Eternal Echoes

beyond the them and us syndrome....

Dear Church,

yes I am writing to you again, writing because I hear your desire for renewal and growth, I am also writing because I need you to know that I do not have a quick fix solution to bring people flooding through our doors. Let me burst a current few myth bubbles; "they" are no going to come if we install a data projector and install a screen, "they" won't come because we have decided to replace the organ with a worship band. "They" might come to a special event if you invite "them", but it is unlikely that "they" will come again on Sunday morning....

Oh and while we are talking about Sunday morning I'd just like to say that I think we've blown its importance out of all proportion especially when we measure our successes by Sunday morning attendance, or use it as a barometer of our health.

I wonder if you'd come with me through the doors to meet "them", your friends, your neighbours, your children even, these are the  folk who don't come. It is easy to criticise "them" in our meetings and gatherings, but when you get out there amongst "them" the picture is quite different. You'll find you know "them", that you understand "them" and even dare I say that you like "them".

So maybe the question is not so much about how we get "them" to come, but more about how we share with these friends and neighbours and families of ours the miracle and mystery of a living relationship, our living relationship with God. I think you will find that most of your neighbours won't want to argue the finer points of doctrine with you, but they'll probably accept a helping hand and even a prayer in a time of need. Or maybe it will be the other way around, maybe the gracious and humble way that you accept their help will speak to them....

Be confident in your relationship with God, it is not about knowing all of the right answers, we'll never know all of the right answers, but it is about the mystery that we are loved and accepted by the creator of the universe who knows us through and through with all of our faults and flaws. It is about the peace that passes understanding in the most difficult of circumstances, the light that shines in dark places, and the hope that will not let us go even in the face of adversity. 

Here is a wonder that we too often forget, Jesus ministry and mission did not stop at the cross for he overcame death and was raised to life, fullness of glorious resurrection life, and this is the life that he invites us into. And while we so often remember that the cross is where all of our wrongs are forgiven, I wonder how often we focus upon our unworthiness and forget that the cross is where all of our guilt (often self imposed) and shame is also cleaned away. I wonder how often we wear masks, brittle and hard masks of self sufficiency because we feel that as Christians we should have it all together. I wonder if sometimes we have worn them for so long that they have become a part of us. I wonder if we are aware that our friends and neighbours and children, "they" see something false in us because we are not being true to ourselves or before God.

So here is the challenge, lets not focus on attracting folk with technology and trying to be up to date for we'll fail there anyway. Instead lets focus on living out a life of love, let's focus on being Jesus disciples living with our own brokenness in a broken world and seeking to make a journey towards wholeness and daring to invite others towards us. Let's dare to become again a living and vibrant community of faith able to live with our questions and the questions of others. Let's become a people who celebrate life in all of its richness and diversity, let's value one another for who we are, learning to love God, others and even ourselves as we journey together. Let's not worry about Sundays but rather seek to live this celebratory life everyday, let's learn to be our true authentic Christian selves with our friends, family and neighbours, lets stop referring to "them" as "them" and work towards becoming us for we are all on a journey.

Maybe we need to stop fretting and worrying and start being, maybe when we seek for  renewal and growth in ourselves we'll begin to see our lives touch the lives of others. Maybe as we seek to  be generous with our lives. we'll prompt people to open up with God, our generous Father in heaven.

church alive......?

Come with me to Church, walk up the path and through the door, I hope that you will be welcomed warmly, but if you have time just take a look around our foyer, you’ll see a Christians Against Poverty Banner letting folk know that our centre is now open, also a collecting box for the Selby and District Food Bank, and a notice board with details of activities and events. What you won’t know is that this has not always been the case, and that some people don’t like it looking as it does, only last Sunday I heard of complaints, people asking what the entrance says about us; I hope it says that we care about the poor, the hungry and the homeless.

 

Now imagine for a moment that you are one of the guests of the family who are bringing their baby to be baptised, you’re a bit confused because you thought that baptisms were private services but this morning the whole church is here; all of these people make you feel a bit nervous. I hope that we’ll help you to relax, and that you’ll enjoy the service; you might be surprised by the fact that we use a screen and video projector and the atmosphere is much less formal than you’d expected….

 

Now imagine you are a fly on the wall overhearing a later discussion, one of the retired Local Preachers has tackled me he thought the service was a shambles, the prayers weren’t right and the sermon not hard hitting enough, “those people need to understand God’s message!” Another member approaches me, “you did well considering those people didn’t know how to behave” is the comment made. I was speechless, and the next comment made me even angrier, “at least they dressed up properly”….

 

Them and us syndrome is a horrible curse, it prevents us from seeing others in a positive light, it puffs us up and fills us with a false sense of pride, it is  distasteful and out of place in the church! As I was processing my reactions to all of these comments and conversations I came across post after post concerned with why younger folk don’t come to, or struggle with church. The first one that challenged me was entitled “Why you can’t solve your churches young adult problem” , the first thing to take on board was a simple statement of fact;

 

“Churches are not perfect- nor should we ever think they will be- but as long as church people do mean things to people who are a little different, don’t be surprised when no young people want to come to your church.”

 

It should be obvious- and of course it is not only young people who will stay away, only today a friend said this;

 

“ I long for something interesting to ponder, something to challenge and inspire, something to give me hope and faith in the future here, something worth putting energy into fighting for - you know, a better world, a healthier environment, greater justice, fairer distribution of resources, world peace. I don't see the Church delivering any of that really, or offering people any great incentive to get on board enthusiastically with it. I don't even feel it's a particularly loving place, so why would I wish to be in it?”

 

Ouch, but she makes a good point, as does the writer of the first article, who continues by asking us some very pertinent questions;

 

“Do we really want young people in our churches? Or do we really mean we want to preserve our values in a younger generation of prototypical images of ourselves? And are we willing to make the gospel compelling enough by trying to actually live it?”

 

If you want young people in your church, go to where they are. Learn what they do. Strike up a relationship and trust the Holy Spirit enough to let you know when it’s time to invite them to church. In the meantime make sure your church is a place that worries about doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8). …”

 

Make sure your church worries about doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God NOT about how people are dressed and whether they “behave” according to our standards. Surely we should be helping people to connect with God by offering an open door a welcome and a place to be, an environment where questions and confusions are heard and answered gently... Which brings me to the second article “Releasing the generations”, written by Bishop Graham Cray. He begins with this:

 

“The relationship between older and younger generations in the Church is complex. Older people can hang on to leadership too long, while younger people (if they stay) get frustrated. Well-intentioned, but often token, appointments of young people are made to church bodies whose meetings can frustrate - or bore the life out of - those same young people. Yet there are also older people looking for someone younger to take on roles they have filled for years – and they can’t find anyone to take their place. The problem is essentially one of power: who has a say and who does not. The issue is also vocational: is each generation respected and released to obey God’s call and trusted to trust God’s promises?”

 

The issue is essentially one of power he says, I wonder if it is also one of fear, fear of what might happen, what might change if we were to let go. In their book “The Human Face of Church” Sarah Savage and Eolene Boyd-McMillan refer to sociologist Max Weber’s observations which point to a cyclical process amongst religious movements;

 

“Weber argued that any great vision require a human process to carry it through time, sometimes in the form of “a man, a mission, a movement, or a monument”. Even with the Body of Christ, the life giving charism has to be embodied in a routine – in some form of human organisation. Yet, life giving visions do not fit easily into neat boxes. So the very process that gives the vision continuing life also begins to kill it. When the maintenance of the institution (which protects the charism) becomes the institutions primary purpose, the death of the charism is on the horizon. Only spiritual revival or reform will re-ignite the gift.” (Savage and Boyd-McMillan 2007. p4)

 

A church that is willing to let go and pass on the power, that is willing to be re-invented for every age is a church that will grow, it’s risky certainly, but the risk of not daring to do so is surely more costly for it will result in our ultimate demise, a picture we see all too often! Cray continues;

 

It is not the calling of young people to preserve or continue the church as it is but to engage in God’s mission in a way which will inevitably shape the Church of tomorrow. If we are to engage with the UK as a mission field with its sheer scale and diverse complexity, we need the missionary gifts of young people today - not just tomorrow.

 

So we need to consider our ways, how we share leadership and power, and dare to risk  leaving behind what we have to travel to a new future, but of course there is more, for what is Church without God. Let me take you back to our baptism service, during the intercessions which took the form of a power-point display set to music I offered people a chance to respond to God by offering a blessing for those that wanted one, a couple of church members responded, but then something powerful began to happen as a number of the baptism party began to come forward, some of them were in tears, the Spirit was moving, and I too began to weep. I believe that THERE IS A HUNGER FOR GOD planted within us, and that hunger was stirred as folk came forward, they hadn’t expected it, they hadn’t looked for it, but equally they could not resist it. That leads me to a third article by Shane Raynor entitled “When Christianity gets boring” and while I don’t agree with the thrust of his article that young people stay away because church is boring I do find truth in this:

 

“Christians have spent a lot of time figuring out how to get people to church, but we haven’t always done a lot to establish them in the faith once they’re there. That's partly because we’ve largely reduced faith to activities and programs or to creeds and doctrinal statements. And many of us are chasing a Christianity that’s a figment of our imaginations. We’re looking for the faith of the church fathers, the faith of Luther, of Calvin, of Wesley... sadly some of us would actually settle for a Christianity that’s a snapshot from somewhere in time rather than explore the infinite God of the now!”

 

…sadly some of us would actually settle for a Christianity that’s a snapshot from somewhere in time rather than explore the infinite God of the now! I want to cry out- surely this is not true, but sadly deep in my heart I know that it often is! We look for methods and fixes, for programmes and solutions, and fail to seek God, the author and perfector of our faith, God who can do immeasurably more in us than we can begin to ask or imagine. Raynor exclaims;

 

“…since the power and presence and person of God are anything but boring, that tells me we have a disconnect between experiencing God and experiencing church. “

 

Another Facebook friend posted a comment from a young man who says this;

 

" I did a YouTube video the other week on the reason why church has made me contemplate leaving. I'm 31 and have only been a Christian for two years. The two main reasons for me, and it seems to be echoed by others around me are lack of discipleship (we are just left to get on with it, questions remain unaswered) and too much noise. Church tries to be 'trendy' loud music, bands, messy church. All great concepts but what myself and others want is hard, straight up answers to questions and silence. Church is not boring, its just failing to connect with what young people really need....God"

People NEED GOD, not just young people but people of all ages, sizes, colours and backgrounds, we were made for God, by God and NEED a real relationship with God who loves us more than we can possibly imagine. People need God, and the church is called to know, and nurture that need, to call forth life by growing changing, and adapting, sharing the life that it has received allowing it to flow out into the desert places of this world causing the desert to bloom. Life should no be kept in a neat box, safely shielded from the realities of the world, if we do that with life it will die, and we will be lost….

 

Jesus says:

 

Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

 ^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matthew 5)

Maybe we need to remember;

 

“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. “ (Ephesians 3) 

 Pictures all by Tim 

Dear Church ( a plea for moving towards healing)

Dear Church,

I have been pondering the nature of our calling, by that I mean what we are called to be; in some ways that is easy, we are called to be Christ's body here on earth, his hands feet eyes and ears, all of the parts working together to fulfil his life amongst us, sharing good news, offering hope and healing , treating one another with grace, and receiving one another with love... and so much more..

The trouble is that we struggle to live up to our calling, we fall and fail, and as broken and flawed individuals we hurt one another, and we hurt those who do not belong to us (yet). Sometimes in our efforts to get it right we get it VERY wrong. We often lack grace because we are trying so hard to speak, act and think in the right way, sometimes we tie ourselves in knots over points of order, or doctrine, or practice, sometimes these things even blind us to the way of love we should be living and we become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol jarring the ears of those who hear our message.

We don't have to live like that though, and I am sure that God is more concerned with our hearts than our doctrines, practices, and rituals, and the truth is that we can't live up to our calling on our own that is why Jesus promised us the gift of his Spirit, the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and to remind us of his teaching, and to equip and help us to live God's way....

We know all of this of course, both as individuals and together we know this, but I wonder if in our struggle and striving to be right we sadly choose another path; wanting to appear right and good, and strong we hide behind masks of competency, and trip ourselves up and barricade ourselves in with protective barriers that should really be pulled down. Sometimes we hide ourselves so far away from the truth about ourselves that we forget who we are, then when we hurt others (and therefore ourselves) we claim that we are not responsible. That can be our biggest problem, too many have left us disenchanted because we have been unable to apologise or admit fault.

Let's face it, we are not what we should be, but THE GOOD NEWS IS we can grow towards it, so lets make ourselves a promise, to accept that we are broken and flawed, to admit that we've made mistakes and that we need mending and healing. Let's decide to rely upon God in a fresh way, to trust him, and to allow him and not our distorted ideas of him to shape our thinking. If we are going to strive, let's strive in prayer together, let's work to be a community of grace, a community where forgiveness and humility overcomes our desire to be right. In this we will meet afresh with Christ who will accompany us as he promised on the road to salvation, and clothed in him we will draw others by the attractiveness of our nature...

...and yes we'll get it wrong, but the one who calls us is faithful, and he will work in us and through us until with shouts of joy he can present us at last whole and healed, filled and free before the throne of God the Father who loves us...

So let's press on, discarding all that hinders us, dropping our masks and demolishing our protective barriers, let's open ourselves to the work of the Spirit, allowing her to shape and mould us, to chastise and restore us. Remember The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. S/He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less. (2 Cor)

Let's press on to be the people He has called us to be....

 ¹³"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up being thrown out with the rubbish.

 ^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Jesus; Matthew 5: 13-16)

Image; Roots by Tim

your kingdom come....

We pray it so often;

"Your kingdom come....."

But I wonder if we know what we are praying, sometimes I have visions of the transforming power of God sweeping across the earth, visions of the second coming and of a world put right once and for all. A force so powerful that I cannot and will not be able to resist it, a move of God that would simply overwhelm me.

"Your kingdom come...."

Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be open to it as individuals, open to expect that mustard seed faith to grow in us and to spread through us, open to the possibility that our prayer for peace or patience might to be answered in and through us as we engage with day to day stuff, for God is at work in our lives.

"Your Kingdom come..."

Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be open to it together, open to expect the church to  grow, to go through seasons, to be a place of constant change, and that is very hard for many, for we have a strange tendency to expect the church to be static. We misinterpret it, believing that we somehow encapsulate church in an hour on a Sunday morning, and while that is an important hour it should only be a place from which we are sent to be church, making a difference in the world through the week.

"Your kingdom come..."

 Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be open to it appearing around us, open to expecting to find God at work in unexpected places and in unexpected people, calling us to join him in surprising ventures, to dare to become more than we are, and at times to leave the old behind in order that we can embrace the new.

"Your kingdom come..."

Easy enough to pray, but if we really mean it we must be willing to acknowledge that what is being built in through and around us is precisely that, God's kingdom and not ours, his means of restoration, not our relic, his place and ways of healing, not our systems and structures, his unfolding life in our midst challenging, changing and surprising us, leading us into being more than we could possibly ask or imagine....

^{Luke 13 18} Then Jesus asked, "What is God's kingdom like? What can I compare it to? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed. Someone took the seed and planted it in a garden. It grew and became a tree. The birds sheltered in its branches."

 

Picture: Blessed One by Tim

Dear Church, (a letter of longing, an invitation to dance ...)

Dear Church,

I love you, indeed I am a part of you and have chosen to follow a call to be so, but I have to admit that there are times when I walk or drive away from our meetings and I simply want to weep. I see that we do many good things, but I weep for so often we miss the best, by refusal, by blindness or by misunderstanding, don't we know that the message we hold is a glorious Spirit fired, message of grace and love? Let me explain a little by telling you a part of my story;

I came to join you as a mixed up teenager who wanted to know God, and for years (yes literally years) I tried to fit in, to do and say the right things, to understand your practices and rituals, all the time believing that if I could only get them right then God my receive even me! It took a real crisis in my life to draw from me a heartbroken prayer and a realisation that I could not be the person I was trying to be, I would always get it wrong, make mistakes and trip over my own feet. It was in my moment of giving up and giving in that I discovered something amazing and freeing, life-giving and affirming, the amazing truth was that God had been wanting to love me, help me and support me and equip me and even carry me when necessary all along. 

The scale of that revelation was mind blowing for me, and I can remember days when laughter and joy would simply bubble up inside me for the sheer wonder of it all, and I could not understand why you hadn't shared this secret with me! I looked for people who had had a similar revelation, and found some, some within my local fellowship, and some in other places, and I sought them out and drank form the life giving streams of the Spirit whenever I could.

But, and it is a big but, everywhere I went I discovered rules to be followed and again and again I would try to live within those rules, and again and again I would find myself thinking that I was not good enough for God and would have to try harder, and when I did, the joy left me and I would find myself struggling. As I talk with you I find that we are often in that same place, striving and struggling to get it right, wanting to know God, and it saddens me to know that again and again we lay burdens upon one an-others backs.

Now before anyone gets cross or hurt please know that I don't say that lightly, I say it because I see it all of the time and I don't doubt that I too have been guilty of it. The truth is we have a tendency to get strange ideas about God into our heads, only yesterday I heard someone say that "if we truly lived as Jesus wanted us to then we would be a strange buttoned up, straight laced group of people that would confuse and repell others....."

Where on earth did that idea come from? How could anyone who has read the Gospels believe that "if we truly lived as Jesus wanted us to then we would be a strange buttoned up, straight laced group of people that would confuse and repel others....."

When I hear things like this I want to weep with frustration and anguish and anger, yes anger that we have told ourselves such lies, that we have loaded one another with so many burdens of how to and what to that we stumble around under the weight of them, and in the midst of all this confusion and stumbling we wonder amongst ourselves why we are not attracting new members! Then we feel bad and so we plan and scheme and work and strive and frankly we wear ourselves out, we take on new initiatives and struggle to keep them afloat....

It saddens me that we are like this so often, and I wonder if you'd pause with me for a few moments to listen to the words of Jesus, spoken on a day of frustration in his ministry (go and read the Chapter, and the Chapter's around it and you'll see what I mean);

"^16-19How can I account for this generation? The people have been like spoiled children whining to their parents, 'We wanted to skip rope, and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk, but you were always too busy.' John came fasting and they called him crazy. I came feasting and they called me a lush, a friend of the riffraff. Opinion polls don't count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

The Unforced Rhythms of Grace

 ²⁰Next Jesus let fly on the cities where he had worked the hardest but whose people had responded the least, shrugging their shoulders and going their own way.

 ^21-24"Doom to you, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. At Judgment Day they'll get off easy compared to you. And Capernaum! With all your peacock strutting, you are going to end up in the abyss. If the people of Sodom had had your chances, the city would still be around. At Judgment Day they'll get off easy compared to you."

 ^25-26Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: "Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work."

 ²⁷Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. "The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.

 ^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

 Jesus wants us to live and move within his unforced rhythms of grace, yes there are boundaries and yes there are rights and wrongs, but by the  Holy Spirit he will lead us gently into them, he longs take our hands and dance with joy for us...

He longs for us to know the life giving freedom and order of Pentecost, and yes I truly did say order, for just as the Spirit brooded over the chaotic waters at the beginning of creation so she broods and breathes over the chaos that is her church today longing to bring us to a new birth. That is a powerful picture, for it is not brooding in the sense of being filled with morbid thoughts but rather the sense of the Spirit as a mother hen incubating her eggs or her new chicks, warming, nurturing and protecting them until they are able to run freely...

The Spirit longs to birth her new life in amongst and through us, bringing order out of our chaos, the chaos of our misunderstandings and our stumblings, just as she did on the day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the power and love of God and when the message of Jesus, his birth, death and resurrection suddenly took on form and meaning transforming their timidity and placing in Peter ; you remember Peter, the stumbling, lying, denying, terrified one; well yes placing in him the a firey eloquence that drew a crowd....

 So here is what I am trying to say through all of this, when I drove away weeping from a service on Sunday I saw you (us) as the crippled woman we find in today's lectionary reading;

"She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. "Woman, you're free!" He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God."

Jesus longs to lay his healing hand upon us, to set us free from our self imposed constraints and rules, he longs to give us the fresh gift of his Spirit to enable and comfort, to teach, equip and lead us, to set us free to stand tall, and to live in the light and glory and freedom of the God who does not berate us for our sins, but removes them from us as far as the east is from the west, freeing us to dance with him, to become all that he has called us to be. If we dare to do that "casting off all that hinders us" and daring to run free with him, entering into the glorious circle of love and allow ourselves to be embraced by the God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who only wants the best for us, and has chosen to make himself known through us, if we dare to do that then our strivings will cease and we will learn to live freely, lightly, joyfully abandoned to his purposes day be day transformed more and more into his likeness overflowing with the generous generosity of God.

Quite simply dear Church, he wants to bless us that we might be a blessing to others....

Will you join me, as I join him in the dance? It is from that dance that we are set free to sing his harmonies of truth and justice, grace and peace, from there that we can invite others to join us to work for wholeness and healing as in and though him we learn the fullness of our calling and our being....

All pictures by Tim

thinking outside the box (or trying to)

I don't even know how to begin this post, it comes from so many things that a stirring within me that and I have no real idea where it will go....

OK I'll start with this; this last weekend I gathered with a group of friends who are involved in ministry to the New Spirituality/ Pagan/ spiritually seeking arena; no surprises there I guess. I left that gathering (it is hard to call it a conference for it was so unique), with a sense of reconnection and joy but also a sense of frustration with myself, I'd wanted to say something, but I hadn't really had time to work it through within myself in order to present it coherently.

I  had wanted to ask questions about the way we might use the sacraments in a way that connected with the culture, told the story of Christ from creation to re-creation, and offered a physical, tangiable yet spiritual response. My thinking had been primarily centered upon the bread and wine of communion, but offering baptism might also be a possibiltiy...

Now I am not suggesting an unthought out rush into the local market place or shopping centre, but I am suggesting that there are occassions and contexts where we are able to share the story of God in the world, from creation to re-creation, the incarnation, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, and we need to give people the opportunity to respond...

Imagine setting out to tell the story of God at a town festival, a music festival or something of that kind, tell the story in an imaginative and creative way, and people gather to listen. How then do we invite them to respond? They could come forward and recieve a tract, and prayer, and maybe those things are good, or we could break bread together...

Jesus did just that with the 5,000 who had gathered to hear his teaching, they were hungry, physically and spiritually, and recognising their hunger as a whole hunger Jesus fed them; the action of taking, breaking, giving thanks, distributing the bread and fish are replayed and  brought to fullness in the last supper, where the bread and the wine took on holy significance...

Would we be offering holy things to people who don't understand, just think for a moment, at the last supper Jesus shared bread with one who betrayed him, one who denied him, and several who ran for cover and hid as the terrible events of his trial and crucifixion unfolded. They didn't understand, and lets face it , we don't understand the depth of love that gave and gives itself so freely even now, and yet we receive, and as we do we are converted as we enter into the transforming and renewing and recreating purposes of God.

How about the one who comes to us with an extraordinary experience of God, and on hearing their story we cannot deny that is was of God, do we demand that they attend classes to prepare themselves, when do we welcome and accept?

Now I am not saying that we should neglect discipleship, but I am asking whether the sacraments could be offered in an outside of the box , a tangiable, physical way for people to meet with and respond to what the Spirit is stirring in their lives.

I find myself rooted in a tradition that offers and open table, and yet I find that many people feel that they are unworthy and excluded, they voice a spiritual need and a spiritual hunger that is not met, and as much as we might think that the table is open many people's perception is that is is closed; and frankly the "body language" of church is unhelpful.

So what I am asking is how do we make something open really open? How do we do away with the boundaries and barriers in our minds, I wonder if we have replaced the temple curtain with communion rails  and service books... If we've re-worded the open invitation to all who want to respond in a language that is exclusive and incomprehensible to many....

On the day of Pentecost many responded to Peter's message:

Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?"

 ^38-39Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites." (Acts 2)

Whoever God invites we are to welcome, and as God's ambassadors he makes the invitation through us... (2 Corinthians 5), but we are not inviting people to jump through hoops, to conform and to become like us, we are inviting them to respond to the one who is living bread, and living water, who calls us to worship him in Spirit and in truth, to the one who has compassion on all that he has made, the one who loves completely, sacrificially and powerfully! Too often I hear people voicing a belief in a God who excludes and punishes with harsh discipline those who do not live up to his exacting standards, and I struggle to reconcile this God with the one I have come to know, the one who says to us:

^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

and:

 ¹³"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

 ^14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

None of this was said to people who "got it", invariably they didn't and they needed freeing from the rules they and others had made for themselves. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, she questioned him about the right place to worship, here is John's account of that part of the encounter:

" “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. ²⁰ So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

²¹ Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. ²⁴ For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”" (John 4)

Jesus broke down barriers and through boundaries, and opened a new way of worship, a new way of knowing God centered upon himself, and in doing so, set the good news free. I find this concept strangely offered again through a mathematical principle reclaimed as a missional model;  centered and bounded sets (many thanks to Steve Hollinghurst for introducing me to it). Frost and Hirsch pretty well sum it up here:

"In the bounded set, it is clear who is in and who is out (fences, not wells), based on a well-defined ideological-cultural boundary --usually moral and cultural codes as well as creedal definitions.. but it doesn't have much of a core definition beyond these boundaries. It is hard at the edges, soft at the center."

The centered set, on the other hand, "is like the Outback ranche with the wellspring at its center. It has very strong ideology at the center but no boundaries. It is hard at the center, soft at the edges. We suggest that in the centered set lies a real clue to the structuring of missional communities in the emerging culture.

"The traditional church makes it quite difficult for people to negotiate its maze of cultural, theological, and social barriers in order to get "in.".. and by the time newcomers have scaled the fences built around the church, they are so socialized as churchgoers that they are not likely to be able to maintain their connection with the social groupings they came from...

"We propose a better and more biblical way.. is to ... sink wells. If you sustain your connection with the water sources, you will find a whole host of people relating to Jesus from different walks of life. We allow people to come to Jesus from any direction and from any distance. The Person of Jesus stands.. at the center." (The Shaping of Things to Come)

So what am I saying about the sacraments? I believe that they open a door of powerful encounter with God, and that they can be used missionally, indeed that they are in some way;  for if it is the Holy Spirit who brings them to life, who are we to deny that gift to people wanting to respond to God, no matter where they are on their journey? Maybe we need to learn to become wellkeepers rather than spiritual bouncers....

 

 

 

Friday Five; mission impossible

 

 

Over at revgals revkjarla  says: I am in mission trip mode right now, as I get ready to take a group of youth to DC to do service work around hunger and homelessness issues.   So, in that spirit, our FF is Mission Style!  So here are your questions:

1) Have you ever been on a mission trip, as a participant or adult chaperone? What was it like? 

First let me say that mission trips are not as common here in the UK as they are in the US, so much so that the first time I came across mission trips was when we lived in Texas. It may be something to do with the relatively small size of the country. That said they do happen and most of my children have been involved in them in some way or another, probably most notably Jo who went out to Zambia for a month after graduation from University, where her boyfriend (now husband) was leading a team. They worked with orphanages, and in some difficult areas, caring, building, and making friends. It certainly impacted her! As for me, no not in the sense that you are talking about because as a teen I was not a Christian.

As an adult however I have been on several evangelistic missions, working with local church folk to spread the gospel in their area, going to schools, homes, pubs and clubs, I grew a lot through this experience!

2) What is the worst thing that happened to you/your group on a mission trip (or retreat, or camp, or Habitat for Humanity experience, or something like that--hey, this is YOUR Friday Five, so you get to play it how you would like.)

Turning up to find that the towns folk expected us a week later, and as we were dependant upon them for food etc we had nowhere to stay and nothing to eat. We had gone to Northern Ireland, so getting home easily was not an option. One of the significant elements of these trips was that we went with only enough money in our pockets to buy somebody else a drink, no credit cards/ bank cards, no mobile (cell) phones. It was an interesting experience, our wise team leader called us to pray, and not to panic. Soon gifts of food and offers of places to sleep came rolling in, and we and the church we were working with were blessed! 

 Another aspect of that trip was being asked to share my testimony in a large meeting, I was terrified, but through it I experienced a call to preach, the rest they say is history!

3) If money were no object, where would you want to go to help and serve?  What would you do?

That is a hard question, there are so many areas that would benefit, and so many areas we might benefit from engaging with, but I think I would like to take a group of young folk to an area in Africa where poverty and hunger need addressing, where they could be involved in building a school, digging a well or something like that. I would also like them to be in contact with and worship with a local church. I think we learn a lot about ourselves when we are taken from our comfort zones. 

I have been really challenged by an excellent series of programmes on BBC 2 recently where ministers from what were mission fields, have come to Britain and worked with the churches here, they really showed us how insular and comfortable, and dare I say dead, we are!

4) What would be your advice to someone who will be sleeping in a gym with 20 other people for a week? 

Don't, well maybe don't if you are 50 like me, if you are in your teens/ 20's have a blast. If on the other hand you have to, good sleeping bag and inflatable bed roll, and a pillow- good luck!

5) Any parting thoughts, stories, or questions you have around the whole theme of Mission Trips?

Mission is more than a week a year, it is and should be a major part of our discipleship, that said I think that mission trips are invaluable for building fellowship and growing faith. Service is an essential of discipleship, and an opportunity to serve beyond our usual boundaries may change us for life! But it must be part of a whole and not an excuse to not be involved in mission for the rest of the year!

“Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can” John Wesley

thoughts on ministry, with a few pictures....

I am kind of fascinated by this picture that has been doing the rounds on Facebook over the last few days, it shows different perspectives on what pastors/ ministers do and is obviously somewhat tongue in cheek!

While I understand the last picture I really can't relate to the first one, partly because I really don't see myself in that way at all, I prefer these images:

 and   or

Today I led to services where we opened the word, drank coffee and shared communion! We sat around tables, prayed and sang (though only two hymns/songs), the discussion was on the inclusive Christ, both were very different, both were transformative for those involved!

of course there are lots of other images like this one of Tim's:

I could go on and on, but I see ministry as helping to create an opening, sharing with others, opening myself ,opening a door, openly sharing, opening God's word, and creating an opening through works, service and sacrament. I don't always get it right, but when I don't I hope to have the humility to say so and apologise.

This afternoon, with glue and glitter, tea and cake we gathered to hear the story of Zaccheus there were folk of all ages, from 70's to babies, families, singles, couples, all having fun and learning together...

As for my friends, some of them jokingly tell me I only work for a few hours one day each week, but they know that is nonsense! 

So may the door remain open, and may I encourage others to offer the same welcome we have received from Christ, no matter who they are....

 

More than anything I am encouraged today by someone saying, I have learnt such a lot from you because you are normal, approcahable and normal! 

Struggling God... (and my struggles to understand)

A couple of images have me wondering about the struggles of God, struggles of tension within God's self, this is partly a trinitarian reflection, and partly a reflection on how God contends with the brokeness of his/her creation, and I think the two are connected. It is probably best explained through the theological explanation of perichoresis, described here for us by St John of Damascus:

"The subsistences [i.e., the three Persons] dwell and are established firmly in one another. For they are inseparable and cannot part from one another, but keep to their separate courses within one another, without coalescing or mingling, but cleaving to each other. For the Son is in the Father and the Spirit: and the Spirit in the Father and the Son: and the Father in the Son and the Spirit, but there is no coalescence or commingling or confusion. And there is one and the same motion: for there is one impulse and one motion of the three subsistences, which is not to be observed in any created nature"

This three in one/one in three must produce a tension, and while this tension is often described as a divine dance or embrace I wonder if that dance/ embrace sometimes takes the form of a divine wrestling where love and wrath meet; now I know that wrath is not a popular attribute of God to be speaking of, for we prefer to keep God nice and acceptable. Writing in Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf wakes us from our cosseted slumber:

" It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge. In a scorched land–soaked in the blood of the innocent, the idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind…if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship. "

Volf again in a World magazine interview:

 “Love without wrath on account of harm inflicted on the beloved is mere sentimentality. That’s why God is wrathful in the face of human sin.”

Put simply, because God is love Gods wrath is against all and everything that marrs the image of love. We live in a violent world, that violence is both physical and more subtly mental- words can and do cause violence to out hearts and minds and souls. To God that violence against his beloved creation is intollerable, and he responds in justice or wrath, love and mercy or grace, and love holds both justice and grace, wrath and mercy in tension. The divine dance becomes a divine struggle, a movement of passion and longing that is echoed in a world that groans to be free. Perichoresis becomes then both a thing of beauty and of power, and we are embraced in it and through it. This contemplation of the glory of the Holy Trinity is restorative, and sadly lacking especially in evangelical circles. St Gregory Nazianzus says it best:

“No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendor of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the One. . . When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.”

The blogger at Ars Theologica says:

The Church is a community defined by this same perichoresis. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are drawn up into the divine life, in which we move and flow and derive life, love, and spiritual power. In the words of the Apostle Paul, in the Triune Lord "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). The Church is only the Church when it is united in love with the Trinity, sharing in its perichoresis. C.S. Lewis perceptively noted that the "whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us" (The Weight of Glory, 153). I find this notion both thrilling and a source of profound peace.

So on to those images first this, a sculpture found at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park: Jonathan Borofsky's Molecule Man 1+1+1, Borofsky seees his role as asking questions of human life, for me Molecule Man provides an interesting alternative picture of the trinity as they embrace and wrestle with the tension of mercy, love and justice, grace, love and wrath none of which can be absent if one is to be present:

The second image is drawn by Tim, and for me picks up the whole theme in a different way:

Tim says:

Nehemiah 2:19-20, 4:1-9 &  John 16:25-33

For those of us training at St John’s Richard’s sermon was everything we expect of one of our lecturers, the wisdom of one who teaches on the Bible in Christian Ministry and  the Old Testament and delivered with a dry humour rooted in our common experience at St John’s. So not everyone got all the jokes. However, his exegesis of the passage and his critique of traditional christian uses of the Nehemiah passage led him to suggest a very plausible and acceptable understanding of the text.

The story of Nehemiah is essentially one of Jerusalem, the city of such hopes and dreams of the people of Israel. I fear that Nehemiah, with his vengeful prayer, doesn’t get a good review but there must be some good in a man who has vision, passion and determination to be the catalyst for renewal. If nothing else it shows that God has a place for all in building his Church. Essentially the thrust of Richard’s teaching was that Jesus is the fulfilment of all the hopes of God’s people that Jerusalem came to symbolise. For those that labour for God’s Kingdom opposition is inevitable and yet God will win the struggle because it is his fight and his kingdom. Christ says that we will face opposition but we should not be afraid because he has overcome the world. The secret of not missing those things hidden in the text is in the bread and the wine and the word.

The image uses the crown of thorns as an image of a wall. Within it, and on the crown of Christ’s head, three figures dance. The cross forms the facial features of Christ and so recognises that the New Jerusalem is founded on the cross of Christ. The image portrays the death and suffering of Christ indicating the cost Christ paid for his Church. Perhaps our reaction to those who oppose the renewal of God’s Church and the mission of his kingdom is found in the encounter with the crucified Christ, the living Word.

This illustrates that ongoing struggle for me both in and through our struggle to grapple with God we come face to face with the God who struggles on our behalf. We cannot embrace a God of love without finding ourselves caught up in his grace and mercy or his justice and wrath, and although the tension will one day be resolved that day is not yet, but we live in the hope of its arrival...

...when love will remain. I finish with a poem of mine written when I first began thinking about the Trinity in the light of perichoresis:

Can you hear

the unforced

rhythms of grace ?

 

Do you see

the heavenly

holy dancers?

 

Are you captivated

by the wonder,

freedom,

movement,

and life

that flows from their

uncreated song?

 

Can you hear the beating

of their hearts

as they whisper,

and shout;

proclaiming their love

for one another,

and

for you?

 

Do you yearn

to join the passionate

throng, to be

encircled in their midst?

 

For you are invited

to this wild, heavenly

ceilidh!

 

Will you dare to take

the outstretched hand,

kick off your shoes

and dance?

Messy Church .... no not that one...

I have been reflecting on our Christmas Services, and if I have to use one word to describe them the word I would use is messy. Of course we didn't set out to be messy, but that is how they largely turned out. Lets start with the Carol Services on the 18th, these are usually among the highlight of my year, but for some reason this year the message weighed heavy on me, add that to a change of format for  and the fact that one of the Chapel is undergoing a refurbishment, while the other had a change of format for health and safety reasons (no more hanging candles over peoples heads), and the general feel was well, messy!

On to Christmas Eve, well I'm not sure what was going on, the lossof a very dear member half way through the week had obviously played its part, but the service itself was anything but smooth, it is quite possible that our visitors thought we were mad, but in reality they seemed to relax in our muddle!, the Christmas day dawned and it became apparent that the main service in one village had been advertised at two different times! Other than that things went along pretty well but it did take a while to draw everyone in! The last service was a typical family Christmas morning, parents who'd been up for a while and children fractious to get back to their presents. Some folk enjoying family, others joining together so they weren't lonely, oh yes, and the organist was late- she'd been visiting friends...

So much for smooth well run events...

So much for timing...

And yet in the carols and the prayers, in the scripture, the preaching and the breaking of bread God was with us, Immanuel....

And as I ponder the story afresh I remember that he was not delivered in a sanitised hospital, nor was he laid in an immaculate and well planned nursery. He came right into the mess, the muddle, the difficulty and the heartache of this world, the vulnerable for the vulnerable, the weak for the weak, and yet somehow in the mystery of God al heaven rejoiced for he was the one who came anointed to preach good news to the poor, to bring sight to the blind, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and to set the prisoners free...

And even in our mess he comes!