When a window is a mirror, you can see two ways!

‘The first characteristic of the spiritual life is the continuing movement from loneliness to solitude. Its second equally important characteristic is the movement by which our hostilities can be converted into hospitality. It is there that our changing relationship to ourself can be brought to fruition in an ever-changing relationship to our fellow human beings. It is there that our reaching out to our innermost being can lead to a reaching out to the many strangers whom we meet on our way through life’ (Nouwen, Reaching Out, 1990, Fount Paperbacks, p43)
I don’t know about you, but generally the opportunity of meeting stangers occurs when my life-routes veer in different directions. If I was to look down on my life it would probably, in a short time, consist of a similar image to that of animal tracks leading towards the only watering hole or shady tree. Over time such paths, which at first were perhaps overgrown or un-trodden become clear from above as paths, roads, ways. It is, generally, when I decide to be led not by some internal satnav but, rather, by the Spirit of God that I am led to others and through others I am drawn. This is pretty obvious stuff! However, the cultural norm is that when ones life takes a road unfamiliar or encounters a person ’strange’ the default setting can be fear, suspicion, a feeling of being alone. The response, certainly seen in the bible about Jesus is counter-cultural to this. To be led into a way as yet uncreated by my own conscious experience of it provides an image of the God who creates and embeds experience in a place where the senses are pushed to adapt and learn in an unfamiliar environment. Of course, yes, God can and does heighten the conscious awareness of the Spirit through everyday routine journeys, experiences and yet, the concept of the pilgrim, challenges the dominant socio theory that we build for the here and now. (As if such a moment can be grasped).
When does a person truly stop being a stranger in some way, anyhow?
Fortunately, the life of Jesus reveals that we can be pushed into encounters with the Spirit-edge through the desert but also in the city, on the beach. Reaching out happens, maybe, as we are prepared to not get comfortable with our conditioned-response to a given environment, situation or in challenging our daily satnav journeys.

Different Roads

I was chatting to a friend the other day about my original idea for my MA dissertation, which had the working title of ‘Sin, Sex and Satan’, but with hindsight and in the words of Willy Mason ‘Gotta Keep On Movin’. And moved I did. Obviously it is much easier to try and examine an effective dialogue-paradigm between traditional models of church and emergent ones. A further conversation reminded me about wireless communities and whether what I previously wrote really has substance to it, or whether as has been mentioned ‘It is in [the] desert, as we wander together as nomads, that God is to be found’ (from Peter Rollins’ ‘How (Not) to speak of God’ quoted in review by TallSkinnyKiwi).
One of the reasons I was originally attracted -or found a ‘home- in Anglicanism was because my previous expereince of christian communities seemed shallow, rootless and in need of a deeper journey within. Anglicanism offered me a place to explore, even at times a place to scream and yet God never stops moving or more accurately I never stop moving towards where God has been. And yet, now, I again am wanting to root or maybe merge the experience of that which speaks of a God who has been faithful with a God whose faithfulness is revealed in the life lived now, shaped through the days and nights yet to come.
When John V Taylor in ‘The Go-Between God’ wrote about the playful Spirit was he seeing a vision of mission which was holistic in orthopraxis and ecclesiological structures in a way that not only where the Spirit is-are we free, but where we can be so that the Spirit is free. ‘… as a result of institutionalizing the expereince of the Holy Spirit his special gifts were removed entirely from the normal life and witness of the church and limited either to the aristocracy [or] transformed individuals’ (p209, Taylor, 1972).
I am hoping that through the gift of an opportunity I have to study that the area I am researching would reveal certain creative and dynamic ways forward in order that Anglicanism does not become split between de-emergent and post-emergent in a way that creates yet another vaccuum.

GreenBelt 08

A Fantastic time out with friends at this years festival (see Jon Taylor’s reflections). Highlights were as often the case – catching up with friends – Dave Wiles, Howard J, and David R. I was really encouraged about different things to reflect on from the tallskinnykiwi (such as itips and soon to be released book by Phyllis Tickle ‘The Great Emergence’). His talks certainly helped stimulate conversations over a couple of organic beers at the ‘Jesus Arms’. Music was pretty good, a highlight for me was ‘Emmanuel Jal’! There were still many tensions and questions in listenening to dialogue between emerging communities, traditional models and the difficult balancing act of postmodern engagement at the expense of walking a dangerous road to exclusivity. Brian Mclaren (check out the linked interview)was emotionally engaging and visually beautiful. Anyway there was no greater highlight than seeing my daughter dancing to the beat-boxed-coldcut-classic – legendary!

Prayer

The following is taken from the excellent book by Kenneth Bailey ‘Jesus through middle eastern eyes’,

Before teaching the prayer, Jesus offers his disciples some advice about how to pray:

When you are praying, do not heap up empty praises as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. (Mt 6.7 NRSV)

This is puzzling. On the one hand the prayers of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels, are quite short. On the other hand those same Gospels relate that occasionally Jesus prayed all night. This raises the question of the nature of prayer. Did prayer for Jesus include long periods of Spirit-filled silent communion with God that was beyond the need for words?

The Fathers of the Eastern Churches certainly thought so. In the seventh century, Isaac the Syrian wrote about ’stillness,’ which in his writings has been summarized as ‘a deliberate denial of the gift of words for the sake of achieving inner silence, in the midst of which a person can hear the presence of God. It is standing unceasingly, silent, and prayerfully before God’ (Helarion Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian (Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cisercian Publications, 2000, p77).

It is easy to assume that a long prayer equals a good prayer and a short prayer is an immature prayer. The Gospel accounts contradicts this. In Matthew 6:7-8 Jesus criticizes the Gentiles for long prayers. When they addressed their gods (which usually included the reigning emperor), the Gentiles used long salutations. They wanted to be sure to use all the correct titles lest the god (Ceasar?) take offense. p92

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(Some excerpts from)

Summary: The Lord’s Prayer: God our Father

1. Jesus inaugurated a new age by praying in Aramaic. He thereby set aside the precious heritage of a sacred language and a sacred culture, and made every language into an adequate manger into which the Word of God could be placed

3. The accumulating of titles and phrases is discouraged. Words offered to God are precious, must be sincere and can be few.

4. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God who is near and yet far away. He is ‘our Father’ and at the same time is ‘in the heavens.’

5. Set times for prayer are neither affirmed nor rejected. Jesus apparently wanted his followers to go beyond the pattern of three daily prayers, which was the practice of his day.

9. God is ‘our Father.’ The personal finds its deepest meaning in the communal. God is ‘my father’ because he is ‘our Father.’   p102-103

Pilgrim or Patron

To Journey without being Changed is to be a nomad,                    

To Change without Journeying is to be a chameleon,

To Journey and be Transformed is to be a Pilgrim.

(Mark Nepo, philosopher, poet, author).

I grabbed this quote off a friend who runs a centre for the homeless and marginalized and it made me reflect on the journey I am on. Am I just settled for progressing through the Western rites of passage on my way to a residential home, stopping off at the appropriate places and moments. Following this path as one who allows life to change me in a passive way, rather than initiating, creating, being proactive in my search for change and all that encompasses. Or am I so focussed on being changed of becoming something I want to be or re-ordering what I already am that I have forgotten the bigger picture of the journey that I am travelling? As soon as the word pilgrim is spoken, all sorts of images fill the mind. Perhaps, more than anything, thoughts about monks or people on journeys of faith to sacred places. Such things can be nothing more than religious symbols and de-personalized experiences. Yet, my calling is to not remain static but to keep moving. To be transformed and allow myself to be formed rather than remaining the way I am. I am to be aware of the journey with others that I am on, as well as my own journey. A pilgrim is fluid, open, explorative, intuitive, always arriving but never there, willing, struggling but keeping on, hopeful and yet realistic, dreaming and yet earthy, needing nothing, loving and learning to love and the list goes on… to be continued…

Everything is Spiritual

Yes Rob Bell is fantastic and yes the content provides exciting and stimulating thoughts and strands weaving their merry way to an impressive conclusion. Yes he borrows a lot from heschel and you are maybe waiting for the but… but there is to be no real but. Is a person who constantly critiques teaching, preaching etc, a human being or is it human doing? I believe in some aspects of inner-child-work such as Bradshaw et al and also elements of yoga, reiki and some esoteric practices only in the sense and regard that they implement and teach practices found, already, in the scriptures; ‘Be still, and know’. Yet they do highlight the stillness and awe of experiencing salvation in our human-spiritual relation with the fibre of creation and life itself. Jesus is that life. One of my old poems has the line ‘the next breath i breathe is a gift from heaven, and when it’s gone you grant me another one’. Such profoundity is within a drop of water. This, as i am sure you are aware, is nothing new but many human communities have such strands within their cultural histories and frameworks. The rich tapestry and depth of langauage in the book of Hebrews describes the spiritual dress that clothes the people of God – we are ultimately fed with a bread not of this earth (physical?) but of heaven (spiritual?). When i watch my daughter grow, i can only know everything is spiritual!

Missional Preaching

Taking the website http://www.postmodernpreaching.net/missional.htm as the foundation for this. In the article on missional preaching it remarks on 5 characteristics: prayer-dependent, God centered, transformative, engaged with the community, compassionate and suggests ‘Missional preaching is preaching under a vigorous sense of the power and reign of God.’ Do you agree with this? I am not sure why the tag missional has been attached to preaching which bares these hall marks – preaching, although flexible and broad in style, content and application, should always have to some degree a sense of the power and reign of God. This got be thinking about other tags which would today be appropriately added to preaching. What are your thoughts on 5 marks of ‘Ecological Preaching’, ‘Sexuality Preaching’, or ‘Anti-consumerism Preaching’?