Where...I share my ‘word’ for 2013

And so, 2013 is upon us, filled with all that comes with the ‘New’ – anticipation, reflection, hope, sweet longing, curiosity.

 

New Year is a freeing time…anything is possible.  We reflect on the year gone by and we have the chance to make different choices. Resolutions are made, hopes are articulated, plans are birthed and conspired.

 

This year I haven’t made any ‘resolutions’ so to speak. 

 

No, not for me the resolutions that fade into a mist of hazy guilt at non-accomplishment and vague failure.

 

But, rather, a word.

 

Inspired by http://oneword365.com/ and that community of glorious peoples seeking to live into all they can be, I have chosen for this next 365 days to live into MY word.

 

A solitary word, percolated up from my Soul and Being, forming into a solid sense of what I shall lean into this next season.

 

And, for me, this word is PURPOSED.

 

Purposed in endeavour.

Purposed in being.

Purposed in becoming.

 

To live fully, intentionally, PURPOSED.

To know that my journey with Jesus is leading forward, pressing in, going deeper.

And not by accident. But on purpose.

 

I shall try to no longer get to the end of a morning, a day, a week, a month, or even a solitary moment and feel it wasted for lack of choosing to live intentionally, or for lack understanding its purpose with that glorious gift of hindsight.

 

I shall seek to rise each day and live into the day ahead. 

 

I shall choose to look at the purpose of each of my endeavours and seek what Gods purpose is in each moment – in the people I meet, in the tasks I set my hand to, in the dreams that rise up within me.

 

When I meet with people to listen, hear their questions and wrestling and, when invited, to try to speak truth and love into their lives, I shall press into the purpose of loving, of re-building, of whispering that a different story is possible.

 

When I see a glorious sunrise or sunset, or have my breath taken away by creation, I shall press into the purpose of JOY.

 

When I hang out with the people who KNOW me – and I mean, KNOW me – I shall rest in that glorious truth of being ‘enough’ for them, and know that the purpose of these times is sheer belonging, love, delight and open honesty with no fear.

 

When I rest and re-create I shall press into the purpose of knowing true Sabbath – that *today* I can live as though all my work is done, because God is big enough and I do not dwell in slavery but freedom.

 

When I make my clothes I shall press into the purpose of creativity, self-sufficiency, good stewardship and freedom from the tyranny of the sweat-shop.

 

When I teach and lead our congregation I shall press into the purpose of community, of city-on-a-hill and lamp-on-a-lampstand life.

 

When I bake for people I will purpose to bake love into my creations, so that the gift of my time and care will nourish and feed.

 

When I am handling my money, be that in shopping or gifting or saving or releasing, I shall think about the purposes of these things, about where they fit into the bigger picture, about whether my choices bring life and freedom or tie me or others up.

 

When I find myself ‘wasting time’ I shall choose to remember Theroux’s quote, ‘As if we could kill time without injuring eternity!’, and I shall ask questions about what is being built in my life in these ‘down-time‘ moments – am I truly being re-created and refreshed or is life passing my by?

 

When my heart desires to go in a certain direction, make a connection, speak a phrase, voice an opinion, I shall ask myself the purpose of these things so that I don’t just let things ‘happen’, but live INTO them.

 

And, in all of these things, I shall seek to remember that Gods purposes far outweigh mine, that some of the most gloriously joy-filled-intoxicatingly-achingly-beautiful-significant-moments seem to happen as if by accident and that, whilst in my PURPOSED living my hearts desire is to be in step with Holy Spirit and all that She is doing, there must always be that space for Holy and Divine Surprise that leads us into spaces we have never known before, and open up whole worlds in front of our very eyes.

 

And so, to a year of living as though PURPOSED.

 

What are you living into this year?

Honey, I'm home...

I'm back.  It's been a while, but I'm back.

I've been writing bits & pieces elsewhere, but in the last week or so I've felt something moving me back to this space, and so here I am.

I don't know how much I'll get back here, but I hope it will be often.

I think that a large part of this returning has been to do with reading the writings of others, feeling like I needed to find my voice again. Weird how that happens.

This last few days has been a whirl of reading and thinking and digesting, mainly because of the vote by the General Synod of the Church of England to not pass the motion to admit women Bishops at this time. I'm not going to write about that right now - enough has been said, by people much wiser and more eloquent than myself, and if you've read my post on Jesus being a feminist you already have an inkling about what I feel on the matter. 

Time to reflect and heal and ponder is needed.

But I did get to thinking about Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, the first person to see the Resurrected Jesus and be sent out by Him...

I got to thinking about the conversations that might have been happening between her & Jesus as the House of Laity voted against the motion last week. I got to thinking about how she must have felt to see women being held back and about how, until Jesus came into her life, she must have experienced that same feeling - held back, restricted, not 'enough'.

Mary Magdalene holds a special place in my heart. I am fascinated by her journey, by her deep and wonderful relationship with Jesus. She reflects so much of the heart of Jesus to us.

This past Resurrection Sunday 2012 at the Church I get to journey with, we were thinking about the encounter in the Garden, and, indeed, gardens in general. 

Eden, The Garden of Resurrection, The Garden and the City at the end and beginning of all things.

I got to inhabit Marys world that Resurrection Sunday and in the weeks running up to it as I pondered her journey.  I got to stand before the gathered, Resurrection people and share her story in the hope that her words would resonate with our stories, that the truth of the Man who made all things right would bring life, and life in all its fullness.

So...as I re-start this journey, I share her story with you.

The woman who was released into fullness of life and fullness of ministry.

May it be so in our time.

Marys Journey

I just...

I just don’t know what to say.

I’m stood here, in this garden, and I…

I can’t…

I can’t believe it.

But I have to.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

We buried him you see.

I watched them torture him, then I watched them kill him, and I saw Joseph bring him here, to this tomb in this garden.

He was dead.

My best friend.

The man who saved me.

The man I would have given my life to follow.

Dead.

I just…

that was enough to get my head and my heart around, but this…

this…

Everything changed the day I met him you know. He literally saved me.

Up until that point I was alone, afraid, but he changed that. 

He taught me how to be alive again, to love, to care, to be cared for, to be ME again.

Mary.

Whenever he said my name, he said it as though I was the most precious person on earth, me, Mary.

I know he made everyone feel like that, it’s just the way he was. He had that kind of intensity - you know, the kind that when he spoke, you just wanted to drop everything and listen.

It never stopped being special, hearing him say my name.

I would have followed him to the ends of the earth and back again.

 

He wanted everything to be put right again you know.

No one was too crooked to be led back to the straight path,

no one was too sick to be healed,

no one was too far outside community to be loved.

He said that about himself once…how did he put it again…‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,’ he said.  And he meant it.

Everywhere he went, life sprang up, things were put back in their right place.

And we, this rag-tag mismatched bunch of friends and followers saw it all…

The dead raised back to life, the lame healed, the blind given their sight, enough food for everyone.

Life and life in all its fullness. That’s what he brought. Life in all its fullness.

And he just would not shut up, that man.

That beautiful, amazing, infuriating man.

 

Anywhere he saw injustice or religious pomp or lies or double standards, he spoke up.

One of the lads told me that even way back at the start of all this he stood up in the temple, took the scroll, read from Isaiah, and declared that the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord was upon him, that he was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for prisoners, give sight back to the blind, release the oppressed. He declared the year of the Lords favour.

It’s not like we didn’t warn him that he was headed for trouble.

Peter tried a few times.

Everywhere we went there were whisperings, questions, people trying to trick him.

But he saw straight through it all, and he just carried on, as if he could see the bigger picture.

He just wanted everything to be put right again.

And a week ago, in the run up to Passover, it really kicked off.

Jesus had been doing what Jesus did, and it had gotten peoples attention – especially the religious leaders.  He didn’t help matters when he staged his entry into Jerusalem, coming through the back gates to the city riding on a donkey. The people started throwing palm leaves under his feet and crying ‘Blessed is the king of Israel’, whilst all the time on the other side of the city the Romans were making their very own triumphal entry, reminding the people that THEY were the ones in charge.  Jesus was turning everything upside down.

He was a marked man.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been so worried for someone in my whole life.

 

And all he wanted was for everything to be put right again.

The rest of last week seems to have gone past in a blur. It feels like we were on ‘fast forward’.

There were conversations and discussions and Jesus seemed to be making a lot of people very angry.

And then that night came. That insane, crazy beginning of the end.

Jesus was washing our feet, and then talking about the end, promising us that we wouldn’t be alone, that he was the vine and God was the gardener, almost like he was reminding us about the promise of Eden, the promise of God walking with His people in that Garden in the cool of the afternoon.

And he prayed this beautiful prayer for us that made me weep inside. This man. This amazing man.

From that point on it doesn’t seem real -  Jesus went off to the Garden in Gethsemane to pray, and they came for him. 

They came for my Jesus.

I don’t think I can put into words how the next hours felt.  Knowing that they had him, knowing that they wanted him dead, knowing there was nothing we could do.

There was that sham of a show trial that made me SO angry.

These people.

Did they not know who he was?

And they led him out.

Back bloodied, this awful crown of thorns on his head, digging in.

Carrying the heaviest of crosses.

We followed, all the way to the crucifixion site.

We were there to the end, the women and John and I.

If you listened hard enough I swear you could have heard my heart breaking inside my chest.

 

This man, who only wanted everything to be put right again, here on this hill.

And, just before he died, he made this amazing declaration…that ‘It is finished’.

 

It felt like it.

It felt like the end of all things.

Even the sun couldn’t bear to shine any more.

It was like the universe felt his pain, felt our pain, felt Gods pain.

And that darkness just continued.

Joseph and Nicodemus took his broken and bruised and torn body, and wrapped him so tenderly before laying him in the tomb in this garden.

And then the Sabbath began.

We couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything.

The Sabbath is supposed to be all about living as though there is no work left to do.

But it felt like life itself had ended.

The Sabbath of all Sabbaths.

As soon as the light came up I knew I had to come here.

I knew I had to be in this garden.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t bear it.

I didn’t care what people thought about me, this woman stealing through the streets in the half light.

I just wanted him to be here, and if he couldn’t be here I needed to be as near to him as I could.

I don’t know what happened in my head and my heart when I got here to see that the stone wasn’t rolled across the tomb any more, and that Jesus wasn’t there. I think the utter confusion and bewilderment of the last 48 hours had finally taken its toll. I just ran and ran and ran as fast as I could back to the house and got Peter and John, and they came running and saw what I had seen.

Jesus was gone.

I just…

I just didn’t know what to say.

I didn’t know whether I was coming or going.

I was here, in this garden, and I…

The boys left, but I had to stay. I couldn’t move.

The tears were flowing so thick and so fast.

Everything was changing. Nothing was the same.

I leant in to get a closer look and then I saw there were two men that were dressed in white sat where Jesus’ body should have been. They asked me why I was crying, and I couldn’t understand why they had to ask. Hadn’t they heard the stories, hadn’t they seen the empty tomb?

Why was I crying?!

Because my Lord, my everything, had been taken away, and I didn’t know where he was.

Couldn’t they at least have left us his tomb?

And then another man came up behind me and asked me the same question.

Why am I crying?

And I turned and I couldn’t see him through my tears and I thought he was the gardener and I begged him to tell me where he had put my Jesus.

And then He said my name.

He said my name.

He said my name.

Mary.

And as soon as heard him say my name I knew it was him.

My Jesus.

Here in the garden.

Calling me by name.

 

And I held him.  Oh how I held him.  I held him so tight he had to ask me to let him go.

And I looked into his face, and I heard him whisper my name, and then I knew.

He’d meant it you know, on that cross, when He’d said ‘It is finished.’

He’d only gone and done it.

He’d only gone and put everything right again.

 

I was stood with my Jesus in the garden in the cool of the morning.

And everything was new.

And he called me by name.

And he’d put everything right.

Death holds no power.

It is finished.

Have No Envy and No Fear...

So, it’s been ages since I last blogged. Shame on me!

Life has been rather busy you see, and inbetween ministry stuff, family times, making time for old friends, meeting new friends and the planning of adventures, there has been little time for blogging or even scrappy journaling…

Sometimes there are seasons of life like that I guess, so full of living that there’s no time to write about the journey.

But, today is my day off – this week is pretty jam packed, and so I’ve had to grab whatever bits of time I can. And so I have slept, drunk tea, done some work on an exciting non-day-job related project, and spent some much needed time strumming away on my guitar in my front room. My soul feels fed, which is what Sabbath times are all about.

As I strummed and hummed and disturbed whatever neighbours weren’t out at work, my fingers and voice found their way to the song ‘No envy and No fear’ by the lovely Joshua Radin (who, incidentally, is lovely because he writes beautiful truths and not just because he’s really hot.)

Here’s the song as it’s meant to be sung:

I think my fingers and voice found their way to that song in particular because my life seems to be shifting seasons at the moment, and the message to have ‘No Envy and No Fear’ is an attractive and timely one.

Something I have been dreaming big dreams about - along with my sister - for some time, is moving from dreaming to reality. I will blog more about that in the coming weeks, but suffice it to say that when something big shifts up from the dreaming stage to the making-it-a-reality stage, it brings with it many things.

It brings practical things - paperwork and framework and form filling and hoop-jumping.

It brings exciting things – vision casting and inviting people to be a part of the dream and the immeasurable sense of Father God smiling down on something that was His plan in the first place, and that He has allowed us to join in.

It also brings, as any emerging dream-into-reality does, moments of sheer terror.

I have likened this to the feeling that you get at the start of an epic rollercoaster.

You’ve queued. You’ve strapped in the harness. And now you’re making that slow, creaking, clicking journey to the top of the first drop.

You know that as soon as you crest that rise you will go flying down at speeds unimaginable. You will be flung all over the place, and all that will be holding you in is the force of gravity and a flimsy plastic seat belt.

There’s no getting off at that point.

But it will be the ride of your life.

And all of this ‘nearly-at-the-top-no-going-back-now’ emotion has been causing me to mull on the ideas of seizing the moment and daring to leap into the unknown…themes which I think are always present for those who want to both feel, and actually be, fully alive.

I think that sometimes we settle. We settle for the comfortable, for the safe, for the predictable.

Sometimes this is an act of self preservation – sometimes we need to be in that safe place, to consolidate all we have learned, to be healthy and stable and secure so that we can move on to the next stage of adventure from a place of strength. That can be positive.

But sometimes, and I suspect most of the time, we settle because of fear.

Don Miller wrote a great blog on this the other day – you can find it here: http://donmilleris.com/2011/07/11/facing-your-fears/

This fear may come from our experiences of what happened the last time we stepped out in that area.

To that fear I choose to say ‘why do you assume it will be the same THIS time? Things have changed, YOU have changed, lessons have been learned. Don’t assume it will be the same this time and, even if it turns out to be the same or similar, what is the alternative?! Living in a secure closed off bubble of self-preservation?!’

This fear may come from worrying about what might happen if we fail.

To that fear I choose to say ‘So what. So what if you fail. At least you tried. At least you had the courage to step out into the unknown and give it a shot.’ If you were my friend and you stepped out but failed, even if you failed spectacularly, I would still be on the sidelines cheering you on, I would still be immeasurably proud that you had the balls to move out of your comfort zone and go for it, and I would stand with you in the moments afterwards as you learned the lessons from the journey. After all, some of the most valuable things we learn are from our mistakes, and everyone is entitled to make them. I know my friends would say the same to me.

Or, this fear may come from the fact that we don’t think we have what it takes.

We are paralysed by an awareness of our own limitations, or a de-valuing of our worth. I happen to be a Jesus-Follower, and so live my life daily in the knowledge that my own limitations are nothing to fear as it is ‘Christ who works in me’. And, armed with that knowledge, Me plus Jesus is an unbeatable combination.

And so, to that fear I offer the challenge of a quote from Marianne Williamson, which was used by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Of course, our understanding of what it means to be 'brilliant, talented, gorgeous and famous' is all rooted in what those things look like from a heavenly, Kingdom perspective rather than a shallow, worldly one...a Kingdom where the first will be last and the last will be first, a Kingdom where the creator of the universe became man, and washed His disciples feet. Brilliance, Talent, Beauty and Fame all look very different through the Kingdom lens.

To live with No Envy means to be able to champion the causes of those around us, to cheer them on as they become all they were created to be and join in the Great Adventure of life-in-all-its-fullness. It means to be comfortable enough with who we are that we have no need to envy others, as we know that we are who we were meant to be, and that in itself is enough. Why be a pale imitation of someone else when you can be a dazzling version of YOU, with all the adventures and opportunities that brings? When we have no envy we are free to pursue our dreams, because they are not dependant on a flawed perception of our own value or capability based on comparisons with others. It brings a huge freedom to just be who we were created to be and do what we were created to do.

To live with No Fear becomes much more easy when we first learn to live with No Envy. When our souls are free from the measuring sticks we impose on the world, ourselves, and the people around us, when we are no longer bound up by our concern with the opinions of others, our definitions of what it means to ‘succeed’ and not ‘fail’ change, and the things we are fearful of diminish drastically in the light of this freedom.

When we realise that we are free to be who we were created to be, free to dream huge dreams, free to be people who CAN change the world, fear becomes a much less attractive emotion than the raw excitement and anticipation that are offered by the ‘pursuit of the dream’.

And so, as I walk into the journey before me I will choose to have No Envy and No Fear, only the heady scent of adventure and the vague feeling of butterflies in my stomach as I approach the top of a very high, very scary, but kick-ass exciting roller-coaster.

I hope you will do the same.

The right to privacy…

I have begun my annual re-watch of the wonder of the universe that is ‘The West Wing.’  There are only a few TV shows that really capture my imagination, but this one is so intelligent and meaty and makes you want to learn more and do more that it is (in my opinion) worth the time spent watching.

If you have never watched this phenomenon then, firstly, shame on you and, secondly, get thee onto Amazon and buy the whole series. (and be careful of season 2 episode 22, ‘Two Cathedrals,’ as it will spoil you, and no TV will ever live up to it again)

A week or so ago I hit Episode 9 of season 1, called ‘The Short List,’ first broadcast in 1999.  It is oddly prophetic:

The last few months’ news has been flooded by issues surrounding privacy, from Wikileaks to Phone Hacking and now Superinjunctions, and the arguments rage on.

Yesterdays Guardian Editorial [i] asked a serious question: Who, even a week ago, could have predicted a constitutional crisis between parliament and courts provoked by a footballer who played away?

There is discussion regarding article 12 of the human rights act which states that, ‘No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks,’ and how article 8 of the same act (Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law)  can be enforced in a digital age.

Polly Toynbee in her EXCELLENT ‘Comment is Free’ article yesterday [ii] explores the relationship between the media and the law, making the statement that, “The Human Rights Act, with its occasionally contradictory right to free speech and right to privacy, was drafted with strong press involvement, ensuring the privacy clause was precisely in line with the press code that is written by editors and ratified by the Press Complaints Commission. If the PCC were not a spineless industry body that turned a blind eye to practices like phone-hacking, privacy would be protected, since its own code says: "Everyone has a right to his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence including digital communications."”

Last night Mr Justice Eady refused to overturn said Injunction, even though the person who had taken the injunction out had been named in virtually every media outlet known to man.  Why? Because the “Press Complaints Commission's code guarantees exactly the same rights to privacy as the European convention and the HRA, unless there is a clear public interest in intrusion. The "public interest" includes the exposure of crime or misdemeanours. It's not obvious that an errant footballer clears that hurdle.” [iii]

The legal wranglings surrounding this issue absolutely fascinate me, and the potential ramifications there may be for social media useage and the policing of these methods of connection and communication concern me – especially the instant method of output that is Twitter.  In fact, Dan Gilmore in his article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/24/twitter-ryan-giggs-social-media even suggests that there may need to be a ‘delay’ imposed on Twitter Feeds, scanning output for potentially libellous or illegal information sharing.  This article has, incidentally, been ridiculed widely across – you’ve guessed it – Twitter.

But, whilst I am fascinated very much by the above mentioned issues, I think the thing that fascinates me and concerns me the most is - what fuels our NEED to share this kind of information, or indeed KNOW this kind of information in the first place? The Legal brains will fight out the boundaries surrounding breaches of human rights and the legalities of information sharing, but the core societal issues go much deeper.

(n.b. It goes without saying that there are important distinctions, both legally and morally, between what is ‘in the public interest’ and what is Gossip/Salacious Rumour Mongering, and the WikiLeaks scandal served to perfectly highlight the treacherous ground that lies ‘tween the two.)

I guess my question is, ‘Why are we so very interested?’

My Twitter Feed and Facebook News Feed have been saturated over the last few days with comments, jokes and opinions about said Footballer, most of which (in my opinion) would NEVER be said to his face if the commenters happened to know him or any of the parties involved.  There have been comments that ranged from the frivolous to the downright mean and bitchy, and all from people that – again, in my opinion - should know to behave better than that.

It is no great revelation or social commentary to say that we live in a world of Celebrity.  ‘Reality’ Television has taken over our screens – thankfully the debacle that was ‘Big Brother’ has left us, but the space that was occupied by that show seems to have been filled with a myriad of others.  (It reminds me of the passage in Matthew 12 when Jesus is talking about an Evil Spirit that leaves and then returns bringing 7 more with it! Ha!)

A cursory ‘Googling’ of the phrase ‘What percentage of TV is reality TV’ brought up figures from various sources citing that approx 40% of our TV is now ‘reality’ based.

I acknowledge that a part of our current overwhelming obsession with celebrity may be fuelled by ‘information overload.’ I mean, even if you are the most disinterested person in the world when it comes to the lives and affairs of Celebrities or Pseudo Celebrities you cannot fail to be exposed to the goings on of this shady and nefarious world – my earlier comment regarding my Twitter Feed and Facebook exposure serves to highlight this.

But, aside from the fuel that media so willingly provides to stoke the fire of the obsession with the ‘other’, I would contend that there is still an underlying pathology which needs addressing, of which recent events are merely the symptom.

When did life become so boring and dull that the ‘other’ became such an object of fascination? 

When did we become so couch bound and dis-attached from the sheer heady reality of the fact that WE are living and breathing and are invited into this huge adventure that is called life? 

When did we begin to substitute living for the mind-numbing occupation of merely watching others live?

Henry David Thoreau made the wonderful and profound statement, ‘As if you could ‘kill time’ without injuring eternity.’  

I wonder what would happen if all the hours spent watching other people live were actually lived?  What would that look like?  What books would we read, what people would we meet, what adventures would we go on, what mistakes would we make, what things would we learn?

Mark Twain is said to have made the comment, ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did.’  I worry that there will be an entire raft of people who, when asked twenty years from now, ‘what did you do,’ will be able to speak eloquently about what they have learned about the lives and activity of others, but have very little to say about the life they have lived themselves.

In fact, I think that maybe the debate that needs to happen, once all of the Legal Wrangling is done with is this:

The Right to Privacy

vs

The Need for People to Get Their Own Lives

Because, just maybe, when we stop viewing the lives of others as more interesting than our own and actually LIVE to the full ourselves, the need to intrude into the private lives of others will no longer be an issue.

Repeat after me:

‘Real life is better than Reality T.V.’

‘Real life is better than Reality T.V.’

‘Real life is better than Reality T.V.’

‘Real life is better than Reality T.V.’

‘Real life is better than Reality T.V.’

---

[i] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/24/privacy-high-politics-low-gossip

[ii] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/24/rightwing-media-makes-political-personal

[iii] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/24/privacy-high-politics-low-gossip

The Rapture that never was...

Well…Harold Camping got it wrong.  Jesus didn’t come back yesterday.

Shocker.

I decided not to blog in the run-up to the proposed Rapture date, as there was so much flying around that anything I had to say would have gotten lost in the maelstrom. But I have to admit that the Pre-Rapture Ramp-Up gave me much joy as some excellent Twitter funny-people kept me amused with various Rapture Prank Suggestions, End of the World Confessions and handy hints on how to survive the coming events…

Peas & Cougars came up with a great flowchart:

Ship of Fools (www.shipoffools.com) were all over it:

@shipoffoolscom: On Saturday, take your old clothes and shoes and leave them arranged on sidewalks and lawns around town. #Raptureprank

@shipoffoolscom: "He will come again to judge the living and the dead." Will you be able to say the creed with a straight face this Sunday? #rapturefail

@shipoffoolscom: Donating their clothes to the poor as they awaited the Big Moment now seemed just a tad hasty:

(apologies for the naked old ladies - it was just too good not to post!)

Check out this website for some proper ‘crazy’ from some dedicated Christian Pet Owners: http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/

The ever funny Emma Kennedy suggested:

If I was a man who looked vaguely like Jesus, I'd totally dress up tomorrow, knock on people's doors and say "I'm here. Get your things"

And, I emailed a friend who is currently in Jerusalem to ask what the ‘crazy count’ was out there, suggesting that he was in the right place as it’s purported that Jesus will hit Jerusalem first upon His return.

He replied:

Automated out-of-office message:

Khristo has been raptured. All the best if you've been left behind. Bye!

Ha!

It was all very jolly and we were all getting a kick out of the silly people who believed Jesus was going to come back based on the suggestions of a seemingly addled old chap who had a record of getting these things wrong, rather spectacularly.  I mean, there’s no real room for being ‘half-right’ on this one is there – either the Trumpet Sounds and Jesus rocks up, or He doesn’t.

But then, as it became apparent that maybe the Old Chap had somewhat ‘mis-calculated’ the return of our Saviour, the articles about those people who HAD chosen to believe Camping’s assertions started to flow.

And, rather than making me chuckle, they made me rather sad.

Not just because skeptics and A-Thiests had been having a field day with ‘those crazy Christians and their stupid ideas’. 

Not just because people like Camping make it harder for those of us who DO believe that God, through Jesus, is reconciling all things to Himself and will one day bring about the fullness of New Creation and Heaven on Earth, to share the truth of this Jesus and Kingdom life without sounding like ‘those crazy Christians and their stupid ideas’.

But because there are real people involved. Real people who had spent months warning the world of the trials to come on the 21st May.  Real people who had given away earthly belongings, taken long journeys to be with loved ones, those who drained their savings, quit jobs and generally dismantled their lives as they knew them on the word of (to quote the ‘A’ Team) a Crazy Fool.

An article from AP had this quote in it:

"I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," said Keith Bauer — who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture.

He started his day in the bright morning sun outside the gated Camping's Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International.

"I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth," said Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver who began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen."

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I think the saddest line in the article was Bauer saying: "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth."

It made me sad because it sounds like he is a chap with a hard life, and it made me MAD because it reminded me of all the bad bad BAD Theology surrounding this life-in-all-its-fullness that Jesus calls us to, and how very small it makes the Cross when we make Jesus into nothing more than a 'Sky-Wizard' (to quote some of my A-Thiest friends).

Yes, Jesus will come again.

Yes, this world is not as God intended it to be.

Yes, Heaven will be the fullness of all God intends.

But...

We’re not called to ‘Evacuation Theology.’

We’re not called to preach a Gospel that’s only about ‘what happens when you die.’

We’re not called to offer people heavenly life-insurance policies.

In fact, if I can be so bold, I think that God’s not all that concerned with communicating with us about the After-Life, as Jesus seems to talk an awful lot about what life should look like NOW, in our present reality, and says that God offers us the opportunity to step into that Eternity in the HERE & NOW.  We don’t have to wait around, eternity begins the moment you step into the life that Jesus offers.

He commands us to pray, ‘Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be done ON EARTH as it is IN HEAVEN.’

The slogan of the organisation Christian Aid sums it up for me:

‘We believe in life BEFORE death.’

‘Turn or Burn’ never did it for me.

I don’t think it does it for a lot of people.

Scratch that.

MOST people.

But what does excite me is that there is an Adventure of Life that God calls me to in the here and now.  That I can join God in all He’s doing to bring about the Heaven-On-Earth reality of the reconciliation of all things that has been accomplished through Jesus. 

So, you can keep your Rapture Predictions.

I’m excited about the Adventure of NOW.

Jesus will take care of the rest.

Jesus is a Feminist...

Jesus is a feminist.

Jesus is for women, releases them into ministry, gave them spiritual authority in an age where they were considered less than human, and continues to do so today.  I do not understand why anyone would choose not to believe so, especially based on Scriptural evidence.  In fact, I would go as far as to say that to deny Jesus’ empowerment of women and His treatment of them as equals of men in terms of their ability to exercise spiritual authority, and to abuse scripture to back that opinion up, has the potential to be nothing more than sugar-coated misogyny.

Strong words. Why so belligerent Claire?

I know that God is passionate about both men and women becoming all they were created to be in Him, fulfilling all their creative potential and exercising the fullness of their gifting without hindrance or hesitation.  Nothing excites me more than seeing a man or woman of God walk unhindered into all God is calling them to join Him in.

However, along with many other women (and I know of many men who argue for egalitarianism on behalf of women too), I could talk about the conversations I frequently have with men who say that they have a 'complementarian' theological understanding of the roles of men & women.  They would not say that they have a Patriarchal view  – exclusively male leadership in the church, home, public life etc (basically unveiled biblically sanctioned misogyny) - but would still hold that men and women, whilst equal in value and ‘personhood’, are created to hold different roles and responsibilities, assigning leadership authority roles to men and more ‘supporting’ or ‘leadership but not with overall authority’ roles to women. A view which, honestly, I find as patronising as I do theologically unsound, as I am led to believe that in Christ ‘there is neither male nor female.’

Or, I could highlight a church that I used to do some partnership work with who were quite happy for me to teach the young people, and invited me to speak at women’s events, but would not ask me to speak to the gathered community when men were present because I was a woman, and so was not to teach them.

Or I could mention a meeting I went to a few years ago of church leaders (all male except for me) in my local community at which, during the introductions stage, I introduced myself as being on the Staff of Christ Church and a Pastor, and one of the men in the room was helpful enough to point out to everyone that I ‘do the youth work’ in order to distinguish me from the other ‘kosher’ ministers in the room (presumably due to their penises).

But, it just so happens that a male friend bought me a book last week that he thought I’d like, and I did, called ‘The Liberating Truth, How Jesus Empowers women,’ by Danielle Strickland, which was published in mid-April this year. I read it in a couple of hours – it’s relatively short and pithy and written in a somewhat ‘Pop-Theology’ style, but is incredibly weighty in the conclusions it reaches, which are soundly backed up with scripture and historical analysis, and are conclusions that I wholeheartedly agree with and have since I became a Jesus-Follower.

In the many years since I began following the Jesus Way I have read many books, by both men and women, on the issues of Women and the Bible, and have pored over many theological articles that wrestle with the implications for women of certain passages of scripture. 

So, why respond to this book so passionately? Well, whilst it doesn’t say anything that I or we haven’t read before, Danielle Strickland is a pretty feisty woman of God with a wide audience to which she communicates, and I have a feeling that the publication of this particular book is going to stir up a whole new raft of girls and women who are simply not prepared to accept the kinds of reading and application of scripture that suggest that women are called and permitted to be anything other than full partners in every aspect of Kingdom Life.

Even apart from His response to women in crisis (the woman at the well, the men caught throwing stones, the woman suffering from bleeding) Jesus had women in His close circle of friends, none amongst ‘the twelve’ admittedly, but mentioned in the same breath as them in a description in Luke 8, and hailed in many places as the only ones who stuck with him through the hardest parts of those last days. They were His disciples, learning from Him and ministering alongside Him.  Women were the first to meet the Risen Jesus, and many would argue that, given the fact that she met the Risen Jesus and was commissioned by Him to go and tell others about the truth of the resurrection, Mary is the first Apostle – and at least one other woman, Junia in Romans 16:7, is described as an Apostle in scripture.

Mary & Martha are particular examples in Jesus' close circle and when we read one of their most famous moments with Jesus, as recorded in the scriptures, we see a vivid example of the way Jesus chose to engage with women – in no way did He think of women’s roles in the typical and culturally restricted ways.  In her book, Strickland explores this dynamic - as Martha takes on the typically feminine role of serving and hurrying round, whereas Mary takes on a role that many people would view as the ‘doe-eyed-gazing-at-Jesus’ role.  Far from it.  In this encounter, Mary is taking on the traditionally male role – ‘sitting at the feet’ of someone (as is evident in other places in the New Testament – see Paul and Gamaliel for example) was to say that you were their student, was to learn from them and imitate them.  And Mary does this in a cultural setting in which women were forbidden from intellectual pursuits. What does Jesus do?  Tell her to remember her place?  No, He tells her that, not only does He regard her as actually ‘having a choice’, that she has made the right choice.

There is no room in this blog post (which is already far too long) to explore many of the the most often used passages of scripture in the debate about Women and Ministry (particularly over issues of authority, ‘headship’ and teaching) – passages in Timothy, Titus, Ephesians and more.

What I will say is that there is plenty of concrete, sound theological study showing a contextual and historic understanding of these passages that throws an entirely different and just as potentially ‘orthodox’ light on their meanings, and does not leave women out in the dark.

Briefly – one such passage is found in Timothy which talks about women not having authority – ‘authentein’ – over men. This is a letter which, as some signs in it suggest, was written to Timothy whilst he was in Ephesus.  Ephesus was the headquarters of the radical feminist cult of Artemis where women ruled the show, and theologian Catherine Kroeger has suggested that the word ‘authentein’ has its origins in sexual and murderous cultic practices linked to the Temple Cults, and therefore if the word assumed by many to merely mean ‘authority’ does indeed refer to sexual cultic behaviour in this passage, it gives us quite a different interpretation of the passage indeed, and does not allude to the type of 'authority' that we might first read it as doing.

Jesus is a feminist. 

I really don’t understand why people have a problem with that.

I have male friends who, whilst loving women dearly, still hold on to a theological view of my place in the Kingdom that I personally find very restrictive and unhelpful.  I do not understand that

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I don’t understand why, if you love Jesus and you love People and there is a theologically sound understanding of scripture available that regards women as equal in both personhood and ability to exercise gifting but does not abandon orthodox doctrines, you would choose to stick with a system that boxes women in.

I just don’t understand it.