in Mysterious Ways...

When we decided on a trip to the aquarium today, I wasn’t really expecting to be inspired to write a blog by it. To be honest, the decision was mainly made as something which would allow us to avoid the rain, and something that wouldn’t be accompanied by a rather annoying theme tune….

But, as we wandered around, and as the boys, and Benjamin (at age 3) in particular became more and more excited by what they were looking at, it started me thinking a bit about the magnificence of creation, and about how we so often don’t see it because we’re so used to it, and how we should be more childlike in our view of the world, really looking at the beauty and intricacy of the natural world, marvelling at God’s handiwork, not just assuming we know what we’re looking at.

But even that wasn’t really enough to inspire me to write this entry. What got my writing tonight was not the amazing beauty of the clown fish and angel fish and their like. It wasn’t even the stately majesty of the sharks that has inspired me. What has got me writing was actually the oddity of the octopus, and the frankly alien jellyfish.

I was stunned, amazed and fascinated by both of these exhibits, and as I watched them, it got me wondering, “what on earth was God thinking when he made these?!” Looking at these two creatures, so completely and utterly different from anything we could even conceive, it just struck me how far we as humans are from truly understanding the mind of God.

We like to think that we are the pinnacle of creation, and in many ways we are - after all, we, uniquely, are made in the image of our creator, and that means a great deal. Yet we still fall far short of him in every way. In our pride we think we can understand God, and that we can expect him to act in the way we think he should, and yet how many of us would expect him to make something as weird as a jellyfish or an octopus.

And if we can’t fathom that, why do we think we can understand the way God choses to deal with us, his people. So often we try and put him in a box, limit what he can or should do based on our human comprehension… only to find him doing something different and unexpected, which tends to get us a little upset and worked up!

So yes, we should marvel at the work of our creator, we should appreciate the wonder and majesty of the world He created. But should we not also expect Him to continue to act in creative and unexpected ways, and above all do we not need to recognise that, however hard we try, however far we journey with him, at least in this world, there is always going to be some mystery about the ways of God… and we should recognise that as a good thing!

One Step Closer

I’m writing this from a darkened hotel room in Southampton, listening to the snoring of Benjamin (age 3), after two days of family holiday discovering the delights of Peppa Pig World and Paultons Park theme park… and actually, for a 3 year old who (as we have now discovered) loves roller coasters but is scared of ducks and a 6 year old who finds even the tamest of roller coasters too scary, but doesn’t have an issue with the ducks, jackdaws, crows and other assorted wildlife who assembled at various points to try and steal our picnic, it’s been a pretty good break, although if I hear the theme to Peppa Pig again soon I may go insane!

I’d love to have been inspired by Peppa Pig for the subject for a blog entry, but I’ve failed with that. However, I have been thinking again, which is always a little scary! What’s got me thinking is the need to change things, and the speed things need to change.

Whilst there are many things I could be talking about, in this case I’m talking about me. Because (as you will no doubt agree) there are many things in my life which I could really do with changing. I should be reading my Bible more, praying more, sharing the gospel more. I could be getting cross and angry less, moaning less, judging people less. I could do more to look after the environment, to care for the needy and disadvantaged, to deal with the big issues of the world…

The list is endless, and I’m pretty certain that, ideally, God would have me change all these things, and more. But I’m human (honestly!) and that means I don’t like the idea of change.

Occasionally, just occasionally, something big comes along and God makes it clear that I have to change, and have to do so completely, pretty much there and then. And if I chose to do so (because there’s always a choice with God), he helps me with that – deciding I needed to get baptised was one of those changes.

But generally, change is a gradual thing. Most of the time, change in me is one small step at a time, one little thing which I need to do better, one thing to stop, or start, or increase, or decrease. And that way, it’s manageable. It’s not easy, but I can cope with a series of small changes, usually 2 steps forward and 1 back – making me ever more like Him. It’s a long journey, and one I won’t complete this side of eternity, but it’s a journey I’m trying to travel with him.

But then, I get surprised when other people are on the same journey. I expect other people to change much quicker than I’m willing to change myself. I mean, sometimes, things are so obvious that surely everyone, even that person, can see why they need to change, what they need to be doing now, and how to get there, all in one step, just the same as me, can’t they?

Maybe that’s one small step I can take right now – to recognise that everyone else is on a journey too, and that God is prompting them to change things in their lives, one step at a time. And maybe they’re not the steps I think they should be….

I Was There When They Crucified My Lord...



The Easter Story by Joseph, aged 6... Click to enlarge



"I was there when they

crucified my Lord

I held the scabbard when the

soldier drew his sword

I threw the dice when they

pierced his side

But I've seen love conquer

the great divide"

-- When Love Comes to Town

             By U2 and BB King

I was there at Jesus' trial, with the false witnesses who came forward to make up lies and testify against him. I was there with Peter, and I too denied ever knowing Jesus. And I still am, every time I stay silent and do not speak out for my Lord when I know I should.

I was there with crowd, demanding the release of a terrorist, whilst the King of Glory stood there imprisoned. I was there, my voice shouting "Crucify him". And "Crucify him" I still cry out everytime I expect God to work on my terms, every time I decide what he should be doing and limit him to my understanding of the world.

I was there with Pilate, washing my hands and allowing the crowd to have their way... and still I refuse to accept responsibility for my own actions, seek to pass the blame to someone else, to anyone else, and, if no-one else can be blamed, I seek to blame God.

I was there with the soldiers as they mocked and beat Him, with the crowd who hurled insults, with the criminal crucified beside Him. And each and every time I fail to show love to those around me, everytime I fail to listen to God and don't what He wants, everytime I fall short of His perfect ways, I just throw more insults at Him, heap more pain and abuse on Him.

It was my actions, my rebellion, my sin which meant Jesus, the Son of God, the Lord of Everything, was nailed to a Cross and died there in agony. As much as I don't want to admit it, as much as it pains me and saddens me, the truth of the matter is that it was for me that He chose the agony and anguish of the cross. The truth that He chose that for each and every person doesn't lessen my guilt, because He would have made the same choice, even if I was the only person in the whole world.

I was there when he died, as the world was plunged into darkness. I was there when the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom, the divide between God and man conquered by His actions. I was there when He took all the things I have done, and all the things I will do, onto Himself, when His death satisfied the wrath of God and allowed His grace and mercy to flow freely to me, the worst of sinners.

  

Then too, I was there with His disciples, watching His death, not understanding, seeing His anguish, weeping and disparing, my hope gone. I was there in the darkness, in the time of doubt and uncertainty.

But I have a hope that they did not have. It doesn't all end here and now.

For although it is Friday and all seems dark, Sunday is coming...

You Were Talking About the End of the World...

Following the Palm Sunday story, the gospels, particularly Matthew, relate an extended amount of Jesus' teaching to his disciples. As I read through that teaching, I was struck by how much of that relates to the end of the world and the second coming...

Talk about the Second Coming, about the End Times and about life after death is bound to be somewhat controversial.... it certainly was in Jesus time, with at least one major Jewish faction (the Sadducees) adamant that there was no such thing as eternal life, and another (the Pharisees) convinced that there was... so Jesus' comments making it clear that he has come to offer Eternal Life were bound to stir things up somewhat with the religious authorities at the time. And yet, it feels like the Church these days seems to shy away from a discussion of the End of the World and what comes after.

Its probably not surprising. After all, those making predictions of the coming Rapture, of the imminent end of the everything have not exactly had a good track record... and even when Christians have refrained from trying to make an accurate prediction about the timing, then it has proved so difficult to come up with any account of the Second Coming which gets any kind of agreement that the whole area is one the is often avoided...



And yet, so often we get bogged down in debate about the when and how and what of the Second Coming. The concepts of pre-millenial, post-millenial, amillenial, tribulationism, rapture, are all attempts to define, perhaps even decode, the words of scripture relating to this event, to try and guess and second guess the plans of the Almighty... attempts which, to my mind derail us from the central and most important fact relating to the second coming - the fact that Jesus is coming again, coming to reign in glory, and in doing so he will put an end to the pain and suffering that is so abundant in this world today.

We should be excited by this. Really, really excited, because its such a big thing. And yet,
its not something that the rest of the world finds it easy to connect with. Somehow we need to get this across to people - but do so in a way which doesn't make Christianity out to be "Pie in the Sky When We Die" -- which seems to be the other common misconception of Christian thinking about the end of the world.

Its a tall order, and I don't have an easy answer. I believe that the death of Jesus is the solution for all eternity - a solution which starts here and now, today, as we live out our daily lives. I just wish I was better at getting that across to those I meet.  But this is one of (if not the central) claim of Christianity - that by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we, sinful, fallen humanity, can have a relationship with our creator God, a relationship which will go on past death into eternity. Shouldn't that be something we shout from the rooftops?

Blessings Not Just For the Ones Who Kneel....

Well once again I haven't been very good at writing this blog for the last few weeks.... which obviously means I haven't had much to think about! ;-)

Actually, its more likely related to the fact that we've been busy with a 3rd Birthday party, plans for a loft conversion, finishing off next year's budget at work and generally just doing a lot of different things. Oh, and being ill, which hasn't helped!

And then all of a sudden its Holy Week, the lead up to Easter, and I find myself not really in an "Easter" kind of a place yet - which isn't necessarily a good thing. So, in an effort to change that, I'm going to try and write some blog entries this week to help me focus on Easter, which is, after all, probably the single most life-changing event in the history of the world... but more about that later in the week.

Holy week of course starts with Palm Sunday, a day of joy, of donkeys and palm branches, of triumphant processions and of the fulfillment of hundreds of years of prophecy. And then, just as things are starting to look up, it suddenly becomes a day where the status quo is challenged, where long held views and traditions are up-ended, a day where the guardians of those traditions, of that status quo, of all that is important in first century Jewish life are made to look decidedly foolish...

Because, having arrived in Jerusalem, having been hailed as the Messiah, the one who has come to free Israel from oppression, Jesus choses not to go and confront the Roman Authorities, but instead to head to the temple itself, and challenge the authority of the High Priests and Teachers of the Law, the religious leaders of the time...

The challenge is the cleansing of the temple, turning out the money changers, the sellers of sacrifices, those who have made the house of prayer into "a den of thieves". This part of the story is reasonably well known, and its not surprising that the temple authorities didn't like this much, especially as they probably took a cut of the profits from the tradesmen. But the bit I didn't realise until recently, the thing which makes this a really big challenge to the authorities is the location within the temple of the money changers - the Court of the Gentiles -  the only part of the temple open to those who were not Jews. 

The challenge to the authorities, and indeed to all Judaism becomes that much more severe when this is taken into account, because this action says that Jesus, who has just been declared as the Messiah, the saviour of the Jewish people, is not just interested in the Jews. This is a statement that he comes to bring life and hope and freedom to all - Jew or Gentile. This is a statement that the Jewish people, despite (or perhaps because of) all their laws about holiness, about remaining God's special, chosen people have failed in their calling - the calling to be a people who bless through whom all the peoples of the world are blessed. The Jews have remained "holy" (which basically means "seperate" or "different") by seperating themselves from the world, but in doing so, they have missed the very purpose for remaining holy - that is to point the rest of the world back to the One who made it... and Jesus, in his coming on Palm Sunday and his cleansing of the Temple points that out in a graphic and obvious manner....

That much is history... but what does it mean for me today....? I can't help but wonder, if Jesus made a triumphal entry today, where would he go first? Would it be to the Houses of Parliament, to Downing Street, to challenge the government on their political decisions, on their spending cuts, on their desire to bring in gay marriage, on their "cash for access" and expenses claims?

Or would he come to visit us, Christians in their cozy comfortable churches, and ask whether we have seperated ourselves from the world, remaining "pure and holy" by refusing to deal with the nasty, messy issues that exist in the world. Would he ask if we are truly open, welcoming and inclusive, offering the grace that he freely gives us to those in the world, or whether we limit our welcome to those who conform to our view of the way things should be?

You Give It All But I Want More

Prayer has been a hot topic recently. Since the collapse of Fabrice Muamba in the midst of the Tottenham-Bolton FA Cup match last Saturday, the usually "earthly" world of football has been full of people declaring that they are praying for Muamba, and imploring the rest of us to do the same. Jermain Defoe, Stuart Holden, Kyle Walker and even Wayne Rooney have taken to twitter to announce that they are praying for him ... I wonder if the Almighty has a Twitter account?

Its got me thinking about prayer, and my prayer in particular. Praying for others, the sick, the poor, the oppressed is something we are all called to do, along with doing whatever we can to help them of course. But how often are our prayers little more than shopping lists of things that make our life easier - trivial things, like being able to find a parking space when we go shopping, or not getting held up in a traffic jam on my way home for work.... are these really the things that we should be praying about?

After all, this its the Almighty, All-powerful creator God we are talking to when pray. The God who, even in creating us, has given us more than we deserve. The God who, while we were sinners, sent his only son to die on a cross for us, the God who, in a very real way has given us everything we have, everything he has even.... and yet we still want more from him. We still bother him with our trivial requests, we still bombard him with our shopping lists, we still talk at him, and often don't give time for him to speak back... is this really what God wants from our prayers?

And yet, perhaps he does. After all, at least in these prayers we are acknowledging him, we are recognising that he is the one that does provide all good things for us, his children. If its a choice between listening to our requests and demands for more, more, more, and silence on our part, I wonder if he'd prefer to hear those demands, particularly if we are open to hearing him reply, to acknowledging him when he does respond, even if that response isn't necessarily the one we want.

I will watch the outcome of the Muamba situation with interest. Obviously it is my hope and prayer that he will recover. But equally, if he does, I'll be interested to see who gets the credit. Along with the inevitable, and no doubt well deserved plaudits for doctors, paramedics and medical staff, will we see Defoe, Holden, Rooney et al. give the glory to Almighty God for answering their prayers? 

We Get to Carry Each Other...

NOTE: THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE NEWS OF HIS RETIREMENT WAS PUBLISHED - IN FACT, IT WAS AS I WENT TO LOOK FOR A PICTURE TO ILLUSTRATE IT THAT I SPOTTED THE NEWS... I HAVE LEFT WHAT WAS WRITTEN UNCHANGED.   

I have to admit, I haven't always been the biggest fan of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. I don't agree with some of the things he says, and I have a number of issues with various parts of the church of which he is the head. I'm sure that doesn't bother him greatly... and I'm sure if I ever got the chance he'd happily debate those issues with me and explain why he thinks I'm wrong, probably with a lot more grace and humility than I would manage in explaining my position to him.

The thing is, even though I do disagree with him on some issues, there is one thing at least in which I agree wholeheartedly with him, which is the need for the church, and for individuals within the church to recognise their many faults and failings, to recognise that, as they get things wrong, it is God who puts things right again, and above all to work together for His greater purposes. I came across this quote which says it much better than I can:-

"The church is holy not because it is a gathering of the good and the well-behaved, but because it speaks of the triumph of grace in the coming together of strangers and sinners who, miraculously, trust one another enough to join in common repentance and common praise—to express a deep and elusive unity in Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness and sanctification. Humanly speaking, holiness is always like this: God’s endurance in the middle of our refusal of him, his capacity to meet every refusal with the gift of himself."

Its not that I think differences in doctrine, in belief, in church practice don't matter - I think these things are very important. But in comparison to the truth the we are all sinners, who all need the redeeming power of God's love and grace, all the time, in everything we do, then these things pale into insignificance.

We have our differences, and will continue to do so. Those differences may be large scale differences between "denominations", or on a much smaller scale, differences of opinion within an individual congregation (no doubt many people have heard the "joke" that if you've got 3 Baptists in a room, you'll have at least 4 different opinions on any issue...) But thats OK - there's nothing wrong with differences of opinion, until those differences become divisions.

As long as we are able to put those things aside, to come together to worship and listen to the God who made each and everyone of us in his image, and to love, cherish and help each other in the difficult times, then those differences can actually make us stronger, as we grow and learn and change together.

I think Archbishop Williams would agree - and I respect him for that, even as I disagree on other issues.