British Food

My American friends  tell me, with some frequency, how poor British food is.  I usually just smile and say nothing.  To correct them would seem like protest or defensiveness.  British food can stand on it's own.  Indeed if the food is simple, it must be of high quality, unadorned by masking sauces.  In addition, the food of Europe, and indeed the once British Empire, comes to Britain, and is now usually grown here.  Here is my Christmas Day food, for your reading pleasure:

Breakfast: Cereal Muesli grown in Dorset with skimmed milk from Surrey and a Banana from Jamaica.

Mid morning nibbles: roasted potato segments from Norfolk brushed in oil infused with thyme and a think spread of melted Kent cheddar cheese.  Melted sticks of Somerset camembert cheese coated in breadcrumbs.

Christmas dinner:  Roasted leg of British lamb with rosemary from my Mum's garden, roasted russet potatoes from Lancashire in extra virgin olive oil, roasted parsnips from Devon coated in Cornish parmesan cheese and roasted in goose fat from Cheshire, Brussels sprouts and sweet garden peas grown locally this summer and frozen,  Bisto gravy with a dash of British sherry and rosemary for flavour.

A small glass of ginger wine made in Wales was enjoyed by family members, al accompanied by carols song by the world's best choir (Kings College Cambridge),a d topped off by Cornish clotted-cream ice-cream and the Queen's annual Christmas speech on the world's best television - the BBC.

After a suitable period of recovery, a bowl of Christmas Pudding (from Marks and Spencers of course) topped with brandy cream and/or rich custard from Wiltshire.

Tea time:  'Mince' pies with cornish clotted cream (one can never have enough), Ecclefechan tarts and slice of stollen cake, Indian black tea with skimmed milk.

Us poor deprived British.  We just don't know any better.

In fairness, most Brits think we Americans schnarf down McDonalds burgers and put cheese on everything...which is completely false, except for the cheese.

Wendy Cope's 'A Christmas Song'

A Christmas Song, by Wendy Cope - posted without her permission, but I hope she would forgive me, since this is a great poem for those whose Christmas carries a thread of grief, as well as joy.  How often those two go together!  Christmas blessings to you.  here's the poem: 

Why is the baby crying,  On this, his special day,  When we have brought him lovely gifts,  And laid them on the hay?

He’s crying for the people,  Who greet this day with dread,  Because somebody dear to them,  Is far away or dead,

For all the men and women,  Whose love affairs went wrong,  Who try their best at merriment,  When Christmas comes along

For separated parents,  Whose turn it is to grieve,  While children hang their stockings up,  Elsewhere on Christmas Eve,

For everyone whose burden,  Carried throughout the year,  Is heavier at Christmastime,  The season of good cheer.

That’s why the baby’s crying,  There in the cattle stall:  He’s crying for those people.  He’s crying for them all.

Reframing for Thanksgiving

"...I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11b-13 ESV

Contentment is a decision, not a condition.  It's not something a person is, so much as something that a person decides to be.  We need to decide in every ungrateful moment of discontent, to become content.  Maybe after a long habit of doing so, we can start to become grateful and content as our default condition.  I'm not there yet.  So I'm grateful to our forbears for this one day a year we call Thanksgiving - a uniquely American frame of mind.  Europe or the Islamic world would never have come up with such a public holiday.  neither one of them has a worldview that can acknowledge God as the giver of all good gifts.  Neither do I.  Which is why I need Thanksgiving Day.

I used to be happier.  I used to have more friends, deeper friends, I used to have clearer purpose, more confidence, a sunnier disposition, more peace, less heavy, less grumpy, less sorry for myself and easier to be with, closer to my family and generally less of a jerk.  That's life.  But I am closer to Jesus, love music more; I am older and quite a bit wiser.  I still have people who put up with me.  There are a handful of people who still call me 'pastor' and for that I could not be more grateful.  I have my health.  My family are still around me and doing OK. So I'll decide today to get over myself and practice contentment with this generally ungrateful and dark egocentric heart.  God knows. 

Randy Stonehill recording "Billy Frank"

Here is a treat for you.  A great song about a great man from a great guitarist, singer songwriter:

http://www.youtube.com/v/MDvREqeRqXQ?autohide=1&version=3&attribution_tag=1d3KCCHECQbEWsn39YoVNw&autohide=1&showinfo=1&feature=share&autoplay=1

Beautiful insignificance

"I need regular reminders of my call to faithfulness, not to success. How easily I forget what's important. I still have some major unlearning to do about identity, results, and ministry. I am not defined by what I do, but by who I am. Or, more importantly, to whom I belong."

This little quote from J.R. Briggs tidily expresses where I am in my ministry these days.  It encompasses a kind of identity shift away from the metrics of corporate success and into something that roots down towards the person and work of Christ in my own heart, and thereby into ministry.  I came across the quote in Paul Pastor's beautifully written article here: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2013/october-online-only/among-successful-failures.html

I love fine art - painting - and try to visit the great galleries whenever I travel. So often it is not the really famous paintings that move me. (The Mona Lisa comes to mind.)  It's the little corner of a painting that suddenly captures a moment, a truth, a beauty. I am encouraged to set aside the allure of significance and profile that I see some of my pastor-friends reaching for.  I'm happy to do some little thing really really well.  Something that very few people would ever notice, but that God will enjoy.  It'll probably be regarded as a misguided ministry failure or more realistically not be noticed at all. But it'll be worship, and what is better than that?

Loss and simplification.

People are so complex.  Situations involving people in relationship are an order more complicated again.  Perspectives and feelings are so personal.  It's all fraught with danger and often doesn't end well.  That is the context of this Christian Way, our personal discipleship, ministry and the Together Life that Jesus calls His followers to embrace, called 'church'.
I have been reflecting on the last two years of my journey.  This weekend two years ago I preached a sermon and then started a 13 week period of absence from my beloved church in order to study full time at seminary...while still working my day job three days a week and trying to see my family in whatever time was left over.  I was depleted mentally, emotionally, spiritually, relationally and to some extent, physically.  Yet even in that condition I set myself to the 'north face' of a study mountain that would push me to within a semester of completing my Master's degree in ministry at seminary. I pulled it off, by the grace of God, and returned to my church just in time for Advent and Christmas! From the frying pan into the fire!

I had no idea it was to be the beginning of the end.  I was completely blindsided by the discovery that key individuals in my church had perceived my euphemistically named "study 'break'" as a sabbatical.  I had failed to build deep enough relationships with my leaders.  I had also made the foolish mistake of remaining on a peppercorn salary that caused many to value me as much as they paid me.  The money was irrelevant.  It was lack of regard for my calling that was the toxin.  And so after a few episodes of less than heavenly interaction it became very clear that the best thing to nurture The Kingdom, and indeed for the remaining threads of my self-care, was to finish well and move out, making room, I prayed, for a fresh pastor to take that very wonderful church forward into God's preferred future for them.  I grieved long and I grieved hard.  I grieved for my loss, and more particularly for the loss of what could so nearly have been.  It takes vision and hope to dream.  It takes humility and abandonment-to-God to bury a dead dream and pat the grave soil down with a shovel, and walk away.

Since then I have experienced the death of dreams in every area of my life: my family, my work for money, my relationship with my denomination, with friends, and in my understanding of what I used to refer to as 'my vocation'.  Consequently, I am a much simplified person.  I am more acutely aware of the blessings I have: my health, my wife, my faith in Christ, a few good friends and family and the daily rhythm of life.  That's enough for me.  The Lord gives and The Lord reminds us that every moment is a gift.

Two years after the beginning of the end, I am learning to care less about beginnings and ends.  I care less about mean people and their agendas than I once did.  The sun shines on us all alike, even me.

I've been thinking about getting a tattoo, in small but clear lettering over my heart. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of The Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.".  Like I said, this is personal, and may not end well.

PS - I wrote this blog entry in August 2013, but delayed publishing it until now.  There is a wonderful young and very smart pastor leading the church i left - and God will surely bless them together - a happy ending of that aspect for sure.

Every Meal a Eucharist

Approximately 40 hours before Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross, He gathered His inner circle of disciples around a table in an upstairs room to celebrate a Passover Meal with them.  I believe that at that meal, Jesus started His 'passion' - His suffering, and in a real sense, His death.  Ahead of Him was utter loneliness, horror, despair, unthinkable pain, naked humiliation and a slow agonizing death.  Really, it was all a process of death.  Jesus marked the end of His time with His disciples with a highly symbolic meal of bread and wine and told them to always remember Him with this meal.

Christians differ in understanding the timing of what He meant.  Did He mean only every Passover meal (in which case we have Eucharist once a year), or every meal, or every meal where Christians gather for the purpose of worship - or some other periodicity?

As for me, I like to celebrate Eucharist every Sunday - because every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection of Christ - and His Lordship over all things.

I heard it said recently that for ever meal, something dies - an animal, a plant.  Something has to die to feed us - to give us life.  How appropriate that Christ chose a meal to mark His death which gives us real life.

Give us this day, our daily bread.

Never be a Methodist Minister

My father gave me advice that his father had first passed to him: "Never be a Methodist minister".  It was delivered as an amusing comment, but with a definite edge of seriousness.  When i was 38 I told my Dad that I had a calling into ministry.  His concern was immediate "But you're at the top of your career!" and "Wait until you retire so that you can give it your full attention.  In the meanwhile focus on earning money to fund that retirement ministry idea".   It was no use.  A call to ministry is like falling down one of Alice in Wonderland's rabbit holes.  Once it's happened, there's no escaping it, and you just keep falling deeper down into it.  You also end up in a strange land that resembles the old world but it works differently.

I'm now 53 and post-secular-career.  I live off my wife's hard work and supplement it with a patchwork of IT consulting, an apartment rental business that I'm not very good at, and hopefully soon, some paid chaplaincy.  Yes, I am still in the world, but it just works very differently.

There are significantly long period where I don't see God working much at all.  Then there are all-too-brief moments when I see His hand, feel His breath.  And I humbly acknowledge that none of this makes much sense, but it all makes perfect sense.

"Never be a Methodist minister, son."
"But Dad, I already am.  And it's OK."

Craving the Pure Spiritual Milk

1 Peter 2:2. Like newborn infants, crave the pure spiritual milk.

There are some situations that are just weird for a guy.  One of them is when a young mother breast feeds her child nearby.  Now I know this is a beautiful and natural thing, and in our enlightened society anyone who feels uncomfortable about this happening in public just needs to get over it.   I know that.  But for a guy it's awkward, because we can't help but notice, but it's socially unacceptable to notice and especially to even glance a second time after we have inadvertently noticed the first time. When it happens in church there is a whole other level of social awkwardness, and when you are the pastor and your young church is apparently filled with nursing mothers it get beyond awkward and just becomes rather wonderful. I learned the pastoral skill of walking amongst my young mothering families with innocence and both eyes focused on some imaginary horizon.

Scripture calls God by male titles usually.  We are most familiar with 'Father'.  But the are plenty of feminine titles and illustrations too.  El Shaddai has a variety of interpretations with my favorite being 'the breasted one'.  The breasted mother who gathers her new babies, utterly dependent on her, into her arms.  The babies don't even know exactly what they want, much less what they need, but she does.  She wraps them in swaddling cloth, comforting them with her warmth, gentleness, and fragrance.  She bares her breast and offers her nourishment to her children...her very self, given for them.  Instantly, the sensation of her presence quietens the mewing child, who suckles content, typically falling asleep even as it feeds, all the while her gentle calm voice washes over her babies.  All is calm, all is quiet. You are safe and secure my child, be fed, full and at peace, rest in my arms and sleep a while.  Shallow..peace, whole news and well being. 

The preceding verse requests us to put away all human striving and contention, and to come like a hungry and discontent child to the breathed mother who sacrificially waits to tend us with what we need, when we don't even know what we need. 

Today, here and now, may you pause and open you heart and mind to the Holy Spirit that longs to gather you up and set your striving aside.  Come and taste of the presence of God, set aside your human envy and contentions.  Be at peace with your all-providing parent, safe and secure nowhere else.

Shallom. 

"You don't have to check your brain at the door"

http://www.iamsecond.com/seconds/eric-metaxas/

Nurture - a Godly paradigm for running a business

In these days of information-overload I am careful to filter out the best for my reading - and I hope for my writing too.  I do read Seth Godin's blog, and today he touched on a subject that I have been living through for the past year.  It's around the topic of nurture.  We are all connected individuals, we are all spirits wrapped up in flesh - fragile, vulnerable.  Rugged stereotypes are really a lie.  There is no such thing as stoic independence - we need each other.  

     Each of us wants to be in an environment of nurture, whether we recognize it or not.  

If you want to get rid of an employee, one effective but immoral way to do it is to marginalize them, ignore them, isolate them and then systematically undervalue them.  No employee - no matter how well paid - will last for any length of time in such an environment..  Yes, pay is an important and reasonable part of working, but it is by no means the critical part.

If you want to drive a pastor from a church, one effective but immoral way to do it is to undervalue them, ignore them, take them for granted and remove dignity from them.  No pastor, no matter how 'called' will last long in such a culture. Nor should they be reasonably expected to do so. 

Marriages break when one (or more usually both) spouse/s feel unloved, unwanted and taken for granted.

Business partnerships divide when the more assertive/powerful.dominant partner prefers their own agenda to their partner's. 

The list is endless.  The point is, relationship are vital to our flourishing, and relationships must be mutually nurturing.  When we get this wrong, we usually start by one tiny degree, followed by another, followed by another. When we get this right we similarly do so one caring, aware step at a time, followed by another, and another. 

I was once a partner in a business run by some of the employees.  We did good business, and we looked after each other.  It was the best business experience I have ever had. We genuinely cared for the customers - they were not just profit-points to be managed and milked.  In turn they felt cared for and valued and were faithful to us.  For an IT company, we had client relationship that lasted over 25 years!  That's almost unheard of.  We didn't take over the world, but we made good money, had a good time and did good business.

I dream of a church where the pastor is a servant leader and the people nurture the pastor with care and affection - giving dignity and value to her/him. Such a business will prosper, such a church will be glorious, and the people in both will flourish.

It may not be the most 'efficient' route to success.  It certainly will not be inexpensive monetarily.  It will take additional energy and time.  However, it will be good.  And it will last.  

Businesses, families, marriages, churches, indeed all human endeavor, works best when it reflects the values and motivations of (the 'heart' of ) God.

Ordination

This last Friday evening, I was ordained.  It was the final formal milestone on a journey that started in 1998 when I finally figured out that I had a call to pastor and preach and teach the Bible. 14 years of lapsed time.  It was a wonderful, significant evening.

What was it like?  What does it meant to me?

My wife Linda, along with 5 other ordinands and their spouses (well, one was a single guy) listened to a steady stream of ordained elders read to us various charges and commitments that would be expected of us. Some of these were straight from Scripture, some of them based on Scripture but codified in the 'rule book' for my particular church - The Manual of The Church of the Nazarene.  When our moment came, we stood and ascended the 5 steps to platform in front of a few hundred onlookers.  We both knelt at a short altar rail that had been positioned on the platform for this purpose. I placed on the altar rail a beautiful new Bible that my mother had bought me for the occasion, held my wife's hand and placed our hands on the Bible.  Rev. Dr. Eugenio Duarte, one of the six General Superintendents of the Church of the Nazarene (our equivalent of an Arch Bishop) stood on the other side of the rail and laid his hands on my head.  Our local District Superintendent, Rev. Dr. Ken Stanford (our equivalent of a Bishop) laid his hands on my wife and I.  Approximately 100 ordained elders of the church then gathered around them, laying their hands on us, if they were in reach, or laying their lands on the shoulders of those around us.  The visual effect is that of a huge scrum with Linda and I kneeling at the center.

The  Manual describes what ordination is thus: "While affirming the scriptural  tenet  of  the  universal  priesthood  and  ministry  of  all believers,  ordination  reflects  the  biblical  belief  that  God calls  out  and  gifts  certain  men  and  women  for  ministerial leadership in His Church. Ordination is the authenticating,
authorizing  act  of  the  Church,  which  recognizes  and  confirms  God’s  call  to  ministerial  leadership  as  stewards  and proclaimers  of  both  the  gospel  and  the  Church  of  Jesus Christ.  Consequently,  ordination  bears  witness  to  the Church universal and the world at large that this candidate evidences an exemplary life of holiness, possesses gifts and graces for public ministry, has a thirst for knowledge, specially for the Word of God, and has the capacity to communicate clearly sound doctrine."

Dr. Duarte then spoke the words of ordination over us: "Edward D J Frost, I charge thee before God and our Lord Jesus Christ, preach the Word, ...in all things, endure afflictions  do the work an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry, take ... authority to administer the sacraments, take charge of the Church of God.  Now by the authority invested in me as a General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, I ordain you and Elder in the Church of God, in the Name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, Amen."

My friend Rev. Geoff DeFranca then prayed over us both, we stood up hugged and shaked hands with a few people, were handed a certificate and then stood aside to watch others be ordained after us.  We scanned the congregation, making eye contact with relatives and friends.

So I am now 'authenticated and authorized'!

When I was kneeling I simply prayed to God 'thank You, thank You, thank You..'  Only God understands the depth and the origin of that payer.  Of all the words said over me, the words that struck deep into my mind, my heart were 'take charge over the Church of God'.  Those are weighty words to have said over you.  They will form me in the time to come.

Each of us who have given ourselves to Christ and trust on Him, and in Him - we are all ordained to ministry.  My ordination is specifically that of an elder.  It is a weighty thing to be ordained by God.  On Friday this inward ordination was enacted in the outward ordination ritual of the Church - the congregation of those who call God Father, in Christ.

N.T. Wright on the OT and NT continuity of God

Andrew Wilson, blogger at Think Theology and one of the pastor-elders of King’s Church Eastbourne in England, interviewed Tom Wright at the Think Conference - 23rd May 2013.  Wilson asks NT (Tom) Wright a series of popular theological questions.

You can download the full interview here.

I particularly appreciated Wright's answer on the 'new Marcionism', and generally his erudite, charitable, witty answers.  Marcionism is a third century Christian heresy that says that the Old Testament portrays a different 'god' than the New Testament does.  Wright highlights that this thinking pops up from age to age, and is alive and well today.  He combats it by splitting the issue into two questions: Is there continuity or discontinuity in the revelation of God in the OT and NT?  Is it possible to align a kind forgiving loving merciful God with the judgmentalness of God and various atrocities - mainly in the OT?

It's a great listen to a great Christian thinker. Enjoy!

When I finish my studying..

When I finally, eventually finish studying, here are some of the things that I have planned:

- watch all the Men in Black movies in a marathon
- mow my lawn with my ride-on lawn mower more or less continually.
- learn how to play 'Little Wing' by Jimmy Hendrix on electric guitar
- read a whole stack of books that I want to read.  The stack has been growing larger for a couple of years now.
- buy a kayak and use it to travel the length of the Merrimack River
- go on vacation to Spain for 2 glorious weeks, visiting with my brother and Mum.  The vacations is booked.
- rotovate, reseed , water an then mow my lawn
- learn how to use the digital looper and delay pedal I bought over a year ago with my nice tube amp and Fender Strat.
- rebuild the bed and sides of my garden trailer - the one built on an axle from a Ford Model A
- buy a pair of crocs to wear all summer long
- start to learn Spanish and find a a person to practice with
- mow my lawn some more.
- start to work towards my membership in the 4000' club.  This is a goal for my 50's.
- mow my lawn some more.

July 9th 013 update.

• Linda and I watched all three men in Black movies.  1 is great, 2 is so-so and 3 is very good!
• My lawn is thoroughly mowed, even limed and will soon be overseeded.  Happy days!
• I'm taken ages to slowly digest one great book
• 12 days until UK/Spain - yippee!
• I have indeed been goofing with my delay pedal - also great fun
• I have been wearing my crocs more or less continually
• Hablo un poco de español ahora.  I even bought the Spanish for Dummies book.

Family Resemblance

Just got back from New York City, where I met up with my cousin Jeannie from New Zealand who was passing through town.  We hadn't met up for 15 years, and we spent a happy day walking around the Metropolitan Museum of Art, indulging our shared love of art.  As we walked and talked there was one moment when it suddenly occurred to me that I was looking at my late father's eyes and eyebrows.  There he was.  Jeannie probably shares 12 to 25% of my father's DNA with me, and it shows.

Jeannie flanked by her daughter Sarah and Linda

1 Colossians 15a reads "He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God". There is a family resemblance between Jesus Christ and The Father.  Really this statement doesn't do it justice - as the context makes clear. The word 'image' (in Greek eikon) here can also be translated 'picture'.  He is the picture of His Father.   Jesus is the Father, revealed - a revelation.
Jeannie is her own person - and a wonderful one too.  She is not my Dad.  Jesus Christ is also His own person.  The difference is, Jesus IS The Father, and The Spirit.  As we encounter one we encounter the whole of God.
At the end of our day together, Jeannie and I hugged and kissed and said our goodbyes. "Who knows where or which decade we'll meet again?" I said.   I drove back to New Hampshire, and she is on her way to LA and then Auckland.  Jeannie and he family are Christians like Linda and me.  We share different parents, but the same Savior.  The family resemblance is growing beautifully.

Question, Answers, Jesus

It's been a horrific week in the USA.  The Boston Marathon Bombings, the massive explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant, and most bizarrely, an Elvis impersonator has sent ricin-pointed letters to the President and a senator.  As I write this, Boston is on lock down as thousands of police are hunting the surviving bomber, and two more policemen have died.  The maimed will be living with their devastating wounds for the rest of their lives.
Christian leaders have responded.  One friend was typical in his response.  He posted on Facebook "There are no easy answers. Count your blessings. Walk in love".  I thought 'two out of three ain't bad'.  Count our blessings - always great advice.  Walk in love - yes, and I can't do that for any length of time unless God is walking in me, through me. No easy answers?  Hmm.
It's fine to ask questions both of ourselves, of our society, of our government and of God.  We should ask questions.   We might not find answers to all of those questions and it's wise to distrust answers that are too easy.  My reservation is that Christians must ask questions, seek truth, and search for God in every situation.  Didn't Jesus Christ promise "I will never leave you or forsake you"?  So how does that play out exactly on the sidewalks of Boylston Street and in the ER at Mass General?

Suffering is at the heart of the Christian Way.  Our symbol is the cross.  On that cross God born as a man was hung like meat in a butcher's window, stripped naked, exposed, the flesh whipped from his back, blood blinding his eyes, tendons and cartilage severed by iron spike, slowly suffocating to death as the blood drained from his body.  God experiences all the pain and suffering in the whole world, all the time.  CS Lewis wrote that human suffering is one person deep and as wide as all humanity.  We get to experience one life's worth - some more than others. God enjoins us in all our joy, and in all our pain.

So there is one question we can answer.  Where is God at times like this?  Right with us, is the clear and unequivocal answer. What is He doing about it?  Leaving us room to love and room to hate - on each other, and on Him.

Christians affirm that there are two deaths.  One bodily, that moves us from this 'world' into the next.  There is a second death coming.  We call it Judgment Day, when God blows the final whistle on the human timeline.  Those alive will be joined by all those who have died, to be judged.  Christ opened His arms to all of humanity and took within Himself all of the evil, hatred, disdain, disinterest and ignorance that humanity will ever produce.  For those who put their deep trust in Christ, He has absorbed the second death for us.  So go ahead and be mad at God this week, if you want to.  He has already taken the punishment for all the evil in the world, and responds with giving us new life and His spirit.   This week, from Greater Boston, my hope is that Christians will point to the crucified God as the only intellectually satisfying, morally sound, life affirming answer to the agony we are sharing in during weeks like this.

Evil at the Boston Marathon.

Today, a senseless act of violence was committed in Boston, Massachusetts.  terrorism is nothing new, of course.  The best way that Christians can respond is to pray from the victims and the perpetrators. Then we ought to go about our business as usual. Christians know that justice is one aspect of salvation - are we are being saved.  Justice is not complete.  Vengeance is a dangerous response - and belongs only to God. Love your neighbor.

I am moved to re-post a poem by my late father.  God met evil on the cross - absorbing all it's pain and fury into Himself. 

AFTER SEPTEMBER 11^TH

The World is soiled now,

like sweat stained clothes

crumpled and cast aside,

trampled by boots heavy with filth,

all redolent of evil done.

Nothing now is certain,

Directions once safe now point to

quicksands and dark jungles.

Questions turn into riddles

that have no easy answers.

Poisoned clouds swirl round the globe.

Despairing faces cry for food

but desert dust falls through their fingers.

The tortured corpses lay in stinking piles.

Disease will putrefy the living.

Death stands ready for his harvest,

and God is angered.

Max Frost

1 Oct 2001

The Day After God Died

What was it like, the day after God died?  Easter Saturday is, for me, one of the most interesting days of the year, theologically, pastorally, devotionally: for me, for us, for us and God.

The four gospels – and the beginning chapters of the Book of Acts in the Holy Bible tell us relatively little about it.  Their concern is more with the crushing drama of Good Friday and the world-changing events of Easter Sunday.  In between there is an eerie silence – Saturday.  This Saturday is quiet like the grave, dull as an overcast November, breathless, still, silent, like mourners beside a coffin .

God has come to us – Emmanuel – the Christmas joy of all things filled with light.

Then death, loss, unexpected horror, leaving us numb.  Perhaps that is the word I am reaching for to describe this day – numb.  We are still alive – but we just don’t feel it.  We go about our daily lives but there is death’s coldness growing like ivy around the stone walls of our hearts.  We have pulled the curtains in the middle of the day, closed the doors to become private in our emptiness.

Of course, we know how the story ends.  The grinding of the stone rolling away from the tomb as the fresh Sunday morning air is stirred by the Risen Christ stepping out of His tomb, clothed not in blood and torture, but in wholeness, radiance and love-filled life.  But that is tomorrow.  Today, there is … numbness of life.

One day a year we get to pause and become quiet.  To feel the Spring sun on our faces and watch our children play on the pale grass revealed by the melted snow.  There are no flowers …yet.  But they are coming.  Today I feel the deep emptiness of my life without God.  Once, I had felt Him brush by me, caught the aroma of His warm skin,  I remember the timbre of His voice, the warmth of His gaze and smile.  Today He seems far away – a fading memory, and I am empty because of it.

Tonight I will go to bed and pray to a distant God.  Perhaps in the morning He will wake me with a touch of His hand and call my name. 

Les Miserable - the movie

The movie drained every bit of emotion from the book and stage show.  It was a roller coaster of haunting despair, tragedy, young love, unflinching honor, child death and yet more tragedy.  By the time the lights came up I found myself exhausted, drained and yet, and yet... strangely despondent.  This was not how I felt when I left the stage show.  Then I was uplifted, challenged and deeply grateful to have lived in kinder, gentler times.  

Why the difference?  And which would the author of the book - Victor Hugo - have intended more?

What the book and stage show tapped into, and what the movie rather missed, is the meta-narrative of Christian redemption, in short: the Gospel. 

The movie left me reflecting on the brutality of life for the underclass in new republics - a human and political reflection.  Perhaps the zeitgeist of our times is coming into play here?  As new democracies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, struggle to find their identity; as weekly we read of minorities suffering persecution in India and Pakistan, it seems reasonable that Les Miserable act as a lens through which to reflect on brutal legalism for those with power who are convinced that they are in 'the right' and that the human lives of the poor (which is what 'les miserables' means) are an unavoidable casualty of the need to enforce order through the rule of law.

And yet, this misses the deeply honorable motives of Javert who, above all else wants to uphold the high standards of righteousness.  If thieves go free, if fighting persists in the streets, how can good and right and law and civilization triumph?  The good of the future of France - whether under royal or republican control is what drives Javert.  He is a patriot to France - whoever wins the revolution - and wants her to be pure and spotless and yes - honorable.  Javert represents for us the Pharisee - driven by motives of personal and social holiness.  This is the justice of God, without the mercy of God. This is that judgmental Christian in church who frowns at the dress sense of the young people, whose heart is full of honor and right and good - but who has lost the gentle tenderness of God. 

Jean Valjean,  for the most part,  is you and is me. Driven by circumstances beyond his control he has transgressed the law many times - perhaps by good motive but perhaps sometimes by selfish motive.  Certainly he insists that his crime was to steal bread purely to feed a hungry relative.  And yet we suspect this is not the only time he has stolen.  He certainly doesn't think much before stealing the Bishop Myriel's silver - even after having been taken in from a cold night, fed and given a warm bed.  Myriel surely is Jesus Christ: full of mercy and grace, loving kindness and tenderness, and Valjean here is the beaten-down Samaritan by the roadside.  The scene where Myriel tells the policeman that , yes, he did give the Valjean all the household silver is pure mercy.  If that scene doesn't make you tear up, I am not sure what will. 

The main flow of the whole story is Jean Valjean's journey of transformation from desperate sinner to Christ-likeness.  By the end of the movie he has redeemed Fantine's daughter Cosette, and redeemed his own character.  He has become self-sacrificial in the tenderness of love, just like Myriel, just like Christ.  Valjean is not insensitive to the demands and costs of justice - even trying to turn himself in to free a man wrongly accused of Valjean's own identity and sins - a substitutionary atonement narrative right-in-your-face if ever there was one. 

So the beauty and wonder of Les Miserable's is the overt Christian Gospel narrative that pits mercy against legalism, redemption against condemnation, adoption against estrangement, relationship over rightness, with Christlike goodness ultimately winning each battle. Jean Valjean dies a death full of love, surrounded by those who love him at the altar of the church, surrounded by the spirits of Bishop Myriel and tragic Fantine - at peace with God and himself. 

Honorable, but legalistic and judgmental Javert, confronted with the indomitable kindness of Valjean, can no longer live with himself and takes his own life - a Judas Iscariot motif to Valjean's Apostle Peter in many ways - one sinning and self-condemned, one sinning but kissed and redeemed. 

Holywood saw these themes and they are there in the movie but they are buried under the box-office imperative of taking us on an emotional roller-coaster ride, at the expense of the beauty of Victor Hugo's bigger picture.

Final thought:  if Anne Hathaway doesn't get the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress then the Academy needs to jump off a bridge along with Javert!

“The Triune God of holiness,
Whose glory fills the sky.
Whose glory to this earth extends,
While God himself imparts,
And the whole Trinity descends
Into our faithful hearts.”

Cf. also The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Volume 7, ed. G. Osborn (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), “Hymns and Prayers to the Trinity,” Hymn 17, Page 312.

Thanks to Dr. K Steve McCormick for this reference. #THE680 

The Endless Stream

I wanted to share this blog entry from a Protestant monk at the Community of Jesus.  It speaks to me of the invitation God extends to each of us , irrespective of our lifestyle, position or age: 

"Each morning I’m given anew the choice to step into the endless stream of the unceasing love, mercy, and creativity of God. The choice is mine to reject — or to wade forward on faith: the opportunity is always newly presented. Many days I have to remind myself to re-choose this discipleship, to choose to believe in God’s promised goodness as a backdrop for my life today. "
http://www.communityofjesus.org/author/melodiusmonk/

Pattern Interrupt

I was once trained a technique to make telephone sales calls, called 'pattern interrupt'.  The idea was to not sound like every other telephone sales 'cold call', and catch the person 'off guard' and maybe get them talking.  It was cheesy, but it worked.  If you want to not be ignored, be different. We tend to filter out things that fall into uninteresting patterns.

In the gospel of Mark, chapter 2, we see Jesus starting His ministry by acting unexpectedly.  He teaches "a new teaching with authority!" (Mark 1:27), He has the miraculous ability to heal sick people, His disciples don't fast because He says He is 'the bridegroom' who is present (Mark 2:18-22), He hangs out with sinners and hated tax collectors, preferring them to the self-identified 'righteous' - the insiders (Mark 2:13-17), and He even turns holy tradition on it's head by declaring that the prescribed day of rest (Sabbath) was created to serve humankind, rather than to rule humankind.  He is seriously different!  All the patterns are being interrupted.

What catches my attention is the much loved story of four faithful men bringing their paralyzed friend to Jesus and having to dig a hole in the roof above Jesus to even reach Him because of the crowds. (That always seems comical to me - the picture of Jesus calmly continuing to teach while plaster falls from the ceiling into His hair!).  The obvious need presented to Jesus is for Him to heal the paralyzed man of his physical condition.  We'd expect this gracious compassionate Jesus to heal the man.  We are not entirely surprised (now that we are in the second chapter of Mark!) to read the paralyzed man came in by the roof, but walked out the door!  But...Jesus sees things in an unexpected way.

Jesus first tells the man that his sins are forgiven.  Mark teaches us the theological point that only God can forgive sins, so Jesus is proclaiming Himself as God!  That's outrageous enough and the religious insiders are scandalized by this.  The kicker is...Jesus says it is harder for Him to forgive a man's sins than to heal him of being paralyzed. Woah!  Really?

I always thought it was simple for God to forgive me of my sins (i.e. my disobedience towards God, selfishness, ignoring God, pleasing myself and not God etc.).  Surely it's just a word and a nod, right?  Apparently not - there is more to it than just a royal declaration from God. Huh. This forgiving is hard for God - harder than even curing chronic disease?

Perhaps the hint is in that odd 'bridegroom will be taken away from them' statement in verse 20.  Jesus is starting out His public ministry with one eye on the end of His public ministry - the goal of His whole earthly life - the dreadful political/religious execution - the terrible cross.   The religious insiders understood that in their day and culture, to get forgiveness of sin, you had to take a healthy animal to the temple and have the priests slaughter it.  It was costly, time consuming and rather socially embarrassing, but that was the procedure. Jesus knows there is another side to the transaction however, a side so weighty that the Old Testament wanted the Jews to see actual blood being spilled to help them understand its awful gravity: death.

The Bible throughout teaches us that sin is a relational death - essentially a break in relationship with God, Who is the source of our life.  Our sin separates us from Life Himself - God, and thus causes us death.  Relational death, spiritual death, the death of joy, and in a profoundly mysterious way, even the inevitable death of our physical bodies. Sin equals death.  To forgive sin, then, is to undo death, to break death, to overwhelm it with Life.  Life (God) has to bring death within himself, and thus defeat it, and eliminate it.  This is actually the work of God (who else could even think of doing it?).  This is the work of forgiveness.  It takes God more than we can readily imagine or understand to forgive our sin - to take our death from us, and to give us back a deathless-life instead.

Yes, the paralytic walked out the door.  His physical restoration was only a token - an illustration of a much more profound healing.  He was forgiven.   We can be forgiven.  We can be made alive again.  Jesus called Levi to follow Him, and He calls us still.  We can respond, we can follow Jesus and in following, turn from our sin and find new life - forgiveness.

The First Leper

The first chapter of the gospel of Mark ends with a transition caused by a leper.  This man can't stop talking about Jesus, causing Jesus to have to switch from town-center preaching to country preaching.
But my attention is caught by the interaction between the leper and Jesus (Mark 1:40-45).  Here it is:

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. (Mark 1:40-45 ESV)

The leper did three things:  He came to Jesus, he implored Jesus - that is he begged Jesus for what he wanted, and he knelt before Jesus.
I think this is a very important sequence, and a guide for anyone of us who needs a touch from Jesus today.

Come to Jesus:  Jesus was out in a desolate place at this point (see verse 35), so no-one was around.  We wouldn't bump into Jesus here - we would have to search Him out (see verse 36).  Lepers were afflicted with a physical sickness - a terrible skin disease.  The word 'leper' might mean what we now know as leprosy, or it could also mean a broader range of skin diseases.  Either way it was life changing.  Lepers were expelled from society to live in the wilderness.  So this poor man also had an identity crisis - he was a social outcast, and he had awful loneliness - he was without friends or family, physical hurt, socially hurt and even hurt in his relationship with himself - his very identity. In this condition then - a deep awareness of his need, disease and brokenness, he dares to come to Jesus.  This is risky - will Jesus be repulsed and run from him? Imagine the shame, ignominy and how devastating it would be if that were to happen.  But what has the leper to lose?  So he comes to Jesus.  As it happens, this is exactly the best thing to do, to take courage and take the risk of coming to Jesus.  God is not a bully, or a severe master, but invites us to come to Him,  He waits with immense patience for us to make the move.  Our coming indicates to both us and to God that we are ready for what comes next.  Today we can 'come to Jesus' wherever we are just by praying to Him.  Perhaps it will be good for us to take the risk of going to a good local church, where Jesus is preached and the Bible is read.  Perhaps today we can seek out someone we respect as a wise Christian - someone we know who has Jesus in them.

He implored Jesus:  The leper used words - perhaps many words, perhaps few words, perhaps asked one time, perhaps repeated, to let Jesus know what he wanted Jesus to do for him. God is not an impersonal force.  He is not karma or fate or destiny.  No, God is a person.  He invites us not to cast a spell to try to change the future, or to forward some email, re-post some Facebook posting or say some rote prayer as if it were a spell to try to change things by magic. No, God Almighty - the One who is over all things - has come down to us in the historical person of Jesus Christ, and who is present to each of us always now - as The Holy Spirit.  He is here and He is listening, and He is available.  We can expect not a blank face, but a relationship with God The Person. He understands what it is to be us. We can talk to Him with words, or simply pour out our word-less emotions and deepest needs to Him.  In short - we can share our minds and hearts with God, and He will hear us and understand us intimately.  Beware however - you can never fool God.  He will see right through any manipulation or 'spin' that we might try to sell Him.  We must approach God with utter honesty.  Those who walk the Christian Way will approach God with deep reverence and awe. However God hears the prayers of even babies and spiritual babies.  He sees through the words into the heart of each person.  The leper came with courage, simplicity and honesty.  This is a pattern for us to follow.

He knelt before Jesus:  In this simple and profound act he placed himself at Jesus' feet, acknowledged Jesus as Lord and asked Jesus to do what only God can do - to make him whole again.  To restore him back into a full person - someone who has self-respect, relationships with others, and who is physically healthy - or at least free or this dreadful isolating disease and shame.  If we come to Jesus thinking Jesus is a magic eight-ball, or a genie who grants three wishes, we insult Him and misunderstand God. This man came and kneeled - an act of submission and subservience.  We might kneel before someone who holds our fate in His hands.  We come with nothing but an honest plea.  God is God, but we are temporary and frail - a passing mist, a fading flower.  Only God can heal our disease, can renew our identity, and make us whole again.  Only He can pierce our loneliness and see us as we truly are - needy and poor.  Only He can pour these riches into our lives - health of mind, body and soul - health of relationship with Him and with others.

Mark records for us the leper's actual words: "if you will, you can make me clean" - a two part statement.  Full of compassion, Jesus answers both parts separated by a semicolon to emphasis Jesus has noticed both parts of the man's request:  for Jesus listens very carefully to us.  "I will; be clean".

Yes, Jesus will do us good, because that is His heart!  He is full of compassion and kindness to those who come in honest neediness.  He can make us clean again: clean in our bodies, clean in our relationships with others, clean in our relationship with ourself, and most profoundly, clean in our relationship with Him.  He will even change His plans to make us clean again.