Lift Up Your Eyes

Stories in the Missional Journey of Bruce & Deborah Crowe

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Christmas 2023

Our first Christmas in Romania. Broderic’s family joined us at our house outside the center of Cluj. I’ve blogged very little sincet the onset of the war in Ukraine. Partly because I send out monthly newsletters by email, but also because I’ve been back at Fuller this past year, and heavily reading, and writing in academic mode.

I’ve been reasearching the history of Slavic cultural development from a missiological perspective. I have just completed my ‘literature review’ based on my research topic and variables. Writing academically has required learning in itself, as I learn to survey previous research, and bring the voices of others to the table much more. Even now, as I simply stream my own thoughts on a page, it now feels a bit foreign, like I’m being naughty! To write academically is to detach, as much as possible, your personal feelings, and interact with material in such a way as to search for gaps, opportunities, with the end in view that eventually you will add your findings, and your own unique perspective to the ongoing conversation. There’s a ton of citating, and if you were to read my dissertation so far, it wouldn’t be that engaging unless you really cared about the themes I’m dealing with.

I will, however, carve out some blogs here in the coming year. I really miss it. Entering this next year, year two of four. I had to redo the first year, having already completed 70% of it, but I’m thankful I was able to. My focus, and my professor has been divinely orchestrated, I believe.

So the year is coming to a close. Deb and I are very grateful, to say the least, that the year 2023 is over. It’s possibly the first year we’ve ever journeyed through where we’ve felt like whipped puppies at the end, emotionally, physically, spiritually. Having the year uphended by Brent’s hospitalization in the US, returning for 4 unexpected months, and going through that valley has really shaped us in ways I’m not sure we understand just yet. God has mercifully allowed Brent to stay with us in here Romania since September, and regain his footing, and with family as he titrates off all the meds they put him on. He’s about 70% off them now, and doing really well. We are all still cautious and insist that he takes it one step at a time. He’ll be starting a couple college courses this January, a huge step back to full independence in this coming year.

We’ve been delighted to return to Romania. The girls have been doing well. Claire enjoys hip-hop dancing with other Ukrainians at a club in the center. Abigail loves to read, like her sister, but perhaps reads even more. Noah is in that 16yr old phase, he’s not really wanting to grow up, very creative, and excelling at piano. Clark, he’s 18yrs old this January and in love with a young lady in Texas, daughter of longtime friends. He’s loving ultimate frisbee, and part of my regrets he didn’t have more athletic opportunities before now, he’s really quite natural at whatever sports he attempts.

Tucker, he’s finishing up his first college year, he does it onling in PA while still working 30hrs per week at a FedEx warehouse nearby our PA home where he stays. Bronwyn enjoyed her first year marriage and halfway through her second with Logan.

We’re now looking at a possible downtown project here in Cluj, a 2nd Lighthouse platform. We’re taking the next few weeks to pray about whether this is truly the Spirit’s invitation for us at this time. Part of my feels good about it, but another part feels nervous because I really want to approach my life more carefully, less impusively. I’m attracted to challenges, particularly those that are missiologically, and will challenge comfortable church goers into action and new mental models. I also am trying to discern Broderic & Kristin’s time here in Romania, along with them. Are they here long term? Is this an opportunity for them? As a dad, you want to make space, who wouldn’t want your kids and grandkids near? As a missionary, the life of faith is not for the faint of heart, and without a calling, a strategy in your heart, and a strong team behind you to pray and financially help, things can go sideways.

Deb just finished her first semester at Fuller. She’s enjoyed the challege, and the adult learning alongside others her age. I’ve enjoyed watching her develop new routines, albeit they’ve opened up requirements for the rest of us – she really runs the Crowe ship wherever we are living.. not to mention living in new places makes adaptation even more challenging. But, she feels it’s the Lord, and we hope to make it work.. one semester at a time.

Neither Deb nor I know what is next, really? But who really knows what is next? It’s been two years since we left Ukraine, two full years. As we renegotiate our present and future days in light of the continued war with Russia, there’s not a whole lot that is truly certain in our plans or even vision of what our lives will look like in 5, 10 yrs? The one thing we focus on, is learning to be present, increasingly. No more hiding into work, hiding into writing, or ‘leading’ just to perform some roles. We want to lead by our transformation, by embodying love, sensing the invitaitons of the Spirit to ‘whatever’ .. with ‘whomever’ and ‘wherever’. If we fail in this area of growth, now having lived half a century, what’s the point? If the call to live in Christ, and into our true imago Dei selves goes unexperienced, our message to the world is powerless and otherworldly. We need to make Jesus at home in our lives, it’s where the Spirit longs to dwell.. not in our ideas, plans, possible futures or regretted pasts.

So, welcome 2024. I will blog some more. I’m into Kierkegaard at the moment, and wrestling through some meaty stuff that challenges my soul. He was much more of a non-compromising man of faith than I realized. I have been looking at my podcast equipment here recently and considering firing it back up. We intended to continue it, but life happened.

Items we are praying about:

  • Lighthouse Cluj?
  • How will we technically stay in Romania past our visas which expire May 2024?
  • Selling the big house in Rz, to free up $ to live in Romania (rent is expensive).
  • I’d like to teach part time, either locally or online.
  • Brent back on his feet, for place/space/job post April 2024.

Belonging precedes believing.

Hospitality in the Greek (φιλοξενία) is a compound word deriving from friend (φίλος), and stranger (ξένος), resulting in the idea of “a friend of strangers”. The practice of hospitality draws upon 4,000 years of history, and reflects the compassionate response towards the stranger from the perspective of the household to the public arena (O’Gorman 2005) (O’Gorman 2009).

Scripture instructs the practice of hospitality[1] as the church, and several of Jesus teachings promote the posture of invitation and welcome to the stranger, the poor, and marginalized[2]. “For most of the history of the church, hospitality was understood to encompass physical, social, and spiritual dimensions of human existence and relationships” (Rah 2010, 174). Jurgen Moltmann, reminds us that the Spirit-led church “affirms the marginalized as persons-in-community” (Manohar 2013, 147).

Hospitality is intended to be God’s antitode to the us-them, in-out dichotemy. Christ shows us all are invited to the table, all who receive love belong.

As believers, hospitality is particularly theological. As created beings, we’ve been welcomed into the world by a hospitable Creator who has furnished us with creation to harness and enjoy. Though we are all sojourners in this world, we have been welcomed. As Day notes, “belief and belonging are interdependent” (Day 2011, 90). The act of welcoming and integrating the other into God’s community of belonging is therefor a prophetic act which lays the foundation for effective learning[1]. Our mission as believers, as Padilla Maggay notes is not merely to proclaim a message, but to embody and offer it, for “both proclamation and presence” (Padilla Maggay 2007, 7). Additionally, hospitality aligns with the Orthodox theology of theosis, where faith, hope and love are experienced in the pattern of the incarnation (Gorman 2009; 2001; 2015).

Hospitality is also a witness towards the generous heart of our Creator as individuals share in the abundance of God’s provisions. Bruggeman asserts that consumerism has produced a narrative of scarcity in our world, and individuals as a result compete over what are perceived as limited resources. However, he notes that the Bible begins with a “liturgy of abundance… a song of praise of God’s generosity” (Brueggemann 1999, 342). Rather than embracing consumerisms narrative, we should consider the biblical “liturgy of abundance” (343), where humanity has “originated in the magnificent, inexplicable love of a God who loved the world into generous being” (343) and the Son “gave himself to enrich others, and we should do the same” (347).

The promotion of welcoming, respectful, and diverse spaces are essential for the witness of Christ on earth, and the promotion of safe learning environments. A disciple is a learner, and as life-long learners, we should excel at designing hospitable, welcoming spaces. Welcoming spaces allow the stranger to transition from the other, to the known friend, and in doing so, are embraced into the community of equals, made in the image of God.

Hospitality is also prophetic in nature, pointing to the world that should be, embodied in the reflections of God’s people. An inhospitable place and people reflect the continued brokenness of the world, exchanging the welcome of God for the approval of people. Unwelcoming, religious people, say, “believe, and behave, then you may experience our belonging.” This, however, was not displayed in the life or teachings of Jesus Christ, who was the Father’s sent expression to creation.

We are called to enter culture, and demonstrate God’s invitation to belong through the experience of a new kind of relatedness. This belonging, in the pattern of Christ and people like St. Patrick, instigates a believing heart, and I believe, holds the key to getting the body of Christ back on track in a post-Christendom world.

(Edited excerpt from my literature review – shared by permission only)

Bruce Crowe
2023


[1] See Maslow’s hierarch of needs. The first three levels are resolved through effective hospitality.


[1] Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2, 1 Peter 4:9

[2] Matthew 25:35, Luke 14:12-14

Substance & Shadow: Plato says put down your phone

Nature of Shadow

I’ve been thinking lately about the nature of a shadow. The other day I went for a walk, and the sun was blindingly bright, as it tends to be atop these picturesque Romanian mountains. My contrasting shadow was faithfully walking beside me on the path, perfectly reflecting my motion, albeit in 2-D. Although you couldn’t see color, or the increasingly wrinkly details of my face, I think my friends would recognize it was me. The angle of the sun and mountain had elongated my already long legs, making me look more like gumby, or for the kids out there, elasta-girl?

I forgot, I actually took some photos.

What is a shadow, really? I hadn’t really thought about it before, at least too deeply. I haven’t had time this year to think about much of anything this year except some family emergencies, relocation and transition. Life has this way of swallowing us up, doesn’t it?

Like many of us, we employ the concept of shadows metaphorically, even integrating them into our spiritual analogies. Psychology speaks of the shadow (false or pseudo) self. Philosophy is chalked full of shadowy references. Scripture is surprisingly full of shadowy metaphors.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17-18

For a moment, let’s think about what a shadow is, technically, literally. Firstly, a shadow assumes a few properties are in play, namely light, an object, and a surface that captures the interactivity of both. In the simplest of terms, a shadow is a dark area or shape that is formed when an object blocks the passage of light. I like the word silhouette, which is produced upon a surface of some kind, reflecting the real substance of the obstructing object. We all know what a shadow is when we see it.

I asked some friends earlier this week a question that I’ll turn your way, “Is your shadow, you?” Let that question marinate.

The debate between what is real, and perceived, true and false, substance and shadow has captured humanities curiosity throughout the centuries, with records stretching back to the Pre-Socratics.1 Plato’s’ analogy of the cave2 has been used for 2,000 years to illustrate his theory of forms, and the nature of reality. It’s really quite fascinating, and will assist us in bringing a rather shadowy topic to light.

Plato describes a group of prisoners, chained together in a cave since birth, facing a wall, and unable to turn around. Light penetrates the cave from a fire somewhere behind the prisoners, casting shadows upon the wall like a movie screen. At times, objects appear on the wall, which are in fact instruments of varying shapes and sizes held by men, sort of like puppeteers, and they make noises to go along with the shapes on the wall. Yeah, it’s all a little strange. But stay with me.

The prisoners eventually ascribe names, categories, and come to an understanding in their own way what these darkened silhouettes are. They become real to the prisoners, as the constant affirmation of the categories and characteristics frame a certain reality for the prisoners. Of course, we must bear in mind that the prisoners aren’t aware of the nature of a shadow, because there’s a wall behind them which blocks the light. So we have to bear in mind the prisoners might not even know innately what a shadow is!

One day, a prisoner is miraculously freed, and escapes the cave, entering the light of the world. The prisoner can’t believe it! His mind is awakened to an entirely new ontology, or reality. He comes to understand that those things displayed on the cave wall were in fact shadows of entirely new substances in this ‘out of cave’ reality. Their names they contrived, wrong. The noises animals make, quite different. As the prisoner, who is initially blinded by the light and contemplates returning eventualy experiences three-dimensional clarity, brand new mental models emerge. He was awakened, enlightened, to the reality of the substance, and it was much more than the shadow! He feels now compelled to go tell his friends in the cave!

Well, as the story goes, the prisoners aren’t interested in leaving the cave. The freed prisoner tries deperately to explain his experience, but the prisoners prefer the shadows, ridicule and even become hostile towards the liberated prisoner.

Nature of Substance

The early church was situated within a Greek and Roman culture that was privy to such stories and deep philosophical debates. Much of the early church writings, including the first Church Councils3, then, wrestled around the idea of Christ’s real nature, or  “substance” (Gr. Ουσία).  Who was Jesus, really? Was this Jewish carpenter turned Rabbi a reflection of some divine Being, or was he truly the substance of the Divine Being in the flesh? If the latter, how could that be remotely possible!?  

The answers to those questions remain at the heart of Christianity itself, and yet, I wonder if we’ve lost the heart of this question?

What if the material world around us, is, in reality, a shadow? What if Plato’s anaology was accurate, and all of humanity is imprisoned, adapted to embracing shadows in pseudo forms, categories, and human made isms? What if the material, measured, physical world is concurrently existing alongside the invisible, and perhaps primary substantial reality?

I’m not suggesting Gnostic dualism here, or, that the material world doesn’t matter (no pun intended). For Christians, the enfleshing of God in the Person of Jesus blows that idea apart. God deeply cares about this physical reality, uniting in his very flesh both ontologies. What if the presently (to us) invisible world of cosmic dimension, a reality all too magnificent for us finite measurers to imagine presently, is the object creating the sillouette before our human experience?  Could the beauty and the suffering, the creativity and destruction playing upon the canvas of our limited, temporal state have us bewildered, hook-winked into substituting the substance for the shadow?  

In short, what if our respective culture’s set of values and norms are but shadows, and the substance of life lies outside of the cave? Plato would say yes, this is true. Perhaps Russell Crowe had it backwards when his Gladiator character uttered the famous line, “Brothers, what we do in life… echoes in eternity.” What if the opposite is true (also?). What if eternity is the place from which our forms are received, where our concepts of beauty arise? This would explain the brokenness of humanity, and our inept capacity to steward the gift of creation; our reception of the image has been damaged, to say the least.

Emerging from Shadow

Scripture has some really surprising things to say about shadows and substance, and some things sound quite close to what Plato was getting at, with a few (important) exceptions.

In referencing believers relationship to the Jewish many laws and commandments, the Apostle Paul writes:

Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day… things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Col 2:17-18

Paul is saying, “Look you Jewish and Gentile believers, let’s use the analogy of the shadow. The commandments? Shadows. Various sacrifices? Shadows. Man-made required religious activity? Shadows. Where should the believers focus be? On the substance, the source of all Light, Jesus Christ the son of God” The New Testament is full of histories shadows, from Israel’s emancipation from slavery, to tabernacle, and sacrificial system.. shadows, which point towards, reference, and reflect and invite now a world to consider substance behind the shadow, Christ!

This may sound strange, like the freed prisoner returning to describe the world outside of the cave, but for the Christ follower, it’s Jesus who holds the present material world together, which is only something the Divine Creator can do.

He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Col 1:17

There’s a slight problem with Plato’s anaology we must point out. In it, he proposes that the it’s the wise philosopher that becomes self aware, enlightened, exits the cave and in Messiah-like return comes back to free the masses from their ignorance. Plato didn’t think much of himself, it seems! If Plato had just known that 400 years later, the true Light of the World, the one that defied death to prove his substance, would come and bring hope to a world in need of rescuing. You were onto something, Plato. So close!

Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Col 2:8-10

Col 2:8-10

The narrative of scripture reveals Jesus, the eternal Son, piercing an impossible chasm of limitless eternity, hunching down into his creation. There, Christ becomes a prisoner, you could say, even shackling himself along with us.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble.

Phil 2:6 NLT

Through the Gospels we can read of Jesus time in the cave, his actions, stories, miracles, and witness as the Son of God. Thankfully, we don’t need to study philosophy to experience the inner awakening towards life’s all-consuming reality. What we do need, is something that baffles the wise, confounds the world within the cave.. just a little faith. (Insert just a few bars of George Michael’s hit for effect. I always wanted to be able to grow his shadowy beard, but alas.).

Faith as Substance

For reasons too lofty for my tiny brain, Creator God has decided that faith, that deep trust of the heart of you and I, is the key to unlocking the shackles of ignorance, and living into the substance, the reality that is. No amount of logic, of advanced human intelligence can connect our souls with the divine in the way that faith is designed to accomplish. It’s a mystery, it’s crazy good news, and our choice to activate once we hear about the life behind the veil, the Father’s deep love toward’s us all.

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you Romans 6:10-11

Romans 6:10-11

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9-10

Jesus gives, we receive, if we believe. This lavish offering of salvation is free invitation from the original Substance, who happens to be the Person of our Triune Creator. The Father, Son, and Spirit are united in their love, and desire fo us all to be freed from our self-imposed shackles, ignorance, and shame. After all, this Jesus, is Love. The Father sent the Son to rescue us all from a misery of our own making, and restore us to full living, one that lives into this one and the next.

He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

2 Pet 3:9

As tempting as it is to stay among the brokeness of the crowd, to embrace all that we know, and what we can confidently measure or control, inwardly, aren’t we all longing for divine interception?

As we scroll down our phones, relentlessly swapping from app to app, we should ask ourselves, “Am I exchanging substance for shadow?”

Faith embraces an ontologically different reality from this world, and sees shadow for what it is. Faith allows shadow to redirect to the genuine substance. Shadow is not where we place our trust or where we feed our souls. The shadows are designed to awaken us to the enlivening experience of salvation in the Person of Jesus. Whether it be the realities of war, or the beauty of a sunset, when we take time to pause, to reflect, to stop, we engage with the potential of the Substance behind the shadow, who is in all of reality (see PanENtheism= God IN all things vs PANtheism=God being all things). I’m sensing, as I age, an increasing of awareness to the many invitations to look behind the veil, to be lured beyond the materially known, the temporary shadow to see, AND EXPERIENCE the Designer through the design.

I’ve spent too long staring at gadgets, allowing my mind to be shaped by the plethora of shadows that bombard visually. I don’t know about you, but my soul is never refreshed from things that don’t lead me to the mystery that made me.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen… By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Hebrews 11:1-6

I would be remiss if I didn’t mentioned faith’s capacity to help us endure difficulty as well, to suffer illness, loss, even persecution from the masses. Salvation for us mortals is still filled with the continued effects of the cave. While many of us may suffer hardship, and even outwardly not have the freedoms others are enjoying presently, the secret of inner freedom allows participation in the substance ahead of time! This is dynamic of connectivity with the Divine, who lives concurrently, simultaneously, in all of reality, not just the one we see in. We are already free within the eternal realities that govern reality itself. It’s like we’ve been given an appetizer before the main course, and it both satisfies and points towards the coming feast.

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

2 Cor 4:16

Closing Word

I remember as a younger man, I read the life of Jim Eliot. His brief life and ministry to the Auca Indians in Ecuador inspired man, including me. He wrote, “Eternity shall be at once a great eye-opener and a great mouth-shutter.” As I’ve considered the nature of shadow, of substance, and the inner sense within us to plunge realities outside of this temporal one, I think Jim was right. Thankfully, before our mouths-shutter, our kind Creator came through the veil, entered the cave, and promises to be with us, even until the end of the age.

Tis’ better to shutter now, to believe and willingly follow the Savior out from the darkness, into the light, than it will be when Christ returns. There’s something about living into eternity now, presently, that I think will have enduring meaning for each of us. But, I can’t say that is my motivation. I simply want more of the goodness I’ve already experienced in this life, because the more I experience my Creator’s love, the more free I’m becoming from my old false, and incoherent ways of being.

That the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Phil 2:10-11

Footnotes:

(1) Parmenides (c. 515-450 BCE): held the view that change and multiplicity were illusory and that only "Being" or "Reality" truly existed. He argued that change, such as the alternation between light and shadow, was an illusion because it implied a lack of being or existence.  

Heraclitus (c. 535-475 BCE): the ever-changing nature of reality can be related to the shifting interplay of light and shadow in the perceptual world.

(2) Plato’s Cave can be found in his Book VII of The Republic.

(3)First Council of Nicaea (325 CE), First Council of Constantinople (381 CE), Council of Ephesus (431 CE) each dealth with the nature or substance of reality in the Person of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. 

Bruce & Deborah Crowe live with four of their eight children in Romania. They’ve spent the last 15 years in Ukraine serving as missionaries, mentors and charity directors. Bruce is working on his doctorate at Fuller Seminary, and Deb is a certified Spiritual Director. You can learn about their life and ministry on this site or by visting www.mirministries.org or by visiting their new Spiritual Direction page at https://sacredformation.com/

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