These past weeks have been marked by horrific gun violence, with mass shootings in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. These surprise attacks have provoked insecurity, fear and outrage– leading to urgent cries for gun control by some. Many others have rushed to buy a gun to protect themselves.

What doesn’t make the news are stories of shootings abandoned, prevented, or survived due to the prayers and interventions of believers.

Early this Saturday morning a woman from Tierra Nueva’s faith community instant-messaged us with an urgent prayer appeal and photo. The 16-year-old step son of one of our community members had been shot in the chest during a drive-by at 2:30am in our town. He’d been taken by helicopter from the local ER to a trauma center in Seattle and was in critical condition on a respirator. With a collapsed right lung and having lost over 800 ccs of blood his life was hanging in the balance. His step-mom was there by his side praying, while the rest of us prayed from a distance.In a remarkable turn of events, the boy’s bleeding stopped that morning and he began to recover. Within two days he was up walking around. Thursday, five days after the shooting, I visited him at his home and heard about his experience. He showed me his bullet holes, and how the bullet barely missed his heart. He showed me where it came out his back.He told me the details of how the drive-by happened. He and his “brothers” were drinking and walking late at night where he said “they shouldn’t have been,” when a car from a rival gang drove by.

“I didn’t hear the shot but just felt something like a bee sting,” he said. “But then I noticed all my attention was on my chest, and saw blood flowing onto my shirt.”

He told how he ran for three blocks and hid under a car, before he was taken to the ER and then eventually lost consciousness. He has no memory of the helicopter ride or entry into the Seattle trauma hospital. He’s amazed and grateful to be alive. He tells me he believes a Higher Power protected him, and feels like his life is beginning again.

This young man’s story reminds me of the story of the boy on the brink of death, whose father, an official from Capernaum, journeys to the mountain town of Cana, hoping to bring Jesus down with him to heal his son (John 4:36-44). But Jesus tells him:

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.”

Jesus seems to want people to believe without his physical presence, without seeing. Like when he tells doubting Thomas after he finally sees and believes.

“Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (Jn 20:29).

The official doesn’t stop ‘praying’ (understood as telling Jesus he needs his help now). “Sir, come down before my child dies!”

Jesus tells him: “Go; your son lives.” The man believes the word that Jesus speaks to him and starts off. He’s no longer ‘praying’ but heading home in peace. On his way down, his servants meet him and tell him his son is living! He asks them when his son recovered, and learns its right when Jesus spoke the day before: “Your son lives.”

Jesus speaks a word of healing from a distance, and the boy is restored without him being physically present. The result is that the man and his entire household believe.

The young man who had been shot had his step-mother at his side praying, whilst others prayed and spoke words of life and restoration from a distance. Her step-son now recovering, this step-mom’s faith is now activated and her household is in the process of coming to believe in Jesus. She’s now attending Tierra Nueva’s Sunday worship and Wednesday Bible study.

This doesn’t mean that prayer will stop all mass shootings and keep all shooting victims from dying. It is hard to understand why God doesn’t intervene more directly and consistently in response to our prayers, to rescue innocent victims and stop perpetrators. This can cause us to abandon hope and lose faith. We can then miss out on noticing the many interventions that happen when we’re working, watching and waiting for miracles in the trenches.

It’s important to remember that the tragic death toll rises as a direct consequence of a myriad of human factors that we can address: growing alienation in our society, the glorification of violence, unrestricted access to firearms, the disintegration of families and community, oft-inadequate and ineffective mental health counseling…

We need a movement of deputized, praying and attentive Jesus-followers in touch with vulnerable families and individuals is needed to address the roots of the gun-violence pandemic. Fear-breeding isolation must be confronted by persistent efforts to reach out to the lonely and the desperate, the mentally-ill and the addicted, welcoming them into non-judging, love-infused community where an alternate vision of reality can be learned about and experienced.

The Kingdom of God must advance as the only real response–not a surveillance State–though sensitive, respectful and effective law enforcement is also surely needed. There are many agents of Jesus’ love and justice at large, already preventing and responding to myriads of acts of violence and near-deaths. This “good news” goes unreported by media in favor of that which alarms and outrages.

This will only change as we become regular witnesses of Jesus’ miraculous interventions, borne out of persevering intercession and love-your-neighbor precision actions. In this way once vulnerable, violence-breeding households will become believing safe houses for the Jesus movement.

Consider enrolling in our Disciple! Diploma in Integrated Spiritual Accompaniment for the Jesus Movement 

This week I’ve been struck by the Gospel of Luke’s description of Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem. Though he is Israel’s Messiah and the world’s Savior, no delegation from Jerusalem comes out to meet Jesus as he approaches the earthly capital of the spiritual universe.

Like a renegade guerrilla commander Jesus sends his disciples with instructions about how to secure his transport from a sympathizer:

“Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’”

The plan works. “They threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he was going, they were spreading their coats on the road” before him as he approaches the city.

“The whole crowd of the disciples” are then described as “praising God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen.”

As I read this story with a group of farmworkers at Tierra Nueva’s Sunday service I ask them to recall any recent miracles attributed to Jesus for which we can praise God.

Marcelino, who was dying on a respirator last summer, was instantly healed when we prayed for him over the phone. Octavia no longer has bad headaches. Tomas is experiencing relief from insomnia. Other answers to prayer are mentioned, including a victory in a recent confrontation with employers over wages.

We read on how the crowd of disciples were shouting.

“Have any of you ever shouted recently?” I ask, remembering they’d told me about their protest for fair recompense at the headquarters of a Skagit Valley flower-growing operation.

“Yes, we have,” they said, and described how they has shouted at the protest: “Si se puede! Si se puede!” (“Yes we can! Yes we can!”)

What were the disciples shouting? I ask, inviting someone to read Luke 19:38.

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

We note that though the authorities in Jerusalem are absent (and silent), the disciples of Jesus shout joyfully and loudly.

What that would look like to proclaim Jesus loudly and publicly today? Certainly people are similarly unaware and unimpressed by Jesus now, it seems.

“How do the religious leaders react to the disciple’s worship?” I ask, inviting someone to read the next verse.

“Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples” (Lk 19:39).

The Pharisees try to silence any special attention given to Jesus that day, though he is the King of the universe, God’s beloved Son, come to save the world.

“Have you ever experienced being ignored or silenced?” I ask.

The people describe how at their first protest against unfair wages, one of the heads of the company told them to leave the property or he’d call the Sheriff. These workers had been working 6-7 days a week, 8-10 hours daily in cold, rainy weather to prepare for the tulip festival. This really discouraged them.

I have watched the silent suffering of immigrant workers continually scapegoated by politicians and the public. Calls to expel undocumented immigrants, to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, and the refusal of the powerful to promote real immigration reform harm people’s self-esteem and push them underground.

“Let’s see how Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ distain,” I suggest, inviting someone to read Luke 19:40.

But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” (Lk 19:40).

“What would it look like if the tulips cried out in your favor?” I ask.

“What if they all cried out from the fields: “Si se puede! Si se puede!?”

People look up with big smiles, delighted as we all imagine the tulips shouting out.

Thankfully the President of the company met with his workers and resolved the labor dispute the day after the standoff. This week the festival is underway, drawing thousands of tourists to our valley.

Let’s not remain silent in this time when injustices are covered over. Let’s not bow to pressures to minimize Jesus.

Disciples of Jesus must certainly not remain silent in the face of intimidation. And yet the rejection of Jesus by the powers goes from bad to worse: arrest, torture and the brutal death penalty by crucifixion.

God’s humble descent into the fields, prisons and war zones of our broken world moves me deeply. From that suffering the resurrection breaks out, inaugurating a movement that will eventually overturn the established orders for ever, when Jesus, the King is enthroned.

On Tuesday nights from 10:00-11:00pm I’ve been leading a Bible study to a group of Russian men in a recovery house near Krasnodar in Southwest Russia near the Black Sea—a four-hour drive from the Ukrainian border. It’s 8:00am Wednesday morning there.

The men gather around a big screen TV in their living room. I can’t see all of them as their camera isn’t wide angle enough to take them all in. This particular evening I made an effort to include a good friend named Larry, a Native American man in his early 50s who lives up-river from us in a remote town.

Larry has spent many years in prison and is currently out of jail on bail. I had told the Russian recovery guys about him, and they wanted to meet him. He too was excited to meet them. He’s never used Zoom, so I had to help him download it and get connected an hour or so before.

Larry and I were together in the Zoom meeting room right before the Russians came online. Larry was visible seated comfortably in his living room by his wood burning stove, a big smile on his face and his Russian fur hat on his head.

The Russians came online just as I noticed a Facebook Messenger message telling me that my Russian interpreter was in Moscow with a friend and couldn’t help us. Oh no! How were we going to make this study work?

I immediately navigated with my phone and typed into Google Translate what I wanted to say, and tapped the speaker button. A syrupy but robotic female Russian voice spoke it out, as I pressed my phone against my computer’s microphone.

“Hello everyone. Can someone read John 10:1?” stammered the pathetic-sounding Google voice.

The Russian men seemed unfazed, searching and finding the text in their Bibles. Larry read it in English and one of them read it in Russian.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.”

I awkwardly typed my next question into Google Translate on my phone. Larry found this amusing, while the Russian men patiently looked on. I could see that this was going to be too slow to work, but I didn’t want to give up. Who did I know who could translate?

I called my Russian friend Andrey in Siberia using WhatsApp, but he didn’t answer. Then I thought of Micael, a Russian hard-wood floor installer who put in our wood floors. But he didn’t answer either. I then thought of Ilya, a Russian immigrant contractor who lives in our town. But he didn’t answer my call either. I made some hand motions and was on the verge of abandoning hope. But then decided to try calling Ilya again. This time he answered!

“Ilya, I’m on a Zoom call with some Russian recovery guys right now, but my interpreter isn’t available. Can you help us?” I pleaded.

Ilya told me he’d never interpreted and never used Zoom, but he was willing to give it a try. I sent him the Zoom link to download and within minutes he appeared in our Zoom call.

“So, let’s see what Jesus tells us in John 10:1 about someone entering the sheep pen in a way other than the door,” I say, inviting someone to re-read this verse. Ilya spoke out what I’d said in Russian, and one of the Russians read:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.”

Have any of you ever had someone come into your house in any way other than through the front door? Or do you know of anyone who has broken into a house?” I ask, suspecting they had some direct experience.

All of these men, including Larry, had been drug addicts. Most had also spent time in prison. The men immediately responded, and Ilya interpreted back to us:

“All of us have done this. We’ve been the robbers, entering homes in ways other than through the front door.”

The men began to laugh at themselves for their spontaneous, frank admissions. Larry was nodding and laughing too, saying he’d been involved in home invasions (of drug houses). They seemed humored and even amazed by how the Bible had so directly highlighted criminal behavior they’d engaged in.

I share how Jesus’ reference to the thief entering the sheep fold here is likely referring to predatory powers that seek to steel away God’s people.

“What might some of these predatory, thieving forces be today? I ask.

People mention things like addictions to drugs and alcohol, evil spirits, misleading politicians, media, advertisers, conspiracy theories, and other false belief systems.

“So, let’s check out the alternative Jesus describes in the next verses,” I suggest, inviting someone to read John 10:2-3.

“But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

“In contrast to the thief, how does the shepherd of the sheep enter the sheep pen?” I ask.

The men all notice that the shepherd, referring to Jesus, enters by the front door.

I ask the men how that strikes them, and what that tells us about Jesus.

They share that Jesus doesn’t sneak in, climb in another way, or force his way in. It’s obvious too that he most certainly doesn’t invade. But I don’t mention this. Jesus comes to the door, where he can present himself be clearly seen and heard for who he is- the Good Shepherd. The doorkeeper inside can open and let him in– or choose to not let him enter.

We talk about how this text presents a Jesus not out to coerce or in any way dominate. His voice can be heard—and the sheep hear him, knowing he’s present. He also takes the initiative, calling sheep that are identified as “his own.” He calls them by their names, which means he knows their names. He doesn’t keep them confined but leads them out.

“The thief comes to rob, kills and destroy,” adds Jesus in John 10:10. “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.”

The men find this picture of the respectful, intimate, life-giving, shepherd Jesus comforting. They say they would gladly welcome him in and follow him out. I invite Larry to share his story, and he briefly tells the Russian guys how he came to recognize and welcome Jesus as his shepherd Savior. The men listen attentively as Ilya interprets.

We wrap up our time together speaking out to Jesus how we are drawn to him as our shepherd. There’s a tenderness and delight, and Ilya is visibly moved.

I am amazed at how our very experience on Zoom that night illustrated Jesus’ parable. The Russian recovery guys receive me, since they already know me. They also received Larry, since he’s my friend. Ilya’s appearance is also part of Jesus’ coming to the door of our Zoom sheep pen. He speaks our Russian sheep’s language, making communication and intimate fellowship possible.

There, to the South of a violent, forceful invasion in neighboring Ukraine, the kingdom of God was being respectfully offered by Jesus “at the door,” and welcomed– and we were all feeling invited to follow him into freedom.

Check out our bilingual Russian-English Bible studies here.

Special invitation

I highly recommend our new webinar starting March 28th “Discerning the Times: Global Awareness + Actions for Peace” (GW12) . This webinar will be taught by my good friend Jonathan Frerichs, who currently lives near Geneva in France.

Jonathan is a close friend who I have known for many years. He has a broad and deep understanding of world that’s come from years of study, direct on-the-ground engagement, and active peacemaking. Learn more and register below.

https://www.peoplesseminary.org/product-page/gw12

The coffee harvest is nearly complete at Tierra Nueva’s coffee farm in the high mountains near Alta Mira, Honduras. We are expecting the harvest to be even higher quality than last year, which was the highest rated coffee for taste that we’ve seen since the farm began over 16 years ago. We’re seeking sustainable alternatives to migration to N. America, including Bible studies like an amazing reflection on Genesis 13 that challenges the dominant thinking.

Since November Tierra Nueva’s farm manager has had as many as 30 local people per day picking the coffee beans. David Calix, Tierra Nueva’s Honduran pastor and overseer has included people in his hiring that most coffee producers wouldn’t: elderly people, single mothers with their kids and grade school kids on their summer breaks, which coincides with the coffee harvest from late November into February.

There’s a relentless desperation that’s gone on for years in Honduras, which hopefully will begin to ease now that a reformist president is beginning her term. The past two-term president was just arrested for drug trafficking, and awaits extradition to the USA, where he’ll likely be imprisoned for years. The country has been left in disarray, and hundreds of families are said to leave Honduras daily for the USA or Spain (read this article).

Thousands of people have migrated from the region where Tierra Nueva has served since we began in 1982. Hondurans make up the majority of immigrants crossing into the USA daily now, and a large percentage of the 3.8 million Central Americans now residing in the United States.

Because of mass migration it is difficult for coffee growers, Tierra Nueva included, to find workers. In addition, the rising cost of living in Honduras makes it near impossible for coffee growers to break even. Many coffee growers themselves are abandoning their farms and migrating to North America.

Tierra Nueva is paying a fair wage to coffee farm workers, who are needed for regular weeding, and seasonal harvesting, processing and drying of the beans. In this way we are offering desperately-needed income that allows people to stay in their villages and country.

David’s main role is pastoring people who other churches ignore. He visits families in their homes, offering regular Bible studies and prayers for people in a few of the surrounding villages. He’s finding people eager to study Scripture with him, and always wanting prayer for many concerns.

Contextual Bible study on Lot’s choice of the “good land” (Genesis 13)

Recently he shared his excitement about a Bible study on Abraham and Lot’s separation in Genesis 13. Abraham and his nephew Lot were running into tensions, with their flocks competing for pasture. Abraham gave Lot the choice of where he wanted to settle.

“Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere — this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah — like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan” (Gn 13:10-11).

Abraham chose the more difficult terrain- the arid higher ground of Canaan. The Lord blessed Abraham. In contrast, Lot ran into endless troubles and ended up losing everything.

David shared how the group of farmers with whom he studied this story pondered long and hard over Lot’s choice of security and plenty. Abraham’s choice of the difficult terrain encouraged them in their choice to live a subsistence lifestyle in Honduras, rather than succumb to the seduction of “los caminos” (the paths to N. America), which they equated with Lot’s choice (Sodom).

Lot’s departure from family (his uncle Abraham) for the fertile valley led to him being caught up in regional conflicts that he needed rescuing from (Gn 14). He was later mistreated as a foreigner by the people of Sodom (Gn 19:9)— a common experience for immigrants in N. America. Lot made choices that compromised his daughter’s safety and trust in his as their father. He ended up losing his home and his wife (Gn 19:26), experiencing homelessness and domestic chaos (Gn 19:30-38). David and his Bible study participants identified direct equivalents to Lot’s troubles in the mass migration currently underway to the USA.

Certainly it is possible to live a blessed life in Honduras, and also here in North America. However, stepping into the abundant life requires vigilance and careful deliberation. There’s a need for employment in Honduras, and we continue to promote sustainable farming and coffee growing. A sustainable life in Honduras can never fund luxury Western lifestyle. Yet there and here we need to remember that the example of Abraham, who:

“By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10).

The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of others as well, “strangers and aliens” in whose company we include ourselves by faith.

“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hb 11:13).

Every day here at our home beside the Skagit River in Washington State we grind our freshly-roasted Honduran coffee and make delicious lattes, reading the Scriptures and seeking to discern the way forward. It is difficult to find better tasting coffee this side of heaven than what comes from Tierra Nueva’s farm—even in nearby Seattle, one of the world’s coffee meccas. We invite you to taste and see for yourself, and let us know what you think!

You can order Tierra Nueva farm blend, and even set up a regular subscription here. Help us increase our sales, which helps support Tierra Nueva’s ministry in Honduras. Please spread the word—which we’re sure you naturally will, once you start drinking this outstanding coffee.

The People’s Seminary is delighted to announce that the English translation of Daniel Bourguet’s The Humble Divinity of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, Volume 2, Chapters 10-16. This excellent book is now available for purchase here.

Daniel Bourguet’s many writings inspire me in my reading of the Bible. I believe he will inspire you too! He models an approach that is deeply contemplative and faithful to the detail of the Biblical text, inspiring faith, action and more thoughtful and prayerful reading of Scripture. Following is an excerpt from the introduction, and an excerpt from his treatment of Jesus’ healing of the woman with the issue of blood.

Introduction

“Today, the perfect humanity of Christ does not need emphasizing since so many books are devoted to the theme, and rightly so; by contrast, the divinity of Christ does seem to me less commonly treated, and this impels me to bring it to the fore, without of course in any way impugning his
perfect humanity.

If we have difficulty today perceiving the divinity of Jesus, it seems to me this is because he is humble, and in our eyes humility is incompatible with the glory of divinity. It’s certainly true that Jesus is humble, and I would say doubly so, humble in his humanity as well as in his divinity since God himself is humble. This is unacceptable to anyone who thinks that God cannot be both glorious and humble. What exactly though is glory? If the most glorious of kings is also proud, his pride tarnishes his glory and diminishes it. However, if he is humble, his humility embellishes and enhances his glory. Humility goes wonderfully with glory. To say that God is humble takes away nothing from his glory; on the contrary, it elevates and makes it still more magnificent. The perfect humility of Jesus beautifies his humanity and his divinity as well. On this basis, we mustn’t be given pause by Jesus’ humility but should rather welcome it as a quality which both hides and reveals his divinity.

Mark the contemplative

A striking feature of Mark’s gospel is its great sobriety; it’s certainly very succinct. To me, this shows that Mark had no wish to invent but wanted to hold humbly and strictly to what he had received from Peter, Paul and certain other witnesses of Christ he had met. His great sobriety also shows us that Mark had well understood that the divine-humanity of Christ is a real mystery which takes us deep into the inexpressible — in his divinity Jesus is beyond anything we could say of him. None of our human languages is able to speak of God or of the divinity of Jesus. To mitigate this deficit in our words, Mark is content to suggest, to evoke a mystery which is far beyond us but is offered to us for contemplation. The sobriety seems to me to belong to a contemplative; and it seems to me this is just Mark is, a contemplative open to the inexpressible, open and sensitive to the mystery of God. In passing on as he does the fruits of his contemplation, Mark conveys all he had been granted to perceive of the perfect divinity of Christ but without losing anything of his perfect humanity.

I find Mark interesting in that like us he had not met Jesus so, like us, depended on the witness of others and had to learn to trust them. He interests me particularly because he helps us to open ourselves to contemplate the mystery of the divine-humanity of Jesus.

How paradoxical, that Mark should contemplate Jesus though he had never seen him! It’s true though, and it’s the same for us, that to contemplate does not mean fixing our physical eyes on Christ, on his visible humanity, but our inner eyes on his invisible divinity as it is seen through his full humanity. This is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

What I am proposing, reader friend, is to pause over certain texts in Mark’s gospel, following Mark in his contemplation of the divinity of Jesus. To do so, we have particularly to accept that Mark, no more than anyone else, proves that Jesus is God. It is a fact to say that the divinity of Jesus is not demonstrable; it is not susceptible of proof by human reasoning. To believe in the divinity of Christ is a gift of the Spirit granted to faith. Our place is to receive this mystery in faith and to celebrate Christ in praises which exceed words. This was Mark’s experience, writing his gospel as an expression and even a celebration of his faith, to help us to live out our faith. He wrote to comfort a Roman community shaken in its faith. By the Holy Spirit, we in turn can be edified and strengthened in our faith thanks to this gospel” (D. Bourguet, Humble Divinity, Vol. 2, xx-xxii).

Purified by the Pure (Excerpt from “The Woman with the issue of blood,” Mark 25-34).

“Following on from what we have just said, a third detail becomes apparent with the following question: is it likely that the woman would have dared touch Jesus if he was God? Wouldn’t it have been a profanation of sorts, particularly when she was unclean? Right here, it seems to me, we can see the Holy Spirit inspired faith of this woman. Without, doubtless, being able to say so, the woman knew by the Holy Spirit that she would not soil Jesus by touching him, but, on the contrary, Jesus in his sanctity would cleanse her. This is just what happened. In biblical thinking, just as uncleanness or impurity is transmitted by contact (Lev 15:19), so too sanctity or holiness is transmitted, again by contact (Exod 29:37). Once more, only the Holy Spirit could have led this woman to act with such assurance.

“From behind”

If the woman was thinking of Jesus in terms of his divinity, the remainder of the passage takes on a new light. She mixed in with the crowd and drew near to Jesus, silently, “from behind” (5:27). This detail reveals the woman’s great respect for Jesus; respect, not that she was hiding in anyway or being hypocritical. She was acting as Moses had when he wished to see the face of God and was told that he could only look on him from behind (Exod 33:23). In the same way that Moses had seen God’s back, the woman’s behavior looks like she could only consider approaching Jesus from behind.

In the continuation, when she is challenged by Jesus, she again demonstrates her respect by prostrating herself; “she threw herself down before him,” Mark says (5:33). She acts just like the publican in the parable who, in his extreme humility, dared not lift his eyes to God (Lk 18:13). In approaching from behind and in prostrating herself, this woman was moved by the Holy Spirit not to look Jesus in the face, which is the correct attitude to adopt towards God.

All these details show us that the woman was led by the Holy Spirit below the level of consciousness, or rather “in the inaccessible depths of her soul,” as certain Fathers put it. The leading must have overcome her, but it worked not by constraint but in the gentleness of the Holy Spirit. It is truly magnificent to know that the Holy Spirit worked in this way, gently but sovereignly, in the woman’s sub-conscious mind, as, certainly, he does in ours” (D Bourguet, Humble Divinity, Vol 2, p. 39-41).

Order your copy here.

I recently revisited a notorious trauma text—the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah according to Genesis 19. I was in search of good news in a dark and difficult Scripture, hoping it would help me find some good news here and now, in our dark USA.

For years I’ve led people in comparisons between Abraham and Sarah’s warm hospitality of strangers (who turn out to be YHWH and two angels), in contrast to the men of Sodom’s attempt to violently abuse the sojourners, and Lot’s abhorrent attempt to protect his visitors at his daughters’ expense.

On this visit to Sodom I notice for the first time comparisons between the two angel guests’ visit to Lot, and Jesus’ sending of missionary disciples in pairs to receive hospitality, heal the sick and announce the nearness of the kingdom of God (Lk 10:9).

These two messengers are sent because God says to Abraham: “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave, “I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me; and if not, I will know” (Gn 18:20-21).

The two men head down on a fact-finding mission, while Abraham stays back with God, interceding for anyone who might be counted as righteous below. The messengers experience the oppression firsthand, and their visit turns into a rescue mission for undeserving and reluctant members of the family of God.

Abraham’s intercession bears fruit, and the messenger men offer spiritually-empowered protection against predators before rushing Lot, his wife and daughters out of town before it’s destroyed. Their intervention shakes a family co-opted by an evil culture out of their spiritual stupor. They, like many in our society today, seem to have fallen prey to spiritual blindness and near paralysis.

A mob surrounds Lot’s house, calling for him to turn over his visitors so they can violate them. Lot tries in vain to reason with them, calling them “my brothers.” He offers them his virgin daughters in the place of his angel guests. The men of Sodom then turn on Lot, prompting the men (angels) to reach out their hands and bring into the house, shutting the door. They then strike the predators with blindness (19:10-11).   

The men urge Lot to bring his family out the place and Lots tries to comply. He urges his family to flee the city before it’s destroyed, but his sons-in-law think he’s just joking.

When morning dawns the angels urge Lot to get out of town. “But he hesitates. So the men seize his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they bring him out, and put him outside the city” (19:16).

Today in the America where I live the story strikes me as highly relevant. So many seem entrapped by predatory powers, pulling them (and me) away from the narrow path that leads to life. God’s compassion is at work, and like Jesus who sent out the seventy, the Spirit recruits and sends out people on fact-finding and rescue missions now.

Over the past months I was prompted to go looking for a young man I knew from the jail, who I’d heard was caught up in a meth addiction and suffering from diabetes. He was living in a notorious place with other addicts and people hiding from the police. While I prayed for him, I put off looking for him, and then heard the tragic news a few weeks ago that he’d died of Covid.

I also felt compelled more recently to look for another man, and I delayed again. When I heard he’d been hit in the head with a baseball bat and was back in jail facing charges that could give him a third strike according to Washington State law, leading to a life sentence, I decided to pay him a visit in the jail. This visit went beautifully, and my friend urged me to visit that notorious place, telling me to tell the people that he’d sent me.

I have since visited the place and been well received, meeting people who are facing imminent eviction and homelessness. The story is still unfolding, so let’s return now to the outskirts of Sodom to see what happens there.

When the angels bring Lot, his wife and daughters outside one says: “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away” (19:17).

Lot lamely negotiates for an easier solution, but then complies. He, his wife and two daughters flee and are spared. In contrast Lot’s wife “from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (19:26).

The fate of Lot’s wife is brutal in its finality. There’s no turning back from becoming a pillar of salt. She looks back and it’s too late. And yet we see the urgency to flee and the finality of death far too often here in our streets and in our country today!

A woman who used to attend our services comes out of a drug and alcohol treatment program earlier this year, immediately relapses on heroine laced with fentanyl, and dies of an overdose. Someone with active warrants for minor offenses, on the run from law-enforcement, sells drugs to make some quick money to hold their family over and to post bail. They’re busted for drug dealing and now face years in prison.  A Christian leader I’d written several times, attempting to challenge his overtly nationalist and anti-vaccine blog posts dies of Covid. Not escaping for your life and looking back can have fatal consequences, as Philoxenos of Mabbug, a 4^th Century Christian mystic comments.

“So then, if you are following Jesus, walk behind him and do not turn back behind you. Remember the wife of Lot: because the love of her people and the sound of the howls of her friends had forced her to turn around and look behind her and she became a pillar of salt, as it was written concerning her. Because her soul did not become salty by fear of the Most High, she became a pillar of corruptible salt. Remember then this woman who was divided in her mind and perished, so do not become divided like her and do not turn around behind you lest you remain on your spot. It will be this way for you, if not in your body, at least in your soul. Whoever turns around and looks behind himself after he has departed on the journey of this road, his soul will become an unfeeling pillar. Just as the wife of Lot had ceased bodily sensation and so became a pillar of salt, so also here the thought that always looks back at corruptible things will cease and be numb to the sensation of spiritual things, because the memory of the world acquires for us the dullness of the heart and soils the clarity and purity of the soul, and this physical worry will obscure and darken the pure gaze that renders the min capable of constant vision towards God…

Therefore, depart from the world, O disciple, by that example in which the apostles had departed, in deed and not just in name, by one’s own thought and not by pretense; by will and not by outer appearance; by desire and not by chance; by discernment and not by tradition; by freedom and not by law. Daily make the desire of this spiritual way of life new in yourself. Taste life while making everything moral die from you.”

I’m trying to pay closer attention for myself, my family and for others the Holy Spirit puts on my radar. The compassion of the Lord is still at work, compelling us to seize people by the hand at times, and urging them to flee temptations and dangers.

Jesus himself was moved with compassion when he saw the crowds “distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest” (Mt 9:36-38). May we not delay in our response to his recruiting and sending, and join him in his rescue missions.

Check out my Sermon last Sunday at City on a Hill Church in Surrey, British Columbia below.