Tall Monastic Guy

happy mystery

In the last couple months I've been enjoying a developing friendship with a Native American man who goes by Vince. Last week in an effort to help me acclimate and communicate with his friends, Vince created a cheat sheet for me that contained the basics of Lakota Sioux language. The last word on the sheet was Wakon Tonka. Vince said that this word is their name for God, but its actual meaning is Big Mystery. He said it had always been how they described their pantheon of god's, but they decided to maintain that way of speaking even after beginning to follow the way of Jesus. Vince said, "It just seems like God is still best described as the Wakon Tonka."

heads or tails

I'm with the apostle Peter. I bristle when it comes to having my feet washed by the Lord. I somehow in one noble way or another refuse to be cared for, served, loved to the depths that God makes it available.

But Jesus seems to make it known that washing feet and having them washed are two sides to the same coin. Just six days prior to this Passover evening Jesus was at the house of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. As Martha served, Mary, who the gospel of Luke describes as having "lived a life of sin," lowers herself down to Jesus' feet. 

Talk about awkward? 

reaching for the awkward

This past week my friend, Jim, once again invited me to speak with his class of high school seniors at a Christian school on the south side of town. These students are great kids and if you ask me, their voices are prophetic... if you dare to listen carefully enough. In my hour with them I spent half the time describing New Monasticism as an alternative expression of church and then I spent the second half of class experincing Lectio Divina with them. Together, we quietly and carefully read through John 20: 19-23 and I found their resulting responses seriously profound. “No one ever messes with our routines like this... can you teach our Bible class too?” 

Nearly every student out of the twenty or so in the room had a similar comment. Most of them said something to the effect that they seldom hear the permission or are invited into a quiet space in which they can confront the reality of the scriptures together with the reality of their life-- especially the conflicts and disorienting dilemmas.

digital spirituality...

This LA Times article from the "Theology After Google" conference gets at an important tension expressed regarding the church and technology...

According to the article, here's how co-moderator, Tony Jones, kicked off the conference...

"We don't want you to silence your cellphones," he told the audience. "We want you in this room to be connected to everything that's happening in the world."

The conference sought to connect the digital and social networking revolution to our faith in the same way the printing press played a major role in the Protestant Reformation. The article goes on to say that at least half the audience multi-tasked on an i-phone, blackberry, or laptop type of something. It concludes with a large question posed by church planter Roger Burns-Watson,

"God may not text you today, And are you going to be patient with a God who doesn't move at a digital speed?"

We can't ignore it. It is everywhere. My imagination wonders... 

How might the Pharisees respond to this? And the Sadducees?