Tag Archives: the Word

WATER TO THE THIRSTY

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LUNCH WITH ROGER CLARKE the other day reminded me of one of the hymns we’ve got lined up for the 9am Eucharist here tomorrow: “As water to the thirsty”. Lunch with Roger has been like that for me, every now and again, for over a quarter of a century. The steak burger was great but I came away, as ever, with another kind of food, too, the kind for which I have a large appetite. Introduction to someone else asking – and seeking to live faithfully with – the same kinds of theological questions that are on my heart and mind day and night. In this case Roger mentioned Dale C Allison’s Constructing Jesus: Memory, imagination and history. The title had instant appeal and was purchased that afternoon alongside Allison’s The Historical Christ and The Theological Jesus – page 1 of which offered instant relief for the present writer, this committed Christian (and parish priest) who for the whole of his life has doubted the possibility of theological certainties:

“It may be necessary to live with uncertainty as an alternative to living with a closed mind” – David Hay p.1

quoted by Dale C Allison Jr
The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus

Does the (hotly disputed) “historical Jesus” matter as much as some religious agencies would have us believe? Is the “theological Jesus” rather that voice, that Spirit, Advocate, Comforter and Guide of God, that Jesus is said to have promised would be “sent” to lead us into “all truth”, and is the theological Jesus just as important, or more important than the historical? Should both be given equal weight? Are we to be directed by a once and for all Jesus, and if so, whose Jesus? (including consideration of the “Jesus” known through other world faith traditions) – or are we to be open to a degree of fluidity, a continued outpouring and outworking? – the Word engraved on tablets of stone (or papyrus) – or the Word emanating from hearts and minds and souls and bodies “new every morning”?

Are we still waiting for the physical Second Coming of the Historical Christ or can we know his continuing advent in hearts and souls and minds and bodies NOW – if only we’d “hush the noise” a bit, if only we’d “be still for the presence …” of the Theological Jesus. ? These are the questions of my daily life, and they matter to me, as I’ve said so often, because of my passionate conviction that matter matters … all created things are from God, belong to God, and are intended to return to the fullness of God. And too many elements of that Creation are engaged in doing battle over unknowable “certainties”.

My personal soteriology has more to do with salvation from such certainty than with “nights of wonderful conversion”. I rather wish that church attendance, or bible reading, or the sacraments really could show me, or anyone else, “how to have life in all its fullness”, but such fullness lies yet in the future for me, and for many (millions of) others – amongst these, sons and daughters of God whose physical hunger and thirst leaves neither time, opportunity, energy or inclination to debate theological niceties. Would that (anyone’s) theological certainty might give food and drink to more than just the token few of such as these.

“I believe there are visions that come to us only in memory, in retrospect. That’s the pulpit speaking but it’s telling the truth.” – Marilynne Robinson p.6

quoted by Dale C Allison Jr
The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus

Isn’t there a measure of truth that comes to us today as we engage in theological reflection? Isn’t it the case that we sometimes just intuit truth for our time and our place and circumstance as did the prophets of old? Do we leave room in our learning, our discipleship, and especially in our preaching for “visions that come to us only in memory … the pulpit speaking … telling the truth”. Might not a move away from tired literalism stem the exodus from our churches? Wouldn’t a genuine openness to the voice of the Spirit of God in our own day make way for re-energising and for necessary revolution?

Bishop John V Taylor wrote in 1989

Though we may not understand what he meant by it, we know what the Gospel of Jesus was: “The time has come; the Kingdom of God is almost here; turn your minds round and believe the good news.” Here is the keynote of the faith of Jesus of Nazareth. Here is the word which, on his lips, moved people with such extraordinary power. If we could resuscitate that declaration so that it conveyed in the terms and in the experience of our world the essence of what it meant to his, might it not stir the pulse and quicken the imagination of a new generation in our own day and restore a clarity of purpose to the churches?

John V Taylor
Kingdom Come

What and where is the Kingdom of God that is almost here? What will it look like? How will our politics look? Will the hungry be fed? Will justice and peace prevail, and how? Will the long-running and tragic sores of our denominationalism, gender issues, homophobia, “Westernism”, and other-phobic forms of alienation from almost anything different from ourselves have been resolved? And how? Will our addiction to “raising funds” have been quietened? Will our “growth action plans” have been sufficiently brought to prayer so that the “still small voice” can get a word in edgeways? Will we “redeem the time” – make the time? Do we need to turn our minds round first?

The Church of England’s General Synod last week heard a non-too-cheerful exchange:

The Church of England will no longer be “functionally extant” in 20 years time according to some projections, a member of the General Synod has warned. The Rev Dr Patrick Richmond, from Norwich, told members of the Church’s national assembly that they were facing a “perfect storm” of ageing congregations and falling clergy numbers. The average age of congregations was 61, with many above that, he said. “These congregations will be led by fewer and fewer stipendiary clergy … 2020 apparently is when our congregations start falling through the floor because of just natural wastage, that is people dying. “Another 10 years on, some extrapolations put the Church of England as no longer functionally extant at all.”

The first Church Estates Commissioner Andreas Whittam Smith said the demographic “time bomb of 2020” for Anglicans was a “crisis”, “One problem may be that decline is so slow and imperceptible that we don’t really see it coming clearly enough,” he said.“We know about it in theory but we don’t really know about it in practice.” He added: “I wish that all of us would have a sense of real crisis about this.” – Yorkshire Post

Mr Whittam Smith is not alone in wishing members were possessed of a “real sense of crisis about this”. I sense already that Dale Allison will be “water to the thirsty” for me in that he IS possessed of just such a sense of crisis, and it comforts me beyond all telling that there are others out there in the big wide world, and in the big wide Church, who doubt that adherence to the biblical / theological literalism of the past is going to do anything much at all to lead us out of it, and may even lead us deeper into it.

But “visions that come to us only in memory … the pulpit speaking but … telling the truth” … could this be the nudging of the Divine Word – from pulpits within and without the Church in our day? Please God …

YOUR WORD

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BEING LOST FOR WORDS is an experience common to all humanity. We all find it well nigh impossible to articulate the depths of ourselves from time to time. Poetry, hymnody and psalmody become more than usually appreciated at such times. Poetry literally “makes” something deep inside us. But so does prayer. Because prayer is the work of the Spirit, the Word, who dwells in the depths of us. And prayer, as for poetry, and even for proper understanding of hymnody and psalmody, requires a quietening of our spirits from time to time. Being “lost for words” may, then, be thought of as a prompt, a nudge, a reminder, to turn to prayerful stillness, there to discover our own word. And be able to say “Amen”. Let it be so …

ALL WAYS. NEW LIFE!

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FROM TIME TO TIME somebody seeks to assure me that there’s “no future for the dear old C of E”. And I recall reading the authors who, at the beginning of the 20th century, found it hard to imagine the Church of England surviving much beyond the next ten years or so. But we’re still here! In the early and exciting years of the 21st century. And that’s the point, isn’t it? Here we are still. And wherever people are to be found, even if the entire edifice we’ve known and loved as the “dear old Church of England” has been razed to the ground, yet will the Church of England survive and thrive, in our inner lives, the home – as Jesus taught us – or the temple of the Holy Spirit, in hearts and souls and minds and bodies that have discovered the joy of resurrection, in human and in humane persons anointed by a knowledge of The Anointed—the Christ—who has displayed a consistent habit of showing up quite simply all over the place, before as well as throughout time, as St John puts it so eloquently

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  John 1.1

All God’s people today live in the light—and amidst the evidence—of daily resurrection. And Jesus assured his disciples that it would be so. “Today you will be with me in paradise” said Jesus to the thief who was crucified alongside him. Today. Luke 23:43. Now the world is full of cynics about Church and Nation let alone the concept of paradise. The difference between cynic and saint however is just a little one, just a question of which direction you’re looking in. And once you’ve found the resurrection, the ‘paradise’ right there in the heart of your own inner life, you can’t help but to join in the glorious task of co-creating. Prayer—inner life—empowers, informs and directs our moving outwards. All ways. New life. Happy resurrection days!

 

for Bramhall Parish News, April 2011

WORD SHARING

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Word sharing ...

IN THE BEGINNING was the Word. Hide and seek was a favourite childhood game with my friends Sian, Sarah and Richard. Then there were the really special days when I was allowed access to their family typewriter. It’s no exaggeration to say that it was in Tony & Catrin Bramhall’s elegant and welcoming home that I first began to feel the Word.

And being a very slow, painstaking typist, at 6 or 7 years old, there was time enough to become aware of the power contained in every single word. The Word: possessed of the power to raise up  new worlds. (John 1.1-14). Or to bring a world down. The power of the Creator is contained in the Word. In the beginning was the Word. And on the 2nd January 2011 that same Word still breathes new worlds into being.

We – and especially those of us whose faith, hope and love are, from time to time, limited by our own ‘certainties’, and recognising that ‘an horizon is nothing save the limits of our sight’ – do well at the dawn of a new year in our time to behold the mystery of the Word, to be aware of the immeasurable fullness of the  power contained in the Word, of the vulnerability in the Bethlehem-born Word, and to afford such liberal and proper acknowledgement of the universal worth in the Word that we cannot help but do worship. Whoever we are. Whenever we are. Wherever we are. In the beginning was the Word.

 

new worlds

 

FOREVER FULL

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I’VE GROWN USED, here in Bramhall, to the nearby sound of trains rattling through the night. The sound of life trundling on is comforting and homely somehow. (Yes! – that would be it – 6 years old: Christmas morning: train track around the sofa …) And I’ve come to be able to recognise – by the sound of it, and the degree to which the house shakes – the length of a train, and whether it’s laden or empty. Empty goods trains rattle and grumble. Long after they’ve passed there’s a whispered memory. In my sleep I can still hear them muttering when they’re pulling into the yard up in Manchester. Whereas a fully laden goods train is very much quieter in the night. Much more purposeful. A quick swoooosh. Less invasive. On the way somewhere. A train to be waved to, with a smile. A train that someone might welcome or respond to. Purposeful trains don’t grumble on the line. They don’t rattle.

I like people who are carrying something, with a sense of purpose and a good intent. Last evening I had supper here with 30+ pastoral visitors. An exceptionally nice and gifted bunch of people, not a rattle or a grumble or a whisper amongst them. Synods and Conventions and empty words and journeys don’t feature much in their itineraries. Care of the housebound, care of their families, care in their community is very much more their thing. Here’s a goods train that’s carrying something, with a sense of purpose. Going somewhere. These are the Kingdom people. These are the people who spend less time dissecting the Word and more time living in Him. These are the people who pick ears of corn, on the Sabbath, with which to feed the hungry. Here’s … Immortal love, forever full, forever flowing free. Forever shared, forever whole, a never ebbing sea. For … Our outward lips confess the name all other names above: love only knoweth whence it came and comprehendeth love. (John Greenleaf Whittier). But it was a very substantial supper: so I’m off to the gym.

PS: Please see Fr Tony Clavier’s thoughtful article after Archbishop Rowan’s published Reflection this week …