Standing in the doorway

The things that we value drive our behavior. I am very passionate about connecting with people who are not a part of the church. Even after twenty odd years of living out a fairly committed Christian faith, some of my strongest personal relationships are with people outside the life of the church. I have some very close and strong Christian friendships; but am glad to say that I would have equally as many who would not share my faith ideas. It has always been a great sadness to me that so many Christian people, after a number of years, lose track of previous non Christian friendships.

Perhaps this is why I really enjoy the story of Jesus connecting up with Matthew the Tax Collector:

'As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax
collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed
him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors
and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.
When the Pharisees
saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax
collectors and ‘sinners’?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the
healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
But go and learn what this means:
‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but
sinners.”'

The things that we value drive our behaviour. The Pharisees values were based on doing the right ‘religious’ thing and their lifestyle flowed out of that value. They were interested in whether people were doing the right or wrong thing, so some people were out, while others were in. Jesus wasn’t so much about right or wrong as he was about life and so he wasn’t at all fussed about who he hung out with. His values decided his behavior.

My picture of the above reading is of Jesus in the middle of this noisy – perhaps boozy – crowd, enjoying the banter and the by play, while we have the Pharisees standing in the doorway peeking in with frowning faces. By nature I am a fairly quiet person; but I still prefer to be where things are happening rather than standing by the door peering in. Part of this is because I don’t want to miss whatever is going on at the time.

I wonder what our values as a growing local church are. Do we prefer to stand at the door of life checking things out to see who fits and who doesn’t; or are we keen to just get in amongst it all and sort out the detail as we go along? Personally I have always been attracted to the Jesus model. It can be quite risky at times and you do spend a lot of the time making things up as you go along; but mostly its fun. Above all for me I find also that it keeps you grounded and real. When people become Christians we are often too keen to plug them into our way of living rather than spend some time living in their world. For some that is one hell of a quantum leap of faith! I think that it is sometimes better for us to join their party than it is for them to join ours. To be frank, they often have more fun!

Always keep in mind that Jesus didn’t get his team to sign up to a set of rules. His was an invitation to join in the journey and see what might happen as they travelled. It was risky not defining what was right and wrong; not knowing who was in and who was out. So risky that at the end of the journey Jesus didn’t appear to have many mates left. Resurrection is another value worth hanging onto. It can make quite a difference.

Finding Jesus behind the religious curtain

I am forever reading material on the new and emerging church and this week I came across a book - Shaped by God's Heart by Milfred Minatrea - with a chapter named ‘Be Real and not Real Religious.’ I skipped a whole bunch of other chapters to take a look at that one, because being real is so important to me and to my ministry.

Ever since I was a little kid – a while ago now – Jesus has fascinated me. Not the religious one that is too often portrayed; but the REAL one with whom we can be quite uncomfortable if we really let him settle at our place. This Jesus is the one who makes mud poultices for blind men. It is this Jesus who honours a woman of dubious reputation among his ‘religious’ peers. He reaches out to touch lepers and tells disturbing stories about the most despised people being fit for the kingdom of God. Let's get this quite clear; religious people were disturbed by him!

Why did I spend so many of my early adult years distant from the church if Jesus fascinated me? Because as far as I could see the churches and Christians that I did bump into, had sanitised Jesus into something very different to the one in the Bible.

Why don’t men don’t take a greater interest in church? My theory is that we present a Jesus figure they are uncomfortable with. Jesus was a carpenter for heavens sake! I reckon he was a bloke’s bloke. He hung around with fishermen, tax collectors and a mixture of other men and women you might find at the Pub on any night of the week. How many songs do we hear about Jesus in this context? Not many. They are usually love songs full of syrup and dripping with words that the average bloke wouldn’t even say to his wife on a good day!

Jesus was REAL not real religious. Real is dangerous. That’s one of the reasons they killed him.

Don't step on the crack!!

I shared a kid’s story on Sunday called ‘Don’t Step on the Crack!’ For as long as I can remember I have had fun with walking along a footpath or what ever and trying not to step on the cracks. When I come to a pedestrian crossing I usually make a decision on whether I step on the white line or the black, or live really dangerously and put my foot on both at once! Some of the stripes these days are well apart – or it could be my advancing years – and you sometimes have to actually jump to make it. Stupid stuff I know and one of these days I may grow out of it; but don’t hold your breath!

The point to my telling the story was that often within the life of the church you find yourself trying to avoid stepping on cracks. Just the other day I realized that I had got the protocol wrong for a committee that I have been leading; another crack stepped on and another dose of forgiveness sought! A lot of the time, if you are not careful, you find yourself second guessing everything that you do. ‘If I do this will it offend so and so? If I don’t do this I am bound to upset Mrs Kafoops.’

Then I read the stories of Jesus and reflect on the transformed lives of people that he met and touched and I begin to wonder. ‘What if we put aside all of the stuff that binds and constrains us and we determined to experiment living with and through Jesus?’ What difference would it make? What might be some of the marks of this kind of life?

I think that we would be a lot more transparent. Remember those times when Jesus just knew what people were really thinking? In pastoral leadership I often find myself having to second guess people. Many clearly have a very high opinion of ministers as they seem convinced that one of our major gifts is that of being able to read minds. As best as I know I try to be a model for being transparent. On Sunday someone said that they enjoyed my humanness and honesty. Well, I spent way too many years not liking my own humanness and being grossly dishonest to waste time nowadays masking it.

Whenever I read the stories of Jesus I am struck by the vulnerability of his journey. The very act of God becoming one of us is surely the ultimate act of vulnerability? As one who started a church plant five years ago from almost nothing, I am encouraged that Jesus hardly got a flying start at ministry either. Moses had Aaron to give him a hand and we know that Paul served under a leading teacher of the day; but Jesus it seemed was simply the local carpenter. I wonder what it was like for him in those first months as he left home and went to the Jordan to be baptized and then tested in the wilderness. Let’s remember that ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ was finally killed as a common criminal in what looked much more like a crushing defeat than any kind of victory.

When I worked for a short time with God’s Squad, the Christian Bikers gang, they wore a badge that read ‘Jesus – friend of sinners.’ I think that the church has still got a lot to learn from Jesus about openness. We are often too quick to judge and risk turning our backs on the very people that Jesus died for.

Finally I think that we can learn a lot from Jesus about being a people of prayer. One of the most powerful passages of Scripture for me is where we read of Jesus saying

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Luke 22:31,32

As one who has failed as much as – maybe more than most - anybody, I want to be a person who prays for someone in their struggles rather than be the one who smiles rather smugly and says ‘I told you so.’

If we can seek to build an authentic church community that seeks to manifest the above qualities in their personal and corporate lives, I wonder what sort of church we would offer to God and the people that we meet. We probably wouldn’t worry so much about stepping on cracks or any stray egg shells.

I was blind but now I see

Last week a friend suggested – kindly I think – that I was the ‘king of spin’ as far as the church was concerned. As we approach a Federal election we are going to get a lot of spin. The government spin merchants will be busy convincing us that Mr Howard is the greatest Prime Minister in history and how could we possibly think of tossing him aside, while at the same time belittling Mr Rudd’s credibility as an alternative choice. Have no fear; the Federal Opposition will be up to the same tricks. So why take being called a spin merchant as a compliment?

I think that a gift of ministry leadership is to see things that for many other people are not there. It is a visionary part of what we do. There is any number of people ready and willing to tell you and anybody who will listen, that there is nothing to see and no sign of being able to see it either; but I still like to see hope in most things.

When I commenced ministry here I had several ‘professionals’ ask me ‘what was the vision that I would bring to the region?’ It is as if you have a little vision tool box and you dip into the box and pull out a you beaut number 2106.3c Vision just perfect for the cause and away you go. Oh that life was so easy.

I believe that one of the key things that we should be looking for in mission leaders is the ability to see things into being. It is not about holy guess work; but more about the ability to cultivate and give credibility to the everyday happenings of life and people. Believe me if you do not have this gift and you are keen to be about doing new things in church ministry, find something else to do! Without this gift you will be controlled by what your physical eyes can see and what other people tell you and doubt, despair and yes, ministry death, is not very far away.

Growing something new means that you have to bring a certainty that for sure, even if you cannot see it right now, seeds are growing. I am of the opinion that God was here in this district long before I was! Just a crazy thought perhaps? I am also of the opinion that many Christian people have prayed and continue to pray for the work of God to prosper in this place. We’re always building on somebody else’s faithful work. Seeds are in the ground and fools such as I have the task of ‘seeing’ them out into the open. They won’t always appear and sometimes we will look foolish and suffer some embarrassment. In the greater scheme of things I guess a bit of embarrassment can be coped with.

I can recall being at a church Synod meeting some years ago now where a young minister was sharing a vision with colleagues over a lunch time gathering. The problem for me was that as he was sharing the hope that he had for this audacious dream, he was in almost the same breath talking it down by telling us all how ‘the church’ would not support or understand it. Don’t let the voice of rationality or reality hold you back from seeing what others might not be able to see! The loss is theirs not yours.

In Matthew 13:31, Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed. Jesus spoke of this seed eventually growing to be a tree so big that the birds of the air would come and perch in it. Now, a mustard seed may well break the ground and become a mustard bush. It might even grow two or three metres tall; but it ain’t going to be a tree!! No way and no how; never. Unless you have the eyes to see it and then ….. who knows?

A conversation with Anthony

It is fascinating living life through the eyes of children. I recall some weeks ago I dropped in on our Tuesday Playgroup and found myself falling into conversation with one of my favourite young men, a pre-schooler called Anthony. To prove that men really can do more than one thing at once, Anthony and I were able to hold this conversation whilst manufacturing, slicing and eating some very tasty play dough sausage.

Now, it does need to be said that a lot of our discussion was a little one sided as there were several occasions when my poor adult mind was unable to figure out the intricacies let alone the pace of my young friends language. Nevertheless, Anthony was very kind and full of grace and despite my ignorance battled on with me.

I was very much struck by my time with Anthony. If I had decided that I was in too much of a hurry, or that I needed to speak to an adult, or that really ‘I don’t understand the child anyway,’ so why bother, I believe that I would have missed something very precious. I have no doubt that Anthony valued our time together and I certainly appreciated him making time for me in his busy morning.

This experience with Anthony got me thinking about realtionships generally and then specifically with God. There is a richness that comes from the byplay of close relationships. These are not just business transactions, they should be punctuated with moments of laughter, quietness, a soft touch, a knowing look; a grimace or smile. I wonder are some of these things also true of my relationship with God? Should we even consider God in this way?

Personally, I’m really glad that God, the Creator of the Universe, is willing to sit at my table and help me with my latest play dough creation. Sometimes it might seem that I am not really getting through but I chatter on and somehow at the end of it all I feel so much better for the experience. I feel valued and important.

Whenever I serve Holy Communion to people I try to make it as personal as possible. I may not always use people’s names – sometimes I don’t know names – but I try to ensure that people own what is happening. When I say ‘Bob, the Body of Christ.’ I want Bob to know that this really is for him. Sometimes we come to a place (even church) and we feel pretty much unknown and anonymous. In the simple offering of bread and wine we remind people that they are known and they have a name. That in itself is a life giving act.

I am a great believer in building authentic relationships and would have to admit that when I talk about this sometimes in a church setting a lot of people really don’t get it. I like to think that Anthony got it yesterday (I know I did) and I like to think that my Scripture class will get it tomorrow. An authentic relationship values someone for who they are, not who we might like them to be. When we accept the truth of someone and see him or her as an individual who is created in the image of God and is therefore a reflection of God’s goodness, then we are on the way to authenticity. I like the thoughts of writer Madeleine L’Engle:

Because you’re not what I would have you be
I blind myself to who, in truth, you are.
Seeking mirage where desert blooms, I mar
Your you. Aah, I would like to see
Past all delusion to reality:
Then I would see God’s image in your face.

Spend some quality time with a child this week and look beyond the mirage into the face and image of God. My guess is it will make a difference.

Cheers - John

As well as Anthony, thanks also to Rochelle Melander whose book A Generous Presence provided the above quote and affirmed my thoughts regarding authenticity.

A Gospel I'd like to see

I wish that the Bible contained a gospel story of Jesus that just focused on his ‘hanging out’ time. Put aside the great teachings, miracles, and healings and generally getting up the noses of many of the religious of the day that were all a part of Jesus’ life. I wonder what it was like just to hang out with him.

In the gospel of Mark we have a brief story about the conversion of Levi (Matthew) the Tax Collector. The first thing that Matthew does after agreeing to join Jesus and the rest of the gang, was to throw a party for his mates; with Jesus as the guest of honour. The teachers of the law hear about this and are scandalised that Jesus is eating and drinking with ‘tax collectors and sinners.’ Jesus replies, ‘It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’

It seems to me that the church has for a long time had its focus on the righteous and the holy to the exclusion of the tax collectors, publicans and sinners. I am always drawn to the scandal of the gospel where Jesus, for some, had a reputation as a ‘glutton, drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ I think that this reputation of Jesus – given to him by the ‘righteous’ - is worth a great deal of exploration. My guess is that many like Jesus as the ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ type or the Jesus with Napisan white robes and the cute little halo over the head.

I am fascinated with the Jesus whose robe was as grubby as the rest of us and would occasionally smell of stale fish. The Jesus who even as the Son of God and a carpenter occasionally sported a blackened thumb nail from a misdirected hammer blow. I rarely see Compass on Sunday night but I liked one of the quotes in the previews where I think Kofi Annan says, ‘The problem is not the faith; but the faithful.’

A major reason for my conversion many years ago now was that I met some Christian people who followed Jesus but were not weird! I had been a big fan of Jesus for many years but I was never particularly impressed by those who carried his name. My judgement was that – at least the ones I bumped into – were arrogant, rude, and judgemental and yes, a little bit weird! Now that I am a long term member of the club, can I say that for some, my opinion has not changed and I am well aware that I might well be labelled under some of that stuff occasionally?

I see my call as endeavouring to cultivate an ever growing group of people who are willing to put their lives and reputations on the line. These will be people who are willing to take the risk of pushing beyond the stereotypical Jesus in an attempt to find the real one. It might be that in the process we get the reputation of hanging out with the wrong kind of people and being found in the wrong kind of places. That’s cool; we’ll probably find Jesus hanging around there anyway.

Another day another giant slide

In July we had our usual Go M.A.D. (Go Make A Difference) primary school holiday programs. This time our theme was Harry Potter and one day we travelled to the Zig Zag Railway and boarded the Hogwarts Express at Platform nine and three quarters for a day of wild - and cold - adventures.

Another day we visited the magic and mystery of Luna Park and Coney Island. Now, at Coney Isalnd there is a giant slide. This slide is not only very high; but the first part of this monster is very steep. Indeed it is so steep that when you get up there (so I was told!) and look down, the first five metres looks like a sheer drop! No gentle beginnings, it just drops.

Being of a more mature age, with my 60th birthday just days away; one would would not be silly enough to contemplate the thought of attempting such a slide. Indeed I wasn't doing so. I was more than happy to be an interested spectator. But you know, you look at it and you think, 'I could do that, I really wouldn't mind having a go at that.' Then the next thing you know someone challenges you and you are climbing the stairs, upward and ever upward.

So there you are at the top of this thing, looking down in fear and trepidation, with a bunch of kids behind you waiting their turn and wondering what this old so and so is doing taking up space on the planet, let alone this slide. You're not going to back out with that audience (and your original challenger) egging you on. So you push off, hang on and hope that nothing too embarassing (like swearing or cracking your stupid skull!) happens on the way down.

You know, sometimes I need a reminder of what I signed up for five or so years ago. There were other options at the time; but whether I liked the idea or not, I was called to this task of church planting. At Coney Island there were other, gentler slides, but no, I had to tackle the giant one.

Nowadays as the size of the task doesn't diminish but the challenges regularly do, it is tempting to consider the gentler slide. Yet invariably I find myself back up on top of the giant one, looking over the edge, taking a deep breath and I'm ready to push off again.