Saul: A Play in Two Parts

Act 1: The Blinding Light
As I narrate from Acts 9, one of the boys acts the part of Saul, angrily shaking his finger at the "Christians", receiving a letter from the high priest and then litterally dragging his fellow actors into "prison". God speaks to him on the road, and Saul falls down as though dead. The scene ends with a fantastic outburst when Saul is offered food, but flails his arms about and knocks the food away because he is blind.
Act 2: Sight Restored
I continue narrating the story. Another group of actors takes the stage. Saul is now played by a girl, praying silently to God. God (played by a six-year-old standing on a chair) is pointing to Ananias that he should go visit Saul. Ananias reluctantly goes. Saul's sight is then restored, at which point he is baptized by a small shot of water from a plastic drinking cup. Saul then starts preaching the gospel to the crowds - having somehow aquired a blue-covered Bible, complete with New Testament!

Performed one-time only at the children's club at Ley Street earlier this evening. The group acting part 1 received the prize for best performance, while the second group received a bonus for creative use of a cup of water.

Walking to work

For the first time since we've been here, I walked to work at Bethel. It was a gorgeous day, and Somer had the car at Café Forever. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the housing estate from our house, and another 10 to walk accross the estate to our center. Half-way across the estate, I saw a couple that I knew. They had been to a Christianity Explored course with us a couple months ago. Since then, they have started going to two different churches - going to each one every other Sunday. The woman asked me how I was doing, and whether I had converted anyone recently. Being the good Reformed Evangelical that I am (despite what the Theological Worldview test says) I said "Well, I don't really convert anyone, do I? That's more God's business than mine." The man responded "Well, you converted me, didn't you?" I was a bit surprised..."Sorry?" I said. "Yeah, you guys converted me." At this point in the conversation, we came to the fork in the road - they went their way off to the market, I went on to the center. I have no idea if this guy is seriously converted or not...but like I said before, that's more God's business than mine.
I was just glad I had to walk to work today.

In the garden

Our garden has been a kind of respite for me this spring. I've taught the girls how to plant and water vegetables, and how to know when to pick them. It's been a fun way for me to relax and enjoy being outside. Today we harvested our first crop: two cherry tomatoes, pictured here just before picking. They were delicious.

New Life comes to London

Today we went to Covent Garden to see LCM's café The Vine. We were enjoying the time in the center of the city, in an area where spiritualists, Hare Krishnas, homosexuals, and Goths mix freely with the freakishly conservative tourists and business-people. All of a sudden, I hear a loud shout...in a Philly accent. And wouldn't you know it - my pastor from New Life Glenside is right in front of us.
Angelo and a group of a few other New Lifers were on a 10-hour layover on their way to South Africa. It made our month to see them.

Then I found out that Chris, one of the guys from the College group we used to lead - and a very dear friend - was with them. For the next fifteen minutes, we searched the restaurants at Covent Garden looking for Chris. Finally, he saw me and came running up behind me.
Wow! What are the odds of that? We never come down to the city - we hadn't been to Covent Garden since we moved here! I think God knew we needed a bit of emotional sunshine - a reminder of how much we are loved, and how much we love.
Thanks God! Thanks Chris and Angelo and New Lifers!

Nana

My grandmother passed away this past week. It wasn't totally unexpected, but still a major time of grieving and loss for my family. I couldn't make it home for the funeral, so I had to participate from London. I sent a letter that my brother Mark read at the funeral. Then my other brother Andrew set up a video chat back at my Aunt's house, where the family gathered after the funeral. I got to see my immediate family, plus relatives from New York and North Carolina. It was a good time, but also a sharp reminder that we are living far from home.
Explaining the death of Nana to my children was a wonderful experience. The questions you get from a 2- and 4-year-old are amazing. Andi asked what happens when you die. Honestly, I had to say that I wasn't sure. As far as I can tell, our understanding of what happens immediately after death is speculation. The Bible is very clear that death is not the final answer, that Jesus frees us from fear of death, and that he will make all things new and his people will live forever in this new creation. But what happens between now and then is a mystery to me. The clearest thing I can see is that Jesus says to the thief on the cross "Today you will be with me in paradise" but I'm not sure how much we can build on that.
Anyway, I tell you all this because these are two glimpses into my paradoxical life as a cross-cultural Jesus follower (read "missionary" if you're comfortable with that term). My life is very different from what it would be if I was back in the States, but at the same time very much the same.

Get a Mac [partial retraction]

O.k., so I still think you need a Mac. But thanks to Steph for helping me fix the problem. IE on my machine now displays main content in the right spot...any problems now on Windows machines?

[Original post] Apologies to anyone who reads my blog from a Windows machine. It appears that on some versions of IE the previous post forces all the main content below the sidebar. Not in Safari, though. Just goes to show...you need a Mac! Get one here

Theological Worldview Quiz

So I took a theological worldview quiz. A little surprised by how I scored. Here's the breakdown:

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82% Emergent/Postmodern 68% Neo orthodox 64% Roman Catholic 57% Charismatic/Pentecostal 50% Reformed Evangelical 43% Classical Liberal 39% Fundamentalist 36% Modern Liberal 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Apparently I'm more Wesleyan, Neo-Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Pentecostal than I am Reformed Evangelical. Yikes... but before any of you at WHM decide I need to return home prematurely, take the test for yourself and see where you fit. You might be surprised.

Sermons

Been doing lots of sermon writing and preaching this week. Wednesday was the afternoon service at Bethel. I preached on Ezekiel 47 - you can get the PDF copy by clicking here . The talk went really well. I really enjoyed it, people appreciated my poorly-drawn map of the Middle East, and I think people were encouraged to seek life in Jesus.
Tonight I finished writing my sermon for Sunday at City of Peace. Again, get a PDF copy by clicking here . I'm excited about this one because I've preached on the parrallel passage before for my sermon delivery class at seminary and I've incorporated several of the suggestions my professor made. But I also totally re-wrote the thing from scratch, rather than use the old sermon. I've found that reusing material is pretty tough, and second-time-around messages haven't gone well for me. Please feel free to comment - I will check the comments before Sunday afternoon and try to incorporate feedback from you all.

Environmentalism in the Ancient Near East

When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destory its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?
- Yahweh. Deuteronomy 20:19

Live 8 sadness

Yeah, so I didn't win tickets to Live8. Not surprising, really, since they had 1.5 million entries the first day alone, for a mere 70,000 pairs of tickets.

Oh well, guess I can always bid on them on e-Bay.

Never mind...Sir Bob hath spoken, and e-Bay is apparently the seven-headed ten-horned beast from the abyss for allowing someone to sell their tickets. Not wanting to be singled out for a special anti-capitalist flogging, e-Bay has dutifully removed the listing of the tickets and has rejoined all other globalized corporations as a rank-and-file demon.

Can you tell I'm a little bitter about this one? Guess I'm showing my true American Capitalist colors. I mean, what's the big deal if somebody won a pair of tickets and they want to sell them to make money? It's not like they're taking money away from the charities. They already gave their compulsory £1.50 to enter the "contest". With millions of pounds flying around for the charities, I have little sympathy for those who want to castigate someone for wanting to sell their ticket. I mean, I know it's supposed to be about the poor in Africa and not about the bands, but c'mon if it wasn't about the bands, then why get U2, Elton John, and all the other massive names to play? Why not say "Come to Hyde Park and listen to some poor people play music." Or else have all those big bands, but don't let them play, make people just come and sit with them in the park and quietly pray for Africa.

Smashing Cultural Stereotypes

The English are supposed to be reserved. They like their privacy and don't particularly appreciate Americans who come and vomit their souls all over the place the first time they meet you. Case in point: It took us weeks to find out the names of some of the moms at moms & tots because when they introduce themselves, they don't give you their name. Even if you say "Hi, I'm Dan" they'll respond with "Oh, o.k. Hi."

Or so I thought.

Among the young people on the Becontree housing estate there seems to be no concept of personal privacy. Yesterday the younger Hub was cancelled. As usual, most of the kids turned up anyway. When I went outside the center to tell them it was cancelled, I found about ten teenage boys and girls sitting on the wall smoking. I knew most of the guys and a few of the girls, so we started talking. Three of the girls I didn't know. Here's a bit the conversation:
Are you Australian? No
American? Yeah
Where do you come from in America? Philadelphia
Do you like it there?
Do you like it here? (At this point Luke interjects - "This place is a hell-hole")
What are you? Are you a priest? No, I did training to be a priest.
Are you not a priest because you're married? No, I'm allowed to be married even if I get ordained.
What's your name? Dan, what's your name? (I figured if they were going to be blunt, I might as well get a few names out of it).
What are your kids names?
Do you love your wife?Yes (One of the other girls smacks the one who asked the question). The first girl continues:
What? Maybe they're having a bad patch or something.

So there you have it. Nationality, name, job, family, and analysis of the condition of my marriage, all in the span of two minutes.

This week in London - Youth Clubs

This week at the Hub I had an interesting conversation with Tolga. Emma (a co-worker at the centre) is getting married next week. Tolga and I got to talking about marriage. He said he didn't ever want to get married. "What's the point, he said?" Most of his family has had an affair anyway, and marriages don't often last. Luke joined our conversation, and I asked him what he thought the point of marriage was. "It's to celebrate your love and show the other person how much you love them." It's probably the most interesting and serious conversation I've had with these teenage guys.
We also came up with new rules for the Hub this week. In addition to the usual "No alcohol, drugs, smoking, vandalism, etc." we have "no sexual harrasment" and my favorite "no bad attitudes". We've decided that we need to start getting tough with some of the guys, because we want the Hub to be a place where everyone feels safe, including our female staff and the girls who attend the Hub.
Last night were the clubs at Ley Street. We're really starting to develop some good relationships with some of the kids - especially some of the girls who come from a Sikh background. During story time, one of the girls summed up the story of persecution of the church by saying that the word of God about Jesus could not be stopped. I also had a good game of pool with one of the older guys.
Time to go - I'm actually writing this in the middle of moms & tots on Friday morning. We're having a party for Emma because it's her last day here before she goes home for the wedding.

This week in London - Icons

Just thought I'd give you a quick run-down of the week's events.
Monday I set up a small computer network for our centre while Julian made calls to local pastors about the East London Gospel Partnership (part of SEGP). Then we went and visited the vicar of three Church of England churches. We had been told ahead of time that she is a wonderful woman who loves Jesus but who speaks a different language than most "evangelicals". We spent almost an hour with her.
She is a self-described Anglo-Catholic. Very much on the "mystic" side of the experiencial spectrum. Her "specialty" is facilitating quiet days or weekends for meditation and reflection. She also gave us a thorough lesson on icons...the true meaning of icons, not the misunderstood meaning that many Protestants attach to them. She told us they are pieces of theology, not art. Every element is carefully planned to communicate some piece of theological truth. People hold the icons in high esteem - not because they worship the icon itself, but because they love and worship the God about whom the icon speaks. (Iconography - another Seminary Course That Should Have Been).
All in all, it was a pleasant meeting. She's not sure they will join the East London Gospel Partnership. She doesn't really see eye-to-eye with the more evangelical wing of the Anglican church - the guys who are helping spearhead the ELGP. I think she'd bring some much-needed diversity to the group, and could help the partnership think seriously about connecting with the more spiritual/mystical segment of society.

Trendy Coffee

Yesterday was coffee morning at Bethel Christian Centre. We ran out of coffee, so I was sent to the store to get more. There, I succumbed to the latest trend in global mass-marketing. No, they didn't have any Starbucks coffee. I bought Fair Trade coffee. Then I went one step further, and bought a second bag of Organic Fair Trade coffee. Then I bought organic milk to use in the coffee.
So why do I say I succumbed to the latest trend in global mass-marketing? Because in all honesty, I don't have any idea what "Fair Trade" or "Organic" really means.
I mean, I know Organic usually means that something is grown without using harsh chemical fertilizers or pesticides - but what does it mean that the milk is Organic? Probably the cows weren't given rBGH or antibiotics, but I don't really know why these things are bad, or what other measures are taken (or not taken) to make the milk organic. And what about the organic coffee - what makes it "organic?"
I have similar problems with the "Fair Trade" label. I know it's supposed to mean that producers in poor areas of the world were treated fairly and paid a decent price (usually above prevailing market value) for their products. But who's to say how much is a "decent" price? And anyway, I bought the coffee having no idea how much the growers were actually paid.
The reality is, I bought those products not because I actually know that they are better products, but because a global marketing campaign has taught me to think that Organic and Fair Trade lables mean the product is healthier, environmentally friendlier, and conducive to the promotion of justice. Score one for the new (somewhat subversive) face of global capitalism.

A few notes: I actually like the idea of organic growing. I'm hoping to pick up a book on organic gardening soon. Also, just because I didn't know the specifics behind the organic and fair trade labels when I bought the products doesn't mean you can't find them out. In addition to the above link about Fair Trade, see this link to Wikipedia's extensive explanation of organic farming codes. My issue isn't with either practice, it's with my lack of understanding of them.

Live8 Tickets

I've put in my name for the contest for Live8 tickets. Just sent a text this morning. There seems to be a fascination in the UK with entering contests by sending an answer to a ridiculously simple question via text message...don't really understand it. There are about 72,000 tickets available, and hopefully I'll be the proud possessor of two of them come this Friday. I'll let you know!

Live8 Update

Just found out that the Live8 concert in London is "free". You have to enter a text message contest, which costs £1.5 plus the cost of the text message. So I'm going to enter when the contest opens on June 6. Flying to Edinburgh for the protest march sounds cool, but I think it's in the middle of the week. In any case, the free concert in Hyde Park is more do-able. Plus, it's with U2, Muse, Scissor Sisters, REM, and many others!

Kite Flying

For the past week, the girls have been asking "Is it windy today Daddy?"
Last weekend, I bought a couple of kites for 89p from Tesco. But there wasn't enough wind to fly them...until today.
Click here to see a short movie of Andi flying her kite. There is something very free and beautiful about kite flying. I just ran around under the kites, looking up with my arms spread out, jumping every now and then in a vain attempt to fly along with them.

Anyone know how to put a quicktime file directly into this post, instead of linking to it? Drop me an e-mail if you do.

Can I get a Pound for petrol?

A guy stopped me at the local gas petrol station today, asking if I could spare a pound. He had run out of petrol. He looked scruffy, but seemed legit - he was holding up a plastic petrol can.

"Sorry," I said. "I don't have any cash on me." Usually that's true - I don't carry cash. But as it happened, tonight I had borrowed 6 Pounds from Somer. So I even had a 1 Pound coin that I could have given him. All of this flashed through my head right after the words came out of my mouth.

As I walked away, I began to think that I should turn and give the guy a pound. But I didn't. I wondered what he'd do with it. Was he really legit? Would he steal my wallet when I took it out to get the money? Would he use my Pound for a beer instead of petrol?

As I drove away, I realized that maybe my earlier thinking about generosity hadn't really changed me all that much. Crap!! I hate it that I'm freakishly fearful, analytical, and selfish when it comes to giving strangers money. It's not so much that I should have given this guy money on this particular occassion (though probably I should have). It's more that I don't have a well-thought-out theology of generosity. I don't have a plan for how to give liberally. So when people ask - my gut reaction is to say 'no'.

I really need to take this to the Lord.

Make Poverty History

Make Poverty History has lots of popular support among young people in Ilford and Dagenham. Lots of kids wearing the white bracelets in support of the campaign. Some Christians also getting in on the act, with tallskinnykiwi asking Who is going to Live 8 in Edinburgh? Wish I could go. Anybody want to send me a gift so I can attend? Drop me an e-mail if you're interested.

Tonight I'm giving a talk at Ley Street youth club from Acts 4/5. It's usually called "The story of Ananias and Sapphira" in honor of the two people who die for their deception. But at the heart of the story is the eradication of poverty among the fledgling church in Jerusalem. Chapter 4 ends by saying that the believers shared everything they had, and there were no needy persons among them. The story of Ananias and Sapphira follows right after this - I think - because it demonstrates just how important sharing of property was. Yes, the immediate cause of their death was that they lied to God - but they lied to God on matters of utmost importance to God's kingdom.

I'll be the first to admit that I love money. We haven't given money at church since we've been here in London, and I think that lack of giving is slowly killing us. Part of the problem is that none of the churches we've been to pass the plates - they just have a box at the back. Being the outsiders that we are, we just figured that out last week. But the point is, we need to start giving away more than we are. Anybody who reads this in need of some money? Again, drop me an e-mail if you're interested.

[update] the talk went well, though I hadn't counted on the kids' insanely strong sense of injustice. I had asked a couple of the girls to help by giving them some candy and then asking them to give all of it back during the story. one of them played the part of Ananias and didn't give it all back. when they saw that she kept some for herself...the boys flipped out! In the end, I think the talk was good. They were quiet while I read the poem from Philippians 2 about Jesus emptying himself. The God of self-giving love is the one who motivates demands a response of generosity from us.