iGod

How are we doing at doing good?

I have often found myself prefixing four simple yet powerful words to a sentence when trying to get our children to behave or to do something. You know the ones: “If you are good I will take you to the toy shop.” “If you are good I’ll let you have a friend round.” “If you are good you can stay up longer.” And so on.

Of course, there are different understandings of what it is to be good. You might have heard, “Sarah’s mum lets her do that.” Or “Grandpa says it’s okay?” Instant conflict!

I suspect being good or doing good matters to most of us. Sometimes it is out of vanity. At other times we are simply moved by compassion to make a situation better and in the process we feel good too. To encourage us more, scientific research shows that we have improved mental health when we do something for others - it takes our mind off our own woes.

One thing is for sure, doing good definitely does not just belong in the domain of churches, faith groups or charities. Many companies, too, are encouraged to have social ambitions alongside their commercial goals. Just look around at your local supermarkets and you’ll see what I mean. However, this is nothing new.

Back in the Eighteenth century Josiah Wedgewood, the celebrated pottery maker, gave affordable housing for his workers. He also trained them in an age of wide-scale illiteracy. Wedgewood, also the grandfather of Charles Darwin, provided adequate food supply for his staff and went on to build one of the first so-called company towns. Extraordinary achievements in themselves, but he went further.

He eventually became part of an international campaign that would help to see black slavery abolished. Wedgewood was part of a Quaker-led initiative that had as its advertising slogan “Am I not a man and a brother?” He engraved these emotive words with an image of a slave in chains kneeling and praying for mercy. It was a sentiment that caught the imagination among both the religious and the secularists campaigners of the day.

Josiah Wedgewood made the message into fashionable jewelry for well-to-do ladies. It contrasted greatly with the religious upper classes who at that time only stood in prayer as it would be demeaning to do otherwise.

Today many commentators talk about having a social footprint. We are faced with the challenge of leaving either a positive or negative mark on society.

None of us are as good as we would like to be. We have all done things that we know we should not have done, and possibly even feel guilt-ridden about. Is there any hope for us?

I find my own encouragement in the words of the famous hymn Amazing Grace, written by ex-slave trader John Newton: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me. / I once was lost but now am found / Was blind, but now I see.”

Goodness comes, even from the word alone, from God. In Jesus we see the perfection of all that is good and worthy. This kind of goodness is holy. I know that I shall never be as good as I would like to be, but by God’s grace and mercy, I am working on it. Like Newton, I can also find forgiveness when I screw up. Meanwhile, keeping close to God in prayer is the thing that helps keep it real for me.

How are you doing at doing good?

ASD

Finding faith is meant to be simple

When I was a young teenager all I wanted to do was to be in a band. My first performance, outside my own bedroom, was with a little known four-piece band called Sub Division. I had borrowed a jacket akin to the one worn by Adam Ant in the early years and felt like the bees knees.

The problem was the music was not that hot. I recall that we did a version of The Damned’s Neat, Neat, Neat that was quite simply bad, bad, bad. Not least because the only way I could get in the band was by replacing the bass player who left due to musical difficulties as opposed to differences.

The trouble was I hadn’t really had time to learn any of the songs, but in the spirit of ‘76 none of that seemed to matter. We all took ourselves far too seriously, of course, but for some reason people liked us. Honestly, it was a surreal experience.

As the years progressed I managed to master the guitar a little more competently and have been privileged to play with better bands.

Alas, though, these days are now far behind me, along with much of the hair, make-up and attitude, but every once in a while I will get a phone call from old friends and hang out together.

Now, this feels funny, to say the least. None more so than when they discover I am now a church pastor. Not very rock and roll.

So you might ask why would anyone want to become a Christian? Something dramatic has got to happen, hasn’t it? You’d be dead right.

The plain honest, undressed-up, down-to-earth truth is that I encountered God in the most unexpected way. For the sake of saving space here, I simply cried out after one bad Saturday night, “Oh God, help!” and was heard.

It’s hard to explain the full extent of this experience, but that night everything started to slowly change: how I saw myself, how I saw life, how I saw others, how I saw God. Admittedly, it sounds a tad cheesy, but I discovered an unexpected joy in Christ. And it really took me totally by surprise.

A lot has happened in the last twenty years, but I believe it is no harder discovering God today than it was then if we want to seek him out.

In the very early years of Punk there was a short-lived but lovingly produced fanzine called Sniffing Glue. One of its more famous front covers showed three guitar chords with a headline underneath: “Now form a band.” The philosophy was that anyone could do it. The bar was set very low. It was attractive to us.

In the same way when Vineyard Churches, my own denomination, started writing worship songs some 30 odd years ago it made a point of just using three guitar chords, so everyone of limited talent could learn to pick up an instrument and play them easily. They were intentionally very simple and non-wordy ‘love songs’ to God. They also made it okay to come to church in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops.

Finding the reality of God is meant to be simple and accessible. It is straightforward and profound, but it takes a lifetime to explore its fullness and joy.

God is still to be found in the most surprising ways, as some of the guys at our church will tell you. However wanting to find God is another matter. It may mean putting aside our image, our pride and recognising we need more than a human-made solution. Now that makes us vulnerable, but I tell you, it is worth the risk.

ASD

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

Too busy to read this? All the more reason.

This last week I just had to get things fixed.

Life was becoming stressful. My laptop was not synching with my other devices, so it meant that when I put a date in my diary it would go missing or not carry over properly.

I knew things had gone desperately wrong when I realised that I had to be in three places at one time.

So having had tinkered around on my laptop for long enough and reading various geeky online conversations, I booked an appointment to see a Technician in the Genius Bar at my nearest Apple Store. This is fancy language for saying an “in-store IT guy who knows a lot more than me”, as much as it pains me to say I hasten to add.

Looking at my diary on different devices, he asked which one was my master diary. “Haven’t a clue”, came my muffled reply.

After much clicking and sighing, he awe-inspiringly managed to bring all my various calendars together in one place. Towards the end he look up and said, “You sure have an active calendar!” Which was euphemistic for saying ,”Sheesh! I wouldn’t want your life, mate!”

We have entered the period that the Church calls Lent. It is traditionally a 40-day period when Christians spiritually prepare for Easter. It mirrors the time that Jesus spent in the Wilderness without food and water being tempted by the Devil. Christians often use the 40-day opportunity to abstain from something as part of their spiritual discipline to keep prayerfully engaged throughout the time.

It gives space to reflect on our part in Christ’s death. A time of year when we focus our thoughts on our human fragility and remember that we are “dust.” As the first book of the Bible says, “From dust we were made and from dust we shall return. We remember our capacity to be selfish, cruel and weak. And we remember that despite humanity’s great achievements, we are fragile, vulnerable human beings.

Creating time and space to reflect isn’t easy. Just recently I have begun to re-read a book called Too Busy Not to Pray. I have been waiting patiently for a sequel, To Busy to Read Too Busy Not to Pray, but alas still not forthcoming.

Prayer, he says, is an unnatural activity. We are forced to learn from an early age the rules of self-reliance and struggle to achieve self-sufficiency.  It is the complete opposite to all that we are ingrained to think and do. Therefore, making time to pray doesn’t come easily.

So what does prayer do?

Well, that’s a big question, but one of the things is achieves is a sacred space in our busy day that allows God to speak to us and we to communicate with him. It also gives us the gift of de-cluttering the mind with unimportant things that vie continuously for our attention like a demanding child.

If we take the possibility of prayer seriously the busyness of our lives may just start to improve also our emotional health. (Actually, medical research has proved this to be the case.) It will start to help us prioritise our values.

There is an old hymn by Emily May Grimes Crawford, which has the moving words: “Speak, Lord, in the stillness while I wait on Thee.  Hushed my heart, to listen in expectancy".

Where is your stillness to be found? Do you need to slow down and cool off on a few things? Because if you discover an IT techie telling you that you have a very “active diary” a reflective prayer life might just help to save you.

 

ASD

Me and the Prostitute

When I was a young man I met a prostitute. No, not in that sense.

It was in the late Eighties and I had just started working in London’s glittering West End for an ad agency. Everything was new and I was still trying to get to grips with my pocket-sized London A-Z.

Thinking I would take a short cut through some back streets to get to the tube quicker I found myself going down this dimly-lit grubby street. It had been raining and so I had one of those black city-type long rolled up umbrellas. Well, I was trying to make an impression.

Walking fast I caught sight of a heavily made up girl leaning on a door way smoking a cigarette, half-bathed in red light. She was wearing, well not very much to be honest, but what she was wearing was in leopard skin print. But what really struck me were her long black suede boots. They seemed to go half way up her body. I remember thinking what an absolute picture she looked and began considering the kind of person she must be.   

Well, I lost my concentration and managed somehow get my “man about town” umbrella caught in one of my shoelaces. I began to run uncontrollably towards this lady trying to stop myself from tumbling over – but, alas, too late. I ended up slumped awkwardly face down in a puddle by her thigh length black suede boots.

I felt this hand reach down and grab mine and pull me up to my feet. My briefcase and its contents were scattered unceremoniously across the street. Not good.

“Are you alright? Can I do anything? Do you need any help? I looked up with utter embarrassment and saw something unexpected - kindness. Not for the first time that evening I had been caught unaware and wrong-footed.

I have learnt over the years, thanks to this chance encounter with a sex worker, that kindness is what makes us human. There is much in society that tries to demean its virtue and label it as the act of church-goers, do-gooders or weak people.

The Roman philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius declared that “kindness was mankind’s greatest delight”, but humanist thinkers such as Voltaire saw it as a weakness and argued that there was nothing in it for the individual. He vehemently disagreed with the Christian virtue of “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Nowadays this Enlightenment thinking has gone deep into our society to make us naturally suspicious of any kindly behaviour. It is often dismissed by clever people as being sentimental or moralistic.

Some say that we are only kind to each other to get something out of it for ourselves.  Maybe, but for the Christian our motivations are different. We live not for ourselves but for the pleasure of God. Again, not a popular concept in a secular individualist society. Yet in that place, personal fulfillment and life purpose has a chance to go deeper than if we just live for our own ends.

Admittedly there is vulnerability in doing acts of kindness, but it is a risk we take. We learn to take on board “the greatest commandment” given by Jesus: “love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength.” And along with that, “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Now it may seem a foolish thing to believe in today’s culture but, hey, seeing today’s society as it is, I think I’ll take my chances and be a kind fool for Christ and see where it takes me.

ASD

Starting the year well and all that jazz

(Article by ASD reproduced from the Sudbury Mercury newspaper)

Around the New Year I was visiting family in Hastings and went for a walk on a particularly wet and windy day. Traipsing through the soggy half-closed streets in the old town I noticed a scruffy looking arrow sign for a Retro Shop. I felt it needed following. Now calling something retro means we can admire old junk and feel good about it or, if you prefer a kinder definition, it’s coolness on a budget.

What happened next was totally unexpected. On entering the small, dull-lit shop I saw staring at me in the vinyl records section a long-forgotten favourite LP (Long Player for the download generation).

The record was called All Star Festival, a compilation of jazz songs put together in 1963 to raise funds for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

There is a particular track on it from ‘the first lady of song’, Ella Fitzgerald, called All of Me. Now I know I am being objectionably subjective, but it has to be the best ever version of the Marks and Simon classic. It has the most amazing vocal arrangement and a startling performance to match. Quite frankly, there’s not much not to like?

Trying not to give away my excitement I sauntered casually up the counter to the young guy chewing gum and asked how much he wanted for this scruffy old record. “Six quid!”

“I’ll take it!”  After asking for a waterproof bag I hurriedly left and rejoined the battering winds and rain on the seafront almost kicking my heels in the air with unabashed delight. Almost.

Finding something we want in life is an amazing experience. But rediscovering something that has brought us joy in the past can be equally as satisfying, if not more.

Jesus talks at length about lost things: lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son and lost opportunities. This is what he does when he wants to make a big point and not lose his audience. He gives us a perfect picture of joy recovered. In this case a relationship with God the Father.

Losing our joie de vivre isn’t good. Our joylessness can become the lens in which everything else in life is viewed through. Some would say it makes us hard, cynical, untrusting and emotionally cold towards others. Whatever it does, it is a bad place to be.

It is not that life doesn’t continue, but it is just not as rewarding or fulfilling as it could be. We may not even be aware that something is missing from our lives.

So what’s to be done as we begin a New Year? Well, at this point Christians tend to listen closely to the Bible’s words where it utters, “the joy of the Lord is our strength”. We get on our knees, do some ‘carpet time’ and spill our hearts out to God, because we think there is something in prayer. Why not give it a go for yourself and see what happens?

Meanwhile, if you have lost the number for your local church you can find a full list here.

Happy hunting.

ASD

A new year of promise, pageantry and potential. What’s not to like?

I am rather excited about this year. Now I admit it might just have something to do with the fact that it is the year of the Olympics. My family were fortunate enough to get allocated some tickets for the games. Okay, so it’s not an event that I would naturally choose to watch but, hey, the others are happy. Yes, I am slightly embarrassed to tell you what it is, so let’s just quietly move on shall we?

2012 is also a leap year, which means you liberated women can propose to the man in your life on 29 February.

It is also the Chinese Year of the Dragon, though I am not quite sure what anyone is ever suppose to do with that knowledge, but thought you should know anyway.

The other big event is, of course, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. There will be a river pageant like in days of old floating down the Thames with a boasted flotilla of 1,000 boats.

A specially designed river barge will hold her majesty, which we are told will be 64 feet in length, decked in red and gold. That will be quite a sight to behold, but nevertheless I can’t seem to get the image out of my head of the queen being told to jump off the barge and open the locks by her husband. “Put your back into it, Liz, we’ve still got another six to go until we reach Windsor!”

The other day I found a somewhat dubious online blog called The Year 2012 that gives you an endless stream of information on all things 2012. It contains the weird, wonderful and just plain wacky. And, if you were to believe everything it said, you’d probably want to stay in bed for the whole of the year.

So what are you thoughts on the future? Excited, Worried? Non-plussed?

At the beginning of each year I usually encourage our church to reflect a little on our own personal visions for our lives. We ask: what are our expectations? What do we want achieve? What do we want to improve upon?

Maybe it is improving the quality of the relationship with our children or spouse. Maybe it is something simple like reading more, praying more, giving more. Maybe it is working on some personal character issues.

The point is we are created to be purposeful. We believe that God wants us to reach our full potential as human beings and get the most out of the precious life given to us.

After all, didn’t Jesus say, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full?”

So we go into the New Year with fresh expectations that it will lead to a year of life-changing experiences. It will undoubtedly have its challenges and difficulties, but it is in these times that faith is fashioned and our awareness of God’s involvement in everyday life grows.

For many of us, 2012 it will undoubtedly be a full year, but hopefully will be a personally fulfilling one too. For the Christian who believes in the Life-Giver, it comes with that deeper profundity still, which is something that we are more than happy to share with you. Maybe one of your own life goals could be to come to church sometime soon.

Whatever you do, I wish you a very happy and life-enriching New Year.

ASD

Christmas Olympics

A dear friend of ours Helene from All Souls, Twickenham, always manages to raise a smile with her creative Christmas cards. Thought it worth posting to share the Christmas love wider.

Hope you are all well into the Christmas by now. I know we are are at SVV.

ASD

Keep Calm and Enjoy Christmas

(My article reproduced from Community News.)

I remember sitting in a church a few years and hearing a vicar talk about how Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill, and how we needed to find space to just be.

As a young parent I thought, “Yeh, right!”

In all honesty, I strained to hear how the talk finished as one daughter almost caused an international incident by stealing another child’s Buzz Lightyear, while the other threw a habdab because I asked to her give back an elderly lady’s walking stick. Peace in heaven maybe, but peace on earth was stretching it.

In the midst of a busy conference recently I came across a flavour of tea called Moment of Calm. Although not quite tempted to have a cup, it did remind me of those unavoidable ubiquitous Keep Calm and Carry On posters and mugs, which seem to be everywhere like a cheap suit. Originally a wartime poster produced by the British government in 1939, it now has its own parodies such as: Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake and Now Panic and Freak Out. Calmness is something we are seeking everywhere.

I wonder, though, if it possible to have a true moment of calm this Christmas?

When I think of having a calm Christmas myself the familiar Austrian carol Silent Night, Holy Night by Franz Xaver Gruber comes to mind.

What makes the hymn special for me is that it is said to have been sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops in the trenches during the famous Christmas truce of 1914. It was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.

It was estimated that on that Christmas Eve around 100,000 troops ceased fighting and instead, quite bizarrely, shouted Happy Christmas to each other before eventually going over the top to exchange, not gunfire, but presents. There was even a friendly game of football.

I suspect Silent Night has never had a less holy setting, but it was sung where hope in a saviour of the world was needed most. I am sure it was also sung with gusto. It was a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the bloodiest and needless wars in modern history.

It tells me that if there can be calm in the midst of the Great War then, perhaps, aiming for some of our own peace and calm this Christmas is not beyond our reach.

We will, of course, be remembering our troops this year who will be far away from home, but for ourselves let me ask: where will we look for our calm? Will it be in a tea bag or somewhere a little more soulful like Church?

There are a number of local churches who have planned Christmas services where I know a time of peace on earth will be on offer (see Church Services on page 4).

But if you do have noisy excitable kids, like ours, you’re very welcome to bring them to our hour-long Christmas Eve Family Carols service at 7pm in the Delphi Centre. Why not come early for free mince pies and mulled wine? It’s usually a lot fun and just the thing after you’ve done all your shopping and preparations. We’d love to see you. We’ll even promise to sing Silent Night, Holy Night too.

Meanwhile, may I wish you a happy Christmas on behalf of all of us at Stour Valley Vineyard Church.

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