Travels with a Stick

I recently read Richard Frazer's book “Travels with a Stick” in which he recounts something of his experiences walking a significant chunk of the Camino de Santiago. I always enjoy books about the Camino – I have read just a few, but it is encouraging to enter the experience of the pilgrims and inevitably hear something of their reflections. Richard is a Church of Scotland minister, now retired, but at the time of his pilgrimage and writing, the minister of Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, so reflections with a distinctively Scottish and Presbyterian note which struck a particular chord with me. For example, I do like his reflection on Communion, with the interesting challenge that he throws in with the help of a friend of his. He writes: “The central part of the liturgy that most people know is the communion, the sharing of bread and wine that Jesus did on the night he was betrayed and arrested. Christians have been doing that since before they had Bibles, which is an interesting point to make to fellow Reformed Presbyterians who have often made a much bigger thing of the Bible than of the communion. In John's Gospel, on that last night before his arrest, Jesus doesn't share bread and wine; instead he washes his disciples’ feet. A priest friend of mine pointed out recently that the Christian church might have been quite a different organisation if we washed each other's feet every week!” One other example – I am also challenged by a reflection he offers on how folk see the church. He says: “In so many places the church has become an anxious institution, obsessed with its own self-preservation and nostalgic for a lost golden age. But here on the journey of the pilgrim, people just set off, not being sure, not being fettered by institutional boundaries, journeying with hope and even being prepared to get a little lost. Isn't this, I was beginning to think, a much more helpful approach to encounter mystery than the proscribed, dogmatic structure of institutions that often operate in a way that no longer makes sense to so many people?” Some interesting thoughts, inspired by what was clearly a fascinating and challenging experience. One last quote - “To be a pilgrim you don't have to jump through hoops or sign up to doctrines you'd rather question - you just have to set off! Indeed, that is what the first ever pilgrim, Abraham, did. Ripe in years, he just upped and left Haran with his equally ancient wife, Sarah, and the rest is history, as it were.”

Incarnational Ministry

I have just finished re-reading Sam Wells’ “Incarnational Ministry” – and so enjoyed its many words of wisdom. There are so many things to inspire. For example, on the Martha and Mary story, he writes: “Martha says she’s serving Jesus, but her notion of service is entirely on her own terms: she’s not giving him what he wants. Mary’s service doesn’t look like much, but it’s a statement of faith. Martha offers food; Mary shares communion.” Then, there are those things which are almost throwaway lines, like “I believe “with” is the most important word in the Christian faith.” There’s a lot there that is worth some reflection. Thinking about how we might interact with all that’s wrong in the world, he suggests, “Lament comes from a place of deep trust in the faithfulness of God and deep awe at the mystery of creation, which finds itself dismayed at the deep disgrace of events that surely reflect neither God’s character nor God’s will.” And then some words about engaging with the Bible – “Reading the Bible requires attention, delight, and enjoyment as well as entering into a mystery. The initial experience can be like reading a poem and finding oneself perplexed.” There is a lot more I would like to mention, but let me restrict myself to just one more, some great words of exhortation – “Wash one another’s feet, be the servant and slave of all, make every act of your life a sacrament of love to others and praise to God: for your existence is a miracle, and your redemption is amazing grace. And never cease from singing.” I can see this is a book I might well read yet again.

Michael Hollings

I recently read “Press On!” a book about Michael Hollings, his life and witness, which caught my eye in one of Hay-on-Wye’s many bookshops, when we were on holiday there earlier this year. Michael (1921-1997) was a remarkable man, a Roman Catholic priest for most of his life, after wartime service with the Coldstream Guards. He served in Soho, then as university chaplain in, first, London, and then Oxford, and then as parish priest in, first, Southall, and then Bayswater, that last from 1978 to 1997. He was particularly known for his availability to people, both through his firm open house lifestyle and his spiritual direction and letters, and also for his writing. The book, written by a number of friends and colleagues, commemorates his life by telling his story. The book reflects his wisdom and the wonderful way in which he pointed folk to God. For example, in a letter to his cousin Jock Dalrymple, when Jock was studying for the priesthood, he writes: “So long as you're striving after God, and fearing you're not getting anywhere, you are doing all right. Don't panic and don't over push; just keep going. It is when we sit back and get self-contented that we are slipping back and danger signals are showing.” Joan McCrimmon, for many years his publisher, speaks of how he demonstrated the Christian life: “Prayer for him was not only about making requests to God, it was about sharing our feelings, our fears, our guilt, our sadness, loss, anger and frustration. It was about coping with life situations. Nor was it all doom and gloom - far from it. Prayer was very clearly also about celebrating life's joys and achievements, and giving thanks.” Needless to say, I never met him, but I was certainly aware of him, especially in my early ministry, and three of his books – all of which I still have – were important and helpful to me – “I Will Be There”, a series of reflections on the ‘I am’ sayings in John’s Gospel; “Day By Day”, reflections on prayer; and, most especially “Living Priesthood”, in which he explores ministry and its various dimensions.

Celebrating Life

I recently read Jonathan Sacks' "Celebrating Life" in which he dips into all sorts of themes looking for, and finding, the positive. The book reflects its sub-title "Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places". Just a couple examples of the book's themes. One is faith. Sacks writes: "Faith is not certainty. It is the courage to live with uncertainty. It is not knowing all the answers. It is often the strength to live with the questions. It is not a sense of invulnerability. It is the knowledge that we are utterly vulnerable, but that it is precisely in our vulnerability that we reach out to God, and through this learn to reach out to others, able to understand their fears and doubts. We learn to share, and in sharing discover the road to freedom. It is only because we are not gods that we are able to discover God.” He also writes about change, something which we all seem to find challenging. “Change is not threatening, so long as we keep firm hold of the values by and for which we live. We can travel with confidence so long as we have a map. We can jump with safety knowing there is someone to catch us as we fall. It is when we lose these things that change creates anxiety. It is when we think that, because technology is changing, our values too must change that we create problems we cannot solve, fear we cannot confront.”

Defenceless Flower

I have just re-read Carlos Mesters’ “Defenceless Flower”, which has been on my bookshelf for many years, though it is also many years since I read it. Mesters explores the use of the Bible from a liberationist perspective in a highly engaging way, recognising the value of scholarship and traditional and academic techniques of interpretation, but juxtaposing these with, and recognising the equal value, of the Bible as the mirror of the people’s lives. Mesters says this: “The great majority of people in the basic ecclesial communities are poor or, more exactly, impoverished by the oppressive capitalist system; they are farmers, workers, people from the outskirts of the big cities, farmhands, day-labourers, occasional workers, migrants, domestic servants, laundry-women, squatters, and so forth. When these people deal with the Bible their attitude is not (yet) secularised. For them the Bible is the word of God giving them God's message today. ……. When they discuss a text the people at the same time discuss their own situation, without making much of a distinction, either on the level of methodology or content. Biblical history, without ceasing to be history, becomes a symbol or a mirror of the present situation as the people experience it in their community. Life and Bible mix. There is both mutual interference and illumination.” He also says: “In the people's eyes the Bible and life are connected. When they open the Bible they want to find in it things directly related to their lives, and in their lives they want to find events and meanings that parallel those in the Bible. Spontaneously they use the Bible as an image, symbol or mirror of what is happening to them here and now.” Here is a timely reminder to allow the Bible to engage appropriately with each and every context.

Revisiting 'The Shack'

I recently read C Baxter Kruger’s “The Shack Revisited.” It’s a while now since I read William Paul Young’s “The Shack”, his fascinating ‘story’ of relating to God. This was a timely reminder that it deserves another reading, but also an opportunity to delve into some of the theological themes and ideas that underpin ‘The Shack’, as that is Kruger’s purpose in his volume. In summary, perhaps inevitably, but certainly importantly, ‘The Shack’ is concerned with God’s amazing love. As Kruger says, “We are known, loved and delighted in by the Father, Son, and Spirit, just as we are, whether we believe in God or not. The truth is we have already been embraced by Jesus’ Papa and by the Spirit. That is what the coming of Jesus was all about. The blessed Trinity has already met us in our shacks. In Jesus they have pitched their tents inside our garbage cans. We belong to the Father, Son, and Spirit. We always have, and always will; Jesus has seen to that personally.” The gospel point is that God wants to connect with us. Kruger again – “The stunning truth is that this triune God, in amazing and lavish love, determined to open the circle and share the trinitarian life with others.” How fantastic is that!

Interpreting Mark

I decided to re-read some of the books that have been on my shelf a long time. First up on this particular project has been “A Poor Man Called Jesus” by José Cárdenas Pallares, sub-titled “Reflections on the Gospel of Mark.” The book is very much reflections, rather than commentary, but I enjoyed the insights of Pallares’ liberationist perspective. He clearly identifies Jesus’ ‘poverty’ and aligns him with those struggling and marginalised. As he states: “The cause of Jesus is the cause of a God who is inseparably united with all the exploited. The God of Jesus, and Jesus himself, are, before all else, liberation, measureless love, hope, and life.” There is a strong emphasis on poverty - “Jesus was a poor person, and he was committed to the poorest of the poor from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. He spoke the language of the poor. He felt the sorrows and joys of the poor, and he met death in a manner reserved for the poor.” What I really liked about the book was the way in which it challenges us with what I might call real gospel stuff. The church is not in an easy place, but it is God’s church. As Pallares says, referring to Peter and indeed the whole incarnation story - “With Peter’s denial Mark shows us a church of sinners. of cowards and one which is not ashamed to admit it. The church Mark presents to us is a community well aware that it is never safe and secure, not even in its most selfless and disinterested members, and that the only thing it has to rely on is the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. He shows us a church that can switch from denial to repentance thanks only to a Christ crushed and tortured. Christ grants to this church a partial expense of his own pain and sorrow. The risen Christ gathers together cowards, renegades, and traitors to fill them with the indestructible force of his love.”