A Sunday Conflict

What does one do with a Sunday conflict of interest? Last Sunday was Pentecost and Mother's Day. Take a quick straw poll of people who went to church and find out what their service was about. Choosing one over another expresses a priority or choice is being made.

If you want to know the theology of a congregation look at what they are singing. If you want to know the theology of a church look at the attitude to the presence or absence of sacraments and which seasons of the church year are celebrated. Christmas and Easter What about the whole season of Advent or Lent? What about Pentecost? Ascension? Ash Wednesday? What is actually celebrated? Anniversaries? Birthdays? National Holidays? Thanksgiving? Sacraments and time given to them in the community? What are the sacraments or sometime known as ordinances? They are an outward sign, instituted by the church, that conveys an inward, spiritual grace through Christ. The main two are Baptism and the Eucharist/Holy Communion. Many Christians recognize parts or all of these seven Sacraments or Divine Mysteries or ordinances: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, ordination, confession, anointing of the sick, and marriage. Which do your community practice?

The Postmodern critique and specifically deconstruction asks us to look at not what is there but what isn't there because it's absence is significant and says more than what is actually included. Thus the absent is actually made present because of its exclusion. Not being included because of ignorance of the option is one thing but not being included reveals values both conscious and unconscious. So what is your value system, your worldview, your theology?

An Evangelical Manifesto

Seventh, Evangelicalism is distinctive for the way it looks equally to both the past and the future. In its very essence, Evangelicalism goes back directly to Jesus and the Scriptures, not just as a matter of historical roots, but as a commitment of the heart and as the tenor of its desire and thought; and not just once, but again and again as the vital principle of its way of life. To be Evangelical is therefore not only to be deeply personal in faith, strongly committed to ethical holiness in life, and marked by robust voluntarism in action, but to live out a faith whose dynamism is shaped unashamedly by truth and history. Evangelical Manifesto

I'm an evangelical but very much ashamed by some others who take the label. Their lives, attitudes and behaviour do not match their words. Their Gospel is shallow and seems irrelevant and unconnected to the Christ of the Bible. In the USA there is now a movement, seeking to separate evangelicals from "two opposite tendencies to which Protestantism has been prone: liberal revisionism and conservative fundamentalism." I've only started to look over their material but I'm already very interested. More from the seventh assertion

The Evangelical principle is therefore a call to self-examination, reflection, and a willingness to be corrected and to change whenever necessary. ... to be Evangelical is to recognize the primacy of the authority of Scripture, which points us to Jesus, and so to see the need to conserve a form behind all re-form. We therefore regard reason and faith as allies rather than enemies, and find no contradiction between head and heart, between being fully faithful on the one hand, and fully intellectually critical and contemporary on the other.

I need to spend time reading and thinking about their position. The Steering Committee contains people who I deeply respect and whose intellectual work has been soundly challenging. Want to read more? They are here.

Some technology

I have come to be quite connected to some of my technology and recently disconnected as well.

My TV finally died and after 10 weeks I put outside on the curb and it disappeared overnight. My PDA, a Handspring Visor, has finally died. Sadly because I had bibles, dictionaries and all manner of things installed on it! I'll probably want to ultimately replace it with something that does a similar job.

However my ipod nano is taking up some of the slack. I bought lanyard earbuds so I wear this necklace around my neck from which the ipod is suspended. This means I don't have to have ear buds on all the time nor coil them up and put them in my pocket. I also bought a Noma Pocket Power Charger R4 which is a battery pack and recharger. This allows me to listen on the move and on my travels recharge without a computer. This really worked well at Christmas when I was away and also when I went to the UK. It also recharges spare AA NiHM batteries for my camera, razor etc. In the tiny ipod I carry the ESV NewTestament, my to-do-list from my computer, my contacts book, my calendars, more music and video than I have time to listen to.

The problem whether you have the latest technology, or the most beautiful cello it is the ability of the person, both technically and artistically, who uses it that counts. In life and spirituality in the end technology is no substitute for relationships, serious relationship, whether with music and the instrument or with God.

rehabilitation

Carlin turned up at my table at lunch on Sunday and dropped two slim books down in such a way as to impress me: Jürgen Moltmann's Experiences of God and Karl Barth on prayer. I was impressed. I haven't had an opportunity to read Moltmann and in 15 minutes I got quickly through 30 some pages before my friend's return. I found this beautiful quote on page 29.

"Faith does not mean registering a fact called 'the resurrection'. Faith means experiencing the creative power of God, who makes the impossible reality."

Wednesday over lunch, a pastor asked me about a book I'd read recently which was significant. Without hesitation I said Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. I think he says many things I agree with, in fact I can't find anything I radically disagreed with him. Somehow he asserts what I've been thinking about for a few years now. We agreed even to the point where he says

"Test it Probe it... Do that to this book. Don't swallow it uncritically. Think about it. Wrestle with it. Just because I'm a Christian and I'm trying to articulate a Christian worldview doesn't mean I've got it nailed. ... God has spoken and the rest is commentary, right?"

I have great difficulties here because I agree with him because I had the same conclusions before I read the book. He and I are working out of the same paradigm.

"Oftentimes the Christian community has sent the message that we love people and build relationships in order to convert them ... so there is an agenda. And when there is an agenda, it isn't really love is it? It's something else. We have to rediscover love, period. Love that loves because it is what Jesus teaches us to do. We have to surrender our agendas."

We're not talking rocket science here. We talking straightforward honesty. Getting our motivations and reasons in order. The same issues of whether you merely talk the talk or if you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk to make authentic and real. Moltmann reminds us that it is God who can make this happen and not us! God make the impossible real. Get your head around Velvet Elvis ASAP.

Re-ordering

This week seemed to be empty and yet I'm busy. Tidying up and organizing and trying desperately to have a system to complete things. I gave up and recognized I still have continuous partial attention issues (read original posting here) I've noticed that as soon as I open my email account I forget the things I needed to do or get done. Now I realized I need find a way of keeping some focus. Its like my going to the kitchen and not remembering why I went there so opening the fridge and looking inside became my reflex action.

Well after some thinking I needed a to-do-list. OK I hear you say get a piece of paper and a pencil. I tried that and using my daytimer and it doesn't work for me anymore. I realized I couldn't use ical on my Mac because I didn't want to entries to be date dependent, but I still wanted it loaded into my ipod. Some research and examining and trying out a few different programs, I have decided on a program called Checkoff. It's simple and sits in the menu bar but can be locked open. You can color code items and group them and it syncs with an ipod seamlessly. As I have an idea or a spare moment I jump and update it. Here I also consolidated my email accounts and tidied up my inbox and removed confusing email addresses and made sure I got rid of out of date stuff.

I've also returned to one of my internet devotion sites to bring more focus. It's a Catholic Jesuit site with a very helpful guided meditation each day. (here if you're interested). It's grounded in a gospel meditation reflecting about what God has to say to us out of the passage.

Also I've been examining the practice of the novena, which is a focused 9 days of prayer for a specific grace from God. It seems again a very helpful practice to bring focus to my life. Unfortunately there are many novenas to Mary and saints which are unacceptable theologically for me but I've found a very helpful one to the Holy Spirit. (here)

Now I have to continue the discipline of washing dishes and clothes and trying to start to practice the cello everyday. I have started emptying the fridge of out of date and other stuff especially stuff from before Christmas. And yet I have met up with students and pastors and had significant conversations and written a short guide to why blogs are helpful and important. And now I am finding peace again, shalom and I feel that I am functioning as I should with a greater sense of God.

Freedom Attracts

When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not. Freedom attracts wherever it appears. A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell. Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us. But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom. ... Where true inner freedom is, there is God. And where God is, there we want to be. Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey

In my own struggles I don't feel free but somehow there is freedom. One international student has consistently asked me why I seem so content. I don't feel it very much but she sees or feels something that she does not have.

This last week I've thought about my trip and also looked forwards. Through ministry meetings and spiritual direction I know I need very much to deal issues of freedom within structure. To my friends this means I've started cleaning and tidying up my physical living space, I still have taxes and other things to deal with. I think freedom has to deal with "freedom to do something" and "freedom for a purpose or person". Put another way in spiritual terms the second includes freedom to act for self but for God's sake, to do things for ourselves because of the love God has for us.

what is prayer?

I had a new moment of understanding something I already knew. Reading this morning I came across this in my daily readings from Heartlight.

Prayer is more than asking. Prayer is more than praising. Prayer is more than thanking. Prayer is more than requesting or interceding or kneeling or humbling ourselves. Prayer is expecting that God wants us there, expecting that God hears us, and expecting that God will meet us in our prayer time and do what is best for us and those we love.

One of my mentorees wrote this passionate comment in her email this week. " that we might live and be truly alive in & through His word...not to escape from reality or to gather facts we'll recycle in the shredder as we leave, but to more fully see reality of our world in His eyes, to know Him and His voice & ENJOY His presence."

The struggle is in our expectations, what God might do, that God might be interested in us and the detritus of our lives. That God might want to be involved, that God might change our vision and way of seeing.

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3

servant leadership

Spiritual leadership is the leadership of the Good Shepherd. As Jesus says, good shepherds know their sheep, and their sheep know them (see John 10:14). There must be a true mutuality between shepherds and their sheep. Good leaders know their own, and their own know them. Between them is mutual trust, mutual openness, mutual care, and mutual love. To follow our leaders we cannot be afraid of them, and to lead our followers we need their encouragement and support. ... Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd to show the great intimacy that must exist between leaders and those entrusted to them. Without such intimacy, leadership easily becomes oppressive. Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey

So much of Nouwen's writing provokes thought and when reflected on I can find real circumstances where people feel oppressed or walked over or ignored. Often we don't need to change things for things sake. We need to change ourselves for God's sake. As I listened on my trip I found so much which reminded me of this. Christian leadership is not about management but about recognizing who is the owner/leader and being attentive to Him.

Reflections on my UK trip part 1

Sometimes we behave like children in a toy shop. We want this, and that, and then something else. The many options confuse us and create an enormous restlessness in us. When someone says, "Well, what do you want? You can have one thing. Make up your mind," we do not know what to choose. - As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy. That is why we need inner and outer disciplines, to go beyond these wants and discover our mission in life. Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey

I'm glad to be home. That seems like a strange statement given that I went home but the paradoxes of my life are exposed. The UK isn't home anymore. It feel distantly familiar and meeting family and friends was good but it isn't home. But here isn't really home either because there is much which isn't familiar and I still don't understand. This perhaps is a new understanding for me of being in and not of the world.

Two thing's struck me on my trip home and coming home. One was the rampant consumerism and hedonism. Every other shop seemed to be a restaurant/pub /coffee shop, and the supermarkets have become an overwhelming wall of choice. The other, a new need for purpose or direction in life, perhaps even identity. I found this walking around looking and listening - all the while reading and thinking about Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell of Mars Hill fame. I suppose I was experiencing the homegenization effect of globalization. We need to sharpen our reading skills especially for our culture.

Blogging can kill

I just came across an article in the New York Times - In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop (read it here) Apparently two significant bloggers have died and others have significant health problems. I do recognize my own internet activity is high since the tv died! But the blogging is less - You figure? But then again my tv addiction has virtually disappeared because I don't have one! I didn't have a color tv until 7 years ago and in fact I went for 3 years without a tv set before that.

I've been reading about willpower on the net for a week (see this earlier article here I found through Lifehacker links) and I've blogged about willpower since I started this blog. The idea from the research is that we only have a limited amount of willpower and generally if we direct it in one direction then we will have problems in others as we expend it. Interestingly no-one seems to be talking about transformation, conversion, changing behaviour patterns. We don't live in fully closed universes where all the resources are from within. Spirituality looks for resources from beyond. Christians look for energy, support even transformation and healing from God. If truly we look beyond within an authentic relationship then it is miraculous how much can be achieved or changed. However this is in the context where we assert we do nothing in our own strength. Just think if we directed out limited willpower resources into a relationship with God, into the spiritual disciplines which can in turn direct us to the resources of God what then is possible?

'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. Zechariah 4:6

The Beauty of Shyness

There is something beautiful about shyness, even though in our culture shyness is not considered a virtue. On the contrary, we are encouraged to be direct, look people straight in the eyes, tell them what is on our minds, and share our stories without a blush. But this unflinching soul-baring, confessional attitude quickly becomes boring. It is like trees without shadows. Shy people have long shadows, where they keep much of their beauty hidden from intruders' eyes. Shy people remind us of the mystery of life that cannot be simply explained or expressed. They invite us to reverent and respectful friendships and to a wordless being together in love. Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey

I miss this quality in North America. The ability to attract by standing and being half hidden in the shadows. Somehow this reminds me of a parable. Are we the loud ones or the quiet ones? In my English conversation teaching I wonder whether teaching confidence is a good thing or not.

Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: 'Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. Luke 18:11

Fools and Foolery

How do we know something is deceptive? Fake? A Lie?

Well perhaps sometimes it looks too attractive and distracting. In fact seductive that all we can see is that alluring vision. If we find ourselves having to strongly justify this particularly with a sustained rational argument there is cause to be suspicious of the motives in the background. What happened? All you can see is this thing or vision and what is missing is God in the process! In discernment it matters which way you are facing: Whether you are already striving to be faithful and recognize there is a God active in your life or whether you are in denial turning away. Logic has it's place and feeling their place depending on where we're headed. But we can do no good if God is not part of the process.

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.” Psalm 14:1