i see the groom's reflection in the eyes of the bride

tonight i was reminded again how much i love living life in the context of community. there are some who say that they need no one else to complete them-- that they are fine on their own--but i am pretty sure that i would not survive without others to walk alongside me.
i know that some people have grown weary of the church. i know that some have considered her message to be out of touch and out of date. that we have moved past the point of needing her influence in our lives. (keeping in mind that we all have varying definitions of what/who the church is)
some might say that it is possible to love god, to follow the teachings of jesus, to be a christian and not go to church. and on some level, i can see where they are coming from. at one point in my journey i would have whole-heartedly agreed. but today i don’t.
i am not sure that this whole “christianity” thing was meant to be as individualistic as we have made it out to be. we have made such a big deal about knowing jesus as your ‘personal’ lord and savior that i think at times we have missed what it means to be a body. we have individual parts saying that they really don’t need each other.
maybe god meant for us to be in relationship with more than just him. maybe it is about each other just as much as it is about him. maybe it is not just vertical, but horizontal. maybe the two really cannot be separated.
the truth is, life experience is richest when it is shared with others. the valley never seems quite so dark when we do not walk it alone. likewise, the mountaintop seems so much greater when we reach the summit with another at our side.
i guess what i am trying to say is that i love the church. i love when she lives out the life she was designed for. when she welcomes those who are hurting and weary. when she brings hope and healing to those lost in despair. when she truly is the body of christ.
i love that i am a part of that glorious bride. we are the church. i love being a part of the upper room...doing life together and breaking down what it really means to "be" the church. i love when we reflect just a bit of the one who loves us so much.
peace to you,
scott

tonight tonight

we will be meeting at our house tonight. (fude has a special event planned)
we will be talking about the miracle in mark 10.
we will be praying for a miracle for a friend who is in surgery this morning.
he healed a man who could not see...so he can heal a man who may not walk again.
peace to you,
scott

o mickey you're so fine...

scott and brenda will be in orlando next sunday...a few of us will still get together at someone's house, but there will be no upper room at fude on the 8th. drop us an email if you want to know what's happening where.
peace to you,
scott

what god has joined together...

this week we will be looking at jesus' words concerning divorce...what he has to say may actually shock you...read mark 10 for a sneak peak.
see you sunday at 4 at fude,
peace to you,
scott

the sunday night shuffle

i just got word from surf that fude is in use this sunday...so we will shuffle on over to our place for the upper room this week...see you at 4! (email if you need directions)
peace to you,
scott

so this is the new year

so this is the new year.
and i don't feel any different.
the clanking of crystal
explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

so this is the new year
and i have no resolutions
for self assigned penance
for problems with easy solutions

so everybody put your best suit or dress on
let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
as thirty dialogs bleed into one

i wish the world was flat like the old days
then i could travel just by folding a map
no more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
there'd be no distance that could hold us back.

there'd be no distance that could hold us back

so this is the new year
-the new year--death cab for cutie

looking forward and looking back...we begin another new year sunday at fude. see you at 4.
peace to you,
scott

the upper room in our living room

the upper room will get together tonight in our living room...(call if you need directions)...fude is open for business, so we are going to go back to where it all began...our living room.
peace to you,
scott

upper room family christmas

this week we will be getting together at derek and heidi's to celebrate christmas together...with turkey and all the trimmings. we will not gather at fude, so if you want to join us, send me an email and i will get you the details.
peace to you,
scott
p.s. next week (the 21st) we will have a candlelight christmas at fude.

a sunday night with ray

we will not be gathering at fude restaurant this week. we are getting together with andrew from ray (resource assistance for youth). if you want to hang with us and see how we can be of 'assistance' to the at risk youth in our city, meet us at 4 at broadway and young.
peace to you,
scott

great gift idea this holiday

*hint* *hint*...i want a pair (or six).
peace to you,
scott

MIC Check

we got together tonight and tried to come up with a statement that reflects not only who we are, but gives us direction and focus for our shared future as a community. we really like the words missional, incarnational and communal. we like the idea of being with people the way that jesus was with people. we wholeheartedly buy into the idea that we could actually follow in the footsteps of jesus and be disciples. we really love hanging out together and forming the sort of intimate relationships that jesus had with his disciples when he was here. missional...living for others. incarnational...living like jesus. communal...living life together. it's time for a MIC check. we have the audacity to think that it might actually be possible. that there might actually be more to life, more to faith, more to church than what we are currently experiencing. so let's do this. it has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime; what better place than here, what better time than now.

peace to you,

scott

new orleans is sinking...and i don't want to swim

i had an amazing time in new orleans with starbucks...refocused and re-energized...and not in the ways i thought i might be...i'll tell you all about it tonight at fude.

peace to you,

scott

happy thanksgiving

we will not be gathering at the upper room this week as many will be celebrating thanksgiving with their families. so eat lots of turkey, watch lots of football, be extremely grateful and be thankful for the abundance that is in our lives.
peace to you,
scott

next week's musical guest

a shocking revelation

i picked up a book last week that i had been in search of for quite some time. I had read a quote in brennan manning's 'the ragamuffin gospel' and ever since had been keeping my eyes peeled for flannery o'connor.
i finished reading her short story revelation as was once again moved by the shocking grace of god.
i feel that those of us who would consider ourselves 'respectable' christians will be a little shocked at the procession we find at the pearly gates. we may also be shocked by the place of prominence that those who are less 'respectable' find themselves in.
in the story the main character, mrs. turpin, is a good, white, southern, upper class christian. she has people work in her cotton fields. those people may not be slaves, but they sure are close.
she thanks god that he did not make her "white trash" or a "(n-word)".
in her revelation however, her world is turned upside down.
'a visionary light settled in on her eyes. she saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven. there were whole companies of white-trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black (n-word) white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. and bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who, like herself and claud, had always has a little of everything and the god-given wit to use it right. she leaned forward to observe them closer. they were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. they alone were on key. yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces that even their virtues were being burned away. she lowered her hands and gripped the rail of the hog pen, her eyes small but fixed unblinkingly on what lay ahead. in a moment the vision faded but she remained where she was, immobile.
at length she got down and turned off the faucet and made her slow way on the darkening path to the house. in the woods around her the invisible cricket choruses had struck up, but what she heard were the voices of the souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah." flannery o'connor - revelation
now this story was written about a time when racism was common even among those who would call themselves lovers of god. mrs. turpin's vision it was a shocking revelation.
what about us? what about our city? who would you be shocked to see entering the procession before you?
the truth is; god's grace and mercy are much bigger than we could ever imagine.
we just might be shocked by the people who enter the kingdom before us.
peace to you,
scott

we are all blind.
we live in constant denial.
we say that we can see, but clearly we cannot.
we are all blind.
jesus help us.
spit on us.
save us.
mark 8:22-26

peace to you,

scott

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

this past sunday at the upper room we planned to discuss how god reveals himself in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary. that we do not really need a sign for god to prove that he exists, that we need only to open our eyes, for there are signs everywhere. signs, signs, everywhere signs.

we had a relatively small group show up and more than enough food to share, so brenda went down and invited a few people up for supper.

we ended up sharing our table with five young adults that were hitching their way across the country. three of them were from out east and were heading west. one of them was from victoria and wanted to experience an authentic manitoba winter, so had decided to chill (pun intended) in winnipeg until spring. and the fifth had been all over, was heading back west for a bit, then overseas, and back to winnipeg in the spring.

we started talking about the beauty of this vast country (many of them have seen things we do not take the time to appreciate). we talked about how god reveals himself in the simplest things...the majesty of the rockies, the beauty of a prairie sunset, a meal shared between strangers.

one of them said 'the lord is constantly revealing himself, and too many people call it coincidence.' truth spoken around our table...from a hitchhiking teenager.

as the last of them got up to leave, they thanked us, said the food was awesome, and that it wasn't the least bit awkward...(at which point it proceeded to get a little awkward.) :)

we were reminded again that god is constantly speaking, constantly revealing himself, and we just need to open our eyes, or our tables, or our hearts and see.

sir isaac newton once said. 'in the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.'

god reveals himself all over the place...in nature, in sharing a meal, and in the thumbs of a hitchhikers truth.

peace to you,

scott

signs signs everywhere signs

the pharisees came and began to question jesus. to test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. he sighed deeply and said, "why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? i tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it." then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. mark 8:11-13

i find it funny that the pharisees were asking for a miraculous sign after witnessing the feeding of the five thousand. after jesus had healed a blind man. after demons were cast into a herd of pigs. after he had fed another group of four thousand people. yet they still asked for a miraculous sign.

i wonder how many people do not believe in god because he has not chosen to break into their work in an abnormal or miraculous way. that they are waiting for him to alter the universe somehow to prove that he is real.

the lead singer mewithoutyou penned some incredible lyrics that i resonate with my heart more than the hearts of the pharisees.

daniel broke the king's decree,
peter stepped from the ship to the sea
there was hope for job like a cut down tree,
i hope that there's such hope for me
dust be on my mind's conceptions
and anything i thought i knew
each word of my lips' description,
and on all that i compare to you
the preference of the sun was
to the south side of the farm
i planted to the north in a terra-cotta pot
blind as i'd become, i used to wonder where you are-
these days i can't find where you're not!

elizabeth barret browning wrote

earth's crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with god
but only he who sees, takes off his shoes
the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries

i find it hard to ignore god. he seems to show up everywhere. in the moment i see someone curled up asleep beside garbage bins at a downtown coffee shop. in a conversation about hope for the future with a colleague at work. in the sunshine, the blue and the green, the scent and the sound. god does not need to break in and give us a sign...we need to wake up and open our eyes.

peace to you,

scott

re-creation not just recreation

then jesus left the vicinity of tyre and went through sidon, down to the sea of galilee and into the region of the decapolis. there some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.
after he took him aside, away from the crowd, jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. then he spit and touched the man's tongue. he looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "ephphatha!" (which means, "be opened!" ). at this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. but the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. people were overwhelmed with amazement. "he has done everything well," they said. "he even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."
mark 7:31-37

i love this seemingly innocuous story from the life of jesus. i see so much of his heart in the way this goes down. notice the details mark shares. some people bring to jesus a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. what does jesus do? he takes the man aside away from the crowd. he does not make a spectacle of this man. the miracle is a personal encounter with jesus. jesus opens his ears and loosens his tongue.

why does his put his hands in his ears? why does he spit? we will talk about that sunday.

the thing that really gets me is that jesus pulled the guy aside and made him new again. jesus still is in the business of making things new, of doing everything well. he is into re-creation...not just recration.

what about us? is our faith about re-creating the kingdom here? is it about doing everything well? is it about meeting people as individuals and having god make them new? or is it more about recreation...hanging with a group of people who like the same things we like...believe the same things we do?

things to mull over until we meet on sunday at 4...see you at fude.

peace to you,
scott

dogs under the table

jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of tyre. he entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. in fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a greek, born in syrian phoenicia. she begged jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
"first let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."
"yes, lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
then he told her, "for such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."
she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
mark 7:24-30

this sunday night at fude we will be talking about the dogs under the table...come with questions...see you at four on sunday night

peace to you,
scott