Is faith a lifestyle choice?
Most of the time I feel really uncomfortable with the demands Churches make on people's time and money on God's behalf. I worry about the power structures involved and often the infantalizing of the membership that are involved. And yet...
When we watch shows like the x factor and listen to people talk about how much being in the show means and how hard they are going to work, only to see them not bother to learn the songs we know that there has been a degree of delusion going on. We know the hopefuls who promise everything and then fail to put in the leg work are kidding themselves. If we are honest we may admit that that is part of the fun of the show. If everyone was hard working and reasonably talented, we would probably have given up on it by now.
What if following Jesus is like that. What if all those promises to forgive and to love unconditionally were one's we were supposed to keep. There might be quite a bit of work involved, Christianity could involve commitment, and being transformed by a process of struggling to live up to the calling of the Gospel. Would honest self examination mean admitting that we take the bits we like from Church, but leave the work to others, or that we enjoy the comforts of faith without following through on it's demands. If so perhaps we need to hear the Church calling us to a more challenging discipleship, and pointing out the narrow gate and hard path that we need to take if we want to follow Jesus.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Forgiven!
Whenever I introduce the Confession in Church I ask people to reflect on what their grateful for as well as what their sorry for. I find myself looking at the way the Church presents God's forgiveness and wondering if we haven't lost something important.
I took part in a service at Greenbelt where during the absolution we blew bubbles. As the tent filled with bubbles I was struck with how the focus was on the gentleness of God whose forgiveness is tender and light, and even playful. It is filled with love, and in the stories Jesus told led to celebration.
What if forgiveness as God does it, is joyful and about reconciliation, creating new possibilities and releasing us to fulfil our potentialities. What if that forgiveness is a model for us in our relationships, both personal, and at the level of communities?
Perhaps absolution is less like the setting aside of a punishment and more a welcome back and an invitation to come and join the party.
I took part in a service at Greenbelt where during the absolution we blew bubbles. As the tent filled with bubbles I was struck with how the focus was on the gentleness of God whose forgiveness is tender and light, and even playful. It is filled with love, and in the stories Jesus told led to celebration.
What if forgiveness as God does it, is joyful and about reconciliation, creating new possibilities and releasing us to fulfil our potentialities. What if that forgiveness is a model for us in our relationships, both personal, and at the level of communities?
Perhaps absolution is less like the setting aside of a punishment and more a welcome back and an invitation to come and join the party.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Don't dream it, be it.
Frankenfurter sang "Don't dream it, be it." Gandhi said "You must be the change you seek in the world". I wonder what Church would look like if we lived it like we wish it was. In my last blog I said how disillusioned I often felt by the Church, which I guess shows that I am a romantic rather than a cynic, I still dream of what Church might be, and am disilusioned when it fails to live up to my hopes.
I don't expect Church to be full of complete saints, I like the Orthodox Church's view that Church is like Hospital; a place for the sick to get better. Where I get disappointed is that the Church holds onto power, holds onto prejudices that the rest of the world has moved on from, and values reputation above truth.
I could look at the Catholic Church attempting to protect it's reputation by hiding the scale of child abuse, or the Anglican Church's treatment of Gay people or women Priests and Bishops. I could look at my own preaching and the care I take not to cause offence or challenge people to the extent that they consider whether they want to remain in a Church where I minister. In each instance I could make excuses, the Catholic Church does seem genuinely repentant, the Anglican Church places a high value on unity, largely because Jesus did, and is loathe to leave traditionalists feeling excluded, and I feel pastorally responsible for those entrusted to me. Yet part of me looks at the wrist straps we gave our youth group with it's question WWJD? What would Jesus do? Would he start using phrases about white washed tombs, and blind guides again? What would he want us to do, or to be?
I find myself imagining the Church that was a sign of the Kingdom of God. In some ways so different from the Church as it exists now. Firstly it would be on the side of the poor, unafraid to challenge the rich and powerful. Secondly it would be a place of liberation, and somewhere that challenges all that oppresses us. Thirdly it would have a passionate reverence for God's creation. Fourthly it would be good at recognising Jesus in others. Fifthly it would be a place of celebration, rejoicing with people in all that is good in their lives, rather than standing in judgement and using condemnation as a means of control. These would all be signs that the Kingdom of God is in our midst, and that Church people have got hold of the love o God and are being transformed by it.
I don't expect Church to be full of complete saints, I like the Orthodox Church's view that Church is like Hospital; a place for the sick to get better. Where I get disappointed is that the Church holds onto power, holds onto prejudices that the rest of the world has moved on from, and values reputation above truth.
I could look at the Catholic Church attempting to protect it's reputation by hiding the scale of child abuse, or the Anglican Church's treatment of Gay people or women Priests and Bishops. I could look at my own preaching and the care I take not to cause offence or challenge people to the extent that they consider whether they want to remain in a Church where I minister. In each instance I could make excuses, the Catholic Church does seem genuinely repentant, the Anglican Church places a high value on unity, largely because Jesus did, and is loathe to leave traditionalists feeling excluded, and I feel pastorally responsible for those entrusted to me. Yet part of me looks at the wrist straps we gave our youth group with it's question WWJD? What would Jesus do? Would he start using phrases about white washed tombs, and blind guides again? What would he want us to do, or to be?
I find myself imagining the Church that was a sign of the Kingdom of God. In some ways so different from the Church as it exists now. Firstly it would be on the side of the poor, unafraid to challenge the rich and powerful. Secondly it would be a place of liberation, and somewhere that challenges all that oppresses us. Thirdly it would have a passionate reverence for God's creation. Fourthly it would be good at recognising Jesus in others. Fifthly it would be a place of celebration, rejoicing with people in all that is good in their lives, rather than standing in judgement and using condemnation as a means of control. These would all be signs that the Kingdom of God is in our midst, and that Church people have got hold of the love o God and are being transformed by it.
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Feeling disillusioned?
If your faith journey began with a response to the promise of a relationship with God, you may over time have become a little disillusioned. For those who came to faith, largely because of the threat of hell, then the anxiety maybe a bit different, but might well be there all the same. If you have always been a Churchgoer, and for you Churchgoer and Christian are synonymous then the feeling may be less obvious, more a wondering if that's it?
I would say that on two separate occasions God has spoken to me, in ways that I was immediately aware of, on many other occasions, I would say that I have been aware of his nudging me in a particular direction. Including the direction of ordained ministry. Yet this does not seem to be the "Jesus as your best friend" relationship that Christians talked about and without wishing to pass to much judgement on other peoples relationships with God I struggle when people tell me that they just chat away to God and God chats back, just like you would having coffee in Starbucks with your mate. Partly I am suspicious because this chatty God never has terribly interesting things to say, this God seems to have become more god, without mystery or majesty. This God does not seem to challenge the way we think or demand that we become more than we already are, become the person we were created to be.
I value my disillusionment, my sense that I have not arrived, that somehow I am yet to catch hold of what the Kingdom really is. That sense of disatisfaction keeps me coming back to God , it means that even as I try to lead two churches, I remain a seeker. I seek a fuller picture of who God is, a clearer understanding of who I am called to be and an understanding of what Church might be.
I am convinced that Church and the relationships that exist within it have the potential to be healing, revelatory and to be places where we see the Kingdom in action. They can also be places where people are judged, damaged, and convinced that if there is a God then that God has no interest in them, and that they are only welcome as second class citizens. I want to catch hold of the vision of Church as liberating and healing and a revelation of the love of God. Some times I get a sense of it, other times I just have to accept feeling disillusioned.
I would say that on two separate occasions God has spoken to me, in ways that I was immediately aware of, on many other occasions, I would say that I have been aware of his nudging me in a particular direction. Including the direction of ordained ministry. Yet this does not seem to be the "Jesus as your best friend" relationship that Christians talked about and without wishing to pass to much judgement on other peoples relationships with God I struggle when people tell me that they just chat away to God and God chats back, just like you would having coffee in Starbucks with your mate. Partly I am suspicious because this chatty God never has terribly interesting things to say, this God seems to have become more god, without mystery or majesty. This God does not seem to challenge the way we think or demand that we become more than we already are, become the person we were created to be.
I value my disillusionment, my sense that I have not arrived, that somehow I am yet to catch hold of what the Kingdom really is. That sense of disatisfaction keeps me coming back to God , it means that even as I try to lead two churches, I remain a seeker. I seek a fuller picture of who God is, a clearer understanding of who I am called to be and an understanding of what Church might be.
I am convinced that Church and the relationships that exist within it have the potential to be healing, revelatory and to be places where we see the Kingdom in action. They can also be places where people are judged, damaged, and convinced that if there is a God then that God has no interest in them, and that they are only welcome as second class citizens. I want to catch hold of the vision of Church as liberating and healing and a revelation of the love of God. Some times I get a sense of it, other times I just have to accept feeling disillusioned.
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