'Dirt is Good'

I've begun to describe following in the will of God like a really long walk and with that in mind I love the idea of 'desire lines' the off-pathway tracks people create in the countryside by wandering wherever they choose. This morning I was drawn by the sunshine and general autumn crispiness of everything to Debdale Park and in my walking and talking with God encountered an uncontrolable desire to head 'off road' right across the middle of a glistening leaf blown field - a prophetic, if tiny, statement about heading out onto new terrain.

So off I marched only to discover that the aforementioned glistening was not just the glory of the Lord but was in fact mud! In the middle of the field and up to my ankles in very cold mud I made a decision.

God likes mud, and actually getting stuck in it can be alot of fun - although it helps if you have dry socks with you. Make of this what you will, but for my part I think things are about to get pretty muddy.

Who are you?

Recently I watched a documentary in which a homosexual man tried to discover why he was gay, the cause of who he was. Whatever your views on the nature/nuture debate it was heart wrenching to watch him ask questions cutting to the core of his identity, not just who am I but why am I; and if the cause can be identified as environmental does that mean I'm not who I think I am???

The science in the programme seemed inconclusive and at times tenuous but it got me thinking about the construction of identity. I'm no psychologist but it seems to me that we may have a 'real' objective identity (who we actually are) which may differ from our 'percieved' identity (who we believe ourselves to be), although the latter may as well be real as it becomes the basis of our decisions and actions. The frightening thing is that a considerable amount of our percieved identity seems to be constructed unwittingly either by ourselves or by forces outside of our control. It is a rare moment of clarity in which a person says to themselves 'this is an opportunity to create myself, now who do I want to be'.

So back then to the idea of a 'real' identity which may exist for each of us whether we recognise it or not. The biblical conception of the human self does seem to suggest that before we shape and are shaped 'we are'. The biblical call to repentance and faith is nothing if not a call to rediscover who we really are, made in God's image, designed to glorify him. But the Bible doesn't just focus on this underlying intrinsic (and quite slippery) sense of self, many of the biblical writers also engage in identity construction; for example Peter in his first epistle takes time to lay out the identity of those he writes to before giving moral instruction hinging on 2:11 'Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.'

For Peter identity is a conscious and deliberate basis for behaviour, and perhaps our Christian faith enables precisely that; open eyes to percieve our real nature and freedom from sin to shape ourselves and our world accordingly.

Buy the Field!

Jesus describes the kingdom as being like treasure hidden in a field, Matt 13:44-46. In this parable the man who finds the treasure hides it again then goes and finds the money to buy the field, which costs him all he has.

The kingdom in this framework is hidden in something fairly ordinary, the decision of the man is not to dig it up and take it away but to buy the plain old field which is now dignified by the presence of this treasure. How much is this true of us and of our communities.

I am involved in a network of community projects called Eden and in my recent musings on my work I have been challenged to be someone who sees life in a place even amidst deprivation. Eden is fundamentally about finding treasure in a field then giving your life to buy that field, not just taking the treasure and running, or seeing a field and deciding to bring our own treasure but percieving the kingdom and dedicating yourself to cultivating kingdom growth within the community in which it by God's grace is to be found.

God works in a context and as we seek to reflect him we're not just treasure seekers but field seekers, buying our workplaces, our communities and our city.

Longing

It seems to me that one consistent feature of this life is longing. Culture tells us this is a terrible thing, in a world of instant gratification to be denied what we want or even need when we want it is seen as at the very least poor customer service and at worst a denial of our human rights. But despite the stories our society tells us everyone experiences longing, and not just the consumerist itch for more but a deeper more profound sense that this is not all there is. The standard Christian response to this pervasive absence is that its our God shaped hole which, once we have surrendered our life to Jesus will be filled as only he can. And its true, to an extent. But I think that even this understanding of longing buys into our cultural preference for satiation. My experience of living in Christ is that whilst emptiness really is a thing of the past a new hope brings with it a new longing. Not the discontent of our cultural angst but a whole other experience, a sanctified desire for a new future. This longing shouldn't be resented, rejected as lack of faith or even used to accuse God of inadequacy; instead we should embrace this longing and allow it to motivate us to usher in God's future one day at a time.
Longing can then be full of joy and peace even against all the cultural odds as we rest in the certainty of our future hope and the all sufficient love of our God.

You say Jesus I say Christ

Always intrigued by a battle of the sexes scenario I recently started to put two and two together on male and female responses to the person of Jesus Christ.

Amongst emergant thinkers there's a clear focus on Jesus of Nazareth as the inspiration for life and faith today, and a sense that we need to rediscover him under the layers of Pauline theology that have dominated modern evangelical thinking. As I've been reading along these lines I've been challenged with my own 'preference' for Paul's writings rather than the gospels and it made me wonder why. I think I'm probably not alone in accidentally slipping into sticking to favourite or 'safe' passages of scripture in my devotional life and I wonder whether gender might have a part to play.

Jesus as portrayed in the gospels is unashamedly a man of action, he gets things done, meets needs and makes things happen. In the writings of Paul however Jesus Christ becomes a more conceptual, intuitive person, working from our inner lives and concerned with our motives, values and emotions. Jesus of Nazareth demonstrates a task to be completed and lays down a challenge, he empowers us to act, to imitate his way of life. Jesus the Christ affirms our inner world and the intuitive aspects of our nature, he is a figure of worship, our strength and protection.

Maybe these different angles on Jesus appeal to the genders differently, but as some of us respond to the challenge to action of Jesus of Nazareth they will inevitably run into the question how can I act as he did? The need for an indwelling of the Spirit of Jesus becomes painfully apparant as we are confronted by our human limitations. Likewise as others respond to the inner intimacy of Jesus the Christ shaping their character and restoring their soul the question resounds why? A constant reference to the Jesus who practiced the Kingdom on earth is necessary to prevent us from becoming individualised and insular.

Its so necessary to be shaken out of our 'religious' habits and to recognise the factors that influence us in our response to God whether personality, culture, family background or gender. My personal feeling is that the Gospel narratives of Jesus and Paul's theological exposition of the Christ are, as are men and women, better together.

Are you ready for this?

Ok so I know I've dropped off the blogging planet for a while but I promise to try harder in future!

So onto my latest musings... over the last few months I've been thinking about spiritual warfare, and specifically the alternative weaponry that God gives us with which to extend his kingdom. To be honest, in my thinking about this and reading people like Walter Wink and William Cavanaugh I kind of forgot to even consider the Ephesians 6 image of the 'armour of God'. I'd been reconsidering my understanding of military images and frankly I've heard the armour 'outfit' thing used so many times that it had kind of lost its potency.

It was actually in a time of prayer that God put his finger on those verses again for me and as always when the Holy Spirit reads it to you there's no danger of it being tame or cliched. I'd been contemplating what our new weaponry might be, infectious holiness from Steve Chalke, assertion of our status as children of God from Wink and courageous sacrificial protest from Cavanaugh but here it is in black and white... truth, salvation, righteousness, faith, the Word of God and readiness.

The power of these realities to overcome darkness mustn't be downplayed but the slightly random element is readiness. When I was praying for this new weaponry to be fully functioning in my life I realised that part of our offence is simply being 'up for it' in God. I love the idea that to overcome evil and extend God's kingdom a central part of our armour is a gung-ho, kamikaze willingness to throw ourselves into his purposes no matter what the cost. Again its not passive, defensive, self-depreciating Christianity but bold, excited, risk-taking faith in a sovereign and victorious God.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it

This audacious statement has been helping me recently to frame some thoughts about God's kingdom work within communities; it appears twice in the Bible, in Psalm 24 it demands awe at God's holiness but in 1 Corinthians 10 it requires engagement with culture for the cause of the Gospel. One image keeps resounding in my mind at the moment, that of the hand of God punching up through dry ground, God is already there, already working. Within the communities that we desire to be transformed God has already staked his claim, from creation until completion the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

Our response to this is rightly awe, an awareness that hope for salvation does not come from us but only from One, however God's claim on us means that we participate in his ownership of the earth, having recognised our need of God we will 'inherit the earth'. Alongside our awe then goes our engagement.

God speaks an alternative reality to the hopelessness and despair we perceive with our human minds; as we approach our communities we need to believe in that different narrative, the fruit of our faith will be the manifestation of the kingdom in our lives, truth, mercy, love and power. The body of Christ revealing Christ, making him tangible to the people he loves.