Why I am Compelled2? (Part 1)

The Crucifixion by Georges Rouault

Some of you have wondered why I chose Compelled2 as the name for my blog about the theology of cultural engagement and reconciliation. I am glad that you asked. I think that there are several reasons. 

• First, I am compelled to blog by my doctoral program directors. 
• Second, at this point in my life and ministry I have things to say that I can’t keep quiet on any longer…lest I get the bone consuming acid reflux that Jeremiah (Jer. 20:9) and David speak of (Psalm 3:3). 
• Third, and most importantly, the title is taken from 2 Corinthians 5:14 where Paul writes that, “the love of Christ controls/compels us”. He is explaining that whether he seems crazy or sane it is for a purpose, for God’s love compels him to live and act the way he does. He no longer lives for his own interests and desires. He and those who are with him are captive to the love of Christ and cannot operate outside of it. As their options were narrowed down, their focus was strengthened and their mission clarified.

Often, when studying a passage in the Bible I find it helpful to use a type of analysis that involves vertical alignment of repeated words and key concepts that allows me to better follow the threads of meaning as I scan down the page. I also may use different colors to highlight words and phrases. 

Here is an example... 2 Corinthians 5:13-21

   ¹³ For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God;

            if we are in our right mind,  it is for you.

  ¹⁴ For                           the love of Christ controls us,

because we have concluded this:

                             that one has died    for all,

                     therefore all have died;

                      ¹⁵             and he died    for all,

                                        that those who live

                                       might no longer live for themselves

   but for him who for their sake died

                                    and was raised.    ¹⁶

From now on, therefore,

               we regard no one

                        according to the flesh. Even

   though we once

                     regarded                    Christ

                        according to the flesh,

               we regard him thus no longer.

      ¹⁷      Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

                                           he is a new creation.

                                                The old has passed away;

                                    behold, the new has come.

      ¹⁸                                  All this is from God,

                                  who through Christ

                                     reconciled us            to himself

and gave             us

            the ministry   of reconciliation;

      ¹⁹                               that is, in Christ  God was

                                     reconciling the world to himself,

  not counting their trespasses against them,

and entrusting to us

            the message of reconciliation. ²⁰

Therefore,

               we are ambassadors for Christ, God

                                   making his appeal

               through us.

               We implore you

                                   on behalf of Christ,

                                 be reconciled        to God. ²¹

For our sake he made him to be sin

                              who knew no sin,

                     so that in him

               we might become

                                 the righteousness of God. [ESV]

If you find this approach hard to read, and you think I am crazy, that’s OK. It is not for everyone, but it helps me locate major emphases in the text. One of the reasons that I like the ESV translation of the Bible is the commitment to translate a Greek word using the same English word throughout a given passage rather than trying to constantly find a fresh synonym to fit it into English style. It is like being able to hear the verbal rhythm section in the divinely inspired symphony of scripture.

Just as this approach to reading the Bible (illustrated above) often changes my perspective and allows me to see more, so too allowing the love of God to compel/ control/ constrain me changes the way in which I see other people. I don’t just evaluate them according to physical or social labels like the world does asking, “What good is this person to me?” Now I can see them not as merely marginalized or powerful, as black or brown or white, but as the very ones to whom God has sent me as an agent of reconciliation. 

The love of God also constrains my own tendency to look at others economically since that is not the way that Christ loves me. It forces me to begin to relate incarnationally…for their good in Christ, not my own (though it does benefit me as well). The most important thing is that people are reconciled to God in Christ and for that to happen we must be compelled by the love of God…wholeheartedly offering reconciliation to others that we ourselves have received from God.

Gentrification of a Baseball Stadium

          Portland is a city that has been transformed by gentrification. While a complex issue that is as highly nuanced as it is emotionally charged, gentrification is perhaps better described than defined as it was in a classic PBS “Point of View” article on the documentary Flag Wars:

Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes.

Demographics: An increase in median income, a decline in the proportion of racial minorities, and a reduction in household size, as low-income families are replaced by young singles and couples.

Real Estate Markets: Large increases in rents and home prices, increases in the number of evictions, conversion of rental units to ownership (condos) and new development of luxury housing.

Land Use: A decline in industrial uses, an increase in office or multimedia uses, the development of live-work "lofts" and high-end housing, retail, and restaurants.

Culture and Character: New ideas about what is desirable and attractive, including standards (either informal or legal) for architecture, landscaping, public behavior, noise, and nuisance. [1]

A number of once run-down and dangerous neighborhoods have been taken over by those trendy urban re-development people with mixed results. When the wealthy and powerful move in and take advantage of the disadvantaged and voiceless former residents. It is true that property values climb rapidly as undervalued properties are acquired and flipped by investors, but increased tax assessments often force long-time residents from their homes, churches and community without their having a voice in the process. It has been the heavy hammer of social injustice. As young, hip, wealthy, mostly white people crowded out the existing low-income and often ethnic communities, these changes also impacted America’s pastime…sports injustice.  

We should have seen it coming. Re-development always bites someone. Our class A Portland Rockies baseball team was moved out when Civic Stadium was redeveloped into PGE Park in preparation for the arrival of the AAA Portland Beavers. It really was a very nice, family-friendly, baseball venue in the historic heart of the city. But the developers were not through. In Portland, soccer is hip, soccer is cool, and soccer is supported by the downtown power elite. A new MLS franchise was used to push a very popular and family-friendly minor league franchise out of the city. The deal was supposed to include building a new baseball stadium elsewhere but in the face of obstacles that part of the agreement was abandoned. PGE Park was remodeled again into the soccer-and-football-only JELD-WEN Field and the Beavers were relocated to a former spring training stadium in Tucson, AZ then later moved again to El Paso, TX. It has now been three years since the Portland Timbers Soccer team forced our AAA Portland Beavers baseball team out of their stadium home. While not a hater, I must point out that the Timbers are the darling team of the gentrification crowd.

            I recently attended the home opener our new Class A minor league baseball team, the Hillsboro Hops. I was absolutely amazed to sit in a crowd of people who seemed to be finding their voice again. It was like a huge family barbeque celebrating the return of baseball yet without the constriction of the old venue with no parking. At the same time, the new stadium is currently not serviced by transit after games due to its “being on a low ridership route.” I know what that really means. It means that “since you baseball fans are not urban hipster gentrified microbrew swilling soccer zombies… so we feel no need to work with your kind of people.” Even without Portland-based development cooperation baseball is back. Despite the traffic, and having to work out the new venue issues, it seemed very liberating experience for young and old alike as they rediscovered the game they love and made new friends that somehow seemed like old ones in the process. I know I did.

Picture 1 Double Rainbow at Hops' Opener

            Sure there may be larger crowds of MAX-riding, chanting hip white people occupying Timbers’ games, and Portland may be featured on national television for it. I’m happy for them. But is the change better? Perhaps it is. But it was painful nonetheless. Yet out of pain and a community of shared sports suffering there came a beautiful evening in June, where all the storms and clouds only served to make it more beautiful. One sports writer commented that “if the Hops home opener was any better it would have had a double rainbow…and it did.” I agree and took a picture of it. With the light show of a sweet sunset in the west and black clouds with rainbows in the south, it’s almost as if God joined in the celebration.  

 

Picture 2 Hops' Opener Under the Lights

            It was a stirring time for this baseball fan, and a symbolic one as well. But after seeing the celebration of a community of hard-working families regaining their voice, while encouraging an international group of young ball players on a cool Monday night in June, I began to long for a time when the dislocated poor and ethnic communities of Portland might enjoy the same sense of homecoming and more, for their suffering goes longer and deeper than three years. Until then, they are welcome to come to Hillsboro and watch minor-league baseball with me.

---

[1]  http://www.pbs.org/pov/flagwars/special_gentrification.php

Stationed on the Cross

One of the reasons I am thankful for this Doctor of Ministry program that I am a part of is that it is compelling me to continue taking up my cross and follow Christ in the mission of reconciliation. I strongly believe that reconciliation, real reconciliation, the down-to-the-bones kind not the spackle-and-paint kind will require me to die to myself daily. I presume that may be why reconciled lives are so rare.

In future posts, I will address various aspects of the reconciliation that Christ calls us into. We all need to be reconciled with God because of our own sins. This is the most common understanding of the ministry of reconciliation yet it does not come close to exhausting the subject. We must also reconcile ourselves to Christ’s plans for our lives, our churches, our communities, our families, etc. We must also live into his call to be reconciled with each other whether over the cultural divides of race, gender, class, politics, worldviews, level of education, the baseball team you follow, or the simple relational issues we encounter within our families.

One afternoon during our first week, we visited The Grotto, to walk the Stations of the Cross path, reflect on the theme of suffering, and then go up to the chapel on top of the cliff (with the great view) to pray together. In it all, I began to see a metaphor for our walk with Christ, for we are not only called to remember his suffering but to participate in it as we die to ourselves. From that experience, I wrote the following poem.

Stationed on the Cross

  “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,

                          will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32)

On a Faith-filled

Walk of remembrance,

Humbled, bowed down,

Quieted from the bustling lostness of man,

Listening together,

Christ counter-intuitively elevates us

To the high privilege, even glory

Of suffering with him,

Unto death.

It is from this vantage point

Stationed on the cross

That we can finally see,

Through his eyes,

Beholding the reconciling mission of Christ,

The very heart of God…

Participating passionately in

Creation’s celebratory song

As from each tribe we are revealed as family.

“If we have died with him, we will also live with him…”

 (2 Timothy 2:11)

© 2013 Greg K. Dueker

It is only as I die to my own selfish desires that I am free to participate in God’s mission in the world. I have to confess that I don’t like suffering and I don’t like denying myself. I find that I tend to die hard. Yet, Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, seems to celebrate even small victories, every attitude check, and each of my small obediences! For every moment I take my eyes off of myself he gives me a glimpse of his perspective and hope for the world. 

It is hard to build deep relationships of trust with others like we are having to do in our DMin cohort, yet I am finding it well worth it as we take up our stations on the cross!