WWBD?

WWBD?

What Would Buddah Do?    

No. That's not what it stands for.

What Would Bush Do?

Uh... nope.

What Would Bono Do?

Yes.

Oh man. So that'll either keep you reading or you are ready to go elsewhere. How many people have grown tired of hearing Bono this, Bono that. Or perhaps you rejoice every time you hear his name.

It's no surprise to hear cynics in Christendom take shots at Bono. He's doing Kingdom work. Most Christians that actually do the works of the Kingdom realize that the attempted placement of obstructions to halt them in their efforts are usually put there by other Christians.

 

Why? 

Same reasons that they pounded viciously after Jesus: Envy, greed, pride, lack of understanding, lack of humility. What's more important is recognizing the way Bono has approached enormous problems in the world. He has taken responsibility of hunger issues, disease issues, poverty issues and he has utilized his gifting to spear head an effort that has forced governments to concede and has rescued thousands if not hundreds of thousands. 

Obviously it's not a one man show as there are hundreds that assist and give as Bono does. What I see in his effort is that he is giving what he has. It applies to our daily lives quite relevantly as well. He's not asking permission from the powers that be to do the work of caring for people and being a genuine support in the fight to aid people and give them a chance to live and in a way that is fair and just.

Why is it that we dehumanize people like Moses or Joseph or even Esther. We make them into "great heroes" of the Bible. There is no question that what they did was amazing but they really were just people like you and I. They too were just like Bono is today.

Moses was obedient and despite his admitted faults and limits he freed the Hebrews from hundreds of years of slavery. After all, he did obtain an excellent education from the very people that had enslaved his true people. Who better to do this job of fighting the "Empire" than one who grew up in it?

Joseph was faithful and ultimately saved millions of people from starvation. He was a hard worker who gave his best to those he was "under". While he was unjustly imprisoned he earned favor with the prison guards because he was a diligent worker and he added value to everything that they had him do. So was it just some supernatural ability to read people's dreams that made Joseph a phenomenon or was it his incredible work ethic?

Esther was a quiet woman who literally saved the Jews from extinction. A plan as evil as Hitler's was well under way and Esther's ability to speak her faith out through her lifestyle led her to confront and speak out loud to a king who killed people for interrupting him. Is humility and quietness the gift or the ability to be vocal?

Bono is an artist who has obtained great fame and is now utilizing that fame to extract resources from places of plenty to the places of empty. He doesn't have to do that but he realizes that he can. And not only that but Bono realizes that God is telling him to do just that. This is what carried Moses, Joseph and Esther to and through their responsibilities as well. 

We find a rock star speaking at the Congressional Prayer Breakfast where he could have talked about being a poor Irish boy who became successful. Instead he admonishes the beauty of America and not only how we can help but how it is our God given responsibility to do so. And so medical supplies and food have begun to pour into extreme poverty stricken areas around the world.

Do you see how Bono and Moses sit at the same table with you and I. If not you've based the ability to serve God on the scale of worldly success as opposed to His request of you to just do what he asks of you. The response after that is usually: Well what has God asked of me? He has told us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, heal the sick, etc... These are doable every day of our lives. They truly are.

With a little bit of coordination, a few phone calls and some emails, myself and a handful of people that I get to "work" with delivered over 80 bags of toiletry items to a Section 8 housing development. (Why toiletries? Because welfare doesn't cover toiletries.) One hour later we fed some 200 homeless people in a public park in downtown Akron with donated home cooked meals.

How?

We don't ask for permission to throw out flotation devices to people who are drowning. We just start throwing things that float. 

People say to me at times that we're trying to do too much. I say that the Church is not doing enough and that the Church must hear the cries in our cities and communities because never in the history of the Church have we had such incredible resources to use . 

We are expected to respond to poverty in our cities by God and by those who are suffering. We give God our response at the end of each day whether we have responded with action or apathy. That action doesn't always mean the physical labor of it either. It means study and learn. Ask questions from those that live in poverty. Give your helpful insight away! Research and know your community and where the wounds are.

Poverty in America is easy to push out of sight. We can simply "change the channel" and watch something else. 

So people can trash on Bono all that they want and degrade his faith and how he approaches the problems that break the very heart of God. The truth is that Bono is getting it done. We can ask: What Would Bono Do? because he is doing what Jesus did.

God at Work

The cries for help are everywhere and it seems at all times so very overwhelming anymore. You don't actually have to go to Africa or Haiti or the Middle East to discover this either. Take a walk through your city. Spend a year visiting soup kitchens and shelters or just welfare offices. Anyone with an ounce of care will discover and learn relatively quickly that the roads of poverty continue to take hard rights and lefts and are constantly facing construction and repair.

 

There are 10,000 advocacy groups that one can join and never have "to do" anything. There are all kinds of causes that make great T-shirts and sweet bumper stickers but never require a person to work for it. Just buy it. Just buy into it.

This isn't going to be a rant on the destructiveness of well intentioned efforts that don't follow through on the long haul because that's too easy to do. It's just too easy to criticize good intentions and it doesn't help if it isn't providing solutions. Although there may be some criticisms on certain approaches I hope to cover those criticisms, if they're made, with well thought out solutions that have come from getting "dirty".

For over two years now a small group of us Christ-Followers have been moving people from homeless shelters into housing. We are approaching some 155 moves so far. This has been an ongoing weekly work(year round) that requires some structure but for the most part it requires only a vehicle to move furniture and a handful of laborers. No committees and no Board Meetings.

Our whole approach has been to follow the direction of Jesus and His teaching on loving our neighbor. It's been the fishes and loaves way of the heart that has prodded us to bring what we have and seriously watch God provide stuff in an instant.[Just ask me about the fishes and loaves way if you don't understand what that means.}

Just last week two of our volunteers met up with a woman moving out of one of the shelters into her new apartment and she needed a bed. So they jumped into their truck and began to troubleshoot when all of a sudden they saw a sign on someone's front lawn that said, FREE BED. So there you go. Simple and just. God at work.

It is these moments that have patterned the way of the cross to cut it's way into our lives and our hearts. For those who have experienced the loneliness and dehumanizing pains that come with being left homeless we gather furniture for their empty apartments. Do you see how God's works that in us. He gathers goodness and pushes it into our empty hearts.

What it does not require is a 501C3 non-profit filing or insurance or even a budget. We have been approached with structures, programatic suggestions and cautionary approaches. Each one of these approaches have far more proven that they are quite often the things that create obstacles in outreach, evangelism and servanthood. 

We cannot expect to engage people in hardships and pain and expect to be able to walk away unscathed. Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about how if we show great love we will experience great disappointment. That's hard to walk with. That's really hard to walk with. And we are asked to walk with that for a while and not just a little while.

So you may ask, why bother if it's gonna hurt? Because the world is full of hurt and God is absolutely in control and we are not. He has been at work to restore this broken place and He is still at work and He will complete His work. He is Eternal which means He is the beginning and the end of what we know as time. Eternity is the bookends of what we call time. We are in between forever and ever because He surrounds it all.

Now we can be in awe of that and behold the beautiful mystery of our Lord and King and then be a part of His bringing His body into it's intended fullness here on earth as He is doing through the Church. Or we can avoid it and pretend that hell is not ravaging the lives of our neighbors.

The weapons of our warfare are not constructs that bring about a violent means but they are instruments of peace that pave a road to the King Eternal- Jesus. Moving some furniture has helped pave the road of trust for folks that are hard hearted towards Jesus and His body - the Church. Sharing food and clothes has turned God's kids away from being within a yard of Hell. It's no wonder Jesus did this stuff so often. Whether he fed the hungry or held a conversation with rich people, His heart poured out the same in very practical ways - food and conversation. Simple tools that we all can use. God at work.

Tim :: Iraq

My little brother is on patrol in the photo. He is currently an officer at Camp Bucca which is the largest detainee center(prison) in Iraq.

There are currently over 13,000 inmates at the prison. They expect another 6,000 by December of 2008.

My brother is due back by mid may. It'll be a huge relief to us all... especially our Mom.

Politics: love/hate

Are you getting frustrated with the election year at hand... yet?

Yes, maybe, no, don't care, etc.

I wonder if politics could ever be something to talk about that would not be associated with the dehumanizing of one another or degrading each other simply because of who we like as a possible president or who we are willing to lend our ears to.

I grew up on the west side of Cleveland in a VERY Catholic saturated neighborhood and in a VERY conservative portion of the city. Just writing that sentence there makes me feel like the word "Catholic" and the word "conservative" are such bad bad words!! Now I said - they make me feel like they're bad words and I'm not saying that they are.

In our day and age they have become bad words to certain folks as they roll off the tongues of folks with opposing thoughts and ideas. When I was in high school there was a clique of fellow classmates that used to call people "liberal!" as if the were flinging the F-Word at you and all because you had longer hair than they did.

{Side Note: In my all-boys-catholic-high school your hair was not permitted to grow past your shirt collar which doesn't give you a lot to work with - unless you just grew out your bangs which my best friend did actually do as a way of "getting around the system" and defying it as teenager should.}

Today I received another mass email from a family member. The email was specifically ripping into a targeted political party. I could laugh at it a little with the ability to show that I have a sense of humor. Now, what I find disheartening is that my family member is assuming that I feel the same way. Now they've never asked - they've only assumed because that's just how we were raised and not taught. Think about that. That's how you are raised so just be "that" and don't teach yourself about "it". The "it" is for "politics" and such and the things of this world that deserve our attention more that our indifferences.

Maybe you'd say so what or big deal. Well, I know it's a big deal. I know it's a big deal from just my familial experiences. My family thinks that I am a Republican simply because I grew up in a strictly Catholic slash strictly Republican family.

I am not saying that I am a Republican either. (So don't start assuming for me.)

Now, on the other hand, as a pastor of a very unique Church here in Kent, Ohio that is made up of 20 and 30 year olds and living in the city which was turned upside down and left wounded during the Vietnam War, people simply assume that I am a Liberal Democrat.

Which I am not saying that I am.

If because of where I may be found suddenly determines what makes my identity in the political world to be so easily configured then man... what have we missed here??

Have you seen the movie "Amazing Grace"? It's the movie that tells the story from the political perspective of what William Wilberforce had to do in order to bring down the Slave Trade in Great Britain that affected over 11 million Africans. It's not a super-action-packed-emotional movie but a disturbing one. It is disturbing because people were just so oblivious to the wrongs of the Slave Trade because they accepted it as normal because everyone else apparently did and mostly because people prospered greatly from the trade.

So because of popular opinion's ability to support the furtherance of the Slave Trade it would turn out to deliver the destruction of millions of human lives. Popular opinion destroyed millions of husbands and wives, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, children and babies. So whether popular opinion takes root in a small family or in the general consensus of a nation it has made way in the past and in the present for some of the greatest injustices to find growth.

Are you seeking to conquer any particular political party by how you were raised, by what your friend likes, by what the polls are saying, or by how your Dad tells you to vote? Or are you preparing to seek what is right, what is just and who is trying to lead us in that way. I know that that statement there alone can lead to a lot of debate - but so what - debate out of care and not out of reaction. Talk and share. Respect other peoples concerns and cares.

Walk with me for a minute...

Far too often I see assumptions like this:
Republicans are conservative Christian families that are made up of rich white people who hate gay people and love George W. Bush and hate Muslims and love war and hate people who have abortions and they get to go to college and they shop at Abercrombie & Fitch and drive SUV's and hate...

Or assumptions like this:
Liberal Democrats are hippy-coated-vegan-yuppies that serve poor people because it is trendy and cool and love abortion and they wish everyone could just be super-gay if they want to be and they hate soldiers, the military and the USA and they love the Middle East more and hate Hummers and they love animals more than humans and hate...

Are politics that shallow to you?
Aren't you sick of those stereotypical perceptions?
I've heard people look at it like this and only like this.
It is just so wrong and such a disservice for ourselves to think that we can sum it all up like so.

Is your political life just a love/hate kind of thing?

What I love about Jesus and how he approached politics is the fact that His very presence challenged the entire system and it changed it instantly. His perfect life dissolves the way mankind institutes kingdoms and it in turn restores us with truth and not destruction.

There is a story known all around the world about a woman being caught in adultery and she is being sentenced to death as the law states. Look it up in the Book of John, chapter 8, verses 1-11.

The woman that was guilty of adultery was approached by the law with death preparing to justify the wrongs and Jesus stands in between the death sentence and the guilty. Ultimately, in the life of Jesus, He was already on His way to take the blame for her sin for the sake of justifying His beloved through His death on the cross.

It was the love of God that would change this moment. It was the love of God in the Person of Jesus that would change a woman from guilty to innocent. It was the love of God that would change the decision to execute the guilty and cause the law enforcers to look at their own hearts and consider the goodness of God. It is the love of God that can cause us to do the same if we let it.

So whether you find yourself a Follower of Jesus or not you cannot escape the fact that His presence changed everything in this one occurrence. That is revolutionary. That is Jesus.

Approach politics in the way Jesus did - with great love. The kind of love that relies on the plans of our Father in heaven and changes everything in an instant for the sake of saving our hearts from killing each other as we are all His treasured possessions. The kind of love that enables us to value others far more than ourselves.

Shoulder to shoulder(A Reflection on Luke 23: 39-43)

On Good Friday I was asked to present a 3 minute reflection on Luke 23: 39-43 at a church service. I wrote it down so that I knew I wouldn't dishonor that 3 minute request. Doing the 3 minutes is easy - it's knowing when to shut up that is often times more important to me.

So I put together my thoughts that morning and this is what spewed out of me. My inspirations in writing this come from the worlds of Dallas Willard, N.T. Wright, George MacLeod, that Gospel writer - Luke, and Norman Grubb.

A person is worth something
simply because he or she is a person.
That’s it.
That is God’s standard unit of measure for worth.
We are His creation.
Our lives represent God’s favorite masterpiece, the human being.
How often do we point the finger at others
or even ourselves when we put our own systems of value into play.

Our system of value has conditions.
God’s does not.
We look for excuses.
God shows us mercy.
We turn our backs.
God demonstrates love.
To God people are not a source of stress,
but a source of joy.

Do we see this in the place called The Skull?
Where death presents its kingdom and
does not realize that it is actually
rolling out
the red carpet
towards the enthronement
of the King Eternal.

We do not find Jesus being crucified
between two candles,
in a Cathedral.
But we find Him on a cross between two thieves.
Between doubt and hope.
Between hate and humility.
Between arrogance and faith.
Between suffocation and resuscitation.
Between the disciple and the doubter.
Between you and I, He still remains.
He still offers “Paradise” to both.

It is in this moment
that God would show
His absolute intent
to meet our very present needs
through the actions of Jesus.
Whether we wanted Him to or not.

It is in this moment that
the striking availability of God,
through the person of Jesus,
would promise paradise now – today.
Paradise in Jewish thought wasn’t necessarily
the final resting place.
But a place of rest and refreshment before the
new life in the resurrection.
Jesus, enthroned on the Cross,
promises a place of bliss and honour to anyone who requests it.
Even in the very face of death itself,
He continues to speak of life forevermore in a Kingdom without end.

It is where we find Him promising paradise
that should astound us the most.
A place we must revisit
in case we have forgotten where we were found.
It seems He is always offering peace and forgiveness and hope
to what the Church so often deems as the “wrong” crowd.
It’s in the “wrong” crowd that we find Him
shoulder to shoulder
with the condemned.

To paraphrase Norman Grubb:
We will not find him
in the safety zone of a Chapel
or within the sounds of Church bells
But we will find him running a rescue shop
Within one yard of hell.