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working with Jesus during Advent

Published
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Joshua Grace
on December 14, 2007
in Action, Community, Dialogue, Family and Planning
. 2 Comments

I can’t believe that we’re half way through the season of Advent-it’s gone by quickly for me.  There are a lot of themes going on, surprises (see earlier post), as well as Jesus looking to make a home in us/looking to make a home in Christ.  I hope you haven’t been missing out, and it’s not too late for something meaningful to transpire by any stretch.
I have been talking to a lot of people this week about how they are preparing for Jesus to come or where Jesus needs to come.   I’m really interested in how we’re helping this child get birthed, kinda like like Mary & Joseph all those years ago.

Some people are new to having a season that means more than their family traditions (some meaningful, some not so much).  For others it’s the highlight of the year.  This year I started off kinda rough, with some sick extended family and other reminders of how broken I am.  After those first couple days, I am deciding to let the hurting places, the broken relationships, and my hope for restoration be the landing pad that I pray for Christ to come.

Everything might not get put back together the way that I want, but me changing me-going from hopelessly sitting with my hurts to being where I’m broken and giving it to God is transformative.  Wherever and however he comes will be miraculous, and I hope to do my part to help with the birthing process.

Where is the baby coming this year in us?  Where in you does the baby need to come and bring healing, hope, and new life?

Dec 24, at 10:45pm we’ll get together at 1125 s. Broad to welcome in midnight, to welcome in the Savior (see earlier post) .

In the autumn, in a season for changing

Published
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Joshua Grace
on November 16, 2007
in Community, Dialogue, Family and Planning
. 1 Comment

Wind blows the dry leaves
Accenting the rich scarlet
For its time has come

Last week I got to go spend 30hrs or so at my favorite local hermitage. I’m still learning how to retreat well, and how to keep my regular discipline about getting away to be alone with God.

Sitting on the little deck of the hermitage, I was right on the edge of the woods. The wood was magnificent, leaves in the midst of changing color and falling off into a winter blanket for the earth. The air was crisp and cool, I was really in full readiness for Jesus to deliver to me my theme for the retreat and for the next couple months so that when I was asked by my friends “how was it” I wouldn’t just talk about how nice the bathrooms are there or something and talk about what Christ is saying.

Well, I waited for a while, journaled, read a couple books, drank tea and slept a bunch. I couldn’t get away from these trees (they were everywhere! kind of like Kensington!) and what they might be meaning. I didn’t get my one-liner, though…so what am I do? What can I do but wait on God, and be where I’m at.

It wasn’t until a week later that I began to understand the image a little more. The trees were being trees in a season of change, part of the ecosystem and doing their part. And it was beautiful. I want to be there, too.

The past few years I’ve been going through a lot of changes, especially 07 and looking at 08 it’s time to change more. It’s a season for Circle of Hope to change again. In the season for changing, I’m praying through a few statements.

1. I don’t want to fight to hang on to what I think I was like or the church was like during last season (try to be the green leaf tree in the middle of winter).

2. God is taking us into a new season, and I want to be that change and trust the Spirit’s ecosystem to put it all together.

3. We are like the forest. Letting things fall off and die is part of living. Spring will come, but first we must winter.

Our mapping process and Discernment Group meetings give us a lot of opportunity to process what we’ve been doing well and what we can do better. With that sense of God dwelling in us and the Spirit leading us we can be present to the changes and move to what’s next.

what’s your favorite Love Feast memory?

Published
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Joshua Grace
on October 19, 2007
in Action, Community, Dialogue, Family and Planning
. 9 Comments

I am especially excited right now because we’re getting ready for a night to celebrate, and do 2 of the things that Circle of Hope does best: loving and feasting.

We’ve had this quarterly tradition for about as long as we’ve been around (first feast in July of 1996), and each time there has been wonderful moments of people coming together to eat, meet someone new, to worship Jesus, share the communion meal, to tell/listen to stories, have lots of fun, and to welcome people who want to take that step out and make a covenant with the others of Circle of Hope.

Let’s make new LF memories…come Saturday October 27th:

6pm at “Union Tab” -2036 East Cumberland St (map here)

3pm (before the Feast), some people want to get baptized at our usual spot in the Wissahickon Creek (map here).

A fond Love Feast memory of mine was in the Summer of 2004 when we were in Fairmount Park in Germantown.  Before most of the festivities, about a hundred of us trekked through the woods and down the hill to get to that spot on the Wissahickon so people could get baptized.   Then we trekked back up and worshiped some more and told stories, filling up the field.   I love the image of us journeying together to meaningful stops through even tough terrain sometimes and then regrouping as a visible and physical representation that Jesus lives.

 

I want to see if we can generate some remembering and some conversations on this site to help show people what’s up with the Love Feast and what it’s about. So here’s a question that I hope you’ll answer in a comment below…what is a favorite Love Feast memory of yours over the years?

scarcity and abundance

Published
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Joshua Grace
on September 14, 2007
in Action, Community, Dialogue, Family, Friends Projects and Peace
. 0 Comments

I’ve been trying to let God inform my worldview as I follow Jesus.  Lately I’ve been realizing how much I have lived out of a paradigm of scarcity rather than abundance.  The way that I generally have managed life-be it economics, time, relationships-I have learned from our culture that I don’t have enough and there is more out there for the taking.  I feel scared that I might miss out on something, like I may not have enough money right now to honor God with it (I will later, of course), I don’t have enough time to do what I really want to do, etc.  Seeing the world through God’s abundance teaches me how awesome it is to have friends, Jesus is the center of our schedules, and that there is enough resources not just for me-but for all.

John (in chapter 10) recounts Jesus’ telling of some really cool images about sheep, gates, shepherds, and thieves.  I like the King James Version of verse 10, where Jesus tells of the life that he has for us.  “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  

My good friend recently turned me on to some ideas that Ched Myers has been talking about, particularly Sabbath Economics where this scarcity and abundance come into a tension that shows our necessity for Jesus to lead us.  

If our worldview can be shaped by Christ’s abundant grace like the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (1 Tim 1), if we can live out of God’s abundant love-our whole lives reflect that different paradigm.  

 It seems so natural to live in God’s abundant providence for us-I often wonder why it is so hard.  Thinking in basic physical terms, enough food is grown to feed the entire world (world hunger facts)-why are people still starving?  We are connected to the source of all love and creativity-why are so many people still so depraved and violent?  

One way that we can participate as part of Jesus’ world redemption project is to live, breathe, teach, and live out of his abundance.  The way that we treat one another, use resources will all take shape out of our base knowledge and the reality that Jesus is enough and has enough-for all.  

A night in the life of one Circle of Hope cell…

Published
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Joshua Grace
on August 17, 2007
in Community, Dialogue and Family
. 1 Comment

Last night my cell group began by sharing our names and a little something about ourselves (always fun and helpful for those new to the group as well as us old heads) and took turns reading puns that we picked out of a bowl. This one was a big crowd pleaser:

Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says “I’ve lost my electron.” The other says “Are you sure?” The first replies “Yes, I’m positive.”

Like the other cells (thirty nine right now) we have a weekly time all together besides Public Meetings-although of course many people connect outside these times. One of our proverbs (see the 2007 Map at any of the meeting sites for more) is “our cells are the basic components of our living body in Christ. In them, Jesus is our ‘agenda.’”

After praying, we talked through what we thought violence was and when it was or wasn’t appropriate. People got to share where they were at, and also listen to others and have some healthy dialogue. It wasn’t just some abstract theory that we were trying to prove or disprove-we were actually trying to listen to Jesus and discern, learn, and work through a tough issue.

This morning I was reflecting on my cell being a basic yet incredibly important component of life in Christ. People are not only partnering with Jesus in his mission to redeem the world by being who we are together, but people are working through a lot of wonderful and difficult things. I was hanging with a friend the other day who doesn’t have such people in his life-people that honestly care how he is doing and that would actually pray for him, listen to him, encourage him, and even challenge him. God does so much healing in this cell, and so much growing and connecting.

After our discussion we shared about what we wanted to bring to God in prayer, and ended by expressing in short phrases how grateful to God we are for different things. I’m grateful for these amazing people who even in the face of cancer, family issues, roommate problems, depression, substance abuse, faith crises, work stress (to name a few) will still go together to God in gratitude for this new life that we have been given.

Here’s our other favorite:

And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

airport theology

Published
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Joshua Grace
on July 13, 2007
in Community, Dialogue and Family
. 2 Comments

Like I told my cell in person last night and over email today, I am so glad to be back home. For the better part of the last month Martha and I have been traveling: to Hawaii via upstate NY for a splendid vacation and then this week to Pittsburgh for some time with other BIC pastors and spouses as well as visiting some friends who live there.

I think I have been on 11 flights through 9 different airports during this stretch. The first time I was ever on and airplane was like 5yrs ago or something. Now I don’t even read the complimentary copy of SkyMall to wonder what it would be like if I actually owned an Excalibur replica, sitting walker, or storm detector (all real products). I know what it is like to be in the customer service line waiting to “let them have it” for making me miss my connecting flight behind an angry person with a dozen breathing down the back of my neck for their chance.

Finally, on the way home from P’burgh yesterday it occurred to me…”Holy crap. We are flying around in airplanes. Isn’t that incredible?”

“No, not really. I am actually inconvenienced because I have to take off my shoes and wait in security lines before I wait in another line and watch the first class people board in front of me on 4′ long red carpets. I have to get here like an hour and a half early and then pay $9 for a sandwich or settle for peanuts, literally. What’s so incredible about that?” replied the spirit of the age.

I think we get tempted to be desensitized to the wonders of life and trade in the wonder for a chance at convenient service just the way we like. We allow ourselves to be herded around through twisty lines waiting for the next checkpoint or bathroom while totally preoccupied about missing something, forgetting something, or how people are inhibiting us from getting to the next place or confiscating our nice water bottles. This way of living is really dangerous and damaging if we remain there. This airport theology is permeating and leaves us feeling like we’ve been flying all night on nothing but 3 cups of their bad coffee and mini pretzels.

I’m glad to be home where we don’t have to live frustrated, cynical, and having eaten too much sugar to enjoy the journey. We still have to wait in line sometimes, and other drivers will still drive like they are the only ones who are in a hurry. Part of the awesomeness is that we don’t have to live like we’re continually waiting for the next plane to come and take us away, we don’t have to settle for airport price-gouging, we’re allowed to handle one anothers luggage without being suspected of terror plots.

Jesus saves me from needing stuff to work out in order for me to be a partner in his mission and to live in his grace. Even if I find myself in an airport sometimes, my heart can be at home and not dragged into the next craziness.

be the light

Published
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Joshua Grace
on June 19, 2007
in Community, Dialogue, Family and Friends Projects
. 2 Comments

My buddy Aaron wrote a lyric to God one time that went something like “I used to wonder where you were-but these days I can’t find where you’re not.”  This line resonates with me.  I used to see God in the happy times, not so much in the hard times.  I’ve learned that even in the roughest places, in the most hopeless situations, and in the most jacked up relationships we have a hope that Jesus will do his thing…bringing dead things to life.  I see God in the hard times as well.

When I am feeling tired I can come up with a long list of situations that would generally be considered worthy of inspiring despair, hopelessness, and/or quitting.  I’m kind of good at it.  I’ve also been learning to go to God in those moments, something I’m getting better at.  Going in those moments to God is asking for the transformation, asking for the light in a dark place.

Isn’t it in the darkest moments that Christ’s light shines the brightest (like here).   A dark situation that way too many of us know is cancer.  Cancer sucks.  As my friends Andrea, Kelly & their family learn to live with cancer, I have learned a thing or two about how bright Christ’s light can shine.   So have they (check out their blog-Punk Rock Mommy).

They have written a lot that moved me (this post in particular, by Kelly), but I’m more inspired by Jesus’ shining through their lives.  So here’s one thing I’m learning about how Christ’s light shines…it’s not enough to just talk about the light (as if it were some interest of ours), we have to be the light (in letting Christ shine through our transformation).    Their blog isn’t just writings about what they think-it’s a snapshot into their God working in a tough situation.  I’m glad to know them.

It’s one thing to say “yup, there’s God’s light shining: it’s a yellowish color and its heat can be measured in degrees” and another to be God’s light.  You can tell people about this thing called the sun that makes things warm, makes us happy, grows us, and gives off light-but we’re still trying to convince them to get outside.  When we let Jesus work, when we participate in that work-we are being the light and God’s light comes into the world.  We all experience the light, and it’s contagious.

Being the light speaks volumes to a generation of people who need hope.  Being the light let’s Jesus do his own PR.  I’m glad that there are more and more Kelly & Andrea’s showing plainly Jesus working in tough moments.  Be the light and let Christ’s light shine through our transformation.

Going “yard”

Published
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Joshua Grace
on May 14, 2007
in Community, Family and Uncategorized
. 4 Comments

In the last two days I’ve developed a new passion for landscaping my backyard.  This is the first time in ten years that I haven’t had a small concrete box for a yard, so I’m getting used to the newness.  In Philadelphia-especially in Kensington, grassy yards are a rare commodity.  Last summer, while our house was being rehabbed-the yard was full of construction debris and refuse.  A layer of topsoil was added on top of the rubbish, and a few clumps of “grass” have been kind of growing.

Last week, Martha and I decided that the children had pulled up enough nails and glass out of the dirt while they played, and we were going to lay down sod.  I wish that all of life could be so simple: stop accepting the illusion that there is not garbage under the surface, clean it out, and then put something new in its place.

What a metaphor!  We are all a mess on the inside, and much of the time we even would try and conceal all the brokenness and bottle caps with topsoil that looked good to most people.  Why?  We like to save face and we think that people will like us better if we don’t look broken.  That’s understandable.  Even some construction companies apparently think that just using some kind of cover-up is a good, cheap option to restoration.

I think that Jesus is actually interested in those plastic bottles that are six inches beneath the surface-too deep for most people to even look.  I think Jesus loves us even through the numerous bricks that are stashed away.  I tend to respect my own bricks, my own debris.  I too often treat them like part of my identity and just the way that I am.  I don’t’ think that Jesus has the same respect for hidden garbage in me.  He wants to clean it up-not because he is some anal retentive neat freak of a LORD, but because he loves me and sees what I don’t always see-a beautifully healthy yard that has no need for secrets, the yard is a place that reeks of restoration and redemption!

So I’m feeling kind of sore this morning after moving a couple hundred pounds of smelly chunks of sod into my van and through my house, into a pile and onto the top up the earth that I tore up.  This morning after I sprayed a small lake’s worth of water on the sod then I sat there and felt a new kind of peace and accomplishment.  This is headed in a great direction.  I wasn’t ignoring the final third of the yard that we didn’t do yet, I was appreciating what God has done!  I think that God even looks at us kind of like that-seeing the good, the potential, and the yet unfinished.  I think we’ve been taught to see our uncompleted thirds (I actually do this quite well), it’s time that we see the good work that God has been doing.  How great must God feel that we would even be going towards redemption!  Too often we seem to drift towards either neglect and collect garbage or towards cheap concealment of the ugliness.  Letting the Great Gardener in is such a good move.  I want to be the new yard.

Sixteen Years

Published
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Joshua Grace
on April 9, 2007
in Action, Community, Dialogue, Peace and Planning
. 3 Comments

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For sixteen years, Philly native Harold Wilson served time for a murder that he was later found innocent of. What does living on death row for that long do to a person?-especially if one is not guilty? Are there others who are waiting to die yet are not guilty?

These questions and others will be discussed on Tuesday April 10th, 8pm at Circle of Hope East (map here) at an event brought to you by the Circle of Peacemakers and Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Harold Wilson will be there, talking about his life, his story, his work, and some of what he sees as a need for serious change.

Here is an article in the City Paper about him. This article mentions that since the mid-1970’s, PA has found that twice as many people were innocent on death row as have been executed (3 killed, 6 released). Does this stir up anything for you?

Here are a couple of other facts from the PADP

Of the 200 prisoners on death row in PA, 70% are people of color

More than half of the people on PA’s death row are from Philadelphia (which is 14% of the population of the state)

90% of people on death row in PA could not afford a lawyer for their initial trial. After going to death row, PA does not have funding for post-conviction legal defense.

since 1973 in the US, 123 death row inmates have been proven innocent.

What do you think? Post a comment, bring it up in your cell meeting, or come Tuesday night to the meeting at 8pm at East.

Holy Week, midway

Published
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Joshua Grace
on April 4, 2007
in Community, Family and Planning
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Each year more and more people make the conscious effort to walk with Jesus through that last holy week before he died and rose. Each year more become present to what he was going through and for the end of Lent get a final touch of his suffering for us, and the great power of his resurrection that we can share in.

Keep it up, vigilers. The first few nights have been great, and we continue closer and closer to Friday when he takes our burdens to the cross. Here’s another encouragement to see if you can get to the rest of the Holy Week vigils and some more info about Sunday’s Public Meetings on Resurrection Sunday.

Holy Week vigils

at Broad & Washington

Mon-Thurs night at …7:30pm

Fri-noon to 3, drop by for the prayer vigil and walk the stations of the cross through our neighborhood

Sat-10am morning vigil

Sunday: meet as a network for sunrise worship on Lemon Hill, 6am

7pm only on Sunday night

at East
Mon-Thurs night at…7pm
Fri-noon to 3, drop by for the prayer vigil and walk the stations of the cross through our neighborhood

Sunday: meet as a network for sunrise worship on Lemon Hill, 6am

5pm only on Sunday night