For followers of Jesus “the Gospel” is the life-giving message that God became human in his Son Jesus Christ, to seek out and save the lost, destroying the power of sin and death through dying by execution on the cross. Jesus is raised from the dead, empowering his disciples through the Holy Spirit to announce and embody his kingdom for the salvation of the world.

In diabolical contrast, the Israeli Defense Force has launched a intelligence-gathering system they call “Habsora” (“The Gospel” in Hebrew), that identifies human targets of interest in Gaza to kill, knowingly including Palestinian civilians, including women and children. Christians and others who support Israel’s war in Gaza are effectively aligning themselves with this anti-Gospel of death, which diametrically opposes God’s life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

According to Yuval Abraham investigative report published November 30th in the Israeli media outlet +972 Magazine, “A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza” the “Gospel”:

“Is largely built on artificial intelligence and can “generate” targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible. This AI system, as described by a former intelligence officer, essentially facilitates a “mass assassination factory.”

According to MEM, Middle East Monitor’s December 1st article “Israel’s AI system for target selection [the Gospel] has generated ‘mass assassination factory’ in Gaza”:

“The Israeli army has files on the vast majority of potential targets in Gaza — including homes — which stipulate the number of civilians who are likely to be killed in an attack on a particular target, sources told +972. This number is calculated and known in advance, and the army’s intelligence units also know shortly before carrying out an attack roughly how many civilians are certain to be killed.”

“Highlighting the shocking disregard for civilian life, the report found that the Israeli military command knowingly approved the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single top Hamas military commander. “The numbers increased from dozens of civilian deaths [permitted] as collateral damage as part of an attack on a senior official in previous operations, to hundreds of civilian deaths as collateral damage,” one source told +972.”

In light vs. dark contrast, “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people” (Mt 9:35).

Jesus’ presence as God’s Son and Israel’s Messiah were identified as being “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14). He came to “seek and save that which is lost” (Lk 19:10), and “save people’s lives and not destroy them” (Lk 9:56).

Jesus sends John the Baptist’s disciples back to John to report that his actions are in alignment with signs of Israel’s expected Messiah in Isaiah 35:5-6 and Isaiah 61:1.

“The blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them” (Mt 11:5).

As followers of Jesus committed to proclaiming and embodying the Gospel, we must refuse aligning ourselves with any nation (Israel and our own countries included) that engages in the killing of human beings, regardless of official justifications. May we prayerfully work to expose and repent of any agreements we have with the powers of death, fully embracing the life-giving power of God, as Paul states clearly in Romans 1:16.

“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Click here to order a copy Guerrilla Gospel. on my weekly podcast “Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Witness” on Spotify or Apple).

As we seek to share the liberating message of Jesus through personal visits, ministry on the street, Bible studies and teaching we’ve come to recognize over and over that it’s not about transmitting knowledge so people can amass facts about God, Jesus, and the Bible. We all need the living Word to pierce our hearts, making it through our indifference, negative expectations, and defenses. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, who reveals, reminds us, and others of Jesus’ teaching, pointing us in the right direction as we call, visit, approach people, and write articles and books.

Jesus recognized that his own example and teaching were not enough for his disciples to bear witness, continuing his movement after his death, resurrection, and ascension.

“I am sending forth the promise of my Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49).

Once they’d received the empowerment of the Spirit at Pentecost, they stepped into their spiritual authority and were led by the Spirit to exercise gifts of the Spirit like healing the sick, receiving inspired revelation, prophesying, discerning, and casting out evil spirits…

The last verse of Mark’s Gospel states clearly what we need and expect. “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed” (Mk 16:20).

We pray regularly for physical healing at our Tierra Nueva Bible studies, street outreach and Sunday worship, and often hear that it happens.

Last week Mike, a strong, 61-year-old truck driving instructor told us how he’d been living with pain in his right shoulder that was worsening, making it hard to shift gears as he drove trucks and trained drivers. He shared how he’s always been wired outwards, thinking of how he can help people, and has struggled to receive for himself. Since he’d lost his health insurance after being unemployed and didn’t yet qualify for the health plan in his new job, he decided a few weeks back to do something he’d never done—to ask Jesus to heal him! After asking for healing for his right shoulder he said he slept like a baby, awaking to complete freedom from pain, which is gone for good.

While teaching Iranian underground church leaders in Armenia in mid-October, many received healing and were filled with the Holy Spirit in ways that brought refreshment and empowerment for ministry.

We often experience being guided by the Spirit as we seek out people on the streets. Last Friday night we were having trouble locating anyone as the police had been driving people away from the usual places where people gather. When we finally began finding people and served them hot drinks, I was offering to pray for people if they had any particular needs. Nearly everyone was responding: “No thanks. I’m good.”

After hearing these responses and knowing people were in dire need, I suddenly received what I think was an inspired word, which I shared with a group of younger men and women who were inhaling fentanyl smoke from foil they were heating up before me beside the dumpsters of a big box store.

“Actually, you don’t need me to pray for you. You can pray to God directly yourselves,” I said, “There are no barriers between you and God. God loves you just the way you are and wants to help you. There are no hoops you have to jump through, nothing you have to do to qualify. Jesus showed us this when he walked the earth, by freely caring for and openly loving those society excluded, and he’s still alive to help us now.”

A young woman looked up startled from her smoking foil and said “that’s exactly what my mother says. She’s a Lutheran pastor.” Another woman looked up, tears welling up in her eyes. It seemed the Spirit enabled the Word to reach people’s heart. This inspires us to keep watching and expecting the Spirit’s guidance and direct action, which brings the Kingdom of God to the streets.

A woman who attends Tierra Nueva named Kristen (pictured above with her husband Eliazar) and her brother Gavin were miraculously spared from death when their car was hit by a speeding Amtrak train late one night (photos of car below). While she broke her back and Gavin was in critical care for over a month, both are recovering speedily as a result of prayer (listen to her testimony “Hit by a train but saved by Jesus” on my weekly podcast “Disciple: Word, Spirit, Justice, Witness” on Spotify or Apple).

I don’t think I have to convince anyone that war is evil. We all know that it is.   

Here are the statistics for three ongoing wars, as of Nov 18, 2023:

Stats:

• Russo-Ukraine War: since 2014, 514,000 deaths, most of those in the past year since the Russian invasion.
• Israel-Palestine War: 40 consecutive days of fighting; 1400 Israelis killed and 240 hostages in the Hamas attack on Oct 7; more than 11,000 Palestians killed, two-thirds of whom are women and children; 2700 missing. Hospitals have been destroyed. Refugee camps bombed. Homes, churches, and the entire infrastructure of an already desperately poor area have been wiped out. 
• Yemen Civil War: UN estimates over 377,000 killed by the end of 2021, more than half of those because of humanitarian crisis as a result of the war – displacement, starvation (more than half the population facing starvation), disease. 4 million people displaced from their homes in Yemen.
• 108.4 million forcibly displaced peoples, as of the end of 2022. Primary cause is war.
• One of the main results of displacement is that children become more and more vulnerable to sexual exploitation, slavery, and being turned into child soldiers. Since 2005 there are a verified 105,000 children who have been recruited and used as child soldiers – a uniquely horrific aspect of modern war. Children are seen as a cheap, dispensable, effective weapon of terror (See Romeo Dallaire, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children).
  

War is evil. But is war a necessary evil? Is it sometimes required? Could it even be just?

I took a military history degree at the University of Victoria to try to understand something I believed I would never experience personally: war and killing. I discovered that Christians throughout the last two millennia have gone to great lengths to explain war and to justify its continued use as an instrument of the state. St. Augustine, who had first-hand experience in a city under siege, wrote The City of God in the 5th century. In it he gave a series of justifications for when, why and how Christians should fight and kill. Erasmus of Rotterdam, the 16th century Christian Humanist, made a strong argument that Christian nations should never go to war against each other, but allowed that it was still acceptable for Christians to fight in self-defence, as a last resort, and against Muslims. Hugo Grotius in the 17th century developed a theory of Natural Law that put limits and rules on warfare, but still assumed that Christian nations would always find the need to go to war. Carl von Clausewitz in 19th century Prussia developed a doctrine of Absolute War, where the entire might of the State – military, political, economic, social, and spiritual – should be employed to effect the entire destruction of one’s enemy. This demonic doctrine was adopted by the European military thinkers in advance of WW1 and WW2.

At the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) an attempt was made to propose that warfare as a tool of the state – in particular unlimited, nuclear warfare – was immoral. The proposal was severely watered down in order to continue to allow states to engage in war when they found it necessary.

Even now with wars raging around the world, and some of the major participatory countries being led by professing Christians, we face the debate: is it ok – even necessary, even just and right – for Christians to fight and kill in war?

In the past the responsibility for deciding whether or not a war was just lay with the “prince” – the sovereign of the nation. The prince would bear the moral responsibility of the war, and therefore an ordinary Christian soldier could presumably engage in warfare without worrying if he was sinning, so long as his conduct within the war met certain standards. We do not have that moral luxury now (and it is questionable whether anyone really had that moral freedom). In a democracy we must bear responsibility for the leaders we choose and the actions that our nation takes.

So how can we decide if a war is just, or if any war can be just? Five to Seven principles were traditionally evaluated for the determination of whether a war was “just” or not: Just Cause; Right Intent; Net Benefit; Legitimate Authority; Last Resort; Proportionality of Means; and Right Conduct. Traditionally a war must meet certain requirements to be considered just. Two of the most important of these requirements are the separation of combatants and non-combatants; and ensuring that any military response is both appropriate and limited.

There is now no clear distinction between combatants and non-combatants. Wars are very infrequently fought in our age between two armies in a field. More often it is trained soldier versus unofficial insurgent (or revolutionary/freedom fighter), or even civilian against civilian. Those who deal in terror see civilians as primary targets. National militaries say they are able to avoid bombing hospitals and schools (though evidence proves otherwise); but sometimes nation-states don’t even try. It is hard to forget the infamous saying that came out of the Vietnam War: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

And when biological, chemical, nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction are used or threatened, there are no civilians or combatants, only victims. The notion of appropriate and limited response is likewise obliterated. The Old Testament principle was eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth (Lev 24-19-21). This was a limitation on retaliation. If someone knocked out your tooth, you were not allowed to kill him or her in revenge. You could only take their tooth/the monetary value of a tooth, which was carefully regulated. This is the basis behind appropriate and limited responses. It is not considered “just” to kill 10,000 people if your enemy has killed 100 of your people. Of course, modern weapons take us into the possibility of indiscriminately killing millions at a time, of destroying entire cities through bombardment, even of the elimination of all human life from the planet. We really have moved beyond the realm of measured responses.

But even this, which should make modern war unjust by biblical and even secular standards, is not the real issue for Christians. Jesus took us away from the “eye for an eye” formula. He took us to radical forgiveness and love. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also….You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy. ‘ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:38-45)

This is not woke idealism, not armchair social media virtue signalling. Jesus lived in Judea under the thumb of an oppressive Roman regime that regularly crucified thousands of people to quell rebellion. His family were displaced, twice, by state control and violence at his birth. They were refugees to Egypt. He healed a Roman centurion’s servant, and also one of the guards who came to arrest him. As he healed the man he said “Enough of this!” to his disciples (Luke 22:51). In Matthew’s Gospel he said, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (Mt 26:52). 

Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen looked at the example of Jesus, and the state of the world, and wrote the line, “Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima.”

Which then do we choose, as Christians? Christ, or Hiroshima? How do we justify taking a human life, a life for which Jesus died, even if we categorise that person as an enemy? We know that we have responsibilities as Christians to care for the poor, the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the sick, the imprisoned – we know this because we have been commanded by Jesus. But we have also been given clear instructions from Jesus, and from New Testament letters, about our responsibilities towards our enemies: 

“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:9-21

With these direct commands from our Lord, and from Scripture, why have we tried so hard to justify this killing? Why have we spent so much mental energy attempting to prove why it is acceptable to destroy the life God created, and for whom Jesus died?

For many of us this question only really presents itself in theory: what would I do if? It is easy enough to talk about non-violence when no one is threatening the things you hold dear, quite another to refrain from violence when the threat is in your home. Strong arguments are made on behalf of self-defence, or better still, defending the innocent from aggression. Do I understand the anger and desire for vengeance of those Israeli families who lost loved ones in the attacks by Hamas? Of course. Do I understand the anger and desire for vengeance of those Palestinian families who have lost loved ones in the violence and oppression they have endured since 1948? Of course. Does this justify the taking of lives, including the indiscriminate taking of lives? Because make no mistake, when war happens, it is always the poor and the vulnerable who suffer the most.

But can we remove ourselves from this moral conundrum by saying that we aren’t the ones doing the killing or hurting the vulnerable? Well, we actually aren’t as removed from the situation as we think. War profiteering: making profits off of war, the creation and sale of death-dealing weapons. 

Bob Ekblad has highlighted the following with regards to American war-profiteering: Congress recently approved 14 billion for arms to Israel, 61 billion arms to Ukraine. This has been portrayed as a generous support for US allies, but who is actually getting that money? US weapons manufacturing companies. The fact that American taxpayers are directly subsidising US companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics make ordinary citizens direct participants in and beneficiaries of the killing and destruction. The stock prices for major weapons manufacturers in the defense sector have increased significantly since Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, and Israel’s subsequent bombing campaign and invasion of Gaza, as stated by Bryan Quinn in the special report on October 26, “The business of war: How arms industry profits from violent conflicts.”

“Morgan Stanley and TD Bank hope for aerospace and weapons boon after a 7% value increase from start of Israel-Hamas conflict,” writes Eli Clifton in his article “Hamas has created additional demand’: Wall Street eyes big profits from war.” 

So, the poor are destroyed and the wealthy – particularly those concerned with the manufacture of weapons – get profoundly wealthier. But is this just happening in America? Canadian arms manufacturers exported an estimated 1 billion worth of weapons in 2022. The Canadian government approved 33 million dollars towards missiles in the Ukraine. Over 21 million dollars in military goods were sold to Israel in 2022. In 2015 a 15 billion dollar deal was struck to send military equipment to Saudi Arabia, weapons which have been used in the civil war in Yemen.

Then there is the matter of United Nations voting. On Oct 28 there was an emergency UN Vote which called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” in Gaza. “Many considered the resolution to be the last opportunity to prevent the bloody and devastating ground assault that was subsequently launched on Gaza by Israel. The resolution was sponsored by Jordan and passed with 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions. In addition to calling for a truce, it also called for all parties to respect international humanitarian law and allow the “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The resolution also called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all civilians held captive” (“Canada Fails Humanity With Abstention on UN Vote,” https://www.cjpme.org/pr_2023_10_28_unga).

Canada abstained from this vote. 

On Nov 15 PM Justin Trudeau, evoking some of the ideas of Just War theory, said, “Even wars have rules. All innocent life is equal in worth. Israeli and Palestinian.” Trudeau asked for “maximum restraint” from Israel, but did not call for a ceasefire. Nations are wary about demanding ceasefires from other nations, because they can’t risk their own sovereignty – their own political right to defend their borders and interests, to retaliate, to wage war. 

However, I want to reiterate that for Christians, our primary engagement with this issue must not be political. We do not put our ultimate trust in nations, in the UN, in militaries. Psalm 20:7 – some trust in chariots some in horses but we depend on the Lord our God.

No, these horrific situations of war, and the seeming inability or lack of interest in the world to prevent them, should starkly remind us that there is a deeper reality. This is what the word Apocalypse means – to see behind the veil. There is an enemy of humanity, the thief who wants to steal, kill and destroy. War-making and war-profiteering and the destruction of the poor, the vulnerable, the innocent, the children, are all done in allegiance with this enemy. We are called to see this deeper reality, this spiritual truth. We are called to commit our lives not to the worldly appearance of truth, but to this deeper spiritual truth, revealed to us by the Spirit of God, in and about Christ Jesus. We are invited into the life of Jesus, the one who took in the sword rather than take up the sword. We are called to be utterly different. And the tragic reality is that Christians in this world, by and large, have not been very different at all. They have instead been some of the loudest in the support and justification of violence and war.

The way of Jesus is difficult, and might even appear impractical or impossible. But this does not excuse us from trying to live it, if this is what Jesus has called us to. And I believe it is. 

Jesus calls us to a place of no rights, no retaliation, and no security except what he gives us. His teaching on revenge and suffering and the example he gives of self-sacrifice are clear, though they do not say what we want to hear. Justice will be done, and aggressors will be held accountable, but we must trust that this final judgement will be in the hands of the Lord. Whenever we try to execute that kind of judgement, too much that is good is destroyed along with the bad – just as Jesus explained in the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30).

Here is Jacques Ellul, a man who lived through the Second World War, on the illusory danger of the Christian championship of violence:

“If I think that I cannot reach others except by participating in their revolt, their anger and hatred; if I think that Christ’s consolation is a deluding lie and reconciliation a hypocrisy, then I no longer believe that the coming kingdom is truly present, and I no longer believe in the Resurrection. And because in the depths of my heart I no longer believe these things, I substitute for the Resurrection my mythological picture of it, and I decide that I should have to build the kingdom on earth with my own hands. This unbelief is the truth of Christian championship of violence. All the rest is illusion.” – Jacques Ellul

Let us pray and live that we do not carry on in this illusion, which is the championship of violence.

When Hamas militants massacred 1200 people inside Israel and carried 240 hostages into Gaza on October 7, they succeeded in provoking the State of Israel to unleash its wrath on Palestinians living in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll of largely civilians and children is rising daily—now nearly twelve times more than the original 1200 victims. Weapons manufacturers, the oil industry and larger economy are profiting from this war.

How might followers of Jesus challenge these injustices and offer life-giving alternatives in the face of increasing death and destruction?

I’m amazed lately by how the Spirit seems to be orchestrating encounters with people on the streets. The timing of how these meetings happen is inspiring me to be even more attentive, so I can more consciously participate.

Last week I called the jail to see if they’d let me meet one-on-one with a prisoner I know from the streets. The Sheriff’s deputy told me that if I could get down there before 11:30am there would likely be a visitor booth that would be open by then for a short visit– but he couldn’t guarantee it. So, I drove the twenty-minutes to the jail, only to learn that all the booths were still full… but hopefully one would become available.

Just then the big metal door separating the inside of the jail from the outer corridor opened, and a man who was being released walked out, heading past me towards the front doors. I couldn’t see his face because he was wearing a mask, but I noticed his long, dark hair and thought I recognized him from somewhere. I searched my memory as to where I’d seen him, as he kept walking out into the jail parking lot.

I went over and sat down on a wooden bench opposite the attorney booths and read a few psalms. When one of the attorneys walked out, I got up and checked with the deputy to see if a booth was open.

“Not yet,” he said.

I sat down again and after a second attorney left I went again to the deputy, who then told me it was 11:45am and they were telling him there wasn’t enough time for me to visit. I left the jail defeated, and headed to my car, and drove out of the parking lot and headed towards town, pulling over at the jail bus stop to make a quick phone call.

Right after I pulled over, the man who’d passed me leaving the jail approached, and tapped my passenger window. I motioned for him to wait till I’d completed the call, and he nodded that he’d wait.

When I finished the call I lowered my window. Now with his mask off, a visibly Native American man who’d passed me in the jail, asked if I could give him a ride down to the Westside Bridge in town. I welcomed him into my car, and after taking a seat he asked me:

“There in the jail you looked as me like you know me. Do you know me from somewhere?”

“I think I do know you, but I’m not sure from where. Do you know me? I asked.

“No, I don’t know you,” he answered.

I suddenly recalled that I might have seen his face a week before in a traumatic event in downtown Mount Vernon. I had witnessed a group of police officers gathering around some grocery carts filled with the belongings of some unhoused people, who were not visible from the road. Others were wheeling stretchers up towards grocery carts.

Since there have been many recent overdose deaths, and we know many of the people on the street, I decided to park as close as I could get, which was right beside the aid car. I ran up towards the police officers, identifying myself, and then asking them if there were any overdose deaths.

“No, there’s no one dead yet, just two more affected by the bad batch of fentanyl that’s on the streets right now,” an officer told me.

He went on to share that lately they’ve needed 3-6 Narcans to revive people, if they could revive them.

I noticed a visibly Native American woman lying unconscious on the grass. Police officers were checking her vitals. Another man was being wheeled off in a gurney towards the aid car, who I had walked beside, praying for him. I wondered if this is where I had first seen this man who was now in the front seat of my car beside me.

“Did you by any chance have an overdose last week in Mount Vernon near the freeway onramp? Did the police come and take you off to the hospital?” I asked.

“Yes, I did overdose last week right there. After they took me to the hospital they booked me into the jail on some outstanding warrants,” he answered.

“Why do you ask?” he said.

I told him how I’d seen police officers around two unhoused people and I’d run up to see if they were okay. I told him how I’d walked beside him praying for him as the police wheeled him to the ambulance.

“Seriously man! That’s crazy! Thank you!” he said.

“And what’s especially amazing is that right then I was seeing a vision of four eagles circling around me in the sky above– and they were golden eagles!” he specified.

As I drove him to the Westside Bridge in Mount Vernon I asked him if I could pray for him then and there. He gladly agreed, and I prayed for him and his wife and his people on the Swinomish Reservation, giving thanks that they were still alive, and praying for their protection, and that God would give them the desires of the their hearts.

“Are you sure you want me to let you off by the Westside Bridge?” I asked. “Isn’t that pretty close to the trap house across the river?” I asked.

He told me he wasn’t going to straight back to the drugs. I reminded him that since he’s just detoxed from fentanyl, his resistance is low and he’s especially vulnerable to overdosing.

I told him I was heading out towards the Swinomish Reservation as it’s near where I live, and that I could gladly drive him there.

“No, that’s okay,” he said. “I need to find my wife, and if I get all the way out there and then find out she’s here in town, I’ll have to find a ride back here. But thanks for the offer.

I assured him that I and our Tierra Nueva community would hold he and his wife in our prayers.

Pray for the people on the many Native American reservations in our region, who we are increasingly connecting with, and many of whom are attending our faith community– for deep healing, recovery, and spiritual growth.

On further reflection, I am glad now that a visitor booth didn’t open up in the jail, as I would have likely missed this beautiful encounter. I can see that my plans may not be in alignment with the Spirit, and feel freshly inspired by God’s words in Psalm 32:8.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”

Please hold us in your prayers as we seek to minister to vulnerable people on the streets (and in the jail) of our community. May you experience being instructed and counseled by the Spirit, making yourself available to God-inspired encounters as you go about your daily life.

While in Honduras in the 1980s Gracie and I learned to engage illiterate and minimally-educated people in Bible study through spontaneous dramatic re-enactments of Bible stories.

This month during our Certificates in Transformational Ministry at the Margins in Ndola, Zambia and Manenberg, South Africa, I found myself searching for ways to act out Bible stories

During these mostly spontaneous “bibliodramas” the Scriptures came alive afresh in surprising ways, creating bridges that made the ancient text suddenly obviously relevant.

In our CTMM module 2 on “Healing and Holistic Liberation” we treat sensitive topics like father and mother wounds, rejection, abandonment, and trauma, as well as spiritual warfare, healing and spiritual liberation.

When talking about spiritual warfare we use the story of Jesus taking his disciples to the “other side” of the Sea of Galilee, away from his prior ministry among his own people.

I spot a large table that I envision working as a make-shift boat, and ask for help to lay it on the floor. I invite twelve volunteers to serve as Jesus’ 12 disciples, and have them stand on the table like they’ve gotten in a boat. I find someone willing to be Jesus, who joins the disciples in the boat. I invite others to grab jackets or whatever they can wave around the “boat” to demonstrate wind and waves.

I invite someone to read Mark 4:35-37, which describes a fierce gale of wind, waves breaking over and filling the boat. The people with the coats wave them over the the twelve playing the disciples, who pretend to be full of fear. The man playing Jesus is laying down pretending to be asleep.

I invite people to consider whether they’ve ran into obstacles when they’ve moved away from their comfort zones to minister in unknown or especially challenging places. People identify easily with this, and give examples from their lives.

We read the next verse about Jesus being asleep, the disciples waking him and saying: “Don’t you care that we are perishing?!”

We talk about the feeling of being out there all alone when things get rough. The text gives people permission to identify their feelings of abandonment, their sense that Jesus is doing nothing to help. The disciples model a prayer of complaint that frees us to be real.

As we read what happens next the man playing Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind and sea, saying: “hush, be still!” Those waving jackets stop immediately. Then asks a hard questions to his disciples and us all: “Why are you afraid! Do you still have no faith?”

Those playing the disciples act out the reading of the final verse, pretending to be very afraid and amazed. They say to each other: “Who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him.”

We end with a discussion about why we are still afraid and lacking in faith, and whether we can imagine stepping into Jesus-like fearlessness and authority.

Simple re-enactments make Scripture visible and more easily imaginable, helping us all see ourselves in the story.

The next study on the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5 becomes even more interesting now that we know there’s been such opposition even getting to him. In Zambia two pastors from Zimbabwe who came to help teach and minister played Jesus and the demoniac (pictured below).

Tawanda (pictured on the right) plays Jesus, stepping off the boat onto the imaginary shore. He’s even himself 32, helping us envision what Jesus might have been like. Richard (left), plays the demoniac with an unclean spirit living in the tombs, who cut himself, cried out night and day, with no one able to subdue him. He runs to Jesus from the side of the meeting place and bows down before him, reading from my Bible:

We witness many experience healing and deliverance, followed by a processional out into the streets of the neighborhood– of foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

We are just 4 days away from the start of our new fall series at The People’s Seminary: CTMM MODULE 1. We will launch this course coinciding with CTMM in Zambia, S Africa,  Kenya, and 2 in Uganda).

Certificate in Transformational Ministry at the Margins (CTMM) This training is designed to further equip those already serving (or feeling called to pioneer work) amongst poor, under-reached, and marginalized communities.

It’s not too late to register and scholarships (partial or full) are still available directly on the registration page (drop down menu when you register) 

NEW CTMM 2023 Module 1– Online (live) Certificate Program begins Sep 26

Register now: https://www.peoplesseminary.org/product-page/ctmm2022m1 

12 Sessions: Tuesdays, 10:30 – 12:00 PM (PST)

Visit our website for more information: http://www.peoplesseminary.org/

 

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Throughout our lives Gracie and I have been struck by the enormous divide between the educated, and the poor and excluded– even within the church. A wealth of learning and valuable skills are held beyond the grasp of masses of impoverished people, unless deliberate efforts are made to effectively bridge these separations.

Last November I attended the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion in Denver. Though a Bible scholar by training, I felt out of place among the thousands of scholars– most of them professors in universities or seminaries. Encounters with some of the scholars eased some of my discomfort.

I perused the book tables of all the major theology and biblical studies publishers, checking out new commentaries and books of interest. I made my way to many seminars on specialized topics, listening for new insights on familiar or not-so-familiar texts. I felt like a metal detector, hoping to come upon some buried treasure in the various seminar rooms. I was listening hard for good news, but struggled to hear it, though I barely scratched the surface as there were hundreds of options each day to choose from.

One evening I attended a reception hosted by the Hispanic Theological Initiative, an organization that supports Latinx students and scholars. The ballroom was full of mostly well-dressed people, name badges identifying them and their institutions. Food and deserts were plentiful and wine and beer were in abundance. A woman began speaking from a microphone at the front, warmly welcoming everyone to the reception. It was a festive occasion.

The woman at the front then invited people to give their applause as she showed photos on a big screen of PhD students who had been awarded their degrees, followed by those who had become assistant professors, or moved from assistant professor to associate professor, or associate professor to professor, or become deans or presidents. She invited these people forward, and everyone clapped and cheered. It was a beautiful show of support.

I appreciate their mission statement to: “Increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of Latinx PhD students across the nation by uniting and leveraging institutional resources (human, financial, and infrastructural)… and to “Increase the presence of Latinx leaders and faculty–especially, tenured faculty in seminaries, schools of theology, and universities.” Yet I couldn’t help but also feel overwhelmed with emotion as I found myself struck by the huge contrast between those celebrated and the people I serve here in the Skagit Valley.

I thought of the six or seven Mexican and Chicano inmates I visit in our local jail, most of whom are facing being “retained” by the prison system, and experiencing forced “graduations” from jail to years in prison. They are locked down 22-23 hours per day due to staff shortages. Once in prison they will join the millions of warehoused individuals, who have minimal opportunities for training of any kind in our increasingly cash-strapped and staff-lean mass-incarceration system.

After serving time, many will then be sent off to immigration detention, and they will eventually be deported to their countries of origin. Others will be released, deep in debt, often disconnected from family to the point of being homeless, with labels like “felon” and “ex-con” next to their name, blocking their future.

I thought of the farmworker families attending Tierra Nueva who go from the strawberry and blueberry fields in the summer months to pruning blueberry and raspberry plants and working the tulip fields during the cold winter months– never getting raises or promotions or congratulations.

The gap between what I experienced at the SBL/AAR annual meeting and the people we serve is immense. And the academic language I heard spoken as people read their scholarly papers would be completely unintelligible to most of the people we serve, as well as the world’s population.  I lament the growing gap between the masses of men and women in our jails, prisons, homeless encampments, fields and factories– and the small elite of academic theologians and Bible scholars and their students.

As I stood near the back of the ball room considering these things, I suddenly noticed LED flameless candles flickering at the base of what turned out to be a memorial to Latinx theology professionals who had passed away. I approached the memorial and looked at the photos of the faces of person after person who had died, with their birth and death dates. I noticed that many had not lived long lives. Had they died of Covid? Cancer? In a car accident? There were no causes of death mentioned.

As I looked at face after face and read their names I was moved with emotion at all these lives cut short. I thought of my own mortality, and remembered a Scripture I often consider from Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, That we may present to you a heart of wisdom.”

I think of my own calling to bridge this divide– bringing the best biblical scholarship I can to the poor and excluded. I wonder how I can more effectively reduce this gap in the years of my life that remain.

We want to expand the offering of our Certificate in Transformational Ministry at the Margins to pastors and leaders serving excluded populations all over the world.

For years I have felt called to launch a prisoner pastoral ministry training program, and have since completed a five-volume Guerrilla Bible Studies series that includes 52 tried-and-tested discipleship Bible studies can be used as part of this training.

There, in Denver I met a woman named Sara who has since helped us launch a Certificate in Reading the Bible for Liberation through The People’s Seminary. We now have a distance-learning program in which a number of prisoners are currently enrolled.

I am moved by how Jesus himself shows God’s heart to reach the masses, as he went “around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him” (Lk 8:1).

Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw the crowds, who “were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beg the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest” (Mt 9:36-38).

Recruitment and training of these workers is urgently needed now, and like God who sends his best to the least, may we follow suit in whatever ways we are able.