Christ is Risen – He is Risen indeed!

Fact or fiction – proof or faith?

Was Jesus really risen from the dead?
The Christian confession in the resurrection of Jesus has been at the core of the Christian faith for nearly 2000 years. Although it is the confession of most who profess a faith in Christ, what are the thoughts and questions going on behind the scenes that lead people to such a conclusion?
I have encountered many Christians during this past 38 days of lent who wrestle with or accept the confession of the resurrection of Jesus in different ways. Was it really a bodily resurrection? What really happened to Jesus body afterwards if that is the case? Did Jesus really rise from death? These are legitimate, yet for some disturbing questions, that Christians of today are wrestling with in order to try and understand a tradition, a creedal statement, a confession that has been around for so long.

I think it is healthy for Christians today to be in dialogue with one another on such a topic and be allowed to sit with the questions for a while. Why is it so important for us to believe in such things? Can we actually sit with one another with different views on this and still respect one another and get along?

The authors of each Gospel (the four we have in our bibles anyway) pay particular attention to the final week of Jesus life, including death and resurrection. Only three of the original Gospel accounts have extensive resurrection stories. It certainly becomes apparent in these accounts that the authors go to great lengths to share eye witness accounts as proof of the resurrection. Skeptics would say that this is just the way the author tweaks the story to get the reader to believe. However even the resurrected Jesus in the stories say, ‘how happy are those who believe yet have not seen’.

I particularly like the original ending of Mark’s Gospel which has no such appearances of a resurrected Jesus at all. In fact, Mark leaves the reader with an empty tomb and the women who found it fleeing from the scene trembling and bewildered and not telling anyone about it because they were afraid (Mark 16:1-8). What I love about Mark’s Gospel is that he leaves us, the reader, to make up our own mind.

Our lectionary focused it's attention of the Gospel of John...again (surprise, surprise) this Easter Sunday. I am always captivated by the characters John chooses to focus on in the story. In fact for John the resurrection is a personal event for each of the characters - Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Peter and 'the other disciple' (the one whom Jesus loved, or the one who loved Jesus, depending on how you read your Greek). Each of them experienced the resurrected Jesus differently. I am particularly interested in Mary's experience - she didn't even recognize Jesus. This is not unlike the story told by Luke when Jesus walked to Emmaus with 2 disciples and 'they didn't recognize him'. So I go, 'what's all that about?' when those who were closest to him in life and ministry either don't believe Jesus was raised from death (Thomas and Peter) or don't recognise the resurrected Christ. No wonder it's a hard story for people to swallow 2000 years later.

I suspect they may be looking for the Jesus of their own construction. It's not unlike what we do to Jesus today, we construct an image of Jesus that suits us, an image that may be an untruth, a Jesus that we are comfortable with. Regardless of facts, or historical/eye witness 'proof' the Jesus we often meet is Jesus on our terms. So what happens then when we are confronted by the resurrected Christ, the Jesus not our our own construction but of God? What happens when we encounter that which cannot be proven or explained? Sure we can be left bewildered, confused and afraid failing to recognise - after all, that's exactly what the Gospels tells us of the experiences of those who actually experienced the risen Christ 2000 years ago.

Another thing I find fascinating in the accounts the resurrected Christ has with certain characters is this, even when they don't recognise him him recognizes them. He calls Mary by name, that is the point of her revelation. The hope Christians have is not based in evidence, nor does it need to be. The hope on this day of resurrection is that Jesus recognizes us even when we don’t recognize him.

Proof is not needed at all in order to testify to the resurrection. While I think it is healthy for us to debate such a topic there is no need for us to oppress one another with 'proof text's' or forcefully twist anothers arm to think the same way. In fact we may even learn something about resurrection of Jesus from another persons experience that can teach us something more of the nature of God and the hope we share.

Confession in the resurrection of Jesus has always been a matter of faith. Those who have faith in such an event proclaim it is God’s divine ‘YES’ to the faithful life Jesus lived. God raised Jesus in an action that defied death, so those who believe could have hope in a God who can create something new out of a devastating event. This would lead us to understand why every Easter Sunday, Christians proclaim that Jesus is alive which is why we have hope and life in Christ today.

Shalom Mark

On the edge

It was day 28 of lent and instead of going for my usual bike ride to find space to reflect, I headed down the coast with my board for a surf.
It was a reasonably large swell for Southport which meant the breaks were packed with surfers. I sat on the beach and pondered for a while what kind of approach I would take to getting past what looked like a terrifying shore break. I eventually got out there. Paddling out for me is not without a healthy sense of fear particularly in big and rough waves. It’s always comforting once you get to the group of other surfers and you can sit there on your board bobbing up and down knowing you’re reasonably safe beyond the break zone.
Surfers, ‘real surfers’ are usually adventurous types and will try anything at least once. It usually involves doing something daring. As we were waiting for a set of waves to come through I noticed two surfers paddling a little further out. They were heading for the Port Norlunga reef which was becoming more and more exposed with the outgoing tide. Large waves were crashing up against the reef making for spectacular viewing. These two surfers climbed up on the reef for a closer look, not because they were dared to, and not to gain respect, but purely because they could and because surfers love to live on the edge.
A big set came through and we all scrambled for positions. It’s always interesting to see which way people scramble. While some line themselves up to catch the wave, others paddle as fast as they can further out to sea to avoid the wave. This is what makes or breaks a ‘real surfer’. The waves that day were really sucking up and when you look down from the top it’s a long way to drop. All kinds of questions conger up in your mind as you discern whether you could make it or not.
In surfing circles there are playful ways of giving your mates a hard time if they continually dodge the wave. They are given name labels like grommet, scrubber, poser or try-hard. They wear these labels until that day they can paddle to the edge of that wave and take the plunge and not just a little one either, there has to be no hesitation and no fear shown when dropping into even the big monster waves. That day is called graduation day when they can call themselves surfers with integrity and not just pose as one.
Similarly, Jesus calls his disciples to pretty radical decisions daily. Jesus borders on the edge of acceptance never thinking twice about taking the daring plunge to stand with those who are marginalized or oppressed. It didn’t matter what people thought of him, what mattered was that these people had a chance to be liberated from their condition.
There are those who like to wear the label of being followers of Jesus, or in today’s terms ‘Christian’. From the time many followed Jesus on that final journey into Jerusalem, how many were really able to follow through with integrity?
To earn your right to be a Christian of integrity, is to be prepared to make radical decisions to follow Jesus daily.

Shalom Mark

God takes us by surprise

When Ash Barker was here a couple of weeks ago, we had an amazing experience after visiting a church one Sunday night. Ash had an amazing encounter with a person he knew from 15 years ago. Out of this encounter sprung a conversation between Ash and I about the impact you often don’t realize you have in ministry because you often plant many sends, tend to them, and help them grow, but hardly ever see the fruits that result from your labor. Here Ash tells an amazing story of this encounter…

A few weeks ago I experienced an unexpected joy. It was my last night in Oz as I faced my fifty-first meeting, in my third city, in fourteen days. My tongue felt six inches thick, my throat was cracked red and my head was dizzy longing to hit the pillow on my sixth bed for the trip. This wouldn’t have been so bad, but a couple of hundred smart dressed 15 to 20 year olds started to arrive through the church doors ready to hear me speak. I was so spent that I wasn’t even sure I could put an intelligible sentence together never mind persuade any-body of God’s heart-beat for the poor.

That’s when it happened. A huge Islander walked across the room and shook me by the hand.
“Remember me?” My mind was tanked, but I did know this guy. His eyes smiled.
“Huh. Its me Anthony, well Anton now. I used to live with you fellas.”
My knees buckled, nearly toppling over as I realized who this was. This was not the fuming, angry, skinny fifteen year-old Anthony, I’d last seen fifteen years ago. Here was a weather beaten, but peaceful man, now known as Anton. He was the last person I’d expected to see at this church, not least because last time I’d heard he was doing a very long jail stretch.
Anton spoke fast, letting me know how he found Jesus in solitary confinement. He had remembered how I had bought him fishing rod for his birthday and how we caught plenty of fish that day of a hired boat. I’d said, “one day you’ll be a fisher of men.” Alone in jail Anton said to God, “If you get me out of this jail I will speak your truth for the rest of my days.” Anton did get out of jail, tried to find me and for the last four years as well as holding down a steady job he has been sharing Jesus with all who will listen in a kind of gutsy, street-level way. Anton saw this new life as a kind of fulfillment in those words I vaguely remember saying years ago.
A kind of joy instantly sprung up, lifting my spirits. As I got up to speak in front of so many fresh faces, a torrent of stories and insights splashed out of me. Some I hope will find their mark and make some difference. Few there that night would need to be transformed the way a fifteen year old Anthony had after all.

After the service I went back to a mutual friend’s house for dinner and Anton told me his whole story. I met too some of his friends and neighbours who band together to love and serve Jesus in their inner-city Adelaide neighbourhood. They kept prompting Anton to tell this story or that. “Aye, you’re the fishing guy then, are you? Heard that one a few times!” one said. Like, Anton, none had easy lives, but like Anton all were seeking to find a fresh way forward with Jesus and desperate for other to know this transforming power too.

Within 24 hours of that dinner I was dragging my luggage through our slum neighbourhood’s narrow lane ways toward my home. I often feel flat and empty after such crazy trips, questioning their worth. When I rest up I do see their value, but this time even this long, dark walk carried a deep sense of joy. Sure speaking, writing, lecturing and scheming for the kingdom has its place, but nothing beats hearing how God uses our small deeds done with a lot of love to bear fruit in ways you least expect it. Viva the revolution of the small Jesus-deeds!

Ash Barker UNOH Director – Bangkok Chapter

Check out more of UNOH's Wild Ones stories on the Wild Ones blog

Shalom Mark

UNOH's Wild Ones hit Adelaide

From the 9th-11th of March (sitting on the bench from left)Ash Barker (Director UNOH Bangkok), Shobie Owen (UNOH Melbourne), and Dan (FORGE Melbourne), came to Adelaide to unleash a message, the call to radical discipleship with Jesus. Last year the UNOH tour of the churches was called 'Wild Ones'. The quote on our T-shirts (in the pic), from Erwin McManus says, 'There is within each one of us, a raw and untamed faith waiting to be unleashed.' These guys have no problem unleashing theirs in action and word, hence I had no problem hosting them in Adelaide last weekend while they interacted with various communities from the hills to the north of Adelaide.

What a quality weekend, beginning with a small group of gathered people at our place on Friday night for a meal. What a quality group of people it was, here we were, about a dozen key leaders from Churches of Christ in SA passionate about standing in solidarity with the poor and marginalized. Margaret Mead said, 'never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world - indeed it is the only thing that ever has.' I felt a strong sense of that in the room that night, the possibility that this conversation could be the beginning of an exciting venture.

Saturday began early in the morning with the first public gig for these guys a breakfast at Blackwood Church of Christ. It was a great turn out and the Blackwood church put on an awesome breakfast. Verity Skye (my beautiful wife) shared some of the challenging songs she had written. Shobie played and sang songs from her new CD 'Digging through the roof', accompanied by Dan on percussion. You've gotta hear these songs, each tell a real story from the heart of journeying with the poor, songs that will tug at your heart strings and challenge you to act not just listen. Get a copy of her CD here. Ash spoke to the theme of his book title, 'Make Poverty Personal'. Again another quality must have resource, get Ash's book here.

Our afternoon was spent in and around the far northern suburbs of Adelaide (Elizabeth), enjoying the hospitality of Les and Helen Colston. I've never been out to this area of Adelaide before, it's a different world. It almost looks rural with red sand and wide open spaces. Ash & Shobie mused over the possibilities of a UNOH presence here. Saturday night we were at Hewitt Church of Christ for a Thai dinner. The church's aim was to raise awareness about UNOH and particularly the Bangkok chapter. The drive home late that night was the most entertaining I've ever had. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life with Ash, Shobie and Dan, over tierd travellers, in the car.

Sunday morning didn't start so early. Wild Ones were back at Blackwood Church of Christ where Ash shared a deeply moving message and Shobie, Dan and verity inspired us with their message through music. UNOH received such a warm and encouraging welcome from the Blackwood church.

Later that evening the guys made it to their last gig, Hope Valley Uniting. I was so impressed that after 3 weeks on the road these 3 were still able to stand on 2 feet and deliver their message of God's heart-beat for the poor, with integrity and enthusiasm. Ash had an amazing encounter with the past (I'll talk about that on the next post) and as a result of that Ash and I ended up in the city tucked away in a lettle place in the south west corner near Westcare having a meal with strangers who soon became friends.

What an amazing weekend, i have a feeling we have only seen the beginning of the adventures of Wild Ones here in Adelaide. Already we are planning Jon & Lisa Owen to hit some churches in April, Jon Smith in May and wait for it...Mick Duncan with Vox Congo in June. That's right people we're working on Vox Congo coming to Adelaide with the Wild Ones tour, how exciting.

Watch this blog for more stories and updates of UNOH Wild Ones in Adelaide as well as my occassional lenten reflection.

Shalom

Mark

One fragile life

It was a very dark and eerie morning on day 21 of lent. The fog was think and I received a deep sense of the changing of the season from Summer to Autumn. The days were getting shorter as we head towards the end of daylight saving. Although the fog was as think as pea soup there was a strange warmth and humidity in the air from the day before.
Last night was a night that some will never forget. There was a car accident on the other side of the ridge less than a kilometre away from where we live. I decided to ride my bike in that direction again this morning to reflect upon the the incident that occurred only 11 hours ago in my neighbourhood. As day began to break the fog continued to swirl around me. I cut a single rose to take with me on the trip.
At about 8pm last night my dad (still a member of the local CFS) was paged and the siren from the station began to blear out across the hills and valleys. As dad left for the station he said it was a car accident they were being called out to. The firetruck came roaring past our place with the siren sounding, up the hill and to the other side where we heard it stop. A couple of hours later dad called home and said he was going to be a while as they were waiting for the coroner and the tow truck to arrive. That didn't sound good.
At around 10:30pm I drove up to see how dad was holding out. On the way up the hill i bumped into a couple of old CFS mates who were blocking the road and re-directing traffic. They let me through to the CFS truck about another 100 metres up on the top of the hill. Dad was sitting up in the drivers seat of the truck manning the radio. I climbed up to the passenger seat to engage the conversation with dad about what was going on and how they were all holding up. A lot of memories came flooding back as I climbed into that truck about the amount of fires and accidents I've been out to as part of that CFS team.
As the story goes, the 18 year old driver of the car (his dad's BMW) had just broken up with his girlfriend and in his grief had run his car at a high speed into a tree at the bottom of the other side of the hill. He died instantly. It took a rescue crew about 3 hours to cut him out of the car which had been compacted to about half it's original length.
The CFS crew had been out there for a while so when food came I helped distribute the ice coffee and raisin bread to dad and the 3 other guys redirecting traffic. These volunteers do it tough sometimes, and the nature of the incident meant they needed to talk, that is, talk about anything that would take their mind off that night.
As I rode my bike up over the ridge this morning and headed down the hill towards the scene of the accident I felt a deep sense of sorrow for all who were involved. A young man, his family, his friends, the CFS crew, the rescue crew, the police, the ambulance officers, the old man in the house next to the tree that stopped the car in it's tracks...so many had been deeply affected. This neighbourhood is like a little country town and an incident like this is not easily forgotten.
How do you begin to imagine the deep sense of pain that would lead someone to take their own life like this? So many in this young man's life will be feeling so helpless right now. Is there something that could have been done to prevent this tragedy? Did they have a chance to tell him how much they really loved him? The questions keep rolling on. Yet in that moment last night sat a young man, alone in his car blinded to anything outside of his immediate reality, the reality of the pain he felt in that moment. Herein lies one of the greatest depths of poverty that exists in our society. Yet what can be done about it? There are no easy answers yet there is plenty to explore as we begin to address the issues of the poverty of helplessness, hopelessness and loneliness in our society.
I don't know the young man who chose to end the pain in this way however, I took the rose I had cut and placed it in the trunk of the tree that was hit to acknowledge this one fragile life.

Shalom
Mark