Christmas - an event for everyone!

I was taken by a line in the message translation of the bible - 'an event for everyone'. Not part of the scripture though, it was a title for the response of the shepherds to the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:8 -20). It is obviously Eugene Peterson's - the author of 'the message' - interpretation of the Christmas story. The right one too, I think.

It is easy in christian circles to criticise all the 'secular' carol services going on in our communities. Not to mention, the santas, trees, elves and the Frank & Dino Christmas c.d's in the shopping malls. 'Put Christ back into Christmas' is a slogan we often use. But just maybe people are really looking for the Christ of Christmas but don't find him too readily in our christian communities. So the 'consumerist' one will have to do. But lets face it, don't we in the churches do exactly the same thing as we hope people will buy our product this year rather than the other church's across the road: and, yes, clergy will look at attendance figures to see whether sales are up or down this year.

As I look at people's faces as they sing carols at these 'secular' events - which I am now fond of doing - I see written on them joy, hope, peace, innocence and a longing for something mystical mixed in with the 'etchings' of life (pain, disappointment, suffering, loneliness, depression...) Christmas is for everyone because Jesus Christ is for everyone. This Christmas I'm dropping the slogans and seeking to meet people at the point of their searching. Maybe, on the other hand, the real slogan should be put Christ back into the christian churches!

Chris

Prepare the way of the Lord - Christmas

At connecT we are spending two weeks with John the Baptist. We are pondering over Mark 1: 1 -8 and what this prophetic 'crazy dude' might have to say to us. Last Sunday we gave some thought to 'preparing the way of the Lord' this christmas and how we might do that as a community. Some thoughts that came up - prayer & christmas cards given out to our communities, singing carols in aged care facilities & hospitals, a lavish connecT christmas party with nativity and being a christian presence at the office christmas party, especially when we have a had few drinks and the gossip starts!

It was good to see the connecT group thinking of ways to be with our wider community this christmas. How do we prepare ourselves and others to experience Jesus this christmas? What do you think?

God with us - Immanuel.

‘ For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ (Isaiah 9:18)

In advent we not only prepare for Christ's return - look busy!- but we, obviously, get ready for Christmas. Spending time with the prophets helps us to do that: these characters who reflected on God's activity in their midst and called others to catch a glimpse of their theocentric vision. God with us (Immanuel - Isa 7:14) is Isaiah's concern and he wants others to share it. Prophets pointed to God and in this sense the church follows their lead. Advent is a time for catching a glimpse of Jesus who is with us and yet, is still to come. As the Christmas trees go up it is our time to point to Jesus, the one behind it all. But more than that, it is timely to remind ourselves and others that God's reign will be accompanied by justice and mercy.

But how do we as the church engage the culture around us yet remain prophetic? How do we celebrate with others around the trees but remind them that more is at stake?

Chris

Mary - ignored, used and abused?

Another person we will be spending some time in advent with is Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary is a highly - albeit, unintentionally - divisive woman. Ignored, largely, by protestants. One mention of Mary and most protestants run a mile. An odd response to the one who the Bible calls 'blessed'(Lk. 1:42).

Mary on the other hand is loved by catholics including anglican ones. But it seems to me that much of the catholic piety is just ridiculous(e.g the perpetual virginity of Mary). Mary just can't be a woman in her own right. She needs to be a submissive and virginal one, forever! Contemporary catholic Marian piety is often just a disguise for patriarchy. Many of the anglican - catholic clergy who will seek to be associated with Rome will tell you they honour Mary and perhaps even pray to her; yet they can't accept the ministry of women. No brainer...

Yet, at the same time, many find in Mary a model of a strong woman who listens and is obedient to God's call. Mary was given the ultimate responsibility and ministry of bringing God's 'word made flesh' into the world.

So where does Mary fit? How do we honour her without the nonsense?

Chris

'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?' (Lk 1: 42).

He's back!

Another Advent theme we will be exploring at connecT is the second coming of Jesus. This is a tough one, isn't it? It's part of the faith and so I accept it. But how long are we supposed to wait or have I missed something?

'Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail' (Rev 1:7)

Chris

John the Baptist - crazy dude?

At connecT we are having a 2 month advent. We thought it would be good to stay a little longer with the advent themes. One character who will be stretching our thought is John the Baptist. Now what can I say, one crazy dude (cf. Matt 3: 4) I have always imagined he looked a bit like Charles Manson with out the 'dark side'. But honestly, can we handle prophets like John? How many prophets have we really met, do they sit in our churches and sing quaint hymns and take their turn on the morning tea roster? How do we make sense of John - a crazy dude with something to say?

'You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?' (Matt 3: 7)

Ruth - and the moral of the story is?

It seems to me that there is a bit of a punch line to the story of Ruth in chapter 4, when we are told that Ruth gives birth to Obed, the grand-father of David. Is that the only reason Ruth is in the Bible? A bit of a prequel to the real story - David. But so much is lost isn't there to that simple masculine focus. I love the relationship between the women - Naomi, Orpah and Ruth (1:14); Orpah departed with a kiss but Ruth clung to Naomi. Naomi cares for her daughter in law like her own child and then nurses the infant Obed. The women of the neighbourhood join in giving the name to the child. A model of community, I think. A feminine gift to a masculine world.

Chris

Ruth and our own stories.

At connecT we are looking at the story of Ruth. It is a simple sad but happy story. Ruth loses husband, follows Naomi, her mother in law to Naomi's country, finds a man and marries and lives happily ever after. Well that's the abridged version, any way. But what interests me is how God moves in the lives of simple and un-spectacular people. So often we think that God only chooses the heroes but in the lives of these two women we find God at work through the pain & loss, plans & plotting, encounters & commitments. It reminds me that God is involved at the grass roots of our lives. A reminder to me to take notice and see where God is involved in the contours of my mundane existence.

Where does God show up in your journey?

Chris

Papa is a Mama - The Shack

One of the most contentious issues raised by the book, the Shack, is the way we image God. Some say it can't be done and, indeed, shouldn't be done. Others, and I think I would be one of them, would argue that the only way we can talk about God is in human language. Language is symbol and in talking about God, at all, we are already in the realm of image making. Others, take language literally, and when we talk of the first person of the Trinity as Father then we are saying that he is male. The book 'The Shack' doesn't take that line. The Father (Papa), as the story goes, is 'imaged' as an African-American woman. Hence, the controversy - not male, not white!

I would hold with the 'apophatic' tradition that God is mystery and that when we speak of Father, Son & Holy Spirit we are moving in the realm of symbol and analogy. Feminine images, therefore, are perfectly acceptable for God. Male & female, together, image God (Gen 1:27).

Is 'The Shack' right? Am I right?

Chris

P.S. Part 2 of 'The Shack', this Sunday night @ 5.30pm - God and suffering.

Back to Church Sunday - last grasp @ christendom?

It was great to see some new people @ connecT exploring God with us. We hope you enjoyed what we are trying to do. Thanks to all the team!

But, was back to church Sunday a good thing? Was it a last grasp @ christendom? I'm mulling that one over a bit. It could have been, depends on how it was handled. We tried to be open, invitational & hospitable. We tried not to push church rules, regulations and 'religion'. We tried to speak about Jesus and do so in a way that made sense to the culture. We tried...

How did it go for you?

Chris

Back to Church Sunday

At connecT, this Sunday, 13 September 5.30pm, we are keeping 'Back to Church Sunday'. The idea is to come back to church if you haven't been for a while or come for the first time if you have never been. We will keep it in the connecT flavour - informal, relevant, faithful; and followed by a meal. Hope you can make it. connecT meets @ St. Jude's Anglican Church, 444 Brighton Rd, Brighton, South Australia each Sunday @ 5.30pm.

Chris

Life in parables

Now, what was that all about? So someone asked after I was trying to say something profound about parables. Er...what I was trying to say was that parables are best left a little open ended. A parable, like the 'good Samaritan', says something about the way we experience the reign of God and how we respond to it. Indeed, that parable finishes with a call to be like the 'good Samaritan'.

But, I no longer hold that a parable should only have one meaning as, seemed to be, suggested in some books and articles I read in the past. A parable - left open - invites us into the story. Who am I really - the priest, the levite, the victim or the good Samaritan or even just the inn keeper?

Parables get us involved and in turn help us to see that our lives can be parabolic -earthly, incarnational stories that speak of the surprising God among us.

Chris

P.S. Don't forget connecT looks at 'the Shack' (previous post)

connecT looks at the Shack

During September 'connecT' looks at William P Young's, popular, book, 'The Shack'. 'connecT' meets every Sunday @ 5.30pm @ St. Jude's Church, 444 Brighton Rd, Brighton, South Australia. 'connecT' is an informal service committed to shared worship, dialogue and community. Our tag - relevant, informal, faithful.

Chris

Grumpy God Judge

Last week at connecT we looked at the parable of the 'widow and the judge'(Luke 18). At first glance it looks like God is a grumpy old man who won't give us what we want until we annoy hm enough. That is until Shelley - one of our worship leaders - reminded us that the judge is an example of what God is not like. Makes sense, especially in the light of the other parables in Luke, like the 'prodigal son'.

But I wonder how many of us have a grumpy God judge? Christianity has often used that image to compel people to do what it wants or to convert by fear. It doesn't seem to fit with Jesus as God's 'human face' and square with his ministry with the outcast, sinful and poor.

The parable of the 'widow and the judge' reminds us of persistence in prayer. Working at it helps us to grow closer to Jesus and perhaps, learn more from him and to be like him. Its been about 30 years since I became a Christian and I'm still learning and growing, and loving it!. I'd like to think that's persistence with a gracious God not a grumpy judge. Maybe, persistence in prayer softens the grumpy God judge that seems to live in so many of us; and sometimes even in me!

Chris

What's in a name?

Recently, I read of a dispute over names - emerging vs emergent. Apparently, there is a difference; but does the difference really matter all that much? My understanding of emergent(ing) movement is that we are trying to listen to, and respond, to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. We are keeping our ear to the ground, and to the wind, to get a sense of where God is moving in the world, and what our response should be. There is bound to be some difference of opinion in that!

For what its worth, I like 'emerging'. It reminds us that we are not quite there yet and never will be. The church is always on a journey and when, we think, we have arrived, it only means we are ready to 'pilgrim' again. Disputes over words and labels are not really that important. Apostle Paul had something to say about that. Which leads me to connecT.

This week we had a look at the conflict between Euodia and Syntyche in Philippian 4. Paul's love for both reminds us of our God created uniqueness which, in turn, will cause the occasional conflict with others. Paul's advice, think like Jesus (Phil 2).

Chris

Sophie's thoughts.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At our contemporary worship service this week we looked at Philippians 1- the start of a 4 week chapter by chapter exploration of the letter. It is really extraordinary to read the joy and love that Paul clearly has for the community in Philippi. His genuine exuberance even from jail is confronting. Paul is still bearing witness and spreading the Gospel from inside jail, and more than that he is not put off whatsoever by his current circumstances.

Paul gives us a great example of how to bear trials, most definitely, but he also gives a model of discipleship that transcends situation- and I think here lies some of what Philippians 1 has to say to a contemporary audience. To follow Paul is would seem to me that we might need to find our prisons. In the service we looked at what status is about, what objects and things keep us locked up. Using some of the popular philosophical work of Allan de Botton, we looked at our own loot/prison and the secondary prison of the status the loot can affords us. Sometimes we can be slaves to our societal rank or to the perceptions of others about us, or our stuff. The good news, from our focal letter to Philippi, is that these prisons mean very little to us. If Paul could not be contained by bars, we cannot be contained by our “stuff”. We can reveal some of Paul’s joy and exuberance in ourselves and glimpse the real freedom Christ offers.

Sophie (Student Minister)

The Trinity is back !

Has it ever been away, some of you will ask? Well, yes and no. Many years ago when I was a seminarian the Trinity fell out of fashion. One afternoon while mowing the college lawns - we did those sorts of things in the olden days - a student colleague and I were discussing theology when I pronounced a robust belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. My colleague and friend quickly denounced me as naive and a fundamentalist to boot. The Trinity was passe. He knew because one of the lecturers told him so (and me some time later). I never believed him and stayed a naive fundamentalist (though I don't think I am).

It is a funny old world, isn't it? Because, the Trinity is back. Recent theological thinking has reminded the church that this uniquely christian view of God is rich soil. Remembering that God exists in community has something important to say to those of us who seek to live as a community of equals.

This is what we trying to do at connecT. Worship, support, pray and care for each others as equals. Each of us is unique but we are inter-connected. Not joined at the hip, as it were, but bonded in love. The Trinity, that is God, fills all that we seek to do. It is relational. A naivety we would be unwise to let go of.

Chris

Everybody hurts sometime.

So sing REM. This song formed part of our Sunday night's reflection on 'baggage' and what do with it. Assisted by Rob Bell - via Nooma video, Luggage - we thought about baggage and forgiveness and being hurt and hating it and being freed from it...sometimes. We all have baggage don't we and we are so often sick and tired of carrying it around. I want to be free from it. So, too, do many others.

A ritual which helped. We lit a candle. The candle represented someone who we need to forgive or, perhaps, someone who needs to forgive us. We, hopefully, left it there to burn away as we moved on. For some of us we needed to make contact with the forgiven and some did. For others it was too late. They are no longer with us. But it was all part of birthing the good news of forgiveness in us so it becomes part of our good 'baggage'.

How best do we deal with 'baggage'? Ignore it? Burn it? Re-pack it?

Chris

Picking fruit

At this week's connecT service we thought about the fruit of the Spirit -love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5: 22-23) . We were asked to pick a few that we found easy and a few that we found a little harder. Most of us found love, peace and joy the fruit easier to pick but patience, faithfulness, self-control etc. a little harder.

Thinking about it bit more today I wonder whether we can really ever know love without patience or faithfulness, or peace with out self-control. Is Paul's list pick and choose or do we need them all to pass the test? Maybe, it not a test, at all, but an invitation to invite God's Spirit in to do the work. 'If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit' (Gal 5: 25).

Chris

Love is all around us

On Sunday night two of our leaders designed the worship around love and the Holy Spirit - a great connection. Though the verse wasn't used I was reminded of Romans 5:5 - 'God's love has been poured into hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us'.

A clip was used - the beginning of 'Love Actually'. For some reason I always get a bit 'misty' at the beginning and, especially, at the end of the movie. All those people at the airport meeting in love coupled with a great Beach Boys song, 'God only knows'.

Which leads me to ask: are our churches like airports; meeting spaces where loved ones meet at the beginning of , or at the end of, or mid-way through journeys, with stories to tell and experiences to share? Do our worship spaces help us to connect life, faith and love?

Chris

Change

I borrowed this from Steve Taylor's blog 'emergentkiwi'. I thought it was good and something, especially, for anglicans to think about.

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less”.

A quote, not by some emerging, missional hipster, but General Eric Shinseki, now President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Chris

Emergent worship

Just recently we began a new evening service. At this service we wanted to explore some 'emergent' forms of doing and being church. There would be music, Bible, monthly eucharist, some creativity and, especially, an opportunity to gather around the 'text' of scripture and talk - and, yes, food too! Some input would be provided by one of the leadership team - 7 adults under 50 and over 30; 4 women and 3 men. The service would be built around themes. Last night, for example, being Mother's Day in Australia, we looked at feminine images for God. The service was led by all women. We used the Rob Bell Nooma dvd 'she' as a discussion starter (the only male input, we wanted to find a dvd by a woman but couldn't find one quickly) - it worked well. At the service there we about 30 people aged from 9 to 80 and good gender balance too. I felt it was a good night and made me, at least, think deeper about how I see God and value women's experience. I forgot to mention we call the service 'connecT' (the church is at a 'T' junction and we want to connect in Jesus, with each other and with the world around us).

Why this post? Well, are there any others doing similar things? What's your journey been like? Where do you find your inspiration, music and resources? What keeps you on track? What feeds you? I'd love to hear from you and get the conversation going.

Chris