considering the ecology and economy of God

Reading in Genesis 22 today about Abraham's symbolic sacrifice of his only son Isaac, I was struck as if reading for the first time his words to his son. Isaac had asked his father a practical question regarding the sacrifice they were about to offer: where's the sacrificial ram?

In his teaching, Jesus spent a lot of time telling stories about the local economy and the local ecology, as a way of describing the character and nature of our Creator and what he intends to create through us. It is fundamentally different than the systems of this world.

In the economy of the world around us, our felt needs and desire for security necessitate acquisition, even at the cost of others' needs and security. It's what drives the free market and the black market, it's what transforms the Middle East into a war zone, it's what keeps East Oakland's flatlands seemingly locked up in crime and poverty.

In the ecology of the world around us, scarity drives up costs and directly influences our peace.

Abraham realized that on this trek, Yahweh had requested he sacrifice his only son -- a direct affront on his sense of personal security and long-term needs. Here are Abraham's words to Isaac:

8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

Perhaps our soteriology (how salvation works) can obscure the nature of its' very soul: a God who loves, and calls his subjects to love as he does. When Abraham obeyed Yahweh, he was placing his and his son's life completely in the hands of God. Too often, I fear, we simply gloss over the passage and claim it as a foreshadowing, pointing to the eventual sacrifice of Jesus for the sins of the world. I agree wholeheartedly, however, that reality shouldn't lessen the weight of what God is calling Abraham, and by extension you and I, to embrace: the relationship between love and sacrifice. Abraham was esteemed by God -- not because he had a correct theology -- but because he didn't withhold what was most precious to him. This released the provision of God. Do we see it? Do we see what possesses us and keeps us from a trust relationship with God?

I was driving to work this morning and praying, "Lord, teach me the posture of true leadership." I am convinced that Jesus modeled true leadership by taking the servant's towel and washing his disciples' feet. Power that flows from the ecology of God doesn't hold on selfishly to position, rank or wealth; instead, it becomes a conduit of that blessing by investing it into others.

Interestingly enough, when I landed at work this video from Michelle Obama was waiting in my e-mail inbox.



It bodes well for our future First Family that they place a very high priority on the nature of true leadership -- and my prayer is that the leadership they exhibit domestically and project across the span of the globe is reflective of the ecology and economy of God.

A Soul Pornographer

I just picked up a book shared by virtual friend Bruce Reyes Chow, Moderator for PC(USA) and local pastor/geek guy. It's called Insights From the Underside: An Intergenerational Conversation of Ministers, and while I'm going to post a review here in the future, I couldn't wait to share this gem from the Foreword by Rodger Nishioka:

It seems to me that much of what we are struggling with in ministry today is the dominant narrative of the romantic hermeneutic that tells us every single moment of ministry ... Is to be both productive and fulfilling and dramatic and life-changing. It simply is not nor can it be true. The challenge is to keep on keepin' on and to not subscribe to the romantic notions of ministry that surround us and ultimately disable us.

I'll pause here for full disclosure and admit that I come from a faith tradition that is steeped in the dominant narrative of which Dr. Nishioka speaks: The Pentecostal movement of the 20th Century was built on signs and wonders. Of the Assembly of God's Four Cardinal Doctrines, three refer to the productive, fulfilling, dramatic and life-changing (Salvation, as defined, is more a theological construct, something believed more than experienced). It isn't such a harmful thing, to believe in the demonstrable power of God in the life of the church -- and if I thought it were, I suppose this ordained minister from the AG would have found a different peg from which to hang my ministerial stole by now.

What I do think is dangerous, however, is the hyper-spirituality that can be cultivated from the notion that every moment in life should be saturated with climactic transcendence. I realize even as I write this that I am skating on thin ice, and I'm appropriately discomforted by the line I'm attempting to draw.   Perhaps a crude and deceptively simplistic comparison will help.

Hyper-spirituality is a kind of pornography of the soul.  It's the tendency to  kick down the door and demand to experience the fullness of God with the proverbial (or literal, in some cases) click of the button: the right song, the right chord, the right mood lighting, the right crowd, etc.  The healthy compulsion for increased intimacy with our Creator becomes perverted in the nature of the pursuit, becoming more about meeting the demands of the worshipper than in becoming immersed in the object of worship's affection. 

This is the mystery of worship and sexuality: that we are made whole by giving up what we sense is already ours.  My body, my personhood, my will are brought low in honor of the Other as a prerequisite to true intimacy.  One can't experience intimacy without trust, and one can't trust without taking the path of serving and becoming less.  We are given life by giving it up, and are freed to be identified and cherished without holding anything back for ourselves.

The etymology of the term pornography is "a catalog of prostitutes."  In much the same way friends are asking how seemingly unrelated activities contribute to the corrupt global sex trade, I am beginning to ask how I might be a Soul Pornographer -- an unwitting contributor to prurient self-interested consumers flippantly approaching the Holy for a spiritual fix; a pimp for nothing-deities of self-help or emotionally-overflowing yet spiritually empty exercises in self-gratification.  In what ways do I communicate quick, easy access to the marriage bed when a healthier perspective might admit that worship, like sex, begins with the routine motions of daily life?

I'm not much for the common prescriptions in dealing with pornography, which is usually something along the lines of "shame on you, shame on your sexuality, pray harder and stay away from porn."  Such approaches contribute to the vicious cycle of shame, guilt, personal diminishment and seeking out secret and ultimately unhealthy expression.  Instead, I encourage the guilt-ridden to experience the power of confession, forgiveness and community on the path of re-engaging healthy life patterns and appropriate relationships.  The same can be said of Soul Pornography: let's recognize the bright light of Christ's love surrounding us, inviting us out of the dark corners of addiction to hyper-spirituality, re-learning how to love and be loved, rejecting shortcuts to intimacy and discovering the depths and thrills of God's sacred love hidden like breadcrumbs in the mundane as we keep on keepin' on the path toward fulfillment.

Image Courtesy of xxxchurch.com.

Cultivating a Good Earth!

Here it is, for your viewing pleasure and spiritual enrichment, 11 glorious minutes of vision for the 2009 ministry season at KidVenture Family Ministry at Sequoyah Community Church:

Vision 2009: Cultivating a Good Earth from John O'Hara on Vimeo.

If you made it through the entire video you get a cookie.  Actually, I'm quite excited about the year in front of us, not just for Sequoyah but for everyone privileged to work with kids.  We live in a fairly mussed-up world, and a clear strategy for making a difference absolutely must include a dedicated investment in up-and-coming generations.

I'm hopeful that, as people begin to coalesce around the basic idea that kids and families and how they develop are essential to the long-term development of a society, more ideas and resources will be directed at how to do spirituality among kids -- not as an afterthought, or as a marketing strategy, but because it's our sacred trust and the future literally hangs in the balance.

Waiting on Jesus

I feel compelled at this point in history, so rich with risk and opportunity, to remind the church (particularly those of a particular eschatological persuasion) that there's a vast difference between waiting on Jesus:

And waiting on Jesus:

But perhaps the best way to drive the point home is with a little help from 1970's star Keith Green:

Saying Amen to Irish Crooner Bono

I woke up this morning praying along with U2:

Heaven on earth

We need it now

I'm sick of all of this

Hanging around

Sick of sorrow

I'm sick of the pain

I'm sick of hearing

Again and again

That there's gonna be

Peace on earth

2009: let us believe so clearly in the reality of heaven that we live every moment pushing our present reality into its' promise.  It doesn't matter where you're at in your own eschatology: if we love Jesus, we're not going to sit around waiting for time to roll up like a scroll -- we're going to love what Jesus loves.