We have completed the 4 church annual meetings. Just the big one to go - for the whole parish - on April 27. We called at the hotel this week to firm that up. Looking good. We hope for a really celebratory occasion, with worship and food as well as the business. All 4 meetings went really well, with a really positive sense about them: hopeful and forward-looking. There aren't even any financial worries at the moment, though we do need to do stewardship renewal this autumn.
I've been thinking a lot about the terrible violence at Westminster this week. I certainly felt more vulnerable on Wednesday when I heard the news. Strange, when it happened so many miles away. I keep thinking about that man, Khalid Masood. What drove him? It's the question everyone is asking. The latest information suggests that he acted alone, and that there was no apparent reason for his act of violence. To me, it seemed like desperation. A few facts about him: he apparently never knew his birth father; he was a black kid in a very white area, and suffered frequent racial abuse; he had several relationships with different women, and fathered children; he changed his name several times; he had several convictions for violent crime;he converted to Islam and came under the influence of jihadists. Some 'experts' have commented on an apparent identity crisis, which seems to be key in trying to understand him. Anger seems to have been a dominant emotion. My question is, 'did he know he was loved?'
I've been reflecting on this in preparing for today's sermon from Matthew 6 & 7. Once again, we have several references to 'our heavenly Father', as they occur throughout the Sermon on the Mount. 'Your heavenly Father knows...' (Matt 6.32) has always struck me as a key verse. And in 7.11 we learn that 'our heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask him.' Once again, we learn that life in Christ is about relationship to the Father.
In today's reading, we have learned of three distractions which lead us astray from the Jesus Way: greed (hoarding treasure), worry and prejudice. What they all have in common is that they cause us to lose focus, to be earth-bound, concerned about the future, projecting the worst of ourselves onto other people, thus preventing us from knowing the love of God. This too is about identity. Knowing ourselves to be God's children. If Adrian aka Khalid had known this, might things have been different?
Sunday 26 March 2017
Saturday 18 March 2017
Your Secret Life
It's the season for church Annual Meetings. We got off to a great start at Bridekirk last Tuesday, with a number of things to 'celebrate' from the past year. These included
- a new all-age service monthly
- increase in numbers of children and young families - the school connection
- a large crib service at Christmas
- growing confidence of young people
- the 'Conversations', led by our curate, John
- revival of bell ringing
- the Explorers Club in school
- the start of Youth Alpha
- the hospitality of Bridekirk for a number of Team events, such as Worship4Today, marriage preparation, AgeUk lunch club and baby club
I have a sense of St Bridget's recovering its birthright as a monastic foundation - only in the modern sense - with prayer, learning and hospitality to the fore. We have two more annual meetings tomorrow (Sunday) and another on Tuesday. Then the 'big one' - for the whole parish - at a local hotel at the end of April.
Meanwhile, we move on with the formation of our new Mission Community. We have a number of building blocks now in place, and an open meeting on 30th to share these with the wider churches. There is a real sense of growth in the air, thanks be to God.
Tomorrow, Matthew 6.1-18 - part 3 of the Sermon on the Mount. Last week's passage ended with the exhortation to 'be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.' On reflection, I think this has the sense of becoming perfect, since it is the result of our growing, deepening relationship with our heavenly Father. It's as if Jesus now says, 'and here's how' - by naming 3 practices by which we grow towards perfection. These are giving, praying and fasting, the result of which, respectively is our growing in generosity, forgiveness, and joyfulness.
If we want to change the world, says Jesus, don't start with some programme or religious practices to impress. Start in the secret place: we have to be the change before we can see the change.
Sunday 12 March 2017
A New Path to Aliveness
Like many other people, I have been deeply saddened by the decision of Bishop Philip North to withdraw his acceptance of the post of Bishop of Sheffield. It's the second time he has had to do this: previously he withdrew from the bishopric of Whitby before becoming Bishop of Burnley. The reason was the same both times: he came under great pressure from many CofE clergy and lay people because of his opposition to women clergy and bishops. Coming from a strongly Catholic tradition, he simply believes, for reasons of Scripture and tradition, that to ordain women as either priests or bishop is not merely wrong but actually impossible, because (I'm putting it crudely) the grace of God is not available for this purpose.
Now I happen to disagree with him, as many others do, but the fact is that he belongs to an honourable tradition within the CofE whose conscientious and theological objections were recognised when the General Synod approved women's ordination. It was accepted then that 'traditionalist' clergy and bishops would not be discriminated against because of their views. It seems an absolute betrayal of that agreement that Bp North should have been subjected to such personal attacks by those who champion female equality. You end up thinking who is discriminating against whom?
There have been many testimonies to the Bishop's care and affirmation of women clergy in his present diocese (Blackburn), despite his views; and he is well known for his outspoken views on urban deprivation and the failure of the Church's mission is such places. We have lost a potentially great church leader, and one wonders where he goes from here. It cannot be said the he is anti-women. There is nothing personal about it: he simply cannot accept that their ordination is acceptable before God. This goes beyond present-day concerns about equality.
The disturbing thing about this is the inability of the Church to uphold its own agreements. What will happen in future if the CofE agrees to gay marriage, but clergy are not to be forced to take such a ceremony on grounds of theological objection? Will their refusal be construed as homophobic, and will they be subject to the same vilification as this Bishop?
Back to the Sermon on the Mount. This week, we have studied the rest of Matthew 5, where Jesus informs his disciples that unless their righteousness surpasses that of scribes and Pharisees they will not enter the Kingdom of God. He then goes on to take a number of examples of Jewish teaching, with the formula, 'You have heard it said...but I say...' Thus demonstrating that he is not denying the truth of the Law but supplementing it. I like McLaren's suggestion that religion is a kind of road to nowhere: ok, so you have fulfilled various legal demands and challenges, as have many before you, but then what? The disciple is to have his or her eyes set on the road to a further destination, which is not marked out by rules and regulations but simple obedience to Jesus and his word. Jesus ends, 'Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.' Lift your eyes!
Now I happen to disagree with him, as many others do, but the fact is that he belongs to an honourable tradition within the CofE whose conscientious and theological objections were recognised when the General Synod approved women's ordination. It was accepted then that 'traditionalist' clergy and bishops would not be discriminated against because of their views. It seems an absolute betrayal of that agreement that Bp North should have been subjected to such personal attacks by those who champion female equality. You end up thinking who is discriminating against whom?
There have been many testimonies to the Bishop's care and affirmation of women clergy in his present diocese (Blackburn), despite his views; and he is well known for his outspoken views on urban deprivation and the failure of the Church's mission is such places. We have lost a potentially great church leader, and one wonders where he goes from here. It cannot be said the he is anti-women. There is nothing personal about it: he simply cannot accept that their ordination is acceptable before God. This goes beyond present-day concerns about equality.
The disturbing thing about this is the inability of the Church to uphold its own agreements. What will happen in future if the CofE agrees to gay marriage, but clergy are not to be forced to take such a ceremony on grounds of theological objection? Will their refusal be construed as homophobic, and will they be subject to the same vilification as this Bishop?
Back to the Sermon on the Mount. This week, we have studied the rest of Matthew 5, where Jesus informs his disciples that unless their righteousness surpasses that of scribes and Pharisees they will not enter the Kingdom of God. He then goes on to take a number of examples of Jewish teaching, with the formula, 'You have heard it said...but I say...' Thus demonstrating that he is not denying the truth of the Law but supplementing it. I like McLaren's suggestion that religion is a kind of road to nowhere: ok, so you have fulfilled various legal demands and challenges, as have many before you, but then what? The disciple is to have his or her eyes set on the road to a further destination, which is not marked out by rules and regulations but simple obedience to Jesus and his word. Jesus ends, 'Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.' Lift your eyes!
Thursday 2 March 2017
A New Identity
So Lent begins again. I am sure it is meant to be a joyful time as we let go of some of the things which preoccupy or enslave us, and make space for our own personal desert. After all, the word 'Lent' comes an Old English word meaning 'spring'. It's spring-time for the soul! Growth, renewal, new life bursting forth culminating in the exaltation of Easter.
We begin a new section in We Make the Road by Walking. McLaren gives it the title Alive in a Global Uprising: his take on what the message of Jesus, his death and resurrection, were all about. And on Sunday, we begin a Lent series meditating thoughtfully around the Sermon on the Mount. This Sunday, A New Identity is the theme. reflecting on the Beatitudes. The values of the upside-down Kingdom of God. As McLaren puts it: …if we want to be his disciples, we won’t be able to simply coast along and conform to the norms of our society. We must choose a different definition of well-being, a different model of success, a new identity with a new set of values.
This is very much in keeping with Lent, as choosing the way of Christ over any other way is something we affirm, much as Jesus chose God's way in the desert, rather than the tempter's.
We begin a new section in We Make the Road by Walking. McLaren gives it the title Alive in a Global Uprising: his take on what the message of Jesus, his death and resurrection, were all about. And on Sunday, we begin a Lent series meditating thoughtfully around the Sermon on the Mount. This Sunday, A New Identity is the theme. reflecting on the Beatitudes. The values of the upside-down Kingdom of God. As McLaren puts it: …if we want to be his disciples, we won’t be able to simply coast along and conform to the norms of our society. We must choose a different definition of well-being, a different model of success, a new identity with a new set of values.
This is very much in keeping with Lent, as choosing the way of Christ over any other way is something we affirm, much as Jesus chose God's way in the desert, rather than the tempter's.
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