I wonder what it would have been like if you could watch creation. Everything starts off with darkness, and then there is light. Then after the light appears, the blur starts to separate, shapes and forms, sky, water and earth. Then from this barren earth, out from the very mud plants emerge, and not just one plant but many different species. The sky is shaped, the stars of the sky, the moon the sun. Then fish start swimming in the sea, and then the birds and then the animals on the land and then mankind.
Imagine if you were to watch it unfold on a DVD and you could see it all happening, it would be wonderful. It's great, but we may want to know what the Director had in mind, how did they achieve this wonder? Then you would go to the menu, click on special features and the Director's commentary and we would hear those familiar words from Genesis, "In the beginning..."
And we realise that the film of life has a Director, and that He is interested in the plot and suddenly it all means so much more. We understand, but then we continue to watch.
The action changes from the good world without death, without a shade a pain, things start to go wrong. There is the fall, there is murder, there is death, and without the commentary you are lost. Why has all this happened? What has gone wrong?
You watch the tape, but you do not understand, and because you do not understand you do not see it coming.
It is interesting in the Sixties, people said they wanted free love, none of the restraints of society they wanted love without restraint.
The seventies was the decade of consent, what did it matter so long as there was consent. What went on between consenting adults was no one else's business. So long as no one was hurt.
By 1984 Tina Turner was proclaiming, "What's love got to do with it?"
It was about me and my pleasure.
By 1998 it was not ice creams and deck chairs, but "Sex on the beach."
We live in a selfish generation where it is no longer so long as no one gets hurt, we know that people get hurt but heh it's a tough world. Consent is debatable, so long as the other does not object too strongly. The family breaks down and we ask the question where is love.
It is like we are playing the film in reverse. We have switched off the commentary and ignored the warnings.
Paul in Ephesians 4v19 comments,
Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Or as the Rolling Stones put it in 1965 "I can't get no satisfaction."
We can make our world without God but it is formless and dark, but as John comments at the start of his gospel, writing perhaps in prison in an occupied country far from home,
"The light shines in the darkness."
If we turn from God we soon find ourselves far from God, there is a certain inescapable inevitability about the decline of culture without God. The problem with British society is not essentially drink, drugs, family breakdown - the essential problem is that we are fallen human beings and that without God's help we quickly collapse, and that affects the whole of our lives and our culture.
However God is a God of redemption and victory. In the 18th Century following the realisation of what it all meant, either John or Charles Wesley wrote a rather different song
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night;
thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
Jesus comes into our lives, and there is light!
Wednesday, 28 February 2007
Friday, 23 February 2007
A strange parallel
There is a strange parallel between Genesis 1v28 God's instruction to mankind to "Be fruitful and increase in number" and Matthew 28 the Great Commission to go and make disciples, and implicit in this to see the Kingdom of God come. Two go forth and multiply.
While in some ways looking at Matt 28 with Genesis 1 in mind may bring about the insight that, it is not just about mankind but about the whole of creation. It seems to me that there should be more than this. But I have struggled to get my head around this one.
The church is called to multiply and yet we see in many ways that man's increase in number has been at great cost to the environment in which he lives. We seem to have tried to subdue the environment when we should perhaps have been better stewards of it. When you look up the words subdue and dominion they do not help. Quite clearly the idea that man should be reigning over God's creation is there.
I think the issue is that the reign of man should be a reign, but it should be benign and beneficial - in the way that our God reigns. God's reign blesses rather than harms. Similarly perhaps the concept before the fall has a totally different idea to what it has actually become post fall. Perhaps our thinking is too much shaped by the fall, which is what we see around us.
Jesus spoke often about the coming of the Kingdom of God\Heaven, which could perhaps be called the Rule or Dominion of God.
It seems to me a strange parallel. Perhaps one of the common factors is that in the coming of the reign of God and the reign of man were not meant to be in competition but complementary. We were created to be the co-rulers of creation. In the new Kingdom we will once more reign beside him, and as the Kingdom grows. So we take back dominion over the creation, we reclaim to some degree through medicine and healthcare the dominion over creation from sickness and disease. When we fight against poverty and injustice we take dominion over creation to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. It was the rule that God intended us to have.
Perhaps therefore the problem is not with the passages but with our thinking. In both the reign of man, should actually be identical to the reign of God, and that as something very beneficial and good - and this not just for the few - but for everyone.
The Old Covenant was that we should obey and prosper, and that creation should prosper. The second is that we should obey and prosper, and that all should prosper through us. The reign of God that is introduced through the church therefore should not be a threat (though it may be perceived as such) but should actually be a blessing to the world.
When you read it more closely this idea is clear from Matt 28v16-20 - teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. This emphasises perhaps the requirement for more joined up thinking. The Holy Spirit coming is not so that we may feel good, but that God's Kingdom might come. That God may once more through us have dominion as was God's intention. The parallels are therefore because redemption and restoration is about precisely that. Mankind not just being redeemed but the whole of creation being redeemed as man once more takes His place, not to exploit creation but to enjoy it and care for it. Indeed in God's Dictionary perhaps care for and rule over are not that different.
The key of course is Jesus, the servant King. Rule includes not excludes service. The problem is we have such a wrong view of authority, because of the way that it normally operates - whether it is the Kings and Empires of the past, or the politicians of the present. Once you deal with that problem then perhaps the parallel is not so strange. God rules - and everyone is blessed, and by God's will and on His behalf man rules and everyone is still blessed.
And the multiplying bit... it is not about conquest but enjoyment.
While in some ways looking at Matt 28 with Genesis 1 in mind may bring about the insight that, it is not just about mankind but about the whole of creation. It seems to me that there should be more than this. But I have struggled to get my head around this one.
The church is called to multiply and yet we see in many ways that man's increase in number has been at great cost to the environment in which he lives. We seem to have tried to subdue the environment when we should perhaps have been better stewards of it. When you look up the words subdue and dominion they do not help. Quite clearly the idea that man should be reigning over God's creation is there.
I think the issue is that the reign of man should be a reign, but it should be benign and beneficial - in the way that our God reigns. God's reign blesses rather than harms. Similarly perhaps the concept before the fall has a totally different idea to what it has actually become post fall. Perhaps our thinking is too much shaped by the fall, which is what we see around us.
Jesus spoke often about the coming of the Kingdom of God\Heaven, which could perhaps be called the Rule or Dominion of God.
It seems to me a strange parallel. Perhaps one of the common factors is that in the coming of the reign of God and the reign of man were not meant to be in competition but complementary. We were created to be the co-rulers of creation. In the new Kingdom we will once more reign beside him, and as the Kingdom grows. So we take back dominion over the creation, we reclaim to some degree through medicine and healthcare the dominion over creation from sickness and disease. When we fight against poverty and injustice we take dominion over creation to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. It was the rule that God intended us to have.
Perhaps therefore the problem is not with the passages but with our thinking. In both the reign of man, should actually be identical to the reign of God, and that as something very beneficial and good - and this not just for the few - but for everyone.
The Old Covenant was that we should obey and prosper, and that creation should prosper. The second is that we should obey and prosper, and that all should prosper through us. The reign of God that is introduced through the church therefore should not be a threat (though it may be perceived as such) but should actually be a blessing to the world.
When you read it more closely this idea is clear from Matt 28v16-20 - teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. This emphasises perhaps the requirement for more joined up thinking. The Holy Spirit coming is not so that we may feel good, but that God's Kingdom might come. That God may once more through us have dominion as was God's intention. The parallels are therefore because redemption and restoration is about precisely that. Mankind not just being redeemed but the whole of creation being redeemed as man once more takes His place, not to exploit creation but to enjoy it and care for it. Indeed in God's Dictionary perhaps care for and rule over are not that different.
The key of course is Jesus, the servant King. Rule includes not excludes service. The problem is we have such a wrong view of authority, because of the way that it normally operates - whether it is the Kings and Empires of the past, or the politicians of the present. Once you deal with that problem then perhaps the parallel is not so strange. God rules - and everyone is blessed, and by God's will and on His behalf man rules and everyone is still blessed.
And the multiplying bit... it is not about conquest but enjoyment.
Sunday, 11 February 2007
Life in hostile territory
Someone at my work commented this week that something that I had said had offended them. It was a light-hearted quip that had been taken the wrong way, and they were understandably sensitive since they had just been told their job was at risk and they were facing possible redundancy. It was an office filled with unease, no one knew who would be called into an office next to be told that their post was at risk (including myself). No one knew if the job that they would end up with, if they did have a job, would be one they would really want. My way of dealing with the tensions was to use humour. This was considered insensitive. The person told me this quite strongly, and I just said that I meant them no offence, and was truly sorry if I had upset them, which was completely true. I meant them no harm, I was only trying to cheer up the place.
It may sound like I am trying to justify myself, but I'm a great believer in humour. Having watched my sister loose consciousness, struggle, and eventually despite all the prayers die you have to survive somehow. But it pre-dates that I saw my Mum have cancer, which could have spread and been life-threatening because they had not spotted it in time. I've known others who have suffered in tragic circumstances. I think with me it started with being bullied, someone came up to me and said, "Do you want a fight after school today, we are going to beat you up." I responded, "Not today, I'm really busy today, what about tomorrow?" I was only about eight, but you have to live somehow.
For me there is something deeper that you learn as well - people don't like the truth. I was told once by a manager when she told me off for something that I said, that I shouldn't even think it. The truth does not matter. We are called to be professionals, to follow the programme, to speak the script. We are not meant to be human, not meant to be alive, not meant to be free. The English used to be famous for their eccentricities, but the supposed diversity of our society is a sham. Keep your mouth shut, walk in line, don't rock the boat - and you will be rewarded in this life.
What though should we be doing if we believe our home is in heaven and we are not looking for the rewards of this world, but those of heaven? Christianity brings freedom, not just the freedom from eternal hell, not just the freedom from sin, but the freedom to be who God created us to be. The problem is the more we become who God created us to be the less well we will fit into the world as it is. That sounds dangerously like self-justification, but that is not my aim.
Actually Jesus gives us freedom but Paul is quite clear that we are not called to use our freedom in a way that damages other people. There is an easy arrogance, and one that we as Christians are very vulnerable. We have been set free, we are God's children, and who is he that condemns us, but that we still need to be careful about how we behave. We are called to love, because without love we are nothing.
As a prophetic people we should do more than just scratch the surface of the society in which we live, we should be different and make a difference and some people will not like that. We just need to be careful that that is what we are doing, rather than just exercising our natural awkwardness and untransformed self-centred nature. We all like to be noticed, and have a tendency to think better to be noticed for the wrong reasons than not to be noticed at all.
Jeff Lucas comments on Philippians 2 v 15 ("in which you shine like stars in the universe.")
"The call for us to be culturally relevant as Christians is not the full story. Putting it bluntly, we are supposed to be as obvious as the stars in the clear night sky, living lives that are as welcoming as a bright city on a hill, a wonderful sight to a weary traveller. Out attitudes, speech, responses to conflict and commitment to purity should enable us to live 'lighthouse lives' that show the way to a world that is floundering on the rocks." Jeff Lucas, Lucas on Life, Wed 24th Jan.
In other words it is not about me, it is about Jesus. It is not about showing the world our way, but God's. In the church and in our relationship with each other we need to live out the transforming freedom that God gives us, but not in such a way that hurts and damages those that are weaker. In the world we need greater sensitivity, we have been set free in a world of slaves. We therefore should not be following the conventions of this world, we do not have the same drivers as other people have, but we need to meet people where they are, with sensitivity and love.
I am conscious as I read this myself that I am an imperfect people in an imperfect world. There is a danger in pressing the publish button on the internet that we may also say something that later we may come to regret - and utter foolish or words that show a lack of understanding that may come back to haunt us. We truly are travellers on a journey of discovery and we need that humility. We do not always get it right.
The reason we should shine like stars is because Jesus has come and is reigning in our lives. His truth sets us free, but it is worth quoting Paul properly, Gal 5v13-14.
13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself.
True freedom may lead to self-realisation, but it should not lead to selfishness, but love and service. We are free, but we are called to choose to love and to choose to serve and that is what the world should be noticing.
God loves us and sets us free, not so that we should indulge ourselves - we will one day have heaven to enjoy, but that we may choose to love and serve Him and choose to love and serve others as well. God has no needs that we can meet, but others do, and when we meet their needs and touch their wounds rather than wounding those who are already hurting we are serving Him.
To return to the original situation what is the call. We do live in hostile territory, how should we respond? Answer is simple, as Jesus would, with love. That does not mean that we should conform to the way that this world works, or become something we are not, it just means the priority is always love and we need to be gentle and wise in the way that we exercise our freedom.
We should be different because God is in us, we should be different because love lives in our hearts, but what we need to do is to serve God without compromising - that as our first aim - but included in that is a love for each and every person since all are precious in His sight.
It may sound like I am trying to justify myself, but I'm a great believer in humour. Having watched my sister loose consciousness, struggle, and eventually despite all the prayers die you have to survive somehow. But it pre-dates that I saw my Mum have cancer, which could have spread and been life-threatening because they had not spotted it in time. I've known others who have suffered in tragic circumstances. I think with me it started with being bullied, someone came up to me and said, "Do you want a fight after school today, we are going to beat you up." I responded, "Not today, I'm really busy today, what about tomorrow?" I was only about eight, but you have to live somehow.
For me there is something deeper that you learn as well - people don't like the truth. I was told once by a manager when she told me off for something that I said, that I shouldn't even think it. The truth does not matter. We are called to be professionals, to follow the programme, to speak the script. We are not meant to be human, not meant to be alive, not meant to be free. The English used to be famous for their eccentricities, but the supposed diversity of our society is a sham. Keep your mouth shut, walk in line, don't rock the boat - and you will be rewarded in this life.
What though should we be doing if we believe our home is in heaven and we are not looking for the rewards of this world, but those of heaven? Christianity brings freedom, not just the freedom from eternal hell, not just the freedom from sin, but the freedom to be who God created us to be. The problem is the more we become who God created us to be the less well we will fit into the world as it is. That sounds dangerously like self-justification, but that is not my aim.
Actually Jesus gives us freedom but Paul is quite clear that we are not called to use our freedom in a way that damages other people. There is an easy arrogance, and one that we as Christians are very vulnerable. We have been set free, we are God's children, and who is he that condemns us, but that we still need to be careful about how we behave. We are called to love, because without love we are nothing.
As a prophetic people we should do more than just scratch the surface of the society in which we live, we should be different and make a difference and some people will not like that. We just need to be careful that that is what we are doing, rather than just exercising our natural awkwardness and untransformed self-centred nature. We all like to be noticed, and have a tendency to think better to be noticed for the wrong reasons than not to be noticed at all.
Jeff Lucas comments on Philippians 2 v 15 ("in which you shine like stars in the universe.")
"The call for us to be culturally relevant as Christians is not the full story. Putting it bluntly, we are supposed to be as obvious as the stars in the clear night sky, living lives that are as welcoming as a bright city on a hill, a wonderful sight to a weary traveller. Out attitudes, speech, responses to conflict and commitment to purity should enable us to live 'lighthouse lives' that show the way to a world that is floundering on the rocks." Jeff Lucas, Lucas on Life, Wed 24th Jan.
In other words it is not about me, it is about Jesus. It is not about showing the world our way, but God's. In the church and in our relationship with each other we need to live out the transforming freedom that God gives us, but not in such a way that hurts and damages those that are weaker. In the world we need greater sensitivity, we have been set free in a world of slaves. We therefore should not be following the conventions of this world, we do not have the same drivers as other people have, but we need to meet people where they are, with sensitivity and love.
I am conscious as I read this myself that I am an imperfect people in an imperfect world. There is a danger in pressing the publish button on the internet that we may also say something that later we may come to regret - and utter foolish or words that show a lack of understanding that may come back to haunt us. We truly are travellers on a journey of discovery and we need that humility. We do not always get it right.
The reason we should shine like stars is because Jesus has come and is reigning in our lives. His truth sets us free, but it is worth quoting Paul properly, Gal 5v13-14.
13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself.
True freedom may lead to self-realisation, but it should not lead to selfishness, but love and service. We are free, but we are called to choose to love and to choose to serve and that is what the world should be noticing.
God loves us and sets us free, not so that we should indulge ourselves - we will one day have heaven to enjoy, but that we may choose to love and serve Him and choose to love and serve others as well. God has no needs that we can meet, but others do, and when we meet their needs and touch their wounds rather than wounding those who are already hurting we are serving Him.
To return to the original situation what is the call. We do live in hostile territory, how should we respond? Answer is simple, as Jesus would, with love. That does not mean that we should conform to the way that this world works, or become something we are not, it just means the priority is always love and we need to be gentle and wise in the way that we exercise our freedom.
We should be different because God is in us, we should be different because love lives in our hearts, but what we need to do is to serve God without compromising - that as our first aim - but included in that is a love for each and every person since all are precious in His sight.
Saturday, 10 February 2007
The long road
I'm now 33.
At the age of around 33 Jesus was nailed to a cross and crucified, saving the world from the power of sin. It is easy to look and say what have I achieved? Of course it is a poor comparison, comparing your achievements to that of the Son of God is bound to be sobering. But as Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, ready to face the cross, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate victory - it is worth asking where are we going?
It's easy to ask the question are we on the road to nowhere or are we on the road to heaven? But it is not just the final destination that matters - the journey matters. Jesus did not simply say go straight to heaven, do not pass normal life. He said, If anyone want to follow me he must deny himself pick up his cross and follow me. Matt 16v24
The journey matters and sometimes it is a long road, there are mountain top experiences (some incredibly spiritual and some the equally incredible of coming home and having your children go Daddy and run into your arms), and their are times of sorrow and loss (both ordinary the loss of loved ones but also spiritual when things don't work out and our spiritual walk is barren.)
Back to Genesis we are created out of the dust and we are physical creatures. We are made in the image of God and yet we have flesh as well as the breath of God. Our emotions can climb the heights and slide into the depths. Sometimes I don't feel like I have anything left to offer, and life and church feels barren because I feel barren.
The view from the valley looks different from the view from the mountain, but it is our perspective that changes - not the landscape. God is still the same, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. In life the scenery and costumes change, but the play is still the same human drama - there is nothing new under the Sun (Ecclesiastes).
I can look back and seem to be miles away, from where I was, but God does not change. The lost son can always find a Father, if he as Jesus puts it "comes to his senses".
It is more than that we live in an age which asks more than anything else, "How do you feel?" "How does that make you feel?" Mood is everything - but actually it isn't. My feelings are inaccurate. Some thing is not true just because I feel it ought to be true. Many have rejected the idea of ultimate truth not out of logic, but out of emotion, they don't like the sound of it, it does not feel right.
But feelings do not make truth. God is still God whatever I feel. Elijah on the run is met in the cave in a mood, God does not give Him an emotional massage, He asks Elijah what are you doing here? 1 Kings 19v9, and God sends Him back into the world. It is interesting God does not just tell Elijah, he asks the question, what are you doing here? God lets Elijah get it off his chest, but once he is done that Elijah is sent back the way he has came. He may not feel like it, but the encounter with God reminds him, God has not changed. Elijah, is the famed man of the emotional roller-coaster, from the heights to the depths - but he really was a man just like us. (James 5v17).
The question is not how do you feel but will you go where God sends. It does not depend on our feelings, but on God's power - and our obedience. Our faith needs to be bigger than our feelings. Seeing may be believing, but we are called to be the people who are certain of what we do not see.
If we step out in faith we will find the power, obedience leads to encounter, believing leads to seeing.
At the age of around 33 Jesus was nailed to a cross and crucified, saving the world from the power of sin. It is easy to look and say what have I achieved? Of course it is a poor comparison, comparing your achievements to that of the Son of God is bound to be sobering. But as Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, ready to face the cross, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the ultimate victory - it is worth asking where are we going?
It's easy to ask the question are we on the road to nowhere or are we on the road to heaven? But it is not just the final destination that matters - the journey matters. Jesus did not simply say go straight to heaven, do not pass normal life. He said, If anyone want to follow me he must deny himself pick up his cross and follow me. Matt 16v24
The journey matters and sometimes it is a long road, there are mountain top experiences (some incredibly spiritual and some the equally incredible of coming home and having your children go Daddy and run into your arms), and their are times of sorrow and loss (both ordinary the loss of loved ones but also spiritual when things don't work out and our spiritual walk is barren.)
Back to Genesis we are created out of the dust and we are physical creatures. We are made in the image of God and yet we have flesh as well as the breath of God. Our emotions can climb the heights and slide into the depths. Sometimes I don't feel like I have anything left to offer, and life and church feels barren because I feel barren.
The view from the valley looks different from the view from the mountain, but it is our perspective that changes - not the landscape. God is still the same, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. In life the scenery and costumes change, but the play is still the same human drama - there is nothing new under the Sun (Ecclesiastes).
I can look back and seem to be miles away, from where I was, but God does not change. The lost son can always find a Father, if he as Jesus puts it "comes to his senses".
It is more than that we live in an age which asks more than anything else, "How do you feel?" "How does that make you feel?" Mood is everything - but actually it isn't. My feelings are inaccurate. Some thing is not true just because I feel it ought to be true. Many have rejected the idea of ultimate truth not out of logic, but out of emotion, they don't like the sound of it, it does not feel right.
But feelings do not make truth. God is still God whatever I feel. Elijah on the run is met in the cave in a mood, God does not give Him an emotional massage, He asks Elijah what are you doing here? 1 Kings 19v9, and God sends Him back into the world. It is interesting God does not just tell Elijah, he asks the question, what are you doing here? God lets Elijah get it off his chest, but once he is done that Elijah is sent back the way he has came. He may not feel like it, but the encounter with God reminds him, God has not changed. Elijah, is the famed man of the emotional roller-coaster, from the heights to the depths - but he really was a man just like us. (James 5v17).
The question is not how do you feel but will you go where God sends. It does not depend on our feelings, but on God's power - and our obedience. Our faith needs to be bigger than our feelings. Seeing may be believing, but we are called to be the people who are certain of what we do not see.
If we step out in faith we will find the power, obedience leads to encounter, believing leads to seeing.
Thursday, 1 February 2007
Why doesn't God come to church anymore?
One of the things that bothers me at times is how many people respond to church. It's boring, I don't want to go, and why can't it be more entertaining - and that is just the Christians! They are not comfortable with the worship, they switch off at the sermon, they feel awkward and uncomfortable. They love God, but you almost feel that they dread church. For some people it is the bad experiences. For others nothing has happened, and perhaps that is the problem the sheer weight of waiting for something to happen that drags down their expectation that this morning they are really going to encounter the living God.
You almost wonder when you hear some people talk if God has given up on church on a Sunday morning and has decided instead to do something more worthwhile than sit around with an increasingly disillusioned congregation - if God has decided it is time to move on. As if we sit around looking at the empty chairs, or even the full chairs, wondering why doesn't God come to church anymore?
That sounds really negative and it is, but I meet too many people for whom that is a reality, and who therefore feel disenchanted and disengaged from anything that we may term organised religion - or even the pretty disorganised religion that is church for many people.
I wonder why this so strongly affects the culture I live in. Perhaps church is too much like the lecture theatre. Our services, particularly in Britain are just too passive. We are passengers being driven along on a bus, we have a conductor who tells us what is going to happen next. We have a band who lead us in worship. We have a preacher who gives us the tour. At the end, we get off the bus and we carry on with living our lives - not even wondering whether there could be anything more.
We do not encounter, we do not discover, we are told. We do not touch and feel, we are shown and taught by others who have (hopefully) touched and felt and who know. We sit there through the lecture perhaps whispering dissent, not sure if we agree, but too polite to object, and not wanting too stick out too much from the crowd. Wondering that if we really said what we really thought, if we would not be politely asked to leave or at least given the cold shoulder until we did.
The real problem with church is not the people who object and argue and struggle, but those who have died in their seats. The film is rolling but they have switched off, they are going through the motions, but deep down they are just going through the motions. Listen sing listen sing listen listen sing talk go home.
We need space to discover and to encounter God. Church may have become more interactive in a technological sense, but it has become less "child" friendly. Matthew 18 'He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. '
Children learn by discovering, by doing, by living. It is only later that they learn by books. Perhaps in our intellectual age we celebrate too much the intellect, without realising that that can never satisfy. We compete with atheism on the intellect, but atheism is losing in China and elsewhere not because of its intellectual problems, but because it does not fill the void. Of course faith in God makes sense, and that is important, but we need church for children.
Tony Campolo quotes from G.K. Chesterton: "I think God is the only child left in the universe, and all the rest of us have grown old and cynical because of sin."
We need to discover the child-like passion in an all too adult world. We need to become children again. Not in a way that opens us to wandering from the truth, or to be abused by more adult leaders, but in a way that discovers God, believes in His power, and connects both with God and with one another and changes the world.
I'm scared that our interactivity and the professionalism of church creates distance rather than connection. I grew up in a little church, it sometimes went wrong, but we were family and strong enough to cope and to care, and to wipe off the dirt get up off the floor and move on. We saw God at work, and lives being changed. When the young people got free reign to lead services, there was always a drama (in the literal sense of the word), but we preached, we led worship and we did very much like the adults did. We did not rebel, because we did not need to, it was our church. I don't know what age I started going to church meetings but when I was in my early teens I could go to church meetings argue, debate and influence how the church went and be part of it.
I've moved away and attend a different church and now in my thirties there are no members, no members' meetings and therefore less of a sense of being part of it, less of a sense of belonging.
But it does not have to be this way....
You almost wonder when you hear some people talk if God has given up on church on a Sunday morning and has decided instead to do something more worthwhile than sit around with an increasingly disillusioned congregation - if God has decided it is time to move on. As if we sit around looking at the empty chairs, or even the full chairs, wondering why doesn't God come to church anymore?
That sounds really negative and it is, but I meet too many people for whom that is a reality, and who therefore feel disenchanted and disengaged from anything that we may term organised religion - or even the pretty disorganised religion that is church for many people.
I wonder why this so strongly affects the culture I live in. Perhaps church is too much like the lecture theatre. Our services, particularly in Britain are just too passive. We are passengers being driven along on a bus, we have a conductor who tells us what is going to happen next. We have a band who lead us in worship. We have a preacher who gives us the tour. At the end, we get off the bus and we carry on with living our lives - not even wondering whether there could be anything more.
We do not encounter, we do not discover, we are told. We do not touch and feel, we are shown and taught by others who have (hopefully) touched and felt and who know. We sit there through the lecture perhaps whispering dissent, not sure if we agree, but too polite to object, and not wanting too stick out too much from the crowd. Wondering that if we really said what we really thought, if we would not be politely asked to leave or at least given the cold shoulder until we did.
The real problem with church is not the people who object and argue and struggle, but those who have died in their seats. The film is rolling but they have switched off, they are going through the motions, but deep down they are just going through the motions. Listen sing listen sing listen listen sing talk go home.
We need space to discover and to encounter God. Church may have become more interactive in a technological sense, but it has become less "child" friendly. Matthew 18 'He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. '
Children learn by discovering, by doing, by living. It is only later that they learn by books. Perhaps in our intellectual age we celebrate too much the intellect, without realising that that can never satisfy. We compete with atheism on the intellect, but atheism is losing in China and elsewhere not because of its intellectual problems, but because it does not fill the void. Of course faith in God makes sense, and that is important, but we need church for children.
Tony Campolo quotes from G.K. Chesterton: "I think God is the only child left in the universe, and all the rest of us have grown old and cynical because of sin."
We need to discover the child-like passion in an all too adult world. We need to become children again. Not in a way that opens us to wandering from the truth, or to be abused by more adult leaders, but in a way that discovers God, believes in His power, and connects both with God and with one another and changes the world.
I'm scared that our interactivity and the professionalism of church creates distance rather than connection. I grew up in a little church, it sometimes went wrong, but we were family and strong enough to cope and to care, and to wipe off the dirt get up off the floor and move on. We saw God at work, and lives being changed. When the young people got free reign to lead services, there was always a drama (in the literal sense of the word), but we preached, we led worship and we did very much like the adults did. We did not rebel, because we did not need to, it was our church. I don't know what age I started going to church meetings but when I was in my early teens I could go to church meetings argue, debate and influence how the church went and be part of it.
I've moved away and attend a different church and now in my thirties there are no members, no members' meetings and therefore less of a sense of being part of it, less of a sense of belonging.
But it does not have to be this way....
Sunday, 28 January 2007
Life beyond these walls
There is the oft used phrase, we need to think outside of the box.
When we think about church, we are often conditioned to think about it in certain ways.
We see falling church numbers. I'm not sure if it is still true but it used to be a truism that if you asked any young person what they thought about church and they would say that it was boring. Numbers are falling and this should be a concern, but the picture is more complicated.
When I was at University I went to a church that could easily seat 400 and then probably had about a hundred, it now no longer meets in the large church sanctuary but in the rather more personal hall. I was talking to one of the older members about how to get people in church and he said something that always struck me. He said that we were called to be salt and light, but sometimes we were going to be faithful and people would not respond, but we were called to be faithful. It was at a prayer meeting, they were open to change, but they saw the key problem was that people did not like the message, and therefore changing the presentation was not the issue - people still did not want the message. They were called to be faithful.
Elsewhere in Glasgow the Late Late Service met, they had started in a nightclub and tried to be accessible, but still when you stripped away all the earthly barriers people did not come. They tried as hard as possible to remain faithful and yet meet people where they were, and yet still people would not come. Of course, that does not remove the significance of what they did, because it gives them the right and others to move deeper with people. To say even if we stripped away the cultural barriers you still will not come, let's talk about the real issues.
Jesus said that it was harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. We live in a society that despite all its problems thinks we have made it. We have science to explain the world. We have TV to entertain us. We have food in our stomachs, and healthcare. We may not be immortal, but death is not something most of us see often. We are so busy, we think we do not need nor have time for God. It is irrelevant, something from another century. Who needs God today? It is just superstition.
The Bible emphasises that Jesus is the narrow way and few find it. Jesus does not barter or cut His cloth to fit the fashions. When He died, He did not lead a multitude, there were just a few followers. We may want Pentecost when at least 3000 were saved to be a normal experience for the church, but clearly it is not. Persecution followed, and people fled. Christianity took over the Roman Empire, but it was corrupted by it's growth and the position of true faith has always been fragile. We can emphasise what a brilliant teacher Jesus was and how He connected with ordinary people, but they still did not understand what He was about (even his closest disciples for much of the time) and it was the crowd that called for his crucifixion.
Christianity has shaped the modern world, in many ways the root of our problem is not the failure of the church but its success. The church once had such a dominant role in society because it educated, it cared for the sick and the needy, it taught right and wrong, and much more like having a strong role in the arts. Today in the UK the state has taken over many of these roles, and everyone accepts that they pay taxes to support them. The fact that it seems almost everyone accepts that the poor should be looked after, that education for all is a good thing, that we should care for the sick, that slavery is wrong, is a sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God. The values of the Kingdom still are mainstream values, they may have been modified in part, there may be some values which are incompatible, but Christian values are still the foundation of how we live in the UK.
We are blessed by our Christian past every day. If Jesus had not come the world would be a very different place. The light has shone, the salt has made its savour.
The problem is that he church has so successfully shaped life outside of its walls, that people no longer see as necessary the spiritual life within. The problem is that we need God, and therefore without God we fall. The blessings of the past do not last forever.
We need balance here, many people today, even who would never go to church, do acknowledge God. The media in Britain tends to be a lot more anti-religious than the majority of people. Or perhaps those that are anti-God tend to be effective in how they use the media, while those who love God are not so much.
It is not that we need really to start thinking outside of the box, but to get rid of the box altogether, and instead to seek God and start seeing the world through his eyes. A large part of the Bible is prophecy to the peoples and perhaps we need to learn to be a more prophetic. Turning away from God has inevitable, if not immediate consequences.
However we can be far too fixated with words, when people need to see Christ in what we do. Our spiritual forebears formed schools because children needed educating, they formed orders to care for the sick and charitable institutions to care for the poor. If we are to be a prophetic people, what new works would God call us to? The state may be doing education, healthcare, but there are other needs. The church still is a major force in the hospice movement, but we need to keep asking how can we serve. Jesus said whatever you do for the least of these you do for me, what can we do for Jesus today?
When we think about church, we are often conditioned to think about it in certain ways.
We see falling church numbers. I'm not sure if it is still true but it used to be a truism that if you asked any young person what they thought about church and they would say that it was boring. Numbers are falling and this should be a concern, but the picture is more complicated.
When I was at University I went to a church that could easily seat 400 and then probably had about a hundred, it now no longer meets in the large church sanctuary but in the rather more personal hall. I was talking to one of the older members about how to get people in church and he said something that always struck me. He said that we were called to be salt and light, but sometimes we were going to be faithful and people would not respond, but we were called to be faithful. It was at a prayer meeting, they were open to change, but they saw the key problem was that people did not like the message, and therefore changing the presentation was not the issue - people still did not want the message. They were called to be faithful.
Elsewhere in Glasgow the Late Late Service met, they had started in a nightclub and tried to be accessible, but still when you stripped away all the earthly barriers people did not come. They tried as hard as possible to remain faithful and yet meet people where they were, and yet still people would not come. Of course, that does not remove the significance of what they did, because it gives them the right and others to move deeper with people. To say even if we stripped away the cultural barriers you still will not come, let's talk about the real issues.
Jesus said that it was harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. We live in a society that despite all its problems thinks we have made it. We have science to explain the world. We have TV to entertain us. We have food in our stomachs, and healthcare. We may not be immortal, but death is not something most of us see often. We are so busy, we think we do not need nor have time for God. It is irrelevant, something from another century. Who needs God today? It is just superstition.
The Bible emphasises that Jesus is the narrow way and few find it. Jesus does not barter or cut His cloth to fit the fashions. When He died, He did not lead a multitude, there were just a few followers. We may want Pentecost when at least 3000 were saved to be a normal experience for the church, but clearly it is not. Persecution followed, and people fled. Christianity took over the Roman Empire, but it was corrupted by it's growth and the position of true faith has always been fragile. We can emphasise what a brilliant teacher Jesus was and how He connected with ordinary people, but they still did not understand what He was about (even his closest disciples for much of the time) and it was the crowd that called for his crucifixion.
Christianity has shaped the modern world, in many ways the root of our problem is not the failure of the church but its success. The church once had such a dominant role in society because it educated, it cared for the sick and the needy, it taught right and wrong, and much more like having a strong role in the arts. Today in the UK the state has taken over many of these roles, and everyone accepts that they pay taxes to support them. The fact that it seems almost everyone accepts that the poor should be looked after, that education for all is a good thing, that we should care for the sick, that slavery is wrong, is a sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God. The values of the Kingdom still are mainstream values, they may have been modified in part, there may be some values which are incompatible, but Christian values are still the foundation of how we live in the UK.
We are blessed by our Christian past every day. If Jesus had not come the world would be a very different place. The light has shone, the salt has made its savour.
The problem is that he church has so successfully shaped life outside of its walls, that people no longer see as necessary the spiritual life within. The problem is that we need God, and therefore without God we fall. The blessings of the past do not last forever.
We need balance here, many people today, even who would never go to church, do acknowledge God. The media in Britain tends to be a lot more anti-religious than the majority of people. Or perhaps those that are anti-God tend to be effective in how they use the media, while those who love God are not so much.
It is not that we need really to start thinking outside of the box, but to get rid of the box altogether, and instead to seek God and start seeing the world through his eyes. A large part of the Bible is prophecy to the peoples and perhaps we need to learn to be a more prophetic. Turning away from God has inevitable, if not immediate consequences.
However we can be far too fixated with words, when people need to see Christ in what we do. Our spiritual forebears formed schools because children needed educating, they formed orders to care for the sick and charitable institutions to care for the poor. If we are to be a prophetic people, what new works would God call us to? The state may be doing education, healthcare, but there are other needs. The church still is a major force in the hospice movement, but we need to keep asking how can we serve. Jesus said whatever you do for the least of these you do for me, what can we do for Jesus today?
Friday, 26 January 2007
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2007/01/no_blanket_exem.html
This response will have to be approved and therefore may or may not make it onto the website.
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There appears to be a gulf of misunderstanding, and one that is leading to a certain amount of acrimony - on both sides.
I am a Christian, and I think that it is worth exploring what the Christian position is.
As a Christian I believe we live in a fallen world. God's best is that sex should be kept within marriage, anything other than that is sin. This is because this is the best way for people to live, it creates a safe place for people to live and grow.
However, this is not how the world lives, and indeed if the world did live with God's ideal of committed love there would probably be very few babies up for adoption.
How do you adapt? We are all sinners, some heterosexual some homosexual. Homosexual desire is not sin, but when we give in to temptation and sex it is. Someone who lives in a homosexual relationship is living in a sinful relationship. However, anyone who gives in on a permanent basis to the struggle against sin, whatever that sin is, cannot call themselves a follower of Jesus. We all fail, and God longs to love us and restore us, the problem comes when we say no we want to stay in something that God says is wrong.
It is not ideal, but to favour heterosexual sexual sinners over homosexual sexual sinners appears to be wrong. Homosexual sin is incompatible with following Jesus Christ, but you could argue that much that the church does is also.
None of us is perfect therefore so should no one adopt? Jesus did not say he and she who is without sin may adopt, because if He did no child would be adopted.
People need to be treated as people with respect and love whatever their sexuality. As Christians we need to be able to disagree with what people do, but still show that we love and care for them.
We are not perfect ourselves, and we need to remember that.
My own view is that it would be better to warn of the dangers but see how it works in practise. Confrontation does not help anyone. I believe all sex outside marriage is wrong, but that does not stop me from having friends who do very differently. Jesus Himself was known as a friend of sinners.
Christians have allowed themselves to be backed into a corner, no perhaps we have backed ourselves into a corner.
The vilification of faith is not surprising, and is likely to grow, and may one day convert itself into persecution. Look at history, and secularism when it gains mastery tends to be intolerant.
However churches in intolerant regimes tend to be more vibrant, not less, and perhaps as Christians we need to totally re-examine how we do church.
I'm not saying change our beliefs, I do believe that homosexual sex is wrong, and is something God calls us from, however God's message is primarily that of unconditional love to people who do not deserve it, and I think we are not communicating that. Therefore we (myself included) are ourselves partly to blame for the predicament we find ourselves in. So sorry and God bless.