Army of Priests

Last Friday I had the awesome opportunity to volunteer with Access Street Vans as they fed and ministered to homeless people at a number of Brisbane’s hostels. Whilst I had had a few encounters with homeless people before, this was the first time I had intentionally immersed myself into their environment in such a deep way. It was an interesting experience, with equal parts violence and despondency; hope and appreciation.

The woman who saw God

At one of our stops a member of the team had a chance to speak to a withdrawn, mentally disabled, aboriginal woman. Every time he would try to engage the woman in conversation she would squeak out the shortest possible answer and sheepishly shy away.

But he patiently continued. Eventually he asked her if she read any books. She said she read the bible. Then she piped up and told about how she had seen Jesus. Instantly this sheepish woman became animated as she told of seeing him just sitting on a chair one day. But as just as quickly as this vibrant woman had come out of her shell, she went back in.

My friend tried to engage her again, but she has revered to her prior, shy self. Eventually he turned the conversation back to her seeing Jesus and a smile exploded across her face. The beautiful, young woman was back.

I saw this woman. Whilst I have no idea whether seeing things is a regular occurrence for her I completely believe that she did indeed see Jesus. She was so withdrawn that for her to change so radically would take a miracle.

The first shall be last…

This is exactly the God I believe in. He hides himself from the mighty who claim to have all the answers and then shows himself to the absolutely most ashamed and broken people. She is a woman. She is homeless. She is mentally disabled. She is aboriginal. In Australia, it is hard to get any lower than that. But God sought her out and let her know He was there in a truly beautiful way.

Many of the people we served on Friday lavished us with their appreciation. I felt like a saint. But in truth, the honour is all mine. The lowest people in this empire are the nobility in God’s kingdom. It is my privilege to serve them.

In all my years of praying and worshiping I have never had such a real experience of God as that woman. The people who society crushes under its heel are the same people who God honours and raises up. Her story turned God’s love from an abstract idea into something truly tangible for me. She is my teacher.

One time when Ghandi was asked whether he was a Christian, he replied: “Ask the poor. They will tell you who the Christians are.” This is because real Christians will serve the poor, but also, I think, because the poor know God better than we privileged people ever will. So I ask God to help me to serve never for the purpose of self-righteousness but always in humility knowing that these are the people who God holds so highly. They are kings and queens in His eyes.

People are dying. Thousands of people – everyday – the forgotten machinery in our 21st century economy. We all have blood on our hands. We have participated in a system that values people solely by their purchasing power and bought goods based on their price or quality regardless of their morality. We have elected governments that “protect” our economy through tariffs and trade barriers whilst demanding the removal of the exact same protections from poor countries. We have enforced structural adjustment programs on our neighbours and imported goods created in working conditions that would be illegal in our own country.

And what have we gotten out of it? No man is an island. We are so consumed by our thirst for material goods that we have devoted our lives to it. We don’t care who we hurt whether its a peasant in a 3rd world country or our own family and friends who just want to spend more time with us. We’re certainly no happier for it. We have less leisure time than anyone since the Feudal Ages and the suicide rate continues to rise.

Watching the world is like watching a train rushing at high speed toward a precipice.

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Christian Culture Tip #12: Always Be Happy

The bible encourages us to be loving, and joyful, and patient and a whole other load of “good” emotions and from the moment we become Christians we are pressured to do experience such. This is positive pressure, perhaps, but dangerous because it causes us to disengage from our emotions when they don’t meet the standard and become unauthentic.

I had a Christian friend post a status update today: “Is it ok to hate someone just a bit??”

It really ticked me off. Why does he care to ask for permission, and are they after the permission of us or God? Why can’t they acknowledge that a problem obviously exists even if they don’t “hate”? What make’s “hate” the point at which we decide a relationship is in a bad state? Why can’t we be honest enough to feel what we actually feel what we feel and find redemption from that broken, real place?

Someone pointed out that it sounds like my friend merely “dislikes” them. But “dislike” is just a Christian term that we hide behind to avoid loving someone in a permitable way. No non-Christian uses the term “dislike” in real life. It’s Christianise for I-don’t-like-you-and-will-give-my-attention-to-someone-else. I dislike mentally disabled people, smelly people, the elderly, annoying people, and people who are bad conversationalists. They don’t have anything to give me. So I ignore them, and contribute to society’s general rejection of them. That’s cruel.

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1. Sharing lunch with homeless people
2. Exploring rugged mountian ranges
3. Campaining for justice for the poor
4. Dancing on injustice
5. Listening to old people
6. Gazing at stars through a telescope
7. Placing your self between guns and their victums
8. Selling everything and giving it to the poor
9. Sending your enemies presents for christmas
10. Stashing money in love notes in downtown
11. Reconciling people who hate eachother
12. Working to understand another culture
13. Offering redemption and forgiveness to those who wrong us
14. Accepting forgiveness from those we wrong
15. Overcomming evil with love
16. Boldly going into dark places, just to put some light there
17. Being with the poor in spirit
18. Talking to strangers
19. Giving away free stuff
20. Eating a meal with people you’re not suppose to associate with
21. Enjoying life
22. Making a difference
23. Accepting people for who they are
24. Accepting yourself for who you are
25. Exposing Exploitation
26. Being Noisy
27. Being Quiet
28. Admitting you’re broken
29. Doing what’s right when it is hard
30. Being dangerous
31. …

When I was young I remember a time when my parents committed some high crime of corporal punishment and I subsequently got angry with my younger brother (though, I can’t remember much more than that). My parents weren’t happy about this, so they told me that being angry was a sin, in the hope that I would “get my act together”. I wasn’t so sure about my parents claim, so I asked some other adults if “anger was a sin” with the kind of naive understanding of sin that all children have. These adults weren’t too happy to contradict my parents, but they disagreed with what they said, so they told me that what I did with my anger determined if I was sinning or not (but in words with less syllables).

Anger is an interesting emotion. It has the uniquely powerful ability to alter human behaviour unlike any other motivating factor I know. Anger can cause a husband, in a moment of poor judgement, to strike his wife even despite the bonds of love they have formed. It can cause huge groups of people to boycott a company where their greed would normally have them eager to buy the company’s products. It can start wars and turn otherwise decent people into mobs. It can destroy lives.

Yet anger can also be a huge force for good. I seem to be able to overcome all sorts of personal failings once I become angry enough with myself. When I learn about the plight of the poor and their exploitation by the rich I become angry because of the injustice. Indeed, nothing makes me so angry as to see legal injustice. They call this “righteous anger”. Even Jesus got angry. He persistently gave the Pharisees a tongue lashing, and even used a whip to get money launderers out of the temple.

Passion is anger. Someone who is passionate about movies or music gets angry with artists who will cut corners and tarnish the art for a few more bucks. As a programmer I get angry when I see lazy programmers that wont do that little bit more to make a huge difference to the user’s experience – it taints the profession. Every passion in my life results in greater action when it is firmly rooted in anger at laziness, incompetence or injustice; and a great desire not to become subject to these things.

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One of the local churches, in which I have some involvement, has a pledge that the audience stands and reads before the offering is taken (I believe it has something to do with affiliation with Bill Johnson as I have also seen it happen in one other church). Whilst I don’t have the pledge written down, it is similar to this:

God, as we faithfully give our tithes and offerings we stand on your ability to provide for us. We claim that as we reach out in the supernatural we will see an abundance flow such as:

• Checks in the mail
• Favourable settlements
• Gifts and surprises
• Good health
• New opportunities
• Expenses decreasing
• Income increasing
• etc

This is the worst case of the prosperity gospel I have ever seen. Unsurprisingly, the pastor maintains that the congregation must be getting richer because the offerings increase each week. I’ve got a feeling there is another reason for this.

Not everyone in that congregation in wholly devoted to prosperity teaching. Some of these people feel that it’s not right but don’t know why. This post in my attempt to answer that question.

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Have you ever felt dirty for loving someone?

300+. That’s the new estimated death toll from the black Saturday bushfires in victoria. That’s 300 fathers, mothers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters burnt to death as they tried to flee the advance march of hell. On top of this there are thousands and thousands of newly homeless families who have lost everything they own.

It makes me feel sick. I can’t stop seeing the pictures of roads filled with burnt out cars that couldn’t out run the fire. I imagine being one of the families who were never told it was coming. One moment I’m playing in the park with my fictional kids. Next minute, there’s smoke on the horizon. This doesn’t phase me until moments later flames appear… and grow, really fast. I grab the kids and head for the house, thinking I should check the news to find out what is happening. But I’m too slow. By the time I get home the street is filled with ambers. Houses are on fire. The smoke makes it impossible to breath. I grab my fictional wife and we get in my fictional 4WD. I strap my youngest kid into the child seat in the back. I drive, as fast as I can – but I can’t see, the windshield is full of ash. I open the window to stick my head out and smoke rushes into the car. The heat is unbearable.

I dodge flaming burning trees and debris from exploded houses. I make it onto a main road through the bush. I look backwards, and I see behind me the approaching wall of flame. I put my foot down, but it still gets closer. Drops of melted rubber begin to fly off my tires. My children are screaming. The fire gets closer. Damn, its fast. I look back to the road. I can’t see even a metre in front of me but still I speed. Suddenly, a log appears. I swerve. I hit a tree. The airbags go off. We’re trapped. The fire is so close….

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A few years ago a user of an internet forum was struggling to believe in God, so they wrote the following post, which I answered. My answer is not as complete as I would write today, but it was personal and adapted to match the personality to the questioner. I hope that it helps you any way it can.

I’ve been bored lately, and have probably written too much…but ahh well…

God is a mysterious creature that is either an all-everything super-force or an illusion created in the minds of men. I would love to believe the former. I would love to believe that God, the Christian God, created the universe and came in human form to earth and sacrificed himself to save all of our sins. I would love to believe the miracles in the bible, the stories and doings of Christ, and that Christ rose from the dead three days later. I don’t, and it’s not from lack of searching.

Many of my closest friends believe in God and Jesus Christ. I belong to a religious organization, CRU, and to a bible study. I enjoy worship at CRU and I love the things I learn at bible study. I want to believe. I pray and I hope, but in my heart and soul, there’s nothing. There’s no confidence and no assurance. In my heart, there is no Christ.

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I feel like the journey is only just beginning. I am slowly, but surely, getting a glimpse of the reality that Jesus taught – a reality of undeserved love, radical forgiveness, and sacrifice for enemies. After all these year, I am beginning – just beginning – to get a grasp on discipleship.

It seems to me that in most churches “a relationship with Christ” or “following Jesus” means not drinking, not smoking, not swearing, not looking at pornography, reading your bible, prayer, and church attendance. After intellectual conversion, Christianity has little more to offer. We believe in sanctification, but we understand precious little about what sanctification entails.

I used to be a very active member in the Australian arm of Campus Crusade for Christ. They were very keen on discipleship, often pairing a mentor and a protégé for weekly meetings where the mentor can pass on what they know. It was apprentiship. I appreciate their keenness to train new believers, but ultimately they only served to teach the same list of attribute listed above (reading your bible, prayer…); with one exception – a “disciple” in Campus Crusade terminology was self-reproducing (an evangelist).

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I was at a local church yesterday known for espousing the prosperity gospel on a regular basis. As usual the sermon was all about how God would bless us abundantly with whatever we ask for. Unlike similar churches tithing isn’t seen as necessary to get this blessing but it definitely helps. They had a ‘pledge’ that they read out before the offering saying asking that when they gave their incomes would increase, settlements would be favourable, health problems would go away, and a long list of other things.

During the message the pastor (who in the past published a note with the newsletter telling the congregation not to do good works in the community) bought up an issue that was unexpected. He said there was a “theology of hell” going about, especially in the young people, that involved good works, and prayer, and giving your possessions to the poor in order to curry favour with God.

Now most the young adults who once went to the church don’t any more. Quite frankly they are all too busy thinking up ways to do these community oriented things that the pastor has told us not to do. A few of us have sold a lot of what we own and given the money away. (I just finished my third wave in my ongoing campaign to get rid of the stuff that controls my life. I’ve found it liberating. I still have heaps of unwanted stuff to go though.) After the service I learnt that one of my friends had given away his musical equipment to people that needed it. “Selling you guitar” was one of the examples the pastor had used. It all added up now, the pastor had heard of this before I had.

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