Category: Church

Bible · Church · community · faith · Following Jesus

It Never Struck Me Before

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So. I’ve been listening to an interview with Alexander John Shaia. Fascinating. I had not heard of him before. He’s interviewed here on the Nomad podcast, and also in Rob Bell’s Robcast.
There are a load of things to talk about, but just an aside to start with – he talks about the Passover meal, and the central theme being slavery and freedom. It never occurred to me before that they wouldn’t all have gone with Moses!! Some would have followed him, for sure, but there would have been those who thought that they were better off staying in Egypt. They made that choice.

Now why didn’t I realise that ? I just assumed they all went. But of course some would have found the idea of such a radical move to be too difficult.

So on to where this is going to lead – to four questions that map the road of transformation.
I’m just going to try and summarise what Alexander was saying, but I hope you might go and listen to the interview, because I found it mind blowing.

We need to begin with a Jewish Passover:
According to the Ashkenazi tradition, the order of the Four Questions at the Passover meal is as followed:
Question 1: Why on all other nights do we eat either leavened bread or matza, but on this night only matza?
Question 2: Why on all other nights do we eat different types of vegetables, but on this night only bitter herbs?
Question 3: Why on all other nights do we not dip our food once, but on this night we dip it twice?
Question 4: Why on all nights do we eat either sitting upright or reclining, but on this night we recline?

These questions traditionally bring to mind:
Question 1: Eating matza commemorates how the Jews were in such a hurry to leave Egypt they could not wait for their bread to rise.
Question 2: Eating bitter herbs represents the bitter difficulties of life as a slave in Egypt.
Queston 3: Dipping food was a luxury reserved only for the aristocracy and upperclass in ancient times, so the practice of dipping is meant to reflect freedom.
Question 4: Reclining while dining was also a luxurious behavior historically, which stresses the privilege of freedom.

But Alexander Shaia refers to an older practice in Judaism at the time of Jesus that has four similar, but different questions, that might be paraphrased as:
Question 1: Thinking about the Exodus, when God’s people were set free from salvery in Egypt … Where in your life are you lost in a place of emotional paralysis, a state of being unfree, enslaved ?
Question 2: Thinking about the forty years when God’s people wandered in the wilderness … Where are you in a death experience ?
Queston 3: Thinking about the time when God’s people crossed over Jordan into the promised land … Where do you hear God’s new promise for you ?
Question 4: Thinking about life in that land of promise … What new action is God asking of you, for your life, the life of your community ?

So … in summary, the four questions relate to
1. The path of transformation includes times to consider making a change. How are are you going to respond ? Choice
2. The path of transformation will involve tension, and trials. Suffering
3. The path of transformation will include the offer of newness in some way. Gift
4. The path of transformation will challenge you to think about acts of service you are being called to give. Service

Interestingly, these four aspects of the life of faith were a central part of the practice of the early church in preparing candidates for baptism. Not surpisingly really, the church drew on the heritage of Jewish practice in making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Now here’s the thing … the early church also, according to Alexander Shia and others, linked these four aspects of discipleship to the four Gospels.
Matthew – addressed to the Jewish community – Choice.
Who will you choose ? Will you choose this new way in following Jesus ?
Mark – addressed to the Christian community in Rome, suffering persecution under Nero.
Stay strong as you seek to make Jesus the Lord of your life, even in the midst of persecution. Suffering.
John – addressed to the diverse Christian community in Ephesus, which was beginning to revisit old divisions
Even though you come from different backgrounds. Receive the gift of unity. Gift
Luke – addressed to the Christian community in Antioch.
Remember that you are called to serve. Service

So, when you think of the Gospels, think rather of one Gospel. The Gospel that is shown to us in four different ways, to help us understand the fourfold path of transformation.

I found these insights really helpful, and will be praying that I will be aware when I am being asked to make a choice about something –
The challenge of moving on to something new, and leaving other things behind.
The challenge of hanging in there when it gets tough
The challenge of seeing how I am being called to serve.

Grace and peace.

Church · community · Following Jesus

Nuggets From Elizabeth Oldfield (II)

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Elizabeth Oldfield Part II. About the church and how we deal with those who are different to ourselves.

Some years ago, there was a married couple who had started on their Christian journey quite recently, and church was for them a new experience. They were amazed to be getting to know people in our church who acted without any self interest – just out of love and concern. It seemed that here was the perfect expression of community.

It took a while, but eventually they came to realise that we were fallible human beings, who were sometimes selfish, sometimes awkward or just plain difficult to get along with, but that the church was fundamentally a good place to be. That isn’t everyone’s experience, but Elizabeth Oldfield has a similar take ….

She says this about her experience of church. “After a while I came to realise that the church as an institution has a lot wrong with it; churches in general do not live up to the Christian gospel, or the calling of Jesus in any way, shape or form, but I’m less and less keen on focussing on just that. I feel like the more I spend time with really diverse groups of people who have no experience of church whatsoever, the more I realise what this gift (the church) is – this imperfect, broken, but beautiful gift. I have been in all kinds of (church) communities, and my experience is that they don’t always navigate every kind of difference well, but they do navigate a lot of differences well, and are certainly the local institution which is trying its hardest to navigate difference. There is at least an intention and a desire to notice difference and to model the way that we are supposed to be working with those differences, noticing our failings and modelling the kingdom of God.”

Grace and peace to you, particularly to those of you who have a calling to work for mutual understanding in situations or communities, or families, or organisations etc where there is difference and especially where tension is also present.

Elizabeth Oldfield is director of the thinktank Theos

and has a podcast – The Sacred

Bible · Church · faith · Following Jesus · Worship

The End Of A Year

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I’ve been thinking about annual cycles of religious festivals – For Christians, the church year goes like this: Advent – Christmas – Epiphany – Lent – Easter – Pentecost – All Saints – and back to Advent again. Most of the festivals are focussed on Jesus – his life, death and resurrection.

This Sunday, 22nd November is the final Sunday in this church year. Next Sunday will be the first Sunday of Advent, which marks the beginning of a new church year. This last Sunday is called ‘Christ The King.’ The idea is that the culmination of the year should focus on the completed work of Jesus before the story starts all over again.

In the Jewish faith, there is something very similar that must be the inspiration for the Christian tradition. In Judaism however, the cycle is all about the reading of Torah. Torah is The Law of Moses – the first five books of what Jews call ‘The Bible.’ and what Christians call ‘The Old Testament’ or ‘The Jewish Scriptures.’

This cycle of readings is completed in a year, and as in the Christian tradition, there is a special day that marks the end of the year, and starts the new year. In Judaism this is linked to the feast of Sukkot, which is a kind of harvest festival, and takes place around October.

There is a wonderful description of this festival – Simchat Torah – in the book I wrote about in my last post. The book ‘In the Beginning’ by Chaim Potok. Here’s the quote.

I remember the night in the second week of October when we danced with the Torah scrolls in our little synagogue. It was the night of Simchat Torah, the festival that celebrates the completion of the annual cycle of Torah readings. The last portion of the Five Books of Moses would be read the next morning.

The little synagogue was crowded and tumultuous with joy. I remember the white-bearded Torah reader dancing with one of the heavy scrolls as if he had miraculously shed his years. My father and uncle danced for what seemed to me to be an interminable length of time, circling about one another with their Torah scrolls, advancing upon one another, backing off, singing. Saul and Alex and I danced too. I relinquished my Torah to someone in the crowd, then stood around and watched the dancing. It grew warm inside the small room and I went through the crowd and out the rear door to the back porch. I stood in the darkness and let the air cool my face. I could feel the floor of the porch vibrating to the dancing inside the synagogue. It was a winy fall night, the air clean, the sky vast and filled with stars. [. . .]

The noise inside the synagogue poured out into the night, an undulating, swelling and receding and thinning and growing sound. The joy of dancing with the Torah, holding it close to you, the words of God to Moses at Sinai. I wondered if the gentiles ever danced with their Bible. “Hey, Tony. Do you ever dance with your Bible?”

I had actually spoken the question. I heard the words in the cool dark air. I had not thought to do that. I had not even thought of Tony–yes, I remembered his name: Tony Savanola. I had not thought of him in years. Where was he now? Fighting in the war probably. Or studying for the priesthood and deferred from the draft as I was. Hey, Tony. Do you ever read your Bible? Do you ever hold it to you and know how much you love it?

Wow ! I could almost feel the sense of celebration. Joy and awe all mixed up and expressed in the dance. An exuberant, intense display of fervour and devotion.

And I asked myself the question that in the novel David asks of the Roman Catholic neighbour of his childhood – Do I ever dance with my Bible ? Or to put it another way – does our celebration of Christ The King have this same sense of being alive in our faith. Maybe it’s the fact that we English / Church of England are so reserved and unemotional that stops us ? Or maybe we just don’t have the same passion about our faith ?

There will be no dancing this year, as our chuches are closed for public worship due to Covid, but maybe next year ….

Grace and peace.

Church · faith · Following Jesus · God

If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes

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I’m listening to Justin Welby, Archbishop of canterbury. He’s talking about the way that the church has changed over the course of the pandemic, and the way that we will need to continue to discover the new ways that God is calling the church to witness to God.

For some months, the ministry of the church was 100% outside the building. We must learn lessons from that.

What is needed is a new vision of the Good News of Jesus Christ for this time, for all people. This demands that we are renewed people, with above all a new holiness.

And the message for the church is this – If nothing changes, then nothing changes.

As a Christian trying to be attentive to God, I’m hungry for change.

Church

I’m Excited To Be ‘Going’

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This is going to be interesting. It’s a ‘conference’ (online) organised by the Church of England – Reimagining 2020. It’s under the umbrella of Evangelism and Discipleship, and follows a series of webinars earlier this year.

There are some speakers who should be worth listening to – Tom Holland (Author/historian), Lucy Moore (Messy Church Founder), Jill Duff (Bishop of Lancaster), Sam Wells (Vicar of St Martin-In-The-Fields and author) as well as Justin Welby (Archbishop of Canterbury).

It seems to set up really well, with opportunities to ask questions, meet up with old friends, discuss in break our rooms … etc etc.

I’ll see how it goes. It’s on the the next three mornings, Tue, Wed, Thu of this week. I have a question that came out of a chat with some friends yesterday:

Parent/Carer and Toddler groups have historically given a great opportunity for meeting young families and building relationships in a Christian setting. In the light of current difficulties, what might be helpful ways to reach out to parents with pre-school children and build some sort of community ?

Church · community · Worship

Build Community: Yes, But How ?

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In other posts I’ve been writing about the church and the inward looking mindset that often plagues us. I’ve suggested that the order of priorities that prevails much of the time: Worship – Community – Mission is the wrong way round and it should be: Mission – Community – Worship.

Even so, I want to say something about worship as the launch pad for mission. Worship is, or should be transformative. It should be the place where we are not sure whether we are in heaven or on earth. It should be the place where we are re-centred in our mission to make God’s love in Jesus Christ known.

In thinking about what constitutes this quality of worship, I came across the following in a book called ‘At Heaven’s Gate’ by Richard Giles.

‘Good worship springs from an authentic and palpable sense of community. Once we learn what it means to be a genuinely interactive community of faith, we shall draw forth from one another a whole range of talents and ministries to create extraordinary worship. Although worship can, and does happen at gatherings of strangers and on one-off special occasions, good worship at the local level, week in week out, depends very much on the quality of the common life enjoyed by that local community. Good worship begins with a whole and happy community.

It cannot be done the other way round, for worship used as a sticking plaster for a dysfunctional community will not last very long. …… Building community is the first priority therefore of a church intent on renewing its worship.

… It will require community building that will embrace many aspects of our community life, providing various opportunities for members of the community to get to know one another better, to listen to one another and strengthen the bonds that tie them together.

Coffee after worship; events that combine elements of worship; spiritual formation and socializing; small groups that provide opportunities to learn; worship and shared meals in a home setting; pilgrimages; retreats; outings; working parties to tackle particular projects. All are ways of building up a sense of belonging and purpose.’

Now if I had written this at any other time, we might pay attention to these words and set about paying more attention to these ways of building community.

However … this is not ‘any other time !’ If the above words have any truth, then Christian worshipping communities must, as a matter of urgency, seek to find other ways in this constrained atmosphere to build community.

For example,

  • Resourcing worship at home for families and encouraging ‘bubbles’ to worship together.
  • Being more intentional, as we were at the beginning of lockdown, to serve one another through helping out with shopping etc.
  • Small ‘whatsapp’ groups or similar. (I say small because my experience is that as groups get larger engagement gets less)
  • Working parties (currently up to six people) to do for example some local clean ups, or tidy church gardens etc.
  • Socially distanced walks for small groups. (Sitting in the garden together might be too chilly, but walks could work)
  • Using technology (eg Zoom) for group get togethers. My experience again is that the larger the number the more difficult it is. (Some people find this helpful, whilst others don’t).

This isn’t going to be easy, but getting some energy into ways of building community in churches seems even more crucial in these times.

Bible · Church · faith · Theology

Waiting, Wishing, Hoping, Thinking, Praying

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I’m working through the book of the prophet Isaiah at the moment, and reading John Goldingay’s book in the series – ‘The Old Testament for everyone.’

I’m up to chapter 30. These were the words that struck me today.

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!

God’s people in the Old Testament have a history of not following God’s ways of right living and justice. That obstinate refusal to live God’s way has resulted in disaster for Israel. They have in turn been oppressed by Assyria, then Babylon, and soon to come the Persian empire. But God’s hand is always stretched out to help them, if only they would turn to God once more. Part of that turning to God involves waiting. God doesn’t just respond as it were to our beck and call. God wants us to show real repentance. A sign of a genuine turning to God is a willingness to wait until God is ready to take us back.

John Goldingay writes: ‘The church in the west is at a point where it needs to start waiting (and wishing and hoping and thinking and praying) for God to return and restore it, rather than accepting things as they are or thinking they can and should fix things.

Are there parts of the church today that are coasting, not unduly concerned with how things are ?

Are there parts of the church today that are imagining that the next new plan will be the magic bullet to turn the tide on a dying church ? (We human beings do have a tendency to think we can fix things).

Maybe what’s needed is some active waiting. Maybe what is required is for our leaders to call the church to repentance for the ways in which we have failed, and are failing. I don’t know, I’m just asking.

Grace and peace.

Bible · Church · faith · Me · Prayer

Why I Believe In Jesus

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There’s a passage in John’s Gospel, (Chapter 5 verses 31 – 47) where Jesus explains reasons for people to people in him. Here they are:

1 John the Baptist. John came with a message of truth, and an important part of that message pointed to Jesus.

2 The works that Jesus was doing. Even more than John’s witness, the works that Jesus was doing were evidence.

3 God the Father. The Father also gives witness to Jesus, but where minds are closed, and there is a refusal to believe, it is impossible to hear his voice.

4 The Scriptures. Openness to hear the truths contained in the written word leads to a revelation of the ‘Living Word’ (Jesus)

So, the question is – why do I believe in Jesus ?

  1. The people who, like John the Baptist, showed me Jesus.
    My Sunday School teacher, Jim Gravett. Jim was also a teacher at my secondary school, so I saw his faith lived out in the work setting as well as at church. I remember outings that we went on a children – sometimes a walk in the Sussex countryside, after which we would all go back to Jim’s house where he and his wife would cook us something like beans on toast. Simple hospitality that I remember from 50+ years ago. Jim kept a range of animals at the bottom of the garden and we were captivated by watching his ferrets run around the garden. Jim kept chickens at school as well, and would take the left over communion bread and feed it to the hens. An earthy, simple faith.
    Bob and Julie Phipps, who attended our church, and experienced several bereavements – losing a son in a road accident and another son as well – I can’t remember the circumstances. Yet they were the most alive and faith filled couple I knew. They talked about their faith with enthusiasm; they believed that God answered prayer, and had a long string of faith stories to prove it.
    My parents, who brought me up in a relaxed way that allowed me to take things at my pace, and never forced things on me.
    My uncle Hugh and Aunty Mary. Hugh would look for opportunities to have a one to one with his nephews and nieces and would be sure to ask us how things were between us and God. They were both so generous with their home, having an open table on a Sunday lunch time for anyone to join the family. I spent so many Sundays with them when I was a student, enjoying the food and the company.
    Gareth Bolton, a primary school teacher who would spend every holiday working with a Christian mission agency. His faith in action was inspiring. His charity, AMEN, is now supporting thousands of small communities around the world.
    David and Dorothy Bond; David was the vicar of St James Church in Selby, North Yorkshire, and set for me an example of Christian leadership. A gentle, humble man, with a passionate faith. Together David and Dorothy modelled hospitality and welcomed us into the church and into their lives.
  2. The works of God/Jesus that I have seen in my own life and in the lives of others. Christians who have lived a life of faith, whilst experiencing great suffering and difficulty. Answers to prayers that have sometimes been ‘yes’, sometimes ‘no,’ and sometimes ‘not now.’
  3. God. Always trying to live with an openness to what God is doing in me and around me. A sense of God’s care – what the Old Testament calls ‘steadfast love and faithfulness.’
  4. The Scriptures. So many times God has spoken to me through something in scripture. I wish I had written them all down, because my memory lets me down. I will read a passage, or a verse, and it will immediately connect with something that I am asking, or something I am about to do. I have heard it called serendipity, but for me it is God at work, and it happens so often that I couldn’t explain it away.

Here’s the passage – John 5:31-47

Witnesses to Jesus

31 If I speak for myself, there is no way to prove I am telling the truth. 32 But there is someone else who speaks for me, and I know what he says is true. 33 You sent messengers to John, and he told them the truth. 34 I don’t depend on what people say about me, but I tell you these things so that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that gave a lot of light, and you were glad to enjoy his light for a while.

36 But something more important than John speaks for me. I mean the things that the Father has given me to do! All of these speak for me and prove that the Father sent me.

37 The Father who sent me also speaks for me, but you have never heard his voice or seen him face to face. 38 You have not believed his message, because you refused to have faith in the one he sent.

39 You search the Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, 40 but you refuse to come to me for eternal life.

41 I don’t care about human praise, 42 but I do know that none of you love God. 43 I have come with my Father’s authority, and you have not welcomed me. But you will welcome people who come on their own. 44 How could you possibly believe? You like to have your friends praise you, and you don’t care about praise that the only God can give!

45 Don’t think that I will be the one to accuse you to the Father. You have put your hope in Moses, yet he is the very one who will accuse you. 46 Moses wrote about me, and if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me. 47 But if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I say?

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.

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