Friday Silence...

It is the silence involved with the whole thing I find most unsettling...most compelling.

Silence in trial, long silences on the cross, prophetic fulfilment of ancient words...Isaiah 53:6-8.

Every year the local churches in my area in an unaccustomed act of unity have a 'march of witness'. This involves a short 'walk' following a carried cross along the street, stopping at various churches to have some Scripture read above the noise of the passing traffic.

As a piece of dramatic witnessing theatre I think that such an event in its weakness and vulnerability has meaning and significance.

Yet, I have struggled with it. For those who walked wanted to talk to one another (fellowship?). Some to hand out tracts (evangelism?). Some to dress in bright clothes (joy over victory?). Me I wanted a different kind of theatre - one of silence. People waking, saying nothing, just walking, behind a cross - silent in defiance of noise and words, silent and vulnerable, defiantly silent refusing to justify, refusing to explain, just bearing witness in silence, raising questions but offering no answers.

Yes, yes, words will come. Some from the Cross - 'Forgive' and after more silence words from the Tomb - 'He has Risen' - but not yet, please not yet...Lent has been long...but hold it still...keep the words at bay...let the silence be heavy with anticipation, painful, just a bit longer...so that when words are spoken they come finally with the power of a whisper to deafen, and ring like an incredible announcement of Good News.

I'm not walking this year. Don't want to talk.

Poetry of the Passion: I See His Blood Upon the Rose

During Holy Week I am posting on several poems which take me deeper into Holy Week. A couple of weeks ago, while reading through George Macleod's papers at the National Library of Scotland, I came across a number of typed poems. Macleod, the founder of the Iona Community, wrote some original poetry - but the one quoted here isn't one of them. There is a slim folder with poems copied from elsewhere, clearly important to Macleod.

Given his hostility to nuclear weapons and his profound theology of creation, incarnation and redemption, he developed a theological rationale for his anti-nuclear position. To split the atom, the constituent parts of reality, in order to release energy for purposes of human destruction, was for Macleod blasphemy. In creation, incarnation and redemption, matter became sacramental.

The following poem, read during Holy Week, explains something of Macleod's passion, and I use the word in both senses - emotional intensity and personal suffering. Few Kirk ministers approached Holy Week with more solemnity, or imbued it with more unsettling mystery. Part of the ambiguity and tangle of human affairs is that the poet of this remarkable poem (pictured above), was a signatory of the Declaration of the Irish Republic in 1916, a writer of such beautiful and spiritual perceptiveness, was executed for treason by the British Army, and at the time Macleod would have approved. Following the First War Macleod became a convinced pacifist and took time to type out this poem, written by an Irish Republican, whose spiritual vision of nature as sacrament of God paralleled Macleod's own deep sense of God's costly entanglement with His creation.

I See His Blood Upon the Rose
by Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887-1916).

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of His eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but His voice -- and carven by His power
Rocks are His written words.

All pathways by His feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

extravagance

Yesterday our reading was from John's account of Mary pouring perfume over Jesus' feet (John 12.1-11). We ended up in a discussion about this action. I was reminded of Stuart's comments on the verse 'you will always have the poor with you' and also Sam Well's comments in his lent book Power and Passion:

The perfume was worth a year's wages. Think of all the useful things that could have been done with such a sum of money ... there is a nagging anxiety that the criticism is right - that waste is wrong in principle, and the waste of transferable wealth that could benefit the disadvantaged is invariably wrong in practice. Such a view deep down assummes that the fundamental problem with the world is the shortage of resources and that the fundamental solution is an incremental redistribution of those resources. Simply to pour resources away - to empty a jar of pure nard - is thus a terrible thing. But this view, though widely held, does not seem to be Jesus' view. Jesus does not live in a world of scarity. For him, the defining force is the love of his Father, of which there is more than an enough for everybody and plently besides. For Jesus, the glorious abundance of the women's perfume epitomizes the extravagant nature of God's love in sending his own Son. (166-167)

Why the Cross?

Noting the gender exclusive language as a feature of the time the following is an exerpt from a Lenten sermon broadcast on radio in 1934 by Iona Community founder, anti-nuclear weapon campaigner, and preacher - George MacLeod.

'Getting music out of what is left of life; being stricken with blindness and yet continuing to see supremest visions (this a reference to Milton whom he has earlier quoted); fighting a duel with a sword – and when the sword gets broken, fighting on with the hilt: carrying on the same task – in any sphere – more brilliantly when the untoward happens and the crisis comes. Whenever we get a clean-cut example of undiscouraged pluck, it reaches down into our hearts to make music – sweeter than all the stories of success – and strikes a reverberating chord that we know is true, explain it as we may.

God, having put a Cross at the centre of the world’s mystery, also put it into men’s hearts to respond to crosses.

It is here that we see the first- if not the main- purpose of why God may have let it happen. Christ always preached self-sacrifice in His life, and not only in His death. But the Cross, coming at the end, stands clear cut and incisive, reflecting, as in some brilliant miniature, the larger framework of His whole life’s message. His life from start to finish was like a sun giving warmth to all who came within its rays; but in His Cross that same sun became focussed, as through a lens, till the warmth of His example becomes so concentrated as to set on fire all that it touches. That resolute persistency, the doing battle with the hilt when His sword was gone…attracts men, draws them, thrills them. You cannot say why; it is just that it does. In being lifted up from the earth, He arrested the attention not of the House of Israel only, who knew His claims. He moved the universal heart of man.

George MacLeod, Lenten sermon, 'The Cross', Govan Calling, 1934.

Called to serve

Easter is almost with us and it is a time for us to reflect on the grace and love of Christ. He took our place – took the punishment for our sins and died so that we might live. I believe that as we look at the sacrifice of Christ at Easter we must be moved, not just on an emotional level, but also on a very practical level.

Two things that Jesus said come to my mind:

“…whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.” (Mark 10.43-44)

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14.15)

Currently I am reading a book and recently it has been talking about having a lifestyle that is driven by our love of God and results in an outworking – serving.

We do not need to be great or amazing to serve, we simply need to be willing. Sometimes its easy to say “I’ll get round to that later” or “I’ll help them tomorrow because I am busy today” but the reality of it is that if Christ came across someone in need –what did he do – he helped them of course! Even if it seems to get in the way of what he was doing. Remember the little children “interfering” with Jesus’ teaching and how the disciples tried to stop it, but Jesus welcome them.

Jesus death and resurrection teaches us that he paid a great price for us. Do you love Jesus? Then how willing are you to serve? How willing am I to serve? Is there one small thing you can do for the kingdom of God where you are – is there a way in which you can serve God by serving others?

God Bless.

An ecology of words

In the beginning was the Word…..In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and God said….Let there be light’.

Speech. Holy Word - the articulation of divine intention and purpose, ‘Let there be…’

Made in the image of God, we too speak, and what we say vibrates with possibility. Words call into existence, make possible, shape relationships, communicate meaning, become freighted with significance because once we speak, words are let loose. They cannot be recovered, unsaid, and their healing or hurt may have a long afterlife. Made in the image of God, we are wise if we listen not only to what God says, but to how God speaks; and if we pay attention to why God speaks.

When James tackles the fundamental spiritual disciplines he says little of contemplation, mystical joy rides, charismatic gifts – he speaks of wisdom, words, and therefore wise speaking and even wiser listening. James 3.1-12

Prayer
Lord we all make many mistakes in our conversation.
The way we choose words and construct sentences,
which temper and tamper with truth;
The tone of voice, the pace of diction, the volume of our speaking,
communicating impatience and self-importance.

Lord forgive us when we use words as weapons to hurt others,
or as shields to hide behind when we are criticised:

Lord forgive us, when our words are arrogant and self serving,
when we would rather speak than listen,
and rather be seen and heard than seen and serving .

Lord, whose words called worlds into being,
Make our words creative and life-giving;

Lord whose words wrestled order our of chaos,
and whose words still speak light out of darkness:

Put words in our mouth that call chaos to account
That challenge injustice and defend the vulnerable,

So may we speak light out of darkness,
Through Jesus Christ, the Word,

and the Light of the world, Amen

everything they need

Everything they need does not mean everything they want. And everything they need to follow him does not mean everything they need to live a long, healthy life free from suffering, disappoinment, frustration, or loneliness and full of achievement, recognition and contentment. These things may be substituted for the gospel, may be aspirations of many Christians, may be welcome blessings in any human life - but they are not to be mistaken for following the God of Jesus Christ. Christians are called to follow and are given everything they need to follow ... Following Jesus means learning to want the limitless things God gives us in Jesus.

Sam Wells, God's Companions, 2006, 5

Look out!!

We've been thinking a lot about Zimbabwe in our house at the moment. On the one hand there all the horrendous news currently about prayer meetings stopped with beatings, mass inflation, etc
On the other hand, there is hope and fellowship and so many stories of people overcoming despite everything. My town Stevenage is twinned with a town in Zimbabwe, called Kadoma. For the last 10 years Cornerstone (inter-church youth organisation) has been developing a relationship with a similar organisation in Kadoma called Sungano (meaning unity). Below is a quote from a local news article following their previous trip:


Aids and unemployment are both rife, often with tragic results.

Andy said: "One of the strangest experiences for me was when we went into a carpentry workshop.

"You couldn't initially tell what they were making but then it became clear there were making coffins."

Among the hand-made coffins Andy saw were child-size versions.

The group did not directly discuss Aids with any Zimbabweans but the shadow the virus casts on the country was obvious.

"Walking around some of the outlying country areas, we saw malnutrition and people who were thin, which could be Aids related. What one notices, particularly in the youth centre, is that the information that they've got in there for young people is all Aids advice.

Despite the problems the country faces, not everything looks gloomy for the future.

In a bid to improve communication with Kadoma, the Stevenage visitors took a laptop over as a gift, and it is already helping improve the link.

"We've had some tremendous contact. It's almost been continuous which is something we've never had and is a real bonus," Andy said.

The Cornerstone contingent used the trip to see if it would be appropriate to take a group of young people out to Kadoma, as they have done in the past.

Because they were all welcomed so warmly, a group will be heading out later this year for three weeks. As part of their trip they will live among the people of Kadoma and the neighbouring township of Rimuka and work on various projects to help their Zimbabwean friends."


When we prayed, my daughter felt Mugabe was like king Saul and so we are praying for a new David to arise. Pray for Zimbabwe, a country full of amazing beauty and history, and amazing people.

As part of lent, let's not just look up and in. The bible seems clear to me that a huge part of living a God-centred holy life is looking out. Praying and doing- seeking justice.

I do not know the man

I should have blogged here yesterday, but I confess, forgot. So I thought I would fill this space today. The following comes from Rowan Williams, A Ray of Darkness, and is a reflection upon Peter's denial of Jesus Christ when he states: 'I don't know the man', with the emphasis by Williams on 'man' and making Peter's denial the confession of us all who want it as it were all sown up rather than living with the fragility of uncertainity in faith. I read this in Lischer, The End of Words, p. 85.

I do not know the man

I am more comfortable with the God. The man speaks to me not in solemn commands, in law and majesty, but the touch of a hand, a baby crying, a death, and expects me to hear and obey these voices of need and friendship as if they were the voice of God...

I do not know the man

I do not want to know the human, the provisional and ironic, tears and laughter, the future still to make...Take us away from all this; like the ultimate romatic hero, sweep us into the world of distant panoramas, magical controls, solved problems. I do not want to be forced back to the earth where I must choose and travel and be hurt.

I do not know the man.

God's Companions

God gives his people everything they need to worship him, to be his friends, and to eat with him. A companion is one with whom one shares bread. God calls his people to be his companions, the ones with whom he shares bread - his friends. Christians call sharing bread with God, worship. Thus to follow the God of Jesus Christ means to worship him, to be his friends, and to eat with him: in short, to be his companions.

Sam Wells, God's Companions, 2006, 1

Reflection

Today's post is going to be a bit of a self reflection - but I hope its helpful for you as well.

Over the last few days I have been challenged a far amount about my life and ministry. I come from a family who are absolutely wonderful - who are very committed and also very determined to keep going no matter what. I remember one example when my mum came back from hospital having had a wrist replaced and although she was told to do as little as possible she was determined not to just sit there, so she started to do the washing. Once the clothes had been placed in the washing machine one handed, she then discovered that her left wrist (which wasnt replaced but also suffered from arthritus) could turn the dial to set the washing machine. Now her right wrist certainly could do it but she did not give up there. Eventually she found something that could be wedged into the dial that gave her enough leverage to turn it and therefore do the washing!

That is my family - we all try and work as hard as we can and although that is a good thing, I have been discovering some drawbacks to it lately.

I currently have two jobs in minstry and add to that my lack of time management skills/planning I often find life extremely busy and often stressful. This morning my wife was trying to help me clear some of the backlog of stuff and I got very defensive and told her that I wanted to sort out this mess - a throwback to the Bishop family trait! I am beginning to see that all I am about and do is done in my own strength - by my own force of will, by own determination. At the end of the day this is neither sustainable or healthy.

I was sent an email this morning from someone and it contained this verse:

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man" Psalm 118:8

I think I am beginning to see that I am putting more trust in man (aka me) than in God. I need to turn to God and take refuge in Him - to gain my strength from Him - to seek help from Him.

At the root of who we are - do you trust in yourself, others or God?

Stay awake! or sleep the sleep of the culpable

Mark chapter 13 is one of the darkest, foreboding chapters in the any of the four Gospels. It is menacing and mysterious. In it Jesus describes life without those familiar secure landmarks and boundaries that help all of us find our place in the world. To the people of his own times Jesus foretold a time when

• the Temple would be dismantled,
• national leadership would be confused and in meltdown,
• international conflicts would multiply exponentially
• religious and political interests would develop lethal power games
• scary images of stampeding refugees and unprecedented natural disasters would become stark realities.

Asked how people can cope with such a doom-watch scenario it seems all Jesus can suggest is ‘Don’t fall asleep!’ - Apocalypse is just round the corner.

"Keep awake!" But who can keep awake all the time anyway? A body on chronic red alert is going to crash sometime. Sleep is a natural and essential process of rest and renewal. Well, yes, but we know what Jesus meant. There is such a thing as dozing our way through life without noticing, not paying attention to what’s going on around us. But for followers of Jesus, to be passive and silent, uninterested or disinterested in what is happening to our planet, or complacent about the threats to the vulnerable in our world, or to be uncritical of those who use and abuse power over others; that is to sleep the sleep of the culpable.

On the other hand to be awake to the ethical implications of business decisions; to be awake to the human consequences of our political leaders’ actions; to be awake so as to hear the cries of the poor and the pleadings of the suffering; these are examples of necessary vigilance.

• Being awake to the ongoing moral cost of Guantanamo
• Being aware of dawn raids on asylum seekers as violation
• Being informed on Trident, Just War theory AND the Sermon on the Mount
• Being alert to the daily violence and consequent tragedies of Baghdad
• Being vigilant on behalf of the still threatened tribal peoples in Darfur
• Feel free to add to this rather personal, limited but ethically prejudiced list

Such wakefulness and moral alertness doesn’t come easy. And it doesn’t win popularity contests either. It means being open-eyed, clued-up alert to media mind games, political spin, commercial exaggeration, and other forms of truth tailoring. Jesus urged his followers to be alert to the signs of the times, awake to the realities around us, watchful and protective of truth.

The practical application of the most powerful, sustained, detailed warning Jesus ever gave is, ‘don’t go to sleep’. Be there when and where it matters. Stay awake, notice what’s going on. But noticing is one thing; drawing attention to what we see is quite another. Doing something about it is something else again. Lenten discipline is more than introspective concern for our own personal spiritual development - it is risk-taking moral alertness and compassion.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that most wide-awake and watchful of Christ’s followers, who saw long before most, where Hitler’s Nazi ideology would finally lead, famously wrote ‘When Christ calls a man he bids him come and die.’ There is a cost attached to being awake, seeing what’s happening, and taking the stand in the centre of the world’s courtroom as Christ’s witness. And the rewards aren’t obvious, except to know that alert outspokenness on behalf of the poor, the threatened and the suffering is always an act of obedience to Christ who commands us, for the sake of the world, and as an attitude of costly obedience ‘Stay awake!

A Life of Simplicity

Again, following on from Andy, and ‘habits and practices’ – how serious are we really about our lives as disciples? This term at college we have been focusing a great deal on discipleship, and what it really means to follow Jesus. If we are truly committed, our lives should reflect that.

There are many ways in which we can more fully express a discipleship commitment to Jesus. One which I have been thinking a lot about recently is simplicity. Our society is full of people vying for our attention, promising us happiness if we buy their latest products. Simple living is ‘stopping that treadmill and giving us … space for God’ (Valerio). In addition, storing up treasures on this earth where so many have so little is both selfish and idolatrous. The needs of others make a consumer lifestyle inexcusable, - but I know I have more possessions than I need.

Cultivating simplicity in this society is a demanding and difficult process. It means being a counter-culture. But is this not what Jesus has called us to? How can we make our lives more radical, and less comfortable?

Some suggestions (from Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline):

Buy things for usefulness rather than status.
Get rid of anything producing an addiction, develop instead a habit of giving things away. This is difficult, but I challenge you to learn from the example of these proactive bloggers.
Refuse to be influenced by advertisements, and learn to enjoy things without owning them.
Reject what causes oppression of others, buy fairtrade goods, and avoid companies that exploit workers.

We must learn, ‘that a man [or woman] can live profoundly without masses of things’ (Byrd).

...habits and practices...

...following on from Andy's blog yesterday, one of the practices the link points to is that of faithfulness.
How can we be faithful to each other- truly faithful? How can we go beyond our polite lets-not-rock-the-boat loyalty which looks lovely but will never answer honestly the question "does my bum look big in this?" or "have I made the right decision?"
I would rather have a friend who helps me face my mistakes than a friend who assures me that everything I do is fine. But this kind of faithfulness comes at a price- it is painful and requires a large amount of time invested in each others lives. It involves being real with each other and allowing others to see the more unappetising sides of our life and character. Not things that come easily in our time-poor Christian culture where we often tend towards the superficial with one another.
Some people come to mind- in 2 Samuel 12, there is Nathan the prophet. David could have easily banished, ruined or even killed him for his boldness in pointing out David's rather gaping mistakes. It was a huge risk.
For another side of faithfulness, Ruth's words to Naomi(Ruth 1 v 16-7) are so inspiring to me, speaking of a deep kind of covenant relationship: "Don't ask me to leave you! Don't beg me not to follow you! Every place you go, I will go. Every place you live, I will live. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. And where you die I will die."
Naomi was left alone and bereft- even changing her name to Bitter... Ruth- also mourning, but still with a life to live and a people to be with- gave up everything to move with Naomi to a foreign country and support her through her tragedy.
God, by your Spirit, make me more faithful in the relationships I have. Let me count the cost and be truly faithful.

'night-time' disciples

In chapter 3 of Power and Passion, Sam Wells asks

Can one be a Christian on the quiet? Can one be a ruler by day and worshipper by night? The story of Jesus' passion presents two figures who sought to do just that: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus (p.90).

Our culture wants to mould all belief into a private matter, not to be displayed in public. We've removed the political implications of Jesus' call to discipleship and embraced the western gospel, which celebrates the market and the rights of the individual. We've become 'night-time' disciples, who either don't know how to live lives shaped by the Christian gospel, or who are afraid we will be branded a fundamentalist in the vein of Stephen Green of Christian Voice or some Islamic extremist.

It is my desire to become less of a 'night-time' disciple, and to find ways of embodying the Christian faith in which I believe, in the full exposure of the day. I am becoming more convinced that the way of discipleship is in discovering and often re-discovering habits and practices that shape my life in ways that speak of good news. My desire is to find a community of people who want to take that journey with me. In this I am grateful for those who are blogging with me at hopeful imagination, who help me imagine what this looks like.

Stop!

Guys sorry this is late, I completely forgot what day it was!

Stop!

Whatever you are doing, whatever you are thinking....stop.

Life is busy, life is full of many good things to do....but right now you must stop.

There are points in all our lives when we must stop and return to the source - return to God. This is even more so during lent when we are trying to re-focus our lives to that of Christ.

So today take some significant time out to be with God.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11.25-30)

Many, many attempts at explanation and description were attempted in the aftermath of the twin towers tragedy. The films, the mini series, the novels, the poems, the songs, the musical compositions.

Then the books that recount the story, analyse the causes, explain the consequences, affix and apportion the blame, dissect the responses - political, military, religious, economic, human.

John Swinton's deeply pastoral and theologically alert book, Raging with Compassion, which is not about 9/11, raises very important questions about all the clever explanations of suffering that theorise and intellectualise human pain. There are times when explanations do more harm than good, they don't reduce the pain of evil. Indeed they may add to it by suggesting that extreme suffering can ever be rationally explained or dealt with by the mind, without reducing the humanity of the sufferer. John's book offers a pastorally informed warning about the inadequacy of philosophical, theoretical, theological argument to make any real difference to the person suffering. At best such arguments make the observer more intellectually or theologically comfortable.

So I find the poem by Ben Okri all the more persuasive, not because of its argument - there isn't one - but because it looks to human responses to grief and suffering as ways of affirming and protecting that which makes each person precious - their humanity. This poem works on the assumption that grief is too costly, therefore too dearly bought, ever to be wasted. He unashamedly talks of using grief as water to encourage the growth of rehumanising qualities such as love, justice and compassion. It comes from my Oxfam book, Poems for Refugees, a source of much robust but wary hopefulness during these first weeks of Lent:

Grief
Grief ought to be used
To create more love;
There's no greater force
From below or above
...
Such grief as we have seen
Could water the roots
Of a new world dream.
Give the dead power
...
To change the world
Into something higher;
That we may listen

to hunger's
Cry and turn injustice into a flower.
...
This is the strange blessing
Of those flaming towers:
That we may wake up to
world suffering
And with vision sweeten humanity's hours.
Ben Okri, 2001

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Heb 12 v 2

I think that often we lack God's perspective on joy and happiness. That old chestnut of: if there is a God, why does he allow suffering?, suggests a view that suffering is always bad, and that happiness/joy and suffering/pain must always be diametrically opposed to each other. When Jesus said that he came to give us life to the full, what picture do these words paint in our mind? Do we imagine a life involving struggling and pain and even failiure or a much more rosy one where no one can knock the cheesy grin off our face and we all live “happily ever after”? I did grow up in a church where the teaching seemed to suggest that all those bad times were either pre-conversion or as a direct result of me sinning now. Life with Jesus was about proclaiming victory and if you didn't have a good story to tell, better wait until you did before speaking out...
Maybe God's view of life on this earth isn't so black and white. Maybe one of the things we see in the life, and particularly the death and resurrection of Jesus is that there is a wider view of joy to be had, involving not only victory and hope but also suffering and pain.

Kiss the Son

'Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him'. (Psalm 2:12)

'...and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them' (Luke 7:38)

While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" (Luke 22:47-48)

Passion alone is not enough

It can be hard to follow Jesus, primarily because I think he takes us to places that are outside our comfort zones. Sure I'm happy to go to the wedding feast with all that good wine, but the lepers house, the dusty roads, the garden of Gethsemane, I'm not so sure I want to go to any of these places!

Sam Wells in his book Power and Passion, reminds us that to follow Jesus faithfully requires more than just passion.

"Passion alone is not enough. Not just because other things are required but because passionate commitment is often made up of the kind of tendencies that we see so clearly in Peter - an assumption that one is superior to others, a profound but misplaced confidence in one's own dependability, and a sense that one knows better than Jesus"

A prayer - Jesus I want to follow you passionately but not in an arrogant I know best way. Help me to follow, to walk humbly with you with loving kindness as you empower and doing justice as you one my eyes to how you see reality. Amen

It's not about you

As part of lent this year some friends of mine suggested we had another stab at doing the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. We have tried to do it before and usually failed around day 10 if not before! But anyway I just wanted to share some things I have got from the book so far that relate to the theme of lent.

Its not about you. You have been born and created for God's purposes and this applies to lent too. Its for God purpose not ours. Its not to help us get fitter, of feel better about ourselves because by sheer will power we did not eat chocolate for 40 days. There are so many programmes is this world that are about helping us live a healthier lifestyle. De-tox this, de-tox that. There is obviously nothing wrong with wanting and aiming to live a better, more healthly life - but what is the source of all that. If its self-centred then even if its good, its not done to the glory of God.

By all means give things up, but give them up to God and engage God in the process. Let him be your strength. I have two verses to close on:

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength" Philippians 4:13

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3v5-6

God bless.

If.....

Luke 4.1-13 - ‘If you are the Son of God…..’ The word if is a destabilising word. It corrodes trust, it undermines confidence, it slackens our hold on our certainties.

If.
‘If you really cared about me…..’
If you were really serious about…..
If it had been me I would have…..

If. A word that, used with precision and cunning, calls our integrity, our identity, our intentions, our motives, our core values, our moral priorities into question. 'If you are the Son of God……' Three times, ‘If you are…’.

Three times an interrogation of the soul, a sifting of the heart, a politely framed enquiry, disguising the fear and panic of self-promoting evil encountering the obedient self-giving of the Servant and Son of God.

If you are – prove it!

If you are – live it!

If you are – test it!

And throughout Jesus' ministry, his response to the If you are question will be, 'I AM….'

But why test a certainty?

Why prejudice implicit trust?

Why prove what is eternally true, that in Jesus, God is reconciling the world to himself?

And that drama in the desert, the drama of If..., becomes also the drama of Christian obedience.
If you are a child of God…
If God is to be trusted….
If what you say you believe, you really believe, then…

If, has consequences. In the end our obedience is rooted in the obedience of Christ. Our faithfulness in small things is made possible by his faithfulness unto death. Our victories are won, only through the final triumph of Christus Victor, the crucified risen Christ.

Three final ‘If’ statements, with disciplined grace, and obedient faithfulness providing the tension points:

I am the vine, you are the branches…if you remain in me and I in you, you will
bear much fruit….
You are my friends If you do what I command you….
by this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another……

lent 07 blog (updated 6|3)

I'm going to attempt to organise another lent group blog. Last year was not a great success. I think I need at least 3 (preferably different) bloggers per week, to make it worthwhile. So if you want to join in, post a comment with your preferred dates.

feb 21 jim gordon
22 jon bishop
23 andy goodliff
24 ashley beck
25 1st sunday in lent
26 stuart blythe
27 andy goodliff
28 jim gordon
mar 1 jon bishop
2 ashley beck
3 stuart blythe
4 2nd sunday in lent
5 miriam pugh
6 - a quote from sam wells
7 jim gordon
8 jon bishop
9 brodie mcgregor
10 stuart blythe
11 3rd sunday in lent
12 miriam pugh
13 - a quote from sam wells
14 jim gordon
15 jon bishop
16 andy goodliff
17
18 4th sunday in lent
19 miriam pugh
20 rachel bishop
21 jim gordon
22 jon bishop
23 - a quote from sam wells
24 stuart blythe
25 5th sunday in lent
26 miriam pugh
27 - a quote from sam wells
28 jim gordon
29 jon bishop
30
31 stuart blythe
apr 1 6th sunday in lent
2 - a quote from sam wells
3 frog
4 jim gordon
5 jon bishop
6 stuart blythe
7
8 easter day

Barabbas or Jesus

The choice between Barabbas and Jesus, a choice that I am suggesting is a central choice in the whole gospel story, is not a choice between a man who took a political route and a man who took a spiritual route. It is not a choice between a man who wanted outer change and a man who called for inner change. It is a choice between a man who changed too little and a man who changed everything.

(Sam Wells, Power and Passion, The Archbishop of Canterbury's Official 2007 Lent Book)

The story so far...

A week before Ash Wednesday: Ella ,7, announces that she is going to give up television for the whole of lent. I am extremely impressed and promise to join her of course.

Day 3 of lent- Ella is not at all sure this was such a good idea- brother Charlie is also less than impressed with the absence of telly.

By the weekend: Ella has modified her fast to week days only... I am in a quandry- the discipline lent has to be a personal response to God and yet I am unhappy to allow her to quit so early on. I try to walk the line of gentle persuasion and firm reminders of her original intention but to no avail...

End of week one- the television fast unceremoniously bites the dust... I am a bit gutted.

Week 2: Ella is given a sheet of 40 things to do in lent. These include giving a weeks pocket money to charity, buying one fairtrade thing a week, not arguing for 3 days, cheering someone up, etc. This is proving to be an inspiration to her and I wonder if it is actually producing more real fruit in her relationship with God and her sense of faith-in-action. The first day of no arguing is a revelation- she is not only avoiding arguments but looking for ways to help her siblings have fun and stay happy. I know 7 year olds can't not argue forever, but I feel that living this day in itself must change her and open her eyes to what is possible.

She gives away 2 weeks' pocket money and an encouraging letter to someone at church who is raising money for a trip to Zimbabwe. A girl who was being nasty to her at school and that she has prayed for now wants to come to tea and sleepover. Ella says that underneath she is actually really nice.

I am left pondering the true meaning of fasting and I think about Isaiah 58. I know the discipline and humbling oneself symbolised in the Lenten fast is an important part of our growth as Christians. But maybe I am seeing a different side of fasting- still denying oneself, still saying "not my will, but Yours"...

The Scriptures as a Pillow?!

'In the Library in Gettysburg College in Gettysburg Pennsylvania, they can show you the blodstains in the books. The stains run deep in their pages because in the battle so many were wounded that the nurses ran out of pillows. So they took books from the shelves in the library and laid the heads of the wounded on them. The church's book, too, is stained and penetrated by the cost of God's love. From beginning to end, the entire New Testament witnesses to the cost. That is why we read it - because our lives depend upon it' (Lischer, The End of Words, 57).

Firstly, Apologies for posting this late. I completely forgot... I only noticed when I realised noone else had posted that this was because I should be posting! (EDIT: then i posted this on my blog by mistake).

For lent I have decided on two things:
a) I have given up coffee.
b) I have decided to read every post on this blog this lent, and reflect on it properly.

The first one was a bit of a cheat. I like coffee, yes, especially when I'm killing time during the day. But I thought it'd be fairly easy. It's not. It appears I drink it more often than I thought.

My SU bar at uni makes very bad cups of tea. And I don't drink cola anymore. And I don't like to drink beer before class. So I normally have a coffee. Now, I have to consciously think about what I'm going to order. Which both reminds me about the season, and makes me conscious of why I'm doing it; and also makes me think 'do I really need to buy a drink?' when I have bottles of water in my bag. And re-thinking what I spend money on is always healthy.

And reading and reflecting on the posts here is good for me, too. It helps me to spend just a little time reflecting on the faith in a devotional, rather than an academic way. It can be too easy to simply approach the faith critically, without engaging in the story- and that can be draining.

I guess I am sharing this for two reasons. First, because you can all help me if I see you by not offering to buy me coffee. Secondly, and more seriously, to encourage you, in whatever you have decided to do for Lent, to reflect on how it is good for you/ what you are learning from it.

Fasting

Well a just over a week in and I have to admit feeling weak. I haven't failed yet, but I have been sorely tempted. This year for lent I gave up certain foods, although with some of my young people. For me it was biscuits - especially ginger biscuits! Last night as I was reflecting on how things were going I realised that so far this first week I have really been doing this in my own strength. Using my will power alone to not give in and munch my way through a packet.

My understanding of lent is that its about refocusing on God and re-alining oneself with God. If lent becomes giving something up in my own strength then I have completely missed the point of it all.

Today - no matter who well, or badly things are going for you right now, just stop and ask God to enter into today and be your sustainer.

God bless.

Peace-loving defiance......

I am writing this following announcements last week of an intended new generation of anti-missile defences, being considered by USA, UK and Europe. Son of Star Wars is a missile system intended to intercept possible nuclear missiles from rogue states or terrorist extremists. Scotland and Yorkshire are the most feasible sites for this new generation of defence hardware, if it is to be situated in the UK - a possibility at present being dismissed by 'those who know'. No one doubts that we live in an unsafe world; and that security is a key priority of all governments who can afford it.

But linked to this defence system are inevitable offence systems, and there are strong arguments and cogent reasons for asking whether this is simply another rationalised level of proliferation. I don't pretend to understand military strategy, the undercurents and sub-plots of political and international tensions. And no doubt there is 'credible intelligence' of a real threat, or in the jargon, 'clear and present danger'. But I am still sceptical, unable to trust the media who report what the government purports to be the case. How many exclusive exposures are orchestrated leaks? Anyway, recent history of 'dodgy' intelligence dossiers on weapons of mass destruction(WMD), of dubious defence budgets linked to bribing scandals, of permastain allegations of deception against senior politicians from Prime Minister to Lord Advocate, has created a climate in which trust does not flourish.

Isaiah of Jerusalem knew a thing or two about weapons of mass destruction, and about the erosion of trust in the integrity of the powerful. The sword, when wielded by a ten thousand strong professionally hardened army was the preferred WMD of the ancient world. And Isaiah, seeing the devastation of his home city, saw also a different future, not yet - but coming, when Jerusalem would be a centre of healing and wholeness, of blessing and benediction, of law and liberty, attracting the nations through the magnetism of promised shalom.

This Lent, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the peace of our world's great cities. Cities are centres of population, and therefore frontline targets for those who walk the ways of war, terror, and destructive violence, those forces that erupt from the fears, hates and enmities embedded in our fallenness. Isaiah 2. 1-5 is an antidote to those visions of the future that fear the worst; the passage is an exercise in hopeful imagination.
Again, I've written three Haiku verses in the classic 5x7x5 form, as respectively, condensed hopefulness, daring invitation, and peace-loving defiance:

Isaianic Haiku

Walk the ways of God -
the politics of shalom
make peace the new norm.
..................................................
Swords into ploughshares -
weapons for food production,
not mass destruction.
....................................
Double negative,
"We won't study war no more".
Future positive!
....................................

MLK on temptation

You can't stop birds from circling overhead, but you can stop them nesting in your hair.

Killing Word/Ressurecting Word

In a definition usually associated with preaching, but applicable to the total life of Christian witness, it is said that 'truth' is 'mediated through personality'. Truth is mediated through 'self'. Yet in the Lenten pattern this 'self' needs to be that which rises from its death caused by an encounter with the transformative 'Word'.

Lischer: 'The prophets are universally annihilated by a conversation with God, only to reappear as powerful individual performers of the word on God's behalf. They do not lack a sense of self', (The End of Words, p. 35)

Jesus: 'Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it'.

Paul: 'For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh'.

PRAYER:

Lord, in the embers of
annihilated self
May your killing Word
With resurrecting power
Bring to life...
'Me'.

lent and advent archives

I've archived all the past lent and advent blogs, for anyone who wants to read.


advent 05
lent 06
advent 06
lent 07

Symbols and Difference

This Ash Wednesday, I went to the College Chapel for the service. The sermon was about religious symbols; in a secular society, there is no place for outward symbols of faith. If, however, we are trying to live in a 'religiously diverse' society, then there is space to be different, and to celebrate our religious identity.

I had the ashes 'imposed' upon me in chapel, and we were challenged not to wipe it off until sunset. So I didn't. And I'll be honest and say that I did feel like a bit of a muppet walking around London with a big black cross on my forehead. But I also think it was a valuable exercise.

Being conscious of people knowing that I am a Christian (assuming most people recognised it) made me act a little more carefully. I felt less inclined to shout abuse at the bus driver who didn't stop for me, despite having space on the bus. I felt less inclined to aggressively force my way onto a full Tube carriage, and less inclined to take a seat when elderly people were around. Wearing an ashen cross didn't miraculously transform me, but it did make me conscious that I was suddenly representing more than myself as I walked around.

People looked at me very strangely. Elderly people knew what was going on, and I heard one older lady say to her husband "oh, it must be Ash Wednesday already... do you remember..." Being looked at like you're mad by people who have never heard of this practise could probably get you down, eventually. When I was on the Tube, I shared a knowing smile with two Muslim girls sitting opposite me who were wearing head-scarves. On the Bus, later, I shared a similar smile of solidarity with a Jewish man wearing the Kippah. Wearing outward symbols of faith is an everyday occurance for these people; I suspect that being looked at strangely is also part of their daily experience. I think it was very valuable to experience that, to place oneself in their shoes for a while, and to be able to empathise, just a little bit, with what it is like to be 'different' in our culture.

of football shirts and Buddhist monks

Two things during this first week of lent have got me thinking. Firstly was a story from my minister at our weekly church staff meeting. the night before he had gone to see wolves play ipswich (he's a wolves fan) ... and had been struck by the back of a shirt he saw with 'we 8 the albion' on it (there is a bitter rivalry between wolves and west bromwich albion). The story of this supporter's life (and probably many other supporters) was one of hatred and it was an unashamed hatred. Dave, my minister, wondered what was written on the back of our shirts? Is it a story of hatred or a story of grace? Is it a story of selfishness or a story of generosity? The season of lent is a call to assess our spiritual lives, to ask ourselves what kind of story does our life tell? Does our life reflect the image of the God made known in Jesus Christ?

The second thing was a visit by a local Buddhist monk to a colleagues RE lesson. If I think about kind of story this man's life was telling, it was one of simiplicity and contentment. Buddhist monks shave their heads and where simple robes in order to not get attached to passing fashions. A Buddhist monk will eat breakfast and lunch and then not eat again until the next day. A Buddhist monk will daily meditate and study the dhamma (the teaching of the Buddha). The simplicity of this monk's life (similar in many respects to the life of christian monks) and the focus on practising the middle path of buddhism was powerful example. Lent is a season to practise simplicity and to detach our lives from that which pulls us away and distracts us from the christian life. One of my favourite Stanley Hauerwas quotes is 'discipleship is quite simply extended training in being dispossessed. To become followers of Jesus means that we must, like him, be dispossessed of all that we think gives us power over our own lives and the lives of others' (The Peaceable Kingdom, 1983, 86). I pray that I might find a more simple life that more deeply reflects the life of Christ.

Ashes for beauty

Last night at my church we had an Ash Wednesday Service to mark the beginning of lent. We focused on the story of the womon caught in adultery. (John 8.1-11) I could blog about all sorts of things that came out of it, but I want to focus on the final few words.

Jesus said, "then neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin." We have such a loving Lord that despite the wrongs we do he gives us a chance to change our sin for something much more beautiful. We were each given a pot of ash during the service to remind each of us that we are sinners - then at the end as we listen to Ashes for Beauty by Kathryn Scott we had our ash exchanged for a flower.

As we approach Easter - and focus on God during lent remember two things. One you are a sinner and two your sin has been exchanged for beauty in Christ's death and resurrection.

God bless.

Isaiah, Haiku and subversive no-saying

Isaiah 58 is a stunningly straightforward critique of religion gone rotten. The prophet catalogues those attitudes that turn religion into just another service industry dedicated to the haves, the always comfortable, the never hungry. Over-indulgence is by and large our way of life in the affluent north and west. Consumerism is the preferred idolatry of our times.
By contrast fasting, not having, not buying, not spending, is an act of subversion in a consumer culture, a demonstration of self control as critique of self-indulgence. Consumer self-indulgent religion was Isaiah's target then; his words still sting with relevance now.

The call of God to the church bearing witness in a society where poverty is at best tolerated and at worst unnoticed, is to subversive no-saying. Fasting is such no-saying enacted; it is a periodic policy of non-co-operation with those systems and powers that bind chains of debt, that rely on overindulgence whether food, clothes or technology, and that are expert in the arts of exclusion, and in those transactions that clothe the rich and strip the poor.

Recently I have begun to write Haiku - I'm attracted to the constraint and sicipline required to write within a tightly controlled form. In a world awash with words, Haiku compels an economic, verbal stringency - in counted syllables, 5x7x5, the poetic form embodies Lenten resistance to waste, even wasted words.

Lent Haiku
Isaiah 58.6-7.

Un-Fairtrade coffees
Solder chains of injustice,
To weigh down the poor.
............................
Food for the hungry!
Enough not obesity!
Slogans of freedom.
......................................
Embrace the stranger.
Welcome asylum seekers.
Veto exclusion!
...........................
Clothing the naked,
In garments of dignity,
We dress humanity.
...........................
Liberating Lent!
Costly hospitality!
Isaianic fast!
..........................

Jesus is our Joy

And so we come to the end of our advent journey, the joy of christmas beckons. thanks to everyone who blogged. I hope you enjoyed the experience. Hopefully anyone who read them found they helpful. I leave you with some thoughts from david ford's little book the shape of living. I've found this a book I keep coming back to, full of some great stuff. Here he writes about joy:

The heart of the good news is Jesus is our joy. He can be rejoiced in without reservation ...

God does not coerce into joy, but there is always more on offer than we can take. There are as many ways into Christian joy as there are people, and the variety of testimonies is endless. Some begin in a burst of joy; others are far more hesitant, and only very slowly wake up to the intense joy at the core of faith. There are also different qualities of joy through life, culminating in the matured peacefulness of those who have been through great suffering, and have had their capacity for joy expanded and deepened in the process ...

We are created for joy, and salvation is inseparable from it ...

Celebration and praise of the God of joy becomes the shape of our lives, as we rejoice in other people, rejoice in truth and goodness, rejoice in creation, and in all sorts of creativity, play and work.

click on the photo to see a larger size.

The Face Of Christ (Part 2)

From Marcus

... and yet, and yet,
if you kneel beside his manger
(you will be far too high above him if you stand),
if you kneel so that your face is close to his,
then you will find yourself
looking level-eyed into the face of God.

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

Pregnant with possibilities

A fresh piece of paper
A new day
A found love
A restored friendship
A new house
A repaired instrument
A chance meeting
An unopened parcel
A young woman
Full of child.

God give us joy

I wrote this for last nights advent explorations (four alternative worship evenings exploring advent I'm running at bunyan)

God give us joy
Joy for yesterday, today and tomorrow
Joy for the sun and the rain
Joy for the beauty of creation

God give us joy
Turn our sorrow into dancing
Turn our despair into hope-filled songs
Turn our hearts to the stranger

God give us joy
Joy for the loved ones we remember
Joy for the birth of new life
Joy for life of our church family

God give us joy
for the gift of advent
for the space to pause
for the peace of Christ

Come into the dark places

A photo of a candle after our Christingle service yesterday. A reminder that Christ comes to banish the darkness, to overcome evil, to bring the light of God's love, to reveal salvation to all the world.

John the evangelist said "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it... The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

You may like to spend a moment today lifting up to God a situation, a person, a conflict, a community that needs God's good news during this season.

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.