Huia Come Home

My heart breaks for my country, and the the cares of this world often feel too much to bear. But today I have hope.  It is no accident that I finished the last two chapters of Huia Come Home when I did. It was just what I needed. It ws the hope that what appears to be a mess is actually God’s handiwork. The book is about New Zealand’s history of one country founded on two distinct cultures grounded in the same faith. Things went awry, and I won’t go into detail with the history aspect, but these snippets couldn’t be more appropriate for today wherever you find yourself. I pray that you read this with eyes willing to view something from your friend far away from my home country on an island in the Pacific, New Zealand. I pray that like me you might recognize that we have much to learn from others.

What kind of justice are you seeking?  Are you pursuing a type of justice that is restorative and mends relationship, or more of a vengeance type of justice?

If we are honest, the greatest teachers…are the headlines we read and the news we watch.  We are drip-fed sound bites of slanderous drama that news companies love to dish.  The antagonistic emotions make their way into our minds causing us to lock the door on any meaningful, honest or deep discussion around our dinner tables.

These emotions are fueling vengeance and cause us to create barriers toward any other assumptions or views.  But it is through learning from different individuals with various beliefs and ideas that we can best look and learn about our own.  It has been a joy to associate with people around the world who hold different worldviews.  I call myself a Christian, but know that my life often does not reflect that of Christ’s and the same can be said of Christianity past and present.  There are numerous wrongs that need to be corrected, powers surrendered, and apologies made. I am ready to begin the process on behalf of my faith and my country.

The United States is the most influential missionary sending country in history.  No other nation has invested more people, resources or finance into the task of sharing the story of Jesus…Most Christians in New Zealand can rattle off a long list of US preachers, theologians and worship leaders…But how many indigenous Native American church leaders do you know of?  How many of their books have you read?  How many songs do you sing?…And this is after four-hundred years of Christian missionary activity in and from the United States….The greatest missionary sending country in history does not reflect on any level an indigenous culture in their missionary activity.  The American persona of Christianity does not resemble the First Nation people of their land.Jesus said that as we go we are to make disciples of “ethne, which means “people-groups”. Jesus longs for every unique ethnic people group to follow him in their own cultural way.  Christians have blindly preached a worldview that has caused one culture to be subsumed into the other.  There is a name for this type of activity…colonization.

The Western empire is the furthest-reaching empire in all human history, from its foundation in Greece to the advance of Rome, through to a colonising Europe and Britannia.  It is now held firmly by the economic tentacles of America, yet all empires eventually come to an end.  At some point crisis removes them from their high-horse. The Bible is the story of empire after empire being divinely critiqued with the measure of justice.  Scripture reveals how God rewrites the established cultural stories and chooses the weak to challenge the dominating narratives, undoing the chokeholds of oppressive powers.

Moses and Egypt

Goliath and David

Daniel and the King

We have to admit that to critique the Western empire is also to critique the Western Church, which has unfortunately enjoyed a ride on the back of the proverbial elephant.

Western culture has become like a hormone-induced chicken, so overgrown that it can no longer support its own weight.  It’s not that the chicken has no value or shouldn’t be here, it’s just that it has become way too big, out of proportion, dominating the indigenous landscape.

We are in a radical shift from a 2000 year old cultural paradigm into something new… the new, I believe, happens to be an ancient indigenous way, a way that culturally has its presuppositions outside of the Western story.

There will be disruptions, and growing pains and many mistakes along the way, but I believe that it is good and right and not an accident.  The events that occurred in Washington DC were shocking, unimaginable until recently, but it seems that America has enjoyed prosperity, power and proportions at the expense of others. Cherokee Rod Wilson said that Jesus made so much sense to First Nation indigenous cultures, even though much of western Christianity didn’t. Perhaps it is time to get back to its rightful proportions and share the world’s stage.  Humble ourselves and acknowledge there is so much we need to learn.

The God I follow, Jesus Christ, is a man who relinquishes his rights and with joy takes the path of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. If we say that we follow Christ…we are saying that we are prepared to lose our lives for the sake of others, embrace the conflict and injustice of others, and do our part to see justice and restoration where there was once only brokenness and strife. This means critiquing our culturally constructed world and creating the Aotearoa [New Zealand] God dreamt of before time began.  Everything that calls itself “Christian” in this country needs to consider its ways and ask if it is weaving with the narrative of an indigenous Aotearoa (or American, or wherever you may be) Because if it is not, then the Church is weaving a foreign story…If we choose this humble path and learn from one another, then our kids will grow up possessing the freeflow of bicultural worldviews.  Not just educated with tedious bicultural information, but immersed in bicultural experience.

at the ends of the earth, at the bottom of the planet, God is creating a people who instinctively know how to live in and out of a Maori and Western mind and then offer creative solutions for our world…You may just find that…you have been prepared for such a time as this.

This is it guys.  This is why we are here.  This is Brian’s studies, though related to education.  And I hope that we get to be part of these creative solutions that the world needs because we have been prepared for such a time as this though how could we have known.

Oh and I would love for you to borrow the book 🙂

Thoughts on circumstances and sunflowers

I was looking at my sunflowers and the phrase “bloom where you’re planted” came to mind. I thought to myself, Rubbish! Bloom where you’re planted? Look at these sunflowers, some are majestic and tower over me but I have one that is about to bloom and I am not sure it is even a foot tall. Perhaps THRIVE where you’re planted is a way better saying. And then I kept thinking about it. Bloom and thrive, both verbs, both actions, and no doubt thriving is better. I look at my garden and I look at my friends Tom and Kylie’s garden and theirs is gorgeous, thriving. My corn is knee high currently and theirs is head high and thriving. BUT, but. Maybe blooming is enough. Thriving isn’t going to happen all the time, every year or every season. Maybe our circumstances aren’t the same as others. 2020 threw many of us some storms that could make thriving feel impossible, but if we could not give up, if we could just muster up the strength and courage and bloom. It might feel like a small accomplishment, it might feel like we are capable of so much more, it might feel insignificant even, but just bloom. Next to my tallest straightest sunflower is a smaller stalk that is on the verge of blooming. Shortly after I planted the seedling in the garden the top got eaten by a bird or a bug. I almost pulled it out and gave up on it, but despite losing its top, it didn’t seem like it was dying. To my surprise, it regenerated and grew a new top! I don’t play survival of the fittest with my flowers like I occasionally do with my veggies, and I kept it in the ground and am so glad I did. Or check out this guy who got hit by the winds and now stands in an arc. The storm hit, but it still bloomed. This may not be that profound, but may it just be a reminder that we are in a season. I don’t know how long the season is going to last, and I am not expecting things to look pre-Covid anytime soon, likely never. That’s okay. I’m going to accept the current situation and work on doing the best I can. I’m going to bloom. I will cry, I will meltdown, and I will also thrive sometimes, and I will bloom.