Righteous not ritual

"I can see a swath of sinners settin' yonder
And they're actin' like a pack of fools.
Gazin' into space lettin' their minds wander,
'Stead of studyin' the good Lord's rules.
You better pay attention,
Build your comprehension,
There's gonna be a quiz at your ascension.
Not to mention any threat of hell,
But if you're smart you'll learn your lessons well!"
Godspell (Stephen Schwartz & John-Michael Tebelak)

I'm currently reading A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren. It's an intriguing book. McLaren looks at many strands of Christianity and concludes - by emphasizing the best of them, and ignoring or redefining the worst of them - that he is all of them. My own approach has often been to conclude that I am none of them, but my method is much the same. Take the best. Ignore or adapt the best. Admit that you are unlikely to be right. Refuse to judge others or feel 'superior' about their theological errors.

One important thing strikes me from his book though. Jesus ministry was a practical expression of God's love. Yet all too often we can treat it as if we are cramming for a theory test.

...many orthodoxies have always and everywhere assumed that orthodox (right-thinking and opinion about the gospel) and orthopraxy (right practice of the gospel) could and should be separated. In that traditional setting orthodoxy could be articulated and debated by scholars who had little responsibility to actually live by or live out the orthodoxy they defended.

A generous orthodoxy (Brian McClaren)

A misunderstanding...

"One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, 'Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?'

Then he said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.'" Mark 2:23,24,27&28 (NIV)

This story has really piqued my curiosity in the last week or so. It occurs to me this is one of the few places where we get to see behind the curtain. Jesus gives us a glimpse into God's motives for setting the Sabbath law.

The pharisees had come to a place where the written law was more important to them than God. They thought observance of the law in its own right was enough to grant access into the presence of God. But that was not God's intention at all.

In the Old Testament it is interesting that the law is given after the Isralites were rescued from Egypt. God had already redeemed them. He gave them the law, not to save them - but to show them how to live now that they were saved. He also gave them the sacrifical system because he understood they could never live up to the law. The principal sin of Old Testament Israel was not that it sinned, but that it turned to idols to make amends rather than trusting in God's provision. The pharisees avoided the mistake of idolatry - but they fell into the trap of trusting their own good works rather than God's provision.

And then along comes Jesus and tells them that not only is observance of the law insufficient, it is, in this case, misguided. God created the sabbath law not because he demanded it, but because he knew we needed it.

Rest

"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God, your God. Don't do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days God made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day." Exodus 20: 8-11 (The Message)

It's been a long while since my last post. This is partly because I find myself in the same place - of having very little to say to God - and partly because I've been busy. But God has not been quiet. Recently, I've felt quite challenged on the subject of rest.

Since August I've been developing a website. As is often the case it started as a list of tasks which progressed rapidly. Soon, however, various niggles appeared and the to-do list, far from diminishing, grew more rapidly than it shrank! As a result I have spent loads of time on the computer. Evenings. Mornings. Weekends. Sunday afternoons. Towards the end of this I became very weary and felt a prompted to keep the sabbath as a day of rest. Not complete inactivity, but something different. Something set apart.

This weekend I was away, but I deliberately didn't take my laptop. Instead of starting Sunday morning at the computer, I curled up in an armchair to read N T Wright's. Surprised by Hope. It was both relaxing, and immensely spiritually refreshing. Sometimes it seems we are responsible for our own dry spells.

Living in the light of tomorrow

"For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory." Romans 8: 29-30 (New Living Translation)

In my last entry - A Different Reality - I concluded that despite being in right-standing with God, all too often I choose not to live like it. I know that God is love and yet I act as if he can't love me. I know that God forgives, but I don't forgive myself. Because I don't understand his plan I assume that there is none and I make my own.

Unfortunately, the realisation that I live this way is the easy bit. Changing the way that I view the world is much harder and at this point I am not really sure I even know how to. In the end it makes my prayer for vision all the more fervent. Lord God, reveal your Kingdom to me and my part within it.

Home is where the heart is

"For the grim years where removed from the face of Aragorn, and he seemed clothed in white, a young lord tall and fair; and he spoke words in the elvish tongue to one whom Frodo could not see. Arwen vanilmelda namarië! he said, and then he drew a breath, and returning out of his thought he looked at Frodo and smiled.

'Here is the heart of elvendom on earth,' he said. 'and here my heart dwells ever, unless there be a light beyond the dark roads that we still must tread, you and I...'" The Lord of the Rings

The tail-end of Matthew six seems very appropriate for an era of 'credit-crunch'.

Do not store treasure on earth where insects and decay destroy or thieves may rob you. Where banks may fail or stocks may lose value in market crashes. Instead store treasure in heaven where these things do not happen. For where your treasure is will be where your heart dwells also. [My paraphrase]

In The Lord of the Rings Aragorn's heart is with the elves - and with one elf in particular. It is their nobility and the hope of what may yet be which spurs him on to achieve the daunting task ahead of him. In completing his quest, coming into the kingship and gaining the hand of Lady Arwen he gains all the other things as well. So it is in scripture.

At the end of Matthew six Jesus concludes his treatise on where our treasure lies with these words. "But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you as well". This is not prosperity gospel. Jesus is not saying that we will be rich beyond dreams on earth. He himself was not a rich man. His followers did not come in to riches on his departure. But it is a promise of basic provision. Needs will be met. It seems to me, the kingdom of God is about letting go our grasp on the material to gain a greater treasure.

Love extravagantly

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matt 22: 33-40 (NIV)

I've been reflecting a lot on my statement about having run out of words. In the last few weeks it feels like I've spent more time with God and said less to him than in any comparable period in my life. Heading up the road at lunchtime for a stroll in the local cemetary I invite God to walk with me. The very thought brings a smile to my lips. I know he's with me even if I say nothing more beyond it. It seems that having nothing more to say is not such a bad place to be.

When I mentioned this to a friend at the weekend he referred me to a book by Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God. This simple work expounds the principle of doing everything for the love of God. It's deceptively simple. Love of God becomes Brother Lawrence's motivation, and his reward, for all tasks easy or hard, spiritual or secular. And as he works out this simple creed all things become holy, and all fears dispelled.

The most excellent method he had found for going to God was that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men but purely for the love of God.

Brother Lawrence felt it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times. We are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action, as by prayer in its time. His own prayer was simply a sense of the presence of God, his soul being at that time aware of nothing other than Divine Love. When the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because he still continued with God, praising and thanking Him with all his might. Thus his life was a continual joy.

Baby steps

"Fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it." Romans 12: 2a (The Message)

The search for vision continues. Although I confess I have not been good at asking God about it. A few days ago, however, I decided to revisit Romans 12. Over the last couple of years I have used this passage as sort of creed. The basis of a code by which to try and live. But it is hard, not least when you don't entirely understand it.

Take the verse above. The question which immediately springs into my mind is how do I recognise what it is that God wants? Surely if it were that easy everyone would be doing it already? It's like saying to a blind man "shout out every time I show you a different colour" or to a deaf man "tap your foot to the beat of this drum".

And then it hit me. Maybe it really is that easy. Perhaps the reason I don't recognise what God wants is because I'm always looking for big things. Some huge voice to tell me to go on a quest of great importance. Perhaps, however, the voice is not huge - but just the gentle prompting of scripture. And perhaps the quest is seemingly minor. Fix your attention on me. Spend a few more minutes a day with me. Get to know me better.

A friend of mine came round this evening and brought the story of David Wilkerson to my attention. He is well known for his outreach to the gangs of New York. Yet, according to my friend - the beginning of his call was being told to sell his TV. If he had never got past that, he may never have gone on to achieve what he did.

Perhaps the reason I see no big vision is because I am too ready to compromise the apparently smaller one which sits in front of it...

Be thou my vision

"My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving." Col 2: 6-7 (The Message)

A few days ago I came again to the critical realisation that I have no longer have any vision for my current job. It is not an entirely new thought, but it is one that I have either pushed away or forgotten on previous occurrences. The problem with this is that, as a leader, vision is a crucial part of of what I should provided for my team. Ps 29: 18 says "Where there is no vision the people perish". I don't think my team is exactly perishing, but there is a lack of focus, a lack of urgency and a general feeling of floundering.

Bill Hybels has this to say in his book Courageous Leadership:

Vision is at the very core of leadership. Take vision away from a leader and you cut out his or her heart. Vision is the fuel that leaders run on. It is the energy that creates action. It is the fire that ignites the passion of followers.

So what am I going to do about it? This is slightly more tricky! I decided last week that at the very least I should pray for vision, which I have started to do.

This morning my bible readings brought me to the passage in Colossians, quoted above. Whilst not entirely helpful it gives me pause to think. Maybe living out my faith should be my vision - and if that is not the focus of my job, then maybe I'm no longer in the right one...

The word made flesh

"I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. " Ps 119: 10-11

It's been a while since I have written. Moving house, a bout of ill health and other preoccupations have kept me away. The last few weeks have been a spiritually dry place. I have yelled at God a lot. His answers are, more often than not, non-answers. I see this often in scripture. God does not answer man's direct question, choosing rather to focus his replies on strengthening our relationship with him.

Last weekend I was home again, helping my father look after my mother who's Alzheimer's continues to get worse. During this time he told me how little time he had to himself these days. He hardly even finds time to read his bible. Here is someone who has a real cause to yell at God. And yet his words were tinged with hope and joy not sadness or anger. He went on to tell me that many days he just picks a story in his mind and goes over what he knows of it. He has read the bible so many times it has become part of his thinking. So deeply ingrained in his soul that being deprived of the text is no hardship.

As I left, I stole two of my mother's Henri Nouwen books. She cannot read more than a few words without losing the thread these days so I figured she would not miss them. In one of them I found this.

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish and when the fish are caught the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to snare rabbits and when the rabbits are caught the snare is forgotten. The purpose of the word is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.

In my thinking about the sermon on the mount I am drawn to conclude that the words are not the important thing, beautiful though they are. It is the lifestyle that is important. The concepts need to be so deeply carved into the fabric of our souls that we live that way without thinking. Looking at the example of my father I fear I still have a long way to go...

Transformation by service

Last November my mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Over a period of a few short months she deteriorated from very tired and mildly forgetful to being almost incapable of looking after herself. In the early days before a care plan was established things became a little fraught at home. To help my father I spent some time looking after mum. Part way through this I found myself washing her (very dirty) feet. It was not a task that I would have naturally chosen.

It was not an easy few days. I had very little sleep and was emotionally and physically exhausted. Yet those moments stick out in my memory as immensely special times. In caring for someone I loved, I found myself able to do jobs which under any other circumstance I would have found distasteful and looked back on in horror. On reflection it was not really my mother who benefited. Certainly her feet were cleaner and her toenails cut. She would have been more comfortable for a few days at least. I doubt that she has any recollection of it now. The impact on me runs far deeper. I learned things about myself I never knew. It made me think in new ways about what it really means to love my neighbour.

Each evening after I had settled my mother to sleep I read a bit from The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey. One chapter talks of an encounter with Henri Nouwen. Yancey was staggered to find that Nouwen had given up a high-profile job to look after mentally handicapped patients.

Nouwen told me it took him nearly two hours to prepare Adam each day. Bathing and shaving him, brushing his teeth, combing his hair, guiding his hand as he tried to eat breakfast - these simple, repetitive acts had become for him almost like an hour of meditation.

I must admit I had a fleeting doubt as to whether this was the best use of the busy priest's time. Could not someone else take over the manual chores? When I cautiously broached the subject with Nouwen himself, he informed me that I had completely misinterpreted him. "I am not giving up anything," he insisted. "It is I, not Adam, who gets the main benefit from our friendship."

Now, nearly six months later I am still absorbing this. Nouwen was a well-known author and theologian. He had earned world-wide respect for the insight of his books, and yet he dedicated the last ten years of his life to the direct care of others. This takes me back to the idea of living sacrifice I started with. And yet losing his life to serve others Nouwen gained so much. Yancy goes on to write "He had learned to love Adam, truly to love him. In the process he had learned what it must be like for God to love us."

To die would be an awfully big adventure...

I love that quotation from Peter Pan. Like so much of the children's literature of its era it seems to communicate a great profundity. But I love it even more because it reminds me of Romans 12. The concept of offering our bodies as living sacrifices. The Message puts it so much better than I ever could.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.

This is scary stuff and I'm not entirely sure I know what it means, or that I've got what it takes. This is not dying on the altar, but living an entirely different way. Living for something bigger. Living for someone else.

Today I'm not so much starting on as committing to a journey. I've been meandering on this quest for many years. I suspect I will still be doing so for many years to come. But in searching for the kingdom I have concluded I need to track my progress. Hence the blog. It's really just for me - but part of the fun is seeing who else is travelling.

To die? Maybe. To live? That's harder. To live for God? That really would be an awfully big adventure...