Romans 9-11 definitely stands as a section within the whole book but is not simply unrelated to the remainder of the book. The latter chapters address the inter-relationship of the people from the former covenant who have responded to Jesus as Messiah and those from the Graeco-Roman world who have acknowledged the God of Israel and the work of the cross (deeply practical – a people who are Torah obedient and a people of faith to whom the Torah was not given). And the earlier part of the book has all people have fallen short of the glory of God (of course we read this individualistically but Paul is writing it collectively), with the fullness of salvation available for all. Then these middle chapters are in answer to the faithfulness of God with Paul insisting that ‘It is not as though the word of God has failed’ (Rom. 9:6).
Never one that is easy to follow, but Paul having laid out his case concludes with ‘In this way all Israel will be saved‘. The chapters are dense and that sentence is somewhat dense too!
He is not predicting some future turning of all Jews to Jesus as Messiah. His language is ‘in this way’ not ‘and then…’ He is not seeking to give a timeline. His slow to build (though dense) argument is to present an ongoing process of a faithful God.
He is not saying ‘all Jews’ but ‘all Israel’. That is a vital part to note. The term ‘Jew’ and ‘Israel’ are not synonymous. Outside of these chapters in the Pauline corpus his usual language is ‘Jew’; inside these chapters his language is ‘Israel’.
This distinction of ‘Jew’ and ‘Israel’ is consistent with other authors such as Josephus or Philo. (Josephus (37-100AD), for example, wrote the Jewish Antiquites (a history of Israel) and refers to Israel/Israelites 188 times in the first 11 volumes but does not use those words outside of those 11 volumes; and conversely he uses the term ‘Jew’ only 26 times in the first 10 volumes, but in the remaining 9 volumes he only refers to the term ‘Jew’ (1162 times)).
‘Jew’ refers to those who returned from the exile in Babylon, consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; ‘Israel’ is a larger term relating to the whole 12 tribes, who did not return to the land but were scattered among the nations. Paul expresses the hope of the 12 tribes when he stands before Agrippa – the hope of Israel, and if that hope is to be fulfilled then God has to be faithful. If he has abandoned his people then he will prove to be unfaithful.
Thus Paul is writing of an ongoing process through which all Israel will be saved, not some ‘end-time’ event.
Further he has argued (as Scripture does consistently) that Israel is a faith term more than an ethnic term. Those who are not ‘of Abraham’ can become descendants of Abraham, while ‘not all (ethnically) descendants of Abraham’ are of Israel. ‘Israel’ is a term larger than ethnic Israel and at the same time smaller than ethnic Israel!
The global mission is the means by which all Israel will be saved. All Israel, not simply those living in the land of Israel (those whose designated term was ‘Jews’), but those from among the nations whose ethnicity is rooted in Abraham (those from the tribes who never returned); all Israel in that those who have no ethnic roots in Abraham but are adopted from among the gentiles (ta ethne – gentiles of nations as it was a term used to describe those who are not ethnically descended from Abraham).
The above is a summary of part of my reading of this ‘all Israel’ use in the context of Romans 9-11 and the fuller text is here.
In seeking to narrow down as to what Paul is arguing and thereby exclude certain other meanings I plan to jump to some perspectives on the situation in Palestine / Israel.
Some of you will have read the pdf on the theology behind Paul’s statement that ‘All Israel will be saved’ (available here via the menu under ‘Journals‘) and since then I have read Munther Isaac’s book ‘Christ in the Rubble’. He is a Palestinian Christian pastor (and much more!) living in the West Bank. Deeply informative of the history and sensitive to the issues but very clear. Two aspects remain with me constantly that the creation of the state of Israel by the colonial powers used the Palestinians as the atoning offering for the anti-Semitic history of those colonising powers and the history of the land prior to the modern state was one of convivencia.
Some years back Gayle and I took a year to research then travel throughout the whole of mainland Spain to pray into the years that culminated in the brutal expulsion of the Muslims (1609). With a measure of rose-tinted lenses and a significant measure of reality under the rule of the Muslims there was what was termed convivencia in Spain – those of the three Abrahamic faiths (Christian, Muslim and Jew) co-habited space. We see Spain as the ‘canary in the mine’ (not original to us – a recent history book wrote with this lens on Spain in the context of Europe) so do believe that Spain is key to lead a path back toward genuine convivencia – the vision of the New Jerusalem is that: every tribe… and no temple!
Maybe we are naive and yesterday we had two socially active people with us who do not express faith. I admire their stance and understand the huge measure of pessimism as without faith in the transcendent ‘Other’ how much faith can anyone have in humanity to bring about change. The pope recently called for a ‘Christian humanism’ to rise up. For too long we have seen a divide between a focus on humanity and a theology of God. This is why I wrote Humanising the Divine, though I don’t think the pope was one of the four readers of the widely acclaimed book (widely acclaimed in my head!).
I have at times alluded to what I consider is the most profound dream Gayle had which began with Palestine and the coming together of Jesus-aligned people with humanists in the context of Europe in close harmony and support, coinciding with the exit of Christian-Zionists. The end of the dream pushed for a new order economically. (There were many details in the dream that we have watched play out – including a phase of the appearance of pink flamingos with the question: ‘did you see that?’ Did you see what was happening in Albania???)
Palestine, Israel, convivencia, the Bible, genocide – huge questions. And in real life situations there are rarely ‘here is the answer’ but rather here is the first step… and if the steps can be followed bravely and without fear something redemptive unfolds. I think this is the way God / faith works – from glory to glory.
I read this morning an article: Israeli West Bank settler tells BBC attacks on Palestinians are justified as revenge (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g4djgdyk2o). I am lifting part of the dialogue below:
I think now, after they killed one Israeli, we need to kill all the people in Tal and Sarra, even Jit and Farata,” he said, naming the Palestinian villages closest to the outpost. I put it to him that he was equating one Jewish life with hundreds or even thousands of Palestinian lives. “No,” he said, “millions. One Jewish life, it’s 10 million [Palestinians].” Challenged on the racism of his statement, he did not deny it. “Yes, I know,” he replied. “But this is the truth, because God chose us [and] because of this you are jealous.”
‘God chose us’… there is the issue right in our face. And Paul quotes Deut. 32:21 that God would make Israel jealous by a nation that are not a people!
So over the coming days I want to reflect on Israel, Palestine with reference to what I wrote in the pdf. And hopefully taking it further, for the vision is of ‘neither Jew nor Greek’… maybe it begins with the original creational binary of ‘male and female’ shifting to be ‘no longer male and female’. The binaries that we so often love are no longer present relationally in Christ (Gal. 3:28; convivencia in its fullness).
It has been a long time since I have posted something here but I still remember how to get my fingers to put letters on a screen. Gayle and I are away in Galicia – Celtic lands in the north west of Spain with a coastline that is stunning and could be found in one of the Celtic lands of the UK.
Away from the heat of Oliva (at least there is some sea air there) or the altitude and heat of Madrid, and for now away from the wild fires of Spain and France. And away to reflect, seek to align for whatever is coming up, to read (I am just finishing ‘Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza’ – I will at some point come back to this book).
(Wild fires in Spain – we are top left currently… got to get to the East Coast above Alicante. It can be done but which route?)
The news… the world…
We often comment that there are a billion (or more) worlds. The old request that we walk in someone else’s shoes and then we can talk with them. Or in the words of the 13th Century Sufi mystic and poet
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.
There are rights and wrongs, but Rumi is calling us to move beyond the egocentric position that fuels scapegoating, and calling for us to ‘meet’ at that place of listening.
I usually dip into a couple of news-sites each day but if I think by doing so I have caught up on the news I would be very much mistaken. The ‘news’ as Malcolm Muggeridge said is ‘not the news but an extraction of the news’. The news in Gaza is different to the news about Gaza… and the absence of the any news concerning Gaza on the majority of the front pages of news-sites is something different again. Today the wild fires in Spain and France dominate the sites I read. Important and interesting for me; we have to consider what route we take to get home. Inconvenient, an adventure, maybe will add a few hours to our journey; but today we eat, we sleep, we keep dry and… Gaza means nothing. The person I see outside the supermarket with his (true or otherwise – probably true) sign that he would like help to feed his family of four and would I consider buying some eggs or pasta for him. I have not walked in his shoes. His world is not mine.
Those fleeing the wild fires, losing everything – another world. Those who ignore the science because it has economic ramifications – another world.
Where is God in the (literal or otherwise) rubble of the multiple worlds we live in? Where is the devil (however understood) in those multiple worlds? Where am I complicit in those worlds? All three questions are relevant.
‘What about this person?’ – said Peter to Jesus after the three-fold questioning dialogue. Paraphrasing Jesus, he said ‘nothing to do with you’.
What am I / Gayle to do in this next phase? OOOOFFFF – that is a question.
Whatever it is it needs to contribute to the future and to help one of the billions of worlds out there to move to a better place – even if it is the smallest of those billions of worlds. ‘You did it to me; you visited me… you gave a cup of cold water in my name…’
Interlude – all the pressures of (privileged) life suddenly breaks in:
I am sitting here and notice the front right tyre of our van is not looking good. I look again 10 minutes later – no we have a puncture! And we are on soft camping ground so no way can we put a jack under the van… and the tyre is sinking and deflating into the mud. And then the rain – did I say RAIN? So disastrous – just don’t use that description to the billions today living on or below the poverty line (and when I used the word ‘disastrous’ did I mention we ate a roast chicken last night? And a definite irrelevant aside – we can cook a whole chicken on a few coconut husk charcoals on the COBB – if I were an agent the number of people who come over to say – what is that? – to whom I could sell one would make me wonderfully well off in pocket).
(End of interlude – written after the ‘disastrous’ above event.)
A Jesus lens on the one big world we all live within… now this site is ‘Perspectives’ and there certainly is a ‘field’ beyond my perspectives but…
There are some big issues that are being highlighted:
Feminism – simply the push for women and men to stand together on the same level field. (I put at the top of this post that in spite of not writing for some time that I still know how to put my fingers to the keyboard. Back in the day anyone using a keyboard was female serving the demands of those who were male (typists / secretaries); along comes technology and suddenly the fingers are male; cook in the kitchen; but Michelin stars on offer and the gender changes… the deciding factors – visibility and money. This was central to our push over 4 months in Sicily.
And currently there is such a push to keep patriarchy and misogyny alive. Test the armed forces for their level of testosterone? Really? Those are the attempts at a falling Imperial (Western) system to stay alive.
War. Some time back Gayle had (another) dream where she dialogued with a world leader. This great peacemaker(!!!) said that there would only be one more war that he had to initiate and then peace would come. Gayle said to him (yes, as per normal a ‘him’) if you go to war it will only lead to another one. The dream… and the reality is the one more has led to another one already and neither are over.
Palestinians – offered on the altar as the atonement for the anti-Semitism of the West. (Gayle had a dream some years back of the Palestinian situation (prior to Gaza) and a response to it… eventually it led to the possibility of a new economic system. Sadly in the dream those wedded to Zionism could not go there.) Anti-Zionism is NOT anti-Semitic.
There are many ‘isms’ that are being challenged. Scripture does not primarily address the oppressed to take over and sort out the oppressors, but it does address the oppressors. Maybe I am one of those… even if not, I am one of the privileged so Scripture does address me, and it comes with a metanoia (think again) command / invitation.
The third commandment telling Israel not to bear the name of the Lord in vain is pretty profound. As indicated in the title of this blog I want to carry it a long way further than using the name of the Lord in a swearing context, and certainly beyond those who call out OMG.
To bear the name of the Lord is parallel to that of the high priest who bore (carried) the names of the tribe on his clothing – he carried them, he represented them before God; hence the core of this commandment is to represent God. Jesus faithfully ‘carried’ God’s name (character)
I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them (Jn. 17:26).
Even AI is smarter than to reduce this commandment to swearing. Here is a summary that AI comes up with:
Hypocrisy & Misrepresentation: Claiming to be a follower of the Lord, but acting in ways that directly contradict His teachings.
False Prophecy: Saying “God told me” when He did not, or claiming divine authority for one’s own desires.
Covenant Breaking: Making vows or promises to God but failing to follow through.
Superstition or Magic: Using God’s name lightly as a charm or to cast spells.
Careless Speech: Using God’s name in a thoughtless, casual manner.
Too much of that takes place and my slight following of what is getting shaken at the moment is to do with where the name of the Lord has been carried emptily / hypocritically / in vain. I was somewhat impacted this morning when reading about Babylon (representative of all Imperial structures) in Isaiah. The spirit of Babylon is that of self preservation of the structure at all costs – hence people will be sacrificed
I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children… I am, and there is no one besides me. (Is.47:8, 10).
That is the voice of Babylon – we will survive or ever and at all costs. This is why I have advocated that something akin to a corporate exorcism is needed probably once a year, even to structures that have served well. The snake on the pole was the means of healing, and then became something that had to be destroyed. If we do not do this what served become what we serve, and back we go to deny that first commandment.
The part that impacted me this morning was the sudden demise of Babylon. Took years to become ‘eternal’ in spirit and attitude, but in a short space of time the demise comes,
But evil shall come upon you, which you cannot charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, which you will not be able to ward off, and ruin shall come on you suddenly, of which you know nothing (Is. 47:11).
We all know that sadly there are those who genuinely are put off God because of us lot (and some who use that as an excuse). We carry the name of the Lord… but how do we carry it?
One further aspect struck me this morning. We know that Jesus became of no reputation, and did so as he was ‘in the form of God’ – he was like God. The humility of God. Ever been spoken against? Be slow to defend. Yes, we have a responsibility to do what we can so that we do not (actively or passively) leave a falsehood, but it cannot be from the motivation of self-defence, of preserving any reputation. To do so would be to take the name of the Lord in vain.
I have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I know I do cos I can make every Scripture back me up. Really?
I have always believed in God starting out because I was told so, then experientialy, but over the years I have become an ‘atheist’ concerning a certain presentation of ‘God’, aligning myself with those who say ‘I cannot believe in a God who…’ In other words my faith in who God is has evolved – with Scripture, experience and observation needing to line up in what I consider a more coherent way.
Proof texting – taking a text in one place and lining it up with a text elsewhere (and often from two different authors writing into two different contexts) – is popular in many circles. I do not mind when someone is writing a theology and then quoting verses that illustrate what they have written, but at times other blatant texts that would disagree with what has been written are ignored (I , of course, never would do such a thing).
I consider that there is an evolution of understanding we can find within Scripture – hence at the two important areas of ‘who is God?’ and ‘who is humanity?’ we have to have a Jesus-lens. He alone, in visible human form was God, and alone was ‘truly’ human (like us fully human; unlike us truly human).
On other issues there will always be room for the ‘agnostic’ to find space. I believe in a personal devil and demons, or maybe I should write I think I believe in that direction – but am really open to it being a different reality. One could suggest that the world of the New Testament was somehow naive, but we do read in Matthew a clear distinction with those who were demonised from those who suffered from seizures (Matt. 4:24). Maybe they knew better than us – where everything is demonic or nothing is demonic! (My colleague, Johnny Barr, who some thought saw demons behind every bush, worked with a psychiatrist – both recognising their distinctive giftings.)
An evolution. The serpent in the garden seems to be equated to the devil (Rev. 12:9), but in Genesis we see traces of the serpent as wisdom which was a common persepctive in the ancient world, so much so that Jesus instructed the disciples to be as ‘wise’ as serpents. The snake on the pole to be looked at also pulls on that tradition of wisdom and healing.
We read that God is attributed as the one who ‘incited David’ to count the people,
Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.” (2 Sam. 24:1)
Oh no says the later writers / editors as by then they all knew that God was not the God who tempts. They attribute the temptation elsewhere:
Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring me a report, so that I may know their number.” (2 Chron. 21:1,2).
Early writers had Satan in heaven as the accuser (e.g. Job) and as part of the counsel of the sons of God. That might well be a description of ‘reality’ and maybe it changed with the devil falling from heaven when the disciples went out proclaiming the kingdom of God (or maybe when there was warfare in heaven between Michael and his angels and the devil and his angels). Maybe reality or the story-telling way of seeking to explain the reality that we all experience.
The devil led Jesus… and yet, we are told, God cannot look on sin! (In this situation I think it is the latter assertion that needs to be critiqued with a God-incarnate manifestly eating with sinners!). Scripture must challenge our beliefs as much as it shapes our beliefs.
In it all we can be tempted to put a finger into a text and then make all the others fit what we read in one place… or maybe we let them free stand and allow for an evolution of understanding.
I think the latter. Loose ends. And seeking to bring my practice into line with the practice of Scripture. If demons and the devil do not exist as personal entities we witness that Jesus responded in a way that suggests they do. I am allowed to be agnostic in belief but not so in practice.
It is sometimes difficult to read Scripture and to make sense of it (sometimes?)… my reading yesterday included that of the lone prophetic voice of Micaiah who spoke in opposition to 400 other prophets:
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred of them, and said to them, “Shall we go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” They said, “Go up, for God will give it into the hand of the king.” (2 Chron. 18:5).
The vast majority of prophets were aligned with the political power of their day; their voice being unanimous that God is with you to bring you success. The story goes on that Micaiah comes reluctantly with a contrary word, and then also gives insight into the behind the scenes that took place in the heavens with a discussion between God and various spirits, including a lying spirit. I am not sure what to make of that part of the narrative and am aware of a move to take the ‘heavenly counsel’ as literal – I am really not sure about that. Regardless the outcome is that a ‘lying spirit’ comes into the mouths of the prophetic counsel. That is the sobering part.
Can God speak a word to power that contains ‘God is with you to bring you success’? Yes indeed, but at the heart of the prophetic has to be a challenge to power and when Scripture is read with regard to an inbalance of power the challenge is always to those who abuse power. The call is to ‘repent’ to those with the power and to those oppressed that the day will come when they will be rewarded.
Can a lying spirit come into the mouths of those who prophesy? Maybe. Lying spirit or not what seems clear is whenever we are bought (financially or emotionally) there will always be the possibility (the inevitability?) of declaring success to power.
Out of the mouth of 2 or 3 (or 400) witnesses let every word be established. Or maybe we could suggest something along the lines of align yourself to those who are in the power position and the echo chamber will be strengthened.
Some while back I had a dream in which there was a group gathered from a European context and they were discussing what should be the ‘protocols’ in place for a fresh wave of prophetic expression. Into the dream a prophetic figure from the USA materialised. He materialised as a 40 year old which would coincide with the time that he (with others) were laying foundations for a prophetic expression that is now being (rightly) critiqued. He knew that what they did was, with hindsight, insufficient. What is for certain one of the biggest flaws in any prophetic foundation is an uncritical alignment with power.
Conversion. Like so many words what is meant by the term. ‘Conversion of sinners’ was language used in the classic revival periods of the Great Awakening and the like. Conversion from one religion to another is another use. I was reading the introduction to a book the other day from a former pastor who was describing his journey and how he became a Christian when in his teens then later met someone who introduced him to Jesus when he was in his thirties. Certainly not a new ‘concept’ for me and I think particularly for those of us who grow up within a broadly speaking Christendom context often a necessary move forward!
The sobering part of the writer’s story is of being a convinced Christian and then discovering Jesus. Perhaps he was overstating it to make a point but the very real possibility of having a ‘Jesus-less Christianity’ is something to be taken note of. At one level we all have a ‘god’ who is less then the God that Jesus reveals – true at the personal level; but beyond the personal level I have of late been maintaining that there are expressions of three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – that ultimately are indistinguishable from each other and feed off each other to maintain their strengths.
The challenge for us who go by the label of ‘Christian’ is whether Jesus fits into our Christian faith / system or whether Jesus defines our Christian faith. Hence it does not matter how long we have been on the road continual introductions to Jesus are essential for us.
Jesus re-orientates everything and at the core is the only lens through which God can be seen. And that sight never comes in one sitting but is life-long. ‘Conversion’ is here to stay and has to be.
Given that I only see broad brush strokes regarding (the wrongly-termed) end-times and no details in Scripture I dream of a Christian faith that is stripped right back so that Jesus becomes again the centre. Not doctrine, not even sacraments, but Jesus. What other ‘conversions’ might follow?
The obvious one of our view of God, but I am sure other aspects would follow. Views give way to experience and the old adage that what God does in us is what is done through us (‘what I have I give to you’) would yield an expression of the charismatic that was not focused on proving God but on holding space for people to find God. And I think the big element that would result would be a ‘conversion to the world’. Humanity… no true theology can begin with God and work its way through the various dogmas until it reaches ‘the doctrine of humanity’. Ironically all theology has to begin with the doctrine of humanity, or maybe better entitled the doctrine of The Human. There we see God and we see our destiny also (try to put the doctrine of predestination into the mix at this stage – now it reads somewhat differently!).
Perfection is not related to squeeky-cleanness but to our response to those we walk among. And if we draw back from those around us we will never be ‘squeeky clean’ regardless of what we seek to do.
Jesus, I wrote above, re-orientates everything and thus in equal measure he disorientates everything.
I came to faith at 16 (‘conversion’?) but I am still on the path of being introduced to Jesus. Hopefully daily, but I am aware that I too often trundle along somewhat satisfied until I hit the jolt of ‘but this is not compatible with Jesus’.
Seems like forever ago that the Mighty Gayle and I spent a few months on that island. We were just reflecting yesterday that it was just over a year ago that Sicily first came on our radar. I know we are all different and many people know how to spell the word ‘reflect’ but I genuinely find that hard to do and I think that helps me focus on today and tomorrow (OK you did not need to say it – and learn very little from yesterday).
Gayle picked up the following report this morning:
Italian authorities have seized more than 200 million euros ($232 million) in assets linked to the late mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro’s drug trafficking network, in what anti-mafia prosecutors described Thursday as a blow to the Sicilian Mafia’s attempts to rebuild its financial power.
Maybe our prayers, particularly in Palermo into the mafia, made a small contribution? Prayer is awesome – every prayer a small contribution… and the multiplicity of the small.
I have written elsewhere about the encounter of Jesus with ‘the woman caught in adultery’ (Jn. 8:2-11) as how he handled the situation (set-up) is intriguing. Like many biblical stories we are challenged as to how we read it. There is the obvious patriarchal bias in the Pharisees – the woman is brought, but the man?… and that bias continues in so much of the Christian faith – the woman is to blame for the sin committed; the man has to be restored.
In what I wrote I suggested that Jesus does not reply immediately as he buys time by writing in the dust. He did not come to each and every situation with a ready made encyclopedia full of the right answers. As one of us he had to dig deep; as one different to us he did not quickly respond with the right (‘religious’ nor even ‘biblical’) answer. Jesus leaned on God and was always the Great Teacher because he was the Great Learner. Buying time and connecting. Connecting with our humanity for we came from the dust and are but dust of the earth. Connecting with the realities of life, our humanity and also the presence of ‘the serpent’ who crawls on its belly on the dust of the ground. Jesus bridged as always the gap between the divine and the human. If we are to come with a ‘God response’ we have to touch, and be touched by, humanity. And if we are to touch humanity we have to be connected to the divine. Then an answer can come that is deeper than the right answer, but is the redemptive solution so that an empowerment, that is both a release from condemnation and a breaking free of enslavement, results.
Conrad draws out that in Jesus’ response he provokes the accusers to find their own humanity. They come as a collective and the result would have been that they (‘the crowd’) would have stoned the woman. Jesus responded to the crowd / mob but addressed each one as an individual – ‘Let anyone (lit: the one) among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’
Don’t hide behind the crowd, don’t go with the crowd. He pushes them to their own (fallen but ever so human) humanity.
Personal responsibility; the mob no longer is a cover, no longer an excuse. They came as a crowd but left as individuals: ‘When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.’
The story began with the woman ‘standing before them’ and ends with the ‘them’ having gone (one by one) and she is standing before Jesus. Two different places to stand. Standing before a patriarchal crowd strengthened by religious ‘rightness’. And finally standing before true humanity. The ‘one by one’ crowd that was ever so right have gone when they face their fallenness. She remains.
Arrived home on Sunday, not only does it take time to reflect but also how accurate are any reflections, but I will give it a go! First though back in time!
We all (I think) have a framework within which we see life. That framework can be small or big and ‘big’ does not mean more important. I say that as mine tends to be big which probably means the only way I know what is going on at a ‘real life’ level is when Gayle gives me a kick up the proverbials.
A background
Some while back as I was praying (and I am not a great pray-er) a map of the world appeared before me and as it appeared two great land masses moved. South America moved to position itself under Europe and Africa moved east being positioned under China / far east. I noted that the Indian sub-continent did not move. Way back in the day when I was travelling regularly to Brazil I declared that Brazil would remove its currency from a dependency on the US dollar and relate to the Euro (I cannot remember if I said it would drop its currency and join the euro or not). Obviously South America as we have it was shaped by the colonising exploits mainly of Spain and Portugal. It has encouraged us to see that Spain has taken steps toward repentance for the genocides and colonisation – more has to come. Africa is invested into heavily by China, and with the Indian sub-continent not moving I suspect it will become much more of a global trade partner and have influence on the global scene.
China, and her relations in the far East, is set to become the next global super-power. I hold that when there is a shift of imperial power that the rising power has to ‘eat’ the former power. China – communist or not now? Or has it been eating gradually the capitalism of the West?
The big factor for me though is that of faith. Christendom, sometimes characterised as society that has ‘Judeo-Christian’ values, has shaped the West, and from the West to many parts of the globe. Christendom is more than an expression of ‘Judeo-Christian values’, but that which privileges ‘Christianity’ often with a state-church or even where government is supposedly Christian. I do not see that as the original setting for faith nor set as a goal to be established. This is why I have such high hopes for Europe. ‘Secular’, ‘post-Christian’ and many such labels are put on this continent. However, given that such culture as we now see developing – multi-faith for example – we are moving toward something much more akin to the context of the first century. Faith in Jesus was much more than the expression of a private religion but a declaration that there was an open invitation to join the movement that believed ‘new creation’ was breaking in already, and the days of Caesar and the like were numbered.
I am deeply grateful and full of admiration for the commitment to Jesus in the far east, but… yes there is a but! A Christendom-free, kenotically-shaped gospel is what Europe can lead the way in .
Spain became clear to Gayle and I as being ‘the only nation on the planet that can claim on the basis of Scripture that there are first-century unanswered apostolic prayers in the ground’ and that if they could be partnered with the possibility of the resurrection of the ‘Pauline gospel’ could begin. (That perspective in no way suggests that we have found the keys nor that we will ever be the custodians of such a gospel. We all have a part to play and everything anyone does, small or big, is done in the name of Jesus for the sake of the body of Christ.)
Sicily became clear as a place, based on its history and geographical setting, where there could be a leverage point to pray and push for the future. From there we got sight of Istanbul – a city of 15 million in the land (Roman province of Asia) where Paul worked – as a follow on from Sicily. Located in Europe and Asia; history of (Orthodox) Christianity and Islam; formerly known as Constantinople (new Rome) as capital of the Eastern Empire… with so much more history and significance.
Anyway I put the above here to try to give a context, realising that even when we have sight we see in part.
A merry band of 7
Bjorn & Maria – from Sweden. A wonderful couple who have given and given again at great cost into the marginalised who have come to Sweden, many fleeing for their lives. Huge respect to them. Next is Gayle – awesome person! Then Kathy and Steve. Huge commitment from them both into the holding together of the far east (with two wonderful daughters from China as well as two older daughters born in the UK). If you look closely you will notice that Steve’s legs are very short due to walking from Whitby to Rome and then on to Saudi Arabia! Then me coming along for the ride. And finally Paul who has heavily invested into the Middle Eastern world, and from my memory, this time was the 6th time he had been in Istanbul.
We leaned heavily on Paul for guidance through the city physically (15+ million people) but more importantly through the layers that are present. Steve held this ‘magnificent seven’ all in place. It really was easy and a pleasure being together (always helps when there are no ‘egos’).
The background to coming there was the months that we had spent in Sicily where the (very tangible) layers of Imperial domination and historical oppression and incarceration of the feminine was clearly visible through both myth and story. Sicily being the centre of ‘middle earth’ / first colony of Rome / centre of the then Empire / first place ‘conquered’ to form the modern Italy, she gave sight to what lay beyond and Istanbul as ‘the new Rome’ (Constantinople through Constantine); headquarters of the eastern Empire / displaying the contention and divide between Islam and (Orthodox) Christianity; meeting point and divide of the two continents of Asia and Europe… so from Sicily Istanbul ‘called’.
It is so hard to pull out points that answer the question of ‘and…?’ but here is a small attempt.
We were very aware that the beast (Jewish writers used the term ‘beast’ or drew on undomesticated animals to represent imperial hostile powers) can appear to be obliterated but that a head can resurrect (Rev. 13:3) and we are seeing this very clearly at this current itme with the attempt to resurrect / keep alive Christendom. It does seem that the original seat of ‘Christianised’ faith in Istanbul (Hagia Sophia) was taken over by Islamic faith and once Islam took on the clothing of that brand of Christian faith Islam was able to expand. In reality there is a deep resonance between those who claim Christian faith but want it expressed through dominance over; an Islamic faith that is expressed through opposition to all other faiths and the claim to pull on the God of Israel as we see within Zionism. Those three ‘Abrahamic / monotheistic’ faiths when they are used to empower dominance over eventually submit to the same ‘god’ – that ‘god’ not being the God of Israel and the parent of our Lord Jesus. Violence and killing is what Jesus attributed to the ‘devil who is a murderer from the beginning’.
So one strand was into the untwining of the threefold ungodly cord – at the surface those three faiths might not be seen as aligned but I have a deep conviction that they are… and the challenge therefore remains of – regardless of ‘faith label’ – being a Jesus-aligned person.
Jumping ahead in our time-line in Istanbul when we crossed to the Asian side and got off the boat we were immediately met by a very oppressive call to prayer coming from the Mosques (much heavier than on the European side). And immediately in front of us was a shot-out car – either taken from Gaza or replicated from a car that was shot out there – complete with over 300 bullet holes and the occoupants left murdered. It was alongside a highly sobering display of the ongoing genocide that is taking place in Gaza. The history of faith being used to legitimise killing. Trauma, trauma, trauma.
Painful to wak through but ever so necessary.
The divides were where we were focused – the faith divides; the divide between Asia and Europe (so much more could be said about the need for Europe to find an identity, not simply for Europe’s sake nor simply for now. Without it China / Far East will simply eat the current Western hegemony and there will be no real shift); the feminine space – the lack of it being seen so clearly in a city dominated by the toxic masculine.
Prior to going I had had a conversation with Rowena who had considered coming with us to Istanbul and she had talked about her desire to put Jasper into the city, into the spaces. This we did – naming each Jasper that each of us put into the various ‘cracks’ – including into the Bosporus.
Jasper is the first stonein the new city:
It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.
And the results???? What a smart question that we have such a tendency to want ot ask! Who knows, but prayer sows into the (open) future. The day we left the news carried that Erdogen’s government had put the squeeze on the opposition with violence against their headquarters. Of course those things happen (and not just in Turkey!!!) but perhaps the timing indicates it was a sign that as we sought to press into the ‘cracks’ that the pressure made some impact.
We did have a very nice sign indeed at the last meal we had together. Throughout the time we encountered the number ‘7’ – on the wall of the apartment where we stayed, on the wall of the blue Mosque where we prayed and at numerous other points in the city. The last meal came to exacty 7777.00 Turkish Lira. Four 7s – a hugely significant combination of numbers in Revelation – symbolic of the completeness for the sake of the entire creation. Maybe we should not assume we have sorted out all of creation(!!!) but that what we went to do is our small part into that ‘reconciliation of all things’ or now. I am sure a very small part, but deeply encouraging.
