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But how?

Four Challenges

1. Historical

2. Doctrinal

3. Liturgical

Four Challenges

1. Historical

2. Doctrinal

3. Liturgical

4. Missional

Must mission mean competition?

THE WORLD FAIR OF RELIGIONSMy friend and I went to the fair. The World Fair of Religions. Not a trade fair. But the competition was fierce, the propaganda loud. At the Jewish Stall we were given handouts that said that God was All-Compassionate and the Jews were his Chosen People. The Jews. No other people were as chosen as they. At the Moslem stall we learnt that God was all-merciful and Mohammed is his only Prophet. Salvation comes from listening to God’s Prophet. At the Christian Stall we discovered that God is Love and there is no salvation outside the Church. Join the Church or risk eternal damnation.

 On the way out I asked my friend "What do you think of God?" He replied, “He is bigoted fanatical and cruel.” Back home, I said to God, “How do you put up with this sort of thing? Don’t you see that they have been giving you a bad name for centuries?” God said, “It wasn’t I who organized the fair. In fact, I’d be too ashamed to visit it.”

-- Anthony DeMello 

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Competing nations ...Competing gods

Competing nations ...Competing gods

Gods of domination, conquest, and

empire ....

Gods of resistance, differentiation, and

freedom ....

2

Gods of the oppressors

Gods of the oppressed

2

VIOLENT GODS

WHO DEMAND HUMAN (CHILD) SACRIFICE

2

Our god(s) versus your gods ...

Empires and gods ...

Emperors as gods ...

Anti-idolatry as identity preservation ...

Mission and colonialism ...

Mission as proselytism, pacification,

assimilation

Catholic (Spanish, French, Portuguese, etc.)Protestant (British, Dutch, American, etc.)

Indonesian tea, rubber, and peanuts

Mission as proselytism, pacification,

assimilation

(often unrecognized, but still real)

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From this vantage point, Christianity has nothing – absolutely nothing – to teach Indigenous people about how to live in a good way on this land. In fact, Christians have only demonstrated that there is something profoundly wrong with the cosmology and worldview behind more than five centuries of carnage—carnage that has yet to even slow down. Christians have so much negative history and dogma to overcome within their own tradition, I do not believe the religion is even salvageable. The world is deep in the throes of an ecological crisis based in Western economies of hyper-exploitation. The planet will not survive another 500 years of Christian domination.

- Waziyatawin, PhD, 2012

From this vantage point, Christianity has nothing – absolutely nothing – to teach Indigenous people about how to live in a good way on this land. In fact, Christians have only demonstrated that there is something profoundly wrong with the cosmology and worldview behind more than five centuries of carnage—carnage that has yet to even slow down. Christians have so much negative history and dogma to overcome within their own tradition, I do not believe the religion is even salvageable. The world is deep in the throes of an ecological crisis based in Western economies of hyper-exploitation. The planet will not survive another 500 years of Christian domination.

- Waziyatawin, PhD, 2012

Dirty Energy

Clean Energy Conversion?

Mission as proselytism, pacification,

assimilation ...

Converting Mission to clean energy ...

words from vincent donovan

“‘…do not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try to call them to where you are, as beautiful as that place might seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have ever been before.’ Good missionary advice, and a beautiful description of the unpredictable process of evangelization, a process leading to that new place where none of us has ever been before.” - Vincent Donovan

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Caves of Ellora

The Caves of Ellora

As the child of a missionary in India,

who was the child of a missionary in India, 

who was the child of a missionary in India, 

I have 

a lot of India 

in my soul/marrow/terra forma.

I breathed 

the ancient heritage of India 

when I was three.  

I learned Marathi.  

I ate jalebes.  

I sucked the delicious juice of the sugar cane.  

I played in the dust of our school-for-orphans-yard 

with Machinder.

 . . . and, then I got older 

and went south 

to Tamil Nadu 

and Kodaikanal 

to boarding school near Madurai.

I visited,

as a child,

the caves of Ellora.  

I didn't know what to make of them,

then.

As an adult 

i visited them 

again . . . 

 

Hindus and Sikhs and Buddhists and Jains

all carving caves 

next to 

each other 

in ancient times . . . 

side by side.

(unknown)

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clean energy mission

Embodiment of Christ

the mission of vocation:

sending people out to do their daily work with uncommon love ...

the mission of example ...modeling another economy,

another way of life

Solidarity with the Victim & Vulnerable

Witness ...Withness -

Mission of Presence

“Transgressive” friendship

The mission of presence

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After Indira Gandhi was shot [by a Sikh extremist], two or three thousand people were killed in twenty-four hours in the riots that followed.  Mobs rampaged through streets looking for Sikhs to murder.  Dave convinced Tony, a friend , that it was their job to go out and save these Sikhs.  Finding a besieged house, they put themselves between an armed mob and a Sikh family and saved them from certain death. He is ordinary, yet believes ordinary people should take extraordinary risks to confront the cruelty in our world."

Drug addicts in IndiaMentally handicapped in BrisbaneSolar energy cooperative Interfaith networks

the mission of the new evangelism:

Proclaiming Jesus’ good news of the kingdom, reign, commonwealth,

or dream of GodCalling people to rethink everything

and learn/follow a new path

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Ivan Illich (Austrian former priest,

philosopher, social critic, 1926-2002)

Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story …

… one so inclusive that it gathers all the bits of our past and our present into a coherent whole, one that even shines some light into the future so that we can take the next step…. If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.

- attributed to Ivan Illich (Austrian former priest, philosopher, social critic, 1926-2002)

The World Runs on Stories.

SOME ARE DANGEROUS.

Some have THE POWER TO HEAL AND TRANSFORM

Societal System

Equity Security

Prosperity

Think of our Societal System.

Societal Machine

Equity Security

Prosperity

FRAMING STORY

It runs on a story … a framing story.

SIX FRAMING STORES TYPICALLY DIRECT HUMAN SOCIETIES:

1.THE DOMINATION STORY: PEACE AND SECURITY THROUGH BEING IN CONTROL

“If only we were in charge!” (Empire)

2. THE REVOLUTION STORY: PEACE AND SECURITY THROUGH VIOLENT OVERTHROW OF OPPRESSORS.

“If only THEY weren’t in control!” (Revenge)

3. THE PURIFICATION STORY: PEACE AND SECURITY THROUGH NAMING, BLAMING, SHAMING, AND EXCLUDING A DANGEROUS MINORITY.

“If only THOSE PEOPLE would change - or disappear.”(If only a minority would change.) (Scapegoating/Genocide)

4. THE VICTIMIZATION STORY: PEACE AND SECURITY (and identity) THROUGH PRESERVING THE MEMORY OF A PAST INJUSTICE.

“If only our oppressors would be brought to justice.” (If only the

majority would change.) (Alienation)

5. THE ISOLATION STORY: PEACE AND SECURITY THROUGH WITHDRAWING FROM THE CORRUPT, DOOMED MAJORITY.

“If only we could be left alone to be ourselves by ourselves.”

(Elite/elect remnant)

6. THE ACCUMULATION STORY: PEACE AND SECURITY THROUGH ACCUMULATING POSSESSIONS IN A COMPETITIVE ECONOMY.

“If only we could buy, enjoy, and stockpile what we desire.”

(Economic Advantage)

DOMINATION PURIFICATION

ACCUMULATION

VICTIMIZATION

REVOLUTIONISOLATION

DOMINATION PURIFICATION

ACCUMULATION

VICTIMIZATION

REVOLUTIONISOLATION

CONFLICT!

In Jesus’ day, these stories were at work.

1. Domination story = Caesar, Pilate (with Sadducees and Herodians)

2. Revolution story = Zealots

3. Purification story = Scribes and Pharisees

4. Victimization story = Galilean farmers, Samaritans, “sinners”

5. Isolation story = Essenes

6. Consumption story = rich landowners, stewards, “Gentiles”

Are they at work today?

Domination: Us over them

Revolution: Us versus them

Purification: Us versus some of us

Victimization: Us in spite of them

Isolation: Us away from them

Accumulation: Us competing with them.

Jesus came with a very different story: the good news of the kingdom of God. (“News” is a true story … and good news is a story of peace and joy.)

It invited people to join anew the story of creation … or to join the

story of New Creation.

The good news/story of creation called people to see God as the Protagonist or Hero of the story.

It called them to become productive characters - not

villains, and not victims either.

good news

regenerative community of creation

reconcile with God, neighbor, and enemy.

repent defect join

peacemakers

Domination: Us over them

Revolution: Us versus them

Purification: Us versus some of us

Victimization: Us in spite of them

Isolation: Us away from them

Accumulation: Us competing with them.

Creation/New Creation/ Reconciliation: Some of us for all of

us.

DOMINATION PURIFICATION

ACCUMULATION

VICTIMIZATION

REVOLUTIONISOLATION

NEW CREATION/ RECONCILIATION

HOSTILITY

DOMINATION PURIFICATION

ACCUMULATION

VICTIMIZATION

REVOLUTIONISOLATION

NEW CREATION/ RECONCILIATION

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee,

proclaiming the good news of God.

The time has come, he said. The kingdom of God

has come near. Repent and believe the good news!

Mark 1:15

“Blessed are the

peacemakers.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

"Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that..."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the dis-chords of war.

Somehow, we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race, which no one can win, to a positive contest to harness humanity's creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all the nations of the world. In short, we must shift the arms race into a peace race. If we have a will- and determination- to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto tightly sealed doors of hope and transform our imminent cosmic elegy into a psalm of creative fulfillment."

ISA 2:2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. ISA 2:3 Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways,so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

ISA 2:4 He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

ISA 2:5 Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Gods of domination, conquest, and

empire ....

Gods of resistance, differentiation, and

freedom ....

2

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violent gods of the oppressors

violent gods of the oppressed

a nonviolent God of reconciliation

3rd optio

n

the mission of the new evangelism:

Recruiting people to join a global multi-faith movement

A new paradigm for faithA new way of life

A new understanding of God

The uniqueness of Christ:

He reveals a nonviolent God of

reconciliation,liberation,

transformation,new creation ...

Not a new religion:a new possibility for a

new future for every religion.

3rd optio

n

A call to rethink everything(repent) ...

for every religion, beginning with

Christianity.

3rd optio

n

A new vision for Christian Mission:inspiring and mobilizing people to

grapple with our greatest global crises:

1. planet2. poverty3. peace4. religion

luke 10:29-37everyone is crossing roads

it all begins with crossing the road to get to the other ...

Four Challenges

1. Historical

2. Doctrinal

3. Liturgical

4. Missional

A

Are

you

ready

to

cross

the

road?

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