My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

 

Its Friday… but Sunday is coming!  The famous sermon goes…

Its Friday, and my Jesus was dead on a tree… but that was Friday… and Sundays coming!

It was Friday and Mary was crying her eyes out.  The disciples were running in every direction, like sheep without a shepherd.  But that was Friday… and Sunday is coming!

I used to love this famous sermon from Tony Campolo – and in many ways I still do… beautiful in its simplicity. 

Though, one of the reasons I love it – is that it does not allow me to dwell in the pain, the brokenness, the despair… it focuses my attention on the happy ever after of easter Sunday…

It allows me to take my eyes from the cross and focus on hope.

It allows me to take my eyes of the bloodied, beaten, defeated Jesus and look at the risen victor.

It allows me to move out of the darkness – and into the marvellous beautiful light.

It moves me from death to life.

I am not comfortable in the darkness – only able to live in the light

I am not comfortable in the pain – only able to bear it with certain hope.

 

Jesus was not afraid of the darkness.

Some of his best work happened in the dark…

He walked on water and calmed the raging seas just before dawn.

He taught Nicodemus at night-time.

Celebrated the most famous meal on maundy Thursday evening.

He rose from the dead, whilst it was still dark.

But for me… darkness is difficult. 

 

I was always complimented on my lovely services when ministering in traditional settings.!

Always picked the lively happy up-tempo songs.

I was good at preaching a belter of an uplifting sermon.

I prided myself that people would leave church happier than when they arrived.

Church was feel-good, happy and joyful…  

It was uplifting…

 

Preaching in the local church recently – I was phoned up before the service by 2 different people.

‘Sorry we won’t be there to listen to you this morning Ben, life is just too hard for church at the moment’.

I arrive – more apologies from people, telling me friends and spouses can’t be there – too tired – too broken and for some too many doubts and too many questions.

A family going through a difficult time – felt too ashamed to be at church…

 

I remember another friend – who had lost a son – felt utterly alone in her grief because no one would talk to her about it…

People unable to talk because they could not solve, could not fix – so let us ignore the problem.

 

We are not good with darkness… 

 

We have heard Jesus forgive us all before we even fall on our knees and repent – and instead of falling on our knees we can fall into the loving arms of our father God. 

We have heard Jesus tell us that whatever we are going through, whatever we face that today, we can be with him in paradise.  Paradise being a relationship not a place.

We have seen Jesus create the first church for the broken and the outcast with the words, mother your son, son your mother. 

 

Now its time for Jesus to share how he is doing on the cross – in the darkness.  Jesus, how are you doing?

Good thanks!  How about you?  Says nearly every Christian on a Sunday morning!

 

Not Jesus.

 

Jesus boasted throughout his life – that he and the father were one.   Intimate… love… one…  

But now we are at rock bottom.

The intimacy Jesus has always enjoyed with the father has gone. 

That paradise – that feeling of love – that oneness – gone.

Why?  Well, my friends, Jesus’ rock bottom is good news for us.

It was at the cross the greatest transfer took place.

All our sin, all our wrongdoing – all those things that disrupted paradise –

All of that, that kept us from knowing and being with God.  

God hated it– couldn’t be near it – couldn’t come close to us - and the penalty of that sin was separation, death and darkness. 

It was at this very moment on the cross – all that wrongdoing – all that brokenness was placed onto the shoulders of Jesus. 

And that gap between God and us – the death – the darkness - removed and for the first time – Jesus feels that death – separated from the father.  

Darkness… death… pain… sorrow.

Rock bottom.

 

Jesus was dying as a sacrifice for us

Jesus was dying to get rid of the punishment on us

Jesus was dying to remove the separation from God

The greatest transfer – he took our darkness so that we might know life…

But now is not the time for life – now is the time for darkness.

This once – let us not make everything happy and rosy…

Let is sit and hear and dwell with Jesus as he speaks his fourth word from the cross

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

 

Typical of Jesus – to be vulnerable – if people were mourning – he would burst into tears with them

When he was frightened – so much so – blood leaked from his head – he went for support from his sleeping friends.

And at this moment – when life is at its darkest – he shout’s ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me’.

In front of his young disciple and the woman who loved him ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me.

What!  The very reason he went to the cross and now he does not know where the father is…

The crowd laughing – ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me’.

At the moment of darkness – at rock bottom – Jesus cries ‘where are you God’. 

‘Where are you’? ‘Why have you abandoned me’?  ‘Oh God, where are you’.

 

And that’s OK…

 

Thankyou Jesus for being vulnerable.

Thank you for showing us it’s OK to not be OK!

That we can express doubts and struggles.

Share are anger and pain.

 

 

In the previous words he began the new family – the church.

Now he is showing us that in that family its OK to doubt, too not believe, to ask difficult questions.

Its OK to be angry, to be broken,

Its OK to feel rubbish.

Its OK to be vulnerable.

For the rest of us – the gift is to hear the pain – to sit with them in the darkness

To be love.  

And allow them to teach us about God – waiting for permission to bring all that God has made us – to them.

 

And when it comes to evangelism – where most of us have been taught to share slick stories, wonderful apologetics, unshakable faith… we hear

 

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’?

 

We do not need to pretend with anyone.

Our message can be – life is difficult – I do not know where God is at the moment.  I don’t know what I am doing!

But… I still believe.  I am still searching…  I still have hope…

 

Yes Sunday is coming – and yes – god can heal – bring new life…

But for now – its OK to sit in the darkness.

May we come to God and to this community of faith with absolute honesty and vulnerability because of Jesus’ 4^th word…

 

‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me’.

 

May our community be one that does not rush to easy answers but sits with one another in the darkness.

 

In Jesus name, Amen

Woman, behold your son. Son, your mother.

 

 

The Jeremy Kyle programme is now (thankfully) off air – but I wonder how many times Jesus and his friends would have been on it?

As a baby, Jesus’ paternity was in question, his birth an embarrassment for many.  Joseph and Mary on the Jeremy Kyle show wanting answers and DNA testing – is Jesus really Joseph’s son?

As a child – he was a tearaway – running off – once to argue theology at the temple (as you do)!  When he gets a ticking off from his parents – the indignant response ‘didn’t you know I would be about my father’s business’?   Mary asks him ‘why are you treating us so’?   The Jeremy kyle show episode 2 – ‘my teenage son is out of control’!

When Jesus begins his ministry, he thought nothing of breaking up the family businesses – ‘follow me’ – demanding the unschooled fisherman leave their aging father on the boat whilst they go off on a road trip with their new friend.  Jeremy Kyle episode 3 ‘my kids have destroyed the family business’!

A man spoke to Jesus one day, ‘my daddy has died, I will sign up with you after I have attended the funeral’.  ‘Let the dead bury the dead’ Jesus replied (in love!), ‘follow me’.  That Jeremy Kyle episode is entitled, ‘my son refuses to come to his father’s funeral’. 

One day Jesus is teaching a whole load of strangers when one said ‘your mother and brothers are here’…  ‘Who are my mother and brothers?’  The Jeremy kyle episode – our son has publicly disowned us!

 

If there is one thing I have learnt from ministry it is that families bring out the very best and the very worst of human experiences.

On the one hand, you have the celebration of love at a wedding, thanksgiving for the gift of a child, people growing up whole and achieving the most wonderful things.

But on the other - you have the abuse, the fighting, the division… the ones who had favourites – leaving a lifetime of deep searching questions and struggles… 

Family – potentially the best place – and potentially the most difficult.

 

When the shepherds, led by angels knelt at the crib of Jesus the bible tells us ‘Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart’.   Watching Ez mother our kids – I am not sure there has been a better statement for a mother – One who ‘Treasures it all and ponders them in her heart’.

The first smile… The first gurgle… The first word…   The first step…  The first time he sang… The grab of the finger… The first carpentry work… The first friendship… The first time he prayed… The first miracle…  every single time – treasured… and pondered upon in the heart.

But… she would also remember Simeon predicting on the special day of Jesus being presented at the temple he would become ‘a sword that will pierce your heart’.  And though every difficulty was painful – it was now – this moment – staring at her beautiful, beaten, broken first-born boy – hanging from a cross that she felt it… the spear – driven through heart and soul.

Mary, grief stricken, going through the very worst thing a mother could go through – watching her beloved son tortured and left to die slowly and painfully on a cross.

There were others at the cross also.   Also, grief stricken.   Mary of Magdala – devoted to Jesus ever since he had cast out the seven devils from her.

 

And there was John – the only remaining male.   Woman were not seen as such a risk – and were able to mourn in public – for the men – there were crosses waiting for the men that followed Jesus.

 

The fact John was there show’s how young he would have been – too young to grow a proper beard – so with the woman was this brave boy who had given up everything to follow Jesus – and now… his whole world view was destroyed – his rabbi – dying. 

 

Jesus has spoken to the trinity on behalf of the crowd – ‘father forgive’ and he has spoken to the terrorist – today – even here on the cross you will be with me in paradise. And now – with still no words for himself – he speaks to those he can make out in the mob.  His mother – and his beloved disciple – broken…

 

And Jesus, who as we have already seen, has treated conventional family units with a little disdain – does the most incredible thing – he creates a new family from the cross.

 

He looks at his mother – sees the tears – the anguish and the pain… ‘Mother, behold your son’.  And then he sees his disciple – lost, bewildered, broken…  ‘son behold your mother’. 

 

A new family begun that very moment upon the cross – a family for broken mothers, previously demon possessed ladies of the night, for frightened young disciples, for tax collectors and sinners… (and you and me!) A new family – not joined by ancestral blood but by the blood of Jesus.

 

In Jesus time – in the middle east – the family was everything.  The family you were born into determined your entire life.  Your complete identity.  Your entire future.  So, one of the most countercultural things Jesus did was challenge the traditional understanding of family.    

 

Today – where too often we pride ourselves on family values – we still seem to see family as only the nuclear family and the most important part of life – and too often – working class kids get working class jobs…  our prospects are decided on where we are born or whom we are born too… 

 

Jesus begins a new family – and if we dare to look around – it is filled with the people on this screen tonight.  It is filled with the people attending all sorts of different services in town – it is filled with all sorts of cultural backgrounds – Chinese, African, American to name a few…

 

And they are our new family…

 

We are heroes in our family.  I am a pacifist – but if anything would make me fight it would be risk to my family.   I am too often filled with scarcity when it comes to money – but the moment I spend it all – is if somebody is desperate and in need in my family. 

 

Jesus loves this – but sees our concept of family as too narrow. 

 

Jesus has saved us from our families and bought us into a big one joined by his blood.

 

It’s a family that looks after the broken and lost.

 

It’s a family that welcomes the widow and the orphan

 

The married and the single

 

Black and white. 

 

Straight and gay

 

It’s a family where we attempt to do great things for each other and for the world.

 

It’s a place where we share bread – eat together – laugh together – cry together – share resources – live life together

 

And the way those lives are shared – good news to the society around us – desperate for safe places to learn who they are – and their divine purpose… 

 

The name of this beautiful new family…  My friends it is the church! 

 

May you find your family – here at the cross – find your family - with the wondrous third word…

 

‘Mother behold your Son and Son this is your mother’.

Today you will be with me in paradise

 

Genesis one and two tell us how it all began.  It was paradise.  Summed up by the beautiful word ‘Shalom’.  Paradise was a place – a garden – and all was right with self, all was right with relationships with others, all was right with land – and most importantly – all was right with God who dwelt with his people.  Paradise… 

 

The last two chapters of revelation tell us how the story ends.  It will be paradise!  Summed up by the beautiful word ‘shalom’.  Paradise will be a place – a city – or perhaps a series of gardens. And there – all will be right with self, all will be right with our relationships with others, all will be right with land – and most importantly – all will be right with God who will dwell with his people.  Paradise…

 

If we got rid of the rest of the bible – you have a transition.   A transition from a garden to a city (lots of gardens).   The calling of Adam and Eve – to take the paradise of a garden and cover the entire earth in partnership with God.  Paradise. 

 

But the rest of the bible is needed.  Because of Sin. 

 

We failed to join in with God and rather than enlarge paradise – we instead marred its beauty.  Forgiveness is needed.  And we fall on our knees in praise as we once again hear last night’s first word from the cross ‘father forgive for they do not know what they are doing’. But what does that mean? 

 

I remember the story of a boy in Kent who had been ill and in hospital most of his 16 years – and when interviewed by a bishop and asked whether it was unfair of God – he replied ‘unfair – God has the whole of eternity to make it up to me’!  Beautiful.   Hope.   Tomorrow, in the future – we will be in paradise. 

 

Someday, one day, we will be with Jesus.   That is the great hope of the Easter faith.   One day the kingdom of God will shine fully and brightly – and we will be in paradise. 

 

I do not know about you – but paradise is always a thing of tomorrow – when the kids are all at school – paradise – but in the meantime – I will struggle on…   When I have got through my money problems – paradise – but in the meantime – I will scrape by…  When I am fit and well it will be paradise but in the meantime – I will struggle on…  When I get married, have kids, lose weight, have the next gadget – paradise but in the meantime…

 

Having had a chat with the Trinity ‘father forgive’ – Jesus now speaks to a criminal – a terrorist.  And the criminal said to Jesus ‘remember me when you come into your kingdom.’  The man was surely thinking of tomorrow.  For there today, brutally tortured, howling mob, mocked before the world – surely the kingdom Jesus promised was in the future…

 

But… ‘TODAY, you will be with me in paradise’.  TODAY! 

 

You might expect Jesus to say – sometime in the future – when God has done all his work – paradise restored – you will be with me in my promised kingdom.   Tomorrow… in the future…. But no… ‘TODAY, you will be with me in paradise!’

 

This day – here hanging on the cross – today – paradise.

 

I have said many a time that this is good news because Jesus knows they will die today and thus on their way to what ever the afterlife looks like…

 

But I believe God wants to remind us this evening, that if Jesus was walking alongside us as we roam the Dorset countryside, or sat next to us at our desks at work or hanging out as we wait to pick up kids from school… and if we asked, ‘Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom’, Jesus would reply the same - ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’.  

 

Because when Jesus talks about paradise he is not talking about a place – he is talking about a relationship.   A relationship that the terrorist and the son of God entered that very day. Paradise.

 

How curious of Jesus to link ‘paradise’ with the horror of Calvary hill.  Yet, paradise – is whenever, wherever you are with Jesus.   Now to be sure – we expect that relationship to grow, become more beautiful, especially when in the next life and our human frustrations and moral limitations disappear – but the relationship begins now – today – paradise.  The criminal did not begin to be in paradise when he may have died probably in the next few days – but when he recognised the one next to him as the Lord and master of his life.  Paradise. 

 

This brief dialogue reveals the promise of God that even in the worst situations we can know Jesus with us.  Our God is not distant but intimate.  It is possible to be with Jesus right here, right now.  What situation could we go through that’s worse than hanging on a cross?  Every situation – every broken part of our lives – every deep longing – Jesus is there… bringing paradise. 

 

So, lets pay attention to those dark places – to our struggles and our fears.   Let us notice Jesus with us – hanging from the cross – saying ‘today you will be with me in paradise’. 

 

Paradise not one day… someday… but now!

 

It says in the bible wherever two or three are gathered God is with them.  We often use that for worship service, or prayer meetings, or house groups… but here we have 3 people hanging on crosses – and Jesus is with them.  Paradise. 

 

So where are you this evening?  How are you feeling?  May you know Jesus with you saying ‘today, you will be with me in paradise’.  Here and now. Paradise.  And may we take that paradise and be who we were made to be – and join God once again in covering the earth with paradise… 

 

Today – you will be with me – in paradise!

Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing

 

Palm Sunday seems like a strange day to begin looking at the seven words from the cross.  Such a celebratory affair – mile upon mile of laid out cloaks – songs being sung at the top of voices.  Laughter, chatting, rejoicing…  a worship service like no other.  ‘Hosanna, Hosanna’ – we could join in with our school assemblies still fresh in our minds!  But…  it is important to remember that in the middle of this worship service there is one man in tears.. the man who was on the receiving end of the praise and worship.  Jesus, looking at Jerusalem, listening to the songs, taking in the scene – and – Jesus wept.  

Why?  Well firstly the obvious… Jesus knew the shouts of ‘Hosanna’ would turn to cries of ‘crucify him’.  Jesus knew the disciple he had named the rock was going to deny him.  He knew the treasurer of his mission was going to betray him. And always the prophet he could see this beautiful city ahead of him destroyed 40 years later at the hands of Emperor Titus and his roman legions. 

He also weeps for his earthly ministry is coming to an end.   He has healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, welcomed the outcast, cleansed the lepers, fed the hungry and he had forgiven sins… yet… the fruit of this was unbelief and rejection.  John 1:11 ‘He came to his own, and his own did not receive him’.  Broken hearted he wept.  As now was the time for the great crescendo – to embody the message of love and hope in the most awful of ways.  ‘Lord lift this cup from me…’ but through strangled breaths and desperation ‘Not my will but yours be done’. 

So, our scene changes from the worship service on the road to the killing of the hill.  The gospel does not describe the horrific happenings of crucifixion – it did not have too – the first audience were aware of the inhumane torture device.  I took a glimpse at Mel Gibson’s passion of the Christ to begin this week with you all – and I couldn’t watch.  Nails through hands and feet, bones torn, skin hanging off through the cat O nine tails, crown of thorns pressed into the skull, blood, well everywhere…  The horrendous site of a man being tortured to death – but even worse – the very embodiment of love – hanging on a cross.   And what would be his first words?  Attack?  One last defence?  No… forgiveness…  ‘Father forgive them’. 

It is now that most preachers would give a wonderful illustration of forgiveness – one from the world – or perhaps one from their own lives.  I would tell you about how I beat up my Dads car, only to receive, when with tears in my eyes and repentance from my mouth, forgiveness…  But as great as that was – it does not come close to Jesus.   Who not only forgives from the most disgraceful of situations – agonising over the torture and punishment undeserved but it comes from not one sign of remorse.   The crowd are still baying for blood – still laughing and gambling for his clothes… not one person is on their knees begging for forgiveness – yet – FATHER FORGIVE THEM.   Before we even go to God with our list of things we need to repent for – Jesus is saying – ‘Father forgive’.   Jesus first forgives and when we accept that – well then is the time to have the conversation!

But there is more… ‘Father forgive, for they do not know what they are doing’.  Most of our malice… our sin is exercised without aforethought.  Roman soldiers, Jewish Sanhedrin, raving mob – how did you decide to murder God’s son?  ‘Standing up for law and order’!  ‘We were supporting good biblical values’!  ‘We were obeying orders’!  ‘We were not in charge it was the government’!  They did not know what they are doing.   And… we do not know what we are doing…. Yet… father forgive.

Matthew 25:31-46 is one of the bibles more difficult reads!   It is a parable of the great judgment that it is to come.   At the end, the Son of man shall ascend the throne and judge all the peoples.  On his left the goats who, have not done good to the least of these, having not recognised the incognito Christ among the poor, imprisoned and oppressed are punished.   On the judges right – the sheep – those who have reached out to the least of these – are eternally awarded.  Isn’t it good to know the questions on the final exam in advance!  There will be judgment at the end, but on what basis? ‘I was in jail and you visited me’!

But here is the shock of the parable – the sheep and the goats have something in common – they say exactly the same words ‘Lord when did we see you’?  The sheep and the goats talk the same!

You expect the goats to be stupid – but the sheep are as dumb as the goats – Lord when did we see you.

The sheep knew enough to visit the prisoner, offer food and drink, clothes…  but they do not see Jesus any clearer than the goats…  Lord when did we see you?

When it comes to seeing Jesus – you can’t tell a sheep from a goat!

In judgment both can only say ‘when did I see you Lord?’

We are all amateurs in regard to Jesus.

We don’t know what we are doing.

Yet… father forgive…

How curious of Jesus to unite ignorance and forgiveness. Usually, we think of ignorance as the enemy of forgiveness – ‘forgiveness I fine as long as the wrongdoer admits they were wrong’ – first – repentance then forgiveness.   Yet here from the cross – pre-emptive forgiveness – we begin with forgiveness.

Father forgive must always be the first word between us and god, because of our sin and because of gods eternal quest to have us. 

Forgiveness is what it costs God to be with us, his people.

On the cross – Jesus is doing what he did throughout his ministry – and the father in the power of the Holy Spirit – has done throughout the history of the world – only intensifying it – focusing it – through the cross. 

We are witnessing a conversation within the life of the trinity – father forgive – for they do not know what they are doing.

The first words are not just forgiveness – they are pre-emptive forgiveness.   Every wrongdoing… every sin… forgiven.   Every sin we do not know we have committed – forgiven…  what’s our response?  To fall into the loving arms of God – with repentance and to go on a journey where we learn that we do not know what we are doing – fully trusting in our God – who invites us to follow – and invites us to join in the transformation of the world – and who can make something beautiful with our lives.

Father forgive, for they do not know what they are doing.

 

 

 

 

 

Striving

It was 10 years ago, and I was heading for yet another burnout.   So much to do, so much to achieve, so many ideas to implement… striving in so many ways.  And most of the day to day busyness was so so good!  ‘Ben, when is your Sabbath’?  asked Sian, my Christian Yoda! In fact, perhaps she said, ‘Sabbath Ben, when is’?  Proudly, I have taken my day off every week, seeing the importance of being with the kids, I proudly declared ‘Saturday is my day off’.  Sian replied, ‘I didn’t ask when you took your day off, I asked when you have your sabbath rest’? (She may have said ‘day off not asked, but sabbath my young Padawan)!  Instinctively, I needed to be able to show my Jedi master that I was in control and doing well at this thing called ministry, so the excuses started to flow…  ‘We are employed to work six days a week – I can only take one day off with the family, I can’t have sabbath as well’…  ‘I just have too much to do to justify a second day of no productivity’…  you know the sort of excuses… you may have said them yourselves?  After the conversation with my little green friend, I embarked on a new weekly diary plan that allowed for Mondays to be a day of rest.   Well, I say a day, in the evenings I had a meeting (like every other day of the week), and in the mornings we had our team meeting, reflecting on the week just gone and preparing for the week ahead.   But… I did diarise Sabbath on a Monday!  In 10 years of pastoral ministry, I managed to take Monday as sabbath only a handful of times.  Sabbath, written in bold on every Monday would soon be crossed out and replaced with new details of meetings, emergencies, courses and all the other more important things I was striving to achieve (for God?).   The incredible truth is that the times I managed sabbath, somehow, I was more effective, achieved more, felt healthier, knew intimacy with God and simply more aware of the usually elusive sense of shalom.  Members of the congregation would notice, remarking on how much ‘better’ my sermons were, how much more insightful my pastoral care.   But… even though I knew it would be the best day of the week, even though I knew I would be a better father, husband, minister, friend, son having had taken the time, even though I knew I would be more effective… taking the time to rest barely ever happened… it was just too hard and it got in the way of all I was striving to achieve. 

 

This year has offered opportunity for Christ’s church to rest.   I know there is still loads to do and I am aware that the communities we dwell in are struggling.   But surely lockdowns and limited face to face contact offered us all the chance to take sabbath seriously?   Many of us declared back in March, ‘this time can be a gift to get rhythms right and life into a better order and balance’.   How has that gone?   My observation is that everybody seems more exhausted, living lives with less balance and a deep struggle to cope with the changing times.   Shalom seems an awfully long way from our grasp.  Why is sabbath rest so flipping difficult?  

 

I found this verse about striving, ‘So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.  Let us therefore strive to enter rest…’[1]  Strive to enter rest… well that’s a new kind of striving for me, I can almost hear Sian saying, ‘strive to rest you must’!  We must strive because it is a commandment but also because it is so difficult to achieve… rest is near on impossible as my failures attest.   I have made fresh attempts recently to take Mondays as sabbath, surely that is achievable now I am a pioneer rather than a traditional minister?  Yet, as I embark on a little silence, either my brain goes mental with everything I need to achieve, or I fall asleep with exhaustion.  Either busy… or asleep… busy… or asleep.  Ring any bells?  Why is it so hard?   Why can’t we rest?  

 

Brueggemann wrote something called the ‘19 Thesis’ (which is rather wonderful by the way - type it into Google and have a look).   He suggests that we are all scripted by a ‘therapeutic, technological, consumerist militarism that permeates every dimension of our common life’.  This script is enacted through ‘advertising, propaganda and ideology, especially in the several liturgies of television – promises to make us safe and happy’.  What does this mean?  Well, for starters it means we are scripted to look successful, to achieve, to see people buy our product.  It means to be constantly needing something new, and by requiring these things we will be happy (until the next aspirational product comes onto the market).  Each one of us is scripted.

 

These scripts have failed. 

 

We are more depressed, more anxious, more desperate and as a church seemingly less relevant in our context.  Surely, we must do more? Be busier?  Tell more people about Jesus?  Pray harder?  Copy the successful church down the road? 

 

The Jews practiced Sabbath to show the world their distinctive identity in Yahweh.  We are called to take sabbath to share our distinctiveness as Christians. We are a people that should not be identified by consumerism or productivity but by God.   To keep the societal scripts going the world needs us to be depleted souls - because depleted souls make good shoppers!   Sabbath is a counter narrative, a refusal to live as a depleted person but to live in full capacity (or ‘fully Ben’).   It is the place where we move away from what society says we should be like to the beautiful invitation of God to rest and discover what the creator is creating in us as we are filled with fulness of life.   It is in resting that our anxiety can be cast off as it gives into the radiant love and peace of God.   We can be so busy with the things of God that we forget what he is like and what he is calling us to be.  

 

I have stopped using the word ‘mission’.  Basically, it creates an unhelpful posture in me that buys into the scripts of society that unfortunately shape much of my DNA. It makes me want to achieve, to look successful and always filled with the desire to want more.   I am now using ‘pilgrim witness’ language, which suggest that the goals are not as important as the formation.  That who we are is more important than what we do.  Many of us are so busy doing mission…  but hear the invitation from God whom invites us to rest, and as we rest we begin to learn the counter narrative of God and begin to reveal it to the communities around us.   Instead of doing mission, we are being missional.    As I look around and hear stories, the greatest gift we could offer our community is not a new course, social enterprise, shiny service, a new arms-length missional activity but to display what a pilgrim community looks like as it rests and finds its true identity in the almighty creator God.   Then… we shine like stars!  So… I am striving… striving for Sabbath rest.   May as we strive together – may we find all that God has planned for us and may our depleted souls become restored and healed.   And may the way we live our pilgrimed lives together shine to those around us and lead them to their own discovery that God is so incredibly good and is enlarging shalom, a task all invited to take part.  Have a great day striving! 

 

 

 

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[1] Hebrews 4:9-11. 

 

A wild way   

We are moving into a new way of being church - missional listener Ben Lucas offers questions and waymarkers from his journey to help us reflect on our own contexts 

I have a favourite walk. I have walked it so many times. It begins at the cricket club I used to captain in Abbotsbury, takes you up to St Catherine’s chapel, a now deserted church on top of the hill, then down to the incredible Chesil beach with its views across the Jurassic coast. It is simply stunning.  

I walked that walk at the beginning of lent with an Anglican pioneer, together praying about how we might see a pioneering movement break out across Dorset. It was a beautiful conversation in an extraordinary part of God’s world. Because of lockdown, I was unable to walk this path for a few months.   

Returning in June, it was halfway through that I remembered the conversations of pioneering. I sensed God tell me to look around, and to look carefully. I realised that this beautiful walk was now even more beautiful, filled with nature, overgrown hedge rows, swarming with butterflies and bees. It was now both beautiful and wild. It had not been touched, been allowed to grow freely, and the result was incredible wild beauty where old plants had found their way back to the surface, and wildlife had returned and become more numerous.    

My walk is not the only such illustration. Fish have been seen in the canals in Venice for the first time in ages, a tourist beach in Mexico has seen animals return (a turtle laying 112 eggs in front of a luxury dormant hotel), the birds in Wuhan can be heard for the first time – and even outside our front doors we see more butterflies and bees than we have in years. This is not new news for the Knepp estate in Sussex, which in the year 2000 embarked on a remarkable project to rewild. Theirs is a story of how a land was renewed and regenerated in extraordinary ways, by doing little except listening, learning, and enabling nature. 

If taking our hands-off creation leads to a rewilding of our land – what might it look like if we took our hands off the church? What if we let go of control? What if, as leaders, we stopped strategizing and just helped people to experience the presence of God, and then enjoy what arises from such encounters?   

I have been heartbroken in many church conversations regarding the coronavirus. I have heard that all know the real-life struggles people are going through – depression, loneliness, sickness, anxiety – but the main of the discussion is how do we continue to keep the show on the road. How do we continue to preach, sing songs, break bread, gather together etc…?

Whereas, I would humbly suggest that better questions might be: 

• What is the cry of the community at this time?
• What would it be like if God’s kingdom came now?
• What does the biblical imagination have to say to the situation?
• And finally, what might church look like as we answer the previous questions?

The answers will be different and diverse in every locality. The answer is likely to be beautifully wild! 

I have been on the most exciting but difficult ride as I have transitioned from Baptist minister of a pretty big, institutional Baptist church to a missional listener, whose role is simply to hang around rural Dorset asking those questions. I am not suggesting everyone needs to be missional listeners, or that my approach is right – but I do think it is helpful to offer others waymarkers of the journey I and other pioneers have been on. We have already begun a journey away from what was to something new. These waymarkers are not for everyone, may happen in a different order but could be helpful to reflect upon as we all step into the unknown of the new normal of what it means to be church.    

1).  Realisation – as beautiful church is, and as amazing as some parts of it can be – there is more for us and for the community.  That people are desperate for radical community.   

2).  New set of questions – instead of looking at how do we attract? How do we do what we do now better? – we engage with new questions, like those mentioned earlier.  

3).  Wrestling with the powers – what God call us to do is a bit like Noah’s ark!  It looks really odd to everybody else.   People will try to control and reign us in – but somehow by the grace of the Holy Spirit and strength of character you continue.  

4).  Change of posture – instead of approaching God with full hands asking for blessing on our endeavours, we come with empty hands, seeking to join in with Him.  Instead of approaching our neighbour as a missional target we want to grab and bring to where we are, we see them as missional conversation partner, whom as we journey together we realise they are discipling us, and we may be given permission to disciple them.    

5).  Increased attentiveness – transformation in our missional lenses leads us away from big events and pre packaged discipleship courses to noticing how to join in with God in the everyday.   

6).  Spiritual framework – we become reliant not on others feeding our souls but discover our own rhythms of grace that build us up and helps us to join in the reconciliation of all things.   

7).  Home and then Home again…  we realise that, somehow, we are more aware of who God is, and who we are in Him and what He is doing in our communities. This feels like home, and in living there we help others discover their homes and a radical movement breaks out…  


We are moving into a new way of being church, and I am excited – though this excitement is tempered by my biggest fear that we go back to how it’s always been done. If we can take are hands off the church, realise that God is calling us to a new thing which is join in with Him, rather than control – may my walk that day in Dorset become true for the church – rediscovery of wild beauty, the move of the Holy spirit and the good news that offers to the poor.

May new diverse communities rise up – and together as one Baptist movement, we celebrate, learn and grow; and may, because of the way our movement lives out Her call – may many experience the peace of God that is beyond our very imagining.   


Chesil Beach image | Belinda Fewings | Unsplash

Ben Lucas was the minister of a large Baptist church before moving to rural Dorset in 2017. He and is family are living incarnationally, engaged in missional listening.

This reflection appears in the Autumn 2020 edition of Baptists Together magazine  

The Grandfather clock

The Grandfather Clock

The overwhelming thing I have learnt as a missional listener is to do with posture.  Putting it simply, I believe now, that we should come to God with empty hands, allowing God to fill them, and direct us by His spirit to the joining in with His mission of the reconciliation of all things.   That posture is to be the same to the neighbour, empty hands, not going to just give and bless, treating them as a missional target that we can help join us in our walk and attract to the things we do, but as a missional conversation partner who blesses us, and disciples us, and suddenly in time we realise we have permission to journey with them to some place new.  Empty hands.   

Sometimes, I rather arrogantly think I am radical and right!  Then God corrects me - and I realise I am nowhere near either radicalness or being right!   This happened recently, as I am rediscovering some of the great prayers of the bible with the small community I belong, and I realised that my relationship with God is almost completely directed by me... The prayer was Abraham's prayer in Genesis 18:16-33.  Have a read, go deep - God is good! 

It was reading this prayer that I realised for the first time that the whole prayer was orchestrated by God.   God instigated the prayer by deciding to share his thoughts and plans with Abraham (v.17), He welcomed Abrahams thoughts and prayers and then the prayer conversation continued until God decided the job was done.  Verse 33: 'When the Lord has finished speaking with Abraham...'.  Its incredible to think that God was interested in Abrahams opinion.  Its mind boggling to see God and Abraham, standing and chatting as two friends.  But it completely blown my mind that the prayer was finished by God, not Abraham. 

God has never finished one of my prayers.  It has always been me who has cut off the conversation.  Usually, because I am bored, distracted, have other things to be getting on with or on retreat, fallen asleep!   I am the one in control of my prayers.  When I think back to my role as Baptist minister in a church setting, I controlled the prayers there too, skilfully getting the timings right, so they were not to long for boredom, or to short for those who want long'uns!   Church services would be brilliantly finished at the appropriate time, regardless of what's going on, so that everyone can get back for Sunday lunch.   Even 24 hour prayer meetings we held, were cut off by me because our target had been met.   I have never had a prayer finished by God, always controlled by me.   Power.  Control.  Full Hands.  

We have a picture for our little community and the others around the area we are called to listen too.   Its a picture of a group of people, flying kites on the beach with child like joy.  Its colourful, joyful and beautiful.  The BBQ's are lit, cooking various foods for everyone.   There are also others watching, gathered round but not yet holding kites.  It reminds me of my friend Pete Atkins church, that has the aim to be candle, table and open door.  A candle, signifying the presence of God.  The table, a sign of community and the open door, a sign to Gods mission.  The presence is God flying the kites, the BBQ's, community and the crowd watching is the open door to God's mission.  

How do we create such communities.  Well, we don't!  Only God builds the church.   In a time of community prayer the picture in response to that question was of a grandfather clock.  Big, strong and dominant.  What I did not know at the time, is that if other pendulum clocks are placed in close proximity to another pendulum clock, the swing rate of a pendulum adjusts, passing motion and energy back and forth, concluding eventually with all the pendulums swinging identically to one another.  

If we want to be a part of vibrant beautiful Christian community then we need to get our posture right, surrender control and allow God to be truly God.  To enter prayer because God wants to engage us in His plans, and at times to stay there until God says we are done... and may the grandfather clock be true of our relationship with God, that as we do this, we find are heart beating with His, our hands and feet doing as Jesus did, our eyes seeing what our Triune God sees.   

May your pendulum fall into synchronisation with our incredible God.