Eternal Echoes

pondering possessions, (the tyranny of stuff)

They’ve arrived, a big pile of boxes now wait in our garage to be filled with all our worldly goods to be moved from North Yorkshire to Blackpool. Over the last 15 years we have moved 7 times, this move will be the 8^th. Some of the moves have been short-term others longer, and certainly for the longer moves one thing stands out, we clear stuff out, we give away, sell and re-cycle stuff. Every time we vow that we will not collect so much stuff, and while I have to say that this time we’ve done reasonably well on that front there are additions, and some of them will inevitably be given away….

 

All of this has me pondering my relationship with stuff, when Tim and I first married we had very little, our coffee table was a cardboard box with a chess board on top and in the early months if people came to eat with us it was a case of bring your own cutlery! I can remember the pressures I felt, a sinking feeling of not being good enough brought on by various pressures from advertising to “well meaning” comments from friends and family.

 

That sense of being defined by what we had was deeply ingrained in me, this was partly a result of my upbringing where appearances were important and partly a bowing to the pressures I was surrounded with. The result of this was years of struggling to fit in and feeling unacceptable, even the church did not help for it had its own acceptable standards and demands. Like it or not most churches are middle class and exude demands if only subconsciously!

 

All of this pressure only added to my own sense of inadequacy and failure, this led to trying to keep up, which led to debt, which only deepened the sense of despair. It has taken me years, no decades to begin to break free of the vicious circle. Again and again I have returned to Jesus words:

 

Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being……

 

If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

 

Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

 

If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. (Matthew 6)

 

Again and again I have failed to live free of worry, the demands upon my children, myself and my self esteem have caused me to crumble. The desire to fit in and not to be shunned is huge, and I am more and more convinced that as a Christian that I must seek to live in a radically counter-cultural way. I am not advocating a miserable ascetic existence, but rather a decision to live life to the full which means being freed from the demands and shackles of fashion and the desire to keep up with the Joneses, but for this I need friends, I need encouragement and support.

 

More and more I am convinced that the church needs to become again (or maybe in some cases for the first time) a community of radical hospitality where everyone and I mean everyone is accepted and welcomed! Maybe we should worry less about out shoes than our smiles when coming to worship! One of the Chapels I work with has recently opened a Christians Against Poverty Centre, CAP helps people struggling with debt, the folk who will be our clients have got there for a variety of reasons, and not a few because they have struggled with the same issues and demands as I have. We have had some discussions about whether we can afford to run such a centre but at Church Council it was decided that we could not afford not to. In our discussions we were challenged about the things we hold dear, and questioned as to whether we would be willing to sacrifice just a little so that many could be helped. The response was positive, and now the challenge to be the welcoming community of faith that accepts all lies ahead of us.

 

I say that this is a challenge because not too long ago I sat in another Church Council meeting (in a different church) and was told “you are reaching the wrong kind of people”, when an explanation was sought the response was “well they’ll never have much to put in the plate…”  I saw red then and that attitude makes me see red now!  If we are sharing the good news of God’s love for all then how dare we demand that people measure up to our standards, even subtly so! Again this has got me thinking, and while I am not opting for a vow of poverty I do believe that there is a definite call through the gospels to live a simpler life than Western culture demands, and I find the whole health, wealth and prosperity angle on the gospel particularly abhorrent ,even hints of it are unacceptable! I struggle with this because I hear it whispered through our attitudes, it may not be overt but it is there, blessing is equated over and over with financial gain and successes. Interestingly that makes Jesus the ultimate failure, and yet he has everything and holds everything in his hands…

 

So as I sort and clear I am aware that I need to begin again to practice what I preach, and I wonder…. do books have a category al of their own, are books “stuff”? Sadly I suspect they are….

 

 

 

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 

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)

Celebrating seasons, rites of passage, the environment and Avatar (I am slow)

As I write this I am sitting in my study which overlooks our vegetable patch, so far this year, even with the help of the cats who we are training to know that the raised beds are not their personal playgrounds, everything has come up and is doing well. This morning I am preparing some fleeces as the forecast is for a possible ground frost for the next few days, I will protect the more tender plants with this, some are still under cloches so they will be OK.

Vegetable gardening teaches you to work with and eat with the seasons, things can be "forced on" but this is not a good idea for most crops. Patience and care is essential, most farmers would agree, especially those who have returned to the more traditional ways of raising both crops and livestock. It is a joy to see free range hens and pigs as I walk the countryside where only a few years ago they would have been enclosed in intensive farming sheds ( that some still are is a sadness, though conditions have improved dramatically).

Time and patience, a willingness to move and work in sympathy with the earth and the seasons is something that has been too long neglected not only by society as a whole but also by the church. So often we forget to move with the seasons, even those who are lectionary based may stop only for a quick acknowledgment of the seasons before moving on. Colours help (stoles, altar frontals etc) but fewer and fewer folk  know what they mean! Contrast that with the growing interest in neo-paganism, where the seasons are marked and celebrated with ritual and real celebration; today is Beltane,  dances will be held  and decorations will be hung, and stories will be told. And yet sadly more and more our seasons for celebration are comercialised and stripped of meaning. Spiritual hunger for connection is all around us, we need to speak out, to make more of our celebrations, to mark with energy and enthusiasm not only Christmas and Easter, but also Epiphany, Candlemass, Ascension, Pentecost, Harvest.... the list goes on.... I know there are some excellent ways in which all this is done, and that there are many places where it has never stopped, but many of us have become word bound and lack imagination!

Another neglected area in the church today is rights of passage, we celebrate baptisms, and weddings and we are forced to be aware of death through funerals, but do we celebrate other transitions? Do we celebrate when children move from childhood to adolesence and when they move from adolesence to adutlhood? Yes these transitions are hard to pinpoint, but how about a celebration as they move from Yr 6 (5th Grade) to High/ Junior High School, and how about again as they leave High School and head out to work or college? Perhaps these celebrations are gifts we could offer to the wider community in a celebratory way that means more than a strange man offering a Gideons Bible...

All of these things would offer both colour and depth to our tradition and to our story, through them our humanity will be enriched and nurutured...

So what may you ask got me thinking about all of this...well I watched Avatar last night on DVD, and there is so much more to be said, more about human greed and the environment, more about God in all creation...

What truly preplexes me is how we cannot be challenged by the story, and yet I recieved so many e-mails asking for a negative critique as if it were an evil story to be steered away from. I am sorry, but I beg to differ!

I will end here for now, more later perhaps!

Community, body language and priesthood....

My friend Mike has an interesting post on Equality and Ordained Priesthood, sparked off by a question from another friend Helen. She asked:

"Thinking of Sally's post about standing with the people during the covenant, and the fact that you were standing behind the altar - how do you reconcile this 'equality for all' to the idea of an ordained priesthood?" Mikes response was mostly ontological in nature, he recognises himself as a sinner, but also recognises something particular about his calling.

My response to the ongoing conversation was that I too recognize that ordained ministry is a calling, and that I believe that I have been called out from, for and by the body of Christ for a particular role within it. I also believe that a part of my role is to encourage others in their callings, recognising and affirming every member ministry! This means ( and it is not difficult) remembering that I only have certain gifts, and there are some I will never have!

In my previous post I spoke of how I joined the congregation sitting amongst them as we said the Covenant Prayer together. For me this was an important stance to take, not because I do not value ordained ministry, but because I do, and because I also value the ministry and gifts of every other member. We say the covenant prayer together as an act of communal and individual commitment to God, in this my role is no different from anyone else's. Following that part of the service I moved to resume my role in presiding at the table for the communion.

This brings me to another part of the discussion between Mike and Helen, they have both referred to the table rather than the altar, not an issue for me, but as they are both Anglicans I am interested in why they do so. For me the table highlights the memorial aspect of the Lord's Supper whereas the altar brings in many more aspects such as sacrifice and raises questions about the ontology of priesthood some of which I am uncomfortable with. That said I am willing to hold all of this lightly because I find amongst the congregations I serve a mix of thinking. One group refer to the "shelf/ platform" at the back of the alcove as the altar and are confused when I want to preside from the table which has to be brought in. We will have a conversation about this, but one step at a time! I am not the first minister to ask for the table to be brought in, and am thankful for that! Another congregation are an LEP, a mix of Anglicans and Methodists who have learned to adapt and are not precious about their practices, here the table is placed to one side of the platform and the pulpit to the other. I personally like the balance of this better than the final Chapel where I have pastoral Charge whose table is literally a shelf tucked under  the enormous pulpit; our buildings have a body language of their own, and I believe that how we work with this is important.

I do not use large and intimidating pulpits when preaching to small congregations, I prefer to use a table that I can stand behind rather than a ledge or shelf which means that I have to face away from the congregation when I am presiding at the Lords Supper. I like the Congregational practice of eating and drinking together and do use this sometimes, all of these things for me are about the communal aspect of the gathered people of God. The way we worship together is important, and it should reflect how we relate to one another and to God.

There is a lot of critisism surrounding the churches focus on worship, and I would challenge the validity of that critisism for I believe that we come together to worship God and to be sent out into the world to serve him. We need to come together, to make our confession together, to raise our intercessions together and to recieve encouragement from God and from one another. We are one body with many parts, and those parts may go their seperate ways though out the week but they are still connected... but that is a whole other topic, and so I will end this post here, and hope that the discussion continues!

Surviving Christmas, amongst family and friends....

My friend Mike posted this very helpful article  (by Phil Wyman) today via facebook, it is written for people who will face Christmas alone, and offers many helpful suggestions for making the season meaningful. For too many Christmas serves to highlight this issue, along with the problems of homelessness and deprivation of many kinds and we must not forget that.

It brings other stresses too:

Over the last few weeks I have written quite a bit about my need to engage with the season of advent, and the fact that I struggle with the pressures of the season, especially the consumerism and skewed celebration of it all. I have attempted to keep up a discipline of daily reading and meditation, not always successfully as my days have become steadily busier, and although this busyness has been God-focused through Carol Services I find myself craving solitude and time to rub two thoughts together.

The flip side to the loneliness problem at Christmas is the demand to be sociable and outgoing, Christmas is well documented as a season which places unusual stresses upon relationships, it is often a time when the cracks begin to show in apparently stable families and divorce lawyers expect a flurry of calls; it seems that Christmas not only highlights loneliness, it also highlights relationship overload. Now I know there are a number of factors surrounding this, not least the consumerist nature and pressure of the season, where finances are stretched to the limit and partners with different perspectives clash. For me though the main pressure is lack of space; like many who are either introverts or marginal extroverts the constant interaction with others is wearing and draining.

So for those who struggle with Christmas overload, rather than Christmas loneliness I have a few suggestions, and maybe not so strangely they are quite similar to those suggested in The Boston Examiner linked above!

1. Try to recapture the sense of what Christmas is all about. Take time to read the story, make yourself some space, light a candle and take in the wonder of it all. This could just as easily be done in company with others using prayers and silences as you deliberately quiet yourselves and draw away from the rush to engage with the wonder.

2. Get out for a walk everyday, preferably in daylight, again if going alone is impossible the simple act of getting out and gaining more space around you will work wonders!

3.Carve out some you time, maybe to take a long hot soak, hopefully most people won't want to join you in the bath!

4.Use the end/ beginning of the day to find some solitude, which depends on whether you are a morning or an evening person. Ten minutes of listening to music or meditation can be rejuvenating for the soul.

5.Relax, Christmas is not a show, too many arguments break out because of raised expectations...

6. In a quiet moment take a good look at your loved ones, remember what a precious gift they are and say a prayer for those whose loneliness will continue long after Christmas is over this year.

This Christmas Lord,

take a corner of my life

and steal in...

invade the busyness of my doing

with the quiet of your coming

 

This Christmas Lord

take a corner of my mind

and steal in..

illuminate the darkness of my thinking

with the brightness of your seeing.

 

This Christmas Lord

take a corner of my heart

and steal in...

infuse the coldness of my loving

with the warmth of your being.

 

This Christmas Lord

as at Bethlehem's stable

come and steal in...

take the unprepared places of my life

and make them fit for your dwelling.

(Pat Bennett-from;  Hay and Stardust)

 

Time out from tinsel....

This morning  I as looked out across my garden it seemed that winter had arrived, bare branches reached skywards  where only a few months ago there were flowers and green shrubs. Now the leaves have fallen, and the bare branches of many of the shrubs have been pruned back.The scene in monochrome, even the vegetable beds that Tim has been working on so hard are waiting for the new season, the soil has been dug and the beds prepared but they are bare, open to the winter rains and frosts...

Yesterday I re-potted a couple of my orchids, even these indoor plants have entered into a time of waiting, their stalks have been pruned back, their colourful exotic flowers are gone for this year, and I have moved them to a place where they will receive just the right amount of warmth and light for the waiting time....

There seems to be little life in the garden, and the orchids look like dead sticks, but all is not what it seems, new life is simply waiting to burst forth when the time is right, but for now this bit of creation has entered into the waiting time.

In contrast to the quiet and stillness of my garden are  the local shops where even in the village Christmas has arrived with full force, adverts in the local Co-op tempt us not to wait until Christmas Day to begin feasting, while in a neighbouring village the lights have been on for weeks now. If I turn on the television I am bombarded with adverts, the radio offers the same constant feed of consumerism, preparation is all about consumption.

No wonder we are weary, we have lost the ability to truly rest, and have forsaken the wonder of waiting, replacing anticipation with headlong rush of activity adding stress to a season that sends bank accounts and relationships spiraling into disaster. How tragic that parents are judged not by the love, care and concern that they have for their children but by the size of the parcel they are able to provide. I speak to mothers who sacrifice bedtime stories and cuddles for part-time jobs simply in order to buy that latest toy for a child whose head has been filled desire for a toy that has been advertised solidly from September onwards. I speak to families stressed out by not being able to buy the approval of relatives and friends. I hear it from my own children as living on student loans they struggle to resist the perils of the season!

I want to stand in the centre of our towns and shopping centres with a big placard  that simply reads STOP! I wonder if I did, how many people would take the time to come and see just what I was up to, and why I wanted to break into the frenetic activity I find around me. I want to invite people to take time out from tinsel, and to give themselves a breathing space. In that space I pray that some form or perspective might begin to dawn...

I am aware that I am repeating myself. I have said so much of this before, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record I will continue to say it. We need to STOP! Advent is not about chocolate filled calenders it is a season of repentance and fasting just as Lent is, it is also a season of preparation, one that calls us not to look to the babe in the manger but rather to the risen Christ WHO WILL COME AGAIN. Last Sunday's gospel reading brought with it the challenge not to get caught up in dissipation and drunkenness but challenged us instead to look beyond the cares and desires of this world.

Do I struggle with all of this? Oh yes, I was brought up to believe that Christmas was all about presents and feasting. I feel guilty if I don't enter into the spirit of the season, but through my struggle I want to encounter the Spirit who made the season a cause for celebration, the Spirit who opened the virgins womb and made the incarnation a reality. That same Spirit is the one who brought life to the lifeless body of Jesus and raised the babe of Bethlehem restoring him to heavens glory. It is that Spirit, the Holy Spirit whose fire I want to fill my life in and through the coming celebrations, and because of that I need the season of Advent, not so that I can prepare through purchases filling my life with clutter. Rather I need to be emptied, I need time out from tinsel, for although it is particularly noticeable at Christmas time, glitter and tinsel beckon to us through out the year in one way or another.

So I am taking time out, to seek the one who calls to us; he sees that we are weary and burdened, and he invites us aside. He offers us rest, and if we chose the road to radical recovery, and long, no yearn to live a life free from consumerism's grip and look instead for contentment, he promises to walk with us and work with us.

We can choose to take permanent time out from tinsel, and in doing do we might just find that we really have something to celebrate!

The Risen Christ, by John Young

I wouldn't start from here.....

I have had a busy weekend, and am trying to draw together my thoughts, for although there have been many different activities there seems to me to be a common thread running through...

On Saturday I traveled to Newark to present a Jesus Deck Workshop. Two Journey Into Wholeness Groups were involved, and as they engaged with the teaching a common theme emerged from the comments and questions, it centered around the way we expect to present the gospel. So often we take a linear approach, we want to tell the story of Jesus from beginning to end, and we want people to confess their sins before we are happy to say that they have had a meaningful relationship with God.

The Jesus Deck demands that we engage with the gospels in a non linear way. We may have to begin in the middle and move around between the end and the beginning as we tell the story of the cards. It can also be so with people coming to faith, I have a friend who talks of having a meaningful relationship with God for almost 3 years before he had any conviction of personal sin! We talked about how the traditional ( or at least post-enlightenment) emphasis on preaching a gospel of repentance, provides us with a narrow message, often perceived as unattractive in a spiritually minded culture. I do believe that there is a place for repentance, indeed I believe it is essential ( and should be an ongoing part of out journey), it is just not necessarily the first or second thing that we should ask of folk!

Could it be that we so often encounter folk and try to get them to come with us to a starting point within our comfort zone so that we can journey with them... Maybe the challenge is to learn to start where they are, no matter how uncomfortable that makes us! If we dare to do so maybe we will end up at a wonderful destination we could never have envisaged!!!

Next came the Sunday morning service and a look at the themes of Advent. How interesting that we begin the Church year with a look at the second coming! I find this challenging and discomforting, and used two images to make my point.

, and

It is easy to domesticate the season of advent, to visit only it's acceptable themes, but Christ cannot be domesticated and the message of the gospels is not always comfortable. If we never dare to venture beyond our comfort zones maybe we never meet the risen Christ and never come into contact with resurrection possibilities for ourselves! Maybe we need to engage with the season of advent by daring to begin from a different place....

Lastly Tim and I drove around the Circuit tasking photos and filming for two different projects. My favourite photo was this one...

I live in an area dominated by power stations, Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge are iconic if sobering landmarks. This photo taken at Drax this morning shows the original power station and two new wind turbines. Interestingly in an ever increasing culture of eco-awareness there have been a number of locsal protests.Some folk are not happy about the turbines.

I am challenged by this thinking on a number of levels, and am struck by how human it is! Could it be I wonder that this picture and situation could serve as a parable for the church...

We want change, but how often do we dig our heels in and refuse to begin something new. How often do we welcome change, providing it is not us who are being challenged...

How often does the sentiment "I wouldn't start from here" pass through our minds and flow into our practice....

I wonder how many of us would have dared to start in a rough hewn manger in Bethlehem?
 

 

Active thanksgiving

I am sitting in my warm dry study, surrounded by books and working using a reasonably new lap-top. Outside my window a Blue-tit is feeding at the containers of bird food I have hung there, and even though it is November the weather is good enough today for me to have laundry hanging out on the line. Although it is the end of my pay quarter we have plenty of food in the cupboards and fuel in the car and even some money in the bank. I am well provided for and have no fear for my life or health, and for all of this I am thankful.

As I consider all of this I am pondering whether it is enough simply to be thankful, or even whether thankfulness as a feeling is inadequate, and that it should be translated into an action if it is going to be at all meaningful. Across the pond my American friends are celebrating Thanksgiving today, many of them have got together with friends and family to share a meal and to relax together, and that is good, others may be taking part in a community event choosing to celebrate with folk who are homeless or in need in some way.

I have written about my experience of Thanksgiving in Texas here, and believe that it is a very positive holiday, and I am not a kill-joy regarding family and community celebrations, I love them! BUT I believe that to live our lives in an attitude of thanksgiving requires something far deeper than a celebration, and a commitment that is not based on warm feelings because sometimes thanksgiving is tough!

I am challenged by Paul's instruction to the Thessalonians: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Challenged because it calls forth a real and active response from me that demands something more than empty words. It asks me to be aware of God in and through all circumstances, and it calls me to make a positive response, a response of thanksgiving, and it may be that that thanksgiving is no more than a real awareness that I am able to respond in prayer.

The Psalms are great examples of prayer in the tough times, so often even when the Psalmist begins by pouring out his complaint he ends it with thanksgiving and praise; these two things pour out it seems when the Psalmist acknowledges the ultimate rule of God in his life, and that although it may not seem like it in the present moment, but there will come a time when all will be well.

 Thanksgiving is made possible for me in the tough times if and when I focus on something beyond myself, and on others... but I am also aware that this too is a luxury, and again that I am not caught up in a hopeless situation, nor am I helpless. Others are not so fortunate, neither are they less human, and this should spur me on to share what I have both materially and spiritually ( no matter how small my offering seems)...

As I ponder the concept of thanksgiving then I am challenged to make it a daily discipline of prayerful thanks and active living and being....

Friday Five -Thanksgiving

Jan over at Revgals is offering a Thanksgiving Friday Five, asking questions about customs and traditions. As a non-American member of the group ( a Brit) I will not be celebrating Thanksgiving- next Thursday will be a normal day of work for me and I will not be eating any special foods, and my children will all be working on their studies at various their Universities around the country.

But I have celebrated Thanksgiving in the past, and was struck by truly celebratory nature of the occasion. For each of the three years that we lived in Texas (Katy, just outside Houston) we were invited by three different groups to celebrate with them. The first two times we were made welcome and treated as members of the family, we helped with some of the food preparation and joined in with the games and fun before and after the meal. I was struck by the way that the celebration was rooted in true thankfulness and that the reason for the first thanksgiving has not really been lost (despite the fact that most turkeys came from supermarkets, and that some of the pumpkin was canned!). I was also struck by the family centered nature of the occasion and was pleased when on the third occasion we joined a group who took Thanksgiving meal and celebration to a park in a poorer area of the city. Turkeys had been donated, four of them were cooked at home and four of them deep fried (yes really) at the park. Side-dishes were prepared and people were invited. We ran a shuttle of cars to take meals and blankets to folk who were housebound and laid on games and music for the whole of the afternoon. It was a truly community centered event.

Here in the UK many churches continue to celebrate Harvest, but it is a shadow of a celebration in comparison, the date is not set, and many folk don't celebrate at all. We have it seems become separated from the land. I know that the reasons for this are varied, and that our history is very different to that of the Pioneer settlers. but I do wonder if we are missing something vital and important.

When I look back through our Chapel records I see accounts of village feasts, and of communities working to bring the harvest home. I am also reminded that the land was not and is not tame, that the elements can make or break a harvest, they remain beyond our control. I live and minister in a rural area, and I wonder if the community centered nature of harvest is something that we need to re-visit, and I wonder how we can truly creatively do so. Perhaps as Jan hinted in the poem she quoted celebration is a cure for apathy- and that we need to put on a red dress, bake a cake, and share our lives more often!

Who will be welcome to our table?