Reflections on a Violin and the Church

During a recent church staff meeting we watched a You Tube video of the most famous violin player in the world conducting something of a social experiment. He got his hands on the most expensive violin in the world, an instrument from the 1700s with an estimated value of over $4 million dollars. Going against the advice of his handlers, who thought he would be mobbed, he decided to go to a busy Washington DC metro station to play the six most world famous songs on the violin. Dressed in regular clothes, he gloriously played the songs as thousands of people walked right past him failing to even acknowledge his existence. Throughout the six song set, only one person dropped a coin in his case and only one person actually stopped to listen to him.

There are several parallels that can be drawn between the experience of this violin player and the Christian church. Our staff was asked to reflect on what we saw, and some folks were encouraged while other people were discouraged by the video. The encouraged people pointed out that in Christian ministry, we also have a powerful message to share with the world and we just need to keep on persevering even if the world does not appreciate us. The discouraged people shared how tough it is to be responsible for communicating the most powerful message of all time, and yet still billions of people don't get the message. Our efforts can sometimes seem futile when people don't pay attention to us.

I want to point out that there is nothing wrong with the reflections of my colleagues at the church. I originally thought the same things, but then I had another thought pop into my head that I can't seem to shake. In some ways, the modern church is like the violin player in the video. The violin player was used to playing in high places, in famous buildings all over the world. He had been comfortable sharing his gifts to entertain the rich and powerful people of society who could afford to make their way into such elite cultural events. In fact, his message over time had been kept so far away from average people or from poor and hurting people that when he finally went down to the masses they did not recognize him. This kind of thing happens all the time in modern churches. When the church becomes too much a church of the powerful and privileged in society, when the church keeps the most powerful message of all time to themselves, and when they fail to build relationships with the poor and underprivileged in society, then the masses of the world fail to recognize the message because the messengers were busy keeping everything to themselves. Then, one day the church tries to bring the message into the world through one time events or by temporarily jumping out of their comfort zones and the world rejects them because they have not known them.

As the body of Christ, we need to recognize this and repent. We have kept the message to ourselves, kept our gifts to ourselves, and then we wonder why countless people drive past our churches every day without recognizing what they are missing out on. Have we kept the church in high places, away from as much brokenness in society as possible? Have we built a bunch of country clubs for cultural elites? Have we catered to the powerful or affluent or elite people in society in order to be "successful?" How will the world recognize the transformational message of the gospel if we keep it to ourselves or if we fail to consistently go into dark places in the world?

Celebration

I have been doing lots of celebrating lately. On May 1, North Way reached our official four-year anniversary of partnership with the Helen Faison Arts Academy in Homewood. Many mentors and many children have been impacted by LAMP over the course of those four years, and I am so thankful for the opportunity we have been given to make a difference in the lives of young people in Homewood.

Last Wednesday we had the opportunity to celebrate with this year's school-based mentors and mentees from Faison Primary at the North Way Oakland church building. We all had a great time together, and I would have a hard time describing how powerful it was to see all of the mentors interacting so well with all of their mentees... all in one room at the same time. Our mentors are amazing people, and I am so thankful for the opportunity I've had to get to know each one of them and watch them in action.

On Saturday my oldest daughter, Kyra, sang a Christian pop song by Mandisa in the talent show at Faison Primary. I was so proud of her... she even received a third place prize. She also won an award for being "Caught Being Good" by the school staff. All in all, it was a great morning to celebrate with Kyra on a good year of school at Faison.

Today I have been preparing for tomorrow's celebration with the LAMP mentors and mentees at the Faison Intermediate School. They are another group of incredible people who consistently go to Homewood every week to spend time with their mentees. I can't wait to spend time with them and their mentees. I think I'm running out of things to celebrate, though. I know it can't go on forever, but I do think it is important to stop every once in a while and reflect on everything God has done and continues to do through LAMP. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in moving forward. Much thanks to everyone who has impacted LAMP in one way or another over the past four years.

Final Claver Lesson: A Life Less Ordinary

Pedro Claver's life was anything but ordinary. He lived life on the edge. People thought he was crazy, or stupid, or even dangerous. The world rejected him because he did not live according to the standards that the world has set up for success.

This has profound ramifications for us today. My basic premise is that many American Christians live according to wordly values. We need a gut check. How are we living? Are we normal? Are we average? Are we successful? Are we comfortable? Are we a mess because we live like the world does?

Jesus Christ calls each of us to a life that goes against this present evil age. God wants us each to experience the freedom that is found in him. We should not be in bondage to the world, even though many of us are buying into what the world is selling. So I'll end my Claver lessons with this point: What is keeping you from living a life that is radically sold out to Christ and making a huge impact for the the Kingdom of God? If your mortgage payment is keeping you from doing something radical with your life, then sell your house and downsize. If debt is keeping you from being generous, then get out of debt. Whatever it is in your lifestyle that is serving as a barrier towards serving others or living a life on the edge, then you must remove those barriers. Plain and simple. Start taking risks, and stop playing it safe. Embrace suffering, and find joy in it. Let go of the comforts of this world. Everything you have, and all that you are, belongs to God anyway. It's all his. Not ten percent. Not what you choose to give. It's all his. Not just your money, but everything. We need to live like that. People will think you are crazy, or stupid, or even dangerous. Then you'll know you're getting close to what it means to follow Christ. Then maybe we will become true believers, and then maybe Christianity will grow in America like we've never seen before. The time is now. Life is short. Now be like Pedro Claver, and go live like Jesus.

Claver Lessons - Multiplication and Rejection

Pedro Claver invested relationally in the lives of slaves, and as a result Christianity grew well with that group of people. Eventually, new Christian slaves grew in their faith and they began to care for others on their own. Claver knew what many good leaders know... that you cannot do everything on your own. You must give up control. You must disciple others, empower others, and then release them to lead. This is multiplication. Jesus set the ulitmate example of multiplication for us. He invested intimately into a small group of people, who in turn went out and changed the world.

Claver was rejected by the world and mainstream Christian society. However, he had a good understanding of God's economy where the last shall be first and the first shall be last. In his life and ministry, he completely flipped the heirarchy of the world upside down by serving the slaves first, then the poor, then children, and then others after that. How many Christians in America today are racing to be first? Or, how many American Christians are willing to not just have a head knowledge about God's economy but actually flip their lives upside down and live as if the poor and needy of society were actually the most important investment they could make with their time and effort? Some call this lifestyle downward mobility.

Just try going against the grain and live as though all of the values of individual gain and upward mobility were flipped around. The world will scream at you to get back in line! In fact, most comfortable American cultural Christians will scream at you to get back in line! But, the big secret is that true life and communion and intimacy with God can be found in downward mobility. That was the profound thing about Jesus Christ. He was unrecognized by the powerful in the world and the mainstream religous people in his day. He modeled the ultimate downward mobility for us, dying a humiliating and excruciating death on the cross... and prior to his death he spent his time with people who the world and mainstream religous people had rejected. If we realize that we are off track in American Christianity today (which I believe is true and for which I developed a case in my prevous blog post), then we need to humble ourselves and learn from the likes of Pedro Claver. We must become downwardly mobile. It is OK to be rejected. What better example do we have than Jesus?

Claver Lessons - Engaging Culture and Embracing Brokenness

Christianity is shrinking and losing influence in America and in Western culture in general. Eighty percent of the world's Christians are now non-Western, non-white, and the majority are poor (over fifty percent of the world lives on less than two dollars a day). This global shift in the make up of Christianity is disorienting, sometimes even shocking, for many American Christians who sometimes believe that the Christian world still orbits around us, and our churches, and our growth models, and our preaching, and our trendy books, and our seminaries, and our movements. On our way to religous "success" I believe that we may have blown right past the message of the gospel, so much so that we are rapidly declining. Why is Christianity declining in America and growing explosively elsewhere? And, what can we learn from Pedro Claver in this area?

American Christians are comfortable. Americans make up less than 5% of the world's population, but we use up over 25% of the world's resources. The Christian culture in America largely reflects the values of the nonChristian culture in this country (just check the divorce and charitable giving rates... Christians are the same or actually a little bit worse in both areas). American Christians love to do programs where we all hang out with one another once or twice a week in order to grow spiritually. We like to talk about going to heaven. We read fiction books about escaping this evil world. Our churches compete with one another over who has the best worship, the best teaching, and the best kids ministry. Christians church shop in order to find the best fit for themselves, and they can just leave if things get too uncomfortable. Big, beautiful church buildings are built in growing suburban areas while churches in down and out neighborhoods are abandoned. We just throw away entire churches, or neighborhoods, or people groups, because they weren't meeting our own all important needs. Many Christians in America are actively insulating themselves from as many nonChristians as possible and as much brokenness in society as possible. How so? We develop relationships with only Christians. We send our children to Christian school (or home school them). We build big homes in the suburbs, and if we're lucky enough we might even make our way up into a gated community one day where no messy people can ever disturb us. We go shopping at the Christian book store so that we can read Christian books and listen to Christian music and buy Christian breath mints to follow up our Christian coffee so that we have good Christian breath. Our faith becomes private... it's all about us and how we can improve ourselves. The goal of a good Christian in America seems to be who can make the most perfect Christian bubble.

The problem is... as comfort grows, Christianity declines. Christianity actually declines for all of the reasons listed above. We become marginalized in the world. We give up the most powerful, transformational, subversive, countercultural message of all time for the sake of building our own selves up in order to be more comfortable. The American Dream has no glass ceiling, and we'll do whatever it takes to get there. American Christianity falls nicely in line with those wordly goals, and we don't realize that we've lost the point.

Pedro Claver showed us how to live as a sold out follower of Jesus Christ. He understood the power of the gospel message when others around him did not, including the mainstream Christians who were busy doing church in the area. In the 1600s in Latin American, the powerful Christians of that society would have been busy forcing the Indian population to choose between becoming a Christian or being tortured, put into slavery, or killed. They would have been busy forcing slaves to build bigger church buildings for the glory of God. The mainstream church back then was all about better programs and bigger buildings. Enter our friend Pedro Claver, who arrives on the scene and starts doing some strange things. When slave ships arrive, he actually runs out to meet them so that he can start caring for them. He gives the dead a proper burial. He seeks out the sickest of the sick in order to treat them in the makeshift hospital he has set up. He brought fresh fruit, clean clothes, and water into the slave barracks where no other good Christians were willing to go. He hugged people with leprosy. He personally cleaned the sores of slaves who had smallpox. His heart broke. He entered the most excruciating pain that human beings could possibly endure when most Christians in his day were ignoring it or actually helping to perpetuate that suffering. He ran right into the brokenness and the ultimate expressions of evil being played out in the world right before everyone's eyes. He built authentic community with the slaves, and the gospel message of Christ grew among the slave population as a result. Almost all of the other Christians there thought he was crazy and stupid. They made fun of him and kept on doing what they were doing, which was building bigger buildings and better programs for themselves.

Claver is not alone in his willingness to live out the true gospel message. When the plague hit Europe in the middle ages, wiping out one third of the population, Christians would have been found actually going into cities to care for the sick and dying in order to care for them and share the message of Jesus. Many Christians actually got sick and died. What happened? Christianity took hold and grew like crazy in Europe as a result. Another example is the early Christian church, specifically the first three centuries following Jesus' life. Christians did what nobody else in mainstream Roman society was willing to do. They sought out the sick and the poor in order to care for them. When an outbreak of disease broke out, they would have some nursing moms sit at the city fountain, and then others would walk around the city to pick up abandoned babies. They would bring the babies to those nursing moms at the fountain in order to keep them alive. Then they would adopt the outcast babies into their own families. As a result of the Christian work among the poor and broken, Christianity grew exponentially all over the Roman Empire.

Fast forward to today. Where is Christianity growing exponentially? Among the poor, in places other than America, where Christians are willing to go where others won't go. Like Claver, they are willing to sacrifice comfort in order to reach others with the transformational love of Jesus Christ. They build authentic community with one another by caring for one another and meeting each other's needs, just like the early church in the book of Acts in the Bible. At this point, most of the Christians in the world would have no comprehension of the American Dream. Most Christians in the world do not understand the need to arrange for a more comfortable lifestyle, or insulate ourselves from nonChristians, or work towards retirement, or build bigger buildings, or have better programs. The church is growing fastest in the places where there are no actual church buildings, and there are no programs. There are just Christians willing to live with one another and sacrifice their own lives, if needed, for the sake of others... especially including nonChristians.

While many American Christians desperately search for authentic community and real religion, the Christians in the rest of the world are modeling for us what those things should look like. We should learn from them. We should learn from Pedro Claver. Are we, as American Christians, willing to humble ourselves for the sake of the gospel message of Jesus Christ? Are we willing to give up our comforts? Are we willing to serve others? In our own country? In our own cities? The hurting and lost are right there in from of us. Right under our noses. Right here, right now, in America, in our cities, in our neighborhoods. What will we do?

Claver Lessons - Resourcefulness and Influence

This is the first of what I hope will be a series of follow up thoughts from my previous post "The Incredible Life of Pedro Claver." If you read that post about the life of Claver, then you will understand this post better.

Shortly into Claver's ministry to slaves, we learn that he was resourceful, stubborn about dealing with societal injustices, and he was willing to sacrfice personal gain and even his very life in order to use his influence for what was right both within secular society and within the mainstream church. These are all important things for us to understand as modern Christians. But what does it look like for us?

First, there is the topic of resourcefulness. We live in an evil age, and we are up against a foe that will stop at nothing to kill and destroy anything and everything and everyone. As humans, God wants to work through each of us to address these issues of evil. One particularly evil thing in our world includes injustice, which still manifests itself in oppression, human slavery, unfair laws and regulations, the rich taking advantage of the poor, and so on and so on. You may think that I am being dramatic, but you must also understand that I live in a neighborhood where I actually see and experience the rich taking advantage of the poor EVERY SINGLE DAY. I could provide many examples of injustices that I see all the time, and my heart breaks because of it. How can Christians combat such evil and injustice? We must be resourceful. Sending text messages from the comfort of our living rooms to donate $10 is not going to cut it. Compassion alone is not going to cut it. Being resourceful for us means that we need to educate ourselves to the depth and layers of the problems, and then prayerfully consider multifaceted approaches to dealing with those complex issues. I've said this before, but we must all be life long learners. We must understand that we each have cultural biases, and that by nature we each would choose comfort over suffering if given the choice. But, the life of a Christ follower is countercultural. Leadership comes with a cost. Following Christ comes with a cost. This is why we must be resourceful.

Second is the issue of influence. As a Christian, you are a steward of EVERYTHING. You owe your money, your time, your position, your talent, your influence, and even your very life to Christ. As such, you are called to steward those things on behalf of the powerless and the oppressed. God should be working through you at all times, in all places, and in all situations. You are required to use whatever influence he's given you to speak into issues of injustice, whether you are a business owner, or a parent, or a pastor, or a teacher, or a truck driver, etc. Are you using the influence God has given you to advocate against injustices in our world?

These two issues, resourcefulness and influence, bring some questions to mind. Are you willing to pay the price for Christ? What are you willing to die for? Pedro Claver was gladly willing to pay the ultimate price for the cause that God had called him to. I am willing to give up my life for the kids in Homewood because when I spend time with them, for me it is as if I am spending time with Christ. When a kid from my neighborhood dines at my table, it is as if I am dining with Christ. I have a cause for which I would gladly give up my life. How about you?

The Incredible Life of Pedro Claver

Justo Gonzalez, the author of one of the text books for my Global Christian History class, wrote an amazing account of the life of Pedro Claver. The book is called The Story of Christianity (HarperSanFrancisco, 1984). There is much to learn from this man's life, so I'll be spending some time breaking things down in some upcoming blog posts. For now, it would be good to read about his life in entirety. A fair warning ahead of time, this is a little long for a blog post but I promise you it will be well worth the read. Another fair warning, if you strongly believe in prosperity doctrine or American cultural Christianity (with all of its comforts), then you may not want to read this. It may cause you to do something crazy, like give up some of those comforts for the sake of suffering as a follower of Christ. Here is what Gonzalez wrote about this amazing person, Pedro Claver:

Pedro Claver, a great Columbian saint, led a very different life. He was born in 1580, shortly before Beltran's death, and from early youth decided to join the Jesuits and become a missionary to the New World. His superiors thought that he lacked intelligence, and he was still a novice when he arrived at Cartagena in 1610. He had ample opportunity to see the suffering of black slaves, and therefore when he was finally allowed to make his final vows in 1622 he added a further vow to his signature: Petrus Claver, aethiopum semper servus - Pedro Claver, forever a servant of the blacks.

Since the languages the slaves spoke were too many for him to learn, he tried to borrow other slaves to serve as his interpreters. But the slaveholders were not willing to lose the labor of these interpreters, and Claver persuaded his monastery to buy a number of slaves to serve as interpreters. This created friction with his fellow Jesuits, some of whom persisted in treating slaves as such. Claver insisted that these were brothers in Christ, to be treated as equals. Eventually, by sheer stubbornness, he forced the other Jesuits to agree, at least in theory.

As soon as a slave ship arrived, Claver and his interpreters ran to meet it. Sometimes they were allowed to enter the hold of the ship, but most often they had to wait until the slaves had been transferred to the barracks that would be their temporary homes until they were sold. These quarters were not as cramped as the ships, and slaves were now fed more abundantly, in order to prepare them for the auction. Still, many died from the effects of the crossing, or because they refused to eat, fearing that they would be fattened in order to be eaten. Stark naked, the sick and the healthy lay together with the dead on the floor of broken bricks, until Claver and his companions came in and carried out the bodies of the dead. Then they would return with fresh fruit and clothes, and seek out the weakest among the slaves. If these seemed to be seriously ill, Claver would carry them to a small hospital he had built nearby. Then he would return and begin trying to communicate the Gospel to those who were well enough to listen to him.

His methods were dramatic. He gave them water, of which they had not had sufficient supply since they had boarded their ships, and then explained to them that the waters of baptism quench the thirst of the soul. Getting together a group who spoke the same language, Claver would sit them in a circle, sit among them, and give the only chair to the interpreter, who sat in the center and explained to the bewildered slaves the rudiments of the Christian faith. Sometimes he would tell them that, just as a snake changes its skin as it grows, so must one change one's life at baptism. he would then pinch himself all over, as if he were removing his skin, and explain to them the characeristics of the old life that must be left behind. Sometimes, in order to show their assent, they too would pinch themselves. At other times he explained the doctrine of the Trinity by folding a handkerchief so that three corners could be seen, and then showing that it was a single piece of cloth. This was all done in a warm spirit of friendliness and sometimes even humor.

Claver's concern, which was first shown at the arrival of the slave ships, was evident in many other ways. Since leprosy was a common disease among slaves, and those who had it were simply expelled by their masters, Claver founded a leprosarium where he spent most of his time when there were no slave ships in the bay, and or slaves in the barracks waiting to be sold. There he was often seen embracing and trying to console a poor leper whose rotting body made others shy away. Also, during the years of his ministry there were three outbreaks of smallpox in Cartagena, and in all three occasions Claver took upon himself the task of cleaning the sores of infected blacks, who had been cast out to die.

Although his superiors always considered him unintelligent, Claver knew full well how far he could go before the white population of Cartagena would crush his ministry. He never attacked or criticized the whites, but the entire city knew that as he walked along the streets he only greeted blacks and those few whites who supported his work. He soon let it be known that when he heard confessions he would follow an inverse order to that of society, listening first to the slaves, then to the poor, and finally to the children. Those who did not fall in any of these categories would do better to find another confessor.

He found much support among the slaves of Cartagena. On the great festivities of the church, some of these slaves helped him prepare banquets for the lepers, slaves, and beggars of the city. Others took up the ministry of giving decent burial to deceased slaves. Still others visited the sick, gathered fruit for the hungry and for the recent arrivals, collected and mended clothing, and in many other ways ministered to their fellow slaves.

During most of this time, white society in Cartagena paid little attention to this strange Jesuit who spent most of his time among the slaves. Those who had anything to do with him mostly tried to dissuade him from his labors, for they feared that giving the slaves a sense of dignity was a dangerous thing to do. His superiors were constantly sending reports to Spain, to the effect that Father Claver had neither prudence nor intelligence.

Towards the end of his days, he was struck by a paralyzing disease and was hardly able to leave his cell. His last outing took him to the pier, where his eyes filled with tears before so much pain that he could no longer assuage. His fellow Jesuits trusted his care to a slave, and Claver had to suffer in his own flesh the consequences of the evil that his race had inflicted upon the black race, for the slave treated him cruelly, letting him lie in his own filth and in many other ways reproducing on his sickbed many of the tortures of the slaves' Atlantic passage.

At the very last moment, Cartagena realized that a saint was about the pass away. The cream of society came to visit him in his cell, and all wanted to caray away a relic. Not even his crucifix was left to the poor Jesuit, for when a marquis declared that he wanted it Claver's superiors ordered him to relinquish it. His death, in 1654, was bemoaned by many who had scorned him while he lived. More than two hundred years later, his name was added to the official list of Catholic saints.