Just One Thing You lack

21st Aug 2023 Jonnyfun.E1 Comment

Today – 21st August, I was thinking about this Gospel passage:
Matthew 19:16-22

Then someone came to him (Jesus) and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

I use an app – Pray As You Go … and today there was a quote from Pope Pius X, whose feast day it is today:

“To heal the breach between the rich and the poor, it is necessary to distinguish between justice and charity.” Jesus asks the young man to heal his own breach, to move from the privilege of benefactor to the discomfort of needing others.”

To see the difference between justice and charity …

My situation is one of privilege. Like the person in the Gospel reading.

Inevitably, we read scripture from our own situation and experience, and the challenge of this passage is to begin to see things from a different viewpoint – that of the poor.

How can we truly experience solidarity with the poor ? Maybe only by being poor in some sense ourselves.

The person in today’s Gospel is prevented from seeing things from the viewpoint of the poor by his possessions.

What might be stopping me from this position of solidarity with the poor ?

God Bless You With Discomfort

30th Jul 202330th Jul 2023 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

This Franciscan prayer was prayed at the end of a conference I attended recently at the Centre For The Study Of The Bible And Violence. See more here https://www.csbvbristol.org.uk/annual-conference-2023/

MAY GOD BLESS YOU with discomfort,
at easy answers, half-truths,
and superficial relationships
so that you may live
deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people,
so that you may work for
justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears,
to shed for those who suffer pain,
rejection, hunger, and war,
so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them and
to turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you
with enough foolishness
to believe that you can
make a difference in the world,
so that you can do
what others claim cannot be done,
to bring justice and kindness
to all our children and the poor.

Amen

Activism · Bible · Following Jesus · Political

Let’s Catch Some Big Fish

22nd May 202327th May 2023 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

This is a post about why Christ died. Just thought I would say that at the start. It will be followed by a post on Christ’s resurrection, as told by Mark in his gospel.

N.B. (Note carefully) What follows is not the whole story, but it is definitely an important part of the story that we have not taken seriously.

I must acknowledge the work of Ched Myers here as the inspiration for this post. I have heard him speak a few times, and most recently on the Nomad podcast just before Easter 2023, when he was asked the question – Why did Christ die ?

His answer comes at a time when I have been reading about the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo, the Occupation of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers, and the misappropriation of water resources in the Land of The Holy One. The reason why Christ died turns out to be the same as the reason why any activist gets into trouble. They disturb the status quo.

We start by the sea of Galilee, as Mark recounts the calling of Jesus’ disciples. It’s told in typical Markan style, conveying urgency in a fast moving narrative. The disciples were fishermen. They worked in what might originally have been a self supporting economy, but an economy that had changed under Roman occupation. Fish was becoming big business, taking it away from the local to make big bucks – for example through the exporting of salted fish products. The beneficiaries of this would likely be the already rich and powerful, and not the fishing families.

So, when Jesus calls his first followers, saying ‘I will make you fish for people.’ It might not mean what I was taught as a child with the chorus – I will make you fishers of men, if you follow me, That understanding was to do with calling others to come and follow Jesus, and translated in my childhood mind to witnessing to others about Jesus. But that reading might be failing to take into account the economic and social environment of first century Galilee.

One reading of the Gospels is to see Jesus as a community organiser, kicking against a system of military, religious and economic power. Jesus consistently reaches out to the poor, and the sick, and those excluded from society for one reason or another.

So when he calls the disciples, he is saying – Come with me, and let’s catch some ‘big fish.’ Let’s take on the powers that are pressing you down and keeping you poor.

Does that resonate with you ? The idea that people with power will hold on to that power by controlling resources. In first century Galilee it was the fishing industry, while today, it’s likely to be oil or water.

How Israel uses water to control the West Bank.

The call of the disciples is just an example to remind us that Jesus is about neutralising the power of the elites for the benefit of the poor.

So, to cut a long story short (That long story is the Nomad podcast where Ched Myers outlines this much more fully), when we ask why Jesus died, the answer must be understood within the setting of the whole of the gospel account.

That account shows us a Jesus who is consistently a thorn in the side of the authorities, both religious leaders and Roman Imperial power. The conflict with the religious leaders is clear in the many encounters that Jesus has with the ‘Scribes and Pharisees.’ How Jesus relates to Roman Imperial power is less clear, but several important signs show us this thread running through the gospel.

When Jesus talk about the ‘Kingdom of God,’ or the ‘Kingdom of heaven,’ it is set against the Empire of Rome
When Jesus talks about peace, it can be seen in contrast to the ‘Pax Romana,’
The word for gospel in Greek – euangeliuon, was used by both Greece and Rome to announce history making victories.
When Jesus is called ‘Lord’ it is in contrast to saying ‘Caesar is Lord.’ All of these phrases, used in the Gospels, are like slogans on banners in a protest march.

So there’s this background in the gospel account of Jesus calling people to a new way of living that would challenge the economic, religious and military powers of the day.

No wonder then that he was crucified. This is what happens when people challenge the powers enough to make them afraid.

And who is responsible for the death of Jesus ? Is it the Jewish authorities, or Rome. There’s certainly a case for the Jewish leaders to be the prime suspects, but Rome is also in the frame.

There’s a complicated mix of power with Rome the absolute authority, and Jewish leaders essentially collaborating with Rome to keep their influence. It was convenient for the Roman powers that the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus out of the way, and in the end it was a Roman execution by crucifixion to warn other would be activists that you took on Rome at your peril.

Sadly, over the centuries, the church has ignored this political aspect of the death of Jesus, and largely understood it in the context of a personal salvation from sin.

In his little book – ‘Meeting God in Mark’ (page 62), Rowan Williams writes this – thinking about the words of Jesus to his disciples when they are talking about who is the greatest of them – ‘Jesus is saying that his execution is the price that is paid to free us all from the fantasy that God’s power is just like ours, only a hugely inflated version … it uproots the notion that whatever power we attain must be valued and clung to at all costs … … in this lethal error lies all the roots of our sin and self inflicted misery … the death of Jesus delivers us, dismantling the myth of power that hold us prisoner.’

Unfortunately, over the centuries, and particularly in the last 80 years or so, the loudest voices have told us that the death of Jesus is about God dealing with the sin of the world by sending Jesus to die on our behalf, and take the punishment that should have been ours.

There is language like that in the New Testament, but there are many other images that try to ‘explain’ the cross. It is important to grapple with those ways of understanding the cross, because it is not just about someone being martyred for opposing the powers. The New Testament is clear – something to do with the story of God and humanity is being played out here. There is a deeper message to hear, (More of that another time).

The trouble is that what we call Theories of The Atonement are not the same as simply telling the story of what happened as a human story of what happens when power is threatened by someone who shows us a different way to live.

This way of seeing the Jesus story is important for the church in the world today. This reading of the Gospel leads us to think about the call to challenge power when we see it being used to corrupt and oppress. In that way, maybe the world will see one of the ways that the message of Jesus can speak powerfully today.

Grace and Peace

community · faith · Poetry · Worship

What’s The Opposite Of Spiritual

3rd May 2023 Jonnyfun.E1 Comment

This is quite a bit longer than I would usually post … a sermon preached a few weeks ago in Easter week, focussing on the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and the importance of an embodied faith, lived out by our spiritual practices.

Thursday Communion 13.4.23 St Catharine’s, Gloucester

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

On the day of resurrection, Jesus had appeared to two disciples on their way home to Emmaus … after Jesus has left them, they hurry back to Jerusalem to share the news … Luke 24:35

35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

³⁶While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.

⁴⁴Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’

Sermon

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” … touch me and see …

The risen Lord is present with us now as we meet to share in this meal of Holy Communion – bread and wine … now able to be here present in our bodies – a privilege that we appreciate so much more in recent years. Pause

It’s that aspect of our lives that I’ve been thinking about – we might call it the embodied life. We had some family time over Easter, and spent hours playing board games … physically present with one another, engaged in an activity that was communal and devoid of screens. Contrast that with what we often see and experience ourselves as we spend time relating to our phones , social media etc.

I remember an occasion when I was a theological student and we were visiting the local church for a seminar. The vicar led a discussion with us, and at one point (I can’t remember how it came up) he asked us “what is the opposite of Spiritual ?” We kind of knew that he was laying a trap for us, and I can’t remember if anyone did fall into the trap, but he was expecting someone to say ‘physical.’ The point being – the opposite of spiritual is unspiritual.

And the reason he asked the question is because one of the heresies that have always been around for the church (Gnosticism) is one that sees the physical, material world as bad, creation is fundamentally flawed, even evil, and to be truly spiritual we need to rise above the material world, to escape from the body and become pure spirit.

This heresy was around in the early years of the church, and is still around today. although we may not recognise it easily.

I have a Christian friend who to all appearances is an orthodox Christian – but his view of the climate crisis is that we shouldn’t worry too much about it or put our energies into tackling it because Jesus will return and renew the earth anyway. And yes, that is a part of our faith, but it’s getting dangerously near to saying that the material world doesn’t matter.

But Christian faith is founded on the material world. Everything about our faith is solid … material .. physical.

God is revealed in creation – The heavens declare the glory of God – psalm 19

God is supremely revealed in the incarnation – Jesus, the eternal Word made flesh.

And in our Gospel reading we see that even the resurrected body of Jesus is solid, substantial, not an apparition, not a free floating spirit somewhere in the ether.

Just note some of the words in the Gospel reading – hands, feet, touch, flesh, bones, hands, feet (again) eat, fish, eat (again). This is bodily stuff. Now I know that there’s much that we simply don’t know about what happens when we die, and what resurrection means for us, but there are some clues here – aren’t there ?

I’ve heard people talk about the spirit leaving the body when we die and having some kind of independent existence as if the body is merely a shell, and not really important for our existence. But the resurrection of Jesus is not like that – the resurrected Jesus is body mind and spirit … new body for sure, but a resurrection of the body, and not some free floating spirit.

Each of us is made up of body mind and spirit, working together, and the gnostic heresy that tries to elevate the spiritual as something disembodied must be resisted.

There’s a real danger at this moment in time that our spiritual life becomes less embodied, with fewer physical expressions of faith in favour of something interior, private, individualistic.

I enjoy thinking, and reading … stuff that goes on in my head, but I’m more interested in living ! I’m more interested in a faith that is embodied, lived out in material ways. One of my retired clergy colleagues years ago talked about the way that the life of the spirit, spiritual things are experienced through the material stuff of life.

This includes acts of service to others; being present with others to share our lives; taking creation seriously – enjoying the diversity of all that God has given us, and playing our part in caring for the world.

And it includes our practices in worship – that wonderfully work to keep us true to this embodied faith. Just think of these actions that embody our faith …

The waters of Baptism; The bread and wine of communion. The posture of our bodies … in our Christian tradition we stand when the Gospel is read, or when we say the creed. We greet one another in the peace – and I have noticed the way the peace is shared in this service – with handshakes and hugs.

In Lent we have the service of ashing on Ash Wednesday, and the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday. Our Good Friday services are focussed on the bodily crucifixion of the Lord, with crown of thorns, and torture and vinegar.

But there are other practices that might not be so familiar to us – making the sign of the cross, bowing down or kneeling as part of our worship, or raising our hands in praise. Having hands laid on us in a service of healing. All of these are ways to embody worship, and all touch on something profound that cannot be replicated by the inner workings of the mind.

In the eucharistic prayer there will be pouring of wine, breaking bread and lifting the cup and the bread … bodily actions that reveal something of the heart of our worship. Do you know ? I think there’s more – you may think of more … but let’s just stop there …

I’ll finish with a sonnet .. . inspired by this a book of sonnets by poet Malcolm Guite that go through the church year

Disciples gathered in Jerusalem
When suddenly two friends arrived and said
The Lord had risen and appeared to them
They’d recognised him when he broke the bread
While they were puzzling on the situation
Jesus himself came with his word of Peace
“You look as if you’ve seen an apparition
Do you have anything that I may eat ?
He took the food and ate it while they watched him
“You see a Ghost does not have flesh and bones,
I’ll tell you ev’rything that has been written –
I had to die and rise to take my throne.
Now soon it will be time to say goodbye
Then you’ll be clothed with power from on high”

Later in the service we shared the peace in silence …to focus on the bodily action.
I suggested that for any who are keeping their distance (as we have had to do in the pandemic) that they find a way to make the sharing of the peace a bodily thing, maybe by using the Makaton sign for peace.

……………………………………………..

N.B. Whilst writing this I came across this article on ‘excarnation,’ Embodied Living in the Age of Excarnation” By Joel Oesch .

The article helped to inform and clarify what I was trying to say and draws on the work of Charles Taylor, who defines excarnation as “the steady disembodying of spiritual life, so that it is less and less carried in deeply meaningful bodily forms, and lies more and more in the head.”

Grace and Peace.

faith · Following Jesus

Wondering Where The Lions Are ?

20th Jan 202320th Jan 2023 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

So this week, we started the ‘Being With’ course at Church. I came across this on a conference on Zoom during lockdown. The course has been developed by Sam Wells, vicar at St Martin-In-The-Fields in London along with his associate vicar, Sally Hitchiner.

When I heard Sam Wells talk about the course, I knew immediately that this was huge. It’s a way of introducing people to Christianity that recognises and affirms the truth that God is always at work in our lives, and that we all bring precious experiences that can help us as we together, discover the joy of being with God.

I have wanted to offer this course for so long, and finally on Wednesday this week, we kicked off with the first session.

I’m going to give you a feel for what we did.

After a welcome, we went straight in and invited the group to respond to some ‘wondering.’
I wonder if you have ever known what it feels like to be set free ?
I wonder if you have ever known what it feels like to be in prison ?
I wonder how it would feel to know that there’s something in the past that you don’t need to worry about anymore ?
I wonder what it would feel like to know that the future cannot hurt you ?

The invitation is to share from our own experience stories that might be very everyday and mundane, or might be profound.

E.g. I remember as a child that my brother locked me in my room, but my mum came and told him off, and said that he must let me out.

We cannot live freely in the present when our lives are dominated by the twin prisons of fear of the past, and fear of the future.
The past may be blighted by things have been done to us that have hurt us, or ways in which we have hurt others.
The future is a cloud of unknowing, with fears about our own mortality, sickness, bereavement and all the other pains that we as humans are subject to. We can end up paralysed, imprisoned by our fears.

This session is about dealing with those twin ‘lions’ so that we can live in the present. Two central planks of Christianity are knowing forgiveness for things in the past, and receiving the gift of everlasting life so that we can live without fear of the future.

This is not, by the way, a quick fix. My guess is that we spend our whole lives growing in both of these aspects of faith.

But in the end, having these two – the faith that forgiveness can set us free, and the hope of everlasting life – we can be set free to live in God’s love in the here and now.

I was out on my walk today and wanted to end by listening to a song. I was browsing my collection of Bruce Cockburn’s music and came across ‘Wondering Where The Lions Are,’ with these lines:

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren’t half as frightening as they were before
But i’m thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me.

It seemed like a pretty good way to sum up what we had been thinking about in the group this week, and indentifying and dealing with these two ‘lions.’

So here’s the song, and lyrics.

And a link to ‘Being With.’

Wondering Where The Lions Are

Sun’s up, uuh huh, looks okay
The world survives into another day
And i’m thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me.

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren’t half as frightening as they were before
But i’m thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me.

Walls windows trees, waves coming through
You be in me and i’ll be in you
Together in eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

Up among the firs where it smells so sweet
Or down in the valley where the river used to be
I got my mind on eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me
And i’m wondering where the lions are…
I’m wondering where the lions are…

Huge orange flying boat rises off a lake,
Thousand-year-old petroglyphs doing a double take,
Pointing a finger at eternity
I’m sitting in the middle of this ecstasy

Young men marching, helmets shining in the sun,
Polished as precise like the brain behind the gun
(Should be!) they got me thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me
And i’m wondering where the lions are…
I’m wondering where the lions are…

Freighters on the nod on the surface of the bay
One of these days we’re going to sail away,
Going to sail into eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me
And i’m wondering where the lions are…
I’m wondering where the lions are…

Bible · faith · Jesus

Wise Words From Daniel Berrigan

13th Jan 202320th Jan 2023 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Daniel Berrigan, Catholic Priest and peace activist one said that the major tasks of the church were to build community, foster spiritual dsiciplines and teach bible literacy.

The first task of reading the Bible is to ask why it was written. What was the experience of the authors that had moved them to write as they did ? And the second task is to ask what relevance it might have for us today.

It’s bible literacy that I’ve been thinking about as I’ve been listening to the first two chapters of Mark’s Gospel this week. Here is Mark chapter 1:40-45

⁴⁰A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ ⁴¹Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ ⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ ⁴⁵But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

In verse 41, we read that Jesus was moved with pity. But in other, possibly earlier manuscripts, Jesus is moved with anger.

If that is so, then is it possible that those who were copying out the manuscripts thought that pity was more in line with who they though Jesus was ?

If the original meaning was that Jesus is somehow angry, then who is he angry with, and why. Many commentators are clear that a major theme (or maybe The Major Theme) of Mark’s Gospel is the conflict between Jesus and the authorities. The Scribes and the Pharisees. It’s easy to see this conflict building up as the Gospel account moves on.

So to suggest that Jesus is angry with the religious powers fits the narrative, and the idea that Jesus is angry here is very possible, even likely.

Why ? Because as the narrative moved on, we see that the priests enter the story. Ched Myers suggests that the man has already been to the priests to be delcared clean, and has been turned away. Jesus is effectively saying – the religious powers are not the only ones that have authority. They cling to their power for fear that anyone else might make a decision for themselves. If the priests can persuade the people that they (the priests) are the only ones that can declare someone clean, then they hold onto a great deal of influence over people’s daily lives.

Jesus will have none of that. A central part of his mission is to open up a way to God that does not rely on the power of a priest. His activity, out and about in the towns and the villages, far from the temple, is showing that God is working anywhere and everywhere, and God doesn’t need a priest to be the one who decides if someone can be accepted in the community.

Very soon after this incident in the Gospel, Jesus will send out the 12 with authority to announce the message and heal wherever they go. You can do this too!

And so can we.

Grace and Peace.

faith · Poetry · Songwriting

It’s Show Not Tell – Again

27th Dec 2022 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

It’s Show Not Tell – Again

Today is the feast day of Saint John the evangelist.

The Gospel reading set for today is from the end of John’s Gospel:

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first, also went in, and saw and believed.

In the songs that I’ve been writing in the last few years, I have been aware of the power of ‘Show not Tell.’ It seems to me that in poetry and in songwriting, often it’s the less you say, the more you tell.

John’s Gospel is the most poetic of the four Gospels, and in this sparse retelling of the discovery of the empty tomb, much is left to our imagination.

We understand that the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’ is John, but he is not named here. Perhaps we can imagine that by not naming him, it leaves the possibility for us to be a part of the retelling?

Can I, in my imagination, be that unnamed disciple ? What do I see as I look into the tomb ?

All we are told is that he ‘saw and believed.’ This is the ultimate ‘Show not tell’

faith · Jesus

That’s How Close He Is

26th Dec 2022 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

It’s Christmas Day. Bev and I are spending Christmas with her mum in Holyhead – the furthest point in North Wales off the island of Anglesey.

Midnight communion at St Cybi’s church was a special way to start Christmas. It’s the church where we were married in December 1981 – 41 years ago.

In the sermon, the preacher – the Archdeacon of Anglesey, John Harvey started by asking ‘How far would you go to see Jesus ?’ He continued by telling us about a trip he made to see Jesus many years ago. He visited Burford Priory, which was then the home of the society of the Salutation of our Lady, a community of Anglican nuns.

And he described the statue in the Priory of Mary and the Christ Child – not with Mary cradling the baby Jesus, or with the child sitting on her knee, but with Mary holding Jesus out as if to say ‘Would you like to hold him ?’

As for the offer to hold the baby … I, like many others, would accept in a heartbeat, but others, for all sorts of reasons, might be reluctant to take the baby. Holding a baby is the closest we come to innocence, but for some, there is pain and the fear of coming too close to the perfection that we may never have known.

And in the end, to go back to the question at the beginning .. it’s not a question of how far we would go to see Jesus, it’s remembering that God, in Christ has come to meet us.

At Christmas, we are invited to consider that in Jesus, God becomes flesh for us. So whatever your feelings about holding a baby, whatever your pain or fear – this is the question put to us … As the gift of Jesus is offered to us this Christmas, will we receive him ?

Would you like to hold him ? He is that close.

faith · God · Theology

The Difference A Word Makes

24th Dec 202225th Dec 2022 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

I’m mentioning Rowan Williams a lot recently. That’s because he’s brilliant ! I was listening to him being interviewed recently and at one point, he was talking about Pantheism and Panentheism.

The Pantheist believes that God is the sum total of all that is. Rocks, trees, animals, people, the universe.

As he was talking I had the image of triangles in my mind. One triangle represents everything that is. The other represents God. See my little diagram below, where ‘everything’ and ‘God’ are not only exactly the same shape, but are the same size.

Pantheism = God is everything

Panentheism is a belief that God is in everything. The little word ‘in’ makes a big difference.

Everything we look at, all that exists – the green triangle in my diagram below – has at its core, the presence and activity of God.

I’ve tried to show that by making the green triangle exactly the same shape as the big blue triangle. Being the same shape means that the universe reflects the nature of God, but is not identical with God.

The totality of everything – Rocks, trees, animals, people, the universe … is soaked through with God but it certainly doesn’t exhaust God.

And to quote Roman Williams – ‘That’s pretty much where I’ve got to be’

Me too. I love the idea that you can be immersed in something much bigger than yourself.

Grace and Peace.

faith · God

There Is Nothing In God

24th Dec 202225th Dec 2022 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Maybe I got you wondering … have I lost it ?

No, actually.
And what I have for you today is surprisingly simple but infinitely profound, and deep mystery – expressed by Rowan Williams in this way.

There is nothing in God that is not God.
There is nothing in God that is the result of something else.
What there is in God is absolute mutuality of gift and love.

And, amazingly, God chooses to share that gift and love with us.
That little word ‘with’ could be the most important word that we will ever know.
It points towards community –
the community that is God;
the community into which we are invited.

Being with one another is the most precious gift of being human.
That’s why, at Christmas, we see people willing to be stranded at railway stations and airports. On their way to spend time with loved ones. Friends and family.

And ‘being with’ is the most precious gift that God has given us – signified by the presence of God in Jesus.

Whatever your community, and however you experience it – in person, on video call, on the phone, through cards and texts and whatsapps, may you know the power of the presence of others in your life, and the promise of the gift of Jesus, the Christ Child, to be with you.