What is it like to follow Jesus - part 3?

Now the tax collectors

(back-stabbing SOB's - so cold-hearted. They'd foreclose on a widow with 10 kids and make her live on the street and then hire her as a prostitute just a week later.)

and the sinners

(filth of society, prostitutes, trashy, homos, transvestites, porn stars, the porn industry - you know - those people - at least they're honest at how filthy they really are.)

were all gathering around to hear him.


But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered,

(such proper men who have such good morals. The opposite of sin is morals and they want to purify our society. We need moral police don't we? If we follow them then we will have a better life won't we? We should learn from them and meet with them to find out what's next for us. They are wonderful men)

"This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

(Jesus would rather spend time with sinners and tax collectors than with the Pharisees and teachers of the law - that's weird - well at least I don't have to do that - like I always say, "I’d rather spend time with a wicked righteous person than a righteous wicked person")

Luke 15:1-2

What is it like to follow Jesus - part 2?

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

-Jesus

What is it like to follow Jesus?

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;

(provide security)

maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

(govern and judge rightly and with equity)

Rescue the weak and needy;

(intervention)

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

(redeem freedom's cause)



Psalm 82:3-4

To follow Jesus...

"There is more absence of God that the saints experience than presence."

- Dr. VanGemeren

For whom the Pendulum swings - an Overdue Underduck

There are many pendulums swinging at the same time. Some swing farther than others and take much longer to return from their climb. Some are louder than others and make more noise. History is the swing of the pendulum and the spiral of the conundrum and it’s not written by he who has the most toys. It is a complex ongoing system of swinging and spiraling upward, backward, forward and downward. This process looks more like the movements within a matrix and spectrums of light dancing on the walls from a crystal hung in the window.

Life moves forward but much like change it can move two steps forward but one step back, three steps forward then four steps back, then 3 steps forward and 1 step back – but it is always continuously moving forward like a sanctification scale. There are many pendulum swings and the emergent Church corrective is one long overdue underduck that’s been swinging one direction for too long. Some have tried (Rauschenbusch, Gutierrez and others) to bring it back the other way, but they got over hauled and over stepped and maybe stepped on in their day. Maybe now their corrective efforts can be attained but still within the vision of Jesus Christ having lordship in the external and internal world, on the noumenal and the phenomenal planes of reality, in the hearts of humanity as well as in their lives, relationships, social contexts, ethnicities, languages and everywhere that God has planned for redemption to reach.

So pick a pendulum or two and swing, maybe subversively, maybe subserviently, maybe as a sage, maybe submissively and maybe all of them or none at all but maybe in your own way.

Only remember to listen, learn, laugh a lot and discern. Enjoy the highs and lows, but be committed to Christ at every level and in every conversation know that you carry a shovel.

Commit yourself to Christ more than you are committed to your ideals, your community, your tradition, your theology, your context and condition, even to your holy Writ which is really your interpretation of it, and let the ride take you higher than you’ve gone before with people you’ve never ridden with, people who may not share your core and as the pendulum swings as in the days of yore, consider the lilies and that one day you’ll see clearly what’s been in store - in the place and time where we won’t strive, cry or toil anymore. These pendulums will be history when we finally reach that Pilgrim shore so remember not to forget that we are not masters of the swing – the pendulum is not our chore.

God in His sovereignty is the same today as He was yesterday – the pendulum doesn’t move Zion’s mountain or lock the Temple door. So please, will you lay down your quill, come shake my hand, and with an Overdue Underduck, we'll swing into forevermore.

Written by Nathan Smith (kind of)

Well done my good and faithful Servant!

In the early days of Canada – the goal was to get to the Western shore and make it a country from shore to shore. This would give Canada sovereignty between two oceans. They compromised though on the Westcoast with the trading company by breaking their own laws to establish coast to coast sovereignty in diminishing the size of the tracts of land that they gave the Native people in order to appease the trading company that owned that portion of the new world and had their vested interest there. The tracts of land in the east are much larger because the government followed their own laws but the farther west they got – the lesser importance to virtue, law and ethics was important because they wanted to gain sovereignty – God never diminishes Creation's dignity and value in order to gain sovereignty - He does so by giving sacrificially even to the point of giving His Son and by tearing the Trinity apart. The early settlers ignored this aspect of God to the degree that they ignored the whole person and dignity of the Native community and tore their dignity to pieces instead of what God tears - Himself. All of this -to gain “manifest destiny’s” destiny, but nobody wants to hear that.


They paved over the ancient paths and erected the “civilized” secure barns of gratuity over the “savage” sacred burial grounds ( the wealthy man in the parable who builds barns and then eats and drinks and is merry)– all for greed, pride and power. They didn’t want Russia, the US or anyone else to get it so they cut a deal that compromised their very laws in order to get the west coast under the banner of that flag with a red maple leaf and red bars – in some ways it might as well be drenched in blood for the color we call red, but nobody wants to hear that.

I grew up in that part of Canada with the Indians and my house was situated 300 ft above the river that was used to discover the west coast – the Fraser River. Little did I realize that the canoes that passed my home hundreds of years ago with my ancestors in them would spurn a genocide of land grabbing and the destructive forces that ripped dignity and identity from a chosen people. I didn’t choose to exist in a day where others like me would forget that and live as if it had never happened, but sovereignly I was put there. Will we all enjoy the benefits of our ancestor’s efficient business transactions and continue to own land that was stolen, maybe we thought they would foreclose anyways. Land that cries out like the Creation groans and the cry that is as fresh as the blood of Abel which still flows and forms wet clay under our feet from the sacred dirt we callous with our imperial shoes – unable to know that it’s still wet with blood and to trod the injustice under our feet and at the same time – right under our nose. We get mad at the mud from the dirt and the blood that we carry into our homes. Then Mr. Clean sparkles our domesticated heart-wood floors. We look for the sun to the east from our western, heartless but "necessary" chores, longing for more settlers with warm words - only to comfort and assail our conscience with good news from other shores.


Were we called to follow a Savior that crushes the clod - or the head of a serpent? Were we called not to suffer at our own expense and our own dignity if we chose to follow a limping Savior from a Serpent’s snare?

It’s too political they say –
I wonder if Yahweh applauds that
and also turns his eyes away?

“It’s too far removed from us they say, it’s not our responsibility – that was our forefathers – why should we have to concern ourselves with what they did wrong? Don’t the Indians (post-savages) have a better life now anyway – now that we’re here?”

Ohhh, if we could only read the Holy Writ again and see that God favors a people who know oppression and not the privilege of a lawmaker's pen. Privilege gained by oppression has a price – and though you spend all day in the store stealing, the sun will go down and disappear and closing time will arrive, anticipating the dawn. At that point – you still have to walk out the door with what is hidden in your pockets – now is the time to put it back upon the shelf and realize that you’ve have been recorded – your every move. Will you seek forgiveness only and empty your pockets at the door or will you Restock redemptively and breathe the very air of forgiveness today while it is still called today – some by the skin of their teeth and others not – who will you be at the door?

The sovereignty of God doesn’t require us to ignore and override the “other” – it actually calls us to the "other" because the “other” represents a portion of God’s desire to reveal Himself to us. If we ignore the “other” we are ignoring an aspect of God. If we assume superiority or sovereignty and ignorance over the "other" we are doing that to a royal and sovereign God. “Do unto the least of these and you will do it unto me.” If we override them – we get what we want but we have to realize openly that we have been rapacious in the process, that we have been fallacious and carelessly uncautious - that we have raped royalty – that we are rapists. If we can be okay with that – then march on, if not then sit down and listen and wait, weep and wander around in your heart, mind and life story – ask myself and yourself, and ourselves what it would be like to live life rightly instead of efficiently, to be gracious and gratuitous, to be graced royally, to be gracists and not racists. Efficiency is not wrong but we do use it as a virtue when it’s actually an excuse? And though our lives soar upward in success, our hearts plummet to the earth awaiting sure death, but we dont' want to hear that breath breathe those words - deathhhh

Is there hope? Yes, but hope can only have it’s proper and effectual power when it can rise up against its enemy. Our hearts and lives are called to then embrace that reality so that hope has a clear voice against the noise that booms in our ears that resonates in our eyesight - though at one time it was not seen, not heard, and not a bother, and only now we have heard, only now we have seen. Awaken, listen, search the pockets of your soul for what your life has stolen and then ask yourself - who you will be at the door?

Written by Nathan Smith (kind of)

A passive aggressive postmodern - Part 2 (a cynics rant?)

Just because I’m not becoming you
Doesn’t mean that you can’t help me become me.
Hey modernity – it ain’t easy being postmodernity.

Hey modernity – maybe implicity I’m angry in my verbage to thee
and that anger in my heart now written, might to seem to be for my mommy and daddy

True or not,I guess is that wrong for me?
And when did you start liking psychology?

But you formed them after they created you
What should I do with a parent that doesn’t want to be reformed
By the misunderstood people that they created too?

Modernity, we’re no longer just ideas
Postmodernity is now an identity

Hey Modernity - why not ask Somebody else what’s going on
Instead of telling us “there’s nothing new under the sun”

I guess Aristotle understood the theory of relativity
And that our forefathers really did need slaves

Should I defer to that which doesn’t see me as different
Or to that which may hear my logos but not its pathos?

I may sound angry and it’s because I am
But my emotions don’t belong in a closed system

You may not be able to control them
but could they have been predicted?

Hey Modernity – thanks for listening…

Hey Modernity

“Hey modernity – please get over yourself
And help me find myself”

“Hey modernity – you’re cool
But I don’t want to be you”

Hey modernity – I don’t need a crossing guard anymore
But I may need a guide up this treacherous mountain called life

Hey modernity – what you created was great
But I want something better – is that wrong?

Hey modernity – I don’t need anymore mature or moral supeer-irority
How about making it a priority to be a mature mentor, a seasoned peer?

Hey modernity – feeding your mind behind your unfolded daily dose of black and white reality is splendid
But reality for me is on a dynamic multi-colored screen that can have a mind of its own.

Hey modernity – I need you but don’t you need me?
Why are you yelling when you teach instead of crying?

Hey modernity – please don’t rip on my ripped jeans
I know you don’t understand but I bought them that way

Hey modernity – if you yell at me, you might lose your voice
If you give me apathy, I might turn to my toys.
If you scorn me, all I might hear is noise
If you detach from me, doesn’t that take away my choice?

Do you want a voice that isn’t noise that gives me a choice instead of my toys
Listen in, come on in, but please knock on the door
I don’t want you to be me – but will you be with me - where I'm at?

Will you read this unmetered poem
And wonder why I don't always bother to rhyme
Or dismiss my rebellious adolescence and wait until I become sublime?

(sublime = of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style; "an exalted ideal")

I need you to be you
I want you to be you
But I will never be you.

Hey modernity - I'm postmodern
I guess that means that I'm post-you
Ten years ago I never thought I would post about being "post"
Did you?


-Nathan Smith (kind of)