the morning
is breeze and bright light;
it is light playing across
the dappled green leaves
and baroque dances in the air
and she,
she sits and awakens –
a flower unfolding
with the rising of the sun

the world beneath the settled skies
does not care a wit for me and mine
not a even a little…

it sighs and breathes through wind and breeze
and dims in the eventide pale blue and orange
without a thought for my vast accomplishments

the earth heaves in places and sags in others
as mountains are lifted and valleys carved
beneath endless canopy of stars who are unconcerned

with me

neither grass, nor hare, nor the cat, nor even the fly at my side
lend much of a concern in my direction

but i am not disturbed by disinclined neighbors;
am i not part of the whole?
a creature amidst creatures; a thinking bit of forever
trapped for a moment with these others
awaiting the journey on…

mama took a man
one unremarkable day
and he gave her a boy
the following May

born of sweat and shame
born of bleak necessity
but never a sense or thought
there would be born any equity

so with this exchange
he never did stay
and in his stead
shadows held sway

gone and gone with good
no firm hand, no song
just a rusty old coin
and an hollow “so long”

 

this beautiful dust
to which we return
floats golden
before my eyes
a dis-apparition
swimming at day’s end
reminds me of my
days’ end
leaving me hope
for a quiet drifting
in sunsets future
as a mortal reminder
to others

it was the grain of wood
that showed us there was direction,
movement,
to life…

i am
distracted
to death

maybe
distracted from death

maybe

i am
numb to death
just flip the switch
to let that electric current

stop…

let it stay inside
closed up somewhere
i can’t reach
til’ it burns itself out

in the meantime
the world will be grey
and i will pull my strings
with unfailing expertise

i know how to be
when i am not really here
i know how to smile
when i am absent

hang a sign on my door

“gone fishing”

it is that warm-cool, before-after time
before twilight, but after the day
before the dark yet after the light

this anesthetized place between worlds;
this great balance between then, and yet…
it is only now, and then now, and now again;

the world breathes, it sighs and readies for eventide,
while i, i would flow out with the day if i could…
and the trees do not know i am here
nor the sky, nor the earth,
nor even the ground that holds me up…
and they do not care to know
we (you and i) are invisible guests –
tolerated in that place just after our welcome is worn
but before we are thrown out

i am in love with this present purgatory,
may i never be purified in its immersion

The small ‘c’ is intentional in church…you’ll figure it out.

On the one hand it is not an easy task to speak theologically about the church (small ‘c’ institutional/brick and mortar place or that non-church church that is very much the same thing even though it says it is not) and Christ.

On the other hand we act and speak rather cavalierly about these things all the time – let’s pick the difficult path shall we?

When we speak theologically about the church we are speaking of Ecclesiology. When we speak theologically about Christ we are speaking of Christology.

Now I say this can be difficult because one person’s Ecclesiology is not necessarily another person’s. In my world (Pete World), Ecclesiology and Christology are so deeply intertwined and overlapping as to be nearly indistinguishable from one-another.

In other places Ecclesiology and Christology are very different (although inter-related) things. In some places Ecclesiology is very much about how our brick & mortar churches operate, are structured and managed etc.

I think this is a mistake.

I think that if we see Ecclesiology as an extension of Christology in the sense that the Church, big ‘C’ body of Christ composed of all believers everywhere and united through the Holy Spirit (now see I just brought in another ology – Pneumatology) we come to a better place in our overall theology.

Christ is the Church and the Church is Christ. This is effected through the Holy Spirit. The Church is not a pastor, nor a collection of pastors. It is not a building, it is not a denomination, it is not a small group, it is not a program, it is not a missionary.

But…

Inasmuch as the individuals who make all of these things up are believers – they are part of the Church – the visible, living, active body of Christ.

This, in my opinion, is a proper Ecclesiology.

We must think in terms of Christ and then in terms of believers bound together through the Holy Spirit. Out of this comes an Ecclesiology that is personal, community oriented and exceptionally Christ-like (at least in hope and theory).

So why do we care?

Well for one thing take a look at what we, our fellow believers and our churches look like when we act as if Ecclesiology is specifically related to our building, their administration, staffing and management.

Since the Church is literally the Body of Christ, active and alive in this world, a good exercise is to look to the Biblical portrayal of Christ and compare to the institutional church.

Let’s build a profile:

• According to varying bits of research more than two-thirds of the world’s millionaires are Christian.
• The average annual income for televangelism is estimated to be roughly $2.3 billion
• The Anglican church has an investment portfolio worth more than $6.7 billion plus $255 million per year in interest, $320 million in annual donations and $400 million in annual revenue from various events.
• The Vatican Bank lists it’s asset at $8 billion
• Add to these things land ownership, infrastructure (buildings, houses, vehicles, computers, phones, rugs, pews, sound systems, expensive LED signs, marketing, etc)

These things arise from an Ecclesiology that is infrastructurally based…not Christ-centered; not humanity-centered.

One could argue that these things are necessary to win and educate souls in the 21st century and it is unfair to compare the modern Church to the pre-modern Christ.

We cannot ask the question “If Christ lived would he have ________?” because it betrays a lack of faith in the fact that Christ did live and continues to live.

The real question to ask is, if the institutional church is the body of Christ why did He take such a u-turn in terms of practice?

Why did Christ start accumulating wealth and property? Why did He start building temples? Why did he start spending a lot of money on marketing, advertising, sound systems, LED signs, and more? Why did Christ start doing these things? Why did He stop going into the world and start asking the world to come to his buildings? Why does he support the death penalty but not abortion? Why does he often trumpet military might and conflict?

These all seem like odd choices for the one who claimed to have nowhere to lay his head; the one who had no property; no wealth of any sort; the one who destroyed the temple as it was now useless…you get the idea.

Questions are far more useful to us in our theological inquiry than answers are. We must ask more questions and consider the ramifications of the answers. If this is not Christ than where is He? What is He up to and how do we re-connect? Have we abdicated our role to a mindless, soulless institution in favour of the comfort of knowing we are paying others to do what the Spirit of God commands us all to do?

Serious questions.

These hills have not been alive
with the sound of music
or any other sound for that matter

it has been unnaturally quiet
as though caught between dusk and dawn;
between sleep and awake

the mind is awash in noise
but the keyboard is quiet for all of that
and I am lost and mute in the static

I have learned
that I cannot fill
the chasm that runs
from my north
to my south

and so

i will let
the water pour in
that i might drown
and float to the sunlit surface
from my dark depth