« August 2014 | Main | October 2014 »
again, again,
the earth is groaning
soaking up the blood of humankind;
evil must be overcome the
battlecry,
again, again,
as evil meets evil, again,
face on...
and our humanity shrinks,
a puddle in the
desert heat,
disconnected from the source
of our life
again we cry again,
again the earth is groaning
weeping for the
lostness of our souls...
Broken,
broken open,
broken, laid bare,
exposed on the bleak headland
high above the earth...
as the strom rages, above, below,
you are
broken,
broken open,
life pouring down, pouring out,
unstoppable,
real, raw, broken...
+
...and our senses fill with horror,
and we avert our eyes,
lest we see ourselves in the mirror of you,
and know we're broken open...
+
broken,
broken open
broken, laid bare, this is unsafe ground, we
stand on unsafe ground, in
the shifting sands of our minds...
+
searching for safety
we prepare a silver framed resting place,
surrounding it with lace,
and we carefully carry your brokenness in our
newly washed hands,
tidying the rawness, rendering the
unnerving palatable,
smoothing the edges
washing away the sharp
stinging salt of the storms rage
we are enclosed,
safe now, strangely unbroken
in false beauty,
devoid of
broken
open
power...
I have been pondering the Eucharist/ Lords supper/ Holy Communion, whatever you want to call it, again! More and more though I prefer to name the meal we share the Eucharist as it means thanksgiving, and it was to thanksgiving that Jesus called his first disciples and subsequently all believers to share in this mysterious and holy feast! The more I ponder it the more I find I need it, need to enter into the mystery of Christ tangiably with us and in us, as Augustine said powerfully " we eat what we are", the body of Christ remembers and the body of Christ is re-membered as we join together to celebrate and give thanks.
As I have been pondering, I have also been challenged by a number of different factors; the first is unity, the second the elements themselves, and the third our understanding.
1. Unity
I am deeply grateful for the Methodist Churches ( in Great Britain) current practice of an open table, but that also makes me sad because I am excluded from the table of others and that cannot be right! As an Ordained Methodist Minister I twice gave permission for the local Catholic Church to use our buliding to celebrate Mass while their building was being repaired. I purposley attended the service ( ours was to follow directly afterwards), but I was excluded from the table, the table where only an hour later I would also preside! Oddly it was OK for the two churches to join together for coffee between the two celebrations! Surely there is something wrong with that picture!
Back to Augustine again, who says in essence that:
As bread is made from many grains mixed together in water, so too are we made one in baptism through the water. Through the chrism (baptism) we receive the Holy Spirit as the fire that bakes us. The bread we receive is one body. Through the one bread, we are continually brought together as the Body of Christ. The bread is made from many grains. The Church is made up of many people who become one in Jesus.
If the Church is made up of many people who are one in Jesus I have to wonder again at the many ways we find to divide and exclude one another. Maybe we need to do more eating together which might facilitate deep conversation and less thinking and talking about one another which seems to produce more divisions. I know that, that is simplistic, but maybe the one loaf and the one cup are not as complex as we might make them, yet somehow they call us to a deep mystery. The more I think about it, the more I think we have made this thanksgiving unifying meal about power, that sad fact is a theme that runs through the history of all denominations and expressions of church, one that we should weep over!
I know this is all more complex than it might seem, but I am not convinced it needs to be, I know that it will challenge our sensibilities and long thought out practices, but maybe that would be a good thing. To Augustine again ( must be a miracle for me to be quoting Augustine so much)!
"Brothers and sisters, just remind yourselves what wine is made from; many grapes hang in the bunch, but the juice of the grapes is poured together in one vessel. That too is how the Lord Christ signified us, how he wished us to belong to him."
Our problem of course is that we are not to happy to be ground or kneaded or crushed, we are not too comfortable to be asked to flow together, not ready to give ourselves away as Christ gave himself away and gives himself to us in bread and wine! Maybe that is why we need to continue to eat until we become what we are! I wonder what would happen if those who longed for unity began to gather to eat and pray together?
2. The elements
Back to my days of training for ministry, there were times when people would not receive, when for example we Methodists presided there were those who declared the bread improper, there were also those who refused to see any of the elements as consecrated if a woman presided. We had our own quirks too, some insisting on unfermented grape juice, others declared this unfit for communion, as for me I am not a fan of little round discs of nothing that name themselves bread! What on earth have we done with the thanksgiving, the celebration and consecration of Christ with us? How deeply we have wounded the body that is called to be one by our pettiness.
That said however, I don't want to dwell on divisions, I want to share some of my own deep longings; I knew it was going to happen yesterday, as I removed the cloth from the beutifully set table, with its' silver chalice and patten, there it was meticulously cubed white bread with the crusts cut off! This was to be accompanied by not quite full thimblefuls of grape juice; if I am honest I wanted to cry. I find it hard to serve a small cube as the body of Christ I would find it equally hard to place a neat round wafer into peoples hands. In the past I have made my own unleavened bread and used that, I think I may do so more often.
Let me explain, I am hungry for Christ and a small cubed nothing will not do, I need something to chew on, something that gives me cause to pause and ponder, something of substance that demand that I enter into the mystery, and while I know there are many arguements to the contrary, and I don't want to kick of a debate about doctrine, I am simple stating a longing in my heart!
I want to say the same for the wine ( or grape juice in my context), I would prefer to use a comon cup, but I understand the health concerns with that so my longing was to consecrate a bottle, to hand out cups and to pour out the jucie, to give more than a taste, again to give us something to savour, to ponder over, to be united by!
If I could I would use great chunks of bread and real wine, but I am restricted by my own tradition and understand its limits, I also understand the recovering alcoholics who come to the table in one of the churches I serve, and are grateful for the grape juice as it makes the table truly open to them.
All of that said I would like to offer you a picture, a group gathered for a meal, the Scriptures are read and shared, there is meaningful discussion which carries on through the meal , at an appropriate time we turn to prayer, thanks is given as we break bread and share wine. A loaf is broken open, and chunks of bread are passed from hand to hand as we enter into a deep mystery, a large cup is filled and passed around to be savoured and enjoyed, and we know without doubt that we are on holy ground, that Christ is deeply present with us, drawing us deeper into the mystery of the incarnation, drawing us on to become who we are!
These are my longings, I wonder what yours are...
3. Our understanding
When I say our understanding I am not asking for denominational doctrine or well thought out chatechism, but rather wondering what we think is going on as we come together. If I am honest the most holy understanding I have heard recently came from a homeless man with a mouth full of bad teeth. He was aware that his breath stank, and aware of the holiness of the elements, he refused to recieve because he felt that his mouth was unfit to contain the body or blood of Christ. Of course he had also misunderstood the grace that recieves and accepts all, yet I wonder how we might recieve if we were aware of the true wonder of the gift we are offered.
As we come to recieve bread and wine surely Christ is placing himself into out hands over and over, this self giving act of reflects the way that he is constantly at work in and through us, calling us to follow him to become his selfgiving church, his body, nourished by his presence as he is re-membered in our remembering ( and yes I know I have said that twice).
I ask if we know what we are doing because I have heard some strange responses as I place bread into peoples hands. The strangest so far has got to be "you've got blue toes", which was a reference to my nail varnish! There is often a concern on peoples faces as they are unsure what to do, and while education is a wonderful thing here, I fear that many have been coming for years without really recieving and that concerns me.
Many in British Methodism consider communion to be a converting ordinance; both John and Charles Wesley understood i to be a means of grace in the whole of the Christian journey, from the beginning to the end. Age limits were difficult to determine. Wesley’s mother, Susannah Wesley, was converted at the Lord’s Supper. She recorded her experience;
...two or three weeks ago, while my son Hall was pronouncing those words, in delivering the cup to me, “The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee,” the words struck through my heart, and I knew God for Christ’s sake had forgiven me all my sins.”
To experience the grace of God or an assurance of that grace on recieveing the elements is not an unusual testimony, it is one that I share, and would argue can be ongoing as we recieve over an over again the elements of re-membering into our hands.
I will finish with a part of Richard Rhor's meditation from today:
The “Last Supper” of Jesus was a Passover meal of deep table fellowship—with Jesus and his closest followers—that evolved into the formatted, ritualized meal of bread and wine that many of us enjoy today. The first disciples soon came to understand it as a way of gathering, as the way to define their reality and their relationship to one another and with Jesus. It became, already in the first centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection, a powerful symbol of unity, of giving and sharing, of allowing the breaking of self and giving the self over for the world. It was the secret ritual by which the community defined itself and held itself together in its essential message. Frankly, most people have never been ready for its radically demanding message of solidarity with both suffering and resurrection.
Yes, we are to recognize Jesus himself in the Eucharist, but we are also to recognize the living Body of Christ, too (1 Corinthians 11:29). ....The Eucharist was meant to be a sacrificial meal in which the Body recognized itself, defined itself, and declared its social identity and its central purpose, which was to continue the life and body of Jesus in space and time, to live in a new world order of true sisterhood and brotherhood (meal), and of redemptive suffering and solidarity (sacrifice). It is not just Jesus’ own sacrifice that we are recalling, but also our agreement to participate in the same! It is not just the human incarnation in Jesus that we are remembering, but that this mystery of incarnation is continued in space, time, and the physical universe itself (e.g., ordinary elements of bread and wine).
Paul deeply understood the entire force field of the Body of Christ because of his astounding conversion experience where he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He finally realized that Jesus was fully identifying the people Paul was killing with himself! They were one and the same! This deep identity between human beings and the body and soul of the earthly Christ became absolute and then practical truth for Paul. Then this was communicated and experienced by sharing in the ritual meal of Eucharist: “We eat who we are!” as St. Augustine so boldly put it.
As I said, I have been thinking, and while I know this is not a particularly well ordered set of notes I hope it will make the reader think ( providing they haven't given up), if it has made you think, I would be interested in your thoughts.
That isn't fair...
He has a larger piece of pie than me....
She was given more presents than me...
They earn more, they have more fun, he has more friends...
I want what they have, I want more, deserve more, need more....
How many times have we heard complaints like that, I can certainly remember making sure that everyone received the same amount of cake, or at least as far as I could make it, budgets were set for birthdays and Christmas and gifts given accordingly, in fact they still are. There is something intrinsically right in fairness, I suspect that, that is why we have a tendency, if we are honest to feel for those who had worked all day in the vineyard, surely they deserved a greater reward, surely the vineyard owner wasn't being fair...
But just stop and ask yourself the question what is fair...
The vineyard owner in Jesus parable had gone out to hire workers at the beginning of the day, those who were gathered were hired, and were happy at that point with the days pay that was being offered to them. They hadn't questioned it, it was a fair days wage, what they would have expected, and what they needed to feed themselves and their families. In short IT WAS FAIR!
It was fair, it only became unfair when expectations were raised as the last workers were also paid a days wage for an hours work, suddenly hopes were raised, greed made an entry, then hopes were dashed and greed turned to envy. It is not fair!
Put yourself in the workers shoes; watching the later workers receive their pay and suddenly the world centres on you, you had been happy with a days pay, but when you saw that they were given a days pay, you knew you deserved more!
The workers grumble, and the vineyard owner in Jesus parable is confronted; just listen to his response; "Are you envious because I am generous?"
What craziness is this? How could those lazy workers be worth a days pay?
This says Jesus is the great reversal, many of the first shall be last, and the last first...
We listen to what we've been taught so many times, and the penny drops, the way to earn our salvation, our rightful place in the kingdom of heaven is of course to give ourselves away, to put everyone else first, to work hard and to do so much good that in the end we will have a great pile of richess in heaven to enjoy for all eternity....
It will all be fair in the end....
Clunk, the penny bounces as we turn the great reversal back on it's head, and once more we've made the whole story about how much we can get and somehow we've missed the point again.
Let's turn our gaze then from the workers to the vineyard owner...
At the beginning of the day he gathered a group of workers, surely being a good and sensible landowner he would have hired enough men to work his land for the day, and when he gathered them they were content. Yet something drove him back again and again to the town square where those waiting for work waited hopefully, each time he gathered more workers together, bringing them to join the workers in his field.
He didn't go back just once either, he went back again and again, 4 times in all, each time drawing more in, and at the end of the day all were given a fair days wage.
All were given a fair days wage, all were treated equally no matter how long they had laboured, in the economy of the vineyard owner all were worth the same...
Here then is the challenge in an unfair world...
Let me take you to another teaching of Jesus; we find him surrounded by Pharisees and Sadducees asking question after question, what is right what is wrong?... who is in, who is out? At last they come to the question about the greatest commandment, and Jesus response is this:
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Who then is my neighbour? Do I really question what they are worth?
Let me tell you a modern day true story; Lynn, our Comfort Zone Chaplain was asked a couple of weeks ago what we needed in the way of ladies clothing to give out; among the items on her list was ladies underwear.
A few days later she received a phone call, the group had thought about her requests but were uncomfortable with the thought of giving out secondhand underwear. Lynn suggested this was not her intent when asking, the response from this very well heeled group was astonishing...
"Oh we won't be buying new!"
In short, they are not worth it!
They are not worth it, we might be worthy of new underwear, yet whilst it does not seem right to give second hand, "we won't be buying new"...
Now listen again to the vineyard owner;
"Are you envious because I sm generous?" Are you angry because in my economy everyone deserves a fair days wage, all need to eat, and all are treated equally? Are you angry because I value these last ones as highly as I value you?
Do you love yourself so little that you are unable to love and rejoice with your neighbour that you all have enough? Do you understand so little of the love that gives of itself to you that you want to grumble about fairness?
In a world that is unjust, the radical grace and fairness of God seems crazy, in a world where we are too often valued by what we have and not for who we are the apparent unfairness of the vineyard owner in Jesus parable is challenging, and even upsetting...
Yet if we could catch hold of the heart of radical grace that goes back and back, drawing in the workers, back even at the end of the day to bring in those waiting hopefully for the meagre wage of an hours work that would be better than nothing, and dare we say it, even to those who might have sauntered into the square at the last hour just in case there was some work to be had...
... and all are counted worthy, and all are given enough, a fair days wage...
For all are gathered in and loved and celebrated... this is grace, and fairness pales in comparrison!
So the question is will we choose to be like the vineyard owner who chooses to value all and to give freely, will we choose to follow Christ who gave himself away pouring out his life on the cross, and his life into our lives when we dare to receive the Spirit who calls us into radical grace, who calls us to see through the eyes of God who knows and loves us? Will we dare to give ourselves away, to store our treasure in heaven not for ourselves, but because that is where true treasure, treasure of the heart, is stored?
Or will we choose to turn in on ourselves, and be wrapped up in ourselves, our wants, our desires? As my wise 104 year old friend points out; those wrapped up in themselves make small parcels...
The choice is ours, will we participate in the generosity and grace of God....
In the words of St Francis; " it is in giving that we receive, and in dying that we're born to eternal life..."
Image Hidden; (In Christ) mine
Is there anyone here who has never been hurt?
Anyone who has never felt wronged ?
Anyone who has not grappled with a sense that the world is not fair, that wrongs need righting, that justice must be done, that somehow something must be done to set things right?
Peter's question is in reality our question...
How many times should I forgive?
I need you to put a number on it God, I need to know that you see the hurts and pains that I put up with, to know that you are on my side....
Tell me then, tell me please, how many times should I forgive? Seven times? Would that be OK?
How many of us have never hurt another person?
How many have never done anything wrong?
How many have grappled with the way that the world ( our friends, parents, spouses, siblings, the law, the church) has judged us and found us wanting?
How many times do we stand in need of forgiveness?
"I forgive you", three small words, perhaps three of the most powerful words we can ever hear or offer, certainly they are some of the most freeing. We know that forgiveness is good for us, it affects our physical and mental wellbeing and has an impact on the world around us, on our families, our communities and ultimately our world.
There are many, many tales of forgiveness, when the power of a chosen act, to forgive has affected more than just the ones offering and receiving forgiveness. On the 8th November 1978 in a Remembrance day parade in Enniskellin, Northern Ireland a bomb went off, Gordon Wilson and his daughter Marie were caught in the explosion, trapped in the rubble together they talked as her life ebbed away. His response caught the headlines and has sent out ripples ever since. His words were simple:
"I will bear no grudge, I will bear no ill will", he continued campaigning for peace but sadly died thinking his efforts had achieved little, perhaps he was unaware of the profound and inspiring effect that they had on many, but there was more, his continued and chosen attitude of forgiveness had had a profound effect on those he met. a senior member of Sinn Fein shared his thoughts on the peace process with Rev Harold Good ( former Methodist President who officiated at Mr Wilson's funeral) that Mr Wilson's words and actions were " an important contribution to bringing us to where we are now".
Following his release Nelson Mandela famously stated " As I walked out of the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom I knew that if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I' still be in prison."
But then highlighting the complex nature of forgiveness he also spoke of how hard his own personal relationships could be when forgiveness was called for, he could forgive his former jailers, but to forgive his ex-wife was more challenging.
How many times should we forgive? When we are faced with the need to forgive, or our own need for forgiveness we are also faced with a barrage of feelings and thoughts, our fight or flight mechanism kicks in.
I would also suggest that sometimes our religious selves can be our own worst enemies as we try to smooth things over and make them right without really dealing with the issue, the result is a rumbling cancerous pile of resentment and anger that will either poison us slowly or explode unexpectedly.
How hard forgiveness is...
How often should we forgive? Jesus response to Peter was the impossible 70 times 7, an impossible number, not calling for Peter to keep a tally but rather showing the ongoing nature of the act of forgiveness, and typically Jesus uses a parable to illustrate his point.
A slave is forgiven a huge debt, an impossible debt to repay; the king has had compassion upon him, has heard his plea for mercy and has responded.
The slave, unburdened of his debt, set free from his obligation promptly displays an astonishing lack of grace by demanding payment from a fellow slave for a far, far smaller amount...
We shake our heads in disbelief!
But where are we in the story, where do we who say we have been set right with God stand?
Do we know and feel ourselves to be forgiven? Are we set free?
What on earth was going on in the first slaves head as he demanded payment from his fellow slave?
I want to take you to another room, to the house of Simon the Pharisee, to see Jesus sat at the table. I want you to feel the shock as a woman, a known "sinner" enters the room, I want you to smell the scented oil of love that is poured over Jesus feet, now hear Jesus words:
"her sins—and they are many—are forgiven, for she loved me much; but one who is forgiven little, shows little love.”
Are we conscious of our need for forgiveness, are we conscious of the grace of God that flows and moves among us even now, offering healing, forgiveness, a real encounter with the depth of the love of a God who sees us as we are, who sees behind our Sunday best, and loves us anyway?
We are forgiven 70 times seven, set free from our burdens of doubt and fear, of despair even at ourselves by the one who created us and calls us good!
We are, but do we know it?
Jesus offers us a choice, the choice to live in a free and forgiving state, an opportunity to continue to receive the grace and love of God who draws alongside us even now asking us to take his wounded, nail scarred hand and to walk with him through our wounded lives into a wounded world, to practice forgiveness and to be channels of peace and grace. This is the path of healing; it might be long and hard, but there is life in it!
But we can choose not to know, to be unaware of the grace of Gods freeing love in our lives, to be those who demand and judge and exude a moral upright bitterness that closes us down and cuts the flow of freedom and life. We can choose this path, but it literally leads to a dead end.
The King and judge in Jesus parable turns over the first slave to be tormented and tortured, and this , Jesus parable ends with a stark point, is what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from the heart...
Suddenly we have a harsh and unforgiving God, can this be true?
Who might our tormentors be? Is Jesus speaking about hell? I think it is more subtle than that, our bitterness if that is our choice becomes our tormentor, our anger eats us up, by refusing forgiveness we stop the flow of grace, by grappling with it, and that can be hard, we keep the channels open, by choosing to live a life in forgiveness we choose to live in freedom.
Among Jesus final words from the cross were the powerful words " Forgive them Father, they know not what they do..."
I leave you with one question, can we draw on the love of Christ so deep that even nailed to a cross he reveals to us the God of love who forgives his accusers and tormentors?
It is not an easy road, but it is the road to life...
Waves of grace ( from a tryptich) Images mine
are you present,
here and now
in this flesh and blood,
bone and sinew
existence?
Are you earthed and earthy,
conscious of your breath
living really living,
touching feeling
seeing, hurting,
loving, this
pain and pleasured
life...
are you present,
really here?
Picture, seasons turn. ( mine)
This poem sprang from a conversation with my neighbour yesterday about our discomfort with our bodies and the ability to live as if they don't really matter. She had discovered a breast lump and has undergone treatment and been pronounced clear all within the space of weeks. She was talking about how so many of her friends do not even check their bodies, living as if they are not really there. She made me think!
I have just spent the evening at the Comfort Zone, our drop in for vulnerable and homeless folk in Blackpool, and as usual we heard story after story of hardship, stories that break our hearts and leave us feeling impotent and useless...
Tonight we heard of a woman told to call the Police,
her partner suffers from serious mental health issues,
the ovewhelmed system does not see her black eyes
or her bleeding nose,
The system calls her a carer, but offers no support,
and she weeps for him, and we weep for her...
+
Tonight we heard of a couple struggling to make ends meet,
they are in a queue in the system
as their claim for rent rebate
is dealt with, the process is so slow they are threatened with eviction,
they were bumped to the top of the queue a month ago,
all the want is a home, so we sit with them and we weep...
+
Tonight we heard of a man discharged from hospital,
coughing blood, a shadow on his lung,
homeless and vulnerable, slipping through the cracks of the system,
and all we can do is hear his tale and weep...
+
Our tears are our prayers,
and we pray through our tears...
and we tell these tales in a search for justice,
a recognition of the value of all,
for this IS NOT their chosen lot...
these folk are not statistics,
they are our friends;
Will you hear their tales?
Will you tell their tales?
Will you weep?
What sells newspapers? What makes our headlines and catches our attention?
I really do want you to ponder that for a couple of moments...
What makes chat shows interesting, and why do shows like the Jeremy Kyle show draw such big audiences?
Scandal, horror, intrigue, a nice piece of juicy gossip served up for public consumption?
Or maybe, just maybe the sense of wellbeing, or moral uprightness, of pat myself on the back relief that shouts aloud; " well I would never do anything like that!" of " I could never be like them!" or even an ultra-indignant "Well I just don't understand it...."
How good it is to know that we are not like them!
And how wonderful to find that God agrees with us; "If a believer sins against you....", and suddenly we have the right or even the duty to keep an eye on those around us! We need to make sure that our sisters and brothers behave properly!
I can still remember my amazement at reading some of the early "Class" reports from the archives of one Circuit I worked with, the challenges that were brought before brother or sister so and so were astonishing in their detail!
"If a believer sins against you..."
The charge here is stark, we are told to confront the so named sinner, to try to put things right, to gain a turn around in the relationship, to involve others and the whole church if necessary, to bring things out in the open, to expose the truth...
Is the church meeting the equivalent of the Daily Mail?
And yes I truly am asking that question!
I ask it amidst reports of yet another Church Pastor in the States comitting suicide, I ask it in the midst of statistics that show depression as one of the highest causes of people giving up the minisrty, and my own knowledge of deeply spiritual people, many who I call my friends who don't come to church because they feel that they are not good enough!
"If a believer sins against you..."
How terribly those words have been misinterpreted through the years by the morally upright, by those who seek to keep the faithful not only pure but in their place! I remember meeting a lovely lady called May. I was working with a mission group in Northern Irelan, our base was Lisburn Cathedral. I was walking back to the Cathedral with another team member when May called us over, she wanted to talk. As her story unfolded she spoke of a deep desire to be confirmed, she knew and loved God and so wanted to make this faith public, but she hadn't, at the age of 12, when all of her friends went forward to be confirmed by the Bishop, May sat in a pew with her father. May's father was doing his best for his daughter, and because her mother had died two years previously he felt her moral upbringing was in his hands, the result; May was told that she was not good enough! When May called us over she was 85!
For over 70 years this dear lady had carried the burden of not being good enough! She had been judged and accepted the judgement believing that others could see a flaw in her, and so in many ways she remained hidden, every Sunday she wore a mask of respectability hoping that she would not be cast out or sent away!
I wonder how many of us wear masks Sunday by Sunday....
"If a believer sins against you/ what if they find me out?"
Let's pause there a moment, let's rewind and listen to the heart of God, the God who revealed himself to us in Jesus, who came weak, vulnerable and poor, who loved the outcast, the sinner, the tax collector, the prostitute, the broken hearted, the leper, the unclean...
The God who said himself that he would seek out the lost sheep and restore them to the fold.
It is so easy to judge the other and to cast them out, but what great humility it takes to go to them in love and to truly seek restoration and reconcilliation. Not to have yourself satisfied by the other's change of heart but to have our hearts so changed that like the father of the lost one who cast all convention to the wind and ran to embrace his wayward son to be recklessly generous with our forgiveness and celebration.
What if the church were marked by its readiness to receive, to forgive, and to celebrate...
What then might our message be to those families whose children have left this country to join with IS ( or ISIS)?
What then might our message be to the corrupt banking system, the lying official, the cheats, thieves that fill our newspapers?
Ponder Jesus words:
"Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other."
Surely then our text for today is about love; "If a believer sins against you" is not a charge to get angry and to seek restitution for yourself, but rather about forgiveness and restoration for the sinner ( the one who has turned from God). God's heart is for them not against them, just as God's heart is for us. Together we are all deeply loved children of God. We are all deeply loved children of God, the believer and the unbeliever, the upright and the tax collector, the terrorist, the banker, the cheats, the liars, you and me! Beloved children of God.
When we seek restoration we seek forgiveness, we reach out beyond ourselves, and we reveal the depths of the heart of the God who is for us. Forgiveness is powerful, and it sets us free, so the initiative begins with us and we are all made larger for it. The excluded are included, the kingdom grows and love wins.
Today I have felt angry, sad, helpless and hopeless, I have been given a rare chance to truly spend a few hours in somebody else's shoes and it was heartbreaking. Yesterday I met a young man who has recently been released from prison, he came to Blackpool using his travel warrant, and with a bit of money in his pocket. He had been in prison for 7 years and was very disorientated, his money quickly gone he came to us for help, and I have been trying to help him to get onto the benefits system, to find somewhere to live.
He does have family but they have disowned him, he has no address, no money, no shelter, nothing but the red holdall that contains a spare shirt, a sleeping bag and a few out of date forms and contact numbers.
He had been to the housing team at Blackpool Council, but they are so overwhelmed that they could do nothing straight away, he went to the two homeless hostels in the town but they were both full. With no address he is unable to claim benefits, with no phone or computer he has not got an easy way to apply for them, the library who do have computers turned him away because he has no address, so as we have done before we have allowed him to use the church as his home address, then we got onto the phone to call the Job Centre Plus, I made the initial call because he was so overwhelmed. Six different phone numbers, a lot of button pushing and sets of canned instructions telling me it would be easier to apply on -line later we finally got through to a human being. I handed him the phone.
You'd have thought that being able to speak to a real human being that the saga might have been over, but no, I sat with him as he repeated his details not once, not twice but eight different times and still he was not able to access the system. We will tray again this evening as I am taking my laptop to church, hopefully things will be easier on line!
I can see now with fresh eyes why people simply give up and walk away, why people feel hopeless and helpless and rail against the system, after an hour of listening to canned responses, after repeating the same information over and over again, after that sense that you are not a person with a name and needs and feelings but a number, a statistic to be crunched by a faceless bureaucracy!
Now I know that the Job Centre Staff and Local Councils are overwhelmed but I weep for the lack of humanity in the system and I am grateful that we can offer a listening ear, a bit of company and plenty of tea. I am also grateful for ourlovely volunteers many of whom have been in and through the system and are able to give us an understanding of it. I am grateful for the way that they reach out in generosity giving so often from the little that they have. I am grateful also today for the swift response of our local MP Paul Maynard who truly does care about the people he serves.
Having said all of that I am left feeling sad, overwhelmed and not a little helpless and hopeless, I am rarely reduced to tears but today I was, mostly because the young man is so much more than a statistic, he is not a problem to be solved, he is a human being with needs and feelings, and more than anything he needs other human beings to notice that he is a human being, to see his worth and to count him as worthy of love and care. Today I walked a mile in his shoes and I have been humbled by the experience, he was so grateful for the little that we did.
My prayer is that we will not become so overwhelmed by the need that surrounds us that we are unable to respond, that we won't become hardened by the constant flood of need that we fail to see the humanity in the folk who come to us, that we might like Mother Theresa be able to see Christ, the image and revelation of God in we share with those we are called to serve. Today this young man drew me from my self and I am grateful.
Heaven touching earth: photo mine
Before I start I will state that while I am a Methodist Minister ( Presbyter) the views in this blog post are my own views and while I hope that they will in some way reflect the views and mission of the Methodist Church, they remain simply my views.
+++++
I am responding to Quentin Lett's Radio 4's Programme "What's the point of...?" broadcast this morning at 9am, and to be broadcast again this evening at 9:30pm. Today he was asking "What's the point of Methodism?"
I am not going to enter into a long critique of the programme which raised some interesting points about our history and origins, and spoke of both scriptural holiness and social justice in a positive way. I am not even going to touch the possible ensuing conversation about whether we should of shouldn't join with the Church of England, but rather I want to speak of what I felt was missing because it is because of what I felt was missing that I find myself in the Methodist Church today often slipping on my "dog-collar" and wondering " how did that happen...!"
I know the answer to my own often voiced rhetorical question, it happened because of the love and grace of God, it happened because I found in Methodism a way to Christ that I had not found elsewhere, and it is the love and grace that I find rooted in the Arminian theology of Prevenient Grace that has set me free to stand in a place where I can begin to say that I am here because Christs love compells me.
Let me say now that I am a "convert," I do not have a history of Sunday School or a good solid Methodist upbringing or a good solid anything upbringing for that matter, I came to faith by discovering the power of prayer at a difficult time in the life of my then young family. Through prayer I discovered a God who was very real and very present, but my journey into faith was not so easy; I struggled with the sense that I was not acceptable and tried to obey all sorts of rules to make myself acceptable. For some reason I could not accept that God loved me for me. The more I tried to make myself acceptable the more I invented God as a monster in my own eyes failing to see the true revelation of his love in the person of Jesus. It was only when I began working for the Methodist Church as an outreach worker and was fortunate enough to begin studying at the same time that another theological window, another way of thinking about God, and thinking about how God might think about me opened up.
What if the God that Jesus revealed really identified with the poor, reached out to the oucast, healed the untouchable, and included the unclean, the foreigner and the sinner; anyone who could that could be labled "other" by those trying to create an exclusive community? What if God loved us first and calls forth love from us? What if God is bigger and more inclusive than I could possibly imagine?
As I began to follow and worship this God, not the angry monster God I found that I could begin to love and accept myself, it was the revelation and the still unfolding revelation of this love that drew me into ministry, that drew me beyond my own small confines and boundaries to love " the other", discovering that they are not other at all but that we share a common humanity.
Some of the most powerful words in the Methodist Worship book ( for me) are written in the Baptism Liturgy, those words; "All this for you" are preceded by the declaration of God's revelation in the person of Jesus, including "for you he lived and showed Gods love".
It is this revelation that set a flame burning within my heart, it is this revelation that stirs my soul, it is here that "God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. ( Romans 8:16). Precious, beloved children of God, made in Gods own image. Surely if I am a precious, beloved child of God then so is my neighbour, and more challengingly the one I call "other" for any reason, in fact the other is who I am particularly called to love, for it was to the other that Jesus came! The truth then is that not only can I be drawn beyond my own boundaries, but to declare that there are none, there can be none! As a friend of mine says " there is nothing secular except for sin", and all sin is is that thing that seperates us from God. So with boundaries and barriers gone we can live out our theology, and all are ( now) welcome at the table!
All of this is hugely challenging for the Methodist Church, because as the Radio show revealed Methodism appears to be built on certain standards and values, traditionally calling people to sobriety and a morally upright way of life, to social action and to have a passion for justice, but what it missed is that the source of these lies in the move of God. John Wesley's own journal contains the telling declaration ;
"I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.."
It was this assurance, this experience that compelled him, this experience, this assurance that compelled many of those who were touched by his preaching and the movement that followed Methodism is primarily born of the Spirit, an experienced encounter with God, and while this is not unique perhaps its expression in concern for the poor and a desire for social justice is a mark of that move and a particular gift. Yes we sing our theology, but there is a reason that the Methodist Hymnody is important, music made the message acessible and memorable and is well known to touch the heart and the spirit in ways that words alone cannot. Yes many Methodists are passionate about Social Justice and politics but these all have their roots in the move of the Spirit that Welsey experienced as his heart was strangley warmed.
Our problem? I want to suggest that it is the phenomena known as " convert and lift"- that is to say that as people took on the moral values and aspirations and possibilities of living differently that we lost our roots, Methodism became middle class and lost the Spirit. Oddly I came from a middle class background and the Spirit found me! That said I know many passionate and committed people called Methodist, people who serve, people who love, people who light up a room with the love of God that flows from them, people who are passionate not only for God but through God for their neighbours both local and global.
Will we die out? Not if we dare to follow the way of Christ and dare to give ourselves away, not if we allow the Spirit to inspire and equip and guide us, not if we fan into flame the gift within us and recognise afresh that we are a movement and not an institution. More than anything we need a fresh fire to fill our hearts and that fire must be of God not of our own striving, and it must be a fire of grace, a desire to include rather than exclude, to accept the other, to include the other, to identify with the outcast, to become as Christ...
I leave you with a story from last night at our Drop in here in Blackpool " The Comfort Zone", one of our community members bounced in full of energy and love carrying a bunch of flowers, her gift to us for no particular reason, and expression of love and joy, she blessed us all. It was another members birthday, touched by his story we bought him a card and a cake, he was really pleased, but when it came to cutting and sharing his cake he refused, he wanted to take it home and to keep it for himself. At the end of the evening we gathered around the table to share in prayer and communion, and neither were excluded, such is the love and grace of God with us, and that should bring us all to our knees! Love is stronger than death....
All this for you!
Maybe what we need is a rebranding exercise, as the programme mentioned we were also once called Enthusiasts! A discipleship movement shaped for mission! Called to life in Christ, living out a calling to love, to justice, to holiness and compassion. Maybe what we need to rediscover is that flame that so set Wesleys' heart ablaze, the Spirit of God calling us to live out our inner experience in Spirit and in truth.
Let us take up the cross
till we the crown obtain,
and gladly reckon all things loss
so we may Jesus gain.
Image: Canvas 1 of Waves of Grace - mine ( a comission for a church in Blackburn)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Comments