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A three stranded cord is not easily broken – friendship defined.

Was speaking with a close friend the other night and quoted the text about the threefold cord that is not easily broken. The faithful strengthening that comes from woven companionship has been important in this and many friendships.

Decided
to play around with this maxim from Ecclesiastes, that good natured Jew who was
gently sceptical about life, God and the elusiveness of happiness: “a three stranded cord is not easily broken.”
(4.12).

Tried a little Midrash on this, exploring the multiple choice interpretations, not
to choose the right one but to see the rich possibilities in each. The complete verse says, “If one person can
overpower another who is alone, two can resist his opponent. A three stranded cord
is not easily broken.”

The Jewish
setting and background is that of a journey. The danger of being on the road
alone. Vulnerability and risk are lessened when there are those who stand with
you, one on each side. That’s what friendship is. Those who stand on either
side of you, between you and those who mean harm or hurt.

Or from
another angle, this time Christian, the threefold strand could be the
companionship of the Triune love that is God. In the old Irish prayer, “I bind
unto myself today, the strong name of the Trinity.” The grace of Christ, the
love of God, the fellowship of the Spirit.

Then
again, from an ethical perspective “these three abide, faith, hope and love,
but the greatest of these is love.” Yet they belong together in a threefold strand.
Love without faith and hope lacks trust and promise. But where there is trust,
and forward looking promise, then love lives again and abides.

Whichever
way we take it, the three stranded cord of human friendship, of God’s enfolding
love, of the cardinal virtues, provides support and strength that is beyond any
one of us, but belongs to us together. Indeed human friendship, entwined with
divine love, and kept faithful by the three virtues, is just about the most
secure place any of us can be.

6 February 2010
He so contained the Gospel in its intensity, that its light radiated from the cracks

There are several biographies of Christian people that for me are definitive of the genre – and I mean the genre of Christian biography. Not hagiography. Not over devotionalised life stories projected as exemplars to make the rest of us feel guilty, inadequate or spiritual amateurs. Not propaganda for Christian projects, lifestyles, or personalities.

I mean the telling of a life in such a way that we can see how far what the person believed and what they lived coincided, and where they had more than a little resemblance in practice and values to the life and person of Jesus of Nazareth.

I mean the skilled unfolding of the delicate parchment of a person's lived experience, with such care and comprehension that those of us reading over the biographer's shoulder can appreciate the living text of a human life given in its own way to God.

I mean the quite rare ability to be both appreciative and critical, honest but understanding, imaginative yet without making things up for effect, open to the disappointments that are part of every life and alert to the gifts that are easily hidden.

I mean a reading of a life that is both theological and biographical, so that the experience and convictions of faith are allowed to inform the flow of the narrative, while the story provides a plausible framework for a portrait of a life given Christianly, both complex and living.

On my own shelves, as a select biographical bibliography there are a dozen or so books that are treasured for such reasons.

Helen Waddell, by Dame Felicitias Corrigan; R. W. Dale, by his son A. W. Dale; Temple Gairdner of Cairo, by C E Padwick; The Selected Letters of Baron Friedrich Von Hugel; Jonathan Edwards, by George Marsden; Michael Ramsey, by Owen Chadwick; H. R. L. Sheppard. Life and Letters, by R. Ellis Roberts; George Macleod, by Ronald Ferguson; Dorothy Sayers, by Barbara Reynolds; Thomas Chalmers, by Stewart (Jay) Brown; Cicely Saunders, by Shirley Du Boulay. And a few more.

But I suspect most (?) readers of this blog will wonder who H R L Sheppard is or was. He was one of God's fragile, flawed, earthen vessels who so contained the Gospel in its intensity that its light radiated from the cracks. One of those rare and magnificent pastors of the people that the Church of England produces, and critics of Anglicanism far too easily overlook and underrate.

I read the volume in 1976, again in 1986, and once more since. Then I lent it to someone who later couldn't find it to return it. A pity – it was a marked copy, and marked by me when I was in my first pastorate, and as receptive of heart as I've ever been since, I reckon. Last week I remembered a passage from my lost book – and no I didn't then find that by a miracle of providential circumstance or awakened conscience it turned up.

No miracle, just Amazon. I went looking for it and found a crisp clean copy which has now arrived. I've browsed in it off and on since it arrived – and now decided more people need to know about this pastor whose missiological methodology was love embodied, enacted, exemplified and enmeshed in the lives of others. So I'll read it again – and post on it again. Here's a sampler:

The biographer speaks of Dick Sheppard who for "snatched and precious moments in the early morning, came ardently, humbly to Jesus in prayer, remembering his friends, remembering his family, remembering himself, wrestling with God for Dick, desiring passionately to understand God enough to be able to proclaim him to all people as the Love he knew Him to be."

One of the most complex and vulnerable personalities of his generation, Dick Sheppard was no emotionally overwrought pietist – he was an emotionally engaged human being whose compassion and drive was traceable to an intense love for God, understood as the One exhibited in the ministry and passion of Jesus. I can think of only two or three Christians as attractive and available as a human being to those who knew him and found Christ through him. I wish I'd met him.

5 February 2010
Mary Oliver on why life should be lived with energy and intentionality.

The photo is of a gardener whose 100th birthday has passed. And he is sowing seeds with the expectation of organic veggies next year!

A poem. About why life is good, and why it is important to receive it as a gift and enjoy it as a blessing. Mary Oliver understands that mixture of hard-headed strategy and wistful longing that recognises life only happens once, and is precious and is not ever to be devalued as mere routine, or wasted through unamazed disdain. We are ourselves God's investment, created by a love that knows our possibilities, capax dei, "dust, but glorious dust", as Richard Holloway once wrote in a magnificent reflection.

When Death Comes

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement:

I was a bridegroom, taking the world

into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder

if I have made of my life something

particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing

and frightened

or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having

visited this world.

4 February 2010
Wolff on Micah 3: Forgiveness as victory.

This is a long quotation.

It took a while to type in.

It was worth it.

Wolff on Micah 7.18-20.

"The seventh statement brings a final climax, "Thou dost cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." In Exod. 15.5 we hear concerning the Egyptians who pursued Israel, "the waves covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone." As the foe went down like a stone, so sin our foremost foe, sinks into the depths of the sea like a stone. Let us note that the determining categories here when the forgiveness of sins is being discussed, are those of the exercise of power, of conquest over foes! The Lord displayed himself as victor, as the victor over the Egyptian army on Israel's behalf; similarly forgiveness is an act of surpassing victory which completely transforms the entire situation. Sin is humanity's deadly enemy – that is the presupposition here. When the foe has been hurled into the depth of the sea, life's circumstances are entirely new. Sin can cause no more trouble; it has been entirely removed.

Preceding everything that Israel could achieve or ruin was the word of God's unbreakable faithfulness, his promise to the forefathers (v 20). Through Jesus, the cross, and resurrection at the centre of history, that word of promise has been sealed for Israel, and at the same time put into effect for all peoples. It is in force and valid! Before I was born, this fundamental principle of the forgiveness of all our sins was put in force as the end of all our disputations with God and of all God's disputations with us.

When the burning fire within has been stamped out, and our sins sunk into the depths of the sea, then our community and each of its members experiences the legally valid end of God's dispute with us. That means nothing less than this; the final judgement, the last judgement has already been validly anticipated. Everyone can join in singing the sevenfold hymn of 7.18-20." (H W Wolff, Micah the Prophet,pages 130-31)

3 February 2010
“Though I may stumble in my going, Thou dost not fall.”

As the rain hides the stars,

as the autumn mist hides the hills,

as the clouds veil the blue of the sky,

so the dark happenings of my lot

hide the shining of thy face from me.

Yet, if I may hold thy hand in the darkness,

it is enough. Since I know that,

though I may stumble in my going,

thou dost not fall.

(Celtic, unknown)

The dark night of the soul is an experience of stripping away the assurance of the senses. Disorientation, uncertainty, loss of impetus, mean that absence is more real than presence, and the unfamiliar displaces the familiar. A spirituality fixated on the positive, and in which dogmatic assurances silence those important murmurs of dissent, is for all its triumphalist note, a spirituality of denial. Not self-denial to be sure, but a more toxic form of refusal, a denial of that mysterious withdrawing of God's sensed presence by which we grow beyond adolescent claimfulness.

The above prayer doesn't express the classic experience of the dark night of the soul. The last line of it is reminiscent of Isaiah at his most pastorally poetic, and as the theologian who best describes the rhythm of feeling forsaken by the one who promises not to forsake. This is a prayer I now use regularly because it allows me to be both honest and modest about my experience of God. Honest enough to confess that sometimes God's presence is not felt; modest enough not to think my own sense of God or lack of sense of God makes any difference to the reality of things, that God remains actually present even in acutely felt absence.

"Though I may stumble in my going, thou dost not fall." Since I know that, I know the most important thing. And even if I am overcome at times with doubt, uncertainty, and the pain of unknowing, more important than what I know, is that I am known, and by whom I am known. And one day I will know as I am known. And until then prayers like the one above are, in Eliot's word, valid.

2 February 2010
The theology of the cross and a church thirled to a theology of glory

The whole history of Christianity,

and the history of the world,

would have followed a different course

if it had not been that again and
again

the theology of the cross

became a theology of glory,

and that the
church of the cross

became a church of glory.

—Theologian Emil Brunner, The Mediator, 1927

The cross is “the signature of the one who is risen.”

—Biblical theologian Ernst Käsemann, Perspectives on Paul, 1969

Both quotations used as epigraphs in an article by Michael Gorman in Catalyst, see here http://www.catalystresources.org/issues/313gorman.html

1 February 2010
Wolff on Micah 2. Walking humbly with God

Here is Wolff on Micah's Manifesto, about acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. The comment is on what it means to walk humbly – shows why this is my kind of commentary

"Education for Dissent" is a necessary thing insofar as it is based on the fear of God. Disobedience to human authority is good for humans to the precise extent that it arises from unconditional obedience to the good Master of all humans and to his word and not from pure belligerency and lust for controversy. To say it another way, dissent is good insofar as it arises out of deep humility, the will to submit to humanity's Creator and Liberator. From that source arises a new style of living, a new way of acting out of dissent. The new lifestyle is a part of humility in the presence of God. It brings a new life up out of the waters of baptism.

But the Hebrew word for this third description of what is good contains a bit more than is expressed in our word "humility". Hasenea denotes attentiveness, thoughfulness, watchfulness. What then is good for us humans? "to live attentively, thoughtfully, watchfully with your God." It would take a lifetime to exhaust the implications of this expression. This third description of what is good does not refer to humility as an ethical posture of being ready to accept a lower social ranking (to say nothing about it being what it is often understood to be, an inauthentic pose, a false posturing of submission). What is meant is the attentive sharing with God in the journey on which He is travelling, "attentive journeying together with your God", what the New Testament calls "following Jesus". (pages 112-13)

Oh my goodness! Can that text be expounded better?.

:

31 January 2010
Wolff on Micah 1. Playing with words, not to hide truth but to make it unforgettable

You'll see from the sidebar that I've been reading Hans Walter Wolff's far too little known exposition, Micah the Prophet. Published in English translation in 1981 it is a different kind of commentary. The first half is exposition which is a brilliant example of erudition made accessible, and biblical theology made relevant to contemporary cultural realities.

The second half (remember, published 1981) looks at problems faced by the world then – early ecological concerns, injustice and the poverty of the "Third World", European terrosist cells. In this section of the book Wolff looks at terrorism, social responsibility, ecology, the future of the church, and examines the implications for Christian existence through the lens of Micah. It's a fascinating experiment in Bible study that was way ahead of its time and still excites to read.

One of my lightly and undogmatically held theories is that at different times in our own lifetime certain biblical books seem to have a specific relevance to our lived experience, personally, nationally and globally. Micah is a prophet whose time has come yet again. Around the time Wolff was writing, Jimmy Carter began his Presidency hoping he would be remembered for an administration that acted justly, loved mercy and walked humbly. However much he succeeded or failed, he did articulate the fundamental ethical essentials for human flourishing and co-operative existence, and those same meta-values remain required principles of political action and social responsibility. Without them we will have more of the world we presently have, and less of the world God intends where human community grows out of justice, mercy and dethroned pride.

Here's Wolff on Micah's use of wordplay, and I read it the night the news reports on the Iraq inquiry featured the evidence of Tony Blair, when it seems words were played with in a quite different way:

Micah is a master at play on words. They help to make his message unforgettable…I am not interested in inspiring you to construct linguistically more brilliant or substantively more accurate proverbs. Rather my point is this: prophetic language is well honed. It is clear, unambiguous and penetrating. As such, it is therefore language that can be remembered, not readily forgotten; a person has to have heard it only once. In our current crises…the language we use to proclaim our message dare not piddle around with generalities, four fifths of which go in one ear and out the other without any effect. Micah is concerned with every syllable that he employs. (page 40-1)

There it is – clear, unambiguous, penetrating, not piddling around with generalities, concerned with every syllable. That would give preaching a bit more bite, urgency and prophetic edge finely honed.

More of Wolff anon

Meanwhile, here's another kind of wordplay that subverts our cognitive sleepiness.

What did you read first – the colour or the words?

What happens in your head when you read the word orange and it is printed in green?

And what conclusions do we jump to when we read or hear words we think we already understand?

Words like act justly

love mercy

walk humbly.

.

30 January 2010
If truth is the first casualty of war, then untruth is often the first causality of war!

The Iraq war is a tragedy, whatever its legal justification.

When that legal justification is so politicised that the basis of the decision is coated in teflon misinformation, then tragedy deepens.

Some witnesses at the current Iraq enquiry have been depressingly predictable in their use of Orwellian discourse; so human tragedy is trivialised by self serving rhetoric.

Faith in the overall process of truth gathering is not helped by a recently announced 70 year gagging order on papers relating to the death of Dr Kelly, the expert on Weapons of Mass Destruction, whose suicide remains a tragic enigma.

The former Attorney General was quite open about his total change of mind following a visit to the United States and consultation with US lawyers from the State department.

At no time, we are told, was his arm twisted, by US or UK senior politicians. So we are left to conclude that US lawyers are more competent in International Law relating to war and UN Resolutions than our own Attorney General.

Today Tony Blair gives evidence. We already heard some of his case for his own defence on the Fern Britton interview. And it would be wrong to prejudge what he will say, I suppose.

So rather than say more I want to quote a passage from Thomas Merton, The Non-Violent Alternative, (published 1971 several years after Merton's death):

"War-makers in the twentieth century have gone far toward creating a political language so obscure, so apt for treachery, so ambiguous, that it can no longer serve as an instrument for peace; it is good only for war. But why? because the language of the war-maker is self-enclosed in finality. It does not invite reasonable dialogu, it uses language to silence dialogue, to block communication, so that instead of words the two sides may trade divisions, positions, villages, air bases, cities – and of course the lives of the peoploe in them. The daily toll of the killed (or the "kill ratio") is perfunctorily scrutinized and decoded. And the totals are expertly managed by "ministers of truth" so that the newspaper reader may get the right message.

Our side is always ahead. He who is winning must be the one who is right. But we are right, therefore we must be winning. Once again we have the beautiful, narcissistic tautology of war – or of advertising…There is no communicating with anyone else, because anyone who does not agree, who is outside the charmed circle, is wrong, is evil, is already in hell." (Merton in Non Violent Alternative, 243-44)

Forty years on Merton's words are worth reading again,

after we hear the news reports of what was said,

what wasn't said,

and what wasn't said in what was said,

at the Iraq inquiry today.

29 January 2010
Celtic myths, Gaelic blessings, and “Deep Peace” nevertheless!

My friend Donald Meek, retired Professor of Celtic Studies, has a healthy and quite sharp scepticism about what is often stated and overstated about Celtic Christianity. Not so much the reality and existence of such a tradition but its romanticisation, its overblown eco-friendliness, its surprisingly comforting resonance in a culture looking for nostalgic comfort. His book on Celtic Christianity feels like a bucket of icy peat-tinted water drawn from a Highland river in full spate and thrown over the heated imaginations and ahistorical enthusiasms of those who confuse feelgood vagueness with the realities of the darker ages on these islands.

All of which said, there is a rich tradition of poetry, story and oral liturgy that does indeed still convey a devotional and historically valid form of spirituality. There are rhythms of language that survive translation so long as the translator resists the urge to 'improve' or 'adapt' the words to contemporary taste. Translation of a historical text isn't about pleasing the contemporary consumer – it's an act of communication that works hard to make an original voice heard and read in all its integrity and oddity.

Over Christmas I bought a compilation of music on which Lesley Garrett sings a Gaelic blessing. I've come to love this piece of music, words sung out in compassionate benediction, and the words themselves capable of stirring restlessness as longing for peace and rest in a world that is so often hard-edged, demanding, selfish and lacking – well compassionate benediction.

Deep peace of the running wave to you

Deep peace of the flowing air to you

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the Son of peace to you, forever,

(Early Scottish)
The photo is from imagestar here.

28 January 2010