Community

"Christian tradition has defined God as "Trinity", or vulnerability, communion, and mutuality.

Until and unless God is someone happening between people, the gospel remains largely an abstraction. Until he is passed on personally through faithfulness and forgiveness, through bonds of union, I doubt whether he is passed on at all.

But history has shown that individuals who are confirmed in their individualism will never create community, except after the model of a service station: they will use it as a commodity like everything else."

R. Rohr (again) - Near Occasions of Grace

Learning the lessons of history

"He who marries the spirit of the age will soon become a widower." (Dean Inge of St. Paul's Cathedral)

I am by nature a reactionary person. That is to say I define what I am for by pointing out what I am against, often throwing the baby out with the bathwater if I find even the smallest offence. Anyone who has read this pithy page will already know this for themselves. I think many of us, if not all of us, can behave in this way. We know where we belong by stating where we don't. The problem here is that once we have started down this road it can be hard to know where to stop.

History is replete with movements which are defined in contrast to the preceding movement. Think of the transition from modern to postmodern for a simple example, although I am sure you can think of many more. This goes all the way down in our society too and has even infected some of our churches and I sense we will be in danger of becoming bitter people and a bitter church if we don't learn to celebrate what is different from us and what has come before us. A great deal of wisdom and introspection is needed before we are to 'critique' someone else's way of doing things and it is often sadly lacking (Matt 7.3-5). Of course we have to be able to stand up against injustice when the situation calls for it, but I'm talking about something different as I hope you can appreciate.

As I have said before here, unless we are able to love and forgive our parents/church/boss/spouse/siblings etc we are doomed to repeat their mistakes. Moreover, we have to learn to love those who choose to do things in a different way to us, even if we can't understand why they would do such a thing! A failure to do this will end in disaster and isolation. Isolation from the blessing that God is busy offering elsewhere to those that will 'bless what He is doing' regardless of how uncool, ugly and stupid it may appear. How tragic! When Paul would have us 'building one another up in love', we revert to the opposite.

We need to be careful that we don't take our deconstruction too far, lest we find ourselves sitting alone surrounded by the pile of rubble we have created.

Restoration

All Progress is restoration

Kabaddi as Mission

Kabaddi is a game which originated in the Indian sub-continent. Any readers familiar with the TV program Trans World Sports will already be familiar with it. The game consists of two teams of seven players occupying opposite halves of a field, roughly half the size of a basketball court.

The teams take turns sending a "raider" across to the opposite team's half, where the goal is to tag or wrestle ("confine") members of the opposite team before returning to the home half. Tagged members are "out" and are sent off the field. Whilst on a 'raid', the raider has to hold his breath and mutter the word 'kabaddi' to show that he is not cheating by breathing.

I think this is exactly how the church conducts almost all of its mission/evangelism.

We leave our ground and cross the sacred/secular dividing line, a line totally of our own imagining. We carefully move onto the world's territory, whilst holding our breath so that we don't catch anything nasty. We then isolate the weakest member of the pack and return to our side with the spoils. Once on our territory the prey will learn to talk, walk and think just like us. We call this success.

This is completely the opposite of the message of the incarnation. Jesus didn't hold his breath when he came to us. Instead he was at pains to associate with the dirtiest and lowest, probably the smelliest too. He was born in a manger after all. He died in poverty and disgrace. How often, I wonder, did he get to wash?

We have to find new ways to be in the midst of the world daily as the church. Only when we can do this will we be able to transform the evil we see there. We can't export it to our ground and nullify it. We have to do this work in the midst of the world. I think this calls for a completely different organisation of what we know as church, moving away from the Sunday gathering. I am suggesting something a lot more like a virus is necessary.

I will explain this more in my next posts.

Don't believe what you read

We live in the age of suspicion. If you don't believe me, just read the daily mail. Almost everything we read, hear and see re-enforces the idea that the world is, beneath it all, a dangerous place to be. I think the media is responsible to a large extent for propagating this idea. Much of today's media will, I think, be subject to the judgement Jesus alludes to in the gospels for 'causing these little ones who believe in me to stumble' (Matt 18.6, Mark 9.42, Luke 17.2).

The trouble is that cynicism as a wordview makes faith impossible. Jesus' message is that there is good news for the ones who can dare to believe that God and life are good and true at their core. To these ones he will give the 'abundant life' that he talks about in John 10.10. I think that one of the biggest reasons for us rejecting Jesus, whether in a moment's decision or as the lifestyle stance, is that his teaching is 'too good to be true'. I think we've started to believe this in the church too, to the extent that we have stopped preaching the good news, choosing instead to focus on a teaching which is merely a christianised rendering of bad news. If you don't believe me, ask any of your non-christian friends what they think of the church's message.

The gospel is good news for us sinners and we have to start reminding ourselves of this crucial fact. A start would be for the church to admit its faults, to lower its walls and to go into the world in repentance and contrition. We also need to go to God anew and ask Him to show us His goodness towards each one of us, His beloved sinners. We will never be able to offer to the world what we have not received for ourselves.

Jesus, give us your spirit that we might be your good news in the world today and forever. Help us to stop believing what we read in the media and start to believe what we read in your word.

The Kingdom of God & Business

Something I have been giving a lot of thought to recently is the Kingdom of God and the place of business within it, more specifically the place of business as an agent in bringing it. I think that there is a very significant movement which is coming from within the business community which is on this same train of thought. There are already a few organisations which exist to make this happen, but I sense this is going to be a really grass roots thing; At least I really hope it is. The Kingdom always comes at the grass roots (think Jesus' preaching on the mustard seed etc.). Sadly this is something which is less and less obvious from the preaching of the church, which too often relies on the 'big event' to make things happen.

Anyway, there is good theology behind the place of business in bringing God's Kingdom, but to see what it is we have to go back to the role of the church. Bonhoeffer said that 'the church is only the church when it exists for others'. Some other chap said that the church is the only organisation which exists for those who are not yet members. This is all to say that the church should live to serve the world, and if it is not doing this then it is not the church. This is actually the point of the whole gospel, that we find meaning, wholeness and life through serving God, our neighbours and enemies in the same way as our Jesus did. This may lead us to our death in one sense or another.

To a large extent we have stopped doing this in the church, with the consequence that our preaching is now completely irrelevant in the world. Just look at the church attendance figures if you want any proof. The church as we know it is dying and it needs to find another way to function, or it needs to rediscover the old way. This is where business has some fruitful involvement.

Good business functions on the premise that there is a need in the world that can be fulfilled, a service which can be provided. Sound familiar? Whilst business is functioning well it will always be trying to serve its customer base better, providing for their needs more efficiently and accurately. It doesn't always do this, but when it does it is fulfilling the same calling as the church, at least to the extent that its 'product' is wholesome and holy.

I'm not saying business is the answer to all our questions. It is responsible for many of the worlds problems too, when it is subverted by greedy people. But isn't this the same as the institutional church? What I am saying is that business' goals are not in opposition to the church's goals. In fact they are concordant. I am also saying that the church as we know it is not any more valid as a tool for ushering in the Kingdom of God than business. There is nothing divinely ordained about the way we do church. There are elements within the churches life which are divinely ordained, but these can be expressed in any environment. In fact, I am suggesting that they must be expressed in many other environments, if we are to be faithful to the gospel and if we are to share the good news with the world into the next generation.

More to come on this. Have a great weekend. Jonny x

Good quote

"I don't care if you're dead! Jesus is here, and he wants To resurrect somebody."

- Rumi

Ignorance ain't bliss after all

Ignorance does not result from what we don't know, but from what we think we do know. Similarly, faith is not about what we know - despite the post-enlightenment suggestion to the contrary - but about trust in the presence of what we don't know.

A faithful person will never profess to have all of the answers, although certainly they will continue to ask the difficult questions. We need to be people who can balance knowing with not knowing. Both are needed today.

"Being willing not to know, because God knows, is a great gift." R. Rohr

Transformation quote

"A disciple once came to Abba Joseph saying, 'Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, my little fast, and my little prayer. And according as I am able I strive to cleanse my mind of all evil thoughts and my heart of all evil intents. Now, what more should I do?' Abba Joseph rose up and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He answered, 'Why not be totally changed into fire?'" (emphasis mine)

Taken from 'Prayer' by Richard Foster.

I'd take that, wouldn't you? Have a good weekend. x

Julian of Norwich

"And thus I understood that any man or woman who deliberately chooses God in this life, out of love, may be sure that he or she is loved without end. This endless love produces grace in them. For God wants us to hold trustfully to his: that we be as certain, in home, of the bliss of heaven while we are here as we will be, in fact, when we are there. And always the more delight and joy we take in this certainty, with reverence and meekness, the better it pleases God."

Religion

Religion has a bad name. Nowhere is this more evident than within the church. I think this is wrong though and I'm going to try to explain why.

Religion is simply the symbol and metaphor we use to relate to God. It's the way we do things, the form of our worship. It's the style we have and as such is completely unavoidable. The problem comes with our use of religion, not with religion per se. Too often we have treated religion as the end rather than the means. We have settled for the style rather than the substance. This is the beginning of all idolatry, but we are arrogant to think that we can avoid this simply by deconstructing the old way of doing things. We need some form of religion to allow us to express our love to God.

There is no such thing as an 'irreligious church', despite the protestations of many a pastor. In fact, seeking to be an 'irreligious church' is a potentially dangerous pursuit. How can we be sure we won't throw the baby (Jesus!) out with the bath water? What makes us think we know more about God than those that have gone before? Many churches believe that the way to be radical is to do away with tradition and religion. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The word radical comes from the latin word 'radix', which means roots. So the only really radical people are those who recognise their roots and traditions. We need to love our traditions to become the radicals we want to be, although of course we must mould, shape and re-interpret them too. Merely throwing them out of the door won't do though. It is intellectually lazy and arrogant in the extreme. It is the child who rebels the hardest who often most closely represents his parents in the end.

Let us be a church which learns to take the narrow road of re-interpretation rather than the wide road of deconstruction, where everything old becomes evil. Let us learn that we cannot avoid being religious or traditional and nor should we want to. Let us also never settle for the means rather than the end, which is God himself.

Good news

"Nothing can seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." (Rom 8.38-39)

The good news is simply this, that we are loved and forgiven by God as we are. All we have to do is accept it. We must simply bring ourselves before God in whatever state we are and receive his love. This is the gospel that Jesus proclaims and it really is good news.

I don't know about you but I hardly ever live as if this is what I believe. It's too hard to accept and it doesn't fit with everything the world has taught me, that I get what I deserve. It is too good to be true. Many of my problems come when I transfer my wordly ideas onto God, as I very often do. This leads me into a judgemental, jealous and possessive frame of mind which is not God's best for me. If I have to win God's favour then everyone else does too! This is a complete reversal of the truth, but it is so prevalent in church today, not least in me.

I cannot do anything to win God's favour. He gives no notice to my education, my performance at work, my looks, my abilities in sport or music, my spiritual performance, my sexual orientation, my fame or lack thereof or anything else for that matter. The only way for me to place myself outside of his blessing is to attempt to win it from him, or to present an image of my self that I hope to be rather than who I am in this moment. Even then He will restore and forgive me and bring me into right relationship with myself and with Him again.