We are but we are not

Following Christ in the world as it is today is challenging as we express God's love in fulfillment of Christ's commandments. It is hard for us to use the expressions of faith in a world that is dominated by science and reason. A world that is focused on rational thought and lacks the ability to appreciate the otherness that is portrayed in the transcendence of God's presence....or is it. Perhaps it is just that we have failed to capture an ability to show that transcendence and bring it into the lives of the everyday. Christ prays for his disciples and by extension ourselves as we live in the world and are yet not of the world (Jn 17.15-19). This recognition of the tension in the reality of coming to understand transcendence as being part of the world but at seeming odds with the rationality of our lived experience is an important aspect to understand.

The very first thing that we need to understand is that this is something that effects all of us but most especially it effects both how we look at and also how we interact with the structures that we put in place for mission, ministry and being effective disciples in the world. Charles Taylor, the noted philosopher, has suggested that this tension is a result of our becoming more opaque to the world as a result of our modern rational scientific approach. In other words we do not see mystery and transcendence as a part of life. Yet, when we look around us this ability to interact with mystery is present although changed / morphed / transformed being seen in the enormous appeal of films that portray magic / super-power / the clash of good and evil. So, is there an actual division that has to be overcome or a tension between the two that has to be ameliorated in terms of our faith lives and our secular lives. We see very obviously in the Church of today the impost of legal requirements that are set by secular society and how the Church often appears to have taken these on with little consideration on the effects on faith and the faith community. 1 John is very clear in how we should undertake these interactions (5.9-13) by promoting our living in Christ. Often in the reality of the day our faith journey is disrupted by the imposed requirements of non-faith understandings and requirements thus disabling our ability to perceive the transcendence of God in our midst.

Every second is God's it does not need to be managed.

Perhaps, as an example we need to look at how we go about organising an outing that involves children. Not that long ago it was acceptable to plan and go to a camp site without much fuss. Today of course there are insurance forms, working with children's checks and any other number of hurdles that have to be overcome before it is even booked. This is not to say that these things are perhaps necessary but the danger for us is that the more there is to arrange the less likely it is to become a reality. The simple outlook of a previous seculum has now become an over managed project with little in the way of Christ-likeness portrayed. Sometimes we need to be careful as to what becomes overmanaged and how this may disrupt our ability as Christians to minister to different groups. Christ in John's gospel recognises the difficulty even then but it has become greater as time has passed and as we as Christians have allowed our secular eyes to focus more than our sacred eyes. Christ did not ask us to become his disciples to manage things but to open people to an encounter with God. Even in our liturgical spaces we must become ever wary of the idea that it is static and conforms to a specific ideal, the music, the movement must all be something that enhances a persons experience. Can we really say that this piece of music is unsuitable and this not if people come to worship and praise through its presence? Sometimes we try to manage even the smallest detail not realising that we are destroying our ability to reach those who have not met God. We need to live our faith not manage our faith. We need to see God's presence in the day to day and not just in the managed space of the "Sunday service".

Can we obey Christ's commandment?

We honour it every week in our traditional and non-traditional services; we acknowledge it, we affirm it, we say that this is what we do, but do we actually manifest this commandment in the world? I reckon that if every Christian actually did undertake the words of Christ in John 15.17 the world would be a different place. This is fully at the heart of the Gospel and yet for all we proclaim it we do not and I repeat, we do not obey this one commandment that follows from the love of God. I can already hear every Christian that reads this saying "But we do". I am saying no you do not. How do I know this because the state the world is in. It is in fact irrespective of what faith anyone holds, there is a consistency of thought throughout every faith that the world would be better if we got over ourselves and loved each other.  This does not happen and I do not have to go through reams of examples to show the bigotry of the world and its people whether it is Australia, UK or USA it is the same.

Why? It is perhaps simply the fact that we are to involved with our selves and our own needs that we are unconcerned about the needs of others. We only wish to be associated with those we can get on with rather than those we cannot. Once we start this we begin to create our own little enclaves of those who belong and those who do not. In a way the division starts even with the writer of 1 John as they draw the lines of acceptance in the sand (1 John 5.12). Once we begin we cannot and dare not stop creating the divisions that we are comfortable with, within the societies that we belong to. Once we have the society than all others are non-members and are to be shunned as they are not us. The wall has been formed and it becomes increasingly impossible to breach the barrier and reach the individual, group, society on the other side.

We are called from our baptism to form community and to enable others to come to God through Christ. However, we begin to baulk at this because it means so much we immediately take it that it is an onerous and thankless task, so the designated person can do it for us. They will present programs and that will enable our ability to undertake that which we need to do.  If it brings success then we will continue and re-iterate irrespective what else is going on around us. Perhaps we can put a programme in for young people, perhaps we can undertake home groups, perhaps we can prepare to undertake some form of outreach service and bring "GOD" into it. We need to manage the situation so that we can deliver God's love or so it would seem. A really good programme or mission is all that is required and if it is managed properly then we will have people pouring in the doors, a full church.  But is that what Christ set his disciples to do? Did he send them out to gather the crowds so that they could become part of the "Church" or did he send them out to bring God closer to the people so that they would realise that God was with them and part of them?

At the end of the day does it really matter if the "Church" grows, isn't that what God is about, surely our job, our calling is to live as Christ and bring God close to those who are unable to come close to God. It is God's love that matters not whether the Church grows. As someone else has said the Church exists to glorify God after that, whether it grows or not is up to God. Our "job" is to follow Christ in the costly calling of God's love not to ensure that the numbers in the pew are increasing, that is nowhere near the top of the list of commandments.  What is is to love God and love our neighbour and the first thing to be done there is to break down the walls that have arisen around our own enclaves, to open the doors to all so that we can share God's love with all.  How do we do that? Well if we are not doing it at present perhaps now the time to start by saying "Hello", "Ciao!", "Kaya", "Jingari" and any other number of greetings to those you do not know as you walk the malls and streets of your everyday life.

Hello, Ciao!, Kaya, Jingeri, Salut or whatever you want to break the divisions between our cultures

Operating with love

The Church has become inundated with a number of proposals as to what and how to "grow" and become relevant in society. Denominations are feeling the pinch with lowered numbers of those attending and in mainline denominations are burdened with requirements from "head office" to fulfill. Those who come to church feel burdened with the need to fulfill requirements of the "church" and then find time for the shared gospel. Perhaps the only time of solace is worship and we don't want any of that loud bangy music or a sermon that is so high powered that we do not understand half the words. We feel badgered but do not want to give up our place in the faith community's worship, we feel we don't want to contribute realistically to anything going on but rather will attend some event put on for us or the community.

So do we manage this or do we move out into mission or do we just allow the Spirit to move as it will? The literature and perhaps many of those in authority would have us believe that we must either manage our way out or go on a missional undertaking as that is the Gospel. "Prove" to our communities that we are relevant to their needs and bring the Gospel into their hearts and minds, but what is the Gospel, what do we have to "sell" that we can become more efficient like a business? At the end of the day perhaps we need to see the Gospel as an initiative that cannot be managed, be hyperactively managed or even be relevant to the local community. Huh! What a shocking thing to say for surely that is the purpose that we are asked to do in the sending out into the world? No, the heart and soul of Christ's message is in the passages from John (10.11-18), 1 John (3.16-24) and perhaps in action (Acts 4.5-12). All of these passages speak about acting and living in love, love of neighbour, love of God.  The mission of the Church is to behave in the manner that Christ behaved and by doing so spread the initiative of the Gospel, the good news, of how to live in love.

Do we programme our love or do we let love grow?

We have forgotten in the institutionalisation of the religious / faith journey that Christ interacted as another human being among human beings. He did not set up programs, schedules, etc for his disciples. He did not expect his followers to become followers of programs and schedules, mission undertakings to solve the problems of the world / country / community. Christ sent his disciples out into the world to bring the experience of love into the lives of others and in so doing bring them closer to God. We shepherd people through the example of our lives when those lives are consumed by love, not by money, not by comsumerisation, not by missional programmes or managed undertakings that make us more efficient. Perhaps we need to re-think how we let others know what it means to be Christian by extending our love into their hearts and minds.

Yes, we need to be part of our community to support each other and to operate as a Christian community within the community in which we live. Yes, we need to offer ourselves up as living sacrifices to enable others to find God and if this means that we attend meetings and plan goals and enable the faith community to work at showing God to the world then so be it. BUT this is not the end it is the means, it is not the purpose it is a way forward. We need to be flexible to be able to walk with people and not do for people, to show love and empathy not turn away in rejection. Even when we are tired and feel drained it is our continued outpouring of love that reaps the rewards of God's presence in our lives. If we are to withdraw to re-charge then we must come out of that withdrawal to reengage and form the bonds of love that are commanded of us by Christ.

St George - quo vadis

The parish is celebrating St George this week. A Greek / Palestinian who ended up as part of the Roman army and was decapitated by Diocletian for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The patron saint of a number of countries, including most famously England. Not much is known of him but he is considered to have been a real person, perhaps not the person we think of in terms of dragon slayer etc. Even members of the Muslim faith recognise him as a martyr having had influence in Palestine where he was born. It's his forthrightness and his stand for the faith that is to be honoured. Indeed this was at the time a political statement as the emperor had declared that all Christians in the army had to sign up for emperor worship.

The fanciful St George - How fanciful are our political involvements?

The question for us is: how do we sign up for political defiance in the same manner as St George? A defiance that is actually at the pointy end of the debate and one that is likely to involve you in a lot of pain, nowadays, social and political. Perhaps we could start in the political field and question how well democracy is working and what if anything we as Christians should be doing about it. I have just finished a fascinating read on the brokenness of democracy by the political philosopher A. C. Grayling. The book is "Democracy and its Crisis". (If you want a scathing report on Brexit and Trump, this is it). In some respects Australia is doing quite well, however, his remarks are as equally true for here as elsewhere and it is something that we need to understand in our faith journey if we are going to be like St George. George knew the political system and that is something that we perhaps do not do so well in when it comes to picking our political involvement as Christians. In asking this I wonder whether we are actually looking at the issues that we should be looking at as Christians and how effective our efforts are if we do not understand our political systems particularly well. I must admit, I am as much a part of the great unwashed as everyone else, so I am pointing the finger at myself as much as anybody else.

Don't get me wrong I believe that we need to be a voice in the public square but we need to be effective. Christian politicians or at least those that are from supposedly "Christian" parties are in it for the politics and to push the agenda of their interpretation of scripture and not for the actual role of being a Christian, i.e. love of neighbour. Going back to Paisley in Ireland you can trace this all the way through. It is as if we have no understanding of how to get the faith view point across without seeming to be either other worldly or seen it all before, blah, blah, blah. There appears to be little relevance in the way of St George. Sadly we are part of the great masses with very little to stand out for. Perhaps it is time for us to reflect on people such as George to understand what it means to be an effective Christian voice within the politics of the world. Yes, George lost his life but as Christians we must be prepared to follow Christ who also lost his life as a result of injustice.

I don't think it takes anything out of the ordinary to be as remarkable as George. It just takes commitment, understanding and the ability to act appropriately. It may not be a big thing it may be small but if it is undertaken with knowledge, commitment and faith in Christ then we can make the injustices disappear. Perhaps the only thing we need to better understand is how we can love each other sufficiently that  we an listen and debate, not listen and castigate. Love means that we negotiate and compromise to bring God's presence closer to those who have no knowledge of God's presence. So by all means enter the political arena and follow George but make sure that you know where to go.

Witnesses in a different age

Christ following the resurrection sends his disciples out into a world that is familiar with the sacred and the understanding of faith in action (Lk. 24.48; Acts 3.12-20). These words and sending out apply to us in our world but we have a greater difficulty then the disciples at the time of Christ. We have to overcome a divide that is not a divide before we can witness to our faith. It is all very easy to say follow Christ, it is all very easy to promise the world, to have a simplistic understanding that has little but fundamentalist teachings to get by on. To truly witness to Christ in our lives today takes us beyond the easy into the difficult task of melding the two views into a single definable and understandable whole.

If we think about the world into which the Christ entered it was very unlike today. It could be said, as it has been by Charles Taylor, that the world of Christ and Jesus was a world that was porous to the presence of the world beyond our own selves. Whilst today we are bound and limited in our imaginary by the understanding that our minds control our outlook onto the world. This rationale outlook has barricade our senses of anything that cannot be explained that is outside of our own walls. Thus, for us a miracle such as that described in Acts is beyond our belief and must be explainable through medical or other rational explanatory means. The possibility of some other 'magic' is beyond the realm of our own understanding and therefore  cannot be true. The Christian church in one way or another has utilised and played with this understanding through the ages. Today the possibility of extravagant over the top displays to make a point are blase, theatrical and in the end demonstrate nothing about faith. We have to look with imagination to how we live in order to prove our point in faith.

We leave Christ behind on the by ways of the internet highway to avoid our faith

Too often in the world the Christian or any faith description of the world is either countered or decried by the fact that adherents do not live up to the testimony of the scriptures or an un-compromised life in Christ. Our very nature and inability to reach the ideal of our faith journey is the very thing that holds us back and gives the faith we hold dear a bad rap. We are still in the thrall of the world as the first letter of John alludes (1 Jn 2.16). We are enticed away from the life in Christ by the riches of the world especially in this seculam when everything appears to be at our finger tips. Our difficulty is in allowing our faith to dominate rather than our greed for the things of this world. In the era of porosity the way forward would have been to enter the deserts but this does not bring us any nearer to God or become more Christ like. All it does is allows us to indulge in our own worthiness. Living in the world in faith means that we renounce the things of the world but still live in the world. We reach out to those around us who are impoverished by the world and lie forgotten in the by ways and lane ways of the modern internet highways. We need to abandon our stance of feeling as if we are the good guys and move into the stance of feeling the need of those who are starved of God's love and presence.

How many of the children in the world are starved of love as a result of the need for a presence in the cyber world? How many of our young people couch surf each night as a result of neglect and our inability to see them? We are too recognised in the world for what we propose but do not do. We need to be unrecognised for the love we show and exhibit not recognised for the hypocrisy we display. Changing our outlook to encompass both the porous and the blinkered worlds will allow us to manifest Christ to those who are neglected and starved of attention.

Self doubt can kill new life

The place of doubt in Christian life has always taken front seat in the days following Easter as we read about the doubts of Thomas the Apostle (John 20.19ff). This is an obvious doubt that is easily recognisable.  This is the doubt that states "I do not believe you." and then it is up to others to prove the case. Yet, there is another form of doubt that we do not talk about much but is even more harmful then the doubt that is displayed by Thomas. In fact, Thomas' doubt is perhaps beneficial because we can see ourselves and the resolution of our doubts in Christ. Unseen self doubt decreases our worth in our own eyes and thus our belief of peoples opinions and society in general often sending us into a spiral of despair.

Whilst similar to Thomas in that it is doubt in what has been said, about oneself, it is not so easily overcome as a simple proof test. In entering into new life at Easter we should die to our sins and leave them behind at the foot of the cross. What we often do is surreptitiously pick them up again as we proceed away from the cross. This then becomes part of our denial of ourselves and of our brokenness that is spoken about in 1 John (1.10). The very act of picking up that which we dropped at the foot of the cross breaks us once more.  We believe that we have put it behind us but are in actuality carrying it.  We then say that we are without sin whilst hauling the baggage of our sin behind us like an enormous snail. In leaving those things that we have burdened ourselves with at the foot of the cross means that they should stay there.  However, our self doubt makes us return and pick up those things that have comforted us on our journey thus far.

Do your doubts overwhelm you or do you allow Christ;s light to shine in the world?

It is this self doubting of our worth and our ability to be loved by God that directs us to pick up the burdens of our prior life. The difficulty of course is obvious, how do you encourage someone who doubts themselves? The Gospel faith that Christ asks of Thomas and all others is perhaps but a clue towards our healing and redemption. It is in Acts that we find the final answer for ourselves (Acts 4.32-37). This story of the early community that was the body of Christ demonstrates where our burgeoning new life needs to be present. It is outwards towards the formation of community not inwards towards ourselves. We begin new life in community and in the presence of others as we saw on Good Friday. In turning inwards towards ourselves we begin the process of self doubt and believe ourselves not worthy enough. Here Thomas's interaction with Christ should be giving us the confidence to trust in God and allow Christ's presence to flow into our lives.

If we are to build a new community as the Good Friday reflections suggest then that community begins in trust. Trust in God / Christ that our previous inhibitions and burdens have been taken from us; trust in our companions in Christ that they are walking with us along the way; trust in ourselves that we are adult enough to ask for God's presence and the assistance of our companions when things get tough. It is only then that our lights lit by Christ at Dawn on Easter day will glow in the darkness of the world. In building ourselves and our communities in this light we begin to brighten the world around us until we become like the dawn fire of Easter giving light to those who are in darkness around us, lifting them up from their self doubts into the confidence of Christ's presence in their lives. This is the change that Christ brings the change that we are often so fearful of, a change that we cannot and do not recognise as Christ walks alongside us until we cast away our doubts into the fire of Christ's love.

They said nothing...

Today we celebrate Easter in a tradition that goes back to founding moments in the story of the Christian faith. No not the "Church" the faith. Just like any other faith this is a journey looking at life from a different perspective and how we change our view of reality each time we live that faith. Our perspective goes beyond what is considered rational. It encompasses the idea that we need to die in order to come to new life. Yet, this is a rationale belief as we see it happen every year of our lives when we plant seed or we see old plants die with new ones springing from the dead remains. If during our Lenten journey we have truly struggled with our lives then we have come to the cross and this day we should be able to rise into new life. But do we and if we do, do we say anything about new life in Christ? In Mark's gospel the first witnesses say nothing (Mark 16.8a) and this is where the Gospel ends everything afterwards is added.

In a couple of recent posts on social media there has been an interesting discussion on our ability to demonstrate our faith and actually say something meaningful as members of a faith group that prides itself on truth and justice. Yes, just like Christ nailed to the cross the consensus is that we too will be nailed to our respective crosses. If we thought that was safe well perhaps it is also worth our while considering the recent "National" crisis in the cricket that is in reality a few boys cheating while the actual disgrace is found in the football codes where admitted criminals are allowed to play and be hailed as heroes. Unfortunately, we appear to have lost our voices or as like as not we are afraid to open our lips in praise of what is right, in case we are persecuted. Like the first witnesses who went away too scared to say anything, we to are often too scared to say anything.

It is more real than you think.

Verbalisation and placing truths onto platforms that are readily seen by many as how we open ourselves up for scrutiny and abuse and crucifixion. More often then not this is also where we are crucified by public opinion or political reality. But then is that not what our faith demands of us...to follow Christ and to die so that we can rise into newness of life. We have to begin at the beginning of the story and follow it all the way through. We cannot pick and chose the parts that we like and discard the parts we do not. Our faith and our faith community is formed at the base of the cross. The utter truth of our having to die and rise into new life means that we need to put aside all of those burdens we carry about what others are going to say and stand in solidarity with Christ. It is on this Easter morning that we are filled with the hope of Christ's resurrection and the knowledge that our lives have changed.

This change is only comes when we acknowledge and welcome God's ever changing presence in our lives such that we can catch the truth of God's call. Only when we have been honest with ourselves will we be able to be honest with others. Once we have achieved that, then we are able to proclaim Christ is risen! Alleluia! and proclaim the truth that needs to be spoken into the world. The scandal of the cross is the love that Christ shows for the meanest of people from the cross and in newness of life. We fail to recognise him every time he presents himself to us, just as the disciples did on that fateful walk to Emmaus.  Even now we are often so full of ourselves that we forget to look at those around us to see Christ's hands outstretched asking for our love. How true the story (here [the NTD video]) as shown on social media sites is, I do not know, but I can well imagine it happening and perhaps when we recognise our own selves in the story we will admit that we crucify God to this day.