Listening to the stones

Chocolate Teapots (June 3rd 2012)

Psalm 29

It's one of these psalms where you need to wear ear protectors because God wants to let you know that God is there and God is going to shout as loud as God can until you notice. It's like a child who screams loudly to get noticed and imagines that the louder he or she screams the more notice will be taken of them.

Nope!

There seems to be a direct correlation (not proven, just my feeling) between the loudness of your screams and the content of our personality. In other words the louder you are, the less depth you've got, the less of other things that are more attractive like grace and peace and kindness and compassion. So a shouty God isn't necessarily a good thing. Indeed this psalm is probably one originally given over to Ba'al and the Yahwahists adopted it and substituted one god for another like saying, 'Our God can shout louder than yours'

Of course there's another point. This is about call. God's voice calls and invokes. It is not volume we are talking about here, it is the power of the call. It is a call powerful enough to bring creation into life as much as destroy it if necessary. The power is in the call.

Given this is Trinity Sunday and the middle of the Jubilee weekend, what shall we say: God is still in charge which is what the Queen believes as well. God calls us, which is what the Queen believes of her position too. God calls with authority. So we ought to ask leaders and communities and politicians and faithful followers to take off those ear protectors because it is not the noise that is the problem, it's people aren't listening to the call.

Who Put?

Not exactly original as an idea but our gathering for Sunday...

Who puts the copper into beach trees
and the waddle into penguins
who invented rainbows
and puts shapes into clouds

The Spirit
God’s imagination

Who put the notes into music
and picked the dance steps for bees
who placed the hum in humming birds
and decided elephants could listen with their feet

The Spirit
God’s imagination

Who invented yeast to make bread rise
and put a curve in a banana
who made laughter infectious
and chocolate taste like heaven

The Spirit
God’s imagination

Today is Pentecost
and we celebrate the energy of God
who imagined us
and brings us together in a colourful, imaginative, loving community
We call her the Spirit

Okay, it's hot

It's 10.30 (at night), the trees are silhouetted against the light sky, the windows are open and it's been another burning hot day.  think our presbyterian theology would be quite different if this was our weather most of the time rather than the rather cooler, wetter, dreicher stuff we're normally used to. Do you think we'd feel we were all such dour sinners if it was sunny like this all the time? Do you think ministers would traditionally wear black if the temperature was above 20 centigrade on average (rather than the winter average of 5 degrees and summer 15).

I really do have a theory that our theology has as much to do with our weather as much as anything else. We shape God round our experiences and in Scotland the weather is our biggest experience. As they say, if you don't like the weather, wait a minute.It's is our biggest influence on what we say and how we relate to each other and our fashions and food. So why not our theology as well.

Any thoughts?

If it was sunny all the time, what do you think we might believe differently?

Interfaith

One of the surprise topics at the General Assembly this year has been how the Church of Scotland engages with other faiths. It was a bit of a shock to me that a vote between allowing church halls to be used by others faith to have worship and not allowing them to be used by other faiths was only narrowly defeated.

It came up yesterday as well and I wonder if the reason for it is an illustration that many in the  church are feeling that we are so thin now that all we can afford to do is look after our own. I presume this comes from a deeper feeling that the church is breaking apart or that we are more fragile than we have ever been, or more unsure of ourselves than ever before, losing confidence and a sense of who we are so we circle the wagons and in my mind that isn't healthy.

There is a 'substantial' report to be produced by 2014 under Mission and Discipleship to look at this in the context of worship and mission. But what are your thoughts on interfaith relations? Would you prefer that church halls be banned from being used by other faiths for worship?

The undercurrent here, again, I fear, is that the conservative church is becoming more and more like our conservative society and proscribing our faith, not allowing us to make choices grounded on our own experience of God. There seems to be a movement and a growing desire to ban this that and the next thing. The church has always been broad and open, allowing leaders and congregations to make choices grounded on conscience and are trusted to do so. Increasingly that is being called into question and that genuinely frightens me. The more rules we have about what we cannot do, the less we trust each other and our relationships is not built on love and grace but on commands and regulations and that seems so far from being the church.

Rant over...

... for now.

Spirit

she is the song still to be sung
and the throat waiting to sing it
the love still to be discovered
and the poem that describes it

she is the prison yet to break open
and the key to be turned
the dream still to be caught
and the catcher ready to catch it

she is the sunrise still to lift
and the feast still to share
the community still to form
and the adventure yet to happen

come spirit
this is our prayer
that we shed the skin
but keep the soul
renew the language
but keep the word
retune the song
but keep the music
rebirth religion
but keep the faith

she is the bread still to be broken
and the wine yet to be poured
the table waiting to be set
and the people ready to gather

come spirit
this is our prayer
that the church of the yet to be
is born in the chruch of now

 

Chocolate Teapots (May 27th 2012)

Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost really starts with Babel does it not? One voice became many languages on Babel's Day and then these many languages were suddenly understandable on the Day of Pentecost.

But there is more to it. There always is. Perhaps, and this is only a perhaps, the Babel fable of that united humanity building a tower to heaven and the Pentecost story are one story about our diversity and how God is found and engaged and celebrated in that diversity.

Think of Babel. They all thought they could get to understand God if they got to heaven, which they thought was 'up there'. Hmmmm. I wonder if God put new tongues in their mouths to show them that you'll never get close to God by building a tower upwards, but only by looking outwards and engaging with the diversity of humanity out there. God wasn't trying to hide and defend Godself from humanity by giving them different tongues but was saying, I'm going to force you to look to the place you'll find me and that is among you all in your different experiences and traditions and pathways. Together they each offer a face of God: God in community.

Now that is a bit of a reinterpretation but go with me for the moment.

Let's turn to Pentecost. Here again God is reminding us it is about diversity. Every tongue proclaims God as God: in every language, only now we begin to get it. We don't have a monopoly on how we understand God, we aren't meant to say the same things about God because our experiences and cultures and traditions are all different. Rather each person has something to say. Pentecost is the great celebration of discovering God in our diversity and God is right at the heart of it. Indeed diversity is the theme running through all of Acts, from great visionary picnics at Joppa to Lydia, Dorcas and all the gentiles: women, men and children all getting involved.

We're aren't designed to speak in one tongue about God. God's richness and faith's richness comes from the many hues and languages and cultures and traditions we call faith. God doesn't seem to be at home with us all being the same. God likes the family to be diverse: conservatives and progressives, male and female, Jew and Gentile.

Of course you can quote Galatians, that there are no Jews and Gentiles, male or female. But that passage is not saying we are not to be clones. It is saying that our status, gender etc are not the ways to measure our value and worth in God's eyes.

So the opening gambit this week is that Pentecost is the great festival of diversity and the sponsor of that diversity is the Holy Spirit herself, the one who spin creation in all it's diversity and has been doing so ever since.

My Dear Luke

Our contemporary reading for Sunday. Both the Gospel of Luke and Acts are written to Theophilus. I wonder if he ever wrote back to Luke of his reaction to the tale....?:

My dear Luke

Thank you for your first book about Jesus… As you can guess… I was most intrigued to hear you were writing a second volume… and have been looking forward to it with expectation… I did wonder how this wonderful story could continue after resurrection… and so on receiving your second volume… I was keen to start reading straight away…

In your first book you kept me gripped with a story full of wonder and grace… of healing and miraculous events… but more than anything… it was Jesus who fascinated me… a miracle worker yet whose miracles were incidental to the purpose of his life… which was to offer and show us how to live life fully given over to the love of God…

I was fascinated therefore with the details you gave of the resurrection and the sightings of him after those mysterious events at the empty tomb… And to imagine all you say is true… makes it even more of a tale of wonder and grace…

Imagine then… what it was like to open your second volume and read straight away the story of Jesus departure from among us… My heart skipped a beat as I imagined in my mind his ascension… I must confess I did wonder what was going to happen to Jesus ever since the early days of resurrection… I knew in my heart of hearts he couldn’t be with us always… so limited geographically to one place at a time… 

But an ascension… such a difficult thing to imagine… I can’t tell if you are offering a symbolic story here… or outlining the facts… either way… the means of his departure seem unimportant…

I imagine you are saying that it is what is left in his place that is important… and the implication of the two men who turn up as the disciples stare into space… as if longing for Jesus to be with them… is beautifully and subtly made… Though I have to confess… I can imagine how they felt… those poor disciples… having been through so much… tying their whole lives and livelihood to Jesus… and now all of that familiarity is gone… It must have been quite a blow to them…

So far… I have read but the first page… and am looking forward to hearing how the tale will grow… but I imagine that they will discover they have been left with more than they imagine… a confidence? I am sure… a hope? I am certain… but if everything I have read so far is true… and I do not doubt you one bit, Luke my friend… then there will be love… a love that has seen all things… even death being defeated… and in that Spirit and truth… I dare not even imagine what might yet happen to this new movement…

Jesus is gone… but it seems he is more alive now… than ever before…

Thank you for encouraging my faith… with your own… I am beginning to trust this adventure called The Way…

Your friend

Theophilus

Easyfundraising

We've registered the church with easyfundraising which is a cost free way to raise some funds for the congregation. All you do is go to easyfundraising.org.uk click the register now button, type in New Kilparick Parish Church in the Support A Cause box, fill in your name and email details, fill in the gift aid page if appropriate and then you'll be taken to the main page and use the search box to find what you want to buy.

For example if you want to buy a book from Amazon just type Amazon on the search engine on the easyfundraising page and purchase to your hearts content. Or Argos or comet or whenever yo like. As long as you use the easyfundraising page then the chruch receives a small portion of the cost of whatever you buy. It's a bit like the Nectar card except the church receives the reward.

General Assembly

I was at a meeting in the head offices of the church again today. It's clearly General Assembly time as everyone seems to be going a little crazy wondering what questions are going to be asked and what is going to be picked up in discussion. There are teams of people trying to pre-empt questions and work out how to respond to topics that might come up. It's a bit like PMQ where you prepare and prepare for questions that might or might not happen. Everyone seems to be doing it. It's a bit like a battle and trying to have enough ammunition to survive. Everyone seems threatened. What a terrible way of doing church.

The church is so big (truly, it is) and there are so many things going on, pieces of work, projects and programmes, and so many topics of debate that you feel once May is over we can all be friends again and get on with stuff without the pressure.

I recognise that our faith is best served in thorough debate, it's just that the lines are drawn so early. Everything seems to be a fight rather than a journeying together. But then Jesus often went for the confrontation with the powers that be (Pharisees, Temple) and did the journeying together with individuals (Mary, Zacchaeus). I'd both love it and hate it if he arrived in the middle of the General Assembly.

Maxie Richards

Maxie Richards was with us tonight talking again about her work helping support people out of addicted lifestyles. She is the sort of person who intuitively does stuff, she just seems to know in her bones how to respond to people, a very genuine woman who seems so fragile. Though perhaps it is just the world who sees fragility. People of faith might see that vulnerability rather as honesty and as love, and as self-giving care. That's how it came over to me. How did others find it?

What got me most was that there is a whole lot of basic, traditional values in there. It's completely relationship based. They talk about eating together round a table, they talk about working for people in the community, they talk about 'how does this make your mum or dad feel'. Obviously these are not the controlling counseling questions as they support people out of addiction but they are images of the controlling values. It is a bout restoring people back to community in community. That's a very genuine faith approach to live. And Maxie says she works particularly with people who have decided now is the time to come off of drugs, they way she does it strikes me as one of the richest ways of doing it using basic human values but a recognition that those basic values take a lot of sacrifice and patience.

A good night of insights and some possible follow-up activities...