Reluctant Leaders and Wounded Healers - Part I

God, Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, runs an odd recruitment agency:

‘So, Moses, tell me, can you speak Egyptian?’
‘Yes, but…’
‘But?’
‘No confidence…I stammer…’
‘Experience of leadership?’
‘None. I just lead sheep around the desert. I rarely speak to anyone. Like to keep myself to myself, you know…’
‘Leading sheep around the desert? I’m returning you to Egypt to lead My people through the desert to the Promised Land?’
‘Pardon?’ Moses pauses and God remains silent. ‘I can’t go back. I murdered someone…’

I heard the phrase ‘Reluctant Leader’ the other day whilst listening to a Rob Bell podcast and walking around the Downs. It made me think. ‘Wounded Healer’ is a phrase I came across some years ago in N T Wright’s excellent book The Challenge of Jesus. So, I suppose this post is an exploration to see what sort of leaders could emerge in the future in the world of politics, sports, science, education, economics, and, in particular, the church.

At the time of writing this post, I have been watching The Elon Musk Show on BBC iPlayer. What a remarkable, pioneering leader, a visionary in whom the future was conceived years before he became well known. And yet the Reluctant Leaders and the Wounded Healers considered here, are of a completely different order. They are poor in spirit, running low on vision, blind even, and failures, but it is their lack and their suffering that, strangely, turns out to be their route to leadership.

I hope I can convey some of this…

Reluctant Leaders

Rob Bell was arguing that the best leaders are often ‘Reluctant Leaders’: Moses, Gideon, Samuel, and Jonah all argued their case before God and did their level best to avoid leadership. Moses complained that he couldn’t command the attention of a crowd, Gideon was full of fear, Jonah…

You may or may not interpret the thoughts you may have been having about leadership as ‘God tapping on your shoulder’, but you can’t seem to silence the voice inside, and you know a decision is pending. I’m referring to ANY role that requires leadership…it could be a sports team, a building site, responsibility in a science laboratory, a composer, a librarian…a mother, a father.

It’s unlikely to be a role of biblical proportions, but, whatever it is, it feels daunting to you!!

On the other hand, it could be that God is calling you as an apostle at this time for God’s people.

Moses had no vision for the deliverance of the Jews. St Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, had no idea that he had been called as an apostle before the foundation of the world in Christ until God distracted him on the road to Damascus. God, it seems, has His way of getting our attention.

The New Testament is so counter-cultural, marinaded as we are in our meritocracy

But whatever it is, bidding farewell to the relative safety of where we are, and taking a leap of faith, will be required. Moses had carved out a reasonable existence since murdering the Egyptian. He had escaped into the desert, maintaining a safe distance between himself and Pharoah. And he knew his way around the desert.

But God had pinned him down. First by distracting him with the curious sight of a non-burning burning bush and then out-arguing him.

Wounded healers

And I quote from NT Wright’s The Challenge of Jesus:

‘’…read Paul again; read John again; and discover that we are cracked vessels full of glory, wounded healers…we are discovering the true meaning of what the Eastern Orthodox Church refers to as ‘divinization’…true divinity is revealed not in self-aggrandizement…but in self-giving love…’

And this is the trick. Floored as we are at times by our failures, weakness, brokenness, inabilities, restrictions, fears and limitations, and scars from life, we are completely floored…by grace.

I remember my astonishment, at 16 or 17, discovering that the word ‘gospel’ simply means ‘good news’ and not the first four books in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And I argued strongly: ‘the gospel can’t be true – it’s too good to be true’. The concept of a free gift of eternal life, a free gift of righteousness, and the gift of the Spirit was brand new to me. It shocked me and refined ‘religion’ or what I had understood Christianity to be.

But Jesus said, ‘Freely you have received, freely give’.

The New Testament is so counter-cultural, marinaded as we are in our meritocracy.

That’s grace. A gift to be received, not a reward for good work, or being good.

Whatever has been done or suffered in the past; however damaged and cracked the wounded healers may be, and however undeserving they are, they know they have been filled with glory, things from above, which enable them to bring to bear the kingdom of God in any sphere of life, whether secular or spiritual; there are no boundaries.

Either way, irreversible change is inevitable.

The Future?

Such leaders of the future are already here: reluctant, cracked vessels, full of glory.

Meanwhile, some may be engaged in an argument with God, like Moses, or at least with themselves. If that’s you, I pray you’ll lose and quickly!

In Part II of Reluctant Leaders and Wounded Healers we’ll look at the inclusive nature of the death of Christ on the cross and what N T Wright referred to as the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of ‘Divinisation’ and how present-day ‘identifiers’, a hot potato and a chief debating point at the moment, are redefined in the gospel, and redefined in future leaders.

Running Blog - November 11th 2022

Paris ‘24

It’s an odd time to be reporting on one’s own preparations for the Paris Olympics when a certain other sporting event has stolen all the headlines pitching us into a fraught battle of wits between sport, politics, ethics, and entertainment.

I refer, of course to FIFA’s decision to stage the World Cup in Qatar, a nation rather at odds with its guests’ national political climates with respect to human rights in various forms.

I will be watching. If FIFA’s decision-making policies need to be reformed, so be it. In the meantime, let the footballers dance, dribble, and delight us all. Let them have their day under the Qatari sun, win or lose.

When I consulted Strava after the event, it appeared that the Earth had been rotating slower than usual under my feet

And meanwhile, those of us not blessed with the requisite almost telepathic skills required to hypnotise us with the fast-moving beautiful game, will don our running shoes and hit the pavements and footpaths. We have gold medals at the forefront of our minds, not golden boots - even if those gold medals are the ones occasionally awarded via Strava rather than the IOC!

My most recent run, this morning, a 10K more or less following the Bristol 10K route went really well. I was comfortable. Indeed, I have to report a certain unusual feeling: I felt stronger at the end than at the beginning and ran faster towards the end than at the start.

Explanation? When I consulted Strava after the event, it appeared that the Earth had been rotating slower than usual under my feet on the outward half, so, my average pace was, in fact, slower over 10K (60mins) than on my previous attempt on the 1st of the month (58mins). Explanation? I can only blame Gordan Fee who was blasting his way through a lecture on 1 Corinthians in my ear…it was so engaging that I must have slackened my pace? No, I can’t blame Gordan Fee. If he slowed me in the first half, he was also to blame for the rather slicker response during the second half.

No, I shall not over-analyse. Just rest up. And perhaps push a little harder next time.

My intermediate aim is 10K in 55’. By March ’23.

Weather conditions were close to perfect. Cool, 12C (I’m best at 10C or a bit colder really), and the breeze was with and against in equal measure. Beautiful pre-dawn mauve glow in the clouds over the city centre.

Lastly…come on Ingerland. Can you? Can you? Can you avoid Brazil, France, and Argentina, to name but a few long enough and somehow progress further and deeper? I shall seek to meditate on that from my post-run ice-bath sofa

Rearrange

Cats chasing lizards on the sandstone
Politicians after your vote on the megaphone
Heat-seeking girls burnt to the bone
Lying in the sun ‘til the day is done
Our time wasted again on our mobile telephone

It’s what we humans do, nothing can change
We cannot stop, we rearrange
A picture here, a dinner date there
A cherry in my lemonade, lemon in my marinade
But of ourselves we are unaware

 And all the while there is the One
Ignored, unknown, the loving Son
Hands outstretched upon a cross
Bearing our pain, His searing loss
It’s time to kneel and weep some tears

 Hold His hands, let Him rearrange
Our remaining years

Running Blog - October 25th 2022

The ‘Road to Recovery’ and the ‘Road to Paris ’24’ once again stretch ahead into the distance.

The problem is that despite a return to pain-free running (Hoorah!) and visions of L’Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, berets, and cheese and wine, and the melodic wistful sound of accordions over the horizon, there are a mere 62 weeks remaining before the medals are awarded.

My time from this morning’s run, adjusted for 10,000m, is 56.64’ and the qualifying time for Paris ‘24 is 27.28’.

You can appreciate the task lying ahead.

I should say, to retain neutrality in all things, that the qualifying time for women is 31.25. An easier target but the surgery required…

I should say, to retain neutrality in all things, that the qualifying time for women is 31.25. An easier target but the surgery required…

Some maths:

• The gap between 56.64’ and 27.28’ is 29.36’

• Steady improvement over the remaining 62 weeks = a 28 second reduction each week over each week

• My personal best for 10K is 47’ and some seconds…let’s say 48 minutes…achieved maybe 15 years ago when I was a mere youth with salt and pepper hair. Now it’s all salt.

Twenty-eight seconds a week?

Place your bets.

If any of you are as old as I am you may remember David Bedford breaking the 10K world record one summer’s evening in 1973 with a time of 27.30. It’s strange to think he wouldn’t even qualify for Paris ’24.

Nevertheless, David Bedford shall be my inspiration, andI shall wear red socks to honour the great man. The moustache, however, is beyond me, like many things.

The Truth Doctor

It is the uniform that beguiles
A golfer wearing a bowler
A Constable in rugby boots
A violinist breathing through a snorkel
Disturbing the equilibrium

And yet anticipation crackles
Time’s come to disturb
To wreck the rut
And escape across the tracks to
The wrong side

To visit the Truth Doctor
The one unfooled by illusions
Who sees past solidity,
Past interlocking crystals,
Into the space within

We arrive, our five senses
Taking us for a ride to
A world where particles will not
Be confined in solitary places
And Dali clocks drool over the edges…

The Truth Doctor has a friend
The Ghost in the Machine.
Facing one another
They play catch, then wrestle
Ultimate realities, at ease, fighting

In a mist, in the chill of dawn.
We stand by, like umpires
Allowed to judge the Judge
The Ghost is felled and, weeping,
We count …7,8,9, Out!

But the Truth Doctor, laughing and
Folded in pain, erupts and roars,
His words filling the Earth
“Three, Two, One...
We watch as Death loses its sting

McClaren, Rohr, and Bell - a Trinity for our Times?

Brian McClaren, Richard Rohr, and Rob Bell – a trinity for our times?

In terms of personal appeal, sorry Brian, but I struggle more with finding your centre of gravity than with your friends Rohr and Bell. In recent months I have read, and enjoyed, Falling Upwards by Richard Rohr and I have listened to a stack of Rob Bell podcasts called appropriately The Robcast.

Early most mornings I’ve been out walking for a good hour or so and Rob Bell’s energetic verbal delivery has been in my ear.

To some questions:

John, why are you listening to Rob Bell and reading Rohr if you think they are mildly heretical?

We read in Luke’s gospel that Jesus matured through his childhood and early adult years ‘And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him’ Luke 2 v 40. After Jesus’ baptism and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, he taught and discipled the twelve apostles and many others.

The descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove was decisive. We read then that the Spirit ‘led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and afterwards He ‘returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and the news of Him went out through all the surrounding region’.

I listen to Bell and Rohr, (not so much McClaren, maybe he’s like a rare cheese I haven’t developed taste buds for yet?) because they seem to have a handle on what it means to ‘become strong in spirit’ and ‘to be filled with wisdom and grace’ – in other words that have much to say about the human condition and the processes involved in progressing towards spiritual maturity, what it looks like, what might hold it up, the signs of progress and so on. And at different stages of life.

I haven’t found such a clarity and grip on spiritual maturity being taught in the Evangelical/Pentecostal/Charismatic churches and literature I have stumbled across.

The problem I have, though, with this McClaren, Rohr and Bell trinity, is that Jesus’ discipleship and training programme was far more radical than a series of seminars on how to mature spiritually; it certainly wasn’t a ‘7 parables to perfection’ ministry. He wasn’t training the disciples (and therefore by extension us) to simply grow in grace and wisdom, like He had before the encounter with the Holy Spirit. The goal of the gospel, its endpoint, in fact, was to produce a new type of man, indivisible from Him – and that required going to the cross.

As Paul put it ‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God’ Rom 8v14.

But if you want to explore spiritual maturity, what it is to be truly human, perhaps like the ‘pre-dove Jesus’, Rohr and Bell will feed you well, and give you further insight and instruction.

The goal of the gospel, its endpoint, in fact, was to produce a new type of man, indivisible from Him – and that required going to the cross

All well and good, John, but you’ve ignored the charge of heresy, haven’t you?

Yes. But that doesn’t mean that the Evangelical/Pentecostal world isn’t lacking in some of the things they are saying. That may explain their popularity. Sheep will graze where the grass is good. But I agree, if, in the final analysis, we are eating from the wrong table we should be at least ‘on guard’.

Here are three questions I would ask Rohr and Bell and Maclaren.

Q1. Why do you speak of ‘the divine’ rather than God? Is God, in your understanding, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is God the trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Q2. You often refer to ‘spirit’ rather than the Holy Spirit. Why?

Q3. You refer to the scriptures, the Old and New Testaments as ‘ancient tradition’ rather than the word of God, inspired, inerrant, and infallible. The accounts in Genesis as referred to as poems for example. What is your belief about the Old and New Testaments?

You can see the danger.

Sounds a little like, in your view, John, there’s an Elephant in the Evangelical and Pentecostal/Charismatic room?

Dead right. Evangelicals and Charismatics (who may be found in all the traditional, historic denominations or more modern churches) routinely skirt round Romans 6 and 7 and other passages that deal with the cross, as applied to us, our crucifixion with Christ.

Leaving Romans 6 and 7 untaught, unbelieved, and unentered into, is as much a heresy as anything Rohr and Bell are accused of. The Romans 1-5 substitutionary gospel is an incomplete gospel. It’s not wrong. But it is incomplete.

In Romans 1-5 Paul constructs his arguments that show that Christ Jesus died for me, in my place. All my iniquities were placed on Him. The Just for the unjust. It is all wonderfully true: salvation, justification, acquittal, the gift of righteousness, eternal life, grace…it’s all wonderfully true. To truly understand that we are under grace not law will transform your life as it sinks in. That’s all found in Romans 1-5. And you’ll find ‘under grace’ preached faithfully in any number of evangelical churches of all denominations. Pentecostals and Charismatics point out, correctly, that as much as we need to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord, we also need to know Him as the One who baptises us in the Holy Spirit and be baptised in the Spirit. Such is the substitutionary gospel.

The clear teaching, however, of Romans 6 and 7 (and other passages – notably Galatians 2 v20 and Colossians 3 v 3) is that Christ’s death was also inclusive – it included you and me: ‘I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who love me and gave Himself for me’ Gal 2v20.

Faith - spelt differently

It is not just that our ‘sins’ needed to be placed on Jesus, dealt with, and taken away, so we can be forgiven, but that the ‘sinner’ needed to die, so we can be delivered from Adam and re-potted in Christ. He brought about our end. It was the end of John Stevens. That old, seemingly self-empowered John Stevens, who may have tried to be good at times, attempting to live the Christian life, or at least a good life with some measure of success and failure, to live a life fuelled by his own resources, a life independent of God, an autonomous being, a ‘human’…‘being’. That attempt works to some extent until you hear the gospel, the ‘good news’ that Jesus has appeared, not to improve us at a distance, but to end our exile from God, and our self-driven lives. The trouble is that so many are taught that Jesus took our sins but not us in Him on the cross. The result of this is that now we feel that we should be able to live the Christian life, especially if we have the power of the Spirit to give us the power and strength. Really, we have no excuse! Surely! But this misses the point. But the gospel is far more radical than this.

Left like this we think that sanctification is a process whereby we become progressively more like Jesus. But this is polishing a turd theology. This isn’t much better than self-help, as if it is ‘us’ that needs to improve rather than crucified and buried. The gospel becomes an inversion of its true message, and the centre of its universe becomes ‘me’ and one that could get caught in the Romans 7 trap.

But this is polishing a turd theology

By the time we reach Romans chapter 5, Paul presents us as ‘in Adam’ and the clues and the signposts to a completely new ‘in-Christ life’ are scattered around pointing to chapter 6. For example ‘…if by one man’s trespass death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ’ Rom 5v17

Our problem, then, is that we are rooted in Adam, and therefore the ‘me-in-Adam’ person, cut off from God, is deceived into trying to live a human life on our own inner resources. The ‘evangelical’ gospel attempts to solve this need for transfer from Adam to Christ by using the phrase ‘dying to sin’ (from Rom 6v2). ‘Sin’ in this context is the nature within us inherited from Adam, our tendency to sin. The problem with leaving the argument there is that it suggests that ‘we’ can, by our own decision, by the exercise of our own will, die to sin and live a righteous life. But this is not the solution that chapter 6 teaches.

‘Do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death…buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we could walk in newness of life…knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him…’ Rom 6 v 3-6

By this point in Paul’s argument, we see that it is not only our sins that were laid on Christ on the cross but we ourselves. Not just the sins but the sinner.

The phrase ‘die to sin’ is not something we do but something that, historically, has taken place in Christ. God has effected the transfer:

‘Of Him are you in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption’ 1 Cor 1 v 30

This was always the goal of the gospel, its endpoint, in fact: to produce a new type of man, indivisible from Him – and that required Jesus taking us to the cross, sins included, being buried and rising again in a new form, in Christ.

Now we can be led by the Spirit into the spiritual maturity that Bell and Rohr describe so well. We become Holy Spirit-led sons, ‘mini-Christs’ as C.S. Lewis was wont to say and the true meaning of the term ‘Christians’, the nickname given to the early believers.

Next: Barking up the wrong tree

Helicopter Seeds

My sycamore clock
Is shedding spent leaves and seeds
In time for winter

Folding In

‘Folding in’ apparently is
‘Combining a dry ingredient
With one of more weight,
And wet,
Whilst retaining much air’

If your parable antennae
Are restless and twitching
You’ve tuned in
To our story -
Mine and maybe yours

Like flour in a recipe
I have been taken, by Love,
Dry, and dead with potential
And folded into a Christ
So ready to baptise me…

…in His story
And, like an author
I find myself in print
An autobiography
Another incarnation

Breathing deeply.

The Stones Will Cry Out

Jesus is famous for his numerous parables: ‘the kingdom of heaven is like…’

We are so accustomed to the imagery and symbolism used in the bible that we hardly notice it. And not just in the bible. All good storytelling and literature use images and symbols, parables, and metaphors to paint scenes that are somehow more appealing, are more memorable, and make more sense than a straightforward explanation.

Someone, for example, is a ‘wet blanket’ or there’s an ‘elephant in the room’ or, life is described as ‘an emotional rollercoaster’. Shakespeare employed numerous metaphors: ‘His face is all carbuncles…and his fire is out’ Henry V.

The disciples brought the donkey to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came down the road from the Mount of Olives, the crowd joyfully praised God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

‘Hosannah in the Highest. The King of Israel! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!’ But the Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples!’ ‘I tell you’, he replied, ‘if they keep quiet, even the stones will cry out.’ Mt 21 and Luke 19.

An absurd picture. The one thing that inanimate objects, especially hard stones, cannot do is cry out. Was this simply poetic exasperation directed at his chief critics, the Pharisees, always there to pour cold water on the joy of the people and his mission?

Before we explore this further, I have three questions, primarily for those of us who live in England:

Q1. Would you say you are a Christian?

Q2. Do you know how to become a Christian?

Q3. Have you ever thought you’d like to be a Christian? If so, would you like to?

In England and the rest of the UK, our history, culture, traditions, holidays, and the laws that govern us are still largely bible based. And yet I can guarantee that Question One would flummox many or elicit a negative answer. In England, despite Christianity pervading our national life, there is widespread ignorance of true Christianity.

Jesus remains box office, but few know the answer to Q2 and therefore Q3 becomes nonsensical.

I know. I was brought up to go to church. I held the reed palm crosses made for Palm Sunday in the local CofE church services as a child. I sang the hymns. I knelt. I tried to pray. I listened to scripture being read at school and in church. I liked Jesus. Admired him, his courage, his inclusion of the outcasts, his denunciation of hypocrisy, his willingness to die, his unstuffy ‘out on the road’ discipleship with the rough fishermen. The miracles. The parables. The way he answered the scribes and the Pharisees. I was familiar with the parables and some other bible stories. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until I abandoned church in my teens and ran into someone who could explain the answer to Q2 that I had even the chance of answering Q3.

At this point, if you’re still reading, you might be thinking what’s this got to do with ‘the rocks/stones will cry out’? The answer is everything.

The stones will cry out is most definitely a poetic image, but it is also prophetic. To be more precise it is a prophecy that can be seen throughout the scriptures. It made sense to Jesus to utter those words.

We should begin with the Old Testament, with Moses in the desert on the way to the Promised Land with the Israelites. Their water had run out and the people were complaining to Moses.

‘The Lord spoke to Moses. ‘Take the rod…speak to the rock…and it will yield its water…Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod and water came out of the rock abundantly’ Numbers 20

When St Paul commented on the journey of the Israelites in 1 Corinthians 10 he wrote:

‘All were baptised into Moses…all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ’

Without lingering to interpret the spiritual and physical dimensions at play, the picture of life-giving water coming from an inanimate rock is beyond our everyday experience. It, like the whole of the Old Testament, was pointing forward to the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus.

Moving on from the Law to the Prophets we read in Jeremiah 31 and in Ezekiel :

‘The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts…no more shall every man teach his neighbour saying ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them’ Jeremiah 31 v 31f

‘I will give you a new heart and a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes’ Ez 36v26,27

At the Last Supper, after supper, Jesus took the cup and said ‘This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, shed for you’ Luke 22 v 19

The picture of the stones crying out is beginning to become clear. The literal rock in the desert, the stone, pours out water; ‘Crying out’ a metaphor for shouting, the pouring out of speech and singing likened to the pouring out of water or a thunderous waterfall. Then the great Prophets of the Old Testament looking ahead to the New Covenant explain that what was external in the Old will become wonderfully internal in the New.

Despite the Law, despite the miracles in the Old Testament, and the sacrifices, the temple worship and so on, the problem of sin, of our hard hearts inherited from Adam, had not been overcome. But in the New Covenant the picture is of a heat transplant.

The promises in the New Covenant are internal. Our old stony hearts are removed and we receive a new ‘fleshy’ heart and a new spirit. And His Spirit. God Himself taking up residence, permanently, in us. This is the Christianity that is, tragically, unknown by so many. So many who think they have rejected Christianity, but find they have not even known what it is they have apparently rejected.

Imagine a knock on your front door. You open the door to find Jesus standing there. Along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. You invite them in. They explain they love you. You say ‘really, but…’ and list all your shortcomings. And they talk to you about the New Covenant and how they will be in you not just with you.

Jesus remains box office

Jesus said ‘He who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ John 7 v 37. That is real Christianity. ‘…the Spirit…who dwells with you, will be in you’ John 14 v 17. And so is this.

When Jesus replied to the Pharisees it was more than a poetic repost. It was ‘look around at these people, it’s happening, the stones are crying out. Listen to what they are saying. Listen to their praise at what God has done in their lives. The stones are crying out.’

Not only that but you can bet that Peter was probably standing close to Jesus with a smile on his rough Galilean face. Jesus, as we know, had said to Peter ‘Simon, son of Jonah, you shall be called Cephas, Peter’ John 1v 42, Cephas being Aramaic and Peter or Petros being Greek for ‘Stone’. On another occasion Jesus repeats this name changing:

‘Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah…and I also say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build My church…’ Mt 16 v 17,18

In other words, true Christianity is all about stones, the rocks; individuals like those in the multitude crying out as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey over the palm branches strewn on the road. They have become like the rock in the desert pouring out life-giving water. He was saying ‘If I stop these from crying out there will be far more – even some of you Pharisees – when you let God take from you your hearts of stone and replace it with a new heart and spirit and My Spirit – you, too will be shouting your praises rather than seeking to arrest and kill me’.

To bring this to a halt we should revisit the three questions:

Q1. Would you say you are a Christian?

Q2. Do you know how to become a Christian?

Q3. Have you ever wanted to be a Christian? Would you like to?

And it’s not even breakfast!

5.25

Turning his head hesitantly
Green glowing digits declare the time.
Malfunctioning lumbar vertebrae
However, cause him to wince with pain, so
Inch by small inch, this great man:
This father, this mechanic, this dentist, this musician
This writer, this soldier, this boxer
Presses his clenched left fist hard down
On the mattress, and, gripping the headboard
Shuffles his bum…
Life, reduced to an hour’s toil

It’s 6.19
Standing now, unable to dress
Surfing waves of pain
A spiritual man, his small prayers leaking
Takes baby steps.
Afraid to lean
He wonders where the rod and the staff are
When you need them most.
This great man
Now weak, decreased, vulnerable
Like the man on Jericho Road
In need of mercy

It’s nearly 7
Sunrise light finds birds flitting about
Fetching twigs and food
But he’s not hungry for anything vast:
His plans; now hidden from view.
Hungry only to put jeans on, a shirt,
Socks; a distant dream.
And yet, with ingenuity and time
On they go, toe by toe.
Life without warm feet
Is barely possible.
Walking pole in his hand and…

7.45
…a hundred tiny steps later
A kettle is filled, a switch thrown
And the noise of turbulence and boiling
Fills the air, strong tea is brewed.
Breakfast has begun.
This great man, toast in hand
Leaning on his elbows
Turns his head lazily and
Through the window
Sees another world;
One he used to know.

Running Blog - October 4th

 Paris ‘24 - and 100 weeks to go…

September has retired, it’s work done. It has tidied up summer and taken autumn to the ball. And Autumn has arrived bedecked in a full array of colours: red and yellow leaves on trees and bushes fluttering to the ground, slower than the falling Ferrari seeds in a hurry to die. And fallen leaves: a joy simply to walk through or to scuff, kick, pick up and throw, or roll around in whether you are an Alsatian or a child in adult skin.

 I digress, intoxicated as ever by October.

 This is ‘comeback month’. Walking and indoor fitness regimes consigned to the past, I press on.

…intoxicated as ever by October

 Pressing on consists of hiding away in Dorset, donning my trainers, and setting off through the gentle fields, dells, and…endless rolling hills. In reality, first one has to risk life and limb crossing the main road that feeds heavy lorries and fast cars around the tight bends of the village. The road, originally designed for one careful horse could curtail my preparation for Paris ’24 permanently. Step two is bliss, running along an unmade road and footpath stretching gently uphill beside a gently flowing stream. On this first run, just for one minute followed by one minute walking.

 Easy does it. Achilles recovery in mind. At this rate, I’ll reach my peak just before Paris ’24 and will be lethal over 20m.

 Run completed and road crossed without incident, I am filling up nicely with bubbles of joy. Walking has been enjoyable in September watching as summer was displaced by autumn, but to return to running feels pretty good - even if the sheep over the fence carried on munching hugely unimpressed and pheasants thought twice about being fearful of the human missile.

 10K Paris ’24 Countdown: 100 weeks and counting.

The Brimming Wasteland

It’s early October, past dawn
And, without us looking,
Someone has cleansed the air.
Fallen leaves, scurry around after her,
Dancing to the unknown
Melody of the morning rays

The trees are showing off:
They fool us as we take in
The chill of winter to come.
Single yellow, brown, green, and red
Leaves fall and, though we don’t loiter
Long enough to see, all turn into soil.

Why is it after all these years
Conkers lying open to the sun, stir me?
Hundreds scattered liberally on the Downs
Unlike then, only a few trees then,
In Kent, when conker collection
Was an annual, serious pursuit

Then, glossy coats, their glory,
Fading to matt, yielded to skewers
And triple-knotted string.
“There’s five in my pocket today
One is a fourteen-er,
Battle-scared and doomed”

The trees watch and are content
Boys mostly, some girls,
Blind to the brimming wasteland,
Laden with odd green spiky capsules,
Thrown annually from a height, with hope:
The discarded life of each tree.

Distracted, fooled, and blind
They walk by these ancient life-spreaders
Who wait, God-like, patient yet hungry,
Like surfers searching for the wave,
For just one conker to die, out of sight,
And turn, not to soil, but leaf.

Then another…

Not Recognising Jesus

The Bible is a surprising book, it will not behave. Apart from presenting a non-Cartesian world where familiar references such as linear time and cause and effect are bypassed, its main character, Jesus, is often not recognised.

 In the Old Testament, there are strange appearances of ‘one like a son of God’ as in the case of a fourth man appearing in the fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar had thrown Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Such appearances are taken to be the pre-existent Jesus, the Son of God.

 But the references in the New Testament, where individuals failed to recognise Jesus, are as curious as they are inescapable. And maybe can speak to us in our struggles to keep hold of genuine Christianity, or grapple with questions often from childhood about…pretty much everything in the Bible.

 Pole position

 Pole position must go to Jesus’ home ‘church’ or synagogue, followed shortly by Jesus’ own family, his brothers and sisters:

 Luke 4: He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Extraordinary scenes. Opposition to Jesus comes from places you least expect it.

Mark 3

Jesus told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.  A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

It wouldn’t be a bad decision to stop and immerse ourselves in the drama of those moments. The tears, the anxiety, the conversations behind Jesus’ back, and the decision to try and ‘take charge of him’, are tantamount to sectioning in our society. Blind to all the people sat around him, healed and in their right minds listening to his teaching.

He will open the eyes of the blind

The Road to Emmaus

Much excellent work has been written about the two disconsolate disciples walking away from Jerusalem on the day of the resurrection. I’m thinking especially of N T Wright’s chapter ‘Walking to Emmaus in a Postmodern World’, The Challenge of Jesus SPCK. To quote one sentence ‘Into this conversation comes Jesus, incognito.’

The actual text reads:

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”  They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people…we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 

Stay with us

But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 

Mark adds this: ‘Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country.’

I have no answer to the question ‘Why?’. In other words, why would Jesus appear in a different form, incognito to the two men? The bible will not behave. Later that evening Jesus appears to the disbelieving disciples, with the holes in his wrists and feet in his resurrected body, clearly recognisable to the disciples. He eats fish to prove he is as real as he ever was, and not a ghost. But here, on the same day, he appears in a different form.

I wonder then. Has he appeared to you, to me? Incognito. Do we, sometimes, meet someone, who is Jesus in disguise?

Peter

Read one way, this is harrowing. The event itself is like a many-faceted pebble, or jewel, but pebble seems more appropriate as we’re on the shore of Lake Galilee.

Maybe a week after the resurrection and after the disciples had seen the resurrected Jesus perhaps a few times. I wouldn’t like to conjecture that they had become blasé about the resurrection, but we are strange creatures.

Most of the disciples were with Peter in a boat, fishing. Jesus is on the shore cooking some fish for breakfast. Let’s assume it is quite early, just before sunrise will do. From the boat the disciples were watching this man preparing a fire, they can see the flames, and maybe smell the aroma of the burning wood and the fish. When they recognise who it is Peter reacts:

‘Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So, Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.  When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 

Again, in a different form. The evidence was there. And the way He dealt with Peter, gently, insistently, three times asking to counter the effect of the three times Peter had denied him and wept before the cock crowed.

And He does this with all of us. Asking us ‘Do you love Me?’ for each time we have denied Him. To show us His limitless love lavished on us who deserve nothing yet are on the receiving end of everything. As the bible says He wipes away all our tears.

Two Summaries

John, the disciple Jesus loved, sat down in his older years and composed what we know as ‘The Gospel According to John’. With the advantage of hindsight, he picks up his quill and ink and writes:

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

I don’t know how hard it must have been for John to pen those words. His love was insufficient to hold him close to Jesus when he was arrested. He like all the others fled and escaped and hid, afraid behind locked doors, had disbelieved the women who had seen Jesus. He was one of those sheep scattered when the Shepherd was struck and he, like the others, had found it difficult to believe and to recognise Him in his resurrected form.

And yet. Now he writes that once he had recognised Him, he was restored, just like Peter, and could say he had been accepted as a child of God.

And, the Apostle who harassed and persecuted the church, the Pharisee Saul, later to be named Apostle Paul put it like this:

‘We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory’

I can only imagine what must have been in Paul’s heart and mind as he wrote the word ‘they’ and ‘rulers of this age’ as he had been one of them entrusted to eradicate the followers of Jesus.

And yet. The first words the Pharisee Saul hears on the road to Damascus is the voice of Jesus who says simply: ‘Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me?’

Saul could not see the Messiah, the Christ, in the church. The church was as unrecognisable as Jesus had been.

And as we are called forward through Passover to Pentecost to Tabernacles where the reality of God dwelling (tabernacling) in the church is intensified, get ready. Get ready for our true identity to be strangely obscured from the ‘church’ or our ‘family and friends’ who think of us as mad and come to take charge of us, despite our congregations full of healed individuals and many made whole. And ‘rulers of the age’ do with us what they did to Jesus. And yet. These will be the days of ‘glory in the church to all generations’ as Paul wrote in Ephesians. It isn’t for us to make Jesus known. He will open the eyes of the blind.

Running Blog - 23rd September

September is one of those kindly, transitional, months.

From summer to autumn, from scorching hot sun still, to a chill in the air and early morning dew, from green leaves to fewer leaves, from long to short days, from summer holidays to trudging back to school.

 Thursday 8th September: Queen Elizabeth II dies and King Charles III succeeds her with immediate effect. And on Monday 19th the nation stopped to watch the State Funeral.

It is now Thursday 22nd and the deep impression left by the State funeral hasn’t quite repaired itself. It’s not easy to blog away about running/walking, to be intentionally trivial at such a time. Not easy but the show must go on.

‘Oh, before I sign off; the stair-walking. I should explain. Snowdon before Paris’

 Preparation for Paris ’24 apace. Apace meaning at a slow, slow slug-like pace. At walking pace. At least 5K per day has been the September plan, and often 10K. Also arm lifting 5kg weights (surprisingly heavy), walking up and down the stairs for 20 minutes, soon to be 30’, stretching, and some home-made Pilates.

 September acting again as a transition from ‘crippled with Achilles pain’ through walking to October and a gentle ‘Return to The Jog’.

 Much of the above accompanied by podcasts: Rob Bell, More or Less, The Curious Case of Rutherford and Fry, Bryony Gordon’s MadWorld, and others rather than endless music.

 Oh, before I sign off; the stair-walking. I should explain. Snowdon before Paris.

 Snowdon is approximately equivalent to up and down my stairs four hundred times. Everest is…no I haven’t calculated that. But I’m hoping to reach base camp for Snowdon for a winter assault before Christmas. There will be rucksacks, stops for Mars Bars, tea from a flask, scenic photos, and a flag.

The 400

In Praise of the Middle

Draw a square on some paper
Draw another around it
Cut out the inner square
And jump through the hole
Into Middle-Earth

But do it when you’re young
Draw a circle
Double its size
And let the years slip by
Welcome to middle-age

 Got my ticket, flying to Egypt,
Jordan and Beirut
On the way to Qatar to feel
The heat of an oxymoron
The Middle-East

Fly past Stone and Bronze
Flash through the Dark
And land, tumbling, one day
Like a jester in the Middle Ages
Heading down the tube of time

And in your travels up and down time
Will you notice the Messiah
Stuck in the middle, a closed heart
To his left, and one to his right,
Open, en route to Paradise?

Pressing On - from Passover to Pentecost; from Pentecost to Tabernacles

‘Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed’

Deuteronomy 16 v 16

Passover – approximately April 15th

Pentecost – approximately June 5th

Tabernacles – approximately 11th October

I’m not sure I’d want to be a man in OT times.

Travelling by donkey or on foot to Jerusalem might take a few days. If you like a pilgrimage that’s OK, but if your feet are sore… And that’s maybe two weeks away from work for each feast: fishing in the lake, or the office job, or building, or teaching, or the lab, three times a year. You’re barely home before you have to get ready to depart once more.

But then again…

To get to Pentecost you must first leave Passover, go home, and return two months later. To get to Tabernacles, you have to leave Pentecost and return three months later.

After the crucifixion of The Lamb of God, Jesus, at Passover, the crowds dispersed and went home, only to return for Pentecost two months later. In Acts 2, early in the morning at Pentecost, we read that the crowd heard the noise of the wind, saw the flames, and heard Peter preach. Three thousand were brought into the kingdom. A week later and virtually none of them were in Jerusalem. The church, so large on day one and subsequent days during the feasts, had now departed as baptised pilgrims on the road, carrying home the news of Pentecost with them perhaps to return with their families four months later for Tabernacles.

What was true for the Jews in the Old Testament in terms of chronological progression through the feasts has been matched in the New Testament age. Historically, we can trace a progression.

If Martin Luther and others rediscovered the ‘Passover’ gospel of salvation by faith, not works, in the sixteenth century, the protestant churches that followed, for the sake of this article, we can label ‘Passover Churches’.

Passover Churches

Key concepts: Justification by faith. Grace, not works. Salvation. Born again.

In terms of Paul’s letter to the Romans, Passover Churches are inspired by chapters 1-5, unsure about chapters 6 and 7, but attempt to live in the good of Romans 8 without passing through chapters 6&7 as written.

In the West, those that recovered the gospel and preached that forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life are obtained through faith in Christ as the Passover Lamb and not secured by good works. This produced thousands of ‘Passover Churches’ full of believers rejoicing in their redemption as slaves set free. Songs and hymns followed:

And can it be that I should gain, An interest in the Saviour's blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! how can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature's night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine, Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ, my own.

Pentecost Churches

Baptism in the Spirit, power, gifts and ministries, apostles, prophets…, the church as the body of Christ.

In terms of Romans, there is little difference between Pentecost churches and Passover churches except for a direct experience of the Holy Spirit at work in individuals and the church.

At various times, for example at Azusa Street in 1904, believers who had been part of Passover churches rediscovered the baptism in the Spirit and pioneered the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches we see in every town and city in the UK today. Typically they are characterised by believers receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, and experiencing freedom in worship; building on but not abandoning, the gospel message of the Passover Churches.

Many songs and hymns have followed:

Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me. Melt me, Mold me, Fill me, Use me, Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me.

Tabernacles Churches

When the Jews celebrate Tabernacles, they meet under booths the rooves of which are made of overlapping branches of four kinds of trees (myrtle, willow, palm, and citrus). Light can penetrate the gaps between the branches and the whole family or group meets together under the roof in the booth to eat and share bread and wine together.

Churches formed with the characteristics of Tabernacles will look entirely different to Charismatic/Pentecostal churches in the same way as they do to Evangelical Churches (of various denominations).

In terms of Romans, chapters 6 & 7, specifically that the sinner, not just the sins, was taken to the cross with Christ and that we have been raised ‘in Him’ and live in union with Christ as ‘Christians’ (a first century nickname meaning ‘little Christs’) in the world.

Paul’s statement in Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me’ is not seen as his radical enthusiasm and staggering commitment to Christ, or even fanaticism, but a simple statement of historical truth.

Tabernacle churches have not abandoned salvation through faith, or the necessity of being born again, or the baptism in the Spirit, but have been brought individually and collectively into a realm of glory, unconcerned about how ordinary their lives may seem to be or how weak they are. They can be Jesus like a vulnerable baby dependent on others one moment, or in ‘secular’ work, like Jesus the carpenter the next. Or a miracle worker on Tuesday, and a bible quoter on Sunday. One day they may be used to heal many in a crowd, the next they will walk through a hospital full of sick people to heal one man. They are led by the Spirit entirely.

I fed you with milk and not meat 1 Corinthians 3 v 2

Their leaders, called elders, have a clear understanding of spiritual maturity and the stages of growth from milk to meat, distinguishing between foundations and building, thoughts and intent, and soul and spirit, and are able to model that to their congregations. Their ‘normality’ is living in the presence of God, open to His light, His love, and fellowship with others – just like the family meal under the booths with the light streaming through the branches.

Their dependence is entirely on the Lord not on a single minister, pastor, Vicar, Priest, prophet, or apostle to lead the church. Their churches will be overseen by a plurality of spiritually mature elders in whose hearts are all the believers in their village, town and city however many different congregations and churches there may be. They will have discerned the body of Christ in their location even if not all believers in their village, town, or city look to them for eldership oversight.

Their hearts are open and wise, knowing the Lord, not motivated by manipulation or their powers to produce anything. They know the truth that it is ‘Not by might nor by strength but by My Spirit says the Lord’.

The elders will model to their congregation the fruit of dying to their own abilities, preferring to rely on the Lord. For example, one elder might know naturally how to raise finance through marketing and social media but instead leads the church to pray, and financial gifts appear without recourse to advertising. Or an evangelist arrives and instead of organising meetings is led by the Spirit to a pub and speaks to a man who comes to Christ, one thing leads to another, like Jesus at the well (John 4), and many are born again.

There is an expectancy in the congregation when they meet; musicians, artists, preachers, teachers, prophets, evangelists, apostles, helpers, and administrators are bathed in the light from God and are moved by the Spirit. The elders trust God is in charge of the meeting and that Jesus, as Lord and Head of the body, coordinates their meetings just as our heads can run our bodies. There is faith for this.

But to get to Pentecost you have to leave Passover and go home. To get to Tabernacles you have to leave Pentecost.

Many had to abandon their Passover Churches to pioneer Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. This was achieved either by literally leaving, if not asked to leave, and setting up new fellowships, or by dying to the old and embracing the new within their existing churches which collectively embraced the new.

Wonderfully, whole churches, Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, and Catholic churches became Charismatic Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, Catholic churches in the 1970s and 1980s but many had to form their own churches from which ‘streams’ or new denominations were formed e.g. Salt and Light, Vineyard, New Frontiers, Kingdom Faith, and so on.

Abram had to leave his father and family in Haran to journey on to Canaan. If we are of the faith of Abraham, we too will need to leave our spiritual parenting churches – whether evangelical or charismatic. Leaving does not necessarily mean abandoning fellowships. Revelation in the heart precedes any actions. How ‘heaven’s will be done on earth’ is a further step led by the Spirit.

Great songs, no doubt, will follow!

Abram did not know what lay ahead in detail, just that He had been told by God to leave his family and move into Canaan.

‘By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…dwelling in tents (tabernacles)’ Heb 11v8

Talking to an Artist

I got to wondering why
Why I have two eyes
And two ears
Not one

All I can offer is a guess
I’ve been stooping
Picking up breadcrumbs
Fragments, scattered clues

Talk to a scientist and
They will animate technical words
Stereophonics…stereovision…
Depth and focus

Talk to an artist and
They’ll animate
You
And open your second ear
And open your second eye

Can you straddle
With your two feet?
Walking into the deep
Of both worlds?

Hearing words and silence
Seeing the shades of autumn?
Or tuned to cries of the heart
Glimpsing spirit touch spirit?

Like two lights merging
Two waves colliding
Or two hands on a piano
Playing bass and treble notes in you

Are you learning to walk now?
To straddle, to waddle
To stumble, stride out, to run?
I wonder.

When the Rabbis Cry

https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Rabbis-Cry-John-Stevens/dp/1512753750

I self-published this book through the auspices of Westbow Press in 2016. I can’t really write a book review for my own book, but suffice to say that the blurb on the cover was written by a Westbow editor, not me, and it will do as a good introduction to the contents of the book:

When the Rabbis Cry is the result of research into the Yemeni Jews and wider issues surrounding God’s purpose with Israel. The book considers the intriguing history of the Jews and of the nation of Israel after Jesus’ time and explores how we should view the regathering of the Jews to the modern State of Israel from a biblical perspective. What we find is a story within a story. An Israel within Israel where God is at work bringing salvation and reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians in a remarkable way.

Of course, I hope you will buy the book and enjoy reading!

I have a few copies with me so I can reduce the price to £5.00 plus p&p (approx $6.00) if you wish to contact me directly by email unlessaseed28@gmail.com

Seeing Double…or…Meandering with Schrodinger’s Cat

Schrodinger’s Cat is both alive and dead and exists in these two possible states…until the box is opened and you peer in. Once you look inside the box, the cat is either dead or alive, not both at the same time.

In terms of physics and philosophy, whilst our backs are turned and we’re not observing the universe, reality exists in different states but as soon as we look, we see only one state…the reality in front of us.

How to make a Physicist shiver? It is fairly simple: take Schrodinger’s cat for a walk amongst humans observing humans, not humans or their detectors detecting particles. This requires setting the cat free from its normal confines in the Physics department and watching it cross the University campus and climb through the open window of Sociology.

It is, as we all know, impossible to keep any cat anywhere, even when observing it. They are the personification of an independent mind in a cat-universe.

Not only independent travellers through space but time also:

Whilst Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg (of the 1927 Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle), Albert Einstein, and other physicists were bending space and time, observing particles acting as waves and waves as particles, and Salvador Dali was painting Melting Clocks, the sociologists and theologians had been clearing their throats for some centuries, waiting for the rationalists to catch up and discard rationality as the chief source of determining reality.

In the parable of the talents (Matthew 24) Jesus tells a story of a businessman who had three servants, each of whom he gave considerable sums of money to continue trading and that he would collect the profit on his return. Two of the traders did as asked and were rewarded with greater responsibility within the boss’s business empire. The third, however, failed to obey or to accrue any profit so on the boss’s return the original sum of money was taken from him, and he was dismissed. So far, straightforward. But it is the internal psychology, or state of mind, of the third trader that is interesting.

‘𝗕𝗼𝘀𝘀, 𝗜 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻…𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱…𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆’

He was afraid of failure, of losing the money. Afraid of the boss returning to find his pockets were empty, so he hid the money. At least then he could hand back the money with no losses.

His perception of reality, of the character of his boss, affected him deeply, creating panic and fear, and his fear paralysed him.

More interestingly, perhaps, the businessman does not challenge the man’s perception, he doesn’t appear to be defensive and protest that the man’s perception is inaccurate or a false accusation. Clearly, the successful traders had a very different perception of the boss’s character and had learnt perhaps that whilst he may have been ambitious and exacting, he, nevertheless, rewards handsomely and had no fear, were free to work hard and gain the reward.

The businessman’s estimation of his three employees was on the basis of their ability and work ethic, either hard-working or wicked and lazy.

Cats, whether we see them as the ultimate in laziness or hard-working when we’re not looking, are difficult to pin down.

In the telling parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15), which perhaps should be known as the parable of the two sons, it is the misconceptions of the father by the older son that is so shocking as much as the joy of the father in the outpouring of forgiveness, mercy, and grace towards the prodigal. The misconception of the older brother prevents him from entering into the father’s joy, just as the fear of the trader prevented him from entering his boss’s favour and blessing.

In the parable of the two sons the father pleads with his elder son (Luke 15) to see things differently, but the parable ends with these two perceptions of the father’s character unresolved.

In both parables, due to the powers of perception, we are left in a universe with double vision. Can both states be true at the same time? Until observed? Once observed only one state is true. So, depending on the observer, the boss or the father is either someone to be feared and disliked or generous and inviting and one who shares his own blessings.

How we see God tells us more about ourselves than it does about God. Some saw Jesus as a threat, others as a Saviour. What are your eyes telling you?

My eyes tell me that Schrodinger’s Cat is curled up on Jesus’ lap. Whether this is his final resting place, or he is still purring I shall leave to you.

Ps 23 - the well-know but misunderstood Psalm

Each verse, each instrument, blended into a symphony, a jazz band…

Lesson Seven

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life . And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The disciple having been taken through all six verses by the Spirit of God has begun to live in spiritual maturity and fruitfulness. It is important to understand by ‘taken through by the Spirit of God’ we are not imagining an intellectual exercise as if discipleship is an academic process – as if reading these blogs and answering a ‘test’ leads to spiritual maturity!

Jesus put it like this: ‘When the Spirit comes, He will lead you into all the truth’.

Truth is something that we are led into, to experience as much as understand. The Psalmist put it like this ‘The entrance of Your word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple’ Ps 119v130. The word has to ‘enter’ us not just be true. It’s not enough to acknowledge the bible is the word of God, the word must be inscribed on our hearts by the Spirit of God. It’s not head knowledge.

The apostle John pictured the stages of spiritual maturity in three phases:

• I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven…you have known the Father

• I write to you, young men, because you are strong, the word abides in you and you have overcome the evil one

• I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning

The parallels with ordinary physical life are easily understood, but it is important to realise that these phases are not time-related in quite the same fashion. For the disciples’ 1:1 time with Jesus it took approximately three years. By the time Peter stood up of the Day of Pentecost they had passed through each phase.

Stage One: Little Children, salvation and forgiveness

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul:

When we initially yield our lives to Christ, He forgives our sins and restores our souls. A good picture is the returning prodigal son. It is a beautiful thing to realise that we have been forgiven, justified, acquitted, ransomed, redeemed, that we are clean in God’s sight and that He loves us as sons, just like He loves Jesus: ‘See what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God’ 1 John 3v1

Stage Two: Young men, strong in the word and overcoming

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

In this phase, we have moved out of the quiet waters, and the green pasture. We know the Lord is our shepherd and we are ready to face rougher terrain, the trials and tribulations of life, but we are not alone living by our own resources. Not only is the Lord with us but something very curious becomes our new normal, our new reality.

In the heat of the battle, we discover a new source of sustenance: the very words of God, like a celestial or heavenly food supply. We ‘know’ the truth of ‘Give us this day our daily bread’. Like Jesus who told His disciples at the well with the Samaritan woman, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me’. God had given Jesus what we might call a ‘word of knowledge’, God had revealed to Jesus, facts about the woman’s life, her marital status, and much else besides and Jesus passed it on to her. He had received the word and ministered it to the woman. We shouldn’t think of the banquet in the Psalm as either physical food or a theological degree, but , like Jesus with the woman, it is dynamic and life-giving. In Hebrews, we read that the ‘word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart’.

Equally, the disciple learns to operate with the same anointing as Christ. John the Baptist said ‘I baptise with water, but One is coming who will baptise you with the Holy Spirit’. The word for Christ is Messiah which means ‘anointed one’. True Christianity can only work if the disciple is baptised in the Spirit and is operating with the anointing of the Spirit. Until this is normal, we will limit our experience to kindergarten Christianity in Stage One.

Stage Three: Fathers

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The distinction between a father and a young man is that children and young men left to their own devices are less likely to mature. In fact, many very young children will be led astray and perish.

That is true physically as it is spiritually. For young men, the temptation is to be convinced that now you have the celestial food supply and the anointing of the Spirit, you can go it alone, whereas fathers know that annoying though brothers and sisters can be it is important to remain together, and in contact with ‘fathers’. But the eventual aim is that ‘fatherhood is reached’. In John’s gospel he wrote that Jesus was ‘full of grace and truth’ and ‘of His fulness we all receive grace upon grace’. In terms of Ps 23 these are disciples who have never lost sight of the need for forgiveness and restoration, or the life-giving dual supply of Word and Spirit, but in everything, in every action and relationship and circumstance they minister from the fullness of grace and mercy.

It is important to note that not all fathers are apostles but all apostles, operating in their apostleship, must be fathers. During the first few days on Saul/Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road Ananias gave Paul the word of God that he was to be an apostle. But on that day, he had simply been ‘born again’ he was a little child amazed at what he had discovered that God had forgiven him and loved him. He was ‘filled with the Spirit’ and began to learn a completely new way of dependence on God, living as he wrote later as a son of God ‘led by the Spirit’. Some years later he began to operate in his calling as an apostle. In the interim years he had matured and ministered as an apostle but also a father.

So, you may not be an apostle, or a prophet, or an evangelist, or a pastor, or a teacher (Ephesian 4) but you are a father. And others will recognise that. You know you don’t need a title! However your gifts and ministry are defined you know you abide in Him and you dwell in His house and that you minster to others from that perspective, grace and mercy flow through you to others and those who are ‘little children’ or ‘young men’ continue to grow and move forward in their giftings and callings simply by spending time with you.

A father will not be interested in forming you into their image, but they are able to say to you, as did Paul, ‘imitate me as I imitate Christ’. He was talking spiritually, not specifically. In other words, although he was called to be an apostle, he did not force Timothy, his ‘son in the faith’, into the same mold, but he did pass on to him his spiritual dynamic and discipline of hearing from God so that Timothy could fulfil his calling. A true father rejoices over your growth and maturity whatever your calling may be, just as a physical father releases his children to fulfil their potential whatever career/occupational path their choose.

‘Even if you have ten thousand teachers in Christ, you would not have many fathers but I became your father in Christ Jesus in the gospel’ 1 Cor 4v15

This is how the apostle Paul saw his relationship towards the church in Corinth. The earliest converts were due to his preaching and the church grew from that starting point. Although he came to then initially as an apostle, now he sees them more as his ‘children’ and ministers to them from that perspective. If you read 1 Corinthians, you will see that some of the serious pastoral issues in the church were the inevitable outcome of spiritual immaturity and that the solution Paul was urging was to go on to maturity, whatever the short-term disciplinary action was invoked.

‘I cannot speak to you as spiritual but as fleshly, as babies in Christ…for where there are divisions among you are you not fleshly and acting like mere men…’ 1 Cor 3 v 1 – 3

He says to them there are three types of me in terms of spiritual maturity

(i) Mere men – not born again, not forgiven, living life from their own resources

(ii) Fleshly believers – born again by the Spirit but not being led by the Spirit but by their own ability to think, feel and act

(iii) Spiritual – believers who have died to living from their own resources and live according to the Spirit, eating the celestial food and knowing the anointing of the Spirit

The spiritual believers are like those maturing through Stages 2 and 3 in John’s list – young men and fathers.

Concluding comments

How important it is to ‘go on to maturity’ - as the writer to Hebrews says.

All the verses of Ps 23 are simultaneously alive in someone who has matured. Each verse has become part of them i.e. the Holy Spirit has led that person into the truth of each verse. They know what it is to be restored, to walk in paths of righteousness, even under the shadow of death in its various forms, to feed on Him and know the reality of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And they are filled continuously with fresh grace and mercy and each day know the One who is from the beginning because they live in His house.

And continues to do so, to mature, and grow in Christ, deepening their experience of the love of God in each circumstance however testing.

Spiritual MOT?

Periodically assessing where we are on the 1 John scale of maturity is a healthy exercise. Perhaps we should hand ourselves over to God once a year when we put our cars into the garage for an MOT?

Check one – forgiveness, any issues? Any advisories?

Check two – feasting and anointing? Oil change? Fresh anointing?

Check three – abiding in the house? Am I still deriving everything from Him?

Thank you for reading the Ps 23 series! God bless.