they were hunting down his disciples to meet the same fate. She chose to be next as she ran back to the tomb. In the tomb she saw the angels and she shared her broken hearted fear between tears – “they have taken my Lord away”.

A man appeared at the entrance and she demanded of him – “where have you put him, I am taking him back.” Her broken heart ready to tear apart creation to be back with the broken body of Jesus. With love in his eyes the man stood in front of her waiting. Waiting to catch her eye. He knew her. He tenderly called to her. Just above a whisper Jesus said her name – “Mary”.

She ran to him. She embraced him to never let go. Jesus was not taken. He was not missing. He was not hiding. He was waiting for her to see him. In joy they wept. They embraced. They stood there as Jesus’ love washed over her. Mary’s love washed over him. After a time Jesus told Mary that she needed to let go. That a forever together is coming, but that would have to wait. Return to the locked upper room. Tell the others. I will see you again soon.

Hope replaced the piercing grief. All she knew was grief since she helplessly watched Jesus drown in his own blood upon a cross.

Indescribable grief into an endless hope at the calling of her name.

He is risen.
He is risen indeed.

Today may we be like the tower of faith, Mary Magdalene. Raw in her emotion and brokenness, she would stop at nothing to embrace her Lord again. Help me Jesus to be like her, and learn from her.

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As I stood watching the fireworks cascade off the Eiffel Tower last night for Bastille Day I was struck in a new way that I really live here. That the millions of people in Paris are closer to me now than the family I grew up with. I felt pride for the French, and love that I am here with them. I left the park with over a hundred thousand others making our way to the metro to head home. Once home we saw what happened in Nice and waited for more news to trickle in before heading to bed.

My heart is weak.

Out of events like this, frustration and anger arise. It’s a natural response to evil in the world. I have to remind myself that I have a choice. I can be driven by anger, or I can choose hope and love. Anger allows a foothold of evil in my own soul while the other lightens the world. I believe that following Jesus requires us to pursue hope and love. That to follow Jesus means to do our best to follow the example he gave us.

As a child Jesus snuck away from his parents to teach in the Temple of Jerusalem. The same temple where he was dragged in the middle of the night before being condemned to die. His whole life he lived amongst those people. Jesus spoke of the two greatest commandments (love God and love your Neighbors) and these men who carried him off and condemned him were his neighbors. As he hung there suffocating he chose hope and love. With some of his final breaths he showed us the way forward. He taught us that evil could not live in our hearts with God. Abandoned by friends, destroyed by peers, and alienated by his neighbors he said “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

My heart is weak.

It cannot hold both evil and love. Choosing to love is already so difficult for me that to allow evil a foothold pushes love beyond my grasp. Maybe you’re someone who is capable of more than me. That you can hold evil and love in some cosmic balance. Yet every time I’ve delayed in choosing hope & love it becomes harder. Hatred and evil had already snuck in and were making their home in my heart.

Maybe your heart is strong than mine, but I will choose to love in the ways that are hard. To love those who persecute me. Those who’ve let evil take a hold of their life, and who may will to kill me. Their choice is not mine, I will choose love. Even if it means walking to a death at the hands of those who I live among as my friends are lost – scattered in the wind.

My heart is weak.

Even as my heart is broken by grief and my world crumbles around me I can still choose to fall into love. There isn’t enough space for both hatred and love. So I choose love when faced with evil, as best I can. To love those who desire it, and those whose hatred may one day end my life. My heart may be weak, but I long for it to be pure and full of love.

Photo Credit: Yann Caradec 14 July, 2013
Art Credit: La Déposition by Jacopo Bassano

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My call as a Christian is not to condemn, it is not to call for judgement, it is not to raise arms, but to thrust love and compassion back to the center. To embody & remind those around me that love is far more than positive vibes and butterflies. That love takes more than a word, but that word is a commitment.

In light of the attacks in Paris some family and friends have expected our plans might change. They’ll be disappointed to discover we’re still moving. In that our plans have not changed. Yet our future in Paris looks different than it did before Thursday. I feel a pull and call to help lead people back to a center of love for the other in a stronger way than I’ve felt in a long time.

We easily forget how much offense the compassion of Jesus caused. If it was with tax collectors, people believed to be of an inferior race or religion, or agents of the empire. Jesus knew that love existed for them, that no-one is beyond hope, and that everything can change for the better in a moment. The challenge is step into as many moments as possible with compassion and love, aware that their hate may destroy us.

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A mentor taught me about the natural reach every minister has. Someone needs to be able to identify with the Pastor and/or staff of a church. It’s that identification that helps them enter into a transformative pastoral relationship. He spoke of the limit of age, and I believe this extends to culture & world view. Few foreign language churches impact outside of their linguistic group. Each of those churches is an important part of Gods work in the world. Yet, it would be unrealistic to expect a non-native church to impact beyond those who are within its cultural purview. We can express frustration about this, but there are only a few examples to the contrary. Even Jesus was intentional about limiting the scope of his ministry – with only a few exceptions.

We have many biblical examples of people leading their own (David, Jesus, Peter, and more). We also have examples of people leaving their culture to lead others (Moses, Paul, and countless missionaries over the millennium). Underlying these 4 issues is my concern that this cultural divide is all too easily overlooked.

I believe there are 4 major issues separating urban from suburban.

Issue 1:
Culture and Ideas come from the city, not the suburbs

Simple enough, many people who live in the city don’t believe that you have the right to tell them how to live or what to believe. While I understand that this is not a universal truth, it is a strong underlying perception many people hold. When all of the major cultural institutions are based in the city (arts, theater, government, education, business) it is easy to understand why. The best and brightest head to the major cities to try their hand.

If you are going to try to extend your church into the city you’re going to be fighting this wave of assumption. The fact that your church started outside the urban center means that you have a very large hurdle to overcome. It may or may not be insurmountable, but that is likely up to your own hubris.

Issue 2:
Suburbanites embody different values

The fact that you’ve moved to or live in the suburbs shows you have different values then those who choose to live in urban settings. There are no yards, no house work, and people are more socially progressive then their suburban peers. This point is not to shame anyone, or even make a statement of one set of values being better than another. We need to acknowledge that those who chose to live in a different environment and context do so because they simply value different things. I personally love living in the city because I can leave my car behind most days, I can walk to stores, tap rooms, coffee shops, and great restaurants. I like living in the midst of thousands of people. I enjoy that there are nearly 12k people per square mile in Downtown Minneapolis.

It is fine that people choose the privacy, large plots, and off street parking of the suburbs. Yet realize that the tens of thousands who live downtown don’t really care about those things in the same way. When someone walks to the store they don’t really care what the parking situation is.

Issue 3:
Re-urbanization changed the game

You might not have noticed if you haven’t been really looking around American cities in the last few decades, but the residents are different. There is a place to have the gentrification conversation – however those moving into urban centers tend to be affluent individuals with professional careers. The median household income in my neighborhood (North Loop) was $95,357 in 2012. Compared to Minneapolis as a whole at $50,563 or $53,897 in Fridley you can see that it is nearly double that of the surrounding communities. This incidated different fields of work, and likely more duel income families to make up the earnings difference.

While there are still pockets of more ‘traditional’ urban issues like poverty and homelessness, the people who are increasingly calling downtown areas home are likely more successful vocationally, and more educated than those elsewhere (30% in the North Loop have Graduate Degrees or higher). When it comes to doing ministry in this context you better be ready for more successful, affluent, smarter individuals who aren’t super interested in what you have to say.

Issue 4:
The city is home, not a destination

Cities tend to be more diverse, dense, and vibrant then suburbs. Yet the only reason many suburbanites ever find themselves downtown is for entertainment. But in my home of Minneapolis we are on track to have 70,000 people calling the downtown zone home within the next decade (already 35k+). That is more then all but 3 suburbs (Bloomington – 86k, Brooklyn Park – 78k, and Plymouth – 74k).

That is 70,000 people living in just over 3 square miles. Those 3 square miles are a home, neighborhood, and place to live. When you show up for an hour or two, you’re a guest. Guests don’t often get to tell people what they should be doing with their lives. It’s great that you come to town to catch a game, enjoy a show, or eat a great meal. It’s equally important to realize that makes you an outsider. The example of incarnational ministry seen in Jesus and the apostles should encourage you take pause.

What you’re doing won’t work in the City

I understand that driving a handful of miles into the city might not feel like entering a foreign mission field. Yet the cultural and worldview distances should make you slow down and reconsider that point. People self select where they want to live. Some of this is driven by earning potential, and some of it is driven by values. My hope in writing this is to cause ministry leaders to pause before they commit time, focus, money, and energy into work that will be more difficult than they realize.

The praxis, missiology, and theological emphases that worked outside of the city will not work in the city. This is simply because this is a different group of people whose value and worldview are different. The questions being asked of life are different, the ways that people need God to be present are different, and the individuals that urbanites tend to look up to are different.

Proposing an Alternative

Keep doing what you’re doing where you’re doing it. Praise God that you have a vibrant and passionate community of people, and be content in the faithfulness that God has displayed to you, and you to God. Instead of going into the city yourself you might Pray that God would raise someone up to move into the city, allow themselves to become an urban person with the hopes that some might be saved. To attempt to pastor and lead in both contexts seems to compromise both. Even Jesus limited the scope of his ministry to a specific group of people. Once someone arrises who can be sent support them, and give them the freedom to change as they adapt to urban life. It is going to be more expensive then your suburban ministry (space is a premium) and will likely take more time. And do not force them to teach the same topics you are to a group of people who are very different than those who sent them.

Note: The second and third paragraphs were added later after feedback I received. I also do not expect anyone to change their plans because of what I write here. At the end of the day I hope that anyone reading this will desire to better understand and engage with the communities they are going into from a learning posture. I wish them the best of luck and pray that God would continue to be active in their midsts (as I have done for years).

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A lot of very interesting things are happening right now in the evangelical movement in the western world. As far as I am able to tell, this movement has enjoyed a level of prominence over the last several decades as the growing voice of the non-Catholic church in the eyes of the media and public. Watching the unfolding drama at my alma mater – Bethel Seminary – has been revealing and insightful. The gap between the present and the future seems larger to me now than ever before. These three issues I believe will prove the hardest points during this period.

1) A new understanding of Sexuality

Living in Minnesota this ‘battle’ was all too real just 12 months ago when the state voted to allow same sex marriage, yet this is not the end of this conversation. As more information becomes available to us on the spectrum of sexuality, and of sexual orientation, the firm constructs of male/female and the associated roles will be very difficult to maintain.

The fact that most are unfamiliar with the term ‘intersex’ (wikipedia) shows the lack of exposure that the public has to this natural diversity in sexuality. In reality between 1-2 out of 1000 births are not strictly male or female (this means that the Twin Cities metro there are between 3,400 and 7,000 intersex people). Historically these people had their anatomy ‘corrected’ at birth or shortly after. Just this week Germany added intersex as a gender option on their birth certificates. Our understanding of gender/sexuality has been blurred for the sake of simplicity.

There is also growing clinical research that shows physiological responses proving heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bi-sexuality within the human spectrum of sexual orientation. While churches, denominations, and movements are all seeking to understand their communal perspective on the issues of sexual orientation, this conversation is only going to get more intense, political, and difficult as time moves forward.

2) Switching places of Modernity and Postmodernity in society

Youth today are increasingly viewing the world in a fundamentally different way than their parents. A shift in knowing and understand the world around us (epistemology) has not occurred like this since the onset of modernity and the scientific revolution. As to be expected, this transition will follow similar patterns as before; slandering, belittling, and attempts to prove the new perspective as invalid or empty.

However, the challenge is that those arguments will do nothing to change the perspective of those in the new postmodernity camp, but will only create a greater divide between the two. As I see it happening, the entrenched perspective of modernity will use its power (politics, money, prominence) to defend their understanding of theology, worldview, and the faith. This is understandable, though I personally would struggle to commit my personal finances to supporting an individual/institution that sees the world in such a different way then I do.

I have hope that a bridge between now and the future can be made. Those individuals in leadership of the evangelical church would use their influence to open conversations and include new voices and perspectives into the lives of their communities.

The young people I engage with have left the church because of issues related to this divide. Most of them do not have the language to articulate it in this manner, but this issue is huge and will only loom larger in the years/decades to come.

3) The discovery of life elsewhere in the Cosmos

Probably the most fun item on this list, but I anticipate that within my lifetime there will be life discovered elsewhere in the universe. It may be longer until other sentient life is discovered, but the odds and scope of the universe are too overwhelming for this to not happen. With 100 billion galaxies each with 100 billion stars there are far too many opportunities for other civilizations to exist.

This is a challenge for the church, because of the narrative that has been used for as long as the church has existed: that humans are the capstone of all creation. So far this understanding of the created order has worked for us, and the literal interpretation of Genesis has also supported this claim. Yet this coming discovery will force a glaring omission into the narrative – how could God create whole other worlds and peoples (who may be more advanced and superior to us) while never telling us? Where do they fit into the redemptive story of scripture?

What do you think? What are your top three?

Well, these are the three things that I believe are the biggest challenges to evangelicalism in the next several decades. Do you agree? Is your list different from those listed above? Let me know what your top 3 things might be.

Photo Credit: Jared Stump

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