“Just ‘Richard’ is fine…”

Of course, we'll love him in the end...

I have at least a couple of wilfully nurtured prejudices. One of them is against the person who whispered into St Harry of Redknapp’s ear that signing William Gallas would be a great PR move. Another is against anyone who perpetuates the title ‘Father’ for a minister within the church. It sends shivers down my spine – not just when an 80 year-old man uses it to address me!

Such bias/preference, joyfully, marks me out quite neatly as an evangelical in certain gatherings – nearly as well as wearing blue clerical shirts or, heaven forbid, non-clerical shirts whilst on duty.

My soul justification for this discriminatory attitude is Matthew 23:9. ‘Haven’t you read your Bible?’ I think to myself of those who persist in this habit/practice. ‘It’s clear enough – just stop saying it!’

But tonight’s bout of insomnia has resulted in me pondering on this passage. I doubt very much that Jesus had 21st century catholic ecclesiological etiquette as his primary focus when he uttered these words. Mind you, I imagine that, as a Deity, not only can He multi-task but multi-intend (or whatever), so maybe it’s a perfectly valid spot of proof-texting in which we more reformed brethren enjoy indulging.

Yet, the question remains, are we meant to do a bit more with this quoted utterance of our Lord and Saviour than joyfully beat those with whom we disagree around the head?

Humility.

I have it by the spadeful. Bucketful. Make that ‘shedful’. I wouldn’t want to undersell myself.

Maybe the words themselves aren’t the problem. Maybe it’s the heart-attitude. Yes, you know – that thing the Holy Spirit is always trying to fine-tune but we so often manage to tinker with and make it worse.

Maybe Jesus was warning us against thinking too highly of ourselves, illustrated by seeking after status, respect and/or titles. Any title could do it; Pastor, Apostle, Officer, your Honour, your Majesty, Reverend… Or even those untitled positions we seek out, like ‘one who quotes the Bible well at people he disagrees with’ or ‘highly amusing yet deeply reflective blogger’. Or, ‘Christian leader who knows to avoid being called ‘Father”.

Is that a plank I see in close-up?

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Shrinking World

That the world has ‘shrunk’ in the sense that it’s much easier to get news/information from and to go, physically, to ‘far-flung’ parts is difficult to challenge. What, today, is possible in these terms was inconceivable 100 years ago, and at the fringes of rational expectation 50 years ago.

But the world has shrunk in another way, too. The sheer volume of information available to ‘Western’ individuals on a daily basis is immense, and needs to be sifted by someone before it can be received. In one sense, this is largely done by the individual themselves; you Google.

But much of the ‘sifting’ is done by those in charge of mass-media outlets. As much as we can find out almost anything we want to about things within our own specific interests, when it comes to news of global significance, we remain, largely, at the whim of editors.

But editors are very responsive beings. In the main, I don’t subscribe to the conspiracy theory that those who choose what goes on screen or in print are trying to manipulate the mass public, pedalling a particular political’ social or ideological standpoint un order to brainwash us. Rather, I think they look at numbers. ‘What gets most read, watched or listened to? Okay, let’s give them more of that to increase sales/hits/listeners/viewers.’

So, the shrunk world which is now at our fingertips is smaller than we thought as a handful of people pick and choose what parts of our world we get to see. If we don’t like their choices then, most likely, we don’t like what our society’s collective mind is interested in or titillated by enough to consume.

In the last week I have read news articles and watched and listened to reports about Pastor Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Centre’s planned (and currently suspended) Qur’an ‘bonfire’. I wish it hadn’t received the attention it has, I don’t think it warrants or deserves it as I think it is a very dangerous, ignorant, hateful act perpetrated by someone who doesn’t properly represent what they claim to represent.

But by reading, listening to and watching what news editors believe we want to, I am, we are complicit in raising the profile of so dangerous an event.

The huge, huge world which has shrunk to become more accessible to us shrinks further when we don’t properly look at all that there is to see and instead allow our gaze to be drawn by the scandalous instead of the edifying.

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Being gracious

This kind of graciousness wouldn’t normally be very newsworthy, but such has been the outcry about Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross’ radio show that this has been aired on national TV. It’s sad that it’s taken something like that to get such wonderful behaviour advertised, but at least that has happened! Very Christlike.

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Sanctified and Consecrated

So, the other day I was preaching on John 17; Jesus’ prayer that we ‘may all be one’. I was interested in the focus on holiness which, in a sense, precedes it yet must be integral to the unity. I noticed, though, that the CiW 1984 book uses, for this passage the NEB (at least, I think it does. I don’t have an NEB, so it was a process of deduction) which has the following translation of verse 19:

And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.

whereas the NIV has:

For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Now, I know there are far more interesting things in this passage than the choice of the words consecrate and sanctify, but it interested me, and this is my blog, so there! Also, I know that these words occur, just as significantly, in the verses immediately preceding this one. But it was there that the word caught my eye.

Of course, being the scholar that I am in order to look and sound impressive, I turned to my Greek New Testament (very kindly given as an ordination present by a parishioner – this particular version has an excellent feature; every word which appears 30 times or less in the NT is translated and parsed at the foot of the page on which it appears! Here‘s a link – it’s the 2nd item on the page). The Greek word is άγιάζω(hagiadzo), which stems from the ‘standard’ Greek word for holy, άγιος (hagios). The translation I’m offered for hagiadzo is as follows:

to separate, consecrate; cleanse, purify, sanctify; regard or reverence as holy

Well thank you, William D. Mounce. You’re a lot of help.

Somehow, I’ve managed to get through two degrees with no better dictionary than The New Penguin English Dictionary. Presumably penguins speak quite good English. But that was my next port of call. Thus I discovered that ‘consecrate’ means:

1 to make or declare (a church, etc) sacred by a solemn ceremony. 2 to prepare (bread and wine used at communion) to be received as Christ’s body and blood. 3 (usu+ to) to devote (one’s life) to a purpose with deep solemnity or dedication. 4 to ordain (somebody) to a religious office, esp that of bishop. 5 to make (something) inviolable or venerable: customs consecrated by time.

whilst ‘sanctify’ means:

1 to set (something) apart for a sacred purpose or for religious use. 2 to free (somebody) from sin. 3 to give moral, social, or religious sanction to (something). 4 to make or declare (something) productive of holiness or piety: Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it – Bible.

Now, of course, there’s not an enormous amount of difference between these definitions. That’s probably because they’re very similar words. But, and I don’t really know if this comes across in the definitions, to me, and, it would appear, to Hermione (the reader of this blog who is neither Marcus, nor related to me) there is the possibility for a subtle distinction between the two, which would make me favour sanctify over consecrate in this verse. You see, it feels as if to consecrate is something that we do, whilst to sanctify is something God does.

That may or may not be a valid divergence between the words, but either way, it raises the question; what is our part in our being made holy?

I know that holiness comes in two parts, as it were, justification and sanctification, and that the first is entirely God’s work in our lives. But what about sanctification. Of course, there are holy choices to be made, but then that’s true for our justification, too. We choose to accept Jesus or not, and that determines whether we are justified or not. So what about sanctification? What about being/becoming holy?

The whole Todd Bentley thing. Someone who was ordained alongside me mentioned how, having watched some of it (which I haven’t as I don’t have Sky), noticed that in all the testimony time about what God had done for these people, along with the amazing, astounding, perfectly possibly God-instigated healings, no-one ever said anything like; “God has really encourage me to be holy” or “God has given me His heart for the poor”. Which I think is sad (but doesn’t lead me to a conclusion about the whole thing either way).

So, holiness. Sanctification and consecration. I’m confused. What about you?

Today’s sermon

A blog could be a relatively good place to keep a journal of sermons, in my opinion – it can keep a simple record and create an opportunity for people to comment on what they’ve heard. So, I’ll give it a go.

Today (Trinity 10) I preached at the Welsh Communion service (5 mins max – they don’t normally have a sermon at all) and at Evening Prayer (at 2pm, of course…!) in Aberarth (only a little bit longer – I know, I’m amazed myself!). I used the same readings at each:

Ezekiel 11:17-20

Therefore say: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again.’ They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Luke 19:1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner’. But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.

My two brief points were

1. Salvation comes to Zacchaeus when he accepts Jesus (Mae iachawdwriaeth yn dod i Zacchaeus wrth iddo dderbyn Iesu)
2. Salvation leads to a changed life (Mae iachawdwriaeth yn arwain i fywyd newydd)

Under the first point, we noted that whatever causes Zacchaeus to go as far as climbing a tree to see Jesus (conscience, greed, inquisitiveness etc.), his encounter with Jesus brings him to a place of repentance, and through that repentance Jesus brings him into a place of peace with God (cf Romans 5:1).

Under the second point we saw that salvation leads to, and is evidenced by both a change of heart and a change of lifestyle/actions. God, speaking through Ezekiel (11:19), promised to replace hearts of stone with hearts of flesh, and last week (Trinity 9), we read, again from Paul, about the fruit of the Spirit; the result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who have received the heart of flesh. It was this change in Zacchaeus, evidenced by his declaration of a changed life, which prompted Jesus to say: “Today, salvation has come to this house…”

This is remarkably costly for Zacchaeus, but the cost is entirely overshadowed by the infinite goodness of the gift he receives; peace with God.

So, two sets of question for us:

1. Are we willing to accept Jesus every time we encounter Him? Can we keep coming back to that place of repentance each and every time we encounter Him?
2. Are we willing to be changed by Him, whatever the cost? Do we see the value of what He has laid before us?

Explaining the change

So, I no longer consider myself an ornamentalsheep, but rather a runningsheep. It might seem to have been a bit of an unneccessary change, confusing even, but I had my reasons, as I’m sure you could have guessed.

The verses on the banner at the top of each page are:

For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:25

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

and hopefully, they explain the title perfectly.

It’s quite easy to be ornamental as a Christian. Going to church, reading the Bible, praying. These things we can do, and it looks good. It’s more difficult to run with perseverance. At least, that’s my experience. I know that being a Welsh-Anglican curate in a lovely holiday seaside town isn’t high on the persecution index, but that doesn’t mean that a runningsheep doesn’t have difficult choices to make about how to live every day. We all have those choices to make, but the outward appearance of being a ‘good Christian’ that we can put across – being ‘ornamental’ just doesn’t cut the mustard (seed).

So, I am to be a runningsheep. Ornamental no more. I’m sure I’ll slip up regularly, and you, dear reader (I put that in the singular deliberately),  are welcome to pull me up on that.

Shall we run together?

Being a Deacon

Here’s the most recent article I’ve written for Pobl Dewi, our Diocesan newspaper. I was asked to reflect on the ordination, but I’ve focused more on all that’s happened since. For all you avid Pobl Dewi readers out there, you’re getting a sneak-peak!

The last time I wrote for Pobl Dewi, I and six others in this Diocese were beginning the final approach to our ordination; some as deacons and others as priests. Now, on the other side of a relatively nerve-wracking service, I’m officially a ‘Reverend’, and have started working in the parish. It took less than a week before my first “Morning, Father”, and as it came from an elderly gentleman, it was a particularly unusual experience. I managed to refrain from quoting Matthew 23:9, and simply returned a greeting!

So, a week and a half into the role, what has being a Deacon and Curate been about so far? Rather reassuringly; people and God. Hospital visits, the drop-in centre, meeting churchwardens, school assemblies and lunch clubs, services in care homes, a day at Catalyst – and there have been Sundays too! Seeing God at work in people’s lives is a beautiful thing – and it’s happening all over the place!

My first sermon (delivered wearing my shiny-and-far-too-new-looking preaching scarf) was based around Jesus’ question to Peter; “Who do you say I am?” from Matthew 16. Peter, as we know, got the answer right, and prompted Jesus’ famous response. Of course, there are a couple of ways of understanding Peter being called ‘the rock’, but Peter himself went on to recognise (in 1 Peter 2:4-5) that the Church is made up of living stones, with Jesus as the foundation. The living stones that I’ve met here have been showing me what ‘being the Church’ and ‘doing ministry’ is all about, because they’re already getting on with it. Christians visit the hospitals, run the drop-in centre, are the churchwardens, work in the schools, help in the care home and gather to worship on Sundays – and far more besides! Each and every one has a ministry in the parish, whether they know it or not, and I’m sure that extends to the whole Diocese and the whole Church.

Being a living stone is taking our place in what God is building, and knowing our place, our vocation, calling or ministry is all-important. John the Baptist knew who he was because he knew who he wasn’t. He wasn’t the Messiah, he was the one who was to point to Him, to prepare His way. That’s my job as a Deacon and Curate, but it’s also our job, the role of the whole Church. As we minister together, ordained or otherwise, let’s keep pointing to our foundation stone.

Faith

 

From: 473 « The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus

Certainly an interesting discussion starter. What is the difference between certainty and faith?

I’ve heard several things recently about the opposite of faith; is it doubt, fear or apathy? Perhaps here’s another contender. Personally, I like apathy. Read that how you will – I don’t care!

Worship Leading

As an occasional visitor to thebabyandthebathwater, I came across this in a post there the other day. It’s “a copy of a note that has been circulated by the Bishop of Gloucester” (the pixilated Michael Perham, right) “to all the clergy in this diocese. It was  entitled ‘Leading Worship'”.

1. What is the task of the leader in worship?

• to work with the Spirit to bring the worshippers through Christ to the Father
• to draw the liturgy into unity and the congregation into community
• to ensure that there is a sense of welcome and inclusion
• to be sensitive to those who may be lost, confused or on the margin

2. What is required of the leader of worship?

• prayerfulness
• openness
• a handful of confidence and a pinch of reticence – but just sometimes a pinch of confidence and a handful of reticence
• preparation – including familiarity with the text
• being at ease in one’s body
• serious intent – a desire to draw into the mystery of God
• sensitive antennae
• warmth, joy, more warmth, more joy
• love of the Lord and love of liturgy

3. Some first questions early in preparation

• for whom is this service principally intended?
• what is the nature of this community?
• in what season is it set?
• what is it’s particular emphasis or theme?
• how long should it be?
• how confident will the congregation be about it’s worship?
• does it need high or low profile leadership?

4. Some questions as the service order comes together

• does this service feel like a joyful celebration of the people of God?
• will the service have a sense of wonder and reverence?
• what will be the balance between my leadership and the input of others and between what an individual speaks and what the congregation says, sings or does?
• will the elements of penitence, intercession, thanksgiving and praise be present?
• will the gospel of Christ be proclaimed?
• what will be the teaching element in the service?
• what expression will there be of welcome and of fellowship?

5. Some final questions

• are there any ‘stage directions’ I need to have given?
• will questions about standing, kneeling, sitting be clear?
• are there any questions about visibility, furnishings, sound that need attention?
• where do I need to stand(!) and to sit?
• will my one-liners help draw the worship together or destroy the flow?
• have I allowed time to pray before people arrive and to stand at the door and greet people before we begin?

6. A rogue question

• how much of this applies in a very informal service, perhaps not even in a church?

I think this is an excellent summary of the task of a worship leader (or lead-worshipper / service leader / insert your own preferred identifier here!). There is, clearly, lots to consider, but it pretty much boils down, for me, to being able to lead, but getting our of the way at the same time. It’s a mix of personality and anonymity. And that’s true for all church traditions; low/high, charismatic/conservative (hence the variety of pictures below). It’s always nice to see the similarities in a church so often focused on difference.

I imagine that the ideal is for many of these questions to be internalised to the extent that the appropriate answers come naturally. Quite often, it’s necessary to respond to things outside of your control when leading worship, and you need to be able to figure out the right way to deal with these situations without having to sit down with a pen and paper, trying to answer all of these questions in the middle of the service! Yet as much as they need to be internalised, I can think of a number of churches I’ve been to where it would be helpful if the services that take place had these questions asked of them from time to time, to check that what the leadership think is happening actually is. There’s could be an argument that this kind of approach is too restricting and limiting, and that we can spend too much time worrying about how things appear and are presented, without looking at their heart (1 Sam 6:7b). But that’s what’s great about these questions – they really get to the heart by looking at the heart. What are our intentions in worshipping? What are we doing and why?

Marcus said something to me a while back about worshipping the Trinity being ‘easier’ if we’re ‘experiential Trinitarians’ (I hope that’s a fair summary of it, anyway), and although the text of these questions could be seen to only pay lip service to this idea, I think it runs throughout them as well.

But for the strength of this list, I think there’s one serious potential weakness. The first question under section 3, if answered incorrectly, could ruin the rest of it; “for whom is this service principally intended?” If we answer this in terms of the likely make-up of the congregation then, as important as getting that right is, we can miss the most important thing about gathering together to worship. We worship God, for He is worthy of all worship, and that is why we worship. Louie Giglio (see also via here), in a series of talks he gave to the facedown songwriting conference (that I heard on the associated DVD) shocked me into thinking about some of the things we say about worship – how we enjoy it, get so much out of it, how it makes us feel good (or bad) – yet we are rarely concerned about how God feels about our worship. He did, after all, have a lot to say about the way His people worshipped through the OT:

I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

from Amos 5:21-24; and Micah 6:6-8:

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

most famously in recent times. God blesses us when we worship Him. He’s just that gracious and good to us. But it’s a by-product, rather than the aim. If we orchestrate and arrange our worship to get the maximum potential out of it for ourselves and our congregations then we’re going about it completely the wrong way – and certainly with the wrong heart… In the same way, I’ve often found myself struggling with Ezekiel 36:

(22)Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone… (25)I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. (26)I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (27)And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (28)You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God… (32)I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign LORD.

Worship is, as has been said by far better people than me, to God, for God and about God. What alternative is there? I pray that as I worship, and lead people in worship, God will keep this on my heart of flesh and in my transforming mind.

Stepping Back

An article I’ve written for our Diocesan newspaper.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever. Heb 13:8

As I write this, there are 115 days left until the End-of-Year Service and my last day of ordination training at St Michael’s College, Llandaff. It’s actually only 94 days if you take out the three week ‘holiday’ after Easter! And it’s 135 days until the Ordination Service in the Cathedral on 28th June.

Why have I counted the days? Is it because the last two-and-a-half years have been a horrible experience and I can’t wait to leave? Certainly not! There have, of course, been moments of frustration, tiredness and even disappointment in this time, but I was never under the illusion that ministerial training was meant to be a barrel of laughs in the first place.

There have been great ‘highs’ as well; two weeks in Lesotho last summer, experiencing my first home Communion with a wonderfully grateful Christian lady and countless things learnt from people I’ve met along the way. But nor have I counted the days because I don’t want to leave and have to face the ‘real world’!

I’ve counted the days to give a sense of reality to the future that – unless the Bishop has a change of heart – awaits Naomi and me. We’re moving to Aberaeron, where I shall be the Curate and are more than looking forward to such a beautiful place to live and, so I’m told, wonderful people to minister to and alongside.

But I am, of course, nervous about how it will go. ‘The future’ can often seem like a very insecure, scary and intimidating place to be heading towards. But maybe it needn’t always be so. I’m told that the ancient Israelites understood time very differently to how we do in the West today. If we were asked to visualise a time-line on the floor stretching from the past, through the present towards the future and then asked to walk along it, I’m pretty sure we’d nearly all do it the same way: stepping forwards into the future.

But the Israelites would have done it differently. Standing in the present they would face the past, seeing all the ways in which God has been faithful then stepping backwards into the future, certain that He will remain so – even when they looked back on hard times.

He is unchanging; unchangeably good. And so we too can step back into the future with confidence in His goodness.