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Baptist Spirituality as Seeking the Mind of Christ

The last two days were spent at Gartmore House at the residential Council of the Baptist Union of Scotland. Two of the sunniest days of the year in one of the picture postcard locations of Scotland. To take two days out of a working week there need to be some compelling reasons for going to what is essentially a two day committee meeting. Or is it?

It was time well spent – which doesn't always have to mean there were tangible results, concrete achievements, far reaching strategic decisions. Though each of these were evident without being the main deal. Meeting with over 50 other Baptists for a series of long conversations, in a community that believes when we meet together in Jesus' name, the risen Lord is present and we are together trying to understand the mind of Christ, is some of what we mean when we use that most Baptist of phrases, communal discernment.

When we meet together with that intention fo helping each other discern, find words for, and jointly own, what we believe to be the mind of Christ we are doing several things at once.

We meet together under the Lordship of Christ,

His living Presence assumed because promised,

our thoughts and words open to the guiding wisdom,

the disruptive purposefulness,

and the generous giftedness of the Holy Spirit,

with Bibles open and our hearts focused

our wills quietened to obedience,

and our minds malleable and receptive,

listening to God expectantly, attentively and trustfully,

listening to each other humbly, carefully, openly and generously,

listening to God through each other in shared conversation,

submissive to the witness of Scripture,

in the context of worship,

in a disposition of prayer

in the shared love, life and faithfulness,

of the Triune God into whose life we are drawn,

by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

through the love of God,

in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

A communal Baptist spirituality

embodies the crucial disctinctives of our tradition,

it's radical roots in a gathered community,

its Trinitarian foundation lived out

as we are called into relationship with the living risen Christ,

nourished and nurtured by the Holy Spirit,

seeking to bear witness to the creative, reconciling, renewing love of God,

in a world fractured, often self-destructive, and its own worst enemy,

and doing that by being a community of contradiction,

where forgiveness, love, welcome, peacemaking and hope

are the central values of the good news that,

God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.

What happens at the Council is no more important than how it happened, and why,

and that it happened through such a dynamic and risky process.

But one with a profound theological rationale,

rooted in a faith tradition in which the gathered community

is believed to be a true church of Christ.

That means called to follow faithfully after him,

on a road that leads to the cross and beyond,

to life affirmed, recovered and gifted by the Resurrected Lord,

to be lived as love on fire energised by the Holy Spirit,

and therefore our lives of discipleship continuously transformed

by the renewing of our minds

that we might present our bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God,

which is our spiritual worship.

………………………

That is as near to a Baptist spirituality as I can come. I offer it as the primary reason for taking two days to seek together the mind of Christ as we seek to serve God in the power of the Holy Spirit. And if taken seriously, it justifies far more time given to such prayerful conversation and communal discernment.

Anyway, as a young friend sometimes says after defending her corner against all grown ups who think they know better, 'That's what I think' 🙂

24 May 2012
Deciding on What Matters Most in a Universe a Bit Bigger than Our Wee Agendas
The following is the list of the top ten hot social network trends for this morning. Just curious at the descending priority list of people's interests and concerns. The Greek Crisis is in the relegation spot as the one least commented on.

Now I don't want to become all preachy, doomsday and grumpy, but is there a fascination with the emphemeral and transient here, and an avoidance of the stuff that concerns rather more than the fortunes and failings of footballers, who aren't likely to need payday loans?

However, given a recent immersion in the world of Qoheleth for my own good, astringent and uncomfortable as his observations are, I'm not surprised he is described by one scholar as the gentle cynic.

And on that note, I hesitate only slightly to suggest that enigmatic phrase "Vanity! Vanity! All is Vanity!" could stand as a cautionary comment on the fast turning temporal and semantic kaleidoscope that is social networking in an increasingly techno-relating society. The same Qoheleth raises the stakes when he says "God has put eternity in human hearts", and "God is in heaven so let your words be few." Whatever else we might do to acknowledge or ignore the reality of the transcendent God, to cherish our humanity, face our mortality and make peace with our finitude, it seems we are way past any possibility of letting our words be few..myself and this blog included!

I leave you with the list of captured concerns in Current Trending for 11.31 this morning….. and ask which of them have universal, eternal or even life affirming significance?
1. Didier Drogba
2. Robin Gibb
3. Fernando Torres
4. Part Time Jobs
5. Fibre Optic Broadband
6. Euromillions
7. West Ham
8. Payday loans
9. Robert0 Di Matteo
10. Greek Crisis
21 May 2012
Wonder and Worship, Mystery and Meaning, Incarnation and Adoration

The etching is by Rogier Van der Weyden and is in the Louvre, one of the earliest 15th Century drawings by a Flemish Master. I have a print of this in my study. The delicacy and intensity of the gaze and the precise definition of the sketching contrasts with the sense of mystery, the artist's search for the ideal a creative metaphor for our own search for those glimpses of the love and grace of the God who comes to us in Word made flesh, and does so through the yes of a young woman. Beauty and courage, trust and risk, Divine calling and human scandal, confident angelic annunciation and free human assent – so heaven and earth are brought together through the Gift of God and the generous receptive will of a woman, and the birth of a child.

The poem below comes from an age which we in our sophisticated postmodern mindset might dare to call credulous – but it was also an age when the human capacity for wonder was a recognised way of knowing, and an essential element of wonder. I wonder where the wonder went?

Wit Wonders

A God and yet a man,

A maid and yet a mother:

Wit wonders what wit can

Conceive this or the other.

A God and can he die?

A dead man can he live?

What wit can well reply?

What reason reason give?

God, Truth itself doth teach it.

Man’s wit sinks too far under

By reason’s power to reach it:

Believe and leave to wonder.

(Anonymous – 15^th C)

20 May 2012
When prayer just happens because we pay attention to Presence

Sometimes when I intend to pray I don't so much pray as dutifully get the job done, like drying dishes or washing the car.

Other times life is overloaded with stuff to do and prayer becomes one of those things I do while doing other things, prayer as multi-tasking and God given a percentage of my attention.

Or under pressure send God a text, U R my 4tress[ ]

Then feeling guilty because I don't pray properly (what would a proper prayer sound like) I come across a poem like this and realise again, prayer isn't calibrated on my pious thoughts and wayward intentionality. Prayer is paying attention, in those moments when God is present, and I notice.

Spectrum

A little window, eastward, low, obscure,

A flask of water on the vestry press,

A ray of sunshine through a fretted door,

And myself kneeling in live quietness:

Heaven's brightness was then gathered in the glass,

Marshalled and analysed, as one by one

In terms of fire I saw the colours pass,

Each in its proper beauty, while the sun

Made his dear daughter Light sing her own praise.

(As Wisdom may, who is a mode of light),

Counting her seven great jewels: then those rays

Remerged in the whole diamond, total sight.

The globe revolved subservient: that just star

Whirled in his place; water and glass obeyed

The laws appointed; with them, yet how far

From their perfection, I still knelt and prayed.

(Ruth Pitter, Collected Poems, page 370)

The window is the Daily Bread window in Durham Cathedral, gifted by the staff of Marks and Spencers in Durham. Those who have been in my College study will recognise it. I did a stranded cotton tapestry of this years ago, and the vivid, vibrant, vital colours are themselves a form of praise. The poem is one of my favourites from Ruth Pitter.

19 May 2012
The Theology and Practice of Reconciliation

Over the summer part of my work will be preparing a course on Reconciliation: Theology and Practice. There are few areas of human experience, cultural challenge and Christian theology that touch on so many of the fundamentals of human existence. Conflict and peace, prejudice and inclusion, grievance and forgiveness, fear and trust, hatred and love, alienation and belonging, despair and hope, violence and non-violent peacemaking, vicious circles and healing cycles, tears of rage and tears of compassion, the face of implacability and the face of compassion, the way of death and the way of life – that list has no logical completion, and will never become a comprehensive catalogue of human alternatives.

But whatever reconciliation is about, it is about real alternatives, moral choices, theological possibilities, options for life, investments in the human community that are costly yet creative, troublesome but transformative, realistic but visionary. Because reconciliation lies at the very core of the Christian story. That it has not been the beating heart and moral imagination and spiritual commitment and intellectual grandeur of the Church's way of living out the Gospel is, for me at least, one of the scandalous questions that is still looking for an adequate answser – and perhaps even before that, an adequate asking of the question.

Few issues lie more obviously before the world than how human beings learn to live together. In exploring the theology and practice of reconciliation we will encounter some of those depths of Christian thought and practice when we hear what James Denney called 'the plunge of lead in fathomless waters'.

For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself….. and he has given us this ministry of reconciliation…

Reconciling all things to Himself, making peace by the blood of the cross….blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God…

18 May 2012
The Happy and Glorious Victoria Sponge!

I want one of these :))

Called a Jubilee Cake.

Has one of my five daily portions per slice.

So five slices would be healthy.

What's wrong with that logic.

Not much.

Once every 60 years!

Recipe on link below.

http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2012/05/14/jubilee-cake-recipe-easy/?ncid=wsc-uk-parentdish-headline

15 May 2012
Suspended by longing between heaven and earth…

Once you've spent a day in Glen Dye, Gerard Kelly's poem is even more impressive as a this worldly spirituality that brings heaven and earth, God and creation, our humanity and the Divine, ecology and theology, nature and praise, into that creative relationship that affirms as good all that God has made. Celebrating the beauty of the earth is just as important as lamenting its brokenness and ours, and an equally valid form of praise as any anticipation of being less than we were made to be – which is human beings who image the life of the Triune God, and whose humanity is taken up by Jesus Christ in the renewal and reconciliation of created existence, and human experience.

the very thought

I love the very thought of Heaven:
Where angels sing
In perfect, perpetual choir practice.
Where Father, Son and Spirit rule
Unchallenged
And are honoured in full measure.
I love the very thought of Heaven:
But I was not made
To live there.

I was not made
To walk on clouds,
And bask eternally
In immaterial splendour.
I was made for this green planet:
This tight ball
Of aching beauty,
Alive with the unending possibilities
Of his creative power.
I was made for the sunshine
That blazes through the veins of a leaf
And glints on the tiny, perfect back
Of a ladybird crossing my arm.
I was made to be human
In this most human of places.
I was made for earth:
The earth is my home.
That’s why I’m glad that God,
More than anyone,
Is a friend of the earth:
Prepared as he was to die
For its release.
And that’s why I’m glad
That the magnificent, jewelled foundations
Of the mighty pearly gates
Will be anchored
Deeply and forever
In the soil of earth.

by gerard kelly

13 May 2012
A Long Walk up Glen Dye in a Landscape Full of Biblical Allusions

While it's good to be led by still waters, I enjoy the sound of running water, rippling over stones and dark peaty colour after the rain.

This is as pastoral a scene as you'll find – Psalm 23 set in Scotland, and we aren't all that far from Crimond, the most famous Psalm tune of them all – apart from the Old One Hundredth maybe. By this time Sheila was getting impatient with her tag along tourist with a camera stopping every few minutes to gawk.

As a boy on the farms I spent years around sheep at lambing time. I've never lost affection for these gentle, timid animals. And the instinctive protectiveness of a mother placing herself in front of the lamb, between it and danger – see the one peeping through the legs!

I find the sound of water like this irresistible. To sit beside this for five minutes is as good as listening to the most healing music. That story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria, and the well of water springing up to eternal life; or Amos, let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

This little poser has no idea of the dramatic backdrop of Clach na Ben. Amongst the joys of the day was watching two lambs further down racing each other round the rushes and rocks beside the river. They must have played for several minutes – and as Sheila said, they were intentional in their playing, and their energy and balance reminded me that these animals have their own beauty.

"Mine eyes look to the hills – from whence doth help come? Help cometh from the Lord who made heaven and earth."

Quite so – and it was a great day walking in a Glen between the hills on either side, reminder of that help.

12 May 2012
Finding a Safe Place when We Are in a Hard Place

The Avowal, Denise Levertov

As swimmers dare

to lie face to the sky

and water bears them,

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them,

so would I learn to attain

freefall and float

into Creator Spirit's embrace

knowing no effort earns

that all-surrounding grace.

Learning to "attain freefall and float" is sometimes a big ask. It requires faith which sometimes comes hard. Such trust requires the courage to risk it all, which seems beyond us when the inner self is feeling defensive and self-protective. Somewhere in the emotional and spirtitual anatomy of faith there is the fusion of personal response and Divine Gift, or perhaps, personal response to Divine Gift. We are saved by grace through faith, which is the gift of God. Yet we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, while giving thanks that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion.

It's an important pastoral insight, best learned by being pastorally sensitive to our own heart's longings, failures and fears, that being told to believe, to trust, to have faith, can be the hardest ask of all – and the hardest task of all. As well ask me to open a tin with a banana. In countless sermons, in many a praise song backed by enthusiastic singing, there can be a subtle but significant theological slippage that has far reaching spiritual consequences.

On what does my life depend? Where does faith come from? If it is all of grace, why does it seem so much depends on me believing, as if the flow of grace was through a tap I have to have the strength to turn on? And what if I don't have that strength?

Does my security depend on me holding on to God or God holding on to me?

Is it sinners receiving Christ or Christ receiving sinners that is of the esse of the Gospel.

Am I caught up into the Triune life of God, and held in the eternal security of a love that will not let me go, or does that depend on something I do, or give or think?

What I like about Levetov's lines, and why I quote them, is she understands (and later in her life came to understand with deep compassion born of her own suffering) is the last two lines.

Don't tell me to believe more. To trust more. To do this or that as if I wouldn't if I could, and if I knew what. To believe when my heart is wrung out of trust and I need to be held rather than take hold. Because it's that holding, that grace, that gift of Love Divine which as Julian says, enfolds us – it is that initiative of God, that perseverance, not of the saints but of God, whose untiring and inexhaustible grace as Levertov says bears, sustains and embraces, " and no effort earns that all-sustaining grace".

Just now and then in our lives, we come to the place where for all our uncertainties, we take the risk of saying to the God into whose life we are caught up in the love of the Father, the Grace of the Son and the communion of the Spirit, "Lord I believe – help my unbelief". The one reality that transcends thought and emotion, reason and the heart, and which persists as the truth that holds us even when we ourselves doubt it, is the spectacular assertion of Paul "Your life is hid with Christ in God".

We use the phrase a lot today, being 'in a hard place just now'. I guess we all know what it means. And that hard place can be a place where faith, trust, hopefulness, confidence, and courage require more than we are able to offer, just now. The hard place is the one that feels most real, determined by outer circumstance and inner anxiety. But the all sustaining grace perseveres, the untiring love does not weary, the life we live is surrounded and drawn into the eternal exchange of love and peace and joy – no we may not be aware of it, "our life is hid with Christ in God", and that depends not on my believing it, but on the love of Christ Crucified, the life of the Holy Spirit, and the sustaining mercy of the Father.

11 May 2012
The Body of Christ – the Church in the Flesh and the Spirit

Dynamic and erratic,

spontaneous and radical,

audacious and immature,

committed if not altogether coherent,

ecumenically open and often experimental,

visible here and there,

now and then,

but unsettled institutionally.

Almost monastic in nature

but most of all….

enacting a fearful hope

for human life in society.

William Stringfellow, Quoted in Celtic Daily Prayer, page 634

7 May 2012