there's something about scott's vision which is captivating, especially the future of barrie which involves a closed-off walking market at the five points area, replete with art galleries, boutique shopping, theatres and restaurants - accessible to and designed for everyone.
not just the haves or the initiated - everyone.
because everyone should have access to that which is good, noble and beautiful.
i think that the Scriptures tell us that somewhere too.
and then (thanks to my prodding) scott began to explain something of his ontological perspective, or his view of how the world is. partly buddhist and greatly informed by his engagement with reiki, scott spoke about universal energies and mantras for life. i wonder how many of us were tempted to tune out at that point, because it was unabashedly 'not christian'.
does the fact that someone holds to a different worldview invalidate their take on what is good, noble and beautiful? if someone thinks that there is no God, or is unaware of how to access Him, does that mean that somehow their entire perception of reality is wrong?
i've long been a believer that all truth is God's truth. and that means that all sorts of people with all sorts of practices, lifestyles and beliefs can wind up grasping exactly what God intended us to grasp.
that's been a big part of this Word On The Street series - entering into serious dialogue with people who are shaping the future of our community, even if they don't conform to our expectations of whom we think God would choose to use to bring about that future. and maybe He does that because those of us who profess to follow Jesus have abdicated our privilege and responsibility to be kingdom bringers.
i hope that at least some of you will join me in celebrating and learning from those who are being diligent in the pursuit of what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.
__________________________________________________________________________
and now for something completely different ...
a few of you have asked me [ patrick ] in particular about my choice to 'give up God for lent'. i guess that it would be less noteworthy if i had decided to give up chocolate chip cookies or my running routine. but i expected that some of you might wonder.
the idea came from the thinker/lecturer/writer peter rollins, who introduced something into his own faith community called "atheism for lent". as an experiment, it was designed so that people would take the 40 days of lent and explore life from the perspective of atheist philosophers, and discuss the implications with one another.
why, you ask?
consider that the penultimate experience of the Easter weekend is Jesus crying out in anguish over the absence of God. for HIm, in that moment, there was no God.
many christians plough through good friday into easter sunday like a stampede of starving patrons at an all-you-can eat steakhouse. we don't want to linger at the pain of the cross. we think nothing of the abandonment of Christ. we just want to sing our victory songs because who wants to walk away depressed from church?
i choose to follow Jesus.
and maybe that means coming to place where God is nowhere to be found. for someone who's tried to daily spend time in and with God for the last 23 years, that's challenging. and so to follow Jesus to that place is going to take work. maybe 40 days of work.
i confess that i've already dropped the ball at various points this lenten season - i pray by mistake, wind up reading the bible because i have to prepare for a message. i just hope that it doesn't set me back too much.
some of you will wonder how a person choosing to embrace atheism can help navigate a missional community of faith like M. and then maybe others of you will think that perhaps only someone who is willing to go to those places with Jesus is in any position to lead a missional community of faith like M.
for me, the jury's still out. let me tell you what i find out when i finally get to resurrection sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment