When God became human in Jesus, he showed us how to
become complete human beings before him.
We do it the way Jesus did it, by becoming absolutely needy and dependent
on the Father. Only when we stand emptied, stand impoverished before
God can we receive what only empty hands can receive."
- Eugene Peterson in Tell it Slant.

Not sure if anyone is reading this anymore...but the above quote struck hard.
Would love to sit down over a cup of coffee to talk (maybe even listen some)
Let me know...

Yesterday a group of us went to IRCOM (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba) in Winnipeg. (Aren't acronym's fun...we learned many more yesterday) This Organization is located In Winnipeg and is committed to empowering newcomer families through Pro-Active Post Intial Settlement Service (PPSS) in order to facilitate their transition into the larger Winnipeg community. This quote that I got from a friend a while back came to my mind.

Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion, is to take off our shoes ... for the place we are approaching is holy. Else we may find ourselves treading on men's and women's dreams, more seriously still, we may forget God was there before our arrival.
by Bishop Kenneth Cragg

I am not sure how the rest of the group feels but sometimes I feel like we are standing on the edge of a great sea, or maybe wading in the shallows in this adventure of welcoming newcomers.
The sea is calling us to explore all its mysteries and surprises.
Another quote...

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore” Vincent Van Gogh

living in the times we do. (interesting) I wrestle with the state of the church. Having made that 'state'ment begs the question...who am I to stand in judgement of the church? Yet is there a place for the prophetic voice or even a pastoral concern? On the other hand, as William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas says..."Every time the church gathers, prays the Lord's Prayer, and eats and drinks the Lord's Supper with Jesus, we show that Jesus continues to be known by the company he keeps at the table. God's kingdom is a bunch of tax collectors, sinners, and sick people eating and drinking with Jesus." So there is a place for us all, messed up as we are. And the only ones who are excluded are the ones who won't include other messed up people.

gathering...it seems this is something we as those listen to Yeshua Bar Joseph should do. Hang out together...Connect..."spur one another on" (sounds painful)
but what should those gatherings look like...
1)food ...need I say more
2) people...Obviously
3)teaching...this is where it gets scary...question/answer, dialogue, feedback
4)spontaneity...without empty talk
5) vulnerablilty

I was at a 'gathering' a few months back that had some of these things going on...yet what really broke it open was someone was whiling to get up and say "life sucks"...right now I am scrapping bottom...And we had the (anyone beleive that G-d is like a teleprompter) guts to pray "YHWH give this man what he needs today...heaven on earth we need it now!"

But life goes on...but I keep looking for the place of his coming.

fragile shalom

Guilt is a great motivator...here it is Dec 8th and I'm feeling guilty for not writing anything here for so long...
one insight I a have been thinking about lately... from Eugene Peterson
"While I was growing up my parents would often invite missionaries to our family home in Montana so they could rest and recover. When I was around fifteen years old or so there was a man who came to visit us one summer. He was a Frenchman named John Wright Follett, a small, bird like man who had never married. He was a teacher of quite acceptance in the Pentecostal movement in the thirties and forties and because his name was a household name in our circles, I was in awe of him. When I met him he was probably seventy years old. One day he was laying in a hammock with his eyes closed and I wanted to talk to him. I told my mother I wanted to talk to him and she said, "Just go up and talk to him, it's okay." I timidly approached the hammock and said, "Dr. Follett how do you pray?" He didn't open his eyes at all. He just grunted and said, "I haven't prayed in forty years!" He stunned me and I walked off totally puzzled. Since then I have realized the wisdom of the man. You see, anything he had told me I would have imitated. I would have gone and done what he said and thought that's what prayer is. He risked something to teach me what prayer was, and I'm glad he did. Prayer wasn't something he did, it was something he was. He lived a life of prayer. It took me about six or seven years to understand what he had done but it was sure better than wasting time trying to imitate what he did."

Living a life of prayer. another quote..."Prayer is practicing the presence of God in everything we do. Prayer is justice, it is peace, it is changing diapers and it is making a beautiful sculpture. How can we you limit prayer to meer words? (Pete Greig, 24-7 Prayer)

So as Peterson says somewhere else all our "formal" prayers are the preparation for the real "prayer time"
Those who have ears...

Yeah I know...no sense in having a blog if I don't post anything
what are my thoughts...well here are a few quotes from the course I'm taking at SBC with CH...
"i met some 'Christians' and they wrecked my life"
"Do we prefer to follow the Jesus of our own making?" (Tom Wright)
"Beauty and grace will be performed whether of not we show up..."
“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising agaist the disorder of the world" (Karl Barth)
"Think twice people, in praying, 'Thy Kingdom come…' You might actually come to believe it. And then where would we be?" (William Willimon)
"Status quo is Latin for ‘the mess we are in’” Ronald Reagan
"If we seek a God that we can handle, that will be exactly what we get.
A God we can manipulate, suspiciously like ourselves, the wideness and wildness of
Whose mercy we’ve cut down to size” (Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace)
"His career is going to knock over many a worldview. Not just Jewish ones, but ours too.The Kingdom of God is near and nothing will ever be the same again…” teacher (CH)

well there you have it...my world, my space, mytube is getting rocked...
...go kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight... (Bruce Cockburn)

Yes...will wonders never cease...I have entered the world of blogging. I am thinking this is so last year. oh well. if you have read the latest signpost newsletter http://www.signpostmusic.com/signpost/index.htm you may have stumbled across this reference to Altona...and some persistant pastor...I'm not sure who that is but anyway...steve makes a comment earlier ... "the story of Jacob-that rascally friend of God who wrestled his way through his own brokeness to a fragile Shalom." That phrase resonated in my thinking and thus the title for this blog. one last quote for this week from my teacher (quoting someone else) at SBC
" Nobody who is truly free can keep quiet in a world of captives"