CrossWalk Community Church Napa

2022 Christmas Day Incarnation: God is NOWHERE

John’s Prologue (John 1:1-5 NLT)In the beginning the Word already existed.The Word was with God,and the Word was God.He existed in the beginning with God.God created everything through him,and nothing was created except through him.The Word gave life to everything that was created,and his life brought light to everyone.The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness can never extinguish it. Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name. Christ means anointing. Jesus was clearly anointed by God given his teaching, his lifestyle, and his ministry (especially of miracles). Christ is the presence of God that permeates everything. We witnessed it in Jesus – an ordinary man by his own account and preference – who woke up to the presence of God that is everywhere, always, and inextricably intertwined in all of creation, including ourselves. We are not separated from God as the tracts tell us – not literally – because that is impossible. Our separation is in our blindness, in our incapacity to recognize what’s been here the whole time. Jesus was unique in this – he took a major step forward from the great prophets Elijah and Elisha, and from Moses. For Jesus, God was never “up there” but in here and everywhere. That Good News changed his perspective which changed his life and eventually changed ours! Richard Rohr notes, “We daringly believe that God’s presence was poured into a single human being, so that humanity and divinity can be seen to be operating as one in him—and therefore in us! But instead of saying that God came into the world through Jesus, maybe it would be better to say that Jesus came out of an already Christ-soaked world. The second Incarnation flowed out of the first, out of God’s loving union with physical creation” (The Universal Christ, 16, 14-15). If Rohr is right – and I believe he is, perhaps we need to train our eyes differently. Amy E. Herman, in her A Lesson on Looking TED Talk, refers to her work on “seeing” that has helped people from a wide range of industries pay attention to things they might otherwise ignore. Could it be that we need to learn from her when it comes to our faith? Is it possible that if we had eyes to see, we could discover God in the midst of the artwork of our lives as often as we are willing and able to look and see? Author Madeleine L’Engle (1918–2007) saw incarnation this way: A sky full of God’s children! Each galaxy, each star, each living creature, every particle and sub-atomic particle of creation, we are all children of the Maker. From a sub-atomic particle with a life span of a few seconds, to a galaxy with a life span of billions of years, to us human creatures somewhere in the middle in size and age, we are . . . children of God, made in God’s image. Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, Christ, the Maker of the universe or perhaps many universes, willingly and lovingly leaving all that power and coming to this poor, sin-filled planet to live with us for a few years to show us what we ought to be and could be. Christ came to us as Jesus of Nazareth, wholly human and wholly divine, to show us what it means to be made in God’s image. Jesus, as Paul reminds us, was the firstborn of many brethren [Romans 8:29]. I stand on the deck of my cottage, looking at a sky full of God’s children, knowing that I am one of many brethren, and sistren, too, and that Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Bathed in this love, I go into the cottage and to bed. Writer and organizer Kelley Nikondeha describes how the context of Jesus’ birth demonstrates God’s Incarnation amongst those who suffer and are oppressed: The advent narratives demand we take the political and economic world of Roman Palestine seriously. The Gospel writers named the empires of Caesar and Herod not for dramatic effect; they didn’t mention a census or massacre for literary flourish. The Gospel writers used contextual markers to describe in concrete ways the turmoil of the times that hosted the first advent. It is this very context that makes the advent narratives contemporary—whether in Israel-Palestine or lands beyond. Our troubled times, shaped by all manner of injustice, cause continued suffering, making the loud cries of lament and cries for peace timely, as they are answered by advent. . . . The Incarnation positions Jesus among the most vulnerable people, the bereft and threatened of society. The first advent shows God wrestling with the struggles common to many the world over. And from this disadvantaged stance, Jesus lives out God’s peace agenda as a counter-testimony to Caesar’s peace. This is the story of advent: we join Jesus as incarnations of God’s peace on this earth for however long it takes. God walks in deep solidarity with humanity, sharing in our sufferings and moments of hope. Amid our hardship, God is with us. Emmanuel remains the name on our lips in troubled times (Kelley Nikondeha, The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope). And how about this? Father Greg Boyle is the Founder of Homeboy Industries, which offers jobs, services, and dignity to former gang members. He has witnessed the healing that comes from having reverence for reality—which is where we bump into God: We remember the sacred by our reverence.... This is the esteem we extend to the reality revealed to us. Jesus didn’t abandon his reality, he lived it. He ran away from nothing and sought some wise path through everything. He engaged in it all with acceptance. He had an eye out always for cherishing his reality. A homie, Leo, wrote me: “I’m going to trust God’s constancy of love to hover over my crazy . I’m fervent in my efforts to cultivate holy desires.” This is how we find this other kind of stride and joyful engagement in our cherished reality. The holy rests in every single thing. Yes, it hovers, over our crazy asses.... I always liked that Saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s name “Tekakwitha” means “she who bumps into things.” What if holiness is a contact sport and we are meant to bump into things? This is what it means to embrace a contemplative, mystical way of seeing wholeness. It gives a window into complexity and keeps us from judging and scapegoating and demonizing. If we allow ourselves to “bump into things,” then we quit measuring. We cease to Bubble-Wrap ourselves against reality. We stop trying to “homeschool” our way through the world so that the world won’t touch us. Hard to embrace the world . . . if we are so protective and defensively shielded from it. A homie told me once, “It’s taken me all these years to see the real world. And once ya see it—there’s only God there.” Boyle closes the gap between the secular and the sacred: We don’t want to distance the secular but always bring it closer. It’s only then that ordinary things and moments become epiphanies of God’s presence. Some man said to me once, “I want to become more spiritual.” Yet God is inviting us to inhabit the fullness of our humanity. God holds out wholeness to us. Let’s not settle for just spiritual. We are sacramental to our core when we think that everything is holy. The holy not just found in the supernatural but in the Incarnational here and now. The truth is that sacraments are happening all the time if we have the eyes to see... the Infinite is present in it all... (Gregory Boyle, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness). And finally, Rachel Held Evans sums it here:To understand Mary’s humanity and her central role in Jesus’s story is to remind ourselves of the true miracle of the Incarnation—and that is the core Christian conviction that God is with us, plain old ordinary us. God is with us in our fears and in our pain, in our morning sickness and in our ear infections, in our refugee crises and in our endurance of Empire, in smelly barns and unimpressive backwater towns, in the labor pains of a new mother and in the cries of a tiny infant. In all these things, God is with us—and God is for us. May we have eyes to see, really see, and appreciate and embrace the incarnation of God in all of creation, and at this time, in Jesus, that we might embrace the reality of incarnation in ourselves. May that truth permeate us, change our vision of ourselves and all others. May we find great strength and courage and self-esteem to move forward in the knowledge that we are forever loved, forever held, forever included in the grace of God. A Closing and Opening Prayer: God, Lord of all creation, lover of life and of everything, please help us to love in our very small way what You love infinitely and everywhere. We thank You that we can offer just this one prayer and that will be more than enough, because in reality every thing and every one is connected, and nothing stands alone. To pray for one part is really to pray for the whole, and so we do. Help us each day to stand for love, for healing, for the good, for the diverse unity of the Body of Christ and all creation, because we know this is what You desire: as Jesus prayed, that all may be one. We offer our prayer together with all the holy names of God, we offer our prayer together with Christ, our Lord. Amen.

2022 Christmas Eve: Rebel Jesus

As a nation we celebrate the birthdays of key historical figures in US history. It’s meant to honor their memory and rekindle ours. George Washington, of course, led the Revolution, and after serving his term as president, peacefully transferred power to the next president. Abraham Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation and led the US through Civil War, freeing slaves. Martin Luther King, Jr. peacefully protested to increase genuine equality and equity for those who didn’t have it, especially African Americans. Christmas is, of course, the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the unlikely founder of Christianity which strives to follow his teachings. I don’t remember spending any time placing a mini plantation on our mantel to honor Washington or building a log cabin anywhere in our home for Lincoln or buying greeting cards with a two-story Queen Anne style home to honor MLK. We don’t focus much at all on their birthplaces – we focus instead on their leadership legacy. Yet where people start sometimes alludes to what matters to them later. Washington was born into great wealth on his family’s plantation. Perhaps it was his wealth that helped him truly see how poorly the King was governing that moved him toward revolution? Lincoln spent the first half of his life in a log cabin. Could that beginning have shaped his understanding and empathy of those who physically labored to get by? Could MLK’s beginning have shaped his understanding of segregation’s severe inhumanity? Could there be a correlation between Jesus’ beginning and his leadership mission and vision? In the first century, nobody sent Christmas cards of Jesus’ birth site. Because it was humiliating and unfit for any publicity. There is almost nothing about Jesus’ birth narrative that is beautiful. An extremely poor couple finds their way to Bethlehem just as Mary is going into labor. In a part of the world that is noted for the hospitality ethic, nobody makes room for them. How humiliating is that? The only option given them was a cramped space where farm animals were kept. Smelly. Filthy. Unholy. Mary gave birth in that awful setting with only the help of Joseph and a supporting cast of a cow, donkey, a goat or two, and sheep. Think gas station bathroom. You can’t get much lower. And the first folks to come greet them? Not the Mayor of Bethlehem or the Governor or Chief Priest, but the lowest-on-the-totem-pole shepherds, who smelled like the labor and deliver barn. Nobody wanted to get that card in the mail! Can you imagine receiving a Christmas card of a family crowded into a highway gas station bathroom? If we didn’t have angels signaling that this was happening, nobody would see it as anything more than pitiful. Yet this beginning spoke volumes of what was to come. This beginning was countercultural and counterintuitive. This is the narrative the Luke’s Gospel chose to spotlight. In the worst circumstances imaginable, God was powerfully present. Not rejecting them. Not ridiculing them. But joining them. Inhabiting the space with them. Empowering them. In the humblest of settings, with the humblest of means, we recognize God showing up. The theme continued all the way through Jesus’ life. He was not known for climbing the corporate ladder but rather descending it to be near and befriend those who felt rejected (because they were). Outcasts. Lepers. Prostitutes. Tax Collectors. And mostly everyday people. He walked around proclaiming that God did not favor the powerful over the powerless as has always been believed even to this day, but that God has a more pronounced presence with those who struggle. He challenged the religious and political systems that protected the status quo that favored the wealthy at the expense of the poor. He called out bad theology taught by the highest leaders of Judaism. He lived in defiance of their narrow teaching. He proclaimed love for all and he himself loved all. His way was love all the way through his death. He was no Zealot looking for a violent revolt. He was a pacifist rebel who was so effective at what he taught and lived that we don’t just give him a day to honor his memory, we give him a season. What Jesus are you remembering this year? The glossy, overly romanticized, highly filtered Jesus that never existed, or the one whose birth was a rebellion of norms that shaped the Rebel Jesus? His birth reminds us that God is with those in the worst of circumstances. His life proved that it was true. This week I read an email sent out by Pete Enns to his fans. Enns is a biblical scholar, author, speaker, and host of The Bible for Normal People. He wrote: Over a decade ago, I heard well-known scholar of early Christianity, John Dominic Crossan, speak at an academic conference... He said if you took someone who knew nothing of Jesus, but did understand the religious-political powder keg of 1st century Palestine— understood the tensions between various Jewish groups with different ideas about God and how to live in their own land under Roman rule, and tensions between Jewish and Greco-Roman customs, now centuries old—and then handed that person the Gospel of Mark, that person wouldn’t have to read much before asking, “Who is this Jesus?” and “When is he going to be killed?” I like being reminded of this Rebel Jesus, the one Jackson Browne wrote about. I want to forget the Jesus who behaves, who looks like he would fit right in at church, who acts as expected, colors between the lines, and never wanders off the beach blanket, and remember instead the rebel Jesus, the countercultural, sometimes snarky, sometimes funny, uncompromisingly in-your-face-against-hypocritical-gatekeepers, uber-compassionate toward outsiders, challenger of the status quo, total mensch Jesus. That’s where I’d rather be this Christmas. Some of us need to pause and remember Jesus on this celebration of his birthday to reset our minds. Is there any part of us that lost sight of who he was and what he was about? Have we traded the rebel for a revolutionary? Or worse, for a model of the status quo? The Rebel Jesus challenges our thinking, our worldview, our held beliefs, our motivations, our attitude, our biases, and our behavior with Grace. How will we be altered considering his birth? Some of us are struggling and need to be reminded that God draws near to the brokenhearted – broken by struggle, poor health, economic issues, bad luck, bad choices, bad start, etc. Some of us relate to the humiliation of the stable and manger all too easily. That’s were God showed up with love and light. God is with you. You are not alone. You are loved, supported, and empowered by the Source of everything. Considering all that Jesus’ birth represents, have hope, peace, joy and love! In the Rebel Jesus these were reborn in a time of political turmoil, deep prejudice, inhumane injustice, and extreme poverty. Christmas declares forever that God is like a current that runs deeper than despair, flows with and toward love, for everyone (including you!). Always. May you find yourself in that flow. May you find yourself altered where you need it. May you find yourself full of the love of God that has always been there, and always will be. The Rebel Jesus by Jackson Browne All the streets are filled with laughter and lightAnd the music of the seasonAnd the merchants' windows are all brightWith the faces of the childrenAnd the families hurrying to their homesWhile the sky darkens and freezesWill be gathering around the hearths and tablesGiving thanks for God's gracesAnd the birth of the rebel Jesus Well, they call him by 'the Prince of Peace’And they call him by 'the Savior’And they pray to him upon the seasAnd in every bold endeavorAnd they fill his churches with their pride and goldAs their faith in him increasesBut they've turned the nature that I worship inFrom a temple to a robber's denIn the words of the rebel Jesus Well, we guard our world with locks and gunsAnd we guard our fine possessionsAnd once a year when Christmas comesWe give to our relationsAnd perhaps we give a little to the poorIf the generosity should seize usBut if any one of us should interfereIn the business of why there are poorThey get the same as the rebel Jesus Now pardon me if I have seemedTo take the tone of judgementFor I've no wish to come betweenThis day and your enjoymentIn a life of hardship and of earthly toilThere's a need for anything that frees usSo, I bid you pleasureAnd I bid you cheer from a heathen and a paganOn the side of the rebel Jesus

Complete Joy

It is possible to be unhappy and have no joy. It is also possible to be happy and have no joy. But what a difference when you tap into and build your life on joy, which remains whether you are happy or not.

Wheat and Chaff

Sometimes what initially sounds so condemning and judging turns out to be quite redemptive.

Advent, Expectations, and Hope

When Jesus was born, his Jewish peers were distraught. Nobody alive at the time of his birth knew anything other than Roman occupation. A revolt of sorts in their past only led to greater tyranny. Yet, their origin stories reminded them of a time when they were enslaved in far faraway Egypt and God rescued them. Could God do it again after all these hundreds of years? It seemed that they were due for such a deliverance. So, they waited. And waited. And waited. And hoped. A different sort of virus was taking hold – Apocalyptic Fever was catching quickly all around. And it was lethal for those who got a bad case of it. It would lead ordinary, everyday people to revolt against the Roman Empire. Every time it happened, they lost their lives as well as varying numbers of innocents who were dragged into it. The only way they could imagine God saving the day was violence, so that’s what they hoped for, dreamt of, and prepared for. What they hoped for, and perhaps more importantly the means they assumed would lead to the realization of their hopes, powerfully shaped their imagination and vision. They hoped for a peace brought on by a violent overthrow, so they trained for battle, turning their plowshares into swords, their pruning hooks into spears. It was the only way they could imagine. We see a glimpse of this thinking in the Gospel reading today that will be read by hundreds of millions of people around the world today. The gist of the words put on Jesus’ lips was to remain ready for what God is going to do. The day of God’s movement could happen at any moment. While the stories of Jesus circulated for decades before Matthew’s Gospel was finalized, the finished product undoubtedly was impacted by the experiences of Jesus followers, including the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. It was the final blow to Jewish dreams of gaining their homeland though violence. Their only hope became an inbreaking of the power of God like the story of Noah and the ark. “God, supernaturally rescue us!” was their prayer of hope that shaped their vision. Yet that’s not the story of Jesus’ origin, really. The birth narratives of Jesus do not include references to violence, but rather a different sort of reversal by a different route. Joseph and Mary could not be humbler folk – they represented the bottom rung of society. Elizabeth and Zechariah (relatives of Mary) weren’t any different, except that they were known for their faithfulness to God. The fact that Mary visited Elizabeth tells us that the news of her pregnancy was not welcome but more likely scorned – this is not how a holy god would go about redeeming people, right? The place Jesus was born was also a sign of terrible poverty and shame, especially given the hospitality ethic that reigned supreme in that part of the world. Shepherds who heard the angelic birth announcement were working the graveyard shift representing the fact that they, like Joseph, were insignificant socially. Eventually the Wise Men would enter the picture, but their expectations had to be modified as well. Jesus is remembered as mentioning Noah – the Jewish Flood myth competing with all the other Flood myths of seemingly every culture everywhere. Playing along with the story, Noah would have seemed crazy preparing for a flood requiring such scale of preparation. When the flood waters came, however, it took people by surprise, taking some lives while leaving others. Even in our day of weather forecasting, some victims of hurricanes are surprised somehow and lose their lives. Noah was responsive to a crazy notion and his life – and the lives of his family and animals – were spared. It was his responsiveness to God’s movement that made the difference. Nothing about Jesus’ birth narratives suggest that the hopes of the Apocalyptic dreams would be fulfilled in the way expected – with violence. Everything in the stories speaks of the opposite – God is going to do something in highly unexpected ways, not with military strength and power, but something much different. The humblest of people become the heroines and heroes. The Way of nonviolence is what sets Jesus apart, not the violence of the Zealots all around. Even his death would follow suit, instructing his followers how to die in the Way of the Spirit of God. As we begin our journey to Bethlehem’s manger, we are called by those who gave us this story to examine our dreams of how God may be at work in our world to bring about shalom as God always has. Could it be that our dreams are so far off as to cause us to miss what God is doing? Knowing that God invited “nobodies” to play key roles doing things that nobody would even notice, yet actions that led to great change, perhaps we should follow suit and keep our eyes and ears and hearts and minds open to a different invitation than we might otherwise expect. An invitation to bring shalom not with violence, but with shalom itself. Toward shalom with shalom. Who knows? Maybe our saying yes could lead to Christ being born in a new way for our time, bring the same healing hope, peace, joy and love that Christ always has. Maybe we “nobodies” may be the heroes we’ve been waiting for to make the difference we long to see in the world. We are mixed bags, aren’t we? Mixed motives every day. Some days we really live into our highest aspirations, living by and in the flow of the Spirit. Other days we fulfill the prophet words of Proverbs: like a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool to his folly. I imagine the nobodies of the birth narratives had their dog days. Yet we remember them, and the world is better because they lived significantly into the flow God was inviting them into. May it be so for us.

The Good Samaritan

What happened to the hero in this story that made him have a different response to the wounded victim than the religious leaders on the other side of the theological aisle? It's a parable - a made up story - so we only have our imagination to work with. If he was a human like me (and many others), the something that happened must have been an expression of Divine Love that changed his heart, his eyes, his mind, that led to a change in the way he used his hands and feet and mouth. Maybe, as was the case for the disciples, we may have similar experiences that lead to similar outcomes. If we are to believe the biblical revelation, it seems that God does not love the people Israel if they change (as they first imagine), but so that they can change. Divine Love is not a reward for good behavior, as we first presume it to be; it is a larger Life, an energy and movement that we can participate in—and then, almost in spite of ourselves—we behave differently. It seems few of us go there willingly. For some reason, we’re afraid of what we most want. This whole human project pivots around Divine Love. Because our available understanding of love is almost always conditioned on “I love you if” or “I love you when,” most people find it almost impossible—apart from real transformation—to comprehend or receive Divine Love. In fact, we cannot understand it in the least, unless we “stand under” it, like a cup beneath a waterfall. When we truly understand Divine Love, our politics, our anthropology, our economics, and our movements for justice will all change. - Richard Rohr

Grace in Action: Prodigal God

The God that Jesus experienced as Abba was incredibly, ridiculously generous. The Gospel of Luke shares three parables Jesus taught about how God feels about people who have lost their way, the lengths God goes to find them, and the joy when God does. The third and longest, the parable of the prodigal son (or father?), adds incredible color to Jesus’ understanding of the character and nature of God. The parable was NOT crafted to represent good parenting skills. Indeed, the father in the story in many ways was a lousy, enabling parent. The parable isn’t really about parenting, even though the central character was Abba/Daddy. The parable was crafted to show just how extravagant, deep, and reckless is the love of God. The young son who insults his father in the worst way isn’t immediately dismissed, but rather given the opportunity to speak his mind. That is some seriously generous patience! Note: we are all the younger son, perpetually, seeing (unwittingly) the world through an extremely narrow, usually self-centered lens. It is amazing that God has anything to do with us. Instead of simply refusing to give the son his ridiculous request, the father instead gives him his share of the estate. Really foolish parenting on Dad’s part, but obviously reckless generosity. Note: this happens in real time every day for all of us. We each have an enormous amount to work with, gifted us by the one in whom we live and move and have our being. While we may feel that our resources are scarce, they are actually overflowing. We have always far more at our disposal than we generally realize. Can we see it? The younger son leaves the nest and behaves exactly like we should expect, quickly blowing through his lottery winnings only to find himself penniless and knee-deep in pig slop. He was prodigious in his frivolity as his father was in his generosity. Note: we are largely guilty of the same, leaning selfish with that which has been entrusted to us. The younger son finally reaches a breaking point and decides to return home, hoping that his father will have pity on him and provide a job, perhaps. He starts off, working on his sales pitch the whole journey. Note: This is our perennial human cycle, isn’t it? We live a bit, hit our nose against the wall, wake up for five minutes, feel remorse and say apologetic things that we mean to varying levels of sincerity, then we move back into life and repeat the cycle. Sometimes our transaction-prayers are born from pain and deep longing, and sometimes we are simply trying to bum another $20 from Dad so we can buy another case of beer... The father, it turns out, did not forget about his younger son. He longed for him, watched for him, prayed for his safe return. He was generous in his hope for his son’s return because his love didn’t with his kid’s insult. When Abba sees his younger son, he races to embrace him – a very generous, counter-cultural, awkward thing for an elder statesman to do. Note: Abba’s love for us in unending, regardless of how deeply we have disturbed shalom. God is always looking to the horizon hoping to see our silhouette emerge. Before the younger son can get his sales pitch out of his mouth, Abba cuts him off and restores him to his former glory, including access to the family checking account (signet ring). Undoubtedly, Jesus’ audience would have audibly scoffed at this ridiculous move on Abba’s part, yet Jesus included it on purpose to make a point about the audacious generosity of God. Note: While we may have to endure the consequences of our poor choices (and the poor choices of others that impact us), when it comes to God and who we are, we rise with everything we need – and more – all over again and again and again. There is still breath in our lungs, blood in our veins, the Spirit in our sails. God does not turn off the spigot of God’s Spirit when we fail. Perhaps, as in this story, God opens it up even more. The father celebrates his younger son’s return lavishly, killing the fatted calf and opening his wine cellar. His joy cannot be contained, and he welcomes all to the party – his entire household is invited to celebrate this good news. Note: this joy upon finding that which was lost is repeated in each parable. Why is this so hard for us to embrace for ourselves? What loving parent doesn’t want to celebrate their kid’s special day or homecoming? The older son wasn’t happy at all to hear about what was happening and gave Abba a disrespectful earful. Yet Abba’s generosity extended to his older son, too, with generous patience listening to his concern, with generous tenderness in his response, and with generosity in inviting the ingrate to the feast. Note: we are the older son as much as we are the younger son. We get bent out of shape when we experience similar things. We feel ripped off somehow even though we haven’t lost a thing, really. Like the older son, we’re often blind to what we have while we’re sitting in the treasury, surrounded by gold. This is the human story. This is a lifelong parable where we are invited to wonder about how we are like the younger and older sons, full of ourselves to the chagrin of the Father and hurting ourselves and others along the way. This is a lifelong parable that invites us to consider the ongoing, never-ending, prodigious love of God. Which character will we choose this day to emulate?

In the Image of God

Do I Stay Christian? Why I Stay

In this talk, Pete gives an overview of many reasons why people are not just leaving churches, but the faith itself. He then shifts to a number of reasons why he chooses to stay using Brian McLaren's framework in is book, Do I Stay Christian?

Do I Stay Christian? An Interview with Brian McLaren

This week, we take a break to hear from the author himself. Enjoy this interview from Compassionate Christianity.