Month: May 2013

A walk in the forest

I heard a Jewish tale that went something like this.

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A rabbi was known to be close to God after a lifetime of prayer and service. His disciples ask him to teach them this way of life, so he took them each week through a forest into a clearing where he lit a fire, led them in prayer, and recalled for them the stories of God as told in the scriptures.

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One day the rabbi died, and partly in remembrance of their teacher, and partly because it meant so much to them personally, the students continued their weekly ritual. They trekked into the forest, lit a fire, prayed, and recalled what they could of the stories of God the rabbi told them.

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Over time they started to forget the stories – they never read them for themselves – so they just walked to the forest, lit the fire, and prayed.

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And then they couldn’t see why they were praying, so they’d go to the clearing and light the fire, and talk of the old days.

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Eventually even that was too much for them and they decided that making the fire was too much fuss, and this group of ‘disciples’ ended their days going for an occasional walk in the forest and talking of the good old days.

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From Fisherman to Shepherd – Peter’s New Commission

In John chapter 21 the story is told of Peter fishing when he should have been waiting for Jesus. With the death of Jesus and the uncertain state of affairs Peter faced a key question: What was he meant to do with his life? Was he really meant to go back to fishing?\r\n\r\nJesus answered the question for him. Peter was to change vocation – from fisherman to shepherd.\r\n\r\nIt’s interesting that at the beginning of his ministry Jesus called Peter and said “you’re a fisherman, I’ll make you a fisher of men.”\r\n\r\nBy the end of his ministry Jesus said to Peter, “I’m a shepherd, now you be a shepherd.”\r\n\r\nIn the first case, Jesus, who wasn’t a fisherman, worked with what Peter could offer – his natural skills and training as an expert fisherman. That’s good leadership on Jesus’ part – recognising natural gifts and using them as an entry into ministry.\r\n\r\nBut Jesus didn’t leave him there.\r\n\r\nJesus offered Peter the opportunity to do something he had never done before, a  new purpose in an area where Peter didn’t have outstanding natural abilities.\r\n\r\nThis time Jesus was the expert and Peter was the novice.\r\n\r\nIn the church we love people with expertise. We generally think that anyone with a natural ability will be able to keep using that skill to  ‘keep the show on the road’. But Jesus’ doesn’t just want our expertise. He wants us to reach a point where he can say right, now take on something that’s not so natural, something you will have to grow into.\r\n\r\nIt might be praying for people to be healed. It might be developing a prophetic gift, or going out on a mission team. It might mean leaving the comfort of working in area where your natural competence brings you satisfaction and even recognition and the pride of a job well done. You never know, it might mean becoming a shepherd.\r\n\r\nThe abilities Peter needed to fulfil this new vocation were latent in him waiting to be developed (and quickly – the church was about to be born in a dramatic fashion) but he had the same three teachers that we have today to help him.\r\n

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  • He had the model of Jesus to examine and reflect  upon.

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  • He would also have the Holy Spirit within him guiding him.

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  • And he would have his fellow Christians to support and help him.

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\r\nSo, are you looking for new purpose or direction? Peter’s story reminds us that when Jesus gives us a new purpose we shouldn’t assume it’s something we know about or have done before.

Dialogues on Prayer

It’s good to talk.

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And it’s good to talk about prayer.

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How do you pray? I like to keep a note book for long term prayers. I like to spend time in the early morning, and some times during the day. I’m thinking of getting a cheap digital watch to remind me to pray every hour.

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Too many of my prayers are self-serving or self-seeking. Too few emerge out of thanksgiving and praise, and joy.

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Sometimes at night my wife says “You pray”. And then after a long pause while I’m trying to find a positive prayer she’ll say “Say thank you”.

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I love to talk about prayer and how to pray.

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But talking about prayer is literally like talking about talking. It’s like asking, “tell me, how do you talk?”

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In the end talking about talking either indicates a communication problem (why do you always say …?) or it’s simply a wasted opportunity to talk about meaningful things.

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And so it is with talking about prayer. Is there a problem with prayer? Let’s talk about it. Otherwise, let’s pray.

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(written in The Lodge on the Park, Starbucks, Aztec West)

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I Imagine …

I Imagine …\n\nA church where people proudly own the name Christian outside its walls\nand proudly act as Christians inside its walls\n\nWhere people proudly give as Christians should\nand proudly serve as Christians should\n\nA church that is not\nawash with mediocrity\nor with sameness done well\n\nA church that does not\nreward competence in mediocre service\nand punish outrageous but courageous failure\n\nBut a church where courage\nand enterprise\nare second nature\n\nAnd the greatest aspiration\ncollectively and personally\nis to serve God\nin the world\nwith all the pride\nand confidence\nof those who live as children of the King.

Pilgrimage to the City?

A friend commented recently over lunch on how much there is on TV about religious and spiritual experiences, and particularly about pilgrimage.\r\n\r\nEarlier in the day I had been writing about my own pilgrimage over the past few weeks to discover the church in my city – visiting a dozen churches on a sort of weekly rotation for reflection, mainly around the heart of the city centre.\r\n\r\nLater in that same day I talked to a friend in working rural ministry about the pilgrimage that many people make from the city to the country in search of the dream of a new way of living.\r\n\r\nThese three things together seemed to be pulling me towards more serious reflection on the subject of pilgrimage, so I pulled out Christian Norberg-Schultz’s book ‘Meaning in Western Architecture’.\r\n\r\nI remembered (and still quote) from when I last read it some 30 years ago the journey that Schultz described of the pilgrim travelling from rural Europe to the great monastic churches at Cluny, Speyer, Milan, the still popular Santiago de Compostela, and of course, Hagia Sofia. His theory is that the layouts of the great churches added to the experience of the pilgrim who could come to watch and hear (but not take part in) the rites. When they entered the great monastic naves and wandered awestruck to the ambulatory around the altar they re-enacted the journey from Alpha to Omega, from the chaos of the country to the order of the religious community.\r\n\r\nSo Norberg-Shultz was my fourth encounter with pilgrimage that day, and William Temple was my fifth. That evening I was reading William Temple’s ‘Readings in St John’s Gospel’. The Archbishop of York, as he was then, wrote about the political and religious pressures that moved Jesus from the Temple to the City to the Country.\r\n\r\nA pilgrimage in reverse.\r\n\r\nFrom the order of the religious community to the chaos of the country.\r\n\r\nAnd as I lay in bed I wondered, which pilgrimage is mine?\r\n\r\nFrom Chaos to Order, or from Order to Chaos?\r\n\r\nAm I on the medieval pilgrimage from chaos in daily life to order in liturgy and sanctuary?\r\n\r\nOr am I on the Christlike pilgrimage, leaving the order of the Temple to serve in the chaos of life?\r\n\r\nOr both?\r\n\r\nMmm…. I think that’s it.\r\n\r\nIt has to be both.\r\n\r\nIt has to be both to work.

Snickers and Psalms

For the past six weeks I’ve been re-organising every room, cupboard, shelf, box and bucket I own in an attempt to fit a full office into a full house. It nearly worked. Good planning meant I left the office before the end of the contract. Unfortunately, that meant piles of bags and boxes with nowhere to go at home. We simply ran out of space.

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As things ramped up during the final clear out last week I realised I was living on a meagre diet – a daily Psalm in the morning and a Snickers for lunch. Even evening meals had become a functional affair as I am usually the one with time to cook and I had no time.

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I thought about this diet one day while sitting on a heap of boxes in the garage.

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I didn’t mind not eating much.

\nI had to think longer about not reading much scripture.

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Coming from an Evangelical perspective where being steeped in scripture is one of the keys to our personal walk with God it’s easy to become superstitious about how much we should read the bible in our devotions.

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Two thoughts occurred to me.

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First, to base any relationship on superstition (if I don’t do this then they won’t … love me) is a sign of both insecurity (have I done enough yet?) and possibly stupidity (I have done enough and of course they will … love me). If any other of our relationships were based on such levels of self-doubt it would reveal an unhealthy social framework in need of investigation. In the case of our relationship with God when our insecurity is superstition (God won’t hear my prayers if I don’t …) it is also unbelief.

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Fortunately neither we nor God need worry about such things. The framework is clear.

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We pray. God hears.

\nWe turn up even for a moment. God is waiting – and with joy, not looking at his (metaphorical) watch.

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Second, it made me think once again how much we have short changed congregations in our encouragement of Scripture reading. On 25 Alpha courses I have taught – Start with a few minutes of devotions a day (I think it’s seven minutes). And read the bible in a year if you can.

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7 minutes? Really?

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That sounds like “have a Snickers every day for lunch”.

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It’s not what I do. I read for hours. I have projects on the go in the Old and New Testaments. Diagrams. Lists. Numbers. Dates. Notes. Essays. Sermons. Blogs.

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Why would I think that someone else should have a Snickers while I have a gourmet meal?

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So when I get back to church I’m going to change the conversation. First, every week, I’m going to say “I hope you’re all reading your bibles”. We talk about what’s important and yet no-one EVER says that from the front of church.

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And then – the New Testament – the handbook for Jesus’ movement. It’s about 550 pages long. A bit longer than a thriller, a bit shorter than Lord of the Rings.

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Read it. Four weeks, six weeks tops. Read at different times of the day. Read it six times a year. Minimum.

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And if time is short carry a small Book of Common Prayer in one pocket and a Snickers in another and at least read the Psalm of the day at lunchtime.

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