Category: Baptist Stuff

I'm a liturgically alert Baptist, and try to be spiritually and temperamentally open and receptive in my Christian sympathies. Baptist catholicity as rootedness in the unity and diversity that is the Body of Christ as it is manifested in time and space, is for me a Gospel imperative; far from being disloyal to Baptist distinctives, catholicity of heart enables our own distinctive witness to be borne amongst other Christians, in faithful humility, and allows my own tradition to be enriched in turn by the faithful witness of other Christians from other traditions. 

The Christian Year therefore provides an important framework within which I understand my own place in the wider Christian story. The Christian year and its liturgical underpinning in the Lectionary is the common property of the entire Christian church, it is the narrative framework of our faith woven daily into the fabric of our time. John Colwell, who teaches Christian Doctrine at Spurgeon's College and who is himself a Baptist with strong liturgical sympathies and a temperament deeply catholic in its theological reach towards other traditions, recently wrote a significant and innovative summary of Christian doctrine based on the Church Year. John's book is titled The Rhythm of Doctrine – and in it the Christian story is framed within the Christian year from Advent to Ascension. John's theological writing is one of the really significant theological contributions currently being made by British Baptists. This book may well be written up into a larger project of Christian Doctrine explored within a liturgical framework – and I for one would like him to get on with it!

The Revised Common Lectionary has for quite a long time been the basis of my personal weekly Bible meditation. An important dimension of my own reading and reflection of this Lectionary is the remarkable fact that millions of other Christians are thinking about, reading, in different ways engaging with, the same passages from the Bible. As a Baptist Christian I've never felt the need to deny or diminish the traditions of others who in their way,in their place and in their time are seeking to faithfully follow Jesus.

My own commitment within the Baptist community is to the people amongst whom I bear a common witness to important insights and emphases that are distinctive, and important within the Body of Christ. But I think Paul's caricature of a body that is a whole ear but blind, or a whole foot but dumb, is an important lesson in the mutual recognition of worth and belonging that is both the challenge and the blessing of Christian existence in fellowship. So the Revised Common Lectionary readings are a weekly affirmation that the Bible I read is not mine; and the way I read it isn't the only way; and Baptists aren't the only or even the most careful and faithful readers; and intentional Bible reading as spiritual discipline leading to transformative practice, while a core emphasis in Baptist spirituality, is certainly not a Baptist or Evangelical monopoly game. Indeed when I attend worship in other church traditions, which incorporate the Lectionary readings into the service, the Bible very often has a more integral and fenced place in the worship diet than in those churches that claim to be Bible loving and Bible based.

So – all that said – this week I've been drawn into the Scriptures about the baptism of Jesus. The painting above, by Fra Angelico, has helped to convey the mystery of God in human flesh offering himself in a baptism of repentance. The theological awkwardness of trying to reconcile perfect holiness, perfect humanity and the coming of God into a world fallen and broken, helps explain why the Gospel story doesn't fit our controlling categories – it transcends them. The affirming voice, the descending dove and the submissive Christ, one of those moments in the Bible when the mutual self-emptying love of the Triune God is glimpsed, hinted at, and the proper response is to kneel, wonder, and recall our own baptism into the name of the Triune God of love.

 

Some time ago I was asked to lead closing devotions for a group of newly settled Baptist ministers. Decided to use some of the material from several books on Anabaptist Spirituality to compile a closing act of worship. Haven't used it since but thought it might be interesting or useful for others – if not, nothing lost.

The etching is of Dirk Willems, (Asperen 1569), an Anabaptist condemned to death for his convictions, who escaped across the castle moat, but his pursuer fell through the ice. Willems turned back to help his pursuer, was recaptured, and then burned. The Anabaptist respect for life, reverence for human flourishing and literalist approach to the Sermon on the Mount are hard to capture more faithfully than in such an act of mercy. Out of that tradition that seeks to follow faithfully after Christ in performative discipleship and radical peacemaking, ideas and words like these come – not only prayer, but Word centred aspiration.

The first gift …

is called the Fear of God,

it is the beginning of all
wisdom

which prepares the path to
life for us.

 

It trembles at the Word of
God

and enters through the narrow
Gate.

It drives out sin and a
godless life,

diligently watches and
protects its house

 

  
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…

     guard your heart carefully,

       for from it
flow the issues of life.

 

We are created anew out of
God,

born
of his seed, 1 Pet. 1.23,

made
in his image, Col. 3.10,

renewed
in his knowledge,

become
partaker of his divine nature, Eph. 4.24,

having
new being of the Spirit, John 14.17, 16.13.

 

       
In God’s great mercy we have been given new birth into a living hope

     through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

   and into an inheritance that can never perish
or fade –

kept in heaven for us who through faith
are shielded by God’s power….

 

Christ is everywhere
represented to us as

                humble,
meek, merciful,

              just,
holy, wise, spiritual,

            long-suffering,
patient, peaceable,

          lovely,
obedient, and good,

       as
the perfection of all things;

    for
in Him thee is an upright nature.

   Behold,
this is the image of God,

     of
Christ as to the Spirit

        which
we have as an example

          until
we become like it in nature

            and
reveal it by our walk.

 

   To this we were called, because Christ
suffered for us,

leaving
us an example that we should follow in his steps…

  He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree

so
that we might die to sins and live for righteousness…

   by his wounds, we have been healed

 

Just
as one bread is made from many kernels,

  And
one drink from many berries,

    So
all true Christians

      Are
one bread and one drink,

        Without
deceit or duplicity,

          In
Christ the Lord.

            He
nourishes us,

              Multiplying
true love and communion.

 

   How good and pleasant it is when we dwell in
unity,

   devoted
to one another in love,

   honouring one another above ourselves.

 

Just
as natural bread is made of many grains

    Pulverised
by the mill, kneaded with water,

        And
baked by the heat of the fire,

                  So
is the church of Christ made up of true believers,

        Broken
in their hearts with the mill of the divine Word,

      Baptised
with the waters of the Holy Ghost.

   And
with the fire of pure, unfeigned love, made into one body.

It's here. Just received in the post my copies of the most recent Regent Study Guide entitled Under the Rule of Christ. Dimensions of Baptist Spirituality, Paul Fiddes (Ed.), Smyth and Helwys, 2008 (ISBN: 978-095397 – 4-1). The book arose out of a request from the Baptist Union Retreat Group to the UK College Principals to write something on spirituality amongst Baptists. The result was a series of papers which we wrote, reviewed together, revised in the light of our discussions, and then offered for publication.

Here's the blurb from the publisher

In this book the Principals of the six Baptist colleges in Great
Britain take up a request to write about Baptist spirituality. They
propose that the spirituality of Baptists, in all its diversity, is
characterized by living ‘under the rule of Christ’. While all Christian
spiritual traditions affirm this truth, they suggest that there is a
particular sense of being under Christ’s rule which has been shaped by
the story of Baptists and by their way of being church through the
centuries. Elaborating the main theme, chapters explore various
dimensions of spirituality: giving attention to God and to others,
developing spirituality through suffering, having spiritual liberty
within a community, living under the rule of the Word in Christ and
scripture, integrating the Lord’s Supper with the whole of life, and
engaging in the mission of God from an experience of grace. Together,
the writers present an understanding of prayer and life in which Christ
is both the final authority and the
measure of all things.

Chris Ellis is Principal Emeritus of Bristol Baptist College; Paul Fiddes is Principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford; Steven Finamore is Principal of Bristol Baptist College; James Gordon is Principal of the Scottish Baptist College, Glasgow; Richard Kidd is Principal of Northern Baptist College, Manchester; John Weaver is Principal of the South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff; Nigel Wright is Principal of Spurgeon’s Baptist College, London.

Ive a lot more to say about the Bible, Baptist principles and Baptist spirituality on the College blog here. You can find it just after the publisher's blurb. There is a big conversation to be had about what it means to be Baptist in such a distinctive way that it actually makes baptist people distinctive! Such distinctiveness doesn't necessarily make baptists more right, more spiritual, more theologically sound – it does indicate what it is we are called to be, and to be faithful to, within the diversity of the church universal.

Just back from Manchester where I met with 30+ British Baptists all enthusiastic about doing theology in context. Held at Luther King House (shown in the two photos in different seasons – great place for a retreat / conference). Originally the brainchild of Professor Paul Fiddes, Baptists Doing Theology in Context isn't a conference but a consultation. It's a place where we come to share what we are already working on, thinking about, exploring, mostly as that arises in the context of our ministry and lives; it is a place where 'prayer is valid.' Those who come are committed to theology by collaboration, participating in a fellowship of thought in which friendships grow and our own limited grasp of faith is strengthened and enlarged.

The papers as indicated earlier were varied in content and approach, each of them evidence of serious engagement with truth that can be elusive, disturbing, renewing and transforming, and shared in a safe place where the main pre-requisite is a love of shared enquiry within the broad context of Baptist identity and loyalty to Christ. Varied viewpoints, differing backgrounds, any number of personal  academic interests, a pervasive sense of seriousness that never precludes fun, exchanges of viewpoint, judgement and opinion moderated by respect and intellectual  fairness; these set the spirit of the occasion. Everyone who brought a paper or a contribution to share, made themselves vulnerable by offering their thinking as a gift to the rest – I have notes from those I was able to attend which will become part of my own continued following after the way of Christ and the reality of God. I don't want to mention highlight contributions – that would be about my personal preferences. Quality of research, reflection and thought is judged not by  personal taste, but by the integrity of those for whom a discipleship of the intellect is an important path traceable on their landscape.

High points for me were to do with people – I met Andy Goodliff finally after repeated blog exchanges; he is as lively and theologically alert over coffee as at his keyboard. I met Catriona again and attended her paper on (local) church history as a resource for practical theology. Clare whom I've know for a good while now, and who was studying in Aberdeen  while I was minister there, continues to work with faithful persistence in a place where the circumstances are hard but the people are well worth the sacrifices made to continue supporting them in their shared life. (Indeed  – ditto for Catriona whose own ministry requires similar faithful tenacity, and is resourced from deep vocational wells). Briefly encountered Sean the Baptist just back from holiday and looking the picture of rude health – rude and healthy? -  anyway looking good! Talking with all the various participants – none of us have life easy – for some theology has to be done in a hard place – it becomes clear that those who think theology is a rarefied intellectual hobby, or a diversion from 'real' life, should talk with some of these real life theologians. Some of them I simply admire and quietly note the importance of new friendships being incorporated into prayer for each of them.

So. A good three days. I'm on sabbatical in a couple of days and now tidying up emails 'n stuff. The blog will continue but with occasional hiatuses (is that the plural?) I promised a post on Balentine on Job to one of my new friends from this week. It'll appear soon, Robert!

 I'd asked several people to lead us in our prayers and they each set our thinking, talking and searching within the holy brackets of prayerful attentiveness, to God, and then to each other. I had time to catch up with several folk I don't see nearly often enough – and talking to them reminds me of why I feel that way.