WHAT'S THIS BLOG ABOUT?

The main focus of this BLOG, is to uphold those simple, and clearly defined truths, that are so often missing from Christian life and conversation.
(There may also be the odd film or book review along the way as well as stories from my life)
If you wish to use material from these posts, you may do so, but please respect the work of the writer. Proper attribution, and accurate quoting that is faithful to the context is appreciated.


Tuesday 22 September 2015

The IDYLL of the IDLE

This is what happened when I got woken up at 1.40am with a leg cramp. Then I couldn't get back to sleep and my brain started working. Then, at about 3.30am, I had to get up and write stuff down, which lead to this thought.

If we live an IDLE Christianity.
Entranced by an IDYLL of Christianity.
Does it lead to an IDOLATROUS Christianity?

Which lead to this.

When I was in my late teens. I had two vans, sort of. One was a poster of one of those 70's custom van's. Custom airbrushed paint job, mag wheels, big V8, chrome pipes, bucket seats, padded velour interior, state of the art sound system. A Party House on wheels.

This was my IDYLL, the kind of van I dreamed of having.

Then there was the van parked in my driveway. It was beat up, the paint looked like it had been put on with a broom. The stereo was cheap and tinny. The wiring questionable, no upholstery and two seats that were anything but, bucket. But throw in a crate of beer and it was still a party house, of sorts.

On some level, it probably had the potential to become something like the van in the poster. It was after all, a van.

The problem was, I was idle in regards to that potential. I was a lot like the man in Proverbs 19:24.
A sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth.
I had at my hands a measure of ability and potential, but did nothing to gain or benefit by it.

I was quite simply, "idle".

Image result for idler gear definitionThere is a small part in an automotive gearbox, and it doesn't really do a lot. It's called an idler gear. This little gear does have a purpose. But most of the time it just sits, idle. When does this little gear come in to play? When you want to go in reverse. Manual gearboxes are called synchromesh. All of the gears have a level of engagement, they all turn together. As they are engaged, one by one they contribute to the forward motion of the vehicle.
For the little idler gear to become engaged, everything has to come to a complete stop. You have to select neutral, and then reverse. That's right, that little gear can only make the car go backwards.

For the idle Christian it can be pretty much the same. Just sitting there, unengaged. If they do need, or try to engage, things can just get slowed down.

The same can be seen in the long term unemployed. If they become accustomed to being idle, unproductive habits develop. In order to re-enter the workforce they have to be coaxed in, they have to learn new, or re-learn old habits. Sometimes to the point of completely retraining.

But what happens to the idle Christian if they don't engage? Where does that lead to?

An idle Christian life (as I define it), is one with knowledge and experience (small or little it doesn't matter) but no practise, and therefore no power. Because of a lack of power, faith and confession begin to atrophy. Disillusionment sets in, they lose their capacity to believe. Disconnection sets in. The comfort zone is settled and occupied. They have become like the person Paul spoke of in 2Tim 3:5, "having a form of godliness, but denying its power".

Now we are left with a Christian, (in name only) that is trying fill the empty God space with other things (this comes under the general heading of backsliding).

And sometimes our ideal of Christianity gets shattered. We have an expectation of people, and of Jesus. So when people don't behave as expected. When our experience doesn't match up with others. When we don't see God move.

That's when we hear those little whispers, "Has God really said?"

Anything we put in our lives, anything we place before our eyes. To replace or perhaps to shut out the empty God space in our lives. Anything we attempt to do to add meaning into our lives, when we have lost our meaningful God relationship.

That is called an idol.

Our idleness has removed us from our idyll.

We have become idolatrous.

Wednesday 16 September 2015

The "other" uncomfortable Jesus.

A few weeks ago, I was shown this poem by G. Betty Hares.

IDENTITY

Conceived out of wedlock,
Born in an outhouse,
Laid in a make shift bed of unsterile straw.

Let's trim it up a bit,
Make the cows gentle,
Add a sky of soft velvet and bright twinkling stars.

Let's accent the romance.
Forget the reality;
After all it did take place a long time ago.

We know such things happen,
But this must have been different,
This was the Son of God crying and cold.

Deep down I've a feeling,
He refused to be different,
That his birth, like his death, was as bad as could be.

If it's different I've made it so,
Heaven forgive me!
And that's why I'm blind when I meet him today,
In the addict, the drop out, the homeless, the hungry.
And that's why they often don't meet him in me.


I like this poem, because it challenges the way we have so often mythologised our concept of Christ.

We prefer to create for ourselves a "comfortable" Jesus, one that is easy to live with.

There is a dual nature to the person of Christ, and I think that most of us tend to gravitate towards one aspect of his nature or the other. Some of us like the idea that Jesus was kind-hearted and healed people. But we're not too sure about cursing fig trees and storming the money changers tables with whip in hand. We like the gentle, meek user friendly image of Jesus. Oh yes, we understand that he will sit in judgement one day, but lets not dwell on that now shall we?

Atheist Richard Dawkins has said that he finds the story of the crucifixion utterly abhorrent. But he quite likes the beatitudes. So he is comfortable with one idea of Jesus, but not with another.

Then there are those that gravitate to the more authoritative Jesus, those powerful images of storms going out at the breath of his words, warnings of judgement to come. For them, power is embraced at the cost of mercy.

We need to see and understand Jesus in his completeness. Because if we focus only on the "nice" Jesus, then we bypass judgement and accountability. But if we focus only on judgement and authority, then we shut people off from grace.

So how do these two natures sit in balance? Here are some clues.

Matthew 10:16b Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Psalm 85:10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ.

Throughout the scriptures we see this balance happening. Where truth, judgement, wisdom, righteousness, are paired together with peace, love, innocence, mercy. In the verse in Ephesians, Paul is telling us that obtaining this balance is the key to growing into Christ. And I particularly love the picture of intimacy between righteousness and peace.

We sing a song in church at the moment, that speaks of God's FURIOUS LOVE  being poured onto the cross. It is a confronting idea that God, in that same moment, poured out BOTH, his WRATH and his LOVE.

Richard Dawkins rejects the idea of the cross. Because he cannot reconcile the compatibility of these dual natures.

The poem I began with speaks of an inability to see Jesus in the needs of others, and the inability of the needy to see Jesus in us. We pray and cry out for more of him. But maybe what we really need is all of him. When we embrace both his regal nature as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and his submissive nature as the Lamb of God. When we understand what it means to exercise judgement and mercy together, then we will be more like him.


Footnote. As I was working on this post, I got all excited about this idea of "The Lion and the Lamb laying down together". Because we quote that all the time right? Except no such verse exists. I thought for certain that it was in Revelation. Wrong. It does in fact come to us in mixed up form, from a verse in Isaiah 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

And, I was so excited because I was going to work this idea into the post. I was certain I would astound you all with this killer of a point. Which brings me back to how easily we get carried away with our mythologised views of Christ.

A favourite preacher of mine, Charles Nieman once said, "If you're going to preach the Bible, then preach the Bible, at least find out what it says."

That's good advice.