Category: Uncategorised

Baptism and the friendship of God

"God's initial offering of holy friendship occurs for us at the edge of the baptismal waters. in the initiating rite of baptism, we become disciples of the One who personifies God's friendship for us. Baptism interrupts our way of forming friendships based on what we hope to get out of them. in our new life of discipleship we learn a language that defies conventional  wisdom about friendships: stories that tell of welcoming strangers, loving the enemy, and describing as family those for whom water is thicker than blood". (Page 63).

The Church, its organisational life, structures and functional groups:

"We believe it is essential that we offer both our prayers and our devotion to the healthy institutions that need to be preserved, the diminished or dispirited ones that need to be healed, the dying ones that need to be let go, and new ones waiting to be born." (Page 151).

The Excellence that matters

"Excellence in the Christian vocation is a sign and instrument by which creation is healed, reconciliation is experienced, and justice is practiced." (Page 49).

Honest self-awareness

"For the mind often lies to itself about itself and makes believe that it loves the good work, when actually it does not, and that it does not wish for glory, when in fact it does." (Gregory the Great – cited Page 43).

Community interpreters.

"Interpreters are a community's custodians of both memory and hope, people who help set the challenges and opportunities of the present within the much larger context of what God has done in the past and where God is leading in the future." (Page 130).

Today I'm off to St Deiniol's for a personal reading retreat. I have to be in Crewe for a prior commitment Thursday coming, and the chance to combine that trip with a few days at St Deiniol's 40 minutes away was too good to miss. The banner under the photo syas something very near to my own sentiments – with just the moving of an 'S' – Libraries Matter!

I want to do some further work on Psalm 119 reflecting on the psalm as theological education within a wisdom curriculum. Not sure what will come out of this but I am trying to find a handle on Wisdom Psalms, and especially this elaborately constructed eulogy on the law of God, as structured encouragement to live Torah. The connections between Torah nurtured wisdom and theological education as life shaped by intentional practices of obedience to God, seem to me to promise important insights into what shapes and sustains ministry. In recent years there has been a growing recognition that ministry has its own competences. These are not mere practical skills, but grow out of theological and spiritually formative experience, and such competences express both the wisdom of a long, rich pastoral tradition, while also requiring of us an innovative adaptability in embodying and practising wise ministry in a contemporary and changing context.

My current commentary enthusiasm, Sam Balentine's commentary on Job will accompany me and I've scheduled some longer periods of reading in order to immerse myself more deeply in the flow of this remarkable volume. I'm also taking David Ford's Christian Wisdom, one of several volumes held back till they can be read without the interruption of normal life! It's the first of five big volumes I'm hoping to meander through by a daily diet of manageable chunks and careful note-taking.

Aside from those the library at St Deiniol's has enough variety to keep me going – including a superb Victorian poetry section. Books, music, running shoes, morning prayers, a cake and coffee shop across the road of which our Ministry Advisor advised a level of restraint (aye right!), – not doing the ascetic retreat, more an exercise in taking life easy, in a serious but not over-intense way – you know, the discipline of responsible freedom. So what would be responsible freedom in a coffee and cake shop? Hmmm? I'll let you know after some experiementation. No internet access for a few days so next blogging is after I get back.

You know how the automated voice on trains helpfully keeps you informed of your whereabouts?  For example:

"This is Dumbreck. The next stop is Glasgow Central where this train terminates."

At least, that's what you're supposed to hear. But if you're on sabbatical, and you're listening for a word from the Lord, you know, a wee word of encouragement or a hint that life is supposed to be for fun as well as work, and Sheila points out the phonetic possibilities, what you hear is

"This is Dumbreck. The next stop is Glasgow Central where the strain terminates".

And as Sheila and I were on our way to Miss Cranston's Tearoom we took this as such a wee prophetic word. At Glasgow Central the strain terminates, and fifty yards along Gordon Street is Miss Cranston's – now is that a wee word or what!
 Readers of this blog will remember I covered myself in embarrassment on my last visit after a bad experience with a cafetiere plunger that took messy revenge on me for forcing the issue. This time – nae problem. Just a gentle downward push, and all the staff can breathe a sigh of relief.

On another note, yesterday – while watching the afternoon downpour I was on the exercise bike listening to Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and the Fourth Horn Concerto. Not sure Mozart could ever have envisaged the joy he would bring a sweaty Baptist working out – but the Clarinet Concerto is a work of heartbreaking genius.

Tomorrow if I don't get out running cos of the rain – though it looks to be better – I'll listen to the first piece of classical music I ever sat right through and listened to – in astonished surprise. I was given it on a vinyl LP by Sheila (around 1974!) after I'd read Unfinished Journey, the autobiography of Yehudi Menuhin. It's Brahms' Violin Concerto, a piece I've listened to regularly ever since, and never yet tired of it.

Now. What else should I listen to that would tone up my mind and spirit the same way that physical exercise does the body? This month is classical – so any suggestions welcome. I've a wee budget for some new CDs.

One of the tasks over the next while is reducing the number of CDs which sit on the shelves no longer listened to. Charity shops here I come – but does anyone listen to the likely rejects anymore…..?.

After a long delay due both to my oversight then the inability of Typepad to cope with pasted content – (now in the improved version much easier), I can publish one of the shortest (if not the shortest) NT Introduction available to hard pressed students. Thanks to all those who contributed now months ago. I'll be soliciting contributions to the OT version soon.

Gospel of Matthew
Son of Abraham
Brings fulfilment of Torah
Global Commission
         Catriona Gorton

 Gospel of Mark
Good news! Here's a tale –
starts with mid-life crisis, then
stops before life starts.
        Andy Jones

 Gospel of Luke
Good News! For the poor,
'Sinners' and tax-collectors:
Healing salvation.
       Catriona Gorton

Gospel of John
The Word became flesh.
Uncomprehending darkness
eclipsed by the light.
       Jim Gordon

Acts
In Jerusalem
The Word in gracious power
To all the world's end.
    Jason Goroncy

 Romans
Saving God seeks… you:
sin-spoiled, grace-gained, destined. Die
to self, live to love.
       Andy Jones

 1 Corinthians
Life in the body –
A guide for a healthy church
Three cores: faith, hope, love.
       Catriona Gorton

2 Corinthians
Don't do what I said;
do what I meant – and don't give
me all this hassle!
       Andy Jones

 Galatians
In Christ free at last
They try to re-enslave me
Glory in God's Cross
       Jason Goroncy

 Ephesians
God (who called you to
the skies) fill, gift and grow you;
live in light as one!
       Andy Jones 

 Philippians
A prisoner writes
of joy and freedom, for Christ's
crowning came through loss.
       Andy Jones

Colossians
False philosophies
hinder. Live holy lives, be good
to one another.
       Andy Jones

 1 Thessalonians
Renowned for your faith
Live with faithful vigilance
The Lord is coming!
       Jim Gordon

 2 Thessalonians
Show perseverance!
Stand against the Man of Sin!
Shun pious spongers!
Jim Gordon

 Philemon
Neither slave nor free!
Since bound together in Christ,
Free Onessimus.
Jim Gordon

 1 Timothy.
Teach what you were taught,
my son. Practice your gifts, and
keep the flock faithful.
Andy Jones

 2 Timothy
Stick at it young Tim!
Pleasing God should be your aim.
P.S. bring my coat!
       Catriona

Titus
Pick leaders with care:
prize sound doctrine AND lifestyle.
Epimenides!
Catriona

Hebrews
Spoken by the Son
Lo, our great high priest has come
Grace be with you all
Jason  Goroncy

 James
Oft misunderstood
Harmony of faith and deeds
Practical wisdom
       Catriona Gorton

 1 Peter
A chosen people
kept by the power of God
through fiery trial
       Jim Gordon

 2 Peter
Divine election
Means live the last days trusting
Precious promises!
       Jim Gordon

I John
Walk in light and love!
Holy love will cast out fear
from hearts made perfect.
       Jim Gordon

 2 John
Thirteen verses long:
Lady and kids, walk in love.
Beware docetism!
       Gordon Jones

 3 John
The elder commends
kind hospitality (wish
others followed suit!)
       Andy Jones

 Jude
Beware false teachers!
Love the sinner, hate the sin.
God will keep you safe.
       Catriona

 Revelation
Valour in suff'ring
The Lamb who opens the scroll
Making all things new
       Jason Goroncy

Trawling around on the internet looking for some places I used to know I came across class photos from a school I attended in the late 1950's.

Here's the class photo. Not telling which one is me – not yet anyway! Guesses welcome.

Tuesday I'm off to the Baptists Doing Theology in Context Consultation. Not taking the laptop so won't be blogging till the weekend. I've included the menu of papers below, with apologies to participants who are noted here only by surname.
The overarching theme of the Consultation is 'The Wisdom of this World', and a keynote address will be delivered by Professor Paul Fiddes, sure to be a theological and intellectual highlight for all of us. Paul has been a major inspiration and encouragement for Baptists to engage together in theological reflection and pastorally constructive consultation. His own theological writings are exemplary of a theology that frutifully combines generous breadth in its ecumencial debts, and clear historical and theological focus in exploring and affirming the essentials of  a Baptist identity recovering its confidence.

Beyond that the idea of the consultation is that there will be three papers offered by particpants in each Open Session (five of these), all based on work they are doing within their own vocational context. Each of the College Principals will lead a plenary session based on their Paper, which will tackle some aspect of contemporary culture and attempt to hear and interpret the wisdom of this world as those who live by a more radical wisdom. It is going to be a theologyfest reflecting the remarkably wide range of theological interest amongst Baptists in the UK. I'll do a report here sometime over the coming weekend. After which I will be on sabbatical leave – a promised disengagement that may take me a week or two to adjust to.

Papers Offered for Baptists Doing Theology in Context

Topics and Timetable

 

Name	Paper Title	Time
Langford	“God in the Conversation: An Alternative to the Business Model of Church Meeting.”	Tue 4.pm
Vincent	“Living with the Bible Today: The Rhetoric and the Reality.”	Tue 4.pm
Presswood        &McBeth	“Embracing Eleanor: A Response to the Apology for Slavery.”	Tue 4.pm
Holyer	“Something Different – Theology Now.”	Wed 9.30
Humphreys	“The Provenance of John 8.-11. Some Light from Statistics.”	Wed 9.30
Kidd (Rosemary)	“‘And when was it we saw you a stranger and welcomed you?’ (Mat.25.38) Engaging with Asylum Seekers.”	Wed 9.30
Bottoms	“Spiritual Direction in the Service of the Kingdom of God".	Thurs 9.30
Carter	“Labelling ‘the sinners’ in Luke’s Gospel.”	Thurs 9.30
Colyer	“The Geometry of God.”	Thurs 9.30
Goodliff	“From dedication to presentation: a study of Baptist Order of Service for Infants.”	Thurs 4.pm
Gorton	“Doing Theology: History for the Health of the Church.”	Thurs 4.pm
Gotobed	“Ministerial Formation, Pastoral Experience and Practical Theology.”	Thurs 4.pm
Philips	“Wotsername!”	Fri 9.30
Thacker	“The Significance of Richard Dawkins' Atheistm for Christians and Others Today.”	Fri 9.30
Haymes	“The Communion of Saints.”	Fri 9.30
	Plenary Papers by College Principals
Finamore	“Atonement in Novel and Film.”	Tue 2.30pm
Wright	“Theological Topography – The stones cry out!”	Tue 7.30
Kidd	“From Cave Painting to Icons.”	Wed 7.30
Gordon	“Giving poets their place: Why Theologians should read Carol Ann Duffy.”	Thurs 11.am
Weaver	“Twenty Four Hour News.”	Thurs 7.30
Ellis	“Sport, Culture and Theology.”	Fri 11.am

Celebrations are important acts of community building and friendship sustaining. This weekend we celebrated the 50th birthday of a great friend we've known and journeyed with since 1978. A shared meal in a cool, place-to-go-to type restaurant in Aberdeen, a band that knows how to sing blues and soul, a brief but moving acknowledgement of the importance of friendship and family as the given context for our spiritual and human maturing, a huge birthday cake and a lot of long time friends in one place. While our newly turned 50 year old host spoke of people who had been an inspiration and support, the rest of us had our own thoughts of admiration, affection and gratitude for the capacity of people like himself, to live unselfishly, being there in the background or foreground as part of the peculiar and essential landscape of our lives.

We came away from Aberdeen aware of the need for a modern equivalent of 'blest be the tie that binds, our hearts in Christian love'. The sentiments of the old hymn are fine, they're just too sentimental for contemporary experience to feel comfortable with – I think. For some time now I've been impatient with the use of community at every turn as the term to be used for people gathering together, working together, living together, worshipping together. It's not the experience of togetherness I'm uncomfortable with – I suppose I'm looking for something that qualifies the kind of community, the nature of relationship, the basis of commitment. For myself, I am working with other words like friendship, hospitality, welcome, laughter, companionship, even partnership providing it's minus all commercial connotations. 

Amongst the important tasks we undertake for our own good, paradoxically for the good of others also, is the careful maintenance and repair of friendships. An interesting piece of research, study and practice for a sabbatical – examine the fabric of our lives, and the friendships woven through it, and do the necessary restoration. There is considerable skill, and craft in such relational care, and friendship building. 'I no longer call you servants, but friends…..'.  Few of Jesus apparently incidental comments are more  revealing  of what it meant for Jesus to embody and live out a full and true humanity – and to call the likes of the disciples, and us, his friends. In any audit, review or appraisal of my life and work – I'd want quality of friendship to come before most other things – including the friendship of God in Christ which For Christians is the energy source of that faithfulness, affection and trust which are integral to all other friendships.

The words: "On the seventh day God finished His work" seem to be a puzzle. Is it not said: "He rested on the seventh day"? … "What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose [menuha]."

There is happiness in the love of labor, there is misery in the love of
gain. Many hearts and pitchers are broken at the fountain of profit.
Selling himself into slavery to things, man becomes a utensil that is
broken at the fountain.

He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the
profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. He must go
away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury
of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling his own life. He must
say farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world has
already been created and will survive without the help of man.

These three almost random quotations from Heschel's book The Sabbath, at least partially explain why I'm excited, a wee bit apprehensive, deeply appreciative, and a bit introspective. In a week's time I will be on Sabbatical. And next week I am at the Baptists Doing Theology in Context Consultation – so Sabbath soon.

The first quotation indicates the theological rootedeness of Sabbath in the activity and creativity of God, the balance of work and rest. The word 'menuha' refers to a quality of composed repose, of trustful enjoying of what is and of letting be, and something that is getting harder to find in the high octane, performance driven ways of living that reward productivity, excellence and achievement. Sabbath is one way of demonstrating the counter-achievement – of not exhausting the core and source of our own vitality.

The second quotation is important for those of us who call what we do vocation.Years ago Luther insisted, rightly, that every Christian's vocation is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and serve Christ in the place where God has called us. Now I've always known the work of theological education, just as pastoral ministry, is a non-profit-making activity. But for  us purpose-driven* Christians the warning isn't about profit measured in money – it's the insidious equivalent of achievement, results, publicly demonstrated success, which all unnoticed can become a religion of works in which work and results become the criterion of worth. Heschel's image is telling and  clear – 'a utensil broken at the fountain' – to lose the capacity to hold the essentials of life. Evangelical activism can too easily become a dependence, the spiritual addiction of doing, that is sustained by an inward restlessness that doesn't know when, or how, to be still. A time of Sabbath enables a recovery of equlibrium, a rediscovery of our own dispensability and also of our dependence – on the grace that neither needs nor demands our works. (*Mischievous question – what would a purpose-driven Sabbatical look like??? Would the book The Purpose-Driven Sabbatical be a good task-oriented, time-limited goal to set while on sabbatical?)

'The betrayal of embezzling our own lives' – the idea that we filch, embezzle, steal, misappropriate, who we are and what we were made for by an overemphasis on our own work isn't new. But Heschel's way of putting it highlights why overwork is theologically suspect – it is to secretly steal what it is not ours to possess. The life God has given is to be lived, not lost in living. And Sabbath as a life principle is simply that, a principle that preserves life. I have a feeling that 'the profanity of clattering commerce' has some application also to the way doing displaces being, so preoccupied with serving God that God himself goes unnoticed – and unloved.

Sabbath is a gift from God. Sabbatical is a gift too – from those who by adding to their own work create space and time. The remarkable group of people who are my colleagues and friends in the Scottish Baptist College, are making such a time of Sabbatical leave possible. I'm well aware of what that will mean in extra work and responsibility for all of them. That's the point of the reference made at the start, of being deeply appreciative as Sabbath time approaches. Their vocational faithfulness, giftedness and work enables Sabbath to happen for me – I receive that as generous gift, and am grateful for the unselfish giving that makes it possible.

Strange kind of day, satisfying in an unintentional way; it just happened. I’m on holiday but as always takes a few days to get out of thinking about work mode. So we had a walk at Lochwinnoch as far as the Castle Semple Collegiate Church. Sun blazing one minute, and then cool and cloudy the next, and for most of our walk we weren’t sure if the tee shirt without the rain jacket was a mistake. But the sun shone sufficiently long on the righteous. The Collegiate Church is just over 400 years old, and if you use the link below you can read about its history, and  connection with the battle of Flodden – one of the key dates for those still trying to understand why the Scottish temperament has a persistent note of melancholy. The loss of so many significant political and influential figures, and the sheer misery of the aftermath, makes Flodden as defining for Scottish identity as Bannockburn or Culloden. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/lochwinnoch/castlesemplechurch/index.html

Spent the afternoon chasing stuff for my paper on the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy. Loadsa stuff, but not always easily accessed – and much of it focused on her feminist credentials, and vaudeville style, rather than the specific aspects of her work I’m interested in. Browsing further afield I discovered Glasgow University Library has the new Cambridge Edition of the English Poems of George Herbert, edited and with a rich harvest of notes from Helen Wilcox. I’ve known about this book since it was announced, and looked at it often enough on the CUP website – but £85! Never mind the credit crunch – at that kind of cost it might need a mortgage. That said – the definitive edition of one of the finest poets in the language – with scholarly notes – and made to last. No paperback announced so won’t be around for a few years I suppose.  How much should anyone pay for a new book? At what point is cost unreasonably beyond perceived benefit? A meal for four at a modest restaurant would knock you back as much as £85 – and a book lasts longer…….

Speaking of Herbert – I discovered Vikram Seth, the Indian novelist, bought Herbert’s house in 2003, and has recently written six poems as a tribute to Herbert. He includes in his piece, some lines of Herbert carved in stone on the north wall of the rectory:

If thou chance for to find
A new house to thy mind
And built without thy cost
Be good to the poor
As God gives thee store
And then my labour’s not lost.

Wonder if those lines are in the Cambridge definitive edition?  Typical of Herbert – a default setting of holiness dressed as compassion!

Late evening sun, so spent an hour in the garden reading some of Classics for Pleasure. (on the sidebar) Dirda’s enthusiasm for books I’ve never heard of, or vaguely remember some obscure reference to, and some that, yes, I do know and have even read – but whichever he reviews, he’s interesting because interested, a critic who knows what critical appreciation means in practice. I’ve decided what it is I like about Dirdan: it’s the pervasive affection he has for those whose writing  he has read and enjoyed. There isn’t a sarcastic or cutting sentence in the 200 pages I’ve read so far, but much praise tempered by honest recognition of genius and its limitations.

last week, on a sunny afternoon, around 3p.m. in Central Croydon which I’ve actually walked through, two policemen asked a young woman who has dropped litter to pick it up and dispose of it properly. She picks it up and then drops it again. The police insist, onlookers become involved, and in the time it takes to spit out chewing gum around 30 “teenagers” are laying into the two police officers. Some papers call it yob mob rule.

How does a dropped piece of litter escalate into a mob attack on two police officers which leaves them injured, off work, and has a bystander comment the violence and aggression were so extreme they thought the officers might have been killed. The disproportion between dropped litter and life threatening violence, makes this incident a parable of a culture that is losing it. Losing its temper, losing its way, losing respect and its self-respect, losing its sense of laughter, losing its conscience, losing its capacity for community – losing it.

Like anyone else who cares about the environment we all have to live in, and I mean the urban environment as well as the natural environment, litter isn’t only an eyesore. It’s a statement about how little we value the place we live and the others who share it with us. Chewing gum spat out on our streets by the gobful, fast food packaging with some of the dredges left in it, drink cans and bottles kicking around your feet, plastic bags blowing around or stuck on fences and plants, the crisp bag that flies out of the car in front; the scattering of fag-ends outside buildings where smoking is banned but litter isn’t, and woe betide any policeman who tries to say different, – when it comes to mess we can be very creative in our destructiveness.

So what should a follower of Jesus do? What does a dissident disciple do in a country where litter is so bad Bill Bryson once described one of our towns as hosting an all year litter-fest? When did you hear a sermon on the theological arguments for not throwing litter? I know about the radical and risky call to forgive, be a peacemaker, to love as generously as we are loved by God – the heroic stuff is hard to do but at least we know that the demand is serious. But in a world as messy as ours has become, and I mean messy economics, messy war, messy violent crime, messy media mind-shaping, – how far up the priority scale should litter throwing be?
Well, the same Jesus spoke of the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, the importance of seed and bread and good soil and cared for vineyards. But no, he didn’t prohibit the dropping of litter – mind you, after the biggest mass takeaway ever, they took up 12 baskets full of the leftovers. I suppose the reasons why I shouldn’t throw away litter are a mixture of good citizenship, long instilled habits of caring about our world and other people, a desire to live in a society that at least cares for the basics of urban housekeeping. But I think there is something deeper, more symbolic, more transformative about walking to the litter bin with my can, chewing gum, banana skin, coffee takeaway cup or whatever. And it’s this.

What we do to our streets images what we are doing to our world. If I don’t care about mess, the accumulated detritus of not giving a toss where I dump my garbage, it raises the question of how I’ll ever learn to care about global pollution. It takes the same human action to throw away a carrier bag in Glasgow as on the Moray Firth, or on the Pacific coast. In Glasgow each plastic bag becomes a personal statement that lingers when the culprit has gone, mobile consumer graffitti, a durable advert for our carelessness – that is we don’t care enough and couldn’t care less. On the Moray and Pacific coasts, carelessly thrown away carrier bags choke dolphins. Actions have global consequences. 

Which is why I admire the initiative of the members of Mosaic Glasgow, ‘a wayfaring group of Christ followers’. They’ve joined FORK, Friends of the River Kelvin, and as followers of Jesus take responsibility for cleaning up the river and protecting the environment around it. They do this as Christians loving the world God loves; and every act of litter retrieval is an act of witness to a Gospel that is about human mess, and what God in Christ calls us to do about it.