Rupert’s Blog

On Sunday, we tried a bit of imaginative contemplation using the parable of the tenants (Lk 20). Following on from the 5 Act theory on NT Wright, or the 6 act adaptation I suggested in another blog, I wanted to help us become part of the parable, to be part of the story, that would help us as we live out the 5th Act now. So often as I have meditated on the Bible, it has been like watching a movie … I have observed the action from a distance. Here I wanted us to take it further, and be one of the characters in the story. To feel, hear, taste, see, touch … to experience it. And see what emerges: of who God is to us, or who we are. It worked really well, and the feedback was fantastic (at least I think so!). So encouraging to see how people saw themselves as part of the story, and what was revealed in that process.

I love what Margaret Silf says, in her book, Taste and See …

Imagination is a God given gateway to prayer, a place where I meet God in ways my busy conscious mind cannot interfere.

She goes on to give some ways in which we can use our imagination with the gospel stories or (if we adapt slightly) with the parables:

Using our imagination.

What can you see, hear, smell, taste, feel?
What is the weather like? Warm, cold, windy, peaceful, wet, dry?
What seems to be happening in the scene? Who is there? Anyone you recognise?
What kind of ‘atmosphere’ does the scene suggest? Inviting, threatening, vibrant, solemn?
Does any particular part of the scene attract your attention more than the remainder?

Entering the action

Where do you find yourself? Perhaps you one of the crowd, or one of the disciples? Perhaps you feel like an outsider looking in, or perhaps you identity with the person being healed or challenged, or invited into a new relationship with Jesus? Don’t make any judgements, or try to force yourself to be where you think you ought to be. The power of this kind of prayer is in being you really find yourself, and letting the Gospel light shine on that place.

How are you feeling about what is happening in your scene? Disturbed? Attracted? Curious? Afraid? Eager?

Do you feel drawn to speak with anyone there? What do you feel you want to say? What do you feel is being said to you? Can you enter into a conversation with Jesus?

If you noticed, earlier, that on part of the scene drew you more powerfully than any other, let yourself follow that drawing now. In your imagination, go that part of the scene. Without forcing anything against your inclination, just see what it is in that part of the scene is attracting you.

I am not sure I can contain my excitement: the current Ashes series start in less than two hours. Sad I know. For the uninitiated amongst you, the Ashes is a cricket contest between England and Australia, so called when a mock obituary was written when England were first defeated by Australia on home turf, and a little urn with some ashes (thought to be a burnt bail) was presented.

In 2005, there was perhaps the greatest series played between the two sides. I was on tenterhooks the whole summer, gripped by the drama and tension. I also have vivid memories of the 1981 series when I was 12 years old, the so called “Botham Ashes”, which probably rivals the 2005 series. Both of these series were played in England, and both on terrestrial television, with commentary on the radio with Test Match Special. Both summers I spent a fair amount of time glued to the television or listening to the radio.

Following the ashes in Australia is much harder. There is no terrestrial TV coverage (and we don’t have Sky) and the games start at anything between 11.30pm GMT and 2.30am GMT (lasting for 7 hours or so) depending on which city in Australia they are playing. I have vivid memories of listening to radio when I was a young boy at some ridiculously early hour of the morning, have set my alarm to wake up to listen to the commentary.

However, in the wonders of the modern world, there are various ways to be kept abreast of the score, catch up with what has happened, and see the highlights …

• Podcast by BBC.
• Highlights on BBC Interactive at 10pm every night and on BBC2 sometime after 11pm.
• Blogs - I am subscribed to 2: The Test Match Special one, and one from the Daily Telegraph.
• You can even get a text sent to you mobile as an alarm call, with the latest score.
• And if you are up in the middle of the night, you can also listen to commentary from TMS on radio 4, 5 live sports extra or online (if you are living in the UK).

So bring it on …

BTW, obviously I would love to see England win, but I predict Aussies to run out winners 3-1.

Where has the last year gone? This time last year, there were phone calls to “Grandma” to come for a few days to look after Toby, while we went to hospital to give birth to our second, Caspar. Eventually after Grandma had arrived, we pitched up at hospital at 8ish, and Caspar was born just after 10pm (although not named for another week!). All nicely done: so Toby was in bed and was none the wiser, and I got a good night’s sleep too! That’s the way to do it…

And now one year later, he is a cheeky monkey, getting into all kinds of mischief, just like his brother!

So later today, he will have his first taste of chocolate (apart from a illicitly stolen chocolate cookie a couple of months ago). This is what Toby was like on his first birthday, as he got his first taste …

Is it inevitable that they are always mucky pups on their birthdays?!

I came across a great story the other day, on the blog of Scot McKnight’s blog, Jesus Creed. He recounts the transition of Stan Gundry (who has written a number of books) in how he understands women in ministry.

There are two basic positions on the role of women in the family and church: complementarian and egalitarian. The complementarian position basically affirms that women are equal in status to men, but have different or complementary roles. At the opposite side of the debate, those holding to an egalitarian position would hold that women are equal in status and function. That is a pretty blunt summary of much debate (and disagreement) in the Christian world, and there are clearly many nuances.

So why did the story grab me? Well Stan was brought up as a strict complementarian, but over the years has moved to an egalitarian position. Interesting as that is, it was his use of the Bible in that change that really interested me. His change began as he changed the way he interpreted the Bible: he began to see the Bible as a whole, a big picture, in the light of which, passages about women’s roles need to be understood.

He then began to read about how the Bible was used in the 19th Century to defend slavery (Scripture never condemns slavery). Looking back in the light of the last two hundred years, we see how ludicrous that is. Then it dawned on him:

Someday Christians will be as embarrassed by the church’s biblical defense of patriarchal hierarchicalism as it is now of the nineteenth century biblical defenses of slavery.

How we interpret the Bible really does matter.

Paul Fromont (a Kiwi friend of Alan Jamieson, who has written a couple of great book - A Churchless Faith, and Journeying in Faith) has an interesting addition to NT Wright’s 5 Act theory on the Bible. He suggests that we should add a 6th Act, to the original 5 suggested by NT Wright (Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus, and the 5th Act we are now living). The 6th Act is Christ’s return and a new heaven and a new earth.

So we live out the 5th act, consistent with the first 4 acts, and in light of what we know about the 6th Act. I like it. It allows us to be creative, innovative and contextualised in our current culture, but in light what has gone before, and what is coming ahead. What has been done in history wasn’t wrong or to be replicated, but was that generation’s attempt to live the story in their way and that time. We now have to play our part in the ongoing story.

So I guess the question I have: in 10 - 20 years time, what kind of church will best live the 5th act in our time?

Toby (our eldest, nearly 3 years old … I can’t believe it!) seems to have a love affair going on with chocolate. So yesterday, on our Daddy Day after he had eaten his lunch of soup and bread, we had a conversation that went like this:

Daddy: Would you like anything else to eat Toby?

Toby: Chocolate.

Daddy: Well you can’t have chocolate now. You could have fruit or yogurt.

Toby: Can I have Chocolate sometime?

Daddy: Yes, you can have chocolate sometime.

Toby: Is it sometime NOW?

It probably deserved a piece of chocolate just for being innovative, but I was laughing too much; so he ended up with a yogurt.

Wednesdays are Daddy Days. Daddy and his boys. Tuesdays are nursery days, and one of the joys for Toby and Caspar (I am sure it would be for Caspar if he was able to talk) is that the next day is a Daddy Day.

Pippa works on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and so that is how I get to hang out with the boys on Wednesdays. We sometimes go shopping, sometimes to the play park, sometimes for walk; but whatever we do we seem to have lots of fun, and make lots of mess.

Too many church leaders I have spoken to with grown up children, have said they regretted the time that church and ministry took from being with thier families. So we have Daddy Days. There is always something else to do, emails to send, something to plan or organise, people to see … but Toby and Caspar will not always be so excited about hanging out with their Daddy.

Daddy Days are the best part of my week … apart from Daddy, Mummy, Toby and Caspar days that is.

Following on from Sunday’s thoughts on the Bible, someone sent me some articles on story. Below is one from Melvyn Matthews (formally Canon Chancellor of Wells Cathedral in Somerset), from his book, “The Hidden Word”.

“Survival in the wilderness depends upon reaching the next oasis. Oases are watering places in the desert. Here springs of water flood out of the dry ground and date palms reach up to the sky. Here the travellers stop, pitch their tents and take on water and food for the journey. They rest awhile and in the evenings gather around the camp-fires to eat and tell stories. Some tell stories about themselves, about where they have come from and where they might be going. Others tell stories about those who have gone before, about their ancestors, those who have been travellers long ago. Some sing songs, ballads of loss and conflict, poems of fear and longing and desire. Some of the stories are true to history, others are true in different ways true to the inner life of the teller and his friends. Some travellers are voluble, seeking to impress. Others sit and listen, checking what they hear against the stories which course through their heart but which cannot be found on their lips or in any books. And the story-telling goes on a long time, well into the night. Some fall asleep where they sit and the fire grows dim. They love to tell and they love to listen, for the stories themselves are a kind of food on the way. What one tells is encouragement for another, but also each one’s story is encouragement for the one who tells it, since it enables the teller to see, perhaps in a new way, where he or she has come from and how it was that God spoke to them on the way. The stories are bread on the journey, revealing to tellers and hearers the,’ pattern of God’ action in the past and giving a promise of sustenance in the days to come.

The next morning the travellers set out again in different directions, grateful for the refreshment of body and soul. The body is refreshed by the food but the soul has been refreshed by the stories that were told. This refreshment is not just derived from the fact that these stories were entertaining - that they certainly were - but more deeply from the fact that they spoke about the human condition. Both the tellers and the listeners have heard about themselves in a different way. They saw themselves in the characters they heard about. They saw their present reflected in the past.”

He goes on to say that the Bible is not so much a book of instruction, but a book of memories, a set of stories about our past, that as we listen to these stories we see ourselves as we truly are and are restored to our rightful place in our history. It is a book of remembering, in the sense of bringing the past to mind, and re-membering, putting ourselves back together with the past with which we belong and from which we have come - a putting ourselves back together when we have been dis-membered by the dislocations given to us by the spirit of the age in which we live.

When I listen to stories something inside me is stirred, moved. Today I listened on the radio to the story of a Christian woman whose husband had killed their two children 11 years ago, and how she was still grieving today, struggling to forgive, to move on. It was deeply moving and somehow I entered in some small way her world, and was moved with compassion. I didn’t want to tell her that she really should forgive … didn’t she know what Jesus said … that it would make life so much more bearable if she did …

Stories have the power to transcend what is right and wrong, and inspire love, hope, courage and faith …

Having come across a number of people over the last few years struggling with the Bible, and having my own grapples too, this morning at our church gathering, I decided to look at the complex issue of how we understand the Bible in our faith: Is the Bible authoritative? If so, in what way?

It did seem rather daunting, as the issue of how we understand the Bible creates so much debate and conflict in the Christian World. Seemed to go alright (haven’t had any stones yet anyway). I draw much inspiration and thought from NT Wright, the Bishop of Durham, author and theologian. He has written a paper (actually a transcript of a talk) on “How can the Bible be Authoritative“.

NT Wright suggests that the Bible is really four acts of God’s Story, and we are working out Act 5 as God’s people now, in a way that consistent and innovative to the first 4 acts. This moves the debate away from words such as inerrant, infallible, sola scriptura, prima scriptura, to a narrative approach to the Scripture.

I notice that he has written a book too, “The Last Word: Scripture and the Authority of God - getting beyond the Bible Wars” which looks a good read.

At the beginning of the week, I was in Cambridge with a bunch of other church leaders. We are talking together about forming a network, that recognises our friendships over the years, and formalises a partnership and learning together for the future.

Billy Kennedy and Roger Ellis have invited a few people to meet over the last couple of years, and this is set to continue 3 times a year, to develop friendships, learn together, and pray.

It was an inspiring time; especially a tour of Cambridge led by Ranald Macauley from Christian Heritage, who took us around some of the colleges of Cambridge, where we learnt of how Christians had been motivated by their faith to get involved in politics, science, and arts to bring about massive change in the country at the time. The most well known for most of us would be William Wilberforce who was involved in the movement to abolish slavery.

Inspiring stuff; rather daunting too. Left me with some questions: the church seems so often way behind in the major issues of our day. For example we only now seem to be taking seriously the environmental issue. How can we be at the forefront of bringing change to our society? How can we value those, in our churches, who are already working to bring change in their 9 to 5 jobs, but so often aren’t recognised as those on “front line mission”?

Good to be with friends too … had a great catch up with Lynn Swart.