More Real Than Gravity Itself

So a film curiously named after a scientific term triumphed at the Bafta awards and there seems general agreement thatGravity is an extraordinary production.

Gravity  adopts a most basic form of drama – actors seen only as faces within spacesuits. Everything else in the film is simply not real. Every frame consists almost entirely of computer-generated special effects. These are so stunning that audiences have found it totally convincing.

But such technical genius brings us more than entertainment and valuable therapeutic escapism. It also offers an unsettling lesson on how easily the ‘not real’ can master the consciousness and so overshadow ‘the real’ altogether.

On this score, maybe Christians should more often well … get real. For we might be more in danger of unreality’s seductive spell than anyone else. The closeness that binds the faithful together can easily get the better of us so that we become too cosy, safe and insular.

“Why do people in church have to be so nice?” a teenager once complained bitterly to me. Could she really mean us? Yes of course. We wouldn’t wilfully hurt even a tree-beetle but we still grow de-sensitised to inhumanity all around us. However, scripture actually prizes the real above all.

Only a response to the real can set people free. Repentance, initial or constant, springs from cold recognition of what we secretly are: the real us. And Jesus has already inhabited places of harsh reality in order to liberate its oppressed people.

Our news media have made a brilliant job this week of popping the ‘not real’ bubble for everyone. The ‘real world’ has reasserted itself in disturbing ways over comfortable lives. Reports appear of the troubling extent of UK child-trafficking. Cruel floods and traumas strike those formerly considered better-off. And despite hopes of UK money helping to restore human rights in Sudan, an outrage is reported there – the jailing of a pregnant woman for the seeming crime of being raped. The Ukraine looks on the brink of civil war.

But perhaps most shocking of all is the UN’s report on North Korea detailed by theGuardian. The special commission on human rights has extensively documented thekwanliso, prison camps where hundreds of thousands have already suffered execution or starvation to death. Harrowing stories abound: a woman being beaten by a guard until she finally does what’s demanded of her – to drown her own baby and so stop it crying; a boy having his finger chopped off for accidentally dropping a sewing machine; chillingly, prison camps holding some people actually abducted from other countries. Tragically, this is ‘the real’ for millions, perhaps billions, in the world.

But there’s good news embedded in the bad. And it is ‘the real’ just as much as any harrowing headline. A television report on North Korean escapees asked just how these traumatised people are managing to enter a recovery process. Answer given: through the love and support of Korean churches. A poignant and moving clip follows of Korean Christians embracing escapees and welcoming them into fellowship and care. And the victims of so much brutality do attribute their progressive healing to the love and practicality of believers. Surely it’s this that scripture sees as the ultimate, ‘real’ experience for Church. Church is real when prisoners are being set free and hearts and minds healed there in every way.

So now we have the definitive form of ‘real’ – compassion in action. It trumps all dark things that are also real. But it demands the conscious choice of the will. Over and over again.

Roy Kearsley is an author and former theology and mission lecturer based in Cardiff 

Baptême de Jésus

I bought a Christian Church calendar this year. It goes through the church year using different artists.

'Baptême de Jésus' is a painting by Corinne Vonaesch where she seeks to express  the life of Christ.

The image is not too abstract and close to the text - but giving space to the spectator to welcome and deepen the text with her/his perception.

Epiphany means 'to make manifest' - reveals Jesus' mission to the world in his adoration by the Magi, his baptism, his ministry and his call to follow as his disciples.

Beyond Labels

Here's a wonderful article from the Evangelical Alliance:


Beyond the labels

Pope Francis has done it again.
 
This week he published an exhortation,Evangeli Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), to his followers in the Catholic Church. In it he said: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and clinging to its own security.”
 
There's something refreshingly unsettling about this Pontiff. He certainly isn't clinging to the security of life behind the powerful and secretive walls of Vatican City. His humility has been clear right from the papal announcement where he chose to wear simple robes and immediately asked millions across the world to pray for him. He chose to stay in a hostel instead of the official mansion residence and travels largely in a Ford Focus, rejecting the papal limousine where possible.
 
He has not been afraid to challenge hypocrisy and injustice within the religious, political and economic structures of the day. But beyond these macro-engagements on the world stage, or through Twitter, it is his encounters with individuals that has characterised his papacy so far. He has joked with journalists, washed the feet of prisoners, kissed and blessed those with disabilities and lived among the poor.
 
Pope Francis speaks of Jesus often and encourages a personal relationship with him. Again in this week’s exhortation he said: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ, joy is constantly born anew. In this exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark on a new chapter of evangelisation marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths for the Church's journey in years to come.”
 
Growing up as a Protestant in Northern Ireland I am fascinated by this man and especially hearing him talk of evangelisation and being born anew. Many Protestants here were told from a church pulpit that the Pope was the anti-Christ. Yet this man challenges me deeply both in how I look at him and how I look at others.
 
You see, I label people. Not as the literal anti-Christ so much, but try as I might not to, I do label others who claim to follow Christ: sound, liberal, fundamentalist, happy-clappy. And it's not just me or confined to the Church. A brief reading of the headlines this week shows some of the labels society places on others: prostitute, druggie, slave, alcoholic. We take someone's action or aspect of their personhood and use that to define that entire person. We constantly use labels to separate ourselves and to define 'us' against 'them'. In doing so we dehumanise the image of God in others, reducing them down to a word.
 
I can't escape the fact that when I look at the way Pope Francis rejects labels and encounters individuals I am reminded of Christ. Jesus looked at people through God's eyes, literally. He refused to put labels on people, seeing the holy humanity of each person made in the image of God. When we encounter Jesus and become his followers he takes our labels away. This is part of the 'joy of the gospel', a new identity in Christ. We are given new life, new relationships with God and others and a new identity beyond our labels.

I am not a Catholic, I don't believe all the Pope believes or all his Church teaches. But seeing beyond the labels, I see a humble man made in the image of his maker with a practical love of Jesus. I can only hope others see that in me.
 
So here's the challenge this weekend. What labels have you put on yourself or on others? Is there someone you need to take out of a pigeonhole? What's stopping you seeing people through Jesus's eyes?
 
David Smyth is public policy officer at the Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland .

In Or Out ?

Reading Carl Medearis' 'Speaking of Jesus.
He's got lovely little chapter called In or Out in which he explores the notion of who's 'in' and who's 'out'. Personally I've been repelled by this type of thinking within the church. The insiders (those who adhere to a set of doctrines) and the 'outsiders' (those who don't).

Carl gives a couple of illustrations (they go a bit like this:

1. Draw a circle on the floor. You're in the circle and you're trying to persuade those outside to come in. Of course it's easy to step into the circle (really?) - well no, in fact it's quite complicated - you have to believe in the correct things and do the right things - otherwise you can't come in the circle.

2. Put a dot in the middle of a sheet of paper. Put other dots around it. The central dot represents Jesus. The dots around represent us. Then put arrows from the (us) dots towards Jesus. The arrow could be in a straight line or it may go off in tangents, some arrows may not even be pointing at Jesus.

The 1st illustration typically represents view of how christians see things.
The second illustration, I believe, is more of an accurate representation. Jesus asks us to simply follow Him. The arrows towards Jesus show a action of moving to Jesus - following Him.
It may be a messy picture, but it's better and more realistic.

So forget the concept of 'In or Out' - it just doesn't work, it can easily exclude people who are seeking to follow Jesus - maybe not the way we would consider - but they are endeavoring to follow Him and that's what we are simply called to do.

CHURCH ACTUALLY

Gerrard Kelly has written a delightful little book called Church Actually - rediscovering the brilliance of God's plan. In it he describes in radiant multi-colour the beauty and purpose of the church.

here are a few quotes from the book:

"I was not created to be a neutral presence in the world...I was made for significance; for fruitfulness.
My desire is to leave the world in a more beautiful condition than that which I found it.

We are sent into the world not to rescue people from it, but to bring to it all the change that grace can bring.

The deeper we dive into Him, the further we find ourselves thrust into His broken world.

The Spirit whose presence we seek in prayer is present already in the world. We do not lead him we follow. We do not bring him to the poor, we find him with them.

The inbuilt desire for human beings to seek wealth and power, and to secure themselves behind walls and fences of economic strength, will mean that the Kingdom tendency to move towards the poor will be resisted.

The church is an environment in which tribes in tension find power to coexist.

Abraham is not a model of the kind of faith that waits to be taken to a better place. He is a model of the kind of faith that knows that this place will one day be better.

The energy of our participation in the building of God's Kingdom will be dictated by the strength of our dreams."

May we all rediscover the brilliance of God's plan.

Thanks Gerrard for reminding us.

Sacred Space

Here's a link to a lovely testimony from Andrea Campanale who's working among Spiritual Seeker:

http://www.activateyourlife.org.uk/content/2012/dec/06/andrea-campanale-sacred-space

i appreciate her angle on evangelism  which she prefers to call 'mission' because it's more holistic.
she's working out of the box and that's not always understood by more traditional oriented folks.
we need more people like Andrea.

St Catherine's Tree

As a kid i was familiar with (St) Catherine's wheel (light up the fire with standard fireworks! :) - but Richard Rohr speaks about St Catherine's tree:

St Catherine of Siena pictures the spiritual life are a large tree.
The trunk is love; 

The core or middle part is patience; 

The roots are self-knowledge 

The many branches, reaching our into the air are discernement.

In other words love does not happen without patience, self-knowledge and discernment.

(Possibly) today we have little encouragement toward honest self-knowledge or training in spiritual discernement from our churches. By nature most of us are not very patient. All of which means that love is not given to be very common.

Do we need St Catherine's tree again?

Possibly so.

Saving Paradise

I've just finished reading an amazing book written by Rita Nakashima Broch & Rebecca Ann Parker "Saving Paradise". The authors give a historical survey of the church and in particularly how she has lost the notion of paradise here and now. They trace the development of the theology of the Western Church through the testimony of its religious art and its historical documents.
I'd like to leave a quote from the last paragraph of the  epilogue:

We reenter this world as sacred space when we love life fiercely and, in the name of love, protect the goodness of earth's intricate web of life in all its manifold forms. We feast in paradise when we open our hearts to lamentation, to amplitudes of grief for all that has been lost and cannot be repaired. The beloved departed who have come before us draw near. The veil lifts between the living and the dead. We recommit ourselves to this world as holy ground when we remember the fulness of life that is possible through our communities, our life-affirming rituals, and our love of beauty. Thus, immersed,we are more responsive to and responsible for life on this earth. We give thanks for gifts of love that have been ours all along, an ever-widening circle of beauty, the Spirit in life. We enter fully - heart, mind, soul and strength - into savoring and saving paradise.

Unvirtuous Monks

I was sent an interesting article about an extraordinary abbey of monks.

here's the link:
 http://blog.timesunion.com/rudnick/a-bunch-of-unvirtuous-monks/1969/#more-1969

I admire their attempt to engage with the culture and to evoke laughter and reflection about what it means to follow Christ in the 21st Century.
As the article expressed they tend to look for God in non-traditional places, where people are finding meaning. God is  probably there in these cultural places - in films, art, TV, literature...
When people look for meaning God shows up.

I think that God is very much present in the culture(s) - and not only in the traditional places such as church services and prayer meetings. God so loves the world that he came and totally immersed himself in it. God is still totally present. So open your eyes, your ears, all your senses and you just might glimpse  him on TV, hear his voice on the radio (or at a concert!) or taste him in a lovingly prepared meal...

The Divine Embrace

Ordinary Christianity has emphasized that we should love God.
That makes sense, but do we really know how to do that?
What I find in the mystics is an overwhelming experience of how God has loved us!
... God is forever the initiator, God is the doer, God is the one who seduces me in my
unworthiness. It's all about God's initiative! Then the mystics try desperately to give
back, to offer their lives, to the world and thus back to God.
Mystics are not trying to earn God's love by doing good things or going to church services.
That question is already and profoundly resolved. The mystics overwhelming experience
is full body blow of divine embrace, a radical acceptance by God even in their state of
fragmentation and poverty. That's what makes it "amazing" and "grace".

Richard Rohr

THIS TEACHING IS HARD

Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran Pastor who was at Greenbelt last year. 

On her blog she recently posted an interesting sermon on the Eucharist.

I appreciate her inclusive ideas...

read them here

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/08/this-teaching-is-hard-who-can-accept-it-a-sermon-on-the-eucharist/

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...

The Problem with Scripture - women!

I wrote a couple of posts ago about the problem with Scripture and in particularly the difficulty of interpretation.
Last night we had a special church meeting with a potential 'candidate' for the job of pastor. In his 'speech' he mentioned a 'non-negotiable' issue if he were to become pastor of the church. The issue was  women leadership in the church. He would not accept a woman elder because it's not biblical.

So here we find a 'classic' example of interpretation of Scripture. Women leadership was, and apparently still is a thorny issue.

In some of St Paul's epistles he does mention that women should remain silent in church, that they should wear a kind of head covering and also there doesn't seem to be any evidence of women leaders in the Bible. (Except for Deborah &  Esther in the old testament and Lydia and Sapphira in the New Testament...)

However, Paul also mentions how masters should treat their slaves (with kindness of course). Unfortunately these 'slave' passages were used to defend the practice of slavery in the 'good old days' of the Empire but today (I hope) we would agree that slavery is definitely not what God intended.
I believe that the same applies to women. Our understanding of humanity and of God has greatly evolved and our culture is not the same as Paul's. In the same way as we no longer see slavery as biblical I suggest that we should no longer see that 'women should remain silent and therefore no leadership roles' as also not  biblical.

I think Paul was heading in this direction when he wrote:
"For all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

So it's not whether you're a man or a woman that counts but your gifts, calling and character. These should be the criteria to evaluate whether you should be an elder or leader.

I think that if we contemplate the life and teachings of Jesus we would come to the same conclusion.

I'm saddened that I've had to post this.

Alas we are still focusing on the non-essentials.

Time - SatMix

We had a great evening last night at SatMix. The weather was awful - it had snowed and it was very cold - so my initial  thoughts were "nobody's going to come we can always put the event on it next month" - oh man of little faith! we got a good turn out and some new faces.

I took my camera but unfortunately it didn't leave its case - I was fully involved in the event so I forgot to take some pictures. (So no photo for the blog - sorry about that).

The evening certainly stimulated thought on 'time' -for me  in particularly the concept of living in the present -Meister Eckhart said "There exists only the present instant ... There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now ... " 


We used more visuals than our Advent Event (which was a real stripped down evening) - the World Clock was projected throughout, we used poems, quotes and clips from 'Time Machine', and yes we used the Pink Floyd classic 'Time'...
tick tock tick tock...


 

Time

Tomorrow we are putting on another SatMix event in Lille.
The theme is Time/le Temps. I'm looking forward to it. We've come up with some neat ideas. I've enjoyed working on the project. Hopefully the evening will stimulate thought on Time ...

GOD, MY DANCING PARTNER

“God, you were here all along, and I never knew it” (Genesis 28:16), says Jacob on awakening from his stone pillow.


I came across this verse last week and I was blow away by the fact that God is here, right now in our world, culture, city, home, skin,...and we so easily forget this wonderful reality...
maybe it's because we are unable to 'see'...
maybe it's because we only expect to meet with God in the 'holy' place of Church...
maybe it's because we're so busy that we no longer take the time to be still and actively 'wait' for Him...


Here's Richard Rohr's take on this verse:

The essential religious experience is that you are being “known through” more than knowing anything in particular yourself. Yet despite this difference, it will feel like true knowing. This new way of knowing can be called contemplation, nondualistic thinking, or “third-eye” seeing. Such prayer, such seeing, takes away your anxiety about figuring it all out fully for yourself, or needing to be right about your formulations.

At this point, God becomes more a verb than a noun, more a process than a conclusion, more an experience than a dogma, more a personal relationship than an idea. There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not so afraid of making mistakes. You know even those will be used in your favor. At that point you also have awakened from your stone pillow, and you know with a new clarity what you partly knew all along!

I love the idea of God being more that a static noun or dogma or conclusion...

God is so much more, and the relational aspect of His nature is marvelous...

I can't dance to save my life...

so the image of God as my dancing partner who doesn't scold me when I take the wrong step or tread on his toes is comforting...

I'm no good at maths !

i'm absolutely crap at maths...

look at this link

http://www.kesterbrewin.com/2011/10/13/insurrection-you-are-being-unreasonable-confirmation-bias/

i got the bat & ball problem wrong - but after a couple of attempts i (think) it's £1.05 !!!

take a look for yourself at Kester Brewin's post on Pete Rollins latest book and reason...

i rely much too much on intuition

Jesus camp

Jesus Camp - the 2006 American film/documentary was broadcast last night on Franco-German TV channel ARTÉ. The film shows the 'extreme' fundamentalist brand of America Charismatic Evangelicalism.

Jesus camp is about the 'Kids on fire School of Ministry' ; a Summer camp for children.

I was deeply shocked by what I saw. Kids as young as 5 being manipulated, put on a guilt trip in order to repent of their 'sins'. Not only 'manipulation' but also acute 'indoctrination' was in clear evidence. The kids were made to think that they were the only ones who were 'saved', 'going to heaven' (instead of hell), which is a narrow sectarian view of God, salvation and his relationship to us human beings.

The political leanings were also blatant - both patriotic and right wing - pro republican/George Bush.

Also another aspect of their belief was that of 'War' - War against the devil - which implies war against those who are not one of them - ie gays, muslims, liberals, non-Christians...

I was repulsed by this bigoted style of religion which is at odds with the teaching and life of the Christ.

Jesus was all embracing (he ate with 'sinners', touched the untouchables...), his message was Good News! (Forgiveness, healing, acceptance) based on love (for God, neighbor, enemy and yourself)...His way was that of humility and service...

I was also saddened when I thought back to some years ago when I was part of a similar church...the film was a reminder that we can be so misguided into thinking that we're following God when we're actually feeding our own ego!

May God guard us from such folly!

OPEN HOGs

I went to Croatia recently and by accident was only 8Kms away from the Harley Davidson European Festival. Bikers from all over Europe gathered together to share their passion for the prestigious American machines. In our hotel a few bikers were accommodated and i was told that everyone was welcome to attend the festival.

We decided to go and take a look. I was impressed by the multitude of bikes present and the distance their owners had ridden to be at the festival. The a atmosphere was amazing, friendly and open to all...Inclusive...

Reminds me of how another community should be but unfortunately is not always...

A community that follows a man that included the wild and marginalized in his entourage...

The church has become a club for respectable, nice middle-class people...to be accepted into this group one has to put on the nice respectable look, especially on Sunday.

Ok so I might be exaggerating a bit but I think you get the picture.