cities and suburbs

What’s your opinion of cities and suburbs? 

Preparing to lead PRAXIS, an urban discipleship program, yet living and working in the suburbs, I find myself wrestling with the often tenuous relationship between cities and suburbs. 

Caricatures of both city and suburb abound. For some, cities represent life and creativity and connection - the center of the all things culture. Suburbs are boring, homogenous places of over-consumption and narrow-mindedness. For others, cities are too busy, crowded, dirty, and if anything, full of cultural corruption. Suburbs are quiet, safe, spacious, and definitely morally superior.

Yet for anyone’s who lived in both cities and suburbs will know, caricatures are always incomplete. “Cities good - suburbs bad” and vice-versa just isn’t true. Instead, one finds a combination of light and darkness, good and bad in whatever the place. In their song, “Take Back the City,” Snow Patrol captures this tension well, a description I think could describe many places in our world. They describe the city as a place that has “both cradled you and crushed.” The urban domain is “a mess, it's a start, it's a flawed work of art” - yet a place we “love” nonetheless.

As one immersed in both cities and suburbs, I find such honesty refreshing, compelling me to engage the world around me, both cities and suburbs.

90

As a culture we are often uncertain how to approach aging, both for ourselves and how we treat the aged in our midst. Retirement often accompanies a withdrawal form “normal” life and old age often brings a withdrawal from community altogether (often reluctantly, but not always).

My grandma turned 90 this year. In the midst of a culture that often devalues their elders, this story of my grandparent’s ongoing experience of life and faith and community is inspiring:

When Jake and Elsie Bergen retired to Winnipeg in 1995, they immediately looked for ways to connect. “We tried something that had proven to be successful in other places: we placed an ad in the local newspaper offering our services for odd jobs, like cutting the grass or housework. It was very satisfying to share with people our reasons for serving,” says Jake. Until 1999, they served with Good Neighbours Active Living Centre, a non-profit that connects older adults with services and friends.

Now, Jake and Elsie participate in the prayer room of the Billy Graham telephone ministry, a care group, Sunday morning prayer times, and the church prayer chain. They make many personal visits, sharing the Bible and Elsie’s home-baked bread. In 2007, Jake received training through Hospice and Palliative Care Manitoba in preparation for visiting patients. “Afterwards they invited me to sign up as on official visitor, but I didn’t because they limited what I could say and ask.” Instead he became a volunteer chaplain/visitor for Mennonite Church Manitoba. “Here, I am free to discuss the Lord. I go weekly to Riverview Health Centre [a facility for rehabilitation, palliative, and long-term care], and to Concordia Hospital monthly.”

“Elsie makes friends very easily,” says Jake. “She can talk to anyone. God gave me a great gift when he gave me her. I have learned an awful lot from her. We live in a big apartment [block] where there are a lot of opportunities for us to make friends and it is important that we share our friendship.”

Did I mention she just turned 90!?!

(Story courtesy of the Mennonite Brethren Herald)

Christian Fundamentalism - then and now

It can be easy to critique past examples of Christian fundamentalism from our 21st Century perch upon which we view the past. And yes, while aspects of fundamentalism linger to varying degrees, they are often easily spotted - Westboro Baptist likely the most prominent extreme (and perhaps “extremist” is a better term for such groups). Most Christians can distance themselves from fundamentalists fairly easily.

I find it intriguing to observe the development and interplay of identity and culture, particularly in Christian groups. Fundamentalist Christians are often labeled as such due to their critical view of the world around them. As culture changes, however, one would expect the forms of fundamentalism to change as well. You’d think what was a cultural concern in the 1950’s would shift. But then I read this quote from the 1950’s and wonder if Christian fundamentalism has changed much at all:

“Fundamentalism is considered a summary term for theological pugnaciousness, ecumenic disruptiveness, cultural unprogressiveness, scientific obliviousness, and/or anti-intellectual inexcusableness...extreme dispensationalism, pulpit sensationalism, excessive emotionalism, social withdrawal and bawdy church music.”  (Carl Henry, quoted in Moral Minority by David R. Swartz)

Contemporary evangelicalism is diverse movement, and many evangelicals don’t fit the above description of fundamentalism. This is a good thing. Evangelicalism ≠ fundamentalism. But some evangelicals do still fit the above description, if not overtly, at the very least through a lingering distrust of the world around them wrought with aspects of the extremes in the quote above (including the music!).

As an evangelical Christian myself (of the Anabaptist variety), I’m wary of any association with fundamentalism. And so I think it’s prudent for evangelicals to maintain a historical and cultural awareness of Christian fundamentalism’s past and present varieties, and no doubt look in the mirror every once in awhile.

On voting

Today is election day in British Columbia.

Strong opinions.

Weak opinions

No opinions

Bad opinions

Annoying opinions

Good opinions

Opinions on parties and opinions on voting vary greatly.

Personally, I think it’s important to vote. Even as an Anabaptist Christian, part of a history of checkered political involvement (how does one vote from a labour camp?), voting gives me the opportunity to participate in the communal process of discerning our shared values as a society (yes, I’m somewhat of an idealist).

That said, as an Anabaptist Christian, I also need to keep voting in perspective. My vote doesn’t define who I am. In an age where elections capitalize on stark polarizations that seek to motivate voters more by fear than ideals, conflict rather than cooperation, voting is my chance to reflect a political engagement that reflects my values, not determines them.

And so as I go to the polls today, and in many elections to come, I think these words from the Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith offer a timely reminder of the value, and perspective, to voting:

Christian Allegiance in Society

The primary allegiance of all Christians is to Christ’s kingdom, not the state or society. Because their citizenship is in heaven, Christians are called to resist the idolatrous temptation to give to the state the devotion that is owed to God. As ambassadors for Christ, Christians act as agents of reconciliation and seek the well-being of all peoples...

...At all times, believers are called to live as faithful witnesses in the world, rejecting pressures that threaten to compromise Christian integrity.

"To Rise Above" - Ascension Hope

This past week marked Ascension day in the church calendar - a time to remember, reflect, and renew our commitment to living under the lordship of the risen One. As I've reflected before, the ascension of Christ reverberates a new reality through history. Ascension day calls us to acknowledge this hope.

This clip considers the immense hope of ascension...

the progress of God - more questions from Rob Bell

As I make my way through another Rob Bell book, through all his controversial publicity tactics, sparsely crafted arguments and continued theological elusiveness (yes, his schtick is getting mildly tiresome), I continue to appreciate one particular aspect of his books: he asks good questions.

As I reflected this past week on our view of the world as either good or worse, these questions from Bell’s recent book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, have lingered for me:

“Is God progressive, with a better, more inspiring vision

for our future than we could ever imagine,

or is God behind,

back there,

in the past,

endlessly trying to get us to return to how it used to be?”

Not surprisingly, Bell argues that God is calling humanity forward, “a continuum, a trajectory, a God-fueled movement within and through human history.”

And he elaborates that such progress happens with or without our awareness or participation in it as Christians - “Churches and religious communities and organizations can claim to speak for God while at the same time actually being behind the movement of God that is continuing forward in the culture around them...”

Behind Bell’s musing on the progress of God is the question of discerning such movement of God. Like the subjectivity in describing our period of history as “worse” - my worseness theory - how do we discern the ways in which we understand the progress of God’s presence in the world?

Here’s where Bell’s writing is incomplete by itself. His good questions don’t always correspond with good answers. He closes the book with some anecdotes on God’s love and presence and our connectedness to one another - good and important stuff. But he only scratches the surface of discerning the progress of God in the world. Here sparse writing means sparse answers. As usual, Bell raises an important issue. And as usual, he basically ends there.

Which brings me back to Bell’s questions about God’s progress. As I read Bell, I’m realizing such questions are harder to answer than they are to ask. And for the Bell, ever the provocateur, that’s probably the way he’d want it...

goodness theory

Last week I queried, instead of “worse” what is an alternative lens to view the world?

Let me suggest the “goodness theory” (profound, I know).

Faced with much brokenness, violence, sickness and death, our propensity to propound the “worseness” of our times, while not surprising, is incomplete. Even Jesus, while acknowledging the injustice - the “worseness” of his times - upheld a foundation for seeing the world as profoundly good.

Where we are prone to worry, Jesus reminds us of God’s care in the world. Where we are prone to conflict and violence, Jesus reminds us that love and reconciliation is possible in the world. Where we are prone to view weakness as failure, Jesus reminds us that being “poor in spirit” is the way to blessing in the world.

In a recent sermon on Revelation 21, I made the point of emphasizing that the “it was good” of Genesis 1 remains true of the world and true of our ultimate hope for how the world can and should be. This is the goodness theory.

And no, this is not based on an ignorant blind eye to what is indeed “worse” in the world. Instead of sin being cumulative, measured as “worse”, the Bible portrays sin as relational. Instead of measured and categorized in history - the worseness theory - sin and brokenness are dynamic relational realities that reflect the absence of wholeness (shalom). Relationships aren't easily measured as we all know. Relational discord doesn’t replace the goodness, it only hides it.

The question, then, is can goodness be recovered?

Here we need to recognize how goodness isn’t only rooted in the “it was good” of creation. Goodness isn't only in the past. Goodness is present and future. Goodness, in fact, finds fulfillment in the Good News - God among us in the person of Jesus, redeeming, restoring, and healing through the tangible expression of God's love (1 John 4:9-10). The broken relationship is restored. Wholeness is recovered.

In Jesus, goodness overcomes worseness. “God with us” determines our view of the world. 

Good news indeed!