WALP ...your kingdom come!

thursday was an amazing end to a wonderful week in the bluegrass state. started the day with a lovely southern breakfast of bacon and eggs and biscuits...with gravy, jam or lemon curd! our b and b host had done his masters at oxford! so thus the lemon curd!
we packed the car...and actually got to joe myers workshop on sacred space early! joe likes to make people's brain's hurt! he likes to challenge our paradigms and make us uncomfortable in the same ole same ole....
it may have been a disappointment to some, that joe was discussing just why we call spaces sacred and how we have organized our encounters with THE HOLY into very rigid boxes with very specific expectations...not how to design a type of meditative worship experience! but joe always makes me think...and i was challenged and reminded that all spaces are sacred because god is there already! ...
i am working on hudson's computer, so i'll have to get the notes to you later...

thy kingdom come....our final plenary/large group gathering was on justice! "the just worshipper" was the title... "does injustice prohibit true worship?" claude nikondeha from burundi spoke after a wonderful international worship time....that included communion.

paul soupiset at soupabog agreed with me, that it really was a shame that this wasn't our first session...
justice is sadly so low on the radar of most american christians..(and so many folks had to leave early due to flights, etc)
Download soupablog.htmlwe are very good at sending money...but not half as good at being the hands and feet of jesus to folks, either next door or in the next country.

claude is wonderful!
he asked us how many of us actually could point out on a map just where burndi is?
only about 3 hands went up...(just south of rwanda and next door to congo if you are like me and just knew it was somewhere in africa) the average salary in burundi...$150 a year!
he grew up in church, but it was a church that didn't make sense or relate to the poverty and pain of the culture around it...the gospel was "come to jesus, get saved and heaven will be a better place"
there were no sermons on "being god's kingdom" in the present or bringing god's kingdom into the pain and suffering and injustices of life. the church was still working with colonial ideas even though it was a post colonial time! claude left the church...he didn't think it worked...
in college in france, he encountered a community of faith where jesus was lived out! we all laughed when he wondered if we thought it wasn't possible to find jesus in france! claude asked us to look at our worship gatherings...were we modeling and teaching about justice? were we aware of injustices in our communities or among our "members"...? he told a story from his neighborhood (now he is living in arizona) where an older woman was being forced to move from her home of 30+years because of new development. the city said she could either purchase new property/or build...starting at 250,000 or the city would buy her home for $25,000! she couldn't afford to do either one! when asked if she spoke with her pastor on this, she said yes. her pastor said "i'll pray for you." he didn't mention this to the congregation or offer to help her take action, or at least help her find someone she might even live with!
he also asked who had seen" hotel rwanda"...he and his wife visited rwanda for the 10th anniversary of the genocide...he asked us where were the churches? why was the only safe place a hotel? sadly, the churches sided with the rebels...and did nothing to stop the killings...
in amos 5:20 and following...god rejects our songs of praise, and our offerings

vs 23-24
take away from ME the noise of your songs;
i will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
but let justice roll down like waters
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

how can we as followers of jesus let justice roll down?
what tangible, touchable things can we do...can we help our people do to
bring justice into our world?
prayer is great, but we also need to truly BE jesus and BRING justice
into our neighborhoods...both next door and across the world.

i was challenged and inspired...
"don't ask why the table cloth on the communion table is too big...
ask for god to make your table bigger..."

let's continue to talk about this...and actually, why don't we share ideas of how we are
DOING justice...in our homes, families, church communities...so we can encourage one another
that the world and it's problems may be big but OUR GOD IS BIGGER!
the world is filled with problems that look impossible, but NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE with GOD!

btw...the map of africa with the crowns was one or our prayer stations on the lord's prayer...praying for god's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven...adding a crown stamp to the places you prayed for..and adding a stamp tatoo to your hand to remind you to pray for that country the rest of the day...or until the tatoo fades away!

Comments

[Micah Girl]

How I wish it would have been possible to experience WALP. I am grateful that you are blogging about it and hope one day to bump into you at one of these events...

[susie albert miller]

oh how i wish i had been there too, it sound like WALP was the richest of fare... thank you for this post lilly...it cuts to the heart of the gospel and the true questions i need to allow to press more deeply upon my soul and life. i love the photo, but moreso, the art experience...sacred marks of remembrance.