Bournagain

I’m sitting here in my shed, which has recently had an extensive facelift to transform it into an office.  Part of the process has required sorting through piles of old papers – the accumulation of several years of odd documents that I couldn’t quite bring myself to throw out.  Surrounded by piles of paper, let me take a break and share with you an old treasure I must have clipped from somewhere.  I mean really old – this one dates back to A.D.150 – well, the text, if not the document itself.  Apparently it was a report received by one Diognetes from some outpost of the Roman Empire.  This man had evidently been marked by his dealings with a peculiar group of people that seemed to be spreading throughout the empire…

The Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country nor language nor the customs which they observe.  For they neither inhabit cities of their own nor employ a peculiar form of speech nor lead a life which is marked out by a singularity…

They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners.  As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners.

Every foreign land is to them as their native country and the land of their birth as a land of strangers…

They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh.  They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.  They obey the prescribed laws of the land and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives.

They love all men and are persecuted by all…They are poor yet make many rich…To sum up in a word: What the soul is in the body, that is a Christian in the world.

Were Diognetes alive today, I wonder if he would be able to recognise a Christian.

Have you ever noticed that the first utterances of God to man that are recorded in the book of Genesis are questions? We can suppose that God who knows all things was not unaware of the transaction that had taken place between Adam, Eve and the serpent, and yet instead of berating them for their foolishness, he begins with a question: Where are you? In the very first scene revealing God’s relationship with man, we see God searching for his children who, out of fear and pride, have hidden from him. God has continued to seek man throughout his history.

When he finds them, he persists in his questioning: Who told you that you are naked? As if to say, “I made you that way! You have no reason to be ashamed”. Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? Why would God ask what he already knows, if not to allow man the opportunity to confess. Before speaking judgement, he allows man to take full responsibility for his actions, thereby affirming his humanness. He allows room for reflection, confession and repentance, so that man might be restored. Yet rather than recognise his own fault, Adam blames God, and then his wife, for his own folly. What is this you have done? A fourth question, which Eve in turn answers in blaming the serpent. Neither acknowledges wrongdoing. What would have happened had they confessed? Was it the eating of the fruit or the failure to ask for forgiveness that saw them ultimately excluded from the garden, and thus human life the way God intended it.

God continues his search, probing into the heart of man, drawing him out. To Cain he asks Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? Is this not the concern of a loving Father? Yet rather than receive that love, Cain allows his anger to give birth to murder. There again, God stays his judgement, preferring to allow the possibility of a contrite heart. Although Abel’s blood was screaming Cain’s guilt, God asks: Where is your brother? Cain adds falsehood to his crimes. And still God questions: What have you done?

This same God questions us today, not imposing his truth, nor bringing judgement before its time. He allows us to draw our own conclusions, willing us to choose rightly, longing for our restoration, yet permitting us to reject him if we so choose. If we reject him, our refusal will not go unjudged indefinitely. Today is amnesty day – our opportunity to confess our faults, to overcome our pride, and to agree with God’s appraisal. Who knows but that it might be our last.

I just approved a comment on some thoughts I posted a while ago under the heading Reinterpreting Traditions. It’s an article by our friend Cor the artist touching on the story of the Samaritan woman, and I thought it was too useful to hide away in the comments section of an old post. Hope you get as much out of it as I did…

Like many of you, I’ve heard and read it countless times! I know this story already for more than fifty years! Then one day as by a divine touch, the real meaning of this rich deep story hit home, at least it shook up my life.

This divine touch can leave you potentially confused, excited, reassured or, as in my case, with a glorious revelation experience! I am talking about the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in the Gospel of John 4.

By many preachers, she has always been painted as the lady with a questionable past, who went through five husbands, and the one she was living with was not her husband either, according to a very reliable source: Jesus! Surprisingly, Jesus does not turn away from her in horror and disgust, but He choses to do the opposite…to teach her! She becomes one of the first human beings to be taught the miracle and principle of the Kingdom. Read the rest of this entry »

When you’re travelling there are so many things that can go wrong. In fact I had just been reflecting on the fact that our travel so far on this trip has been surprisingly uneventful and straightforward, when something happened. Sure enough – I didn’t really think we were going to get back to France without something exciting happening.

As we were travelling at 100kph along the motorway north of Auckland in our white diesel van on loan from OM New Zealand (yes, that great OM tradition of getting about in ageing but faithful vans has even made it to the bottom of the world!), when a big bang, a loud warning siren and a lot of smoke alerted us to the fact that something was not quite right. To make it even more exciting, the brakes failed, and my wife told me afterward that my face went even whiter than the van (which needs a good clean, actually – the van, not my face). At that speed bringing the van to a stop was a tricky manoeuvre, but a couple of hundred meters later I was able to safely pull off the road, as it turned out, right beside an emergency phone.

Little tip if you ever happen to break down on a New Zealand motorway: look for an emergency phone rather than using your cell phone. If you call from one of these, the motorway authority will have you towed free of charge to the nearest garage (something about keeping the motorway secure).

As it turned out, the nearest garage was in a town where we happen to have some good friends who were away overseas – such good friends that we actually know the door code to get into their appartment! We were able to camp there while the van was being fixed (broken fan belt and blown out radiator). It was a bit of a pain being delayed for two nights, but we made good use of the time.

It could have been so much worse. I know that just because God is looking after us it doesn’t mean that bad things can’t happen. But in this particular instance we were pretty impressed by his care for us, in the way that a potentially disastrous situation turned into a reason for thanksgiving (the prayers of a faithfully praying mother-in-law also probably had something to do with it!)

[posted with ecto]

Really enjoying Aussies Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch’s book, The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church. It’s one of those books that I think fits in the “must read” category. Here’s a short excerpt…

“Clearly the missional church that claims the deed as sacrament will be fully involved in life, evangelism, work among the poor, community groups and causes, and pubs and cafes. This is because the missional church realizes that it is finding God (or is God finding us?) in those places previously perceived as “outside” of God because they were outside of the local faith community’s mission program. Actually there is no such thing as seeking God, for there is nothing in which he cannot be found. It’s all in the “seeing” and the perceiving. Having broadened our concept of God’s involvement in the world and our part in it, Christians can then be free to engage missionally in any and every place. The whole world becomes an arena for the inbreaking of God’s kingdom.”

If you’re not familiar with the phrase “deed as sacrament”, it’s a means of expressing a view of Christian spirituality where God’s grace is made apparent in our actions, and where there is no dichotomy between so-called “spiritual” activities like proclaiming the gospel, and practical deeds of service. God redeems the whole of life, not just the religious part. It’s not a new idea, but in practice we still tend to act as if somehow the things we do that are related to church are more valuable to God than, say, being friendly to our neighbours, serving on the local school committee or spending time at the local pub to get to know the locals. God can be in all of these things, not just the church bit (or should I say, “even the church part” )

Does this strike a chord with you? Click on the comment link above, and tell me what you think.

There has been much wringing of hands amongst Western Christians over the “secularisation” of society, but I experienced something today which was another indication that we have been misreading the signs of the times.

In New Zealand April 25^th is ANZAC Day, which commemorates the battle waged by Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli in Turkey during the first world war, and by extension those who died in combat during the various wars of the 20^th century.

You’d think that as the last old returned servicemen passed on, interest in marking ANZAC Day would wane. Well, we were in for a surprise. Read the rest of this entry »

Being an eternal optimist I have always been pretty sceptical about Murphy’s Law. This week has cured me of my scepticism. We leave here in 3 days for 4 months sabbatical, and it seems like everything is conspiring against us getting on that plane.

In the last few days we have had a leak in our house (resulting in no heating, irregular water supply, a gooey plastery mess and lots of phone calls to the insurer), we have been taken to the cleaners by a dodgy plumber, we have lost a credit card, Elise sprained her finger due to an altercation with a basketball, there is a seemingly unsolveable administrative problem with our social security over the fact that we are out of the country for 4 months, there is another wrangle due to a miscommunication over our car insurance, a low flying soccer ball upended a cup of tea into the computer keyboard – colds, headaches, and a strained back needing physiotherapy – how can all this happen in a week?? It’s like being in the middle of a hurricane. And somehow normal life has had to continue through it all. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last couple of days I could really feel the stress building – with our departure for the southern hemisphere only 14 days away. There just seems like a mountain of stuff still to do, and then yesterday I had one of those days when you run around doing all kinds of “necessary” stuff, but none of which is on your priority list. By the time 4.00 came around you could just about see the steam coming out of my ears. And then a little voice inside said, “go for a bike ride”. In France people who hear little voices generally find themselves put on a lot of medication fast. But as there were no psychiatrists handy I decided to obey that little voice, dropped everything, hopped on my bike, and spent a couple of hours cycling along that river you can see in our header bar.

Why don’t I do that more often? It is really amazing how your perspective can change in an instant. I had my eyes on the track in front of me, and at one point stopped, looked up and saw the most stunning green postcard vista in front of me, and the little voice suddenly became incredibly clear and authoritative: “Simon, stop worrying. I am all you need.” That was all. It was like someone just changed the CD in my brain, and my thoughts were back on the right track again.

I need to stop allowing myself to live as if God wasn’t there.