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.

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.

Church: Being a Servant Community

When you ask people what church is you hear different responses. Depending upon one's experience, church might be seen as something good or something that has created pain. In attempting for church to have influence in society too often we have opted for images that control, regulate, or focus on privilege.

I have been wondering what it would look like for church to be seen as "servant community" in the world. As we emulate Christ in washing his disciples' feet, how might we live out our lives as community in the world, so that we are a servant community in the world -- perhaps first of all a servant community to Christ, and through our serving him, we follow his lead in serving the world.

A servant community does not exist for itself, but exists for serving God -- the one who has called the community into being. It seeks to serve, whether there is recognition or not, it seeks to serve, whether there is success or not, it seeks to serve, whether there is recognition that we excel at being servants. A servant community seeks to be incarnational, missional, being present to people in ways that enables the Spirit of God to connect with the hearts and lives of people whom God is seeking. As a servant community, we are the "hands of Christ" washing other's feet, discovering what it is God wants us to do. It is not about what we want to do!

As a servant community then, we need to spend more time not in figuring out how we are to be in the world, but to hear what God is saying to us and seeing what God is showing us so that we can be about what God is about in the world. It is a matter of discerning God's purposes and desires, rather than figuring out how we can attract more people, or how we can develop the right program that will have the most relevance. A servant community exists so that God can have his way in the world -- we are to be salt and light, not to bring focus upon us, but upon the purposes of God. We are called to be servant community to reveal the one whom we serve.

Someone once stated, that a church that seeks its own ministry or its own agenda ceases being the church in the world. We can only be church as we yield ourselves to the redemptive purposes of God in the world -- being used of God in fulfilling God's mission. The only way the church can fulfill this calling is for it to be a servant community.