A lot of news and talk has been floating around lately about the world of food. It’s no wonder - I guess we humans have a little addiction to the stuff! But these days there’s a lot more to talk about - the unbridled growth of the organic food movement, locavores and the the 100-mile diet, I’ve seen choices at restaurants increase more and more to include vegetarian and vegan, and this morning I even read about “rescued” food (trash treasures, or dumpster diving, whatever suits ya).

In every country I’ve traveled to, the uniqueness of the culture seems to reveal itself most around issues of the bathroom and the dinner table. People eat differently in Japan than they do in Argentina! (Eat with your hands above the table in Argentina (prove you don’t have a switchblade) and keep your sticks out of your food when you’re not eating it (or your hosts will think you consider their food as delicious as a funeral).

I’ve been reading Jesus for President, (seeing as how this is an election year and I want to research all my options,) here’s a quote:

“How do Christians eat? Christians eat with the poor folks, with the outcast, the marginalized, and the excluded - all who were never invited to anyone else’s party. Ours is a different kind of party. It’s more like a divine banquet than another political program. Society’s misfits are our people, our ‘constituency.’” (pg.241)

And some words from Jesus’ political manifesto:

Luke 14: “When you throw a banquet do not invite your friends…invite the poor.” (Jesus)

Mark 2: “But when some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with people like that, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”

Jesus was a Pooravore.

He surrounded himself with the overlooked and the outcast, the misfits and the marginalized. He gave his rapt attention to those who had been ignored all day as they begged in the streets. They were his posse, his “supper club.”

Today Kat and I were walking through our neighborhood’s market streets with some great friends of ours from Chicago’s south side. I had been thinking and talking with God about some of this all morning. And there as we were walking past the Ten Thousand Villages store (a store about fair trade and justice for the poor) sat an elderly man with no teeth asking for money (the irony was hard to get past). Turns out his name is Bill (name changed to protect the innocent) and he lives in a nursing home not far from where we were.

Bill, like others at the home, is allowed $30 a month from the home (they keep the rest of his social security check, plus any money he makes at a job). He was out of cash and hungry for some hot dogs. I had a $1.25 on me so it we hightailed it down to the corner market and got some juicy ones. The store clerk even mircowaved ‘em for us.

I noticed that everyone in the store and everyone on the sidewalk was from the nursing home, which doubled as a mental institution. He and I sat under the shade of a tree in a park across the street from where he lives his life. He was just as interested in me as I was in him. I got the feeling he was lonely - his family rarely comes to visit him, though they all live in the city.

As I sat there talking with him about coffee crystals and cigarettes, it dawned on me that Jesus made it very clear what kind of diet Christians were to be on. A steady diet of conversation with the oppressed, for that is where their Jesus is. Though those hot dogs left a “mechanically separated” taste in my mouth, it was the best food I’d eat all day long.

Become a Pooravore, and watch your life change.

I am back to reading the life of the Messiah Jesus. It is so full of rich, political overtones. I am so thankful to be reading this text now in an election year, as I’m considering the major shifts this country and world are undergoing. I am ready to expand my imagination on who Jesus was in his day, and who he is in this day. He was called “Lord” when Cesar was “Lord,” but today in this country might Jesus be known as the “Commander in Chief”? He certainly seems to cause chaos and fears of revolution even on the cusp of his birth. Herod the Great, the Roman’s puppet King for the area, was troubled, as was the whole city of Jerusalem, when the wise men of Persia came to Herod to see and worship his newest son and next king of the Jews. The only problem was, Herod had not just had a child; which confused and troubled everyone present. I can imagine Herod thinking, “Who is this so-called King? Where is he? If he is allowed to live, he will be a threat to me and my dynasty.”

Joseph and Mary smuggle Jesus out of town just before the infanticide of a terrified Herod. After crossing bandit and desert country, they arrive as refugees in Egypt, and stay there until Herod’s rule is past. The writer Matthew eloquently connects this with the fulfilled prophecy, “Out of Egypt, I will call my son.”

“Come out,” is used all over the Bible as a rallying cry to Israelites who draw back on the imagery of the Exodus. In Jesus’ life and times in Egypt, and his leaving, he is participating in the largest mythos of the Israelite people. Only Jesus turns their common narrative on its head. Now the oppressive regime is not in Egypt, but in the Holy Land of Bethlehem. The very city of David of which Jesus is a descendant and rightful heir to the throne, is now calling for his blood. Israel, co-opted with the Roman Empire under Herod, has become the evil Egypt in the fullest sense. Jesus’ Promised Land is in exile - living in Egypt as a refugee. Jesus’ return to Israel several years later brings him back as a special ops agent of God. Still a young child, Jesus returns to the flock of Israel as the Anointed One, prepared to reinterpret their history as the people of God on his own terms, and prepared to address the “Egypt” of Rome under which all Israelites were afflicted. He brought a message that was not “spiritualized” “privatized” or “apolitical.”

Jesus was not interested in violently overthrowing the pervasive Roman regime as were so many contemporary zealots and revolutionaries of his day. Nor was he going to, like the Essenes, retreat to the hinterlands and set up a new society completely “off the grid.” His plan was to be subordinate to and then creatively subvert the laws, and paradigms of Roman authority, Jewish Priestly authority, and even his own diverse followers. He came proclaiming another Kingdom that was intriguing, much like Martin Luther King’s dream, it was so real and yet seemed so far from the current reality. It would take trust in this crazy Jesus to follow him out of the Matrix and into a new world where there was “enough for everyone’s need by not enough for everyone’s greed.”

Jesus was a revolutionary. He brought a message that spoke to the political issues of the day, and offered an alternative. To some it seemed foolish, to many it seemed dangerous. But to a few it seemed like the only chance at a life of complete peace from all the tumult of high gas prices, outsourced slavery, broken families, a war with no end, abortion, and the crisis of immigration.

The events surrounding his birth set him on a course to become an “enemy of the state” before he could even walk. His life, and his death was a statement against the path of empires and corporations - the bottom line and the bloodshed of desperately grabbing at power and fighting to hold on to it. Jesus’ message wasn’t, and isn’t, a message relegated to the “self-help” or “religion” section of the bookstore. It impacts every aspect of our lives.

This might be a little “heady” but its been on my mind for awhile now and I’ve got to put it somewhere! Plus, now that I’m almost done with my Maymester (tomorrow is my very last day of graduate school!) I’ll need to get back into the habit of regularly adding content here. Hope to see you again soon!

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Fractals are everywhere. From the largest of galaxies to the smallest snowflake, fractals are the code of the universe. Every living thing or dynamic system takes a fractal form. Fractals are based on simple mathematical equations that contain unending diversity. The patterns are determined by a simple rule in a series of repetitions that feed back on itself new information.

Starting with a simple building block (a human cell, a coordinates in a computer) these repetitions unleash a creative potential for infinite complexity. Fractal art is one large shape made up of many smaller shapes that reflect, but are not identical to, the bigger picture. Each one of those small shapes is made up of even smaller shapes that look like it! This characteristic is called “self-similar.” To fully appreciate the power of fractal art, you must experience it. Check it out in this corny video here:

The genetic base of an acorn gives the crucial information needed for the fractal equation found in cell division to help catalyze the growth of a tree. The DNA of this seed will grow an oak tree, and not a dogwood or a squirrel. There are boundaries for fractals, and yet, when watching the process, it can only be described as chaotic.

The fractal process for development in the Church is discipleship. Discipleship is the repetitive feedback to the DNA of Christ. Jesus Christ is the incarnate God, who expressed perfectly what it means to live and follow after God as a human. He was the seed planted on the earth that contained within it everything necessary for the diverse Church to grow. It is through discipleship to Christ that the Church is able to clearly see both the limits set on what it means to be the people of God, and the capacity for wild, chaotic, uncontrollable diversity.

The Church is a living, breathing, organism; the second incarnation of God on earth. As the Body of Christ, it is composed of trillions of localized cells, of which there are countless different types each doing the work it was designed to do. It is a system, a network of disciples each holding within them the very love and person of Christ. To the degree that this system can effectively access its DNA, it can grow and nurture itself in healthy ways. This is done through the practice of love.

We had a great Chicago mission team retreat over the weekend.  It gave us some new perspectives on our philosophy of “team” and I believe the Lord spoke to us through Kent Smith about the importance of putting first things first…

…Many of the passionate followers of Christ I have come across in America are avid ministers.  They pursue missions and ministry with all their heart.  They believe that we are to “love as we have been loved” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”  But strangely enough, it is not uncommon for these same well-intentioned disciples to end up losing their family, or hurting people for the sake of “ministry”.

Many others enter into a life of service to God and leadership among God’s people for the pursuit of true community.  They see God as the triune, perfect community, and they believe it is part of the Christian life to experience that same communion with brothers and sisters.  The only problem is, my definition of community is almost always incongruent with your definition of community!  Therefore we’re always fighting each other in order to obtain that ideal community that never really existed in the first place.

These two things - ministry and community, quickly become idols in the minds of many disciples of Christ.  They are important and godly, but they are not God himself.  There’s something more central that ties these two things together - IDENTITY.

Finding one’s true identity in Christ is essential to truly entering into meaningful ministry and community.  Jesus shows us this in his own life.  He is affirmed in who he is at his baptism BEFORE he does a single miracle, preaches a single sermon, or rounds up any disciples.  His Father says to him and to all others listening, “Behold, this is my son, I love him, and I am well pleased with him!“  What that would do for so many mission teams and even your average Christian if they knew that they were deeply loved by a Papa who knew them first and foremost as his beloved child; BEFORE they ever did anything for him.

But we can only find this identity when we are living in intimacy with Father.   Jesus found regular space in his life to connect and love his Father.  They loved each other uniquely, madly, and constantly.  It was out of this cultivated, intimate relationship that Jesus was able to find his identity, and participate in ministry and community in powerful ways.  Jesus says, “I only do what I see my Father doing.”

Alongside connecting one on one with Father, he found it helpful to hear the intimate words of his God through a band of brothers; Peter, James and John.  These guys knew Jesus inside and out - they spent more time with him than any of the other disciples, and saw him through thick and thin: the night he cried in the garden before he was betrayed, the mountain where he was transfigured into a glorious presence, and there for miracles of resurrection…

I know I’m desperate for this kind of fellowship.  I admit that its more elusive than I ever realized.  People…I…am far too selfish.  I don’t want to commit to anyone else - I want to be my own rugged cowboy, going it alone.  I pretend that I can hear God and participate in life with him all by myself - and that just isn’t true.  There are times…often…that I can’t hear from God.  That’s when I trust on brothers who’ve got my back and help me with the manna from heaven; God’s continual words of LIFE.  It feels as if this kind of community comes and then goes before you know it.  “Either you’re moving, or everyone else is moving around you,” a good friend of mine once said.  It’s sad but true.  I feel like this is a hinge point for North American missions.  If we can’t find meaningful ways of finding intimacy with Father, both on our own and with a small band of disciples, then we will fail.

Jesus’ intimacy with Father continued into a large, wildly diverse community.  The crowds, the disciples, the townsfolk that new him…they were a part of how Jesus connected with God.  This is the choir of coordinated voices singing their love song with God together.

But thank God, there was no formula - no set of principles for us Americans to decipher.  Jesus’ means of connecting with God and becoming intimate with him was in constant flux.  I’m guessing that that bible reading plan you started Jan 1st is already slacking.  Maybe God’s ready for you to find another way to connect with him.  Ride a bike, write a song, meet someone new.  Whatever it takes to find deep, lasting connection with your Creator Father.

Thanks to Kent for pointing some of this out to me.  It is a goal of mine to live in the reality of my own identity in God.  I pray that missions in my life will flow not out of a sense of ungodly jealousy or sense of guilt, but out of who I truly am, and my intimate connection with Father.

Thoughts on the diagram?  Others?

Quick life update: Trina and I just got back from the National House Church Conference, and it was encouraging as always. We’ve made lots of good friends from all over the country through this venue, and it was good meeting up with many of them again. And there were so many others who were just beginning to envision God’s family life in new ways, which was also exciting for us to watch. Among these newbies were the new MRNA (Missionary Residency for North America) students! It’s been two years since Katrina and I were in the program’s internship year, but its still great to hang out with these guys and to welcome them into the program. I might write more about the conference and on our new buddies later on.

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If life is a dance, then who is our partner? Watch this moving video till the end:

How does this hit you? What does it say about life’s struggle, human nature, spiritually destructive forces, and the dance of God?

For me, I see in this dance the original intimacy we were ALL created in, a move toward corrupted insanity and ultimate isolation, and then the powerfully violent fight for life’s redemption with our partner.