Community of the Forgiven

Bearing grudges, looking for revenge and harbouring antagonistic feelings are all things that we so easily do, forgetting that we regularly pray ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’. We need to forgive – and we need to be forgiven.

I like the idea of the church as a ‘community of the forgiven’. Steven Croft reminds us to take this seriously in his Jesus’ People: What the Church should do next.  He writes (p. 35) – The Church is, by definition, the community of the forgiven. As long as we are mindful of how much God has forgiven us, it will not be difficult to be merciful to one another and, indeed, to those outside the community. In so far as we forget and choose to ignore God’s grace and forgiveness in our own lives, our hearts begin to harden towards others very rapidly.

Quite! How forgiving are we?

Navigating Change

One of the challenges facing today's church is the need to change. We recognise the need. We say we are ready to do it. BUT .... Well, it is easier said than done. It is a point well recognised by Steven Croft in his book Jesus' People: What the Church should do next.

He comments on the need to challenge the negativity in which we, too often, get caught. We think and say that we can't. We see what needs to be done, but claim it is beyond us. As Croft puts it: "Eeyore is alive and well in many congregations, synods and pressure groups. In the last of the Narnia stories C. S. Lewis paints a compelling picture of a group of dwarves who are admitted to the great banquet at the end of time but they can neither see nor taste the good things because of their own cynicism and despair. It's not hard to find similar groups in the councils of the Church. But they need to be challenged." (p. 6)

Croft emphasises the need to look to Jesus, commenting on how that will keep us on course - "It is Jesus who gives the Church its DNA, its genetic code. While the Church may need to take a variety of shapes as our culture changes, it will be on course providing we discern that the risen Christ is at the centre." (p. 8)

He suggests that we are inclined to be too like the disciples caught in a storm on the lake, failing to look to Jesus. We get on with stuff, but we don't allow ourselves to be resourced as we can and should be. We try, but not in the right way. Croft suggests that we are like "the disciples, in danger of drowning in Lake Galilee - they don't waste time and energy blaming one another; they do what they can from their own resources, but in the end that isn't enough. At that point and only at that point they turn their attention to Jesus. Isn't it time for us to do the same?" (p. 10/1)

Present to God

I think this is my final comment on Barbara Brown Taylor’s ‘spiritual practices’ in An Altar in the World – at least for now, but I really like some of what she says about prayer which she identifies as the ‘practice of being present to God’.

I have picked out two great comments.

First, she says: "I would rather show someone my cheque book stubs than talk about my prayer life.  I would rather confess that I am a rotten godmother, that I struggle with my weight, that I fear I am overly fond of Bombay Sapphire gin martinis than confess that I am a prayer-weakling.  To say I love God but I do not pray much is like saying I love life but I do not breathe much.  The only way I have found to survive my shame is to come at the problem from both sides, exploring two distinct possibilities: 1) that prayer is more than my idea of prayer and 2) that some of what I actually do in my life may constitute genuine prayer."

And again:  "... prayer is not the same thing as prayers.  ... Saying psalms in the morning is a good way to head into the day more prayerfully.  So is going to church, where I can add my voice to those of a whole congregation aiming to woo God's ears with their ancient, beautiful cadences.  Still, prayer is more than saying set prayers at set times.  Prayer ... is waking up to the presence of God no matter where I am or what I am doing."

There is really no more that I want to say, other than to recognise that she is summing up much of what I also see as the opportunity, the struggle, the excitement and the possibility of prayer.

Sabbath

Another of Barbara Brown Taylor’s ‘spiritual practices’ in An Altar in the World is what she describes as the ‘practice of saying no’, otherwise simply defined as ‘sabbath’.

There is much that points towards saying ‘yes’, and rightly so. We are called to do stuff and it is right to get on with that. However, sometimes we respond by simply piling up more and more tasks, and that is never a good idea. We need to discern what are the things to which we should say ‘no’.

Saying ‘yes’ can be very important. It certainly has its place. As Taylor states: "Saying yes is how you enter into relationship.  It is how you walk through the door into a new room.  It is how you create the future."

However, we also need to identify the ‘no’ times, the occasions to take time out, the opportunities that we need to create for rest. In the end things will be more rounded if we do that. As Taylor says: "Sabbath is not only God's gift to those who have voices to say how tired they are; Sabbath is also God's gift to the tired fields, the tired vines, the tired vineyard, the tired land.  ....   Sabbath is the great equaliser, the great reminder that we do not live on this earth but in it, and that everything we do under the warming tent of this planet's atmosphere affects all who are woven into this web with us.  Just because the land and the livestock cannot hire lawyers does not mean they have not been violated.  Their biblical rights are written down right there in the Bible, but other gods go on getting in the way."

Sabbath allows us to be fair to everyone, including ourselves.

Community

Continuing with Barbara Brown Taylor’s An Altar in the World ….. another of the spiritual practices that she describes is the ‘practice of encountering others’, described in short as ‘community’.

We often talk about relating to the community – it is something on which we are keen. Too often, though, that relationship is just a matter of offering (usually hiring) a space that can be used by the community. Of course, that can be a valuable resource, and so an important contribution to the building of community in the places where we are located.

However, that is not really an encounter. We need to learn from Jesus the importance (and value) of connecting with those around us. As Taylor points out: "Watch how this rabbi practises what he preaches and you will note that his teaching is not limited to people who look, act, or think like him.  He does the same eye-to-eye thing with Roman centurions, Samaritan lepers, Syro-Phoenecian women, and hostile Judeans that he does with his own Galilean disciples.  He does it with slaves and rulers, twelve-year-old girls and powerful men, people who can be useful to him and people who cannot.  With the possible exception of his own family, no one is dismissed from his circle of concern, for no one made in God's image is negligible in the revelation of that same God."

That is encounter – and that produces community.

Getting Lost

Another one from Barbara Brown Taylor's An Altar in the World is 'the practice of getting lost', otherwise known as 'wilderness'. The wilderness often seems to be a place to be avoided, and yet it seems pretty clear that those who don't cross the wilderness (which means going through it) will miss out on some pretty good stuff. I love this comment - "I have decided to stop fighting the prospect of getting lost and engage it as a spiritual practice instead.  The Bible is a great help to me in this practice, since it reminds me that God does some of God's best work with people who are truly, seriously lost."

God indeed deals in lost people, and we miss out on so much if we run away from the difficult things. Getting lost is a strong and frequent Biblical theme and something that plays a useful and relevant role in life. "Follow the story with an eye for getting lost and see how the theme sustains the plot.  The prophet Elijah gets lost in the desert while fleeing the fury of a queen named Jezebel, which is how he comes to hear the voice of God in the sound of sheer silence.  The people spend decades in exile in Babylon - a cultural wilderness they might never have survived without their practice in the literal wilderness of Sinai.  Much later, Jesus of Nazareth consents to becoming lost, to spending forty days in the Judean desert being tested by everything from wild animals to a scripture-quoting Satan."

We shouldn't worry if we feel lost. We just need to remember that someone is looking for us.

Walking on the Earth

Another of Barbara Brown Taylor's chapters in An Altar in the World is based on 'the practice of walking on the earth' - summarised as groundedness.

It is something that most of us do - and here is the challenge to do it in a more aware, more reflective, more taking account of the presence of God way -

"Not everyone is able to walk, but most people can, which makes walking one of the most easily available spiritual practices of all.  All it takes is the decision to walk with some awareness, both of who you are and what you are doing.  Where you are going is not as important,  however counterintuitive that may seem.  To detach the walking from the destination is in fact one of the best ways to recognise the altars you are passing right by all the time.  Most of us spend so much time thinking about where we have been or where we are supposed to be going that we have a hard time recognising where we actually are.  When someone asks us where we want to be in our lives, the last thing that occurs to us is to look down at our feet and say, "Here, I guess, since this is where I am."