A bit more to add to Derek’s post earlier today—
A few years ago while we were in Paris we met a man from Kenya who was working as a bellhop in our hotel. Within minutes of walking with him he told us his story of how he had only been in France for a short while and this was the best way he could support his family. He also talked about Jesus a lot, and by the time he left us he had prayed with us. It was a very powerful moment as it was the first time I had felt hope in Paris. God had been showing us for some time that he was going to send Africans into Europe, without the guilt of colonialism, to thank Europe and tell the nations that they had indeed brought the gospel to them.
A short time after He showed us this, Time Magazine came out with a cover story about the rise of African missions into Europe and America. It documented the growing native African churches in New York City—many of which had raised money in their home land specifically to take the gospel back to America. It also documented the African pastors and churches in London, one of whom specifically said he was called as “a prophet to thank England for bringing Africans the gospel.”
So we were very excited to read about the new appointment of this Ugandan minister to the post of Archbishop of York. Some quotes from the archbishop this weekend:
“I speak as a foreigner really. The English are somehow embarrassed about some of the good things they have done. They have done some terrible things but not all the Empire was a bad idea. Because the Empire has gone, there is almost the sense in which there is not a big idea that drives this nation.”
…He described English culture as rooted in Christianity and, in spite of attempts by secularists to marginalise it, the Church still had a central role to play. “I think the Church in many ways has to be like a midwife, bringing to birth possibilities of what is authentically very good in the English mind.”
“I come from a clan called the Buffalo clan. Its responsibilities are to be the guardians and protectors of the king. Sentamu means the one who keeps the king’s fire burning. If I had not gone to university I would be outside the palace stoking the fire. That would have been my job, stoking the fire. I just hope with Rowan [Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury] I will be stoking the fire.”
—from an article today in The Times.
In another interview:
(The archibishop) Sentamu imitates the average English vicar praising God with an unenthusiastic allelujah to a near empty church. Then he gives his version, thumping the table and crying allelujah to the skies. The miserable, ancient cottage at Lambeth Palace where we are talking, with its false ceiling, laminate doors, storage freezers and cold white lights, suddenly feels an awful lot hotter, a bit more Africa than England.
I tell the archbishop this and he looks momentarily shocked. “I was raised an Anglican on [the Book of Common Prayer],” he says. “The gospel I got in my country was so good. I am simply telling the English, it is my job >now, to simply remind you of what you taught me.”
While not just speaking about the church, Sentamu had a lot to say on the subject of english culture—how the English should be proud of their culture (even what has been perceived as the majority culture). I also think the speaks very honestly about how England is not a multi-cultural nation—it has more of a singular identity than America, which is more of a melting pot. Part of how he described England was more like a father, welcoming those of other backgrounds under its covering but without losing its essential “englishness”. It’s also very interesting that an African is saying this. I know this is a hot subject for Europeans, but England really is a father, and a KING in the spirit as well.
I love England, I think my english friends are the coolest.
A bright note--the archbishop of York has come from africa to help England realize her spiritual potential as a great nation! We are excited as God showed us sometime ago that He was going to help England love herself again, and come out from the guilt over colonialism, and to see that she actually planted many true seeds among the nations. We were shown that african leaders would come back and thank their spiritual parents and help them to stand again! England truly is a nation of hope and glory, and a great parent nation to help sort out things with wisdom and an affability that is rarely seen with authority. Peter Boss, the dutch missionary, calls England a good humoured father.
"It is my job now to simply remind me of what you taught me," the arch bishop spoke recently. To see other nations coming into England and thanking her is a great moment for us who love England and see her great destiny!
As America is going through growth trials, and a deep refinement, we are so glad to see England beginning to be given seeds of life into her soil again, so that the wisdom she carries can be shared with those who need it most!
In a time when it is easy to be cynical about the nations, I pray that instead we get God's exact heart for each nation and pray that each is able to stand into their destinies! God loves the nations in a way we can hardly imagine. It is easy, when we see abuses to hate even ourselves, and even easier to hate other nations and people. But when we start to look through His Eyes, our hearts will turn and our minds will follow, and we will find ourselves in love, and willing to labour in healing the particular wounds of our own nations, and being with Him as He causes them to stand!
Patience sees the broken child as whole, and walks alongside her; faith sees her broken bones dancing in His Glory!!!!
A few years ago, a bunch of us sat around the living room at the Jones house in Prague doing what we do best--dreaming up road trips. This one was going to be of the u.s. Southwest, Andrew dubbed it the Weeping Jesus tour, because every trip of ours needs a spin. a raison d'etre.
I even started making a website for it:
The 'Weeping Jesus' idea, I think, had something to do with the ironies of southern religious culture. The religious symbolism of the south has come full circle--it got aware of itself, at least in my generation, and then it was cool to deconstruct all the Bible Belt culture, especially if you were an outsider, and now things like Gospel brunches and Jesus action figures are no longer ironic--they are self-aware but they are actually still the real thing. We thought driving through small towns and being at "Jesus and barbecue" all along Route 66 was a good idea.
But California was the destination--we all have tons of friends in California, either personally or by association--people Derek and the Jones knew from years of living in San Francisco and moving around. It was time to see them again, to kind of refresh the connections and make the lines of friendship stronger. Anyone who knows us knows that our community exists beyond the confines of one place--it stretches across states, and continents. But it is a real family.
Truthfully, most of our horizons are pretty dim, until we get around people that God uses to sharpen us. Most of us are used to settling for less-than, even in our spiritual relationships, but the real body of Christ, the one that exists across space and time, is meant to become one whole strong thing and become people of infinite possibility, which is really the kingdom.
My story is about communion--how when we let God bring the right people into our life at the right time it always makes us bigger than life, bigger than ourselves, and propels us. In our circle of friends a true convergence happens about every 6 blue moons but when it does, there is real magic. Most everyone I know is looking for something real and authentic and wanting anything other than simply religious commitment to a group of people. My true family, my "church", is spread abroad--more and more, God has been showing me that the kingdom is much bigger and more mystical than just a local expression of people getting together. This makes for some hard gaps where we long for spiritual intimacy with others but when a real convergence happens it is enough to fill you up for awhile.
So three years later, Derek and I still knew we had to get to California, it was time to pay our friends there a visit, but how would we get everyone together? Much to our surprise Andrew, Debbie and kids were coming to America after six years, Jessica had a break from work, Shannon was here to kick off her friend's gallery tour--and bam!--we had a convergence. The spin of this trip was no longer Weeping Jesus (although it's hard to avoid American road trip kitsch once you've crossed the border of a Texas city into Texas country and onwards). We could have dubbed this tour, "the breakfast tour", if you knew how many bagels and eggs and crepes and hashbrowns and oh that yummy California corn-beef hash I put into my stomach over two weeks.
But I have to back up a bit, because the whole story starts out with us in Europe. Derek and I were visiting Bryce and Sam in Switzerland and being in the middle of their creative swirl as their band was beginning to produce a new album of video and music. At the same time Shannon had arrived in Austin with a tribe of friends from England and Germany to kick off the Doxology exhibit, a collection of enormous freehand paintings by her friend Rob Pepper. We came back from Europe just in time to meet up with everyone at the opening. That weekend had everything from an impromptu barbecue at the local campground to meeting up with lots of old faces and talking about life and art... and just the fact that we all met up at an art exhibit says something... in the past it has been a festival or a conference or something of that nature but now it has become something which is getting closer to who we are.
And then we set off on a trip across the country, and with the Jones this always means a lot of zigging and zagging as those of us who know them know, but the zigging and the zagging always means something like a really good breakfast buffet at 3 a.m. in Las Vegas, a hunt for the perfect crepes in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, and then a plot to find the right pad thai in Marin Country. And of course lots of coffee and buying kitschy american-style 3 liter travel coffee mugs to hold our cravings intact.
So as you might guess, being with the Jones means 1. breakfast, 2. breakfast, and 3. other kinds of food, or coffee instead. Forget the tea, you are now in land of coffee. It also means getting to be myself and be with family. The Jones are a part of my family, and so are Sam and Bryce, and so is Shannon and so is Jessica, and so on. And when we all happen to be around each other, the stuff that we are together lights up. Not that all of those in my spiritual family are artists or creative thinkers, but most of them are people of possibility. When we are together, there are always lightbulbs and more lightbulbs and more a-ha moments.
Going to California was full of these "a-ha" moments because California is a place of possibilities. It is as grand and strong as Texas but definitely a dreamy place and a place where people think outside the box all the time as if it were normal fashion. I overheard at least 3 cafe or street conversations where people were talking about metaphysics and science and fractals and Buddhism in the same breath. You just don't hear this kind of talk in Texas.
California is like a big soft bowl, collecting dreams. As to what that puts into people, I was so surprised by how truly unsuspicious Californians are--among all the folks that travel in ministry or Christian circles there is little to no territorial stuff. Most of the people are broken or have been through a lot of crap so they just don't presume anything. What this makes for is a lot of really creative and open-minded leaders. That creativeness and openness to community is the thing I wanted most to bring back to Texas.
And we can be ourselves around each other, which is important. We can be with each other deeply or we can be silly, but we can just be. If we need to call each other on our crap, we can do that. If we need help, we can ask for it. If we need to feel sorry about ourselves, we can do that. The first night we arrived in Dave and Karin's house in Marin County (near S.F.), I had one of the richest and most loving conversations I have had in a long time. In the midst of it, I wondered, 'Isn't this communion?" And I realized that most Christians if not all don't experience it enough, if at all. What it means to really love and to really be with each other in a way that stretches across time and where you are able to sense how you are connected eternally.
That is how it should be and one day that is how it will be. As Derek always says, 'we only have 3 days here on earth', and beyond that we are all connected in Christ through some part of him. These days are about finding how we are connected and to whom... and seeking that like the great pearl.
By the time everyone starting coming back home--I wanted more than anything to bring that sense of community back to Texas, back here, where people share and get together without expecting each other to join this club or that club. Just be together--broken pieces and all--because that is what I saw the most of in San Francisco. The broken people were the most transparent and the most powerful.
if we could just stop all playing games and get real, we might glimpse a window of this kingdom. We would be amazed at how many different pieces of us were so lost--and we find those pieces in the most surprising places--in people we never expected. With some friends God might charge your compassion, with others he might worship a lot, with some you get excited about the prophetic parts of God, and with a lot of this part of our tribe you get juiced creatively. Most families don't stop in Las Vegas at 4 a.m. to have a breakfast buffet and check out the architecture. There is always the sense of adventure, and a whole lot of just plain silliness that keeps us going. Life isn't so serious, and I need to remember that from time to time. I felt like I came back with this whole new paintbrush, roaming, looking for its canvas.
As some of my friends know, I love fashion but I really don't like the prevailing images of beauty that the fashion and beauty industry perpetuate. Many of my friends have struggled with feeling beautiful, have had eating disorders, etc. In America and England the dieting industry makes billions of dollars a year on this struggle. I personally have not struggled with an eating disorder but I am no stranger to thousands of "fat days" and dieting.
I think a big solution to giving women hope is offering positive images of beauty and also images of the variety of beauty we all have. If we grew up being presented with certain ideals those ideals need to be displaced by fresh, diverse images. And ultimately we need images of ourselves that show us how God sees us. Anyway, tomorrow night on CNN newsanchor Paula Zahn is doing an hour-long special called "Walking the Thin Line," a special on the growing phenomenon of eating disorders in America, especially among very young girls. She talks about the subject of "image therapy" for girls who've been hospitalized for eating disorders. She will interview Jane Fonda, who is really known as the woman who aerobicized america into an exercise-fitness craze but secretly struggled with bulimia for 30 years. I think this will be an important special, part of bringing to light a very deep and sensitive issue a lot of women need to be aware of. The special is on at 8 p.m. EST...
This month was my 35th birthday. I didn't feel it so much as I have in the past, but I am enjoying being this age... it is a responsible age but all the really playful things in life start becoming good wine, finally. My big bday present was seeing U2. Two nights ago D and I went to the show in Dallas. It was... I'm speechless... so beautiful. They are a band that delivers on so many levels--they are tight, amazing musicians, everything sounds better than you can imagine, the show travels with you, and if you have to scrape the money to go see them somewhere I highly recommend it.
For me, seeing them was a life experience. I remember going out to spend hard-earned money on a cassette of Joshua Tree in high school and listening to it obsessively. They were spiritually and creatively a breakthrough for me... but how beautiful it was to see them at last after all these years and yet they are better than ever. Bono is like a priest, he is delivering his heart and his passion and you don't feel like you are sitting there watching rock stars. In this big stadium, you feel as if you are being invited yourself into this space that everyone wants to belong to--the space of transcendance and beauty. I read an interview where Bono said that they always perform "Where The Streets Have No Name" because it is THE song that takes things to another level and no show would be complete without it, and he's right. When they launched into it, I could really feel the whole crowd around me being taken somewhere. We all wanna go there, right? The place where there are no walls, where we are loved beyond our wildest dreams. This is the only band I know that really takes you there, no matter where you are at, and lets you touch that eternal place. It's heaven, really.
Which is why it's so sad when it's all over. Who wants to leave heaven?
Anyway, I have enormous respect for them as a band--they have really given their gift out, and resisted coming under the spell of entertainment. They use their bigness to bring everyone to the party.
