The SEC youth week
There is something special about going away from home to spend time with a group of people. There are lots of links to follow to explore the possibilities this week could open up. Do you know anyone who might be interested?
Category: Theology
Categories
Lavender Haze
Lavender Haze and the Struggle for Egalitarian Marriage by Liz Cooledge Jenkins
Who defines marriage? This article discusses issues inherited from the 1950’s that are still influencing behaviour.
When does liberation become lassez-fair?
I draw during the 11 O’clock service. The pencil and paper help me to explore the familiar surroundings and repeated words.
Perhaps this is similar to taking notes in a lecture theatre, even if the text is available online. Writing helps focus the mind and activate more of the brain to aid retention. For me the drawing is not so that I remember though, it helps me contemplate rather than rationalise. Sometimes I’ll draw a design inspired by the feeling of the moment or the archetecture of worship. At others a phrase from a reading will start me exploring the nature of my experience of the Divinity. It is usually a combination of many things!
This Sunday my drawing was most influenced by the reading from 1 Corinthians ch2 (although I later looked up John ch14 when I started putting my thoughts into words).
The flow of the service seemed to follow the theme of questioning the relationship between ritual acts and righteous living. Even kindness and public displays of charity can conceal support for systematic injustice. Whilst all the right words might be said, the balance of power remains with the privileged. An empty ritual of giving reinforces dependency rather than releasing potential, whether this is through fulfilling basic needs or placing abundance at the service of those who need it – both to restore healthy relationships.
Beneath this flow, my mind was occupied with thinking about the passage from Corinthians and the relationship between the presence of Jesus and that of the Holy Spirit. As Christians we look to Jesus for our example. Did Jesus ascend so that we would need to sense more broadly though? Rather than imitating one human being, we now have to be aware of the Spirit in being human. As pervasive as salt, yeast, light and obvious in her absence in tasteless behaviour, the weight of grinding poverty, and piety which blinds us from the minute to minute reality of what needs to be done.
So my drawing starts with a cross. Radiating from the cross are waves of water, transforming into tongues of fire. Perhaps viewers loose sight of the cross as they gaze on the drawing. For me though, I see the fire of the advocate blazing with anger fueled with an experience of ethical indignation that cannot be satisfied within the status quo. I see the healing waters of the comforter refreshing and bringing peace to those who are weary. The art style comes from stone and the metals of the earth, and perhaps by exposing it to the “open air” in this blog post others will find meanings I haven’t seen yet.
And that perspective shift is why the cross gets smaller and smaller as the drawing develops. The cross in it is not something to look at. It is a place to stand and look out from. The invitation is there to centre yourself in Jesus.
Let the fire of the Holy Spirit bathe you and transform darkness into light.
Let the water of the Holy Spirit bathe you and heal your wounds.
And flow through the food you eat, the drink you drink, and the relationships you live your life in.
Categories
Pelagius
To what extent is salvation given or worked out through living?
I suspect that the issue of how “Grace” and “Works” relate to one another is an example of #SensingMystery, although like all mysteries it involves a confusion of certainty that keeps us going and awareness of the unknown so we have to keep asking questions.
Particularly in discussions with those interested in ‘Celtic’ spirituality the names Augustine and Pelagius are important. Learning more about the views they expressed is also a good ‘mirror’ within which we can explore our personal beliefs and received teaching about the issue too!
In Scotland most church members who have even heard of Pelagius will remember him as being refuted by Augustine. Augustines understanding of human nature dominates reformed thinking. This article introduces Pelagius and gently encourages us to question our assumptions.
https://newedenministry.com/2020/08/30/hope/
This article explores the subject more closely, from another perspective.
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/pelagian-controversy
This is a discussion about the nature of human being. The Augustine position combined with a dualistic understanding of human being leads to problems with pre-destination, and the tendancy to dehumanise such as explored in the book “Scarlet letter”. The Pelagian position is open to the accusation that it puts too much emphasis on the ability of humans to save themselves, rather than rely on Jesus death and resurection.
Where do your beliefs place you, and how does that position influence your understanding of salvation? Is there an integrity of belief when you apply this and think of children, convicts, the unborn in the womb, your neighbour?
Categories
God of the Living
Most of life is filled with questions about “what”and “how”. What do you want to do to day? How will we manage that? Then someone will answer the first question with “For everyone to be happy” or “to have fun” and the second question often becomes very difficult to answer.
This may be because a whole load of “Why?” Questions haven’t been asked, let alone answered.
It isn’t possible, or wise, to only spending your time pondering the why questions – but if your whole life is taken up with how and what then you may find yourself wondering why you are doing any of it at all.
The “why?” questions involve daydreaming about possible worlds, they create fantasies which challenge the status quo. They are also taking time to explore where a curious sound is coming from, or to immerse oneself in the presence of the moment and encounter the profound depth of a changed state of awareness (#SensingAwareness).
This is the theme which surrounds folk stories of Espen Askelad. A daydreamer whose inability to carry out normal everday tasks and think about useful things means that he is relegated to blowing on the fire and getting covered in ashes. (Watch a recording of one of these stories here Askelad/Dustmincher vs the Stoorwurm/Dustdragon) That is, until in the story, his ability to notice the things normal people ignore make him the hero as he succeeds in a challenge normal people find impossible.
October can become a season of mists. After the last of the harvest has been gathered in and before the hard winter has set in can be a time of reflection. Perhaps it can be a time to question our understanding of common sense too. One commonly held modern assumption about life is that the death is better described as the end of life beyond which there can be no knowledge or enquiry, rather than a state change with multiple possibilities for the continuation of personal identity.
But what would you want to know about life after death, other than the straightforward answer about whether it is possible or not. How would you find any trustworthy information anyway? The age in which we live is characterised by a focus on material answers and the practical needs of here and now. Throughout it certain topics have been classed as superstition, or primitive. In colonial settings this has been used to justify the exploitation of land (and people) classified as undeveloped. Here are few who wonder around the topic and such questions. It also led to, or perhaps rose out of, a suppression of spiritual and emotional truth to (mere) private experience. There have always been those who have stood against this and when not dismissed as ‘pagan’ they have explored in the arts especially science fiction and fantasy.
Times are changing. As established ideas of authority are crumbling there is an increasing openness to exploring spirituality, and exploring it as communities as well as privately. Consumerism, fast fashion, gross domestic product and the other children of materialism and a belief in progress still grip our culture. I’m not arguing that we should repeat extremist errors like cancelling Christmas parties, but traditional celebrations like Halloween have become appropriated by commercialism. Yet another festival remembered with a Christian name has become an opportunity to distract people from wondering why they live, and what their lives could be like or how they could recreate the world around them.
The Director and his students stood for a short time watching a game of Centrifugal Bumble-puppy. Twenty children were grouped in a circle round a chrome steel tower. A ball thrown up so as to land on the platform at the top of the tower rolled down into the interior, fell on a rapidly revolving disk, was hurled through one or other of the numerous apertures pierced in the cylindrical casing, and had to be caught.”Strange,” mused the Director, as they turned away, “strange to think that even in Our Ford’s day most games were played without more apparatus than a ball or two and a few sticks and perhaps a bit of netting. imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness. Nowadays the Controllers won’t approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games.” …
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, ch.3
This time of year is an opportunity. If we take time to study the history of our own tradition, and overcome the prejudices we have inherited, perhaps ‘enlightened’ by that experience we will then be able to help people find light. If we take time out to dream and explore issues that have been ignored or dismissed out of hand, then perhaps we will be better able to help those who feel lost.
This link could be a start.
https://ghostsghoulsandgod.co.uk/2021/10/praying-for-the-dead/
German visionary, theologian, composer and naturalist. Remembered on Saturday the 17th of September, walked this earth till 1179AD.
Many people will be aware of the date ‘1066’ and the battle of Hastings. It probably feels like a distant, far off and alien place. But in that year, people were born, they harvested crops, baked bread and went about the general business of being human. Some of everyday life would have been very different. The same sun shone on everyone though, and the forces of tide, time and environment that shape life on earth work on a scale which should encourage mystic respect.
It may have been almost a thousand years since Hildegard walked this earth, but she walked the same earth as us. So some of the imagery described in her visions is very easy to relate to today.
Because the beauty of woman radiated and blazed forth in the primordial root, and in her was formed that chamber in which every creature lies hidden. Why is she so resplendent? For two reasons: on the one hand, because she was created by the finger of God and, on the other, because she was endowed with wondrous beauty. O woman, what a splendid being you are! For you have set your foundation in the sun, and have conquered the world.
(…)
Commentary: Themes and Theology
by Nathaniel M. Campbell
Dr Eldridge is reported as saying “Viriditas means literally ‘green truth’, or greening power, which was one of Hildegard’s key philosophical or cosmological ideas,” … “In simple terms, for humans to be healthy and happy, then the natural world needs to be happy and healthy too.”
She explored this in a festival of music, visual arts and readings in 2019 and the article describes how an initial encounter with the music introduced her to Hildegard and led her to explore the life of the abbess much further.
This time of year is also known by some as ‘Mabon’. As such is it one of eight festivals which mark the changing seasons in the “Sacred Wheel of the Year”. These are rooted in an attempt by people to explore connections with the ancient past, and current reality. Some of these festivals have been well researched, and abound with practices supported by a long tradition of practice. Others are perhaps more inspired by romance and a reaction against the grinding brutality of industrialisation, with less concern for factual historical accuracy.
The quote from Hildegard I have used above was written in response to a query about the properness of her dressing her nuns in flowing white, silk veils, their hair bound only by a golden coronet.
What if at this time of harvest instead of wondering what is “proper” we could really seek out that which is “True”? Instead of letting ourselves become the judges of other peoples behaviour, can we loose grip of ourselves enough to become the light which helps people see?
This time of year holds many festivals which all wear different clothes. Some of us will be meeting for Forest Church at 1pm outside the Crichton chapel on September the 16th. Some of us will also be heading out to Allanton peace sanctuary to meet with others and pray for peace.
Who would be interested in gathering round a table to spend time thinking about what it is to become a missional community?
I’ve had a basic introduction to this resource and it is an engaging tool for helping think about what church community is and could become.
There is a video describing it here:
It’s almost an hour long discussion about it! So not so much an advert, more an introduction to becoming a more missional community.
Categories
Christian Animism
Interested? there is an online discussion on this website:
The discussion group is an opportunity to take part in a discussion with Neo Pagan friends of Christian Anamists. You could also book below.
This year, we are folding Angels. Angels are often described as messengers of God. In Nativity plays children will dress up as Angels and sing songs of good news. They will represent a message of peace and hope.
For some, this will be enough. For others there is a need to think more deeply about it.
Do Angels carry messages both ways, are they looking out for us? When Jesus is recorded scolding his followers for turning away parents with their children, he is also recorded as saying “…For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven…” Matthew 18: 10
To me, that sounds like Angels are holding open a hotline to God, and guess who gets priority?
Perhaps people are more used to the idea that we can all communicate with God directly, or that we should be able to. Political terms such as ‘kingdom’ are often used to describe concepts like heaven, and God is often described as something like a king. Our politicians are in our houses on TV screens, we can e-mail them and vote for them or not. They want to create an image of accessibility. How many people seriously think that they could have a direct line to the UK prime minister though? Or that if they did, that the occupant of that office would take time to listen to them?
Pause for a moment and imagine a world where such access is possible and think about what that would be worth. Is this what Jesus is saying Angels provide with the creator of the cosmos?
There is an obvious gap between our experience of life and what we hope the ideal life would be like. Heaven to come, and the life we experience now. This difference has been described as the presence of sin. You have read this far, so take a moment longer while I explore this technical term. I’m not going to try for a definition, but in order to better understand this, both intellectually and emotionally, here is a medieval thought experiment.
Imagine a person in Hell for committing one sin. A criminal in prison for one crime, or a person knotted up in their mind with regret for a mistake. Then contemplate the many things we have done wrong in thought word and deed, and in what we have failed to do. As your awareness increases, remember that this what you have been set free from. The purpose of the experiment is not to beat yourself up, or wrap yourself in guilt – rather it is to remind you of the value of forgiveness and freedom.
As an artist, in the course of folding angels, and teaching others to do so I have discovered that this is helping me examine my life through the frustration involved in creating. This is less about personal guilt and more about the creative process. The canopy of Angels bulges, pregnant with the potential of creation – but in any birth there is a messy time of frustration. (here is a passage you may not have connected with childbirth before)
There is an obvious gap between a sheet of paper and a folded angel. If you want the angel you need to fold some paper. As you fold you become aware of the gap there is between where you are now and where you want to be. If you are teaching someone, especially with reduced physical contact to to Covid, then you become aware of the desire to reach over and just fix it for them.
…You knew how to do this last week! how can you have forgotten… How can I make this symmetrical? … I can’t do this! … crafts are not my thing …
When you fold, fold the feelings and prayers you have for people into the paper. If learning the origami and following the instructions fristrates you in this simple task, let that become awareness of the feelings we all experience in the complicated task of living well. When you teach allow your awareness of your frustration, and desire to make things right, to help you imagine God’s desire to make things right. Let yourself imagine and feel the frustration in creating humans who can find their own way, rather than just being playthings.
If it all gets too much, rest. Humans are far more precious to God than paper Angels, and yet all of these are numbered and identifiable in the level of detail at which God is creating. Let yourself become aware of the experience of God carrying you when you can’t walk. Or sitting with you if you don’t even have the energy to be moved. You have a hotline to heaven.
As the motley crew of folded angels spread along the net in the roof of the St Johns building many small moments are becoming a rainbow of colour. The thoughts, frustrations, hopes and prayers of many people with different political views, metaphysical beliefs, and approaches to spirituality are combining to make something memorable.
It has often been said that people have a God shaped hole they need to fill. The Gospel is then presented as good news, that the hole can be filled.
It is, of course, true that like the father in the story of the prodigal son, God rushes from the house to meet us in our need. Jesus became low in order to lift us up, and we should call on our saviour in times of need.
However, what if you are one of the people who experiences God in the sparkling of light on the water? Or for whom the joy of tasting brambles and of just “living life” is a constant reminder of the presence of God. Perhaps then the Gospel for you is not characterised by the filling of an absence.
When you read in the Gospel of John that “… But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, …” this can the recognition of an overflowing of abundance found within the core of your being. A natural inclination to praise God that finds it’s shape in the unfolding story of Christianity.
What if the feelings of disatisfaction many experience within their christian life could be described as a hunger to expand their awareness. Just as children experience an urge to grow beyond the familiar safe space that those who care for them create, if we are filled with potential by God then this will drive us to seek more of God in the unfamiliar.
Rather than wondering why the “God shaped hole” isn’t filled no matter how much you give up or deny yourself, perhaps it is time to rest and remember the confidence God has in you and in who you are becoming. Trust that the yoke is easy and burden light.
Take time to remember how the sunlight sparkles on water, gather brambles that grow wild in hedgerows, and discover new ways of joining with creation to praise God for the things that make your heart sing.
And for those who like reading theology:
John Reuben Davies, “Human being and the praise of God” ch2 in “Made in the Image of God” Ed. Michael Fuller & David Jasper Sacristy press 2021 www.sacristy.co.uk