Kingdom of God reversals: the bringing down of the powerful and raising up of the vulnerable

On December 4^th I flew to Washington DC from Seattle via Houston to participate in  Faith Table, a gathering of 60 or so Christian leaders from across the USA to discuss the distressed state of the Nation post-election and to discern what the Spirit is saying to us in these troubled times.

The trip got off to an interesting start with two special conversations with people who both had experienced devastating traumas, some measure of protection and  new-found hope. These encounters were strong reminders of how Jesus continues his revolutionary movement to bring change from below—in the midst of political victories of the powerful.

As the plane was taking off from Houston to Washington DC the young Latina woman seated beside me nervously crossed herself and bowed her head. I asked her if she was afraid, and she said “a little.” She told me she doesn’t fly often but was returning from Honduras.

We began conversing in Spanish about her upbringing in Honduras and Gracie and my long history there. We talked about the escalation of violence there in recent years, and I shared briefly how impoverished rural communities Tierra Nueva serves have been affected and the challenges of pastorally accompanied people traumatized by that violence.

She then shared the story of how six years before when she lived in Honduras armed men dressed as police stopped her while she was driving, robbing her, beating her up and steeling her car. Traumatized by this experience she moved to the USA where her father lives, completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in international business here and then in Spain. Recently she was hired by a global health organization in Washington, D.C. that had just sent her on her first work trip back to her beloved country and place of traumatic memories.

She shared her growing love and concern for Honduras and her longing to see deep reformation that would address the needs of the poorest people. As I listened to her I got the strong impression that God was raising her up into some kind of significant leadership role—maybe even at a national political level. She was moved as I shared my impressions with her. She told me how she was feeling drawn to return to Honduras to work for change. She also shared how a Christian friend who prays for her recently prophesied that God was raising her up for some prominent public role.

Mary’s Song struck me as relevant to this young woman.  I asked if I could read her Luke 1:46-55. She gladly agreed. I felt the anointing of the Spirit as I began to read “for he has had regard for the humble state of his servant…for the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is his name.”

As I continued reading, several verses really jumped out regarding God’s commitments in the world.

“God has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed.”

Today’s lectionary reading from Isaiah 26:5-6 echoes this manifesto.

“For he has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city; he lays it low, he lays it low to the ground, he casts it to the dust. The foot will trample it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the helpless.”

I asked if I could pray for her as we began our descent into the Nation’s capitol and she gladly accepted. This encounter was a strong sign for me that the hidden leaven of the Kingdom of God is active in the midst of bleak political landscapes, where the powerful seem to be exalted. God is indeed raising up the humble! But there were more signs to come…

Upon arrival I contacted an Uber taxi and was soon picked up for a thirty-minute journey to my hotel. Detecting a Middle-Eastern accent, I asked the driver where he was from and he said “Yemen.” I was amazed as Yemen has been on my heart lately.

I shared with him how I have been following events in Yemen and have been deeply troubled by news of an escalation of attacks from Saudi Arabia with US support, and the alarming terror and hunger that have resulted. I shared how on October 30 we had flown over Yemen on a flight from Nairobi to Dubai- and how I had felt moved to pray for his nation.

He told me he had fled Yemen with his wife and two young children less then two years before. He said his father owned a chain of supermarkets and he had left his job overseeing over 500 employees, traveling with his family by bus on a dangerous journey to Saudi Arabia and on to the USA, where he had studied for many years when he was younger. Now he is enjoying a less stressful job with more quality time with his wife and children.

We talked about conflicts in the Middle East and the refugee crisis, and I shared with him my burden to see individual Christians and churches embrace immigrants and refugees. I told him how I worked with undocumented immigrants in Washington State and felt a particular call to pastor prisoners, especially violent offenders.

“I really admire what you are doing. There is a big need for this. There are many guns and fighters everywhere in Yemen,” he said. 

Knowing that Somalia was adjacent to Yemen I shared the story about how a Somali friend of ours living in Paris had a brother en route to Europe who was caught by pirates in Libya, who had demanded 10,000 Euros ransom. They had told my friend that if she couldn’t pay they would sell his organs on the black market. At this point he pointed to himself and said:

“I myself was kidnapped and held hostage for $200,000 ransom in Yemen!”

He then shared the story of how several years ago when living in Yemen he was followed on his way home from work by two vehicles. When stopping to buy a watermelon, armed men surrounded him, ordering him to come with them or they would kill him. He shared how they drove him up into the mountains and held him for forty days in a safe house. During those days awaiting the payment of ransom by his father the bombing by Saudi Arabia was escalating.

“I was much safer in the mountains with my captors then my family was in the city. I was so worried about my family!” he said.

He told me how he got to know his captors, who treated him fairly well, even letting him use his cell phone to stay in contact with his family. After his ransom was paid and he was released, he learned that one of the leaders of the militants who kidnapped him had bought a car with the ransom money. Shortly thereafter he was in a car accident where he and his father were killed, and his two brothers were badly injured.

I was amazed by my Muslim Uber driver’s sadness as he told me about these deaths, and his heartfelt compassion for his captors. I asked him if I could pray a prayer of blessing over him as we arrived at the hotel and he enthusiastically agreed. I prayed grace and peace and abundant blessing over him and his family, in Jesus’ name, and we both felt the strong and loving presence of the Holy Spirit.

I just phoned him and we hope to stay in touch. I told him how impressed I was by his attitude towards his captors. “There is no room for hate in our hearts,” he said.

Meetings at the Faith Table gathering were both troubling and encouraging. Troubling are the hardened attitudes towards the poor, tendencies to scapegoat those on the margins, and alignment with the interests of the powerful identified by these leaders across the USA—especially when they are among people who identify as Christian. Disturbing are fears and signs of harsh new policies that will directly hurt the most vulnerable: undocumented immigrants, people of color, the incarcerated, gang youth, Muslim immigrants, refugees, and the environment.

I was deeply encouraged to meet many faithful Christians from different ethnic backgrounds, denominations and organizations, committed to advocating for the most defenseless in these dark times. I am heartened to hear of a new national call based on Matthew 25 for people of faith to commit to protecting the most vulnerable.

I am inspired by my own personal experiences on this trip that God’s Kingdom is going in the opposite direction of the apparent advances of the powerful: bringing down rulers from their thrones. God is exalting the humble, and filling the hungry with good things.

May we more fully align ourselves with the poor and vulnerable who God is raising up. May we step more fully into Jesus’ mission, seeking first Jesus’ Kingdom and his righteousness.

"Security Threat Group" Embraces Jesus

For a number of years now our local jail has housed gang-involved inmates in segregated units to avoid run-ins with enemy gang members. At times though the normal stresses of incarceration combine with internal tensions within a gang, leading to fights between fellow homies. For nearly four months this summer and fall inmates from one particular gang where locked down often three to a cell, 24/7 as deterrent and punishment for fighting.

During these months they did not benefit from weekly Bible studies nor daily time out of their cells for recreation and meals. A few weeks ago I was able to meet with this group for Bible studies two Thursday nights in a row. These thirty-minute gatherings have been precious tasters of the Kingdom of God.

The first time we met together nearly the entire inmate population of the lower tier of the pod that housed these men attended. 15 or so guys shuffled in and took their seats on blue plastic chairs around our familiar circle. Many of these men I’d known for years. Matt and I made the rounds shaking everyone’s hand, warmly welcoming them before we formally began our meeting with a prayer.

I talked directly about their official label as an STG (Security Threat Group). I invited them to look at how Jesus and his disciples were also considered an STG. 

“Check this out you guys. Jesus himself was rejected and given the death penalty by the authorities, who considered him a security threat. Peter confronts the people about this here in Acts 3:14-15, right when he’s got their full attention after a man lame from birth has just been healed. Can someone read these verses for us?” I ask.

“God glorified his servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered over and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him,” one of the men reads.

“But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. (Acts 3:14-15).

These men who’ve been shelved away in lockdown readily identify with the sting of rejection and the stigma of being an STG. They easily sympathize with Jesus, who Isaiah earlier described as “despised and rejected of men, and man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). They are moved by God’s acceptance of Jesus—the one rejected by the status quo.

I invite the men to go against the current of the world’s ongoing marginalization of Jesus, valuing him instead as the “living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 2:5). 

I invite them to choose to receive him who the world did not recognize and his own people didn’t accept—and there’s no resistance. We end with prayers for everyone, focusing special attention on a man who sobbed as he recounted how his 15-year-old daughter had overdosed on heroine five days before.

The following week another colleague Mike and I were able to minister to this same group of inmates in a thirty-minute session that felt like heaven touching earth. 

Mike brought his guitar and I offered to pray for the 12-15 men while he sang a worship song over them. Mike sang with great tenderness as I made my way around the circle behind the men, gently placing a hand on their shoulder and praying. As I prayed I sensed an outpouring of divine love for the men that went far beyond words. By the time I made my way around the circle many of the men were wiping tears from their eyes. I sat down and expressed how I was sensing God’s huge heart for each of them.

“Can I say something?” asked a huge guy I didn’t remember ever meeting.

“Yeah go for it,” I said.

Humbly he recounted a violent crime he had committed and confessed that he had even beaten people up for pay. This led one of the gang leaders to share how he and many of the others had lots of people they hadn’t forgiven who they probably should forgive. The kindness of God seemed to be inciting a wave of repentance, which fed right into a few verses from Luke that hit home for me and the men in a fresh way.

I ask someone to read Jesus’ words in Luke 6:26-36.

As a particularly well-known local criminal read Jesus’ words it felt like they were highlighted and struck home with particular authority.

“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.”

The men were nodding at these most challenging words, and each nod looked like heart doors opening wider as the light of Christ flowed in like liquid medicine. Loving each other was a better alternative to fights and the seclusion of lockdown—but Jesus’ teaching offered more.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same,” the pod’s shot caller continued to a fully attentive audience. The codes of the street and of America’s legal system were being directly challenged.  

I explain that “credit” is the word charis, meaning grace, gift, benefit.

“As we move in the opposite spirit of enemy hate—choosing to instead love, bless, do good to and forgive we will receive real benefits from God. And this is something we can do right here, as long as there are still enemies to love and forgive” I continue, before the final verse is read.

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” —an appealing prospect to people being punished, who themselves are desperate for acceptance into a new family and the Father’s embrace regardless of their attitude.

The final words “for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men” hit us all like a big, warm, unconditional hug for thugs, inviting Jesus’ call to an unheard of but strangely appealing warfare: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

In the remaining five minutes or so before the guards come we lead the men in prayer, confessing our sins, receiving our forgiveness, forgiving ourselves, forgiving our enemies. I leave them with homework to continue the process, and it seems like we all leave having already tasted the grace, the reward for living as sons of the merciful Father… and abundant ongoing provision is available for the receiving.

Rediscovering identity & calling in a world of fear & division

Recent news has me reeling between outrage and grief: 84 people killed in Nice; police shootings of black men and subsequent killings of police in the USA; war and starvation in Nigeria; attacks in Orlando, Bagdad, Mogadishu, Istanbul, Ankara, Brussels, Paris, Los Angeles and so many other places. Insecurity and fear are on the rise, and apathy, anger and cynicism lurk. Now is the time for followers of Jesus to stay focused and remember who we are and what we’re about.

Those who receive Jesus and believe in his name are given authority to become children of God. New birth into God’s family does not happen through natural bloodline (race, ethnicity, nationality), human desire or decision (ideology, religion or democracy) but by grace through adoption by the Father (John 1:12-13). These words of Jesus’ prayer to the Father for his disciples ring deeply relevant now: “that they may be one even as we are”…“The world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world”… “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” “As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:11, 14, 16-17).

In today’s world hatred and division are rampant. Nationalist movements are on the rise in Europe, North America and beyond, offering the promise of heightened security and well-being for limited beneficiaries through increasing defense, law-enforcement and controls: borders, surveillance, prison sentences, deportations and the like. The UK’s recent 52 to 48% vote to leave rather than stay in the EU and the United States’ current near fifty-fifty Democrat versus Republican split reveal some dangerous polarizations that Christians must avoid falling into. Rather we must be clear about our identity and agenda as Christ followers.

Jesus warned his disciples that lawlessness would increase and most people’s love would grow cold.” Jesus himself stated “the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (see Matthew 24:12-14). So how do we rightly endure the increasing lawlessness and proclaim Jesus’ Kingdom in these turbulent times?

God calls people to not put their own homeland, family and individual interests first. God calls Abraham and his spiritual descendants to be a blessing to every family on the earth (Genesis 12:1-4). This call continues from Genesis to Revelation, with Jesus embodying God’s sacrificial love for the whole world (John 3:16).

Now is the time to connect with God’s perfect love that drives out all fear. Now we must deliberately receive—not a spirit of fear “but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). Now is the time to heed Paul’s call to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

Gracie and I and our Tierra Nueva staff are seeing signs of hope and transformed life in the Skagit Valley and beyond. Every time we minister in jails or prisons we encounter people hungry for God and eager for change. We see people longing to step into their heavenly identity as God’s beloved sons and daughters. We often celebrate the surrender of the old identity for the new in baptism.

This past Sunday we baptized five people coming out of lives marked by lawlessness. People went under the waters of baptism in the frigid Skagit River, trading old identities for new life in Christ. Further training of new Christians and future missional workers regarding identity and mission are our highest priority in this season.

This past six months we have completed our first three (9-12-month-long) Certificates in Transformational Ministry at the Margins (CTMM) cohorts in Burlington, London and Seoul. Over 70 people finished our training, geared to strengthen existing ministry workers and prepare new ones for pioneer efforts to share the good news of God’s transforming love in Jesus (the Gospel of the Kingdom) to under-reached and unreached people.

Our CTMMs gather people hungry for deeper reflection and fellowship with like-minded people. In these trainings we seek to deliberately bring together Bible study and theological reflection, empowerment and gifts of the Holy Spirit and social justice/advocacy on behalf of the poor and marginalized.

The training consists of five strands, which are woven together over 9-12 months including three 3-4 day gatherings with distance-learning in between. These strands include:  God’s identity and mission and ours; healing & holistic liberation: Biblical foundations and practices; the place of advocacy, justice & peace-making in mission; Word on the street: preparing & leading transformational bible studies; and practical reflections on how this works in our lives and ministries.

In January we launched a new CTMM in Zimbabwe with 115 pastors and church leaders. This Fall we are starting four more cohorts, in London,Glasgow, Burlington and in Western Kenya. If you are interested in being further equipped to announce and live out the Good News of Jesus’ Kingdom in the face of today’s big challenges we encourage you consider joining one of these cohorts closest to you. Click on the links for more information and applications.

Households of Resistance and Hope in Honduras

Tierra Nueva’s (TN) focus both in Honduras and in the Skagit Valley is reaching people marginalized from society and church, the “lost sheep” of Jesus’ parable in Luke 15 as priority over the 99 already gathered ones. And yet we are seeing that safe, welcoming and nurturing “sheep pens” are essential—places to carry the ones found where they can be embraced, cared for, healed and empowered.

On a recent trip to Honduras I accompanied TN’s pastor David to villages and homes that he visits, and to our coffee farm that funds the ministry, supplying coffee to our Underground Coffee Project here, whose profits support ministry workers.

For years now David has focused on households as sheep pens, identifying “people of peace” as Jesus directed in Luke 10. We call these “households in transformation”, whose hosts welcome Jesus’ sent ones--- offering hospitality, receiving prayer for healing and the message shared about Jesus’ transforming love. 

David regularly visits a number of families, and is actively building community in places marked by extreme poverty and exclusion. I joined David to visit these households and to inaugurate a larger sheep-pen church in the town of Mal Paso. One afternoon we hiked up dirt roads that turned to trails to visit several homes on the edge of town that each included single mothers with children.

In the first home I met Antonia and her ten-year old daughter Vero (pictured below). Three or four other women, a handful of children and an older man named Juan Baptista were also gathered to meet us for coffee, a Bible study and prayer. The people shared challenges revealing how entrapped the poor can feel by local laws set up to protect the fragile environment.

Strictly-enforced rules govern the cutting of firewood to protect the forests as the majority of people cook over wood-fueled earthen stoves. Forest conserving efforts are urgent due to the southern pine bark beetle plague, which in the past year has ravaged half the pine forests in the country in what experts call an ecological catastrophe attributed to climate change. If someone’s rafters are termite-infested and ready to collapse, people are required to pay the mayor’s office per linear-foot for a two-day permit. This fee is nearly impossible to pay for the poor majority—like Antonia,  who works from 6am-1:30pm six days a week as a maid for a wealthier family, earning 1,500 Lempiras per month—that’s only $66.00!  A day-wage earner makes $5.50 a day—and the cost of living is high.

Making your own adobe blocks to build a house is only possible during the dry season. However, the mayor’s office prohibits the use of water for making adobes so there will be enough water to meet the villagers’ even more basic needs.  Consequently, Antonia and her neighbors must hike down to the river below town and haul sewage-contaminated water in buckets up the hill to make adobes. Antonia’s husband had left for the USA to work right before Vero’s birth ten years before and they haven’t heard from him since. So Antonia, like many of her neighbors, must fend for herself.

The Biblical text that came to mind to read with the people was the depiction of Pharaoh’s attempt to destroy Israelite baby boys and the women’s covert resistance in Exodus 1-2:10. I heard story after story of Honduran equivalents of Pharaoh’s death campaigns: assassinations, kidnappings, and men and women leaving the harsh conditions of Honduras and their families for “los caminos” (the roads taken by undocumented immigrants to North America).

Exodus begins with good news from the start, as we first read about the people of Israel’s exponential Spirit-infused multiplication in the aftermath of the death of Jacob and his sons in Egypt, and Pharaoh’s enslavement and increasingly harsh treatment of the people-- though multiplication means more mouths to feed.

The Honduran women and kids seemed intrigued by the Hebrew midwives Shiphra and Puah’s refusal to obey Pharaoh’s orders to kill Hebrew baby boys. Everyone laughed at the midwives outright lie to Pharaoh and crafty use of Egyptian prejudices to cover up their law breaking. “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.” Everyone seemed surprised and even delighted that God blessed the midwives with families for their non-cooperation and deception.

We read the story of how Pharaoh commands all Israelite baby boys to be throw into the Nile River, about Moses’ birth, his mother seeing his beauty, hiding him, and sending him downriver in a basket-- with Moses’ sister following to spy out the outcome and figure out a scheme to somehow interfere to save his life.

The people were still captivated as one of the children read about Pharaoh’s daughter spotting the basket, sending her servants to fetch it, opening the basket, seeing the baby boy crying and having compassion on him—with full knowledge that he was one of the Hebrew’s children. Pharaoh’s daughter’s disobedience of her father’s edict and deliberate aiding and abetting a fugitive, Moses’ sister’s sneaky offer to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child for Pharaoh’s daughter (Moses’ very mother) and Pharaoh’s daughter’s adoption of Moses bring us to a final summarizing moment.

God is not on the side of the powers of death as some might think who see God as all-powerful sovereign. God is 100% about the preservation of life, saving the most vulnerable, threatened people. God works through the weak and unsuspecting even as they use crafty and even outright deceptive and illegal means and blesses them for their resistance. So God wouldn’t punish them should they sneak some water for adobes or a fallen pine tree for a rafter.

People’s faces were shining as we sat around with our bibles, pondering women’s resistance triggered by simple observation and compassion. Suddenly I saw a link I had never noticed between the seeing-inspired resistance of Moses’ mother, sister and Pharaoh’s daughter and Jesus himself. I invited people to read Matthew 9:26-38.

“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

As Antonia read this verse with her neighbors there on the hillside, Jesus’ caring gaze as the Good Shepherd suddenly felt irresistible. I asked the people if there were feeling drawn to Jesus, who sees us and has compassion on us and wants to recruit shepherds to go out to seek and find.

The women, kids, and Juan Baptista all wanted to pray with David and I to accept Jesus and surrender our lives to him. They all wanted to be part of his mission to save lives like the women in Exodus, and to find distressed and dispirited sheep for his harvest. I saw some of the kids with their palms out as we continued to pray for those who wanted to receive the Holy Spirit.

At this point we asked if anyone had any special needs for prayer. Antonia mentioned that her daughter Vero had skipped school that day because she didn’t want to miss being prayed for. Vero had lost much of the eyesight in her left eye and had lost ten pounds over the past few weeks. David and I prayed for Vero and she cried gently, telling us later that she felt deeply touched by God.

The next day we traveled to the town of Mal Paso and gathered with sixty or so villagers to inaugurate our first actual Tierra Nueva church building in Honduras. Every other week Antonia, Vero and their neighbors pile into the back of the TN pickup and travel the 40 minutes to Mal Paso to gather with others like themselves in the larger sheep pen. Just a week before David opened the new church building to host a service for an especially marginalized participant in our faith community there who died of AIDS—something that he says would never happen in local churches.

Please keep David and Tierra Nueva’s ministry in Honduras in your prayers. I have just learned that Vero’s blood tests show Leukemia. So please join us in praying for her full healing. To learn more about Tierra Nueva Honduras, click here. To support click here.

Tierra Nueva’s The People’s Seminary is offering year-long Certificates in Transformational Ministry at the Margins beginning in the Fall in London, Glasgow and Burlington, Washington. Click on the locations for more information and applications.

Seen and Acknowledged

Last Friday Gracie and I flew to San Francisco to visit friends and speak in a church. From the airport we made our way to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and took the light rail into the city. Once comfortably installed in our seats I pulled out my laptop and started working on a talk for the next day on reading the Bible for personal and social transformation.

A young man started shouting loudly further up the train, a common occurrence in subways in Paris where I’d been a few weeks earlier. Vagabond performers often board the metro with a short act and make rounds with a hat for donations. Homeless people or gypsies regularly beg, sometimes after some kind of speech—and people mostly ignore them. I was able to tune the voice out so as to concentrate on my presentation. Other passengers had their faces in newspapers or books. Most had ear buds securely in place to shut out the distracting sounds. 

The voice was getting louder and increasingly agitated but very articulate. It broke through my concentration in blasts, disrupting my focus:

“Look at all of you, hiding behind your laptops and newspapers, shutting me out with your ear buds and iPhones. Why can’t you just acknowledge me by looking at me? I am not going away, and neither are the 10,000 other homeless people here in San Francisco who suffer on the streets. All of the homeless shelters are filled and I have no place to sleep tonight.“

His voice grew shriller and more hostile as he made his way down train towards us. I could feel other passengers discomfort and annoyance. I found myself wondering for a moment what I’d do if he got right in my face. I even pondered whether he might be the type who could pull out a gun. At this point I hadn’t even looked over at him but was still buried in my laptop, using my café-sitting skills to tune him out.

“Do you realize how painful it is to be homeless and have people ignore you like you don’t even exist?” He continued like a prophet, piercing through my defenses.

“It hurts to be treated like you’re invisible. I am a person just like you people.  But look, right now not one of you will even look up and make eye contact with me. Can’t somebody simply acknowledge my existence?”  

Suddenly I felt compelled to close my laptop and respond to him in some way. I got up and made my way over to him as he stood in the closed doorway of the moving train, nearing the end of his tirade. When he stopped I tapped him on the shoulder and spoke:

“Sir, I want you to know that I am listening to you and am deeply moved by what you are saying. I am sad that you feel so ignored and rejected and can see that you are in a lot of pain. You are getting through to me and I want to thank you for sharing your feelings.”

He looked up stunned and said: “Whoa, I’m not used to anyone responding to me. Nobody ever does this man.”

“What’s your name?” I asked. “Sean” which he pronounced seen. I then told him that God notices him all the time and knows his pain. I asked him if I could pray a prayer of blessing over him.

“Yeah, you can pray for me,” he said. “But would you be willing to help me out with a meal first?” he asked.

“Gladly,” I responded, and we agreed to meet at Civic Center station, where he said his favorite restaurant was located. Sean excused himself to finish his speech, and I sat down beside Gracie, noticing glances from fellow passengers who looked slightly relieved as he continued in a less agitated voice.

Sean met us as we stepped off the BART, and we followed him out of the station and up the stairs to the street level.

We had noticed when walking beside him that he shuffled along gingerly in oversized unlaced basketball shoes. 

“What’s wrong with your feet?” Gracie asked. “Are you in pain?”

He told us that he had severed a tendon but that both of his feet were messed up from break dancing.

“There’s my favorite restaurant,” he said, pointing to Burger King across the street. He motioned for us to wait there against a storefront on the sidewalk for a moment, but I said that we really needed to be on our way soon.

“No, no. Just wait for six seconds,” he insisted.

Sean walked into the flow of pedestrians with his right hand out, gently saying “excuse me ma’am, excuse me sir” a few times to whom ever was before him. We watched as pedestrians avoided him without acknowledging him in any noticeable way, like he was invisible. People consistently skirted him, looking down or in the opposite direction with expert ignoring. 

Sean came back to us and said, “see the attitude that we homeless people have to deal with?” Gracie and I were amazed as we followed him across the cross walk to Burger King.  

“We all need to be acknowledged, which is exactly what people are supposed to do towards God,” he commented, referring to a Scripture that I later located as Proverbs 3:6. “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.”

We waited in line at Burger King and two separate homeless men approached Sean, asking him for something. He ordered and we sat down on some stairs heading up to a closed off seating area. At this point I asked him if we could pray for him or if he’d prefer to wait until his food came.

“Actually if you could pray for me before your next meal, instead, that would suit me just fine, if that’s okay” he said. “But would you mind if I prayed for the two of you?” he asked.

We accepted his offer, and putting a hand on each of us he began to loudly pray. “Our Father in heaven, mighty God, I believe. But help my unbelief!” He went on praying a long prayer quieting down as he became increasingly focused. “…Lord bless this couple with a happy marriage and a long life!” were some of his final words before a strong “amen.”

As soon as Sean finished his prayer Gracie said:

“It seems wrong that we leave you without praying for your feet. You are in pain. Can’t we just pray a short prayer for you?” she asked.

Sean resisted for a moment but then agreed to let us pray. I put my hands on his shoes and we spoke healing to his feet in Jesus’ name. We blessed him with God’s peace and protection. He was visibly moved. He got up to get his order and we headed out together towards our next cable-car like bus—the Muni (SF Municipal Railway).

As we crossed the street towards the Muni stop Gracie asked him whether he was noticing any improvement in his feet. “I won’t lie,” said Sean. “I do not feel the same as before.”

“Well then we must thank God and pray some more,” said Gracie as we reached the other side of the street.

We prayed for him and he received his healing in Jesus’ name. At this point Sean’s demeanor changed. He looked awestruck and we sensed the Holy Spirit touching us all in a deeper way. We said our goodbyes and watched him shuffle off a little faster with what looked like a new lightness in his steps.

As we made our way to the underground Muni stop we felt a lightness as it seemed God was directing our path. We felt inspired and even recruited by Sean to see and acknowledge other individuals, feeling carried along by the flow of God’s love.

A tall homeless man selling newspapers showed us where to buy tickets. We noticed that his hands were severely twisted and learned he was in a lot of pain from arthritis. He gladly accepted prayer for healing and we continued our journey to our friends’ house, wondering what other adventures this already inspired weekend would hold.

Announcement: This September and October The People’s Seminary is offering three new upcoming Certificate in Transformational Ministry at the Margins cohorts in London, Glasgow and Burlington.  Click on the sites for more information and applications.

Following the Resurrected One Now

I have been moved this Easter by Mark’s account of Jesus’ resurrection—by a detail I had never noticed and a renewed understanding of a well-know verse.

When the first two witnesses to the empty tomb (both Marys) arrive to find the “extremely large” stone had been removed from the tomb, they enter the tomb and meet a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe. He tells them something that surprised me: “do not be amazed!” He then goes on to say matter-of-factly:

“You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; he is not here (in the place of death, of commemoration); behold, here is the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’”

I looked up the Greek verb translated “amaze” and found out it can mean “to alarm thoroughly, to terrify or to be struck with amazement.” It seems the messenger was all about them not letting terror demobilize them or amazement mystify them. The Kingdom of God must continue. Jesus is alive and already going ahead to meet them in Galilee—where he will send them out to continue his mission.

But the women don’t heed the angel, but flee from the tomb. Terror and amazement grip them. They say nothing to anyone because they were afraid.  When Mary Magdalene is then met by the resurrected Jesus and then tells the disciples, they refused to believe he was alive and had been seen by her.

Fear, amazement and unbelief were the major obstacles to the movement continuing—and when Jesus himself meets the eleven he reprimands them for their unbelief and hardness of heart—because they refused to believe the humble witnesses who had seen him after his resurrection. 

As I am now considering what is required by these first Christians I can see that things haven’t changed much since these first days. Fear, unbelief and hardness of heart block the weak (but powerful) steps of radical faith required of us today.

These first believers, like we ourselves, had to step out in vulnerability to follow Jesus, who is described as having been received into heaven to sit at God’s right hand. But he worked with them as they went out, and will work with us now too.

“And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed” (Mark 16:19).

In late March Gracie and I were in Siberia teaching a course on holistic liberation together with Mike Neelley, our son Isaac and two friends from Paris. During the first session with 40 Russian pastors and leaders I spoke on Isaiah 59, interpreting an oft-misunderstood notion that sin separates God from us. 

As I was speaking I remembered an example from years ago in Skagit County Jail, where I saw the Holy Spirit bring relief to four inmates who were not yet Christians. I described to my Russian audience (nearly all ex-addicts and many ex-offenders) how when looking at a particular inmate I saw in my minds eye a metal bar coming down atop his head. When I asked him and the others if any had been hit on their heads with a metal bar, four inmates had raised their hands. I had prayed for them regarding trauma and head injuries and they had been deeply touched.

As I was wrapping up my teaching in Siberia I wondered why I had brought up that particular example. I decided to ask if anyone in the audience had been hit on their head with a metal bar or wooden bat. A number of people raised their hands, and many more came up for prayer. There were a number of people healed, and many forgave those who had struck them at different times of their lives.  One pastor had lost vision in his right eye due to a such an injury. After receiving prayer his vision was completely restored. God confirmed the words with signs, and we witnessed this and it filled us with joy.

Jesus is no longer dead but alive and goes ahead of us to meet us. Let us resist any fear or amazement that demobilizes, and unbelief and hardness of heart that blocks. Let us step into Jesus’ ministry and make it our own with expectancy, re-reading and prayerfully considering his instructions to disciples at the end of each Gospel (Mark 16:15-18; Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:46-49).