The following article by Joel Van Dyke and Kris Rocke appears as part of The Global Conversation in the April 2010 Christianity Today. Please visit www.christianitytoday.com/globalconversation to read comments from other readers and writers around the globe who respond to Joel and Kris’s article.

The psalmist asks, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:4). It’s a beautiful question springing from the heart of a poet struggling creatively to live out in a strange land (Babylon) what he knows to be true in another, more familiar context (Jerusalem). English poet e. e. cummings once wrote that the beautiful answer is always preceded by the more beautiful question, and in this psalm we discover a beautiful question. It has given theological roots to missional communities of grassroots leaders in six countries throughout Latin America (as well as in urban centers in the Caribbean, Kenya, and North America) under the banner of the Center for Transforming Mission (CTM).

We are learning how to read the Bible not to or even for those we serve, but with those we serve—those who have been wrongly labeled the least, last, and lost. Sustaining this approach is the belief that grace is like water: it flows downhill and pools up in the lowest places. We are learning to see God’s grace pooling up in places of extreme poverty and violence.

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During this recent Lenten season some friends and I spent time reading through John 20:19-29 as a Lectio Divina practice. As I’ve carefully read through this passage several times now, one distinct theme has been coming into focus similar to the way the picture within the picture emerges after you’ve stared at one of those 3D images for a time. Based on this narrative I’d say God gets a good kick out of us when we pay attention to our world via the senses he created within us. I wonder what the look is on God’s face when we resign our theological development only to traditional environments such as church pews and seminary classrooms?

Yes, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, but the story crescendoing toward this concluding statement tells of a God who desires to engage the treasured soul of his children through the beauty of their senses…

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“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”
—Hebrews 12:2

Just in time for Lent, a difficult personal situation thrust me into a season of inner turmoil and sorrow over betrayed relationships. Thankfully, a well-knit community of companions has walked through every dark alley with me and other family members.

I’ve got a long way to go toward healing, but at the moment I can breathe again—so I will take opportunity for initial reflection on varieties of religious language used to console beat-up souls like mine. Here I’m not really referring to specific helpful or ridiculous comments people make in the awkward presence of pain. I’ve made plenty of both in my time—surely even in these recent weeks. I’m more interested to explore larger contours of soul care.

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One of the great things about my job as director of the YES Foundation is that I am around a lot of talented young people and I often have the privilege of seeing people in the throes of their own creative process. For someone who doesn’t feel particularly creative, it’s an exciting thing to witness. Although it can be a little messy and feel a bit perilous at times, this place where someone brings into existence that which did not exist before feels holy to me. It has made me ponder God’s creative process.

I have been thinking about something a teenager said at DubCee (a program of YES Foundation) a few months ago. We got into this rather interesting conversation about Genesis 1:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

We were “hovering” around the idea of the Spirit of God hovered. Charlie, a 16-year-old who loves to draw and is pretty good at it, commented, “I get that ’cause when I am about to draw something, I sort of hover. I have to think about what I’m gonna do, what’s gonna happen. Sometimes, I do that for a long time before I can start…sometimes it just comes to me.” I was taken by the far away look in Charlie’s eyes…as if he suddenly realized that he and God had something in common.

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“In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
John 1:1&14

The early Church discovered that when they wanted to see Jesus in all his deified bigness they had to accept him first in all of his human smallness. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. Apparently “less is more” when it comes to God.

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I recently read Barack Obama’s Audacity of Hope. If he is half as good a president as he is a writer then we are in good hands. I was intrigued by his use of metaphors as he described the Constitution of the United States. He offered two ways of seeing the Constitution. One way to see the Constitution is to see it as a blueprint. The blueprint metaphor suggests that the Constitution sets forth clear instructions on how to build a democracy and if we simply follow the plan we will succeed. Another way to see the Constitution is to see it as a conversation. This metaphor is an invitation to dialogue about how to promote, protect, and insure our most cherished rights and values.

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“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

After Jesus is raised from the watery grave of his baptism, the heavens are opened and the Spirit descends with the blessing of the Father. I am struck by three things in this scene.

First, Mark begins his version of the Gospel with Jesus submitting to death. Whatever else baptism is, it is a call to die. Baptism is the watery grave where we die to self (the false-self) and become alive to all that is real (the true-self). Perhaps Mark is suggesting that the Gospel journey is always a baptismal journey – “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life…will save it. (Mark 8:35) The baptism of Jesus is the cross before the Cross.

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“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

Martin Luther said a goal of his theology was to pull Christ as deeply into the flesh as possible. Somewhere in that thought is the notion that Christ did not simply come on behalf of us, but he entered into our story in order to reveal to us what it meant to be fully human. In doing so he came to us in the rawest form possible we can imagine, literally “in the state of meat” – the incarnation.

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For years I’ve visited men in prison seeking to bring Christ’s light, love, and forgiveness to them, and in the midst of this discipleship I have heard some hard things. One conversation haunts me.

Allan was, and remains, the “least” and most “lost” person I’ve met. Pale, unkempt, 115 pounds, obvious learning disability, no social skills, pronounced attention deficit disorder, loathed, oppressed, mocked, reduced, shamed, and forced to shave his legs to better suit the inmate who claimed him as ‘bitch.’ God chose him for me to share an Incarnational moment with.

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Prior to coming out to Denver to begin seminary I was a case manager for mentally and physically disabled adults. During the two years invested in that job, I played many games of Jenga. I had one particular client who demanded we get at least one game in before talking about anything serious. He loved to play Jenga, but he was hopeless at the game. His hands were gnarled and extremely unsteady, and he might have removed two or three blocks before the entire tower would come crashing down time after time.

As I trudged through my seminary years and still now I often see folks who approach Jesus much like the game of Jenga. The goal for many is to position their blocks just right, neatly and squarely, so that their construction will stay standing. They may look with fear and resentment upon those who take risks in removing some of the key blocks from the foundation. Others thrive, and even pride themselves in taking the risks. They enthusiastically test the construction, removing as many blocks as possible to show others their tower will still remain upright.

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