Bournagain

Since news the calamity in Port au Prince began filtering in nearly a week ago I have had times where it has been difficult to keep focused on things demanding my attention. It’s not the first time an earthquake has wrought destruction in a part of the world already woefully ill-equipped to deal with catastrophes. It probably won’t be the quake that produced the most fatalities in my lifetime either. However, this one is affecting me more than most.

For one thing I think it is the first time I have been aware of my children really understanding the extent of the disaster. Previous catastrophes haven’t affected them the way this one has – our 8-year old frequently talks about Haiti; without being prompted prayers for the Haitian people are offered up at mealtimes. It helps that Haiti already had a place in their consciousness. We have a Haitian friend in our church, and had (coincidentally?) begun supporting a work amongst Haitian orphans living in the Dominican Republic not long ago. It’s not that we had any particular concern for the Haitian people more than any other, but simply a belief in our Haitian friend who has taken up this cause, and wanting to support him. We agreed as a family that we would eat just rice for dinner on Mondays (when we remember), and give the money we save for this project.

So when the earthquake hit the children already had that connection. Not having TV they have been spared from a lot of the images – not that I am against children being exposed to the suffering of their fellow human beings per se. But images of suffering are so ubiquitous that it is easy to become blasé about them, and I haven’t noticed our children needing the reinforcement of pictures to understand the seriousness of what has happened. I can’t get over the extent of the damage though. It is so difficult to envisage an entire city leveled, and I keep imagining what it would be like to live there, and the overwhelming sense of not having any idea where to even begin putting life back together again.

And then you start thinking, why Haiti? I don’t mean in the sense “how could God let this happen”, because this is a question that doesn’t usually occur to me. I don’t blame God for natural disasters. I ask the question in the sense, why Haiti instead of, say, France? Are we more deserving than Haitians, that we live in such relative comfort, in secure homes, with reliable incomes? How do we get off scot free? And what if disaster did strike? Would we know what to do? Not just in terms of having enough tins of food stashed away to ride out a disaster, but would we have the emotional and psychological framework in place to be able to not only to get ourselves through it, but to be a beacon hope to those around us in the midst of it. If my house fell down, would I blame God? Would I shake my fist at him? Would I dissolve into a puddle of anxiety and hopelessness? Or would I have the necessary insight to realise that it’s only a house, and that life is more than the sum of my possessions, and get on with the job of helping my neighbour dig out his relatives?

If nothing else, the images of Port au Prince put many of my petty concerns in perspective, and is a great reminder of how ephemeral are our days.

You’d think that after 9 years of working in the domain, I would have a better grasp on the question “what is mission”? But if the Christian life is about transformation and pilgrimage, it stands to reason that lifelong learning is part of the deal, so I suppose it’s no surprise that our views change as our understanding grows. I have been increasingly uneasy with a vision that places the simple “conversion of souls” at the centre of the enterprise. Before the stones start flying let me say that I’m not suggesting that this is unimportant, but rather that it is not the centre. This is where I have found Newbigin’s writings so very helpful:

It is impossible to stress too strongly that the beginning of mission is not an action of ours, but the presence of a new reality, the presence of the Spirit of God in power [...] The great missionary proclamations in Acts are not given on the unilateral initiative of the apostles but in response to questions asked by others, questions prompted by the presence of something which calls for explanation [...] Where the Church is faithful to its Lord, there the powers of the kingdom are present and people begin to ask the question to which the gospel is the answer. And that, I suppose, is why the letters of St. Paul contain so many exhortations to faithfulness but no exhortations to be active in mission. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

This is from a man who spent most of his career as a missionary in India. It almost sounds heretical. He also makes the point that the end of the enterprise is not the successful conclusion of our projects, but the coming of Christ to reign. Jesus’ statement, “Where I am, there shall my servant be” is central here. Where is Jesus? At the frontier of light and darkness, where the acted out good news of the kingdom is pushing back the powers of evil, whatever form they may take. If we want to be with Jesus, that’s where we need to be.

All around me I see projects. When our projects succeed, we feel good. When they fail, we sink into existential crisis. Our whole reason for being seems to be predicated on our projects. This is because we see the Church as the source and agent of God’s coming kingdom, which is not so very far from the imperialism of medieval Christendom. The Church is not the source, but the sign and witness. It is here that the reality of the kingdom begins to break through in a visible way.

Mission is an acted out doxology. That is its deepest secret. Its purpose is that God may be glorified.

So why aren’t more people in our culture looking a the Church and asking questions?

Okay, so I know I’ve been silent for months. This blog has been suffering from a terrible lack of attention. But I just had to share this with you, from one of my favourite authors at the moment.

Faith enables us to be at the same time realistic and hopeful. We can be realistic, knowing that no human project can eliminate the powers of darkness as they operate in human life. This realism delivers us from the utopian fanaticisms which have condemned millions of people to misery and death in the cause of an imagined future. But at the same time we can be hopeful, acting hopefully in apparently hopeless situations, not dreaming of an absolute perfection on this side of death, but doing resolutely that relative good which is possible now, doing it as an offering to the Lord who is able to take it and keep it for the perfect kingdom which is promised. In this sense [...] our actions in the public life of the world are acted prayers for the kingdom. They do not themselves lead directly to the kingdom. They are acted prayers for its coming and as such they act as signs of its reality and so enable others to act in hope.

Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

It’s such a shame this guy isn’t better known. What I love here is the refusal to escape into a pessimism which sees the world “going to hell in a handcart”, which leads some to retreat into a kind of “lifeboat” Christianity which refuses to engage with the world other than trying to pull a few drowning people into the boat. But at the same time there is no room for living in denial, as if heaven was already here. Yes the world is profoundly sick, and yes at this point in time we can’t actually bring ultimate positive change through our actions. But, we can rest assured that our actions are not wasted. Change is coming! It is not our actions that will bring it about, but our acts do have an important prophetic role in pointing people toward the glorious reality that is coming. I also really like the idea of viewing our actions as a form of prayer. No room for passivity here.

Well, I did it!   I finally took the plunge, held my breath, and upgraded to the WordPress 2.5.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you’re really not missing anything.  It’s just that if you open up the bonnet of this blog you find that the motor running this thing is an application called WordPress.  I have been reading some very scary things about what can go wrong when you upgrade, and all in all I haven’t lost too much hair so far.

However, you will notice that some of the doodackies (thingumibobs) in the sidebars to the right are missing, and depending on how the next couple of days go it may be a while before I get them back again.

You know those “dummies” books?  When it comes to web design I’m definitely one of the target readers.

I while back I blogged about something I found on a new book by Tom Sine (of “The Mustard Seed Conspiracy” fame, from years back). I still haven’t read the book by the way – don’t know what Amazon has done with my order.

It’s a bit odd writing about a book I haven’t read yet, so while I’m waiting, today I heard a radio interview with Tom Sine in Australia that I found well worth a listen.

If you are one of the four people who read my blog (Hi Mum!), you may have been waiting to find out how my weekend in the Cévennes went. We were staying in a community with the words “God’s Property” intriguingly inscribed on a sign to welcome you as you drive in after an impressively scenic drive into the hills along windy narrow roads. This place was started about 20 years ago by a couple who had been given this property, and saw it as a “safe house” for all who needed it – from homeless and marginals to alternatives, nomads, drifters – anyone was welcome. There are no conditions for entry other than respect for the fact that it is “God’s Property”. In practice this means that people are welcomed and respected in their differences, without judgement, that people participate in the running and financial needs of the community as they are able, and that they attend 2 community meetings each day, where there is singing, prayer, and sharing from the Scriptures. We experienced a couple of these meetings: 70 people crammed into a kind of stone basement with vaulted ceilings, praying and sharing together in all simplicity…it would be impossible to imagine a more diverse bunch of people! You could not escape an overwhelming sense of “God is here”. It’s rather like a modern-day monastery, I suppose.

It was therefore a PERFECT setting for this gathering. How can I describe it? We are so dependent on labels, aren’t we? But such a diverse group is difficult to put a label on. We had Jesus Freaks, student & youth workers, community dwellers, missionaries, a methodist minister, 24-7 prayer guys, house bus nomads, house church planters – you name it. The common thread was a passion for living a Jesus-centred life, sharing that with others, and living it out not only within the four walls of religious buildings but out in the world. We talked a lot about emergent church, simple church, house church etc. etc. But it was encouraging to see that the focus what not so much on any particular structure or method being THE answer for being church in the 21st century. The emphasis was much more on relying on the Holy Spirit to give us the right approach in our particular situation. Since the weekend I’ve been reading Red Moon Rising about the 24-7 prayer movement, and it’s helped me realise how much my way of relating to the Holy Spirit is changing. The book points out that for years in the church we were praying “Come Holy Spirit”, and he came. Today the Holy Spirit is calling “Come, Holy people” – come and live out holiness among people where they live – not to distinguish ourselves, but so that they too can share in what it means to be holy (definition: centred on God rather than on self. It is the opposite of being “holier than thou”, which is the way it is often wrongly understood). The question is, will we go? Or will we remain in the “come Holy Spirit” mode – come and bless our churches.

The meeting did not end with any great strategy or plan for the future, but we achieved our goals of networking, new friendships, and getting a bigger picture of what’s happening in France and across Europe. Hard to predict what the fruit will be, but for me it was absolutely a not-to-be-missed experience.

I’m writing this from Montpellier where I’m waiting for a bus to take me out to a Christian community in the Cévennes hills – a historic area where many huguenots (French Protestants) took refuge during the wars of religion. Some weeks ago I received information about this gathering from Connect Europe:

As many of you know the spiritual situation in France is still more problematic and difficult as may be in other countries. Right now there is a little team of friends coming together who have the dream, aspiration and vision that God wants to change something, that in France a new kind of community based church will emerge, that will influence the French culture and will have something to give to Europe and what God is doing there…

This immediately caught my eye as I’ve been following the activities of this group for a while through various blogs (Marc’s Messages, Andi’s Perspective etc…), and it’s the first time they’ve had a gathering in France. Ordinarily it was going to be impossible for me to make it because of other commitments. And the SUDDENLY, everything opened up, I found cheap plane tickets just yesterday, and here I am! Not sure what to expect, but really looking forward to connecting with people from different parts of France and Europe who are seeking to “connect, pray together, build bridges” and work towards new (old) ways of being church and community in Europe.

My now 7-year-old son had his birthday this week and as usual put in an exceedingly complicated request for his birthday cake. “Mum, last year I asked for a fighter plane, but you made me a passenger-plane cake (!!). This year can I have a fighter plane?”

Here’s what he ended up with: not just any fighter plane, but a camouflaged stealth bomber!!! Bravo Mum!

In the weekend we saw our eldest daughter (on the left) baptised with 3 of her friends. So how does a (nearly) 14-year old come to the decision to be baptised? Listening to their stories we heard how during a summer camp a couple of years ago, sleeping in the open air on a starry night, they were all really impressed by the beauty of the night sky. Someone asked the question, if you were to die tonight, do you know where you’d end up? A big question, but one which, is a question teenagers ask much more than we might think. This question really got them thinking, and led these four girls to a real encounter with God that night, which they demonstrated by taking the plunge to mark the beginning of their big adventure in faith. Awesome!

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.