The Spirit

It's Pentecost Monday - a bank holiday here in France.

I liked Richard Rohr's Pentecost meditation posted yesterday.

here it is:

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. And He said to them again, “Peace be with you!”

~ John 20:19-21

We still wait behind closed doors; fifty days (“Pente-cost”), fifty years, five hundred years, we are always waiting and hoping, but not really expecting. It is the day we are always waiting for but never prepared for, the day of the great outpouring of fire-laden love, the day that ties all other days together. Pentecost is actually every day, if we expect it; but, not surprisingly, this is the greatest forgotten major festival of the entire church year.  Most come to church expecting no new outpouring, or maybe not even remembering an old one.

Yet it is Pentecost, the day of the great gathering in and the great sending out. The Holy Spirit must get tired of waiting for us, always hiding behind our closed doors.

Richard speaks of 'the great outpouring of fire-laden love' - 'fire-laden love' is an image of a burning passion of love which is a similar metaphore used by Bruce Cockburn in his song 'Lord of the Starfields' when he sings 'Oh Lord who fires the sun keep me burning'.

My prayer is that the Lord of all creation may keep me burning with a passion for Him, a passion for life, for my immediate and not so immediate family, for humanity and for His creation.

May the fire of the Spirit keep us burning!

Ken Burns: On Story

Here's an interesting video by Film-maker Ken Burns who also speaks of the importance of Story telling.

Hope you like it

http://vimeo.com/40972394

A Sense of Story

Here's Friday Theology by the Evangelical Alliance:


A sense of story 


The Olympic torch relay which began its journey around the UK this week hasn’t been without its controversy. But what has captured my attention, and then my imagination, is the sense of story.

Among the torch bearers are celebrities and sporting heroes, but the majority are ordinary people who have been noticed because of something out-of-the-ordinary. There was 16-year old Ben Fox from Swindon, who only has one leg and wants to win an Olympic gold in wheelchair basketball in 2016. Then there was Hayley Mowbray, 26, from Cheltenham, who teaches at a school for young people with severe behavioural problems. She has been recognised as having an exceptional ability to inspire others and provide hope when all seems hopeless. Twenty-eight-year old Mark Ormrod lost an arm and both his legs when he stood on a landmine in Afghanistan. He was told he would never walk again, yet two years ago he completed a 3,500 mile charity run across the US. And Louis Gill, at the age of 15, cycled 300 miles on an old bike to raise money for an orphanage in Uganda. His nomination story says that ”he represents everything that is good in our teenagers and young people”.

All these stories capture something inspiring about the people who live in this land. Together, they remind us that, in the words of John Donne:

“No man is an island, Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.”

We succeed or fail as our individual stories connect to the whole. The Olympic torch relay has reminded me of this. It celebrates diversity, it reminds us that we’re connected and it celebrates how the story of one person, can improve the story of another.

However, it’s bigger than this. The Olympics, as athletes from all over the world gather to compete, connects us to the global story. Again, diversity is celebrated, and we are reminded that we are all connected. The torch relay also connects us to a historic story. The Olympic flame traces its way back to the stories of the Greek gods, the ancient games were designed to conjure images of the divine, and the relationship between humans and the gods. The Torch Relay, itself, a modern invention, is steeped in a historical story, not least because it first took place in the run-up the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, that were organised by the Nazis.

So there are many stories, within a story, within a story, within a story. My story, and your story, are being woven into the story of the UK, within the story of the world now, within the story of humanity past, present and future.

It reminds us that there is a meta-narrative running through human history, it’s the story that our stories are being woven into, and that’s God’s story. A story that meanders with purpose from creation to new creation. A story about destruction and restoration, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, sin and salvation. A story with the reoccurring refrain of: “They will be my people, and I will be their God.”

When Paul was in Greece, the source of the Olympic flame, he walked around the Areopagus in Athens looking at the Greeks’ objects of worship. He said: “I…found an alter with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”He was taking one of their stories to point people to the one true God. Today, as people are desperate to make sure their story is connected and it is significant, we need to be pointing them to God and His story, so they can connect to it and find significance in Him.

Phil Green, Programme Manager for the Evangelical Alliance


I like this thought. We are all stories - our stories woven together, meandering with purpose from creation to new creation...
We are part of the Divine work of new creation!

What Jesus was about

What Jesus was about

I guess I tend to associate the gospel with humanity relative to how people are acting more like "kingdom people," regardless of their religious affiliation or non-affiliation. It seems to me that Christ wasn't so fixated on whether other people loved him or not (though this was certainly mentioned, but not so much as a prerequisite of acceptance

into what he was about). I think Jesus identified with those who were simply what he was about himself (making his god's world a better place), not so much, if at all, dependent upon whether someone loved and devoted themselves to him.

Chris Hill

I found the above quote on Emergent Village website. I believe that the central core of the life and work of jesus was the Kingdom and I can understand that when people get involved and live out the Kingdom principles in their lives regardless of their religious affiliation or non-affilliation these people would seem to be what Jesus was about.

I think there was a story in the Gospels when the disciples were horrified because some folk were doing somme good stuff but didn't officially 'belong' to them. Jesus confirmed that the folk were 'with' them because of what they were about.

You see you can call yourself a Christian but you may not be doing the things that Jesus was and is about.

The main part of Kingdom activity is 'making God's world a better place'!

The Ascension

Here's a brief meditation for the Feast of the Ascension from Richard Rohr

I remember once seeing a painting in a European museum of the Ascension. It was rather huge, and at the very top, right beneath the frame, were the bare feet of Jesus as He ascended into heaven. It almost felt comic. Most of the painting was the apostles looking up in various poses of fear, confusion, and awe. It struck me that the Ascension was the final stage of His human life, and every human life, when the material world returns to its spiritual Source.

The Ascension is about the final reunion of what appeared to be separated for a while: Earth and Heaven, human and divine, matter and Spirit. They are again one, and it was important that we see ordinary human feet going into heaven! If the Christ is the archetype of the full human journey, now we know how it all resolves itself in glory.

I like the thought of the 'ordinary human feet going up to heaven' ...'Earth and Heaven, human and divine..' are indeed separated for a time, for a while...but one day they will be reunited.

In Tom Wright's 'Simply Jesus' he speaks about the Temple in Jerusalem as the sacred space where Heaven and Earth unite - where the Divine and human meet.

Jesus saw himself as the Temple, in Him Heaven came to Earth...that Temple is now in the other space which we call heaven...

St Paul developed the idea as the church as the Temple where God is present...He is present by the Spirit who was given at Pentecost...

Simply Jesus

Wow, the last time I posted on my blog was about my 50th...on the 19th April; a month ago!
I've just finished reading Tom Wright's book entitled 'Simply Jesus'. I've been reading it for some time now, because of other commitments and general business it's taken longer to read - believe me it's not due to being bored with the book.

I always appreciate Wright's relevence and accute theological understanding. In these 230 pages he looks at the historical context of Jesus' life, the 1st century Jewish messianic expectations and how Jesus fulfilled the Divine Kingdom-project which didn't quite fit the assumptions of his contempories.
The wonderful thing is that we as human beings are very much part of the Kingdom-project. We were created to be God's image-bearers and Jesus delegates his authority to us.God intended from the very beginning of the creation that He would rule the world through human beings. This original creation plan is to be fulfilled both through the church and outside the church.

These are just a few ideas that come from the book. There are many more!