Snowed Out Today

On account of the terrible driving conditions, we will not be meeting today (December 21, 2008).

As of now, plans are still on for the Tuesday night meeting with Lighthouse Village (see previous post).

Kenya trip

Friends,

This Thursday afternoon I leave for eleven days to Kenya. I am going with a good friend, Jason Anderson, who started an orphanage outside of Nairobi about three years ago. If you want to look it up, check out http://www.kenyamatters.org

We’ll be doing some pastoral stuff and worship leadership as well as spending lots of time with the orphans at the orphanage as well as orphans they help support who live in host homes. Our primary purpose is do to some administration and leadership stuff connected with the orphanage.

In addition, I found out yesterday that I have a case of the shingles. SO – I am asking for prayer for my family, for safety in travel, for health, and that our time is of much value to someone. I’ve included our itinerary below.

Grace & Peace,
randy

water's edge
616-822-0422 (cell)
616-669-5081 (hm)
watersedge.tv
water's edge blog


Itinerary for Pastor Jason Anderson and Pastor Randy Buist 13th to 20th Dec. 2008.
13th Dec. Arrive Nairobi and Karai
!4th Dec. Sunday Service at AIC Karai ---Prepare to Speak. Lunch with orphans in the safe house.
15th Dec. Morning: Planning meeting at a place in Naivasha Town, Home visits in the afternoon.
16th Dec. Morning: Planning meeting and home visits in the afternoon.
17th Dec. Morning: Visit a street boys’ home in Naivasha, and home visits in the afternoon.
18th Dec. Nakuru Game Park
19th Dec. Morning: Meet the Board and have Lunch with the Board members, staff and orphans in the safe house, prepare for the Christmas party.
20th Dec. Christmas party and Departure.
Note. 7 to 8 pm Daily: Time for fellowship with the orphans in the safe house
The condition of the road to Nakuru is excellent, and we are counting on having a trip to the Park on 18th Dec.

advent info update

Sunday, Dec. 14 ‘celebrate one another’
* 5 p.m. @ the House on the Hill – Plainfield & Leonard area
Address: 1331 Carman Ave., Grand Rapids
* Party with Lighthouse Village & River Valley.
* Food provided.

Sunday, Dec. 21 – ‘love’
(ATTN: This meeting is cancelled due to unsafe driving conditions.)


Tuesday night, Dec. 23 – ‘The Christ Child’
* 6:30 p.m. @ Lighthouse Village’s new place.
* 1343 Buffalo GR 49505 -- This is the back building belonging to Creston CRC. They meet in the basement of this building.
* Food will be Christmas munchies. Coffee will be provided, but other drinks are also welcome. They also share wine after their gatherings. So, if you have a good bottle that you want to share, take it as part of your offering.
(no boxed wine please)
* Tonight we will be gathering with Lighthouse Village, River Valley, and Water’s Edge
* Lighthouse will lead the music.
* Interactive time with adults & kids

Advent @ the water's edge

Sunday, Nov. 30 – this week – ‘hope’
5 p.m. @ the Buist home – 3275 Bauer Road, Jenison, MI 49428 ph. *(616) 669-5081

* food as usual
* bring a story of hope
* Christy Statema, a friend of water’s edge, will be joining us to share her story of hope.
She’s heading off to Portugal in January to do missional work,
She has some real hopes for the next two years of her life. She’ll be sharing a bit of her story.

Sunday, Dec. 7 – ‘peace’
6 p.m. @ the Wilson home - 1428 Bates St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506 *ph. (616) 243-4844

* food as usual (after worship)
* We’ll be participating in some ‘station’ kind of stuff/alt. worship
* Kurt & Lori and their family joined water’s edge a handful of times back in about 2003. Over the past year,
some of us have reconnected with them.
* River Valley will also be joining us for an informal time of worship & celebration.

Sunday, Dec. 14 ‘celebrate one another’
* 6 p.m. @ the House on the Hill – Plainfield & Leonard area

* Party with Lighthouse Village & River Valley.
* Food provided – RSVP’’s will be requested.
* more details to come.

Sunday, Dec. 21 – ‘love’
* 4:30 p.m. @ the water’s edge space

* Food as usual.
* Jon Myers on guitar!
* Bring stories of ‘love’ to share.

Tuesday night, Dec. 23 – ‘The Christ Child’
* Time still being decided @ Lighthouse Village’s new place on Plainfield near Leonard

* Tonight we will be gathering with Lighthouse Village, River Valley, and Water’s Edge
* Lighthouse will lead the music.
* Interactive time with adults & kids

Creation care picnic pics...

Here are some pictures from a great day at the park!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16353155@N00/

Creation Care Picnic

THIS Sunday, Sept. 28, we have our Creation Care Picnic.

It will be from 1 till 3 p.m. at Townsend Park.

A map can be found here: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Townsend+Park+Cannonsburg&fb=1&dtab=7&cid=10363693373460445879&li=lmd&z=14&t=m

Info on the park here: http://www.accesskent.com/CultureLeisureAndTransit/Parks/townsend.html

As for ideas: Basically, if you decide to do a display, you will have a picnic table or half of a table, to display your thoughts/activities. This is our first attempt at this thing; so there are is no precedence as to what is expected.

I do know several things that will be displayed include: Organic Gardening, a compost barrel, recycling… plus your ideas. Everything and anything is fair game.

If you have no time or idea what to do, show up anyway. It’s supposed to be a nice day, and I am told this park is amazing.

As usual when friends get together, you are encouraged to take some sort of food stuff to share for lunch together… likely around 1 p.m. for lunch.

politics and the 'other'

I fear that too often we solidify our political choices based on one or two or seven values.

One of those values within my circle of friends is the right to life. Most of my friends are not only 'anti-abortion.' They are also pro-life. By this I mean, they are against wars and also in favor of feeding and clothing and caring for 'the least of these' as the biblical text demands of Jesus followers.

Yet, I often find people who are Jesus followers, but they are one issue people. In other words, they vote strictly on the issue of abortion. While I am also pro-life, the issue is more complex than we often want to believe.

A friend recently sent this e-mail: "I agree that the anti-abortion issue can be a show stopper for some people. I try to bring some balance to it by discussing the facts about pharmaceutical contraceptives. Many people don't realize that these drugs do not always prevent ovulation and conception (unless taken at very high doses), but often simply prevent successful implantation. For those who believe "life begins at conception", this means that typical use of birth control pills may lead to the abortion of fertilized eggs.

This creates a moral dilemma for people who think reproductive rights issues are black and white. Yes, there are some who think contraceptives of this type should be illegal, just as they hope to make abortion illegal. But most moderate minded people are forced to rethink their position somewhat in light of new information.

It doesn't change people's minds immediately (that's not the point). But it helps to subdue the "I'm totally right, you're totally wrong" thinking that many have when it comes to abortion. And it helps those with more progressive views to feel safer expressing themselves on the issue."

This kind of dialogue is not meant to show who is right or wrong; it simply allows for an honest dialogue that should help us move forward rather than throw stones. Throwing stones doesn't seem to be the way that Jesus calls us to live regardless of the issue.

Sunday June 22 Gathering

W.E. is cooking food for the La Grave Serve project on Sunday, 6-22. This is in place of our usual meeting time. Please plan to be at Richmond Park about 4pm.

Richmond Park is at 1639 Tamarack (corner of Richmond/Tamarack, between Alpine and Walker, north of Leonard), in Grand Rapids.

More to come...

This space has been a bit less than lively lately.

So, what do we do with social justice issues like this?

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/10/guantanamo_mental/index.html

Good Friday

Don't rush to Sunday. Don't minimize suffering by hurrying off to happy endings.

Spend some time today reflecting on the reality of pain in your life, in the lives of people around you, and in the life of the world. It's not all yours to bear, of course, but it is very real and we must acknowledge it.

Jesus did not run away from it or deny it, but became someone in pain—pain from violence, pain in abandonment, pain from injustice. Through it all Jesus cursed neither God nor man. Are we following Jesus there?

Palm & Fig Tree Sunday

If we only get the "triumphal entry" on Palm Sunday, we only get half the story.

If we only get half the story, do we really get the story?

The story, well known in Jesus' day, was that the messiah, the Anointed One, would come to Jerusalem victoriously entering the city and go up to cleanse (or rebuild) the Temple. Israel's enemies would have been conquered and the Temple would again become the meeting place between YHWH and the people.

The story we often hear today is how the same people who celebrated Jesus on Sunday, crying "Hosanna!" turned on him and were shouting "Crucify Him!" on Friday.

It then somehow becomes a moralism about fair-weather religion.

But it's about Jesus and what he was doing, how he was doing it, and what he was trying to say.

Among other things, I think Jesus was turning people's expectations on their heads. Perhaps because their expectations were upside down to start, was Jesus hoping they'd get turned right side up?

He comes, as a messiah was expected, to Jerusalem riding on a young donkey. This is a politically symbolic act. He is claiming to be the deliverer of Israel. My guess is that when he tells the disciples to get the colt, they were thinking, "Is he doing what I think he's doing?" They knew what it meant.

So he rides in and heads up to the Temple. It's the next logical move in the story. But then, he just looks around at the Temple courts and goes back to Bethany. The story isn't supposed to go like that. What is he doing?

The next day, Jesus heads back into Jerusalem, up to the Temple and then proceeds to interrupt the activities of the Temple by overturning the tables of moneychangers and driving out the people who were buying and selling. "This is it," his disciples must have thought, "he's cleansing the Temple." A prime time to call people to open revolt and defeat Israel's enemies, right?

Right at that moment, when he's apparently taken control of the Temple courts (or at least some part of them), Mark says that he "taught them" saying ""Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.' " And then he leaves again.

What was he doing?

He was calling Israel to stop hating its neighbors and start being the light of the world.
Hear in this story:
-Isaiah's passage about the coming of the king on a colt that ends with YHWH being ruler over the whole earth, not just over Israel. The whole world would be the promised land.
-Isaiah's passage about the Temple being a place where everyone, foreigners, eunuchs, exiles–everyone–could come to "love the name of the LORD"—a house of prayer for all nations.
-Jeremiah's passage about Israel claiming special status as the keepers of the Temple, while they inflicted injustice on the poor and the foreigner, committing murder, perjury and adultery.

Jesus wasn't telling people that selling things in church buildings was evil. He was saying that the Temple was encouraging people to hate their enemies. The teaching from the Temple was fueling the violent insurgency against the Romans, the ethnic hatred against the Samaritans, and instilling a very unholy arrogance and claim of privilege.

Jesus' actions were an invitation and warning to the Temple system. "Be the light of the world, the touchpoint between heaven and earth, the house of prayer for all nations, or you will come under the very wrath of God with which you threaten your enemies."

To emphasize the point, Mark sandwiches the Temple incident with a strange encounter with a fig tree (a symbol of Israel, and of the Temple). The way of being Israel that they had chosen was a way that was not bearing the fruit it was expected to bear.

I hear in the Palm Sunday stories both invitation and warning. Jesus is calling his people to follow his 'way': to love (not hate or kill or abuse) one's neighbors and even one's enemies, to open up (not close off) paths for everyone to "love the name of the LORD", to welcome (not keep out) the foreigner, and to care for (not ignore or take advantage of) the most vulnerable.

If we do not follow the invitation, we risk coming under the judgment.

May we be found to be bearing much fruit.

An alternate story

We come together to remind each other of an alternate story. We are bombarded each day with the narrative of the dominant culture around us. "Buy. Win. Be happy. Conquer. Dominate. Be safe."

But we're learning, I hope, that shopping and winning can't make us happy. Conquering can't make us safe.

So we're after something more: justice for everyone, a place at the table for everyone, enduring suffering with hope, and bearing witness in word and action to the good news of the reign of God.

Did you hear that Grand Rapids is near or at the bottom of the barrel in literacy in the nation? Adults, too...not just kids.

empire. allegiance. witness. worship.

We've started into our engagement with the book of Revelation.

If you would like to read through what I wrote on it, you can do that here:

time for a few words here...

This place has been pretty much empty as i've had a hard time publishing to it recently; perhaps we can get it working again...