Having stats that tell you how many people are reading your blogs is a great thing. I can find out that people are finding my blog searching google for things like "free sex fotos" and "silkworm food", boy are they going to be dissapointed! It also means that I can see that not many people are visiting this blog, compared to my other one. That means that I've concentrated on writing things on my other blog and not this one, and so even fewer people are visiting here.
In fact so few people are now visiting this blog that I've decided that I'll not be writing any more posts here. For the kinds of things I wrote here (odd thoughts about theology, mission and preaching), please refer yourselves to http://www.silkworm.org.uk/blog/.
So if you've found your way here looking for Lou's wit and wisdom, I'll still be around blogging away, just somewhere else. If you've found your way here looking for pictures of silkworms, or sex, or silkworms having sex then I suggest you go back to google and try the next site on the list.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Friday, April 08, 2005
John 21:1-25
I preached today on the above passage. I thought you might like this story that formed the bulk of my sermon.
Peter Tells His Story
Peter was old, nearing the end of his life. He had travelled more widely and known so much more than he had ever expected to. All he had expected from himself was to run a little fishing business on the sea of Galilee, something he could pass onto his children. But his life hadn’t worked out like that. He had no regrets, he had lived a full and rich life and now he wasn’t afraid to die. Someone brought him a meal, he said “stay with me a while, I would like the company.” And so this stranger sat while Peter ate. Between mouthfuls, Peter began to tell him the story of another meal, long ago.
“I want to tell you about the last meal I had with Jesus.”
“You don’t need to,” said the stranger, “I overheard you telling old Sam next door about how you and your Jesus fellow got together one night for a final supper – you’re full of stories you don’t need to keep repeating them.”
Peter replied “This was a different meal, that was the supper we shared with Jesus before he died. This was breakfast after he’d risen from the dead. You remember me telling you about that?”
The guard nodded a reply. “How could I forget, you’ve told me every day you’ve been here.”
Jesus, risen from the dead, greets his disciples
Peter continued, “It’s not an understatement to say that when Jesus returned to us, he shocked and surprised us. He came back once to most of us disciples and spoke with us. Thomas wasn’t with us that time and so when he protested that he didn’t believe us, Jesus came back again – as if to personally reassure him. I guess I don’t blame Thomas. It’s a hard thing to believe – someone rising from the dead. I can see right now that you are having a hard time believing me.”
“The first time we saw Jesus after he returned, he gave us such a final farewell that I was convinced we would never see him again. But that wasn’t the last time he would surprise us. The final time he came, it was a surprise for me more than any of the others.”
Gone Fishing
“We hadn’t been sure what to do when Jesus left, we’d all been with him for three years and we’d been with him as he preached and healed and did all those sorts of things that he did. But none of us knew what to do next, we were at a loss, so I decided that the best thing for me to do was to go back to what I knew well. We were down by the lake at that time, and I still had a boat so I thought I may as well use it, then at least we would have something to eat. I thought that time out on the lake might give me time to clear my head, but that wasn’t to be, all the others wanted to come too. I guess it was just a relief to be doing something again, we’d spent too long locked away indoors.”
“It was great to have Jesus come back to us, to know that he had risen from the dead – that was amazing. But somehow it wasn’t enough for me just to see him briefly, I wanted to spend so much more time with him, just like we had before. And there was one other thing too … those meetings we’d had with Jesus after his death were great but there was some tension too.”
“There were some great times with Jesus, and some times I was on top of things, I somehow understood things before anyone else, and occasionally, when he thought I didn’t see, I would see Jesus smiling thoughtfully when I was doing something good. But there were other times too, times when I got it wrong, and the biggest mistake I ever made was still hanging between Jesus and me. After he was arrested, I was so scared that I would be next that I denied that I even knew him. In an hour, I went from being belligerent and wanting to fight for Jesus to being a coward, scared to even speak his name. I couldn’t follow him, I wasn’t hungry enough to know God that I would follow him to death. 3 times I denied him and each time I did, I felt as if I was the one hammering nails into my Lord. I wanted to see Jesus again one last time to let him know that now I was ready. I had only been without him a few days but those few days were like a famine, I was desperate to be on good terms with God again.”
“We took the boat out onto the lake at night. Again and again we dropped the nets, only to pull them back up – empty. As the first light began to rise over the horizon, we headed for shore. There was no point carrying on, we were all tired and hungry, but there would be no fish for us today. Then, as we approached the shore we saw a figure on the banks, he was silhouetted against the rising sun so we couldn’t see his face. He called out to us, asking if we’d caught any fish. When we replied that we’d not caught a thing, he suggested throwing the net over the right side of the boat one last time. It seemed an odd suggestion but we tried it anyway – after 3 years with Jesus we’d become used to following odd suggestions. We pulled on the nets and were amazed to find them teeming with silvery fish. John, my friend, was looking not at the flapping fish in the nets but at the figure on the bank. “It is the Lord” he said and that was enough for me, all I needed to hear. I was so desperate to see him that I plunged into the water and waded ashore to greet him, dripping wet as I was! I warmed myself at the fire Jesus had already started and noticed that he already had his fish slowly cooking above the coals.”
Breakfast in the Open Air
“We had a wonderful breakfast. We were out there in the fresh air, just us and our Lord, and we had time to talk. There was wonderful conversation; it was just like it was in the beginning – everyone pressing Jesus for answers about where he’d been and what it was like. There was just one thing I wanted to know and I would find out soon enough. After we ate, Jesus and I had the strangest conversation.”
Do You Love Me?
“Do you love me more than these?” Jesus asked
“I didn’t even think about it, it was an automatic reaction; ‘Yes Lord’, I said, ‘You know that I love you.’ It was as automatic as saying amen at the end of a prayer, as automatic as saying ‘I’m fine thank you’ when someone asks you how you are. It was the expected right answer. I needed to think about it a bit more before I could be sure it was the true answer.”
“Jesus replied to me saying “Feed my lambs.” Jesus often came out with these weird analogies. He didn’t have any flocks, he wasn’t a real shepherd, but I remembered him saying something once about being the good shepherd. If he was the shepherd, who were his sheep? It must be us disciples. He must be asking me to make sure the other 11 were looked after.”
“I was still mulling this over when Jesus said to me again “Do you truly love me?” This time I was ready for the question and more determined to give it a proper answer, I felt the note of hurt in Jesus voice, and I remembered that he had cause to doubt my love for him. I had been the one to say I would die defending him and I was the one who had not even wanted to be associated with him when he really needed a friend.”
“I thought about the things he’d done for me and the times we’d spent together. The things I’d given up for him had always been worth it. This time I was sure and I said “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” Again, Jesus asked me to take care of his sheep. I suddenly realised that he had been asking more than I thought. He wasn’t just asking that I look after my friends, Jesus’ sheep were the whole nation. He was asking me to take care of the whole nation! Now I began to feel scared. Surely this was beyond me.”
“A third time, Jesus asked me if I loved him. I was hurt this time, but the note of pain that had been in Jesus voice had gone. I thought I had answered as fully and completely as I could have done the last time he asked me. I said “You know all things, you know that I love you.” As I answered that third time, something changed inside me. I had rejected Jesus three times, and now I had affirmed him three times. I felt forgiven. I don’t know how I knew that but I did. I knew that Jesus had forgiven me.”
“Again, Jesus asked me to feed his sheep. My mind cast back to the time Jesus had been talking about this shepherding thing, and I remembered that he had said something about having other sheep that were not in this place. Surely I wasn’t supposed to look after the whole world? Was I?”
Peter’s Hunger for God
“I don’t know why Jesus chose me. There were others in the group who were more intelligent, others who were less emotional than I was – they would have made better leaders. I was rash and hasty, always jumping into things with both feet and making a mess. I mean, look at me now! If I’d had any measure of self control I wouldn’t be in this prison. But I can’t help telling people about Jesus, no matter how much trouble it gets me into.”
“Perhaps that’s why Jesus chose me, because I was more emotional, because in those meals with Jesus, I took in more than food, I was drinking in God’s presence. Perhaps Jesus chose me because I have a huge appetite for God, needing to go back again and again and to Jesus to let him fill me up with life. It was a long time between that last supper with Jesus on the very night I betrayed him and that breakfast on the banks of the lake and I never want to be away from God like that again – so I pray regularly, I worship, I eat meals with my friends and we remember Jesus. I try my best to do as Jesus asked me to, to look after the sheep in all of his pastures.”
“Follow Me”
“That’s a good story”, said the prison guard.
“It is, but it’s not over yet.” Peter replied. “The last thing Jesus asked me to do was to follow him. That was something which just a few days before I had not been willing to do. By following him, I’m certain he meant that I would die as he did. Dying is not an easy thing to do, but I have hope because I know my Lord was raised from death, and so, when I follow him, it will not be the end for me either. It is today isn’t it” Peter asked the guard. “Yes.” He answered sadly. “I have taken many men to their death, but never one so calm as you.”
And so the soldier dressed Peter, took him by the arm and led him out of the cell.
In the following days, the church in Rome had another believer come to them, determined to find out more about what kind of man it is that can offer forgiveness, what kind of man can rise from the dead and what kind of man can inspire such loyalty in his friends.
Peter Tells His Story
Peter was old, nearing the end of his life. He had travelled more widely and known so much more than he had ever expected to. All he had expected from himself was to run a little fishing business on the sea of Galilee, something he could pass onto his children. But his life hadn’t worked out like that. He had no regrets, he had lived a full and rich life and now he wasn’t afraid to die. Someone brought him a meal, he said “stay with me a while, I would like the company.” And so this stranger sat while Peter ate. Between mouthfuls, Peter began to tell him the story of another meal, long ago.
“I want to tell you about the last meal I had with Jesus.”
“You don’t need to,” said the stranger, “I overheard you telling old Sam next door about how you and your Jesus fellow got together one night for a final supper – you’re full of stories you don’t need to keep repeating them.”
Peter replied “This was a different meal, that was the supper we shared with Jesus before he died. This was breakfast after he’d risen from the dead. You remember me telling you about that?”
The guard nodded a reply. “How could I forget, you’ve told me every day you’ve been here.”
Jesus, risen from the dead, greets his disciples
Peter continued, “It’s not an understatement to say that when Jesus returned to us, he shocked and surprised us. He came back once to most of us disciples and spoke with us. Thomas wasn’t with us that time and so when he protested that he didn’t believe us, Jesus came back again – as if to personally reassure him. I guess I don’t blame Thomas. It’s a hard thing to believe – someone rising from the dead. I can see right now that you are having a hard time believing me.”
“The first time we saw Jesus after he returned, he gave us such a final farewell that I was convinced we would never see him again. But that wasn’t the last time he would surprise us. The final time he came, it was a surprise for me more than any of the others.”
Gone Fishing
“We hadn’t been sure what to do when Jesus left, we’d all been with him for three years and we’d been with him as he preached and healed and did all those sorts of things that he did. But none of us knew what to do next, we were at a loss, so I decided that the best thing for me to do was to go back to what I knew well. We were down by the lake at that time, and I still had a boat so I thought I may as well use it, then at least we would have something to eat. I thought that time out on the lake might give me time to clear my head, but that wasn’t to be, all the others wanted to come too. I guess it was just a relief to be doing something again, we’d spent too long locked away indoors.”
“It was great to have Jesus come back to us, to know that he had risen from the dead – that was amazing. But somehow it wasn’t enough for me just to see him briefly, I wanted to spend so much more time with him, just like we had before. And there was one other thing too … those meetings we’d had with Jesus after his death were great but there was some tension too.”
“There were some great times with Jesus, and some times I was on top of things, I somehow understood things before anyone else, and occasionally, when he thought I didn’t see, I would see Jesus smiling thoughtfully when I was doing something good. But there were other times too, times when I got it wrong, and the biggest mistake I ever made was still hanging between Jesus and me. After he was arrested, I was so scared that I would be next that I denied that I even knew him. In an hour, I went from being belligerent and wanting to fight for Jesus to being a coward, scared to even speak his name. I couldn’t follow him, I wasn’t hungry enough to know God that I would follow him to death. 3 times I denied him and each time I did, I felt as if I was the one hammering nails into my Lord. I wanted to see Jesus again one last time to let him know that now I was ready. I had only been without him a few days but those few days were like a famine, I was desperate to be on good terms with God again.”
“We took the boat out onto the lake at night. Again and again we dropped the nets, only to pull them back up – empty. As the first light began to rise over the horizon, we headed for shore. There was no point carrying on, we were all tired and hungry, but there would be no fish for us today. Then, as we approached the shore we saw a figure on the banks, he was silhouetted against the rising sun so we couldn’t see his face. He called out to us, asking if we’d caught any fish. When we replied that we’d not caught a thing, he suggested throwing the net over the right side of the boat one last time. It seemed an odd suggestion but we tried it anyway – after 3 years with Jesus we’d become used to following odd suggestions. We pulled on the nets and were amazed to find them teeming with silvery fish. John, my friend, was looking not at the flapping fish in the nets but at the figure on the bank. “It is the Lord” he said and that was enough for me, all I needed to hear. I was so desperate to see him that I plunged into the water and waded ashore to greet him, dripping wet as I was! I warmed myself at the fire Jesus had already started and noticed that he already had his fish slowly cooking above the coals.”
Breakfast in the Open Air
“We had a wonderful breakfast. We were out there in the fresh air, just us and our Lord, and we had time to talk. There was wonderful conversation; it was just like it was in the beginning – everyone pressing Jesus for answers about where he’d been and what it was like. There was just one thing I wanted to know and I would find out soon enough. After we ate, Jesus and I had the strangest conversation.”
Do You Love Me?
“Do you love me more than these?” Jesus asked
“I didn’t even think about it, it was an automatic reaction; ‘Yes Lord’, I said, ‘You know that I love you.’ It was as automatic as saying amen at the end of a prayer, as automatic as saying ‘I’m fine thank you’ when someone asks you how you are. It was the expected right answer. I needed to think about it a bit more before I could be sure it was the true answer.”
“Jesus replied to me saying “Feed my lambs.” Jesus often came out with these weird analogies. He didn’t have any flocks, he wasn’t a real shepherd, but I remembered him saying something once about being the good shepherd. If he was the shepherd, who were his sheep? It must be us disciples. He must be asking me to make sure the other 11 were looked after.”
“I was still mulling this over when Jesus said to me again “Do you truly love me?” This time I was ready for the question and more determined to give it a proper answer, I felt the note of hurt in Jesus voice, and I remembered that he had cause to doubt my love for him. I had been the one to say I would die defending him and I was the one who had not even wanted to be associated with him when he really needed a friend.”
“I thought about the things he’d done for me and the times we’d spent together. The things I’d given up for him had always been worth it. This time I was sure and I said “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” Again, Jesus asked me to take care of his sheep. I suddenly realised that he had been asking more than I thought. He wasn’t just asking that I look after my friends, Jesus’ sheep were the whole nation. He was asking me to take care of the whole nation! Now I began to feel scared. Surely this was beyond me.”
“A third time, Jesus asked me if I loved him. I was hurt this time, but the note of pain that had been in Jesus voice had gone. I thought I had answered as fully and completely as I could have done the last time he asked me. I said “You know all things, you know that I love you.” As I answered that third time, something changed inside me. I had rejected Jesus three times, and now I had affirmed him three times. I felt forgiven. I don’t know how I knew that but I did. I knew that Jesus had forgiven me.”
“Again, Jesus asked me to feed his sheep. My mind cast back to the time Jesus had been talking about this shepherding thing, and I remembered that he had said something about having other sheep that were not in this place. Surely I wasn’t supposed to look after the whole world? Was I?”
Peter’s Hunger for God
“I don’t know why Jesus chose me. There were others in the group who were more intelligent, others who were less emotional than I was – they would have made better leaders. I was rash and hasty, always jumping into things with both feet and making a mess. I mean, look at me now! If I’d had any measure of self control I wouldn’t be in this prison. But I can’t help telling people about Jesus, no matter how much trouble it gets me into.”
“Perhaps that’s why Jesus chose me, because I was more emotional, because in those meals with Jesus, I took in more than food, I was drinking in God’s presence. Perhaps Jesus chose me because I have a huge appetite for God, needing to go back again and again and to Jesus to let him fill me up with life. It was a long time between that last supper with Jesus on the very night I betrayed him and that breakfast on the banks of the lake and I never want to be away from God like that again – so I pray regularly, I worship, I eat meals with my friends and we remember Jesus. I try my best to do as Jesus asked me to, to look after the sheep in all of his pastures.”
“Follow Me”
“That’s a good story”, said the prison guard.
“It is, but it’s not over yet.” Peter replied. “The last thing Jesus asked me to do was to follow him. That was something which just a few days before I had not been willing to do. By following him, I’m certain he meant that I would die as he did. Dying is not an easy thing to do, but I have hope because I know my Lord was raised from death, and so, when I follow him, it will not be the end for me either. It is today isn’t it” Peter asked the guard. “Yes.” He answered sadly. “I have taken many men to their death, but never one so calm as you.”
And so the soldier dressed Peter, took him by the arm and led him out of the cell.
In the following days, the church in Rome had another believer come to them, determined to find out more about what kind of man it is that can offer forgiveness, what kind of man can rise from the dead and what kind of man can inspire such loyalty in his friends.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Ground Force Evangelism
I have an admission to make - I read gardening magazines. Ever since I got my own garden I've been reading about all the things I can fill it up with. I actually spend more time reading the magazines than out in the garden!
Every couple of months in those magazines, someone will write a letter about Ground Force (the tv programme where they make over a garden in two days). Something along these lines:
Gardening on TV has been a feature of the TV landscape for many, many years. I remember my mum making time to watch gardeners world every week from the time I was young (She doesn't watch it much now because "Monty Don is always on about carrots"). But that programme was ok for those traditional gardeners - It told you the latin names of all the plants, it was a programme for people who grow Dahlias for shows, for people who know about pruning and mulching and for people who measure their garden in acres rather than feet.
Ground Force is different, it gives people with no gardening knowledge the idea that with a little bit of work and some imagination, they can have somewhere nice outside their back door for having barbeques in. That's how it started for me, and now I'm hooked, so much so that I know latin names for things and I know how to prune things and I go looking for rare and unusual plants at garden centres. And I'm not the only one. Gardening is big business now, and has become really popular over the past few years. I think tv played a big part in that, lowering the point of entry so that it became an interest for the masses rather than an obsession for a few.
I think that Christianity suffers from the same kind of image problem now that gardening suffered 15 years ago. And if that can change for people's attitudes to the square of green stuff they look after then that kind of change can come about for their spiritual life too.
On the whole, Christians in the media are portrayed as elderly traditionalists, singing along in songs of praise, or odd obsessives; street preachers and american tv evangelists. There are of course a few 'vicar of dibley'ish exceptions.
We need a Ground Force for Christianity. I don't know what it will look like, but it just needs to show that it's possible to be young and normal and be interested in God. It needs to be able to show people that it's easy to do something with that unkempt bit of spirituality they've been neglecting for a while, and that a little bit of thought in that area can enhance their lives no end.
That's what evangelism is, it's taking people from where they are and helping them to think about what they could be. It doesn't involve massive amounts of theology, just taking the time to show people the big picture. Just like people watch Ground Force and then they imagine themselves sat outside on their own patio with a cocktail in their hand surrounded by flowers and smiling faces of friends, I'm sure there is some way of getting people to imagine themselves being on good terms with God, being a little more together, being a bit more loving, patient, kind ... all those fruits of God's spirit.
And I know it'll be working when people start writing to "Christianity" magazine about how it's not REAL Christianity - there's no proper theology, you can't build a faith in a weekend - real faith takes years of bible study and struggle and learning creeds and prayers and hymns.
Of course you can build a faith in a weekend, you can build it in a second. It's looking after it that takes the rest of your life. But it gets you hooked - and the results are worth it.
Every couple of months in those magazines, someone will write a letter about Ground Force (the tv programme where they make over a garden in two days). Something along these lines:
Dear Sirs,
As a gardener of many years I find it a travesty of justice that Ground Force continues to be shown on our television screens. This programme does not encourage REAL gardeners. It is impossible to make a garden in a weekend, a real garden takes many years to cultivate and the proliferation of decking and blue paint into our garden centres is a creeping menace that must be halted. Please join me in my campaign to have this disastrous programme taken from the airwaves.
Gardening on TV has been a feature of the TV landscape for many, many years. I remember my mum making time to watch gardeners world every week from the time I was young (She doesn't watch it much now because "Monty Don is always on about carrots"). But that programme was ok for those traditional gardeners - It told you the latin names of all the plants, it was a programme for people who grow Dahlias for shows, for people who know about pruning and mulching and for people who measure their garden in acres rather than feet.
Ground Force is different, it gives people with no gardening knowledge the idea that with a little bit of work and some imagination, they can have somewhere nice outside their back door for having barbeques in. That's how it started for me, and now I'm hooked, so much so that I know latin names for things and I know how to prune things and I go looking for rare and unusual plants at garden centres. And I'm not the only one. Gardening is big business now, and has become really popular over the past few years. I think tv played a big part in that, lowering the point of entry so that it became an interest for the masses rather than an obsession for a few.
I think that Christianity suffers from the same kind of image problem now that gardening suffered 15 years ago. And if that can change for people's attitudes to the square of green stuff they look after then that kind of change can come about for their spiritual life too.
On the whole, Christians in the media are portrayed as elderly traditionalists, singing along in songs of praise, or odd obsessives; street preachers and american tv evangelists. There are of course a few 'vicar of dibley'ish exceptions.
We need a Ground Force for Christianity. I don't know what it will look like, but it just needs to show that it's possible to be young and normal and be interested in God. It needs to be able to show people that it's easy to do something with that unkempt bit of spirituality they've been neglecting for a while, and that a little bit of thought in that area can enhance their lives no end.
That's what evangelism is, it's taking people from where they are and helping them to think about what they could be. It doesn't involve massive amounts of theology, just taking the time to show people the big picture. Just like people watch Ground Force and then they imagine themselves sat outside on their own patio with a cocktail in their hand surrounded by flowers and smiling faces of friends, I'm sure there is some way of getting people to imagine themselves being on good terms with God, being a little more together, being a bit more loving, patient, kind ... all those fruits of God's spirit.
And I know it'll be working when people start writing to "Christianity" magazine about how it's not REAL Christianity - there's no proper theology, you can't build a faith in a weekend - real faith takes years of bible study and struggle and learning creeds and prayers and hymns.
Of course you can build a faith in a weekend, you can build it in a second. It's looking after it that takes the rest of your life. But it gets you hooked - and the results are worth it.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Trinity
Often I've heard Christians saying things like "If only Jesus was here, it would be ok." and "I just want to be with Jesus." There's nothing wrong with those sentiments of course, there is a longing for an encounter with the tangible Jesus, but I think we often forget that God is revealed in more than one person, and one of those persons is with us.
When Jesus went away, he sent us his Holy Spirit - and that Spirit is a full member of the trinity of God. I sometimes think we don't give her the respect she deserves. We argue about what the Holy Spirit can and can't do - who are we to decide that? We have the Holy Spirit living with us and in us, and we don't pay her enough attention to make any difference to our lives! We are waiting for a bigger and better God to come along before we change - it doesn't get any better than the Holy Spirit in us, she is God.
(I'm not being deliberately provocative using 'She' for the Holy Spirit, I think God is bigger than the male/female segregations we know of (otherwise Jesus' death could not have saved me) and the idea that God is always 'he' and never has aspects of 'she' describes a God that is distant from women. There are lots of things feminists do with the image of God that I don't like, but the idea that the Holy Spirit has feminine qualities is one that I think is a realistic concept and (possibly) doesn't go against biblical revelation of who God is. I am open to being corrected though.)
When Jesus went away, he sent us his Holy Spirit - and that Spirit is a full member of the trinity of God. I sometimes think we don't give her the respect she deserves. We argue about what the Holy Spirit can and can't do - who are we to decide that? We have the Holy Spirit living with us and in us, and we don't pay her enough attention to make any difference to our lives! We are waiting for a bigger and better God to come along before we change - it doesn't get any better than the Holy Spirit in us, she is God.
(I'm not being deliberately provocative using 'She' for the Holy Spirit, I think God is bigger than the male/female segregations we know of (otherwise Jesus' death could not have saved me) and the idea that God is always 'he' and never has aspects of 'she' describes a God that is distant from women. There are lots of things feminists do with the image of God that I don't like, but the idea that the Holy Spirit has feminine qualities is one that I think is a realistic concept and (possibly) doesn't go against biblical revelation of who God is. I am open to being corrected though.)
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Thesis Done
Last tuesday was the deadline for my thesis so obviously I worked all weekend and monday and got very little sleep while working on trying to finish it off. I did get it finished, wrote the right number of words and managed to get it bound and handed in with one hour to spare.
However, I'm not convinced that I did a brilliant job. I think it was far too shallow in places, where I should have been aiming for something more profound. Nevertheless, it is done and I can't change it now. If anyone would like to read it, let me know in the comments here or send me an email (lou at silkworm dot org dot uk).
Here's a tiny extract of it, about creative prayer:
However, I'm not convinced that I did a brilliant job. I think it was far too shallow in places, where I should have been aiming for something more profound. Nevertheless, it is done and I can't change it now. If anyone would like to read it, let me know in the comments here or send me an email (lou at silkworm dot org dot uk).
Here's a tiny extract of it, about creative prayer:
Creative Prayer
Alternative worship is good at prayer. Or rather, it is good at creating spaces in which people can pray and creative ways of illustrating and embodying prayer. One example, taken from a Sanctus 1 service was a prayer for peace in the world. We wrote our individual prayers for peace on coloured paper, taking time to think through the issues and pray seriously and quietly. We then followed instructions to turn the paper into origami cranes – a UN symbol of peace. Our creations were hung from the ceiling and our birds joined a flock of similar winged peace prayers. In this way, our prayers were both individual and corporate, while being creative and thoughtful.
This exercise could have provoked many responses. My own was to think how peace does not just appear from nowhere. Peace takes time and effort. It requires peacemakers, guidelines and love and making peace will involve some wrong turns and some creative thinking. It would have been entirely possible to undertake that exercise without really praying or engaging the brain or senses – but the same is true of most worship. It is possible to attend but not truly partake.
Limitations of Contemplation
Pete Ward’s book Liquid Church shares a dream of how a networked, community focused, creative and culturally relevant church might look. It is a good dream but I feel that where it is strong on a revaluation of ecclesiastical structure for a contemporary age, and good in a call for greater creativity, it is weak in the creative applications of this dream towards worship. Ward sets out some examples of worship that might work well in this new fluid church, these are all examples of what he calls ‘decentred worship’. Some of the examples are what we would recognise as alternative worship – a labyrinth at St Paul’s Cathedral with prayer stations and activities for reflection and a greenbelt service where various activities were available for people to partake in and they were free to choose whether to wander round the room and take part or sit quietly and pray. His other examples were of Greek Orthodox worship and pre-reformation worship, where again, worshippers took part in a number of activities as the service went on.
These are all valuable spiritual exercises, and it is good to be able to worship in freedom without being told exactly how and when that worship will happen. However, for a movement that is calling for more creativity in worship, to promote only one creative method for people to be involved in worship seems like a backward step. All of the examples portrayed in Liquid Church are varieties of how to pray individually and in silence in a corporate setting. If individual prayer, no matter how creative, is all there is to alternative worship then worship will truly be paralysed as a result.
Alternative worship has really explored many different and interesting ways to provide much needed space for individual prayer. Thankfully, there are also alternative ways of praying corporately – in a centred way. There are also alternative ways of praying for one another and there are many creative ideas that enhance other aspects of worship too.
Monday, February 28, 2005
postmodernism
I've not blogged much recently and there's a very good reason for that, blogging is a great distraction from doing real work. I always seem to think that I'll just put something down quickly and an hour later I'm still composing (what I think is) the most exquisite post ever. Unfortunately I've got lots of work to do and deadlines looming large over me so I've been trying to avoid actually writing anything that might take up too much time.
I think I might have time for a little thinking about postmodernism though, and it'll help me with my work cause I've got to include my thoughts on it in my thesis (because a lot of people who write about emerging church mention it as a contributing factor).
I'd rather not mention it at all but I feel I should because too much talk of postmodernism is misleading. In fact, I think a lot of the talk about postmodernism by christian leaders and authors is wasted and they'd be better off talking about culture in other terms.
I don't think I understand what postmodernism is, that's not because I've not understood the 'what is postmdernism' chapters in all those christian books that promise to have the answer to what the church of the future will look like, but because I've not read or engaged with Lyotard, Foucalt or Derrida. I have no idea what they actually said, only the popular interpretation that is doing the rounds in christian circles - use pictures cause postmodern generations are media-saturated, short attention span, samplers of culture; don't say you have the truth, they/we think there is no truth; no to authority; no to science; no to religion, (but yes to spirituality); lets deconstruct everything and revel in the inconsistencies and fragments. So please excuse me if I've mis-represented postmodernism at all, I think that probably is the case, but that's the understanding of postmodernism as presented to many christians.
I'm not going to say those things are wrong, but they don't give a full picture of society as I see it. For example, take that short attention span and love of pictures and images that postmoderns are supposed to have, if that was true then we'd all be watching 10 minute silent films and nothing more! Nobody would be reading all those harry potter books that are so popular, nobody would be writing or reading blogs. And what about that rejection of modern enlightenment thought - universities are still churning out scientists and doctors, people still choose to study and practice engineering and computing. The science machine is still rumbling on, pushing development in all areas - can we really afford to ignore that?
I recently took part in a seminar where we were discussing different personality types. I looked at different figures in church history and saw how people had met God in different ways. My co-host did something about personality typing based on the myers briggs indicators and that really made me think about who we are as a people. We are diverse, we think differently.
Myers briggs just gives categories of personality that people can identify with, but people in different categories will react differently to things - some like to see the big picture (relate well to metanarratives? not very postmodern!) and others like to get lost in the details (I can see that in postmodernism as I understand it). Some think in logical structured ways, others like to explore a problem from many different angles. Some people need structure, others like imagery. Some need facts, others need experience.
My own wee theory about postmodernism is not that it doesn't exist, but that what we see as a postmodern change in society is actually all those people who repond to imagery, story and experience standing up and saying - actually, my needs are important too. To understand and connect with people, we need both sides of the story, we need emotion as well as knowledge, we need to understand that other people know different, contradictory 'truths' to us and be gentle in our assertions of truth.
The Church can't continue to blame postmodernism for all its problems. Even people who need facts and knowledge need to have them presented in an engaging way. Even people who like listening to sermons need to have good sermons to listen to - don't blame people's short attention span if they can't listen to you ramble on, if they're not listening it's probably more likely that you're being boring!
Having said that, I realise that I'm being really boring so I'll sign off now and do something more important, I've got a thesis to finish for tomorrow!
I think I might have time for a little thinking about postmodernism though, and it'll help me with my work cause I've got to include my thoughts on it in my thesis (because a lot of people who write about emerging church mention it as a contributing factor).
I'd rather not mention it at all but I feel I should because too much talk of postmodernism is misleading. In fact, I think a lot of the talk about postmodernism by christian leaders and authors is wasted and they'd be better off talking about culture in other terms.
I don't think I understand what postmodernism is, that's not because I've not understood the 'what is postmdernism' chapters in all those christian books that promise to have the answer to what the church of the future will look like, but because I've not read or engaged with Lyotard, Foucalt or Derrida. I have no idea what they actually said, only the popular interpretation that is doing the rounds in christian circles - use pictures cause postmodern generations are media-saturated, short attention span, samplers of culture; don't say you have the truth, they/we think there is no truth; no to authority; no to science; no to religion, (but yes to spirituality); lets deconstruct everything and revel in the inconsistencies and fragments. So please excuse me if I've mis-represented postmodernism at all, I think that probably is the case, but that's the understanding of postmodernism as presented to many christians.
I'm not going to say those things are wrong, but they don't give a full picture of society as I see it. For example, take that short attention span and love of pictures and images that postmoderns are supposed to have, if that was true then we'd all be watching 10 minute silent films and nothing more! Nobody would be reading all those harry potter books that are so popular, nobody would be writing or reading blogs. And what about that rejection of modern enlightenment thought - universities are still churning out scientists and doctors, people still choose to study and practice engineering and computing. The science machine is still rumbling on, pushing development in all areas - can we really afford to ignore that?
I recently took part in a seminar where we were discussing different personality types. I looked at different figures in church history and saw how people had met God in different ways. My co-host did something about personality typing based on the myers briggs indicators and that really made me think about who we are as a people. We are diverse, we think differently.
Myers briggs just gives categories of personality that people can identify with, but people in different categories will react differently to things - some like to see the big picture (relate well to metanarratives? not very postmodern!) and others like to get lost in the details (I can see that in postmodernism as I understand it). Some think in logical structured ways, others like to explore a problem from many different angles. Some people need structure, others like imagery. Some need facts, others need experience.
My own wee theory about postmodernism is not that it doesn't exist, but that what we see as a postmodern change in society is actually all those people who repond to imagery, story and experience standing up and saying - actually, my needs are important too. To understand and connect with people, we need both sides of the story, we need emotion as well as knowledge, we need to understand that other people know different, contradictory 'truths' to us and be gentle in our assertions of truth.
The Church can't continue to blame postmodernism for all its problems. Even people who need facts and knowledge need to have them presented in an engaging way. Even people who like listening to sermons need to have good sermons to listen to - don't blame people's short attention span if they can't listen to you ramble on, if they're not listening it's probably more likely that you're being boring!
Having said that, I realise that I'm being really boring so I'll sign off now and do something more important, I've got a thesis to finish for tomorrow!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Simplicity
Richard has got me thinking about all sorts of things. He's that kind of guy, with a brain that never stops, and that kind of perpetual motion of the thinking muscles can be rather infectious. One thing he's got me thinking about is how to portray a simple gospel message, including all the main points of the Christian message but that's simple enough for anyone to understand. So, I thought I'd have a go:
God exists. That's something that I'm pretty sure of now, sure enough to spend several years of my life dedicated to finding out more about Him, but I wasn't always so sure. First it took a tentative acceptance that God might exist, then it became faith that God did exist. There are 'proofs' of God's existence, but honestly, they're not that convincing. What really convinced me that God exists is the change he has made in me, we have a relationship, me and God, and it's not all one way. You can't have a relationship with a fictional being, God is not an imaginary friend, imaginary friends don't change how you are or how you feel.
I'm getting ahead of myself here, this is the end of the story, and you need to hear the beginning. If you trust me that God exists, then trust me when I tell you that God created us. In fact he created everything, but especially he created us, and he made us for a purpose, to love - to love Him and to love one another, and because He created us, He loves us - like a mother seeing her child's face for the first time, that kind of love.
It could have been a blissful state, creator and createe living together in mutual love, God caring for us and us responding to God, trusting him and talking to him regularly. So why aren't things like that? There's a little word that Christians use that sums up what when wrong and that word is 'sin'. Sin has two meanings, it means the overall breakdown of that God/mankind relationship and it also means the things that we do that are the result of that broken state. Most people know the second meaning of the word - they know that murder is a sin and theft is a sin but they don't know that even if you can't put your finger on any one nasty thing like that that you've done sin is still a part of your life. It's still a part of my life too because even though I'm a christian and I believe in God, that doesn't make me perfect, there's still a long way to go to fully restore my relationship with God. I've got a lot of bad habits to break and a lot of rebellious thoughts to bring under God's control.
I don't know when we lost our love for God, when we became hard-hearted, I don't know when we turned our love for God into love for money, power or sex but I know that happened and we see the results of it all around us. God would not be a loving God if he wasn't angered by our behaviour to one another and distraught by our rejection of him but God never lost his love for us, never gave up on us, he thinks we are worth saving.
You see there's a bigger problem than we realise about separating ourselves from God and we didn't know it until God told us about it. God is the source of our life and we don't know how dependant on Him we really are, our own resources are finite, every second we spend away from God, we are dying. Of course, we're all physically dying, but we're also dying spiritually, we need some kind of help otherwise that void between ourselves and God will only get wider and we will cut ourselves off completely from the source of all life and all hope. If there is any such thing as hell, surely that is it - to be completely removed from God. Because I'm a christian, I do believe death is not the end for us, the life we live is going to continue but that does require God's intervention and to live a full life after death requires us to assent to being refilled with God's life here and now.
So far I've described a problem and its solution, but I haven't explained how that solution came about, what it was that God did that made it possible for us to turn back to him.
It happened through one man - Jesus. This man was special, people could see it in him, he was different, he cared. He had an air of authority but wasn't aloof, his teaching was refreshing and something about him drew people to him. He did things that only God could do and said things only God should say and a few of his closest followers guessed the truth, this man who was just like them was God himself. They must have shaken their heads to try to get this ridiculous thought out - how could a man be God? how could God become just an ordinary man?
People noticed that Jesus was different, special and that he had something they didn't, something they wanted. What he had was a never-ending supply of spirit, and therefore a never-ending supply of life. There was no abyss between Jesus and God, he was born with all the disadvantages that we are, with all the temptations to sin, in the same frail body and with the same weak mind yet he was all-consumed by his relationship with God, he was completely reliant on God's spirit - his own spirit - within him. Directed by that spirit he always chose the way of love for others, not love for himself.
That obedience to God's direction even led him to not fight when men came to take him away, when he was sentenced to death, and when he was beaten and nailed to the tortuous cross. God died. We are so distant from God that we didn't recognise him when he turned up and we killed him. It was our sin that put Jesus on the cross -and I say our because I mean mine too, it wasn't just a handful of people years ago that killed Jesus, he died because of your broken relationship with God, and because of mine.
That could have been the end of the story and if it had been, we would all have been lost but Jesus death was not the end. Resurrection means coming back from death, but it's more than just the reanimation of a body, it's the beginning of a new and different and fuller life and that's what Jesus began. Jesus resurrection is a mystery, I can't explain the mechanics of it, I can't understand how Jesus could be resurrected from death and although I know Jesus was special, I don't understand why he could be resurrected and we couldn't - except that it's sometihng to do with his purity, his closeness to God and his supply of inexhaustible life. That is we couldn't until Jesus had first been raised because Jesus did something for us when he died, not just for himself. He offered us a gift of the same kind of life and purity and closeness to God that allowed him to break through death's grip. It was our sin that killed him and he is able to forgive us for that, to restore the relationship that we need with God that gives us life.
Learning to live with God in our lives is slow progress, we have learnt many rebellious traits that will take a long time to unlearn, we have taught ourselves that it is better to look after number one than to care for others and we need to relearn the value of love. When we look again to God, he accepts us, forgives us and fills us again with his life and we begin to die to sin, dying the death of Jesus so that we can share in his eternal life.
I know that's not short, but I hope it is simple. You might not think it is simple and I will accept that I have probably waffled around some of the ideas in here, trying to express inadequately what someone great could have probably said in two sentences. No matter how much I think about and try to understand, I know that what I have given falls short of the real good news of God several times over. It can never be more than a story that points to the real truth that is only found completely in Jesus, and I'm pretty sure that some minor points won't quite be right but I've tried to keep my story in line with the stories of Jesus found in the bible. You may know other stories, and yours may disagree with mine in some places. I don't mind that as long as you are convinced that your stories are in line with the bible too. Keep telling your story, keep telling your good news and hopefully all our flawed stories will lead people to Jesus where they can find the real truth and real life and real hope.
God exists. That's something that I'm pretty sure of now, sure enough to spend several years of my life dedicated to finding out more about Him, but I wasn't always so sure. First it took a tentative acceptance that God might exist, then it became faith that God did exist. There are 'proofs' of God's existence, but honestly, they're not that convincing. What really convinced me that God exists is the change he has made in me, we have a relationship, me and God, and it's not all one way. You can't have a relationship with a fictional being, God is not an imaginary friend, imaginary friends don't change how you are or how you feel.
I'm getting ahead of myself here, this is the end of the story, and you need to hear the beginning. If you trust me that God exists, then trust me when I tell you that God created us. In fact he created everything, but especially he created us, and he made us for a purpose, to love - to love Him and to love one another, and because He created us, He loves us - like a mother seeing her child's face for the first time, that kind of love.
It could have been a blissful state, creator and createe living together in mutual love, God caring for us and us responding to God, trusting him and talking to him regularly. So why aren't things like that? There's a little word that Christians use that sums up what when wrong and that word is 'sin'. Sin has two meanings, it means the overall breakdown of that God/mankind relationship and it also means the things that we do that are the result of that broken state. Most people know the second meaning of the word - they know that murder is a sin and theft is a sin but they don't know that even if you can't put your finger on any one nasty thing like that that you've done sin is still a part of your life. It's still a part of my life too because even though I'm a christian and I believe in God, that doesn't make me perfect, there's still a long way to go to fully restore my relationship with God. I've got a lot of bad habits to break and a lot of rebellious thoughts to bring under God's control.
I don't know when we lost our love for God, when we became hard-hearted, I don't know when we turned our love for God into love for money, power or sex but I know that happened and we see the results of it all around us. God would not be a loving God if he wasn't angered by our behaviour to one another and distraught by our rejection of him but God never lost his love for us, never gave up on us, he thinks we are worth saving.
You see there's a bigger problem than we realise about separating ourselves from God and we didn't know it until God told us about it. God is the source of our life and we don't know how dependant on Him we really are, our own resources are finite, every second we spend away from God, we are dying. Of course, we're all physically dying, but we're also dying spiritually, we need some kind of help otherwise that void between ourselves and God will only get wider and we will cut ourselves off completely from the source of all life and all hope. If there is any such thing as hell, surely that is it - to be completely removed from God. Because I'm a christian, I do believe death is not the end for us, the life we live is going to continue but that does require God's intervention and to live a full life after death requires us to assent to being refilled with God's life here and now.
So far I've described a problem and its solution, but I haven't explained how that solution came about, what it was that God did that made it possible for us to turn back to him.
It happened through one man - Jesus. This man was special, people could see it in him, he was different, he cared. He had an air of authority but wasn't aloof, his teaching was refreshing and something about him drew people to him. He did things that only God could do and said things only God should say and a few of his closest followers guessed the truth, this man who was just like them was God himself. They must have shaken their heads to try to get this ridiculous thought out - how could a man be God? how could God become just an ordinary man?
People noticed that Jesus was different, special and that he had something they didn't, something they wanted. What he had was a never-ending supply of spirit, and therefore a never-ending supply of life. There was no abyss between Jesus and God, he was born with all the disadvantages that we are, with all the temptations to sin, in the same frail body and with the same weak mind yet he was all-consumed by his relationship with God, he was completely reliant on God's spirit - his own spirit - within him. Directed by that spirit he always chose the way of love for others, not love for himself.
That obedience to God's direction even led him to not fight when men came to take him away, when he was sentenced to death, and when he was beaten and nailed to the tortuous cross. God died. We are so distant from God that we didn't recognise him when he turned up and we killed him. It was our sin that put Jesus on the cross -and I say our because I mean mine too, it wasn't just a handful of people years ago that killed Jesus, he died because of your broken relationship with God, and because of mine.
That could have been the end of the story and if it had been, we would all have been lost but Jesus death was not the end. Resurrection means coming back from death, but it's more than just the reanimation of a body, it's the beginning of a new and different and fuller life and that's what Jesus began. Jesus resurrection is a mystery, I can't explain the mechanics of it, I can't understand how Jesus could be resurrected from death and although I know Jesus was special, I don't understand why he could be resurrected and we couldn't - except that it's sometihng to do with his purity, his closeness to God and his supply of inexhaustible life. That is we couldn't until Jesus had first been raised because Jesus did something for us when he died, not just for himself. He offered us a gift of the same kind of life and purity and closeness to God that allowed him to break through death's grip. It was our sin that killed him and he is able to forgive us for that, to restore the relationship that we need with God that gives us life.
Learning to live with God in our lives is slow progress, we have learnt many rebellious traits that will take a long time to unlearn, we have taught ourselves that it is better to look after number one than to care for others and we need to relearn the value of love. When we look again to God, he accepts us, forgives us and fills us again with his life and we begin to die to sin, dying the death of Jesus so that we can share in his eternal life.
I know that's not short, but I hope it is simple. You might not think it is simple and I will accept that I have probably waffled around some of the ideas in here, trying to express inadequately what someone great could have probably said in two sentences. No matter how much I think about and try to understand, I know that what I have given falls short of the real good news of God several times over. It can never be more than a story that points to the real truth that is only found completely in Jesus, and I'm pretty sure that some minor points won't quite be right but I've tried to keep my story in line with the stories of Jesus found in the bible. You may know other stories, and yours may disagree with mine in some places. I don't mind that as long as you are convinced that your stories are in line with the bible too. Keep telling your story, keep telling your good news and hopefully all our flawed stories will lead people to Jesus where they can find the real truth and real life and real hope.
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