“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10″Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest!” Mark 11: 9-10
Jesus’ mind-warping triumphant entry into Jerusalem on a little borrowed donkey must have taken the masses by surprise. They knew he was on his way into the city and also that He had been openly announcing the coming of a new kingdom. They waited for this moment with baited breath, the conquering King would come and make things right, bring down the corrupt powers that be and release the Jewish nation from the Roman occupation.
But, in God’s upside-down Kingdom, the King doesn’t conquer with a sword on a white steed. Rather, by design, He chose another Way. Ignoring the powers that be and the systems of the world, He introduced the Way of love, in which God’s strength bursts forth in weakness and less means more. In spite of the symbolic message he was sending the crowds by his less than impressive entrance on a lowly donkey, the crowds maintained their focus on the false expectation for liberation from the all encompassing system of the empire that had them all enslaved. “Hosanna! SAVE US NOW!” was their cry. And it was a cry that came from a longing much deeper than the usual liturgical exclamations we make in our churches during Palm Sunday.
My question is, “shouldn’t our present day context compel us to shout from the depths of our souls the very same cry?” Shouldn’t we be exclaiming, “HOSANNA, SAVE US!” more often? Don’t we have the need for the same liberating King to come free us from our slavery to the empire and systems of this world?
The truth is that we know the King has indeed come. We understand that His triumph did not come as we all expected it to. We confess our enslavement to our old patterns, our old selves, and our old destructive “ways”. And in our hearts we accept Jesus. We confess our desire to become new creatures in a new system that our King established–the new “kingdom” he willingly gave His life for. But how easy it is for us to become entangled. How easy it is for us to mock His death, His power…His triumph by our adherence to the kingdom of this world.
The RdC network churches we serve and support as DCC are increasingly aware of the blatant influence and control the world and her logic holds over us. This world and its ways are normal to us. As the Church, “the called out ones,” we are commissioned to reveal the new Kingdom way of Jesus to the world bringing hope and transformation. We are called, in fear and trembling, to jump off that which the world claims is stable and safe, and to let go of the rope we so desperately cling to, in order to fall into the grace of the Kingdom of God.
A kingdom where less is more, the humble are exalted, the weak are strong, and the smallest, most silent and imperceptible bit of yeast of truth permeates until it reveals an integrated “wholeness” in the most blatant and beautiful way.
HOSANNA! Rescue us! Shake us free from our conformity and slumber! Wake us up to your reality and make us useful instruments in your hands!
Micah’s exhortation (6:8) to God’s people reminds us of what the Lord requires of us, and what is good, according to His eternal perspective. In light of the immense needs and injustices, as well as the absence of love in our own communities and in the world today, we need to continuously reflect on this penetrating truth, completely internalize it, and act consistently upon it.
On doing justice…
Righteousness and justice are the foundations of God’s throne (Psalm 89:14). God loves justice and abhors injustice. To know God, we must understand how much He delights in love, justice, and righteousness. But, even though we claim to know God, we forever turn a blind eye towards the countless injustices we see among us in the here and now. We accommodate ourselves to the systems of this world that favor a few and unjustly treat the rest. We seek our own well being above the well being of those around us. How is this so commonplace among us as followers of Jesus? Many would redefine the richness of biblical justice, which is referenced 134 times in the Bible, simply in terms of righteousness. And then we limit righteousness to personal rightness, upstanding character, or individual holiness.
Yet, the fundamental social implications of biblical justice go far beyond this kind of individualistic righteousness we substitute it with. We are required to right the wrongs, both big and small, in order to actively “do” justice. We are required to be aware of the distorted systems that frame our present world with injustice and to struggle against them as we follow Jesus.
While working on DCC’s “to Be Told” video teaching series in Houston this month with DCC friend and colleague Travis Reed (www.theworkofthepeople.com), we shared a lot about the wonder of being made new, being born again, and the new eyes we are given when we embrace Jesus, the Way of the cross, and the new life in God’s Kingdom Community.
Travis created the following piece based on our conversations. We share it with you as a belated Christmas gift and prayer for the New Year!
The monthly and in some communities of faith, weekly, celebration of the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper, is an intrinsic element of the gathering of those who follow Jesus.It comes from Jesus’ radical revision of the Passover meal that he shared with His disciples the night before He was arrested and led to the culmination of His mission… the cross.
Jesus took the singular most significant and honored religious tradition among the Jewish people, the Passover celebration, which was very familiar to all Jews in his time with over 1,500 years of faithful practice, and He infused it with new meaning that has radical implications for His disciples.
His revised version came with a command that those of us who participate in the communion celebration must be aware of and mindful of its implications for our lives and His mission.As Jesus became the meal, offering His body broken and His blood poured out, He said to his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me”.
Now whereas we so often hear this familiar verse recited during communion and take it to mean we should gratefully reflect on the unfathomable expression of love Jesus showed us by being broken and poured out on the cross, His command “do this” adds a level of complexity to the lesson He is conveying. His use of the verb remember is not merely asking us to recall and reflect in solemn gratefulness, but rather, He is saying DO THIS: “remember me by imitating me as the teacher become friend, be broken and poured out for others in my name”.
by Claudio Oliver of Curitiba, Brazil. Pastor and RdC Network Connector
Those who know me may find the above title curious, to say the least. Being with the poor is part of my history: My grandfather and grandmother were founders of the Salvation Army here in Brazil, and their ministry is a central reference point for my family. Their life was dedicated to the homeless, prostitutes, and in a special way to the orphans, the hurting and the renegades.
My teenage passion was consumed by the idea of fighting against poverty, hunger and injustice. Since I got married, 25 years ago, I have been involved in serving in slums, serving poor students, coming alongside needy populations, in peripheral neighborhoods, the beggars, the unemployed and other moneyless people.
I could report facts to support my pretensions over the years such as having helped “the poor” generate income, facilitated the restoration and organization of broken families, made bridges between rich and poor, fed the hungry, and facilitated the opportunity for some friends to discover professions, find their vocation and transform their own future. To “empower” people was once a key point in my practice in order to avoid creating dependency.
After all of this, or even because of all this, today I am called to question my whole life of “service” and to give up on serving the poor.
Asking “Why?”
Throughout my life I have kept the habit of always asking myself whether what I am doing makes sense, whether my heart is aligned with God’s will, and whether or not I am missing the point. This discipline, is essentially the Three “Whys?” Rule. It forces me to question each given answer with the kind of question that only children ask, and which helps me to generate a permanent transformation vector of self-criticism and of personal adjustments. Thus, in each step I take, for every thing I do, I ask: “why?” Whatever the answer might be, again I ask, “why?”. I feel I am in the right path when what I am doing surpasses the third “why”, and then and only then, will I move on.
For some time now I have reflected on Jesus’ life, on the principle of kenosis (emptying) based on the text of Philippians 2:1-11. I’ve thought about Jesus’ incarnation into our reality and into the numerous contacts and conversations he had with miserable people such as the lepers, and rich people such as the publicans, the synagogue chiefs and princes of his people; how he spent time with middle-class families, with proprietors and with servants and beggars.
I have reflected on what Jesus saw and how he acted.
As Terri and Elen were practically falling out of their chairs in a belly laugh, I could not help but to think how much I value the RDC/DCC.
Without the RDC/DCC, there is not a chance in this world that this Dominican pastor’s wife, who knows little English, would be sitting on my porch swapping stories with my wife, who knows little Spanish, to what is now a long series of inside jokes between the two of them.
Without the RDC/DCC, Esdras and I would not be swapping tearful pastor stories and learning from each other about how to become more Kingdom minded. If it had not been for the RDC/DCC my church and I would not have been able to go to Esdras community, to listen and learn and find ways to help him serve his piece of the Kingdom.
If it had not been for the RDC/DCC, Esdras and Elen would not have been able to help me “fund raise” for my family to come to the DR, by cooking a Dominican meal for my neighbors. Or at least that is what it was fronted as.
Esdras and Elen were well aware that they were doing for us what we get to do for them in their neighborhood, helping my wife and I serve our community, who are scared to death of the idea of darkening the doors of any church, but are fascinated/curious about the Kingdom work we are doing and are hungry to check it out. Esdras and Elen were helping us to reach our unchurched friends, in the same way we get to help them.
After all, isn’t that what partnership is all about?
One last story. I took Esdras to a block in the streets of Baltimore that is filled with drug use, prostitution and crime. I showed him where we do block parties to help a local mission to practice holism, finding ways to help them to serve their local community. Yet that is not the best part of this story.
After pointing out all that we get to do downtown, I was able to point out that the only reason our church is able to do what we do, is because of what we learned from him and the RDC/DCC!
Our partnership so transformed and revolutionized our church, that we came back to our piece of the Kingdom work in Maryland and began doing church in a new kind of way.
Tom and Dee, I am so thankful for the RDC/DCC – thank you for doing what you do.
Reflections on my Africa experience
By Tom Yaccino
Over the last couple of weeks we experienced some intense Kingdom connections during a gathering of the Amahoro Africa network, a sister network to the Red del Camino in Latin America. Both networks share a common passion that we believe is God’s dream for all of creation, which is to bring about the total redemption and restoration of all things.
We also had a powerful experience in Burundi, where we connected with Dallas church, Community of Faith and local Christ-followers from the Batwa tribe. Our time in Burundi reminded us again about the power and possibility of God’s vision for a restored creation.
Kingdom Reconciliation in South Africa
RdC Network leaders have been invited to be a part of the African network gathering since it started three years ago. This year, Robert Guerrero and I traveled to South Africa to participate in the network’s annual gathering, “The African Reformation”.
The beauty of these moments of connection within the global Kingdom community is that as we share stories of how God makes himself known and felt in the midst of the suffering that is so prevalent in the world, we experience reconciliation and hope.
Our South African brothers and sisters opened our eyes and hearts to a country whose history is marked by divisions and has suffered decades of hatred, systemic discrimination, violence, and oppression. Even in the darkest times of South Africa’s Apartheid, hope broke through the darkness through faithful followers of Christ who refused to conform to the “anti-kingdom” present in the form of governmental institutionalization of racism. Leaders like Nelson Mandela continue to inspire the world with their perseverance and commitment to justice. As a nation that still struggles with the scars caused by that horrible system, to this day it continues to move forward seeking reconciliation and equality.
During the Amahoro gathering we witnessed the mystery and power of God’s grace and love. A white senior official of the South African national police force, who became a follower of Christ several years ago, shared his story together with his former black maid, two black clergy, and a former white anti-terrorist task force member who later became a pastor and now serves as an international consultant for development and reconciliation initiatives.
After hearing the police supervisor’s testimony, a new friend of ours, Sean, who still struggles with guilt and shame for the dark actions he committed under order from the Police authorities during the apartheid years, confessed to the ex-official that he still harbors resentment and hatred toward him. He publicly asked for forgiveness. In turn, the ex-official pleaded for forgiveness from him. Both, now under the Divine directive that promotes life and wholeness, symbolized their act of reconciliation by washing one another’s feet. It was a Holy Moment–a sign of hope rising up from the ruins left by systemic injustice.
Signs of Hope in Burundi
After we shared a week with our family members from all over Africa who participated in the Amahoro gathering, we then traveled to Burundi where we experienced another powerful Kingdom connection between God’s people from the Batwa tribe and fellow Kingdom citizens from Community of Faith, a local church from Houston, Texas.
During our time with the Batwa, we were once again exposed to a people group who have been experiencing the by-products of marginalization and discrimination since before the time of Colonization. The systemic oppression that this ethnic group has suffered at the hands of the dominant tribes (and afterward, the colonizers) has left them landless and left out of the potential benefits of the educational, health, and economic systems of the nation. Their struggles only intensified during the 15-year period of civil war and political unrest.
As we heard their stories and were confronted by the conditions they live with, what surprised us most were the signs of hope. These humble and marginalized people, many of whom have put their trust in Christ, shared their dreams for their communities that are in alignment with God’s powerful dream of restoration.
Against all odds, Batwa young and old, are sharing their story and participating in God’s plans to make all things new.
The Transformative Power of Suffering
These experiences reminded us once again that even in dire circumstances there is hope because of the One who lived among us as a suffering servant - Jesus, who gives life through his suffering, death and resurrection.
Note: Roger wrote this reflection after a trip to the Dominican Republic where he served with ICC, a Network church in the capital city of Santo Domingo.
Micah 6:8 says: Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.
My definition of justice had always been some sort of “righteousness or consequence” idea. In leadership my definition was a sense of keeping things going in the right direction, “the rules of community”, or something like that. I think my evangelical background tied justice to God’s perfect justice which was overcome by Christ’s sacrifice of perfect love for us.
But the linkage between justice and mercy in this verse never made sense to me.
But here, at ICC in the Dominican Republic , I saw clearly for the first time that justice was about each of us having the same rights, the same reception, the same love, the same presence with Father God.
We all are sons and daughters of the same King. And if my brother or sister is in trouble, I am to love them with Mercy. I saw it with you, my new Dominican brothers and sisters. I saw you live it in your ministry to the homeless, I sense it in your love for each other. I feel it in your love and acceptance of us, of me, into your community.
When I see your justice practiced with such love and mercy, it is a true gift to me. It humbled me to be with you. I walk humbly with my God, home to Chicago , more rightly motivated to live DOING justice.
Those of us awakened to the reality of the plight of millions of people suffering from injustice often get plagued by one question, “What difference can I really make in this broken and hurting world?” We may say it out loud or in our minds, but the truth is we feel guilty when we sigh at disturbing news reports, ignore heart-wrenching images of crying babies, or hurry by the beggar on the street. And maybe when we look at the world with our eyes riveted on the problems, it is a rational and logical thing to ask.
But, everything changes when we begin to see through Kingdom lenses—even our complacency and doubt.
In a message entitled “The Power of Ten”, RdC DR network leader and pastor, Robert Guerrero, challenged listeners to consider what God meant when He said He would spare an entire city from catastrophic consequences for the sake of ten “just” people.
The teaching has special significance for the small, often marginalized communities of faith represented in the RdC networks that struggle against the tide to make a transformative difference in their neighborhoods, but it has powerful implications for all of us who are stumbling towards Jesus along His Way.
The Biblical text for the message comes from Genesis 18:23-32 where Abraham barters with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
Abraham was most likely looking out for his own interests (his nephew Lot and his family) and not necessarily the well being of a corrupt and unjust city. But what may have been a selfish inquiry by a concerned uncle is a useful object lesson for us all. The presence of only ten just Kingdom citizens in a city can make all the difference in the world.
Kingdom math takes a linear equation into the realm of infinite possibilities. For God,2+ 1 ”the One” = ∞ “infinity”.
While we often get caught up in quantities, (how many volunteers are there, how much money have we raised, or how many people were baptized this month?) God seems more concerned that those of us who follow Him make His presence known by being truly “present” in alternative Kingdom ways in our towns, cities, and neighborhoods.
God continually reminds us that the mission is His. Our “Kingdom business” is to be about renewing and redeeming everything we can possibly influence.
Our constant struggle as a community of faith is that God’s measurements for triumph, success, power, and influence are usually co-opted by the world’s measurements so that, most of the time, we are scrambling in vain to accomplish plans and purposes that are not part of His mission to restore and transform.
I recently had the privilege of spending 5 days in Fraijanes, Costa Rica with a group of 10 other pastors and church leaders from RdC networks throughout Latin America. We had originally convened the gathering for RdC / DCC connectors for the end of January to celebrate all the wonderful things God did in 2008 through the networks of churches that we each represent and to look forward to what 2009 might bring.
But, our agenda was altered when we received a call on January 8 from our friend, Roy Soto, who is pastor of Shalom Community Church in Fraijanes asking us to pray because a half hour earlier they suffered a devastating earthquake that measured about 6.2 on the Richter scale. He told us that it quake felt as if someone was picking up the ground around them and violently pounding and shaking off the dirt.
And that is what it looked like when I saw it a couple weeks after it happened. Roads had been cleared and rubble and glass in homes had been swept up, but brokenness could still be seen and felt everywhere we went.
As we entered several houses to pray for the families of Comunidad Cristiana Shalom (CCS), whom we’ve come to know through the relationships built over the years as network family members, we listened to their stories. They shared with us where they were when the earthquake happened, what they did to try to escape injury, and what they were thinking as they were being knocked off their feet for 22 seconds.
I held it together emotionally most of the time, but certain moments in their stories made me enter into their pain and joy in ways I had not expected.
Graciella is the soft-spoken wife of one of the leaders of CCS. She is pregnant with their first child. At the time the earthquake hit (around noon), she was out in the back of her house and heard her mother screaming from the kitchen. When they could finally get to each other, everything on the walls and cupboards and shelves had been knocked to the floor and broken into bits. They just held each other and began to cry and wonder what else happened… to their loved ones, their homes, the community…
For some time now I have reflected on Jesus’ life, on the principle of kenosis (emptying) based on the text of Philippians 2:1-11. I’ve thought about Jesus’ incarnation into our reality and into the numerous contacts and conversations he had with miserable people such as the lepers, and rich people such as the publicans, the synagogue chiefs and princes of his people; how he spent time with middle-class families, with proprietors and with servants and beggars.
As Terri and Elen were practically falling out of their chairs in a belly laugh, I could not help but to think how much I value the RDC/DCC.
a former white anti-terrorist task force member who later became a pastor and now serves as an international consultant for development and reconciliation initiatives.
During our time with the Batwa, we were once again exposed to a people group who have been experiencing the by-products of marginalization and discrimination since before the time of Colonization. The systemic oppression that this ethnic group has suffered at the hands of the dominant tribes (and afterward, the colonizers) has left them landless and left out of the potential benefits of the educational, health, and economic systems of the nation. Their struggles only intensified during the 15-year period of civil war and political unrest.
While we often get caught up in quantities, (how many volunteers are there, how much money have we raised, or how many people were baptized this month?) God seems more concerned that those of us who follow Him make His presence known by being truly “present” in alternative Kingdom ways in our towns, cities, and neighborhoods.
I recently had the privilege of spending 5 days in Fraijanes, Costa Rica with a group of 10 other pastors and church leaders from RdC networks throughout Latin America. We had originally convened the gathering for RdC / DCC connectors for the end of January to celebrate all the wonderful things God did in 2008 through the networks of churches that we each represent and to look forward to what 2009 might bring.
I held it together emotionally most of the time, but certain moments in their stories made me enter into their pain and joy in ways I had not expected.