Tag: Called and Sent

Fire in the Face of God

What would you do if you came face to face with God? What would you do if fire destroyed what you loved? How do you prevail in the midst of complicated struggles? The story and fate of Peniel is a metaphor to me of the YMCA, America, and our faith.

Fire! It’s a cry of alarm when the flames stretch forth, unwanted, under protest, against what you treasure.

Fire! It’s a shout for joy when the sparks take hold of the dry tinder, the night is brisk, the stars are out, and your friends are ready to gather around to warm up and tell their stories.

Fire! It’s a sign of judgment, a cause for destruction, a threat of scorching pain. It’s also a means to survival, purification, and transformation.

Haaretz.com photo credit/firefighter at Peniel

Fire unexpectedly scorched beautiful Peniel, a YMCA haven of rest in the Holy Land, a little piece of heaven on earth.

A shock to the soul in 2016!

Why would God let this happen here? What does it mean? How do we interpret the flaming disaster?

And what now in 2020?

YouTube.com/Guy Shacar, three weeks after the fire
Four years after fire swept through the Tiberius coast, Peniel is a burnt hull.

When Archibald C. Harte retired from his remarkable career with the YMCA in the 1930’s he purchased a plot on the Sea of Galilee and transformed it into Peniel, a beautiful retreat for weary YMCA workers and travelers from around the world.

Beautiful Peniel in Tiberius, along the Sea of Galilee

Peniel means “face of God” and comes from the Hebrew Scriptures, a story where a traveler named Jacob wrestled with God, lost, was renamed Israel, and limped away transformed.

Jacob named the place Peniel for he had struggled with God (hence the name “Israel”) face to face and lived.

Over the years Peniel became a thin-space for YMCA workers, where it did seem that heaven met earth there, and folks could experience a face to face encounter with the Lord in their soul.

Spectacular vista from Peniel patio of the Sea, Golan Heights, and the sunset
Lush walkways throughout Peniel, shaded picnic areas, a sunny beach
Harte Memorial Chapel, the heart of Peniel, a sacred YMCA thin-space
The overgrown, desecrated chapel; broken windows, vandalized; yet holy.

So when fire ravaged the “face of God”, many who had strong roots and formative memories at Peniel grieved the loss deeply.

How to make sense of it, and what to do now?

The legal and cultural situations quickly became complicated.

Meanwhile entropy emerged on the property through vandalism, desecration, squatting, and the weather.

Through wise, collaborative, and patient leadership, plans for restoration of Peniel are being formed.

A renewed purpose is being prayerfully considered.

YMCA workers around the world are seeking the face of God for inspiration, direction, and open doors for the rebuilding of this sacred space in the Holy Land.

My visit to Peniel was through the OnPrinciple cohort, a strategic YMCA program through the Harold C. Smith Foundation.

It brings together Christian YMCA leaders from across the United States to grow in their capacity to strengthen the Christian mission of the YMCA in the 21st century.

This training in agile learning and adaptive leadership skills is mediated through an online curriculum supported by venerable Springfield College, an immersive sojourn with YMCA’s in the Holy Land through the guidance of Friends of the Jerusalem YMCA, and an intensive series of seminars with the Global Leadership Summit.

The cohort of 12 learners and 12 mentors is an innovative, rich and transformative YMCA program that brings together our dual emphasis of Christian principles and diversity, inclusion, global.

Archibald C. Harte of the YMCA and Peniel

Archibald C. Harte was a visionary leader, making possible the construction of the Jerusalem International YMCA.

His love for the Lord, the YMCA, and the Holy Land, combined with his commitment to peace, solidarity, and friendship, inspired our OnPrinciple cohort still shapes the purpose of the JIY today. Read more here.

Peniel, a safe place for all to rest and enjoy good company
Peniel patiently awaiting restoration and renewed YMCA hospitality

The YMCA has long been a Christian organization which authentically strives to be welcoming for all.

Especially in the Holy Land, Jews, Christians and Muslims all work together in friendship and solidarity at the YMCA.

The Jerusalem International YMCA, which oversees Peniel, is renown for their diversity and inclusion of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, all sorts of faith backgrounds but one thing in common: love for the YMCA mission and legacy.

Dedication stone at Jerusalem International YMCA, set by Archibald Hart.

So in a world still full consumed by violence and bigotry, hatred and war, poverty and oppression, how can Peniel be a crucial thin-space again for all, for transformation through the sacred struggle together?

Christians believe that in Christ Jesus we see the face of God; we also believe that we are sent into the world as “little Christ’s” meant to embody his grace and truth in love.

We believe that when we love, care and serve in the world like God in Christ does, through the gifts and guidance of the Holy Spirit, people can still experience the transformative face of God.

Christian hospitality becomes a way to co-create thin spaces in the world where spiritual transformation, sacred struggles, new names, holy purposes can be given and received.

Fire in the face of God is consuming yet purifying, burning but illuminating, painful yet transformative.

May Peniel become a renewed site on the Sea of Galilee where YMCA workers can experience a purifying fire in the face of God, amidst their struggles feel again the call to go and be the light, to be the good news of God in our burning yet beloved world.

Thanks to Mike Bussey for most of the beautiful pre-2016 Peniel pics, and some post-fire ones.

Christmas Comes To Us In The Darkest of Days

Literally, Christmas comes on the ninth darkest day of the year. Winter Solstice in Fort Wayne will be Wednesday, December 21st at 5:44am – the shortest day of the year, with the least sunlight and the most darkness.

winter-solstice-2015-1

We make much of the Christmas season, barely waiting until Thanksgiving is over to break  out the decorations and holiday music. We wish people merriment and and happiness during the Christmas, which is great – but… the original Christmas story is also full of sorrow, grief, and darkness. Which is one of the reasons we celebrate it during the first week of the winter solstice. It’s also why we shouldn’t skip the season of Advent.

What is the season of Advent? The early church marked out the four Sundays leading up to Christmas for remembering the second coming of Christ to the world, as a way to prepare us to properly remember the first coming of Christ to Bethlehem. Advent is Latin for “to come” or “to arrive” –  it reminds us that Christ came at Christmas, Christ comes to each of us now by his Spirit, and someday he will come again to establish peace on earth.

And Advent helps us keep the enduring and fascinating story of Christ in perspective – not everything is rosy and cheery in it. When Christ came to Israel in the first century, it was a messy and painful season for their generation. Like us, they are yearning for someone to establish peace on earth and in our hearts.

We read in the gospel according to Mark that early one dark morning Jesus retreated up the rocky slopes of the mountains that ring the Sea of Galilee. On the beaches the previous day he had been nearly crushed by the crowds seeking healing. The day before that he had provoked murderous threats from the power-brokers of the region because of his healings. The coming of Christ, the coming of light into darkness, isn’t always the easiest season to endure.

On that mountainside Jesus called twelve disciples to him that he wanted to send out into the nation to preach the gospel of God’s kingdom and to drive out demons by the power of God’s spirit. This was why Christ came to Israel, this is what the first Christmas was for: light coming into the darkness, establishing peace in the world.

This is a glimpse of what Jesus does now, in every generation: calling men and women to be with him, that he might then send them out to proclaim good news and deliver people from evil. This is how the Spirit of Christmas lives on in the darkness: not just wishing merriment, but working for peace every day of the year by the power of Christ.

Like the church today, those twelve disciples called by Jesus to serve as apostles (sent ones) were men of questionable character or of no account. Simon Peter was impulsive and braggadicio, James and John were brothers with a fiery, vengeful temperment, Andrew and Philip were excitable, Bartholomew was a good guy, Matthew had been a traitorous tax-collector, Thomas was a doubter, Simon was a violent political activist (terrorist), James and Thaddeus stayed in the background, and Judas Iscariot would betray Jesus with good intentions and noble ambitions.

Scene 07/53 Exterior Galilee Riverside; Jesus (DIOGO MORCALDO) is going to die and tells Peter (DARWIN SHAW) and the other disciples this not the end.

The church still has disciples like this, men and women who in the name of Christ unveil their best and worst sides. But through Christ, in being sent by him to our communities with the power of the gospel to heal and establish peace, we are transformed too. Christmas becomes a reminder that Christ became like us, that we might become a peacemaker like him.

As we prepare to celebrate the Advent of Christ at Christmas (which coincides with the lengthening of daylight and shortening of nighttime), may you be called and sent by God to family and friends with the presence of Christ. It is Christ who delivers from darkness and who fills us with light – may we, through being present with Christ, be sent to bring peace to those that are ready for the light to dawn in their soul earlier and earlier each morning.

Be the light, be a peacemaker, be Christmas.