Eugene Peterson, The Wisdom of Each Other: A Conversation Between Spiritual Friends
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wisdom-Each-Other-Conversation/dp/0310242479

You know that guy who wrote the Bible?  The version that some folks loved and others think is birthed from the imagination of Beelzebub herself?  So that guy rules.  A few years back one of my mentors opened the Peterson door for me by giving me an audio version of his memoir, The Pastor, and since then, Eugene has become a spiritual mentor of mine through his writings.

The Wisdom of Each Other is a short read which is structured simply as letters from Eugene to an old friend who was new to spirituality, specifically the kind oriented around a poor first-century, seemingly socialist, Jewish, vagabond-teacher.

I’m currently involved in a private writing project with the same mentor who turned me on to Peterson, and this book was loaned to be as an example of what our correspondences might look like. At times you can feel Eugene’s frustration with American religion and all it’s adventures in missing the point, choosing to focus on keeping the busyness and business of church going.  But even more apparent throughout his letters you’ll notice Eugene’s deep affections and weathered faithfulness to Christ in all his mysteries.  Over the past few months I’ve read a couple Peterson books, and each one is a profoundly refreshing reminder of what church could be, and what it means to be a Pastor.  If you know me, both of those things hit close to home.

Before I share some of my favorite quotes, I’d just like to encourage my friends.  Anyone who’s involved in church, anyone who’s curious about all the fuss and chaos around Jesus, anyone who is new to the faith, anyone who is walking with some one else who is new to the faith, or anyone who just wants to read some of the other books that the author of the Bible has penned- do yourself a favor and read some of this man’s writing.  My suggestion: start with The Pastor and then find your way through some of his other literary musings.

So here are a few of my favorite nuggets of ideas/thoughts/exhortations from The Wisdom of Each other, mostly written here so I can reference them later.

Selected quotes:

“Every call to worship is a call to the Real World.  You’d think by this time in my life I wouldn’t need to be called anymore.  But I do. I encounter such constant and widespread lying about reality each day and meet with such skilled and systematic distortion of the truth that I’m always in danger of losing my grip on reality.  The reality, of course, is that God is sovereign and Christ is savor.  The reality is that prayer is my mother tongue and the Eucharist my basic food.  The reality is that baptism, not the Myers-Briggs, defines who I am.  The reality is, as Leon Bloy so poignantly put it, that “the only sadness is not to be a saint.”

“I’ve seen too many of my friends lives impoverished by a big salary.”

On direction in prayer from scripture:
“The Psalms give range and variety: The Lord’s prayer gives brevity and focus.”

“Any place is the right place to start for God.”

“My own practice has been to keep my involvement in religion to a responsible minimum- my participation in spirituality (in the Spirit) extravagantly maximal.”

“One of the things that I have reflected upon recently is how biblical the feeling of godforesakeness is…”

“Do you realize how much of Jesus’ ministry took place around cooking and eating?”

“…true hospitality is when an onlooker can’t distinguish between the host and the guest.”

“We’re not in charge of publicity for the Almighty.”

Story of St. Teresa of Avila:
“The Spanish saint was in the outhouse one day, reading her prayers and eating a muffin.  The Devil appeared and scolded her: “How unspiritual! How abominably sacrilegious!” Teresa shot back, “The prayer is for God, the muffin is for me, and the rest is for you.”

“Wisdom is not a matter of expertise.”

“Conferences on the spiritual life are wonderful- occasionally.  I think very occasionally.  They do not provide the substance for a life of obedient faith.  They contribute almost nothing, maybe even less than nothing, to a life of spiritual maturity.  They are stimulus.  Appetizer.  They are not nutritious.  High in fat, low in protein…….
Authentic spirituality is not transferable.  It is not a franchise- some of those people seem to think you can set up it’s golden arches any old place they target a market for it.”

In the corners of our dining area are two small tables, topped with marble, and designed to store bottles of wine.  As you can see from the picture above, this one is empty.  While I’d love to be able to tell you that the other table is filled, and that the reason the pictured table empty is because of our refined wine tastes and storage methods, I cannot.  They’re both empty.

How sad.

While this might seem like a trivial problem to have, we could just head to Trader Joe’s or BevMo and buy some fermented grape juice whenever we want, I realized this week that this is symptomatic of a larger problem:

We’re too damned busy.

In the past 10 months my wife Alie and I have started a church, taken in a Burmese orphan, purchased a condo, served on a non-profit board, continued to be a kick ass nurse, gotten two classes away from finishing a graduate degree, done our best to maintain friendships and family ties, and a bunch of other crazy ass stuff that makes me want to cuss even more when I think about it.

It’s been the most full and exhilarating 10 months of my life, but definitely the most stressful.   We’ve developed new friendships that have the makings of those life long friendships we all long for.  We’ve watched our friend Phyu, who is staying with us as an exchange student from Myanmar, become near fluent in English and get ready to start college, which a year ago seemed like an impossible dream.  We’ve watched Oak Life Church become a safe place for numerous of folks who have not felt safe at church before.  In my role at Oak Life I’ve been allowed to be a friend and support to many as they process divorces, deaths, depression, addictions, rejection, abuse and more.  Meanwhile, Alie has been in the trenches of nursing work, faithfully serving the sick and dying weekly.

All the while our reserves of wine have dwindled.

For Alie and I, wine is symbolic.  When we open a bottle of wine together, it’s a chance to slow down, relax, and enjoy each other.  Our conversations grow into observations from our days at work and with people.  Each new topic sprouts like the branches of a vine and in the process we recenter.  We pour a little more wine and break a little more bread.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened in a while.  Our wine tables continue to look like blank canvases or a stringless guitars, pointing us towards what could be.

—–

I’ve always wondered why the concept of Sabbath was so important in the Bible.  This has been one of the  main distinguishing characteristics that has set Jewish culture apart for centuries and it seemed like it was still significant in a lot of Jesus’ conversations.  But whats the big deal?  Who cares what we do Saturdays?  Why would this peculiar group of people devote so much energy towards what they can and can’t do on one particular day?

This idea is especially hard when the things I’m busy with are good: taking care of an orphan, counseling people through hard times, coming up with something spiritually significant to share each Sunday, helping to fundraise for humanitarian causes,  setting up coffee meetings with newcomers to church, making sure I’m at every community event I can be just in case a connection might be made that will help some one, answering that email so that person feels encouraged and prayed for, etc.

Meanwhile, those wine tables…. they’re still empty.

—-

If you’re reading this, I’m going to do something that may be a little weird.  But to be honest, I’m keep this blog for my own purposes, to process and collect my own thoughts- so… deal with it.

Every time I notice those wine tables, I feel convicted.  So here is my confession and prayer about my busyness.

God, I’m sorry.  Have mercy on me, a sinner.  I’m sorry for the ways I’ve taken your burden and made it my own.  You care more about the needs and the people of this city than I do.  Forgive me for trying to do too much and be a hero too often.  It’s your ministry, not mine.  Forgive me for neglecting my marriage,  for prioritizing my needs and others needs.  Help me slow down.  Help me spend time in the places that matter.  Father, thank you for wine.  For your shed blood and broken body.  Thank you for resurrection.  Thank you for grace.  Thank you for life.

So, I think we need to make a trip to the store to buy some wine.  I’ve been into Zins and Cabs recently.  Anyone have any recommendations?

 

 

 

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Yesterday a local online news/culture magazine posted an article that included Oak Life Church.  A church getting some press isn’t really that abnormal, but what’s different about this article is the context.  Oak Life Church was included in a list of queer welcoming spaces.  Most of the other mentions are clubs and non-profits, and definitely not churches.  Definitely not.

This is kind of a collision of worlds in the most odd way.  We don’t fit on that list, but there we are below and above two queer dance parties- right there where Jesus is.

Churches are usually known for being the opposite of inclusive towards the LGBTQ community and most of my friends in that community have experienced this at some point in their life.  There is no way around it, our mention in this article is just odd, Oak Life Church is obviously out of place, and for that I couldn’t be more grateful.   I’m grateful because I know the pain the church has caused the LGBT community and as a representative of the church, I’m deeply sorry.  That’s now how God is and I’m so encouraged that a culture is being created at Oak Life Church where everyone is invited to the feast – that God invites us all to the table without asking us to clean up our mess first.  Everyone is welcome.  Yeah you heard me, everyone.

Our journey as a church plant, trying to follow Christ and not get in his way, has been an incredible ride, especially in this area.  For almost two years we worked with a church planting network that affirmed our calling to plant a church and encouraged us every step of the way.  That is until we raised questions about the some of the ways churches tend to interpret scripture regarding homosexuality, and challenged how those interpretations affect the way we love people who identify as LGBTQ.  We didn’t say we’d perform same sex marriages but we didn’t say we wouldn’t.  What we said was- we’ve got questions about this subject that Jesus himself never talked about.  Questions, that’s all we had, but it was enough to loose funding and be rejected by this network.  Luckily it wasn’t a ton of money, but as a church plant we don’t have much.

Just thinking about this breaks my heart because it strengthens the perception my LGBTQ friends have regarding how Christians view them.  That all we see is this thing that get’s interpreted as inherently sinful.  Again, I’m deeply sorry and sad about this.

As I read the scriptures and wrestle with loving people it tends to raise more questions than answers.  And on this subject, with all that’s at stake, we need the grace and love of God to guide us.  To my queer friends, I love you and you are accepted at Oak Life Church.  We’re a bunch of messy people trying to walk with God.  I’m sorry for the way Christians have treated you.  I ask your forgiveness.  Somewhere along the line we confused our mandate to love people and introduce them to the good news that God rescues us all with a system of sin management and behavior modification.  In the process we’ve hurt lots of people.  That’s not on God, that’s on us.

Hear me on this- you are welcome, you are loved, and you are accepted.  God loves you and it’s because of this deep conviction that I’m so grateful for Oak Life to be known as an inclusive community.  And just so you know, I love dancing and would be stoked cut a rug with you anytime.

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A prayer for Oak Life:

Make us a refuge
A shelter from the storm
A warm embrace
For those who are cold
A light on the way
That guides us home
A healing place
Where no wounds remain

And though the night
Will surely come
Nothing can take
Away your love

Make us a source
Of life for those worn out
Where heavy burdens
Are shared and carried
Where our scars find their home
In your healing touch
An honest place
For outcasts and saints

And though the night
Will surely come
Nothing will take
Away your love

There is no distance you can’t cross
You find us, you always will
And in your presence we are found
No matter how lost we are
Your love will carry us
Through the darkest nights
To your light

Make us your vessels
Of peace and justice
Deepest compassion
For all those loveless
A foretaste of heaven
For those in hell
A people of
Faith, hope, and love

Whoa.  This last Sunday Oak Life Church “sprouted”.  That’s what we’re calling it because we’ve been playing with the language and imagery of an oak tree that starts small, but over time grows deeper and deeper roots and wider and wider branches.

This has been an incredible journey for me personally.  In fact, incredible is an understatement.  If I’m honest, there aren’t any words I can use to sum up this adventure.  Sunday was the culmination of 4+ years of dreaming, talking, listening, praying, planning, working, not-sleeping, stressing and surrendering.

God has met me and us every step of the way.

The path that got us here is something I couldn’t have orchestrated or thought of myself.  So much of what is going on is outside of my control- from our name, to our values, to the people who are a part of our community that 14 months ago I didn’t know existed- some of whom have moved here to be a part of this, to our venue, to the people leading in different ways, to the multiple churches who for some reason trusted me to lead a church plant effort- so much has happened- so much to be thankful for and in mays ways so much stuff that it’s hard for me to even comprehend.

God has opened up doors and started friendships here in Oakland.  He has allowed us to be in some small way a part of what He is doing here.  I don’t understand it and I’m certainly not worthy of it,  but something is happening.

Father, help me get out of your way.  Make us more and more yours.  Help me be found faithful to all that you’ve entrusted into our care.

Statistically, church plants are really hard to pull off and a majority end up stopping within 5 years.  So far, we’re incredibly blessed with so much support we don’t deserve- and all of the factors that would reveal our trajectory as a church plant community are looking really, really positive.

Northland Village Church in LA has been an incredible community of friendship for us.  Nick Warnes in particular has been a tremendous encouragement and friend to me, even though he’s a tigers fan.   They’ve helped us get grants, prayed for us probably more than we’ve been praying for ourselves, and committed themselves to being in this with us.  I’m so grateful for our time at NVC and hope Oak Life can be like them in many ways.

CrossWinds Church in Dublin has been ridiculously good to us.  They’ve put me on staff, offering me the resources to dedicate my time to getting this church started.  They’ve offered us people who might come from CrossWinds to be a part of Oak Life, something that churches don’t normally do.  Chris Coli has been a mentor, support, and encouragement to me as a young pastor.  He’s already stood by me in some tough situations.  I’m not sure why CrossWinds bought into us as much as they did, but if it wasn’t for their support Oak Life would not exist.

Alie has been such a good friend and wife to me in this.  I’m sure I’ve been at many times pre-occupied with Oak Life, but she’s extended so much grace to me that I get emotional thinking about it.  All the while, she’s been faithful to her own ministry calling as a nurse, a vocation that is especially important, beautiful, exhausting, dirty, and needed.

I’m not sure how this all happened.  Looking back on this season, I can trace all the steps that got us here, but I still find myself rubbing my eyes in disbelief.  A church has been and is forming- we actually launched a church.  People are getting connected to community and to God.  It’s kind of crazy.

God- this is yours.  Let us be a people of your love, grace, and transformation.

To be really honest, I’m both filled with excitement and fear.  I’m excited for us to grow.  For lives to be changed.  For God to move.  But I’m also scared.  I’m scared to let people down.  I’m scared that I’m inadequate to lead a church.  I’m scared that my own sin will harm the health of our community.    I feel Paul when he writes that in his weakness, Christ is strong.

Lord, I am weak.  I don’t know how to lead a church.  I’m young.  I’m sinful.  I’m so in need of your grace.  Lord, make me yours.  That you’re glory and love would burst through me and us.  That people would encounter your love that loves us without conditions. The love of Christ on the cross, that bleeds and endures all for us.  The love of the empty tomb that overcomes all the shit of this world and our hearts.  Father, be who you are.  We surrender.  I surrender.  Your will, your kingdom, your resurrection, your mercy, your hope, your grace, your love.  

I had the chance to share yesterday at Fair Oaks Church in Concord.  Great folks and a privilege to join them.

http://www.fairoaks.org/media.php?pageID=22

This prayer is for myself
How I need a new heart
One that beats truly
Only for what’s above
How you’ve always been there
From the first painful breath
The pulsing of your heart
Was bleeding out for me

So these words I sing to you
Be who you are and make me new

Just when I think
That I’ve made progress
I find myself in that place
Where I left you out
But you were right there
And I was already found
It’s there that I see
If I die I really live

We recently had a conversation that I’ll never forget.

We were meeting with a man named Chuck, who is on staff at an organization called Partners Relief and Development.  The goal of the meeting was to see how our organization, Bridges Myanmar, can learn from and work alongside Partners.   Both of us work in a country called Myanmar, formerly Burma, with people who come from some of the most urgent situations imaginable.  Some of these groups include internally displaced, orphans, the persecuted church, refugees, oppressed ethnic minorities, war ravaged villagers, victims of land mines, and more.  Tragically, you name the human rights issue and it exists in Myanmar.

As Christians, it seems clear that it’s our job to care for the “least of these”, and that in Jesus’ economy, those who we see as the “least” are actually the “first.”  When Jesus gives us a mandate to love and serve those in need he does not specify what institutions we work through.  Unfortunately, many Christians are only willing to serve those in need if it’s done through our church.

“Unbelievable, that’s incredible!” I exclaimed.  ”You are able to bring food and supplies to a group of people that had been isolated and closed off to outside support for many years!  How did you get into that community, who let you in?”

“I’m scared to tell you this and I know a lot of people may not like it…”  Chuck said.  ”But it was through a Buddhist Monk.”

Without hesitation one of our board members spoke up, “We totally understand.  Christians don’t have a monopoly on what God is up to in the world.”

Those words seemed to put Chuck at ease.  Apparently other groups had not been as receptive to their methods as we were.

But how come?  Why is it that so often as Christians we only want support humanitarian/missions/relief work if it comes from our churches, or has our name on it?

My friend Rachel is doing incredible work to prevent human trafficking in Thailand through her organization SOLD.  Her organization has been consistently turned away by churches who do not want to support their cause because it’s not explicitly a “Christian” organization.   Why do we as Christians think we have a monopoly on God’s work in the world?

Isn’t it possible that God is at work outside of the church?  In fact, don’t we believe that God is omnipresent and incarnate in our world?  Throughout the scriptures we see that God’s purposes for the world are often accomplished outside of Christian institutions.  Just a few examples:

• In Exodus 4 God works through Pharaoh by hardening his heart in order to display his power and eventually free the Hebrews from slavery;
• In Numbers 22 God’s voice is heard through a donkey;
• In John 10 Jesus speaks of having sheep that are outside of the immediate sheep pen;
• In Colossians 1:20 Paul writes that Jesus has reconciled “all things” to himself through the cross, not just the things within the church.

If God can work through dictators and donkeys, and is at work in other “pens”, and is reconciling “all things” to himself, why can’t God work through a Buddhist monk?

In reality God is at work outside of the church, and I’m incredibly grateful of this.  Thank God that He is working, redeeming, healing, and reconciling the world outside of the Christian community because the needs of our world are far beyond our scope and capacity to meet.

I believe it’s not our job to bring God to the world, but rather to find out where God already is and join in on what He’s doing.  If that means joining hands with a Buddhist monk to feed the hungry or partner with a public school to provide education, then let us find God there.

We just wanted to take a moment and say thank you for  your support over the years.  This is a team effort and none of our work in Myanmar would be possible if it were not for the generosity of our friends and family.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We just got back from our most recent trip to Myanmar and it was another productive and busy time of supporting our friends there.  Here are some highlights:

-This year we were able to donate over $1500 to a local church and orphanage that will be used to feed orphans, maintain buildings, and supply the church with resources.

-We also visited at least 30 house churches (we kind of lost count), many of which meet illegally and in secret, and we offered prayers and encouragements.

-Then we helped our friend, one of the orphans named Phyu Phyu Win, apply for college.  So far we’ve raised over $7,000 towards her first year of school.  Thanks for your help!  If all goes as planned, she should start this year.   If you’d like to learn more about her, please click here (she needs more supporters!).

– Lastly, we met with a couple other organizations who also care about Myanmar and were encouraged and inspired by their work.  We are hoping to partner with one of these organizations to bring a medical team next year.

There are many challenges in Myanmar, but there is even more hope.  Our vision is a brighter future for the people of Myanmar.   One of the other areas we’re praying about getting connected in the future is with a group of people called the Rohingya, you can read about them here.  According to the United Nations, they are one of the most persecuted, oppressed, and forgotten groups in the entire world.  Please pray for them and pray for us as we continue to work towards a brighter future for our friends in Myanmar.

Again, thank you!

 

Thwa dau mal means “we are leaving”.  In Burmese font it looks like this: သြာေတာ့မယ္။

I titled this post with those words because in a few short hours we’ll be boarding our plane and jetting across the Pacific once more to see our friends in Myanmar.  It’s pretty unbelievable, but this is my 11th trip to Myanmar.  Over the years I’ve been blessed to have a front row seat to an amazing friendship between our community here in America and various communities in Myanmar.  This friendship has provided food for orphans, donated medical resources, given toys for the kids, contributed computers and technology, and offered encouragement and hope to churches, families, widows, prisoners and more.

This year’s trip will continue the story.  We will be donating more resources including a new computer, offering more encouragement to churches and communities including a visit to a prison, spending more time with our friends at the orphanage, and continuing the process of getting our friend Phyu Phyu Win into college.

Before we head out I just wanted to say thank you.  None of this would be possible if it were not for the unbelievable outpouring of generosity and support that we have received from friends and family.  Your support is changing peoples lives.  Jezu din Baday, Thank you.