being Mary

It wasn't Jesus' mother I was thinking of as I dashed around the kitchen in preparation for friends this afternoon; or as I was whipping biscuits out of the oven last night just prior to a meeting. It was Mary, Jesus' friend, who just sat down and chilled out with him. Years ago someone asked me whether I was Mary or Martha and I said both. A clever answer I thought- be busy AND spend some time with God...
Truth is, the Martha bit comes more easily- I love it when people come over- I like them to be comfortable and feel easy without tripping over toys or worse... I like giving them food and drink, and somewhere in the back of my head there is a twinge of pride at my "gift of hospitality"...
But what did Jesus actually say? "Martha you are worried and upset by many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her."
Only one thing is needed.
So I want to revise my thinking. I want to be Mary- through and through. Not worried and upset by "preparations". Not resentful with God at giving me no rest from my busy work for Him. In reality this kind of work was never His, but mine. I don't think he wants us working for Him at all- just being with Him. God is single minded in His desire for us- heart, soul, mind and strength. The greatest commandment.
I share these ponderings because this is the season for practical preparations in which we find ourselves duty bound to spend hours and hours toiling at. But only one thing is needed. Mary chose the better way- so dare we compromise? Dare we give away even part of our inner being to worries and upset?
Mary made it look so simple.
Maybe it is.

Joy has Dawned on the World

We sang this song, that is new to me, last Sunday. It seemed so appropriate for Advent so I copy it here.

Joy has dawned upon the world,
Promised from creation
God's salvation now unfurled,
Hope for every nation.
Not with fanfaresfrom above,
Not with scenes of glory,
But a humble gift of love:
Jesus born of Mary.

Sounds of wonder fill the sky
With the songs of angels,
As the mighty Prince of Life
Shelters in a stable.
Hands that set each star in place,
Shaped the earth in darkness,
Cling now in a mother's breast,
Vulnerable and helpless.

Shepherds bow before the Lamb,
Gazing at the glory;
Gifts of men from distant lands
Prophesy the story.
Gold, a King is born today,
Incense, God is with us,
Myrrh, His death will make a way,
And by His blood He'll win us.

Son of Adam, Son of heaven,
Given as a ransom,
Reconciling God and man,
Christ our mighty Champion!
What a Saviour, what a Friend,
What a glorious mystery:
Once a babe in Bethlehem,
Now the Lord of history.

Stuart Townend & Keith Getty

The Face Of Christ (Part 1)

From Marcus Bull

What you must first understand about the face of Jesus
is that it is so small.
He has no hair yet.
His milk teeth are not showing beneath his gums ...
He, the Word of God,
cannot say 'Mamma'.
He, the Son of God,
cannot call him 'Abba' ...
He is the Love of God,
and yet he cannot smile
(though sometimes, when he gets the wind,
his face crumples up as though he can)...

(Trevor Dennis, from 'The Three Faces of Christ', The Three Faces of Christ
(Triangle, SPCK, 1999)

Flight

I was in Glasgow today for a meeting. I got rather wet walking to and from the train station - someone informed me that it's been raining here every day for the past 30 days! On the way to the station I passed by a travel adgency called Flight.

It got me thinking about how many people head away to get some winter sun at this time of year and how this contrasts with the flight which Jesus took. I'm not yet thinking about the flight to Egypt after he was born, but his leaving heaven to come to earth. It was a downward flight, from grandeur to simplicity, from power to weakness, from riches to poverty. Yet the flights we dream of are so often aspiration's rather than downward.

So I'm left hear in my damp clothes waiting.....thinking what it means to be "in Christ" in His downward movement, to taking a very different winter flight from the many.

John The Baptist

I have to admit it, I’m a big fan of John The Baptist! He was a real man of God, I know we don’t know a great deal about him and we only get a brief window in to his life in the bible.

One of the readings set for last Sunday in the lectionary was Luke 3:1-6 I love this reading the imagery of it is so powerful, John shouting his hart out trying to get the people to see, to turn and be a repentant people is not a job for the faint hearted, I’m sure some of them would have said, “why should I, I love my life as it is, thank you very much, any way who are you?”

I invite you to read Luke 3:1-6 slowly take it in to yourself, own the text, think about your responses to John

As I’ve meditated over this passage I’ve come up with the following questions. Maybe you might like to ask yourself and the text one or more of the following?

What is God saying to me as an Individual through this text?

How can I as an Individual prepare the way for the Lord in my own heart, what do I need to let go of from my life?

How can the church prepare the way better, what pre-conceptions does it need to let go of?

How do I / the church respond to those on the margins?

Do I care about my community enough to cry for it, engage with God and seek his guidance for it?

a highway in the desert

This is a photo of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, taken during a flight from Johannesburg to Namibia back in 2004. For miles and miles there is nothing but parched desert, but from time to time straight paths could be traced. This reminded me of Isaiah 40:3 - a passage often referred to during Advent.

"A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'"

In Luke's gospel, this quote is used to refer to the ministry of John the Baptist. Luke adds, "the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

Lord, straigten out the areas in our lives which hinder us from drawing close to you and which prevent others from seeing you through us. Clear obstacles out of the way and build a highway in our hearts as we prepare the way for Christ.

I wonder...

Imagine this: It's your birthday. Friends have planned a huge party with food, speeches, live band and entertainment. The biggest ever. Unfortunately, they forget to invite you.
So you watch the camcorder playback the next day.
It has to be the most enormous gathering you have ever seen- anyone who is anyone is there- lots of people who you have never even spoken to are claiming to be close friends. The more you see, the more confused you get: this isn't at all your kind of party- you are uncomfortable to the point you are glad not to have been there. The most shocking bit is the speeches- did these "friends" even know you? You haven't felt so misunderstood, so misquoted ever. It's like they are using you to say what they want and do what they want; regardless of you.
How do you feel? Is this the kind of birthday you want ?

I wonder how the God of the poor feels when I exploit His people for the best bargain...
  I wonder how the God of the hungry feels when I eat enough to feed a whole family because it's what you do...
   I wonder how the Prince of Peace feels when I fight over who watches what, who got who what, who gets invited to what or whatever...
    I wonder how the King of Kings feels when I sacrifice to the god of consumerism...
     I wonder how the Wonderful Counsellor feels when I ignore the needs of the lonely and the marginalised cos they don't really fit in to my idea of a good Christimas

As I prepare this year, I am challenged to STOP. To actually consider the One I am preparing for, and His values. I am challenged to remember that He cares how I celebrate and the choices I am making. I want to be like the baby who grew up to be the most radical man the world has ever known. I pray that Jesus, who was not afraid to challenge the accepted way, will give me the strength to truly prepare for Him, not me this Christmas.

Micah 6 v 8: "He has showed you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Foreward Planning

Matthew 1:1-17

How good are you at planning ahead? I am not a last minute person. I like to be organised but I have learnedthat carefully laid plans can be altered in a minute by unforeseen circumstances or pressure of work.

This isn't true of God, however, His plans have been laid since before the beginning of the world. His plans are eternal and will come to pass. The beginning of Matthews Gospel tells of Jesus' family history. Matthews aim is to convince his Jewish readers that Jesus is the Messiah who will carry their history to its climax.The genealogy of Jesus is a bridge from Old Testament history to the coming of the Messiah. He was a man born of flesh and blood, with a Jewish heritage from Abraham and was a son of King David.

All the great eras of Jewish history find their climax in Jesus.Everything was building up to His coming. It was the turning point of history, the fulfilling of God's purposes in the world. All the preparation and anticipation of previous generations was fulfilled in the advent of Jesus, but many eyes were blind to this amazing event.

"Come Thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free." (Charles Wesley)

The birth of Jesus was bringing in something new. God was breaking into history, to bring salvation, at His appointed time.

"Hail to the Lord's anointed,
Great David's greater Son,
Hail in the time appointed,
His reign on earth begun." (James Montgomery)

At this time of Advent let us recognise the wonder of the fulfillment of God's plan to express His love to a needy world. To bring His Son, our Saviour to be "Emmanuel God with us."

"Hark the glad sound the Saviour comes.
The Saviour promised long.
Let every heart prepare a throne,
And every heart a song. ( Philip Dodderidge)

Barbara Francis

Kick'em in the Baubles

'Kick'em in the Baubles' - so ran the banner headline for a full page spread in the Sun Newspaper Today. Indeed in some editions it was the front page (not here in Scotland where we had a picture of the MacDonald brothers of 'X' Factor fame!)


The Sun's complaint as they unashameably showed a picture of a decorated Christmas tree was agains the 'PC killjoys' who want to ban Christmas. This reaction was provoked by a survey that showed that 'three out of four firms have banned festive decorations for fear of offending religious minorities'. They write: 'Our bold decision to publish and be damned flies in the face of the snowballing attempt to strip Christmas of all its meaning and fun'.

In the editorial they claim that we are 'seeing centuries-old customs barred on daft safety grounds' and write:

• Mince pies are outlawed as a health risk
• Firms are banning Christmas decorations in case they offend other faiths
• Christmas has been rebranded as Winterval
• Cards carry 'Holiday Greetings' instead of 'Merry Christmas'.
• Nativity scenes are banned in case non-Christians find them offensive.

They write: We need to act now - before Christmas becomes just another boring public holiday.

Oh dear - oh dear what to make of all of this in Advent;

Should I rejoice (as a Free Church radical) at the collapse (quicker now than the England cricket team - sorry!) of another bastion of Christendom that will release the purity of the Church into its true witness. Come on for years we have preached against Christmas being about tinsel and baubles.

Should I lament the above complaining of discrimination against Christianity and Christian festivals because well after all we have a Christian heritage if we are not necessarily a Christian country.

As I reflected I actually moved out of the Christendom/non-Christendom box of thinking into one of more general culture and indeed specifically popular culture as represented if indeed not defended by the Sun and sometimes despised and rejected by the Church.

I found myself longing for a non-Christendom, Free Church response to the 'popular spirituality' if not 'popular Christianity' represented in the glitter and baubles rather than feeling that I wanted as I have in the past to rant against it. I found myself searching about in the tinsel and baubles for Jesus maybe realising that actually in some peoples memory and experience he is there and rather than complaining about that I should be seeking to explore and expose and rejoice in that creatively with them not against them so that he can appear the more brightly as Good News.

I don't know...I'm just wondering...but in wondering as I walked past the gaudily decorated Christmas trees in the streets where I work - I sensed that he could be there...

open our eyes

this is just a great prayer from wild goose worship group (you can find it in there advent, christmas and epiphany book Cloth for the Cradle, 1997). I used it at advent explorations last night.

Open our eyes, Lord
especially if they are half-shut
because we are tired of looking
or half-open
because we fear to see too much
or bleared with tears
because yesterday and today and tomorrow
are filled with the same pain
or contracted
because we only look at what we want to see

Open our eyes, Lord
to gently scan the life we lead
The home we have
The world we inhabit
and so to find
among the gremlins and the greyness
signs of hope we can fasten on and encourage

Give us, whose eyes are dimmed by familiarity
a bigger vision of what you can do
even with hopeless causes and lost causes
and people of limited ability

Show us the world as in your sight
riddled by debt, deceit and disbelief
yet also
shot through with possibility
for recovery, renewal, redemption

And lest we fail to distinguish vision from fantasy,
today, tomorrow, this week,
open our eyes to one person
or one place
where we – being even for a moment prophetic – might identify
and wean a potential in the waiting

And with all this,
open our eyes, in yearning, for Jesus

On the mountains
in the cities
through the corridors of power
and streets of despair
to help, to heal
to confront, to convert
O come, o come, Immanuel

click on the photo to see a larger size.

Go

Go
Go out into the world
Go speak truthfully
Go live peacefully
Go walk faithfully
Go give generously
Go share outrageously
Go listen carefully
Go welcome everybody
Go laugh loudly
Go shout passionately
Go pray fervently
Go eat healthily
Go read widely
Go grow deeply
Go forgive wholeheartedly
Go love openly
Go follow humbly
Go show kindness
Go seek wisdom
Go act justly
Go buy fairly

Enter Here

Enter here,

Pull ahead,

Drive slow,

Take time to think,

Reflect,

The Christ Child is coming,

Pull ahead,

Drive slow.

advent sign-up (updated 5|12)

via comments let me know the day/s you would like to do.

dec 1 - brodie mcgregor
2 - andy goodliff
3 - 1st sunday
4 - ashley beck
5 - andy goodliff
6 - stuart blythe
7
8 - barbara francis
9 - miriam pugh
10 - 2nd sunday
11 - andy scott
12 - barnabas
13 - brodie mcgregor
14 - marcus bull
15 - barbara francis
16 - miriam pugh
17 - 3rd sunday
18 - andy scott
19
20 - stuart blythe
21 - marcus bull
22
23 - andy goodliff
24 - christmas eve
25 - christmas day

advent blog 06

Advent is only a few weeks away and some people have expressed an interest in producing an advent blog through the days. So I am going to attempt to organise another community advent blog - if you're interested in taking part, let me know via comments.

PENTECOST: God's Jigsaw the Church

I like jigsaws. I hardly ever do a jigsaw, but when I do I like the challenge of trying to complete. But jigsaws are really annoying when a piece or pieces are missing. An incomplete jigsaw can make all the work of putting it together feel wasted. A jigsaw needs every piece to see the picture it is trying to show … and so it is with the church … the church needs every person to be the church.

God’s jigsaw the church needs every piece

Just as male needs female, rich needs poor, white needs black, so intellectuals need the simple ... The church is itself when it bridges all these gaps and tensions between people of different kinds (Frances Young, Face to Face)

Some of us think we not important – in a jigsaw every piece is important and no piece is more important than the other … every piece is required … the church is only itself when every piece is in the right place

These bridges are the interconnecting relationships and lives that join us and hold us together – like one jigsaw piece is linked to two or three other pieces. And it is the Holy Spirit who brings us together:

God’s jigsaw the church is a work of the Holy Spirit

the Spirit liberates us, that is to say, by bringing us into community: by enabling us to be with and for the brothers and sisters whom we ourselves do not choose (Colin Gunton, Theology Through the Theologians)

The Holy Spirit has placed you and me in this community – Bunyan Baptist Church – and this is sometimes hard because for all of us there are probably people here we would not choose and things about Bunyan we don’t like and the attraction of other jigsaws (meaning churches) becomes appealing. We want to be church shoppers, when God calls us to committed belonging (this is what church membership means in a Baptist church). The problem is that the church starts with God (at Pentecost), the church is held together by God (in Christ by the Holy Spirit) and the church continues in God to participate in his mission and witness to the world. God has called you to be part of his jigsaw here …

For some of us what we need to do is find where we fit in because not all jigsaw pieces join to each other and a jigsaw piece in the wrong place can distort the picture … some of us are trying to do or be too many things ... some of us are just doing the wrong thing ... and some of us are doing nothing ... when this happens the church struggles to be itself

God’s jigsaw the church is a jigsaw without edges

why might I want to say that? … because new members can always and are always being added and joined on … tiny Lucy Pellegrino this week has joined God’s jigsaw … and those of who have recently found a place to belong and believe are also part of our jigsaw. Pentecost reminds us that that in God’s jigsaw there are no finite number of pieces – 144,000 or the such like – but our task is bear witness to the wonder of God and his story that others may find a home and a family here.

God’s jigsaw the church is a picture of the face of Christ

we are the face of Christ to the world … in and through us people encounter and meet the risen Christ … the power and work of the Holy Spirit shapes and transforms us in the image and likeness of Christ … and as God in Christ is for us and the world, so God in his church, in us, calls us to always to be looking beyond our edges …

Gal 3.28

For it is no longer possible for you to be Jew or Greek, slave or free, 'male and female', for all are one and the same in Christ Jesus

I love this verse. It teaches that if we belong to Christ, everything is radically different. Everything has been transformed. Our identity is shaped by our belonging to Christ and anything else like race, nationality, economic status, gender, etc is nullified, its put to death through the cross. It's a verse that shapes and informs my understanding of what it means to be the church. Where we are tempted to describe who's in and who's out, who's important and who's unimportant, these words to the Galatians, say there are no boundaries in the church, apart from belonging to Christ. As Douglas Campbell says,

'... this is an undeniably radical approach. Everything that we might normally nominate as important to our identities, or even to our well-being, has been displaced in this account of the impact of Christ to the periphery: matters of ethnicity, language, land, geography, and race; of class, education, status, income, and occupation; of gender and family, male or female, and parent or child. All of these distinctions are no longer of central relevance to what we are. What matters is the new reality, sonship, which is obtained in Christ.'

I find myself returning again and again to this verse. It's written on my brain (and hopefully on my heart) as a reminder that belonging to Christ calls us out of and beyond those distinctions which (although in themselves are not negative) can so often divide and separate us from one another (and so also from God).

living out scripture

As a means to seeing this blog continue in some form, I've had an idea.

In The Shape of Living, David Ford writes

... be alert for some key passages of the bible to inhabit in a special way. Hans Urs von Balthasar has said that often a saint's whole life can be seen as living out just one verse of scripture. One rich verse or story can be essential to our vocation, as we come back to it year after year, and find further dimensions to it. The great words, verses and passages of scripture and the liturgy are like houses which, as we study, pray, suffer and love, are made habitable with our own furnishings, pictures, meals and children ...'

So I'd like to invite you to post that verse or story of scripture which is important to you, which you find yourself re-visiting time after time ... (you can make it two or three, if you can't reduce it to one!). If you put the scripture reference as the title, that would be cool.

imagination

imagination n the ability of the mind to be creative of resourceful; the process of imagining

"the key pathology of our time, which seduces us all, is the reduction of the imagination so that we are too numbed, satiated and co-opted to do serious imaginative work" (Brueggeman, Interpretation and Obedience)

This blog seeks to do imaginative work - to reflect upon the arts - music, film, drama, painting, poetry, fiction, essays - and attempt to transcend our unimaginative culture. Or to be readers of the arts, of culture - to think deeply or speak thoughtfully.

Palm Sunday Re-visited?

I preached on the so-called 'Triumphal Entry' on Sunday. I was particularly keen to try to find something 'new' in the story that a group of mature Christians had probably heard every year for longer than I've been alive.

It occurred to me: was it really a triumphal entry? Afterall, it seems that it can be interpreted not only as a 'processional praise party' cheering Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, but also as being a story of failure - the failure of the people to recognise Jesus as a non-violent messiah and also the failure of Jewish religion to provide honest worship to God. If there was a whiff of triumph on that first Palm Sunday it certainly wasn't the sort that would impress Rome or the kind that impressed the fickle crowds in Jerusalem for very long. In fact, some commentators believe that the 'Hosanna' cry was actually part of the usual Passover wish for the restoration of the Davidic monarchy rather than a direct affirmation of Jesus' messiahship. The people sing in honour of the coming King without fully realising that he is in their midst.

I'm left to wonder whether Jesus himself actually wanted a 'triumphal entry'. Perhaps it's possible to see it more as a 'lowly' entry - particularly seeing as he goes on, in Luke 19:41-44, to ruin any kind of praise-party atmosphere with his jugdgement of Israel when its enemies will come and 'dash them to the ground'.

The Judas I never knew

Our Lent blog has not gone as well as hoped. We haven't had as much response from people. Thanks to all of you have blogged, you've certainly got me thinking.

Today let me encourage you to read this blog by Kester Brewin called The Judas I never knew

Being in the kingdom is a bit like being on an escalator

I like the chandelier thing. It reminds me of something one of the YP said a few Sundays ago when we were looking at Psalm 107 (as part of the lectionary).

The Message translation repeats the phrase:

"Then you called out to God in your desperate condition;
he got you out in the nick of time."

He felt that life is like an escalator, and you're travelling along it, and as soon as you near the end of it (i.e. into danger) God snatches you out and puts you back at the beginning of the escalator - in the nick of time.

He also once said that Jesus was like a Hoover, but I'll leave that for another time.

the kingdom of heaven is like a chandelier

We've just been doing a Lent group at our church in Bristol and it's been great to share stories and have deeper spiritual discussions than the usual post-service 'coffee and fellowship' (?!) time allows. We spent some time talking about some of Luke's stories (prodigal son, great banquet, good samaritan) and we watched a clip from Only Fools and Horses when Rodney and Delboy offer to fix a chandelier. Naturally, all goes wrong and it ends up totally shattered on the floor. I was trying to point out that the kingdom is a restoration of our alienation from God, others and ourselves. Just as the crystal, glass and frame had to be re-connected to each other and then re-fitted to the ceiling in order to function, so the work of the kingdom is to reverses the effects of our alienation and restores us to God, others and ourselves.

You made find some flaws in my theory but I hope it is of some relevance!

We were also struck by a quote from David Thomson, author of 'Lent with Luke' who said: 'One of the saddest things is that one generation's prodigal sons so easily become the next generation's elder brothers.

Hows it going?

I was struggling this morning to think what to write for the blog today and then as they do a random thought popped into my head!

We are about half way through lent now (or there abouts) and I started to reflect on how it was going for me. For lent this year I have given up alcohol. Partly because I signed up to do the Thirst for Life campaign and secondly because some of the young people I work with were attempting to give up smoking (for health/finacial reasons) and I wanted to support them and journey with them through that.

Now on first look to ask myself how is it going I can say its going very well. I haven't drunk any alcohol since Lent began. However I have a feeling this random thought of how is it going has a deeper meaning.

The purpose of Lent should really be to deepen your relationship with God.

So today spend some time asking yourself how is it going with God? Are you closer to Him now than you were at the beginning of Lent? Has going without given you more time to spend with God? Have you been having a wilderness experience of God like so many of the Bible characters?

The bottom line is this. Has this time of going without made any difference at all to your relationship with God? And be really honest with yourself.

God bless.

Did you know that the poet George Herbert wrote a poem for every day of Lent? You can look at them here:

http://www.ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/LenTreeFrames.html

Today's poem is:

Nature

Full of rebellion, I would die
Or fight, or travel, or deny
That you had ought to do with me.
O tame my heart;
It is your highest art
To captivate strong holds to thee.

If you shall let this venom lurk,
And in suggestions fume and work,
My soul will turn to bubbles straight,
And then by kind
Vanish into a wind,
Making your workmanship deceit.

O smooth my rugged heart, and there
Engrave your rev'rend Law and fear;
Or make a new one, since the old
Is sapless grown,
And a much fitter stone
To hide my dust, than you to hold.

One more step

I don’t know about you but I love going on walks exploring new areas, and yes sometimes getting lost, very lost! I am not sure why it gives me such a buzz, I think it is got sometime to do with going form the familiar to the unfamiliar not being sure what is around the next bend!

I’m reminded of the hymn by Sidney Carter with the verse “It’s from the old I travel to the new keep me travelling along with you” The entire bible is about people of faith on a journey with God, God taking them from the familiar to the unfamiliar asking them to trust him, take a risk and believe.

It would be so easy to say NO to God and stay in the familiar surroundings, in what is known as the comfort zone of life. Yet I know in my own life saying NO to God or just putting it off because it’s too hard is not a good idea, God will keep on at you until you give in and say OK God not my will, but your will be done!

At this point, I should warn you that saying Yes to God is risky, as your life will NEVER be the same again! Look at the disciples somewhere fisher-men another tax collector all very ordinary jobs, all very ordinary men then they meet Jesus and everything changed for them there lives would never be the same again!

Lent is a time for us to journey on with God, taking us from the familiar, the safe confines of our lives and taking us to a new place, a place where we can grow as individuals as a worshipping community. I hope and pray that you will say yes to God and that your life will never be the same again, have a nice journey!

And they wondered the wilderness

Here, here, make way for the good ones.

Psalm 3

One of the Psalms from the Lectionary* today is Psalm 3:

Psalm 3

A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

1 O LORD, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!

2 Many are saying of me,
"God will not deliver him."
Selah [a]

3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD;
you bestow glory on me and lift [b] up my head.

4 To the LORD I cry aloud,
and he answers me from his holy hill.
Selah

5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.

6 I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side.

7 Arise, O LORD!
Deliver me, O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.

8 From the LORD comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
Selah

I think this can speak to us something about the meaning of lent. I think sometimes it can feel like the whole world is stacked up against us... and it is important we remember to turn to God in those times.

Footnotes:
* Common Worship Lectionary, Advent 2005-2006, Church House Publishing, 2005
1. Psalm 3:2 A word of uncertain meaning, occurring frequently in the Psalms; possibly a musical term
2. Psalm 3:3 Or LORD , / my Glorious One, who lifts

To know Jesus' story is to be in the story

"The form of the Gospels as stories of a life are meant not only to display that life, but to train us to situate our lives in relation to that life" says Stanley. It is interesting that the gospels, as part of what Andy calls 'God's Big Story', not only invite us to emulate them, but more to actually participate in them. To be a Christian is to be involved with them. In a world of stories that are about escapism, really, the story of Jesus is really the opposite.

There's a literary theory called 'Carnivalesque'. Apologees to real lierary theorists, it never was my strongpoint, but many stories invite you to participate in them. It came from medieval times when once a year one of the oiks of the village would dress up as the landowner, and the vice verse, and everyone would do lots of naughty things they never would normally get away with. They became part of the drama. However, in the end it wasn't real, it was only a story, one that ended. Other parts of this theory talk about the 'lack of footlights' when there is no boundary between say, actors or audience. Somewhere like Disneyland gives you the experience of being part of a story. But again, it's not really happening, it's a fantasy. It's escapism. The story of Easter is that Jesus knew he had to play his allotted part. And the Good News story is one that we can, and must, actually be a part of the story.

(Maybe someone with more insight might like to explain better)...

To Know Jesus is to Follow Him

The form of the Gospels as stories of a life are meant not only to display that life, but to train us to situate our lives in relation to that life. For it was assumed by the churches that gave us the Gospels that we cannot know who Jesus is and what he stands for without learning to be his followers. Hence the ironic form of Mark, which begins by announcing to the reader this is the "good news about Jesus, the anointed one, the son of God," but in depicting the disciples shows how difficult it is to understand the significance of the news. You cannot know who Jesus is after the resurrection unless you have learned to follow Jesus during his life. His life and crucifixion of necessary to purge us of false notions about what kind of kingdom Jesus brings ... Only by following him to Jerusalem, where he becomes subject to the powers of this world, do we learn what the kingdom entails, as well as what kind of messiah this Jesus is.

(Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom, 1983)

Resurrection Blues

I'd just like to recommend a fabulous play I went to see last week at the Old Vic, (London) called 'Resurrection Blues'. It was the last play Arthur Miller wrote before he died: directed by Robert Altman (Gosford Park etc.) and starring the likes of James Fox and Neve Campbell.

It's about the impending televised crucifixion of a peasant who claims to be the Messiah. It's own blurb says it "brilliantly satirises misguided global politics and the predatory nature of a media-saturated culture" and that's true, but for Lent it really connects because it constantly refers back (how could it not) to the Easter story. The play is really watchable but also makes you think about all the ideas crammed in there. The most powerful scene for me was when the director of the TV show arrives, and no one has told her WHAT she is directing. Her total shock at the idea of crucifying someone really hits home.

There is so much in this play that I think I'd do it dis-service to try and explain any more. Go see.

Finding God in garages

Apologees to this lovely lady pictured - Councillor Lisa Spall (Islington). She's not the focus here. To see those beautifully painted garages, Andover Estate, Islington, 2 of each colour alternate, with no graffitti almost 2 years after they were painted like that, was, frankly, my dream come true when this picture leapt at me from the Islington Gazette this week. As part of the 'Soul in the City' project two summers ago, I helped to dust those garages, mask the locks, prime and paint them, pray over them and their owners. We hoped that they'd stay clean, untarnished. They hadn't been painted since they were put there. And their owners (when they noticed) said it was a waste of time and thought we were insane. To be honest, we all wondered what would happen. And fair enough, we didn't turn that estate into a bunch of Christians (and we didn't intend to). But to me, those garages are like finding Jesus in the wilderness.

Focus

A friend recently told the story of meeting a Black Pastor in one of the southern states of the USA. This Pastor said to him, “the problem with you white folk is that you focus on the one hour of Jesus’ die’n to the exclusion of his thirty years of living”.

I guess there’s some truth in this, especially during Lent and Easter time. There are probably many consequences for the death of Jesus becoming detached from his life but one is that we detach the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Our conception of who Jesus is becomes more rooted in our own preferences than in the narrative of the gospels, and our discipleship becomes shallow as if all we know of Jesus is that he died then there’s no journey to go on with him.

So during this period of lent, yes I want to think about why Jesus died, what his death has accomplished. But I also want to reflect upon the Word becoming flesh, his teaching and his life….his resurrection an it’s implications for our lives now.

Searching for God

This morning while I was doing my quiet time a thought came to my mind about the purpose, function and reason for going without or giving something up for lent. Now I know this isn't going to be any groundbreaking theology or radical new discovery, but I just felt that it was God prompting me and maybe you too.

As a youth worker each year we seem to ask the young people what they will be giving up for Lent and the responses are often very predictable. "Chocolate" one cries out and another pipes up "biscuits" and the next speaks of "meat". The smart one is 'giving up giving up"! Every year it's the same, giving up something that is seen as bad/harmful or that would have a positive result for their appearance. All these things (well almost all) are not bad things to cut down or give up, but how does giving up these things for Lent help you with your walk with God. And then the thought hit me. We shouldn't be giving these things up for "Lent" but for God. Its not about observing some ritual or event in the God calendar, it should be about making time for God.

The origins of lent seem to stem from individuals or nations spending time wandering around in deserts and wildernesses looking for, or being shaped by God.

Lent should be about looking for God in unexpected places and to do that we need to create space for it... so if you have given up chocolate, next time you are in the shop, look for God, talk with him and be open to His call on your life.

Wearily we await
Our fate.

We have listened
For three years-
But what comes now?

…We do not understand…

We should trust him:
Before we were weary
And before he came through…
But this…
This is different.

Is this different?

He seems sad of late
Withdrawn
Plaintive

…what is this?
…what can this mean?

We should trust him…
Shouldn’t we?

Wearily we await
Our fate…

Lent and Noah

Some interesting thoughts on the paralells between the Lent story, and the story of Noah here on the Monastic Mumblings blog, which I read quite regularly. Always worth checking out.

mannah

What will God provide, and if we're abstaining in devotion?

Just (don't) try harder

From Maggi:

It's a common misconception that Lent is about self-improvement. Somehow a half-remembered custom of giving things up has been mixed in with our society's obsession with self-help and self-improvement, so that we've blurred the true meaning of the fast into a rather individualistic concept, more like a New Year Resolution to detox or de-clutter.

Lent is not about giving up luxuries, not about losing weight or gaining other benefits, not about food per se, not about de-cluttering or Feng Shui or about ay other kind of feel-good, de-toxifying exercise. In the end, it's about denying yourself some of the essentials of everday life in order to focus on the reality that we depend upon God for life itself; about re-aligning ourselves with God and his purposes in our world; about reminding ourselves that all we have is a gift from God in any case.

And neither is Lent about achievement. We cannot earn God's love, nor save ourselves. If our Lenten Fast is understood well, it will relieve us of the need to try harder, achieve more, feel worthy. It will ground us in the firm and unshakeable knowledge that we are human - we are but dust, and to dust we shall return - but that to be human is enough, under the loving gaze of God.

sign up for lent blog (updated 13/3)

Our lent blog will start next on march 1st.

Feel free to blog anything as long as there is some kind of link to lent.

Try not to make your posts too long ...

Looking forward to see what happens ...

Please indicate a day or days (in comments) when you would like to, or be happy to, blog / don't worry if someone's taken your day, we can have 2 blogs a day ...

Mar 1 - andy goodliff
2 - anderson
3 - maggi dawn
4 - laurence
5 Day-off
6 - ash beck
7 - ash beck
8 - jon bishop
9 - brodie mcgregor
10 - helen swinyard
11 - helen swinyard
12 Day-off
13 - andy goodliff
14 - helen swinyard
15 - ash beck
16 - laurence
17
18
19 Day-off
20
21
22 - jon bishop
23
24
25
26 Day-off
27
28
29
30
31
apr 1
2 Day-off (Mothering Sunday)
3 - andy scott
4
5
6
7
8
9 Day-off (Palm Sunday)
10 - andy scott
11
12
13 (Maunday Thursday)
14 (Good Friday)
15
16 Easter Sunday (end of blog)

Stop,Look and Listen!

When I was about six or seven I would go to the Tuffty Club to learn about Road Saftly, every week we would recite in parrot fasion what we should do before crossing the road, STOP,LOOK and LISTEN. As we journey through Lent I’m reminded that as Christians this is something I should be doing:

We should STOP being so busy, have more time to reflect. Slowing down for God is important, we can be so busy thinking we are serving God that we are truly failing to do what is important to him!

LOOK at what God has and is doing in my life. If we can’t see where we have come from it’s difficult to see where we are going

LISTEN to what God is saying to me and act on it, he may want to change a long held believe, or get me to look at something from a different angle, may be take me deeper into something and show me more of him!

May I wish you all a happy and a holy Lent, don’t forget to STOP,LOOK and LISTEN!!!

we ask you to create space ...

How shall we spend these Lenten days? Will we make space in our lives to pray and fast, to journey with God through the wilderness as Israel and Jesus did? Lent reminds us that our God is the one who forgives and makes all things new.

A prayer from Walter Brueggemann

The pushing and shoving of the world is endless
We are pushed and shoved.
And we do our fair share of pushing and shoving
in our great anxiety.
And in the middle of that
you have set down your beloved suffering son
who was like a sheep led to slaughter
who opened not his mouth.
We seem not able,
so we ask you to create space in our life
where we may ponder his suffering
and your summons for us to suffer with him,
suspecting that suffering is the only way to come to newness.
So we pray for your church in these Lenten days,
when we are driven to denial -
not to notice suffering,
not to engage it,
not to acknowledge it.
So be that way of truth among us
that we should not deceive ourselves.
That we shall see that loss is indeed our gain.
We give you thanks for that mystery from which we live.
Amen.

24 Hour Famine 17-19 Mar

Join in with this year's 24 hour famine, organised by World Vision. I'm planning to get the whole of my church involved this year.

Lent Blog Coming Soon ...

2 weeks until the beginning of Lent. So end of this week/beginning of next, I'll post a sign-up sheet for those who want to get involved in blogging with Ashley and I through Lent.

Thanks - Come back for Lent

Thanks to everyone who was involved in advent blog.
It was a great few weeks of interesting and challenging posts to help us through the advent season.

Ashley and I would like to try a Lent blog - so at somepoint in early February, come back and visit if you'd like to be involved. Hopefully we can get some new bloggers as well.

and advent ended

And advent ended
our waiting over
Christ is born
God with us
God for us

Israel's hope realised
the love of God revealed
Christ is born
God with us
God for us

The holy child discloses
the welcome of our God
Christ is born
God with us
God for us

The main point of it all

For many Christians, Advent is a time to reflect on the central tenet of their faith: the incarnation. The Christmas season underscores what is most basic to them, the idea that God became a man and dwelled among us. The teaching, they say, is the distillation of all things Christian – everything boils down to this most prominent of truths.

Sincere as these people are, I'm forced to disagree with them.

A reading of Jesus' teaching in the gospels, along with the preaching of the primitive church, leads me to the conclusion that Christianity's core message is the kingdom of God. The Christmas story is about Messianic hopes, not metaphysical christology.

Consider the Song of Mary in Luke's gospel:

"He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."

This is the same message that blazed forth from the Hebrew prophets. A great successor to David would come and take the throne, ruling with perfect justice. Peace and goodwill were destined to reign on earth. The knowledge of the Lord would fill the world from the rising of the sun, to its setting.

Angels heralded the beginning of it all in Bethlehem. The realm of God had penetrated the human realm in a new way, never before seen.

We're called to continue what began on that day. The incarnation is not a theological abstraction designed to satisfy speculation about Christ's ultimate identity. It's not a dogma that we merely file away under the "orthodox" tab. It's a reality that we fulfill ourselves in this world.

When we love our neighbors, forgive without end, become like little children and live irreproachable lives, we bring heaven down to earth. The kingdom of God comes with power.

And our work continues. As long as "peace on earth" is absent from any corner of our globe, we Christians have a lot of incarnational work to do.

Art, Imagination and Christian Hope

Just found out about this conference being held at St. Andrew's, which links it quite well to what this blog is all about.

Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts
Research Colloquium, Spring 2006

'Patterns of promise: art, imagination and Christian hope'

27th-29th March 2006
St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, Scotland UK

Hope is an inherently imaginative human disposition.

While securely rooted in something revealed, Christian hope nonetheless also engages our imagination.

In hope, faith reconfigures the shape of what is familiar in order to ‘pattern’ the contours of God’s promised future. In the process, the present is continuously re-shaped by ventures of ‘hopeful’ and expectant living.

In art, this same ‘poetic’ interplay between past, present and future takes particular concrete forms, furnishing vital resources for sustaining an ‘ecology of hope’.

This colloquium will explore our imaginative engagements with the shape of things to come. In particular, we will attend to the contribution that literature, music and painting can make, as they trace ‘patterns of promise’ and so generate hopeful living.

Speakers

* Professor Richard Bauckham, University of St Andrews
* Dr Anna Williams, University of Cambridge
* Professor Paul Fiddes, University of Oxford
* Dr Daniel Chua, King's College, University of London
* Dr Patricia Bruininks, Hendrix College, Arkansas
* Professor Trevor Hart, University of St Andrews
* Professor Jeremy Begbie, University of St Andrews

Listen

so our waiting is nearly over, Christmas is just about upon us. Last night I asked my 7 year old son why Jesus was born, he replied, "so we could get presents". I was a little disappointed in his answer. But that's just it - with all the presents, parties, dinners, TV, visiting family it can be hard to "see" Jesus even if you want to.

So I'm going to use my ears! Babies cry and cry so that no matter what else is going on you hear them. So I'm listening waiting to hear what he wants to say this Christmas.

Waiting for Heaven

From Maggi

Years ago now, just before Christmas, one of my best and closest friends died in his 20's from cancer. We had prayed and hoped for months that there would be a cure, or even a miracle. But as Randy got weaker and thinner, one by one we began to give up on the hope that he would live. It was clear that our prayers were not being answered the way we wanted. I began to pray for his future "life" in terms of the mystical beyond, not physical healing. He had been an aircraft engineer, and loved flying. Sometimes he used to talk about his fantasy that he could fly with God through the universe, looking at the stars and planets. I began to think that was a good metaphor for the timeless, spaceless sinking into God that death might be like.

Sometimes I think the waiting of Advent - waiting for God to break into our world with salvation and redemption - can, if we aren't careful, turn into a fixed idea of what it is we're waiting for. We gather ideas and images of what the redemption will look like, what needs to happen in order for our salvation to be complete. And sometimes when redemption comes it is not at all in the shape we anticipated. Sometimes it doesn't even look particularly redemptive. Sometimes a redemptive moment is disguised under moments of shock and grief, and we have to wait a while. Only when the shock of events begins to recede do we begin to understand that redemption is hidden in the shadows of current events, waiting to dawn on us when the right moment comes.

Death seems pretty bleak as an answer to prayer. But even a shortened life still has its impact. Even now, years later, I still sometimes think I see Randy's extraordinary clear blue eyes looking into mine, searching for honesty, looking for the answer I'm afraid to articulate. Even now, his legacy to me is to make me brave enough to tell the truth, to myself most of all, regardless of whether other people approve.

Earlier this year I collected up a lot of poems and prayers about death while I was planning a memorial service. I came across this one, which was originally written for Jonny's father . It fits the theme rather aptly of transforming our idea of what we are waiting and praying for. Sometimes our prayers get answered, but not at all in the way we've envisaged.

it was a marvellous healing;
after the months of asking,
of waiting;
after the desperate, slow deterioration,
the warring tides
of faith and doubt:
to be released in an instant,
from every pain.
it was as if the very molecules of his flesh
had been infused, invaded,
with the life of God,
until he was filled, fit to burst,
with the Shalom, the peace,
of the Father's rule.
limbs that had fallen flaccid with weakness
waved and danced with joy;
lungs that had so utterly failed him
sang out with strength and boldness.

he ran
through the unfamiliar sunlight,
drinking it in,
experiencing all at once
the thousand and one feelings
that for so long had been denied him.

it was a marvellous healing:
to be so totally restored,
made whole,
rebuilt.
it had just surprised him,
a little,
that he had had to die
to receive it.

(gerard kelly)

a question of observation?

The last two saturdays I have spent in London. The first one was because I needed to book plane tickets with my travel agent. This was Sta Travel on Kings Cross. After we'd booked, my friend and I decided to head to Oxford Street and see if we could pick up anything good in HMV.

this saturday gone, I and a different friend headed down to Camden Lock to pick up a few slightly odder gifts. Following this, we headed down to Leicester Square and Charing Cross Road because I needed the loo and wanted to look in the bookshops.

Both days I expected it to be manic. I expected Oxford Street and Leicester Square to be full of insane people who want that bargain or ticket and are prepared to kill me if it means getting there 0.2 seconds quicker. This is what Oxford Street is normally like. I've been there on non-seasonal occasions and, within 20 minutes, been quite ready to spill the blood of the next person who pushes me.

But, the 2 last weekends before Christmas, and the place was... relatively quiet. I've been on busier days. much busier days. Apart from the 300 odd people dresses as santa and protesting that they want Christmas and want it now (genius) and singing carols that are slightly altered, such that they are about booze (also genius); it was pretty empty.

This tells me one of 3 things.
1) everyone is so efficient that they all finished their Christmas shopping in July.
2) everyone has ordered their gear from the internet.
3) people aren't buying as much.

I hope it's 3. Very much. So my inner cynic is at war with my inner optimist....

May you all have a Christmas and New Year full of peace and devoid of debt and materialism.

Be happy!

Right, this isn;t exactly going to be my most amazing peice of writing, as I have little over three minutes before I go off to panto all day...

The anticipation! I am strangely in a good mood today; I feel Christmassy and full of goodwill. Which is always fun. But anyway. I'm not really sure what I want to say, except that we should be happy... This has been hard for me over the last few nights; I've been having trouble with friends, they keep doing things that annoy me, for instance spending the whole time gossiping and slagging people off, and trying to get me to join in etc etc... But I feel on top of things today. I read last night "if you don;t forgive your fellow man (or woman ;) then God won't forgive us. Which is fair enough.

So anyway, back to advent. I think that this time of year should be full of goodwill etc. I think it's time I started to enjoy God's love abit more. Show a little kindness, instead of hate. Stick with Him through and through, because I have just found out that it's quite cool at the end of it. We have soo much to be thankful for! :D

So be happpppppppppppyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! :D :D :D

Let it rain.

FRANKLY MY DEAR, I DON'T GIVE A DAMN*

What do you seeee?
The lights not yet here, fantastically.
But you keep waving your hands,
throwing vases and smiles.
Wrap up in rugs and wait a while longer.


*With thanks to the Reverend Graeme for this title.

On Frango Mints and the Reign of God

This Advent I am preparing to celebrate Christmas with my family in our new home in Cambridge. So far our transition to life in the UK has been relatively smooth and fairly painless. In fact the vast majority of the time, we simply love it here.

But Advent and Christmas are saturated with memories and associations. Maybe more than any other time of year, Christmas and the time leading up to it are redolent with sights, sounds, smells and tastes that transport us to another time, another place. And so the more I have experienced Advent and the anticipation of Christmas here, the more I am – ironically – somewhere else.

Frango Mint Chocolates are one of my memories not only of Christmastime but also of my hometown, Chicago. They are made and sold by Marshall Field’s Department Stores, and both the candies and the stores are distinctly Chicago institutions. Frangos are a popular Christmas gift and end-of-the-year indulgence. They are a sultry, luxurious delight, chocolate and mint melting in your mouth, leaving your taste buds begging for more.

My in-laws, who have come to spend the holidays with us, were good enough to bring us a box. I leapt on them. (In fact, I ate three while composing the last paragraph – purely for research, you understand.) And tasting them, I found myself standing on State Street, in the heart of Chicago’s Loop, in front of Marshall Field’s, as a child, standing in the snow, looking in at the Christmas windows with my parents. This one taste vividly summoned for me sights and sounds of a quarter century ago. Memory is an amazing thing.

But what if it’s not only meant to work in reverse?

What if we are also meant to remember in advance?

As every year passes, I become more attracted to the Advent theme of looking ahead – not just to the coming of Jesus in the manger, but the return, the final Advent of Jesus. We look for that final return when things will be set right, justice and peace will embrace, when the whole creation will know God, and God will be all in all.

I know we usually talk about this in terms of hope, and I don’t disagree. But I have a harder time getting my arms around hope. It feels more abstract, more like a pie-in-the-sky, wish-upon-a-star kind of thing.

But what if instead of just hoping for something which is not yet, we could remember something which is not fully yet? What if a sight, sound, smell, taste or texture could capture us and transport us to another time and place, which is yet future? What if we could take that small, fertile memory and let it open up into an incalculably larger picture? It seems to me that this would allow us to see, hear, smell, taste and touch the reign of God which is already here through the ministry of Christ, and which is not yet here in its fullness.

When we are reconciled with someone, when we see justice done, when we reach out across a surprising boundary, when someone feels the energy and vision which can only be called new life, when the poor or the suffering find hope and deliverance, when someone comes to God – or returns to God – these help us to re-member, to put together again the whole from parts, of what lies ahead of us in God. And, I think, it leaves us begging for more.

This vivid anticipation, this remembering in advance, is a means of nourishment for our waiting, watching, working and worshipping for the day when it will be complete. In short, perhaps, it will be a way of cultivating a hopeful imagination.

the dark side

I love advent, the countdown, the candles, the excitement, the Christmas cards, the carols and the lights. But it has a dark side, lurking, ready to jump up and blow out the candles and stamp on your mince pie. It's the consumer side to advent.

As the day draws nearer the pressure builds: find the right gift for the right person becomes find anything that will do (and fast). I am sure there are little gremlins that grow increasingly stronger, feeding on the blind panic of Christmas shoppers who don’t have a clue where to start. Fazed with a dazzling array of choices and offers the poor shopper slowly begins to suffocate in a dense fog of pressure and confusion.

On Christmas Eve fever pitch hits. The gremlins reach the height of their power and you can easily spot the haunted souls who have fallen foul of their schemes. You see them piling high baskets with gifts and food that family and friends will probably not like or never open. Auntie Vera really will never use that luxury bath oil and Uncle Arthur already has 3 pairs of unworn, extra warm totes non-slip socks that you got him in 2004,3&2.

What have we done with Advent? How have we let it become this consumer binge? You have probably heard of the Oxfam Unwrapped or Christian Aid's Present Aid, or another such scheme. I like them. They are like pure water in a sea of filth. They offer us an alternative and a perspective on the world that we're not going to find amongst Boots' 3-for-2 offers. I am plucking up the courage for the Christmas that everyone I love simply gets a chicken, or if they are really special a donkey. But for now I am incorporating it gently a tree here, a water tap there...

The most important thing we can gain this Advent is a little bit more self-awareness: who we are in the world and the riches and power we hold over people we will never meet. So, I would encourage you, when the gremlins come to over-whelm you this Christmas: resist, stop, think and put the shopping in perspective. Maybe even get a donkey instead?

Coming, ready or not

From Maggi:

Just over eight years ago I was a PhD student, an ordinand (priest-in-training), and five months pregnant. The pregnancy was on course; it looked like this baby was really going to be born. So I needed the relevant information on maternity leave for Ordinands, what would happen to my funding, housing allowances etc., ... you know the kind of thing.

I went up to see my tutor at Theological College - a kind and humorous woman, who could be formidable when necessary. I discovered that to date, there was no policy on maternity leave or funding breaks for pregnant Ordinands. I don't think I was the first woman to have a baby mid-training, but there had been so few thus far that there wasn't any established pattern. I sat in my tutor's study while she phoned the relevant grant-awarding bodies, Diocesan and National offices, trying to get some kind of game plan together. After some long, frustrating phone calls, I heard the mumbling of a man's voice at the other end of the phone, and then my Tutor's terse reply: 'It may well be that you don't have any policies. But what you don't seem to understand is that the birth of this baby can not be postponed. This baby will be born in four months' time whether you have policies or not.'

I like the fact that the coming of God into our world was realised in something as inconvenient, unpredictable and untidy as the birth of a baby. A baby will be born when it's ready. It makes no difference whether we are ready for it (who is ever 'ready' for a baby?). But regardless of policies, theologies and leadership structures, and irrespective of postmodern theories and conventions and housegroups, God will come and be born in our world.

Birth is a great leveller. It is always messy and inconvenient, painful and undignified. It is usually joyful, often frightening, sometimes tragic. It happens to those who are ready and those who are not. Babies break up the order of our lives, and defy the plans of even the most organised of mothers-to-be. Birth isn't fair or controllable: it sometimes comes quickly and easily to people who are unprepared, and with agonised diffuculty to those who have a meticulous birth plan.

So it is with God. He will be born in our world whether we're ready or not, deserving or not, prepared or not. The incarnation of God will defy our plans, upset the organised, and come with ease and rapturous joy to undeserving sinners and the poor in spirit.

'Now let your love be born in us,
O come, Lord Jesus, Come.'

Waiting for the Prince of Peace

I find I am in such a state of waiting this morning, I don't know what to write. John Dominic Crossan, I believe, reminded us that Caesar was called the Prince of Peace, and that the message in naming Jesus the Prince of Peace was to send a message to the Romans that peace is not the out come of beating others into submission, but is the result of making peace first, not as the quiet between the wars.

We are waiting for friends held in Iraq. The four CPT members. We wait with prayers for a good outcome, waiting for peace, waiting for hope, waiting so hard that I feel separated from the wait for "Christmas". In my neighborhood, it means walking sober through crowds last Seventh Day (Sat.) crowds of young people dressed in Santa Claus suits for a newly emerged holiday, the weekends before Christmas, Santa pub crawls, where bands of rowdy people stager around the streets drunk and dressed as Santa Claus.

Before my separation from that was a sort of bemused, "och, look at that..." Now, I am just sad.

But Jesus taught us an important thing. He taught us to seek joy in the worst times. To find peace in days like these. Last night at a meeting for worship with a concern for business, we spoke for a time about our friends, now missing... and a message came to me, that we may find joy in the expressions of tenderness for our friends from people and organizations hardened by war. Another friend said yes, that the hardest hearts are touched by loving truth. That the other day, a friend showed him a fragment of cloth. She told him it was a piece of the wedding dress of Mary Dyer, the Quaker martyr. It had come down in her family. She was the descendent of the man who hanged her. He had become convinced of Quakerism by Mary Dyer's courage.

Waiting for peace.

(A) History of Advent

Maggi gives us some of the history behind the season of advent here. It seems you can always count on Maggi to either know this sort of stuff or the places to find it out.

Advent; about God or us?

Apologies first of all for not blogging yesterday, my dad locked the office then went off to Edinburgh with the key in his pocket! Sorry, this is meant to be for the 9th.


Advent - a time of waiting. For lighting candles, praying, meditating, anticipating, looking forward, waiting with all our hearts. But what is this in reality? Are we really waiting on a God so amazing, to give us the ultimate present of all time? Or have we put God in a box again, forgetting to open the lid, squishing Him out of our busy routines each day?

What are we actually doing for Him this advent?

Walking down the street today, amongst the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, past signs of "Tis the seasin to be merry!" and other such revelating messages, it struck me how pointless it all was. We dive in and out of shops, picking up useless rubbish, indoctrinated about the fact that we must buy stupid pointless stuff for the sake of buying... Aren't we meant to be waiting? Aren't we meant to be waiting and watching and seeking for Him to make a move in our lives, our hearts, our souls? How many of us, every time we pick up a future-present for someone actually think what the giving is all about? Not many I'm guessing. We shove it in our bag, with a mutter of "Cath will like that, this'll do for Aunt May..."

I know this is turning into a rant... forgive me for that, please!! But, my message is this: God gave us the most astonishing life-changing present there is. To us. Sinful little earthlings. He gave us his son, His most valuable thing. And all we do in return is skit around being pressurised by one another to buy everyone rubbish and put God on hold for a while, while we get our shopping done.

I think it's time to stop. I think it's time to see where we stand. I think it's time we did something different this advent, and, indeed, this Christmas. Let's give a present back to God. Let's give Him our lives. Let's truly and thoroughly wait on Him. Let's seek Him with every ounce of our being. Let's ask Him where we are, what we should do, and listen for the answer that comes.

Let's give this advent back to God.

In the Beginning

The trinity was from the beginning Father, son and Holy Spirit!

Yet God sent his son into our sinful world not as a fully-grown man but as a helpless babe, fully human but at the same time fully God.

Just think for a second, what it was like for the “son” Jesus to be born into this world with the wisdom of God in his head and heart yet being fully dependant on us mere humans, eek to look after him!

This brings the hymn Servant king into a whole new light for me.


From heaven you came, helpless babe,
Entered our world, your glory veiled;
Not to be served, but to serve,
And give Your life, that we might live.

This is our God, the Servant King,
He calls us now, to follow Him,
To bring our lives, as a daily offering
Of worship to, the Servant King.

There in the garden, of tears,
My heavy load, he chose to bear;
His heart with sorrow, was torn,
'Yet not My will, but Yours,' He said.

Come see His hands, and His feet,
The scars that speak, of sacrifice;
Hands that flung stars, into space
To cruel nails, surrendered.

So let us learn, how to serve,
And in our lives, enthrone Him;
Each other's needs, to prefer,
For it is Christ, we're serving.


Imagine if you will for a moment a helpless babe throwing stars into space?

Why did God put himself through this, why not just turn the air off and start again afresh with a new set of humans, this would have been much easier, but not our God, God loved his son so much and he loves us just as much despite the fact we keep mucking things up!

Imagine if you had a son who of course you loved, would you send him to die without going through all the other possibilities first, weighing up all the pose and cons!

But we can see that he must have done this and the only option he had as our loving God was to send the one sinless thing he had, his one and only son to die for us so we could have that relationship back with the father which he longed for, he died for you and for me!

God came to earth to die for us, is that not a totally awesome thought, he was born and ministered among us knowing that he would die for us, he died for us to live.

God came to us, as at Christmas as a present to a sinful world, at Easter he was broken like an egg for us to have new life!

Waiting and Longing

From Maggi

Waiting is a bit of a recurring theme on my blog. It's a theme that comes to the fore between Ascension Day and Pentecost, when Jesus told his disciples to go and WAIT in Jerusalem. He was none too specific about how long to wait, or even what to wait for. "Power from on high" was the mysterious promise. But wait they did, and when the curious promise was fulfilled, they were in no doubt that it had happened.

Lent is also about waiting, but not so much waiting FOR as waiting ON - putting the rest of life on hold to wait in a consciously devoted way for the presence of God to pervade the soul. Lent waiting has a wilderness quality to it - a deprivation of the things of ordinary life in order to become one with God.

Advent waiting has a subtly different touch to it. This is a waiting with hope and anticipation for God to break into our world. According to Christian tradition, the first waiting is for the Messiah or Saviour to enter the world - a waiting and anticipation reflected in the promises of God to the Patriarchs, the dreams of the prophets, and the prayers of generations of saints. The second waiting is for the return of Christ in glory, heralding the end of this era. Advent is waiting for Christmas, but it's also waiting for the great maranatha.

Waiting for the Messiah was not a passive waiting, but an aching, a longing, a reaching-towards. I love the words of Simeon, a very, very old man who had spent his whole life waiting and longing for the salvation of Israel. Did he know what he was waiting for? Probably not, in exact terms. But somehow when he saw the child Jesus he just knew that this, at last, was what he had been waiting for. "Now, Lord," said Simeon, "now I can die happy. Now I've seen the thing I've been waiting for all my life. Now I am fulfilled." (Luke 2: 25-32)

There is a paradox in this that sums up so much of our faith - the drive to reach out, move forwards and make something happen is constrained by the need to wait on, wait for, the initiative of God's spirit. You can't force the work of God. Neither can you go to sleep on the job. I suppose that gives us our model of waiting for Christ in glory too - although here, perhaps like waiting for Pentecost, or for death, the promise has very little tangible shape to it because it is a matter of waiting for something beyond our experience. We have no categories or pictures with which to describe what it means that Christ will come again in glory. We just know, somehow, that while we live in celebration that God has broken into our world, yet we are still waiting and longing for something more. Like Bono said, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for." Not a passive waiting though - not just lying back despondently, waiting for God to come and fix things. Living to the full, building the "kingdom of heaven" here and now, in the only life that we know we have. But doing it from a well of hopeful dissatisfaction. Waiting and longing.

Like a child

You came to us as a child, vulnerable and defenseless, and it's as a child I must come to you this Advent, this Christmas. But not just any child, for most look among the tree's, tinsel, presents, and some event look for you in the 'nativity scene'. But you are not to be found there .....no you are the vulnerable and defensless one and it is amoung them that you are still to be found.

Oh that I could be that kind of child - vulnerable and defensless, able to lay aside my cares and possesions so as to find you were you are and not where I'd want you to be.

Finger Pointing

How discouraging it is to see people pointing their fingers at others so often, passing the blame, whether in business, politics, the church, wherever. And, if we are honest, I suspect that we will find some of this in ourselves as well. When our back is against the wall, when we are confronted, we find ourselves pointing at someone else.

There’s a lot of finger pointing in yesterday’s gospel reading for the second Sunday of Advent (Mark 1:1-8), too. After Mark’s rather bald preamble, he points to Isaiah. Isaiah in turn points to John the Baptizer. John is perhaps the biggest finger-pointer of all time, pointing at the one who is to come, Jesus. And Jesus, perhaps self-conscious from being pointed at so much, doesn’t even enter the scene!

But this is a different kind of finger pointing. Rather than simply passing the buck, these fingers are pointed to bear witness to Jesus the Messiah, the righteous one, as Mark says at the beginning. This isn’t finger pointing to avoid the truth, but to attest to the One who is the truth.

It’s worth spending some time pondering this finger pointing, for as the theologian Karl Barth says, “the church stands in the tradition of John the Baptist. What it can and should do is point an outstretched finger: ‘Behold the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.’” In other words, the vocation of John the Baptizer is our own vocation: to bear witness to the one who is powerful and worthy and who brings the Holy Spirit; and we are to point to the truth, love and goodness of Jesus Christ both in our words and in our lives.


In what ways do you, your family, your friends, your parish, already point to the coming Lord?

After we have mentioned the obvious (and important) notion of telling others about Jesus, what other ways are there for making our lives embodied “pointings” to Jesus?

Will this always look “religious”? How would it look?

What might the Spirit be calling you to do? What specific, concrete action might you take this week to grow in becoming one who points to Jesus Christ?

Waiting and Preparing.

Advent is a time of year that the Church has largely neglected of late. There is so much, in our western culture, to prepare for in December. Christmas, of course, with it's family get-togethers, gifts, dinners, parties, visits to pubs, church services... And of course there is New Year's Eve at the end of the month. It's not suprising that Advent get's relegated to chocolate "count-down calendars" in the wake of Christmas itself.

I think the blog thing here is largely about re-capturing Advent. In days gone by, where Christmas wasn't quite so shiney and musical, the Church held Advent as a time of waiting, preparing for the coming of the Christ Child. Preparing, in a spiritual sense, not just preparing dinners and wrapping gifts. Imagine the anticipation. the excitement. Imagine how you felt at 8 years old waiting to see what santa would bring... and times it by a million. Let us look forward to Christmas with anticipation and longing, and let us prepare, now, our hearts for that miraculous event.

God of the watching ones,
give us Your benediction.

God of the waiting ones,
give us Your good word for our souls.

God of the watching ones,
the waiting ones,
the slow and suffering ones,
give us Your benediction,
Your good word for our souls,
that we might rest.

God of the watching ones,
the waiting ones,
the slow and suffering ones,

and of the angels in heaven,

and of the child in the womb,

give us Your benediction,
Your good word for our souls,
that we might rest and rise
in the kindness of Your company.

And evening prayer for blessing during Advent, from Celtic Daily Prayer, The Northumbria Community, Collins, 2000

before

IT DON'T MATTER IF YOU'RE BLANK OR WHITE

And I thought - haha
to sit in his sight, even before his eyes.
The more I thought of it, the sillier I became.
Maybe I'm overcome, maybe he'll come.

our watching time

And so our watching time begins,
time for watching and waiting, for looking and longing,
for dreaming and wishing.

It is our time for lighting candles and looking for stars,
for opening calendar windows and counting the nights.

It is our time for the story,
the ancient story that weaves into our winters
stitching mystery and hope and a pure-gold thread into our long dark evenings.

It is our time to gather around the yule log that’s burning in the grate
and listen for the shepherds knocking at the door.

Our watching time is our precious time,
to wait for the moment that we will gather
around the tiny baby and the exhausted mother
and bring our treasures and lay them at their feet.

It is our waiting time.
For the travellers to arrive,
and the birth to begin.

And so we watch.
For the singing in the skies and the change in the wind.
For the light through the winter fog and the pull in our souls

It is our watching time

What's Andrew got to do with it?

Today is St Andrews’s day, a day on which the Scots, Russians and Greeks who have him as their patron saint do ….? Well what do we do? To be honest I’m not sure what most Scot’s do, we seem to have kept the day and lost all the traditions.

I must admit that I’ve struggled a bit with this falling within advent. I mean whose idea was it to let St. Andrews day fall within advent, should our focus not be 100% on Jesus? Is this not a distraction from the “main thing?”

I thought about this as I walked home last night and concluded that it is actually quite appropriate for us to think about St Andrews day during advent.

My sense of knowing that as a Scot I’m supposed to do something today but I know not what is perhaps like many who know there’s something special about advent and that there’s more to it than candles and coat hangers (this only makes sense if you grew up watching Blue Peter). But they don’t know what to do. We (i.e. society at large) have this period of advent and Christmas day but we’ve lost the context. So here’s the challenge….do I spend advent reflecting upon Emanuel in a privatistic or narcissistic way? Or is part of my reflection upon the birth of Jesus the imperative to help others to find Him, to this advent discover what it’s all about. This leads me to my second thought.

God is Emmanuel

Advent a time of preparation, preparation of the heart and mind, Like Lent it’s also a penitential time to reflect and seek forgiveness in readiness to receive Christ a fresh in our lives!

God is Emanuel which means God is with us, he’s right in the depths of over lives, of our very beings, experiencing everything we go through, and saying its ok I’m here!

But isn’t it sometimes (maybe all the time) hard to see Christ at work in the lives of:

The Homeless
Drug Addict
Person with Mental Illness
Person with a Terminal Illness
Those who have just given up
Those in Prison

God comes to all of us and says I am here, rest on me I will give you strength for today and forever. Our challenge today is to seek God in each other to encourage each other on our Advent journey to our Bethlehem!

questions to ponder

As advent begins ...

some questions to ponder ...

Who are we looking forward to?
Who are we hoping for?
Who are we anticipating?
Who are we dreaming of?
Who are we in love with?
Who are we thinking about inside?
Who are we eager to avoid?
Who are we trusting in?
Who are we uneasy around?
Who are we giving our time to?
Who are we shopping for?
Who are we ambitious to become?
Who are we forgetting?
Who are we guilty of lying to?
Who are we impatient with?
Who are we loved by?


May God bless you
may God shine his face upon you
and give you peace

advent blog 05

advent blog starts next week ... (updated again 29 nov)

Our advent blog will start next week. Thanks to all of you who have agreed to blog with us over the next few weeks, you should receive an invitation via blogger soon ...

Feel free to blog anything as long as there is some kind of link to advent.

Try not to make your posts too long ...

Looking forward to see what happens ...

Please indicate a day or days (in comments) when you would like to, or be happy to, blog / don't worry if someone's taken your day, we can 2 blogs a day ...

28 nov - andy goodliff
29 nov - anderson marsh
30 nov - brodie mcgregor
1 dec - yasmin finch
2 dec - laurence craig
3 dec - ashley beck
4 dec - day of advent blogging rest
5 dec - jason fout
6 dec - brodie mcgregor
7 dec - maggi dawn
8 dec - steve goodliff
9 dec - flick
10 dec - anderson marsh
11 dec - day of advent blogging rest
12 dec - lorcan
13 dec - maggi dawn
14 dec - yasmin finch
15 dec - jason fout
16 dec - laurence craig
17 dec - flick
18 dec - day of advent blogging rest
19 dec - ashley beck
20 dec - maggi dawn
21 dec - brodie mcgregor
22 dec - steve goodliff
23 dec - Steve Jones
24 dec - andy goodliff

advent blog coming soon ...

at the end of november advent - the beginning of the christian year begins, taking us to christmas.

ash beck and myself are hoping to get a group of people together to blog us through, reflecting on its meaning and helping us open our imaginations ...

so keep a look out ...

Charlie and the Chocolate Family

The other night I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Tim Burton-directed, Jonny Depp-starring blockbuster. What was interesting to observe is how much of Roald Dahl's book is now even more true than when he originaly wrote it in 1964: Augustus Gloop represents all the children with weight and poor diet problems; Vercua Salt represents all the children who know only the language of 'I want'; Violet Beauregarde represents all the children for who first place alone matters (encouraged by an education system that says results, degrees and top-earning jobs are life's only priority); and Mike Teavee all the children who are addicted to television and computer games.

What perhaps the Tim Burton film also brought out, intentionally or not, was the childishness of our adults, especially Willy Wonka. Willy Wonka represents all those adults who remain children. Perhaps more sad was the fact that Willy Wonka's childishness is, the film suggests, due to his father. It seems today everyone has a problem with their dad - or that is what the media (and the church?) would suggest. We never see good examples of good dads. To the point if you have no real problem with your dad, you are somehow strange

Edinburgh, 2/7/05

When we got to The Meadows, the place was packed. A little later, we saw that there was, in fact, another area with another stage that was as big as the bit we were in, which was more amazing. The media report there were 225,000 people in Edinburgh for the march, and I can well believe it.

Unlike Hannah, I was not suprised at the anti-G8 messages at the event. I knew in advance that Dissent! and G8Alternatives were going to be there, as well as the Clown Army and all the usual protest crowd. If you read IndyMedia regularly you get to know who is going to go to a protest, irrespective of what that protest is for. To me, I think there is a grain of truth in the idea that the G8 is essentially a part of the problem. It is a meeting of the leaders of the 8 richest countries in the world, and their aim is, first and foremost, to make sure it stays that way. To the anti-capitalist groups, that makes them the enemy.

However, I was disappointed by the amount of groups that were at the event for their own agendas. There was a vast amount of people who go to every British protest held, and frankly I don't think they remember what event they're at from one day to the next. They unfurl their CND and Peace and Anarchy! banners and march with everyone else, not quite knowing where they are or why they're there. There is a grain of truth in most of their claims, but this event is not about war, it's not about saying Bush is a terrorist and it's not about ousting the Imperial War Machine in favour of a Marxist utopia. It is simply about making poverty history; about making sure that we stand up and take responsibility for our brothers and sisters around the world who are dying, regularly, because of things that we wouldn't even take a day off work for.

What did touch me, though, was that there were more "normal" people there than there normally are at protests. Aside from the protest regulars and the odd few people that decided to go along because it was a nice day and all the shops were shut anyway, there were about 200,000 everyday folk. People that don't protest. People that have never been to a rally. People that don't spend their spare time tie-dying shirts and selling Ban the Bomb badges at car-boot sales.

These people were, for the most part, there because they've had enough of the global injustice that is extreme poverty. And, to me, this was amazing.

Being honest, getting to Edinburgh was a chore... I didn't do the driving, but it's a long old trek from Hertfordshire and it's quite uncomfortable and takes a fair bit of effort. The event wasn't too exciting. The closest we got to a celebrity was Billy Boyd, and the music bands I heard weren't especially to my taste. (Unfortunately I didn't see Baba Maal). It was good, and there was a happy atmosphere, but it was no Live8. And I think that is the point.

It's been quite sad to see most of the corporate media didn't report on Edinburgh much, if at all. As Hannah said, there would probably have been more coverage if things had got riotous. Indeed, look at BBC today and you'll see that is pretty much proven: The Carnival of Full Enjoyment taking place today and organised by the anti-capitalist groups, has enjoyed far more corporate coverage because it has enjoyed far more police intervention. Which is sad.

It is sad that, when I asked someone I know if he recorded Live8 he responded "yeah, but I cut out all the political bits to save space." It is sad that Live8, which is clearly run with the best intentions in the world, had overshadowed the real events this weekend in the Media.

My hope is that the leaders of the G8 notice the genuine attitude of the people at these events who are campaigning against poverty, and that they don't lose sight of the real issues in a sea of media gloss and revolutionary sub-agendas. There are other important issues to be addressed, such as climate change, but poverty is what it's really about right now, and this is no time to bring our other agendas into the mix.

Was it worth going? Undeniably.
Would I go again? Of course.
Will it have the effect desired? Let us pray.

Make Povery History: My Reflections

The event was quite a learning experience, never before had I been to something like this. I felt quite uncomfortable hearing some of the attitudes held by some of the people who had turned up at the event. Many people were voicing anti-G8 messages and using the event as an opportunity to express their opinions on the war in Iraq. Personally, I found this unhelpful and offensive. It upset me that the event was being hijacked and the focus for some people was not on “making poverty history”. Nevertheless, seeing such a huge turn out was very moving and it was clear who was there for the real cause.
We spent most of our time hearing about the work of the different organisations under the “make poverty history” banner and having the opportunity to make our concerns known to the G8 leaders. People were encouraged to write a message on a white band which would be sent to the G8 leaders. This is something that “The Lounge” had done with us the week before and so we were able to post their messages with ours.
Unfortunately, due to the large turn out we were unable to take part in the march. We had been queuing to do so for about an hour with little progress when the minute’s silence took place. I was feeling quite tired and getting quite impatient at this point. I felt trapped, as there was no other known way out of the venue. That minute reminded me why we were really there. It was not for our own personal gain. I thought of those who are imprisoned by poverty and have no escape. Parents struggling to feed their children and doing anything possible to earn the little money they can. Those people are tired; those people have something to be restless about.
Spending the day considering these issues and hearing about the work of the many organisations involved in “make poverty history” has encouraged me to challenge the way that I live and to get further involved in the campaign.