Communication

When I’m standing at the bus stop waiting for my bus, I like to people watch.  The other day on such an occasion I was intrigued by a young family who were communicating by sign language.  To see the adults signing is not so unusual but what caught my attention was their small child in the buggy, about 1½ - 2 years of age.  She was ‘conversing’ with her parents by sign language and was watching intently to their reply.  I was fascinated watching her.  Of course, by this age most children are beginning to communicate with others through the spoken word so really I shouldn’t have been so surprised that she was communicating in the way she had learnt in her own family.  Thinking about it, there are many ways of communicating.  It used to be by one to one conversation or by hand written letter.  Nowadays we have many forms of communication – phone, email, social networks, Skype, art, drama, poetry, newspapers, words, looks, tone of voice, reactions ... ... and so we could go on... ... each valid in their own right.  

 

I find reading other blogs interesting and sometimes comment – another way of interacting with people, some of whom I have not met in person and some who live far away spread across the globe.  We would never suggest that the particular way we personally communicate with someone is the only valid and true way.  And yet when it comes to expressing our spirituality, that’s exactly what we do.  As Richard Rohr comments,
 

Almost all religion begins with a specific encounter with something that feels “holy” or transcendent: a place, an emotion, an image, music, a liturgy, an idea that suddenly gives you access to God’s Bigger World. The natural and universal response is to “idolize” and idealize that event. It becomes sacred for you, and it surely is. The only mistake is that too many then conclude that this is the way, the best way, the superior way, the “only” way for everybody—that I myself just happen to have discovered. Then, they must both protect ... and spread this exclusive way to others. (They normally have no concrete evidence whatsoever that other people have not also encountered the holy.)

The false leap of logic is that other places, images, liturgies, scriptures, or ideas can not give you access. “We forbid them to give you access; it is impossible,” we seem to say! Thus much religion wastes far too much time trying to separate itself from—and create “purity codes” against—what is perceived as secular, bad, heretical, dangerous, “other,” or wrong. Jesus had no patience with such immature and exclusionary religion, yet it is still a most common form to this day. Idolatry is whenever we make something god that is not God, or whenever we make the means into an end. Any attempt to create our own “golden calf” is usually ... ... eventually false religion.
 

I also read a blog by a young Portuguese woman (she writes in English) who is very New Age.  Her profile says,
 

I started my pilgrimage around the world in 1996, year that my parents also moved back to Angola where they live now. In 1998 my life totally changed when I had a personal encounter, believe it or not, with Jesus Christ...this also in Angola...since then I've been walking with Him in a great adventurous life, which doesn't make any sense without Him anymore. I don't follow religion or "church" as an institution, I follow Jesus, my best friend, and I love to be and journey with those who have the same passion.   She hangs out with Jesus Freaks and other New Age people, lives in a commune, has piercings and tattoos.  She has had tattoos done since becoming a Christian. Somehow, I don’t think there are many denominations that would accept her into their flock unless she was willing to change and conform.  Yet through her tattoos she preaches to others explaining what the pictures and writing mean.  She goes to New Age gatherings and shares her experience of God with them.  I love her sense of freedom.  It’s not for everyone but surely her way of communicating with God and showing Him to others is just as valid as others who attend conferences and the latest centre of God’s outpouring of signs and wonders.  Looking at the variety of God’s creation, whether plants, animals, mountains, deserts or other landscapes, surely we know that variety is part of God’s nature.  He loves diversity.  There are many ways of communicating and mine is only one of them.  Others ways are not wrong or invalid, they are just different.  They say that variety is the spice of life.  We are in danger of making God smaller than He really is when we limit His expression to only our way.  We cannot limit God to our small way of thinking.  He has a habit of refusing to be limited.  We are reminded of when they tried to silence Jesus.  They thought they had been successful but then God ripped down the curtain in the Temple and burst out into the world.  That's my limitless God!

The Whole Truth

I was reminded this week of a very dear uncle in Argentina.  He was one of seven children born to Henry Booth and his wife. Henry was a missionary from the UK working with the Salvation Army in Argentina.  This particular uncle was christened William after the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth.  He was known affectionately as Tío Willy (tío means uncle).  Many of the descendants of Henry followed in his footsteps and became full time ministers in the church.  Tío Willy was different.  As an adult he didn’t commit to organised religion.  He also remained single until quite advanced in years, eventually marrying a lady who had been a constant companion for many years.  Although I’m part of the family only through marriage, I have very fond memories of him.  What I do remember very well about Tío Willy was that everybody loved him.  He was always fun to be with.  He played with his nieces and nephews and as the years passed with their children also.  But amidst all the banter and fun there was always a wise comment that stayed with us, as cousin Tommy reminded me this week.  He ‘preached’ but in a different way and I think we probably remember his words more than the many sermons we heard.

E Stanley Jones

I was also reminded this week of a book I read about 50 years ago about another missionary, E Stanley Jones.  Julie Hogben is reading his life story and commented on it in her blog.  Thanks Julie for the reminder of this remarkable man. Often missionaries went to countries with a bit of empire spirit, going to convert the ‘heathens’ to a Western way of thinking, dressing and behaving.  E Stanley Jones was greatly influenced by the words of a Hindu judge when he said to him, ‘We want you, if you come in the right way’.  He discovered that a better way was to become more like those he had gone to teach and be with – being one of them and learning to understand their ways and lifestyle.  He was also greatly influenced by Ghandi with whom he became great friends and wrote a book about him and how he was a man who changed things for the better for his fellow Indians but by peaceful protest.  Ghandi was not a Christian but had great wisdom and truth.  It was this book and Ghandi’s example that influenced Martin Luther King to peaceful protest in the USA against racism.

Once on a long train journey E Stanley Jones, ever the eager evangelist, spoke to an English-speaking Muslim and shared with him the Sermon on the Mount.  When he had finished he expected the Muslim to seek conversion to Christianity and was surprised when he said, ‘We have the same thing in our Sacred Book’.  I also know of a person in my extended family who has become a Muslim of her own free will.  She had been born into and brought up in a Christian home with both parents being church ministers but wanted to learn about Islam and decided that it was how she felt she was able to express her spirituality in a better and more fulfilling way.  There is sometimes an attitude among non-Christians that all religions are the same and that only the paths to God are different.  As a Christian I can’t go along with that but believe that Jesus, the Son of God is the true way.  However I do think that we miss much by dismissing all non-Christians out of hand without really knowing much if anything about how they think or what they really believe.  I sometimes wonder if I had been born into a Hindu home in India would I be a Christian today?  Or if I had been born in Russia or China, would I be a Christian?

Someone once said, ‘everything in the Bible is true but not all truth is in the Bible’.  I do think that we can look and learn from the wisdom of others, even though they walk a different path.  It’s quite arrogant on our part, I fear, that we in the west think we have a monopoly on the truth.  For too many centuries western Christianity has sought to impose its way of thinking on others with a rather patronising, colonial attitude while at the same time missing some great truths and practices from which we could learn much.  We need only to think of history – the Crusades, the Inquisition and the massacre of whole tribes of New World Indians in order to ‘convert’ the world to our Christian beliefs and ways.  God is in all and loves ALL His creation, even those who are NOT like us and He appears where He wills.

I close with the words of E Stanley Jones in his book ‘The Christ of the Indian Road’.

Christianity is actually breaking out beyond the borders of the Christian Church and is being seen in the most unexpected places.  If those who have not the spirit of Jesus are none of His, no matter what outward symbols they possess, then conversely those who have the spirit of Jesus are His, no matter what outward symbols they may lack.  

Class

The three classes - upper, middle and lower.

This week we have been informed that now we are no longer three classes in the UK – upper, middle and lower (working) class.  We are now seven classes.  The BBC website allows you to ‘take the test’ and see which class you belong to.  I was intrigued, not to find out my social standing but to see what the questions were – on what is this decision based.  To be frank, I don’t really care what class other people think I belong to and if that bothers them then they have a problem, not me.  To be in the upper class, or elite as it is now known, much depends on your income and savings, in other words how much money you have.  No surprise there then.  Other questions are about social and cultural activities.  They give a list of various occupations and ask if you know any people in those occupations socially.  These range from Chief Executive, solicitor, university lecturer to shop assistant, farm worker or cleaner.  They want to know whether you go to the opera, ballet or listen to classical music, frequent the gym, take part in sports or have an account on Facebook or Twitter.  The answers to those questions apparently determine where I fit in society. 

There was nothing in there to ask about how I felt about injustice or if I was a cheat or frequently told lies or if I had killed anyone.  This week we have heard much about  Mick Philpot who deliberately started a fire that caused the death of six of his children.  Some attributed this to his social standing and way of living.  So I couldn’t help but think of Lord Lucan who also committed murder.  The only difference is that he somehow got away and his whereabouts are unknown so he was never judged for his crime.  It seems to me that being part of the elite (as Lord Lucan of the titled gentry is/was) or being unemployed and living on state benefits doesn’t seem to be a deciding factor.  Both committed a terrible crime against people they knew. 

Eton College

A ‘higher’ position on the social ladder depends a lot on hereditary factors, intelligence you happened to be born with, privileged background, expensive education and ‘who you know’.  There are liars, cheats, lazy, bad tempered and offensive people in all classes just as there are good, honest, hardworking and likeable people.  I’m sure we can all think of people from all classes of society who are good and bad.  Being educated at Eton and studying the classics at Oxford don’t guarantee you are a nice person just as going to the local comprehensive and leaving without any qualifications don’t make you a bad person.  But that seemingly is how the world judges us and labels us and so people desperately want to be thought of as more middle class than working class (as though somehow those in the middle class don’t actually work!).  Social status is important to them.

Does God really care whether I listen to classical music or nor?  Does it really matter in the big scheme of things whether I have an account on Facebook or Twitter?  (By the way Facebook I do but Twitter I don’t.)  Is it terribly important whether I rent or own the house I live in?  I am me, the person God made me.  Being what God wants me to be and doing what God wants me to do are what really count.  The Bible teaches that all are equal before God.  Paul says that it doesn’t matter about our gender, nationality or status in life, whether elite or lowest of the workers, we are all loved by God and are equal in His sight.  Jesus says in Luke (13:30) ‘the first shall be last and the last shall be first’.  God sees us in a different way.  He doesn’t see how much wealth we have accumulated or what music we listen to or which postcode we live in.  He sees beyond that into our hearts and sees what sort of people we are.  His ways are not our ways.  And He tells us that we shouldn’t judge others by outward appearances or what sort of clothes they wear or what sort of house they live in. 

Lord, help me to see others through Your eyes.  

Relationship

This past week a nephew and his wife, who live in Argentina, have been visiting the Iguazú waterfalls (pronounced ee-gwa-soo, emphasising the last syllable) that are on the border between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.  It is wonderful to see the falls that form part of the jungle of the very northern tip of Argentina.  I have had such a privilege twice and both times have been moved by the spectacle.  The name Iguazú comes from the two Guaraní (native Indian) words ‘I’ meaning big and ‘guazú’ meaning water – big water.  It has been so nice to see their photos and remembering the times I spent there, seeing the multitude of huge multi-coloured butterflies and the birds flying in and out of the water to the nests they have made behind the falls to protect their chicks against predators.  When you break it down there is nothing that spectacular about water and a mountainside in the jungle, but when you put the two together and see how the relationship and interaction between the two work, that is spectacular.

As I said last week I have been putting various seeds into small pots with compost in the hope that later in the year we can enjoy the produce.  I have watered them carefully and put them in a warm place and they are just beginning to show their tiny shoots.  When the shoots are big enough and strong enough I will transfer them to larger pots or plant outside.  Again the seed and the compost are nothing special in themselves but when they are put together with water, heat and protection against the unfavourable elements outside, that interaction and interdependence is what produces the wonder of a plant growing from such a tiny seed.

We can see many cookery programmes on the TV.  To take the same analogy into the sphere of cookery, you could put all the ingredients into a bowl – some flour, sugar, margarine, egg and flavouring and nothing will happen.  You will simply have a bowl of flour, sugar, margarine, egg and flavouring.  It’s when you mix them all together and surround them with heat for a specified time that they result in a tasty cake.

What set me off thinking along these lines is some meditations from Richard Rohr that I received earlier this week about the Trinity.  I think his words are better than mine:

In our attempts to explain the Trinitarian Mystery in the past, we overemphasized the individual qualities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but not so much the relationships between them. It is in the relationships themselves where all the power is! This is where all the meaning is! We can name them all with masculine words (as we have done up to now), we can name them with feminine or neutered words if you wish, but in both cases you can miss the precise way that they relate to one another—and thus miss the major point.  The Mystery of God as Trinity invites us into a dynamism, a flow, a relationship, a waterwheel of love, or a “fountain fullness of love” as Bonaventure put it. Trinity says that God is a verb much more than a noun, an energy and action more than a concept.

We tend to think of the Trinity as three, separate beings but it is in their three-in-oneness that makes the Godhead so wonderful – the three equal in power and importance and totally interactive and interdependent on each other.  As Jesus said, ‘I and the Father am one.’  We can meet together and often there is one who is ‘above’ or more important than the others, where the many are dependent on the one and we really miss the point of the Trinity.  Jesus prayed that we should be one as He and the Father are one.  It is the relationship, interaction and interdependence that show His awesome power at work.  Again I quote Richard Rohr:

 Paul says, “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). That awesome line gives us a key into the Mystery of Trinity. I would describe human strength as self-sufficiency or autonomy. God’s weakness I would describe as Interbeing or shared intimacy.

Human strength admires holding on. Human weakness is about letting go into the Other, handing over the self to another and receiving your self from another. Human strength admires personal independence. But God’s Mystery is total mutual dependence and interdependence. We like control more than surrendering. God loves vulnerability. We admire needing no one. The Trinity is total intercommunion with all things and all Being. We are practiced at hiding and protecting ourselves. God seems to be in some kind of total disclosure for the sake of creating and loving the other.

Our strength, we think, is in asserting and protecting our boundaries. God is into dissolving boundaries between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet finding them anew in that very outpouring! The space created by outpouring is automatically filled up by infilling.

I can have an ocean of water and a whole range of mountains but if the two never meet there will never be a waterfall.  I can have a whole bag of flour but if I don’t mix it with other ingredients, the result will still only be a whole bag of flour.  On its own it will never be a cake.  Each ingredient is equally important and totally interdependent.   And so it is in relationship with others and with God.  I can be part of a huge crowd, all wanting the same experience but if there is no interaction and no mutual interdependence with each other and God, there will be no end product - we will simply be people.  I could go to a pop concert and have a great night out with other like-minded people but come out being exactly the same person as I was when I went in.  The experience was enjoyable but hasn’t made any difference to my life.  It’s not about the getting together, whatever form that might take; it is about the relationship within that togetherness that makes the difference.  

Spectacular or Ordinary

This week has seen two installments of new heads of churches – the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury.  There was much pomp and ceremony.  People travelled from far away to be part of the occasion and soak up the atmosphere.  TV presenters seem to thrive on the spectacular, as do many people.  There is a craving for the sensational, outrageous or celebrity news in the media.  It seems that such headlines sell newspapers.  But, apart from the historic setting of the occasions we have witnessed this week, in the Christian environment how often have we been guilty of the same sort of enthusiasm?  We seem to live from one big event to the next – almost like some spiritual ‘fix’.  How often have we travelled long distances to hear a particular speaker or join a well-known worship singer or band? The effort, time and expense we have put in has presumed that somehow this will conjure up some super experience of God.

In some parts of the church, particularly the evangelical/pentecostal/charismatic strain, the impression often is that the louder you pray or the longer the sermon, the nearer you are to the holy presence of God.  Of course we know that God is everywhere but our awareness of His presence somehow seems to be heightened through the spectacular.  Emotions run high and we know that God was there.  Like Peter at the mount of Transfiguration, we want such experiences to continue and try to make some sort of physical reminder that we can keep revisiting.  For many these days are over – the big meetings that go on indefinitely are fading but it would be wrong to assume that God has turned His back on us.  He is still here.  It is time to see Him in the everyday world around us, very evident at this time of year when spring is about to burst into life.  Although we have had some terrible weather in the UK this month, snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils still show their splendour.  That is truly spectacular.

 This week I have been planting seeds and am hopeful that in a few months’ time we will be able to enjoy the outcome.  When you look at the size of the seed and the crop that one tiny seed produces, what is more spectacular than that?  One of my favourite films is Bruce Almighty, especially the part when Bruce is shouting at God ‘Give me a sign, give me a sign’ and a lorry passes him that is full of road signs.  He then says ‘Talk to me God, talk to me’ and his mobile phone starts to ring.  When we ask God for signs and wonders and ask to hear His voice we really mean that we want to see some miracle or something spectacular but never consider that God might choose to communicate through the ordinary things of life.

The big meeting is mainly humanity’s organizing skills put into action but the growth and produce that is derived from one tiny seed is part of the marvelous creation of God.  For me, at least for now, it is time to stop depending so much on the spectacular to make me aware of God’s presence and begin to see His glory all around me in the ordinary things of day-to-day living.  It’s time to stop … look … listen …taste and see that the Lord is good, here and now with what is already part of my life. 

In the Wilderness

When we hear the expression of being ‘in the wilderness’ or having a ‘wilderness experience’, it immediately conjures up negative overtones.  We think of being in a bleak place where we struggle to make any progress.  There also seems to be an overwhelming sense of loneliness, of being disconnected or somehow excluded from the life enjoyed by others around us.  It reminds us of a great desert with apparently so little life. (although wildlife documentaries now show that there is much life in the desert if we look for it).  One positive outcome of this sort of desert life comes from the example of the Desert Fathers, as they were known.  They were the forerunners of the monks and nuns who set up monasteries and convents so as to separate themselves from general society.  They became known as people of great spiritual awareness and left a lasting legacy for the church.

It seems then that by taking away the customary props of everyday living, we are able to gain a different and sometimes deeper sense of the world around us.  Things that become a force of habit can have a sort of drug-like effect of dulling some senses and create a dependency culture.  Often denying those things that have such comforting results can often heighten the other senses.  This of course was the original idea behind the giving up of something for lent – not in order to cultivate a spiritual smugness mistakenly thought of as a sort of martyrdom and self-denial.  It is the freeing ourselves of those hindrances that tie and limit our curiosity that can allow us to explore and heighten our spirit to new possibilities.  It has a way of clarifying our spiritual vision.  John the Baptist, Jesus and Paul all spent time in the desert before they began their important life’s work.

According to Wikipedia though, a wilderness is not just a desert place that appears barren and fruitless, it is ‘a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity’.  The word ‘wilderness’ is derived from the notion of wildness.  In other words something that is not controllable by humans.  Looking at wilderness this way would include areas within which natural processes operate without human interference.  So wilderness is not only the desert places but also jungles or places rarely visited by humans where nature is allowed to follow its natural flow.  I can’t help comparing it with our well-kept gardens with their manicured lawns and plants all in neat rows or as part of a larger collection making a particular display, so controlled that anything that dares to step out of its allotted place is plucked out and dealt with.  What a difference with the freedom of the wilderness to just go with the flow.

It is fascinating to watch such programmes on TV that show such places.  Only a few native tribes remain in such places and it is amazing to see just how they adapt their lives to correspond with the ways of the land around them.  They have found different ways of living from anything we know in our big towns and cities.  They respect their surroundings and have learnt to live with and from the land.  Adventurers like Ray Mears show how to find new and different ways of finding food and how to cope in such a wild environment without the home comforts we are used to.  So the wilderness experience would seem at a closer look to be not a thing of barren despair or loneliness but a place of freedom and exploration, making discoveries, finding new and wonderful ways of doing things and different foods to sustain us, learning to live with the cosmic ways of the universe and creation instead of forcing creation to accommodate our fads and fancies. 

In my onward spiritual journey, I find myself in a new landscape - with challenges, yes - but instead of hankering after the controlled environment and being content to simply exist in old and comfortable ways, I want to embrace the wilderness, follow the freedom of the wild and discover more of God that until now has remained beyond my sphere of activity.  I am curious for more.    

Words and Actions

Earlier this week I watched a programme called ‘Cowboy Builders’ where you hear of heart-rending stories of how people have been deceived by those who have carried out some work on their homes.  The gentleman in question last night had given unrealistic quotes for doing jobs and then demanded more money.  When the money was not forthcoming he just left the job in a total shambles causing problems for the family concerned.  At first he gave a good impression, showing photos and with smooth words and assurances but what he actually did was something quite different.  The Ronseal advert springs to mind when it says ‘It does what it says on the tin’.  We are all appalled at such behaviour and have no sympathy for the perpetrators but total sympathy for those affected.  We would never dream of doing something so unethical. 

Much has been revealed of late about priests who have not lived up to their chastity vows.  The recent Roman Catholic cardinal in Scotland resigned over such an issue.  In public he condemned homosexuality and sexual impropriety but privately was guilty of the things he spoke against.  One reporter said of him, ‘The outside and the inside don’t match’.  Again most of us read in horror of such things and cannot see ourselves in a similar situation.  But I can’t help wondering if in maybe different ways we don’t always live up to what we like to appear on the outside.  A friend of mine describes some people as ‘the outside is different from the inside’ and I think that is a good way of describing someone who isn’t always what you thought they were when you get to know them better. 

A few weeks ago I received an email (thank you Tommy) with a story about a lady who had to stop her car at some traffic lights.  The driver in front had stopped as the lights changed to amber forcing her to stop.  She was irate, swearing and gesturing suggesting that the light was only amber and that both had time to cross before it changed to red.  She went on shouting until a police officer knocked on her window and wanted to talk to her.  Asking her to step out of the car he said that he was taking her to the police station for questioning.  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  At the police station she had to wait in a cell until the issue was sorted.  The policeman eventually went back to her and said that they needed to check that she was the owner of the vehicle.  He explained that she had stickers on her car saying ‘What would Jesus do?’, ‘Follow me on Sunday to Church’ and ‘I chose Life’, and so when he saw her reaction and heard her swearing he thought the car must have been stolen.  This may be just a story but it kept me thinking. 

God sees the inside and knows our hearts.  We can’t fool Him but often other people only see the outside.  I pray that in me the outside and the inside may always match up and that people aren’t disappointed when they get to know me.  Or as the old gospel song says, ‘I want my life to tell for Jesus’.  People won’t buy it if it doesn’t do what it says on the outside of the tin.

Meeting Together

I have been thinking all this week about meeting together.  I love meeting up with friends, whether that be deliberately and planned or unintentionally.  It is a real pleasure to catch up with news and enjoy the company.  As Christians we are encouraged by Paul to keep meeting together in order to encourage each other.  Sadly though, most who belong to some part of the organised church consider that meeting together means in a particular building usually on a Sunday morning and probably a couple more times during the week.  The meeting usually consists of some singing, prayers and listening to someone preach on some verse(s) from the Bible.  This also infers that the same people meet at the same time in the same building most weeks.  The sad thing is that this is considered by such people as being the only way of meeting up and is often the accusation put before those who no longer congregate, that now they are ‘outside’ of the fellowship of the church and by association must be limited in their access to God.

How wrong that is!  As has often been stated before, the Church is the people and not a building.  Since leaving the organised meeting, I have found many new Christian friends while many of those that I had considered friends somehow don’t consider me to be one with them anymore.  I have found that the internet is a wonderful place to be connected to friends near and far.  I have reconnected with friends with whom I had lost touch over the past number of years and also been able to visit new friends Joanna and Ian Storie, a couple living in Latvia (I have written about this visit  before in previous blogs – see posts from September 18^th – 23^rd 2011) You can follow Jo’s blog here.  I follow blogs of other Christians and find great encouragement from their journeys, especially when much of what they write seems to echo what I am experiencing.  In fact my online friend Paul Leader blogged about this very subject only the other day.  With tongue in cheek, I’m inclined to say ‘great minds think alike!’ but really sense that it has more to do with the thread of God’s presence weaving its way through it all and connecting our thoughts.  You can find Paul’s blog here.

The flip side of the coin is that God is everywhere and this seems to become more apparent when we no longer keep him confined to a church building until the next Sunday when we come together and talk to Him again, seeking strength to last us through the coming week.  The truth is that wherever I am, God is there.  There is no ‘once a week fix’.  He is Emmanuel – God with us, always, everywhere, at any given moment.  On Thursday I received a daily meditation from Richard Rohr that said:

“God Is Everywhere” (Answer to Question 16 “Where is God?” in the old Baltimore Catechism) Meditation 5 of 52

You cannot not live in the presence of God. You are totally surrounded by God all the time and everywhere. You have no choice in the matter, except to bring it to consciousness. St. Patrick said it well in the prayer attributed to him: God beneath you, God in front of you, God behind you, God above you, God within you.

 (You can subscribe to these daily meditations at this website.)

So I have discovered that God is much bigger than we allow ourselves to think.  He has more friends He wants us to ‘meet’ with and encourage than just those who gather on a Sunday morning in a particular building.  My friends are all over the world and in all walks of life and circumstances.  I like how my online friend Paul once expressed it – it’s like dot-to-dot pictures and gradually with new friends and connections, God is joining up the dots and making a picture much bigger and better than we had ever imagined.  He is not confined to a building or even one place or area. I am finding out how to ‘do church’ differently.  I am learning new and different ways of meeting together so that my horizons have grown bigger and wider.  And I am learning to recognise His touch, voice and teaching all around me in the day to day living and in things that happen.  I am not advocating that the organised building meeting isn’t the way.  For those who find it helpful and good, I’m happy for you and pray you find fulfilment in it.  But I am saying that this is not the only way and that those who find an alternative way of meeting and worship are equally acceptable in God’s sight.  Our God is a great big God!  Amen!

Rethinking - a woman's place

I follow a blog called ASBO Jesus and this latest post made me smile

We see other religions and cultures and often criticise the way that they treat females.  And yet I can’t help feeling that Christians are not altogether blameless in this area.  We can quote scripture verses to back up our theories and in a way blame the Bible for our stance.  We say that after the fall God said that women would be subject to the males.  But thinking about it a bit more, does this not imply that before the fall that was not the case?  It was never God’s intention for it to be that way.  God sent His Son Jesus as a way of reversing the effects of the fall so surely that would also imply that after Jesus (the Christian movement in other words) things should be reversed also.  And yet much of the organised church today still makes a difference between the roles of men and women (although much of it is more open to change nowadays). 

We look at the story of Mary and Martha and see it as a lesson in being too busy to make time to sit at the Lord’s feet.  If that is all we see in this story then I think we miss a very important point.  At that time it was just not acceptable for women to sit at the feet of a teacher and listen.  That prerogative was only for the men.  A woman’s place was indeed ‘in the kitchen’, out of sight, in a place where they could serve the men.  But Jesus said that it was good that Mary was there listening to what He was saying.  It was almost as though He was not just telling Martha that but also showing the disciples that His message was for everyone as equals.  Jesus went out of His way to speak to the Samaritan woman, an absolute ‘no-no’ for any respectable Jewish man.  Time and time again He showed that women were (and are) just as important as men in every aspect of life.  The first message to be given about the good news of His resurrection was given to a woman to deliver to the disciples.  You could say that it was a woman who preached the very first gospel message.

Men and women are indeed different in their make-up, interests and abilities.  This is not about some women’s lib hysteria but what is important is equal opportunities for those who wish to serve God in whichever way they feel God is leading them.  I personally was fortunate in my younger days to belong to The Salvation Army where women are treated as equal – the founder William Booth is noted for saying ‘My best men are women!’  It’s time for Christians to stop pointing the finger at others and realise that they are not without guilt themselves.  If Christians really lived this truth then maybe other spheres of life would be influenced and changed.  And we should stop interpreting the Bible in such a way just to confirm our own sometimes blinkered viewpoints.  All this rethinking drives me back to the Bible, especially the words and actions of Jesus and try to see what the message is really about.  Maybe that’s why He has led so many out of the organised structure of church so that we no longer have any false loyalties that hinder us from seeing deeper into the truths of scripture. 

Rethinking - church

I am fortunate to be part of a very loving Christian family.  When I was a child, our place of worship was ‘The Salvation Army’.  I was involved in all the activities and enjoyed being part of it all, in my early twenties entering into full time ministry in this country and in South America.  Returning to England we attended the local Methodist congregation and again I was involved in various activities.  When I retired I moved to the south west of England and joined with fellow believers in a charismatic community church.  Again I participated where possible and helped in the charity shop connected with them.

I’m not what is known as a ‘church hopper’ going from one congregation to another but not settling in any.  My experience has been that wherever I was living at the time, to go where I felt comfortable and participate as much as possible and help in whatever way I could.  I soon realised that not all Christians are the same!  I mean that some groups expect certain attitudes about things while others take a different stance, some being more free and easy than others.  All this has led me back to the Bible and often I have found that what has been insisted by a certain group has in fact no real biblical foundation but is rather a tradition of that particular denomination.  Much of the activity and projects within a denomination are for the benefit of that particular group or their building and very often doesn’t lead to any benefit to God’s Kingdom.  It too often is all too self-centred, congregation-wise, to numerically build up the group – more bums on seats, as they say.   

It is so easy when attending a ‘church’ to be caught up in their particular teaching without question and live in a kind of spiritual bubble.  We accept whatever teaching we are given, being quite passive in our own search for God.  Our leader can often become more like a mini infallible pope where he/she can do no wrong and whatever he/she says must be taken on board and we are somehow accountable to them for our actions.  The ‘church’ comes to mean the building where a congregation meets – we often hear the question, ’which church do you go to?  In fact the Bible is very clear that the Church is not a building but people – the followers of Jesus, the Way.  Wherever we are as Christians, there is the Church.  For a few years now I have had no attachment to a particular denomination or group.  God is my Teacher and He is more than capable of revealing Himself to me.  And I am answerable to Him for my actions.  I don’t have to belong to a congregation in order to help others. My offering, instead of going to maintain a system with building and salaries, now actually goes to help those in need.  I search for God’s intimacy without any ‘thought police’ telling me what I should or shouldn’t think, read or watch.  I am not under law but under grace and it’s this grace that gives freedom. 

‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again with a yoke of slavery.’ (Galatians 5:1)  

Listening

Minsteracres Monastery near Hexham, Northumberland
where I used to go on retreat.

A number of years ago I had the custom every year of going on a three day silent retreat in a monastery a few miles from my home.  They were wonderful days spent with friends but in silence apart from the person who was leading the retreat and the one who each day was chosen to say the grace before any meal.  We ate in silence and walked around the grounds in silence.  There were no radios or mobile phones - a rare treat.  It was amazing though how on the last day when at dinner the silence was broken, it took much longer to eat our meal and people had to ask for the salt or bread or whatever whereas before everyone just noticed what each other needed and passed it to them - an interesting lesson!


I was aware this morning of the words, 'Be still and know that I am God'.  I began to reminisce about those blessed times that were spent in silence and so as I was in the house on my own today, I decided to spend a little time just sitting, listening.  At first it is difficult as the mind starts to race away with its own thoughts, organising things into the different compartments of the mind and using the time as a sort of quiet working/sorting out time instead of just being and listening.  When I did listen, I heard a few cars going by outside and then a louder vehicle - the bus that goes up the road.  It would come back again in the opposite direction in about 15 minutes on its way into town.  I heard the sounds of one of the children who lives next door as she was playing.  There was also the call of a wood pigeon as it sat on the chimney stack and the sound echoed down the chimney into the living room.  But through it all was the constant ticking of the clock on the wall.  It was like the regular heartbeat of time itself.

In the busyness of life, you're not usually aware of the sound of the clock ticking.  You only hear it when other noises have stopped.  But it is there constantly ticking away whether it is noticed or not.  How often do I get caught up in the busyness of everyday living, hearing the sounds of life happening all around but not always consciously aware of the heartbeat of God, constantly there whether I notice or not.  It's good to take time out and just listen - even for a few moments - to hear the sounds that are often drowned out by other louder noises, sounds that we don't usually hear.  In the quietness God often makes us aware of things that escape us during the busy everyday living.  Our minds are too busy organising and planning so we don’t hear other, less attention-grabbing sounds.  It is a good exercise that I'm glad I've recaptured and hope to do more often in order to hear what God is saying through the 'still small voice'.