A Sort Of Homecoming

A Sort Of Homecoming (with thanks to U2 for the title!)

Homecomings are not always what we hope they will be. The expectation often is that we will be welcomed with open arms, much joy and happiness- that people will be glad to see us. Unfortunately, this is not always the case- just ask anyone what their homecoming was like last Christmas, and you will probably get a very mixed response! The reality is, homecomings are sometimes painful, opening up old wounds, promising false and unrealistic expectations which often get dashed. Sometimes, the Hero’s Return we expected feels more like the Walk of Shame!

Over Christmas, I was reflecting on the story of Jesus’ birth as lived out by Joseph. The excitement of betrothal to Mary, the lead up to the marriage, all the preparations turned upside down and inside out by the earth-shattering news that Mary was already pregnant! The confusion and courage as Joseph decides to do the right thing, the thing that he knows will lead to further pain, the very thing that God is asking him to do. And then….

…The journey home; Mary and Joseph travel back to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown! Surely there will be a welcome here, the family support network will kick in, and a good time will be had by all! But no, when Joseph and Mary arrive there is no welcome committee, no balloons and banners, nothing- not even a bed! One can only imagine the pain, the dejection, the loneliness, the isolation that Joseph experienced at that time- and that many of us have experienced in our own situations.

But another homecoming is taking place, even in the midst of Joseph and Mary’s story; a bigger homecoming which embraces all the pain and shame of our personal homecomings, and transforms them; a homecoming that restores the original intent of God to “make home” with us - the Homecoming of God to dwell with man, purposed in the birth of Jesus. And this homecoming is no triumphal return, but the messy, painful birth of a vulnerable baby of questionable parentage in an insignificant city under foreign occupation. A birth announced not to the mighty and powerful, but to marginalised shepherds and misguided seers. A homecoming that enters the depths of human pain, confusion and disappointment, and welcomes us home to rest in Him!

In Christ, God has truly come home, and so can we! 

As we face the New Year, which for many of us may carry painful homecomings , transitions that leave us confused, hurting and disorientated, my prayer is that we will enter more into the transformative Great Homecoming of God; and that we will be a people who live in that homecoming in such a way that many others will find the way home! 

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them…” Revelation 21:3

The Vicarious Christian

vi.car.ious

adj.

1. Felt or undergone as if one were taking part in the experience or feelings of another.

2. Endured or done by one person substituting for another.

3.  

    a. Acting or serving in the place of someone or something else; substituted.

    b. Committed or entrusted to another, as powers or authority; delegated.

4. Physiology Occurring in or performed by a part of the body not normally associated with a certain function.

From Latin vicarius; see vicar.

Recently I dreamt that I was writing a book, the title of which was "Beyond Ourselves- The Gifting Interface Ratio Level in the Life of the Prophet Elijah"! Surprisingly enough, I have had no offers to publish this book! However, another book title that I have considered is the title of this blog- "The Vicarious Christian". I will probably never get round to writing the book, so here is the synopsis!

Many years ago I read The Lord Of The Rings while working as a kitchen porter in my summer break. Unfortunately, I became a little too embroiled in the story, and my moods began to follow the development of the plot! I went in to work one day feeling really down, the reason being that Gandalf had just fallen with the Balrog from the Bridge of Khazad-Dum!  A few weeks later I went in elated that Gandalf had risen as Gandalf The White! Sad but true!!

More seriously, I have  have come to realize that often I am in danger of leading a vicarious Christian life. No, you didn't read that wrong, I didn't mean to say Victorious. Often believing that one can mature through osmosis, I read the latest book from the latest anointed leader; I visit the blog of the gifted pastor and avidly devour his teaching; I sing the most up-to-date worship song and learn the most effective methods of evangelism or ministry as defined by the latest gurus in their book/blog/DVD/Conference/Interactive website/t-shirt combo package ("All yours exclusively for $599.99!"). I sign up to the latest "cause", believing that by doing so I am more sold out for the Kingdom. Reading the biography of spiritual giants who have gone before, I feel myself more spiritual than before; I believe I am growing in prayer because I have discovered "The 7 habits of Highly Effective Prayer Warriors". In short, I enter the experience or the feelings WITHOUT HAVING LIVED THE EXPERIENCE!

A word to the wise (and myself)- The Christian Life is not meant to be vicarious! it is meant to be a life lived only as you can live it, and only as God leads and reveals. You and I are unique, beautiful songs of God's creation and redemption, and our lives are meant to be sung to the full, not subsumed into a general, amorphous muzak as we try to imbibe the spirituality of others. We cannot experience the fullness of God's love, his leading, His empowering as we try to experience Him through others, however anointed and gifted they may be! You are not meant to be the next Billy Graham/John Wesley/Mother Theresa/Shane Claiborne/Chris Tomlin/Peter/Paul/Mary/Moses/John Wimber/Rob Bell/Calvin/Martin Luther/ A.W. Tozer/C.S.Lewis (Circle where appropriate!). So while we can learn from these and many others, and appreciate the gifts to the body they were and are, we cannot allow them to live the God-filled life for us. And we cannot ride on the coat-tails of the good and the great before God. The church we are a part of does not matter; the name of our pastor is not important; the number of causes we have liked on Facebook may make us feel good, but may not have an eternal bearing on our lives.

In many ways, vicarious Christian living is an ancient, well-established practice. Think about the people of Israel requesting Moses to meet with God for them, and then to tell them what God wanted of them- and how well that worked! Or the people of Israel demanding a king to reign over them, rather than having God as their King. It appears that often we want others to take the chances, do the hard graft and represent us before God, while we reap the benefits. Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. Or is it...?

Because there is a vicarious Christian life to be lived- the sacrificial Way of Jesus. The Life of Jesus was a vicarious life, not in the way described above, but in entering into the sufferings of broken man, in order to live the life and die the death that brings freedom to those who follow Him. We are now able to enter into that life, and in doing so, not merely experience the feelings of another, but know His life in us, making us fully alive again. As we live this life, we realize more and more that the vicarious life we have often led, leeching off the life of others, is a fraud, an empty shell, a mere facade; and in doing so, we are more ready to engage a broken world with, in and through Christ, rather than just reading about how to do so, and therefore believing that in some way we have done so! Now, that is a Life worth living!

Because..

"Why am I doing what I am doing?"  Sometimes, in moments of pressure, tension, or stress it is easy to ask this question, to consider alternative futures for myself and my family. Why am I living in a foreign country? Struggling to understand and be understood? Often seeing small increments of change in people’s lives, while others appear to regress? Continually battling the frustrations of not seeing all we hope, dream and pray for come to fruition?  To ask this question is especially easy for those of us with a “glass half empty” personality (myself included!). Often what is needed is a reminder as to what has led us to where we are. This list is my reminder to myself- by no means complete, not perfect, but so necessary. 

1) Because God’s preferred future is wonderful ( Revelation 21:3-5).

2) Because Satan’s preferred future is the opposite of God’s (John 10:10).

3) Because God’s preferred future will win over Satan’s! (1 John 3:8).

4) Because people need to hear the invite to live in God’s preferred future now and for evermore (Romans 10:14-15).

5) Because I want that preferred future to come quickly, and come completely (2 Peter 3: 11-13).

6) Because God has invited me to play a part in singing His freedom songs, a harmony and counterpoint that only I can sing (Ephesians 2:10).

7) Because I can (Jeremiah 1:4-10).

8) Because I can’t (Psalm 127:1,2).

9) Because especially when I can’t, God  can and does (2 Corinthians 12:9,10).

10) Because I am answerable to God for what I do in seeing His preferred future come to fruition ( Matthew 24:45- 25:46).

As stated above, these are my “Because” statements.. but what are yours?  Why are you doing what you are doing- “Because” or “Just because”?

“Corpsman! Corpsman! Corpsman! Corpsman! For God’s sake, corpsman! Corpsman! Corpsman!”

The above is the opening line from the Oscar-winning movie, “Flags of Our Fathers”. The movie tells the story of the battle of Iwo Jima, during the Second World War,  and in particular the raising of the American flag,  as captured in the iconic photography of Joe Rosenthal. It is a poignant, striking and powerful slice of cinematography, and nobody except for the most hard-hearted could fail to be moved by the brutality of war and the disastrous effects it has on the lives of both those on the frontline and their families and communities.

Following the lives of those men who were treated as heroes for their part in the raising of the second flag on Iwo Jima, the movie centers around the story of John “Doc” Bradley , a corpsman. For the uninitiated, myself included, the corpsman was the trained medic, the person responsible for the patching up of the wounded before they were able to be evacuated from the frontline. A thankless and extremely dangerous responsibility, the corpsman was often a prime target for the Japanese, who knew that by killing him they would cause another ten soldiers to die before they could receive medical attention for their injuries. The corpsman would be running from foxhole to foxhole, stemming the flow of blood from fresh wounds, calming the injured soldiers down, calling for the runners to bring the stretchers needed, all the while trying to escape injury himself.

In the work we are involved in, there is also a desperate need for corpsmen. Corpsmen who will walk and stand with hurting, broken people in their crises, bringing peace into the trauma, stemming the tide of destruction that sin and Satan have wrought in the lives of those created in God’s image, those who despite their infinite worth have been beaten, bruised and battered by life and its injustices. Corpsman who understand the effects of childhood trauma, of drug and alcohol addiction, of personality disorders, of educational inadequacies, of family and community breakdown, and who, in understanding, are prepared to dive into the mess of mankind and bring hope, healing and wholeness to those who are “sat upon, spat upon, ratted on”. And corpsmen who will point people to the place of healing, whether that be the doctor’s surgery, the psychiatrist’s office, the addict’s group, the prayer ministry room or the family meal-table.

But where are the corpsmen? Where are the people called, equipped and enabled by God in the fields often wrongly deemed as less spiritual than the traditional missionary/pastor/apostle/evangelist roles?  While grateful for those who have sacrificially come to provide counsel, training and much needed support and encouragement in these areas, we still cry out for corpsmen on the ground, in situ ready for the times of desperate need, the crises, the times when the body lacks the understanding it needs to serve our students as fully and deeply as God desires.  Is our understanding of God, His ways and His mission so lacking as to limit the call to “the spiritual” ? Or are there other reasons why the call to go to the ends of the earth with the good news of the Kingdom of Jesus often seems to go unheeded? 

As Jesus looked out over Jerusalem, seeing a people oppressed, downtrodden and directionless, he called his disciples to pray for workers. That prayer is still being prayed today, that God would mobilize His body to release workers of all kinds into the harvest field. Will the “corpsmen” hear the call and come?

“For God’s sake....”

The mundane, the miraculous and the Mystery

Do you ever feel that some days are full of the mundane? A case in point: another “normal” day begins. Up at 6 to get our son off to school, our daughter needs waking at 6.45, and, as per usual, takes an age to have breakfast and get ready for the drive to school. Trying to avoid the traffic jams, a one hour round trip to school and back to the Well, where e-mails need answering - I’m sure they are reproducing over the weekend! Time to prepare for a mentor’s meeting, to think about the teaching schedule, then we begin the round of meetings and classes. Lunch at 11.00, then more classes. my daughter arrives back at 3.30, and myself or my wife (usually myself!) head back home to get her homework done, to prepare dinner, to catch up with our son before he disappears into his books and homework. After dinner (with the requisite phone call interruptions), the usual round of washing up, washing clothes, answering more e-mails, showers and stories before bed, and before long another day is over.

Does sound rather mundane, doesn’t it? Not the stuff of inspiring missionary reports, but real life as it often is, even for missionaries! a large proportion of our lives are like this, and cannot be avoided. There are responsibilities that all of us have in life that just go around and come around. It is so easy to feel a certain disconnect between the mundane and the miraculous, victorious, overcoming life we believe we are to live, the way the message of Jesus is so often portrayed. And yet...

The good news of Jesus occurs in the midst of mundanity. The Jews had had 400 years of “same,same” a stunning silence from the Almighty after the last of the prophets had laid down his pen and retired unheard. Visions and dreams of the Messiah had been imagined and expounded, many of them conflicting, but when Jesus  was born, despite the angelic fanfare and the miracles surrounding His birth, he was unrecognized as the savior by many, because he was not spectacular enough- looking just like an ordinary boy from a backwoods town in a backwoods area of a backwoods country, not looking like the all-conquering king people wanted. But it is precisely here that the miraculous occurs, not on another plain of existence, but in the here and now, the stuff of daily life. Jesus, the Mystery of God, enters into the mundanity of life to suffuse it with hope, with purpose, with Life, with the miraculous.

And it is still the same; it is as we walk through the mundane, welcoming Jesus to be with us, that the miraculous occurs; a Christmas party to which we have invited strangers results in their finding a place called Home, and an opportunity for them to enter the Kingdom is opened up; a simple word of encouragement to a fatherless man becomes a message of hope as he meets the true Father; an opportunity to work at making jewelry provides an escape from a life of sexual slavery; a trip to the beach with two girls whose mother has left them brings joy to their hearts and a smile to their faces; a cup of coffee with friends becomes a holy place, where the mundane and the Mystery mingle in laughter, deep discussion and sweet fellowship. We are too ready to flee the mundane wherever possible, and to seek the thrill of the miraculous, as witnessed by the popularity of revival meetings, healing and prophecy conferences and the like. None of these are necessarily bad, but if we focus on them we are in danger of missing the miraculous in the mundane, of not practicing the Presence of Christ in the everyday. As we practice the Presence, the mundane undergoes transformation to the miraculous, and we will see God at work.

I could write more, but the kids need feeding- time to meet with Jesus in the mundane again! 

Are You Ready?

Hardware stores in Bangkok have been having a field day recently, playing on the fears of many residents to sell materials guaranteed to flood-proof one’s house. many of the purchases made were unthought-through panic buys which would have had little bearing on the flooding potential of the houses in question, but at least brought a little peace of mind to those who shelled out hundreds and thousands of baht to protect their real estate! One local estate had the obligatory wall of sandbags, but also had wrapped the entire outer wall in plastic sheeting (leaving a gap for the expensive cars to drive in and out, of course- and therefore for the water to find an entry point!). No matter that in flood areas the water was coming up into the houses through the drains, and therefore the result of the total encasement of said estate could well have been an unintentional community swimming pool! At least people thought they were ready!

One of the most disappointing and frustrating aspects of the work of The Well has been the attitude of some churches (and especially their leaders) to the people we are seeking to reach with God’s love and healing. A few times now, we have been told that the church “is not ready” to love, serve, welcome, bless and rejoice with the folks we are working with and amongst. Just last week my wife was asking a local church to partner with us in providing gifts and food for a small party for ladies working freelance on the streets. The reply was that while they could help, the church “was not ready” to host the party or embrace the ladies working on their doorstep.

Over this Christmas, we celebrate the inbreaking of King Jesus and His Kingdom into this world, a world that, by and large, was not ready. Accustomed to the silence of God for 400 years since Malachi, the arrival of the Messiah in the shape of a helpless, defenseless child was unexpected, unwelcome and unrecognized by those that were not ready or willing to have their lives turned upside down. However, there were those who were ready, those who listened and obeyed, those who were attuned to what the Father was doing- Mary, Elizabeth, Anna the prophetess, Simeon, the star-gazers and the shepherds were in the vanguard of those welcoming in the new thing that God was birthing in His Son. Later there were others who joyfully embraced the way of Jesus, the way of the Cross, the way of The Master who became the servant. The tragedy was that those who should have been ready (indeed, who thought they were ready, and thought they could ensure that others were as ready as they) who were the most unready, and who excluded themselves and others under their influence from entering the Kingdom and joining in the party. So unready were they that instead of opening the door, they shut it in peoples’ faces, bolting and chaining it up for good measure- if they couldn’t enter, they made sure that nobody else could either!

And us? Let’s get up close and personal for a moment. Are you ready? Am I? It’s too easy to throw up our hands in horror at the attitude of the church, to criticize the arrogance of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. But what about you? This Christmas, are you ready to echo those beautiful words of Mary, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said.” - the very words that opened her heart, her womb, her future and her plans for God’s heart, God’s future, God’s plans to be birthed through her into a dying world? Are we ready to listen to what the Father is saying, to see what he is doing, and to do it with Him? Are we ready to say “Lord, I am ready; help me in my unreadiness”? The world is waiting, in eager expectation- for His sake, let’s do all we can to be ready! And let’s pray for our churches, for our families, our communities, that we would be ready to serve up the kingdom feast that Christ has made ready to those for whom it has been prepared.

Reflections on Water

At the time of writing this, Thailand is facing some of the worst flooding in decades. Although parts of Bangkok are still dry, the floodwaters that have been building up in the north over the past few months are continuing their inexorable journey towards the sea, and every day sees the water encroach further, leaving a trail of destruction before it. Over 500 people have died, many people have already evacuated, and despite the efforts of many to stem the flow, this particular force of nature is proving to be stronger.

The Well was closed for a period, and although the water has not reached the centers, staff and students have been adversely affected. The family home of one staff member has been flooded, and they are now having to evacuate. An air of resignation has set in for many, the daily waiting birthing its own form of stress and pressure. The confusing mixed messages from government officials and “experts” has added to the tension, with whether the entire city will be engulfed or whether the end of the flooding is nigh depending on who is reporting.

In the midst of the waiting, the rescue and relief efforts, the evacuations, the confusion, it is important to remember that there is a flood that this city, and indeed the whole nation, needs to see, that of the presence of God, the Living Water poured out on a dry and desolate land. Repeatedly in the Bible we see promises of this flood, be it in the conversation Jesus has with the Samaritan woman, the vision of the water flowing through the temple in Ezekiel, the river of the water of life in Revelation, the cry of God through Amos, “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”.

At this time, I have been meditating on why water is such an incredibly rich image for the presence of God. Here are a few thoughts, none original, but worth reflecting on! Firstly, a paradox: water is so life-giving, and yet is one of the most destructive forces on this earth! The presence of God leads to our undoing, the death of our plans, the ruination of our lives for anything except loving and serving Him, and, paradoxically, as we lose life, so we gain it. The call is always to wade deeper into the water, to lose the fear of drowning, to die that we may live.

For fear of stating the obvious, water also runs from the highest to the lowest- as seen in the flow of the waters from the uplands of Thailand to the flood plain of Bangkok! It is in the low areas of our lives, our communities, our sickness, our sorrows and our degradation, that the life-giving Spirit of God flows most, bringing cleansing, freshness, purity and fresh life, sating and saturating the parched earth. Is it any surprise that it is to a broken, ostracized Samaritan woman plumbing the depths of the human condition that Jesus promises a water so refreshing that “Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life."? And it is as we follow Jesus into the low places that we will see more of the Water of Life flowing, both in and through our lives.

Which brings us neatly to the last reflection: water that is not flowing is dangerous, diseased, and carries death of another kind.. individual believers and worshipping communities that try to bottle revival, selfishly gorging themselves on the water while refusing to be poured out for a dry and thirsty world, ultimately sow the seeds of their own destruction. As we seek to capture the water, to dam it up and control the flow, the fresh, sparkling water becomes tepid, brackish, and undrinkable, and before long the very thing that was there for life is the bearer of ill-health and death. It is only as we open the sluice gates, allowing the water to flow through our lives for others, that we will begin to have a foretaste of “The river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”.

Please join us as we pray that in the midst of the suffering brought on by the floodwaters in Thailand, we would see a tremendous outpouring of the Water of Life!

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE WORTH?

This week has seen the passing of Steve Jobs, the creative mastermind behind Apple. Tributes have been flowing in from around the world, focusing on his business acumen, his innovation, his team ethic, his value to humankind. Observers have been surprised at how many people have Facebooked, Tweeted, blogged and e-mailed, quoting Mr Jobs at length as if his very words held the key to life itself.

This very same week, another man who had inspired an outflowing of musical creativity also died. Bert Jansch, a folk guitarist whose unique style influenced the likes of Paul Simon, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young and many others, passed away. His passing was marked without fanfare, without presidential comment, without television specials interviewing anyone who knew him to glean the detailed trivia that feeds the insatiable appetite of the doting public. But which man had most worth?

Before we rush to answer,we should check our hearts. How much have we bought into the cult of celebrity, the concept of “value added” that defines a man by his productivity, his popularity or his bank balance? How much do we play by the same rules, judging each other by what we can or can’t do, or what we have or have not achieved, even within the community of followers of Jesus?

Outreaching amongst freelancers in Bangkok’s Chinatown area earlier this week, my wife met a woman, six months pregnant, who was touting for customers. She gets one customer a day if she is lucky, and picks up 400 baht, 100 of which goes to the owner of the seedy hotel where she rents the room. How much do you think she is worth? A girl we are helping is dealing with the trauma of having had three abortions, the last one at seven months. How much were the lives of her unborn children worth? And how much is she worth? Last year, 2,000 fetuses were found in a Thai temple, the victims of backstreet abortions- they were worth $16 each to the woman who took them from the illegal clinics to the temple,and were a small part of the estimated 300,000 illegal abortions carried out in a year in Thailand; but how much were they really worth? And what is the worth of the lonely, frightened girls who feel they must resort to such desperate measures? And of the “doctors” performing the abortions?

Again, before quickly answering, we need to pause and reflect.We all know the stock Sunday School answer- in God’s eyes, all people are equally precious, loved by Him, redeemed by the blood of His Son- but in our everyday lives, how do we flesh out that belief? Do we play the fame game as much as the next man? How much does our use of time, of our money, our attention reflect the value that God has placed on every sinful, broken, marred and damaged person? How much do we see the image of God despite the external packaging? And how can we break free from the pandering to the values of this twisted, broken world in which we live, that perverts worship to idolatry of the successful, the talented, the powerful, the beautiful and the rich?

And we need to answer the hardest question: When we use the standards of this world to define the worth of people, what worth are we really attributing to Jesus, the one who:-

“..grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.” ?

May we be continually renewed in the ways we attribute value and worth to others, transformed and not conformed, equipped to live a life that truly sees people as Jesus sees them, as we gaze upon the face of Jesus in worship!

Poetic Prophets, Cracked Creation and Dispelled Darkness

“Ring the bells that still can ring,

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s where the light gets in.”

(“Anthem”, Leonard Cohen).

Working in the craziness of Bangkok, in daily contact with the brokenness of students at The Well, and having to confront one’s own brokenness, could easily be seen as an invite to despair, hopelessness and depression! Whatever our natural disposition, it is a challenge to realize hope in the midst of the desperate situations people find themselves in, sometimes through no fault of their own. Faith, hope and love are stretched, sometimes near to breaking point. And yet.....

In the words of Leonard Cohen, a poetic prophet (is there any other kind?), there is a crack in everything. Everything in this world is broken, imperfect, marred in some way, twisted from its original intent.That would be a recipe for despair if it was the whole story, but Laughing Lenny (as our family call him) is quick to counterbalance his reflection on the brokenness of our world with the awesome, mind-blowing statement that it is precisely there that light breaks through! It is in the darkness, the brokenness, the damage and pain that the light of Christ shines brightest. It is not in our incredibly organized and neat churches, our structured “sin-management” discipleship models, our shallow “fellowship over coffee”, our tailored “worship experiences”, but it is in the dark recesses, the messiness of daily life, the bars, the slums, the inner cities, the dysfunctional families, the sweatshops and massage parlors....

And it is precisely in the brokenness of our own lives, our insecurities, our sin, our fumbling, stumbling attempts at fully following Jesus, our misunderstanding and misappropriation of His Kingdom, our slowness and dullness of heart towards Him and towards those who God treasures, that the light is seen! It is not in our perfect offerings, our personal righteousness, our having it all together, but it is seen in and through the cracks in our lives. Often the cracks are barely seen, having been carefully concealed, sometimes for many years. They appear as mere hairline fractures, similar to when the seed breaks through the dry earth, when the oyster opens up to reveal its hidden treasure, when a beautiful aroma is released through the fissures in the crust of newly baked bread, where yeast has done its work. But we know that once the seed has pushed through, it is destined to grow; the oyster will release its splendor; the bread will be broken, shared and feasted on. The hidden things will be revealed.

This may be nothing new, but there is a need to be regularly reminded of these things as we live out the promise that we are the light of the world. As we seek to reflect His light, recognizing that we are cracked people serving other broken people in a fractured world, we can draw courage, hope and faith from the reality that this, here and now, is where the light gets in. As another poetic prophet, Isaiah, declares:

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” (Is. 60: 1-3).

May we have eyes to see beyond the darkness, through the cracks, to see the brightness of the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom dawning in the darkest of places.

Book Review: Fall To Grace, Jay Backer with Martin Edlund

Normally I don't do book reviews, but I am a sucker for a free book, so when I was offered this book for free in return for a review I thought "OK, what's to lose?"! Anyway, a book written by the son of disgraced televangelist and leader of PTL ministries Jim and Tammy Faye Backer had to be juicy, right? A scandalous read that made one feel self-righteous and tut in all the right places, surely?

Well, no, because this book is about grace- the scandalous, incomprehensible, glorious foundation of the Christian life, and the stuff so lacking from much of what we call church. The story of Jay's journey from the destructions of a graceless life is charted in the initial few chapters, while the second part takes a closer look at Paul's continual challenge to believers in Jesus to live by grace, and not by law. So far so good, except...

In the effort to explain and defend grace, in light of the continual pull against grace by our natural selves and by the Law, I feel that Jay oversteps himself. His explanation of the decision by the council of Jerusalem to ask the Gentile believers to abstain from eating meat offered to idols, sexual immorality, and eating the meat of strangled animals as being an example of "grace plus" is stretching the point, to say the least. Would Jay suggest that refaining from sexual immorality is a grace plus issue, or would it be more sensible to understand these requests as being asked in line with the teaching of respecting the weaker brother (Romans 14), or as restraints on freedom to allow fellowship?

Furthermore, although Jay tackles the hot potato of homosexuality head on, the breadth of his treatment of grace is rather limited. I would suggest that reading "What's So Amazing About Grace?" (Philip Yancey) and "No future Without Forgiveness" (Desmond Tutu) would give a wider picture as to how grace is not just confined to our individual relationship with Jesus and each other, but actually transforms societies.

Finally, although this book is a good read, it does have a major fault- it will expose some of your own areas where grace is not, and could leave you sitting rather uncomfortably in your seat! Read and be challenged!

Christmas And The Lingering Smell Of Lamb

Being overseas, in a country with no tradition of Christmas, my family has had to invent its own. One tradition we have adopted is the substitution of lamb for turkey. Lamb is a real delicacy for our family, and so it is incumbent upon me to prepare the Christmas feast around this succulent meat- I am not quite sure how the tradition arose that I spend all afternoon in the kitchen on Christmas Day cooking- maybe some traditions need to be examined regularly to assess their worth!

The issue with roasting lamb is that there is a definite lingering after-aroma that infuses the entire house with its aromatic scent. Waking up on 26th and opening the bedroom door, my nostrils immediately caught the scent of the roast offerings from the night before. My spirit caught something else- a hunger for lamb! A remembrance of the pleasure of the meal the night before, celebrating with family and good friends, laughter and appreciation of time together to rest and enjoy each other, mingled with satisfying food, all came rushing back. Maybe, just maybe, Christmas wasn't over!

I have been pondering on the lamb ever since that morning, and wondering how it links into the time of year we call Christmas. Really, we all know (don't we?) that Jesus wasn't actually born on December 25th (oh, and by the way, Santa isn't real- although in Thailand many people are convinced that December 25th is Santa's birthday- maybe we should discuss that in another blog!). So why do we focus so exclusively around this time on His birth? And why is His birth often so disconnected from his life, his death, his resurrection and his coming again? Why is the sentimentalized, sanitized, trivialized version of his birth so prevalent around this time? The birth becomes the domain of nursery school plays and schmaltzy carol services, where we sing about "The Little Lord Jesus" who apparently was so non-human that "No crying He makes". Why??

Well, maybe part of the answer is that we have lost the scent of death in the Christmas story. We have skimmed over the massacre of the innocents, we have missed the shame visited upon Mary by the proclamation of "the gift" And we have forgotten the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. We also lose the force of the inbreaking kingdom, bringing the kingdoms of this world to their knees, as expressed in the outburst of praise from Mary, the fearful, fevered and ultimately futile scrabbling of Herod to protect his kingdom, the intervention of God with dreams and angels to shelter the seed of His Kingdom, and the tying in of the birth narrative with the Kingdom prophecies of Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets. The birth, life, death, resurrection and return of Jesus is a seamless warfare narrative. The birth of Jesus is not just a nice sentimental starter before we get to the main course of the Gospels!

Which brings me back to the smell of lamb (I haven't forgotten!). In the Old Testament, worship would have been suffused with the smell of sacrifice, as families dragged their lambs etc into the temple courts for the regular sacrifices to take place. The aroma would be a continual reminder to all of the cost of walking away from the reign of God into our own petty kingdoms, where we supposedly ruled, but where in fact we were slaves. The price of freedom would be a high one, namely death. But the stench would also be mixed with the aroma of the incense, the stuff of earth mixing with the stuff of heaven, just as heaven invades earth in the guise of a helpless infant. As the aroma of lamb filled our house this Christmas, so too does the fragrance of Christ linger in our lives, inviting others to recall the lamb who was slain, to share in His death., to feast on Him and to enter His kingdom. Death and life, intertwined, is the way of the Kingdom, the way of Jesus, and is to be our way too! We cannot embrace the Christmas story without embracing death, and therefore entering continually into, and walking in, newness of life.

This blog has taken me a couple of days to complete, and the aroma of lamb in our house has faded. My prayer for 2011 is that the fragrance of Christ, both death and life, would linger wherever my journeying takes me:

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life."

Here's to an aromatic 2011!

Ritual and Kingdom Algebra

Some 25 years ago (!) I studied Mathematical Statistics and Operational Research at uni. (just wanted to mention that to show my credentials to blog on the Kingdom of Jesus!). One professor was able to shrink a whole blackboard (yes, it was that long ago!) full of complicated formulae into a three letter formula- which was fine until you realised you still had to remember the board full of letters and numbers anyway! I hated the course, but love algebraic formulae to this day!



Recently I have been trying a bit of formula writing as shorthand for the place of ritual in following Jesus. The two formulae below are my attempt to summarise where I have got to. Please note these are not simultaneous equations- do not try to find the solution! However, I would like to set them as an exercise for you to complete (please turn in your replies for grading by next w/e!)



Kingdom Algebra 101:



1) Ritual - Reality = Relic



2) Ritual + Reality = Release



Discuss the 2 equations above, providing examples where appropriate, and explain the implications of the equations on church life.

The Prenuptial Christian

Following on from my last blog, the time has come to explain myself!



Recently, I have been pondering the plethora of labels used to describe our particular spiritual walk. In the last twenty years we have had post-evangelicals, post-moderns, post-charismatics and others. We have had missional church and red-letter Christians. While labels are useful as shorthand, to help us to understand a bit of where we are coming from, all labels have inherent problems, some of which I list below:


1) Anything using the prefix "post-" has already labelled itself as a reaction to what has gone before. It is therefore backward looking, at least in its description, if not in its practice. This is similar to Protestantism, as described by Brian McLaren in a Generous Orthodoxy, which started as a protest against many problems in the Roman Catholic Church. McLaren says that once the protestant church tired of protesting against Catholicism, it turned to protesting against itself! If we are not careful, we end up defining ourselves by what we are not, or by what we are in reaction to.



2) I prefer "missional church" and "Red Letter Christians" as definitions of who we are. Both these labels are trying to define what we do; that we are here to live out the words of Jesus on this earth, and that our purpose is outward-looking, to a fallen, broken world. however, I can't help but ask the question "Why?"- Why is our focus outward looking? And why are we trying to live out the words of Jesus? My feeling is that these labels do not answer that question, and therefore trhese labels are lacking something- the reason for doing what we do.



3) Labels can easily become strait-jackets that restrain us, rather than allowing us to journey together into God's future. They become the walls behind which we shelter, the stuff of exclusion instead of inclusion, the chasms that separate us from those who see things differently.



4) Labels can also be misunderstood, because they are shorthand. I am reminded of a university professor of mine, who would simplify equations until they were only 3 letters long. The problem being, if you didn't know what the letters really stood for, the three letters were useless. There needed to be a precision in your understanding to use the shorthand! This is bad enough, but when we use shorthand for a spiritual journey, it is even more open to misinterpretation. If I say I am a charismatic, for example, there could be many different interpretations.



5) Labels can also be misused to denigrate people- for example, how many times have you heard the label "liberal" used to dismiss a person or group as not worthy of entering into dialogue with, except maybe to put them right? This shorthand use enables us to treat people with less than the dignity they deserve as people created in God's image.



So why am I giving myself a new label- a Prenuptial Christian? Well...


"Prenuptial" means "before marriage". I am a follower of Jesus who is eagerly waiting for marriage. Don't get me wrong, I am happily married with two lovely kids, but I am longing for the marriage between Jesus and His bride, the church. My focus is not a reaction to the past, nor a definition of what I am doing now, but is toward That Day. For me, this focus gives direction and momentum to all that I am doing now, whilst also taking me out of the center and putting Jesus right there. In light of this label, I am also able to respect others who are journeying toward the same goal while taking different routes to get there! Furthermore, because the marriage supper is not yet, being a prenuptial Christian keeps me journeying toward that day in a similar hope and excitement to the time before my wedding day to my lovely wife. Knowing that living out the words of Jesus and being missional in the world are things that will speed the day of the bridegroom's return , it provides impetus and context for what I do today.



One last thing- "Prenuptial" may sound a bit like a legal term, but in fact it is the language of love! The context of all we are and do is the love of the Father, shown in Jesus, and consummated at His return. You cannot read the Bible and not see the abundance of marriage analogies referring to God's relationship with His people. From the marriage covenant format of the ten comandments, to the prophecies of Hosea, to the wedding parables of the Kingdom told by Jesus, to the parallelism between marriage and Jesus and the church in Ephesians, to the bride/groom analogy in Revelation 21, it is impossible to avoid the gentle wooing of God towards mankind.



I don't know if the term "Prenuptial Christian" will catch on, and I don't mind if it doesn't! However, I trust that the spirit behind the label will continue to capture our hearts and minds as we look forward to That Day!

"The Spirit and the Bride say "Come!""(Rev 22)

Seven I am's

Following on from 5 things I am not, here are seven things I am.


1) I am a believer in the centrality of Jesus in understanding all Scripture, both the New and Old Testament. Jesus is the lens through which we interpret all the history, the laws, the prophetic writings, the wisdom literature, the apocalyptic literature and the letters that make up the Bible. He is also the fulfillment of Scripture, and history centers on Him, not on me or on particular nations or kingdoms.


2) I am more interested in the kingdom of God than in heaven and hell and who goes where. Seems to me that Jesus emphasised the kingdom much more than heaven and hell, and as his ambassadors we should keep the same focus in our theology, teaching, preaching, sharing Jesus, training, discipleship, and daily walk.


3) I love church and am commited to it insofar as it is an appropriate wineskin for the pouring in and out of the kingdom of Jesus. When the wineskin becomes more of a focus than the wine, I begin to get impatient with it. Church traditions, structure and politics are far less important to me than the invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven that is "at hand" in the person and presence of Jesus.


4) I am a questioner. I am never happy until I know the answer to the question "Why?" I have been labelled "the devil's advocate" in team building exercises- the person who has to question everything. To me, unthinking Christianity is unthinkable!


5) I am an avid reader, but tend to be a "dipper" unless something really grips me, in which case I stick with it. Sticky books for me recently have included "Jesus for President" (Shane Claiborne), "Jesus wants to Save Christians" (Rob Bell), "The Shack" (William P. Young), "Surprised By Hope" (Tom Wright), "Christianity Rediscovered" (Vincent J.Donovan), "The Divine Conspiracy" (Dallas Willard), and others. The book (other than the Bible) I blame most for the shape of my life is "The Mustard Seed Conspiracy" by Tom Sine. Much of my thinking is shaped by my reading.


6) I know that I do not know much about anything. What I do know is distorted by my cultural assumptions and perspectives. As Paul said, I only see through a glass darkly- but there will be a day when I see face to face! Therefore I am trying to be humble about my understanding of the ways of God, while passionately believing them until a more compelling alternative appears! In other words, my theology is on a journey, and I hope it never stops being so, as on that day I will be dead! I am committed to exposing my own cultural blindspots wherever possible, while also wishing to see culturally accessible expressions of God's love and His kingdom sprouting up all over the place.

7) I am a prenuptial Christian... Sorry, the next blog will explain!

5 things I am not.

Sometimes, in defining who or what we are, it is useful to define who or what we are not. Currently, many Facebook users are writing 25 interesting things about themselves. Well, I only want to write 5 things, so here goes.

1) I am not a qualified bible scholar- I have no formal qualifications in theology, I have never be to Bible College, I have no credits in christology, ecclesiology, hamartiology, psychology, pneumatology, eschatology, or any other -ologies.

2) I am not always a logically consistent thinker. I often hold a view, then change or forget why I held that view in the first place. I need to keep revisiting my beliefs in order to remember what they are!

3) I am not a creative thinker. Probably all that I think has been better said by someone else, and certainly better lived!

4) I am not confident that my views are important, or even necessarily correct. Strongly opinionated people threaten me. Sitting on the fence is sometimes quite comfortable!

5) I am not deeply spiritual; my prayer life is often piecemeal; fasting is usually a chore, and not a delight; worship often leaves me wondering if the time could be better spent; much of my life is spent worrying; and I'm not too good at consistently loving people.

After reading that, I'd be surprised if anyone would like to journey with me. After all, it's the spiritual giants, the creative worshippers, the erudite theologians, the certain, confident saints, that we all love to associate with. However, if you recognise a little of yourself in the above, maybe, just maybe, you'd like to journey with an ordinary person, like spiritual hobbits on an impossible quest!

Why Overlap?

Hi! Thanks for checking in! As you can see, this blog is entitled "Overlap"- but why?

Well, one definition of overlap is : "to coincide in part with; have in common with". As a follower of Jesus I believe that we are living right now in one such overlap. We live between two kingdoms, two ages. In many ways these kingdoms or ages don't seem to have a lot in common- the kings are different, the ages are now and to come (but coming already!)- but there is an overlap. That overlap is us, both in community and individually. The kingdoms have us in common, and each is vying for our allegience, our attention, our devotion. Which shall we serve?

This blog is an imperfect attempt to explore how we live in the overlap of the two kingdoms. Ever since I heard about the kingdom of God, I have wanted to learn what it is to live there while living here! I have wanted to understand how I can stay in the overlap, not withdrawing into one kingdom and ignoring the other; how to bring the influence of the kingdom of God (or of Jesus, or of heaven ) into the other; and how to not be overly influenced by the other while doing so.

Along the journey of exploration, I have taken many detours, found frequent dead ends, and needed to backtrack many times. The journey has always been easier with others, hence the reason for this blog. Although I will be using this blog as an e-journal, all are invited to scribble in the margins, to jot timely reminders, and to contribute as we journey together.

As in all journeys, it is good to know your companions. Please checkout my profile- I'm sure you will get to know me more as I blog further. Just one thing- although some of the discussion may seem theoretical at times, please understand that I am trying to be a practitioner, not a theoretician.

Here's looking forward to the journey!

Richard G