Bishop David Kendall's Blog

The message of Christmas means: that things are not what they seem, that a new world has dawned and we can be on the front edge of powerful and beautiful stuff worthy of the Maker who became like the made in order to re-make everything better than new.

As we look around us, we should be struck by the stark contrast between our relatively full and richly blessed life and the way it is for most of the world’s people.  We are on notice that it was not primarily to the likes-of-us that Jesus was given, in the first instance.  We know the first recipients of Christmas giving were poor folk, initially delighting mostly the lowly.  The good news his coming signaled was most deeply appreciated by those who were last and least.  We understand that the joy of the first Noel was not a confirmation of the fullness that a few already enjoyed (and therefore certainly not a guarantee), but a promise that the hungry were to be fed, the empty made full, the oppressed liberated, and the sad made glad by dream-come-true good news tailored specifically for the bad news situations with which most people were stuck.  And, from some vantage points it seems as though little has changed in the two millennia since. 

So, as we look around us we must deal with this fact: the joyful good news of Jesus’ coming was a threat to all whose comforts trace to sources other than the outrageous generosity that stopped at nothing for the sake of us all.  We must ask what forms of celebration would help us find joy in the gift of Jesus on its own terms and then gather us up into His continuing over-the-top generosity for the sake of others, even or especially others we do not yet know?

Then, as we look ahead, we shall insist that CNN or FOX or one of the other networks does not and cannot tell it like it is.  No, despite occasional and varied signs to the contrary—such as widening gaps between rich and poor, terror and war, economic crisis, political corruption, social/cultural degradation, environmental disasters, or some other woe—despite such signs, something did happen in the gift of this child, something decisive and sure.   Indeed, something like transformation—not just change, but transformation, comprehensive renewal, extreme makeover, is afoot!  The good news of this season will not be limited in scope to some people, but will expand and reach toward all people; it’s not suited to just one time but all time and then beyond time; and it’s not targeted merely to humans—and certainly not to some part of the human being—but all creatures great and small and every facet of creation in all of its magnificent variety.  We shall insist on it and affirm it, long and yearn and pray for it, and willingly give our lives to participate in His work to make it so.

 Immanuel must be everyone’s reality!

We celebrate the coming of Immanuel—God with us in Jesus the Messiah—in a world desperately in need of good news and forlornly weary of platitudes.  Glory to God in the highest!  Well, yes, but what about us in the lowest?

If it doesn’t work for the whole world and all of reality, does it truly work?  That’s a question I have been asking of my preaching and teaching in recent years.  I was forced to ask it seriously and urgently when I began going to other places, addressing other cultures, and found that some of my “best stuff” just didn’t work there and in those circumstances.  So, does it work for the whole world—for the highest and the lowest places and those who inhabit them?

Advent 2010 comes to a world where:

• · little girls are robbed of their childhood, to be enslaved for unspeakable purposes,
• · little boys are forced to take up real arms and taught to maim and kill others,
• · millions are displaced and driven to refugee camps by tribal conflict, genocidal assault,   famine, and political corruption,
• · millions more are living without hope of a future better than their present meager subsistence,
• · millions of others endure in despair even though they will never worry about creature comfort, adequate daily provisions, or lack of opportunity,
• · millions have never not been in danger, who live in war zones, among predators, or in places of social and cultural hostility,
• · millions whose circumstances and surroundings are safe and secure, but still live in fear and angst.

Meanwhile, here at home in the USA, Advent continues to wash over us with promises of hope and help.  Yet such promises are muted for those:

• · who have lost their jobs,
• · who have buried their loved ones,
• · whose children are missing through unwise choices or broken relationships,
• · whose dreams for the future have shattered,
• · whose past has caught up with them,
• · whose pain—whether physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual—has become unbearable.

Advent 2010 teases the many who would like to help, who long for all that is wrong to be right around them and within them, but have begun to worry that it’s never going to happen!

Now, here we are, followers of the One who has come, who is here, whom Scripture names Immanuel—meaning “God with us,” celebrating this good news.  Can we be serious? 

I think we can, even though everything I’ve said above is accurate, even though the world is as it is.  Let me tell you why I think so.

To begin, the story we celebrate acknowledges the world as it is, or was, which reflects the sad realities I’ve listed and their less than encouraging portents.  Into just such a world angels visited, announced the good news, followed by unexpected and miraculous conceptions, real labor, delivery, danger and threat, narrow escape, rejoicing, and then … and then … well what looks like more of the same ole same ole. 

The child was born and then many years of hardly a God-sighting, until the beginning of a ministry.  Even after that beginning, which was truly exciting and full of unexpected and miraculous signs of God-with-us, there was rejection, abandonment, betrayal, and dying.  Of course, after that came resurrection and Pentecost and then wildly expanding and out of control multiplying of God-with-us communities all over the place.  Finally, it seemed we were on the way.  But, then … again!  In other words, upon careful reading the story itself prepares us for how the story unfolds, for the fact that at times it may seem not to be unfolding at all, for moments when we are nearly distracted altogether and tempted to think the story was fanciful fiction rather than ultimate fulfillment.

In fact, upon even closer attention to the story—this time the Advent story itself, we find this same feature.  An Angel comes to announce that finally the consolation of Israel is at hand, that ancient promises are to be kept, that the Messiah is coming.  But then a baby, in Bethlehem, to nobodies—this is the way God will act?  Yes, this is the way.  Not as you would think.  Not as you would prefer.  Not on your schedule.  Not by your means.  This is the way.

A child is born.  A Son is given.  The seed is planted.  The leaven is working.  Here and now, in this world, amongst people dwelling in various shades of darkness, yearning for relief that just seems so long in coming—here and now help and hope inhabits, purpose and power engages, light illumines, life surges, a way opens up by which the NEW comes. 

A child is born.  A son is given.  Watch this child.  See him grow and go.  Follow him closely.  See what he does.  Follow carefully.  Watch not only what he does but how he does it.  Follow closely.  Follow him, not other followers, not abstractions of him, not a philosophy about him, but him.  Follow.  Keep following.  Keep watching, maintain focus.  See it his way, plan it his way, and walk his way.  Follow and keep at it.  See what he does.  Marvel that it happens in that way, his way!  Watch how something small grows large, something hidden all of a sudden pops into view, something weak outwits and outmatches in ways that are huge.  See how light exposes and clarifies.  See how life swallows up death, how good and right somehow manages to win—not always and not quickly but surely often enough to launch new ventures of hope!

Immanuel!  Really and truly. 

 

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the frenzied beginning of the commercial Christmas season.  Widely touted as the biggest sales opportunity of the year, Black Friday figures prominently in a given year’s strategic sales plans.

On this Black Friday evening I saw scenes of bedlam and chaos from around the country.  At upscale Malls no less than at Wal-Marts everywhere, when the magic hour arrived, the doors were unlocked, the protective metal bars opened, and throngs of people en mass rushed in, surging with, pushing over and through and around their fellow crazed shoppers.  These earnest consumers had waited hours for this, some of them in the cold and rain.  As they waited they had plotted and schemed about the path of their mad dash.  When the time came, they knew where they’d go first and what they would grab, and then second, and then third.  What an amazing phenomenon!

Indeed, on signal, as the crazed crowds were unleashed, at first there were screams of delight and release, for painful, pent up longing at last acquired its object.  Soon, however, there were other screams as well, screams of anger when forward movement was too slow, and screams of fear when the force of the crowd behind caused some to fall to the floor and be trampled.

Every year, all of this happens.  And for what—the latest gadgets, the boast of the first to have “it,” or the extraordinary experience of it all?  I wondered how many Christ-followers were in such crowds.

As I watched these scenes, I imagined another kind of day, maybe we could call it “Bright Monday”—the day that comes to stay after the full effects of what happened on the “Third Day” become final.

For this day, too, throngs of people gather and wait—for so long it seems like ages.  The expectant in this crowd have likewise planned and schemed about what they will do and how they will do it, once the hour comes, the doors open and all restraints are removed.

I see them gathered, waiting and longing wherever the poor are to be found, wherever barriers hide the dark commerce of human trafficking, where the starving huddle in apparent hopeless anticipation of something to staunch their hunger and nourish their children, where the abandoned do whatever they must to get by, and where the broken, bruised, and bleeding lay waiting for the end of their pain.

On the eve of Bright Monday the gathering crowds of people stand waiting to flood into the darkest places on earth with Light at the first crack of dawn.  They wait and hope, earnest in their desire to share what they have, confident it will make right much that is wrong.  Something in them and among them urges them to hang in there, not to lose heart, and even to begin savoring the satisfaction that will be, come Bright Monday!

Finally then, the time comes!  Doors are unlocked, gates slide open, and the waiting is over.  As these crowds surge forward there is blessing and cosmos, light banishes darkness, freedom releases the bound, healing flows to the sick, wholeness to the broken, help for the powerless, relief for the burdened, joy for the miserable, and Life for the dying.  And, somehow, not only for these persons and places, but for all everywhere.

When Bright Monday comes and the crowds surge forward, there will be screams only of delight and joy.  No one falls before the pressing crowds, but the smallest and weakest and weariest among them find themselves gathered up into this movement that more than matches their need.  Indeed, the movement takes them to where and when, “it is very good!”

That’s what will happen on Bright Monday—the day already so near for earnest Christ-followers, so near they not only taste some of its satisfaction, they already take some steps to make real—now—what will be once Bright Monday becomes the only day of the week.

Imagine this headline: “Bishop Confesses to Murder in Nigeria!  Perhaps you’ll be surprised when I tell you: “Not hard to imagine at all.”  In fact, I am the Bishop.

Lavone and I just returned from our annual trip to Nigeria.  Each November we go to see what mighty acts of God have occurred in the year past, especially those associated with our Free Methodist work.  We see new church plants—some in regions predominantly Muslim, hear reports of miraculous healings, hold business meetings, conduct worship services, preach sermons, pray away the evil one, teach about the Kingdom of God, the presence of which we can already taste.  Along the way we laugh and we cry.  At times we wish we could go home ASAP, and at times we could wish we never had to leave!  Well, we just left, arriving home to feel the usual sense of deep gratitude for our home, our place, and our kingdom-outposts here.

But this trip was different.  This time a headline could have been written about a Bishop committing murder!  Here’s how it happened.

Background: The whole country of Nigeria is broken, and “wholeness” seems and feels like a mere dream or wishful thinking.  In some ways, Nigeria is like Haiti—nothing works very well, if at all.  Corruption runs deep and wide.  Unlike Haiti, Nigeria boasts incredible natural resources—within its territory enough oil to finance all the wholeness you could ever want, to the extent wholeness can be financed.  But it never happens, or almost never.  Let me say just a bit more about this.

Corruption lurks everywhere from top to bottom.  Everywhere.  With irony and tragic comedy, everyone who runs for office does so on an anti-corruption platform.  Everyone decries corruption and virtually everyone practices it.  Of course, corruption is outlawed.  There is a specific and well known statute that bans corruption and “scammers.”  It is “Statute 419.”  “Scammers” are called “419ers.” On billboards, in the newspapers, and in casual conversation, residents and visitors alike are warned to watch out for the “419ers.”

Most enterprises are organized to do only what is necessary to sustain the status quo and the power arrangements that some people have within those arrangements.  If you are in power you seek to enjoy the privilege and prerogative of your position.  You show just enough respect and compliance to those above you to satisfy their needs and maintain their pleasure.  You might do something extra for them to enhance your own position.  Likewise, those beneath you do the same for you.  It doesn’t matter whether your business is oil or batteries or servicing autos or building the Kingdom of God—normally what it is you do, what the actual business you are in, and why you are in the position you are—these are secondary matters.  Operatively, the point is the position you have or could have, and what you must do to maintain or enhance it.

Not surprisingly, in such a system, you can get results with a little monetary inducement, or a lot.  It is not at all unusual to hear about someone slipping a few hundred or thousand Naira to the Assistant to the Assistant to the Deputy of the second Vice Chair of the Department of Revenue (AADVPDR) for a Local Government Area (LGA) in order to arrange for harassment free travel from one place to another.  (And, yes, there are Assistants to Assistants … because it’s all about having a position)  If you’re trying to go somewhere and you didn’t offer any “inducements” you can expect a very long trip and it can make you angry, angry enough to qualify for a place on death row according to Jesus (see Matt. 5:21-22).

The next President of Nigeria’s first name is “Good Luck.”  Indeed.  Good Luck is exactly what Nigeria needs, because you can’t count on anything else to work.

Certainly I knew it was this way before our most recent trip.  But this time ….  So, here’s the confession.

An unscrupulous, former leader in our church fell from his position and suffered disgrace when he was subsequently expelled.  Two years ago, he organized a gang of thugs and used them to high jack one of the best private schools in the region, a Childcare School called Hope Academy.  This man with armed criminals (or criminals in the making) seized the school, stole the money in the safe, and has been there ever since.  The church took the matter to the police and the courts.  A judge ruled in our favor (which was the only valid ruling possible!) and ordered the thug off the property.  But this is Nigeria.  The thug got to the right people and eventually to the judge.  Consequently, the judge has refused to have the thug arrested.  And now the judge has decided to contrive a ruse whereby he listens to all parties involved repeatedly, seeks clarification for this and that, asks for multiple examinations of the “authorities” (i.e., legal precedents)—and he has been at it for nearly a year!  Clearly, he will not render a decision, not even in support of his own ruling. 

This made me angry.  Seriously, now, blood boiled.  And, if Jesus is serious, I belong on death row.  The headline could be: “Bishop Commits Murder!”

This is only one instance of several I could tell you about, all frustrating and maddening enough to foment conspiracy to commit murder.  I am shocked to realize this about myself, and compelled to confess it.  Rest assured, in my official capacities, I said the right things, even asserting that in this matter we are actually fighting not against humans but against spiritual powers of evil.  We had extended prayer over this as well.  Still, I am confessing that if an accident occurred, if some misfortune befell the thug, if his own conniving set a trap that boomeranged back on him with lethal force, or … I would as likely feel like celebrating what got him more than grieving the incalculable loss of a brother who came to act like a thug.  And in the throes of these conflicting alternatives, my murderous complicity emerges in ways that shock my mind.

One day back and I’m confessing my potential homicidal complicity in whatever misfortune could befall this man, this brother gone terribly wrong.  On the one hand, the injustice of what is going on and the apparent hopelessness of legal and law enforcement systems that are run by fully empowered but compromised incompetents—drives me crazy, and in the extreme even killing-crazy.  On the other hand, homicidal madness and creatively calculating strategies to provide some “grease” to the system to effect better results would simply suck me into those systems and make me a part of the problem.

So, what do we do?

First, confess our homicidal tendencies and renounce them for the sin they are.  Give up all pretenses that we are really any better due to our superiority.  (For, to be sure, thugs, incompetence, and graft thrive here as well!)

Second, do what we say we do: Follow the One who stood up to the unjust systems of his day and, when necessary, embraced the consequences of not yielding to the system.  That is, if necessary become the object not the subject of the murder.  Become the murdered in the hope that on the third day murder meets its Master.

Third, wait, work and hope.  Because we know that nothing we do in the name, and for the cause, of the Lord who masters murder will be in vain (1 Cor. 15:58).

I am writing this on the U.S. Election Day before anyone knows for sure what will happen.  And, I’m writing about things that will seem off the radar for most people here in the U.S., things that many will not care about at all in light of the huge issues and the enormous stakes in a national election.  I mean who cares about Haiti today?  And, if you do care about Haiti, why focus on a few thousand children whose misfortune means slavery for them because it means riches for a few and at least a modest piece of the action for many?  Meanwhile, Heaven looks on, broken-hearted and weeping.

Last week the Miami Herald ran a story about the trafficking of children across Haiti’s borders.  Specifically, it chronicled the sharp rise in this trafficking immediately after the terrible earth quake of January 12, 2010, a rise that has been sustained.  The writers offer documentation of wide-spread, systemic support of this crime against Creator/humanity. 

That is, from border patrol to local guides to people who watch it to officials in the Haitian government to  …  the list goes on—children are kidnapped, sold, pressed into who knows what kind of service and nobody does anything.  Nobody does anything!  (Find the article at: https://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/10/26/1688381/child-smuggling-runs-rampant-along.html)

I read that and said, “No way!”  But, here’s the truth, “Yes, way!”  It happens there in Haiti and many other places as well.

Then I said, “Not on our watch.  I’m not sure what we can do, but I am certain we will not be among those who do nothing.  No way!”

So, here’s the deal.  Especially now in view of the cholera outbreak and the threat of storms and hurricanes, I want Haiti to heal, but healing that makes peace with such crimes against Creator/humanity would be a new, worse malady merely disguised as healing.  And, we should not support healing that is not true, deep healing.  With billions of dollars flowing into Haiti to help Haiti heal, why can’t and why shouldn’t the people in charge attach some unbreakable strings to those relief dollars that insist adamantly that this blatant human rights atrocity must be addressed as a condition for the help Haiti needs to heal truly and wholly?  There are people who could make that happen.  I don’t know who they are, but we could start with government officials—some still partying over their victories on Election Day and some smarting over set-backs or defeats—but all could be called, written, lobbied to leverage their influence on behalf of children now enslaved and the thousands soon to be snatched and sold.  Here are the links to contact our governing officials: https://www.contactingthecongress.org/

It would be the same for those leading humanitarian Relief Agencies.  I don’t know who the key people are, but some of you likely do.  Provide the information and we can act on it.

We could also connect with Not For Sale at https://www.notforsalecampaign.org/  to become more aware and to support their efforts to eliminate slavery in our generation.  Then, too, we could make sure that our churches and faith communities join a growing movement to observe freedom Sunday this coming March.  There are other things we can do as well I am sure.  But these are sufficient to get us started.

Today, Election Day, few are thinking about such things.  Fewer perhaps are inclined to do anything.  But, as I say, Heaven looks on, broken-hearted and weeping.  And Christ-followers are in the habit of being among the few and acting in concert with what “Heaven” does.