iGod

Easter is not just for the religious type

A local vicar and pastor stood by the side of the road holding up a sign that said, "The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!"

"Leave us alone, you religious nuts!" yelled a driver as he sped by. Then from around the bend they heard a big splash.

"Do you think," said one clergy to the other, "we should just put up a sign that says, 'bridge down' instead?"

I have heard people say that they are not the religious type, insinuating that, perhaps, I am.  As if I came out of my mother’s womb clutching an open Bible with a full-robed choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus by the bedside. I mean who sets out in life to be religious?

For some strange reason though a few atheist writers recently, such as Alain De Botton and Richard Holloway, find “religion” attractive. In fact, the former writer has gone so far to try and set out a religious life for non-believers. Then there is AC Grayling who has even written a bible for the atheist.

Someone once wrote, “To be is to be connected. And to be connected is to be plugged in.” The Bible states that we are all “made in the image of God”. These are both big, big statements and this is a small, small brain here that reflects upon them. Yet, life is a big experience and so I think it deserves a little of our time to dwell on the big stuff once in a while, don’t you?  And it is also okay not to have a conclusive answer in two minutes. Some things are meant to be pondered over a lifetime. Maybe even over eternity.

I guess for many people though “religion” in the UK stands for a shrinking minority of church-goers who hate gay people, resent women and despise those who have abortions, but anyone with a bit of savvy will know that this not quite the case but, of course, it makes a convenient headline.

However, personally speaking, if my faith does come across as judgmental, intolerant and exclusive, it bothers me and the finger needs to be pointed firmly back at my face.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Sadly, I think at times he is right. I have met many non-Christians whose conduct is better people than Christians. Religion in itself does not make anyone a better person - Christian or atheist. But, of course, choosing to follow Jesus is not principally about ethics, it has to do with an awe-inspiring divine-human relationship.

Shortly our local churches will be celebrating Easter, a time we celebrate new life in Christ through his resurrection, but maybe we could see as the time when Jesus Christ, the son of God, came as the non-religious type for the non-religious type to draw all people to himself into a real, relevant and restored relationship with God the Father.

I truly believe the message of salvation is still as powerful and pertinent as it was 2,000 years ago, because you see Jesus’ death happened in a secular setting, not in a private religious community. It was not really a religious event at all. It happened in the city of one of the busiest and most important trading outposts of the Roman Empire.

On Good Friday we remember how Jesus, isolated and with a minority following, gave his life in a divine act of love for the majority, regardless of belief or faith. Now, I am not wanting to impose my position on anyone, but I do want to put it out there to our community.

We are all free to accept or reject, but let me leave you with this last thought: did Jesus really die just to make us religious? It just doesn’t stack up for me.

Maybe see you at Stour Valley Vineyard Church 10.30 am on Easter Sunday at the Delphi Centre.

Happy Easter!

ASD

Life Version 2.0

(My article reproduced from Community News)

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love it when it makes my life easier, but absolutely hate it when it interferes with my routine and it becomes the master, not the servant.

Quite unabashed, I have been an Apple Mac user ever since my second year at ‘vicar factory’ back in the early 90s. Before then I kindly borrowed someone’s Toshiba Portable MS DOS computer, which in truth wasn’t that portable. Not only was it heavy and left dents in my knees, but the battery life was shorter than a queue to the Crazy Paving Appreciation Society’s Annual Lecture.

Nowadays, alongside my lighter laptop, I also have my mobile or should I say ‘smart phone’, but as I discovered recently this has not been without its problems.

I attempted to upgrade my phone software to the latest whizzy-whiz, faster, better-than-ever-before version. Also known as iOS 5. In truth, I was not unhappy with how things were before, but the thought of something better and free, well…it was simply an offer I couldn’t refuse.

So on a quiet weeknight I hit the download button to let technology do its best. Unfortunately it decided to do its worst. With a big gasp I watched my entire set of emails, calendars and contacts disappear before my eyes. (And, no, my emails weren’t backed up!) If ever there was a time to find a grown man crying in a corner it was then. The promise of a better-connected life had let me down.

It has made me think how we can often put a lot of blind faith in things that are not necessarily proven, but given enough hype can accept anything as truth. We want to believe that something will make our lives better.

It is natural to want to upgrade the standard of our lives. We can look at the current version and think, “This just sucks! Maybe something has to stopped functioning in our life or we see something in someone else’s and want what they have.

The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple said famously in a university plenary speech:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

The immensely successful and talented Steve Jobs recognised his products were not ultimately enough in them self. That is quite something, isn’t it?

Life has a spiritual profundity that modern science still struggles with any integrity to make redundant. There remains this longing in us all to be known, loved and accepted for who we are, not for what we have achieved. Many Christian commentators have called this a God-shaped hole wanting to be filled by himself through his Son Jesus Christ.

If the promises of God are true and Jesus is who he says he is, it requires a full upgrade to a new way of seeing and experiencing life. The old version will never do.

St Augustine, the early church father said rather wryly:

“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: ‘Come to me all you that labour and are heavy burdened.’” [quoting Jesus]

Is God’s Life Version any better than the modern alternatives around?

I give the last word to Paul the low-tec Apostle who said this about the great iPriest, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

ASD

'Red Rev' Giles Fraser?

Just reflecting about the resigination of the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Rev Dr Giles Fraser. While left-leaning The Guardian fetes the man, I hear, maybe not surprisingly, the Daily Telegraph takes another view.

Whatever side you take, he typifies the need for the Christian to speak up and get involved in politics and injustice, even when it doesn't always make you universally popular with your own peers.

US Christian activist Shane Clairborne says:

"Theologian Karl Barth said, 'We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.' For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

"In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ.” The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City. If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

"The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: “God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly… God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty…”. You can’t help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this–over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.

"What would Jesus say about Wall Street?"

 What would Jesus say about the Square MIle?

Would he be for locking up St Paul's Catherdral or for an open air church service?

The thing I am taking away is that if we want our message to be heard we have to first hear what culture is saying. This is not so much about wanting to sound populist like a politician, but to help us avoid sounding pompous like an old fogey.

May God grant us wisdom and courage in these times!

ASD

John Stott - a small tribute to a great pastor, theologian and author

Former vicar of All Souls Langham Place in London, and a key leader among evangelicals worldwide, John Stott died at 3.15pm yesterday (27 July) in his retirement home at St Barnabas College.

He was surround by family and close friends. They were reading the Bible together and listening to Handel's Messiah before slipping away in his sleep.

John leaves behind a massive legacy. Much has already been writen in the last 12 hours about the man, so I feel my own small contribution here will be extremely poor by any standards.

However, I can still fondly remember him coming to our college in the early Nineties and speaking at Chapel. Being theological students he expected much from us and only spoke from his New Testament Greek. Incredible! It was one of the few times I can even remember that happening. I just sat there colouring in the pages of my Good News BIble. But he was not a dry academic scholar, he was a man who was in love with the Lord, more than the words he studied.

For over seventy years he has remained an influential and redoubtable figure on the landscape of post-war Christianity, often arguing for the place of Bible-based faith among his Christian Liberal colleagues when at times he was a lone voice.

He had the most amazing skill to reason and articulate at a level most could people could understand, he did not just write for fellow scholars. The simplicity of his well-crafted arguments showed the depth of his studies. They came with such confidence. He depature has surely left a gaping hole in our lives. However, we do have the most amazing library of books left behind penned by him over the years.

Doug Birdsall, executive chairman of the Lausanne Movement, put his global influence in context: "John Stott impacted the church around the world in many ways.  Perhaps his greatest contribution was to articulate clearly and to defend robustly the evangelical faith which he always understood to be biblical faith, grounded in the New Testament.  Evangelicalism was to Stott an expression of historic, orthodox Christianity...

"Everywhere John Stott travelled to teach, he encouraged 'double listening'. This was a listening to the voice of the Spirit of God through his Word, and listening to the voice and the needs of our broken world."

A memorial website has already been set up at http://www.johnstottmemorial.org/

Well done, good and faithful servant. Enjoy eternity with the one that saves.

ASD

 

 

 

 

Rapture - that was awkward!

So last Saturday came and went. The rapture due for the 21 May 2011 failed to materialise.

Just as well I prepared a talk for Sunday morning. Otherwise, that could have been really awkward!

Apparently a revised date by 89 year-old American pastor Harold Camping is in the diary for October. Watch this space, Christmas could be cancelled.

ASD

 

A reflection for Good Friday - if you are religious or not

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark's gospel, the Bible)

My youngest daughter loves reading stories from her Children's Book of the Bible. I tend to let her chose one, which hopefully isn't too many pages. Amidst the other stories is the account of Jesus' death. The Church calls it Good Friday. To a child of seven or even a mature adult it is perhaps hard to see why this could in any possible way, shape or form be called a good day.

But here's the thing.

Even the most hardened of skeptics I meet admit that Jesus stood for life, love, justice and faith. Through history and society people have broadly cheered at his indignant approach to upsetting convention and exposing hypocrisy and abuse. But every hero apparently has his day and we get disprited when people don't live up to our hopes. Much like politicians and expensive footballers, I guess.

DId Jesus get too big for his boots or did the people big him up for their own needs? A large number really just wanted a king to lead a revolution and overthrow the Romans and live life again on their own terms again.

Last Sunday we rememembered Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus rode into Jersusalem at the time of the Feast of the Passover, not as a people's king or a vainglorious rebel leader, but as a pilgrim on a way to a festival on a donkey and colt.

On Maundy Thursday we remembered how he met with his closest disciples for the Passover meal, a meal that symbolised the salvation of the Jewish people, by the retelling of the story of their exodus from Egypt many hundreds of years previously. They had a last supper together in a upper room, taking the bread made without yeast and the cup of wine and passed them around to each other.

The night would end in betrayl by one disgruntled militant activist member whose trust in Jesus had worn thin by a lack of perceived action.

And so we come to Good Friday or bad Friday, depending on your viewpoint as a child or not. It may interest you to know that the cross was known as such a horrendous form of Roman torture and death that for the first part of the Church's development no reference to the cross as a symbol is to be found. it was only latterly in the Western church first that the cross started to be depicted as a main symbol of Christianity and that was through art as much as anything else.

Today, Jesus' death is overlooked by many in a secular society because he is seen as a narrow-minded, judgementalist, religious bigot out to conform everyone to one view, regardless of other views, cutlure etc.

However I have to say this is what others have made him, not himself. Much like in his day.

This 'king' did not live up to socio-political expectation at so many levels.

Firstly he never owned property, he always had something borrowed to him. His parents borrowed a stable (not born in a palace). He borrowed friends' houses to stay in (no possessions of his own). He borrowed a donkey and colt to ride in Jerusalem (not a steed). He borrowed a guest house room for the last supper. And at the end he even borrowed another man's tomb to be buried in.

Recently I heard atheist Rick Gervais say in an article in the New York Times that he thought he was a better Christian than Christians because he kept the 10 Commandments. He had come across those who profess to follow Jesus but had dubious actions, citing Ghandi who said. "I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians." Often the church has to be shamed by unexpected sources for it to come to its senses.

Sometimes It is hard to see beyond the moment and get perspective for Christians, agnostics and atheists alike. Easter gives our lives perspective whether we are religious or not.

So what makes Jesus' life, death and resurrection relevant for us today? Because his death historically happened in the hands of a secular institution, the Roman Empire, and so stopped it from becoming a small religious regional affair, making it unknowingly everybody's business. Hence, becoming a world faith across all cultures and backgrounds today.

The Easter story slows us down to remind us of our falibility and human weakeness. It reminds us that untimately we all want to be saved from something or ourselves.

Beyond being one of the earliest human rights activists, Jesus Christ demonstrated a purity that most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, yearn for. It came with great and awful sacrifice.

We want hope. We want to believe in better. We, therefore, need to be reminded of the pain to gain.

So when I wish you happy Easter, I mean 'happy Easter!'

May you find peace and love in the power of his life, death and resurrection.

ASD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning to go slow to go fast (short article)

(Recently written for a local community magazine.)

There was a story of a man who prayed to God for patience. After about two minutes the man looked up at his clock and said, “Well?”

I must admit I am not a patient person by nature. If something can happen now, why wait? The only problem is living life always in fourth gear can be exhausting. We may appease ourselves by saying we have no choice but to go that speed, but more often than not there is a price to pay.

I read recently that a speed camera trap on the M6 has netted £3m. An incredible 5,569 motorists have been caught breaking the 50mph speed limit by the fixed cameras at roadworks at a junction of the M6 near Carlisle. The previous year’s record was held by the M11, so obviously East Anglia must have slowed down a little.

Have you noticed that impatience can lead to anger? We may find ourselves getting irrationally cross when we are ill or when the car breaks down or when something unexpected steals our time. It can affect our nearest and dearest relationships, whether we are conscious of it or not. For instance, we can miss out on enjoying our marriages and families. Time lost forever.

When I wake up early every morning I can’t help but think of all the things I have got to do that day. It is very tempting for someone like me to get on the laptop straight away and start working, but over the years I have learnt to park my thoughts, be it temporarily and learn to be in the presence of God. So what do I mean by being in the presence of God?

Quite simply, it means saying some prayers and turning to a passage in the Bible and meditating on it. In my conversations with God I hand over my concerns, pressures and anxieties. I surrender my issues of time and human capacity and ask God to show me what is important, rather than urgent. It is amazing how easily we allow the lesser things to steal our time to stop the more significant things from being done.

I find myself naturally praying for wisdom and discernment. In my church tradition we call this a ‘quiet time’, but nowadays I tend to call this my ‘worship time’. The daily discipline gives me a constant reminder that I am not God of my life, but he is, if I will let him. This is my act of daily worship to someone who is infinitely greater than me and able to do immeasurably more if I only ask him.

John Wimber the founder of the Vineyard Church, my denomination, said famously to the church, “To learn to go fast you have to go slow”. We have to focus on being before doing. Take time to simply be. Or as I say to my leaders, in terms of spiritual growth, we are not about getting the job done, but the person finished.

Whether you are a church-going Christian or someone who just about believes in God I would encourage you to get a modern translation of the Bible, flick through the front index and find the book of Psalms. Maybe try to read one a day. You can then also look up the book of Luke and read about Jesus and the things he said and did.

I promise you, prayer and the Bible do transform us, but you need to have patience. Maybe, like me, that is your first prayer. I encourage you to give it a go. You can buy a Bible through our church website bookshop or from WH Smith. Prayer is free.

ASD

Performance versus participation in church services

I have been reading Todd Hunter's new book The Accidental Anglican (Baker) where above other valuable insights he speaks about his transition from Vineyard USA National Director to Episcopal bishop. There is a lot to take away from here for sure.

Todd makes a point quite early on about the danger of a spirituality that is performance-led, something that does not require participation from the congregation beyond turning up. Todd argues that there is a powerful case for a rediscovery of liturgical worship in the contemporary evangelical tradition to enrich the good among us that the Spirit brings. He comments:

"Liturgical seekers cherish the confidence that comes from historical connectedness, from theology that is not tied to the whims of contemporary culture, but to apostolic-era understandings of Christian faith and practice.

"Our frantic lives make us yearn for rhythms and routines that build the spiritual health we seek. For many of us the architecture, theatre seating and structure of our former churches said to us: 'Sit back, relax and receive what comes to you from the stage.' While having no need to criticise that, there is a hunger in many churchgoers today for a Sunday ethos that says, 'Sit up, be alert and participate.'"

I think it can be said that Evangelical Charismatic churches makes a fundamental mistake if they promote "freedom in the Spirit" as simply being an escape from formal liturgy. Todd says it must be possible to embrace liturgy and not be seen as religious or duty-bound.

I have recognised the need for "rhythm and rountine" in my daily devotional life, which is why I keep a simple daily office first thing in the morning to help create space to be alone with the Lord and to be disciplined in praying for others. I hasten to add this is not a fad for me, I have done it for years now, being from the Anglican tradition myself. Furthermore, I have never felt the need to renounce it, even being a Vineyard pastor!

Todd is right, Evangelicals (usually from an Anglican heritage) are ever so slowly rediscovering the richness and beauty of liturgy. Shane Clairborne and company seem to illustrate this revival with their new book Common Prayer.

I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable with "Christian celebrity".  Not least because I find some aspects of it quite appealing because it offers an easy, if lazy spirituality where I can come to just take, rather than give.

For instance, I wonder how many of us scan the details of an event to see who is speaking or leading worship before we consider seriously booking? We might be sub-consciously thinking, have they got a book out? Have they got a worship album? Do I know any of their songs? Have they played on main stage at a well known summer conference? Do they go to one of the big lively churches?

Where I live in East Anglia we are unlikey to get the overseas travelling speaker with a book, DVD and promotional tour visiting. You see, we just don't have the same attraction or status as some London churches or organisations. But, you know, I am glad. I would rather church was organic and built from the bottom up with normal people. It keeps the whole thing real.

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard and the guy who kicked-started the philosophy to a lot of today's contemporary worship, said famously that when we come to the Lord we worship to an audience of one. It is all about Jesus. It was only about Jesus. Nothing else should motivate us.

As an unabashed card-carrying Evangelical Charismatic maybe a rediscovery of a participative act of worship would protect us from the dangers of a performance-led spirituality where once in a while the congregation may get a look in.  Maybe then "everybody would get to play" - beyond valuably serving in church life.

ASD

 

 

 

 

 

 

Birds falling out of the sky and the end is nigh...or then again maybe not

If you have been following the news you'll read that there has been some strange stuff happening with nature in the US.  I could comment on it from a theological perspective, but as Dave Workman has already done some of the leg work, over to him.

ASD

A thought for Christmas: when the light of faith flickers

Well, Christmas is fast approaching as our Christmas Eve Family Carols preparations start to take shape thankfully. It is going to be a joyous occasion and with so many families coming it will hardly be a quiet contemplative service, but, hey, there has been time for that within the Advent season.

Alongside the church preparing for God to come into the world we have of course had journos reporting the usual fare in the season of illwill toward Christians. For instance, we hear that Prof AC Grayling has been working on his humanist version of the BIble called the Good Book. He tells the Times that he hopes to have it out at Easter. (Good PR planning guys - original!) He says he is not looking to anger Christians. Hm. Either he is being incredibly naive or is treating the religious community as dingbats. What do you think?

More helpfully, I have read former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion's thoughtful piece in the Saturday Times about his own journey of faith. He admits that his own thoughts had taken him down the Hitchen view that Christendom was some kind of "celestial North Korea", as mentioned in the debate with former Prime Minister Tony Blair the other week.

But as so often is the case, when prejudice is removed and we stop pedalling someone else's doctrine, whether of the faith or atheistic kind, something can happen. An honest exploration of what it is to be human may be discovered.

For Motion, he sees his own encounter with faith not so much as a Damascene light, but more of a flicker. Sometimes he says he sees God clearly, sometimes not at all. In short, he is being honest with his struggle of faith versus doubt. Much like we all do.

I like this language a lot, but because, really, how can anyone experience God with a full uninterrupted light of certitude?

However, when we are disciplined enough to press into the presence of God through prayer and devotion the flickers become subtly less. For me at least. Theologically we may understand this as the Kingdom of God breaking into the present, touching the edge of darkness of men's hearts, as Paul the apostle might have said to the young Timothy.

Now, I know Christmas can be a sentimental time. It can be a lonely time. It is also a time when we remember friends near and far, family and lost loved ones, but somehow the flicker of light in the Advent candles is an encouraging image for us all to huddle around. There is really nothing wrong with that.

For me, Christmas is a constant reminder that Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, continues to expose any darkness of doubt and disbelief I may hold to draw me into a deeper experience of himself.

ASD