Blogging Back... But Moving

I have decided to try and reactivate my blog, but the time has come to move on from this site. My new blog is here.

Thanks for reading.

Easter

Our first Easter at Failsworth was surreal in many ways, but good. A real sense that God is moving among us, and He is starting to work in some of the areas we have been concerned about.

It was a great privilege to be able to lead a Holy Week series, based this year, mostly, on Matthew's gospel, tracing some of the teaching of Jesus about Himself and the Kingdom from Palm Sunday through to the events of the Passion. Meetings every evening of Holy Week plus Good Friday and, of course, Easter Sunday, meant a great deal of preparation. Next year I will need to carve out a week much earlier to produce Easter material.

My own Easter journey has been helped greatly, however, in the disciplne of study and preparation. I am constantly struck by the way in which Jesus redefines our narrow human understanding of Kingship, love, service, humility. I'm still working on Volf's "Exclusion and Embrace" but in thinking about the events of the Last Supper we are confronted with a Jesus looking across the intimacy of the shared meal table at His friends who will run away, at the one who will betray Him. Jesus who embodies "embrace" and we who can so easily embody "exclusion".

I've been much helped by Tom Wright's, "Surprised by Hope". This from chapter 4 which is entitled, "The Strange Story of Easter":

"Thomas, like a good historian, wants to see and touch. Jesus presents Himself to his sight, and invites him to touch; but Thomas doesn't. He transcends the type of knowing he had intended to use, and passes into a higher and richer one... Thomas takes a deep breath, and brings faith and history together in a rush. 'My Lord,' he says, 'and my God.'" (p81f)

May we all have the courage to pass into higher and richer ways of knowing our Risen Lord Jesus.

Brueggemann on Isaiah

Isaiah calls upon us to attest to both the grandeur of God in compassionate sovereignty and the pastoral reality of being God's people who are mandated to be unafraid in the world (as in 43:1), because the world belongs to the God who is doing a new thing (43:18-19). May the book of Isaiah empower us to be unafraid of our calling.

Brueggemann, Walter - 'Isaiah' in The Spiritual Formation Bible, London: Harper Collins: 2005:984

I dip into Isaiah quite frquently. Sovereignty, Kingdom, Justice, Compassion and Grace all in one place. Fantastic.

Heaven is important but it's not the end of the world

My copy of Tom Wright's new book, "Surprised by Hope" has arrived and gone to the top of "waiting-to-be-read" pile. This has encouraged me to revisit some of NTW's other work in "Simply Christian" and elsewhere. Wright challenges the contemporary gnosticism that the world is inherently evil and the task of Christians is to escape the world and take as many people with us as possible.

Listening to NTW speaking about "Simply Christian" I am reminded that Jesus' Kingdom project was about the the kingdom coming "on earth as it is heaven", that in the person of Jesus heaven and earth overlap."

NTW's assertion that "Jesus is Lord and therefore Caesar isn't" challenges all competing world views.

These are themes I have looked at before but I find that now I spend a lot of time preaching on the Kingdom that I need to return to them, and as I reflect on other aspects of our ministry here in Failsworth, God is teaching me new things about His purposes.

Exclusion and Embrace: Distance and Belonging

Wolf helpfully illustrates his points on identity, distance and belonging by using the example of Abraham:

"If [Abraham] is to be a blessing he cannot stay; he must depart, cutting the ties that so profoundly defined him...

The courage to break his cultural and familial ties and abandon the gods of his ancestors (Joshua 24:2) out of allegiance to a God of all families and all cultures was the original Abrahamic revolution. Departure from his native soil, no less than the trust that God will give him an heir, made Abraham the ancestor of us all." (Wolf, Miroslav, Exclusion and Embrace, Abingdon Press, 1996: 38-39)

Wolf emphasises the importance of stepping out of "inherited culture" on the basis of faith in one God with one message that transcends human ethnicity and culture.

- Those who have been called to leave the familiar can find some comfort in this. (And I do!)
- Those who are called to stay among the familiar are challenged to break out of what defines them at the expense of the exclusion of others.
- Isn't "stepping out of inherited culture" the opposite of what some people call "incarnational ministry?"

Wolf is helpful but challenging reading. When I need a break from him the cover photo of a sculpture entitled, "Abraham's farewell to Ishmael" is very thought-provoking. Here is exclusion in action, but exclusion through which God works His sovereign purposes. However, the image of excluded Hagar turning her back on Sarah is very chilling. Exclusion AND Embrace all in the same artwork...

...but I guess that's why they put it on the cover of the book!

Mission - Facilitators and Inhibitors

I was privileged to be part of a team today discussing things that facilitate and inhibit mission. It's easy to put the blame on other people, processes or paperwork for being mission inhibitors. It's also easy to wait for others to be mission facilitators: when we have the right people, the right processes, the right level of spirituality/discipleship/commitment...

However, preparing for a funeral tomorrow I am drawn to Matthew 6:25-34 and verse 33 in particular: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness."

The command to put the concerns of the Kingdom first doesn't depend on anyone else - it's a command from Jesus to all His disciples.

We should have facilitators to assist and encourage. We should resist inhibitors. But on the basis that you can choose your attitude even if you can't choose your circumstances, we can all keep our eyes on the prize...

I want to go on seeking the Kingdom.

Rediscovered themes of mission

Over on urbanarmy my good friend Gordon has a series of postings entitled, "Lost themes of mission". I've been revisiting some of those ideas over the Christmas period and have re-started reading Miroslav Wolf's, "Exclusion and Embrace: A theological exploration of identity, otherness and reconciliation" which is challenging and stretching my thinking considerably.

Inclusion is becoming one of my missional mantras for 2008. I'm not sure if inclusion ever was one of Gordon's lost themes of mission, but I'm moving on to the idea that the themes are not lost but rediscovered. There's a certain arrogance in claiming that we've rediscovered something as if everyone else has lost it, and that's not my intention. Rather, the point is that the church needs to keep rediscovering themes like inclusion: rediscovering in every age and in every context; rediscovering to maintain our focus; rediscovering how Jesus lived and taught the values of His Kingdom.

Sunday (6th Jan) is Epiphany Sunday. The coming of the magi (Matthew 2:1-12) reminds us about inclusion. He that is born King of the Jews is the King of the Gentiles too - the king of everyone. The gentile magi are included. They come from a pagan background and encounter God Incarnate for themselves, submitting their astrology to the authority of Scripture along the way, and bowing before the King of Kings at the conclusion of their journey.

God has revealed Himself to all people. Through Jesus we are all included.

Inclusion matters because if God has graciously included me then there is a real challenge for me to work for the inclusion of others. Part of that entails doing nothing that would make someone choose to exclude themselves.

Wolf asks a lot of hard questions about what it means to be included/excluded. Surely, no accident though that Matthew tops and tails his gospel with the inclusion of the gentiles at one end and the great commission at the other?

Inclusion. It was there all along. Rediscovered? For me, yes, but the next set of questions inevitably starts with, "Now what?"