Bob Ekblad's Blog, page 11

The Syrian crisis: Comforting and defending the vulnerable, exposing and confronting the powerful

The crisis in Syria has been on my heart in a new way this past week, when Gracie and I were in Beirut, Lebanon. We were part of a team that offered four days of training in evangelism and prayer appointments to 65 Syrian Christians who came over for Damascus.

We were deeply impacted by the humility of these Syrian believers, who have gone through devastation on so many levels. Everything that could be shaken has been shaken, and yet a vibrant faith remains, visible in a thirst for God and eagerness to learn more.

One woman told how over 13,000 bombs fell on her city over the past nine years, but only 100 were killed (a small but still horrific number considering the number of bombs). She attributed this to her faith community’s constant intercession. She said that there are many testimonies of people deciding suddenly to walk away from a particular place that was subsequently hit by a bomb. She said many came to believe in God due to widespread stories of protection.

We met people from Aleppo who saw their city destroyed by the fighting. It seemed everyone had lost people they knew or had family that lived abroad as refugees- some 2 million of which are in Lebanon. We visited a Lebanese Christian outreach to Syrian refugees near the Syrian border that brought education, clothing, food and medical care to thousands of vulnerable people. 

On the last evening of our time together I felt led to apologize and repent as an American citizen for the US’s role in the upheaval in Syria.

The US invasion of Iraq, the arming of militias in Syria and the US arms industry have all contributed to so much death, and destruction. The US President’s decision to pull out US troops from Northern Syria happened while we were there, deeply worrying everyone as Turkey immediately invaded. We met a Kurdish couple studying theology in Lebanon who were deeply troubled—feeling the betrayal and concern for the safety of their families and community.

Many of the people were crying as I apologized, and as the other Americans in our team joined me to express our disagreement with our government’s past and present actions. The next day one of the Syrian leaders expressed her community’s appreciation for our apology.

Now is a time for followers of Jesus to differentiate ourselves from our nation’s policies, since we are first and foremost ambassadors of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. We must be fully aligned with the God who protects and not with agents of death.

While I am not an expert on the Middle East, a few big questions come to mind as I watch events unfold.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are two nations that have purchased billions of dollars of arms from the United States and Western European nations. Saudi Arabia’s attacks against Yemen using weapons purchased from the USA, the UK and other European nations have resulted in widespread civilian deaths and a humanitarian crisis.

Turkey’s Air Force has been supplied largely by the USA. The United Stated provides 60% of Turkey’s arms—including the tanks that are being used to invade Syria now. Germany, France, Spain and Italy have also been actively supplying Turkey with weapons—as well as Russia. These weapons are now being used against the Kurds, a longstanding enemy of Turkey.

Turkey has an authoritarian leader who is responsible for many human rights abuses, read more. Currently the United States has nuclear weapons located on Turkish soil, an additional vulnerability and pressure point to please the Turkish leader.

The US and Western Europe have used the Kurds as front-line troops in the war against ISIS, leading to the death of some 11,000 Kurdish fighters. Now the United States has abandoned them, and is giving Turkey what it wants—a green light to take control of Northern Syria destroying or dispossessing the Kurds of any kind of homeland. 

The US President himself says his concern is bring home US troops, something that at face value looks like a positive step—except that in this case the troops were a stabilizing presence in Northern Syria that should have been gradually withdrawn with alternate measures in place (see this article). Already there are over 130,000 new refugees who have fled the Syrian-Turkish border area, and many deaths.

But since Turkey is one of the United States arms industry’s big customers, is the US President’s green light to let them invade Syria and sudden pullback of US troops aimed a keeping this past and present customer happy and compete with Russia for arms sales? Current talk in the US Senate about sanctions against Turkey must be carefully examined, as critics argue they are politically motivated and have no teeth.

The United States arms industry is one of the most powerful global forces, bringing in billions of dollars into the US economy, and contributing to violence and oppression.  Now is the time to challenge weapons manufactures and our government officials who support them (see this blog).

Followers of Jesus should be especially clear that our nations’ economic interests are not our highest priority. Jesus directly names Mammon (money, wealth) as a god that must not be served.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth (Mammon)” (Mat 6:24).

The Apostle Paul wrote: For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Tim 6:10).

Weapons manufactured in the United States, Europe, Russia and anywhere else they’re produced are contributing to the death of people all over the world, fueling conflicts leading to present and future refugee crises. Jesus makes a clear statement to his disciples regarding his commitment to life: “the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Lk 9:55-56). As followers of Jesus let us stand in agreement with Jesus and challenge our government and weapons manufactures as we bring comfort and concrete support to the vulnerable. 

Jesus’ Recruitment Behind Enemy Lines

For our entire adult lives Gracie and I have ministered in settings where our race and nationality have identified us with power, privilege and oppression. These past years since Trump has been president have been especially difficult for Americans ministering across lines of difference.

We just returned from having offered our Certificate in Transformational Ministry at the Margins in Stockholm. There we engaged with many Swedish ministry workers working with refugees, and we had course participants from Pakistan, Iran, Eritrea. As we prepare to minister to Syrians in Lebanon, we reflect on Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4. Following is an excerpt from my book Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit.

Jesus embodies God’s mission to save Israel and the whole world. The Gospels tell us how Jesus goes behind enemy lines, right into Roman-occupied Israel and into hostile communities and subcul­tures. There he preaches, teaches, heals, casts out demons, and recruits disciples. Jesus never leads an actual Bible study, but in this chapter we’ll look at how he engages the Samaritan woman at the well person­ally through Scripture, her tradition, her community, and her own story, empowering her and calling her to new life (Jn 4:7–45). This contextually sensitive, transformational encounter is one example of what I’m calling a guerrilla gospel encounter or guerrilla Bible study.

John’s detailed account of this empowering interaction provides a template for revolutionary encounters with God’s Word on the margins, which we can apply to similar contexts today. Jesus’ racial, ethnic, and gender profile establish him as a representative of the oppressive Jewish status-quo, which would traditionally exclude the Samaritan woman. Yet Jesus finesses this unequal relationship to bring good news to this excluded people.…

Subversive Vulnerability

As an itinerant missionary, Jesus comes in vulnerability and need, embodying his instructions to his twelve disciples in Luke 9: “Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city” (vv. 3–4). Though Jesus enters the mission field of Samaria without food or water, he’s in hostile territory, and so he keeps a respectful distance rather than approaching the Samaritans’ homes and saying, “peace be to this house,” as he instructs the seventy in Luke 10 (quoted above). Jesus seems to recognize the woman as a func­tional doorkeeper to her community, and so he engages with her from a position of functional inferiority.

As a representative oppressor to the Samaritans, Jesus models how we might prompt people’s hospitality in hostile situations. He asserts his vulnerability when he commands the woman to give him a handout— a posture that reflects guerrilla combatants. Counter-insurgency manuals used in Central America during the 1980s describe guerrilla combatants as “fish” and those who host them as the “sea.” Oppressive governments often tried to eradicate the guerrilla movement by draining the “sea” through the destruction or relocation of villages. Jesus is proactive, even aggressive in his dependence upon local hospitality. Confident that the Kingdom of God is better than anything this Samaritan woman and her community have ever known, Jesus risks his dignity to bring peace into a story of entrenched division.

At first glance, Jesus’ command seems rude—unlike the angel of the Lord, who calls Hagar by her name and asks her about her life. In expressing his need for water, Jesus is not polite, nor does he empha­size his own agency, as Abraham’s servant does with Rebecca when he says: “Please let me drink a little water from your jar” (Gn 24:17 emphasis added). It may be that Jesus is deliberately provoking offense to expose the prejudice and underlying hostility in his potential hostess.

Jesus invites the Samaritan woman to show hospitality to an unwel­come stranger or enemy by serving him a drink, a scene that evokes his parable about God’s judgment of all the Gentiles (ethne) in Matthew 25 (v. 32). In Jesus’ parable, those who give a drink to the thirsty are blessed by his Father and inherit the kingdom (Mt 25:34-35). In the story of Abraham’s servant’s search for a bride for Isaac, the servant’s proposed and realized sign that he’d found the right virgin was the maiden’s offer: ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’ (Gn 24:14). The Samaritan woman falls short in both cases.

Jesus comes to Sychar as Abraham and Jacob’s descendant to bless the city whose inhabitants Jacob’s sons once massacred and to fulfill God’s original charge that Jacob would be a blessing to all the families of the earth: “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gn 28:14, emphasis added). Jesus seeks to break down the barriers of separation between himself and the Samaritan woman, who is the potential person of peace, thereby opening the way for the city of Sychar to receive him so that he might heal the historic division between Jews and Samaritans. In this way, he further embodies his instructions to his followers in Luke 10:

“Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’” (vv. 8–9).

However, the Samaritan woman does not give him a drink of water. She doesn’t provide the needed hospitality. She’s wary of Jesus and keeps him at a distance, revealing that she’s street-wise in dealing with outsiders, especially men. Maybe she’s interpreting his forwardness as presumptuous, a sign that he’s looking for other favors or wants to dominate her. Maybe she’s cautious about serving a needy man, which could lead to a co-dependent relationship she’s deliberately avoiding,

Subversive Peacemaking

Instead of giving Jesus a drink, the woman questions him directly about the racial and gender barriers that separate them: “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” She calls Jesus on his illegal behavior concerning both Jewish-Samaritan and male-female communication, “for Jews have no dealings with Samari­tans” (Jn 4:9)….

Jesus does not respond directly to the woman’s hostile question. He remains silent about the racial, ethnic, religious, and gender barriers between them. Though he does not deny that he’s a Jewish man breaking the rules, he doesn’t apologize. Nor does Jesus defend his Jewish heri­tage, drawing from Scriptures showing Jewish gender or cross-cultural sensitivity,60 offering Israel’s best face as an apologist for God’s chosen people—which are also his people. While Jesus doesn’t present himself as a sensitive man whom she should trust, he also doesn’t shake the dust off his feet and give up on the woman or her community.

Instead, he practices a kind of enemy love in response to the Samar­itan woman’s refusal to give him (her enemy) a drink by offering her an opportunity to receive a gift from God. But she must ask for it. Jesus describes this gift in a way that makes it seem distant as well as irresist­ible. With total confidence in God’s gift, his own identity, and his capacity to offer the woman new life, he says: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (Jn 4:10).

To continue reading, you can purchase Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit here

Now Available: Check out The People’s Seminary’s Online version of the Certificate in Transformational Ministry at the Margins.

Recognizing the Divinity of Jesus

With joy I announce the translation from French into English and publication of Daniel Bourguet’s recent book On the Banks of the Jordan: Encountering the Mystery of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The People’s Seminary Press, 2019—now available on Amazon. Daniel Bourguet was Gracie and my professor and continues to be our friend. He has written over 25 books, many of which are becoming spiritual classics. Below you will find a short excerpt from this inspired and timely book, which I highly recommend.

The Divinity of Christ

In my eyes John is a contemplative, which to me means approaching him with great respect. His gospel is the fruit of his contemplation, maturing in his heart over dozens of years. I am only going to discuss here its relation to the divinity of Christ, but this is an immense topic since the whole of the gospel, from beginning to end, revolves around just this theme…

“In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God” (1.1).

“The Word was God”: what for John was the meaning of “Word” (logos) — which I make sure is capitalized along with “God”?

The same phrase is taken up again in v 14, where we read: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John speaks here not of an idea but a person: “he lived among us.” The following verses go on to give us the name of this person: Jesus Christ (1:17). In short, the Word who is God became the man Jesus.

We discover that for John, the name “Jesus” was the name he received at his birth, his name as a man. Before his birth John refers him to as “the Word,” specifying that “the Word was God.” I believe that John is here clearly stating the divinity of Jesus from before his birth, before he became flesh.

Did Jesus lose his divinity when he was born? Surely not, and the whole of the gospel shows us that his divinity is unseen, hidden in his visible humanity, right up to the point when Thomas was enabled to see it.

It is thought at times that Christianity has deified a man, a man so extraordinary, so magnificently human, so perfect, so holy, so exceptional that we have made a God of

him. The divinity of Christ would therefore be a production of the first Christians, a work of the Church. If this is so, it would mean taking a man for God, making a man into God, and this would be pure blasphemy.

If this is not the case, it might also be thought that it was God himself who made Jesus a God, perfect man that he was and corresponding so completely with God’s desire; thus God crowned him, deifying him to sacralize his merits. This is all just as wrong.

The truth is that it was not a case of a man becoming God but of God becoming man, and this is what John says: “The Word became flesh.” This means that the Word who is God became flesh, which is to say, a man. This is not the exaltation of a man but the abasement of God.

When John writes “the Word was God,” using the imperfect tense in relation to “the beginning” to tell us that the Word was already there “in the beginning,” this is a way of saying that he was already there before the beginning of time, that is, for all eternity. The Fathers had a wonderful way for saying this: “in the beginning without beginning,” a mystery beyond our understanding. The divinity of Christ is like that of the Father, without beginning, from all eternity.

In introducing his gospel with the expression “in the beginning,” John was wanting to return to the opening words of the Bible in Genesis. There is nothing we can say about anything that took place before “the beginning” because the Bible says nothing about it and it is beyond us. This is the absolute mystery of God

The opening of the gospel presents Christ in his divinity with a certain solemnity:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . It was in the beginning with God.”

The purpose here is not to call us to delve into the mystery but to celebrate it in adoration. To John, Christ’s divinity was not a preliminary hypothesis which had to be demonstrated and proven; no, it was an affirmation which there was no point investigating because it was a conviction that lay at the heart of his faith. His gospel simply lays out the nature of this conviction as a celebration of mystery and faith. Moreover, this is just what he says to his readers at the close of the episode with Thomas in a statement we are to receive as the conclusion of the gospel as a whole:

“These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that in believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). This is a matter of faith and this faith is to be celebrated. (p. 41-43)

You can order On the Banks of the Jordan here.

Finding Security with the Good Shepherd in Turbulent Times

I have often led Bible studies on Jesus as the Good Shepherd, who lays his life down for his sheep.  In these increasingly insecure times I’m noticing that people are more in touch with their need for protection. Mass shootings in Texas, ICE raids in Mississippi, hurricanes in the Caribbean…

“Jesus describes himself as the door of the sheep pen (John 10:7), and all who came before him as thieves and robbers,” I summarize in a recent Bible study.

“Who or what are some of these thieves and robbers today?” I ask.

People mention politicians, drug dealers, addictions, prosecutors, judges, temptations, law-enforcement and other forces they experience as predatory.

Jesus says something that either shows he’s naïve, talking about something else, or believes that the sheep can in fact discern. He says “but the sheep didn’t listen to them.”

Yet we see that people do listen and fall prey!

But the inmates on Sunday afternoon and our Tierra Nueva faith community members later that same day feel seen by Jesus when they hear this. Many of them are really tired of their lives. They know and readily admit that people and forces they’ve listened to must be resisted if they’re to experience newness of life. They recognize their need to pay attention to someone who really is out for their best interests. But do we? If so, who might this be?

As we read what Jesus says about himself in John 10:9-11 I can see that these words alone seem to sooth the people’s tired spirits.

“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, s/he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

People are moved that those who enter into safety through Jesus are free to come and go out. Jesus is not about control.

We also talk about how hired hands will flee when they see the wolf coming. They don’t care about the sheep. But who are these hired hands?

I think of myself in my inability and sometimes unwillingness to respond to all the needs I see around me and in the larger world. Are “hired hands” anyone other than Jesus himself? I wonder. I know that I do not want to be considered a hired hand!

It does seem true that when we put our trust in people they will eventually disappoint us. Yet Jesus is recruiting others to join him in his shepherding ministry, embodying his compassion, love and care to a needy world.

I think about the growing numbers of people here in the Skagit Valley who are being ravaged by addictions to meth and heroin. When someone is ready for treatment it is rare to find room in the local detox facility or an available bed in a drug and alcohol treatment center. It is easy for the public to shrug and blame the addict—ignoring these sheep. In the face of increasing overdose deaths, who will pursue the addicted, announcing and showing God’s kindness, healing and protection?

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Mississippi chicken processing plants have created a lot of anxiety amongst immigrants across the country. People without papers imagine being arrested, deported, leaving their US citizen children stranded.

In our community the grueling work in meat-packing, fish-processing and poultry-processing plants is largely done by immigrant workers. They’re some of the only people willing to put in the long hours and hard work for low pay. Yet they are being scapegoated, blamed for taking jobs at a time when unemployment is at an all-time low. As ICE steps up workplace enforcement raids, who will offer relief and protection?

Jesus critiques shepherds that are mere hired hands- unwilling to follow his lead in laying down his life for his sheep.

But who are Jesus’ sheep, and what might this salvation he describes look like?

Jesus says of his sheep: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.”

This appears to mean that no one else can judge who belongs to Jesus. The relationship is sacred and personal. Jesus goes on to add:

“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

My take on this is that followers of Jesus, whomever they are, are representatives of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Everything we do must be in alignment with his protective, abundant life-giving, life-laying-down action (and not with predatory powers!). Making visible the love of Christ will “bring them also” (these “other sheep”- whomever they are). And Jesus is confident that “they will listen” to his voice.

I get a sudden inspiration as I am preaching at Tierra Nueva to place chairs in a semi circle against the front wall of our sanctuary. I leave an opening in the circle and tell how shepherds in ancient Palestine would sometimes sleep at the door to protect their sheep at night.

“So Jesus describes himself as the door,” I summarize, and Jesus says, “if anyone enters by me they will be saved.” He even says that he lays down his life for his sheep.  Let’s read John 10:28-29 to see what else he offers.

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

“Maybe some of us are not sure we know Jesus or that he knows us. Or we are feeling a special need for his protection and salvation,” I say.

I invite people who want to affirm their desire to know and be known by Jesus to come up through the entry into the circle of chairs representing the sheep pen. I invite anyone who wants to know God’s salvation and protection more fully, to come forward.

People stream into the circle—and we open up an exit space at the back. But most want to take a seat. I call for help from our other Tierra Nueva pastors and faith community veterans and we pray for everyone while our worship team plays a final song before communion.

We tasted the abundant life that Sunday and I feel compelled to keep announcing it. May we work to more fully embody the shepherding ministry of Jesus in these turbulent times—not shying away from complex issues like immigration, mass-incarceration and addiction.

To hear this sermon “Finding Security in Jesus, the Good Shepherd,” click here.

Bringing the Best to the Least

It has been a while since Gracie and I have sent you an update about our lives and ministry. We are doing well, enjoying the weekly rhythms of life here at home: Tuesday morning Tierra Nueva staff prayer, Bible studies in the jail and prison, Sunday evening worship, prayer appointments and advocacy. We feel very blessed- amazed that we have been able to continue forward in the face of big challenges.

This past year 2018-19 (we organize ourselves according to the academic year) we completed six Certificates in Transformational Ministry at the Margins. This has meant offering three separate, four-day trainings in these six locations: Glasgow, Bristol, Paris, Rabat (Morocco), Vancouver, and Wellington (New Zealand). Some 210 front-line pastors and ministry workers have completed our training in these six places—as well as many students I teach at Westminster Theological Centre.

We are deeply grateful to God that we were able to accomplish this during this past year. There has been a continuous threat that I’d have to start chemotherapy since being diagnosed with follicular lymphoma last July. After the first four months of treatment with a clinical trial drug the tumor had actually grown by 18%. Since December, though the tumor has shrunk by 65.5% and I’ve been feeling great!

So Gracie and I are moving forward with our calling—which will continue to keep us here at home 2/3 of the time—and on the road offering our trainings 1/3 of the year.

We describe our calling as “bringing the best to “the least”— referring to “the least of these my brothers/sisters” that Jesus calls people to attend to in Matthew 25:45. Through our trainings we seek to make Jesus Christ and his infinite wisdom know in the places of greatest need and darkness. The places where we teach are diverse and the participants vary greatly, even within the same groups. Some are illiterate and others have graduate school diplomas—though most are somewhere in between. But one thing they share in common is a strong commitment to serve the most broken and needy people.

Our CTMM trainings are designed to equip ministry workers in Word, Spirit and Street perspectives (see video description of this here). There are many places where liberating Bible study, empowerment and gifts of the Holy Spirit and advocacy/justice are separated— but we are committed to bringing these critical dimensions of faith together.

We are deeply impacted by descriptions of Jesus going out by the seashore, with all the people coming to him, and he was teaching them (Mark 2:13). Bringing Jesus’ teaching to the margins requires deliberate effort of going outside the church- to the seashores of our time: workplaces, recovery houses, streets, homeless shelters, prisons. We love Jesus’ response to scribes and Pharisees who criticize him for receiving and eating with tax collectors and sinners: “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

We seek to do this through our work here with Tierra Nueva in Burlington—where we develop everything we bring out to the world. Through The People’s Seminary we bring this out to the larger world in specific ways.

We are nearly finished preparing a series of four volumes of Bible studies which we plan to start publishing in September under the titles Guerrilla Bible Studies. The first volume includes twelve Bible studies designed for use with people who have no exposure to Christian faith. The following twelve are for new Christians, followed by two volumes that take people further along in their journey of faith.

We have new CTMMs planned for 2019-2020 in Stockholm (Sweden), Lausanne (Switzerland), and Mumias and Malindi (Kenya)- with requests that are in process for Siberia, Casa Blanca (Morocco), Cape Town, and Hamilton, Ontario. Our highest priority now is equipping other trainers so courses can be offered without us. This is already happening in Kenya, where my brother Andy is currently offering two CTMMs with African teachers we have trained.

We value your prayers at this time—for continued shrinkage of the tumor and complete healing from lymphoma before my next July 31 CT scan. Please pray also for success in completing Guerrilla Bible Studies, translation of CTMM manuals in Russian and clear discernment about how to train and mobilize more trainers.

If you feel called to contribute financially, here are the options.

1)   Online E-giving through: https://secure.egsnetwork.com/donate/5C7582D0-5705-4EF9-ABB5-F1DB00D9447B

2)   Sending checks earmarked “Ekblad Support” to Tierra Nueva, PO Box 410, Burlington, WA 98233

3)   Donating via PayPal through:  http://give.fivetwo.org/give.tierra-nueva.org/

Thank you for your support and prayers! Please let us know how we might pray for you as well. We would love to hear from you!

Bob and Gracie Ekblad

Founders and Senior Leaders

Airplane Appointment

On May 24 Gracie and I were making our way from the airport terminal gate down the jetway and onto the plane in Seattle, heading first to San Francisco and then on to New Zealand. We had all our stuff carefully packed into our fairly minimalist carry-on suitcases and backpacks. Gracie is a master packer, fitting an amazing assortment of remedies and the perfect apparel for New Zealand winter, in carry-ons.

A young woman in high heals was navigating the sloping entrance ramp down to the plane, guiding her carry-on with one hand, and precariously holding a big plastic bag bursting with whatever didn’t fit into her case in the other. Suddenly she tipped the bag and a shampoo bottle, lip stick and other toiletries tumbled out. Bottles rolled down the ramp towards the door of the plane, and she scrambled awkwardly in her heals to pick up the items. I tried to help, and once she’d managed to get everything back in her bag Gracie told her she could probably use a backpack.

“Yeah for sure,” she said, laughing.

“So where are you heading?” I asked as we boarded the plane.

“Vegas,” she said with a party voice.

“Wow,” I said. “What are you going to do there?” I asked.

“Party!” she said.

“Where are you going?” she asked me.

“New Zealand,” I said.

“Wow, New Zealand! So cool!” she said. “What are you going to do there?”

Now I had to figure out something simple to say that would hopefully make sense to her. The plane was crowded and we were nearing our seats.

“We’re going to offer some training to people who serve people in society who experience rejection and hardships of different kinds. We provide special support to those who reach out to people who often don’t feel welcomed in churches, like prisoners, the homeless, undocumented immigrants, people struggling with addictions, and marginalized youth,” I explained.

“Wow, that is so interesting!” she replied.

“How did you get invited there?” she asked.

In the moment I couldn’t remember how it first happened, and then I did.

“I think it happened because someone who works as a chaplain in the New Zealand prison system read my book Reading the Bible with the Damned,” I explained.

“Reading the Bible with the Damned?!” she exclaimed, eyebrows raised.  You wrote a book? That sounds so interesting!”

“Well, we love to minister to people who are suffering in different ways, and help strengthen front-line workers serving people on the margins,” I said.

We found our seats, and the woman was in the row in front of Gracie, who had an aisle seat across from mine. After placing our things in the overhead bins the woman turned around and told us over the seat about how she had been suffering terribly the past year as her uncle had come into her family’s Vietnamese Restaurant, shooting and killing her two brothers and shooting her father in the legs. He had then killed himself while on the way to look for her, as the police were pursuing him.

It was time to buckle our seat belts for take off. We told her that if she had time in San Francisco before her next flight we would gladly pray for her. She said she’d really like that. We agreed to meet once we got off the plane.

Our plane took off and Gracie and I looked at each other in amazement. As we disembarked in San Francisco we lost track of the woman. We didn’t see her anywhere there at the gate, and assumed she’d gotten spooked, or for whatever reason, decided to skip the prayer. Then Gracie spotted her standing and waiting further down the terminal.

We approached her and asked her if she still wanted prayer.

“Yes I really do!” she said. “But I only have about 30 minutes before I need to get to my next flight.”

We found a quiet spot where there were a few chairs by one of the gates. She poured out her heart to us about her family tragedy. Her only siblings who she’d been very close to were dead, her father and mother were deeply traumatized, and had had to relocate and go into hiding in fear of her uncle’s family. She had loved her uncle, who had tutored her throughout her schooling. He’d turned against her family and then taken his own life.

She told us about her spiritual quest—which included plans to travel to Costa Rica for a New Age retreat involving taking Ayahuasca—a psychedelic drug used by indigenous Amazonian tribes. She hoped to start a holistic healing center in Hawaii.

But what she had done so far had not brought her the relief she was looking for. She sobbed and we ministered to her, praying for the Holy Spirit’s comfort.

She had rejected Christianity due to negative experiences in her brief involvement in a legalistic church. We told her about Jesus’ unconditional love for her and her family, and of his defeat of death. She shared about her battle with fear and deep sadness, and we told her how receiving God’s love through Jesus could strengthen her to drive out all fear.

She welcomed our words and we led her in prayers to receive God’s love and take a stand against fear. We prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill her. She said she felt a big weight lift off and a peace come over her.   

We encouraged her to keep seeking the truth, and not settle for anything less than what would really bring true comfort and freedom from fear and despair. We told her about Jesus’ words: “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened.” We affirmed her openness and desire to be involved in holistic healing. We encouraged her to recognize that she needs a strong remedy for the darkness that assails her and her family, and encouraged her to learn more about Jesus through reading the Gospels, and to consider asking Jesus for ongoing help. She received our words with an open heart that deeply moved us.

We exchanged emails and she hugged us before parting ways- she to Las Vegas and we to Auckland and on to Wellington.

This first encounter set the tone for our entire time in New Zealand, which was full of rich times of prayer for healing for people’s heart wounds and for freedom.  We continue to pray for this woman and hope to stay in contact. We feel inspired to stay alert to any other assignments that may come our way as we travel through life. There’s nothing more exciting than participating in Jesus’ ministry.

 

Check out my Pentecost Sunday sermon: “Receiving Comfort from the Holy Spirit.”

Who will set me free?

Last Thursday night my Tierra Nueva colleague Kevin and I went into Skagit County Jail to lead a series of Bible studies. A group of four or five men from the first tier of cells called “upper Q pod” gather with us around a metal table bolted to the floor, while others watch TV, take showers or work out.

I pass out a sheet with Romans 7:14-8:3 all printed out, and after Kevin opens in prayer I invite someone to read the first verse.  One of the men reads it aloud, and I am immediately struck by both its strangeness and relevance.

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.”

“Do we know these things?” I ask.

The men around the table acknowledge that they do in fact feel like they are in bondage. They mention addictions, old habitual ways of being, endless legal troubles and relationship impasses. Nobody sees the law as spiritual, except one man who says he sees the law as a power that crushes him. 

I explain that “the law” here Paul’s referring to is not the laws of the land, but rather God’s instructions written in Scripture that guide us, helping us choose life. God’s spiritual laws include “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself,” and Jesus’ call to forgive, or to love your enemies.

“Have any of you found it difficult to follow your conscience, or to practice what you think to be the best path forward, or the will of God?” I ask.  “Let’s see what the next verse says,” I suggest.

“For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate,” someone reads.

People resonate visibly with these words, talking freely about how stuck they feel, like failures when it comes to following their consciences and doing what they know to be right. As we continue to read on people seem amazed by how Paul’s words hit home, describing so accurately their experience.

“I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:22-25).

A young man beside me is particularly moved. I ask him if he himself ever feels like the wretched man that Paul describes himself to be—in need of a liberator. 

“Most definitely,” he responds, and others nod their agreement.

“Have you ever asked Jesus to help you, to set you free?” I ask.

“No, me and Jesus don’t have anything going,” he says.

“Oh really, is there any reason in particular for that?” I ask.

“I didn’t grow up in a religious home,” he says. 

“I didn’t grow up knowing anything about Jesus. This is about as far as I’ve ever gone into any of this,” he says.

I ask God for some kind of response that might get his attention, and the number 29 comes into my head.

“Are you 29 by any chance?” I ask.

“Yes, how did you know?” he asks, surprised.

“I don’t know, but I do know that when you’ve gone through your twenties, and you’ve tried living life your own way, after a lot of difficulties, failures and falls you can feel tired and at a loss for how to live your life differently” I say.

He looks stunned, and acknowledges that I’d described his twenties pretty accurately. 

“So if Jesus is described here as setting people free from being stuck in their old ways, why not give him a try and ask him to help you,” I suggest.

“Wow man, I’ve gone further with you into all this than with anyone,” the 29-year-old guy tells me. 

I ask if any of the other men had experienced Jesus setting them free in any way—and a Hispanic man across the table from me tells an amazing story of nearly drowning in the Skagit river when he was high on meth.

“I was under the water, being pulled down by a current and I came to the point of total surrender, giving my life over to God,” he recounts. “Then my leg bumped up against a log and I found the current pushing me right up and out.”

The story impresses everyone, and the men want to pray. The young man beside me wants to ask Jesus to set him free, and does.  We experience a sacred moment I find myself longing for more and more these days. 

A correctional officer calls everyone to return to their rooms, and as Kevin and I leave he suggests we can split up so one of us to cover the lower tier of Q pod, while another of us visits the men in the solitary confinement unit “M.”  I agree to stay and meet with lower Q.  

Fifteen men gather around two of the metal tables, and we read through the Romans 7 passage again. The men share openly, confessing the truth of their bondage, their inability to change, their need for a savior to free them. They resonate with the sin that resides inside them being stronger than their capacity to live as they know in their hearts they want to live. They feel the struggle and say they want Jesus’ help. 

We pray together, asking Jesus to set us free, and God’s presence has made a way once again. I leave feeling like I’m made for this, and tonight I get to go into the jail again.

Check out Gracie’s sermon this past Sunday on Romans 7 here.

Order Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit here.

Experiencing Native Generosity

These past few days I have experienced surprising generosity and gratitude from the indigenous people of our land. After planting my garden beside the river below our house I drove the car I’d used to haul compost downriver along the dike, making the loop through our neighbor’s property and back to our house.

I noticed lots of trucks parked beside the Skagit River where the Swinomish tribe launch their fishing boats during their salmon fishing seasons. I decided to stop and see if I could make contact with one of the fishermen—something I’ve done many times over the years.

As I approached a man who was busily arranging his nets, he appeared to not see me, and headed off to his car. As a white guy, I’ve experienced a mixed reception when I’ve come around the launch: indifference, resentment– and also cautious friendliness. Friendliness to white people has cost natives their land, their culture, their very lives—so I tried to approach with sensitivity to the many reasons they’d have to distrust me. I occasionally run into someone there whom I’ve met in my jail Bible studies who recognizes me and greets me warmly. Other times people are in their cars getting high and don’t want to be bothered.

I approached an older man who was arranging things in his fishing boat.

“That’s a nice boat,” I say.

“Yeah, it’s a Boston Whaler, it does the job,” he states, matter-of-factly.

“How’s the fishing? Are you fishing for Kings?” I ask.

“Yeah, we’re after Chinooks, the fishing’s ok, we’re getting a few,” he said.

Just then the other man I’d thought was ignoring me approached.

“Hey, would you like a steelhead?”

“Sure,” I said, “really?”

He motioned me over to his truck and opened a big blue plastic cooler.

“It got caught in the nets yesterday,” he said. “If you want it, I’ll give it to you.”

The man I’d been talking to in the boat yelled over to him. “Are you selling it to him?”

“No, I’m giving it to him,” he said, as he carried the shiny steelhead by its gills, walking beside me to my car.

“May God bless your fishing!” I said, thanking him for his gift. “I hope we’ll have good luck,” he said.

Yesterday, we were invited to the Swinomish blessing of the salmon fleet by Sarah, a Native American woman who attends our Tierra Nueva church and lives on the reservation ten minutes from our house.

The event, which packed out the Swinomish youth gymnasium, began with a warm welcome, followed by a drumming ceremony and then a lavish meal of seafood: smoked Chinook salmon, shrimp, crab, mussels and clams. A man approached whom I’d met in the jail, who attended our church a few years back while he was going through drug court. He came to thank me for the support we’d given him, and to tell me he’d now been clean five years.

After the meal we joined the procession to the Swinomish channel, where the ceremony was explained by the tribal chairman. Guests were honored and prayers and blessings were offered by the Catholic priest, the Assembly of God missionary and the Shaker leaders. Salmon carcasses, clam and mussel shells atop cedar boughs were held ceremonially by young people, who offered them back to the river in thankfulness to the Creator.

Gracie and I left deeply moved by the hospitality of our Native American neighbors, who hosted us, grandchildren and great grandchildren of immigrants that we are—sharing the bounty they’d harvested from this land.

To listen to last Sunday’s sermon on venturing onto Isaiah 35’s Highway of Holiness, “Step by step with Jesus,” click here.

To support our ministry with Tierra Nueva, click here.

“You enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped” Ps 18:36

Last week I joined three other men on a harrowing 40-mile high-Cascade ski mountaineering expedition called the Ptarmigan Traverse. I had wanted to hike this route my entire adult life. When an experienced mountaineer pastor friend of mine invited me to join him in skiing it, despite my lymphoma treatments, I jumped at the opportunity and began seriously training.

For six days beginning May 1 we traversed steep mountain slopes, climbed up and skied down high-mountain passes, and ascended glaciers. On the second and third full days we experienced unexpected whiteout conditions, requiring us to navigate almost exclusively by GPS.

Our final descent to camp atop the frozen Kool Aid Lakes at the end of day two was in the dark. I wondered how I could experience God then and there illuminating my every turn through avalanche debris-strewn slopes as Psalm 119:105 states: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

I prayed continuously as we descended and traversed, experiencing something closer to Isaiah 50:10:

“Who is among you that fears the Lord, that hears the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.”

We were glad to make it to Kool Aid Lakes by headlamp, without falling.

On the next day the whiteout conditions continued as we ascended alongside the massive glacier on Mount Formidable. With a 60 pound pack slipping or sliding backwards felt like a major setback, and cliffs below us were not comforting. I sought to experience Psalm 17:4, “My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped,” and experienced a kind of insecure security as we broke out above the clouds to find ourselves in a gorgeous paradise at the Spider-Formidable Col, where we made camp at 7320 feet.

The following morning we awoke to clear skies. What a relief that we were going to be able to see where we were going on treacherous terrain! We made it without incident to White Rock Lakes. However on the fourth night the wind picked up, knocking down our snow wall and thrashing our tent, and the clouds engulfed us once again. It was then that I found myself feeling an old but familiar sense of impending doom.

What was I doing on this mountain, risking my life at a time when Gracie and I are feeling like we’re in the prime of our ministry lives? I remembered how I’d surrendered my life to Jesus during a snowstorm half way up El Capitan in Yosemite in 1976, when I thought all was lost.

I recalled how clearly I felt called to give up serious mountain climbing while on the edge of Mount Blanc in France in 1978, after some 150 climbers had lost their lives in the Alps that summer. I was experiencing a higher calling, which really then did take off shortly after my final serious alpine ascents there in Chamonix at the peak of my climbing career.

Now the weather was closing in around us and I found myself repenting. “Jesus, forgive me for going back to taking unnecessary risks in the mountains, which I’d left behind to follow you. Have mercy on us! Save us! We don’t want to be navigating by GPS through potentially even more dangerous terrain tomorrow!”

On the fifth day we awoke to sunny skies and began another challenging day traversing, one person at a time, below corniced mountain ridges across avalanche-prone slopes.

That entire day as we skied across, up and over the final massive mountain pass near Dome Peak and down to another frozen lake (Cub Lake), I sought to tune into God’s words to me, as Isaiah 30:21 and Psalm 32:9 declare:

“Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”

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

As I followed the track up the mountain and skied down over the passes and through trees (and over trees) towards the trailhead at the end of Downy Creek, I experienced a mixture of exhaustion and delight as kind Psalm 17:5 was being realized: “My steps have held fast to your paths. My feet have not slipped.”

I return home with a new sense of the value of life and renewed appreciation for those I love and this adventure that continues. Tuesday night at Tierra Nueva I worshipped with our faith community, experiencing Psalm 26:12.

“My foot stands on a level place; In the congregations I shall bless the Lord.”

I continue to be aware of my need to be lead by the Spirit as we navigate our path forward every day in these complex times. May God richly bless and guide you too!

 

For more reflections on reading the Bible in rapport with everyday life, see Bob Ekblad, Guerrilla Gospel: Reading the Bible for Liberation in the Power of the Spirit.

To support Bob & Gracie in their ministry with Tierra Nueva and The People’s Seminary click here.

 

 

Believing in the Resurrected Jesus

This past Sunday we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection at Skagit County Jail and then at Tierra Nueva, followed by a community meal. Check out this podcast of Bob Ekblad’s sermon on John 20:1-18 “Believing in the Resurrected Jesus.” In this story we see how some of Jesus’ disciples came to believe he was alive in the midst of loss and grief, and how this can help us find faith now.

You can support our ministry here.