Making Missional Trax

Below are my reflections concerning the current story we find ourselves in.

We find ourselves involved in an unfolding narrative. First and foremost, this story tells of a journey centered in Christ. In Christ, we discover God: incarnational, missional, and relational. In Christ, we discover the full intentions for humanity. In Christ, we discover the true Israel leading a new, full Exodus of liberation, freedom, and sacrifice. In Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, we discover the One to imitate, participate, and inundate for the sake of others.

Second, we find ourselves acting upon and searching for the Imago Dei. To be like Christ is to join him in his work of revealing the image of God in others. For the Galilean fishermen, Mary Magalene's, Nicodemuses, and Gerasene demoniacs this was Jesus: Lord, Savior, and image of God unleasher. We too, as disciples of Jesus, share, by the grace, mercy, and Spirit–empowerment of God, in this revelation ministry.

Finally, our Spirit–initiated and sustained quest after Christ for the sake of others continues because we are sent. Father sends himself. Father sends Christ. Christ sends Spirit. Spirit sends us, his church. God sends. God, first and ultimate missionary, sends.

Therefore, this story makes four primary demands upon us. First, follow Jesus. In order to be with the One we love and become like him, we must follow him. If we are to invite or expect anyone else to follow us as we follow Christ, we must be good followers.

Second, with joyful urgency and perseverance, anticipate and propagate the image of God in our neighbors. Who are our neighbors? All in whom the image of God resides. Christ the King reigns, and we've been given the privilege of joining him in awakening others into his kingdom as we follow the spirit.

Third, pray. We cannot assume or underestimate this demand. If God is the ultimate missionary and loving sender of himself, the Messiah, the Spirit, and the church, then we must constantly be with him seeking that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Never forget: this is his project.

Finally, go...into the fringes. The image of God is present within the poor, fragile suburban widow. The image of God is present within the inconsolable and uncontrollable raging child. The image of God is present in the young married couple denying their neighborhood, kids, and each other for the American Dream. The image of God is present in the wayfaring, begging old woman looking for a place to sleep. However, these friends (and many others) live in the fringes. Suburban landscaping, concrete jungles, and country-acre lots all perpetuate relational and proximal distance that drive potential friends into the fringes. And so, like light piercing a dark room, we follow the Spirit running into the fringes seeking to illuminate every forgotten cob-webbed corner. No longer will we remain content for others to have faces without names. Because God in Christ by the power and leading of the Spirit moved into the neighborhood tabernacling among them, we do too. We are temples rooted within and built upon the Chief-Cornerstone, and it's time to get the roadshow moving.

Life in the Vineyard

from p. 145-146 of Len Sweet's So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church:

"One of Jesus' most exquisite metaphors for himself was the Vine and the vineyard. 'I am the vine; you are the branches.' When Jesus drew on this image of the vineyard and its gardeners, he was drawing on a longstanding biblical image that spoke of relationship: the bonds of cooperation between humans and nature (we do this together or we don't have a vineyard) and the bonds of love between the lover and the beloved.

A vine exists to grow vintage grapes. But for the fruit of the vine to become a reality, every vineyard has frames that support the vines and enable them to grow the best grapes. Depending on where you find the vineyard, sometimes the frames are made of wire. Sometimes of wood. Sometimes they scaffold the vine horizontally; most often vertically. These frames need continuing maintenance, sometimes even rebuilding. If a frame collapses, it can kill the vine.

However, the purpose of the vineyard is not to grow frames but to grow the grapes that the frames support. When the only thing holding up the church are those frames and not Christ, then little things like fruit, freedom, and mercy are forgotten.

No matter how beautiful the frames, the fruit doesn't come from the frames but from the vine. The frames can't slake your thirst. Only the vine. And the purpose of the frames is not to keep the vine from suffering, but to support it in its growth and point it in the right directions. In fact, the more the grapes suffer, the better the wine. It may be that if something cannot be put in a nice framework, you will be reluctant to study it or work with it. But your future is not in the frames; it's in the fruit. In the words of one of my favorite hymns,

'My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.'

No matter how sweet the frame or how beautiful its latticework, there is no nourishment in the frame. Only in the Vine. Only in the fruit. Don't worship the frame. Don't let someone look at your life and say, 'You've been framed.' Only 'wholly lean on Jesus' name.'"

Brokenness (Let's Work)

Sometimes, the brokenness is real. It’s not a “reality” TV show. It’s not an article you read on the Internet. It’s not a tweet from someone you “follow.” It’s not something happening “over there.” It’s not concern over your “favorite” that got “voted off.” It’s not your DVR being accidentally erased. It’s not “that bad thing” happening to someone else. Sometimes, the brokenness is real.

Sometimes, the brokenness is real. It’s the mother next door that abandoned her children. It’s the family two streets over that’s stressing about how to feed their kids during summer vacation. It’s the couple down the street that’s slept in separate bedrooms for the last two years. It’s the kid around the corner who knows more about a daily regime of medication than the steps for solving a proof in geometry. It’s the family losing the battle with that deadly illness…again. Sometimes, the brokenness is real.

Sometimes, the brokenness is real. It’s like being locked in a cage with a key fitting only the lock on the outside of the door. It’s like finding a dead battery underneath a pile of flashlights in the corner of a dark room. It’s like wishing you could stay asleep, because life is so much easier when your eyes are shut. Sometimes, the brokenness is real.

Can the words of any language express the Amazing Mystery? The brokenness is real, but the brokenness does not have the last word. Nope, in fact, the Word, the One who became flesh and dwelled…tabernacled among us, this Word has the last word.

The Word is speaking…again…creation…a (re)newed creation into existence…again. The New York Times, CNN.com, and your local news station report a reality disconnected from the real. What’s real? The words of the Word: “I am making all things new.”

“In the beginning was the Word.” It’s déjà vu all over again. The Gardener, the Vine, and the Grower are ready to work. Where are the branches?

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

from pages 45-46 of Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World...

"Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, or do. It entails a long and painful process of appropriation or, better, incarnation. As long as 'being the Beloved' is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence and, bit by bit, to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless specific realities of everyday life. Becoming the Beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking about, and doing from hour to hour."