summer conversation 2

2. Spaces, places, locations…

Continuing to focus on our interdependence with all creation.

1^st spaces: family, neighbors, local schools, face-to-face relationships;

2^nd spaces: workplace, university, more distant and structured settings with more choices about self-revelation;

3^rd spaces: traveling, affinity, trade and professional groups, social, cultural and other diversities, at times geographically further afield with potential for greater anonymity...regarding possible

4^th spaces, consider cyberspace, where you can choose to reveal who and where you are, try on new ideas and even new identities.

The liminal, the marginal and the central; thresholds, edges and centers

John 1:14a And the word became flesh and tabernacled [pitched a tent, a portable shelter] among us.

Where is home for you? Geographical origins, a more recent city or town, an emotional place, treasured people and activities? How do your experiences in various locations contribute to your understanding of yourselves, of others, of the world? Our histories and stories: insiders, outsiders, strangers and friends. …in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!

Romans 13:8,10 Owe no one anything else except to love one another, for anyone who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does no evil to a neighbor; therefore love fulfills the law.

Paul insists we owe, we "ought" the love of Christ to every one another and compares love for others to a debt, an ought that we owe them.

Revelation 21:1-3 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…and I heard a tremendous voice from the throne saying, "Now God pitches a tent and lives among all humanity, and God will travel alongside all the people wherever they may go. They will be God's people, and God himself will dwell with them and be their God."

…in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!

Who is this Lord of the Church, this Jesus? Consider Jesus' sense of home and geography.

Next week: 3. Jesus, Us, Culture, Counterculture

God beyond time and space became incarnate for us in Jesus of Nazareth, lived among us and shared our human experience. And Jesus accepted death! How much more countercultural does it get?

We're coming to the edge, running on the water, coming through the fog, your sons and daughters. Let the river run, let all the dreamers wake the nation. Come, the New Jerusalem.

© leahchang