Eternal Echoes

The Bible in five statements, Beaker Folk and other things

My good friend the Arch-druid Eileen has tagged me in an meme- and I am thankful that she has asked me to respond to the original form of the meme, although I am tempted to respond to the request for Beaker beliefs too; although I am not a community member I ws privileged to be there when this ancient group was revived...

May I suggest then that as far as the Beaker folk are concerned; and with thanks to the Arch-druid for her tireless work on their behalf, my beliefs about their work are:

1. Creative

2. Hidden truths

3.Occasionally very silly

4. More often thought provoking

5.tea lights and pebbles essentials

As for the original meme; which read:

Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people.

1. creation

2. ongoing revelation

3. prophets mysteries unfolding

4.God dwells with people

5. truth stranger than fiction. Alleluia!

Thanks for this Arch Druid, my brain is emerging from a migraine and needed a gentle wake up call....

I tag: Matt Stone, Dave Perry, Sam, Danny, and Pam....

I also tag Mike

Article on the Ooze

One of my narrative musings has just been published on The Ooze- you can read the narrative here. While you are there take time to check out more of this excellent on-line magazine and resource! Phil Wyman carries on his series of "Beyond the pall" accounts- also on The Ooze here.

Self Love

The first few paragraphs of this post are copied from Jemila Monroe's post from the Emerging Women blog, she raises some interesting and important points and questions:

"Miroslav Volf writes in Free of Charge that when the Spirit of Christ indwells us, God occupies the space, of "I," so that Christ lives in and through us; the cooperation and intimacy between our spirit and God's spirit becomes so intimate that there is in some ways no distinction.When we love, it is truly God loving through us. When we will God's will, it is also God willing through us.

What does this have to do with self-love? Simply that when we love ourselves, it is God loving us through us.

It isn't even controversial to talk about showing someone else the love of God, or letting God love someone through our presence, our actions, our listening, our acceptance. But somehow when we apply this exact same theology to self-love we feel a little worried. Is it self-indulgent? Selfish? Shouldn't we make ourselves feel guilty for our failures so we can improve? Is God loving us through loving ourselves too close to saying that we are God?

Or sin of all sins, Is self-love New-Agey?

If it's wrong to allow God to love us through our own spirit-filled self-love, then let's be consistent: It's plain wrong to let God love others through our love. Trying to let Christ shine through us to others is too close to self-worship.

Or does loving self in God's Spirit actually lead to the death of ego and the birth of a renewed life?"

I am greatly indebted to a friend who has consistently pointed out the command of Jesus to love others as we love ourselves- stating quite simply that it is impossible to love others unless we have a healthy and Godly love for ourselves!

"Mark 12:28-31     One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?"
    Jesus said, "The first in importance is, listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.'  And here is the second: Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."

Note Jesus words- " there is no other commandment that ranks with these". Godly self love then is different to selfish self love- so how do begin to love ourselves without getting it wrong?

Many of us struggle with self-love, we see ourselves as unworthy, and as unlovable, we know ourselves well enough to be aware of our faults and flaws, and feel like failures. Shame can lead us to cover these faults with the fig leaves of human efforts, and yet inwardly we know that God sees right through them, we do not fool God nor do we fool ourselves, and we fear that others will see through our flimsy covering.

In his letter John writes; "Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4 : 18)- dare we then drop our fig leaves before the God who loves us perfectly- to discover that there is no fear in love, that if we would only turn towards the one who loves us perfectly and stop trying to cover and defend ourselves,  we would be swept into a loving embrace. Dare we discover ourselves engulfed in a love so deep and wide that we will never be able to find the edges of it?

To be loved in this way requires that we stop hiding from love, that we allow ourselves to become vulnerable, that we cease to believe the lies that only the rich and the beautiful or the extraordinarily talented are worthy of love. To be loved like this requires us to acknowledge that we are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made(Psalm 139), and  that we can say with confidence that because God first loved us we too are able to receive and give love!

To truly love- perhaps one of the greatest pictures we have of this comes from Song of Songs- that book we shy away from because we daren't read the loosed sexual passions that confront us with power and purity!

"Song 8:7
        Flood waters can't drown love,
            torrents of rain can't put it out.
        Love can't be bought, love can't be sold—
            it's not to be found in the marketplace."

I am not advocating a Christian orgy, rather I am suggesting there is something pure about love when we allow it to penetrate our souls. This God-given picture of human love in purity should encourage rather than dismay us. Song of Songs offers us a picture of the beloved discovering herself loved, and delighting in that love. In knowing herself loved, love was awakened and grew within....

True love recognises itself as being the beloved, true love awakens within us a desire to give. We must learn to love ourselves because Jesus commanded it- but first I suggest we must learn to accept the love of God, and through that love as we discover ourselves loved, and in that discovery as we allow the love of God to occupy the space of the selfish "I ", we will love others also.

                                    

Brian McLaren- a friendly note to my critics...

You would think after 24 years of serving as a pastor I would get used to it. You would think I would get a thick skin so that criticism wouldn’t bother me. But I confess that I am disheartened by some forms of criticism. Obviously, I am aware of the fact that some of my ideas are controversial. I believe that all controversial ideas need plenty of scrutiny – as do many non-controversial ones. I do not in any way think I am above scrutiny, and I have been wrong enough times in my life to be sure that I will need ongoing correction for the rest of my life.

I struggle more whenever a new book comes out. Books are like kids, and the release of a new book is like sending your child off to school for the first time. You don’t want her to get made fun of for her thick glasses and braces. You know she’s a little clumsy and overweight, but you don’t want her to be chosen last for the team or called mean names. You don’t want her to get pushed around on the playground by the local bullies. You see her potential, and you hope that others will, and it hurts when they judge her by her looks, or when they make her the focus of their faultfinding mission. Of course she’s not perfect, but you know she has value and you hate to see her treated badly.

Thankfully, some criticism comes in a truly constructive way – it helps me, informs me, and helps me be a better person, writer, and Christian. In my most recent book, for example, The Secret Message of Jesus, a few readers pointed out a few small factual errors in the text. Thankfully, those mistakes were not substantial, and they will be corrected in future editions.

So it’s not the helpful pointing out of factual errors that disheartens me; it’s the unfair, inaccurate, unreflective, and mean-spirited responses – especially when they are done in the name of God. I imagine that some fair-minded people who deeply disagree with my books also wince at the way less fair-minded people critique me or my work.

When people who claim to love the Bible launch unfair, inaccurate, unreflective, and mean-spirited attacks, especially when they do so on a public and international forum like the internet, they are not only hurting me and sometimes my readers (which they may not care about) – they may also be hurting the cause of Christ (which they do care about). After all, the Bible clearly says we must not bear false witness, spread rumors, or indulge in uncharitable or unwholesome speech. It says we should do to others as they do to us and act justly. It asserts that our love for one another reflects on the credibility of our message. It tells us we should examine ourselves and look at obstructions our own eyes (which would include flaws in our own viewpoint or perspective) before we try to perform eye surgery on someone else. This kind of behavior among people who claim to love the Bible, Jesus, Christianity, orthodoxy, and truth brings dishonor on these very things.

Read more

Late night blogging-

.... leads to terrible spelling and grammar, apologies to all who read my unedited drivel first thing this morning, it is mostly fixed but I'm having a few probs with badly formed HTML... working on it!

Random thoughts on a mixed day...

I have had an odd day filled with bits and pieces....

Not sure why but I decided to read the first few chapters of Matthew this morning and was struck by the character of Joseph, so often fiction and folklore depicts him as a solid dependable sort; and I guess he was, but he was also a deeply spiritual man who acted upon dreams and visions, and angels bearing messages... and not just once but several times.

I spent the morning updating White-Fields web site (good stuff), and then doing expenses ( good when we get them but sooo boring).

Made myself go out for a walk.... after watching an unbelievable Henman Match.... he must be trying to out do the English football squad for making us want to curl up and cry!!! I would love to see him win but he's playing Roger Federer... is there any hope???

This evening we had a meeting in Narborough as a part of the Church planting initiative out there; we are taking hot topics and presenting them from a Christian viewpoint, tonight's topic was "Is Jesus Green?" dealing with the questions of ecology/ global warming/ stewardship etc. It was an interactive evening, and some good questions were raised. Hopefully this event will gain in momentum... we hope to help it along by getting know in the local pub ( no not for our drinking exploits, for our scintillating conversation...)!

Home and Stuart came in for a cup of tea, he had had an interesting experience yesterday having been up to London to do a radio interview. Stuart is a Life Coach, and had been invited to take part in a Radio show along with another Life Coach who was a Pagan, he found they had many things in common, a good rapport developed between the two of them. I've asked Stuart to write something about this... watch this space.

Looking back the day hasn't been that random- quite normal really in its strange way, that is Ministry really ... always something different. 

The two pictures are of the fields where I went for a walk, and then the sky outside the hall at Narborough this evening.

Teaching, train journeys and sailing...

Well I did promise I would blog about yesterdays short excursion to the Wilson Carlile College in Sheffield to teach at the Summer School on Alternative Spirituality/ New Age outreach and using the Essence Course as a tool.

I decided to travel by train- great idea because it gave me time to read and prepare myself for teaching rather than fight my way up the A17 (horrible road!!!). I also decided- because I hate station coffee to make a flask of really good coffee, bad idea- because when I changed trains at  Ely I discovered the stupid flask had leaked- I had even wrapped it it two Waitrose bags... and it leaked all over my handouts! Bl***y flask I muttered...

Threw it in the nearest bin in disgust...

Thankfully the presentation was all PowerPoint- thankfully my lap-top was in another bag...

Arrived in Sheffield calmer having played with the MP3 player on my new phone listening to a mixture of Coldplay and Arvo Part.

Found a Taxi- eventually explained through hand signals and a map where I wanted to go....steam rising again..

Arrived at the Sheffield Centre, lunch... then the afternoon teaching session... I had the largest seminar group of the week...

Power Point worked well a good inter-active session looking at culture and using my favourite shock tactic-The Ace of Cups - to draw out the use of symbolism- such as the hand of God, mystery the Holy Spirit as a dove, streams of living water etc etc, before I explain it is a Tarot card..

Go read John Drane's Beyond Prediction  (co authors Ross Clifford, and Philip Johnson) if this challenges you, or feel free to e-mail me and I would be happy to enter into a deeper dialogue on the subject.

The remainder of the teaching looked at The Essence course in depth finishing off with a deeper look at session 3 which takes the themes of creation, ecology and stewardship suggesting we can become partners in the kingdom of God, also looking at John 3 :16 from a holistic standpoint.

I am both a fan and a severe critic of the Essence Course as I feel wrongly used it can be all so much froth and bubble, entered into at a deeper level it can prove a useful tool for starting a deeper dialogue with spiritually minded people.

I like teaching in an interactive environment, it forces me to think on my feet and to be well prepared for I do not know what questions or comments are going to be made.

As for the handouts I have e-mailed  copies to any that wanted them (almost everyone)...

Long  journey home thankfully a window seat all the way and a section to myself 3/4 of the way (I can be so unsociable at times)...

Today I have done almost nothing, blogged, done a bit of housework, tidied the garden, and then this evening Tim and I went for a sail...

Light winds, sun over the water, birds and seals- this is my slice of heaven....

                                                                         

Wild Goose, (Celtic imagery for the Holy Spirit) Is a 15 foot Enterprise racing dingy.

New look...

I have changed my template again- no surprise there...

just a word about the picture, the church is in a small Norfolk village- nestled between the trees all looks idyllic... but like many it is a church that struggles with an ageing congregation and falling numbers... it grapples with the daily need to be relevant and usually fails- but it remains, rooted in a rich past with a future hope....it remains

Lord breathe on these bones

Too tired to blog

Been out all day- up to Sheffield from Norfolk- 8 hours train journey, 4 hours teaching for the Church Army Summer School- I am going to bed.... tell you how it went tomorow!

Good day...

God was in it..

Watch this space....

Awesome thoughts

I've just been googled on awesome thoughts and come out  at  No. 3!!!!

Wow there is a thought!!!