Where Is Sacred Space to Be Found?

I have been reading through both of these books which present stories about finding God in the most unlikeliest places. Jesus in the Margins expresses that the place where God hangs out the clearest is in the margins of life, and Theirs is the Kingdom reveals how Christ is evident in the most unassuming places in urban America.

This leads me to ask the question: Where can we find sacred space? If by sacred space, we mean where God is present, then it is become more clear to me everyday that God is in places where we least expect God to be. When Jesus lived in Palestine almost 2000 years ago, he hung out with tax collectors, sick people, prostitutes -- people who did not make the "most likely to do anything" list. The religious leaders of the day saw God only in the special places, the most "holy" places, but Jesus reveals that sacred space is wherever God is, wherever God shows up. If we get any idea where God does show up from Jesus' ministry, we begin to see that sacred space is among the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the destitute, the alienated.

Therefore, in reflecting on how we are to be church in Lake County, perhaps we need to reflect on where God is making space sacred here in Lake County -- because that is where God connects with us.

sacred space, the gathering that meets at Panera Bread on Rollins in Round Lake Beach, beginning again on Sunday December 2nd from 6pm - 8pm, seeks to explore how we can be church in Lake County by helping one another have eyes to see where God is hanging out -- and hopefully also to have ears to hear what God is saying.

August Rush, Hearing Music - Hearing Life

My family and I caught a movie on Thanksgiving Day. August Rush is a great metaphor for hearing the music, hearing the life that is all around us and our lives being the instruments through which that music, through which life, is played.

When I think about the way we approach God and life, the way we try to do good for others through ministry, I think we miss a lot -- we don't have the ears to hear the music and rhythms of life that are all around us.

Instead, what we too often do in life and in ministry is that we respond to the discord, the disharmony, rather than the rhythms of the music of life, the rhythms of the music of the Spirit of God. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus teaches his followers to "seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness." What does this mean? I believe it means to seek first the rhythms of God's Story, God's Vision, the music of life that God is playing everyday as God is active in the world through God's Spirit.

Do we hear it? Do we hear the music the Spirit is playing?

In ministry, in trying to be there to help other people, too often we listen to the discord, the pain in their lives and try to help them by trying to do something with that dissonance. But what is this dissonance? If it is an incapability of hearing and responding to the music of life, then do we help them by "making songs" out of these discordant notes. Or is ministry helping others hear the music, catch the rhythms that bring life? Is ministry not trying to do something with the pain in our lives, but helping others hear the music that can heal the pain?

Are we not called to hear the music of the Spirit in the world? Do we help others, by hearing the rhythm, the music of life, the rhythm of what God is doing in the world -- and begin to play this music, the music of life? This music -- which we ourselves begin to hear with our ears, our souls, our lives -- which we then begin to play (do ministry), does it help people hear, notice the rhythm of life, of God's presence all around them. As those we seek to help begin to hear the rhythm of life that God is "playing" they are given the opportunity to begin to re-tune their lives in harmony with a different rhythm -- a rhythm that is filled with the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God.

So ministry is not listening to "needs" and responding to those needs, but listening to the rhythm of God in life, learning to play that music. As a result by focusing on this music, we and others are reshaped, re-tuned in ways that enable our lives to play the music of life in new, fresh ways. If you take a look at Jesus' ministry on earth, this is what he did. He did not play his own music, nor try to respond to the disharmony of the pain around him. No, and he states this on numerous occasions -- "I do what I see my Father doing and I say what I hear my Father saying." Jesus' ministry brought life to others as he helped them hear and respond to the music of life that comes out of heart and rhythm of God's love for humanity and what God is doing in the world to draw humanity into a living relationship with himself.

Repentance, then, is an action where we yield ourselves to the music of God, the rhythm of God, the Story and Vision of God in our lives. It is an embracing of life. It is opening up our ears, our souls, our lives to hear the music that God is playing to bring joy and wholeness to us and to those with whom we share our lives.

Missional Discipleship

I am an educator and so I have an affinity for the process of discipleship in helping followers of Christ grow in the way of Christ in their lives.

Bosch in Transforming Mission has an excellent chapter on "Matthew: Mission as Disciple-Making." In his Gospel, Matthew expresses an understanding of discipleship that is deeply missional. Bosch relates that the command to "make disciples" in Matthew 28:19 is a call for Jesus' followers "to make others into what they themselves are: disciples" (p. 74). He further adds that for Matthew "the first disciples are prototypes for the church" (p. 74).

This kind of discipleship is not one that solely focuses on one's own life, but our lives as followers of Christ are lived for the other. Too often the practices of discipleship in the life of the church focus on inward growth and development. Though such development is important, the inner growth is for the sake of outward witness, outward action, orthopraxis if you will, in order to represent a different way of being human in the world.

Therefore, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is "to practice God's call of justice for the poor" (p. 81), to not only seek God's righteousness, but to seek God's justice for all humanity. We experience God's justice in our own lives and God justifies us and brings us into a relationship with him. In response we act in justice towards others by carrying out the will of God -- here on earth, just as it is in heaven (p. 72).

Indeed discipleship in inherently missional because "to become a disciple means a decisive and irrevocable turning to both God and neighbor. What follows from there is a journey which, in fact, never ends in this life, a journey of continually discovering new dimensions of loving God and neighbor, as 'the reign of God and his justice' (Mt 6:33) are increasingly revealed in the life of the disciple" (p. 82).

If discipleship focuses merely on the inward, or on something else, then it is not a following after Jesus, it is not living a life in the way of Jesus, and it is not a participating with God in God's redemptive mission.

Re-reading Bosch's Transforming Mission

Over the past six years or so I have been immersing myself in the literature related to God's mission in the world - missio Dei. I have realized that what I read early on in my learning about what it means to be missional might reveal fresh insights as I began rereading these books, articles, etc..

So I am beginning to re-read David J. Bosch's magnum opus Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in the Theology of Mission in order to gain some fresh insights as I bring years of reflection to insights that began my reflections.

One such insight is expressed through the Foreword. Bosch states, "at its most profound level, its [i.e., mission] purpose is to transform reality around it" (xv).

This idea of mission that transforms reality is deeply rooted in God's mission. God is not just about doing good in the world -- some may question where God is in the face of all that is not good in the world -- but rather, God is about recreation, of making all things new, of reconciling humanity to one another and to God. Mission is not about coercion and enculturalization into a Western perspective, but it is about recreating humanity and recreating the world. As we develop eyes to see what God is doing in the world and give ourselves to participate with God's action in the world, we are in mission -- mission that transforms reality around it.

This is a calling not to try to adjust the way things are, it is a calling to radically represent what it means to be human when we are caught up in the Story and Action of God in making all things new.

This mission is not just a task. This mission is living into a whole other reality that gives birth to life in the midst of all the warring ways of humanity.