Jesus did teach his disciples to stand up for their rights as equally created human beings. Yesterday my brother preached about relinquishing our rights. It was good because God spoke to me. There are times to defend my equal human rights, and other times to let go of my so-called human rights. It really hit home to me when I was thinking about how I want to be a better Christian. A person who loves my brother and sister more, who is more passionate about knowing Truth, who is more patient with others when they annoy me, who is more compassionate with those who are walking wounded…the list goes on and on. There is a lot of work left to do in my life. I am a work in progress. So how do I get to that pinnacle of love? Or of patience? Compassion? The first step for Jesus’ first disciples was to let go of their fishing occupation. They had to first drop their nets, and then they could follow Jesus anywhere. Just like that is the first step in discipleship, I think it’s also the first step in becoming more Christ-like. Let go of me trying to be more loving. Let go of me feebly attempting to be more patient. Relinquish my rights of doing it by myself. I think when I lose control of my life, let go of my rights to myself being a “better Christian”, this is when Jesus can take the controls in my life. He can love others through me. He can be patient with others when I simply cant. He can be compassionate through me when I can’t feel the hurt in others. I am a work in progress. Something I need to remind myself often. It helps me to think to myself or even say outloud: “I am not perfect”. Puts things in perspective.

In Jesus’ day there was a very visible hierarchy system. Slaves and masters. Rich and poor. Kings and servants. Roman citizens and non-Roman citizens. Male and female. Jews and Gentiles. “Sinners” and the “observers of the law” (“holy Pharisees”). There’s a few, heck, I’m sure there are many more. How did Jesus treat all these people? Equally. Jesus wasn’t about relating to the status quo or being conformed to the cultures standard of inequality. Jesus treated each person he contacted with dignity and respect, perhaps it could be argued that he was “less patient” with the Pharisees. Recently I read about this Jesus who pursued to place the “lower rate” people on the hierarchy scale into their proper place – equality.If I was a Hebrew taking a stroll in Jerusalem in 30 AD and this burly guy dressed in Roman centurion garb approached me, and he’s a bit PO’d with me because of something or another, so he lays the smack on me. How would I react to that? Would I coward and run away? Would I attack him full force, fists swinging, “let’s rock” (and probably get crucified for doing that)? What exactly did Jesus teach? Jesus said, if this ever happens to you, be prepared to let him hit your other cheek too. Sounds wimpy doesn’t it? This doesn’t sound like a manly response. C’mon Jesus, you sound girly! (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Not only was I humiliated by the original smack, Jesus says the best response is to get smacked again. I have heard of several interpretations. I’ll mention two, and the one I grew up believing. First, I have read that this means Jesus is teaching that the best way to resist evil or injustice is NOT to resist it. If I retaliate with fists swinging, I will just add fuel to the fire. So therefore, Jesus is saying to us: do nothing. Evil will eventually destroy itself, and by enduring the evil the suffering will disappear sometime in the future. Let the evil doer be judged by Jesus, do not take action into my own hands, leave it to Jesus to deal with. This is one response, but is this really what Jesus is teaching? Is Jesus teaching me to be a pushover? What is the cultural relevance of what Jesus was teaching? Jesus was never passive. Here’s my second interpretation. You see, if that Roman centurion laid the original smack on me, it would have been backhanded. This hit was meant to humiliate and de-humanize “inferiors”. This is how masters smacked their slaves, husbands their wives. In the twisted hierarchal scale, he is basically saying that he is of greater human worth than me. If I simply turn my cheek to be smacked again, it leaves my attacker only one option. You see, the attacker can only use his right hand. (The left hand is used only for “unclean” purposes, if you know what I mean). By using his right hand, he would have to use an open palm smack or slap. Either way, if the attacker did lay the second smack it was the way equals fought. What Jesus was really teaching was not passive resistance, he was teaching his followers that all humans were equal, stand up for your rights, say to your attacker that you are equal to him. It is a non-violent approach that I believe Jesus teaches. In God’s Kingdom there is no twisted hierarchy scale. The odds of getting the double-smack likely would have been a rare event because the second smack would cancel the meaning of the degrading original smack. Next time someone mistreats me as an unequal, may I respond radically by communicating something creative that in reality we are ALL equal.

The other day I asked my good Congolese friend what he thought about hierarchy. I asked him if he thought it was biblical. You see, in this DRC culture hierarchy is clearly evident, especially in the local church. Tribalism has been modified within the church walls. The more important people sit closer to the front. The closer to the front you are, the better odds you have of sitting in a nicer, more comfier chair, and not a hard wooden bench. If you are the lucky preacher, you have the “throne room chair”. Some churches have above this royal seat its own personal overhead fan. Keeps you cooler than everyone else in a the hot and stuffy church. And the women will sit on one side of the church with all the children, and the men will sit on the opposite side. And if your skin colour happens to be white, you have 2 seating options: A) Front row seats; B) Or the “special VIP section” off to the side of the pulpit.
These things wouldn’t bother me too much if they didn’t feed this invisible hierarchy of importance. My Congolese friend said that God institutes hierarchy in the church to keep us from being a chaotic mess. He says that hierarchy allows us to be organized, to keep everything in order.
I am a U2 fan. They are simply a fantastic timeless rock band. I respect and enjoy their music, lyrics, and especially Bono for his attempts to be a voice for third world poverty in Africa. He is a man of action who does seem to want to sit idly as the African world is suffering many injustices. One thing perplexes me, however, about Bono. He acts like a Christian, he sometimes talks like one (except for those few cusses coming out of his mouth, ain’t very “Christian” is it). He has never professed to be Christian to my knowledge (is this true?). My understanding of Bono is that he has this gross distaste for the church as an institution or as an organized religion. I don’t get it. The church could not exist without being an institution. Sure, its hurting a lot, a walking-crippled bride of Christ. There is sin in the church. Surprise. There is no evidence in the Bible of an idealized church. Churches are twisted up cess-pools of sin (in its ugly and real state). The beauty of the church is that out of God’s abundant, overflowing mercy, He chooses to make the church into something useful and eventually, very gorgeous. And we are the Bride of Christ. I don’t get it, but this is the way it is.
Bono says; "People have been perverting the Gospels and the Holy Scriptures since they were first written—mostly the church. This AIDS emergency actually is just such a valuable example of everything that's wrong and perverted about Christianity today…There should be civil disobedience on this. You read about the apostles being persecuted because they were out there taking on the powers that be. Jesus said, 'I came to bring a sword.' In fact, it's a load of sissies running around with their 'bless me' clubs. And there's a war going on between good and evil. And millions of children and millions of lives are being lost to greed, to bureaucracy, and to a church that's been asleep. And it sends me out of my mind with anger…[I want] to implore the church to reconsider grace, to put an end to this hierarchy of sin. … All have fallen short. Let's stop throwing stones at people who've made mistakes in their life, and let's start throwing drugs."
I believe with my Congolese friend about hierarchy being biblical. How else can a church be lead if there is no leader? It seems like an organizational method of God to bring order to the church. Yet church hierarchy gets distorted from its true purpose when sin gains control of it, substituting itself from the Holy Spirit. Because in a Holy Spirit filled church there are no different levels of importance, just different positions and gifts all used to build people up, to go out into the world as God’s witnesses in a hurting world, to ultimately bring God glory, not ourselves.
When I preach in DRC I will probably sit on the “throne room chair”. Its rather uncomfortable sitting up on the front stage facing the congregation in a cushioned seat. Let’s not play games here, this church is full of sinners, including the preacher (that would be me on that day). The preacher will probably be tempted to of himself as better as almost everyone else in the room (pride). The congregation will probably think that the preacher is better than them (another form of pride). And since he has white skin, they might view him as a “little god” (lower case “g”). True scary stuff. This simple setting easily gives the impression of the twisted ness sin causes in a hierarchy of importance. Yes, sin is present in the church just like it is in the secular pagan city marketplaces. Show me a place without sin and that would be heaven, and we’d be dead for that to ever happen.
In a third world country where poverty rules, people walk and talk the dusty streets with their high tech cell phones. This bothers me because I think it feeds this hierarchal system which rates one persons worth greater than another by what he has or doesn’t have. Its sick to me because people act on what they really believe in, and I guess many people believe there is worth in having a cool cell phone. Sick. And on a tribal continent where human life is based on what tribal group you are from, and on a bad day, in a bad setting, you might find yourself being attacked and brutally killed because of it. In my limited opinion, this is the simplistic and sick cause for what we call genocide. When I return to Canada shortly, I am going to think twice before I might purchase a cell phone. Not very cool.

What’s the deal with cell phones? Everyone and their dog has one. Now you can get cell phones that take pictures, or ones where you can chose between a 1000 different ring tones, or you can email or send instant messages (oh wait, that’s old news). Cell phones are becoming little computers and cameras. Talk about luxury. No longer are cell phones used to simply communicate between person A and person B with the original normal “bell ring tone” (how boring). You know you are getting older when technology seems to be by-passing you. And I am just 24 years old! I really don’t get cell phones. I used to think they were cool. I used to even have one. It was one of those “flip-open” ones. Really cool. And cool matters. Cool matters so much that in such a poverty-stricken setting like DRC, where the majority of people are living stuck in survival mode just for food, water, and even shelter; most Congolese have cool cell phones. I am vexed. Am I completely blind here? Is the status of having a cool cell phone so much more important than the basic necessities of life? I don’t like it one bit. Sure the Western world is heavily influencing the whole world, for better and for some definitely worse. I don’t like it that the Western mindset of consumerism is seeping into every little poor nook and cranny of the world. Is the picture of someone communicating in style while the same people are stuck in the pit of poverty all that grand? I think this is further evidence that we are all products of sin.
One friend once told me that his youngest boy’s favourite new word to say was “pooh-pooh head”. He thought that this was further evidence of our fallen nature since birth. Definitely right on. But what about cell phones? I would seriously like to know how much the world spends annually on cell phones. If having a cell phone makes you cooler than a person who doesn’t have one, I want a cool one. Because I care about my image. I’ve been reading “Julius Caesar”, the play by Shakespeare. I went for a different read, and I got a slog of a read. This one quote was profound in an old English kind of way: “And, since you know you cannot see yourself so well as by reflection, I, your glass, Will modestly discover to yourself that of yourself which you yet know not of…” Interesting stuff. I can never see my own mug with my own eyes, except through a reflection, or by someone else telling me what my mug looks like. People around me have the privilege of looking at me with their true eyes, and not a “poor reflection” that I look at in the mirror every morning. I believe I am created to be told who I am from the outside, not from within me. What others say about me from the outside is important. I think there are 2 main voices we hear: God’s and not God’s.
I used to have a hot muscle car, a ’73 Camaro converted into a Z28. Arctic white with hugger orange racing stripes. 350 CI classic Chevy engine, packing around 380 ft. pounds of torque and 320 HP. A beautiful beast she was. My Dad and I started rebuilding it when I was in high school, when finally it was ready to hit the road during my first year at Bible College. I drove it for 2 years. During those 2 years, I was known as the “Cool Car Guy”. People around me knew me as this “Cool Car Guy”. Its not a bad label, I like cars and they like me. A close friend once mentioned to me that the day that I sold the Camaro it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I agree. I just walked away. I didn’t just walk away from a nice piece of metal and power, I walked away from a part of me. A large part of my identity was wrapped up in a lifeless nice piece of metal and power. I was losing my identity as the “Cool Car Guy”, I was cutting the umbilical cord to one of my first loves of life, I was losing myself. I didn’t know this at the time. The “Cool Car Guy” days are over, I no longer hear that voice saying that is who I am.
I believe its one of the amazing questions to ask God: How do you see me? Its wonderful because God longs to share how He sees me, I mean, He created me and all. I often hear how much I am loved; “Ben, you are My Loved One”. I cant fully grasp this. The God of the galaxies is telling this little pawn-of-a-human that he is loved, cared for; that my life has meaning with those 3 simple words. Its freeing to know who I am. This is what I am created for.

I shared earlier about the ordinariness adventure of everyday living with Jesus. With Jesus. Following Jesus. This is the way of life for a disciple of Jesus. Some people have misconceptions of what overseas missions is about. I am currently in Kinshasa, DRC, and some people think that cross cultural missions is an exotic adventure with a touch of romanticism. You know, its rather ordinary living. My 2nd TREK experience has taken me to “romantic Africa”. Our days are filled with walking under a blistering sun, riding scrap-yard taxi’s, cooking, and cleaning. Missions, like the way God created us, is relationships. It is building friendships with taxi drivers, our host leaders, our neighbours, students at the Bible school campus where we live. Missions is not a complex term at the grass roots level. If you are a disciple of Jesus, you are a missionary. You are following Jesus, then welcome to the mission field. I once heard that you are either a missionary or a mission field. I think mission, at the grass roots level, is that simple. (Of course missions has many facets). Overseas or in Abbotsford. Pastor or stone countertop fabricator. Preaching every Sunday or daycare worker. Being a disciple in a cross-cultural setting is never a dull moment. Like marriage, for instance, it’s cross gender, and it should never be a dull moment. Relating cross culturally adds spice to my life. I sometimes jump right “to the point” in conversations with Congolese. I forget the “small chat” and I become rude in this culture. Opps. Congolese are vocal, loud, long prayer people. They love to be heard. They love to fire up prayers to God. They love to do this in community. My prayer style is a bit more independent. I am more comfortable with quick, to the point, arrow-like prayers. I like to pray quieter and shorter. Congolese are passionate in prayer and they do not keep it hidden. I found a new addiction in this culture. It’s a soda culture, and I have been consumed by it. Coke is now a regular addition to my diet. Its different than back home, where I believe it’s made with syrup. Here it’s made with real sugar, I believe this difference makes it better. No, it’s really the coke bottles. Coke tastes better in bottles. And one of the neatest things I have been sensing here in DRC is Jesus just being here with us. I believe He has been totally been protecting and shepherding us. Praise God! The beginning of missions is “just being there”, and we often feel like we are “just here” in Congo. This is OK. Because Jesus is “just being here” with us.

One of my favourite sayings is: Live It. Breathe It. It stems from when I was a roommate with this camp directing friend of mine. We will call him “Bob” to protect his true super identity. Bob approached me one day wondering if I had some ideas for a slogan for his adventure camp in Oregon. After throwing around several lesser ideas… Live It. Breathe It…finally stuck with Bob. I like this phrase for my life. I’d like to think of my life as a journey, like an adventure camp. Its not just because I’ve already been to many countries in this world at my rather young age. Travelling is fun for me, and I guess adventurous. Live It. Breathe It. This journey or adventure doesn’t really have to do with what I do or where I go. What really matters is who I am living and breathing with. Is it with The Way or is it just some substitute “second best” stuff? (2nd best stuff means anything you can think of outside of being with Jesus). It really doesn’t matter what I do. It really matters who I am with.
I think my view of this supposedly adventurous life with Jesus is changing. This amazing, exciting, ecstatic white water rapids-like journey with Jesus, well, it really isn’t that adrenaline filled. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments when I feel really close to Jesus, and it feels really exciting. Other times I don’t feel close to Jesus. Again, there are times when I feel pumped about life. Again, other times I feel borderline bored. So, this is the adventure? This is living It and breathing It? Gosh, its rather ordinary.
I am reminded of when I worked at a daycare. Only working as a secretary in some small stuffy office-like hole would have crossed my mind as more pathetic place to work. This was my mind going into working with the little people. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. First day of work I broke up a fight. I quickly found out that chasing kids around, beckoning kids to unlock themselves from bathroom stalls, and the such, was all part of the job. Living everyday with Jesus is the everyday. I once heard that marriage is like that too. Everyday living. The best part is that you are just with the other person. He is there, and she is there too. Working at the daycare taught me that I have the potential to love kids where they are at. To this day, I miss that little squirt who called me some unmentionable names, but who was almost sad when I left the daycare at the end of my time there.
What if living it and breathing it means cleaning the toilet every week? Or making supper every night? Ordinary life. I sometimes wonder why I don’t see God moving in miraculous ways around me or through me. I have experienced some pretty cool “God moments” in my life, but they aren’t that frequent. I don’t think my lack of sight for God’s movements means that God is doing less miracles. Just because I fail to see or experience God everyday doesn’t mean the reality is not there. How do I see God in the everyday activities of real life? God doesn’t seem to be too interested in nice compartmentalized tangible results. Like I’ve mentioned before, God seems more concerned with relationships. He created us that way. I think I experience the living and breathing it in my relationships. I think I experience God’s “little” miracles in true community. I think when I can lay down my self for a brother or sister, or vice-versa, and there is a mutual embrace, that is a miracle and God is in the middle of that somewhere. Those times can seem rare, but they sure taste good. Bob, this Guinness is for you. To living It, and breathing It. The miracle of everyday living with Jesus, following Jesus…Cheers.

I think when I present others to Jesus, I tend to think that he is the best choice. It makes sense to me. Out of all the choices out there, Jesus is the best one. But is this really accurate? Upon further inner investigation and contemplation, I think Jesus is way beyond chocolate pizza. He is not JUST the best option. Scripture says that Jesus is the Way. The Truth. The Life. Those are some big claiming words. How do we fully grasp someone like that?
God is pretty smart. He really knew what he was doing in when he created us. He created us relationally. We are not meant to be alone. It gives me comfort to know that Adam, in his complete shalom-ness of the garden, experienced some loneliness. Its interesting, right after God said to Adam that it was not good for him to be alone, God gives him a rather huge task. The task is to name all the species of animals in the world. I don’t know exactly what that job meant to Adam, I can only imagine how many animals that would have been. Maybe 1 million. 2 million perhaps. And how long would that take? For fun’s sake, let’s say that Adam worked at this task for 313 days a year (cos that would leave 1 Sabbath rest day a week). And if he had worked at a rate of naming 2 animal species per hour, for a total of 16 a day…if there was 1 million animal species back at the beginning of known time, then that would mean Adam would have worked at naming 5008 per year. That would mean it took Adam 199.68 years to complete the job of animal naming. That’s a big job order! Let’s round up to an even 200 years, for fun’s sake. God is definitely smart. He knew what he was doing, apparently all in his timing. He knew we were made to be in relationships, with others, with Himself. Adam had to wait a bit, 200 years in my loose estimation, in his loneliness while being in a complete shalom state. Then God created Eve.
When Jesus claimed that he was the Way, Truth, Life, he first said “I am”. Some smart Christians have said that what Jesus is really professing is his deity. In the OT God said that he was “The God” to the Hebrews by naming himself “I AM WHO I AM”. Interesting. Quite a few times in the book of John, Jesus refers to himself with “I am” statements. I am not sure what it all says in the Greek, but this is what I like to think: That all those times Jesus says “I am”, he is really personalizing himself. Scripture does say to us that when he calls his disciples, he first calls them to himself. This is rather personal and relational. Jesus invites us into a relationship with him. It’s comforting for me to know that I can be alone as a disciple of Jesus, but not really alone. Jesus is right there calling my name. To say that Jesus is JUST the best option would be weakening this relational call that we are created for. We are created to go through the relational way of Jesus. I think “the way” really means the journey of life. The journey of being a disciple of Jesus is “the way”. The destination has already been paved for us, we already know we are going, we just need to figure out the details of our journeys. Jesus is “the way” through a friendship. Not JUST the best choice.

The best pizza is chocolate. According to Brazilians that is. In Brazil there are these pizza restaurants where waiters come around non-stop serving a smorgasbord of pizza slices. What kind of pizza you decide to eat is a difficult job for the pizza eater. Shall it be the “palm tree” pizza, or the banana pizza, or the beloved chocolate pizza…or…? It can be quite dizzying all the options. My experience of Brazilians is that they chose the best until the last, chocolate of course. These restaurants are great eating experiences. Somehow it makes me think of how people like to dab here and there into a spiritual smorgasbord of goodies. Even Christians can jump from one spiritual experience to another. It would be a tragedy if I just experienced two TREK’s ('STM' to Brazil and DRC) and all that happened in my life was just experiencing some new "cool experiences". That would be wrong. A near sin.
I really think that atheism is becoming dead. Ever since the Iron Curtain fell, atheism has been falling fast after it. The youth I interacted with in the Czech Republic last summer were not atheistic. I would say many of them were agnostic. Yup, there is a “God-shaped hole” in all of us. But how do we fill that hole up? Like Brazilian pizza eaters, people nowadays seem to like to nibble here, take a bite there, into a little bit of everything. And leave the crust. Brazilian pizza eaters leave behind heaps of crust.
What if Jesus is like chocolate pizza? Brazilian pizza eaters would wait for the “best until last”, and eat chocolate last. But why wait for that? I should go for it. Jump right into Jesus as soon as possible - today. Why wait for tomorrow, the best is here for me today. I really don’t understand why many Christians, in their attempts to share Jesus with others, don’t know where to begin. And sometimes Christians think they have things all figured out, and share all these formulas, all these step-by-step instructions to follow, and then you are a Christian. Say this little prayer, repeat this now, memorize that, and voila! I am Christian. I am trying to understand how Christians, everyday Christians, workplace Christians, university Christians, really share their faith in Jesus to others. If you want to convince someone to watch one of your favourite movies, you tell them only a little bit about the movie, perhaps a tease about the plot and story, perhaps some of the star actors. Then you just simply say; “Man, it was so good!! You gotta see it too!!”. Isnt it the same with sharing Jesus to others in this spiritual smorgasbord culture? “Man, you gotta meet this Jesus. He is amazing!” Christians do not save others. It is our job as disciples of Jesus to point others to the best. What if Jesus was like chocolate pizza? Because the best pizza is chocolate.