It’s been a while

7th Jul 2011 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

I have three blogs … not sure why … so not sure where to post after such a long break. Anyway.

I was on my way to see my spiritual director this week, and had a few minutes spare, so I stopped into a church I found along the way. (St Michael’s, Cherry Burton, East Yorkshire)

Sat in a pew, opened the Bible and started reading Matthew 5.

It suddenly came to me how the beatitudes are progressive – not an original thought, I know, but not one I had ever given a great deal of thought to.

I started thinking for some reason about the 12 step programmes, and how the beatitudes might be similar. (Again, not original I discovered later)

But my take on it is I think a little different.

Step 1 Admit your need

Blessed are … the poor in spirit … or – those who know their need of God

Step 2 Mourn for your sin and the sin in the world

Blessed are those who mourn …

Step 3 Open your heart to God

Blessed are the meek (humble?) those who know that they need God, not just in a crisis, but for the long haul.

Step 4 Change the way you act

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Start to live a life that pleases God. Live to do the right thing in God’s eyes.

Step 5 Change your attitudes

Blessed are the merciful. As you have received God’s grace, so now have the same gracious attitude to others. The life of following Jesus is not just about actions, but attitudes

Step 6 Change your thought life

Blessed are the pure in heart. Purity of heart is a deeper, more challenging way. It is the way to closer communion with God. From the heart come words and actions, good or bad.

Step 7 Share what you have received

Blessed are the peacemakers … the primary way of understanding the gospel is that of reconciliation, peace making. If we are to have an influence for God and for good, then we must be people of peace, and people who make and build peace.

Step 8 Whatever it takes.

Blessed are the persecuted. It is likely that the true disciple will find themselves in conflict with evil. Often it comes in the guise of good.

Maybe we are on a cycle all the time, learning a deeper way of living out each step.

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Home

18th Aug 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

It’s been a while.

I’m hoping to get back into the habit of this once the silly season is over. We’re off to the Greenbelt Festival over the Bank Holiday, so there should certainly be some posts about that.

Just this for now.

A recent letter from a friend says a lot:

I regard it (church), not only as a place of worship, but quite simply as ‘home’. Which is pretty marvellous when you consider Heaven – God’s Kingdom – is where we come from, and as the missionaries in China said, dying, death, is Going Home: so, we’re already half way there!

Gets me thinking about heaven again.

Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham has been banging on about this for years. Heaven is to do with the presence of God and the activity of God … and when we pray “On earth as it is in heaven” we are praying for more of God in the world; right here, right now.

We’re not praying to be whisked away to some ethereal world of clouds and harps. We’re praying for peace; for justice; for everyone; for everything.

My friend senses that little bit of heaven because of how God has worked in his life, and how he experiences God working in the church. It feels like home. It feels like heaven.

Or as Belinda Carlisle sang long ago … ooh heaven is a place on earth!

Come to think of it – Greenbelt feels like heaven too. Can’t wait.

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Legion Mark 5:6-14

19th Jul 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

In which Jesus heals a man with unclean spirits.

On the day I looked at these verses, I was starting a two day course on Mental Health First Aid. Jesus is doing a bit more than first aid here!

Apart from the mental health angle, this passage is important because it shows Jesus challenging yet more of the boundaries and assumptions in his society. He is entering Gentile territory, and taking the ‘good news’ to non Jews. Jesus is radically inclusive.

As I reflect on Jesus’ determination to cross boundaries, I ask myself what boundaries I need to cross. Which people, places and situations challenge me ?

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Body, Mind and Spirit. Mark 5:1-5

13th Jul 2009 Jonnyfun.E1 Comment

In which Jesus meets a man who is described as having an unclean spirit. He is violent, he self harms (cuts himself with stones), and he is excluded from society (or has excluded himself).

There are different ways to look at passages like this in the Gospels. Some would see this as an example of ‘demon possession,’ while others would see here a man with a severe mental illness. There can be a great divide between these two ways of understanding.

At one end of the spectrum there are churches that practise a deliverance ministry where almost anything can be ascribed to the work of evil spirits. (Someone with a short temper can be described as having ‘a spirit of anger’ that needs to be cast out). At the other end of the spectrum are Christians who would say that talk about evil spirits is superstition, and we should look for scientific ways to explain illness, and look to modern medicine for treatment.

What I find especially interesting (and we miss it if we get hung up on arguments about modern medicine versus prayer for healing) is that in the gospels, Jesus addresses all kinds of illness, with a variety of causes. Jesus seems to have a holistic approach that recognises body, mind and spirit. When we get into arguments about the nature of the illness, we risk missing the fact that the Jesus of the gospels heals people who are afflicted in body, others who are afflicted in mind, and others who are afflicted in spirit. What this says to me is that Jesus’ healing is comprehensive. There is no aspect of human suffering that is outside the scope of the healing of Jesus.

A prayer that we use for healing goes something like this … “Name of person we lay our hands on you in the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray that you may know God’s healing power at work in you – bringing wholeness and healing to every part of you, body mind and spirit.”

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A Different Kind of Peace Mark 4:35-41

11th Jul 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

In which Jesus calms a storm.

I presume that before the storm started it was calm … But I also guess that the calm after the storm felt quite a lot different!

The Christian Gospel has sometimes been presented as ‘Come to Jesus and he will sort you out’. But the experience of the disciples here is ‘Come to Jesus and he will mess you up!’

Jesus is leading the disciples into situations that will be scary and confrontational. In the next chapter, they will encounter a demon possessed man, and on the way, their lives are threatened by a severe windstorm.

In these situations of hostility, Jesus is what we would call in mediation terms, the ‘non anxious presence’. He is the one who can take things forward. He is the one who will not be dictated to by the circumstances. He is the one who will inspire confidence in others that they too can get through the difficult situation.

And the bigger picture is here too: these encounters – with the forces of nature, and with the forces of evil – show us that Jesus is engaged in something HUGE here. As he makes visible the rule of God, there is resistance. This peace making is no easy task.

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Thunder and Rainbows

8th Jul 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Thinking a bit more about sitting shiva.

I was just thinking about silent prayer being a little bit like sitting shiva with God. God must mourn over the violence in China today, and over all the evil, and suffering in the world. What must it be like for God to see his children doing so much to hurt each other.

To be silent in God’s presence can maybe help us to understand better the heart of God.

Slightly unconnected with all of that – my prayer today made me think of this song recorded by Martyn Joseph

The light or the shade, concealed or displayed
Enemies, friends, opposite ends
Bitter or sweet, ruffled or neat
Feathers or lead, silent or said

Generous or mean, corporate or green

Vagrant or lord, the dove or the sword

Distinct or obscure, prosperous or poor
Devil or saint, we are and we ain’t

Intricate mysteries
Life’s secret code
Cul-de-sac signposts
On yellow brickroads
Ambiguous answers
The question’s still “Why”
Thunder and rainbows
From the same sky

Champagne or dust, banquet or crust
Authentic or fake, angel or snake
Flower or thorn, pristine or torn
Desert or sea, the throne and the tree

Intricate mysteries
Life’s secret code
Cul-de-sac signposts
On yellow brickroads
Ambiguous answers
The question’s still “Why”
Thunder and rainbows
From the same sky

The light or the shade, concealed or displayed

Enemies, friends, opposite ends

Flower or thorn, pristine or torn

Desert or sea, the throne and the tree

Intricate mysteries
Life’s secret code
Cul-de-sac signposts
On yellow brickroads
Ambiguous answers
The question’s still “Why”
Thunder and rainbows
From the same sky

Thunder and Rainbows by Martyn Joseph and Stewart and Carol Henderson

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Sitting Shiva Mark 4:26-29

7th Jul 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

The Kingdom of God is like this: someone scatters seed on the ground. Whether he sleeps, or gets up, night and day, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

A few weeks ago, there was a two part documentary on television – ‘Famous, Rich and Homeless’, in which five celebrities spent 10 days experiencing something of what it means to be homeless.

Two of those taking part were actor Bruce Jones (who played Coronation Street’s Les Battersby), and tennis player Annabel Croft. As they were paired up with homeless people, Bruce and Annabel’s first instinct was to try and help them. Faced with the reality of homelessness, they both tried to do something about the situation, and ran the real risk of making things worse, not better. In the debrief at the end of the day, they met up with John Bird, who was homeless himself for many years, and acting as a consultant on the programme. John was angry with both of them for trying to help, and lost his temper at their naivety.

He was out of order in the way he spoke to them, but I think I understood what he was trying to tell them. The most important thing for Annabel and Bruce was to be there with the homeless, and to try and experience what it is like to be homeless. To feel the sense of powerlessness and hopelessness that is part of being homeless.

I don’t know what moved them to want to help. Care and compassion, I’m sure played a large part. Maybe also some guilt and anger that this is allowed to happen. A sense that we should be able to solve the problem of homelessness.

And yet the problem is not a simple one that could be solved by finding their homeless buddy somewhere warm and safe to stay. The root causes of homelessness are complex, and they needed to learn about the problem, not provide a solution.

It reminds me of the ritual of ‘Sitting Shiva’ in Judaism. When someone has died, close family members spend a seven day period of mourning, in which they gather together to support one another in their grieving.

It is considered an act of great kindness and compassion to pay a home visit to the mourners. Traditionally, no greetings are exchanged and visitors wait for the mourners to initiate conversation.

The purpose of visiting a mourner is to comfort the mourner. Visitors have an obligation to remain silent unless the mourner initiates conversation. The mourner is allowed to remain silent, and if so, this shall be respected by the visitors. Any conversation that does take place shall typically be about the deceased. The visitor just has to be sensitive, and let the mourner choose the topic of conversation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism)

The parable of the growing seed in Mark 4 tells us that we are not in control of what God is doing. Some of us find this really hard. Like Bruce and Annabel, we often want to be the ones to help. It’s as if we have failed if we don’t solve the problem. The parable tells us that things can, and will happen without our intervention. We have a part to play, like sowing the seed in the parable, or stepping across the threshold of the home to comfort mourners. But maybe that’s all we need to do. We can let God guide the rest.

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Finished

1st Jul 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

I cried through the last 20 pages or so of ‘The Hour I First Believed’ this morning. I’m a big fan of the author, Wally Lamb, and I’d be nervous to recommend the book in case people don’t like it, but I’m going to take a risk and say “Read it!”

It’s been amazing to see how this book, without any conscious plan on my part, has added to the rich experience that I have had these last nine and bit weeks.

The book is about trauma, and about the effects of the different traumas on the characters in the book. I won’t spoil the story, but the book is also about finding some measure of healing, always with suffering, and sometimes because of the suffering.

I don’t want to labour it, but the true story of Linda White’s meeting with her daughter Cathy’s murderer seems to sum up much of what I have been learning. (see blog entry ‘Hurt People Hurt People)

The culmination of Linda’s story is her meeting with Gary Brown. (Cathy’s murderer).

For a year, a mediator has met with Linda and Amy, Cathy’s daughter, who was 5 years old at the time of Cathy’s murder. The mediator has also had meetings with Gary in prison to prepare him for the meeting. The victim/offender meeting is not about making things easier for the offender; it does not mean that their sentence is reduced. It is about confronting an offender directly with the consequences of their crime, with the purpose of bringing some restoration to both offender and victim.

By the time they finally meet, they have begun to exchange letters, and both parties come to the meeting with apprehension, and a mixture of powerful emotions.

Linda and Amy tell Gary that there are some hard things that they will say to Gary. Linda also tells Gary that they are there to listen to Gary talk about his life as well. Amy tells Gary how his actions have destroyed her life, and describes how as a child, she had numerous counselling sessions to help with the trauma. Gary sits opposite Amy with his head down, in tears.

As well as telling Gary what they want him to hear, they want to know what was going on in Gary’s life that would drive him to commit such a terrible crime, and they want Gary to tell them about the details of the final minutes of Cathy’s life. (Gary was 15 at the time of the murder). Just watching the interview is painful and distressing. At the end of the six hour emotional meeting, there are tears on both sides, and amazingly, Linda and Amy ask Gary to come and stand with them, and have their picture taken together. After having their picture taken, Linda gives Gary a hug, and so does Amy. “It was hard for me to hug him,” says Amy, “but I felt like it was necessary.” Linda says, “It was the most logical thing in the world for me to hug Gary.”

For me, this story is as good as it gets. What Linda White did mirrors the work of God in Christ. The path to reconciliation involves suffering – for Jesus that meant death on the cross. The restoration of what has been lost through sin will inevitably mean a path of suffering. If the pain, disruption and destruction caused by sin is confronted, then somehow that pain must be absorbed and robbed of its power.

This is what happened in that Texas prison, sin was robbed of its power to enslave Gary, Linda and Amy. They were able to take the next step in their lives.

And these things can happen because in the reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, sin and evil were ultimately and decisively robbed of their power to enslave.

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Hagar

1st Jul 2009 Jonnyfun.E1 Comment

Hagar and the Angel by Cecco Bravo

I slept in till 8.22 today! Got up, and for some reason, checked the rota for today’s 9.30 am communion, only to see that it was me today! Of course, it’s the 1st July, and my sabbatical is officially over.

Fortunately, today’s Bible readings for communion were a gift to someone who’s been thinking about conflict and peace building for two months. The Old Testament reading was all about Hagar, the slave woman who bore a child to Abraham.

In today’s reading, Abraham’s wife Sarah asks Abraham to banish Hagar and Ishmael, so that Ishmael will not have a share in Sarah’s son Isaac’s inheritance. (Genesis 21). Abraham consents to this and Hagar is banished to the wilderness with her child Ishmael. In the wilderness, it looks as thought they will both die, and Hagar moves ‘a good way away’ from Ishmael so that she will not see him die. They cry to God for help, and In reply God sends an angel who shows them a well, and they survive. The significance of this story for today is profound – As Jews look to Sarah’s son Isaac as their ancestor, and Arabs look to Hagar’s son Ishmael as their ancestor.

The story reminded me of the ‘Come to the Table’ project (see earlier blog entry) in which the descendants of slaves, and the descendants of slave owners meet together to share their stories, their pain, and the unmet needs that still exist today.

Would that the descendants of Hagar, and the descendants of Sarah would also come to the table and find peace and reconciliation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagar_(Bible)

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Does the Blog stop here ?

30th Jun 2009 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

I’m about to come to the end of my sabbatical, which means the end of the blog (in its present form anyway). At some point I’d like to give an opportunity for friends at St Nicholas who have read any of the blog to give me some feedback, so I’ll be arranging a discussion evening soon for any that are interested.

If you live away from Beverley, but would like to give me some feedback, I’d be pleased to have a virtual conversation with you. You can reach me on jonnyfun.e@googlemail.com.

I’m interested to know about anything that was: interesting/boring/annoying/helpful/unclear/challenging/

uplifting/confusing/longwinded/entertaining etc etc.

I would like to carry on with the reflections on Mark’s Gospel, for my own benefit more than anything else, and I might stick those up on a blog. I’m certain to continue with my explorations into the area of peacebuilding/conflict transformation etc, but whether I’ll make the time to blog those thoughts is anyone’s guess at the moment.

Jonathan.