Long Time Coming

In the lulling moments of down time, I was very excited about blogging and posting thoughts from my head and heart but as the reality of my doctoral studies crashes in on me, that excitement has waned considerably. I'm sitting at home this morning and my Lukie boy has Malaria or Strep Throat so I have some few moments to put some thoughts down.
The world I live in now is Gospel and Culture and studying the aspects of Jesus in his culture in first century Palestine and the impact of his interaction with women...was he challenging the cultural norms of his day? Was he setting a precedent for modern culture to give honor and value to women, knowing they would be put down and disregarded as second class citizens? Is it their reaction to this oppressiveness that has caused so much radical feminism?
The other world I live in is Bartolome de Las Casas! Now how many of you have ever even heard of his name? He was the Dominican priest that stood against the Behemoth of Spain as they were conquering and simultaneously destroying the cultures of the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America...one book I was studying verified that during the 16th Century there were 80,000,000 Indians alive during that century but by 1600 there were only 10,000,000 remaining. They weren't all killed by the sword, many died by the European epidemics, thousands did die by the sword and by trained dogs from Spain. This is history that isn't written about in our history books. We have a picture of the gallant Christopher Columbus arriving somewhere in America, which was actually Haiti and bringing his flag and Bible and establishing a new land...He was not as brutal as Cortes or Pizarro but nonetheless, he wanted gold and the heathen to be converted to Catholicism. I'm learning deeper things than I ever imagined...the history we know is so limited...
So that is the world I'm living in right now...here is a thought to ponder..."Standing at the doorway into a new world, they nonetheless share their contemporaries' hopes and fears and seek to lead their people out into what is to come. Their words speak to their contemporaries condition. They may meet with opposition and incomprehension, but they also address their people's hopes and desires. In their preaching and their deeds they seek to transform people's understanding of themselves and their world and prepare them to embrace the world to come. It is in this interaction with traditional, inherited beliefs and practices that they are able to experience extraordinary power over their contemporaries. And it is in this that their power to create new worlds resides." (John E. Riches--The World of Jesus.

Men of Athens!

Okay, okay, I'm sorry! I was creating a new post and in the midst of trying to type after the picture, the internet cut off and I wasn't able to finish my posting. So I'm not going to tell you but I'll give you the Word, "While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.
He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, 'What's this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he's picked up?' Others said, 'He seems to be preaching about som foreign gods.'
They they took him to the high council of the city (this would be the place where that big rock is just below the Acropolis).'Come tell us about this new teaching.' They said. "You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it's all about." (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)
So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: 'Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this incsription on it: 'To the Unknown God.' This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I'm telling you about.
"He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples, and human hands can't serve his needs--for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need...." Acts 17:16-25
And so it goes that Paul stood on that rock that you saw and explained the Gospel to a bunch of pagan philosophers. All the time I have now. Enjoy a window with a view and if you ever need place to get away, have I got the place!

Guess Which Rock this is?

Some time last summer

California Dreaming

Okay so this is the way it will go for me. Two blogs back to back and then a huge hiatus as I travel from Ghana to the U.S. I had six days with my buddy Andy and my spiritual mentor Al in Santa Rosa. Great time, great church...look up www.newvintagechurch.org. Things are different here. They have people in recovery coming off the street and people who own corporations in San Francisco and they all hang out together under the same roof. Lots of tatoos and lots of nice clothes and they all mix together. I met at least two people maybe more who said, "this is the first time that I've ever been to church." I don't know about you but man do I love that. I love hanging out with people who know nothing about God or church. They don't know the stuff that goes into the history. They are fresh and open and hungry. I love giving Bible illustrations and talk about relationships and I say, "Adam had...." One or two said "Eve." And then I said, "Moses had...." and most had no idea who went with Moses...Aaron. Wow, pure and simple ignorance that is not stupidity, just not knowing something.

Wouldn't you love to walk along people who know nothing about God and everything you share with them is fresh and new...you have to talk differently, say things differently. I love that. You can't speak Christianese around these people. They don't get it. The other side of that is the staleness that happens in churches where everybody is the same and you speak the same language and the word that comes to mind is redundant. I think about Christianity in most churches and it seems redundant, lacking passion, lacking diversity.

Now, let me tell you the miracle...I preached and it was pretty good in my opinion but that's not the point. We talked about "coming to the table" and my points were: 1.You don't have to come alone, 2.You don't have to get it all right before you come to the table and lastly, 3.Jesus is the chair that meets you at the table that wants to take your whole being on HIM. That was okay and I think they got it and then I said, "I want to invite everyone to the table." So I just asked the whole congregation to get up out of their seats and come up on stage and come around the table and hold hands and I prayed for them and it was one of those holy moments. Everybody came because they didn't know better and they felt safe and not condemned and they felt love in that moment.

So I'm California dreaming. Dreaming of a time when we'll begin to reach out to the lost. When was the last time you hung out with a lost person? You might find it quite interesting.

Searing Memory

This picture is of two little Ghanaian boys who go to school in a rural village. Maybe their parents make about $300-400 a year, not a week or even a month...a year. But they go to school and they are trying to make a way to succeed in this world that is not waiting or helping in any substantial way...That's life here in Ghana.

But the message for this one is not about those two boys or the abject poverty that is prolific throughout the country, it's about Claire and I going for a walk in our neighborhood the other night. We were walking down our street which happens to be one of the few that is unpaved in our neighborhood. We live in East Legon which is a nice area with a lot of nice houses that wealthy Ghanaians have built through the years. Most of them rent them to foreigners from anywhere from $800-3500 per month. Our rent is actually the cheapest of all our fellow co-workers in the area. We were blessed to find such a place. In the midst of these houses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, 200 yards from our house a family of five or six, one mom and several small children, live in a wooden hut, cook outside all the time and survive day to day. So that's the look of things.

As we rounded the corner there were two young kids studying by kerosene lantern right off the road and they were keeping the "shop" of dry goods their mom had set up to sell sugar, canned fish, oil, peanuts, Milo and tea bags. It was probaly 7:30 and they were straining to do their homework with that one kerosene lantern. Of course my beloved stopped and said in Twi, "What are you studying?" And they replied in perfect English, "English." So she encouraged them to keep studying hard. And we walked on.

How many of you growing up griped about homework in your rooms with carpet, desks, lamps, a/c, heat, everything you needed. You know why my Ryan loves Ghana? You know why we love Ghana? Because everyday we see incredible things like this, two little kids straining at a kerosene lantern to learn and do well in school in hopes of going further than their mom or dad and hoping they can afford school fees for junior high or high school.

Just be grateful. Try not to gripe or whine as much.

Now you know why Ghana ruins us.

First things First

Welcome to my blog. Who came up with the word blog and what does it really mean? Let me introduce my family...I'm Michael, Anna is right behind me (17), then Luke,(8), and Maggie is our blond 14 year old and then my beautiful Claire.


I don't really understand all of this but my incredible assitant, Ms. Tatum Downs is trying to thrust me into the post modern world. So I'm launching out into unknown territory for me. This originally struck me as an excercise in narcissism, feeling like the words we write are somehow valued, special and important. I didn't like the original concept, especially the comments thing because if no one comments, does that mean what you said wasn't worthy of response or no one loves me or what. And as I've read through many different blogs, I now realize it is the random thoughts of folks who just want to throw it out there and see what happens.

First the explanation of Sankofa...of course it comes from Ghana where I live and it is an Adinkra symbol which literally means "return and get it." But the deeper meaning is "return to your roots." Or in my words don't forget where you come from. Family is of course high on my list of priorities. So that is that.

My second reason for blogging was that I kept getting these great thoughts and sermon ideas and scribbling them on paper and then they get accumulated in some pile and I eventually just threw them away. Now I'm going to throw them on my blog and maybe they'll have some value for someone, including myself.

That's it...not too painful...still feels weird...that you post words on a screen for your friends to read and respond or not respond to.