The pub group is at Stackhouse Burgers tomorrow night, 7:30 pm, if any of you lurkers out there want to join us for conversation and delicious food. I recommend just a single burger (with jalapenos) and the homemade potato chips. I can also vouch for their milkshakes. Darn good.
I haven’t picked out a question for conversation yet, but it should be as good as last week’s starter.
We might even celebrate graduation stuff. Why not join us? See you soon!
Dmergent posted my article today about the pub ministry and third spaces. Check it out:
If churches are serious about engaging their neighborhood in conversation, Jesus and the “third space” seems to point one way forward. Church buildings offer a lot of positives as far as a secure, comfortable space for conversation and privacy, but neighbors don’t have x-ray vision. Our community around us cannot see what we are up to. Third spaces open up windows not just for others to see the church but for the church to see others.
Jules & Greg are two of our key Table community regulars, whose leadership and care and welcome of others has made a difference. This past summer, they went with a group from the Church of the Incarnation to Honduras as part of a training/preparation program to lead such trips in the future. Jules shared her experiences back in August, but she and Greg will brief our whole church on Sunday at noon. I hope you can plan on being there.
Mission has been an unofficial theme for the Table in this New Year, as we have attempted to move beyond our four walls and into our community. Tonight, a group of us will go and participate with the homeless census and count, starting at City Hall. During Christmas, the Table helped Reconciliation Ministry organize and distribute gifts to families in need. Most of our messages in this New Year have been focused on our call to serve others.
But it’s important to realize that mission is not just something that you go and do in a foreign country, one time a month for a special event, or whatever. It’s what you do each day.
Theologian David Bosch, in his book Transforming Mission, says it this way:
… consequently, the church is called to live the resurrection life in the here and now and to be a sign of contradiction against the forces of death and destruction.
Your job setting is a place to do mission. Your apartment complex. Your home. Your neighborhood. Your gym. Your local pub. Your supermarket. Wherever your day takes you, you will have opportunity to participate in Jesus’ ministry of incarnation in someone else – being God’s love for a stranger, friend, or enemy. Sometimes, that’s handing a thirsty person a drink of water or buying a burger for a hungry neighbor. Sometimes, it’s your presence in a time of need. It might even be words of affirmation to someone who feels beat down by life. It definitely includes using your voice to change systems that are broken in our own community.
Have you discovered your place of mission? Are you opening up to sharing God’s love with those you meet? May this New Year be a time to discover the answers to those questions and hear God’s call afresh.
Tonight, as our pub group chewed on questions of heaven and hell, I got to thinking – is Easter all about heaven?
Easter is typically a day for apologetics, the defense or explanation of faith. Lots of people darken the doors of church even if they don’t show up for the rest of year, so that might make sense. The common themes of Easter are good ones – resurrection, new life, promises, angels, victory over death, come from behind victories, and heaven. The basic modern story of the Christian faith is repeated – believe in Jesus, and experience eternal life.
Of course, in this new postmodern or post-postmodern world (whatever all that means), some of those basic assumptions are being questioned. Like – what do we really know about heaven? What do we really know about hell? Are some of those ideas really grounded in scripture? Is being a Christian really all about eternal life?
I guess I am sort of thinking out loud here, but I might suggest some alternatives to deepen our understanding of Easter.
For example, while I have not read it, I love the title of Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. What a cool couple of words to summarize Easter! Yes, Jesus conquered death, but in the bigger picture, God’s love overcame all obstacles… and won.
Dr. Dan Moseley, retired professor from Christian Theological Seminary, preached an amazing Easter sermon at National City Christian Church a few years back about lingering in our pain, using the examples of Mary and Peter returning to the tomb after the death of Jesus. As they acknowledged that pain, as they vented it, new life suddenly emerged. Their eyes were opened.
Or finally, Easter as an event that calls us to reorder our lives. If death is not the final arbiter, if evil’s power becomes muted in the presence of God, and if life emerges even out of the deep pain and chaos of our lives, then how do we live differently? Isn’t the world turned upside down?
Wow. Deep thoughts, late on a Tuesday.
I think you may hear some of that this coming Sunday at Easter, as we all struggle to hear and respond to Resurrection happening in our lives and world, every single day.
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