verve&verse

bearing the consequence of God - vineyard edition

2008-07-25T04:54:00.017-05:00

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "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." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Luke 4:17-21

this post goes along the lines of my former posts bearing the title: bearing the consequence of God: part one, part deux, triple-play, and the penetecost edition...

...this one is focused more on radically re-digging the wells and the essence of the vineyard: an historian's perspective on how the vineyard has borne the consequence of God...and the inbreaking of His Reign in this now-and-not-yet age of ours...

because the education and perspective of an historian can be a subtle thing, let me begin by saying:

...even given my natural cultivation for detachment, history trained me to reach for perspective and embrace with multi-hued insight what has gone before, afterall, as we say at the National Archives: 'what is past is prologue'...

but also: sometimes we lose something of great importance (as galadriel says in The Lord of the Rings: '...and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost') or rather we point to outcomes and consequences (in christianese please read: fruit) as the essence of the tree, when what we are pointing to may merely be the fruit of the tree, let the reader understand...

currently in my own faith community, finding ourselves within the tribe of the vineyard movement, we have been radically re-digging at the root (previously mentioned here)

[aside/recommendation: historical radicalism (from the word for 're-exposing the root') can be witnessed to as opposed to the contemporary popular idea of radicalism, and my friend mike barrett does that beautifully in his full article Modern Radicalism vs. Historical Radicalism, from which the following is excerpted: "[contemporay radicalism] is called "radical" because it gets tattooed, writes edgy books, does podcasts, speaks at conferences (for top fees), and never really sacrifices much at all." mike's article was in the last Relevant Magazine]

ok, so a few questions i ask myself in a season of re-digging the wells:

have we forgotten something more essential than what we can easily identify (i.e. the genus, the species, the tree and/or the branch as opposed to just the fruit)?
what is our perspective, removed as we are from the initial context of the birth?
what can we say from our current perspective, without indulging in certitude?

through the vineyard movement the holy spirit changed things:

changed the way the Church at-large worships
changed the way churches operate (empowerment...everyone gets to play)
changed the way the Church ministers (power of the Holy Spirit, Servant Evangelism, and currently Social Justice)
changed the way we educate leaders in Church (with innovative tools and technology used by VLI and VBI)
changed the Church...period (which includes stuff working its way out even in the eastern orthodox church...and if the change is that far-reaching it has to be the Spirit of the Living God)

context for the birth of the vineyard movement:

flowing from the context of that 1960's-ish generation, which is the context in which the Jesus movement was birthed, from which was birthed those erstwhile siblings: calvary chapel and the vineyard...the essence i see as an historian for all of these is the newfound freedom as a result of the good news of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus [and possibly 'exploration' rooted in the newfound freedom in Christ] (thus a movement of freedom, not merely a prayer movement or a worship movement or other such things)...we are a further result of the reign of God

thus, bringing freedom to the Church and this age that consequently brought re-newal:

through newfound freedom and exploration in worship

through newfound freedom and exploration in the power and charisms of the Spirit

through newfound freedom and exploration in ministry:

freedom to come as you are
everybody gets to play
naturally supernatural
servant evangelism (opened up freedom for many more in the Church to 'do the work of an evangelist')
releasing women in all aspects of ministry (consequently disentangling and re-naming the elements of power, authority and control)
social justice (probably the most current newfound freedom being explored that i witness to: the environment, poverty, modern-day slavery, race, etc.)

through newfound freedom and exploration in peoples lives:

forging and exploring the path to freedom with addicitons
forging and exploring the path to freedom from their past
forging and exploring the path to freedom from this age

so, more questions:

what does this mean...what are the implications for the vineyard currently?
what horizons remain unexplored with the newfound freedom in Christ as our essence?
how have other perspectives limited who the vineyard thinks it is, and the next generation of those who identify themselves as vineyard?
is the legacy lost if no one agrees with me that freedom is the essence of the vineyard movement?
can we say the above without it being threatening to those who would categorize (thus limit) the vineyard as a church-planting movement or a worship movement or 'fill-in-the-blank' movement?

thus, from wimber's power evangelism to rich nathan and who is my enemy? to gary best and naturally supernatural to dave schmelzer and not the religious type to phil strout and God's relentless pursuit to tri robinson and saving God's green earth to martin buehlmann and a church that changes lives to dave workman and the outward-focused life to mike barrett and the danger habit to eric sandras and buck-naked faith to don williams and 12 steps with Jesus to ken wilson and Jesus-brand spirituality

...all these people are writing and talking about the freedom that comes through an encounter with the utterly free and great God in Christ and His reign in our lives...

throwaway thought: all of this has lead me to the conclusion that the vineyard was one of the primary illegitimate fathers (one of several) of the emerging church (illegitimate in that most do not want to claim the child that is the emerging church)...but the vineyard forged the context of freedom for the emerging church to...well...emerge (i am sointrigued that what i hear from leaders like brian mclaren is taking what we think of traditionally in the vineyard as the ministry of the good news of the kingdom of God and applying that to new places, riding up against that fault-line of the gospel and culture)...all as a result of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God...it's all about Him!

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

kingdom come

2008-07-23T05:00:00.000-05:00

through the thin veil
of this sheer pall
i barely apprehend
my delicate disposition
which has subsequently
become precisely so dense
so as to suffuse my spirit
with the wondrous weight
of this elixir of life
which bathes me
with diffused but buoyant light
to keep me from a furtive descent

from which my eyes now clouded with tears
can see clearly that i have yet to acquire
the unique appreciation of
the determination in your enveloping caress
that has marked me unbound
in a time and a place
etched before the foundations
that were sown in accordance
with your lasting persuasion
and radical resolve

not yet fully obscured is your exploit
in the untroubled gossamer waves
of a breathtaking luminescence
half-glanced in my shrouded center
which has left me unhindered
in the circumstance of my instance
for such a one as you
who has considered
even me precious enough
to taste of an age yet to come
where you fully dwell
and in spite of everything
that has gone before and after
to reveal yourself
here and now
for our sake

where have all the good samaritans gone?

2008-07-21T04:59:00.001-05:00

i was talking to chaundra about this article (the impassive bystander - someone is hurt, in need of compassion. is it human instinct to do nothing?) from the washington post last week.

it's utterly disturbing, not just what it says, but what it shows (in the two video clips) and the implications of the bystander effect as explained by sociologists and psychologists.

...i suppose this shouldn't surprise me in our day and age, but this is downright disturbing (especially the video of the woman at the hospital, but equally the guy in connecticut being run down)...where have all the good samaritans gone? does fear and distraction dominate our lives so much...where is the gut-wrenching compassion of Jesus followers in all this? has our current living so fueled us with fear that we cannot act?

well, that's what chaundra thinks:

"Where are the good Samaritans?

We're afraid. Thanks to the media, we fear everyone.

We're self centered. We would stop but we just don't have time. Someone else will.

We've taken this whole rugged individual, consumer thing too far. Trouble is, I am just as bad as the next person. I would love to stop and help the homeless person, but first must consider the safety of my children and my possessions (to a lesser extent but still there, if I am honest). It makes me think that we, as parents, need to seriously consider how we purposefully sow into our childrens' lives an attitude of selflessness. How do we model? That means more than any words we can speak. It needs to be something they can see or experience. It's wonderful that you are doing the human trafficking thing, but to the kids; it's just something you do at meetings with grown ups and on the computer. It doesn't impact them very much. (Not that I am picking on that)"

...truly i agree with chaundra...what she's talking about here is the "d-word" [discipleship]

in the post story it claims this phenomenon as the 'bystander effect":

"Sociologists and psychologists have long studied what is known as bystander behavior. They say people are often unsure how to react to such events because they have difficulty processing what they are seeing. Witnesses to tragedy, especially when events are uncertain, often look around first. If no one else is moving, individuals have a tendency to mimic the unmoving crowd. Although we might think otherwise, most of us would not have behaved much differently from the people we see in these recent videos, experts say. Deep inside, we are herd animals, conformists. We care deeply what other people are doing and what they think of us. The classic story of conformist behavior can be found in the 1964 case of Kitty Genovese, the 28-year-old bar manager who was slain by a man who raped and stabbed her for about half an hour as neighbors in a New York neighborhood looked on. No one opened a door for her. No one ran into the street to intervene."

...to me, this seems like a discipleship issue. are we encouraging and training followers of Christ to be and act like Him?
if we aren't then we are running with the wrong herd!

Lord, please help us to have and show compassion like You...please make us Your herd...give us Your grace and craft us into Your disciples

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
1 corinthians 15:10

beyond relevance...deep significance

2008-07-18T04:56:00.009-05:00

...there is this little Whisper in the back of my mind

it's been growing louder and becoming a burden, so i'm going to share my burden

the small voice is saying something about an idol...and the name attached to it: relevance

...from relevant magazine to relevant church to relevant this and relevant that...'relevance' has become a momentary idol among the chic christian hipster crowd

[sidenote: from my cynic's dictionary under the heading chic: considered smart without the deadening implcation of intelligence]

(sorry, couldn't help myself)

yet, it is not that relevance is bad...especially when it comes to announcing, embodying and demonstrating the good news of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus

and because the church in north america and europe were on a slow drift and had become increasingly irrelevant to their own cultural milieu is precisely why relevance has re-joined and re-entered into the conversation about mission in europe and north america (after having long been critical to Jesus' mission to the ends of the earth)

and here is another thing: "church" still works for lots of people right now...it gives many people a sense of belonging...it cares for them...meets deep felt needs...it's applicable to their lives...yet all of these issues are the consequences of church, not primary

(aside: being applicable to your life and actually applying it to your life are two separate but related issues that are needful)

i was recently reading about a relevant outreach to skaters from a relevant church written about in relevant magazine...

funny how buzzwords take over, become something...possibly in an subtle, idolatrous way...(when i say idolatrous i mean: replacing Jesus as the center)

here is the thing: there are two sides to relevance, because it's not that we don't want to be relevant, but we don't have to be overly relevant in a shallow kind of way...but relevance - as in cultural relevance - has much to do with currency, in that to 'stay relevant' those 'being relevant' are always pursuing the new 'cultural relevance'. such a slippery slope, kind of like always seeking to be cutting edge...now, i'm not saying we do not need people on the cutting edge, we do, we need people on the faultlines of the gospel, because that's where soulquakes happen that change culture...and in saying that, i think that is what i am getting at: baptizing the culture, idolizing the culture, incarnating in all-the-wrong-ways (like me buying a bunch of sweatpants and a skateboard to reach out to skaters) misses the very thing we intend, because there is a discerning distance or difference that is inherent in being an incarnated follower of Christ, which i think is the point in what shane claiborne and chris haw have to say in their new book, 'jesus for president':

"...the question is not are we political, but how are we political. The question is not are we relevant, but are we peculiar? The answer lies in how we embody what we believe. Our greatest challenge is to maintain the distinctiveness of our faith in a world gone mad. And all of creation waits, groans, for a people who live God's dream with fresh imagination."

i think jason clark also brings understanding and humility to what i am seeking to get at as well in his observation about retreating to a subjective private gnosis of 'relevance':

"Within my context the protestant church has seemingly retreated into the subjective private gnosis of 'relevance' with it's myriad progressions of worship aesthetics, be that charismatic revivalism, purpose driveness, or alternative worship, whilst on the other hand it has turned to a reified and objectified faith around some form of biblical fundamentalism...Much of the emerging church has been self consciously located around the notion of 'conversations', and whilst I have found it's largely irenic dialectic immensely helpful, I think Hütter exposes one of the ecclesial limitations of this emerging church moment...In other words ecclesiology collapses into the conversations about church, the flux and idealizations of talking about what church might be (and often the pathology of what it isn't), such that ecclesiology remains a hermeneutical horizon of discussions about church, rather than a concrete reality of growing and new communities with new Christians. No reference is needed to practices and habits of concrete church locations and communities."

in the end, relevance can be significant, distinctive and good; as opposed to a much more - and easier - shallow relevance...because when we are incarnational (being embodied: 'coming from within') and missional (relating to or connecting with the mission of Christ in this now-and-not-yet age), we are both relevant and peculiar at the same time...and that makes it significant

my friend mike barrett hits the sentiment on the head when we talks about wanting to not be irrelevant...because i want to be relevant to my daughters, even though i may not be a part of the currently relevant elementary school culture they swim in...but because of my enduring relationship, i have a deeper significance in their lives

but i think there is this middle ground, of being peculiar...and surprisingly relevant

because we can be overly relevant...and get lost in the tapestry of the culture...which very well makes you irrelevant, doesn't it?
so, here is the other issue with reaching beyond relevance to deeper significance: relevance gets twisted to still be all about us; it's more sectarian, more of a retreat to little cultural ghettoes almost...

[question/beginning answer: does it take a white man to incarnate the gospel to white people? does it take a asian man to incarnate the gospel to asians? (au contraire mon frer)]

do i need to become a skater-dude to reach out and love skater dudes and dudettes as Christ loves them? (if i tried to be a skater-dude, i might be relevantly silly to them) or can i, middle-class white male that i am, reach out in the love of Christ to poorer hispanic women or or wealthy black men or beanie-wearing skater-dudes?

...and when i do reach out with Christ's love, i just might find that Jesus is surpisingly relevant to all of us...

visionquest

2008-07-16T04:57:00.001-05:00

when burdened by the venom
of an often toxic sojourn
holy becomes the hope rendered
and in a wrestling heart wrought
as the fatal fever drives my drifting
a wanderer athirst in a trackless desert
and although faced with its own devastation
in a life at once consecrated yet cluttered
my spirit awakens to this inelegant journey
that has left me with the unadorned damage
crafted from wounds potently bent awry
as if guided by the unseen skill of a hidden healer
in order to facilitate a renewal which bestows upon me
a mission inoculating my own opulent opaqueness
which loves but fears my itinerant efforts at openness
from which i can herald the wondrous rubric of a visionquest
hewn with the palpable strength of a concealed craft
shaped by a poignant but obscured love
who chooses to dwell with me
in the entrenched crevices
of a mysterious and at-times shallow living
that has transformed a simple life
into a wandering witness to such glorious grace

living becomes sacramental

2008-07-11T19:24:00.004-05:00

wordcraft for the feast of st. benedict:

love descends from my lips
to take root in my heart
that turns out to be
such a fertile womb of faith
the exchange of which
leaves me breathless

in that breathless brush
with the kiss of death
the fullness of time surges
in but an instance of grace

the dilation of which
plunges me into the depths
of an eternal well of wisdom
momentarily cut to the quick
i put down my clanging symbol

as the timbre of my garish gong fades
a new source of strength
ascends from the spring of silent insight
and my living becomes sacramental –
filled with the Reality to which it witnesses

here-to-for to subsist from faith to faith
in the deeper currents
beneath restless waves
where a hidden love
bears all things

joining the Father in combating human trafficking

2008-07-05T06:41:00.000-05:00

anyone who will be at the Eastern Region Pastor's Conference next week, look me up, or come to the workshop that John Odean and i are facilitating...

Joining the Father in Combating Human Trafficking
Life is the gift of our Creator...and it should never be for sale. There is a wickedness afoot in the world...and it has taken root in our own backyard. That wickedness is modern-day slavery...also known as human trafficking. John Odean and Steven Hamilton of the Central Maryland Vineyard have spent the past two years passing legislation, serving on the Maryland State Task Force against Human Trafficking, filming a documentary on Human Trafficking and speaking globally about this atrocity. What is Human Trafficking and Sex Trafficking? What's the difference? Who are the victims? Who are the traffickers? Where is it happening? How can the Church help? How can our local church join the fight? In this workshop Johno and Steven will help participants wrestle with these questions and explore what the Father is doing to fight human trafficking and how He is calling His people to join in!

see you there...

peace

offering of woe

2008-07-02T04:59:00.001-05:00

i carry burdens
along this dry summer road
offering of woe

where vision meets prayer, not salesmanship

2008-07-01T11:17:00.003-05:00

i have been thinking a lot about vision and calling lately, and as it turns out, my erstwhile acquaintance randy bohlender has been pondering the same thing:

Vision (not) for sale
I've been thinking about vision lately....particularly the phrase we often hear about leaders 'selling the vision'.

I think it's bad terminology. Particularly for church planters.

If you're selling a vision, even if they buy it....they'll buy the next one that comes along if it seems to fit their consumer needs better. Your role as visionary becomes secondary to your role as Salesman of the Month.

When I have really grabbed on to a vision, it's been because someone articulated what I was already sensing. They weren't selling me on something, they were pointing out the opportunity that I had been feeling and then inviting me to go for it. I wasn't buying anything; I was realizing something that God had been doing in my spirit up until then.

Remember this next time you make your pitch. It just might be that God has been drawing them too...and your job is to point out the elephant of opportunity in the room. If they look you in the eyes and say "I can see it....", you have gained a partner in the journey.

...this - to me - is a prayer and intercession issue; if the leadership (whatever form that takes) is seeking the Lord, finding what the Lord has for them, then while they grab it and go for it , they invite people to join them, then - i believe - the Lord has likely planted that in our faith community as well and the people will respond

...while we were praying and interceding and asking the Lord for it. thus, if we are hearing from the Lord, acting on what He has for us, He sows the vision in the hearts of the people.

[caveat: of course, as in any group setting, communication is key. when you communicate the vision, that seed planted by the Lord will respond in the people's heart...thus we still need to communicate well, and follow-thru by inviting the people into the lastest adventure aling the journey of faith]

[caveat-deux: it is also connected to the level of the 'vision'; some ministry-visions will only be for a few people within concentric circle settings within a community; while a vision for the whole local faith community is larger, and so on...]

sudden are the wounds of God

2008-06-30T05:01:00.003-05:00

The human mind and heart are a mystery; but God will loose an arrow at them,* and suddenly they will be wounded.
Psalm 64:7

Security is itself a barrier to spiritual growth. The broken and needy are far closer to the Kingdom than are those who feel adequate and successful. God reaches us most easily when there is a crack in our armor.
- by Elton Trueblood, Confronting Christ

…provoked by lectio and other reading (reading the bible with the damned by bob ekblad) and the freakishly fantastique outWORD blog of matte downey:

"I just realised the other day that in all the reading I have done over the years in the Bible and in all my encounters with the living God, he has never shown himself to be a conservative. I am not talking merely about a point on the political compass or a fiscal outlook. Let me refer to Miriam Webster for some clarity:conservative (adjective) a: tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions b: marked by moderation or caution c: marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners.I am in the middle of the book of Ezekiel now and this God tells the prophet to engage in some of the most outlandish acts as illustrations of God's divine love and justice, as well as his intense desire and even jealousy for a close and exclusive relationship between him and his people. There is no careful check and balance that he adheres to - he is passionate and angry and righteous and holy and loving, all at the same time. There is no view to maintaining existing conditions - he is always pushing forward, calling people to repent and love and live lavishly, inciting turmoil as a catalyst for positive change, and revealing more of himself in the process. There is no tradition he sets in place and leaves for all to fall back on as the norm - his character alone defines all of history as we know it and this character is so multifaceted that many call it contradictory. There is no caution to his actions or words - whatever he says or does, he does so knowing the end from the beginning and the effect from the cause. Raw truth slices straight through the heart of it all without apology."

...several years ago, God brought me through a sojourn into woundedness and healing

it was difficult, and i walked around most of that period of my life in a haze, with my spiritual vision impaired…and yet Jesus brought me through it, stumbling toward Him and His healing.

this ‘dark night of the soul’ is so hard, yet in the end so rewarding. it’s one of those trials that i’m so grateful now for going through it, but i cringe to think that it might happen again…even though it is likely that it will.

when we go through this, we need to engage with each other and with Jesus to explore our wounded hearts and receive healing from Him. i like what dan allender says in his introduction to his heart-felt book The Healing Path: God may have to unweave us to knit us together again with love and healing.

this scares the crap out of me, but at the same time gives me immense hope. i came through this time of dryness – this wilderness experience – closer and more radically dependent upon Jesus. it brought me closer to Jesus and to my friends who stood with me

…and my faith came through it not only intact but increased and strengthened! this is my hope for all of us as we live in this fallen, corrupted world…and it reminds me of what author henri nouwen calls all Christian who minister to others: wounded healers.

being a wounded healer means not letting ourselves get lost in the quagmire of life. most often we (created earthlings as a whole that is) go around wounded, while striking out and wounding others out of our own brokenness…it's just sometimes we get lost in our own brokenness. that’s definitely what happened to me during my time of spiritual dryness.

but Jesus has something better for us. he calls us to something that paul points to in Romans 12: we are not to live after the pattern of this world, but to be transformed.

Jesus can transform us…from our worldly-pattern of striking out from our place of woundedness;

He can transform us into people who heal others though being wounded ourselves

…this is exactly what it is to be a wounded healer: we pattern ourselves after our Wounded Healer – Jesus our savior.

"Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to You; For You are the LORD our God.
Jeremiah 3:22

sacred honor

2008-06-27T04:54:00.008-05:00

wordcraft for the feast of st. cyril of alexandria:

O where is the power of our good news?
in the Name of God, how we burden and bruise
…what is it that we do with the sacred honor of God?

…shout curses down on a sleeping city?
…strike terror in the hearts of the children of men?
…shun the sojourner and stranger from a lack of pity?
…scatter the seeds of weeds and proclaim 'amen'?

O – if we only could listen and obey
and chase after the liberating Saviour’s Way
…might trustworthy tidings from a humble Heart be heard

[as my friend kevin rains says: "In some mysterious way all of us are seekers, saints, and sinners - though perhaps in varying degrees." saints are not born with halos around their heads...and cyril, recognized as a great teacher of the church, began his career as archbishop of alexandria, egypt, with impulsive, often violent, actions. he pillaged and closed the churches of the novatian heretics, participated in the deposing of st. john chrysostom and confiscated jewish property, expelling the jews from alexandria in retaliation for their attacks on christians. most consider cyril's significance for theology and church history to lie in his championing the cause of orthodoxy against the heresy of nestorius.]

exquisite erosion

2008-06-25T04:59:00.001-05:00

in the exquisite erosion
of my own painted desert
the tattered edges fray
leaving me to wholly face
the grit that has decorated my own remnant
with grains carried along by an abiding wind
given to such coarse chastisement
that extravagantly veils the sacred
just below this surface

depths seldom envisioned
nor cresting zenith imagined
in the devotion of convoluted conduct
the acuity of which strikes suddenly
within the wandering hush of wilderness awe
so as to breed multi-hued insight
threaded into the tapestry of a life
that cloaks the appearance of such luminosity
shimmering underneath

stoking my hunger for God

2008-06-23T08:44:00.005-05:00

i celebrate my fortieth birthday this coming October...and in preparation for this fulcrum point in my journey, i begin today a fast for 40 days for my 40 years

...but 'why?' would i fast, some might ask

"Do you have a hunger for God? If we don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. If we are full of what the world offers, then perhaps a fast might express, or even increase, our soul’s appetite for God. Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence is the path of pleasant pain called fasting. What's new is that the fasting is not for a hope that has not yet been tasted, but for a hope of consummation that has already been fulfilled in Jesus...We are hungry not because we have not tasted but because we have."
- John Piper -

...as piper also commented: if christian fasting should become a part of our lives, it is part and parcel of a way of seeking “all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19)

the more i live, the more i hunger for God, but why fasting, what does it do?

...my past experience with fasting (from one day to five days) i have noticed several things:

fasting sensitizes me internally and externally;
externally - if you know me, you might take note that i am typically very aware of my world...i notice things, verbal and non-verbal cues and sometimes spiritual-esque communication...and fasting piques my external radar...at first to an acute point, then as i continue it becomes exquisite
internally - i am an introvert. my emotions and thoughts and quandaries are simmering beneath, and as i fast, it comes much more to the surface. this calls for patient endurance as i present these to God...and as i do, i find His own Presence emerging from a deeper, more obscure place within...that eventually overwhelms my stuff like a cresting wave in slow motion, and many times He has driven me to the point of Julian of Norwich, where: “All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well”

but why? why fasting?

...to cut-to-the-chase, let me share two of my favorite quotes from john piper...from his book 'A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting':

"...But we have come to God out of weakness to express to him our need and our great longing that he would manifest himself more fully in our lives for the joy of our soul and the glory of his name."

and

"The aim of fasting is that we come to rely less on food and more on God...Deuteronomy 8:3 "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." Notice carefully. Now He is saying that the giving of 'manna' is the test. Not the withholding of food, but the giving of food...to teach them that man does not live by bread alone. He gave them 'manna', an utterly unheard-of food falling from heaven. WHY? So that they would learn, Moses says, to live on everything that comes from the mouth (& hand) of God. Now how is that? Because 'manna' is one of the incredible ways God can, with a mere word, meet your needs when all else is hopeless. So Moses' point is that we must learn to depend on God and not on ourselves. We must TRUST Him for every utterly unexpected blessing that is commanded for us from the mouth of God."

thus, i fast because:

because i want to stoke my hunger for God...hunger for greater intimacy with YHWH-Elohim, my Lord, my Redeemer. my God
because of what has happened...what is happening...what will happen
because it goes against the tide of our society: it is a counter-cultural christian discipline...to counter our very present culture of consumerism...it is not meant to impress God, but to climb once again onto the living sacrifice table, and thus be transformed into a more radical follower of Christ...less in love with my things and more free for love and risk as i rely on the promises of God and His overwhelming love for me/us
because i am turning forty and i am Kingdom-oriented, both of which have biblical significance; so far, i have found eight such references to forty days in the Bible:
Forty days Moses was in the mount, Exodus 24:18; and to receive the Law, Exodus 24:18.
Forty days Moses was in the mount after the sin of the Golden Calf, Deuteronomy 9:18,25.
Forty days of the spies, issuing in the penal sentence of the 40 years, Numbers 13:26, 14:34.
Forty days of Elijah in Horeb, 1 Kings 19:8.
Forty days of Jonah and Nineveh, Jonah 3:4.
Forty days Ezekiel lay on his right side to symbolize the 40 years of Judah's transgression.
Forty days Jesus was in the wilderness and then tempted by the Devil, Matthew 4:2; he then began spreading the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Forty days Jesus was seen of His disciples, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, Acts 1:2.

[post-script: as i begin my fast, i am moved as i take food out of my own mouth to put it in someone else's...fasting is not for starving myself but for feeding others.

"Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free, And break every yoke? "Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? "Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. "Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, And if you give yourself to the hungry, And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness, And your gloom will become like midday.
Isaiah 58:6-10]

the cunning of God

2008-06-21T17:50:00.005-05:00

"...with the faithful you show yourself faithful, O God;* with the forthright you show yourself forthright. With the pure you show yourself pure,* but with the crooked you are wily."
excerpted from Psalm 18

stopped dead in my tracks with this one: ..."but with the crooked you are wily."

how utterly scandalous, any which way you look at it:

either

to love us, God meets us wherever we are...or just as i am (crooked) He speaks to me in language i can hear Him in (wily/crafty/cunning)

or

God gives the crooked/perverse over to their twisted ways

or

we see God (and others) based on our own perceptions (thus to the perverse, God is perceived as practicing deceit)

[linguistic observation: in the tetra-stitching of this piece of hebraic poetry, this appears to me to be synonymous parallelism or as many believe, synonymous until it ends with the last stitch being antithetical: restating the previous but in a negative form.]

while i perceive of myself as somewhat of a radical...yet can i conceive of God being so cunning?

"God is cunning but He is not malicious." - Albert Einstein

i suppose it cannot be more scandalous a conception to have than the scandalous portrayal of God in these scriptures, can it?

isaiah 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
judges 9:22-23 "After Abimelech had governed Israel three years, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, who acted treacherously against Abimelech."

With the loyal You deal loyally;
With the blameless man, blameless.
With the pure You act in purity,
And with the perverse You are wily.
To humble folk You give victory,
And You look with scorn on the haughty.
2 Samuel 22:26-28

[middle age reference: even the jewish mystic maimonides considered the cunning of God (ormat ha-Shem u-tevunato; talattuf fi'allahu)]

the word translated 'cunning' in psalm 18 is the Hebrew 'pathal' which literally means 'to twist' or 'to wrestle';

unlike the Hebrew word 'arown, literally 'naked', which is variously translated in good ways and bad ways from genesis 3 as 'shrewd' and/or 'prudent' or 'cautious', 'canny' or 'alert' or 'subtle' (i really, really like the translation as 'subtle')

yet...question: what does ezekiel say of God and the wicked/crooked?

answer: 'Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord GOD, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?' (ezekiel 18:23)

which brings me to what Jesus has to say...

of course, Jesus commends his followers to be "...as guileless as doves, as cunning as serpents"

it seems from all these wandering thoughts and contexts, i get the sense that the term 'cunning' is rather neutral and thus dependent on the context as to whether it leans to evil or to good

consider what Job 5 says to us:
"He captures the wise by their own shrewdness, And the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted."

meanwhile while the new american standard version of psalm 18 reads this way:
"...and with the crooked You show Yourself astute."

thus i linger at the end of this rope...this train of thought and reflection...exhausted after further reflection, yet mysteriously awed to sit in the uncanny tension content that God shows Himself wily/cunning/astute with the crooked/perverse/wicked...

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36

border crossing

2008-06-19T07:51:00.000-05:00

on the border of abundant existence
reflected in oblivious eyes
the splendid spectre arises
of a ba’al of national paranoia
that humanely masters
such desperate desires
with the protection of
a theology of security
cut from the cloth
of a reverential blasphemy
where there are always
good reasons to do bad things

the blood of sojourners
but barely tasted
on weathered lips with dry eyes
as the wisp of a coyotes howl is heard
while she marches to the drumbeat dirge
prey to death’s enchantment
deceitfully promising a future
never to be beheld
except as a distant delusion
dancing like a miraculous mirage
at the edge of an expansive graveyard

beyond tolerance...deep love

2008-06-16T18:23:00.005-05:00

i was suspected of being intolerant recently, and i may have very well been just that...and while i do not want to necessarily dwell on it...yet upon some reflection:

we have become a very tolerant society. yet, unlike the amorphous term it has become, when i say tolerant, i do not mean permissive, nor am i including affirmation. i suppose i mean indifferent...but beyond permissiveness and indifference, i believe there to be a deeper love in true tolerance, as J. Budziszewski writes the book True Tolerance:

"The specific virtue of true tolerance has to do with the fact that sometimes we put up with things we rightly consider mistaken, wrong, harmful, offensive, or in some other way not worth approval."

we might hear it in the 'don't-ask-don't-tell' rhetoric

here's the thing about tolerance: to tolerate does not mean we affirm or accept something, because if we affirm or accept, the need to tolerate goes away. Tolerance can only occur when you disagree with something.

...yet what would become of us if one of the most famous stories about us was of trash-talking in an age of tolerance?

[set-up: yet this calls for discernment...to wax solomonic for a moment: there is a time for tolerating and a time for trash-talking. in retrospect, our scriptures tend to highlight both]

...but let's consider 1 kings 18:

'Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, "O Baal, answer us." But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they made. It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened."'
1 Kings 18:26-27

the modern-day equivalent of what elijah does in this instance would be....trash-talking

in fact, the nature of the euphemism is quite much more graphic (and possibly indecent to some good, righteous ears)...for instance, (parents, please ask you kids to turn away)...when elijah says that baal is either "occupied" or he has "gone aside"...these are oh-so-polite euphemism's here that really block the graphic nature of the statement. biblical scholars are on top of this, but let me give you a much more literal translation past the euphemism's:

'perhaps your god is occupied taking a crap, or he possibly he may have turned aside to wretch his guts out because he is suffering with a hangover'

...now that's some trash-talking

i'm not sure we would be very tolerant of that type of trash-talking (unless fire fell from the sky to back it up!) in our day and age

but recently i have felt a growing need to become versed in a little trash-talking

we have been going up to minister to women trapped in prostitution and homeless and addicted to heroin (among other substances) in west baltimore...and while i would not trash-talk them, i am increasingly stirred to trash-talk their abusers and enablers and dealers...(hopefully elijah-like, not just to spew some hate and frustration, but in provocation); because i realize God loves them also, and yet they may be given over to the consequences of the evil they perpetuate...

...i groan inwardly as i 'tolerate' the drug addictions and deeply distrurbing relational addictions of the people we are seeking to love...love with the re-orienting love of Christ

...while also - as much as we can - calling them beyond the life they current lead

...but in turn, they have called me...called me beyond tolerance

but what lies beyond tolerance...beyond the 'righteousness of the scribes and pharisees'?

...beyond tolerance lies the way of true, deep love...the kind of love that re-orients the life of all who encounter it

...especially mine

a season of malcontent

2008-06-11T18:24:00.000-05:00

grey clouds languish lowly
billowing to no one in particular
bearing down with such potential
on a day hidden in obscurity

the jury is out
as each thought i have
clinks like dominoes falling
leading me back to my weary contemplation
in a season of malcontent

make me an overcomer, O God

2008-06-09T04:59:00.000-05:00

Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, Lord GOD of hosts;* let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel.
Psalm 69:7

...ever have those moments [days...weeks, etc.] of having your woundedness...your fallen-ness...just so in-your-face...so present?

it hit me this morning while prayerfully readng through psalm 69...i'm having that sort of existential crisis at the moment

and as i wrestle to embrace grace and fend off condemnation...i feel the weight of responsibility that comes with leading/pastoring/loving others

because damn it: this life of following Christ is hard...there is weight to the glory along His Way

O God, you know my foolishness,* and my faults are not hidden from you. Answer me, O LORD, for your love is kind;* in your great compassion, turn to me.
Psalm 69:6ff

O my God - let not those who seek You - O Lord! - be disgraced because of me

...let your strength stand in my weakness...praise to Immanuel...make me an overcomer, O Lord

Our sins are stronger than we are,* but you will blot them out.
Psalm 65:3

the general seems to know of what he speaks

2008-06-06T04:58:00.003-05:00

a rich man may be wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has discernment sees through him.
mishlei/proverbs 28:11

there is an experience of discernment the fruit of which tastes like awareness and we call it wisdom...thus, not particularly being a poor man, the general who lead the invasion on D-Day in europe seems to know of what he speaks:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

- President Dwight Eisenhower

a prophetic moment

2008-06-04T04:59:00.002-05:00

i have this feeling
there is something i am supposed to do
an unnerving sentiment
and – damn it! - i don't know what it means
this vague intuition that gnaws at my insides
seemingly set to a slow boil
such a burdensome frustration
working its way out
if only as the symptom of something
obvious but entrenched
and the strain is too much
for my not-yet-seeing-eyes

so i struggle to overcome
the inertia of friends and foes
to surmount the slow drift
and address a deeper dangerous shift

see, i gotta change the trajectory
[easier said than done]
a flight into new migratory patterns
more sustaining in the long run
because that something that i have to do
is beckoning me in another direction

a summoning conveyed indirectly
like the faint whisper of a song
stringing me along
but i can’t shake this disturbing music
that somehow is significantly more real
than the fertile earth under my feet

has not God chosen those who are poor...

2008-06-02T04:56:00.005-05:00

Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?
James 2:5-7

'I want to link my destiny to that of the poor of this world' - jose marti

i love that quote from jose marti [afterall, i want to inherit the Kingdom]

...i was at the most recent meeting of my cohort at the sustainable faith school of spiritual direction

.and while we were talking about the art of listening...it struck me: most of us 'listen' to the 'rich' or 'published' [and those are the metaphors that shape our lives], but who listens to the poor?

i mean really listens to them:

listen to them explain their own experience without imposing our own imperialistic ideas of what living poor means
listen to their laughter and their tears
listen to their spirituality: what of their experience of God, who listens to them talk about God?
listen to the wisdom of those who are rich in faith

i think one of the structural evils i am fighting right now is a bias in need of a paradigm shift

...because in the western world nowadays, we look down on the poor, as if they have no value, becuase we measure 'value' and 'success' in the glittering images of the beautiful people, meanwhile, my recent experience has been somewhat like the passage from qohelet 9:16 -
'a poor man's wisdom is scorned,and his words are not heeded'

speaking of structural evils, below is a post from cat johnson of ranges commnity church in australia, speaking about a paper she wrote on structural evil:

"I recently had to write a paper on 'structural evil'. I admit that when I read the topic I was not very impressed, it seemed to be fairly irrelevant and a bit presumptuous. However it did not take long to realise that my life was daily influenced by systems that perpetuate and encourage injustice and oppression. The more I read the more I became aware how everything is inherently connected. What I spend my money on here in Melbourne, could be supporting a sweatshop in China. The coffee I drink has possibly been harvested under unfair trade agreements. Using disposable nappies is causing land fill issues that my children's children will need to deal with.
And while there needs to be balance and perspective in all things, there also needs to be informed choices and awareness that we share this planet with 6 billion other people. Che Guevara (quoting poet Jose Marti) once said, 'I want to link my destiny to that of the poor of this world'. It's as simple and as difficult as that. It's as simple as buying fair trade coffee and as difficult as accepting that I need to change how I live because it is affecting people suffering under structural evil through no fault of their own. As a Christian I believe that I have a mandate to 'link' my life with the oppressed and voiceless. Who'd have thought that this 'irrelevant' paper on structural evil would be the beginning of living out that mandate with a greater degree of understanding and with a whole lot more honesty?"

...and the echo of a leaders deep, rough voice is heard in the threatening invitation that underlies the rhythm of the bass, as we all begin 'speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;'

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon you

Because he has anointed you to preach good news (Repeat)

He has sent you to the poor (This is the year)

To bind up the broken hearted (This is the day)

To bring freedom to the captives (This is the year)

And to release the ones in darkness (This is the year)

of the favour of the Lord(This is the day)

of the vengeance of our God(This is the year)

of the favour of the Lord(This is the day)

of the vengeance of our God

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon us

Because he has anointed us to preach good news (Repeat)

He will comfort all who mourn (This is the year)

He will provide for those who grieve (This is the day)

He will pour out the oil of gladness (This is the year)

Instead of mourning you will praise

what hope do we have if You do not?

2008-05-30T05:47:00.004-05:00

wordcraft for the feast of st. jeanne d'arc:

my soul flickers like candlelight in this crushing dark…a flame wafting to and fro

(my rhythm…the beat of Your heart)

suddenly – like lightning…like fire in my bones – here you are

(in me…through me…out there)

tension releases...i fall off the edge...into flame…a passion that wields me like a weapon

(we are one…casting fire on this earth)

weapon we are… in the night…driving the darkness like light upon cockroaches

(look at them scurry - desperate to be away from Your presence)

as i glance behind - a swath of brilliant light we have made in this festering darkness

(light, brilliance, freedom…in our wake)

diminish not…as fire in my bones…my very flesh aflame

(beauty alights in the glow of your presence...am i)

more. this way. i must go with you…propelled by a persistent grace

(symmetry in thought, movement, encounter)

on the edge of perception, i sense Your longing…the ache to make it right

(what hope do we have if you do not?)

an elusive dewpoint

2008-05-28T04:59:00.002-05:00

it wasn’t the first time we had spoken of such lives
littering the bloodthirsty boulevard of west pratt
but with an awkward gesture of intimacy,
she sighed as shame clung to her frail figure
while we both felt the apparent
and sudden change in the atmosphere
as hope swept ever-so-sparingly across her face
as if we had reached an elusive dewpoint she seldom tasted
for she seemed so surprised at the large wet tears
emerging from her ebony eyes upon her face
and even as a weary haggardness seeped through
the painted countenance she had previously applied
she desperately and finally looked into my eyes
searching with hope
to find the grace and permission to be
the frightened girl that had runaway
from a father who should have never
been given over to the rage and abuse
that was reflected in her bruised soul
no more surprising was the arrested tongue
of one who had the gift of street chatter
as her strident vulnerability
stopped her pimp from busting both our butts

meditation on wheels

2008-05-27T04:56:00.001-05:00

finally got the motorcycle out yesterday, so in celebration, a little haiku:

rhythm of the lights
motorcycle on freeway
deep meditation

the honor of serving in the household of God

2008-05-25T13:59:00.010-05:00

...and to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (Yad Vashem) that shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 56:5

יד ושם‎
'yad va-shem' - literally: 'hand and name".

not being cut off...that is certainly a good thing. yet, God is still pursuing so many of us...but we try to cut ourselves off.

we isolate...and our "american" way of life makes that easy.

when i get a chance to really have a heart-to-heart with most people, i find that so many of us are isolated.

now, i'm not talking about the healthy practice of solitude, i'm talking about a personal inclusion in a cultural policy of isolation.

...you see its dangerous here in the suburbs. with our pretty landscaping, 'safe' neighborhoods, easy automatic garage-door openers, internet access to virtually anything (pun intended) and our "everything's on sale at the mall" lives...we are lulled into empty, isolated living in suburbia...and it's "easy" to fall prey to this...to default to this because it becomes familiar...

i like what eric sandras says in his expose of faith and discipleship in suburbia, Plastic Jesus:

"How simple it is to serve by default, and not just in things we do at church. We can live by default in our jobs or careers and in our volunteer activities. We get a job and work our tails off just to stay afloat financially, and may even try our best to do some good things for God in the process. But we never become fully alive in our souls because we never fully become what God has created us to be."

...did you notice that i said it's easy to "fall prey to this"? that's because suburbia is unreal. especially in the sense of obscuring the reality that we are at war...kingdoms are in conflict...we are easy prey for the fallen powers

so is it just a matter of waking up to our dilemma? maybe that's a start to really becoming fully alive...

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life. For this reason God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him. It is impossible to live without life, and the actualisation of life comes from participation in God, while participation in God is to see God and enjoy his goodness.
from 'Man Fully Alive is the Glory of God' by Irenaeus of Lyon

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'
Revelation 3:5-6

...i think that to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ in present-day american suburbia, we actually need to be more radical...more fully, radically alive. that's right...radical...or as merriam-webster might say: "marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional: EXTREME"

how about extremely radical...

...or radically extreme: most people think radical discipleship is set aside for those urban trend-setters who - shane claiborne-like - go into the blighted and deeply-in-need-of-hope inner city environs to bring again good news.

...and truly, they need to be radical to do that.

but what most fail to realize is that they are actually taking water to people who mostly know they are thirsty.

now, it isn't without its dangers and challenges, but i contend that living as a disciple of Christ in suburbia is at least equally challenging, if not more-so.

so what do we do? how do we overcome? sheer will power? "let go and let God"? maybe a little of both...because i like what the early apostle Paul says:

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me."
1 Corinthians 15:10

a mysterious both/and in this: my first quarter in VLI , dave nixon taught the spiritual formation module. dave was a wonderful teacher. i was somewhat familiar with this because i had read richard foster and dallas willard years before. we talked a lot about spiritual disciplines. i think too many people stay away from 'spiritual disciplines' because of "grace, grace...God's grace..."

yet, i love the phrase dave quoted from willard: 'grace is not opposed to effort. grace is opposed to earning'

the spiritual disciplines of the life of a disciple of Christ have aided the work of grace in my life as i battle and fight at times for every inch of my journey of faith...

[dave also recently wrote about how community matters as we serve the Living God]

...to be forthright, some of the cardinal vices that beseige and beset my journey of faith have been lust and pride, with a good measure of avarice and maybe some gluttony mixed in.

i suppose lust (especially in America...and especially in internet acces in suburbia) is 'every man's battle'...

...yet in my battling pride/arrogance, i have found spiritual disciplines and wise words that have helped (of course, honest, transparent and accountable relationships, as well as confession, help a whole lot too...)

but for the most part, i have needed to embrace the grace, discipline and way of humilty.

Mary D wrote a wonderful article that i have gone to again and again for sound counsel on the Christian virtue of humility. it's called: "Anonymity: The practice of Christian humility"

in her article, she tells a brief story of one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: "The terminally ill Dr. Bob S. politely turned down the well-meaning offer of friends to build a monument to him, appropriate to his status as founder of A.A. "Why don't you and I get buried just like other folks?" he asked his old friend Bill . His simple gravestone makes no mention that he co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous."

The practice of anonymity must come from a humble heart, a heart that knows its true place in the order of things. We are neither the best nor the worst. Whatever we may accomplish, it is through the gifts and talents given to us by God. He will provide all that we need, and his love will sustain us as we work. If we are not successful in the eyes of others, we are not devastated. We see our efforts as God sees them and as they truly are: our loving response to his invitation to serve."

ok, after all my rambling, let me get back on track in what struck me today:

i am a foreigner...'goy' in Hebrew...a stranger sojourning...wanting to be righteous...seeking His Kingdom...

and as a foreigner, i have joined myself to the Lord...to serve Him...and i have had the honor of serving Him...

and i serve the Most High in any and all environs that He calls me to...yet without doubt, i serve and love because He first loved me...

i pray that my service to the Lord be acceptable in His sight and that one day Jesus will confess my name to His Father and that i should not be cut-off from the righteous among the nations...

[there is a Jewish organization quite well-known called 'Yad Vashem'. Yad Vashem is located at the foot of Mount Herzl in Jerusalem; the organization has a large complex containing a history museum, memorial chambers, art galleries, archives, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Destroyed Communities, a synagogue, and an educational centre. Non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust of WWII, often at great personal risk, are honored by Yad Vashem as the "Righteous Among the Nations."]

" For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,
Even to them I will give in My house
And within My walls a place and a name
Better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
That shall not be cut off.
"Also the sons of the foreigner
Who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him,
And to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants-
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And holds fast My covenant-
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations."
The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
" Yet I will gather to him
Others besides those who are gathered to him."

Yesha'yahu 56:4-8