Burma cyclone May 10, 2008

Many of you have contacted me in the last several days to find out how the cyclone in Burma has affected me.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  I don’t have any family that was in the affected area, but I have several Burmese friends whose families have been affected and some who still have not been able to contact their family.
The news of cyclone Nargis is overwhelming.  This is the worst natural disaster in Asia since the Tsunami.  The Burmese military officially says that 22,980 people have died, but the UN fears the toll could reach 100,000, and that as many as 1.5 million people could have been affected and displaced.  The most tragic part of all of this is that relief is still not reaching the people who need it most.  The Burmese military has still not granted visas to international relief teams, and while some aid is being distributed in the cities, outlying hard-to-reach areas remain without help.  This demonstrates the corrupt military regime’s general incompetence and lack concern for its people.

In light of this tragedy I have been asking God how we can best respond, and I want to invite you to participate with me.

1.  Prayer and fasting: This Sunday May 11 I plan to fast all day and dedicate my meal times to praying for Burma.  Please let me know if you will join me in this.  Specific things to pray for:

• That God’s love and light would penetrate the hearts of the Burmese military leaders and they would turn around and show compassion on their people by allowing international relief teams into Burma to quickly and efficiently bring relief to the people;
• That the international aid that is being given to the organizations in Burma would go directly to the people who need it most instead of into the hands of the corrupt military leaders;
• That world attention would increasingly turn to Burma in light of this tragedy, and that the international community would continue to pray, speak out and pressure the military regime to change it’s unjust ways.

2. Giving financially: There are a number of ways you can contribute to the relief efforts in Burma.  Here are some organizations that are on the ground working in Burma that I trust:

• World Aid: Please write checks with “cyclone relief” at the bottom and send to 2422 S. Ferdinand Street, Seattle, WA 98108.  Money will go to water purification tablets. Clean water is essential fast. It is reported that a bottle of water is 1 1/2 days normal salary.
• Free Burma Rangers: They are now developing a relief network consisting of local groups that can respond to this disaster. This network will assess the needs, purchase or order supplies, package them, transport them and distribute them in the most caring and efficient manner. They will account for and report on the assistance given. Donate online via PayPal on the Free Burma Rangers website: http://www.freeburmarangers.org/About_Us/Support/

3. Use your voice to speak up for Burma:

• Send a message the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging him to take action to ensure that international aid reaches the people of Burma.  You can send an email through the US Campaign for Burma website: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1189/t/5102/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=24494
• Join one million voices for Burma: http://uscampaignforburma.org/index.php
  

Thank you for taking the time to read this email.  I know this is a lot of information, but I pray that the Lord will lead you to respond in the best way you can. This is a tragic moment but I also have hope that it could be a turning point for Burma.

A New Theology of the City May 2, 2008

I wrote this on July 31, 2007, but want to put it out there:
Today was our last day with the Trek staff. The students all left this morning, and we spent the afternoon with the staff team in Pasadena. We first went to Ambassador college and enjoyed the grounds there—it is truly a beautiful place, with fountains, grass, trees, landscaped creeks, gazebos, flowers. As we absorbed the beauty of it all I was reflecting more on nature versus the city, as I had been the previous day during the breakout session I led in debrief about environmental stewardship. Sarah and I got to talking about it and she raised the issue of how she feels it is difficult to put her hope in the “redeemed city” because her image of the city is a place of destruction, despair, pollution, chaos, and disconnect from the beauty of nature and the creative hand of God. She knows that the story of humanity starts in a garden and ends in a city, but it is hard to believe in a redeemed city. In that moment something struck me about the city, the redeemed city, Zion, the new Jerusalem, is a city whose architect and builder is God (as the writer of Hebrews says). The reason I connect so deeply to nature is because I see in it the creative energy and power of the God of the universe, whereas everything in the city is built by human hands, and though human creativity is a reflection of the divine, ultimately it does not possess the same heavenly touch that is able to make something out of nothing. But, the redeemed city will be a city created and built by God; therefore, the same creative energy that flows through the trees, flowers, mountains and animals will flow through that city. It will be a place that will drive us to worship the eternal God, maker of heaven and earth, because it will be the artwork of God, just as nature as we know it is. I can put my hope in that kind of city.
It makes sense to me now why God has opened up doors in my life to work in the city, to work on behalf of the urban poor. I have always felt like urban poverty was in conflict with my love of nature, but God has shown me in recent days that in fact my love of nature (which is fundamentally a love of God) is exactly what I need to sustain my hope for work in the city, and I need to stay connected to nature to be effective in the city. Satan desires to use the city for destruction, but God in his ability to work all things together for good has redeemed the city and made it a place of shalom. The forces of evil in the city suck the life out of people—poverty, lack of space, pollution, scarcity of water and light, broken families, inequality, bad education, gangs, and violence. But the power and love of God turns what satan intended for evil into a place where the Kingdom of God reigns—wealth, community, shared resources, people of all diverse backgrounds coming together in unity and the common human family, knowledge and information sharing, unity and peace. These things are possible through the Sprit of Christ in the people of God who build shalom and bring the Kingdom of God to the places where they live and work. At present we do not see this redeemed city in its fullness, but we catch glimpses of it, we caught glimpses of it this summer on the Trek, and what we have seen and tasted compels us to press on for more, and to put our hope in the truth that one day the city will be fully redeemed and we the people of God will dwell there in peace. Lord, let your kingdom come, let your will be done.

Eco Rant May 2, 2008

Here’s a rant I wrote the other day. Maybe posting it will actually get me to start blogging. (This one’s for you Emily).

When we, with our unquenchable desire to consume, demand that the earth give us more than what God has generously apportioned to each one of us, we start to create structures of injustice that eventually lead to our own demise.

In the name of renewable energy to power our massive barrels of metal that we drive to any which where we choose, we are literally raping the forests of the Amazon jungle. America’s demand for corn and soybean products for biofuels has a ripple effect throughout the world, and more and more Brazilian farmers are slashing and burning the Amazon to make way for more soybean crops, and more and more cattle farmers are selling their land to soybean farmers and just buying up more jungle land to burn so their cattle can graze there. Our consumption of massive quantities of meat is also fueling this crisis, but that’s another rant altogether.

Our appetite is consuming us! We are burning our forests; we are burning ourselves! Yesterday I got an email from my friend Gloria in Lima, Peru. She says that it is SO abnormally hot there that everyone’s scalps are burning, and she attributes the change to global warming. Meanwhile, in our relentless demand for fuel to power our unsustainable lifestyles, we are burning the very trees that have the capacity to absorb the carbon that could help cool us off.

I cried when I saw this picture this morning:

We need the trees of the forest! The trees clap their hands and praise the Lord; the trees are part of the worshipping symphony of all creation that gives glory to the Creator. When we destroy creation we are silencing the worship of the Creator.

A tiny sliver of transitional rain forest is all that remains, surrounded by hectares of converted soybean fields in the Mato Grosso state, Brazil

Where the Lord’s Spirit flows freely this is what we see:

“Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Great Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47

The river that Ezekiel describes is flowing from the temple. It is the water that gives life to all it touches. This is the Spirit flowing from Christ our Lord who is the new temple whose sanctuary is in our hearts. But this is not just spirit-metaphorical imagery. Ezekiel says that the trees that grow on either side of the river bear fruit in every season; the fruit serves for food and the leaves for healing. This is real food and real medicinal healing from the leaves of the plants, in my opinion.

A people that are touched by the Spirit dwell in communities whose stewardship enables the growth of this type of trees and vegetation that give food for the hungry and healing for the sick. This is a holistic vision. Come Lord Jesus, let us be swept up by this river, not akle deep, knee deep, or waist deep, but fully submerged in the river, having been drowned to our old life and reborn through the resurrection of Christ into a life empowered by the Holy Spirit, which flows out into a life marked by fish, fruit, and healing—fruitful, abundant lives. This is my heart’s true desire.