Missionary and Mission

Last week I wrote that I was praying for a revolution in the Church.  We need to rethink many aspects that have taken on a particular meaning.  I hope to unwrap some of those thoughts over the next few weeks but at this point don’t know how far I’ll get.  So here goes with the first one:

The word ‘missionary’ conjures up in the minds of most people an image of someone like David Livingstone going to ‘darkest Africa’.  Such people gave their whole lives and devoted themselves to the people for whom they left everything.  A more up-to-date equivalent would be someone like Mother Teresa who devoted her life to the poor in India.  The world has changed much since the days of David Livingstone and those who go on missions abroad nowadays often do so for shorter periods of time – some for only a few weeks.  I think of people like friends Julie and Dick Hogben (he is a GP and she works at a [different] surgery).  They link up with a charity in India called Asha and go every year to encourage and help in the slums.  You can follow their story here and here.

Margaret with some of the children she has helped

At one time it was thought that some sort of specialist training was needed to go abroad on some mission, particularly in medicine or education.  My friend Margaret also thought this for many years and it saddened her to think that she didn’t have any such qualifications but really felt she should become a missionary.  But now, retired from work and still without those specialist qualifications, she volunteers for 9 months every year in Nicaragua to help those who live in poverty and works with the charity SIFT to encourage (and pay for) the children to go to school and even university so they have a chance of getting out of the poverty trap.  With donations she receives from friends she is able to help many poor families in many other ways too.

I have other friends, Jo and Ian Storie, who are in Latvia, living and sharing life with others, helping to sort out problems of everyday living like heating their block of flats and making authorities aware of the problems of wild boar on the land where people need to grow food.  Their work is not connected to any particular denomination or charity.  Jo writes an update of their unfolding story every Monday.  You can follow their story here.

 

Although missions abroad have changed, not everyone feels any urge to serve God in this way.  Indeed, God does not ask everyone to do this.  So let’s rethink this whole idea of missionary in this 21^st century.  The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines mission as ‘a particular task or goal assigned to a person or group’.  So when Jesus commands His followers to go, share and show God’s love to those who don’t know Him, that includes all who follow Him.  That is the mission of each of us.  It’s a mandate, not just for those who feel a calling to go abroad, but for all of us, wherever we are.  A missionary is a person with a mission. 

 

There are countless charities that organise fundraising events in which many enjoy taking part.  Those who enjoy keeping fit often join in sponsored running or swimming events to raise money for their chosen charity.  But, if like me, you’re not particularly into that sort of thing, we should not feel that we cannot contribute anything or fulfil this mandate that Jesus left for His followers.  God knows what we can and can’t do – after all He made us.  We can make a difference without travelling to another country or partaking in any strenuous event but simply by sharing and showing God through our daily lives at work or where we live – stacking the shelves at the local supermarket; showing friendship to some elderly, lonely or vulnerable person; being a good neighbour; contributing to a food bank … … No doubt you can come up with many other situations.  We have a mission; we are missionaries just where we are; doing the everyday things; being involved with people.  We can use the things that we enjoy doing and make a difference.  The original mandate of Jesus was not building centred, it was focussed on people, their circumstances, their needs.  God is not really interested in how many names we can add to the outreach project of our particular organisation.  God just loves people, full stop.  We are all missionaries in this revolutionary Church.  Wherever we are and whatever abilities we may or may not possess, we can make a difference in the life of someone.

 

 

Revival or Revolution?

There is a poster that says ‘Revive your afternoon’.  It is an advert for a well-known vitamin-packed drink.  The suggestion is that after working all morning and having lunch it is often then that you can become a little sluggish and tired in the afternoon.  The firm claims that by having one of their drinks you will get an energy boost and you can be as active as before.  And so the noun ‘revival’ coming from the verb ‘to revive’ implies an input of renewed strength, a pick-me-up, a livening up when we are weary of the ‘same old thing’.  It sort of confirms a renewed continuation of what has gone before but with renewed vigour.

The word ‘revolve’ however is something quite different.  To revolve something means to turn it around and hence the derivative word ‘revolution’ implies not a renewal but a change of direction altogether.  A turning around brings a whole new aspect, something that wasn’t seen or done before.  I remember one morning while living in Argentina when we put on the radio we heard sombre classical music instead of the usual lively morning get-up-and-go stuff.  We then heard an announcement that was repeated every few minutes throughout the day – the military had taken over the government; General Ongania was the country's new president.  There were going to be changes, things were not going to be the same as before.  (Over the years there have been changes and now a democratic government is in place.)  In some parts of the world where they have experienced the so called Arab Spring, there were uprisings and revolutions.  The people wanted change and in those places where the new heads of government have proved to be much the same as those that were thrown out, there continues to be unrest.  The people wanted a new direction a different way of living and they got much of what they had before the revolution.  They had a renewal, a revival and they wanted a revolution.



In the 2000 years of Christianity we have seen countless revivals, many in the past few decades in many parts of the world.  And yet so often life seems to go on as before, nothing much seems to change.  There is still so much injustice and suffering in the world.  Revival seems to encourage those who are already following God’s ways but on the whole, it doesn’t seem to have changed a great deal in the ‘big wide world’.  Continuing to do what we have always done, even with renewed vigour and enthusiasm, hasn’t had the effect we wanted.  Some lives may have been changed but often after a revival eventually things go back to how they were before.  Our towns and cities still have the same problems.

 

Many Christians pray for a revival.  Me? I’m praying for a revolution!  We need to turn around and start seeing people and situations differently.  We need to be with people, living among them, sharing their concerns.  The word that is preached and heard inside the building needs to become flesh outside the building.  Jesus’ work was done mainly in the highways and the byways of life.  He met people where they were.  William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army, used to say that you can’t preach to someone who has an empty stomach.  You have to feed them and they will see what God’s love means.  People are sick of words; they want to see the revolution lived out among them.  Being a follower of Jesus is not just about repeating the ‘sinner’s prayer’.  It’s about living to make a difference.  Whatever else I may be known for, I want to be known as a follower of Jesus.  Now that is a revolutionary challenge.





Life after Death

Derelict building at Orton Ness

I was interested to learn this week of a place on the east coast of Suffolk called Orford Ness.  The buildings there are now desolate but a number of years ago they were the hub of investigation into British engineering and design.  The codename for the work carried out there was Yellow Sun; the design for nuclear bombs; the design to end the world.  The tall radio masts were part of a secret listening station to find military secrets of others.  But the world didn’t end and the people have gone and the work carried out here has gone. 
 

Chinese water deer

Nature has replaced and owned the landscape.  Now there are barn owls occupying the buildings.  Their secret and silent flight guarantees success in finding life-giving food.  The long ears of the hares have replaced the listening masts.  There are many other species, including Chinese water deer, avocet and spoonbill.  Where once there were plans for death and destruction now there is abundant life.  The commentator of the documentary summed it up by saying,

‘So many new and different lives in a landscape that plotted to take life away’.

The buildings of Orford Ness are falling and rotting away while nature is rising and redesigning that place that once held the secrets of destruction.
 

God’s plan is not to destroy by force, seeking power over others.  His response to destruction and the taking of life is the outpouring of love.  In a time of occupation by a foreign power God emptied Himself in the person of Jesus to show us His way of life, a peaceful, non-aggressive way of love.  God’s answer to the wrongs of the world that man has developed is shown in His creation – allowing all to be who and what they are without trying to change them or have power over them but to live in harmony and balance together – many different designs share what God has given for all.



 

God spoke and creation came into being – His words became living reality.  The Spirit breathed God’s DNA into creation and following Him we express those same ‘genes’ of God’s being in and through our lives.  We are His temple; His Spirit lives within us; we are made in His likeness; as part of His creation we carry His DNA.  Like children carrying the DNA of their parents, it’s up to us to decide to use what He has made us to be to express His nature by our attitudes and way of living.  As Orford Ness was transformed by nature, I want to be redesigned according to His DNA and show His ways.

 



Different Food

A series of programmes that I love to watch is back this week and continues over the next two weeks also – Springwatch.  I find it so interesting and informative.  This week they have commented often about the bad weather we have had so far this year and the particularly late spring and the effects this has had on the wildlife.  The various creatures have been reverting to inventive and strange ways to compensate for the rough times. 

There is a coastal region in Dorset - Kimmeridge Bay.  It is part of the Jurassic Coast and forms a key habitat for wildlife, the bay itself being a Marine Nature Reserve.  This year people have commented that apart from the usual seabirds that can be seen there, they have noticed garden birds such as robins, chiff-chaffs and wrens.  When marine scientists investigated further they realised it was because along the shoreline there was a microclimate underneath the line of rotting seaweed.  Here there was an enormous amount of small insects, sand-hoppers and maggots.  Further inland the weather has been so wet and cold that there have been very few insects for the birds and so they have travelled further out from their usual nesting places in order to seek food and feed their young.

 

On the Nature Reserve in Wales where the Springwatch team is located for the three weeks, there is a camera showing the nest of a pair of buzzards with their chick.  Again because of the bad weather, much of their usual food has not been available and so they have improvised and have been eating more frogs, moles and even an eel.  These creatures don’t normally appear so near to the surface of the soil but the unusual wet weather has meant that they have been more visible above the sodden bogs and so in the absence of their usual food store, the buzzards have been eating something different.

 

In both cases, the birds were willing to leave their traditional ways and try something new.  As people we often shy away from that with the attitude that ‘we’ve always done it this way’, ‘it’s not what we’re used to’, ‘this is our way, our life and we wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else’, ‘it doesn’t work the same.’  That shoreline of rotting seaweed must seem like an eyesore to some and there are those who would like to clear it (and the smell that goes with it).  But to those birds it is a lifeline.  For them it is not a waste place. It is a different place –yes – but a place of sustenance and full of life that they hadn’t been aware of before.  Some look at me (and others like me who have left traditional organised church) and in a similar way suggest that where I am, there is no spiritual food to be had.  To them it is unfamiliar, different or seems to be a waste place. But for me and many others it is a place of great sustenance.  The church without walls has an abundance of life.  It might not be for everyone but I for one am enjoying and thriving on the different way of being and doing things.





Not what I expected

 

The past couple of days in Britain it seems to have reverted back to winter.  There have been parts of the country that have seen snow and hailstones – in May!  Yesterday I succumbed and eventually put on the heating for a while, the cold was reaching right through to my bones.  They say that over the weekend it will be a little warmer.  I hope so as I have tomato and pepper plants that I want to get out into the little greenhouse before they take over the living room.  This is not the weather we expect in the southwest of England in May.

Yesterday I went into a particular shop in town looking for a product that I have been trying to get for a couple of weeks.  I discovered, however, that they had something similar but not exactly what I had been looking for.  For some reason the product I wanted is no longer available but this is the nearest I could get.  Sometimes when this happens or when the manufacturer decides to change the design on the packaging, we get a little confused – it’s not what we expect to see and so think that maybe it’s a different product altogether.  I’m sure I’ll soon get used to the alternative.  But for the moment it sort of throws you a bit when things aren’t always as you expect.

 

I suppose that’s the problem really.  I make plans and have things all sorted out in my head and then find that it doesn’t always work like that and I have to change my plans or get my head around a new strategy.  Ah!  How often I have done that.  We tend to plan ahead which is not a bad thing.  In fact it is a good thing but the trouble is we can so often have fixed ideas about things, become rigid in our thinking and inflexible in our attitude and then life happens and we have to rethink the situation or change our view about something.  Looking back over my life, I realise that very little has actually turned out the way I had planned or thought it would.  Over the years I have had to change direction on a number of occasions, when there was need to adapt to some unplanned situation. 

 

Having said that, I am still learning to go with the flow and travel where the wind blows me.  Over the past few years I have repositioned my thinking on many subjects and changed my mind about some things.  I am learning to realise the limitations that come with a controlled and planned life and accepting instead the freedom that comes with just letting the Spirit take me where He wants; to live without the confines of the controlled construct of organised church where my ideas and attitudes are under the authority of others; instead I now live in the freedom of the wild that it outside the walls of the building.  There is a breath of fresh air about it all. 

 

 

 

 

 

Better Vision

One of the unfortunate side-effects of having more birthdays is that parts of you stop working as efficiently as they used to!  I have regular check-ups at the eye clinic because of a cataract that is forming in one of my eyes.  This impairs my vision somewhat in that things in the distance become very unclear.  Last week I went for a regular eye test at the optician’s and this week I had to go and collect my new glasses.  It was amazing!  What a difference!   When the assistant asked if I could read the card, I did so without any problem and then in the distance, I could actually read the small print on a poster on the wall.  I was a bit like a kid at Christmas!  All the way up the street on my way back to the bus stop I was deliberately looking in shop windows for notices to read – just because I could – read them I mean!  I don’t know what any passers-by might have thought of this woman with a wide grin on her face looking in all the shop windows.

The following day I went to see my sister – we usually spend a couple of hours a week with a coffee, catching up on family etc.  The bus came around the corner about 100 yards away and I was thrilled to actually be able to read the destination and the number as it turned the corner and didn’t have to wait until it got to within about 5 yards of me.  Now I don’t need to look puzzlingly at an approaching bus and wonder if it is the one I want or not.

 



The thing I realised is that even though my vision was a little impaired and I couldn’t make out some things until they were really quite close, it’s something I got used to and sort of worked within that limitation without much fuss.  I stopped trying to read the news headlines as they went along the bottom of the TV screen.  I just listened to whatever the newsreader said.  In a way I just got used to my limitation in this matter and accepted it almost as inevitable.  This week I was reminded that things that aren’t 100% right can be changed.  Someone once said ‘Nothing that is wrong need be permanent’.  But in order to better my situation I had to go the optician and have my eyes tested and a new prescription given.  Eventually when the time is right, the cataract will be removed and my sight greatly improved.  I may moan about things not being right when maybe I should be thinking of how I can go about changing things and making them better instead of just putting up with things as they are.  With this in mind, yesterday I went into the back garden and mended a bit of fence that was broken.  There that’s better already!

 

Of course the world will take a bit longer to change; after all I’m not wonder woman!  But seriously sometimes we look with a bit of desperation at all that seems to be wrong and resign ourselves to the fact that it’s just the way things are.  But one step at a time, where we are, in our own back yard as it were, we can maybe do something to change some little thing.  After all the ocean is made up of countless drops of water, as they say.  In the Lord’s Prayer we pray ‘Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven’ and as a Christian who believes that this is what God wants then maybe I should be changing things, one bit at a time just where I am so that heaven is apparent just here.  Each of us making a difference right where we are - now there's a vision!





 

The Ever-Present Friend

The other day I saw a video of the song Jesus Emmanuel, The Name Lives On by David Phelps.  It is from his album Life is a Church.  It shows Jesus in various situations, just being with people, sometimes talking to them and sometimes just walking with them or hugging them, depending on their need.  It is worth the 4 or so minutes it takes to watch it.  You can see it here:



 

 

 

 

I particularly like the part where He is riding on the back of the refuse lorry, helping the bin men collect the rubbish.  It reminded me of an incident that happened over 15 years ago.  It was the custom at that time to give the children at Sunday School some topics for prayer.  I was taken to task because I had suggested to them that we should pray for the refuse collectors.  The gist of the complaint was that it was understandable and acceptable to pray for professions like doctor, nurse, teacher – those people who are considered to be fulfilling some vocation - but why refuse collectors?  My short reply was simply, ‘why not?’  So I was particularly pleased to see Jesus helping the men collect the rubbish and putting it in the lorry, hanging on the back with the others as they drove along.  This is my Jesus, my God.



What I also noticed was that there were no images of church buildings or anything to do with organised religion.  It was all about Jesus being out there in real life situations.  I think it’s sad that non-Christians think of Christianity (and Christians) as having to do with a building, liturgy and candles, people dressed in long frocks and wearing back-to-front collars and listening to a particular style of music.  If God/Jesus is really in everyday life situations, as I think most Christians really believe, then why is there such insistence on going to a building usually on a Sunday morning to ‘meet with God’?  It’s as though there is some need to go and fill up our spiritual supermarket trolleys so we are able to delve into the stock in our spiritual cupboards during the following week when we need to find a suitable verse or illustration.  God is here, now.  When Jesus met with Zacchaeus, it was outside and then He went to his house to chat.  He met a crazy man among the graves, a woman at the well when she was about her daily work … ... and we could go on with many more examples.  

It’s not just about joining with other like-minded people in a particular place to sing about Him or pray/talk to Him.  It’s about living with Him every day in all circumstances.  He is the ever-present one – He’s always there with us.  Jesus Emmanuel; God with us/me; now, here; at my point of need; in every part of my life; my very real and true Friend.



Unexpected Flowers

This week two unexpected flowers made an impression on me.  The first one is on a Christmas Cactus plant I have.  It was unexpected because the plant was in full bloom in December.  I actually mentioned in a blog before Christmas that I was hoping it would stay in flower for Christmas Day and so live up to its name – and it did.  So I was a little surprised to see another flower appear in April.  There has been just the one flower but it made me smile.  It was as though it was saying, ‘I want to do something spontaneous.  I want to be different.’

As the warmer weather has now decided to make an appearance, I have been doing a bit of pottering around the garden.  There is a small strip where I have snowdrops and crocuses.  They have now died off and so I was clearing the weeds that seem to be everywhere.  Clearing out some of the unwanted growth I suddenly saw a beautiful miniature purple pansy – just the one, all on its own.  It was hidden among all the weeds.  It was still growing in all its glory to its full potential, even though it went unnoticed because of all the other stuff around it.  It wasn’t something that made a splash of colour or caught the attention as soon as you looked at the garden as some larger, more striking flowers might do.  It just did its job, fulfilled its purpose whether it was noticed or not.  And it cheered my heart.  It was as though it was wearing the slogan ‘Just do it!’  It reminded me of a very old song that has the line ‘content to fill a little space if God be glorified.’

When we go to large gatherings, conventions, revival meetings or to hear some well-known speaker, you sort of expect to ‘feel’ God near.  You almost wait for the moment when you feel uplifted and encouraged.  But I do love it when God appears out of the blue; when we’re not expecting it; when He reminds us of some truth that we have deep inside and it suddenly comes bursting up to the surface and we just want to smile and say ‘Thank you Lord’.  He is a God who specialises in the one-to-one encounter; He is so very personal; He knows how to get my attention and whisper encouragement.  It was like He was saying ‘Don’t worry about doing things differently.  Don’t be concerned with all the stuff going on around you; just do what I sent you to do.  Even though it seems that nobody notices, there is a purpose and someone will be blessed, even if you never know.  Be you.  Be the person I made you to be and I will show my glory through you.’  I’m so glad that He has a habit of breaking through the mundane.  I’m glad He is a God who is interested in the individual and thinks of me.  Thank you Lord.

Mind Your Language

The Picketty Witch pub, Yeovil

In the area where I live, there used to be a pub called The Picketty Witch.  It has recently been sold and a large chain of supermarkets is planning to convert it into another of their stores.  The sign outside the pub showed a witch on her broom.  Looking into the history of the area, however, I discovered that the name has nothing to do with a witch.  The word ‘picketty’ comes from the old English word ‘piccede’ or ‘piked’ as in a very sharp point.  There is a particular spot that used to be a very sharp corner until the 1950s when it was rounded more for traffic to be able to manoeuvre more easily.  The word ‘witch’ is mis-spelt and should be ‘wice’ or ‘wych’, another name for an elm tree.  A late 14^th century document refers to the spot as ‘Pycit Cross’ and it was later referred to as ‘Pyked Weech’ which in turn became ‘Picketwitch’.  In maps dating around the middle of the 1800s there is evidence of elm trees growing in the area and one in that particular spot.  So Picketty Witch is nothing sinister nor does it have any connection with the occult but just a gross distortion of its original meaning of an elm tree in a corner plot of land.  What a difference!

 

Old English document

I guess not many people could read the real old English as written centuries ago and even if they could, the meanings of words often change over the years.  When I was a child, ‘gay’ meant ‘happy’ – we used to dance ‘The Gay Gordons’.  Now of course it has a completely different meaning.  Hardware meant buckets and brooms and shovels – implements for cleaning and scrubbing not something to do with technology.  Other words that come to mind are cool, hot, wicked … … and so we could go on.  And so even in my lifetime, words have changed their meanings.  Often sayings cannot easily be translated from one language to another, at least not word for word.  Such idioms are peculiar to a language or even a dialect within a language. 

There used to be a programme called ‘Call My Bluff’ when team members would give three different definitions of a strange word and the opposing team had to guess which explanation was the correct one.  There were words that were peculiar to a certain region or taken from some old dialect, now forgotten.  If they can make several series of such a programme, then it shows just how much language can change, be forgotten or misinterpreted.  If all that I have written so far applies to simply the last few hundred years, then how much more change would there be over the past 2 millennia?  Much was handed down verbally rather than written.  Indeed it wasn’t until years after the crucifixion and resurrection that the gospels were put down in writing.  Taking all this into account, I find it amazing that there are many who are so dogmatic about their interpretation of particular Bible verses to be the only truth.  The Old Testament goes back even more millennia.

 

Much of the Bible is written in symbolic language.  Jesus spoke much in parables, stories, figurative speech and picture language.  It seems unwise, therefore to take every verse of the Bible literally, as many fundamentalists tend to do.  Sometimes, because of the passage of time, we really need to look more deeply at Bible narrative and seek to answer the question ‘What is God really saying here?’ and not jump to the wrong conclusions influenced by our 21^st century mindset and 2000 years of church history and tradition and also take into consideration local expressions and changing words.  Paul Leader posted a good example of this on his blog here.

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.