THE LAST RIVER MILE

Thoughts near the take-out.

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GEOFF POSEGATE

Retired United Methodist pastor and leadership coach.

  • IS YOUR LIFE MORE LIKE A WELL OR A SPRING?

    Big Spring feeds the Current River in the southcentral Missouri Ozark hills. It is the largest spring in the state of Missouri and one of the largest in all of North America. It churns out a staggering 290 million gallons of water a day, bursting forth out of an 80-foot deep hole in the ground. I was twelve years old when I first set eyes on it. (I am 73 now.) Six decades later I still have trouble finding the words to express my experience that day. The closest I can come is this – wonder.

    I use an online daily devotional source which I would recommend highly – Lectio 365. Wednesday’s post focused on John 4:4-42. This section of the Bible tells of an encounter between Jesus of Nazareth and a woman in the region known as Samaria. It happens at a well. Wells were central to life and community in that arid region of the world. In the encounter, Jesus asks for a drink from the well. He and the woman go back and forth in conversation for a bit, about the well – the work required to get water from the well, and the fact that thirst and need will continue to necessitate water from the well. At one point Jesus shifts the water image from a well to a spring. He talks of water gushing forth continually, from no human effort. He says that those who drink from this spring will never thirst. Pulling from this well/spring imagery, the devotion leader for Lectio 365 asked a powerful question – In your relationship with God, does it feel more like digging a well to reach hidden reserves or like drinking deep from a bubbling spring?

    I have to admit that much of my faith life feels like well-digging. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Contemplative prayer, deep Bible study, serving in the name of Jesus as best I can, trying to stand with those who are the least, the last, and the lost. It’s all good, but a lot of it feels like my effort, much as well-digging is human effort to access a water source. Sometimes I long to just be happily flooded by a surging spring; where the only effort I can offer is wonder.

    Sixty-one years ago, Big Spring was the destination of a 90-mile canoe float on the Current River for about fifteen campers and three counselors from a YMCA summer camp. We were to camp overnight at Big Spring State Park, then we would be picked up the next morning, along with our gear and the canoes. After supper a few of us went to the Spring itself. Too exhausted from the trip, we didn’t have much more energy than to sit on the rock formations just above where the water surges out of the ground. We just sat and looked at the immensity of what was happening at our feet. Thinking about the staggering geological and physical processes that made this ongoing power happen. Listening to this stunning natural sound that nothing (not even AI!) can recreate. Smelling the smell that only water from the depths of the earth can create. Mesmerized by the thundering crystal image of water in endless flow. A small bunch of junior high and high school boys, saying not a word; unable and having no desire to do so. Minutes went by, then what seemed like hours. The sun went down, but it didn’t matter. Finally someone said we had to get back to camp to get ready to be picked up the next morning.

    We were lost in wonder, much like the woman at the well became lost in wonder before the spring of life that was/is Jesus. In an old hymn, “Love Diving, All Love Excelling,” the very last line is, “…lost in wonder, love, and praise.” It’s that. The take-your-breath-away wonder of a surging spring. I long for more of that. Maybe we all do.

    So is your life more like digging a well or like drinking deep at a bubbling spring?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • IS IT ABOUT GOD, OR IS IT ABOUT ME?

    If God is any kind of a reality for you, what is it that matters most to you about God? As I listen to people and as I observe myself, much of what we seem to like best about God revolves around that which God does, whatever that may be. God loves, God saves, God rescues, God fixes, God heals, God comforts, God vindicates, etc. We value God as a function: God does thus-and-so for me, and I am grateful for that. Other folks seem to value God in a more relational sense. They seek and cherish God’s presence. For Jesus-followers, Jesus known as “God-with-us” matters. Some of all this likely boils down to personality profiles, as all of us lean toward either being task-focused (God as a function) or relationship focused (God as a presence).

    However, either leaning left unchecked can lead to a significant flaw. In each case, the endgame is me. I value God for what God does for me, or I value God for how God makes me feel in God’s presence. Even if in an impressive guise of faith, the ultimate aim really is me.

    Jesus of Nazareth made the outlandish, illogical statement, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:24.) In part I believe this means that if I make it all about me, even with an impressive religious veneer on it, I won’t find the life I really long for and need. However, if I give all that up and yield it completely to God who is made known in Jesus the Christ, I will in fact find who I am.

    I, along with all drawing breath, am an extension of the very image and life of a loving, creating God. That is the truth about me; clouded, hindered, and imprisoned by Sin (separation from God) as it may be. God literally has moved heaven and hell to win victory over all that would deny me/us this foundational truth. That includes victory over the illusion that everything, including God, is all about me.

    As long as I know myself only by how God/life/fate/whatever benefits me, I really don’t know myself or anyone else at all. If I die to all that, then I will see and know the truth.

    What would it be like for you to know God not for any benefit or gain it would bring you, but fully and completely just for God’s own sake? The last line of the hymn, “Love Divine, All Love Excelling” includes the words, “…lost in wonder, love, and praise.” What would it be like for us to lose ourselves this way?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING

    The children are watching this current national dumpster fire. We might like to delude ourselves into believing they are just going about the business of being children, glued to their screens, and oblivious to everything going on. That is purely a delusion. They are watching, they are taking notes, and they are learning. And what we’re teaching them by word and action is…well, …

    Let’s just look at what they are learning from so much of leadership in the spotlight in these days. They are learning that force is the answer to everything. Whoever can muster the most muscle or firepower is “right” by default. Name-calling and demeaning are totally acceptable if they serve your viewpoint. Flip off opponents if they challenge you in public. Any lie is perfectly fine if it feed the preferred political agenda. If you want it, just claim it – it doesn’t matter what someone else may need. Punishing those who disagree with you is more important than the overall good of all people.

    And, for good measure, slap a thin coat of “Christian” rhetoric over it all to make it all okay.

    Who is teaching the children that compassion and respect are values worth pursing, even and especially in leadership? Who is teaching them that courage is found in standing for what is right, and doing so in a way that honors the innate worth of all human beings? Who is teaching them that statesmanship actually is a skill and an artform worth learning and cultivating?

    In the Jesus-following worldview we know that Christianity is more caught than taught. How we live and what we model teach more than what we speak, write, or post. To promote one set of values while demonstrating a whole different set is not just neutral; it is counterproductive.

    The children are watching. Would that we were putting as much effort into what they see as we are into “winning” whatever battle we think is worth compromising the values we really ought to be modeling.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • BAD CHAOS AND (RENEE) GOOD CHAOS

    I’m a fan of the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” The last (?) episode features one of the characters giving a valedictorian speech at a high school graduation. In it he speaks of “bad chaos” and “good chaos.” One destroys and divides, he says, and the other is fertile turf for something new. The scene is a great segment in what I believe is a classic series concluder.

    I’ve been thinking about good chaos and bad chaos ever since. In general, I don’t think we like chaos of any kind. We tend to want order, and we want that order to make sense to us and to benefit us. In effect we worship equilibrium, or at least the concept of it. But life consistently demonstrates to us that equilibrium is an illusion. Change is that which is consistent, and often chaos precedes change or creates it.

    I believe we’re seeing “bad chaos” in real time in many ways. Politically, chaos can be the greatest ally of those who are in power, those who seek to gain power, or those who are desperate to retain power. The formula is fairly simple: 1) Create or claim to identify chaos; 2) Fix blame on some “other” for the chaos; 3) Claim to be the only one(s) who can re-establish “order” in the chaos; 4) Acquire unchecked power to “fix” the chaos; 5) Utilize force and fear to allegedly tame the chaos. Then rinse, repeat, etc. This kind of chaos destroys, divides, and degrades. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness become very secondary to “law and order,” as carefully defined by those in power. This is the chaos in which people like Capital police personnel, Ashli Babbitt, Charlie Kirk, and Renee Good die. Ultimately nobody “wins” in bad chaos, ad much as many delude themselves into thinking that they do.

    Good chaos can be just as scary at first, depending on where a person stands. This is especially true for people who depend on their definition of stability for personal benefit. However, where bad chaos seeks division, destruction, and control, good chaos seeks life and freedom. Good chaos breaks apart that which is calcified and deadening. Good chaos enlivens. It creates hope in possibilities never before imagined. Good chaos defies that which divides by seeking to heal and unite. While bad chaos tears down, good chaos clears the way for a new foundation on which to build up. Jesus of Nazareth created good chaos in the midst of a deadened faith in Israel and a deadening Roman Empire. The good chaos that gave birth to the Church (Acts 2) unleashed a movement that turned the world upside down. Our very nation was born out of a good chaos. The good chaos turmoil of the anti-slavery movement of the 19th century and the civil rights movement of the 20th century demanded a new birth of freedom. There are endless examples of good chaos.

    Sometimes it may be hard to tell the difference between good chaos and bad chaos. Maybe we need to look for where in this mess is perfect love casting out fear. In the Creation story (Genesis 1) the Spirit of God moves or hovers over the “deep”, which represents chaos. The actual Hebrew verb means to “brood”, as a mother bird does over her young. This is an act of nurturing, feeding, protecting, and giving life. Where is that happening in the midst of any given chaos? That may give us our answer.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • REMEMBERING 01.06.21 – “THE BEST CRITICISM OF THE BAD IS THE PRACTICE OF THE BETTER”

    I remember watching in horror, in real time, as the United States Capital Building was attacked five years ago today. I am as opposed now to all which that assault represents as I was on January 1st, 2021.

    I actually oppose much, to be honest. I opposed faith which judges and dismisses more than it offers grace. I oppose theocracy; the forcing of a religious viewpoint on others. I oppose the idea of American exceptionalism, engendering pridefulness and entitlement rather than national responsibility. I oppose authoritarianism, which ignores the balance of power built into our country’s DNA. I oppose xenophobia, seeing all who are different than us as inferior, evil, and dangerous.

    However, I do notice the number of times my opposition to these things is as caustic, divisive, and judgmental as I sometimes experience from those whom I oppose. I feel the toxicity of that in myself. I experience this so much that often I don’t want to gather with like minded people, just so we can complain about and deride those with whom we disagree. If all I am is a verbal critic, then I’m no better than those I criticize. If all I do is get mad again every January 6th, what good is that?

    Yesterday I was struck by this operational statement from the Center for Action and Contemplation: “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.” Here is a perspective from Fr. Richard Rohr, who is a part of the CAC: “Just do better yourself and don’t waste any time criticizing others or the past!…Don’t bother being against anybody, anything, any group, or any institution. That will only keep you at a low level of ego, while falsely feeling superior…don’t waste time or energy being oppositional to anything. This world needs positive energy now over negative criticism of anything.” (Yes, And…Daily Meditations. Richard Rohr, 2013. p. 229.)

    That’s a tall order for those of us who swim daily in divided, adversarial waters. Still, what would it be like to critique that which I oppose less by caustic words and more by concrete, positive action? What would that look like today, five years after 01.06.21?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

    (For further information on the Center for Action and Contemplation, see cac.org. )

  • THE NORTH AMERICAN CHURCH IN CRISIS

    Organized religion under the “Christian” label is in trouble in the United States. For most of my career as a local church pastor the overall problem of Christianity here was its benign nature. The majority of churches had become ingrown and maintenance-focused, rather than missional and outreach focused. As Methodism’s founder John Wesley feared, they had the external form of religion without the movemental power. (See II Timothy 3:5.)

    Now, much that passes under the label of Christian in our country has moved from benign to toxic. A thin veneer of Christian verbiage is used to cover and defend a narrow view of the world, of faith, and of politics. The ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth has been reduced to an express pass to reward when this life is over. In this life, faith and practice boil down to nothing more than following a personal morality formula; a formula which is more defined by those with privilege and power than by Scripture, Systemic or corporate sin, decried in volume by the prophets in the Bible, is ignored, dismissed, or actively rejected. (Note the vehement dismissal of “Critical Race Theory.”) Contrary to the good news of Jesus the Christ, judgment takes precedent over grace. And this segment of church people has taken as its hero one who judges whole nations as “sh**hole counties” and openly devalues whole groups of God’s sons and daughters as “lowlifes.” Many church folks apparently accept or approve of his lack of anything close to kindness, excusing it as somehow “righteous.” As such, they are content to allow the least powerful in our country to stay on the margins, all “in the name of Jesus.”

    This is tragic, especially for those of us who believe Jesus was serious when he commanded us to “go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19.) It was bad enough for the majority of churches to simply ignore this mandate. Now, people who would not identify as Christian are presented with a brand of “Christianity” which is known more by what it is against than what it is for, and which bears no resemblance to the teaching and actions of Jesus.

    Now more than ever the historically valued term “evangelical” needs to be taken back from those who have reduced it to a particular theological and political label. We need to present compassion, driven by a God whose very definition is love. (I John 4:8.) Believing that every human being is worthy of the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of Jesus, we must recapture the drive that all would know him and see him in us. Knowing that all persons can become new creatures in Christ, we must loudly proclaim that there are no “sh**hole” countries or “lowlifes” in the eyes of God. In humility we must see all those around us as better than ourselves. (Philippians 2:3-4.) We must not only practice charity, but we must confront the systems and structures which create the need for charity in the first place. We must stand with the least, the last, and the lost, showing that there is an allegiance greater than that which is demanded by any era’s “empire.” (Philippians 2:9-11.) Jesus said the world around us would know that we are his disciples by our love. So we must love not just in rhetoric, but in action. (I John 3:18.)

    None of this will happen through programs and rallies. It will not happen through proclamations and social media posts like this one. It will not happen organizationally. It will happen through relationship and demonstration, much as it did in the faith’s highly impacting first century.

    Sometimes a season of crisis is not a bad thing. Sometimes crisis clears out the debris and allows the stream to flow freely. Maybe this is such a time for the gospel in North America.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • “A WARNING TO RELIGION FROM THE GARDEN OF EDEN”

    “The sin warned against at the very beginning of the Bible is ‘to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ (Genesis 2:17). It does not sound like that should be a sin at all, does it? But the moment I sit on my throne, where I know with certitude who the good guys and the bad guys are, then I’m capable of great evil – while not thinking of it as evil! I have eaten of a dangerous tree, according to the Bible. Don’t judge, don’t label, don’t rush to judgment. You don’t really know other people’s real motives or intentions. You hardly know your own.

    The author of the classic book THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING says that first you have to enter into ‘the cloud of forgetting.’ Forget all your certitudes, all your labels, all your explanations, whereby you’ve put this person in this box, determined this group is going to heaven, decided this race is superior to that race. Just forget it. It’s largely a waste of time. It’s usually your ego projecting itself, announcing itself, and protecting itself. It has little to do with objective reality or real love of the truth.” – Richard Rohr.

    Important words as we approach a new year. I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • “MAKE A WOMB OF THIS WOUNDED WORLD”

    A daily devotional resource I use (Lectio 365) recently included this piece by Malcomb Guile, in anticipation of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth:

    “Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name,

    Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,

    O quickened little wick so tightly curled,

    Be folded with us into time and place,

    Unfold for us the mystery of grace

    And make of womb of this wounded world.”

    Make a womb of this wounded world…what a perplexing and alluring concept. The Christ Child comes to bring healing to a wounded world, to be sure. But Jesus doesn’t just come to afford us escape from the wounded world. And he doesn’t come only the judge a wounded world. Guile suggests that God made known in Jesus has the power to make even a wounded, divided, unjust, sin-ridden, suffering world the birthing place of the Savior of the world. Jesus doesn’t come to us apart from a wounded world. He comes from the very midst of it.

    What if in the very mess of this uncertain, unequal, untethered, depressed, fearful, hateful, and divided era, the One whose birth we celebrate is birthing something totally and blindingly new?

    A blessed, peace-filled, comforting, and purposeful Christmas to all. I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • THE ‘RIGHT’ SIDE OF HISTORY

    I’m binge-watching a now dated Netflix series – “Designated Survivor.” In the story, an accidental U.S. president (played by Keifer Sutherland) urges government leaders to “choose to be on the right side of history” during a time of crisis. That’s an interesting and compelling concept…the “right” side of history.

    It occurs to me that all history is recorded post-game. Historians look back on events and eras which have already taken place. As the adage goes, it is normally the victors who write history. For example, as a child growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s, I learned a particular slant on the history of “winning the west” in America. It was about the fore-ordained advance of “civilization” against the resistance of “savages.” It really wasn’t until I read Dee Brown’s BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE, that I began to experience a whole different, genocidal slant on the same events. I had to unlearn the history of the victors. So, sometimes the underdogs prevail in how history is remembered. That can take time. It took centuries of fighting against histories which presented slavery as normal, natural, and even God-approved to get on the “right side” of that painful, dehumanizing story.

    Whoever eventually records history, while it is happening it’s something of a gamble to determine the correct side of it. We seem to be in pivotal days right now. People are banking on vastly different outcomes, assuming that those outcomes will be vindicated by future historical recordings. I don’t have a huge amount of time ahead of me with my own little and very limited footprint in human history. So, this is how I’m rolling the dice for the last mile of my float trip:

    -I choose liberty and justice for ALL, not just for the privileged, favored few.

    -I choose welcoming the stranger over protectionism.

    -I choose defending the marginalized and powerless over protecting the “rights” of the already powerful.

    -I choose to believe that no one group, ethnicity, political view, or nation is favored by God over any other. (As as child in Sunday School I learned a little song that said, “Jesus loves the little children; all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight.” I still believe that.)

    -I choose to believe that the good news of Jesus the crucified and risen Christ is more about embracing and liberating than it is about judging and separating.

    -I choose to believe that Jesus alone is Lord; no one and nothing else.

    -I choose to believe that love wins in the end; not might, not wealth, not privilege and power. Only love.

    Sure, I may end up on the wrong side of history with all this. I’ll take that chance.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • HOPE ISN’T HOPE IF I SCRIPT IT

    For Jesus-followers, especially in the four Sunday run-up to Christmas Day (Advent), hope is a major theme. We like messages such as Hebrews 11:1 – “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” We tend to assume that hope is the thing we need when that which we expect or long for is delayed. I have a clear, specific vision of what is coming, what is promised, or what I seek, but it’s not here yet. So I live in hope. There’s some truth to this.

    But it may not be the full depth and breadth of hope in Jesus the Christ.

    Hope isn’t limited to how I know or believe things will turn out. Hope isn’t confined by a script I have developed or received. I believe when we say, “things unseen” or “what we do not see” it means that we do not have any imagined picture of what is coming. We have no way to think about or envision what is ahead. Descriptors may aim its direction, like signposts. But that which is unseen will shatter our rigid categories of what can and cannot take place.

    Twenty-one centuries ago faithful Jewish people believed the Messiah (the chosen, anointed one of God) would of necessity arrive as royalty. They hoped in this. Their hope in fact was realized in a poor child born to an unwed couple. No one saw that coming. Faithful people assumed the arrival of Emmanuel (God with us) would be announced to high priests and rulers. Instead, the news first came to common shepherds; the lowest of the low. No one envisioned hope that way. Folks hoped the Messiah would vindicate the rightness and superiority of Hebrew faith. But ritually unclean pagans would be among the first to pay homage to Mary’s child. That wasn’t a hope on anyone’s radar.

    I admit that I struggle to have hope in these days. Politically, I have shaped a very specific hope for things like the preserving of the balances of power, the protection of due process, and the safety and well-being of powerless and marginalized. Others have shaped their political hopes much differently than mine. In practice of faith, I have hope that grace and radical welcoming will overtake judgmentalism and exclusion. Again, others have very different hopes in their practice of faith. There’s nothing wrong with human beings developing their own very specific hopes for the future.

    However, all such hopes are seen on the screens of our thoughts. God is in no way limited by them, as evidenced by how God chose to enter the human stage. Hope in things unseen isn’t just a hope in desired outcomes. It is a radical hope in the One who is Lord of the outcomes, come what may.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.