Author: Jonnyfun.E

Now retired, and enjoying making music and writing. Living in Gloucester, historically an important port on the river Severn, and situated with The Forest of Dean and the Brecon Beacons to the west, and the beautiful Cotswolds to the east.
Bible · faith · Political · Theology · World Affairs

With Prayers For The Landless

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I was reading in Psalm 105 this morning

For he (Yahweh) remembered his holy promise
    given to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,
    his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
44 he gave them the lands of the nations,
    and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—
45 that they might keep his precepts
    and observe his laws.

There is much that I find helpful in the Old Testament to do with God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to his covenant people. But I have a problem with God giving his chosen people land that others have lived in and toiled over. (See above verse 44)

With verses like that in the Hebrew Scriptures, it is, maybe, not surprising that Benjamin Netanyahu is still hell bent on annexing more land from the Palestinian people.

It is possible to find in holy scripture a warrant for the most evil of deeds. Christians must acknowledge that, and attempt to read the whole story of God and his people. In the prophet Isaiah for example, we see that God’s blessing is in fact intended for every people, and not just Israel. And in the verses below, Isaiah had harsh words for those who steal the land of others.

Ah, you who join house to house,
    who add field to field,
until there is room for no one but you,
    and you are left to live alone
    in the midst of the land!
(Isaiah chapter 5 verse 8)

And his conclusion is that they will get their reward

9 But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    swear a solemn oath:
“Many houses will stand deserted;
    even beautiful mansions will be empty.
10 Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine.
    Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain.”
(Isaiah Chapter 5 verse 9,10)

With prayers for justice for the Palestinian people, and all those whose land has been illegally taken.

Bible · Church · faith · Theology

Walking Backwards Into The Future

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In case you haven’t been here before, I’m writing from a Christian perspective, and seeking to understand more fully what it means to live ethically and authentically as a follower of Jesus Christ. This post was triggered by listening to an interview with Rev Sam Wells, the vicar of St Martin in the Fields (London, UK).

I love this image. If you ‘walk forward’ into the future, you will have little idea what resources you might discover that will help to face the challenges you will meet. If you ‘walk backwards’ into the future you see the resources that people have used in the past that can help you in the future.

He couples this image with the idea of history being like a five act play. Tom Wright first suggested this as a way of seeing history. Sam Wells takes the idea and tweaks it:
Tom Wright: 1. Creation. 2. Fall. 3. Israel. 4. Jesus. 5. The Church
Sam Wells: 1. Creation. 2. Covenant. 3. Jesus. 4. The Church. 5. Consummation: New Heaven and New Earth

In the Sam Wells scheme, the Bible forms key parts of the script – Acts 1 – 3. Our life of faith is like a performance, where we are the performers, acting out our part in Act 4.

But we are not acting from a set script. It’s as if we are in an improvisation, and playing our part, but in keeping with what we have seen already in Acts 1 – 3. Scripture is not a rule book to follow, but a story where we have our part to play.

The idea of improvisation is a fascinating one. It’s not about trying to be the clever, witty one who plays it just for laughs, because that can just kill the story. That’s a very individualistic approach. It’s more of a collective enterprise where we are responding to other in the improv, trying to create the best that we can together. That makes it a bit like a game of ‘keepie uppie,’ where you and your friends are kicking a ball around and trying to keep it in the air for as long as possible. That’s not about doing an amazing kick, but simply keeping the ball in play.

As we play our part in Act 4 of the story of God and humanity, we walk backwards into the future, receiving all the gifts that God has given us to play our part.

A key aspect of the life of faith is the extent to which we live – day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year – actively seeking to allow God to shape and reshape us. It is this disciplined practice that will allow us to act in ways that contribute our best as God’s people for God’s world.

There are many examples of the ways this works – I have one ‘true life’ example and one fictional. The first is the account of pilot Chesley Sullenberger, so brilliantly told in the film ‘Sully’. In the film Ches is piloting a plane and has just taken off from La Guardia airport. The plane is hit by a flock of birds and the engines disabled. Knowing both engines are not functioning, he makes a deicision not to try and get to an airport, but to land the plane on the Hudson river, which he does, with no loss of life. A subsequent investigation suggests that he made the wrong decision and that he could have landed safely at La Guardia or Teterboro airports. It’s only when they run a simulation that faithfully recreates the situation in real time that he is proved to be right. If he had tried to get to an airport, it would have been certain disaster. It is his years of flying that enables him – in just 35 seconds – to make the right decision, almost by instinct. he was called a hero, but his reponse was “I’m not a hero, I’ve been rehearsing for this.” It is similarly the disciplines of faithful godly living that will help the Christian to make the right ethical decisions in the heat of the moment.

The fictional story, that I have mentioned in another post is the book by John Irving – A Prayer For Owen Meany. Once more, it is years of self discipline that makes it possible for Owen to make the right decision in the moment of crisis that is the climax of the book.

Sadly, the church has not always received the resources that God has provided. The result being that we have chosen scarcity and not plenty. It is only in recent years that the church of which I am a member (Anglican / Church of England) has begun to accept the ministry of women. Other gifts that we have been slow to receive are the treasures that we have missed by neglecting, rejecting and even oppressing those with disabilities and the LGBT+ community and what they could bring to God’s church.

Last thing, before I go for now. There’s a wonderful phrase that is originally in french – La disponsibilite – coined by french acting instructor Jaque Lecoque. In English the best translation is probably ‘relaxed awareness.’ Sam Wells uses this phrase to describe what our attitude might be to playing our part in God’s story.

It’s not about us being the ones to save the world. That’s God’s domain. It’s about following Jesus as best we can, and waiting expectantly for those opportunities to put our faith into practice. We don’t have to get it all right. God can deal with our mistakes.

None of this is mine – it’s just me trying to process what I’m learning and pass it on – in this case my thanks to Sam Wells and Tom Wright. If you get a chance to listen to the Sam Wells interview (highlighted at the top), please do

Grace and Peace.

Activism · faith · Greenbelt Festival, · LIterature · Me · music · Poetry

Greenbelt Is Wild At Home

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Every year for the past 20 years we have been to the Greenbelt Festival of Artistry, Belief and Activism over the August Bank Holiday. There is a different theme each year – this year’s theme was to be ‘Wild At Heart,’ but it’s being re-imagined as ‘Wild At Home.

We’re really disappointed that Greenbelt isn’t happening in the usual way, but excited that the Greenbelt spirit will be alive and well in spite of the pandemic.

So throughout the pandemic, Greenbelt have been creating online content, and this all comes together on 29th August when there is a whole day of Greenbelt offerings.

We’ve signed up to join in (at a minimal cost of £10), but in addition, we’re going to be doing our own ‘Wild At Home.’ We’ll be spending the Friday with our daughter and son-in-law and family (The Greens, appropriately!) and making our own mini festival.

On a ‘normal’ year, we would arrive at the festival site in the late morning, get the tent up, have a cuppa and a sandwich, and then pore over the programme for the weekend. (Which goes from Friday evening to late Monday evening). At about 5 pm Friday, things kick off on the Festival Village ….

So this is a rough programme for our ‘Green Belt’ (Kindly hosted by the Greens). We’ll be arriving at normal Greenbelt time on the Friday to put the tent up … etc etc.

Rachel, our daughter is working out the fine details, but it will include Greenbelt favourites including :

  • Fischy Music, (by kind arrangement with Jon, and Bev).
  • Food (Courtesy Mr and Mrs Green)
  • Camping (In the garden)
  • Toilets (proper ones)
  • Sports (Trampolining)
  • Tiny Tea Tent (Yes, really)
  • Open Mic Session
  • Family Twist (Hosted by the Greens)
  • Make and Create (The Make and Create team)

Whatever you are missing this summer – even so, I hope you might find a way to do something fun and soul satisfying

Poetry

To Be A Poet #2

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In the interview with Mark Oakley I listened to last week, he talked about poetry, and a time when the poems of R.S.Thomas were especially important to him. I decided to try and read more poetry, and as we have the collected poems of R.S.Thomas, that’s where I’m starting.

Today I read ‘The Cyclamen,’

Here’s my attempt.

Hollyhocks

Golden trumpets
Megaphones, held up high
Silently shouting
Here I am

Giants
Standing tall in the land
And scattered along their limbs
Their coloured faces shine

Skyscrapers
Whose tops move so far in the breeze
That you think
They must topple

I have been sitting with them
Each morning for months now – garden companions
They will leave soon
Maybe they will be back next year ?

Grace and Peace

Bible · faith · Theology

Discovering The God Of Plenty

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I’m pleased to have started the C25K – couch to 5k – a programme to take me from having little cardio exercise during the last four months, to being able to run continuously for 30 minutes.

The podcast that I listened to today on my run was an interview with Sam Wells. Sam is vicar of St Martin in the Fields Church in London. There’s so much in what I’ve heard today, I’m not sure where to start. This will be a brief post, just aiming to make one simple, but important assertion. More to follow another day.

I think the best starting point is to note that we often function as though we live in a world of scarcity. Not enough resources. We’re always fighting a losing battle. But if we set against that the world view of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament we find that they affirm the opposite. God has given us all that we need. We do, in fact, live in a world of plenty, a world of abundance.

I’ll come back to the way Sam Wells argues this on a later post, but for now I’ll just offer a thought from my Bible reading today. As so often happens, I find that things come together in ways I could not have planned. After my run I read John chapter 2, and the account of Jesus turning water into wine.

If you don’t know the story, you can read it here

I’ve read this passage often, and preached on it more than a few times, and I always see something fresh. Today, it’s the way this gospel passage seems to be saying exactly what Sam Wells was talking about. In the story, the wine at a wedding has run out, and Jesus turns over 120 gallons of water into wine. That should be enough!

In 11 verses, we get something that should be foundational to faith. God is a God of plenty, not scarcity.

Of course that raises all sorts of questions about what we see around us, with people living in poverty and so on. There is more to say that sheds light on this, but I’ll have to leave it it until next time.

Grace and peace

Poetry · World Affairs

Oh To Be A Poet

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I’m still pondering on the podcast interview with Mark Oakley that I listened to on Wednesday this week. I’m challenged to read more poetry, which I don’t find easy.

So, one of the things that Mark Oakley was saying is to do with the importance of language and using language carefully. He talked about the role of poets, prophets,* preachers, and protesters, and the need for a ‘poetic imagination’ to be more visible in the public square. He sees that we are in a very troubling time, when the rise of right wing politics is a threat to the health of many peoples. Now is the time for Christians to join with all people of all faiths or no faith to speak out against injustice, discrimination, hatred, bigotry and prejudice.

Here’s something written by a Greek poet that has been helpful to all sorts of groups who struggle against injustice. It goes something like this:

“‘They buried us, but they didn’t know we were seeds. ‘”

The quote comes from poet Dinos Christianopoulos, who was sidelined by the Greek literary community in the 1970s because he was gay.

It reminds me of another saying – “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”

I have always found reading poetry difficult. I’m much more drawn to narrative and story telling, but the language of poetry has something special that I need more of.

I was watching the cosmos flowers blowing in the wind this morning. So beautiful.

The wind gently blows
flowers bend their heads
breath of God on me
Shape me as you will

*The word ‘prophet’ is a tricky one. I’ll have to write more about that. Being prophetic is about discerning what is really going on. (Not so much about foretelling the future, although that might be a part of it)

Church · faith

One Of Those ‘Godincident’ Moments

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I’m reading in John’s Gospel, and today read this:

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

Reading this reminded me of a Sunday morning probably in January 2008. I was preaching on this passage at the church where I was vicar – St Nicholas, Beverley. We spent the longest time there that we have lived anywhere, and it was a very rich, sometimes tough, but basically a brilliant time for us.

My text for the day was ‘Come and See.’

I had noticed during the service someone I didn’t recognise sitting near the back of the church. At the end of the service I was keen to introduce myself to her, and as it turned out, she also wanted to speak with me.

Jane’s story was that she had woken early that morning, and decided to take a walk along the Beck – the canal that comes into Beverley from the river Hull. As she was walking, she sensed a voice saying ‘Come and See.’ Jane was a Christian, but for some time had been away from the church. Sadly this is a common experience, and is often due to the words and actions of church leaders that result in people leaving.

When Jane ‘heard’ the words, she knew what it meant. She knew that she had to find a church to go to straight away. Jane and Nigel lived just by the Beck, only a few hundred yards away from St Nicholas Church, and so it was that she walked through the door that January morning, only to hear the words ‘Come and See.’ It wasn’t long before Jane and Nigel became a part of our community at St Nicholas. Wherever you are today, may God bless you.

A Walk along Beverley Beck
Beverley Beck

Grace and Peace

faith · Me · Song for Today

Song for Today #18 – Woyaya

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This song is from a beautiful album by Art Garfunkel – Angel Clare. The original version is by Osibisa. You could find a video of Osibisa singing this live, but this is the version that is special to me. When I was a vicar, I introduced this song to our band – it’s not overtly a ‘Christian’ song, or even religious, but it seems to me that any song that speaks honestly about our humanity can be sung to God.

Angel Clare - Wikipedia
Angel Clare – 1973 Album by Art Garfunkel

Woyaya (Woyaya means ‘We keep going’)

We are going, heaven knows where we are going,
We know we will
And We will get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

It will be hard we know
And the road will be muddy and rough,
But we’ll get there, heaven knows how we will get there,
We know we will.

Keep on going – Grace and Peace

Bible · Church · faith · LIterature · Me

The Journey Of The Soul

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I haven’t been listening to podcasts since the beginning of lockdown (It was something I did at the gym).  But now I’ve started the ‘couch to 5k’ programme, I’m back on the podcasts again.

Nomad Podcast Store image

One of my favourite places for podcasts is Nomad, and this morning I was listening to an interview with Mark Oakley – Poetry And The Journey Of The Soul. My morning run was about 30 minutes, so I haven’t finished the whole interview yet, but so far it’s five star. *****
nomadpodcast.co.uk
there’s a bit of intro chat between the presenters, but you can go straight to the interview at 8 min 45 seconds in.

I think what Mark Oakley is saying is that poetry is the language of faith. Or perhaps better put the other way round – The language of faith is poetry.

He talks about going to a church service, what do I think I am entering ? I may have the mindset that it’s to do with facts – getting answers or solving problems. But what I have walked into is a poem. That might (will !) require me to do some shifting around in the way I see/understand things

Jesus taught much of the time using stories that worked a little like poems. Stories that don’t’t so much give you answers, or tell you what to do, but invite you into a world. A world where, for example, a sower goes out and scatters seed on the path next to the field, or on stony ground, or thorny ground – as well as good soil. Or a world where someone gives up everything to have the ‘The Pearl Of Great Price.’

One great way to respond to this kind of story is by asking questions. Why would a sower do that, and not just scatter on the good soil ? What kind of sower is this ? Or … What might the Pearl of Great Price look like ?

By the way, people do sacrifice everything for all sorts of things. I’m reading the autobiography of David Crosby at the moment. For many years, the ‘Pearl Of Great Price’ for him was his addiction to drugs. Thankfully, there came a point where he realised that particular pearl wasn’t what he really wanted.

Anyway, back to Mark Oakley and the poetic. The poetic, like Jesus’ parables, are there to get under your skin, they are subversive. Poems and Parables are not instruction manuals, they are more like love letters. So in connection with reading the Bible, Mark talks about ‘the subtext.’ For him, subtext means subversive text. Many times, when we read the Bible, we might miss the sub/subversive text, and only see what’s on the surface.

I’m looking forward to the next bit of the Mark Oakley interview. That’s incentive enough to keep up with the ‘Couch to 5K’

Grace and Peace

Bible · faith · LIterature

A Prayer For Owen Meany

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A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

I can’t remember how I first started reading John Irving, but for a few years I devoured everything he wrote. Some of his novels have been made into films, some of which are good – I enjoyed The Hotel New Hampshire as far as I remember. Probably my favourite of his books is A Prayer For Owen Meany, which was adapted for film under the name ‘Simon Birch’ – which was pretty awful. It’s a shame when such a volcanic book doesn’t translate to the screen.

Anyway, VERY briefly, A Prayer For Owen Meany is about destiny. Or even predestination if you can handle that. Owen Meany has a destiny that he is somehow aware of, but without knowing what that destiny is precisely.

As well as being a profound book, it also has (in common with all of John Irving’s Novels) some hilarious laugh out loud passages. In Owen Meany there is a wonderful description of a Christmas Pageant in which Owen plays the baby Jesus. (Just so you kow, Owen is very short, which makes it possible for him to fit into a manger)

This is how the book begins: ‘I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice — not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.’

Anyway … what brought Owen Meany to mind this morning was reading John 1:29-34

29 The next day John (the Baptiser) saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

What stuck out for me was the repeated phrase ‘I myself did not know him.’ This is an ‘Owen Meany’ story. (Or Owen Meany is a John the Baptiser story) John, like Owen Meany, had a destiny, but he didn’t know exactly what it was. He had known that his call was to preach and baptise, but he didn’t really know the bigger reason why. His destiny was to be the one who would baptise Jesus. And Jesus had to be baptised. That was central to the revealing of Jesus as God’s Anointed One, God’s Son. Jesus had to be baptised because it is as he is baptised that he is revealed.

The Spirit descends on him and the Voice from heaven announces ““This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3 verse 17

This is awesome. If you love Owen Meany, as I do, you’ll know what I mean. There is something that is at the same time remarkable, mysterious, and beautiful about those moments when everything comes together, and you begin to grasp (or be grasped by) some sense of a pattern, or a reason for the way things are.

As Jesus approaches, John suddenly knows … this is why I was called to preach and baptise. This is THE moment that my whole life has been leading up to.

Wow!

Grace and Peace.