Author: Wick

Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, Writer, Poet, Friend, reader, coffee enthusiast, hockey Wing-Nut, musical participator, etc...
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virtual presence?

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“In the name of Jesus….Amen”

Those were the words at the end of an important prayer in our family’s life. Many of them, actually, but one in particular for this post. It was the prayer spoken when we moved into our very first house that would become our home. Praying that God would bless it for His Kingdom, and protect it from any kind of evil. That it would be a home, with Christ as a foundation, source, and direction. That the people who enter would sense something different about the very way “existence” happens within those walls, something intangible and from God’s Spirit.

I’ve always been a fan of “thin places” in Celtic traditions. Even with the post-modern movement of de-emphasizing physical locations and the “holiness” of places or objects. Not that I believe my house is a thin place, but I believe in the power of prayer, and consecrating something to God’s use…setting it apart as “Holy”.

The question I’ve been thinking about/praying about lately, is when and how this topic collides with a virtual world. Personal computers and laptops are a bit like “spaces” that we spend a lot of time these days. Especially when we bring the aspect of the “internet” and the fact that you can “visit” other people’s “spaces”, and even spend time “with other people” in those spaces.

Unfortunately, Augustine, Luther, Wesley, and even NT Wright haven’t done much writing on the topic of God making virtual locations “Holy”. Maybe I’m missing it, but there doesn’t seem to be much theology worked out on God’s “virtual” (online) presence, or interaction. Maybe that’s okay, because this is all silly nonsense.

And yet…I pray. I enter the page you’ve created….your “space”, and see how you’ve decorated it. What you’ve “hung on the walls”. What words you’ve given to those who visit. I visit your facebook, and pray. I visit your myspace, and pray. I visit your blog…& pray. Not only for you, your family, your life….but also for that page. For your interactions with it. For those who visit it. That God’s presence would collide with that “space”.

Again..maybe it’s all silliness. But I guess my faith is that if God doesn’t function in a non-existent “virtual” space….then He’ll understand the heart of such prayers is for His presence in your life. And my own life. Perhaps using social networking tools that offer to cheapen relationships and deteriorate the very fabric of actual human interaction, as a participatory and active way of staying involved in what would normally be a list of names to pray over. To be praying as we move through the virtual spaces of others, for their lives and beyond. May God offer redemptive interactions with these things and more….

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a bit of advent haiku:

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christmas comes, seemingly
with shouts at shopping mall sales
buying for children

becoming children
while children sleep and wonder
“Santa doesn’t stress”

because why would he
all of the elves to help him
while we cover it

quietly happens
spreading like deadly virus
where death brings new life

Community: New
brought to life by a baby
who cried, lived, and died

now we exist: Free
from prices, credit, pressure
gifting has been done

our gift comes daily
hello, or conversation
relating from love

So wrap your presents
But remember this also:
“Jesus is coming”
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decorating with heresy? :)

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Luke 22:11 “…Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” The word for “guest room” here is κατάλυμα which is also used in Luke 2:7 “laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the (kataluma).”

As opposed to Luke 10:34-35, where the “Good Samaritan” takes the beaten man to an inn (πανδοχεῖον ), and pays the innkeeper to care for him.

Implications here? That it’s likely Mary and Joseph were visiting one of his relatives in Bethlehem, not a hotel, and they’d simply arrived too late to have room in the guest room. Others were already visiting, no doubt, with the census being taken. But it probably wasn’t too hard to have them stay in the place already considered “unclean” due to the animals, since Mary would soon be unclean (Leviticus 12).

Of course, you have Christian Apologist Justin Martyr who in the 2nd Century AD, identified a specific cave as the birthplace of Jesus. Justin seems to be a bit closer to the action than I was…so I’m inclined to give his opinion some weight. That has now become the “Church of the Nativity“. I was able to visit the Church of the Nativity back in high school, and I would agree that it seems like a pretty special place. But not because of the location or materials (for a smile, here’s an example of “sacred places” taken too far) but rather what is celebrated there.

Call it a hotel, call it a guest room, or call it a cave for the pigs….say it was on this street, or that road, or a few houses down, in the basement. Ultimately, the source of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love that we celebrate throughout Advent, and at Christmas…is Jesus the Christ. God becoming vulnerable man, and doing some pretty super-naturally incredible things simply by existing. Not to mention the life, words, actions, death AND RESURRECTION of that man. Whew.

So we’ll keep letting our daughters play with a fancy barn, complete with it’s picturesque qualities, and open wall that allows the world to worship with the angels and shepherds, and lets my daughters easily take characters out, and shove ’em in. Not because it’s historically accurate, but because it’s one of the best qualities of the Jesus story – it is inviting. 🙂