a blog by howard jameson @ gatheringgrace.org

For all the saints...

...who from their labours rest...

(isn't that what most of Church is like normally? - joke! - well, sort of)

Thinking about tomorrow, the Feast of All Saints, and the readings in particular (the new heaven/earth scenario and Lazarus). I read some slightly differing opinions about the purpose of John's Gospel and also the understanding in Jesus' time about resurrection.

I think there are quite a few cases in the Gospels where people think of resurrection in some sense as the return of one of the "giants" of the faith; so for example some people seem to have thought that Jesus was Elijah (although the means by which this might have happened is not explained). In that sense perhaps we are meant to take comfort from the story of the raising of Lazarus - here was an ordinary bod a bit more like me and he got raised simply because Jesus loved him (although there were no doubt symbolic reasons why Lazarus was raised on that particular day as Jesus approached Jerusalem).

I find describing the Revelation bit about a new heaven and a new earth a bit more challenging to talk about in a way that can be understood, but I take real comfort from the promise of God wiping every tear from our eyes. I think this was meant to say more than the simple point we draw out when this reading is used at funerals; grief is only one of several different things that will have passed away. Or perhaps if the style of literature known as Apocalyptic really is about describing present tense stuff that is obscured from our view then I ought to use the present tense in the previous sentence too - these things are currently 'passing away' too.

I don't go particularly big on Saints in the stereotypical way they are represented - if somebody is humble enough to be considered a giant of the faith then I imagine they would be uncomfortable at being held up in such a way as some do. Too much saint stuff seems to be a means of defining very tightly what it is that a Christian is meant to do or to endure.

So I doubt a Church or a day will ever be named after me - I'm quite happy with that actually.

Ray Mears Extreme Survival...

...the episode they didn't let you see.

Caught a bit of Ray as I had my lunch and he did something with termites. In order, therefore, to exact my revenge I have uncovered the script for the last ever episode.

Ray appears from behind a tree, followed by typical looking group of hunters.

"I have joined this secretive and reclusive tribe to look at some of the ways they survive in the barren and inhospitable terrain. In these conditions, once you have built your shelter next to the fire, the most important thing is to locate a good source of protein. These people do this by having reverted to cannibalism...

...no wait, please, no, you don't understand - I'm Ray Mears! The camera man looks a lot tastier than me! Aaaarghhh"

Well that's that then...

We are in the process of reopening one of our Church buildings after 10 weeks of redecoration, rewiring and general repair work. I've been posting stuff on the Benefice blog here.

It looks really lovely and clean and fresh and, even, loved. Its only when you do something like this that you realise how depressing it looked before. Did I say it looks lovely?

Well that's that then...

...er, no. This work needed doing (fabric stuff) and it came to symbolise a greater work of repairing the Church that was needed (here's what I said over 15 months ago), and that is something that is on-going and on-going etc.

Last night we prayed and read the Bible in Church - stories from Chronicles and repairing the Temple, and words of Jesus about seeking first the Kingdom of God, and it was strangely and quietly moving to lead. In one sense very understated (no wild exuberance) but simultaneously a big step (perhaps it was our Neil Armstrong moment). Tonight we will quietly and gently share bread and wine together.

I like the idea that we have only started, but I also really like the idea that we have made a step and that we can, just for a moment, pause...and then see where God is going next.

Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest...

...as we are encouraged by the Collect to consider God's Word on the Last Sunday after Trinity (Bible Sunday).

I have been enjoying working through chapters 8 to 10 of Mark over the last few weeks, following Mark's encouragement (at least as I read it being there) towards mature discipleship. I have played upon the juxtaposition of three encounters with Jesus in chapter 10...

the rich man, who leaves sad and empty handed...

the bickering disciples, who are left with a flea in their ears about suffering not status...

and Bartimaeus, who followed because of his faith that Jesus could make him see...

and then (although we won't read about it for some months yet) the crowd at the start of chapter 11 who welcome the Messiah into Jerusalem, but have got the wrong guy. Well, they've got the right guy, but the wrong understanding of Messiah.

The obvious question is where we are on this non-linear scale?

The road to mature discipleship is to have the faith of Bartimaeus (sadly there's not a lot of description in the passage that would allow the preacher to make a one point sermon, let alone three points). But we must also heed the warning to James and John about seeing our role as one of following Jesus' suffering before we start totting up how much we are owed in terms of position or status.

The mature disciple is also, I guess, one who does not necessarily go with the crowd either, but is willing to let go of those things which the rich man couldn't.

Sounds easy doesn't it?

A sentence I used today...

...that I never imagined I would use.

"We're going to sing a song now that I learnt at the Clergy Residential"

Wow. The times they are a-changing...

Body clocks and real clocks

Trying to work this out, but I'm tired.

It is now 10:15pm in the UK. 24 hours ago we were in Greece and is was shortly after midnight. This time tomorrow we will be in the UK, but on GMT so it will be 9:15pm.

Can't even guess what time my brain thinks it is - best not try. 

I saw this and thought of you...

I was chuckling (as you do waiting for a train) about the gaps all around us...

...between my imagined me and the real me...

...between the things I think I am saying about the Gospel and the things people actually hear...

...between the rhetoric of arguments played our in public and the underlying reasons...

(the words, by the way, have to be spoken with total Michael Horden diction)

Being on the other side of Europe for a week has meant following the news a day late due to the time it took for the papers to arrive. We therefore enjoyed Tina Turner-gate and Vatican Machiavellianism (at least according to the Times).

Let's face it, being a leader of a Church in the C of E can be quite a tough place to work - the huge divergence between the expectations of those who want the Vicar to pander to their egos, issues or agendas and the increasingly secular expectation of somebody who is there as a "service provider" - congregations who wish to be insular and the inevitable outward thrust brought about by the demand to seek first the Kingdom of God. This, I remain convinced, is the call to my generation - dealing with the failed legacies of previous generations who baulked at the changes needed, but also to avoid the trap of the simplification of what it means to be Church (as portrayed in the most recent Christian Bookshop must-read bestseller).

Both these two articles, however, reminded me of the difficulty of the place in which we seek to minister. Yes, people expect us to turn up to take a funeral and add into it lots of things that a previous generation would have turned its nose up at - but I would never expect to take a funeral with a Requiem Mass (give me Tina Turner anyday with the possibility that her words express something of love for the one who has died). 

The actions of the Vatican will be a dangerous siren call for many. Why live with the dodgy unity of the Church of England when you can have a sense of authority and agreed truth? Because the pill underneath the sugar wrapping is mighty bitter (and I don't just mean the paycut). Rather, it would allow a retreat into a world where the Church was the arbiter of taste and judgment on all matters - but in doing so ceases to matter because it discards the commitment to be the Church there for everybody.

Unity, yes, but not unity at any price. Kingdom first.

Music is the best

Have revised my guitar set up and dug a bit of old stuff out to try to get as simple as possible. The Les Paul was secondhand in '92. The Champ was bought in '86 (I think). The Pod was new in 2001 and the controller came off eBay. The sound, though, is terrific.

GTD - Getting Things Done (Gruesome, Tiresome, Depressing?)

I have found some of the GTD Ninja stuff really helpful in keeping disciplined about staying on top of the lists of things I have to do, and adding the stream of new items that crop up.

Before the summer break I completed quite a bit of stuff and rescheduled everything else into September, so I was guilt-free for August, but arrived back in September with, what felt like, a mountain to climb. (This is not the fault of David Allen's excellent book and techniques, but of the amount of cluttery actions I need to take). It was not good.

There have been moments since the start of September when I have wanted to ditch the whole list and declare myself GTD-bankrupt ("can't do it, won't do it"), and so I have held deliberately lightly to my discipline (there's no point being disciplined if it is just grinding me down - that's legalism at its worst).

I worked until quite late last night and think I have pretty much caught up - FINALLY.

No doubt something will sneak up and bite me in the bum - but that is to be expected with this sort of work as a Professional Ecclesiastical Plate Spinner, but I prepare for half term break knowing I've done as much as I could reasonably have done (even planned Sunday 25th and January rota - whoop whoop).

A second bite at the cherry

I have tried to lump my various school assembly commitments together so that I can re-use, I mean develop the material as the week progresses.

I am trying a very different tack this week. I find it very easy in schools to play along with the generous loving and forgiving aspects of God as we read of in Scripture and see in the person of Jesus. Those things are true, of course, but they do fit very neatly with the 'liberal' agenda (inclusiveness etc) of contemporary schooling.

Where does holiness and justice fit into this? These are also perfectly valid characteristics of the same God.

So today I had a first crack at explaining holiness and justice, reading a bit from Revelation 21 about God wanting to make his home amongst us, wiping away all the tears (which would include those times when injustice has been done against us, too).

Another go tomorrow, so need to spend a bit of time reflecting in the morning about content and a song.