Advent 0

Life After History

Once Upon A Time (though I am using the word ‘time’ anachronistically, as time did not yet exist) there was Eternity. Eternity has no beginning, and no end. It is not, properly speaking, part of creation: it has always been, as a consequence of God’s being; and it has no being independent of God.

And then there was Time. Time had a beginning, in creation, as a consequence of God creating the day and the night, the seasons and days and years.

At first, time and eternity were woven together. There was no death, no ending: no history. But then something happened: the man and the woman rebelled against God; and, as a consequence, for the good of the man and the woman and all creation (for God loved his creation), God drove eternity and time apart (for to live in eternity in rebellion to God would have unimaginably bad consequences). And with time left alone without eternity, history began.

Just occasionally, God would allow someone to cross over from time into eternity (Enoch; Elijah), cheating death, defying history. Just occasionally, God would cross over from eternity into time (appearing to Abraham; to Gideon). But then something happened: the darling of heaven submitted to the Father’s will; and, as a consequence, for the good of men and women and all creation (for God loves his creation), eternity and time were reunited (for to live in eternity in submission to God would have unimaginably good consequences). Death and history made their stand: and, indeed, succeeded in killing the Son. God died [1] (and with him, eternity; for eternity has no being independent of God). But death and history were not strong enough to hold God, and three days later he returned [2] (and with him, eternity; for eternity is a consequence of God’s being). And with time being woven together again with eternity, history came to an end.

With eternity – before and alongside and after time - being reconciled to time by the One who is reconciling all things to himself, the One who was and is and is to come (not merely the One who always is) invades and transforms the present.

To observe the season of Advent is to live simultaneously in a reality where Jesus has not yet come (anticipating the Feast of Christmas) and where Jesus has already come again (in the light of what is yet to come; for faith is the substance of what we hope for, Hebrews 11:1). And that reality transforms the present, where we remember his coming and await his coming again…

This is the stuff of True Myth (as CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien both knew).

[1] We can say God died, because the Son is consubstantial with the Father: they are of one substance.

[2] To say that God was dead and returned is not to deny that the Father raised the Son to life. All language that speaks of God is inadequate, even when it is true.

LifeShapes Heptagon | MRS GREN

The Psalmist wrote, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you.” That is, as he observed something in nature, the Holy Spirit revealed to his spirit that there was a correlation between the ‘natural’ order and the ‘spiritual’ order. Jesus also regularly used organic images to convey spiritual truths. The Heptagon takes the seven universal signs of life, from the biological sciences, and applies them in this way. It is concerned with healthy life, and helps us to identify potential problems so that they can be addressed before they become terminal. It is a helpful health-check for individuals and groups.

Movement

If an animal doesn’t move, it either runs out of food or becomes food. Are we moving? Has our perspective – on God, on yourself, on the world – changed, or is it static? Is our faith defensive, or a journey?

And if we are moving, is our movement purposeful? Migrating herds or flocks, or running around aimlessly? Distracted movement is as much a sign of ill health as lack of movement.

Some creatures move very quickly, others very slowly: one is not better than the other! But communities need to move together.

Respiration

Respiration is the process by which oxygen is absorbed and energy is released, in every cell. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God, which gives us life. Prayer is to the spirit as breathing is to the body. Taking an occasional breath may be sufficient for existence, but not enough for active life. On the other hand, hyperventilating is a panic response, a sign of anxiety. Healthy breathing is both natural and, most of the time, unconscious.

How is our prayer life? Do we rarely or never pray together? Is prayer all we do (hyperventilation)? Or is it a natural response?

Sensitivity

We often talk of 5 senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. In fact, there are several others, including sense of heat, of balance, of pain, and an unconscious awareness of the connectedness of our body parts. Sharks have a sense of electric fields; birds navigate using a magnetic sense.

Are we sensitive, towards God, each other, the world around us? Are we attuned to the spiritual environment around us? As a community, are we releasing individuals who can take a leads for us in relation to one or other of the senses?

Growth

Churches that believe that growth is important tend to focus too much on growth. You can’t grow by attempting to grow: only by indirect effort. If all the other six signs of life are healthy, healthy growth just happens…and if they aren’t healthy, unhealthy growth – like cancer – may result.

Having said too much attention is given to growth, it is worth pointing out that:

(i) growth is not constant: it often happens in stages [see the LifeShapes Square] or seasons [see the LifeShapes Semi-circle].

(ii) there are different expressions of growth, from an elephant that gets bigger to a lawn of grass that spreads wider: one size does not fit all.

Reproduction

Not every individual reproduces, but every community needs to, or else it will become extinct. The truth is, you – your group – will die. If reproduction has not taken place, all you have learnt is lost.

There are different forms of reproduction. In cellular reproduction, every component is duplicated internally, and then the cell becomes two cells. With complex organisms, DNA – values, in codified form – from two distinct parents combine to form offspring that are both recognisable and unique. Some creatures reproduce in low numbers, and invest heavily in nurturing their offspring; others reproduce in large numbers, and may never know what becomes of their offspring – but information for the continued survival of the species is nonetheless passed on.

Are we passing on what God has invested in us, to others? What might that look like? In some cases, long-term investment; in others cases, a passing opportunity. At times, it might lead to numerical growth within one group; at other times, to the creation of new groups.

Reproduction can be impaired by ill health, barrenness, isolation, or contraception (artificially constraining potential for new life). Do any of these issues need to be addressed?

Excretion

Every living thing builds up toxins within itself, and needs to find a way of neutralising and expelling those toxins. If it is unable to do so, it will move through discomfort to poisoning to death.

Spiritually speaking, toxins build up within us: hatred, gossip, complaining, lust, greed, hurt…

Spiritually speaking, excretion refers to the activity of asking for forgiveness for ourselves and extending forgiveness to others. This is so vital, Jesus includes it at the heart of the pattern of prayer he taught his disciples!

Are we accountable? Are we honest about toxins? (They are an inevitable side-product of life.) Are we seeking and proclaiming forgiveness?

Problems relating to excretion can result from problems relating to...

Nutrition

Nutrition is to do with diet. A healthy diet is balanced in composition, and in regularity. Problems include:

(i) under-nutrition: where too little is eaten, e.g. no regular discipline of meditating on God’s word.

(ii) mal-nutrition: where there is an imbalance of composition, e.g. lots of sermons, very little testimony, prophecy, etc.

(iii) over-nutrition: where too much is eaten, e.g. a new sermon every week, without space to digest the food, assimilating it’s goodness. Over-nutrition combined with lack of exercise results in obesity…

In the West, eating disorders are often associated with unhealthy self-image. Are we secure in our identity as children of God?

Imitate Me | Don't Mimic Me

I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
1 Corinthians 4:14-17

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
Hebrews 6:12

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:7, 8

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone – and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
3 John 1:11, 12


Recently my wife was having a conversation with someone, in which faith, in relation to a specific issue, came up in what was for her a very natural way. The response of the other person was, “I’ve never had a faith like that; only church leaders have faith like that.” It’s not exceptional: it seems that at the moment we keep coming across people who have been Christians for many years but who are still spiritual babies. It’s not exceptional: but it is scary.

One of the things we’re observing, looking around at the churches local to us while I’m training to be a vicar, is that discipleship isn’t even on the radar.

Sunday services are on the radar. Preaching is on the radar. Pastoral care is on the radar. These things and discipleship are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but, a weekly worship event including half-an-hour of generic monologue supplemented by coming alongside people when they are ill or bereaved does not equate to discipleship – and it would appear that the demands of these things does muscle-out response to the command to go and make disciples.

What do I mean by discipleship? The intentional discipline of imitation: of identifying someone whose life of faith you are seeking, with their help as well as God’s, to imitate; and of identifying and helping someone who is seeking to imitate your life of faith.

It seems to me that one of the barriers to discipleship is confusion in our minds between imitation and mimicry.

Consider the difference between the two. We have a saying in English, that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We seek to imitate those we admire; imitation has sincerity to it. On the other hand, when we mimic someone, it’s not often sincere; the intention is not usually flattery. Even if the intention is sincere, the best mimicry can achieve is a pastiche of the original.

Too often, church leaders identify someone with character and gifting, and encourage that person to mimic them. They ask them to lead a service, for example. Research by the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity has revealed that far too many of the (far too few) teenagers in our churches aspire to being a church-based youth worker. That’s mimicry at work. Why don’t they aspire to being graphic designers, or bankers, who might disciple teenagers coming up through their church?

It is easier to ask someone to mimic you than it is to invite them to imitate you, because mimicry is of external things – what I perform in public – and does not require vulnerability of internal things – how I act in private. But imitation leads to transformation, whereas mimicry leads only to dependence (which is why satirical impressionists have to rework their repertoire or become irrelevant whenever there is a change of political leader).

I don’t want anyone to do what I do, in the particular. But I do want some people to be becoming like me, in how I live my life, recognising that I am myself a work in progress…

Light

I walk to college and home again by different paths. There, over the crest of a hill, along the narrowest of provision: the edge of a curved blade. And back, around the side of the hill, along wide pavements: the blade’s face. There, the direct line, taking my life in my hands on the main road. And back, along the scenic route, taking my time through leafy neighbourhoods.

It is a routine walk, a rhythm to my day. It does not have to be just functional. Today I was arrested by the different quality of the light, early morning and mid afternoon, and moved to respond.

Ex Chrysalis

These mornings, again, I awake in darkness;
hot-shower against the cold
to stir my blood; dress, moving slowly;
descend the stairs.
The kitchen window still a wall of black,
the world impenetrable beyond
as I stand stirring porridge that
will warm my bones.

At ten-to-eight, heading to chapel,
I move through still-first-light:
delicate
shimmering
recently emerged from night
as a butterfly from the chrysalis,
its folded wings as yet to dry,
before they can spread wide
against the sun, filling the sky
with clear autumnal blue.

This light, so vulnerable
I half-suspect that it will leave
its pigment trace upon my clothes
as I brush past...

Blue Sky

On days like today, the air cold
enough to fire the imagination,
I feel as if anything is possible.
Striding out, I fill my lungs
and know I am alive.
Such days are gift:
for all things are mine, now
made alive by faith;
but certain days obscure truth.

Social Economy | Market Economy

This morning I was out raking leaves from our back lawn (it’s that time of year again!) when my neighbour called over the fence to me: do you eat tomatoes? We do; and he gave me a tub of tomatoes he had grown in his greenhouse. Three varieties: a small orange one; a medium-sized yellow one; and a larger red one.

That’s an example of the social economy at work.
The foundational question underlying the market economy is: how can we maximise our profits?
The foundational question underlying the social economy is: what do we need, and who can we share our surplus with?

[Note that the market economy is willing to give stuff away, but as a ‘loss-leader’ to generate a new customer base: the driving force remains profit.]
[Note also that the social economy is willing to sell stuff, but it is always looking for what it can give away to those who cannot (re)pay: the driving force remains the sharing of surplus.]

Churches can operate according to the principles of market or social economics.

Churches that operate according to the principles of the market economy are concerned to enlarge the customer base (bums on pews) who will pay for (through tithing) their product (worship experience, sermons, children’s work, etc.). They are essentially inward-looking, or attractional, in their relationship with their neighbours. The greater the number of products they can develop (programmes, niche interest groups, etc.) the wider the potential customer base they can appeal to.

Churches that operate according to the principles of the social economy are concerned to bless those beyond their fence, without expectation of anything in return (it is not that they do not hope for a response, but that they do not hope to benefit from any response: rather, they hope for responses that in turn benefit another). They are essentially outward-looking, or incarnational (i.e. taking the nature of a servant), in their relationship with their neighbours. The more content they are with living within their means, the more they have to give away to others.

[Note that the difference between a market economy church and a social economy church may not be so much in what they do as in their motivation for doing those things.]

Do the values of your church reflect market economics, or social economics?
And how might we effect a change of fundamental attitude, from market economic to social economic values?

Pentagon | 2

Five-fold spirituality is concerned with being released into the role you were created for.

It has to do with ‘whole-life’ discipling: that role being expressed through your contribution to society, not (just, or even first and foremost) your service to the Sunday service...It is part of the church being equipped to be the agents through which God changes the world, through whom God’s reign is exercised.

An accountant for Christ, a doctor for Christ, a parent for Christ, unemployed for Christ...

An apostle will parent differently to a pastor. And that’s okay: you can’t be all things to your child, but you can trust God for your children.

An apostle will be an accountant differently to an evangelist. One might do the audits for company after company; the other might network and connect. A teacher might stay in the same firm for a long time, and train up accountants...

How have you been made?
How can the church support you in that role?

The Pentagon

The 5-sided Lifeshape is a tool for discovering the role God has created you for within his Church, and helping us to work through the dynamics – both positive and negative – that result from the fact that we each have different roles to play. Within Lifeshapes language, we refer to this as five-fold ministry. Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost have also written extensively on this (see The Shaping Of Things To Come): they use the term APEPT.


Ephesians 4:4-16 presents us with a gift list that is qualitatively different from other gift lists in the New Testament. Romans 12 is concerned with gifts that God gives to people, and the main principle being brought out here is that we should exercise those gifts not in accordance with the measure of our gifting or our experience but according to how much faith we have. 1 Corinthians 12-14 is primarily concerned with how gifts (whether those gifts are people or abilities) are exercised in the gathered church, with the main principle being that love for one another, as opposed to competition amongst each other, is the key. But Ephesians 4 is concerned not with gifts given people but with people given as gifts.


Ephesians 4 identifies five types of people: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Verse 7 – “grace was given to each one of us” – suggests that this is not merely illustrative examples from a wider list. Some have argued that the New Testament uses other metaphors for role, such as builders or farmers; but I would contend that the types in Ephesians 4 are not metaphors (even if ‘pastor’ derives from ‘shepherd’...which makes shepherd a suitable metaphor for the pastor).


Verses 8-9 present us with the image of Jesus, having broken out of hell, leading a procession of freed captives, who are given as gifts. This image strongly suggests to me that these types are of the creation order, rather than the redemption order. That is, God does not confer upon you the state of being an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher at the point of conversion; but that we are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers held captive until we are set free to find the fullest expression of these roles within the Church.


That means that these words are not religious words, as such; and that we can identify signs of this creation order gifting in those who would not identify themselves as Christian. And helping people to understand more fully how they have been made has incredible potential for discipling such people towards faith. It also means that we would be wise to help Christians to identify how God has made them in this regard, in order to equip them to fulfil that role within God’s mission in the world, in its widest sense. What follows is a summary introduction to each potential people gift.


Apostle means one who is sent out. Apostles are pioneers of the new frontier, created to move into uncharted waters. They are not made to sustain the status quo. Apostles would include entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, who goes into new areas of business; who puts others in place to populate and settle the ground; and who is not afraid to sometimes surrender the past in order to achieve the future. Apostles would include those who are brought in to ‘turn around’ a failing school or institution; but for whom it would not be appropriate to stay there long-term. So apostles need to work with others. Because the Church has undervalued the role of apostle, it has found it hard to take ground lost by previous generations: pastors and teachers aren’t best designed for that. But apostles tend to see the world in very black-and-white terms, which can result in massive personal fall-out (see Paul and Barnabas; Paul and Peter).


Prophets imagine a world which is different from that in which we find ourselves (in this regard, they differ from teachers, who explain the world as it is). This might be expressed in terms of the creative arts. It might also manifest itself in relation to social justice or environmental action. The Church has always had a prophetic voice (both the arts and the justice), but has not always known how the prophets relate to the body. As a result, many prophets have found their community outside of the Church, often in prophetic movements, such as the Green movement. While prophets may be concerned with social justice they differ from pastors in that prophets have a big-picture view, which is too big a burden for the pastor, concerned for individuals, to carry. But the individual can be lost in the big picture, so prophets need to work with pastors...and simply having a big picture is not the same as being able to bring change about, so prophets need to work with apostles...Many prophets experience marginalisation (outside the Church as well as within it), and prophets often have a significant measure of brokenness in their past, of which they may or may not have experienced healing.


Evangelists are passionate connectors. A friend of mine is an evangelist, and because he knows Jesus, he wants to connect people to Jesus, to Jesus’ body, to the Church. But the reason I know he is an evangelist is that he is passionate about bird-watching; he wants me to share his passion, and to connect me to those who share that passion. As it happens, I’m not interested, not open, and so he doesn’t waste his time and energy seeking to persuade me. But I am interested in photography, would like to get into a local photographic society, and am finding that difficult because I have not yet found an evangelist who can help get me connected into an existing community. With regards to the workplace, evangelists would include those in marketing roles and also (of increasing significance) networking roles. Tragically, because the Church has not really known how to invest in evangelists, and because evangelists have often found it easier to be with non-Christians than with Christians, evangelists are themselves often not sufficiently connected to connect people...


I’ve often heard it said that whereas evangelists default towards non-Christians (i.e. are outward looking), pastors default towards Christians (i.e. are inward looking). Personally, I think that is incorrect, and unhelpful. Pastors are people people. Pastors care about people, and especially hurting people, regardless of their faith. Pastors want to see the individual, and are easily overwhelmed or ground down by the bigger picture. So, for example, we might expect to find pastors in the caring professions; but they may well struggle with the institutional scale (which is why it would be disastrous for the NHS if everyone in the caring professions was a pastor). As those, with teachers, who settle territory, pastors can feel undervalued by the more pioneering apostles, prophets and evangelists. The Church has selected pastors and teachers (and selected out APEs) for its clergy for generations, with the resulting irony: pastor leaders have not released APEs because they are threatening; but struggle with the burden of having to fulfil APE roles...


Teachers love to communicate ideas, to pass on learning. And so we might expect to find teachers in the teaching profession – although, again, it would be disastrous if every teacher was a teacher in this sense (the teacher who impacted me most was an evangelist for his subject; schools also need apostles, prophets and pastors). Our overly academic teaching culture has (mis-)shaped the function of teacher within the Church, resulting in cognitive knowledge as opposed to active belief. The exclusion of APE roles has only served to exacerbate this dilemma. We need teachers; but only in the context of a more rounded understanding of the people God has given as gifts to his Church, for the world. We need teachers who won’t shape those they lead into a teacher mould.



As a leader, we will be called upon at various times and seasons to function in a role other than the role God has made us to primarily be. In Lifeshapes language, we refer to this as base ministry and phase ministry. So Paul puts Timothy into a situation where a teacher is what is needed, because that is Timothy’s role; but reminds him, in the context of a specific time, not to neglect the work of an evangelist: something which does not come naturally to him. This connects the Pentagon to the Semi-circle. Times when God leads us out of our comfort-zone are times when we grow – not just in a new area, but as a person, so that the zone from which we can operate with confidence grows. But if we find ourselves having to operate in another role for too prolonged a season, this is not good for us. We need to discover and go with the rhythm of God’s grace, leading us out and back again in due season...

The Learning Circle

The Lifeshapes Circle is a tool for choosing to learn from life. However, it differs from other experiential learning models in that its underlying purpose is to enable us to experience God’s kingdom breaking in, as we move from a worldly perspective to a heavenly one. In this sense, it describes for us the process by which Romans 12:2 happens (“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2, NIV).


Mark’s Gospel introduces Jesus’ mission with the summarising statement, “The time has come...The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15, NIV). Here ‘time’ is not chronos (chronological time) but kairos (time as event or moment of opportunity; eternity time that interrupts chronological time from outside); ‘repent’ is metanoia (change of mind); and ‘believe’ is pistis (active response, rather than mere cognitive consent).


The Circle begins with a kairos moment, and breaks down both repentance and belief into practical steps – that is, it de-mystifies these terms for people.


Matthew 6:25ff gives us an example of Jesus taking his disciples through the process of repentance and belief. The context is the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is teaching his disciples, and a large crowd are listening in. I want to suggest that he isn’t talking about worry about life because he’s compiling a book of Proverbs, but because he has observed that his disciples are worrying; he may even be responding to their articulating their worries.


These young men have good reason to worry about food and clothing. They have given up their source of income to follow Jesus. And it has been a great adventure, but reality is setting in. We know that Peter is married, and culturally it is unlikely that he was the only married disciple. These are young men, with responsibilities – and mother-in-laws! Exodus 21:10-11 sets out the responsibility of husbands to provide for their wives food, clothing and marital (that is, both sexual and emotional) rights – and empowers wives to walk away without having to buy their freedom (that is, the right to divorce) if their husbands persist in failing them in these regards. So we can imagine that the disciples might have reason to worry about food and clothing…


Repentance begins with ‘observe’ and ‘reflect.’ So far, so Kolb. Except that Jesus isn’t interested in getting his disciples to observe and reflect on the situation they face. Indeed, they have been observing and reflecting, and that is part of the problem! Because they’ve been observing the wrong thing, and reflecting with the wrong perspective. Jesus wants them to observe and reflect on birds and flowers (you can imagine how that would go down with their mother-in-laws).


Jesus wants them to observe and reflect on what God is like.


There is another key element to the process of repentance, and that is ‘discuss.’ It doesn’t necessarily come out in Matthew 6 (I’m looking for illustrations of principles, not proof-texts); but in the Gospels we often see Jesus taking a discursive approach. The ‘discuss’ element helps make explicit the point that discipleship works best in community, that repentance that leads to believe that leads to the kingdom breaking in is better when we repent and believe together, as opposed to on our own.


Having arrived at a change of mind, what is required for practical, active believing is a ‘plan.’ In the example we’re looking at, the plan is: we’re going to trust God to provide.


That’s it? Yes. That’s not a plan! Where are the action points? Okay: [1] We’re going to trust God to provide food [2] We’re going to trust God to provide clothes…You see, this is not about arriving at pragmatic solutions – though by that I’m not denying the need to plan in more concrete ways in certain situations. The pragmatic plan in response to the hungry crowd of over 5,000 is: next time, we’ll put “Bring a packed lunch” on the bottom of the flyer, or charge everyone a £5 conference fee and hire in outside caterers. The pragmatic solution to the paralytic lowered through the roof by his friends is: we need better disabled access here. I’m not dismissing caterers or disabled access; just pointing out that they miss the point of what happens in these stories: that the kingdom breaks in because Jesus sees the situations from a heavenly perspective and not an earthly one.


But having a plan is not enough. We need to hold one another to the plan. The next practical element of believing is ‘account,’ or, put in place accountability. Matthew 6:25-34 is followed by Matthew 7:1-6. That is, don’t judge others while not being prepared to be held accountable and helped to live out what we believe ourselves. And don’t throw your pearls to pigs, or, don’t waste your time trying to involve those who aren’t prepared to engage as part of an accountable community.


Once a plan and the means to hold each other to account over it are in place, we need to ‘act’: the Sermon on the Mount concludes with stories of the fruit borne by good and bad trees, and wise and foolish builders. Jesus makes it clear that it is not enough to hear his voice; we need to act on what we have heard…



That is the Circle: presented with a kairos moment, an opportunity to repent and believe and thus experience the kingdom of heaven break into the here-and-now, we ought to respond. That response is not a pragmatic one, but it is practical as opposed to esoteric or mystical. We can learn to cooperate with God’s desire to transform our perspective, and therefore experience more of what he wants to do through us than we could have imagined.

Semi-circle

In the Gospels, we see that Jesus sustains his inner life and public ministry by adopting a rhythm of withdrawing from the demands of the crowds and engaging with their needs. Moreover, he models this pattern of behaviour for his disciples.

In John 15, Jesus gives his disciples an insight into the healthy rhythm of the Spirit-led life, using the organic illustration of the vine. At the end of each grape harvest, vine shoots were pruned back to the main stock, which grew around the exposed cut, surrounding and hiding the shoot. From there, the shoot would grow outwards come the next season, bearing fruit in season. Where shoots were not pruned after harvest, they continued to grow outward, with diminishing fruit yield in following seasons, as more of the vine’s energy went into sustaining the shoot growth leaving less for fruit.

The rhythm of our life describes a pendulum swing, back and forth, from abiding, through growth to bearing fruit; then back again, through pruning to abiding.

It is important that we learn to notice, and submit to, the leading beat; the signs that notify us of the start of each new season. One of the most insidious errors for individual Christians and for communities of Christians is a misunderstanding of what it means to say that the Kingdom of God is always expanding. While this is true at a macro-level, at the micro-level growth and fruitfulness is sustained through pruning and abiding. Where we resist that natural spiritual process – attempting the hold the pendulum up at the fruit-bearing end of the swing, as it were - we resist the weight of God’s momentum in our lives. Eventually, something is going to give…

The following example illustrates what I mean:

Abide: Over the summer, you go away to a Christian festival/conference, and/or you make the time to read some books on spiritual growth, as expressions of withdrawing from the day-to-day pressures, getting away with Jesus. And as you do so, you find that through these things he gives you a fresh insight that increases your faith for healing.

Grow: You go home, and want to put this new understanding in to practice. You take, perhaps even make, opportunities to pray with people in need of healing. Other people around you are drawn to what you are trying to do. Perhaps you lead a community, and you set aside one evening a week specifically to pray for healing, and people start coming along.

Bear fruit: The more you pray, the more you see signs of prayer being effective. Slowly at first, there is an increasing volume of testimonies of receiving healing, testimonies of being used by God to bring his healing to bear.

Pruning: After a while, you notice that you have reached a level at which healing seems to plateau off: certain conditions are regularly healed, others see no response to prayer. And less people are coming to pray and be prayed for: life is busy, after all…
And this is a key turning-point. These are little indicators that God wants to draw us back, to submit to his pruning process so that, in the intimate abiding-time, he can impart the next piece of fresh insight he has for us.
I’m not talking about those times of resistance, where we need to press on through: you’ll get those, and especially at the early stages of doing something new, to discourage us if that is possible. How do you know when resistance comes from God and when it comes from the accuser? That takes discernment, gets easier with practice; significantly, it has something to do with whether the whispers are ‘for us’ or ‘against us.’


Abide: Let go of the activity; be brave enough to stop, trusting that this is not the failure of hopes and dreams God has put in your heart, but for their long-term fuller fulfilment. And find the ways that help you pursue God, come away with him, hear his voice…

Distinctive?

So you are a Christian, and an architect, and the thing that is distinctive about you as opposed to the guy who sits at the next desk is that you go to church. Not just Sundays: you’re really involved. You’d like him to come along some time.
Why would he?
(I wouldn’t go to my current placement church if I didn’t have to.)

Okay, so you’re a Christian, and what is distinctive about you is that you aren’t cheating on your wife.
So what? Christians cheat on their wives at about the same rate as non-Christians. So, it’s as likely that the guy at the next desk isn’t cheating on his wife either; or that you are cheating on your wife after all.
The world is full of people who aren’t cheating, even if it is full of people who are.

You’re a Christian, and you’re an architect because you want to change the world, and this is the arena from which you are best-fit to do it.
Now that’s distinctive.
Not necessarily unique to Christians. But it’s distinctive.
That might engage the guy at the next desk.


I want to be a Revd because I want to change the world. I want to be a Church of England Revd because I want to change the world in and from this place. And I want to change the world by equipping and releasing congregations to change the world.
And you might say to me, Good luck, mate! But why else, as a follower of Jesus, would I want to do anything with my time?


[Having written the above, I’ve just turned on the News and heard the Prime Minister deliver a sound-bite about changing the world, one life at a time. Just for a fleeting moment, part of me is gutted – the ungenerous part, that doesn’t want ‘my thoughts’ undercut; the cynical part, that doesn’t think much of politicians…
…But, whether I like the dreams he is dreaming or not, here is a man who is dreaming, the very thing I’ve been reflecting on the need for us to do. And just because it is a messy business, that doesn’t make it any less crucial. In fact, it is a messy business in part because we cannot do it in isolation.


Change the world. Even the Prime Minister thinks it is a good idea.]

Future

The dominant eschatology of the churches in the west has long been variations on the belief that things are going to get worse and worse, until Jesus returns (day and hour unknown) and sorts it all out, calling ‘Time!’ on this age and ushering-in the age to come.

And as a result, churches simply don’t recognise the future before it arrives, because they aren’t looking out for it.

Collectively, some of us have become pretty good at reactively ministering to people who have been caught up in history, responding to those affected by natural disaster or war or unjust global economics. But (with a few notable exceptions, like the prophetic voice of futurologist Tom Sine) we haven’t learnt the skills of discerning what is coming next, in order to offer a better future.

Other people have done this: business leaders are interested in ‘future-proofing’ their assets; environmental scientists look to engage with the realities of global warming.

Bishop Tom Wright (among others) presents an eschatological understanding whereby the kingdom of God increasingly breaks into the present until the present is overwhelmed and the kingdom is fulfilled, in a renewed earth and a renewed heaven come down to earth.

And if the kingdom is on the offensive, not the defensive (the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church; not, the gates of the Church shall prevail against the armies of hell) then, albeit resulting in sharper contrast between darkness and light, the future is supposed to be better than the present…because we are supposed to come more and more into God’s fullness of life.

As Christians, we need to be dreaming and modelling alternatives to the dreams and models of the world, pioneering kingdom prototypes.

Here are some things churches need to be dreaming and modelling in relation to now. I see hopeful evidence going on in many places, but these are tiny and fragile seedlings; and they have yet to take root in the soil of most churches.

My generation is the first generation in the west for over 200 years to be financially less well off than our parents. I’m 35, and it gets worse from my peers onwards: I was among the last in England to receive university education for which my fees and living expenses were paid for me. Today students leave with an average of £14K debt. I think my parents and parents-in-law were the first generation in their families to go to university, and I think that trend might not continue beyond their children…

But, we are sold the same dream: get a degree, get a professional career, get married, live in your own home, as a nuclear family, travelling abroad for holidays, upgrading the size and luxury of your cars, your house, the kids having their own room, their own TV, their own etc., shopping conveniently and cheaply, climbing the ladder at work, retiring on a good pension…

The housing market has out-priced itself, so that first-time buyers are excluded. A crash in value might allow such people to buy – if there isn’t a crash in personal income at the same time – but, if we merely begin the cycle again…

Regarding the ‘credit crunch,’ things are going to get much worse before they improve. Unemployment is going to rise significantly, and most likely not by gradual rise.

The cost of fuel is going to continue to rise, and again rise sharply, as demand outstrips supply; as fossil fuels are depleted; and as fuel increasingly becomes a political lever. Globally, water supply will become even more of a political lever than fuel. The cost of food will continue to rise.

Health care will overwhelm the Health Services as our populations age, and as the expanding boundaries of what can be done by medical science are outstripped by the expanding cost of being able to do what can be done; and as we face new challenges resulting from the ways in which we have met previous ones (e.g. resistant viral strains).

We are living in a time of rapid, discontinuous change. The American Dream, and its no less all-pervasive British cousin, are being found wanting. But, aren’t they the dreams our middle-class congregations have bought into? I don’t mean that as a criticism from outside that community, but a lament from within.

We need new dreams, new models, of how we live. Small-scale mixed-occupancy housing developments. Communal, rather than nuclear or individual, living will be an economic necessity: but also better for us in so many ways. Communities scaled around travel by foot, not car. We will need to grow more of the food we eat – something my grandfather used to do, when I was a boy (how far we come, what progress, to grow out of such peasant living in only half a lifetime!); food without its current carbon footprint. We might want to do that collectively, on allotments.

We will need to rediscover the church’s role as healer and educator, as hospitals and universities are increasingly unable to bear the demands on them. We will need to imagine new (or rediscover older) ways of doing business, on a more local scale of production. We will…

The question is, will we dream reactively in response to the future, or now, proactively, so as to shape it?


Thank you, God, for Tom and Tom, and others like them.

Offering God Your Opinion

Has it ever crossed your mind that God might be interested in your opinion?

God said to Noah, I regret creating humanity; I’m going to destroy what I’ve made, and start over, with you. (Genesis 6)
Noah doesn’t express an opinion on this, and builds an ark as instructed.

God said to Abraham, I’m going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18)
Abraham expresses an opinion.
What is going on here? Is God merely indulging Abraham, in order to show him that there are not even 10 righteous people in the two cities?
Or is God willing to amend his plans in the light of the opinion of his friend? Is God willing to take counsel from a man?

God said to Moses, I regret bringing these people out of Egypt; I’m going to destroy them. (Exodus 32)
Moses expresses an opinion.
God, if you do that, your actions will be misinterpreted by your enemies, and they will misrepresent you.
“And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people” (Exodus 32:14)

Has it ever crossed your mind that God might be interested in your opinion?

That he doesn’t just want you to find out his opinion, so that you can be obedient. Don’t misunderstand me: obedience is an appropriate response to God’s leading. But, just perhaps, God is interested in working with our opinions too. Perhaps, sometimes God lets us take the lead. Because Jesus says to his disciples, I no longer call you servants, but friends. Friends, who, unlike servants, are invited into the decision-making process. Friends, whose own decisions Jesus is willing to endorse: doesn’t “what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, and what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven” sound like he is prepared to back his friends? Perhaps God doesn’t merely allow us to take a lead from time to time; it is in fact the very thing he wants of us?

[Okay, so this is an Anglican aside, but: Does the Church have the authority to appoint women bishops? Yes.]

The tradition I come from is often guilty of living according to the Jonah Principle: that the indication that something is God’s will rather than my will is that I really don’t want to do it. Now, Jonah needed his will to be conformed towards God’s, as we all do. But the Jonah Principle is a pretty abusive one – especially if we believe that we are a new creation, being transformed, having our minds renewed…

I wonder what would have happened if Noah had spoken up...

Authority | 2

That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself to do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.
Luke 12:47, 48

…Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”
Acts 3:6

What are we to do with the authority we have been given, in the arena for which we have been given it? We are not slaves, but friends who serve; but, we are to learn from the slave parables.

Peter had been given power and authority to heal: “what I have.” It came from Jesus, and it had been given to him. What was he going to do with it? Exercise it: “what I have I give you…” He had the freedom to not exercise it, to bury it away somewhere safe, to not risk investing it (to reference another parable Jesus told).

If much is required from those to whom much has been given, I can’t think of anything more we could be entrusted with than Jesus’ power and authority.

Authority

What does it mean to have been given authority by Jesus?

When God first created man and woman, he gave us authority to represent his rule on his behalf on this earth. God wasn’t absent – he walked with his representatives each day, in the cool of the evening. But, he gave humans a particular responsibility, to exercise authority over this part of creation: to name creatures (and, biblically, in naming you are shaping, not responding to, character; not in a totally determinative sense, but to a significant degree: that is why I named my son ‘Noah,’ because in a restless generation, I wanted him to know and to display what it means to ‘rest’ in God); and to act in ways that enabled creation to flourish.

Adam and Eve abdicated that authority to the accuser, under whose influence we still see creation suffer, including at our hands.

In coming, as fully human and fully God, Jesus took back authority; with his resurrection a decisive validation.

But God didn’t say, “Right, I’d better keep hold of this now; we don’t want any more trouble…”

Jesus came to restore God’s original plan, that men and women should exercise authority on earth; men and women who had been liberated from the rule of the accuser. And those who recognise that Jesus has set them free are in a position to exercise that God-given authority within God-given parameters.

So, how are we to respond?

Here’s a scenario that runs around my head. We see someone who is sick, and our heart is moved (with God-given compassion), and we pray, “Lord, please heal this person!” And Jesus replies, “I’ve given my disciples power and authority to heal the sick…and I’ve told you plainly that I want my disciples to heal the sick…and I’ve brought you and this person in need of healing across each other’s paths…join the dots!”

And Jesus’ tone isn’t about making us feel stupid, though there is that familiar exasperation-with-my-disciples to it…

To pray, “Lord, please heal this person!” is to abdicate authority. We do it because we don’t feel worthy: but Jesus has always chosen followers who hadn’t made the cut. To feel unworthy is not the same as humility: feeling unworthy denies the worth God put on us in sending his Son to die in our place. Rather, we should pray, “Lord, help me to exercise the power and authority you have given me more fully, so that your kingdom is extended!”

As agents of God’s kingdom, we have been given a role of participative freedom that, I increasingly suspect, is far bigger than we have realised.

What does it mean to have been given authority by Jesus, in the world I see on the News – a fragile world of the ‘credit crunch,’ hurricanes, fuel and food crises, global warming, displaced peoples? How might we partner with God, with supernatural power as well as natural gifts, to see more of his kingdom transforming our global-local network of communities?

I have more questions than answers, but, I’m sure there must be more than we have seen so far.

Outer Harbour Blues

The LORD is my light,
my light and my salvation;
a sure refuge
against the storm.

Though the wind will rise,
and the crashing waves will pound;
though clouds may hide the blue,
and leaden skies press down;
the storm will spend itself
at last.
But the steadfast love of
the LORD
endures,
forever.

In him will I place my hope.
On him I shall stand firm.

Be still, o storms within me!
Be still, o storms around me!

Believe

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked. A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

“O unbelieving generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

“If you can?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
Mark 9:14-29

The question Jesus most often confronts his followers with is, what difference does your faith make to the circumstances you find yourself in, the situations you face?

Does it make all the difference in the world; or are we, to all intents and purposes, atheists, or agnostics at best?

Often, when we concede that “Anything is possible through faith,” what we are really saying is, “Theoretically, anything is possible through faith. In principle, God could choose to do this thing or that thing, but in practice certain things are highly unlikely; and, indeed, we’re not even sure whether our asking has any impact on God’s choice one way or the other, for he is not held to ransom by us…”

But in that case, the “through faith” is surely surplus to requirements. Anything is possible, and who can say what will take place? Whatever that faith looks like, it doesn’t look like the kind of belief Jesus was hoping to find…

Heal the sick, drive out demons, raise the dead, proclaim that God’s kingdom is breaking in:
Believe Jesus.

Remember

After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.
Exodus 2:23-25

What does it mean, to say that God remembered his covenant?

Had he forgotten about it? Had it slipped his mind, distracted as he was, preoccupied with other things?

No, to remember is not the same thing as to recall something that you have forgotten.
Nor is it to indulge in nostalgia, to long for the ‘good old days.’

To remember is to act in the present in the light of the past.

‘Remember’ is an action word, which involves the whole being – heart and mind and bodily strength and soul – and not a cerebral activity alone. To remember fires the synapses of the whole nervous system, not just those in the brain.

In contrast, it is possible to be passive in the present in the light of a hoped-for future. One day, God will heal you. One day, God will redress the injustice you face. One day…
It is possible to justify resignation by calling it ‘dignified faith.’

But Jesus said, the time has come; the day of God’s liberating vengeance against all that holds creation captive has already dawned – and once the Son has broken the horizon, the light does not stand still but grows until it fills the sky…

Heal the sick, drive out demons, raise the dead, proclaim that God’s kingdom is breaking in:
Remember Jesus.

Burst Open

The Balcony

Japanese Madonna And Child

Sunrise, Lake Tiberias

Feet #4

Feet #3

Feet #2

Feet #1

Flowing Water

Wheat And Tares

The Mooring

Amanda

Tim

The Waders

Andy R

Vertical Lines

Star

Slippers

Vault

Crown Of Thorns

Domes, Arches

The Trapdoor

The Musicians

Today, You Become A Man

Pause A Moment

Outside Shower

Shore

Dead Sea Wave #2

Dead Sea Wave #1

Colourwheel #2

Colourwheel #1

Light

Father And Son

Contemplation

Heritage

Remember

Luminescence

Back Door

Iconic

Wilderness

Passing The Time Of Day

Delight

Meditate

Heavy Load

Andy B

Consider The Flowers Of The Field