Living Wittily

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  • Forgetting whose we are….

    I met a friend yesterday who is doing research into Alzheimer’s and the nature of the person. We had an intriguing and all too brief discussion about the theological and psychological interface in exploring the nature of religious experience in those whose capacity to know, and remember, and relate self-consciously to others, have been impaired. In the finest book I know on Alzheimer’s and pastoral theology, David Keck (son of Leander Keck, the NT scholar), talks from the experience of his own mother’s struggle with the illness. The title itself describes the outcome – Forgetting Whose We Are. The issue isn’t only that the person forgets who they are; it is that they forget whose they are, that they belong to God. That is a spiritual bereavement that requires wise, compassionate and theologically responsible caring.

    For reasons personal and pastoral I have long been interested in the human and theological issues surrounding those various conditions that seem to affect a person’s ability to express and experience who they are. This arises largely from pastoral experience of conditions which seem to impair a person’s spiritual responsiveness and awareness of the meaning and presence of others, and of themselves. Does religious experience require  self consciousness, an awareness of what is happening to us? Are spiritual and social experiences of others, and of others in relation to ourselves, and yes of the Other in relation to ourselves, an essential component or dimension of what it means to be a person?

    41fpv28vg7l__aa240_ Pastoral experiences over the years have led to deep and as yet unresolved questions about the connections between the love of God, the nature of personality and the value of the person, and the meaning of the image of God. Also, the difference, both practically and theologically, between someone being a person and their being valued, treated and cherished as a human being. Is the word ‘person’ a theological word at all? Or do we need to recover confidence in more theologically hospitable words such as human, created, image of God, in order to instill in the word ‘person’ the moral and spiritual values that mean we cherish and celebrate human beings in all our glory and brokenness?

    And what about the nature of God as Triune love, and the essential belonging and identity that exists in such a communion of love? I have a deep theological feeling (verging on conviction), that a Trinitarian theology of love in relation, holds important clues as to how we love, value, cherish, care for and protect, those whose condition affects their capacity for affective and relational responsiveness rooted in self-consciousness.

    Saints_2  In other words, a Trinitarian understanding of God as a communion of love, and a Christian anthropology that sees humanity as communal as well as individual, has to underlie much of our reflection on Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other conditions that impair many of the capacities that are often related to our understanding of the person and the human. And perhaps here, as much as anywhere, we can understand the Communion of Saints as that fellowship of supporting love within which, in prayer and loving care, we hold all those unable (so far as we can know), to fully know and respond to that Love which surely holds and cherishes them, and will restore to them who they are as children of God. I love the finger pointing saint (bottom right of the icon) and the figure held in the middle and surrounded by the communion of saints – it is an image of, in Julian of Norwich’s lovely phrase, being ‘enfolded in love’.

    I’m meeting my friend again soon – and we’ll continue the discussion. Meanwhile, I think of several people I know who are now embarked on such difficult journeys – both those who suffer from Alzheimer’s, and those who love them, for who they have been, who they are, and who they will be. And I pray for them…Lord in your mercy……

  • The strange strife of thy peace….

    My prayers, my God, flow from what I am not;

    I think thy answers make me what I am.

    Like weary waves thought follows upon thought,

    But the still depth beneath is all thine own,

    And there thou mov’st in paths to us unknown.

    Out of strange strife thy peace is strangely wrought;

    If the lion in us pray – thou answerest the lamb.

    George MacDonald, 1880.

    Macdonald George MacDonald is one of Scotland’s negelcted treasures. His Scottish novels are written in dialect, often rooted in rural village life. But he was also a Christian of refined and sensitive theological perception. It was his imaginative writings that captured the imagination of C S Lewis. Indeed he was one of several Scottish preacher theologians in process of rediscovering the imagination as an important route for the leading of the Spirit of God. (A B Bruce and Alexander Whyte for example). Macdonald’s Unspoken Sermons, his Diary of an Old Soul, and Collected Poems were important expressions of that growing uneasiness with Westminster Calvinism that seeped through the hardened walls of 19th century Scottish theology. Indeed his resistance to what he saw as hard edged Calvinism eventually led him to ‘the wider hope’, that generous understanding of the Gospel that is often dubbed ‘universalism’. That of course, got him into trouble with the deacons at the church he served in Arundel – they reduced his salary to persuade him to leave!

    The prayer quoted above is an important corrective to that self-confident blurting out of what we want God to do. Macdonald recognises the ambiguities of our asking, the mixed motivation in spiritual search, and the subterranean movements, even collisions, of self concern and divine grace.

  • abysses of purple…wild grey shrouds…and flaming windows

    20089aviewofthevalleyonthewaytoth_3  Writing postcards is a chore – and a gift if it’s done properly. Travel writing, done well, reads like a very long postcard. Here’s an extract from a letter, written to her mother, by a Victorian traveller in the Alps. She is describing the view down the mountain just as an alpine storm is passing. It is one of my favourite quotations from those Victorians who knew how to write – and in the absence of digital technology, captured in words, images which elude even the best photographs .

    Prod_8030 Imagine yourself midway between heaven and earth, the sharp point of rock on which we stood hardly seeming more of earth than if we had been in a balloon, the whole space around, above, and below filled with wild, weird, spectral clouds, driving and whirling in incessant change and with tremendous rapidity; horizon none, but every part of where horizon should be, crowded with unimaginable shapes of unimgined colours, with rifts of every shade of blue, from indigo to pearl, and burning with every tint of fire, from gold to intensest red; shafts of keen light shot down into the abysses of purple, thousands of feet below, enormous surging masses of grey hurled up from beneath, and changing in an instant to glorified brightness of fire as they seemed on the point of swallowing up the shining masses above them; then, all in an instant, a wild grey shroud flung over us, as swiftly passing and leaving us in a blaze of sunshine; then a bursting open of the very heavens, and a vision of what might be celestial heights, pure and still and shining, high above it all; then an instantaneous cleft in another wild cloud, and a revelation of a perfect paradise of golden and rosy slopes and summits; then, quick gleams of white peaks through veilings and unveilings of flying semi-transparent clouds; then, as quickly as the eye could follow, a rim of dazzling light running round the edges of a black castle of cloud, and flaming windows suddenly pierced in it; oh mother dear, I might go on for sheets, for it was never twice the same, nor any single minute the same, in any direction……..

    The writer was Frances Ridley Havergal, a contemporary of another Christian poet who likewise revelled in nature as the theatre of God’s glory:

    The world is charged with the grandeur of God

    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;….

  • WHICH BIBLE? We need a WHICH report.

    Browsing innocently in an online bookstore, looking for a copy of the TNIV Bible, I came across two remarkable and disconcerting editions – neither of which appeals!

    TNIV STRIVE.THE BIBLE FOR MEN.

    PRODUCT DESCRIPTION. European Leather / Mahogany / Acorn

    51rervzmzyl__aa240__2  Strive is designed to help you live out your unique calling as God’s man amid everyday affairs–family, work, friendships, church, personal interests, and finances. These are the things God uses to shape Christ’s character in you, and to demonstrate it through you. This Bible speaks frankly and honestly about what it means to walk with valor in a culture that works against God’s will and ways. Made for real-world use, Strive is down-to-earth and packed with spiritual insights. Features include: 100 "Myths" articles, 50 "Things You Should Know About" profiles, 200 "Downshift" notes, 200 "Knowing God" callouts, 300 "At Issue" notes, Book Introductions, Topical Index and Articles.

    TNIV TRUE IDENTITY BIBLE FOR WOMEN

    PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

    51byju2bt1tl__aa240_ TNIV – Help for women living in today’s world. Whether you’re starting a new job or a new relationship, whether you’re going back to school, thinking about moving, or facing your first – or fifth pregnancy, TRUE IDENTITY helps you find strength, reassurance and guidance through your relationship with God and His Word. The special features in this Bible are designed to help you nurture a passionate, deeply rooted faith and express that dynamic faith in this world.

    Applying God’s Word to the different and sometimes difficult circumstances of your life, TRUE IDENTITY will help you not only get to know God for who He really is, but yourself as well — who you are and whose you are.

    • 100 Myths – articles describe a commonly believed myth that the world tell you is true, then refutes the lie with the truth of God’s Word
    • 30 "ask me anything" profiles are like one-on-one conversations with the women of the Bible. In an interview format, you’ll discover how each woman dealt with the issues in her life and what advise she’d offer you.
    • 200 "conversations" notes offer questions to reflect on as you read the Bible or talk it over with a friend or mentor.
    • 200 "He is" call outs help you get to know God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible and show how who He is affects who you are.
    • 300 "at issue" notes offer short, relevant teachings on a variety of life topics such as money, sex or pride
    • Book introductions furnish essential background information for each book of the bible, including scannable facts, a central theme to keep in mind and thought provoking questions to consider as you read.
    • Topical index unifies all the features of this Bible so you can find exactly what you’re looking for in an instant.
    • Articles give practical insights on mentoring relationships and how to develop a consistent quiet time.
    • Today’s New International Version: Timeless truths in today’s language.

    .

    The women’s one comes in a softcover version with pink and cream tulips; the men’s in a robust leather combination of mahogany and oak. So what does that tell you about stereotypes? Wish they’d got the covers mixed up! There was also a FAITHGIRLZ version, but I resisted the urge to post it.

    Question: When does a special edition Bible, complete with notes, directions how to read, pre-programmed menus of texts, imported social roles and values, etc,  ——– when does such a Bible cease to be a Bible and become at best an interpretive grid, at worst a propaganda tool, that gets in the way of encountering the biblical text itself?

  • If the salt has lost its savour…….

    Letters in The Times on Monday

    Sir, I once had a tube of sea salt which had a long and lovely description how the salt was formed over 200 million years before. At the bottom of the container was a "use by" date. ANDREA RITCHIE.

    Well as Jesus said, "Salt is good, but if it’s past its use by date………………….".

    .

    Sir, Back home in Glasgow once I went into a shop and asked for a dod of cheese. "Certainly Sir. A big dod or a wee dod", was the reply.

    Ye cannae beat customer service and precise instruction, eh?

  • I confess but without repentance….

    First, one of my favourite quotations from Thomas Merton, quoted in Shannon’s biography:

    But questions cannot go unanswered unless they first be asked. And there is a far worse anxiety, a far worse insecurity, which comes from being afraid to ask the right questions – because they might turn out to have no answers. One of the moral diseases we communicate to one another in society [ and also in the church] comes from huddling together in the pale light of an insufficient answer to a question we are afraid to ask.

    09feature1_1 Back in the 80s and 90s I read the five volumes of Thomas Merton’s letters, borrowed for long periods from the University Library. Merton has been like a benevolent virus in my bloodstream ever since I read The Seven Storey Mountain. I struggle to identify with his monastic expression of Christian life, not because I disagree, disapprove or have any right to question the way another follows Jesus – and how Merton followed Jesus. At the same time few writers put into words the spiritual value of the interrogative mood, the maturing power of good questions, and at the same time expresses in beautiful words, the joy of the search for god – and the joy of knowing God seeks us.

    So. In the Old Aberdeen bookshop, I bought the four of the five volumes on the shelf. My spiritual reading for a while is going to be an exercise in reacquaintance – and I’ll still be uneasy about the monastic preoccupations – but I’ll also find my own faith and my own way of following Jesus probed by a consultant on the inner life. The letters to friends, the letters to fellow religious, the letters on social justice and the letters on war and peace are likely to intrigue, frustrate, inspire, annoy, educate and certainly edify (build up) the faith of this baptist bibliophile – who readily confesses to yet another capitualtion, and is so saisfied it would be hypocritical to profess repentance.

    Who else is a Merton fan?

  • Follow, follow, we will follow Jesus……..

    Strachan_gordon_cel_2005 Sectarianism. First Saturday of the Scottish season and a minority of Rangers fans embarrass Scotland again. The chanting of hostility from the terraces, directed at rival fans, is endemic in football. It isn’t only the Old Firm of Rangers and Celtic; Edinburgh and Dundee have their share of poison, and Aberdeen and Rangers can generate their own unique brew of historically specific rage (the tackle of Neil Simpson on Ian Durant that blighted a brilliant career).

    I read some newspaper responses to the behaviour of the small minority of Rangers fans chanting their ridiculous but dangerous version of history at Inverness. Stephen Smith of the Rangers Supporters Trust laid in to the offenders.

    We don’t want a situation where 30 or 40 half wits ruin the relationship between he supporters and the club. These people are idiots who don’t give a monkey’s  about Rangers. They think they can do what they want because they are at a football match. We would back Rangers in identifying  any idiots who bring disrepute to the club.

    Smithwalter070110getty Now I support the courage and bluntness of that. But the truth is, the problem isn’t only lack of education, ill-informed history, ignorant prejudice – it is all of these fuelled by hatred. Let’s use the word. Those ‘party tunes’ and the ‘sectarian chants’ aren’t mildly offensive, or ignorant – they are howls of hate. A sectarian song, whether Rangers or Celtic, mixes the following ingredients. History revised to ensure that the enemy is known, defeated and humiliated; religious affiliation linked to the myth that somehow the present generation is part of that tradition of hate; a liturgy, of hymn and chant, sung in unison, articulating the emotional intensity of a perverted faith that survives by hating the OTHER; and all this complete with the liturgical colours of red, white and blue – or green white and orange – or whatever. The two current managers are pictured because they head up the teams – to my knowledge they are on public record as deploring sectarian behaviour and supporting every effort to stamp it out.

    But lets not talk of idiots and stupidity – lets name sectarian chanting as hate. We aren’t dealing with a problem which is solved only by more information. This isn’t an offence committed by certain people below a certain IQ level. This is a matter of ethics, an issue of moral values, a question of how we view other human beings, an expression of socially shaped character in a sub-culture where hating the religiously other is the norm. Sectarian songs and sectarian language are abusive, corrosive, latently (at times blatantly) violent, intended to provoke and demean; and they are sung just as zealously in Glasgow whether the fans are waving Union Jacks or Irish Tricolours.

    Now here’s a historical curiosity. As far as I can tell, the original refrain, "Follow, Follow", comes in the (horticulturally sentimental) Sankey hymn, ‘Down in the valley with my Saviour I will go’. (Check it out in Sankey’s Hymn Book, number 529). Irony of ironies it’s been hijacked by certain fans of a certain football team, for whom peacemaking is an activity that takes place in a separate universe. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God’. As Jean Luc Picard used to say, ‘Make it so!’

    PS. Rangers have just qualified tonight for the final knock out stage in the Champion’s League. I want them to do well – but more importantly, I want to not be embarassed as a Scotsman, by UEFA having to act against them because their fans were singing sectarian and offensive chants. As Solomon might have said, had he been Scottish, and from Glasgow, ‘Gonnae no dae that? Juist gonnae no?’

  • Pre-emptive confession?

    Off to Aberdeen where I’m preaching on Sunday. Catching up with a number of friends, out for an evening meal with some of them tonight, and then making and taking time to worship together at Crown Terrace Baptist Church tomorrow. Amongst the other friends I’ll catch up with, will be Chris, who owns Old Aberdeen Bookshop.Whenever possible I try to encourage my friends by supporting them in whatever they do that matters to them in life. I don’t often leave Chris’s shop without buying – it’s what Dr Johnson used to call the wise habit of ‘keeping your friendships in good repair’. One way or t’other, a few inches of my shelfspace is about to fill – this is by way of pre-emptive confession.

    And yet – Chris is a friend, and I want to support his business, so that’s all right then. Aye, but what about motivation – is buying books from him further unnecessary self-indulgence, masked by alleged goodwill? So good consequences for the other person, don’t rule out convenient excuse for me. Isn’t life complicated if you think about things too much – maybe that’s why the wise spiritual guides of the past warned against scruples. Evangelical Christians are not immune to this spiritual obsessive compulsive disorder. It takes the form of self-centred wallowing around in our own souls, supposedly concerned about sin when all the time we are self importantly putting our little selfish moral sensitivities at the centre of God’s attention as if God had nothing better to do than monitor our personal guilt thresholds.

    In which case I’m going to just enjoy burrowing for an hour and happily and innocently buy some good books, from a good shop, at a good price, for a really good guy?

    Or is that me rationalising – is that ethical spin doctoring –

    aye probably, but there’s worse things than buying yet more books. One elderly lady we came to love in Aberdeen used to say dismissively to people going on…and on… with their moans and complaints, ‘Aye well – worse things happened at Culloden’.

  • Evangelism as benevolent barrage?

    Aehrenleserinnen_hi John Stackhouse is one of the most stimulating and clear-thinking theologians writing on mission, culture and evangelical theology. His recent article in Books and Culture says important things about gospel faithfulness, cultural relevance, legitimate and effective innovation, and intellectual and theological humility. He is reflecting on what needs to be learned, and unlearned, by a church seeking to embody the call of Christ responsibly and with gospel integrity. The whole article can be read here.

    I’ve quoted the last couple of paragraphs because (for me) they confirm my own underlying uneasiness at the increasing dependence on programme, technique,and ‘resourced mission’ where the resources seem increasingly dependent on human agency. Evangelistic fervour channelled into pragmatically driven activity and missional aspirations which sound more dependent on human energy than the divine work of the Holy Spirit invading and converting, calling and transforming, can easily replace that humble recognition that when allis said and done( by us), there is more to be said and done (by God). This is not to minimise the church’s missional imperative – it is to remind ourselves that it is God’s mission, in which we are invited to share – and the resources are God’s too, which we are invited to offer.

    We have to unlearn, however, our tendency to rely on technical skill and relentless pressure, as if we can manufacture conversions by dint of expertise and enthusiasm. We especially have to discard the dangerous dictum, "Pray as if it all depended upon God, and work as if it all depended on you." That is simply nonsense—or, much worse, a recipe for arrogance, burnout, frustration, and finally hatred of both missions and the neighbors we are supposed to love when they do not yield to our benevolent barrage.

    Conversion is the hardest work in the world, since fundamentally it means to change someone’s loves. (Have you ever tried to change your child’s values? Have you ever tried to change your own?) Such change is literally a miracle of transformation each time, and thus the special province of the Holy Spirit. Yes, let us marshal all the tools and skills and energy we can, but let us use them not anxiously nor proudly, but in the humble confidence that comes from doing God’s work in league with God’s Spirit, under his direction and in his own good time, in his truly global mission.

  • Prayer through sound, but without words

    Paisley1 Last night went to a music concert in Paisley Abbey. The music was unfamiliar, but the New Cologne Chamber Orchestra played to a good crowd, in a building brightened by evening sunlight, and it was a good place to be at the end of a busy burst of work in between holidays. I was able to listen without much visual distraction because we couldn’t see the performers! A level church nave, a seat well back, and some big people in front of me, ensured this was a primarily auditory experience. And the pew seats were clearly designed to prevent sleeping through anything going on at the front!

    Explore6 The flute concerto was the highlight. I’ve always found the flute a wistful, playful, gentle sound, which can express all kinds of yearning, joy, loss and love. Looking down to the magnificent stained glass window, brightened by a sunset, and hearing the sound of flute accompanied by strings – it was prayer through sound, without words. Not unlike my description earlier, prayer as ‘a wistful, playful, gentle sound, which can express all kinds of yearning, joy, loss and love.’

    On a more discordant note – the connection between flutes and drums, in military music, and in the West of Scotland and Northern Ireland, I find offensive. Whether the band is Irish Republican or Orange Lodge, I find the whole performance of marching music commemorating religious conflict inimical to a gospel of peace and reconciliation. One of the most effective exposures of the brutality and hatred that underlies flute and drum music as an expression of religious hatred is in Bernard MacLaverty’s novel, Grace Notes. There is a scene well into the novel where the philabeg drums feature as the destructive, rhythmic symbol of the violence they both foment and portray. The flute is capable of such beautiful, creative, life affirming sound, made by the shaped and directed breath of the performing musician – but so likewise the flute can be made to serve the violent, commemorative sounds of ancient hatreds kept alive by musicians performing for quite other reasons. As an expression of religious conviction – on whichever side plays them – they are a shame and an embarrassment.

    Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God – the flute music I heard last night, in the setting of a place of worship, with the sun streaming through stained glass, in a pre-reformation building, was a gentle defiance of all that would pull our human lives into discordant conflict.