The hallmark of the kingdom

"Ooh, your love is a symphony, all around me, running through me.
Ooh, your love is a melody, underneath me, running to me.
Oh your love is a song..."
Your love is a song (Switchfoot)

If you were to ask anyone on the street what is the first word that comes into mind when they think of Christianity, I wonder what they would say? Somehow I doubt for many that the word woul be love. Yet in John's Gospel Jesus says love is the mark by which we will be known as his disciples. Our love for one another. It comes right after Jesus demonstrates his love for his disciples by washing their feet. It come not long before Jesus demonstrates his love for the whole world by sacrificing his life.

Practical love means not judging. Not excluding. Not obsessing over doctrine or theology. Practical love means getting our hands dirty and engaging with people where they are. Mind you, I'm not saying it is something I'm good at - but it is definately something to aspire to!

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."

1 Corinthians 13: 1-4

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.

The path of righteousness

"As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" 1 Peter 1: 14-16

Nine months since the last entry. In one sense, little has changed. I still feel I am in the silence. I am still challenged about Sabbath. I still believe the Kingdom is simpler than we make it. Yet in another sense the challenge is becoming increasingly real. In the silence I am slowly learning to listen to God. In the silence I am learning to recognise his voice.

Last Sunday I was forced to reflect on my strap-line, and realised it is a contract in three parts. Firstly "seek first the kingdom". Secondly "seek his righteousness". And thirdly "all these other things will be added unto you..."

In my search for the kingdom it is easy to leap from the first to the third, as if seeking alone were enough. But righteousness living is important to God too. He recognises that is not easy, and grace is his provision for that. But that does not absolve me from trying. As Paul concludes in Romans 6 to go on sinning in order that grace may abound is to deny the reality of my new life in Christ...

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.

Born to be me

"...we then picture God as a kind of employment committee whose business it is to find suitable careers for souls, square holes for square pegs. In fact, however, the value of the individual does not lie in him. He is capable of receiving value. He receives it by union with Christ. There is no question of finding for him a place in the living temple which will do justice to his inherent value and give him scope for his natural idiosyncrasy. The place was there first. The man was created for it. He will not be himself until he is there." Membership (C.S.Lewis)

There have been lots of profound thoughts running around my brain the last few months - but whenever I sit down to blog they evaporate. Either that or they reduce themselves to something I've written already. I'm steadily concluding the kingdom is easier than I have been making it. Easier as in less complex, although simplicity is often hard to attain.

In the gospels Jesus often says "he who has ears to hear let him hear". He talks about us needing faith like that of a child. He means that it is simple. It's us who make it complex. Like Naaman, we want a nobler cure. Theology often muddies the water. Our feelings of obligation grow. We lose our perspective of God's love. His sense of our worth. His grace. We start to struggle. And that precisely is where we lose contact with the kingdom. Jesus distills the commandments down to just two. Love God and love your neighbour. If you do these all the rest of the law falls into place.

That quotation from Lewis makes me wonder. God made me unique. Gave me skills and character. Molded me to be me. Put me in a family. Provided me a saviour. If I aim to be the best me that I can be; love God and love those around me maybe that is it. The Kingdom. And the things is, I don't even need to be worried about the things I can't do. Because Jesus took care of the most important one and then popped me into a family, a body, chock full of people who are good at things I'm not.

The long, dark night...

"Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." John 12:24-25 (The Message)

Looking back at my Good Friday post I had planned a triumphalistic follow on. Posts to follow Easter and reflect on the wonder of the resurrection. The truth is, however, I'm still stuck in that pause for breath. The last few months have been "interesting". I have watched the organisation I work for once again seemingly tearing itself apart. People have left who are still committed to what we do, not because they want to go but because of financial pressures or a perceived need for efficiency. A lot of it has been at best badly-handled and at worst unnecessary.

My own walk with God still seems stuck in the silence that I talked about last September. Small signs of growth and movement are visible - but the big picture still has not emerged. In the midst of it all I continue to cling to one thing. God knows what he is doing. As Adrian Plass would say, "Nothing is wasted".

For my colleagues moving on to new things I hold firmly to Romans 8: 28 - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose". The loss of a job is painful - but each ending is a new beginning. The circumstances may be regrettable, but God can weave something amazing from them. If I am unable as yet to see the pattern that is emerging I am left once more to just to wait.