Some Hope!

Some hope!  When we hear that expression used, it often means that actually there is no hope as opposed to some hope.  It's like saying 'there's no chance that will happen'.  When we look at various situations in the world where there is so much pain and poverty, we could easily be forgiven for thinking that there is no hope for some people.  All efforts seem futile, especially if we're not in some position of authority where we can actually make a difference.  Some things are just beyond our control or our sphere of influence.  The problem is that when we think that we cannot make a difference on a world scale then it's pointless to try to make a difference anywhere.  So we just retire to our own little bubble and let the world go by.  I'm not suggesting that we should become an 'activist', join demonstrations or lobby members of parliament.  Not everyone feels they want to write to someone in authority to complain and often we have the idea that they wouldn't take any notice anyway so what's the point.


You know when a child falls and hurts themselves?  How often have we looked all sorry for them and promised to make it better.  We bend down and kiss the part that hurts declaring that now it's mended, the pain's gone and the tears stop flowing.  We know of course that a kiss doesn't actually heal the physical hurt (unless scientists come up with the theory that human saliva has healing properties) but the fact that you stopped doing what you were doing, paid attention and were prepared to sympathise made the child feel much better.  They were no longer suffering on their own.  Someone had bothered that they were hurting.  Part of the problem in society is that we are so busy doing stuff that we don't have time to spend just listening and sympathising with those who hurt when really that is what they need most.  It has been said that so often in a conversation, we listen only to think of what our reply will be when sometimes we need to just listen and let the other person offload their problems, share their situation with someone.  They don't always need you to find a solution, they just want to be heard or recognised and accepted.  

Making a difference doesn't need to be in terms of some mission far away in another country (unless of course you feel that is what you need to be doing).  Neither is it necessarily about being committed or involved in some project.  So the question is 'How can I make a difference where I am?'  Do you know your neighbours?  When was the last time you stopped and had a conversation with them, not just passing the time of day?  Do you disagree with some of the things that big corporations want to inflict on us?  Have you thought about signing a petition?  The more people who show they disagree, can have some effect.  Nowadays sharing things on social media can have long reaching results and has the potential to really make a difference. Is there a community centre where you live?  Or some charity you could give some time volunteering with or doing a charity run or walk or the like?  Do you go to any activity or meeting that is not connected to your particular church or faith centre?  Do you have any friends who are not connected to the religion you follow?  The answer really is - get out of the box, move out of your bubble.  There is a world out there that is desperate for someone just to listen and maybe lend a helping hand.  It's amazing the difference you will make just by saying, 'can I help?', or 'I can do that if you want.'  There has recently been a photo that went viral of a young police constable who helped to carry the shopping bags of an old man and accompanied him to his house.  What a shame that such things go viral because they are becoming more unusual and things like that happen less frequently.  We can reverse the trend and make the positive things happen more often.  

I read the other day words by the Dalai Lama from his Little Book of Wisdom entitled 'For the Good of All':

Even if only a few individuals try to create mental peace and happiness within themselves and act responsibly and kindheartedly towards others, they will have a positive influence in their community.

We tend to think that things work by trickling down from the top towards those at the bottom when actually it works the other way round.  When those on the bottom, the ordinary, everyday, move and are noticed making a difference then it influences those in higher places of authority. I finish with this video I saw the other day that caught my attention.  It is a very good lesson in that even the smallest can make a difference to the big picture.

You don't need to understand the science behind it in order for it to have an effect.  Never consider that what you do won't make a difference.  It can.  You will.  Be the answer.

Efficient/Effective?

This week Vicky Beeching used a quote on Twitter that was originally written by Peter Drucker, an Austrian born American management consultant.  He has been described as the 'founder of modern management'. The quote was: 'Efficiency is doing things right.  Effectiveness is doing the right things.'  That set me thinking.  It's great to be efficient.  It gets the job done and done well.  But it is imperative that the things that are done are the right things.  You can be very efficient at doing the wrong things.  So being efficient in itself is not necessarily good.


Most of this past week in our home we have had the pleasure of the company of a friend from Latvia.  We have had some very interesting conversations about many things.  We got onto the subject of people going to other countries within the church setup on particular missions.  We both know of people who have gone with a particular project or 'programme' that they intended to put into practice, as though you can programme God. How often do we have plans and ask God to bless our plans when often they are not God's plans at all?  I have known people who have been very organised and efficient but not necessarily doing the right things.  They arrive full of what they are going to do, set up this meeting and that project and within 2 to 3 years they will have so many converts and will expand to other places when maybe it would be better to identify with the people and place where they intend to work, get to know the real situation and circumstances and what is actually needed.  I also read this week about a story of helping those who need help as opposed to those that we think need our help.  There are parts of the world where, instead of organising meetings and setting up Bible classes and teaching programmes, what is really needed is tools to dig a well to save the women from having to walk miles to get a bucket of water.  Instead of trying to explain the resurrection it would be more helpful to give seeds or animals or maybe teach them methods of agriculture and business so the people could feed and fend for themselves.  I can't help feeling that much of the work is in order to promote the public standing of the group, charity or denomination that is carrying out the missions.  It often seems to be more about adding numbers to their membership or following than sharing the Good News in practical ways.  

We can be very efficient in bringing plans to fruition and getting the job done but if we are asking the wrong questions, if we are focusing on the wrong problem, the seriousness of the situation will just continue and get worse.  We need to address the cause of problems in order to be effective in bringing about a solution.  When we go to the doctor with a health problem, we often get some medication.  If the problem continues then often a deeper, more intense and detailed study by xray, scan or tests needs to be carried out in order to identify the underlying cause of the problem.  It's no use taking painkillers if the real problem is a broken leg.  The painkillers will alleviate the pain for a while but unless the broken leg is mended, the problem will still exist and cause more pain and problems.  Sometimes we might think that we are helping a situation but when we take a closer, more in-depth look at the situation we discover that the real need is something that is not really being addressed.  And so the problem continues.  Our carefully thought-out plans and efficiency will get some sort of result but the real problems are not addressed and the situation does not change in spite of all our efforts.  


It reminds me of the words of Helder Camara, the Brazilian Archbishop who was assassinated in 1999 when he said, 'When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist'.  We can be very efficient but unless we address the root causes of problems and ask the right questions we will never be effective in showing God's love as Jesus taught.  Richard Rohr recently in his daily meditations when referring to the Desert Fathers and Mothers said that for them 'faith was first a lifestyle before it was a belief system'.  The first followers of Jesus were known as People of the Way (a way of living) before they were known as people who followed a belief system.  Maybe it's time to rethink why we do what we do.  Are we just efficient or are we effective?    

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere I go.  Shops have had their festive decorations up for quite some time.  Every time you go into town you can see people carrying boxes, wrapping paper and all things to do with the Christmas season.  As far as I am concerned, the cards have been bought and written - well most of them anyway.  Some need to be posted early to go abroad, others to different parts of the UK and others I can deliver by hand locally.  Presents are either bought or ordered.  Some are already wrapped but still quite a lot to do.  Tomorrow (Sunday) is the first Sunday of Advent.  The last day of November is when I usually sort out the tree and decorations ready to be in place for the 1st of December.  So I guess you could say 'it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'.  Or is it?  At least it's like what we in the west have made it become.

It's actually nothing like the very first Christmas.  How different!  There was no tinsel or decorations, no turkey dinner with family, no relaxing and being entertained.  The King of Kings was not surrounded by servants or lived in a palace with all the comforts of the hierarchical, rich lifestyle of those in authority.  Paul in his letter to the Philippians describes it as God emptying himself into the physical, human presence of his son.  This emptying was expressed by being born illegitimately to a young teenager in a place that was kept for the animals.  No family or friends to visit and celebrate.  Instead he was visited by lowly workers doing the night shift and foreigners who probably didn't even speak the same language as Mary and Joesph.  The subsequent years of his infancy were spent as a refugee, an asylum seeker, an immigrant in a foreign land.  He knew from experience what it was like to be hungry and a stranger and to be fed and accepted and taken in.  He had lived life in the lowly margins of society.  He emptied himself until there was no more to give.  

Having said all that, I do love Christmas and I love to celebrate as we do now with decorations, great food and exchanging of presents with loved ones.  And I don't suggest for one minute that we should stop doing that.  Be happy, enjoy time with family and friends, taste the good food, relax and enjoy the break but spare a thought for those who maybe have to work over the holidays.  Be thankful for what we have but remember that there are some who don't have a place to stay or family to share Christmas dinner with.  Some people now, instead of sending and posting Christmas cards, are giving the money they would have spent on that to a charity in order to help feed the hungry or give a bed to the homeless.  I must admit that I haven't done that, (I like the idea of greeting friends with a card) but I admire those who do. 

An activity that many engage in over the months leading up to Christmas is the filling of a shoebox with goodies to send to a child in some far away place.  This week I read of a young Filipino girl who 14 years ago received a shoebox at Christmas sent from a young boy in America through the very well known Operation Christmas Child scheme.  She was so grateful for that gift that she later tried to contact the boy to thank him.  She was unsuccessful but later in life, she was able through the social media to make contact with him .  Their friendship grew until recently they got married and for wedding presents they requested that people donate shoeboxes for the charity to continue the work that had brought them together.  You can read the full story here.

I guess that to make it really look like Christmas, we should enjoy the festivities but also give something of ourselves, empty out a little of the much that we have in order to help others, a kind of antidote to the madness of Black Friday.  That is the real message of Christmas and what God meant Christmas to look like.  'Insomuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.'  Emmanuel - God emptying himself into every walk of life for all people everywhere.  That really is something to celebrate!


   

Thoughts From Down Under

Earlier this week, my elder son Martin and his partner Lisa came to visit for a few days.  They have recently returned from 3 months travelling around Australia, from Melbourne up the east coast past Cairns and then across and down from Darwin through Alice Springs, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and back to Melbourne.  We were able to share in their adventure through their many photos and stories of their travels.  I found particularly interesting the stories of the aborigines and their beliefs.  They are an ancient race having lived on that land for over 40,000 years and so their stories of creation and other spiritual beliefs go back way beyond anything we as Christians may have.  We consider their stories to be just that - stories, myths and legends - not necessarily literally true but they cling on to their beliefs that have been handed down orally over thousands of years.  

A model of a coracle type of ark as on the ancient tablet

I also watched this week a programme about 'The Real Noah's Ark' where a professor and associates reconstructed a boat according to information on an ancient clay tablet.  It was a story of a flood with instructions on how to build a boat to save a man, his family and animals.  The instructions also interestingly said that the animals were to go in 'two by two'.  This particular tablet predated our biblical story of Noah by over 1000 years.  The boat to be built was actually round, more like a coracle than the ark we think of.  Archaeologists have discovered that in that region of the Tigris/Euphrates rivers there were many such great floods in ancient times and many would indeed make super-sized coracles to save their families and belongings.  It is thought that the Hebrew exile in Babylon was greatly influenced by such stories and maybe had some effect on stories that they also handed down to their descendants.  

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a sacred Aboriginal site but so many
lack respect for the religious views and beliefs of others as
this notice and undeterred climbers show.

We look at other spiritual traditions and think of them as fables, myths and not fact while other religions often look at our holy book in the same way.  So it seems to beg the question -  how many of our Bible stories are just that, stories that have been told and handed down over generations in order to teach some spiritual truth.  Knowing how Jesus himself was a great story teller, it seems quite possible that much of holy writings, beliefs and spiritual stories (of many different religions) are just a way of trying to explain some truth that is often difficult to put into words but are not really to be taken literally.  (I can almost sense the fundamentalists putting their heads in their hands, gasping in horror and  declaring that I have surely 'lost my faith'!)  But why do we condescendingly smile at aboriginal stories and yet are offended if others do the same to us?  Who are we to go bulldozing our way in and telling someone whose tradition is over 40,000 years old that he is wrong and we are right?  The arrogance of such an empire spirit never ceases to amaze me.

The first plane that started the Flying Doctor Service

Another interesting story that Martin and Lisa told was of Rev John Flynn.  He had been appointed to minister in the outback.  In 1912 he established the Australian Inland Mission in order to attend to the spiritual, medical and social needs of those living in the outback.  He built hospitals but is mostly remembered for implementing with a friend what has become known as The Flying Doctor Service.  His concern was that people were so isolated and his greatest desire was to help people to connect.with others.  Over the years he managed to get an aeroplane and a pilot but the problem was how people could access this service.  Another associate invented a pedal radio and so in 1929 people could call on the Flying Doctor Service.  Later transistor radios replaced the pedal kind and people were then able to contact their 'neighbours' many miles away and families were once again in touch with each other.  John Flynn was a Presbyterian minister but rather than trying to get people to travel in order to gather in one building to worship together, he saw their need and tried to meet that need right where they were.  He cared for aborigines as well as white settlers whether they accepted his Christian beliefs or not.  That is why he is remembered to this day.  That seems like a Jesus thing to do - not being consumed with the idea of getting people to meet on the Sabbath/Sunday in the synagogue/temple/church building but rather seeing a need and working to meet that need.

Mmm!  Thank you Australia for the lessons you share.  Much to ponder.    

Mam Said ...

My sister has recently made contact with a lady who used to live near to us when we were all growing up.  That started us reminiscing about her and her family.  One day, the lady who lived 3 doors away from us (the said lady's mother) came and knocked on the door of our home.  She wanted to talk to Mam.  She was obviously upset about something.  Mam invited her in, put the kettle on and 'suggested' to us that we should go outside or upstairs and do something.  We knew that that meant that we were not to be around when they were talking adult stuff!  The woman's young teenage daughter (who had recently contacted my sister)) had told her that she was pregnant, and I'm talking about the late 50s early 60s - not at all acceptable!  Mam sat and listened.  They drank tea and talked for quite a while before the woman went back to her house a little less stressed.  That young teenage daughter, now more than 50 years on, is a mother and grandmother and still very happily married to her childhood sweetheart.  The thing about Mam was that our home was open to anyone who needed help, whoever they were.  My sister and I smiled at the thought that she probably knew some intimate secret about most of our neighbours who had at some point confided in her.  She didn't preach at people or spout Bible verses at them, didn't invite them to accompany us to church on Sunday, didn't even criticise them and never repeated a confidence.  Whenever we made some snide comment about anyone, her reply was always, 'God loves everybody and so should we.  It's not our place to judge.  Our job is to help.'  She didn't just believe in God's all-embracing love, she lived it.

The death of Atahualpa, ruler of the Incas

The news recently has had much to concern us about terrorism, kidnappings and persecution.  Many are sharing thoughts and prayers for Christians who are in such a position in Iraq, and rightly so.  How dreadful that they should be threatened with death just because they don't want to accept the religious biases of their captors.  I couldn't help thinking though about many centuries ago when Christians did the same thing.  We are often reminded of the crusades and how still today they are remembered by many but we sometimes forget about the persecution of those of other faiths during the Spanish Inquisition and hardly ever think about the thousands of Incas who were slaughtered because they couldn't understand the Trinity and didn't want to embrace Christianity.  They were a peace loving race of people who had a very good way of life when they were suddenly invaded by a people who had travelled thousands of miles across the ocean, killing and stealing as they went.  All who didn't accept their way of Christianity were mercilessly annihilated.  The verse 'he who is without sin let him cast the first stone.' comes to mind.  


I am not saying that we shouldn't be concerned and intercede for those we love, those who belong to our particular religious group.  Of course we should.  But sometimes I think it is easy to feel that somehow God is more concerned about Christians than others.  We often don't give a second thought about a situation unless some westerner or Christian is involved as though somehow it's not as bad if someone from another religion is suffering but woe betide if it happens to a Christian!  Let us be clear, God is not a Christian.  God is God.  God doesn't love Christians more than he loves anyone of another religion.  It's like, yes, but God leans more in favour of Christians than other religions surely.  After all we accept his son as Saviour, others don't.  The story of the Prodigal Son tells us differently.  God loves all whether we accept his ways or not, remain within his household or reject him.  We are all equal in the eyes of God and he never stops loving us, no matter what.  Jesus cried out to God to forgive those who killed him.  God is Love, all-encompassing and unconditional Love.  Of course He hates the persecution of Christians.  He also hates the persecution of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists or any other religious group.  People suffer persecution for many reasons.  How many times have we heard of  a young woman being killed to restore some idea of 'family honour' when she didn't want to marry the man of her parents' choice?  The 200 young schoolgirls are still missing in Nigeria, taken into captivity just because they were female and seeking to be educated and going to school.  Homosexuals are being killed in parts of the world just because of their sexuality.  There are those who are persecuted because of their nationality/tribe or shunned and left to die because of some disability.

God's love is all-embracing,  all-inclusive, unconditional.  I ask God that he will help me to not be narrow-minded, thinking only of my own particular religious group but

to see all people as he sees them,  be concerned for all his creation, wherever they are and pray for all who are persecuted for whatever reason.  As Mam said, 'God loves everybody and so should we.' 

OT Christians or Jesus People

There is a cartoon that I follow on Facebook called 'Coffee with Jesus'.  A few days ago they published the following cartoon and it set me thinking.  What does 'Jesus people' really mean?

We consider Jesus People and Christians to be synonymous but I have come to the conclusion that there are many things about Christianity as people think of it today that are not in accord with the things that Jesus said and did.  They don't follow his way of doing things and understanding as to what the gospel message is.

There are so many rules and regulations about what we should or shouldn't do, think or believe.  Our thinking and standards are so often based on Old Testament law.  Many times (I don't really know how many as I haven't actually counted but I'm sure someone, somewhere has) Jesus says about the law 'Moses said but I say to you ... ... '  He was known for breaking the law as written in their Scriptures - he healed on the Sabbath, he and the disciples walking in the fields and plucking and rubbing ears of corn to eat were actually working on the Sabbath, he spoke to a stranger, a woman and a Samaritan woman at that (sworn enemy of Jews), he even made a Samaritan the hero of one of his stories.  Sticking to the letter of the law might have been very commendable to a Pharisee but Jesus didn't seem to have anything in common with the Pharisees and showed that people and how they felt were far more important.   

The Old Testament shows how women have second place and on the whole Scripture is written from the male point of view.  Jesus crossed that barrier and spoke to women treating them as equal to men.  He accepted women among his followers and gave the first preaching assignment after his resurrection to a woman - 'Go tell the disciples and Peter ...'   Many Christians today still do not accept the place of women as equal basing their ideas and thinking in the Old Testament saying that Scripture says that women shall serve men.  Looking at it a bit closer we realise that this was as a result of the Fall and was not God's original intention or plan for women.  He made man and woman to be equal partners.  If the coming of Jesus was a means to put things right again between man and God, then women are not the lesser of the species , neither inferior nor subservient to the men.  The Jesus way restores women to their rightful place as equals in all aspects of life - home, work, relationship as well as religion.  All are equal in the eyes of God.

When Jesus began his ministry, he read from the book of Isaiah saying that his ministry was in order to preach good news to the poor, set the prisoners free, help the blind to see and release the oppressed.  (Isaiah 61:1,2)  In other words his gospel was not about comfortable middle class resting and enjoying life.  It was about helping those living in the margins of life, struggling to survive and bringing hope to those who seemed to have none.  Many Christians today rest on their laurels if they go to a place of worship regularly, give in the offering and generally try to live a good life, (especially if they don't swear, drink or smoke).  It's not about keeping spiritually comfortable and safe while waiting for pie in the sky when we die.  The gospel message Jesus told us to declare is not about 'in-house' mutual backslapping and a Sunday morning feel-good factor of (sometimes quite smug) self satisfaction.  It's for those who don't fit in, those 'untouchables' that Jesus had time and compassion for, the mixed-up and lonely, the poor and hungry, to bring back hope where it has been lost, to lift up those who don't see a way out of their despair, to hug the unlovable. 

I won't make this post too long so I'll mention just a couple more very quickly and leave readers to ponder more about them.  There are those who take pride in religious buildings - for some the bigger and more ornate the better it would seem.  Jesus walked the countryside considering the lilies of the field that God had made so beautiful, praising God for knowing when even the most inconspicuous bird fell out of the sky.  God's first idea after Eden was a tent that travels wherever people travel - it/He is always with us.  His stories were taken from everyday life that everyone could relate to.  Another consideration is that no-one paid Jesus or his disciples for doing what they did.  Even Paul on his long missionary journeys worked at making tents to help pay his way.  And I say this as one who has in the past received payment for leadership within the religious set-up.  I wonder how many missionary journeys would happen if everyone paid their own way and were not paid to be a special speaker at some event!?

Just a few rambling thoughts on being what I would call Old Testament Christians or Jesus People.  I'll leave you to decide where you are.  But be honest with yourself and God!  Me? - I like and relate to the words of Jim Palmer:

Give us a clue

Those who are familiar with quiz shows and magazines will know of the sort of quiz that gives clues and you have to guess the connection.  Small children are often engaged in such activities in order to teach them about different animals and what they're like, for example: 

Who am I? 
1) I live in Africa.                                            
2) I eat the leaves of tall trees. 
3) I am a sort of orange-y brown colour with dark brown patches.         
4) I have a very long neck. 

Of course the answer is the giraffe.  More points are awarded for the fewer number of clues required to guess correctly.

If a clue is 'they like to eat pizza and pasta' then it's a safe guess to say the Italians.  Likewise if the clue says 'They have been known to eat frogs' legs' then the answer would be the French  I began thinking about this in relation to people groups and their way of life and thinking.  Below is a set of clues that the average person in the street think and relate to:


1) They sometimes seem a bit standoffish.
2) They think they are better than everybody else.
3) They can be quite judgmental of others.
4) They don't like or accept gay or lesbian people, telling them they are wrong.
5) They are restricted in the things they are allowed to partake in so don't join in much.
6) They believe their sacred book and their leaders must not be questioned - they are infallible.
7) They join with others in a special building on a Sunday.

The answer to the clues is 'Christians'.  Christians reading those clues would be adamant that it certainly doesn't describe them.  They are nothing like that.  The sad truth is that most people who are not members of a particular denomination or organised religious group do have that impression of what Christians are like.  Over centuries they have been given a very negative portrayal of Christianity.  And sadly nothing like what we read in the Bible about how or what Jesus was, thought and did.  Christians are more often than not thought to be intolerant, homophobic people who consider themselves to be 'holier than thou', better than the rest and separate themselves from those who are not part of their exclusive Sunday club.  You can join their club only if you change who you are and become a clone.  This sadly is what others see.  


In contrast if we take each of those clues and refer them to how Jesus lived we would get something along the lines of the following:
1) He will talk to anybody.
2) He identifies himself with the poor and needy.
3) He accepts people's shortfalls and cares about them anyway.
4) He loves everyone and accepts anyone who wants to be his friend.
5) He goes wherever he is invited or people need his help or advice.
6) He has often quoted from his sacred book and law and tells people to think about it in a  different way.  He insists that the only true lord and master is God.  All others are fallible  humans.
7) He has been criticised for spending time walking in the fields with his friends and breaking religious rules on his special day of rest.

So it begs the question - how do we put that right?  Maybe we should go through each of the clues in turn,comparing the first and second set of clues and being honest as to which really describes us.  People are crying out 'We would see Jesus'.  As Jesus followers we need to set the record straight and show Him to others by the way we live.  People are not interested in going to a building - God is everywhere.  They don't want to listen to someone preaching at them, telling them how wrong and sinful they are.  They don't want to hear about Him, they want to see Him living in us.  So forget all the theological arguments, dogma and splitting hairs.  We need to have the mind of Christ and really put Jesus at the centre showing God's all-embracing love at work through our actions and attitudes in our daily living.  

Border Country - Middleland

Hadrian's Wall

I recently watched a couple of programmes  about the part of the UK that straddles the border between England and Scotland.  The programme interested me because I was born and raised in a town near Hadrian's Wall and later in life lived over 25 years in Wallsend.  This patch of land centuries ago was known as Middleland and stretched from the Humber up to about Edinburgh, from east to west.  Problems first began after the Roman emperor Hadrian decided to build a wall between Carlisle in the west and Wallsend in the east and decided that everything south of the wall belonged to the Roman empire and all who lived north of the wall were savages to be kept out at all cost.  The trouble was that there were those who had family on both sides of the wall (a bit like what happened when they erected the Berlin Wall).  The people who lived there were all the same and yet a false sense of enmity had been created.  They were living out in the margins, excluded, not belonging.  But it wasn't about the people, it was about building an empire, taking over land and all that goes with it and creating a power system.

Maybe it's because my late husband wasn't English or maybe because I spent almost 10 years living in another country, a different culture and language that I find it difficult to come to terms with country borders and how humans fight over such borders, each side of the controversy trying to gain the land for themselves at the cost sometimes of many lives.  Empires have risen and fallen over such disputes.  People, the innocent as well as soldiers and fighters, are killed over this power struggle for land and domination.  I like the picture of the planet taken from space and the accompanying thought that from space there are no borders, no frontiers, no divisions.  And that is how God created the earth - one planet, one people - the human race.


Drawing border lines seems to be a deeply entrenched human trait.  We draw lines about many things.  The minute the line is drawn then people are divided - those on one side are acceptable while those on the other side are not.  People are put into categories depending on looks, fashion, ability etc and you are either in or out, accepted or excluded.  You have to take sides.  That is often the dilemma I face when it comes to a political election when I can see some things I like in more than one camp but I can only choose one party above another.  Then the elected ones seem to spend more time trying to score political points one against the other while the real interests of the people seem somehow less important and forgotten in the process.  Real issues are overtaken by the need to gain power, recognition, acclaim and numbers and build little personal empires.  We are told that this side is right, that side is wrong while the truth is probably some quite hazy, grey area in the middle.  Some people fit into neither camp but belong somewhere in between. 

I often feel like that when it comes to my own Christian living.  For someone who belongs to God but doesn't congregate in a building it's like being in the wilderness of no man's land, the middleland, neither in nor out, a bit of both.  There are those who question how you can belong to God but not a particular group or denomination.  They draw a line and you must decide which side of the line you are on.  Belonging to the group makes the empire bigger and apparently more powerful.  It becomes a matter of numbers, a head count and not about an individual relationship within the family of God.  Many find themselves in this no man's land when it comes to Christianity and church.  They love God and follow the teachings of Jesus but are not churchy.  Many who congregate consider them to be wrong; they have stepped over the line; they are now on the other side.  The truth is that most of them belong in neither camp but straddle the line that has been drawn between them.  I don't want to take part in the dividing game.  Divide and conquer is the devil's game while God's purpose is to make us one.  And so here I am, standing in the gap, a middlelander living in the wilderness of neither in nor out, not included in the group but not excluded from the family of God.  Or as Henri Nouwen said,

In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.  

AMEN!!!

Roots and Community

I've been thinking these past few days about our roots and community.   Some friends have been visiting my neck of the woods - the northeast of England, where I was born and lived until my early twenties.  They have been visiting all the touristy places - well why else do you go on holiday?  They went one day to the living open air museum at Beamish.  The man was explaining about the mines and how the coal was retrieved and bagged etc.  Because of the broad Geordie accent particularly of miners (known locally as Pitmatic), there was a misunderstanding in what he said - it made me laugh.  It took my mind back to my childhood as my father was a miner for years until ill health caused through coal dust on the lungs and a serious stroke forced him to retire early.  He died at only 69 years of age.  I remember visiting friends who worked with him down the mine in the small mining village of Backworth and how everyone knew everyone else and the whole community was there for each other.  Those days are long gone - the mines are no longer producing coal and such village life is not so usual any more.

This was reinforced this week as we remembered those who had died in the terrible accidents in the mines of Wales and there were photos of the whole village being out, helping each other in their time of need.  Such community spirit of those by-gone days!  How many of us (and I include myself) know the names of those who live in our street or even a few doors away from us?  What do we know of their struggles or problems?  Sadly these days there seems to be an unwritten code of 'keep yourself to yourself'.  I know that life has changed and we no longer live the way we used to.  Many are very private and don't wish to share things with others.  But it seems a shame that we have lost something of that community spirit in the interests of 'progress'.

We hear of community work and think of projects where people go into communities and carry out activities for the children or elderly in order to give them something to do to occupy them.  I'm not saying this is wrong - it is commendable there are those who are concerned enough to actually do something about it.  But it isn't really being in the community - it's more like visiting the community with our plans to 'do some good' and then going back to our, often more privileged world.  Sadly it's more likely to get a reaction about being do-gooders who haven't really got any idea how the other half live.  

Many groups of Christians are known as Community churches, possibly because they consider themselves to be in and part of the community where they live.  However, many of them go each Sunday and 'commune' together and then go home.  I ask, does meeting together in small groups during the week really make us a community?  When the early Christians met together it was out of a real sense of need for each other's encouragement  in difficult times.  That's why Paul says that we shouldn't stop meeting together - we need each other's support, being a real community.  Community is living alongside each other, knowing what the other is going through because we have also experienced it.  It's not always about coming out with the appropriate verse of scripture or repeating what we feel we ought to say but it's more about just being there, crying together if that is what is needed.  The Lord's Supper shouldn't be about a small wafer or mouthful of bread and a sip of wine but sharing a meal and chatting together, really getting to know each other and being friends, regardless of sexual orientation, religious views, education or social standing.  

I remember many years ago in Buenos Aires being at a meeting with the then Assemblies of God minister Juan Carlos Ortiz and he was telling us that a lady in his church group had gone two consecutive evenings to hear him preach.  He asked her why she had come again and she said that she loved to hear him preach to which he replied, 'You shouldn't be here every night.  If you were here yesterday, today you should be at home inviting your neighbour round for a barbeque.  I don't want to see you at every meeting.  You hear me preach one night and then you go home and live what you've heard.'  Or to put it another way, from a blog I read this week - 'being the church and choosing community is more than small groups on Wednesday nights: community is doing life with the people living next door to you.'  And another quote from the same blog - 'come out of cocoons and commune.' (Taken from Ann Voscamp's blog A Holy Experience)

It's good to remember our roots - it helps us to understand so much more about ourselves.  We may have moved on from those days but it would be a great shame if we lose the real sense of community in the pursuit of progress and modern living.