Worldly Holiness

In-N-Out Burger, originally uploaded by papalars.

I’m in Pasadena, California this week where I am participating in a very important event starting tonight with Muslim and Christian leaders from around the world. About 2 years ago a group of 138 global Muslim scholars, clerics and intellectuals wrote a letter to Christians inviting them/us into dialogue over our “common word” of faith. It was based on the dual command to love God and our neighbor as common ground for dialogue and understanding between Christianity and Islam. This overture was an amazing and historic initiative that is causing reverberations across the world. Nothing like it has ever happened in our tumultuous history. When the letter was sent, a group of scholars at Yale Divinity School lead by Miroslav Volf and Joseph Cumming wrote a response entitled, “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word between Us and You.”

I was one of over 300 Christians who signed the letter, seeing it as an important step in building bridges and engaging each other in important conversations at both the local level and between important bodies of leaders representing each faith tradition. It seems this is coming full circle for me, both this week and now with relationships I am building locally in Seattle. I’m sure I will have more to share after this exciting week but for now I invite you to pray for what God is doing through the Mosaics Project and for ways to engage my new friends in these special days in sunny California with the Gospel! I’m excited for what God has in store!

I’ve been eating a few burgers this week too and just thought I’d share a photo with you all from one of my favorite quintessential burger establishments in the region. If you want to know more about what is going on in this dialogue event and some of the developments in my on-going work, drop me a line at prayformosaics@yahoo.com. I will have a brief report sometime next week after this event.

Jogging on Lake Shore trail, originally uploaded by papalars.

What a full and fun week in Chicago I just completed. Last weekend I was a guest at Libertyville which was fun and a little wild too. I rolled in late on Saturday night just as the rain storm was changing to snow. By the time I hit the door at Chuy and Judy Garcia’s it was a full blown storm. Chuy and Judy, by the way are good friends from our days in Mexico. Chuy was involved in our 2 church plants, was a neighbor, good friend, and someone I spent several years discipling. We drank a lot of coffee together at VIPS restaurant. That all seems so long ago.

Anyway, by Sunday morning last week there was 4-6 inches of fresh yet heavy snow on the ground. When I got to Libertyville church the electricity was out. They set up for an impromptu worship and Sunday School hour in which I taught and preached, followed by a normal service back in the sanctuary with full blown lights back on.

After a Sunday blitz at Libertyville I headed down into the city for meetings and some other activities, some with my daughter who is at North Park and then finishing off the week with my son, Kjel who was through town on his way to Europe to spend some time with my other son, Erick who is studying French in France…..good place to be studying French, right.

Yesterday, I had a wonderful visit with Scot McKnight who teaches at North Park. This is the famous Scot McKnight of Jesus Creed. He was generous with his time and very kind in his comments about an idea I have to write a book on “Worldly Holiness” the name of this blog. He liked my ideas and even said he would give me his assessment of a proposal before I try to submit it to a publisher. That was kind of fun to get his thoughts and feedback.

Today I got on a plane again and made my way up to Thief River Falls, Minnesota where I have a weekend of activity with the churches up here. Should be fun. The people here are very nice. I feel like I want to say they are all above average. I’ve already had an evening meal with several couples from church and heard some amazing stories of faith and courage in the midst of life’s challenges. This should be a great weekend. Sorry if this post is a little too much like a travel log. I wanted to give a quick update and post my Friday Foto before we jumped over to Saturday. Would appreciate your prayers this weekend as I share what God is doing among focus people and how he is teaching us of his amazing goodness.