Quartz at St Johns Dumfries
Is holiness the preserve of white gowned angels singing a perfected concert of praise?
Or is that just an artists inpression intended to inspire you to seek out a very ordinary existence, but where things taste right and people are gentle with each other.
This story might be familiar to you, but what happens if you read it imaginatively ?
Do you imagine yourself as the seed, the sower, or elsewhere in the farming environment?
The story can be found in the collection of books here:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+13&version=NIVUK
What was the storyteller thinking of when the story was told, or the writer when it was recorded – or what is being revealed to you as you read it today?
At Christmas we remembered the story of Jesus being born, fully man. Rooted in a particular place and time.
How many of us live in the place we grew up in, or continue the same occupation as our parents? Even if we do, how much of our everyday lives are spent connected with the soil and the living things which surround us. How much with words, news, tastes, customs, and ideas that are new and international?
Here is an insight into one persons experience of rediscovery.
Here is more about the meaning of the word Pohaku
If you were omnicompetent, understood everything and held the expanse of time like a lump of clay in your hand – how would you handle creating everything?
Or scale it down to something as simple as a trip to your ancestral home. Would an unexpected pregnancy, room booking failure, and the univited arrival of a crowd of sheepherders look like a failure or something planned?
John Drane uses the phrase “McDonaldization” to question our expectations of being Church. To what extent have the modern cultural values of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control influenced our expectations of what Church should look like?
To put it another way, to what extent have our expectations in turning up to a service affected our experience of the quality of the moment. Do we expect to turn up regularly to a well ordered quality experience of familiar words and actions in a gathering that doesn’t make the building look messy or too empty. If these expectations are not met how does that affect our experience of sensing a special quality of gathering as Church?
Do we think of the messy, unpolished, entry of Jesus into the world where he only escapes death at the hands of Herod due to angelic intervention and a relaxed policy on refugees by Egypt as a near disaster – or something planned by God in the same breath as Eden? (Please read Romans chapter 18 ) How has the tendency towards McDonalization in culture influenced the ways in which we do Church.
This post doesn’t offer answers, but hopefully it will encourage questions.
What quality can events like washing dishes with a friend, a session with guitar on a beach, a discussion in a cafe, a mega church display in las Vegas or a trad. service in a victorian building all share, and how do we learn to sense it?
Sent in by Alison, because it made her think of themes from the November Forest Church.
‘All things are lawful’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful’, but not all things build up.
1 Corinthians 10: 23 (read more here)
There is a shift in thinking from living bound by law to one where faith provides your rule.
Those who have been brought up Christian often feel frustration as Christmas approaches and the streets fill up with tinsel, and advertisers ramp up the pressure to consume – all with the branding of Christendom.
How should a follower of the way respond?
Everything is permissible. Laugh in the market place with those who love joy, weep with those who mourn. We are free from the need to moralise or preserve the worthless religious practices* of even our recent ancestors. But we must prayerfully consider what choices are most beneficial.
Our faith is not in a set of beliefs and practices. Faith in Jesus is belief that through genuine loving we will build up ourselves and those around us. Transform obstacles into opportunities, and show things in a new light which brings peace, change, growth.
Living a rule to give this constancy is much more demanding than conserving a moral code. The freedom requires each of us to judge ourselves rather than just conform to expectations.
In a place where bibles are banned you can be a hero lawbreaker smuggling holy contraband. Where sectarian or nationalist violence mars the daily life of ordinary people you can transgress religious boundaries to display love like the good Samaritan. In a high street that no longer feels like it is your own, is it time to turn over tables and protest the against the cultural appropriation of Christian symbolism by secular society?
Who would that benefit, who would it build up?
What are people celebrating at Christmas, and why are they choosing to do that online, in their homes, and on the high street but less and less in church buildings?
Is our own house in order, are we truly welcoming of people of all ages, sexuality, and cultures who choose to celebrate significant moment as Church?
What are the rules you set for yourself to make the journey toward Christmas, and the festival itself, spiritually significant? please use the comments!
If, like many people, you find it difficult to know what to pray when you think about the conflict going on perhaps these resources drawn together by the Quakers will help.
If you are not troubled, perhaps they will help you ask questions.
https://www.quaker.org.uk/blog/5-solidarity-actions-you-can-take-for-palestine-and-israel-oct-2023
We condemn the targeting of civilians and the taking of hostages by Hamas. We condemn Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate bombardment of Gaza; the prohibition of food, water and electricity into Gaza; and their attempt to forcibly transfer over 1 million Gazan people. In the West Bank, all cities are on lockdown and heavily militarised. Collective punishment of an entire population can never address the root causes of this violence.
https://www.quaker.org.uk/blog/5-solidarity-actions-you-can-take-for-palestine-and-israel-oct-2023
When the topic of Poverty is raised people in the UK often find it important to mention the distinction between “Relative Poverty” and “Absolute Poverty”.
After all, how many people in living in Scotland are unable to access drinking water, decent housing, heating, and healthy food? This article has some statistics.
https://capuk.org/news-and-blog/millions-skipping-meals-as-we-head-into-winter
When the Israelites stop wandering and have the resources to find a king, then build a temple, they are reminded that this does not box God in. When we hear the story of Jesus talking with the woman at the well are we reminded that God is at work beyond our boundaries * *
Those who have access to Wi-Fi and a smartphone are connected globally. It is possible to feel a part of K-pop fandom or keep up with the Kardashians 24/7. If people are searching for spiritual nourishment they might choose to go somewhere (gone fishing!) as an antidote to the technology, or perhaps turn to YouTube to feed their hunger for knowledge from a global choice of institutions lecturers. Even if you are miles from a town you can join in with 24/7 live Christian worship (Vinyard). Most people probably use a combination of things like this, and this post has only a small selection of what is out there.
As you are reading this, at this stage of your life, are you more drawn to the story of a shepherd leading a flock to still waters, or to the story of Jesus preparing his disciples to face the challenge of feelings of loss and despair, (but with the promise that they will be connected in ways they cannot yet understand)? The good news is that Jesus meets us where we are, and God is everywhere. For those who are able perhaps though like Heracles this is a time when you can choose the tougher of the two paths. Instinctively we might imagine the harder path to be like rugged mountains and challenges to be overcome. However what if the struggle is to let go of the customs and institutions which shape our perception. If rather than being exiled and needing to replicate our home, we need to be inwardly transformed to adapt to new ways of connecting.
When you are walking the Way beyond boundaries how will you recognise God at work in preparation for your arrival, what truths about your path will you be told by the people you meet? Here are some stories told by people who have made connections with Jesus, but perhaps not with Sunday congregations.