Category Archives: faith

Busy times … or just getting old!

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I’ve not blogged for a while.
This is not due to lack of inspiration.
It’s more a combination of inspiration / thought overload accompanied with a packed diary and being dragged around London for the day by my daughter.

The week seems to have been crammed with busyness but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is more to do with my faltering energy levels and the failure to pack everything in at the rate that I have been used to.

Currently I have a few challenges! I am struggling with an essay concerning the Christian theology and relationship to other religions. I am struggling with the balance of inclusiveness alongside the integrity of my belief in the finality of Jesus Christ (i.e John 14:16: I am the way, the truth and the life ….)I’m finding this assignment the hardest I’ve done and the mental energy seems to be quite exhausting.

Another ‘challenge is getting my head around ordination and the need to get my act together and order some fancy ‘vicary’ type gear. Sarah says I can’t but the PVC cassock from eBay (I’m sorry if I have just offended you all) and really should buy a real one. (The eBay one is certainly a lot cheaper … but probably less comfortable!) Again … this seems to be taking mental energy for some strange reason … mainly because I’ve never spent hundreds of pounds on clothes … and I will be on a dress!

Next week I am leading part of a retreat – so yet another challenge is spending quality time preparing stuff for the people coming. I think the retreat will be good – but I do still have a few things to do.

There have been great times in the busyness. I managed to catch up with good friend Sheena for lunch. It always saddens me that we never have the time for meeting with friends regularly that mean so much to us.

Yesterday was a highlight in that I spent the day with Beth as her school had a staff training day. We started at the Tate Modern where Beth enjoyed parts of the Duchamp, Manray and Picabia exhibition. We both particularly appreciated Duchamp’s Fountain.

Following a coffee in the members room, we had a pizza lunch and visited Hamleys before ending the day in Carnaby Street and The Sacred Cafe. As we sat and chatted I was amazed by the way in which my daughter cold comfortable move from great maturity in the Tate and Sacred Cafe while still maintaining childlike love of places like Hamleys. I’m a very lucky dad!

After that day I may have been lucky … but I was conscious of how tired I was too! It’s much easier working than wandering around London with your daughter!

Today it was back to normal … queues on the M25 as I traveled to Wycombe to meet up with Paul – a top guy with great vision and always a pleasure to drink giant coffees with in Costa (no one else really matches the size of their giant coffee!)

Anyway … the day is nearly over … I’m soon to go to sleep so that tomorrow I can remember again that I must not forget to live!

the scars of remembrance

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Following from my post yesterday I received a comment which pointed to <a href="http://virtualteahouse.com/blogs/ann/archive/2008/03/18/the-one-armed-bandit.aspx
“>this post which shares further the feelings of the weakness of humanity and useless-ness when things go wrong. Thanks Beth for pointing me to this.

It seems apt to be thinking of suffering on the evening of Maundy Thursday. I would never want to parallel my suffering with that of Jesus. It does strike me today, however, that my pain and that of Ann’s came unexpectedly and we had to get on with it. In fact that’s a present term – we have to get on with it.

Jesus did not have the luxury of unexpected pain. He knew what was going to happen, was aware of the pain he was about to endure and I can’t imagine the mental anguish that must have caused beforehand. How long before did he know? Did he always know? If so, did he sleep – or was it always there nagging away at him, tormenting him. I have not really thought about that before and I’m glad I don’t know about the pain that is coming towards me.

While thinking on the passion and the ‘story of the season’ it seems that we have forgotten all about suffering and the consequences. I have just been putting some final things together for Living Hope and was struck by the scene in John 20 where Jesus meets Thomas and asks him to put his finger and hands into his wounds.

The risen Jesus is alive but wounded. The pain may have disappeared but the marks that caused the pain are still an everyday reminder. Because of the reminder there is still pain. The pain may diminish and be forgotten but on seeing the scars there is a constant reminder of the pain that occurred.

Today I chatted with a friend and we shared that we struggle with forgiving people who hurt us in childhood. As I reflect on this passage I wonder whether forgiveness has happened (which, if so, I am surprised by!) but that I have just not noticed it because I expected the scars and the evidence of that pain to disappear. I think I have been led to believe in the pst that this would happen …. but I look to Jesus and think that if the evidence of his pain is still with him today then why should I expect any different for myself?

seeing through the fog

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Yesterday morning I left the house just before 530am to be at head office in Halesowen as it was my turn as a senior manager to join the leadership team meeting which runs from 9 until 5. I quite like leaving this early, but on this occasion there was dense fog and it was difficult to see my car when I stepped out of my front door, let alone think of driving for 3 hours.

As I tentatively started out I was pleased to see that the fog was not uniform across my route. After about 20 mins looking hard for signs of were to go, the fog suddenly cleared, only to return later in the journey on a number of occasion.

It did cross my mind that driving through fog can be like trying to understand the journey of our lives if we choose to make that journey a journey with God. There are times when I find myself in situations where I am quite scared, and even worried for my safety as I gingerly move ahead in full concentration, knowing that the road is there somewhere but needing to look very carefully to be able to stay on that road. Yesterday this was helped my following others that were ahead of me, although that can have its risks too.

At other times, when the fog cleared, I was able to sit back and breathe a bit of a sigh of relief as I could see the road ahead quite clearly and put my foot down on the accelerator. I enjoyed this part of the journey, and the music was turned up as it is much easier to concentrate – but these are times as well that I work on automatic and miss the stuff that is rushing past me at 70 mph (officially!)

On refection I’m not sure if I prefer the harder part of the journey, where I am searching and noticing more and having to make a great effort, or whether its the sunnier parts of the journey which seem to cost me very little. I guess I like the variety of both!

The meeting itself was great. It’s always a pleasure to experience how honest our leadership team is with each other and how enabling and encouraging they can be in their outlook. It’s good to be part of something so special!

westminster visit

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Today I ticked off one of those things that I’ve wanted to do for ages … a kind of little lifetime ambition in going to a meeting that was held in the Houses of Parliament. Today I got to meet with others in Committee Room 21, which is on the second floor you know!

It was great to walk up the stairs where politicians of the ages have walked and to wonder what conversations the walls had heard. To sit where countless others had sat as they eeked out legislation.

I was representing YFC at a meeting pulled together byChristians in Politics where we were looking at how we can encourage churches and Christians to become involved in politics. It was an interesting and worthwhile 2 hours.

I even got to sit in those genuine green leather chairs!

faith identity

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I was back in London today to attend an Interfaith Consultation event hosted by NCVYS. We were looking at the framework for interfaith dialogue document that has been produced for consultation by Hazel Blears Department. It’s worth having a read and responses and comments can be submitted up to March 7th.

During the consultation somebody shared something that I had not really noticed before from their observations in a classroom. Young people from faiths other than Christian seem to have a strong faith identity. When asked about their heritage ‘Christian’ young people seem to talk geographically (i.e. where they come from) wheareas young people from other faiths speak of ‘who they are’ which might be Hindu, Sikh, Muslim …

This hit me as a bit of failing on behalf of the church, and I am remembering the church consists of us, the people. We have failed to help young people to develop their Christian identity.

Part of our mission o make disciples of young people means we must help them work out a Christian identity – how do we do that?

I think the evangelical money making side of Christianity as attempted with WWJD, trendy crosses, pendants, clothing and so on … but that does not really provide the identity they are looking for or need, and the real motivation and agenda there is to make money rather than aid identity development.

So … what can we do to help Christian young people develop their Christian identity?

spectacularly common

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Sunday morning I had the privilege of preaching at the baptism of Joshua Banner. It always a privilege to be asked to do something by friends.

The text was the story of Simeon and Anna in the temple when Jesus is presented by Mary and Joseph from Luke 2. There is so much in this passage to pull out that I was struggling what to share of relevance in a ten minute slot.

Rather than opt for 3 points, I chose one and concentrated on the fact that both Simeon and Anna recognised Jesus as the Messiah and how so many others that were close to him seemed to miss that point.

I wonder if that is due to familiarity. Certainly I was challenged myself as I looked at the text and wondered ‘if I was there would I have recognised Jesus?’ Would I have been with the seeing minority or the blind majority?

2000 years on, when we know the rest of the story, and we understand some of the OT prophecies it is really easy to say ‘yes … of course I would have reognised Jesus – it’s obvious!’ If I am honest I am not so sure.

People seem not to recognise Jesus for who he is in Luke for some interesting reasons which are a challenge to me for this week in particular:

parents – the sense of wonder has been lost through the everyday stuff like nappies etc. Despite angelic visitations and immaculate conception the everyday has squeezed out the wonder.

disciples – they have got used to being with Jesus. They see him eat, drink, get tired, sleep – not things you equate with divinity. Their familiarity with him has clouded their view.

priest – they seem to fall foul of the fact that Jesus does not fit the mould of what they were looking for. They were looking and waiting, but they had decided what the Messiah would look like, and being born to a poor couple from Nazareth was not in their thinking. They were restricting God with their preconceived ideas.

I wonder if during my life, my everyday moving about, I look for Jesus in the wrong places, in the spectacular and in doing so restrict my mind into looking where I think he should be. So often, Jesus can be found in the common – at an occurance rate of 5 times a second you can’t get much more common than birth.

Maybe, we should be looking more in the common for our God, for it seems our spectatcular God loves to inhabit the common, after all – it is there that God meets his people.

How do you feed motivation?

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I had a few meetings in London today but had three particular highlights.

I experienced the good side of facebook, which we used earlier in the week to enable me to meet up with Mark, my best man, for lunch at The Chandos. I haven’t seen Mark in years and it was great to catch up over a couple of beers and lunch. Between meetings I managed to pop into the Louise Bourgeois exhibition and I ended the day with a ‘swift half’ with Jeremy before catching th train back to Medway.

I enjoyed my time to wander through the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at the Tate Modern. I find some of her work quite sinister, but it is amazing to enter into the dark sinister-ness of her pieces. On one of her works she had written the following:

‘It is not so much where the motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive‘

As I traveled home, I mulled over question after question, but came up with very few answers…
As I think to developing something new in September I wonder how I will enable my motivation, and the motivation of other, to survive?
How do you feed motivation so that it stays with you?
What does motivation need to survive?
What marks out a ministry of motivation?
How does God motivate?
How did Jesus stay motivated in the gospels?
I feel an essay coming on!

Epiphany

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Epiphany over at Wallspace looks interesting.

For Epiphany we have gathered together 15 contemporary, traditional iconographers who live and work in the UK for what we believe is the first exhibition of its kind. While there have been survey exhibitions of icons from other places in the world, there has never been an opportunity to get the work of the very best iconographers in Britain together in one place.

Not all of these iconographers are UK-born, but they all work here. And while all the icons shown are contemporary, they are nonetheless produced in the traditional manner, using authentic ancient designs and methods. The exhibition is timely, given the current revival of interest in icons and their increasing appearance in cathedrals and parish churches across the country.

I am going to try to get to this discussion led by the Bishop of London:

Forum
Modern Mystery
chaired by the Bishop of London Rt Revd Richard Chartres
6 December 7pm-9.30pm

Why are icons experiencing a revival in the West? Is this influencing British churches’ approach to imagery, devotion and liturgy? How does this distinctive visual tradition relate to contemporary art practice?

Many of the iconographers will be present at this discussion.

two great events worth visiting

New Mysticism … facts or experience?

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Ian writes on his blog about new mysticism. He draws out some vital points that I believe are central to continuing, or developing new, Christian community in our culture.

I believe for a long time the church has been in the position of answering the questions that no one has been asking. The church has been trying to answer questions of faith through attempting to prove Christianity against other religions or attempting to show that the resurrection factually happened. I believe for a long time people have not really been bothered about this rational facts.

From conversations I have had on trains, with friends and particularly at Mind Body Spirit fairs it would appear Ian is correct. People want to know, quite bluntly, ‘does it work’? To answer that question we need to shift from our factual sermons, courses and conferences and give space for dialogue, space to question and space to explore.

Thanks Ian for getting me thinking again.

The Ice Pack Cometh

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I have been back to the oesteopath today and am hoping that things have now been clicked and manipulated enough to allow muscles and things to work properly.

After all the manipulation the oesteopath advised going straight home and putting an ice pack on the area that she had been working on to calm it down. I’m sitting here with an ice pack now, but the concept does seem strange. She spent 30 mins moving everything around and the my response to allow the manipulations to work properly is to soon afterwards cool things down to releive the pain.

I wonder if there is a metaphor here for change within the church. If it’s not working (and we know that in some areas it it not) we are good at trying to stoke things up a bit with some manipulation here, a little massage there, cracking here and rotating there. This process understandbly generates a lot of heat and pain and I wonder whether allowing the heat to continue with the aim ‘to get through it’ is the correct response or whether we should think about applying an ice pack for a while to allow the true effects of the massage and manipulation to shw themselves.

Maybe the process, idea, I am looking for is to wake things up, apply an ice pack and then quietly observe what true change occurs?