Eternal Echoes

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!

stumbling blocks....

Reading the Word in Time on the Methodist Church web-site this morning has got me thinking. The disciples were concerned with who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus brings a small child amongst them and points to her humility. Today's writer Ric Stott brings another perspective:

Now, either children were very different in first century Palestine or Jesus doesn't know much about children. They are so often consumed with who is the fastest, or prettiest, or who's got the biggest slice of cake or the best toy. "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" sounds like a pretty childish question.

I pondered that for a while and I have to concede that he is right, children today (certainly in the west) are often consumed by these unnecessary questions, what they look like and what they have are seen as all important- and they become marks of status. Why are children like this? Well quite simply because children are doing what children do, they are emulating the adults in their lives!

Although we don't like to admit it we live in a culture that is consumed by image; just think back if you can to Susan Boyle's first appearance on X-Factor. Can you remember the judges faces and the audience reaction before she opened her moth to sing? Of course she has gone on to become a successful recording artist, and has undergone the "required" make-over, and the fact that, that makes us all more comfortable with her is an indication of the shallowness of our culture and an indication of our willingness to paper over the cracks of our brokenness with surface remedies! 

These surface remedies become stumbling blocks to reality- we are no longer in touch with the true value of our humanity- we fail to declare that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, we forget that we are loved for who we are and we contunually try to make ourselves something other, and loose touch with our true value in the process. We are so surrounded by the stumbling blocks of our culture that we fail to notice that we are falling!

Church is not immune to these stumbling blocks, and the more middle class we become the further we find ourselves from Jesus teaching. If children were different in first century Palestine then what were the stumbling blocks Jesus was referring to? Could they have been the demands of religion, the rules and regulations of life that prevented people from living in freedom? Here I think we find a double problem in the church of today- for while we are very often slaves to our culture we also rebel against it, we create our own rules and sets of criticism and end up not knowing which way to turn. We become victims of our own double standards. 

All of this is a long way from Jesus call to live freely and lightly:

"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." (Matthew 11:28-30)

How then do we escape the stumbling blocks and recover our lives? Ric Stott suggests:

"Perhaps there is another childlike quality that Jesus is alluding to – that ability to live fully in the present, experiencing life deeply without concern with what happened yesterday or worrying about what will happen tomorrow. A child can run joyfully with total abandon across a beach, delighting in the splashing of the waves and falling exhausted, giggling into the sand in a way that most adults are far to uptight and concerned about self-image to emulate."

Living freely is not as easy as it sounds for to live free we need to break free from the demands of  our culture and religious notions, we need to discover the God colours and flavours in our lives so that we can respond to Jesus challenge: 

"Let me tell you why you're 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.

"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. (Matthew 5: 13-16)

Maybe in this we will begin to be those who:

 "Prepare for God's arrival! Make the road straight and smooth,  a highway fit for our God. Fill in the valleys, level off the hills,smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks.Then God's bright glory will shine and everyone will see it.  Yes. Just as God has said." (Isaiah 40: 3-5)

Called to be salt and Light (Sermon blogging) Matthew 5: 13-16, Romans 12: 1-2

I’ve just returned from my holiday, and being super efficient I had planned my service before I left, the hymns and the scriptures were carefully chosen. I even had a the beginnings of a message forming but speaking about riots and rioters was far from my mind, a lot can change in two weeks.

What then shall I say? So much has already been said, news reporters, newspaper analysts, through the T.V., the radio, the papers, everyone has been asked their opinion, from comedians and magicians (The Guardian carried articles from Paul Daniels and Russell Brand) to politicians and community leaders.

Some blame the politicians, some blame the system, some blame the breakdown of society, and some blame the rioters calling them wild animals. Some blame greed and lack of community, some blame one another…

One thing becomes abundantly clear as you read reports and listen to the news; everybody is looking for somebody else to blame and very few want to take responsibility! But I suspect that deep down we know that the awkward truth is that we are all responsible at some level!

Yes I really did say that and I’ll repeat it just in case you think you misheard me: “we are all responsible at some level.” Now I know that most of us did not take to the streets, that we did not loot and pillage or set buildings alight, we didn’t and we wouldn’t…

…and yet we are responsible…

We are responsible for the generations who have grown up in this country without hope:

Though the newspapers are right in pointing out that single parent families, illiterate and impoverished youths were among the main perpetrators they were by no means alone, and the Daily Telegraph rightly states:

“Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.

The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation.”

Britain itself needs a moral reformation! I’d go further; Britain does not just need reformation it needs deep transformation, for that we need to get away from selfishness that pervades every pore of our society and that I believe includes the church.

Listen to Jesus words again:

"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?

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 was not speaking into a vacuum; he was speaking to his followers. His followers who loved among people who were suffering under political oppression, among people in an occupied land who were being heavily taxed people who were in some cases tired and worn down. People who needed hope….

Jesus was speaking to his followers and calling them to be those who brought hope, hope and flavour and colour to a world that needed salty light bearers!

Jesus is speaking to us too, calling us to be that salt seasoning, to bring light into the dark places; calling us to be aware of the needs of our communities.

We are going public with this message of hope says Jesus, as public as a city on a hill! I’m putting you on a light stand he says! I want you to shine…

This is a huge challenge to us, and it requires a big decision from us. It requires us to examine ourselves individually and corporately it requires us to understand and accept our part in the problem that faces us. It requires repentance from us, and a renewed, restored and even transformed desire to become bearers of hope…

It requires us to lay aside our wants and comforts in order to engage with the needs of others…

But before this all begins to sound like hard work and a call to a miserable way of being lets not forget that Jesus promises us his Spirit, promises us that to walk with him is to walk freely and lightly, to move in his unforced rhythms of grace! It also means that we don’t have to generate the love and compassion from within ourselves because they spring from the heart of the God who loved us first, and from whom all of the fruits of the Spirit flow…

Choosing to become a part of the solution requires action from us, listen to the words of Romans again:

^1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

 

God will bring out the best in us! God wants to bring out the best in us; God blesses us and calls us to become a blessing, a blessing to those who need his touch of love, his colours and his flavours running through their lives. He calls us beyond our comfort zones to touch the unlovely and unloved, to speak out against injustice at all levels, to be different and to make a difference!

And yes it will be risky and costly, but we are followers of the God who gave all for us, leaving the glory of heaven for us, who went to the cross for us, and then conquering sin and death he was raised to newness of life by the mighty resurrection power of the Holy Spirit working in and through him. It is that restoring, renewing and transforming power that he calls us to move into again, to receive from him, to live and move and have our being in him…

He was not concerned with our religion or tradition; he is not so much interested in how we sing our hymns or say our prayers as he is with our attitudes and actions towards the folk he has placed us amongst. His words to us are the same as they were to his early followers:

 "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world.”

And he asks the same question of us:

Will you follow me?

 

(Picture: Welcome by Tim)

 

 

 

On being proud.....

Of all the cards I received for Ordination one stood out, at first it jarred on me, but I have reflected on it and it now sits more comfortably...

It came emblazoned with the words "be proud"; and although pride is not a virtue I would readily associate with ministry there is a sense in which I find I am able to embrace the sentiment. For as I stood on the platform at The Methodist Conference in Southport I did so alongside sisters and brothers of different ages, and different backgrounds. We came in all shapes and sizes, from different theological convictions, we stood together as those of different genders, and sexualities, different ideals and visions...

And as we stood before them Conference stood to affirm our calling and to declare that we should be ordained that day, and we were ordained into the world wide church of God. Hands were laid upon us by a representative President of Conference, a representative of the wider world church and our supporting ministers, and so the church national, global and local were present. The congregation declared us worthy to be ordained (by the grace of God) and it was so; and for those who disagree with the validity of that as we were reminded last week, that is their problem...

As for me, I find I am able to be proud to be a part of a church that will live within the liminality and tensions of the now and not quite yet of God. A church whose emphasis is grace, a church that chooses to live with its own messiness, and yet resolves to carrying on working out it's salvation in fear and trembling and  in communion. Through this week Conference is meeting, discussing, debating and praying, willing to change and yet struggling with it...

So yes I find that I am proud, by the grace of God I am proud to call myself his with a Methodist flavour!

Image by Tim who says: I hope the image shows the disciples together in prayer being empowered by the holy spirit to present Christ to the wider world. The ministry of the Church would be like a stream in the wasteland, a freshening water to the world bringing the life of the Kingdom of God.

Resurrection, recovery, and transformation... ( thoughts on time, and life )

Several thoughts coming together here, and all centred on resurrection and recovery...

On Easter Sunday I preached on the transformational possibilities released through the resurrection, how the risen and transformed Christ reveals to us the possibility of resurrection and transformation in our own lives. I used the (often used) illustration of a butterfly, noting that it begins life as a caterpillar and has to go through the transformation process by entering into the chrysalis where everything is in flux. In fact everything becomes a messy goop, and it is out of the mess that the new creature emerges. That emergence comes with a struggle, and the butterfly gains its strength through the struggle to emerge, to "help" a butterfly to break free from it's chrysalis tomb by opening it so that struggle is not needed will result in a weak and deficient creature that will never reach its full potential and soar!

Continuing to think along these lines I begin to wonder if we often rush the mystery of Easter and all too readily plunge back into the ordinary life. How easily we move in just three days from O Sacred Head Sore Wounded to Thine be the Glory, and yet a careful reading of the gospels reveals to us the doubts and fears that the disciples experienced in the days following the resurrection. Many times Jesus was not recognised, and his appearance though it certainly evoked joy, sometimes brought about terror and questions. 

Luke 24 tells us:

"just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. “Peace be with you,” he said.  But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost!"

Matthew 28:

"When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted."

John 20:

"At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus."

These and other descriptions of those first encounters reveal fear, doubt, and questions, writing today Maggi Dawn says:

"Whatever the resurrection meant, exactly, it didn’t mean that everything was back to normal. It meant that hope had not died with him; it meant that all their categories of thought had to be adjusted around this new situation. But in practical terms? perhaps it meant that something very new and amazing was breaking out, but perhaps it meant that they were to go home and resume normal life.

What to do? and how to live? It wasn’t clear at all. One gospeller tells us that some of them went back to Galilee and their fishing business. Another says they waited in Jerusalem. Hanging about, or plodding through life’s daily events, the resurrection had certainly not changed their lives in an instant, like winning the lottery or something."

Their lives were not changed in an instant, the events of Jesus life now needed re-framing in an entirely new way, death had been defeated, something new had begun, and in some ways the church in all its diversity is still grappling with what all of this means. 

We live in such an instant world that all too often we miss the depths of mystery that the Easter Gospels reveal to us, we don't dwell with the disciples in their fears and doubts, we want to move on to rush to proclaim the good news before we have grasped what the good news is...

And the truth is that the disciples had to wait with and dwell in this messy place of flux until Pentecost...

...and dare I say beyond Pentecost...

I wonder if an appropriate picture for the church should be of the chrysalis. Could it be that in daring to choose to be in Christ that we enter the tomb ( the chrysalis) with him and this is where we still are in many real senses, we are not yet what we will be, but all of the ingredients, all of the potential is there. And yet because he is raised we are raised and are actively called to be his body on earth, to reveal and live his resurrection to the world...

No wonder we get confused! 

So where did the thoughts on depression come from and why are they in this blog post title..?

A while ago I blogged on Mike Yardy and depression, and was encouraged by not only his openness and honesty regarding his illness, but also by Hugh Morris, the English team coach who was reported as saying:

 "Yardy would be given the full support of everyone connected with the national team....... our priority now is to ensure that he returns home to his family and is able to spend time recovering with a strong support network around him"

Today Sussex head Coach Mark Robinson has been reported as saying:

"But it is just like anybody being injured. You have to give them time to heal properly and what you don’t want to do is rush them back so that they have a recurrence of the injury. It’s the same for Yards."

Time to heal, time to heal from depression, time to heal from shock and grief....

Time...

For Yardy, the time to heal is crucial, and so it was for the disciples, and dare I say so it is for the church today. We have just plunged ourselves headlong into an intense week, re-living the events of The Passion and Easter, if we have done so lightly then we may just skim along, but if we have been touched by the mystery, challenged afresh by the possibilities, awed by the depth of love, and wonder of resurrection power, then maybe just maybe we need time...

Time to take it in, time to heal, time to ponder and wonder, to dwell with our doubts and fears, to re-emerge stronger and closer to God somehow...