The Journey Of The Soul

5th Aug 2020 Jonnyfun.E2 Comments

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.

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

Church

Work Of Love And Grace

26th May 202025th Dec 2020 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

Today’s question – What could be different about church ?

I came across a verse today in psalm 68 – I’m reading the New Revised Standard Version

verse 9:

Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad;
you restored your heritage when it languished;

I’m taking God’s heritage here as the Church of God. And in this country and in so many secular, Post Christendon societies, the Church of God has lost its edge.

So the hope held out here is that God will restore the Church.

Rain in abundance: this reminds us that this restoration will be a work of God. We do not send the rain, this is not something that we can control.

You showered abroad: I realise that translations vary enormously, but the word that came to me today through this phrase was another hope – that God’s renewal would be widespread.

In the latter half of the 20th century, there was a widespread renewal in worship, with greater openness to the work of the Holy Spirit.

What I am praying for is a greater openness now to the Holy Spirit breaking down the walls of the church to spread God’s goodness and grace.

There’s a story in the Gospel about the woman who brought a jar of precious perfume to Jesus – she broke it open and poured it over Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

What I pray for is for the world to filled with the gracious works of the Holy Spirit through God’s church. Of course those works of love and grace are not absent now, but we long for more.

Church · faith

The Practice Of Holy Communion

16th May 202012th Aug 2020 Jonnyfun.ELeave a comment

One of the issues in the Church of England is the importance of Holy Communion. As someone who grew up in a community with communion at its heart, I have always believed in the centrality of this act of worship. But I’ve been re-evaluating this in lockdown, as we (at least in Church of England communities) have not been allowed to have services of Holy Communion over Zoom for example.

Two main reasons – Firstly you need an ordained priest to consecrate/bless the bread and wine. And secondly, you need a physically gathered community.

Now instead of bemoaning this, (which I did for a few weeks) I’ve been thinking about this practice that is at the heart of my church worship.

For example – what we now experience in sharing bread and wine is far removed from the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples. Admittedly the practice of just having a small piece of bread and a sip of wine does go back a long way – 2nd Century ?

But … for Jesus and the disciples it was the traditional Passover meal that they shared. A proper meal. And from other parts of the New Testament it’s clear that this was the way they first remembered Jesus – by sharing in a communal meal.

Many thousands of scholarly words have been written about this. Did Jesus intend us to remember him in the way we typically do now ? He clearly commanded his followers to remember him in some way that had bread and wine at its heart. But could that be through sharing table fellowship ? Would that count ?