September

It’s autumn. I can feel the slowness

Arriving like a mist, silently, incrementally

A finger will fail to point to the moment

And yet, summer’s thirst is not so intense

Already there’s a less relentless, more peaceful

Drawing on the soil’s riches, its salts and

Nutrients sipped rather than swallowed whole

There’s work to be done, but it’s not obvious;

The closing down. The end of things

The complete rest is not for now

It will come. Dormancy.

Even in winter’s grave

All is preparation

The work of

Winter

Silence

There,

the absence

of road signs,

lumbering houseflies,

or sniffing,

is like slow honey

There, is a stillness

into which your thoughts

forget for a while

to crave attention

and you, held, are welcomed.

Not weighed

That silence

sits in a father

waiting for the prodigal.

A mother gathering her chicks.

Or a surfer taken beyond flight

by an endless wave

Here,

all is well.

Silence that seeps through the air

unnoticed until it is too late

and you drink deep draughts

of what you have

always longed for

Would you have gone to see Jesus?

Word gets round: miracles, of course, and the teaching. But also that intangible something that draws crowds.

Gandhi’s 1930 Salt March attracted tens of thousands, and a quarter of a million are said to have attended Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in 1963. And on the bad side of the board, the Nuremberg rallies in the 1930s of Herr Hitler were attended by 700,000 or more.

In an age of no mass communication, something impressively simple happened: multitudes left work and normal family life to find and follow Jesus.

‘Jesus left the house and sat by the sea’ Matthew 13v1

No synagogue. No church building. No adverts. No stage…well there was a boat, at the last moment. No loudspeaker.

How many times have I left a house and sat by the sea? Hundreds of times probably. Certainly in my childhood living within 5 minutes of the North Kent Coast, I spent whole days on the beach. It’s so familiar and yet…

The ‘and yet’ is what marks this from the hippy-culture image that Jesus sometimes evokes: the long hair (in Hollywood films anyway), the sandals, the freedom of the road, the lack of social restrictions all appeal. And his denouncing of traditions that were strangling the life out of ordinary day-to-day Jews and turning faith in God into a worse form of slavery than they had endured in Egypt.

People weren’t just rejecting the present in some kind of hysterical youth cult; they weren’t ‘hanging out’ with The Man. He had things to say. He had stories to tell. Mystery parables. Wisdom. And that horrible word ‘Repentance’ was never far from his lips. And still they came.

He was ready. Had stories to tell, but had no control over who, if any, would arrive to listen

He was a curious example of living a simple, unorganised life, a life that didn’t revolve around his diary, and yet not a disorganised life. He had pondered hard; created stories to tell. This simple ‘Jesus left the house and sat by the sea’ is characterised by its complete separation from manipulation. He was ready. Had stories to tell, but had no control over who, if any, would arrive to listen.

Later, on the evening before his crucifixion, he prayed what has become known as the High Priestly Prayer recorded in John 17, in which the phrase ‘those You have given me’ is repeated at least three times.

That is the word of the Lord. Maybe for you. Maybe today. Certainly for me.

Lay down the stress of manipulating and networking, attempting to form relationships to fulfil your (probably legitimate) goals. Have your ‘stuff’ ready (for Jesus on this day he was armed with eight world-changing parables) and do the equivalent of ‘leaving your house and sitting by the sea’.

If you have food, hungry people will come.

A Three-Dimensional Church?

Every believer and every church, from Pentecost to now, is somewhere on this 3D image, moving forward or backwards as the Holy Spirit works in us.

Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles

These were the three feasts all male Jews were commanded to attend in Jerusalem (Deut 16v16). They were shadows of the reality now fulfilled in Christ and therefore in the church, the body of Christ.

A Passover church recognises that Jesus is the fulfilment of Passover. He is the Passover Lamb; all previous lambs were a shadow of the reality, which is Christ. An individual believer or a church that has grasped this revelation knows that they are forgiven and made righteous by faith.

A Pentecost church knows the above, but also that Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit and experiencing the power of the Spirit as He distributes gifts among them. This church knows what it is to be led by the Spirit.

A Tabernacles church rejoices in Passover and Pentecost but also knows that as ‘the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us and we beheld His glory’ John 1v14, so the church when it gathers together, the glory of Christ is revealed. When Jews celebrate Tabernacles, they gather in temporary booths, with loose branches acting as a roof but with holes, open to heaven; the presence of God inhabits the church.

The Three baptisms

God the Father baptises us into Christ Himself (Rom 6v3), Jesus baptises us with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1v5), and the Holy Spirit baptises us into the body (1Cor12v13). Note: none of these passages mentions water! Water baptism is a picture of all three of these, and, just as many experience a struggle over submitting to water baptism, there can be a struggle with these three baptisms. Each one is a step of faith away from any notion of attempting to live independently from God or one another.

Little Children, Young Man, Father

When we are born again, we are ‘babies’ in Christ (1Cor3v1). But the NT urges us to grow up (Heb 5v12-14; 6v1). John teaches us that our growth to spiritual maturity matches physical and emotional growth – from little children to young men, and from young men to fathers (1John 1v12-14).

The key to growth? It never changes…hunger. Without a longing for milk, babies don’t grow. Without a love of solid food, young men cannot become strong. And fathers know how to maintain a good diet to remain strong, AND to provide for others.

The Beer Beech Report

Usually I come away from Beer beach with a suntan, wet swimming gear, and a poem. Today I came away without a poem, but two mackerel, a bunch of photos, a good swim, and hunch that this has to be a ‘report’ rather than a poem.

Beer beach s one of those places that when discovered you feel divided in yourself, whether to tell others or keep quiet. But Beer itself, nestling in a steep-sided valley, is quite self-limiting; once the car park is full, you have to push on to another destination. Therefore, it’s never too crowded.

Appealed to my half-American nature x

At 9.30 this morning, when I rolled into the car park, there were probably ten spaces left.

The 200 yard walk from the car park, down the delightful high street full of non-chain shops, hopping across the stream directed down a gully, to the loo ends – apart from the WC - with a panoramic view over the bay with its vast headland to the west and cliffs running east.

Down to the pebble beach past alluring aromas of coffee and frying bacon, and the slow trudge across the pebbles to find the ideal spot to put chair, towel, rucksack, and book down, and get settled and off for Swim 1.

Today it’s still on the beach. The NE breeze is taken care of by the cliff. The temp is already just warm enough to render any need for a jumper redundant. Ahead, the early sun is glinting off the waves. I sat there trying to figure out exactly how that works. That surely is what a morning by the seaside is for? Contemplating the familiar? Thinking more deeply about things that have never stopped you in their tracks before. Each flash made possible by light that has travelled 93 million miles in the time it took me to trudge across the beach, only to be divided up into flashes of light that last less than a second, seemingly coming from the crest of innumerable waves and bouncing into my eyes. My brain then computing and combining images to produce an array of flashes just like mobile phone flashes in an auditorium of thousands with the lights turned down.

For a few fleeting moments, you are a child again, looking at the wonders of the mundane and thinking this is all a magic show

And there it is: the mystery of how something so reducible to waves and neurones can produce in us a burst of metaphysics, of calming emotion, and dissociation from the material world. For a few fleeting moments, you are a child again, looking at the wonders of the mundane and thinking this is all a magic show.

And if a magic show, who is the magician?

But such thoughts fade. Especially when one is swimming and wondering why it’s more of a struggle than normal, only to remember one has forgotten one’s goggles. One is not amused, but also realising how easy it is to become reliant on aids.

At one point I decide to swim towards the sun and into the sparkles. The Hollywood feeling dims slightly as this direction is against the incoming waves, which, after a few mouthfuls of the English Channel, loses its appeal in favour of floating on one’s back. That is bliss.

Perhaps we should all do this more. Whether in the sea or on land. Look up. Up to the sky…and I don’t mean glance, I mean really look. Study the edges of clouds, if there are any. Watch the aerial display, free of charge, and be absorbed by its reality far above our own.

Beach robes are an invention from heaven, I think. Especially for the British who don’t like displaying their bits or seeing others’ bits. Or if we do like others’ bits, feeling guilty that we do. We don’t do nature or beauty very well. Arms length is close enough, thank you. (Yes, if you’re a nudist or naturist, I hear you chuckling! Fair enough)

Changed back into dry clothes, shorts, shirt, sandals, its off to choose between the two beef cafes near ‘my spot’ to ask for a flat white and a bacon sarnie. The eating and drinking are delegated to the subconscious as I bury myself in AD 997 in Ken Follett’s excellent The Evening and The Morning.

It’s now approaching 11.30. The temperature is now well beyond ‘and a jumper’ temp. In old money it must be 73 degrees Fahrenheit.

A longer swim, out to the red buoy but not the white one further out. Not quite enough confidence. I watched Nyad last night on Netflix. About a marathon swimmer named Nyad who defied her critics and at the fifth attempt, aged 64, swam from Cuba across shark infested waters to land in Florida, 110 miles later. On the strength of that an old ambition bubbled up – to learn how to swim front crawl effortlessly. I enquired on line about 1:1 lessons and drove to Beer in the morning to try out what I watched her doing.

Progress? I can swim breastbone until the cows…but flounder after a length of front crawl. I’m 68, I don’t want to swim to Florida but front crawling across Beer beach bay would be my equivalent. Watch this space.

It’s home now. A morning’s worth of Beer beach is barely sufficient. I buy two mackerel caught that morning off shore and make a mental note to organise a fishing trip for family and friends perhaps.

So, as I said at the start, I left with some photos, the mackerel, the sky, the film in my head, and the mystery of the mundane. And now, thanks to the web, a chance to share it with whoever is reading this. Greetings, fellow man or woman. How are you doing? If you take nothing much from this, may I lay a challenge at your doorstep? Look up. Lie in the garden maybe or out on the waves. For at least ten minutes. My hunch is if you’ll pierce though feelings of ‘why am I doing this?’, or boredom, you’ll be richly rewarded. If it’s simply time out, or fascination - great. If it sinks deeper into meditation where you lose yourself in deeper thought – that’s great also. If you’ve ever wondered about God but not vocalised it, maybe this is a fitting moment. ‘Hello. Are you there?’ Is a good place to start.

A Haiku Triple Serving

I

A park bench slopes East

Sun-soaked, it’s dark young shadows

Stretch then fold away

II

We sat side by side

On this branch; two rough sparrows

Felled, caught by a gust

III

Jesus Saves daubed

On a rock with gloss-white paint

Far too clean for me

Matthew Chapter 11

To comment on the whole chapter is tempting; in fact, to leave sections untouched feels a little disrespectful, as Matthew evidently put a great deal of thought into how to stitch these recollections, what to leave out and what to include.

The key verses that stood out to me are:

‘After Jesus finished commanding his twelve apostles, he departed to teach and preach in all their cities’ v1

‘Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: ‘Woe unto you Chorazin…if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago. It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgement than for you’’ v20-24

In the previous chapter, chapter nine, Jesus had given the twelve a measure of His authority to heal the sick and sent them out to preach. Matthew opts not to record the results from their preaching (but if you’re curious, read Luke chapters 9 and 10).

Instead, Jesus takes the discipleship of the twelve to a new level and tells them he will be visiting their hometowns and villages (don’t misunderstand ‘cities’). Stop for a moment and imagine Jesus telling you He would be visiting your village, town, city. Meeting your brothers and sisters, parents, relatives, friends and others that know you and have heard that you’re ‘following the preacher who says he is the Messiah’ or whatever the rumour mill was turning over. Nervous?

What happens?

We read in verse 20 two words that tell us. Not only did He teach and preach; he did ‘mighty works’…just as He had commanded the twelve to do. That would have included miraculous healings and deliverances as well as verbal proclamation; impossible to ignore. Arriving with his twelve disciples, the women, including Mary His mother and Mary Magdalene, and probably many more following Him on the road, entering Chorazin (pop. Approx. 1000) would have caused a stir.

A village of 1000 Jews who had had the scriptures read every Friday in the synagogue, the feasts to attend in Jerusalem, the whole history of Israel and their return from exile in Babylon, now had the Messiah walking along their streets, preaching the gospel, the good news of the kingdom…and yet…no repentance! Jesus is astonished.

But we need to stop and unpick the word ‘repentance’.

Matthew records Jesus referring to John the Baptist, who had ministered a ‘baptism of repentance’ when people came to confess their sins and be baptised. So there is a need to include ‘sins’ in repentance. Acknowledging we’ve broken God’s laws, and our need to be washed clean.

But to reduce the word repentance to the sorrow over sins committed is to misunderstand its force and depth. In the book of Hebrews we read, ‘the gospel was preached to them but the word which they heard did not profit them not being mixed with faith in those who heard it’ Heb 4v2

Guilt, and fear, and shame over sins committed is only half the equation. When the light is switched on, we see all the dirt and grime, of course, and we can no longer ignore it, so we sigh and deal with it…but the key is not the dirt but the light.

When Jesus confronted the world of first-century Israel, He said, amongst many other things, ‘I am the light of the world’. Repentance has two halves – leaving and cleaving. It is the prerequisite of love. Even the marriage vows reflect this: ‘forsaking all others, be faithful to him’. Faithfulness is exactly what the word says – full of faith. You see the light in Jesus and, yes, you may need to repent of particularly shameful acts, but your repentance is really saying, I abandon a life where I am god, where I am in control: ‘I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul’ and confess that Jesus is Lord.

A good picture of the two halves of repentance and faith is the response of the disciples to the Lord’s invitation to ‘Follow me’:

‘Immediately, they left their nets and followed Him’

Clearly, many in Chorazin, despite incontrovertible evidence in front of their eyes, opted to continue in darkness, not the light and heard the chilling words of Jesus:

‘Woe unto you, Chorazin, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgement than for Tyre and Sidon’

But to reduce the word repentance to the sorrow over sins committed is to misunderstand its force and depth

On a personal note, I have seen this. Early on after my conversion to Christ, I asked a work colleague if he would allow me to pray for his girlfriend. Her doctors had told her to rest, not to exert herself, as she was too weak and could die. She had been confined to bed and hadn’t eaten properly for weeks, suffering from anorexia nervosa. He agreed. A few of us prayed on Saturday morning. On Monday morning, back at work, he was beside himself with excitement; she had simply got out of bed and started eating. I asked him when exactly. The same time that we had prayed. But there was no repentance, no faith in Christ as a result. A miracle of healing does not guarantee repentance and faith.

On another occasion, a friend of mine was involved with Tarot cards. I felt impelled by the Spirit to tell her that if she continued to practice divination, her mother – who was an alcoholic – would die. I invited her to church, but halfway through the worship she ran out. She continued to choose Tarot, not Christ. Her mother died.

There is a popular book called ‘The Power of Now’, Eckhart Toll. The bible also talks about Now:

‘Now is the day of salvation’ 2 Cor 6v2

‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts’ Heb 3v7

To conclude, Matthew 11 puts flesh on the bones of Paul’s succinct phrase ‘behold, the kindness and the severity of God’. Before Jesus was born, a prophet called Simeon met Mary and Joseph in the temple:

‘So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when Mary and Joseph brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, Simeon took Him up in his arms and blessed Him:

‘This Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’ Luke 2

Jesus spoke about this Himself:

‘Do you suppose I came to give peace on earth? Not at all! Rather division’, Luke 12v49-53

A Beer Beach Poem

Here, the Regatta flags obey
Ancient bylaws
Making no sound fluttering
In the gentle seaward breeze

The sun has barely yawned
Or stretched out its long shadows
From empty deck chairs
Resting on uncountable pebbles

Sounds are limited to
The crunch of early feet
And a lone shout for a flat white
Echoing from the beach café

If heaven is a home improvement
On Beer beach, I can wait awhile
Baptised as I am in sunbeams
Dancing beneath the blue water

Or, floating, arms outstretched,
Flat-backed on the waves
Giving the cloud-dabbled sky
My whole attention; I’m no longer here

Upstream – the new ARC heresy

First, to explain the title.

• ‘Upstream’ is a term that is circulating and gaining traction amongst ARC (Alliance of Responsible Citizenship) devotees who gather for an annual conference overseen by Jordan Petersen, who, if you didn’t know, is a popular Canadian psychologist and social commentator.

• Why ‘heresy’? Heresy and heretics are emotive terms – heretics in times past have been burned at the stake - but the root meaning of heresy is simply ‘choice’. In the context of beliefs, choosing to believe something at variance with the accepted or majority view. So, I am treading carefully. My contention is that ARC espouses a return to a Christian civilisation but not in the way that Jesus taught and preached and, therefore, the ARC doctrine is open to the charge of heresy!

But let me explain something straightaway – I enjoy listening to ARC speakers. Why am I a fan of ARC speakers and the whole ARC agenda and yet brand Petersen and his followers as heretics? Maybe I am a hypocrite? You’ll have to form your own judgement; please read on.

I have selected two quotes from keynote ARC speakers to set the scene - it is important to lay a firm foundation if I am later going to take a spiritual wrecking ball to the whole reconstruction project.

In his central address framing the conference's spiritual thesis, Sir Paul Marshall introduced the ‘reconstruction’ vision of WRC in contrast to the ‘deconstruction’ philosophies arising from post-modernism and stated that the solution lay ‘upstream from politics’. He continued, ‘The late Andrew Breitbart said that culture is upstream from politics, but I would argue that worship is upstream from culture. Culture is religion externalized.’

Baroness Philippa Stroud identifies Christianity sitting at the top of that stream: ‘If the cultural foundations of a society crumble, it becomes much harder for any government to respond... It is difficult to tell the story of Western civilisation without recognising Christianity's role in shaping it. Our civilisation will struggle to survive without Christianity.’

To summarise: downstream is politics, upstream is culture, and upstream from culture is the spiritual source for that culture – namely Christianity. ARC speakers see the West, Europe, USA and other broadly ‘Christian’ countries as suffering cultural decline precisely because we are trying to fix the wrong thing: politics. It would be wiser to go ‘upstream’ and reconnect with the source…then reconstruction of politics and society will follow on quite naturally.

downstream is politics, upstream is culture, and upstream from culture is the spiritual source for that culture

At this point, you might be thinking that as a Christian believer, I’d be cheering. And, in essence, I am. I accept the premise, the argument, and, prophetically, I agree with the outcome…a just society rich in faith, at peace with itself, and its neighbours.

What then is the objection?

Precisely this: ARC does not go upstream far enough.

In Jesus’s day, Israel existed only under Roman occupation, ruled over by Pontious Pilate. The popular theo-political groups was the Pharisees. They had considerable fire in the belly along with the Zealots, which could be viewed as a paramilitary wing of the Pharisees party. Both groups were gunning for the same outcome, a restored Israel, free from foreign rule.

The Pharisees’ argument was simple and very appealing. It ran like this:

1. Israel has departed from its founding culture, the Law
2. By doing so, Israel was dismantled and exiled to Assyria and Babylon, and only exists now under Roman rule
3. Recovery demands that we return to the source, and obey the Law and the commandments; the moral framework as delivered by Moses
4. Therefore, disobedience to the Law must be stamped out. Sinners must be prevented from polluting the culture and rejected.

The Pharisees had unopposed political influence and power and were rightly criticised by many, including Jesus, for hypocrisy. But their ‘platform’ was clear enough, even if they were corrupt, and it resonated with many.

My contention is that no one, no individual, no organisation, no nation, in fact, can produce a society swimming in ‘Christian values’ simply by committing to do so, or by passing legislation, or by political persuasion. Man cannot create ‘culture’, let alone a ‘Christian culture’ suffused with so-called Christian values. It is a gross misunderstanding of true Christianity and a fruitless endeavour…as was the Pharisees. Jesus said of them, ‘leave them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind. Both will fall into the ditch’. The very people, the Pharisees, who were calling for national renewal, led Israel into collapse. Jerusalem fell in AD 70, less than a generation after Jesus had spoken those words.

The stakes are high. Much of what is said by ARC speakers is good, commendable, morally correct and, if implemented, arguably, would be a welcome correction to the cultural decay that Petersen and others write about extensively. The diagnosis is correct. The cure is not.

ARC has a righteous aim. Here’s a summary:

ARC’s vision rejects narratives of civilisational decline in favour of a hopeful alternative, looking to a restoration of Judeo-Christian ethics to secure future prosperity. ARC champions individual responsibility and the nuclear family as foundational, opposing top-down, bureaucratic structures. It supports free enterprise and seeks to build a global coalition dedicated to human flourishing, free expression, and technological advancement.

ARC champions individual responsibility and the nuclear family as foundational, opposing top-down, bureaucratic structures

A vision that may have some appeal, especially for Western right-leaning liberals…like me?

Whether or not you agree with the ‘downstream’ political vision or have differing priorities, ARC speakers pound out the ‘upstream’ message – ‘you can’t have this downstream society unless you return to Judeo-Christian ethics’ and therein the problem lies. The heresy.

It’s not, though, that all ARC speakers are blind to the need to go far further upstream. In the inaugural ARC conference in 2023, Dr Johannes Hartl said, ‘The answer is not superficial religion, but true spiritual renewal. We do need a conversion of our own hearts’. He concluded this thought by urging churches to move away from mere cultural maintenance and to ‘become houses of prayer again.’

Detecting the departure from ARC’s call that I believe is needed, starts by asking, ‘how do we obtain true spiritual renewal?’ and the ‘conversion of our hearts’?

The nighttime encounter between the Pharisee, Nicodemus – who later showed his devotion to Christ by taking his body along with Joseph of Arimathea, wrapping it with expenses spices and laying him in the tomb – and Jesus, is found in John chapter 3. It sheds light on the chasm between ARCs conceived Pharisaical’s solution and Jesus’s:

‘Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.’

Jesus replied, ’Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’

‘How can someone be born when they are old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!’

Jesus answered, ’Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’

‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asked.

‘You are Israel’s teacher,’ said Jesus, ’and do you not understand these things?’

Jesus’s reply to Nicodemus is the answer to the ARC project. True spiritual renewal and conversion of heart is not just a revelation that, as a society and civilisation, we are suffering the consequences of ignoring Jesus’s moral teaching – as contained, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount – and that we need to recover, to study, to pray and so on, to recover all that has been lost. This is the dead hand of religion: man’s attempt to put himself right with God, with himself, and with his neighbour; it’s the Pharisee walking and talking wearing ARC costumes.

Jesus tells us to go further upstream. Notice Jesus’ incredulity ‘You are Israel’s teacher, and you do not understand these things!’

‘Flesh gives birth to flesh’, Jesus says. We reproduce who we are and what we believe. We cannot escape this ‘nature’ with all its flaws. We can try, but we will fail. It is the downfall of all ideologies. Worse, we end up urging others to look down on, and reject, those who won’t bother, or fit in, the ‘irresponsible citizens’, and we end up advocating a political system that eliminates the weak, the lepers, the ‘sinners’.

But Jesus went on to say ‘Spirit gives birth to spirit’.

Later in John’s gospel, Jesus continues His teaching on the Holy Spirit. In chapter 7 He is taking His message into the capital city, Jerusalem, during the feast of Tabernacles:

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given.’

Finally we have reached the source of the river. The message is as simple as the Pharisees’, but different. The Pharisees demand action, reconstruction of culture, work to reclaim a dying civilisation. Jesus says, leave all that to one side, all your commendable or not so commendable efforts, and come to Me and drink; everything flows from that point on.

That is the spiritual renewal, the conversion of heart that is required. It cannot be achieved by legislation but by individuals obeying the call: ‘anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink.’

Lastly, John’s final record of Jesus’s teaching on receiving the Spirit begins in chapter 14 with:

‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.’

And will be in you.

To conclude. There is much that is said at ARC that I not only enjoy but stirs the blood! Many speeches are superior the diet we are fed by the average political leader.

I accept the ‘upstream’ message.

But it is fundamentally limited, flawed, and heretical. It is impossible to recreate a Christian culture full of Christian virtues and values without listening to what Christ teaches. We need to go further upstream than ARC, to Christ Himself and leave all our reconstruction efforts behind, just like the disciples leaving their nets, and do what Jesus told us to do,

‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’

I Dug a Well the Other Day

In my head, I did.
Just like any other decision:
Rubbing my hands on a raw cold morning
Or straining on tiptoe
To peer over a wall as a child
Or raising my hands in worship
To the lover of my soul

I had the plans
The thrill of design:
Large blocks of Dartmoor granite
Lining the shaft
Wet with the oozing of the earth
And deluges of rain pouring
Down and down

Like no other well that I know
It had, has, three pools
You can trace ripples on the first
And hear the plop of a pebble
In the second. After that, darkness,
And a depth beyond what we call here

On Monday I lowered my cup
For the first time
Weary with the heat of the day
The sun having done its desiccating work.
Closing my eyes,
I tilted my lips to drink –
Such thirst-quenching sweet water

Tuesday arrived. I ended the day
Caked in sweat and grime
My shirt the colour of flesh
My flesh, a layer of dust.
Buckets later, I filled a trough, and
Buried in baptism, my tears swam
Mingling with the well-water

Wednesday.
It’s always Wednesday from this point on
I lowered myself down
Past Monday, past Tuesday
Into a depth where few have been
There are no cups here or buckets
Only a sign that reads:

Diving is permitted

Here, all clocks stand still
Waiting until you surface
And look up, and up…
And remember:
I dug a well, the other day.
In my head, I did.
No, not just my head.

Let’s Talk about Sabbath (i)

You’re about to leave the house to drive cross-country to watch Harlequins v Bristol Bears. You reach into the tub…the car keys have vanished. With time leaking away and panic rising, but motivation at an all-time high, you ransack the house, searching for the keys.

Ten long minutes later you find them, on the bed, under a pile of washing.

Joy floods your innermost being, your heart rate steadies, you vow never to lose sight of your keys, and within a minute you’re driving down the road, singing ‘I once was lost, but now I’m found’.

Searching for the true meaning of Sabbath is similar to that frantic search. I can never seem to rest. To find peace. Have we lost touch with the Sabbath? Is it hiding under layers of history, theological arguments, and a changing economic climate? Is it even a relevant question – after all, through the gospel we’re not under the Law, so why mention Sabbath, or the Sabbath?

What do we know from the New Testament?

How did Jesus handle the Sabbath? Did he teach anything regarding the Sabbath? What about the Ten Commandments? Hasn’t the Friday/Saturday Jewish Sabbath been superseded by the Lord’s Day ie Sunday, to celebrate the Resurrection?

‘And he entered the synagogue where there was a man with a withered hand. They watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. Jesus said to the man, ‘Step forward,’ and to the Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil? To save life or to kill?’ But they kept silent. And when he looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’, which he did. His hand was restored. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians how to destroy him.’ Mark 3v1-6

A few verses before in chapter 2, Jesus had taught: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’.

Whatever conclusions you may draw about external observance of the Sabbath or Sunday, a useful check is to ask whether the observance has become more important than its original purpose…rest, recuperation, healing, life…for our benefit and enjoyment.

The Pharisees were more like a religio-political party, or a political movement, than an established institution. Their manifesto was straightforward and gathered considerable support:

• Israel was sent into the Babylonian exile through disobedience to the Law, idol worship, and oppression of the poor

• To recover national sovereignty – a theocracy ruled by a Davidic and restoration of the Priesthood with temple sacrifices - and rid our soil of foreign rulers, we must obey the Law through Moses

• Obedience to the Law must be enforced – including the Sabbath rest from work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset

Jesus’s critique of the Pharisees was sharp. For example:

‘Woe to you…you hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean’ Mt 25v25/26

Jesus was not advocating abandoning the law but knew that attempts at outward observance alone left the Pharisees open to the charge of hypocrisy, being two-faced, saying one thing ‘we must obey God’ but disobeying Him from the heart. And, because the Pharisees had gained political clout and governing power, they were dragging the whole population, Israel, down with them.

‘…blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch’ Mt 15v16

Jesus continued,

‘…those things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things that defile a man. To eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.’ Mt 15v18-20

At this point, I am not writing about the remedy to the human heart but asking the question ‘how did Jesus model for us true sabbath keeping since we are not under the law? If we can answer this question, perhaps we have a chance to make progress as disciples of Christ regarding the Sabbath.

The principal passage to consider is John 5 v16-19:

For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working…most assuredly. I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner’

Jesus was the clean vessel on the inside and outside that he had preached to the Pharisees. He was in constant, uncluttered communion with his Father in heaven. He was the sinless Son of God. The bible calls Jesus the ‘Second Adam’; he was unique. No one who had been born since Adam was created was perfect or had lived a perfect life. Jesus was a new type of man, a fusing of man with God.

The mistake we often make is to assume that Jesus was like a man with superpowers, like Superman, who switched the power on whenever he wanted to. Not so: ‘the Son can do nothing by Himself’ v19.

Later, in the same conversation, he says: ‘I can, of myself, do nothing’ v 30

When the apostle Paul wrote about Jesus he said: ‘he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and came in the likeness of men…and humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross’ Philip 2v 6-8

Since we have believed and have been baptised into Christ and live as ‘in-Christ-ones’ or Christians, Jesus is living out His life through us, in our form. We are learning and adjusting to a new normal: His life in us. It changes everything…including our understanding of Sabbath.

In chapter 4 in the book of Hebrews, the author is addressing the subject of the sabbath to believers.

‘…there remains a Sabbath for the people of God’ 4v9

This verse has spawned a variety of Christian denominations and communities – and individuals – to adopt some form of Sabbath observance, whether following the Jewish Friday/Saturday model or shifting to Sunday observance. The heart of Sabbath observance, however, is found in the following verse:

‘For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His’ v10

Like Jesus, the believer, an ‘in-Christ-one’ has ‘ceased from his works’.

The author builds on this in chapter 6 in describing the foundations of our life in Christ from which we go on to maturity ‘not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God…’

Although repentance and faith is the doorway into Christ, it also forms the foundation of our life in Christ as believers, not from ‘sin’, but from ‘dead works’ – that is anything we do that does not have its origin in God. Or, as Jesus put it, ‘the Son can do nothing except what he sees the Father do’.

Two typical examples. A musician volunteers to lead worship. He has qualifications and experience. He’s been a guitarist and lead vocalist in several bands. He is volunteering to help out, to contribute, and so on. But he is doing so from the wrong source. There’s nothing ‘sinful’ in the sense that he’s not transgressing any commandment, but it’s a dead work. It’s come from him, not from the Lord. In another incident, not directly related to the church, a believer has been led by the Spirit, with others' confirmation, to start a tool-hire company. He has no business qualifications or extensive experience with tools, but the Lord has spoken to his heart that He wants him to reach men in the town. The business starts, prospers, and has an impact in accordance with the prophetic word. Five years later, he begins to hear God saying, ‘Lay it down. It’s time to hand over the reins to Me, and I will give it to another’. He ignores this voice; it has become a dead work. Again, there’s no commandment broken, no transgression…and yet, laying it down requires fresh, bold obedience; repentance and faith toward God.

Being ‘born again by the Spirit’ is day 1 of our Christian faith. We are on a journey then of progressive maturity from being babies in Christ to full maturity as we learn to operate from Christ’s life in us rather relying on our own resources.

‘Solid food belongs to the mature, those who by practice have their senses exercised to discern between good and evil’ Heb 5v14

To conclude: the believer is called to a life of continual Sabbath rest from his own works, just like Christ, and to be obedient, like Christ, to do only what he or she sees the Father doing.

What about physical rest? Working for six days and resting for the seventh?

Sure. That’s a healthy lifestyle. It’s wise, if your work pattern permits it. During my teaching career I very rarely – two or three occasions only in over thirty years – worked on a Sunday. I rarely thought about ‘work’ until Monday morning, though I know many teachers’ Sundays, particularly Sunday evenings, are ruined with the stress of worrying about Monday morning.

My personal view is that we have lost more than we gained in England by jettisoning the traditional Sunday when the vast majority of shops and businesses closed. We had a taste of that quietness again during lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed during the Covid pandemic. Many commented how they felt more relaxed and could hear birdsong.

Should we return to Sunday off?

Maybe, but what we absolutely must do is to listen hard to Jesus’s teaching in opposition to the Pharisees:

First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean’ Mt 25v25/26

‘…those things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things that defile a man. To eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.’ Mt 15v18-20

The first step in spiritual recovery and health is not to impose Sabbath observance. The first step is to clean the inside of the cup; then whatever outward observance you wish to practice will be clean.

How to clean the inside is the subject of the next post.

Two Nine to Ninety Poems: What it is to be nine & Will we make it to ninety?

What it is to be nine

‘Turn out your pockets’
That gentle shrivelling voice I grew to fear
Dismantling, brick by brick
The wall surrounding me
Keeping me safe;
Me as me

Trespassing on my…stuff
But he cannot see
The brass bullet case
The plastic poppy
A Red Admiral folded in old newspaper
Four long nails
A broken rubber tyre, small,
And a rusty harmonica

Curiously blind
Adult but vacant
Looking past my wealth
For what wasn’t there
‘Was it a rabbit?’
A voice inside whispered
I tried not to smirk

Poor man
Little idea of the array
Of things we’d collected
That make for peace:

The blood red poppy
Standing tall in the empty brass bullet
The four nails of the crucifixion
The toy-car tyre, broken,
To be mended with music -
Like most things -
And the butterfly
Possessing a fragile beauty
That can do no harm

I wanted to peer
Deep in his pockets
But he’d long forgotten
How to use them

When I am old, Lord
Please keep my pockets
Open and full
Amen

Will we make it to ninety?

I roll the word Umpteen
Around my tongue, gently,
Like a thinning Polo
Ready to be broken and lost

Like mints, are we caught
In the soft destruction
Of the Almighty?
Digested by parables,
Incarnating their truth?

I was first once. First on the dance floor.
The cha-cha, the waltz
My two left feet and sweaty brow
Eroding my early bullishness
First to fail, first to leave

Was that a dress-rehearsal?
So far, I am spared the grief
Of striking unsteady pencil lines
Through address book names
But it will come. The grief.

Are there umpteen funerals ahead
Or will I again be the first
To hold open the door
For others to follow,
To perfect their funeral attire?

If first to this endlessness
May my wrinkled earth-state
Inflated with impossible joy
Fail to curb my song-filled limbs

Waiting for the tail-end…
…I hope it will be you
Last, but first.
May I have this dance?

Believe it…or not

As an agnostic, I was challenged by a believer to read the New Testament before making pronouncements about and arguments against Christianity.

I did. I was surprised by what I found. In particular, the unexpected honesty about its flawed heroes – Moses a murderer, David an adulterer and murderer, Peter the denier, Thomas the doubter, to name a few. No hint of self-protection, of a cover-up, of an attempt by its various authors to conceal a conspiracy. Since then, I have not stopped reading the OT and the NT. I could no longer sustain my agnosticism.

Being ‘a believer’ is certainly related to the historicity and reliability of scripture: for example, I do believe there was a man called Jesus who was crucified and resurrected, but it is far more than merely having faith in a set of historical facts; it is state of being, of having received a new heart which is tuned to the voice and the words of God.

 We could pick any number of verses in the New Testament to illustrate this, but 2Cor2v14,15 is on my mind.

‘Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of Christ in every place for we are to Him the fragrance of Christ among those who are perishing and those being saved’

 For someone who believes that the Bible is the inspired and infallible word of God, the issue is not whether these verses are true but whether he/she believes them in the circumstances in which they find themselves. Its truth is not independent of the person believing. I might, for example, agree intellectually that human beings can float in water and swim, based on the evidence…but it is not until we’re in water that we truly discover how to swim…or not.

Faith is not uncommon; it takes us beyond the limitations of our five senses

 All of us, whether we class ourselves as atheists, agnostics, or whatever world-view, learn faith. We believe, for example, that the Sun, when it is hidden from view either behind a cloud or after sunset, is still there. Or it may take a while for a young child to stop looking behind a mirror to find the person looking back at them. Faith is not uncommon; it takes us beyond the limitations of our five senses.

The above verse has challenged me for the past 18 months. I read it most days and recite it to myself…whatever my mood or circumstances.

 I remind myself of the two critical words ‘in Christ’. I remind myself of what this being ‘led in triumph’ looked like in the life of Jesus: harassed by the Pharisees, rejected by his home synagogue, nowhere to lay his head, considered mad by his brothers and sisters, arrested on false charges, and crucified.

One particular incident, when Jesus met the woman at the well (John ch 4) illustrates the truth of these verses.

‘He came to Samaria…and being weary from the journey, sat by the well…the disciples went to buy food…it was noon’  4v5-8

Whilst they were gone, a woman came to the well; she and Jesus started talking. It was a remarkable conversation; Jesus had a word of knowledge about the woman’s turbulent past – five husbands and living with another man - to which the woman said ‘Sir, I perceive you are a prophet’ v19. It led to ‘many of the Samaritans in that city believing in Him’ v39

But the point is this: Jesus was weary. Physically tired. Weak. So weak that when the disciples returned they ‘urged him to eat’ v31. He was not Superman. Being ‘led in triumph’ is true whether we are weary or strong. Jesus put it this way to the disciples: ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know’ v32.

When I feel dull, or bored, or fearful, or elated, full of energy or knackered, when I’m winning or losing, experiencing prosperity or reverse…in Christ I discover that I have a source of energy that is hidden from the world. The sun may be hidden behind a cloud, and any evidence of ‘triumph’ may be hidden from view, but we learn that this concealment is only temporary…and wait, just as a child waits for the sun to reappear.

Kissing the Feet

Her lips on his feet
His heel cupped in her hands
His flesh damp with her tears
All dust wiped away
With unbound hair

And from his lips
His rebukes fall
Like a river of rose petals
His truth ‘her sins, which are many’
A prelude only to ‘are forgiven’

See the woman who could not
Clear her own regrets
Now a sculpture of alabaster
Remade. Full of fragrant oil,
As she kissed the feet

Let her unbound hair
Her extravagance, her discovery
Speak his words
‘Your faith has saved you
Go in peace’

Luke 7

And God Prepared a Worm

The story of Jonah in the belly of a whale for three days is well known to children but rarely revisited later in life. But it is later in life that the worm becomes a lifesaver.

Last Sunday, chapters 3 & 4 were read out in church, and chapter 4 verse 7 caught my attention.

‘But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered.’

If nothing else, the concept of God ‘preparing’ anything, let alone a worm, is challenging to our material understanding of the universe. ‘Preparing a worm’ seems more at home in the surrealist humour of The Goodies or Monty Python’s Flying Circus than verifiable history. Not only does it challenge our sense of rationality (but then the Bible does this from the opening sentence of Genesis to the final words in Revelation), the detail is very specific. The following verse gives us a timeline.

And it happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a strong east wind: and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, so that he grew faint.’

The worm, then, was not only ‘prepared’ during the half an hour or so before sunrise, dawn, but was able to damage a large plant that God had prepared the previous day to shield Jonah from the sun.

The purpose of this post is not to debate whether this story is historically accurate or written to convey truth in a fictional form, but to think about the worm. Somehow, in less than half an hour, it had managed to damage and wither the plant.

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote,

‘God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty’ 1 Cor 1v27

The Bible is replete with David and Goliath stories, the weak oddly victorious in the face of a stronger enemy, but I can’t think of a creature weaker than a worm, living in the dark, feeding on dead and decaying matter. Not much of a life. Not much potential to overcome adversity.

Isaiah the prophet had the dual task - as do all prophets – of announcing disaster if there’s no change of direction, no returning to the source of all goodness, God, but also promising God’s help and restoration if, specifically, Israel repents, returns to God, believing that God will fulfil His promises.

In chapter 41, Isaiah says of Israel,

‘You, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend’ v8

Every so often in the Bible, God shows us something of His love for Israel. Isaiah continues,

‘Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel…I will make you into a threshing sledge with sharp teeth…’ v15

The contrast between a worm and a threshing sledge is stark.

What struck me on Sunday morning was the humour. Surely ‘God prepared a worm’ must rank as one of the funniest verses in the Bible? Perhaps the humour is lost within the story of Jonah, a Jewish prophet, and his calling to preach the message of repentance to the capital city, Nineveh, of their enemies. One individual sent to the enemy stronghold. Can we imagine God calling an Israeli today to take such a message to Tehran, or a Ukrainian believer to the Kremlin?

The point, however, is pretty obvious.

At times, we may not only feel weak and helpless, not much better than a worm, designed for limited tasks, with little ability. Our confidence and joy in life have leaked away, and we are left struggling to put one foot in front of the other. But in our anguish, we read Isaiah 41v15 and Jonah 4v7. A glimmer of hope is born. A tiny seed of faith is sown. A private battle hidden from the external world of other people has, if not been won, then turned a corner. We look in the mirror and find eyes looking back at ourselves with some life in them; the dullness that was there receding.

Another verse we used to know has become fresh food for us, and we’ve found a way not of giving mere intellectual assent to it – ‘it’s in the Bible so it must be true’ - but consuming it, ‘God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty’ 1 Cor 1v27. We start, unbelievably, to actually give thanks for our weakness. We end up chuckling, knowing that somehow, we’re right in the centre of God’s will, even though we are weak and always have been held in His arms of love. For the first time in ages, we look up, not down.

In one sense, nothing has changed. The circumstances may not have changed, but inside, everything has changed. It may be gradual, but it is unstoppable, like a threshing sledge. Things that appeared to be mountains obstructing our path are turned to dust.

‘I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth. You shall thresh the mountains…you shall winnow them, the wind shall carry them away…you shall rejoice in the Lord’ Is 41v16

AI Drone Swarms – a parable for the coming church?

In 2019, the film Angel Has Fallen, Morgan Freeman, playing the role of the President of the United States, is fishing in a small boat on a remote lake.

Trouble arrives in the form of a terrifying swarm of black, delta-winged flying drones that lock onto targets and wipe out the Presidential guard stationed around the lake’s perimeter, before moving on to assassinate the President. No spoilers…

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=angel+has+fallen&&mid=56C4F7DD1727EA7EB3D756C4F7DD1727EA7EB3D7&churl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.youtube.com%2fchannel%2fUCn4TjkLaraasteupSPdhYCw&FORM=VRDGAR

The drone swarm scene cuts away periodically to show a hand operating a ‘kill-no kill’ remote-control device: life and death in his hands.

In the early 2000s I took my A-Level Chemistry students to the annual Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. We were all agog walking past huge portraits of Isaac Newton, Humphrey Day, Michael Faraday and the like, up and down the corridors of the rather beautiful Georgian Royal Society building overlooking St James’ Park. One of the exhibitions was manned by a few postgraduate students researching butterfly flight. They showed us slow-motion video footage of how butterflies use their wings to fly and navigate in small spaces and were quite open about the project’s Ministry of Defence funding and the purpose - to manufacture miniature surveillance drones.

Twenty-five years on, and the technology is in use.

But now, in 2026, the technology has moved on even further: the human operator has been removed. Fully autonomous drone swarms, in which each drone learns from its flying-formation neighbours, locates and attacks a target without human instruction and returns to base, have arrived. AI-Controlled Military Drone Swarms.

_______________________________

How can this chilling technology be a parable for the body of Christ?

One of the surprising aspects of Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus, the Pharisee who ‘came by night’ to wrestle over some theological points, is Jesus’s rather cutting comment, ‘How is it that you, a teacher of Israel, do not these things?’ John 3v10

Apart from the infamous statement to Nicodemus that he needed to be ‘born again’, Jesus went on to teach Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit:

‘The wind blows where it will, you hear it, but you can’t say where it comes from or where it’s goes. So is everyone born of the Spirit’ John 3v8

Whilst this was a 1:1 conversation with Nicodemus, in Jesus’s mind was a larger picture ‘everyone’, plural, all believers. Christianity is not a religion in the sense that its followers attempt to adhere to a set of external commands. It’s a mass of people blown here and there not by a written command, papal decree, or denominational headquarters, but by an internal weather system…the Spirit of God.

Combine that plural picture with the teaching in 1Cor 12 and elsewhere that the church is the body of Christ. And that Gal 2v20, Romans 6v1-6, Col 3v3, and John 15, and we begin to see the church less and less as an organisation but that its ‘organisation’ is directed, not by decree, but by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit internally abiding in each believer.

Near where I live in North Somerset is one of the gathering locations for starlings who then take to flight in thousands to perform seemingly orchestrated ‘murmurations’. Each starling, surely, is an autonomous bird, and yet there seems to be a submission to a collective consciousness so that the whole mass of birds acts as a coordinated ‘body’ and creates intricate and beautiful 3D patterns in the sky.

‘Consider the ant…they have no captain, overseer or ruler’ Prov 6v6

Like ants, fully automated drone swarms have no leader, and yet the colony survives. Each ant has a particular role, making individual decisions and yet those decisions are coordinated with the overall community, and the community of autonomous ants seem to act as one organism.

So it is with the body of Christ. Each believer is directed by the ‘wind’, by the Spirit, and yet act collectively as a body.

‘But to each one of us grace was given…and Christ Himself gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and the building up of the body of Christ’ Eph 4v7-12

There are different gifts but the same Spirit, different ministries, but the same Lord…the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for he profit of all: to one a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healings, prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues, but one and the same Spirit works all of this, distributing to each one as He wills’ 1Cor12 v 4-11

‘Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation…’ 1 Cor 14v26

The picture here of the church is a dynamic living organism, coordinated by God Himself, living in each believer. Together, then, however its leadership is formed, its leaders are only recognised as leaders because they exhibit this Spirit-led, born-again life, which is not dependent on an external authority.

‘Consider the ant…they have no captain, overseer or ruler’

Note this: not one of the churches in the New Testament, Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia, Rome and so on, had one leader. There were pastors, but no single Pastor; there were ministers, but no Minister; there were priests, but no Priest, no Vicar, no Orthodox Archimandrites, no ‘lead’ elders, and so on. Elders were appointed by apostles, and once appointed, were the authority locally. The various ministries of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, and anyone exercising a spiritual gift, all functioned whilst recognising the spiritual authority of the local eldership.

A drone swarm as a metaphor for the body of Christ – the church

Conclusion.

Can you imagine a church with plural elderships, not solitary leaders? A church in which every member is being blown around, or ‘led by’ by the Spirit of God? A church in which every member is discipled by Christ? A church whose elders are appointed for their spiritual maturity, not their worldly expertise e.g. management experience, counselling qualifications, or ability to teach.

This is the body of Christ, whose life is Christ Himself, coordinating His own body just as our brains coordinate the workings of each part, or each cell. Every cell in your body functions in its own way, but it is alive with the same life - yours. Its name, if you like, is your name. My name is John Stevens, so if a cell in my liver were being interviewed and was asked, ‘Whose life are you alive with?’ the cell would answer ‘John Stevens’. The interviewer might then ask, ‘But are you not an autonomous living cell, making your own decision?’ The answer would be ‘Of course. But I am just a small cell of John Stevens, we are one, not two, and so my choices are John Stevens’ choices’.

A drone swarm as a metaphor for the body of Christ – the church? Yes. Separate believers coordinated by a guidance system not of preprogrammed AI software, but the Spirit of God, not to attack and destroy, but to be the embodiment of the love of God to the world.

The Apple on the Other Tree

Grasping a tall
Flat-nibbed fountain pen
Full of Indian ink
And a reservoir of eyes

His hand, married to the barrel,
One nerve away
From a mind trained on
What can’t be seen,

Flexed the pen, tracing somersaults
And stiff arrows along
The smooth bark of a dangling branch
A lacework of longings

I watched as the nib
Approached the limit,
The gnarly edge of tree and wind,
But the words hadn’t read the rules

They sang themselves
Through the air and,
Like a spider’s silk thread
Gliding on a sunlit evening current,

Landed in a dyslexic funk
Unable to speak clearly
Wobbling in unison
With an apple above

What was he trying to say?
But the apple dressed in red
Took hold of the pen
And words fell away.

The Sermon on the Mount – a question?

I suspect many of the verses in the Sermon on the Mount are familiar to us. Even if we haven’t read them in the Bible, they are often quoted in films, on TV, in the press, or by journalists or politicians.

The usual wisdom, that ‘its high ideals may be unattainable, but good to aim for’, might not be the response Jesus was looking for, but we can all agree that if they were lived out as the norm, the world would be better for it.

When I read these verses before my conversion to Christianity, I always viewed Jesus’s teaching as applying to individuals, to free moral agents; how we should choose to live our lives. Now, as a Christian, I see this entirely differently: as Christ in us, living His life in us, toward us, and then through us to the world. That is the essence of the Christian faith. Not a slog to attempt to comply with ever-stricter moral obligations, but faith in the indwelling Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; to live out that divine life through us. Perhaps ‘repentance’ in the Western world is more a call to abandon self-made attempts at being ‘good’, our self-reliance, and to place our faith, not in ourselves as autonomous free moral agents, but in Christ in us.

So far so good. Until this morning.

This morning I saw something new; not in contradiction to the above but a fuller, more expansive vision and meaning that Jesus was carrying than individuals’ behaviour, and specifically, ‘my’ salvation and wholeness.

‘Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’, or, What shall we drink?’, or ‘What shall we wear?’. For, after all these things, the Gentiles seek. For our heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you’ Mt 6v31-3

Why the reference to the Gentiles? Leave that out, and it runs just as smoothly, doesn’t it?

No, it doesn’t. It made sense to Jesus to include the reference to the Gentiles - and to Matthew, who included these words.

If the Sermon on the Mount is all about individuals, whether Jews or Gentiles, then including the reference to Gentiles seems not only superfluous but irrelevant. But we should stop and consider that Jesus, however, is not only speaking as the King of the Jews, but the King of Israel; the one who had every right to claim the throne but who chose to wear a crown of thorns instead.

Quite how God views nations, and the nation of Israel in particular, is beyond our understanding. I think it would be safe to say, God’s viewpoint is richer and inhabits dimensions that we struggle to comprehend. Lines on the map, DNA analysis, or Passports and ID cards must appear to be crude measures of who is a citizen and who is not. Scripture gives us some clues. The language of 'covenant’ or ‘testament’ is rich in meaning but at its heart is a deeply relational term used for marriage; it has less to do with lawyers and more to do with love. The ‘Old Covenant’ (or Old Testament) made with Israel is likened to a marriage that failed. Israel’s failure led the prophets not only to predict the downfall of the nation of Israel and its subsequent exile but also that a day would come when God would make a ‘New Covenant’ with Israel (Jeremiah 31v31).

Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant at the Last Supper, which looked ahead to his death on the cross:

‘This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, shed for you’ Luke 22v20

Jesus’s vision included individuals and the nation of Israel with whom He made a new covenant as the King of Israel.

Does this mean that the New Covenant (New Testament) is restricted to the Jews, to Israel? No. Not at all. The calling on Israel was always to be a light to the Gentiles: ‘I will appoint you to be a light to the Gentiles, that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth’ Isaiah 49v6.

So, my attention this morning was raised from treating the Sermon on the Mount as great spiritual teaching for individuals, to seeing that Jesus was calling into being an Israel that would fulfil its calling. But this new Israel would only fulfil it ancient calling if it could demonstrate that by ‘Seeking first the kingdom of God’, God supplied all their needs: body, soul, and spirit, and demonstrate that God is God, a heavenly Father who loves his children.

A question, though, remains: did Jesus succeed in calling into being an Israel that is a light to the nations?

A question, though, remains: did Jesus succeed in calling into being an Israel that is a light to the nations?

My answer is, ‘Well, it depends where you look’. If we look at our media and the reporting on Israel as a political entity, you might question that! But look at the immediate after-effects of Jesus’s death, resurrection, ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and you may see a different Israel.

Jesus was a Jew. Peter and all the apostles, including Paul, were Jews. Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalen and all the other women mentioned in the gospels were all Jews. The 3000 who were converted on the Day of Pentecost were all Jews. The early church was entirely Jewish. Not until Acts 10, when the Holy Spirit fell on Gentiles listening to Peter’s preaching, are Gentiles included.

The ‘Israel of God’, as Paul puts it in Galatians, or the Israel of the New Covenant, the Jews who believed, had brought the light to the world, just as prophesied, and, within a generation the whole of the Roman Empire had heard of Christ and churches were springing up like mushrooms under the noses of the authorities who had sought to eliminate the faith by crucifying Christ and persecuting the church.

So, when Jesus referred to the Gentiles in the Sermon on the Mount, it was with all this in mind; it was not an afterthought or a sentence with no relevance.

Twenty-one centuries later, when, in the West, we are prone to think of Christianity as a European phenomenon, it is good to remind ourselves that had it not been for Jesus, his teaching, his death and his resurrection, and the willingness of His Jewish disciples to spread the gospel – which means good news - Christianity would never have reached us. Interestingly, there are more churches and Jewish believers in Israel now than at any time since the first century. This ‘Israel of God’, as Paul describes it in Galatians 6v16, in contrast to the political entity in the news, is gaining strength…which can only be further good news for the world.

My Father in Heaven

Tell me, did I learn to hallow
When I scrubbed your back
Or twisted the pipe-cleaners
To scour shank and bowl?

Thy kingdom come:
It’s true, you ruled
From the armchair
A kind of Arthurian peace

Thy will be done…
…if a capital W, I am pierced
A double-edged sword
I loved the lowercase you

On Earth as in Heaven
That’s the mystery to me
Hoisted on your shoulders in church
One of us was close to heaven

Give us this day…I have no complaints,
Cold lamb, still, on Thursday, besides.
But bread came from the kitchen you walked through to sit at the breakfast room table
Except on Sundays with posh cutlery, when the chilly dining room welcomed Granny

Forgive me? From your perspective
My attempts to sin always backfired
I hope your forgiveness
Is a thunder of laughter

Forgive others? Did I learn how?
We used to play Kan-u-Go?
And Canasta. No sneaking.
‘Hold the cards close to your chest’

Temptation? I know
Perfection, your shiny shoes
And trimmed moustache
Was as external as my skin

From evil – delivered?
I think you might say yes
All’s well that ended well
Under the Stars and Stripes

My father in heaven
Hallowed by thy name.

Chemistry and Christianity? Three Levels of church, after Level 0.

Why isn’t the Presbyterian Church, or the Brethren church, for example, experiencing continuous revival? Or any denomination, stream, apostolic network, group of churches, for that matter.

I’ve picked out the Presbyterians and Brethren because, within their understanding of scripture, they have at least seen that no church in the New Testament had one leader, one priest, one Vicar, one Minister, one Pastor. Instead, there was always, without exception, an eldership, i.e., a group of men (you might want to argue the gender point…but let’s not get distracted) set aside to oversee the congregation.

The other ministries, e.g. apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, fitted in, either locally or as travelling ministries, to that oversight.

And yet, many Presbyterian Churches are as dead, inert, and declining as Episcopal churches.

Melting candle wax: solid to liquid

Boiling water- liquid to gas

An interconnected plasma

As a Chemistry teacher, it’s surprising how useful, even with very intelligent A-Level students, it is to remind them of the three box diagram they drew aged maybe 11 or 12, to describe a Solid, a Liquid, or a Gas with circles representing the particles (atoms, molecules, or ions).

Plasma may be new to you. But it’s where atoms have been stripped bare. All their orbiting electrons have been removed, and the resulting ions and electrons exist in a plasma…like a very hot soup.

To move from a solid through to a liquid and on to a gas, then plasma will serve as our metaphor for the church.

In the solid state, there is order; it’s well organised, regimented, and traditions are honoured to the letter with little or no deviation. For a church, Sunday services run like clockwork, precisely orchestrated and follow a written or unwritten liturgy. One Sunday is more or less an exact copy of the previous Sunday. It is a well-organised, fixed state. Doctrinally faithful to its founders, but death has set in. It is more akin to CS Lewis’s stone statues in the Chronicles of Narnia.

That is, until Aslan breathes on them and they return to life.

In terms of Chemistry, moving from Level 0 (solid) to Level 1 (liquid) requires one thing. Heat. When Aslan (Jesus) breathes on them, I do not doubt that CS Lewis was alluding to the moment when Jesus breathed on His disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. And on the Day of Pentecost, they were baptised with fire and the Spirit.

The church that formed after the resurrection, with its Jewish apostles and deacons and many believers who believed that Jesus was the long-sought Messiah, risen from the dead, was alive with the Spirit.

‘Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and mind…and with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, nor was there anyone among them that lacked’ Acts 2v32-34

Throughout Church history, individuals and whole churches have moved from Level 0 to Level 1. In Britain from the 1970s until today, many thousands of churches have been formed that resemble, or seek to resemble, this description more than CS Lewis’s statues frozen in stone.

New songs are written, art and drama pour out, life has replaced death, and the cemetery has come to life. One Sunday is not like another.

Note: if a church can come alive with the baptism of fire and Spirit, it can cool. Many have. When this happens, the life of the congregation retreats into predictability, tradition, and may retain the outward form, the songs, the governmental structure, or the building, but the glory has long departed.

What about moving from Liquid to Gas, Level 1 to Level 2?

Disaster? Apparently, but this requires a different way of seeing, locked on and into the increasing heat – not from persecutors – but from heaven, from God.

‘At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered (diaspora – ‘spora’ - like seeds blown from a dandelion) throughout the regions of Judea, and Samaria’ Acts 8v1

If you’re familiar with the Creed, the phrase ‘I believe in the holy, catholic, and apostolic church’ is a dynamic statement. ‘Apostolic’ means ‘sent’. The Jerusalem Church was so ‘hot’ that it attracted persecution, but the heat moved the church from Level 1 to Level 2, from liquid to a gas phase.

Does this mean that all ‘charismatic’ churches have to be persecuted and dismantled and sent out, or scattered? No. But, if the heat of the presence of Jesus is among a church, God will propel many in that church out as seeds to ‘die’ elsewhere and in doing so see new churches form, ‘I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will remain alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain’ John 12v24

And Plasma? Level 3?

It’s quite possible that no one reading this added a fourth box for Plasma in school. I didn’t. So…maybe we’re stepping too far? Stepping into a ‘prophetic imagination’ to use the idea of a plasma phase as an analogy for moving on, as churches, even further – to a third level?

Under certain conditions, a plasma forces particles to act as an interconnected quantum system.

An interconnected system? Isn’t this the truth described in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth concerning the church, the body of Christ?

1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14

‘As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also Christ, for by one Spirit we were baptised into one body…and all drink of one Spirit’ 1 Cor 12 v 12,13

The distinction between individuals has been redefined, and even more so, the distinction between the church and Christ is indistinguishable, just as in the human body, each cell is filled with only one life, the life of the person.

One way of seeing this is to see the hard edges of one person as distinct from another, or of one church distinct from another, or of believers and Christ, as blurred. Individual faith and independence are no longer the goal or the ultimate expression of spiritual maturity; something altogether greater has arrived. Paul spoke of ‘glory in the church through Jesus Christ throughout all generations’ Eph 3v21.

The whole body knows that all things come from God, the gifts of the Spirit, the ministries from God, and the love of God

This state of matter is analogous to a state of church that cannot be sustained except by God alone. Man cannot produce it or copy it. The love that exists is supernatural in origin. The whole body knows that all things come from God, the gifts of the Spirit, the ministries from God, and the love of God. This is a state of continuous revival, not dependent on particular church governmental structures, but as a result of ‘drinking of the same Spirit’.

The church has become an interconnected quantum body in which ‘when one member suffers all the members suffer, and when one member is honoured, all members rejoice’ 1 Cor 12v26

Overall comment

Moving from one level to another requires letting go of the past and welcoming a new pattern from God. Just like music or love can melt our hearts, so God woos us through the invitation of Jesus, to, like the disciples, leave our nets and follow Him.

All analogies break down. Particles have no choice. If the heat is applied, particles respond: solids melt, liquids boil, and from gases, quantum plasmas can form. But we have choice. In the history of revivals, some churches come alive, but others stay put, unaffected or hostile.

When Jesus opened the scriptures in his home synagogue, the truth was revealed: ‘all those in the synagogue when they heard his words, were enraged and rose up and marched him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill to throw him down over the cliff’ Luke 4v29

But when Jesus said, ‘Follow me’ the disciples ‘left their nets immediately and followed Him’ Mark 1v17,18.

Lastly, in Jesus’s day, the average Jewish citizen may have been drawn to the Pharisees, or the Sadducees, or the scribes, or tax collectors, or Essenes, or preferred one synagogue to another, or none. It doesn’t matter how we describe ourselves: Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Charismatic, Methodist, Pentecostal, atheist, agnostic, humanist…the real question is whether we are thirsty, or hungry, or searching…for God.

‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink’ John 7v37