Holy Disruption with Mark

Really enjoyed my Advent choice of a book, Tracy Daub’s “Holy Disruption: Discovering Advent in the Gospel of Mark” – a fascinating reflection on how to relate Mark to the Advent season. Mark challenges us to think about difficult things and, as Daub says, “Participating with Christ’s transformative work requires a willingness to enter into the real-time apocalypses around us. In this world of violence, intolerance, and division, a world where global pandemics and the consequences of climate change threaten the welfare of our planet, God gives us a special task: being witnesses to hope. Faithful anticipation in the coming of Christ is found not in calculating the exact time of the Messiah’s return, but in witnessing to his hope and love.” She also says, “In truth, all is not well in most of our lives or in our world. Quite often the peace we attempt to create at Christmas is not genuine. It is a fake peace. Like faux pearls, or faux furs, or faux leather, sometimes the peace we settle for is a shallow imitation. We settle for this imitation because often we would rather accept a comforting lie than an uncomfortable truth.” Mark may have no nativity, but there’s a lot of incarnational stuff!

Bread of Angels

I always enjoy reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s books, and “Bread of Angels”, recently completed, was no exception. Sub-titled ‘Feeding on the Word’, it offers a series of helpful reflections on brief Biblical passage, often with challenging and insightful comments. As a good example, I like the little note on the story of Mary washing Jesus’ feet. Taylor writes: ““Mary got the message and acted on it. While some of those standing by thought her mad, or smitten, or (God forbid) wasteful, at least she and the one whose feet she rubbed suspected the truth. Where God is concerned, there is no need to fear running out - of nard or of life, either one. Where God is concerned, there is always more - more than we can either ask or imagine - gifts from our lavish, lavish Lord.” It is good to be reminded of the fantastic generosity of God.

Advent in the Holy Land

Back in 2011 I was able to spend twelve days during Advent in the Holy Land. It was a fascinating and moving experience to visit the places we remember at Advent and Christmas at that time of year. One of the first places we visited was Ein Kerem, the beautiful, though hilly, village where John the Baptist was born and grew up. Someone living there in John’s time would probably have been relatively well off. When we got there, we went first to a spring known as Mary’s spring – and there we were reminded of the importance of wells and springs in Jesus’ day, both for the water they supplied, but also because they were a gathering place for the women. They met at the well and there exchanged the news and the gossip. Today we have many more means of communication, but then it was important that they took the opportunities that were there to share news. Have you heard … ? Did you know ….? It is always interesting to reflect on what news we pass on. It is so easy to spread rumour and gossip, but what we are called to do is spread the Good News, the Gospel. Go and tell. I wonder what are the things that we are going and telling. What is it that we want to share? Ein Kerem is where Mary would have visited her cousin, Elizabeth – and there they were, both expecting babies, and both, it might be assumed, should not have been in that state. Why did Mary go to visit Elizabeth? Was it because she wanted to share her good news? Or might it just be that Mary was sent there to get her out of the way for a bit? How scandalous that she was unmarried and pregnant! And Elizabeth wasn’t much better. She was probably the source of gossip too. She was married all right, but you shouldn’t be having babies at her age. Having a baby should be a source of joy, but for both Mary and Elizabeth there was an element of scandal. How do we respond to the scandal of the Gospel? What do we do with those awkward things that come our way? Mary responded by writing a fantastic song, the one that we now know as the Magnificat – and on a wall in the grounds of the church, which marks Ein Kerem as the place where John lived, was written, as gifts from many nations, the Magnificat in very many different languages. There it was in Greek, in Hebrew, in Arabic. It was in Spanish and French, Swahili and English and very many more. The Magnificat has many important things to say to us about God’s care for the disadvantaged. He has performed mighty deeds …. He has brought down rulers …. He has filled the hungry …. Are we ready to listen? Are we ready to hear the message of liberation? What a joy to visit Bethlehem just ahead of Christmas! Just like that first Christmas, as Luke tells it to us, there were lots of visitors in town – only these visitors were not there on business, needing to register themselves for the census that was being undertaken. These visitors were pilgrims, wanting to see the place where Jesus was born, marked now, not by a stable or any other form of domestic or farm building, but by a church. This is an interesting church, not just because of what it marks, but because there has been a church on this site from very early times, and we were able to see something of the indicators as to how it had been adapted and added on to down through the ages. We were able to imagine a very tired Mary arriving in Bethlehem, desperately wanting to find somewhere to rest and then, almost immediately, discovering that the baby was on its way. We have cleaned up the story and made a pretty picture of it, but giving birth in a draughty and, almost certainly, messy stable, cannot have been something anyone would have wanted for their child and themselves. Being in Bethlehem and thinking back some two thousand or so years was fascinating. We only queued up some ten minutes or so to see the place believed to be where Jesus was born, but I am told it can take a lot longer. Why are there so many twenty-first century pilgrims who want to encounter this spot, when it was just a few shepherds in the first century. One of the things to learn is not to be in a hurry, and to realise that God’s time is always best. People were selling all sorts of things, but mainly souvenirs. I suspect there were lots of people selling things in Jesus’ time too, but they would more likely be food and the basic necessities of life. What do we spend our money on? What are our priorities? Perhaps we are helped to work that out when we pause to ponder where it is that God would have us be, what it is that God would have us do? At Bethlehem that first Christmas, that great thing that we often refer to as the incarnation took place. What does that mean for us here and now?

God in Pain

I always enjoying reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s books and God in Pain, which I have just finished reading, is no exception. It is a great collection of sermons (or homilies) exploring the theme of suffering and pain and what it means. One of the key points, and values of the collection, is that this is something that we cannot always avoid. Towards the end of the book, there are a number of pieces originally prepared for Good Friday which offer a helpful exploration of the theme. She points out the good death that many religious leaders (like Buddha and Confucius) experienced, adding that: “Jesus was not so lucky. But if he had been luckier, what would he have had to offer all those others who die too soon – abandoned - who suffer for things they did not do, who are punished for the capital offence of loving too much, without proper respect for the authorities? His hard luck makes him our best company when we run into our own. He knows. He has been there. There is nothing that hurts us that he does not know about. On the whole, his love was not the sweet kind. It may have been sweet when he was holding a child in his arms or washing his friends’ feet. But more often it was the fierce kind of love he was known for - love that would not put up with any kind of tyranny, would not stand by and watch a leper shunned or a widow go hungry - love that turned over tables and cracked homemade whips before it would allow God to be made into one more commodity.” She goes on to point out the different, transforming approach offered by Jesus, to which we are called, but with which we struggle. “Our world is built on knowing who is up and who is down, who is in and who is out, who is last and who is first. His world turns all that upside down, and we simply cannot function like that. So we run this world our way and we make noises about wanting to do it his way, but we do not really mean it or we would.”

Iona - Interfaith Pilgrimage

Back in September I had the opportunity to be part of the Christian delegation on the Scottish religious leaders’ pilgrimage to Iona. Organised by Interfaith Scotland, we were celebrating twenty years of working together across the faiths. In 2002, and in the aftermath of what has become known and remembered as 9/11, three Christian church leaders, from the Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church suggested that it was important for religious leaders to get to know one another, and so, what has become Interfaith Scotland was born in September 2002 and, exactly 20 years later, we found ourselves, a group of Scottish religious leaders, augmented by a number of interfaith chaplains and representatives of local interfaith groups, travelling to the beautiful island of Iona for what proved to be an amazing few days together. All the main faiths were represented, and so we went, worshipped and lived together – from the Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan and Sikh communities. An earlier question had been whether Iona was too strongly associated with the Christian faith, but representatives from the non-Christian faiths insisted that they were happy with the destination, and indeed I think we all found it a great place to be. It was not intended that we would be making our way to Oban, and then on across Mull and to Iona on the day of the Queen’s funeral – but that is how it was, but many of us caught up on what we had missed by watching it through iPlayer on a large screen in the village hall in the evening, and it was good to do that together. It was a pilgrimage and one of the things to do on Iona is a mini pilgrimage around the island, reflecting on some of the things it that the place might say to society at large on all sorts of issues – and so we walked round part of the island together, reflecting on education, health, and so many of the other everyday things that matter to all of us, and had the perspective of a different faith leading some reflection on each issue. Alongside that there was plenty of time for further exploration and I particularly enjoyed a rather longer than I had anticipated walk over to St Columba’s Bay where we enjoyed dipping fingers or toes in the sea and the beauty of the beach there. One of the main tasks was to renew our commitment to work together. I found it immensely encouraging that we found it surprisingly easy to agree a text. In the statement we recognised the value of marking the twentieth anniversary of the Scottish Religious Leaders’ Forum by our pilgrimage together on the holy and historic island of Iona. We recognised the diversity of culture, religion and belief within Scotland, and the damage and suffering caused by prejudice, discrimination and war. We affirmed our commitment to good interfaith relations and trust across Scotland and the particular challenges, which we must address together, around caring for the earth, living sustainably and addressing climate change. We further committed ourselves to walk alongside and listen to local communities across Scotland in the many challenges we all face in a time of bewildering change. This all came together in the multi-faith service of commitment live-streamed from Iona Abbey (and available on YouTube if you search for InterFaith Scotland). The service, to which each faith community contributed was a remarkable culmination of an extraordinary few days. I went, if I’m honest, with a degree of uncertainty, but I came away seeing it as one of the highlights not just of 2022, but of all that I have done in over forty years of ministry. How good to spend time together. How good to learn from each other. How good to be part of a Scottish Interfaith pilgrimage to Iona.

God Is A Black Woman

Christena Cleveland’s God Is A Black Woman is a powerful, challenging, uncomfortable and inspirational read, and much more. I can’t say that it was easy to read, but I am so glad that I came across it. It is a really important challenge to our conventional thinking, which is there, whether we like to admit it or not, but which needs to be moved into a significantly new place. We simply cannot impose our categories on God, and then especially when they are rooted in wrong ideas of power and position. Cleveland puts it powerfully, but importantly: “The prevalence of white male images of God easily lead us to conclude that God is definitively and exclusively white and male. And like many culture-shaping ideas, we don’t even question the idea or how it shapes our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. For most of us, regardless of what we might want to believe or claim to believe, the image that immediately comes to mind when we imagine God is that of a powerful white man who is for and with powerful white men. It’s a deceptive idea that flies under the radar, powerfully shaping us without our consent.” She rightly points to the importance of our imaginations and the effect of how we ‘imagine’ things to be. We need to capture a new understanding of God, which take us to radically different places, and which retains the ability to free our thinking about God. “The Sacred Black Feminine cannot be distilled into a TED Talk or a tidy sermon. Though She can rock with the best of the intellectuals, She exists beyond the edges, beyond the orthodox ways of knowing, and beyond traditional logic. She beckons us in dreams and speaks to us through our embodied experiences. As I continued to journey toward the Sacred Black Feminine, I could see that She was guiding me away from my obsession to prove Her and instead inviting me to simply experience Her.”

Reflections on Corrymeela

Photo taken on a visit to Londonderry during the 2012 Eastern/Thames North Synods Spring School at Corrymeela I have just read Paul Hutchinson's little book Between The Bells which has taken me back to my two visits to Corrymeela in 2008 and 2012. The book is a selection of stories, almost diary pieces, from Hutchinson's time as Centre Director at the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland. It's a reminder of the importance and the challenge of the work of reconciliation. Hutchinson reminds us that, though it is difficult, we need to do things differently, commenting: The theologian David F Ford, speaking at an Anglican conference I attended in 2017, suggested that if society placed the rich, powerful, beautiful people at its centre, then at some point we would all be excluded. But, says Ford, if we placed at the centre of society those with learning disabilities, children, the elderly, then we could all find a place, a welcome, inclusion. A world upside down. Oh, for that upside down world!

Young, Woke and Christian

Young, Woke and Christian: Words from a Missing Generation, edited by Victoria Turner, is a great collection of writings by younger Christian theologians and practitioners. It is certainly a challenging volume, but in a helpful and needed way. The Church needs to listen to its younger voices, and this book definitely helps us to do that. As Victoria Turner herself says, in her editing role: “Our desire is to make radically loving Christianity as well known as rigid, traditional, life-limiting, restrictive Christianity. The contributions here begin to outline what that Church might look like in the eyes of young leaders.” A lot of the pieces focus on issues of identity and inclusion, but a wide ranges of topics are covered, including climate change, homelessness, mental health and hope. I did like Sophie Mitchell’s reflection on leadership in which she says: “Luke 5.11 highlights the importance of developing unlikely leaders in and for our mission in the account of Jesus choosing his first disciple, Peter. It is interesting that Jesus’ first choice for his top team cabinet is a fisherman. Visiting the temple regularly for the annual festivals he would have seen the rabbis and leaders of the temple and could have sought to align himself with a political leader of power who would compound his influence, or even with the socialites of his day, yet he chooses a simple fisherman. I cannot imagine that he would have looked or smelled the part.” It is a volume that is well worth reading and, alongside the many legitimate challenges, sounds some equally important positive notes, like Nosayaba Idehen’s words on hope: “Hopelessness is not the only option, and we do not have to default to it. In this sense, hopelessness is a choice that we make, but then so too can we choose to open ourselves to hope. This choice does not require us to ignore our anxieties about what our collective future might hold. Hope does not require arrogance – a blithely optimistic assertion that everything is going to be OK. Grief and hope can exist together and they do not have to lead us into hopelessness. Hope is not the end-product but rather the beginning, an opening to possibility that allows us to go on in seemingly impossible circumstances.”

Roland Walls

Picture is visiting Rosslyn Chapel in February 2022. ........... Roland Walls (1918-2011) was clearly an exceptional character. He was a founding member of the Community of the Transfiguration, formed in the mining village of Roslin (Midlothian) beside the historic Rosslyn Chapel of which Walls was, for a while, priest-in-charge. A modest figure, he lived extremely simply, but held a variety of significant offices, including as Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely and Canon Residentiary of Sheffield Cathedral where he got involved in Sheffield Industrial Mission. A convinced ecumenist, he eventually converted to Roman Catholicism. However, his main work was that at Roslin. His thinking is reflected in a fascinating way in a book of conversations, Mole Under the Fence put together by Ron Ferguson. Just a couple of quotes - ....................... “So far as I know, there is no mention in the Bible whatsoever of building the kingdom, or indeed of building Jerusalem. The Lord builds up Jerusalem, and he comes down from heaven to us.” “Now, the funny thing is that when it comes to numbers, the gospel-writers tell us about 5,000 or 4,000, not the numbers who came to hear him, but the numbers he fed. That's a different thing. Now, if we could get new church statistics, they ought to be about the numbers we've really given to, unconditionally - like the feeding of the crowd. It was unconditional. It was an abundance of grace. It wasn't about how many people were won for the Lord. How we twist all this! With that gospel story, we can all of us think: ‘What a marvellous success story - he got 5,000 to listen to him!’ But that wasn't the point of the gospel story. It was how many were fed. Now, if we want statistics, that's the way they ought to be presented: how many of you touched rather than ‘got in’.”

Freedom and Faith - and Scottish Identity

Donald Smith’s Freedom and Faith was a fascinating read, exploring Scottish identity but particularly in the context of, and in relation to, faith. He notes the importance of Scottish history and heritage, and the complications of the mixture of serious history and frivolous tourist tat. However, it is not to be ignored. He also notes the place of faith. “Present-day Scotland is characterized by religious diversity. While agnosticism may command the support of a silent majority, there is an articulate camp of atheistic belief, and a much larger but segmented community of faiths.” The decline of the church, particularly the Church of Scotland, has had a major impact, but faith communities retain a vital role. He explores the advantages and difficulties of operating within the British context, but makes clear that Scottish identity is vital and distinct. Perhaps it is Smith’s final chapter on ‘faith in the future’, with its conviction that the Church and other faith communities continue to hold an important role, that struck the strongest chord for me. “Despite the hopes of some secular humanists it is unlikely that religious faith and practice will disappear. The sensibilities, imagination and psychological needs that nurture religion are deeply layered. Only a few totalitarian regimes have succeeded in suppressing organised religion, providing instead state and leader worship, but religious faith has returned to haunt - and in some cases help to topple - them. A uniformly secular Scotland is an improbable but also a dull prospect. …. … The Christian Gospels are not focused on establishing an organised religion, but with practising a moral and spiritual anthropology that illumines all life, regardless of race, creed, gender, culture or class. This is the fertile power of Christianity that most churches have devoted much energy and ingenuity to confining. There are no institutional or intellectual barriers set by Christ, only the invitation to begin on a compelling journey.”

Embracing the Transformation

Unsurprisingly, this little volume from Walter Brueggemann, Embracing the Transformation, calls us to do precisely that – to embrace the transformation that God brings. Brueggemann is a great believer of Scripture and of preaching and this book contributes to his reflections on what preaching can achieve. As he says; “I understand preaching to be the chance to summon and nurture an alternative community with an alternative identity, vision, and vocation, preoccupied with praise and obedience toward the God we Christians know fully in Jesus of Nazareth.” He also says: “The challenge of preaching is that this well-known tale of God must be told as if it had never been heard before. The new land must be shown as if it had never been seen before.” I wonder how readily and how frequently preachers manage to inject the kind of excitement that ought to provoke into their preaching. The point is that God not only makes a difference, but God makes all the difference. “Chaos is transformed into creation. In its largest scope, the Bible invites us to think about God’s transformation of the whole cosmos.” How much of God’s transforming grace do we manage to glimpse?

Indian Reflections

From my 2019 trip to Vellore

I really enjoyed reading Betty Robinson's Thursday's Child Had Far To Go, sub-titled 'From Scotland to India'. Betty, now, like me, a member of Rutherglen United Reformed Church, served as a missionary (mission partner) in India from 1966 to 1999 through what was originally the London Missionary Society, later the Council for World Mission.

The book tells her story by re-producing the circular letters that she, and after her marriage together with her husband Leslie, sent to friends and supporters.

I enjoyed the book for two main reasons. The first is my own, seriously briefer (1991-1994), period of overseas church service in Panama which has made me more interested in the experiences of others who have had such experiences in various parts of the world.  The second is my two visits to India, in 2015 and 2019, leading groups on behalf of Cambridgeshire churches and as part of a partnership with the Diocese of Vellore, and so to a part of India that overlapped where Betty and Leslie served. Betty's writing certainly evoked some good memories for me - but for anyone offers a fascinating picture of a little bit of the world church.

Reflecting on her title, are we each ready to go where God wants to take us?

 

Wilderness Zone

Walter Brueggemann’s A Wilderness Zone is a great little collection of sermons, reflections, essays, seeking to offer Biblical, especially Old Testament, insights on current life and issues, not least the challenges of a world emerging from the pandemic. Brueggemann comments: “When I thought about these poignant social realities of vulnerability, dislocation, plus fear and anger, it occurred to me that in the Bible the context that presents a like lived experience is the wilderness sojourn of Israel after the slaves had departed Pharaoh’s Egypt.”

The collection is full of the kind of fascinating insight that Brueggemann so often offers. In a sense it is stating the obvious, but it is, equally, helpfully perceptive when he points out: “The virus has caused many people to feel abandoned. Beyond that the virus has caused many people in actuality to be abandoned. Consequently, I have thinking about biblical articulations of a season of abandonment.”

I particularly like his comments on the challenges around how we understand the interaction beyond possibility and reality, and the ways in which we try to limit God to what we can understand. What we see as possible is severely limited by the extent of the limits which we seek to impose on reality. When we struggle with the present reality, we find it so difficult to allow that God can completely break out of that. As he puts it: “Mother Sarah and Father Abraham knew that a son for them was impossible. Such newnesses are impossibilities made possible by drinking the cup of contradiction for the sake of the reality of God’s coming rule among us. Such impossibilities amount to a vigorous summons to the church away from anaemic prayer, anaemic preaching, and anaemic mission. The entire story depends upon the impossibility. It was so back in Genesis. It was so in the life of Jesus; it is so now. The future depends upon drinking “the cup” for the sake of God’s coming new world among us.”

Are we ready for/open to God’s bigger possibilities? Are we stuck in the wilderness zone or is there any chance of reaching the promised land? 

Faith in Modern Scotland

It is hard to avoid the fact that, as in the rest of the UK, faith plays a lesser part in society than it has done in the past and, in particular, there is a marked declined in the membership of the traditional mainline denominations.

However, that is not to claim that it is irrelevant. It continues to offer much and it is fascinating to reflect on just how that is, and how it has changed. Steve Bruce’s Scottish Gods, sub-titled Religion in Modern Scotland, 1900-2012 provides a thorough and interesting survey, touching on many of the relevant points.

As Bruce states, “The key is not decline, though it is hard to write about religion in modern Scotland without repeating that word. It is choice.” He adds, “Many Scots still stay with the churches into which they were born: the most popular options remain the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church. But there are other choices which are important for understanding religion in modern Scotland. First, there is the choice to ignore religion. … Second, there is the choice to prefer choice itself.”

Seeing the choices that different folk make is fascinating indeed.

Van Gogh Alive

 

We recently went to the Van Gogh Alive Experience in Edinburgh. It is a multimedia presentation of Van Gogh's paintings, in some cases bringing them to life, with a great musical background, and featuring a number of quotations from his writing. It was a great experience with much to say about life and its challenges.

I was reminded of my recent enjoyment of the little book in the 'Van Gogh to Go' series. Volume 3, the one I have, (selected and edited by Tom Willett), focusses on Van Gogh and spirituality, pairing a selection of his paintings with appropriate quotations.

Needless to say, there is much of value - but I was particularly struck by one quotation - "I believe in God, not a dead or stuffed God, but a living one who pushes us with irresistible force in the direction of "love on."

Pictures - photos at the Experience

Flying Falling Catching

A visit to the circus caught Henri Nouwen’s imagination. He was enthralled by the trapeze artistes and such was his interest that a deep friendship developed between Nouwen and Rodleigh and his fellow artistes. Nouwen always intended to write a book about his experiences with them – and Carolyn Whitney-Brown has carefully and movingly completed that work, linking it to Henri’s experience of the hospitalisation that shortly preceded his unexpected death. It’s a great book with extensive quotes from Henri’s note, so very much an editing and collaborative exercise.

I particularly like his comment following a conversation with one of the catchers - “Do you like your job?” I asked. He smiled at me and said very emphatically: “I love it. I love being in the catch bar and catching them!” It was clear he meant what he said. Having seen the act many times, I became aware of the unique role of the catcher. “You are not as much in the limelight as the flyers, but without you nothing can happen,” I said. He was quick to respond. “I really like it that way. The flyer gets all the attention, but their lives depend on the catcher! I don’t want all the applause. I like what I am doing, and I have to give it all I’ve got. It’s an important job to catch, and I love it, but I am glad to be a little less visible than the rest of them.”

Henri (and Carolyn) link that to the notion of God catching us. I like that. It’s a good reminder of the difficulty – but importance – of letting go.

But, of course, there is often more than one perspective, and different things to learn. Our task is to be the body of Christ in the world – and a helpful thought about that is offered in the account of a conversation between Henri and a friend of his, Joan – “Later, over dinner, Joan had something on her mind. “Henri,” she said, then paused. Usually it was Henri who had new insights into God. “You know what you were saying about God, for us, with us, within us? Have you ever thought that when you say Mass and lift the bread and say ‘the Body of Christ,’ it is like the trapeze act you’re always talking about? It’s as if Jesus flies to you, and you are the catcher.””

Considering Power

I have just read Henri Nouwen’s little book The Path of Power which offers some timely and challenging reflections on how we use power, along the way suggesting that we might develop a theology of weakness. He comments, “I want to look with God's eyes at our experience of brokenness, limitedness, woundedness, and frailty in a way that Jesus taught us in the hope that such a vision will offer us a safe way to travel on earth.”

Nouwen also reminds us that any thought that Christian history has not misused power is mistaken. “The devastating influence of power in the hands of God's people becomes very clear when we think of the crusades, the pogroms, the policies of apartheid, and the long history of religious wars up to these very days, but it might be harder to realise that many contemporary religious movements create the fertile soil for these immense tragedies to happen again.”

Power is important and has its important place, but it is very easily abused. We cannot, and should not, ignore it, but we do need to channel it.

Nouwen reminds us that this is all best expressed in the nativity story and all that means in the profoundest sense. God relinquished power in order to come alongside us, and yet that was an incredibly powerful act. It gets us thinking as to what power really is and how it is properly used. As Nouwen asks, and comments: “How can you fear a baby you rock in your arms, how can you look up to a baby that is so little and fragile, how can you be envious of a baby who only smiles at you in response to your tenderness? That's the mystery of the incarnation.”

I was particularly struck by what he says about a theology of weakness. – “A theology of weakness challenges us to look at weakness not as a worldly weakness that allows us to be manipulated by the powerful in society and church, but as a total and unconditional dependence on God that opens us to be true channels of the divine power that heals the wounds of humanity and renews the face of the earth. The theology of weakness claims power, God's power, the all-transforming power of love.”

“A theology of weakness is a theology of divine empowering. It is not a theology for weaklings but a theology for men and women who claim for themselves the power of love that frees them from fear and enables them to put their light on the lampstands and do the work of the Kingdom.”

With God’s help may we use power in the right ways – and may our weakness indeed be recognised as the empowering, in the right way, that it is.

God Is Not a White Man

Chine McDonald’s God Is Not a White Man; And Other Revelations is an important and powerful read. It is highly uncomfortable, and very challenging but offers some significant, if painful, reminders of the role of white supremacy, a role which, sadly, is all too continuing in its presence.

The message, one that needs to be heard, is best summed up in some of Chine McDonald’s own words: “To bring about true racial justice, it is no longer enough to quote the right Bible passages or recite anti-racist slogans. It is not even enough to make bold claims about each of us being made in the image of God when the practices of our very own churches – and sometimes the very fabric upon which they exist – suggest that we believe otherwise. The suggestion that God is a white man is one of the greatest lies ever told. But a white God is inevitable – the logical consequence of a world steeped in white supremacy. God’s miscategorisation as a white man is no accident, but a consequence of white men – whose dominance has shaped history and theology for centuries – creating God in their image. This book is a lament for what has gone before us and the original sin of racism that has seeped its way into our churches and continues to drive the prejudices that exist about the beauty, worth, intellect and dignity of Black people, as well as the inferiority of Black women in contrast to the superiority of white men in almost every area of Western society.”

It's difficult, but we need to take seriously the way in which white dominance has misdirected the church, and the consequences that has produced. “When Christ is portrayed as a white man, the consequence is a Church that aligns itself with the dominant and the powerful rather than siding with those who are forgotten and cast aside. The countercultural act of portraying God as Black makes both a political and a theological statement about who God is.”

This book is an important contribution to an important debate. It raises big questions about what we should do in this area, and certainly about whether we are anywhere near doing enough.

Advice On Ministry

“Dear Nicholas ….: A Father’s Letter to His Newly Ordained Son” was originally written as “a rather personal offering from father to son.” Michael Henshall, then Bishop of Warrington, wrote it for his son, Nicholas, when he was ordained. That was in 1989. In 2019, Nicholas, then Dean of Chelmsford Cathedral (where I very occasionally encountered him in my former post) added some reflection and re-published it. (The earlier version had been published and used as a good source of advice for the newly ordained.)

I must admit that I would have loved to have it in my early days of ministry – though that couldn’t have happened as they were a decade before the original. But even now though, at the other end of stipendiary ministerial service, I really enjoyed reading it and found it to be scattered with nuggets of wisdom.

“Your life’s work, Dear Nicholas, is to be an icon of Christ. In a special vocation, tried and tested, you are to be a mirror of God in your generation.”

“Preach well, Dear Nicholas. Spend time in “remote” and in “immediate” preparation. Make sure you are heard. Accept criticism. Ultimately as you well know, preaching, which isn’t lecturing but proclamation, is all about communicating the mystery of Christ, the glory of God.”

“If we fail to make prayer a priority then we are probably lost.”

“Loitering with intent is a crime in English law. As one of the major priorities in the job description of a priest it is, Dear Nicholas, a virtue and moreover something of an art form. Long ago as a vicar, I learned personally the value of loitering with intent.”

“Ecumenical co-operation is not just a fashionable exercise. It is a deep response to Jesus’ High Priestly prayer in John 17. It is costly, and it is a significant way of growing in faith. In these days we all need to commit ourselves as pilgrims to ecumenical partnership as a means of growing in our ministry.”

“The mandate is clear enough. Jesus makes it absolutely clear that ministry to the marginalized, the broken and the lost is the first priority of the Christian community, not an added extra.”

Just a few examples of what this little volume offers – as Nicholas says in his preface, “straightforward advice about living priesthood.”

Matthew Speaks

Barbara Brown Taylor’s The Seeds of Heaven offers a series of explorations/sermons from Matthew’s Gospel. There are fifteen in all, picking out a mix of things that Jesus did and said, the origin of the volume being a series of sermons that were prepared for radio broadcast in the summer of 1990.

Taylor introduces a number of very interesting ideas as she reflects on the various passages from Matthew, and I found it a gently inspiration, but provocative, read.

To comment on just one, her reflection on the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, recorded in Matthew 20. The story is of a man who hired folk to work his vineyard on one particular day. Some started early in the morning. As the day progressed, he felt he needed more help, and hired others, and then again, later on, still others. At the end of the day, everyone was paid the same, which was as agreed, but significant disquiet amongst those who had worked the longest, as they felt his generosity was unfair.

I am usefully challenged by Taylor’s insightful comment: “The most curious thing about this parable for me is where we locate ourselves in line. The story sounds quite different from the end of the line, after all, than it does from the front of the line, but isn’t it interesting that 99 percent of us hear it from the front row seats?” Quite so!

She adds: “God is not fair. For reasons we may never know, God seems to love us indiscriminately, and seems also to enjoy reversing the systems we set up to explain why God should love some of us more than others of us. By starting at the end of our lines, with the last and the least, God lets us know that his ways are not our ways, and that if we want to see things his way we might question our own notions of what is fair, and why we get so upset when our lines do not work.”

Preaching

I recently read Doug Gay’s God Be In My Mouth in which he helpfully explores the task of preaching, reflecting on its importance and its possibilities. As he says: “To be called to preach is to be called to see the world as clearly and honestly as we can. It involves an ongoing attempt, in the words of Burns, ‘To see oursels as ithers see us’, but it also requires a willingness to see what other people see, not to look away from poverty or suffering or injustice or privilege. The seeing is important, because sermons turn seeing into words.”

Preaching is certainly both a privilege and a responsibility and those of us who are called to engage in it do well to take time to reflect on that calling and just how we are engaging with it. The book reflects on different aspects and perspectives. It is not easy to preach well but, sometimes surprisingly, even our most faltering efforts can be used in amazing ways by God.

As in all aspects of discipleship, what matters is that we do our best. God expects us to do what we can, not what we can’t – and will use that – but it is important to take the calling seriously, do what we can, and then leave the rest to God.

As Doug says, ““Preachers in every era of the Christian church find themselves in messy, compromised and contested situations, in which they have to do their best - and in which they often fail. Thank God, some preachers manage to speak with prophetic and luminous clarity on certain issues at key moments. No preachers speak rightly about everything, all the time. We may (and should) pray ‘God be in my mouth’, but we will look around and look back to see that, in the mouths of others and in our own preaching mouths, there was also confusion, prejudice, ignorance, oppression and fear.”

Reflecting Further On Ministry

One of the biggest challenges in ministry is working out what to do. There is always more that could be done. Equally, it is often possible to avoid things that ought to be done. When given the opportunity, I have always urged those entering ministry to take and enjoy space when it arises, and not feel guilty. It won’t happen that often, at least not for those, the vast majority, with a proper commitment to ministry. It is important that we think about priorities, giving some weight to what ought to be done and what actually ought to be left.

Stephen Cottrell (in On Priesthood: Servants, Shepherds, Messengers, Sentinels and Stewards) explores this point. He writes: “Of course, as ordained ministers, we do things. Of course, there is an awful lot to do! But let us not delude ourselves. The things that you actually have to do to as a priest are not so many. Once you have led the services on Sunday, chaired the PCC, and buried the dead, there is not such a huge list of stuff that absolutely has to be done. What you could do is limitless and never ending. One of the hardest home truths for clergy to face is that when we are too busy and our diary too full, it is not because of all the things we had to do, but the things we chose to do. Indeed, the greatest and most practical wisdom that every priest must acquire in order for their ministry to be fruitful is the gift of discernment about what to do – what to pick up, and what to put down, and how to lead and build a church where ministry is the work of everyone. Many clergy never achieve this. They often end up washed out or burned up. It is a desperately sad sight. They will also complain: about the congregation, with whom they would share ministry if they weren’t such a dull bunch; about the diocese – all its red tape and bureaucracy are really to blame. But never themselves. This is essentially a spiritual issue. It is about seeking a life that is lived in community with God. The important question is this: Is the love of God and the love of the gospel the motivation behind all that I do? And is prayer and the nurturing of the spiritual life the wellspring of my ministry? The life of prayer, and nurturing the life of prayer, is the heart of ministry. It will express itself in many different ways.”

I do think the point about taking responsibility for our diaries is important. Having held a senior leadership role (as a URC Synod Moderator) for well over a decade now, I have often been asked about the pressure on ministers. I can advise and support, and often I have, but I can’t enforce colleagues to work (or take appropriate time) in particular ways. Ministry doesn’t work like that.

Cottrell sums up what is essential concisely and accurately when he quotes Derek Allen, one-time Principal of St Stephen’s House, and the person who led his ordination retreat. “Derek Allen concluded his final retreat address with the words: ‘Find enough time to sleep, find enough time to pray, and then do what you can.’”

That is wisdom indeed.

On Ministry

Stephen Cottrell’s On Priesthood: Servants, Shepherds, Messengers, Sentinels and Stewards is one of the most helpful and challenging books on ministry that I have read. I just wish it had been around a long time ago. I like these five categories of ministry which he places very much in the context of ministry belonging to the whole people of God. The priest, or minister, has a particular role – but all are called to discipleship. However, I like, too, his recognition of the big role that ministry should take, not because it makes ministers important, but because it gives them important responsibility. He states that he believes “that the incarnational and sacramental pattern of the Christian faith means that as Christ himself is the sacrament of God, God made visible and tangible to us in flesh and blood like ours, then it is Christ himself who ordains and sends out particular ministers, not just to lead and serve his Church (though, as we shall see, this is a primary part of ordained ministry), but also as evangelists and prophets to teach and preach, to hold the powerful to account, and to speak of God’s kingdom of justice and peace in a world of ever increasing confusion and hurt.”

We, who are ministers, have got a lot to do, and Cottrell recognises that. “So in the Church, the task of leadership is to serve the whole Church and build it up so that each person may discover the part they are called to play in witnessing to Christ and building the kingdom, and to be ready for the inevitable sacrifices that go with a life following Christ, and for the conflicts and persecutions that may come. Leadership in the Church is not an easy thing.”

The task is to take on the five roles, but do so in a way that enables and encourages the whole people of God to play their part in the life of the church. “The task of the priest is not to be the lead player, not the first violin or the concert pianist, but the conductor, harmonising and utilising the gifts and creativity of the whole.”

What does this mean? “So priests must love the people they serve. They are the ones for whom Christ died. They must teach the people they serve to play and love the music of the gospel. They must feed them with word and sacrament. They must make the words of the psalmist their own: ‘O sing to the Lord a new song; sing his praise in the assembly of the faithful’; ‘How good it is to make music to the Lord …’ (Psalms 149.1; 148.1).”

Lots to think about.  Lots to challenge.

God's Table

This is God's Table: Finding Church Beyond the Walls is Anna Woofenden's fascinating account of how she formed 'the garden church' in San Pedro, California. It is an interesting story of how a vacant lot was taken over and became both a garden and a church, making a meaningful impact in its community, gathering folk who, for the most part, would otherwise not have gone to church. She makes the point that, anew in every generation, we need to listen for what God might be saying to us: "The church has adapted from age to age to serve people in their local contexts. Monasteries, medieval beguines, prayer meetings, Catholic Worker communities—all were new ideas once. Innovative expressions of Christian community were, and are, part of a loyal response to God’s call to faithfulness."

We need to see past current models and look for what God is doing, recognising that church is not restricted to our traditional views of how it should be. "A building is not what makes a church. The heavenly city has no temple. Being there for fifty or five hundred years is not what makes a church. The Garden Church brought into focus the power and the essence of church, as people gathered together to love God and love neighbor, share in the sacraments, belong to one another, and serve together. Rooted in the rich gifts of the faithful who have come before, we found the body of Christ together in the garden. We came together around the table believing that we were being nourished in the same stream" of the water of life."

The church is always on the move, following God's exciting ways. "God is making church all over the place, beyond the walls, on the streets, in the soil, and around the table. Whenever we gather together, God is with us. Wherever we pitch our tents, she will pitch hers too." What might God be saying to us about being the church in our context?

A Simple Life

John Miller’s account of the life and ministry of Roland Walls and The Community of The Transfiguration, A Simple Life, is a fascinating and humbling account of a life and community devoted to God, and always looking to serve the other, and especially the poor.

Roland’s approach was rarely conventional but always inclusive of something really helpful and demonstrative of serving God. As one example, the book records how one who came to be with the community for a while, Robert Haslam struggled with the slow pace of life, having come from a busy parish ministry in Sheffield.

“When I first arrived, I suffered very much from lack of things to do. I got so bored. I had come from the hectic life of Rawmarsh and now there was nothing to do.” Roland kept saying, “You have to BE, not DO!” “Get bored! With God!”

That is well worth pondering.

The village of Roslin lies at the foot of the Pentland Hills to the south of Edinburgh and is where the community, founded in 1965, was based. Everything was simple and all trappings of wealth were avoided as they sought to be a place of prayer and hospitality.

In Black and White

I have just finished reading Alexandra Wilson’s In Black and White – a powerful and challenging read, making, for me at least, a highly worthwhile contribution to the need to recognise the reality of racism.

Faced with that reality, she decided to do something about it, and has trained, and now practises as a barrister. The book is aptly sub-titled a young barrister’s story of race and class in a broken justice system. The stories she tells of clients who have so valued someone like her representing them as against the times when she has been assumed by the ‘system’ to be in court as an offender make some powerful points.

In a sense, I wish I didn’t believe her, because the picture that emerges is of an unfair society that has huge dollops of racism. Sadly, that is absolutely the truth. We so need folk like Alexandra Wilson to do the kind of thing she is doing, but also to tell the story.

I can’t say I enjoyed it, because you shouldn’t enjoy a book like that, but it was well worth reading, and I have no hesitation in recommending it.