The Abstract
I am responding to Dr. Stephen Seamands book, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service. I am inviting the audience to a conversation. Dr. Seamands asked; “what hinders us in our ministry as we join the Triune God on mission.” This work, following his lead on the metaphor of dance, begins to answer. We all bring ourselves to the dance. We are challenged to transformation in self-view, Trinity-view and Bible-view. Old paradigms of the self-informed, self-innovative, lone ranger pastor or leader are becoming obsolete. Whatever traditions we arrive at this point in, we should take a long look at who we are, who our god is and how we view the BOOK. I have intentionally resourced some excellent teachers and authors outside of the Christian faith. I have also resourced Pope Francis and the current discussions in the Catholic Church in America. I have also referenced the current issues of violence, racism, homophobic and xenophobic, and populist worldviews. None of us can do justice to these huge issues, but I believe with the Old Testament prophets, “truth has stumbled in the streets and we have sown to the wind and are reaping the whirlwind”. Whether a person is what I refer in my personal life as “left or right or the bubble” we are challenged to bring compassion to the dinner table. We are also challenged to look long and hard at our own hearts, and humbly ask the Triune God if we have hearts of the monster (stones filled with the blood of the innocent) or hearts of flesh.
The Author
Larry D. Pew, Dr. of Ministry
My wife, Nancy asked me if I would put my degree in this greeting. My degrees don’t define me. I believe a bridge in Northern Idaho on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Central Idaho may bring more clarity. The bridge spans a deep canyon. Built with wooden timbers, it has stood the test of time and allows travel. My personal canyons are being bridged by the parallel tracks of love for God and His people, whether they know they are loved by Him/Her. I am constantly amazed that the tracks are being laid out in front of me. I am a white 67 year old man who has been married 45 years, and having four children who in their 30’s have taught my wife and me how to forgive, love, and be humbly flexible on the tracks of love and thanksgiving. Nancy and I are lay pastors at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Boise, Idaho. We are delighted when our dinner table is filled with people from all walks of life for food, laughter and tears.
The song of the Hidden Father
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus said, “I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to infants. 26 Even so, Father, for it seemed
You are invited to the road of transformation, of the self-view, the God-view and the Bible-view. Please join me as we open our hearts, our emotions, our minds to what may be a fun time with Jesus, Father/Mother, and the Holy Spirit.
AS CHILDREN WE COME
Jesus said, ‘Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’ (Matthew 18:14).”
A Question:
Dr. Stephen Seamands presents in his book, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, the Holy Spirt, Jesus and the Father as moving ahead of people as the Triune God is on mission. Writing primarily to Christian leaders and pastors, he then challenges his readers to ask the correct question.
For those of us engaged in Christian ministry, understanding the Trinitarian basis of mission is crucial because it enable us to ask the right question…If however, we begin with the assumption the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are already passionately engaged in mission to the world, the question gets reframed… It becomes ‘What’s hindering us from joining the mission (the dance) in which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are already engaged (pg. 168-169 italics added)?
Dr. Seamands encourages us to enjoy one another following the Trinity’s example. He builds upon Mark Shaw’s book, Doing Theology with Huck and Jim, which “delineates four characteristics that define the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: full equality, glad submission, joyful intimacy and mutual deference (p.35 italics added).” Dr. Seamands then guides his readers through the Gospel of John, showing us these four characteristics throughout the Gospel. We are then encouraged to recall that as human beings, we find our direction from the Trinity, not the other way around. “The triune relations are the essential paradigm, our basic model for human relationships and relationships in the church (p.38).”
I begin to answer this question with a living parable from my own life experience. I believe in answering this question we need to start in our own hearts. I will then visit four resources from attending classes, meetings and reading articles and books. Finally, we will visit one of the Parables after opening our hearts to a broader application of the Bible. Using the words compassion and contempt, we will hopefully move in our lives and communities to dance with the Trinity in Full equality, glad submission, joyful intimacy, and mutual deference
All Truth and Life is not limited to the community of faith
Let us proceed by introducing some passionate people that I have met and or read in the past few months. I attended Dr. Cook’s class and an interactive meeting with Ms. Joan Blade J.D. and read Braving the Wilderness by Dr. Brene’ Brown and Canoeing the Mountains by Todd Bollinger finally an article by author Allison Gopnick.
Curious Conversation, Building Trust in the Living Room, Braving the Wilderness
Dr Corey Cook, in his Boise State University Extended Learning Class: Politics, Polarization, and the Changing Media Landscape, presented the distressing news that regular people have become solidly polarized around the party lines, Republican and Democrat. Dr. Cook showed how people often come to an issue with their minds made up, not relinquishing, or budging on their points of view. He stated many times that political scientists are alarmed at the great chasm fixed in the nation and suggested that the democratic process of compromise and conversation is nearly non-existent, which challenges the entire democratic process.
In a meeting with Joan Blades, founder of MoveOn.Org, we were introduced to the idea of “scientific curiosity.” Both Blades and Cook emphasized that people do not respond as rational human beings, rather we respond as emotionally driven human beings. Both stressed in this very polarized world in order to bridge the gaps and enter into meaningful community conversation we should be curious. Dr. Cook emphasized repeatedly that people look at things as their predetermined viewpoint leads. When looking into an issue we mostly build echo chambers, providing answers instead of listening to an opposite opinion. One student asked how people change position. He unknowingly gave the gospel answer, “through the change of crisis. As people go through crisis, they may change their view from one side to another.”
Also, consider Allison Gopnick, as she writes:
Marriage counselors often say that relationships can weather anger, misunderstanding, jealousy, fundamentally different values—even the occasional bout of hatred. But they can’t survive contempt, which has become the signature political emotion of our age. Trying to make a state more like a community doesn’t mean making it more homogeneous or even more harmonious. Instead, the problem for enlightenment now is how to establish a background of trust and commitment that allows conflict without contempt (emphasis added).
Dr. Brene’ Brown, shares a compelling personal challenge to be brave in the wilderness of personal loneliness and national division. In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection she states and now quotes in Braving the Wilderness:
Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion.
Brown had defined the wilderness earlier in Braving the Wilderness.
The wilderness is used as a metaphor, to represent everything from a vast and dangerous environment where we are forced to navigate difficult trails to a refuge of nature and beauty where we seek space for contemplation. What all wilderness metaphors have in common are the notions of solitude, vulnerability and an emotional, spiritual, or physical quest. We cannot control it, or what people think about our choice of whether to venture into that vastness or not. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it’s the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand
To stand in the wilderness we must know our God and ourselves
Most people who attend church, who self-identify as Christians and have watched the news, read a Facebook article, even sports talk have strong opinions regarding issues that affect our personal safety, women in leadership, ability to earn a reasonable income, and staying healthy or receiving healthcare. Many may be reluctant to bring up issues like abortion or gun control. We might be uncomfortable to talk about racism or the environment. Yet, like it or not, when we walk out our doors, if there is a stray and maybe rabid bulldog on our front porch or an alligator in our swimming pool, we must react. We will not throw our three-year-old into the pool, (maybe if we are Democrats we would throw a Republican in). We will not send our grandma out to take care of the dog (after all, she still bakes cookies).
A word of explanation is due. I began this paper in February, around the time of the Parkland shooting. I did not know things would play out like they have. Real life has a way of catching up to and superseding the written word. As Dr. Wink wrote decades ago (truth never ages): A situation of oppression or need, such as addiction or persecution or personal crisis, can sometimes provide its own spontaneous hermeneutic which simply overleaps the problems of the past (italics added).
Parables, Metaphors, Similes, Photographs and Paintings
According to a many-creased yet neatly printed chart created in circa 1970, Nancy Mansell recorded 40 parables. In print, on long lasting paper she carefully annotated each parable and the top four starred. The chart’s heading includes the story’s name, the story itself, background, if any, and the main teaching. She then carefully created 40 identical boxes and wrote notes using the heading codes. I imagine she got an A in that assignment. Yet, the other side of Nancy and as you will hear later, is so much in love with the compassionate Triune God and his children.
Kenneth Bailey and Walter Wink have challenged my ‘boxed in’ approach to parables and the Bible. Let us say that I have become like Gumby or Stretch Armstrong when it comes to understanding the Bible. I recall one of the professors at our small Bible College emphatically stating with his chest puffed out, “parables all have one meaning.” When I was a 20-year-old kid, I kind of shrunk in my seat. My professor was quoting Professor Julicher who in 1886 stated something like, “every parable has one and only one central artistic integrity.” Maybe some of us here still think of parables like this and view the Bible having only one correct meaning.
Dr. Walter Wink, certainly a man of vision and fearless abandonment to his work, brings another dimension to understanding the Bible. After reading his messages in Transforming Bible Study, one might either shake their heads or their fists. I shook neither, as I believe he was onto truth ahead of his time. May I present his case regarding parables? Wink defines parables as condensed metaphors: “she’s a tiger when she’s angry.” The use of slimily: “she is like a tiger when she’s angry.” Wink challenges us to come as learners, who using Jesus’ language desire to become disciples of the kingdom of heaven. Wink believes a parable is not an allegory. Allegorical teaching and preaching did reign supreme in the church for centuries. Maybe one used allegory because one could control the outcome of the story. Allegorizing is an attitude of domination over the text and satisfaction with what one already has known. It is a subtle and blatant form of arrogance. It is the death of interpretation.
Wink informs the reader that parables “open new possibilities for hearing as Jesus repeatedly warns us to do.”
(Parables) stand in an intermediate position between the known and the unknown…To hear a parable, then, means to submit oneself vulnerable, to realize that on the onset that we do not know what it means.”
Kenneth Bailey did not just write about the Parables of Jesus. He lived over 60 years in the Middle East. He entered small group living with Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Remembering that not one of these religious experiences are monolithic, that the Syrian Christians still speak Aramaic, may assist us in contemplating what Bailey tells us in his book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.
Bailey understands that Jesus was a metaphorical theologian, not a philosophical theologian, and as such “when examined with care, his parables are serious theology, and Jesus emerges as an astute theologian (p. 280 italics his).” Dr. Bailey states:
A metaphor communicates in ways that rational arguments cannot. Pictures easily trump but do replace abstract reasoning. (for example, say: Twin towers, or 9-11 and graphic memories pop up). A powerful television image communicates meaning that a thousand words cannot express…. A parable is an extended metaphor and as such it is not a delivery system for an idea but a house in which the reader/listener is invited to take up residence. The listener/reader of the parable is encouraged to examine the human predicament through the world view created by the parable.
Following the teaching, metaphor of living and dancing in a house; Bailey “a person is urged by the parable to look on the world through the windows of that residence.”
Rocky Hearts don’t dance
We may be stuck looking out the window of Western Individualistic Reasoning. We may have become what Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel sang decades ago hard rocks: “a rock and an island, where I touch no one and one touches me. And “a rock feels no pain and an island never cries.”
Dr. Seamands declares that:
…In the face of rampant American individualism, much could be said about developing ecclesial structures, practices and forms of leadership that enhance community…Moving churches in the West toward a Trinitarian model of church life will involve a major paradigm shift away from our pervasive individualistic ways of thinking (p39 italics mine).
Further, to individual pastors/leaders, he warns: “Solitary religion is unbiblical; so is solitary service for God. We must either find companions or make them (p. 45).” Throughout his book, Seamands stresses the community of the Trinity and the community of fellow Christians. I especially like his treatment of Wesley’s work of starting small bands and developing groups from there. It is a risk but building community of a few good people may save your life. Jesus taught and lived in community, and the Triune God invites us to the dance.
Compassion and Contempt
I now am juxtaposing two diametrically opposed words, compassion, and contempt. A definition of the word contempt is where a husband may say that his wife is like a fat cow and fling angry words and maybe fists at her. To hold someone in contempt is to glare, to overpower them in eye language, body language and sometimes fist or other vile actions like enslavement, trafficking, starvation, or rape. The word contempt is not found in the parable I am about to introduce, but the concept of superiority, power over others because of one’s position, birth place or race is certainly in the parable.
Compassion is mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke 34 times. Love is found in John 39 times, while in the other Gospels 27 times. The basic word study in the Bible for compassion begins to illuminate our hearts, removing contempt. Jesus was moved with compassion, doing the works of God, from raising the dead son of a widow to touching a leper, healing blind men, and feeding the shepherd-less sheep. As he was moved with compassion, he also illustrated compassion by using this word as the basis of three well-known parables. For further reading, I have worked through the Good Samaritan and the Running Father, reluctant son’s parables. I will place my comments within the framework of the King who forgave, the bond servant that throttled. Recall the living parable of the Nez Perce, a microcosm of the world we live. The shire looks great, but the heart of the monster resides in the middle of it, ruining the peace and love of the place. Compassion and love resolve this problem by changing our hearts, the way we read the BOOK and the way we relate to one another. As we dance with the trinity, no matter the presenting problem, the underlying issue is heart change. We have been forgiven freely. Let us live among all other people with the same spirit of love, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.
Paul cries out in compassion:
Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also (2Corinthians 6:11-13).
So, by whatever [appeal to you there is in our mutual dwelling in Christ, by whatever] strengthening and consoling and encouraging [our relationship] in Him [affords], by whatever persuasive incentive there is in love, by whatever participation in the [Holy] Spirit [we share], and by whatever depth of affection and compassionate sympathy (Philippians 2:1, Classic Amplified Version, emphasis added).
Recalling the Trinity and their:
Full equality, glad submission, joyful intimacy, and mutual deference
We follow Paul who cried out to the Philippian believers as he writes
Comfort in Christ Consolation of love Fellowship of the Holy Spirit Compassions and mercies (of the Father I add). I added the Greek in the future reading and discussion.
Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] (Phil. 2:5, Amplified Version.)
Paul’s “guts” pour out for the Corinthians. If Paul saw the state of the church in the United States, he certainly would weep over us also, pouring out his guts.
Hebrew, makob as a woman in labor) and empathy,(compassion Greek, ,.. splagchnizomai: to be moved in the inward parts, See Matthew 9:36 I feel compassion.
Paul, like Jesus has a “from the heart” gut wrenching depth of love. Koster comments: σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί is thus the pregnant phrase in which ‘love from the heart’ and ‘personal sympathy’ comprehensively describe the essential elements in Christian dealings…This love and affection which grip and profoundly move the whole man are possible only in Christ.
COMPASSION DANCE
I call the dance “Compassion swing” and the ticket to get onto the dancefloor is that we must “turn and become like children.” As we meet and enter the Dance With The Trinity, DWTT, will we be turned and changed with more compassion and less contempt for our fellow humans who dance alongside us?
Seamands draws us into a circle of dancing. First, we are reminded the Triune God is dancing. Next as we get onto the dance floor, we are invited to dance. And as we dance everyone including the Triune God keeps their lights and dances. Here we list several seminal quotes from the book that invites us to the dance.
And affection—the other aspect of Trinitarian love I want to underscore. The persons of the Trinity are both near and dear to each other. They delight in each other; theirs is a joyful intimacy. As Roderick Leupp expresses it, ‘Divine joy powers the divine dance’ (p59 italics added).
It is the Holy Spirit who both communicates God’s love to us and enfolds us in its dynamic movement. Clark Pinnock captures it well: ‘Spirit is content to be thought of as the medium and fellowship of love. He delights in the loving relationships of the divine dance and exults in the self-emptying love that binds Father and Son. He delights to introduce creatures to union with God, the dance of the Trinity and the Sabbath play of new creation (p61).
The Trinitarian circle where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit indwell and are indwelt by one another is open, not closed. We have been invited into the circle to participate in the divine dance (p.145).
Catherine Mowry LaCugna states that the Triune persons: Experience one fluid motion of encircling, encompassing, permeating, enveloping, outstretching. There are neither leaders nor followers in the divine dance, only an eternal movement of reciprocal giving and receiving, giving again and receiving again…The divine dance is fully personal and inter personal, expressing the essence and unity of God. (p144).
The Triune dance is lit from the presence of the members of the Trinity. Seamands describes the Greek concept of perichoresis. “(Perichoresis) is like the three sources of light in the same room, interpenetrating each other so that the resulting light is single yet somehow remains multiple (p.142).”
I see Dad and Bro as continual Do-it-Yourselfers, watch HGTV. They watch Fixer/Upper (where the worst houses in the best neighborhoods are fixed up) and Home Town (just get out there and do it). I see Sis coming along and hiding their tools and bringing them back to the dancefloor. I have structured the comments of the parable by visiting the rooms where Stephen Seamands, our author, Pope Francis, leader of most of the Christians in the world and John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard and some of his friends look out their windows. The Parable highlights all the members of the Trinity. And the parable focuses upon real-life issues of compassion and contempt.
Dancing With the Triune God
Follow the Money, compassion on me, not on you Jesus dances with his brothers therefore, all humans matter. Matthew 18:21-35
Jesus is our Shepherd, our Friend who sticks closer than a Brother, our Kinsman Redeemer. The Father is our Running Dad, who looks down the road, watching for his children, and urging them to come into the dance. The Holy Spirit, applying the medicine to all her children, exiles in their own lands. Healing powerfully, the Spirit comes into our midst with great compassion, reaching all who are broken. Dr. Seamands relates how when preparing Jesus met him, and reminded him that it Jesus’ ministry, not his is.
Receiving a word-picture from Jesus, Stephen was able to relax, when Jesus said; ‘It may seem like a mountain to you, but it’s a molehill to me! I can leap and bound over it effortlessly. I have a sermon I want to preach to the people gathered there. I’m going to preach it through you. In fact, it’s going to be fun! Come on; let’s run together (p. 22).’
Jesus, then wants us to have fun with Him as we dance into this parable. Jesus introduces this parable as Peter, expansive in his math, asked if seven times of forgiveness was enough. Jesus replies in hyperbole, 7X70 times. He also uses extravagant measures of debt. $1 million dollars.
Using Bailey’s method, I will illustrate the central message of this parable. After the set-up Jesus gets to the heart of the parable. The slave did all he was to do, a big show, falling, prostrating himself:
Slave: Since he did not have the means to repay the debt. Master, have him, his wife, and children and all he had sold and repayment to be made
Slave: Have patience with me Μακροθύμησον: please don’t move so fast, I will repay everything to you.
(Maybe he is thinking I would rather be a slave here with you than somewhere else)
Lord of slave took three steps, not just one: felt compassion (see above),
released him ἀπέλυσεν, to loose like an arrow
forgave ἀφῆκεν, pardon, remiss his debt
Slave, free of his huge debt went out and action words here are’ found, grabbed, throttled’ his “fellow slave”
Fellow slave, συνδούλων, which Paul used in Col 1:7 in describing Epaphras “our beloved fellow bond servant who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf.” In our haste to point out the shortcomings of our fellow slaves in the church, we forget that in the church we in Paul’s words:
Instead, let love make you serve one another. 14 For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” 15 But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another Galatians 5:13(b)-15 the Message).
We in the church may be treating one another with contempt. We “grab each other by the Throat.” Many of us are carrying the shrapnel of grenades thrown into our hearts by loving church folk. We as Paul said may watch out that we don’t destroy ourselves. In our haste to be ‘holding each other accountable’ for the other person’s visible sins, are we looking into our hearts filled with icebergs where others just see the tops and we carry about enough rage and hate to sink the Titanic all over again? I know I still have plenty of internal global warming to do in my heart before my iceberg is melted. (But can I keep the Polar Bear, he is so cuddly?)
Paul expressed his deep compassion, not contempt for brothers and sisters who “have fallen.” Rather, he states: “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:1-2).” Have we treated an Epaphras “our beloved fellow bond servant who is a faithful servant of Christ” with contempt?
Have my glares and words been shot as arrows, not of forgiveness, but of hate and rage? When we in our churches value more highly which political party we affiliate with than our love for our fellow slave in Christ, we have contempt.
Carrying contempt seeps out into many areas of life. Conversely, acting in compassion empowers and frees us as we respond in the opposite spirit. Starting in the body of Christ, we exemplify compassion upon the wounded, warming up our icy hearts as we share love, and starting the thawing process in our fellow bond servant’s life.
Rally in Times Square, New York City on Feb. 18, 2017. a katz / Shutterstock.com
This is the heart of this presentation. When we have received Amazing Grace and sing that we have been set free; yet we treat others and our Triune God with contempt. In the parable, it took a long time to embezzle the king (lord, master), for $1 million. Yet, the debt was all wiped out in a moment. When we sing we are no longer slaves, do we treat others with contempt? When we have a little power over someone how do we put love and forgiveness to work?
Forgiveness for the way we treat the exile and refugees
Forgiveness, so easily given, but so costly to extend, may pay off if we are willing to stand up in our workplaces, schools, courtrooms, streets for the vulnerable. It takes a long time to gain favor among the outcast, the downtrodden.
Used and abused people will take a hand out but getting to the place of openly hugging them, loving them, fighting side by side for their dignity is a long time coming. The movement in the United States to stop immigration is in months shutting down agencies like Catholic Relief and World Relief. It took years to build trust and be asked to eat with an immigrant. The networks that women and men have worked so hard to build have vanished. So, have the refugees vanished from sight, who are now on their own, without lasting friendships in a very quickly becoming hostile world.
Loving the immigrant, the stranger, the sojourner among us according to Jesus is an application of this parable.
Vineyard Window: “The church exists for sake of those who are exiled from God; we are called to bring the Gospel of the kingdom to every nook and cranny of creation.”
Vineyard window: Compassion with the marginalized: “We lean toward the lost, the poor, the outcast, and the outsider with the compassion of Jesus.” John Wimber responding to people who wanted their ears tickled, said “the meat is in the street.”
Francis Window:
"I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets” … He added: "More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, 'Give them something to eat.'"
Francis Window: “our shared response may be articulated by four verbs: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate” migrants and refugees.”
Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age (Matthew 25:35-43). The Lord entrusts to the Church’s motherly love every person forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future. This solidarity must be concretely expressed at every stage of the migratory experience – from departure through journey to arrival and return. This is a great responsibility, which the Church intends to share with all believers and men and women of good will, who are called to respond to the many challenges of contemporary migration with generosity, promptness, wisdom and foresight, each according to their own abilities.
And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts (Matthew18: 34-35 italics added).”
And, after teaching His disciples to pray, Jesus comments only one on line of the prayer:
For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15 Amplified Version.)
Seamands View: Wounds That Heal, bringing our hurts to the cross
It is my observation that many people in the church struggle through our begging for forgiveness, where the Lord cancels our debt on the cross, releases us like an arrow from the bow. We get into the King’s house for free, but then we act as if we did something to get in. It may be we are so wounded that we must go to Jesus and His cross and receiving healing for what Dr. Seamands called “broken trust receptors”. We are healed as we may stay at the cross for a long time. In his book, Wounds That Heal, Bringing our Hurts to the Cross, Dr. Seamands describes forgiveness “is both a crisis (a definitive decision) and a process (releasing hurt and resentment and receiving healing at ever deepening levels.” It may be we have been so treated with contempt, shame so deep that even when we are forgiven such a deep debt that in our ‘untrained for grace hearts’ we go out and continue in the old ways. Remember, the servant had a crisis, where his entire family was to be enslaved. For some reason he forgot compassion, and grace was not extended by him to another. Dr. Seamands and Walter Wink remind us that our bad theology, our western individualism, and creates a monster when it comes to relationships. We assent in our minds, but do not apply to our entire selves what the Good News really accomplished.
Dancing with the Trinity Loving the LGBTQ community.
We go in the love of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, with the Father’s heart.
The Holy Spirit, as we read in John 14-16 is our comforter, counselor, one who brings us into community.
Stephen Seamands reminds us in our daily lives, to be filled with the Holy Spirit While he does not mention this community here, his statement applies to all ministry.
Essentially this metaphor describes a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit characterized by surrender and abandonment to the Spirit…Those who are filled with the Spirit have died to that determination (to be independent) surrendered their right to be in control and made themselves radically dependent on and available to the Holy Spirit (p.28).
The Holy Spirit grants us the grace to go and receive. We go as people who are filled with compassion, mercy, grace. I agree with Seamands, if we go in our own power, we will be overwhelmed. But we go as people who have the love and fullness of the Holy Spirit.
I believe the Holy Spirit, when understood as the One who takes our hearts of stone and changes them to flesh; we will become a community of humble servants. Rest assured, if we go as ones with the answers, as the ones who will ‘change the world,’ please stay home. Stay home and learn or go out into the wilderness as Anthony did for twenty years in the 300’s, meet God and then come back in loving acceptance of all people.
Lack of forgiveness breeds superiority and contempt, for we think since we live close to our Brothers house, we can direct the dance. We can go ahead and belittle women and vulnerable children, throttling by the neck entire people groups and people of color. We stand afar off and allow the gay and lesbians who are our own children go their way without our love, compassion, and community.
Dancing with the Father
You lucky dog, that son of yours, that brother of yours…Hey is Dad dead yet? Also see Luke 15:11-32, Father Dances upon the road home.
Stephen’s Window. Stephen shares his own long journey to the Father’s house: (As loving people were praying for him), “Something within me shifted that day. The wall cracked and began to come down (p 43)…Later he states ‘Brick by brick, as that wall has been dismantled, my awareness of my belovedness and my heartfelt experiences of the Father’s love have increased in frequency and intensity (p 69).
Stephen’s Window: Throughout the work, Stephen emphasizes, it takes time to let the Father into our hearts/homes by relating many stories of some of his friends meeting the Father.
I felt the deep, painful ache for my father’s embrace-an embrace he was not able to give me during my childhood. Suddenly I realized now, thirty-four years later, my heavenly Father was meeting the deepest need in my heart for a natural demonstration of a father’s affectionate love (p55 italics mine).
Father’s Heart Window: “God’s Plumbline for Rebuilding Broken Lives” by Bruce Thompson . Two friends and my wife, Nancy and I have been leading an interactive teaching called “God’s Plumbline for Rebuilding Broken Lives” by Bruce Thompson. We are leading a small group of young people on a weekly basis. The Plumbline experience is predicated upon the leader’s ability to be transparent before those attending. One evening the leader asked if we could talk to our younger selves what would we request from God. All four of us stated, “Knowing the Father’s heart earlier in our walk in God.” I shared how I had met Jesus as a pre-teen, the Holy Spirit when I was 20 (1970) but did not begin to know the Father’s heart until 1986.
Francis Window: “If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Several articles have been written by Catholic authors urging repentance and acceptance of this community. Many write that the church has done harm and needs to remove barriers.
Vineyard Window: Love Never Fails and you have a seat at the table.
The Pew Family Window:
As a Dad of two gay sons, I have learned that “love never fails.” I know the teachings from the Vineyard in general. And, specifically in Boise Idaho my wife and I have received love and encouragement to continue this conversation. We believe that the Father is running to the LGBTQ community, and we run with Him in saying, “love never fails.” Whether at the Lucky Dog or at our dining table, we will dance with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My third son, Stephen, is a gay man. He travels for work. He has been to Orlando for several business trips. I called upon hearing about the shooting in 2015 (expounded upon in further reading). He was OK. As far as he knew then, none of his friends were involved. Last summer my second son, Joshua, a gay man, became a part-time DJ at the Lucky Dog. He prepared parties for building community among the LGBTQ community in Boise, Idaho. His party name was “Nancy.” He explained his naming choice as two-fold, one that the name Nancy (nancy-boy) is a carry-over from the British world. Second, it is his heritage to have a Mom and great-great-grandma named Nancy. My wife and I attended an event. The doormen recognized and welcomed us immediately. They said, “hey there are Josh’s parents and Stephen’s too”. Nancy danced with Josh. After the dance one young man came up to her and said, “I wish you were my mom.” She also joined the dance with the Triune God, loving, accepting, and going with love to places she had not been able to go before. She dances embracing men and women who come into her home, into her life and she has heard more than once, “I wish you were my mom.” To enter the dance, Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit had to teach us how to not be hindered.
We chose to change from homophobic judge mentality to loving acceptance. Nancy, reflecting upon looking out our front windows said, ‘” all windows are the same, they are all rectangles, unless they are round.” I answered, “I guess we should move to the Shire, where they have round windows.” Round windows and Shires for Nancy and I is the world view of no matter who or what, they are welcome here. Sure, we draw some borders, but then again, we have had felons stay here more than once. With our family situation, we even hopefully will build a bridge to a really hurting person. Our daughter Melissa remarked regarding this person, “While our family has its secrets that we have had to deal with, who we to judge are? We need to love and accept and move on.”
Finally, in applying the forgiving heart we are called to listen and apologize maybe seventy time seven times. We got into this mess over many centuries. It will take time and hard work to bring lasting change. Let us truly learn what it means to have:
Full equality, glad submission, joyful intimacy, and mutual deference
Listen and Apologize
The following statements from Jeremy Treat may assist us as continue our conversation. Jeremy Treat serves as a pastor in a church in Hollywood. As he is referencing human sexuality, I believe his guidelines may assist us as we continue the dance.
Theology matters, but sound doctrine cannot replace the healing power of compassion, empathy, and love. Compassion does not compromise theology; it enriches it. Although people might come across like they are looking for an argument, what most people need is a safe place to express the tension they feel between their faith in God and what they are experiencing in their lives (italics added).
There are two particular practices that the church needs to embody to foster communities of compassion. The first is listening. We all want to be known and heard, and God does this primarily through the means of community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together calls this "ministry of listening." "The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them (p97)." To become communities of empathy and compassion, the church must learn to listen.
We also need to be a people who apologize. We spend so much time defending the Christian view of sexuality (he later addresses human rights in general) that we overlook the need to apologize for our own inconsistencies with it.
We are a people of truth, but sometimes the most truthful thing we can do is to acknowledge the failures of our traditions.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are dancing. The music has not died. It will continue into eternity. As our communities of faith works through the issues of racism, immigration, treatment of the vulnerable, and sexual orientation, we may want to keep in mind what Jesus, Paul and Peter and John said. Love never fails.
Shift of the Heart
Paradigm shifts are not easy. When they are empowered by us as we dance with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Many stories of new life in Christians begin like Wesley’s “warming of his heart experience.” Drawing near to the fire, then we will make a huge shift from:
Western Individualism to communities of loving service
American Exceptionalism to humble servants in the Kingdom of God
Our Dead Book religion to the Living Power of God’s Love Story
The courtroom of judgement to the dancefloor of freedom and grace
From the accountant’s office of miserly spirits to the world of extravagant giving without measure
From the boardroom of self-actualization to the streets where we get bloody and stained
From the sanitary halls of the general hospital to the MASH unit at the frontier of war
From the stuffed clothes closet to the second-hand store
From the upward ladder of success to the shoe shine stool
From the accolades of academia to living, serving the disabled who cannot thank you
When Jesus finished his teachings on parables in Matthew 13, he asked; “do you understand this?’ For the first and as far as I can tell, the only time the disciples (the inner group, the chosen followers) answered “yes.” So far so good, Jesus gives another parable/ simile to explain where they were in the learning.
And Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old (Matthew 13:52).”
Thinking of dancing with my daughter after her wedding ceremony or the song we danced to brings that gut wrenching love to my memory. She had chosen “I Hope you Dance” for our father, daughter dance.
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance Songwriters: Tia Sillers / Mark Sanders
I Hope You Dance lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Tony Arata wrote “The Dance” reminds his listeners that with dancing, there is the pain of relationship, of losing a loved one, of broken hearts, of gut wrenching experiences:
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain
But I'd have to miss the dance
Songwriters: Tony Arata
The Dance lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, BMG Rights Management US, LLC
The best dancers are those that lose themselves, not self-conscious, and lifting up their partners, displaying them. Like my dance with my daughter at her wedding, I did not want any eyes on me, rather, she was the center of everyone’s attention. Pain, yes over the years, but I would not sit out the dance.
What hinders us from dancing with the Triune God , as we contemplate the active Holy Spirit, the engaged loving Mother (Father), the bleeding heart of the Son (“Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing (Luke 23:34)?” We may be hindered by hardened hearts and lack of forgiveness.
See God’s Plumbline for Rebuilding Broken Lives by Dr. Bruce Thompson, video 7 for an excellent treatment of Forgiveness.
Kenneth Baily was fascinated with the Parable of the lost Sons. He asked many people of the Middle East a penetrating question: “what would happen if a son asked his Dad for his inheritance while Dad was alive?” I imagine Bailey had to back up some when he heard the vehement reply: “No son would ever do that!” Bailey would press the issue and ask why not. The impassioned response would be, “because that meant that the son wanted his father dead.”
This parable’s application is found in how we treat the LGBTQ neighbor, brother, sister, son in our lives, our churches and in daily business.
Catholic Leader Window: John Langan, S.J.
We must not only be charitable with others, but also honest with ourselves. Realistic self-understanding leads to the abandonment of hypocrisy; realistic understanding of others prepares the way for acceptance in community. Looking seriously at the communities in which we participate will disclose a complex tapestry in which the multicolored threads of the rainbow catch and reflect light, increase splendor and range, and are to be gratefully received. John Langan, S.J See the Person: Understanding Pope Francis’ statements on homosexuality America/The Jesuit Review, Feb. 25, 2014 cited 1/3/2018.
Dad/Mom; Son/Brother; Spirit/Sister Dancing Tonight
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 58 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States.
As shots began to ring out in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub a week ago, Brenda Lee Marquez-McCool could have turned and run, but instead she stood in front of her son, shielding him from bullets, according to family members.
“Brenda saw him point the gun. She said, ‘Get down,’ to Isaiah and she got in front of him,” her sister-in-law Ada Pressley told the New York Daily News. Marquez-McCool was 49-years-old when she died while having what was supposed to be a fun night out with her 21-year-old son, Isaiah Henderson. The mother of 11, and two-time cancer survivor, was laid to rest on Monday, in a teary farewell at First United Methodist Church of Orlando. On Monday, Henderson sobbed as he remembered his mother, and several siblings walked up to support him as he talked about a woman that everyone wanted to be around.
The Triune God was there in Orlando. A Mother entered the dance. She stood up in the way of bullets meant to kill her son. In the face of hatred and terror, she danced with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Vineyard window through the eyes of Tri Robinson: Hope for the Future Generation.
Tri Robinson, Vineyard Pastor for over thirty years recently wrote RE:FORM, The Decline of American Evangelicalism and a Path to the New Genereation. While I cannot quote the entire final chapter, Tri leans into the Franciscan model of ministry and evangelism. He envisioned with others the founding a Franciscan model work in Nicaragua, the Isaiah House. Tri’s vision is to take the word to the Pub or anywhere people gather. There are over 70 breweries in the Treasure Valley (Boise) Idaho area. What if we go to those places of modern community and listen and apologize. Tri, is breaking new grounds when he envisions:
Franciscan-type bases throughout the world, serving and demonstrating the love of God to the world. I see those trained as medics, midwifes, farmers, experts in (all the major trades and education modes). I see this as a model that proved itself in the past and can be effectively adapted for a fresh, new work of God. Tri goes onto end this chapter with a vision of the Jesus cloud rising; “As the cloud rises, so will those who God will use to lead the way (pp 135-136).”
What is our theology in practice? How do we break down the restrictions of people inside and out of the father’s house that say, you just can’t dance here? How will we continue to address racism, xenophobia, misogyny (the hatred of contempt for or prejudice against women or girls) and other blind spots or life choices? Is racism “America’s Original Sin” as Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners states?
Francis window: “In his first year, in The Joy of the Gospel he stated:
Stephen’s Window:
John Pavlovitz, statement summarizes these values:
I believe Humanity is the greater tribe. My Christian faith tradition tells me that love for my neighbor is my great aspiration and calling, but it also tells me that everyone is my neighbor; not just those who speak my language or share my pigmentation or share my politics or believe in my God. I can either see myself as a citizen of the diverse, expansive planet—or I can make my home in a gated community of people who look, think, talk, and believe like me. Too many folks right now have settles on the latter—and this is the emotional civil war we find ourselves in. John Pavlovitz , March 8, 2018.
In this Parable the Holy Spirit gives compassion, oil and bandages, money and lodging. This is His dance. Mom/Dad, Son/Brother dancing as the background dancers, whirling and laughing They say “Hey, can that Spirit go.”
What hinders us from participating in the dance of the Holy Spirit among our neighbors? Do we hold exiles and refugees in contempt? One pastor, William H. Lamar IV, states that we may have blind spots in our views as we look out our windows. He suggests that our theology may limit us if we ignore the whole person.
These four tell us of a great divide fixed in our nation. We are urged for a conversation to begin. In the living room, in the breakroom at work, or the classroom at school, they ask their audience to consider being curious, and to stop holding others in contempt. Compassion, mercy and love are the opposite of contempt. As this presentation develops, I will define compassion and contempt and hopefully assist us to establish a ‘background of trust.’ But, what they are really saying is that our hearts are filled with rocks. I cannot speak to the world, but I can and do examine my own heart and the heart-actions of many Christians. In concert with Dr. Seamands and the others I have quoted I believe as Christians we have a huge task ahead of us.
We start by knowing who we are, a broken people with rock hearts. We then challenge ourselves to read the BOOK that we errantly think will bring us life (the Spirit brings life, love begins life, but we fool ourselves if we think by pouring incessantly over the BOOK we will find life, grace brings forgiveness, law brings hearts of rocks). And finally, we join the dance of the Triune God as we start to learn:
Full equality, glad submission, joyful intimacy and mutual deference
Wink defines parables as an entry way into a new world. Rejecting the one central point teaching by Julicher, Wink says that this reduction:
(causes parables to lose their ) capacity to tell us something we do not know and could not come by in any other way, its ability to evoke experiences we have never had, and an awareness of realities not even guessed at before. P164
Making a shift in our lives requires self-inventory and community. Compassion and love for others springs from knowing that we are human beings, fully loved by the Triune God. In all of our lives we have experienced contempt, hatred, disdain. Many of us have been victims of very damaging Jesus tells us that we also have light to bring to the dance. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaching about light is like a backwards telescope. You may have held a hand held telescope backwards. Seeing it in this way, the natural telescopic function of being able to see far away things more clearly is turned around. As Christians who desire to be with God on mission, we often miss the fact that we need to dance in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in order to go on mission. Jesus may be giving us direction in this reversal of our own starting point. He has already turned many things around in the Beatitudes. Maybe He is continuing to invert the statements to make a point.
Most of the parables start small, grow big like mustard seeds, Levin, seeds planted by farmers and so forth. One parable, the dragnet, is a big going small metaphor (Matthew 13:47-50). The net catches all kinds of fish, and the bad are tossed away. Other than this parable, most of Jesus’ teachings as far as I can tell start small and go big. The reason I am emphasizing this idea is the fact that many of us have inverted our ministry and service in Christ’s name. Later in the presentation I will be showing that we should meet all three members of the Trinity as we go out into the world.
You are the light
Of the world macro view seen by all
A city mid-range view cannot be hidden
In the house micro view no one hides their lamp
When we were first introduced to Jesus, and we responded in faith to His call to follow Him, we were in the world. Our personal relationship with Jesus began in the world. To experience more of Jesus’ presence and love, we went with other Christians, their “city” or community. Then, as the love of the community and of Jesus grew, we stayed in the “house.”
John writes shares how Andrew and he first met Jesus (John 1). Paraphrasing: They were with John the Baptizer, and when they heard John say, “See the Lamb of God,” they followed Jesus. Jesus noticing, said, what you want. Where are you staying was about all they could come up with in that moment, so Jesus invited them to come and see, and they stayed with Jesus. They were curious enough to follow, to accept the invitation, and they stayed with Jesus. They were in their world; they went from being people in the community around John and ended up in the house with Jesus.
Our conversion, from being in the world to the city to the house is an important process. “How did you come to faith?” is a typical question. I don’t know if any of us heard we were the light of the world. That seems a little over the top. Looking through the telescope is a regression view. No longer do we see ourselves as light of the world or even a city on a hill, but as lights in a house. Stopping in the house and learning the dance of the Trinity is vital to our progression to “letting our light shine before the world.” One way we hinder the mission of the Trinity is leaving the house and creating our own light, and dancing in our own steps. While no one can fully apprehend the Trinity, we can stay in their house and dance with each one to be filled with their specific lights. Then, we are lights of the world, shining that people will see the “good works that will glorify our Father (and Son and Holy Spirit) who are dancing in heaven. As we learn the dance in the Trinity’s house, we will learn how to dance in the world they send us into.
The problem for all of us, we meet Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father in different times and often through crisis or when we need more light in the rooms of our heart. Starting out in the world some of us miss the dance in the house, and may not want to go there at all, because the dance moves involves a cross. The church has been divided at the cross. Some popular teachers/preachers proclaim a cross-less message, since we are on the down-river side of the cross, we are kings and queens, enjoying all the good things of life. Other people see their cross with Jesus still on it. This group of Christians, numerically the largest, has struggled with Luke 9:23, and other passages, taking up the cross as a sign of spiritual works-based suffering and for some in South America and the Philippines, actually crucifying themselves. Another group of Christian, like Dr. Seamands and Anne VosKamp, see the cross as a way of transformational cruciform, moving into the sufferings of Jesus, identifying with His life, carrying out his loving calling to a broken world.
In the house we will be visiting three rooms. Each room is entered through the door way of a parable. Each room has its own dance and dancers. We will see out of the rooms through windows. The Trinity has been dancing and invites us. The Father becomes Dad, Jesus Bro and the Holy Spirit Sis. No disrespect intended, I am creating a setting that we may be able to identify and join.
A word of explanation is due. I began this paper in February, around the time of the Parkland shooting. I did not know things would play out like they have. Real life has a way of catching up to and superseding the written word. As Dr. Wink wrote decades ago (truth never ages): A situation of oppression or need, such as addiction or persecution or personal crisis, can sometimes provide its own spontaneous hermeneutic which simply overleaps the problems of the past (italics added). (Transformational bible study p. 76)
Below I have highlighted some of the best known tragedies against the ones Jesus calls “the little ones” and “the least of these my brothers” (Matthew 10:42, 18:10, Luke 17:2 and Matthew 25:31-46).
I think counterintuitively. My sons would attest that I “go off.” I also think in regards to what holds my attention.
Counterintuitive thinking is defined as: contrary to intuition or to common-sense expectation (but often nevertheless true).
What holds my attention in a classic word: cynosure, a person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration.
‘cynosure definitions,’ Google Dictionary, 15/1/18. Cynosure is also the North Star, used for centuries to guide navigators.
Bibliography with notes for future reading
Biblical References and Books I have referenced
Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service, Downers Grove, IL, Intervarsity Press, 2005.
Stephen Seamands, Wounds That Heal: Bringing our Hurts to the Cross, Downers Grove, IL, Intervarsity Press, 2003.
Gerald Heistand& Todd Wilson, ed., Beauty, Order, and Mystery: A Christian Vision of Human Sexuality, Downers Grove IL, Intervarsity Press, 2017.
John Nolland, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Greek Testament Commentary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2005.
David W. Stowe, Song of Exile: The Enduring Mystery of Psalm 137, New York, N.Y. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Bill Jackson, The Quest for the Radical Middle: A History of the Vineyard, Cape Town, South Africa, 1999.
Joshua Hopping, The Here and Not Yet, An Audio Book, Narrated by Scott F. Gwenn, 2018.
George E. Ladd, The Presence of the Future rev., Grand Rapids, Michigan, William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.1974.
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels, Downers Grove, IL, Intervarsity Press, 2008.
Tri Robinson, Re:Form: Living the Andvent-Ure:The Decline of American Evangelicalism and a New Path for the New Generation to Re:form their faith, United States, Ampelon Pub., 2017.
Bolinger, Tod, Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory, Downers Grove, Intervarsity Press, 2015.
Allen V. Pinkham and Steven R. Evans, Lewis and Clark Among the Nez Perce:Strangers in the Land of the Nimiipuu, Washburn, N.D., The Dakota Institute Press, 2013.
Greek-English New Testament, Iverson-Norman Associates, New York, N.Y. 1975.
Analytical Greek Lexicon, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Press,1974.
Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr. ed., Greek Parallels, Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1967.
Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, The Dictionary of the New Testament, Ann Arbor, MI, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1971.
Brene’ Brown, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, New York, N.Y., Random House, 2017.
Walter Wink, Transforming Bible Study 2nd Ed., Nashville, TN, Abingdon Press, 1989.
New American Standard Bible, La Habra, CA. The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, 1971.
Eugene H. Peterson, A Year With Jesus, Daily Readings and Meditations San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2006
Peter Scazzero, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Day by Day, Nashville, TN, Nelson Pub. 2014.
Bruce Thompson, God’s Plumbline for Rebuilding Broken Lives, Colorado Springs, CO, Crown Ministries Pub. July 2008 ed. C. 1984.
Online Resources
Archive. Org., Internet Archive checks out books and others are in PDF, that one reads while in the Archive. Below are the books I resourced for this presentation.
Howard Thurman Jesus and the Disinherited, Nashville, TN., Abingdon Press, no date, but looks like about 1935.
Fredrick Douglas, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, 1852, no pub. No date.
John Newton, Upon the African Slave Trade, London, Buckland Printers, cannot read the date.
America.org, Amercia/Jesuit Review, has many articles from the Catholic Church. This is a very insightful reviews and articles on current issues such as immigration, homosexuality, church policy and growth in evangelism, missional outreach. Since Pope Francis has been leading the church, significant discussion on these and other events are being discussed. Not all is well among the American Catholics, as at least one article has been written regarding the destruction of the church and her traditions through such a liberal leader. Others hail Francis as a true visionary. Since I have used his statements as a reference to where many Catholics are going in their thoughts and discussions, I will include many of the articles I have read.
John Langan, S.J See the Person: Understanding Pope Francis’ statements on homosexuality America/The Je
