Been thinking about how the Kingdom grows lately. These thoughts have mostly come from my readings in Jesus for President and my aggravation with some poison ivy that’s sprouted up in our backyard.  Jesus says that Kingdom growth a lot like a mustard tree.

I hear that Jews were not too fond of mustard trees.  There were actually Jewish laws against them being planted in gardens.  The reason why is that they essentially took over the area, planting and sprouting and generally being a nuisance.  Those stubborn little bushes would pop up and ruin all the plans and purposes the farmer had for the garden.  No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t stop those tiny little seeds from spreading and getting into your garden!

Growing up, I always heard nice sermons about the remarkable power of a mustard seed - tiny as it is, growing into a giant redwood or something.  The only problem is, when you actually look at a mustard tree, its pretty scraggly.  Check out this mustard “tree” below that is busting out of some concrete in Bethany:

This insidious viral plant spreads like wildfire and is under no one’s control.  It breaks all kinds of rules about how plants are supposed to behave.  And what’s more - the fowl are supposed to take refuge in its branches!  This is not the cedars of Lebanon that Israel hoped the Kingdom of God would produce.  This looks more like a renegade sleeper cell just waiting to spread its potent seeds of destruction all over your lawn - and attract and house the worst kind of flying beasts - the kind that poop all over your car and hang out with the wrong crowd.

If we think about the Kingdom of God as Jesus taught about it, what might change in how we live as followers of Christ?  It might mean we see growth as slow and insignificant - rather than splashy and impressive.  It might mean that we are not just on earth to be “nice” to everyone and everything, but rather to help upend and nonviolently overthrow the prevailing systems that dominate and oppress humanity and creation.  Maybe it means we spread like a disease, or a terrorist group, or a clan of starfish. (an earlier post on that here).

The neat thing about mustard seeds is how potent they are!  But you have to crush them up for them to be of any use.  The Anabaptists used to talk about how everything on earth finds its purpose through suffering.  The delicious lettuce you eat in your salad started as a seed in the ground, and grew slowly to produce a head.  It was picked, shipped, and carried to your dinner table, where you rip it apart, cut it into pieces, and then grind at it down till it is no more.  And yet, if you hadn’t done that, the lettuce’s purpose in life would have been in vain.  What if the Christian’s purpose is not so much different from that lettuce, or that mustard seed?  What if Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was not just a one-time event for our esoteric sins, but actually provided an avenue and a model for us to experience our greatest purpose in life?

Jesus moves beyond mustard to talk about yeast mixed into dough, weeds mixed in with wheat, good and junky fish of all kinds mixed up in a net…all stuff that is a recognizable annoyance in the lives of his audience. It’s interesting that Jesus waits till the end (of time) to call out what is the weed and what is the wheat.

To the some, the mustard-tree Kingdom looks like a weed - to Christ, to the world, and to the marginalized, it is the bread of heaven!

 I met Greg Scott online through his blog.  He is a teaching pastor for a network of a simple churches in Joliet, IL (southwest suburbs of Chicago).  Our conversations are always edifying - thought I’d share just one:

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me: for me, i love a good parable - i’ve got friends who make youtube video parables

4:02 PM not sure (about the hc layers) - i know that in life, we sociologically have “crowds” the “72″ the “12 disciples” the “peter, james and john” as well as a “beloved”.

4:03 PM my fear is that in church entertainment, we have lost the beauty of a “band of brothers” (or sisters) that fight for our heart and encourage us on the journey

4:04 PM my friend wrote a great piece on how the church is like a fractal community. check it out here: http://towardsimplicity.net/?page_id=925

i think this has profound implications for being a fluid, organic church

4:06 PM Greg: hmmm. I’ll check it out becasue I basically disagree with the socialogical statement you made. I don’t think that happens naturally at all and so, most people don’t have that at all

4:07 PM me: tell me more

4:10 PM Greg: Well, in our society expecially, there is a natural tendency toward selfishness and self-centeredness. combined with our “conecting” via technology (any I am not against using it as a tool) almost exclusively is creating a society that is more and more shallow, selfabsorbed, unconnected and detached -

  and we like it taht way.

  Most Christinas don’t have two or three other families that they conect with except on a sunday or a formatted small group

4:11 PM who are there 72?

  Who is intimate enough to speak to as Jesus spoke to the 12?

  RARELY do we find someone iwth a 3 or 4 that can be intimately discipled through life circumstances

  It is all too time consuming and requires more than most are willing to give

4:12 PM Okay, I’m ranting a bit, but it is going to be on e of the most difficult things that the SC’s will face

 me: yeah…maybe i should say its not a “sociological” reality, but a divine desire

4:13 PM people DESIRE community - those 2 or 3 bro or sis’ - but few are ready to see it become a reality

  sort of like Cole’s LTG’s, but more like life, less like a program

4:14 PM Greg: Well, again - are you sure?

 me: they desire community, but they don’t know how to FEED that desire.

4:15 PM not sure if that makes sense…i’m interested in your feedback

4:17 PM Greg: what I mean is that most of the 20 somethings that I run into and get a chance to talk with - are AFRAID of relational intimacy. they are avoiding it unless it comes with a built in buffer like alcohol, internet, limited time involvement such as work, etc. Several of them are now Christians and NOW they see that the life they were choosing was keeping them alone and lonely, but at the time - it was their security

  BTW - same is true with many older people as well

4:18 PM me: that sounds like a bunch of people i know

  myself included. tacit intimacy (blogs, txts) are good for keeping in touch, but few seem to know what to do with more than “keeping in touch”

4:19 PM so the big q for me is: do we even proclaim another reality? one that speaks of God’s innate intimacy he shares with himself and his creation? and if so, how?

4:20 PM Greg: It sems to me that we are entering a phase of spiritual living that will require us to encroach into peoples “space” and security - but as a culture and as a church we are running the opposite direction trying to meet the felt neds of people who are feeling things in a decidedly unhealthy way

  sorry was typing istead of finishing reading

  I think yo have to more thna ever

  and lovign enough to risk losing relationships is going to be hard and vital

4:21 PM me: good point

4:22 PM Greg: I may also just be involved in what Gpod is saying to me about this church I’m speaking at that I’m overanalyzing the whole thing too…

4:23 PM me: ya know, i think if anyone can teach us community, it is Christ…him and maybe the the most elderly in our nation.

4:24 PM they lived a life of community - neighbors in each other’s kitchen cabinets, children playing together in the street…and NO internet!

  while community would’ve been limited, it would’ve meant something

4:25 PM anytime intimacy in community is pursued by my wife and i, others consider us joining a cult or something

4:27 PM Greg: makes me wonder if there is a connection between Daniels “Many will go here and there to increase knowledge” and Jesus’ “the love of many will grow cold”

  If they called Jesus andhis follwers a cult

  we should expect the same

  maybe we should be most concerned when we are accepted as “normal”

4:29 PM me: ha, good point

  let me ask something of you -

4:30 PM trina and i are moving to chicago in the summer. i know we’ll be in contact in some way, hopefully staying in meaningful friendship and ministry together…

4:31 PM …trina and i want to pursue community hard - communion with God, and with his people. But I think friendships that help guide HOW we do that is of utmost importance.

4:32 PM through discernment, wisdom, etc, i’m hoping you’ll help us find healthy, deep community that helps us get over our self-centeredness

 Greg: Now, while I agree with you - God thinks you are completely funny…

4:33 PM Sam and I have been struggling through how worldly we have become with our possessions, home, - all the nice things we’ve accumulated over a few years

  and I should be asking you to help me consider how to give up these “hard earned” things

4:34 PM His calling is a constant reminder that we are to be a people wo “mourn”

  nothte dead around us…

  but the things we are constantly dying to to follow Jesus adequately

  If I can help you, yo have whatever I can give, but I will not claim it to be much…

4:37 PM me: great. this is encouraging. at times i get overwhelmed with the task of “casting vision of the good news” to people who have no concept of it and seem not to want it at all. it seems you’re equally as frustrated with people who just want to remain isolated and selfish.

4:38 PM Greg: I think I am past being frutrated, but that leaves me -

4:39 PM me: its great to discover that i’m running beside others like yourself- those who are truly desiring another way of life - another economy of God’s shalom

 Greg: angry is the word that comes to mind - but it is an angry at myself that asks “What are you goign to do about it?”

4:40 PM Yes, It is good form my perspective to not feel alone as well

  It helps me to be bolder

  and less fearful

4:41 PM me: that to me is good news! that to me is part of what the “church” is - learning to get over ourself and learn from others/love others.

4:42 PM Greg: yep

  a thought about your friends blog…

4:43 PM It seems like pretty much what you read from SC/HC advocates until he says, “and nobody needs to have more than two of these centered groups..”

4:44 PM At that point my interest is piqued as I have been wondering how to get the tow house churches I am working with out of thier “church in a box in a home” mentality of being happy with their circumstances and loving each other - but not reaching out to anyone else

4:45 PM And is it as simple as implementing a “2 group” expectation?

4:46 PM Your “safe” group where you are built up and encouraged - and your “dangerous” group where everything you are is on the line with Jesus?

 me: i like the language there

4:47 PM Greg: I’m wondering if I shouldn’t modify his thought to everyone NEEDS be involved in two groups to be trulyhealthy

4:48 PM I have been at the point of simply wanting to disband the whole thing just to try and split them up - but the truth is they do a LOT of ministry together. But it seldom involves more than them packing boxes or writing checks

4:50 PM Itis weird, but if churches were suddenly the targets of terrorists and people began meeting in homes

  each one of them could and would lead a SC

  But to reach out to the world around them in this way is beyond their willingness to do

4:51 PM I do have to smile, though, at the thought of Jesus drawing out the fractal diagrams in the dirt for his disciples…

4:52 PM me: ha, yeah

The latest Speaking of Faith podcast had Krista Tippett interviewing Janna Levin, theoretical mathematician, philosopher and author of A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines. She has spent her career looking into the realities of existence and truths of the universe. In the interview, she describes how the universe through mathematics is completely predetermined, and nothing can be considered “free-will” as we understand it.

Now, this might just be my American free-spirit predetermining my response here, but I have to humbly disagree with her.

With what little I know of Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) Fractals (see a totally sweet post on them here) they are a repeating rhythm based on a simple equation that ideally go on for infinity. They have infinite precision, but they are not touchable.

Arthur C. Clark (wrote 2001: A Space Oddessy) narrated a movie series on fractal geometry called “Fractals - the Colors of Infinity”. I’ve included the YouTube video (1st part) below. (A little cheezy, but you owe it to yourself to watch this…)

Fractals like this explain the motion of the planets around the sun, the shape and movement of clouds, continents, or trees, right down to DNA revolving around itself. What is so unusual about the M-Set is that is both complete and incomplete - both fully definable and fully indefinable. It is like islands of order in the sea of chaos. The M-Set is infinitely complex, organic, fluid, and yet completely definable and simple.

I believe the realities of the M-Set Fractal help us understand how parts of our universe is both revealed and concealed, both mysterious and definable. When we think about predeterminism, and free-will, no longer are we confined to choose one side or the other. Maybe through mathematics, we can understand that God allows free-will and yet knows everything. Maybe we can understand how God is both revealed and mysterious…

In my opinion, the Mandelbrot Set (nicknamed the “thumbprint of God”) offers a question to Jenna Levin, and invites deep questions into existence, consciousness, and organic reality in the universe.

My friend and mentor, Kent Smith, has recently made publicly available a book he’s been working on for over a year. It’s small (about 40 pages) but its profound, and I believe it has the potential to revolutionize one’s spiritual life, as well as how North American’s understand what following Jesus looks like.

Think about the universe, think of a flower, think of your DNA, think of just about anything we consider beautiful…what do they have in common? A repeating pattern around a center. But what are the patterns in your lifestyle? What is your center? Or rather…WHO?

Kent is interested in a little experiment - and needs your help. Read below to find out more.

Friends,

I want to invite you to join me in testing an exciting new tool I have developed with the help of some friends. It’s a short gift book called Centered, and it is designed to help people take a deeper look at what it really means to follow Jesus.

Last Sunday 250 Million people in the U.S.A. did not attend church. That’s five people out of every six—and their number is growing by about 10,000 per day.

Many of these people are very interested in spiritual reality, just not church. Chances are you know some of these people. If you’d like to take your conversation with them to a deeper level and help us learn from your experience, here’s what you can do:

1) Buy a copy of Centered at the website listed below, read through it and jot down your impressions, good and bad.

2) On reflection and prayer, give or lend the book to one of your friends who seems open to spiritual things with the offer to discuss what they think of it over a cup of coffee (or whatever!).

3) After that conversation, write out your impressions of what impact the experience has had on you and your friend and e-mail them to me.

That’s it. Early indications are that this tool will make a big difference for many people—and I will be delighted and grateful if you choose to be part of the team that helps us refine it even more. (But still love you if this isn’t a good time for such a venture!)

Here’s the website

Blessings in this season. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Kent

So go ahead - purchase a copy; help out a missionary here in North America, and then be blessed by a great message! If you don’t have Kent’s email, feel free to drop me a line by commenting on this post. We’ll make sure the message get’s back to him!

Let me give you just a peak into my childhood.

The church I grew up in was pretty dang conservative. Without going into unnecessary ruminations over things long since gone, one particular concept in this church has sparked my interest as of late. It’s the two words that struck both anger and fear into the hearts of even the most staunch and legalistic.

“CHANGE AGENT”

Beware the accursed label for, much like a pirate’s “Black Spot”, once it has been given to you, you will wear it to your grave. Because the church brotherhood I grew up in believed that the church was perfect and fully “restored” to the pristine blueprint of the New Testament (is there only one model of church in the NT?), anyone who attempted to change the model or expression of how church was done or developed was labeled with attempting to derail the entire holy experiment. For this particular group, “be-holding the pattern” was of utmost importance, and anyone to varied from this pattern was heretical.

It is ironic how God brings people to terms with their own terms. Over the last few years, “change agent” has become a life goal of mine, and I pray regularly for “change agents” all over this continent. Not just the church needs changing either. I’m praying for change agents who change the world. For scores of people who, with eyes fixed on a completely different culture, subvert the culture they’re working undercover in.

I’m hoping to partner and network with as many change agents as I can in Chicago.  I think the church is in deep need of change; maybe the supposed “pattern” of the New Testament is about change anyway!  What I mean is - wasn’t Jesus a change agent?  Weren’t his followers agents of transformation that eventually swept across an Empire stuck in its ways?  Isn’t the Kingdom of God itself an agent of change?

Where would this world be today if more of us refused to sit back and let things rot as they are?  Why is complacency revered?  Why are whole systems built on the assumption that no one will have the gumption to do something about the wrongs they see?  When will there be justice?  When will there be creative life bubbling over into the church?  Our schools?  Our homes?  Our government?  We desperately need change agents to break the pre-conceived “blueprints” and perfect ideas of our world.

Change agents were chided and run out of town in my church growing up - but I say we kick out the squatters.  This world is a changin’.