Year: 2024

People: God’s idea

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Prophetic Perspectives

People

What a smart ‘idea’ is written about, and written in a way that almost makes one imagine that God – in the counsel of the ‘gods”??? – considers pushing creation to a new level with the phrase ‘let us make humanity’. The power of myth captures theology in a way that scientific statements cannot and the imaginative story of a transcendent Being walking with humanity, and not simply in the cool of the evening but in and through the heat of despair, murder and idolatry unfolds in our holy writings.

People, with the heavens being God’s domain and the earth ‘given to humanity’ sets the scene for the journey to begin. What can be achieved is incredible hence the story of the origins of language so that whatever they imagine will not come to pass – something reversed at Pentecost, thus the Spirit and imagination are closely linked. Humanity inbreathed by the Spirit can respond to that early statement with ‘Let us…’

What can be. God saw and it was good… John saw a new heaven and a new earth (the renewal of all creation) and then he describes all that is good,no longer a couple starting an adventure but a company from all backgrounds that cannot be numbered; God present in fullness permanently; no tears of regret and pain… creation having come to a fullness, perhaps even with the potential of more to come with the description that the gates of the city will never be closed – room for more?

Because God released humanity as the agents to work with creation so much could / can happen… and so much has gone wrong. I don’t think the writers of Genesis saw where all this would lead but God’s commitment to humanity and the authority given to humanity is what produces the Incarnation – humanity still has to sort out the mess, so into first Century Israel appears the one who walks among them – the truly human one. First miracle? Water into wine. Barrels used for purification get transformed into barrels for joy.

Land and place come together to resist the future that could and should be… but with vision (which includes blindness with integrity for we all see in part, hence blind in part) people are uniquely able to pull in a future that resembles – even if like an impressionist painting, rather than a photograph – heaven’s realities.

We have some work ahead of us. I wonder if it begins with painting a picture of a new future and inviting people to change perspective (repentance) and come on board (ekklesia) to push and pull, and more importantly to love all fellow travellers. [Surely the heart of the ‘gospel’?]

I think the next couple of decades will be critical with potential end of world crises… or potential new adventures. I am calling this the great unravelling. We have well and truly ‘ravelled’ everything, but like a balll of string that is totally screwed up one has to start to pull one end and nothing moves… but eventually if one persists an end comes loose and in a quick period of time everything comes loose. Most of the loosing happens by accident, one just happens to pull the key part at the right time. Hence blind integrity is so important. To imagine that we know what to do would be fantasy indeed, but to groan with creation, holding on to hope might bring us a little into line with Romans 8.

People. God’s idea. And God’s dream is not a dashed dream. The adventure continues… Land, place, people… and time (a few thoughts to come on this).

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Place: what is located on the land

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Land is so foundational, with not simply great physical diversity but great ‘spiritual’ diversity. (The word ‘spiritual’ is not the right word to be used for this and perhaps I should have used something like ‘innate gifting / purpose’, but chose the inadequate term ‘spiritual’ to indicate that material land, physical location relates to the equally real (not more real) world of heaven). There is a connection that Paul affirmed between people, times and specific land when addressing the crowd in Athens, so that God can be found. Scripture indicates that the land can be polluted and can also be cleansed / reset to original intent.

Place… and again what term to use? I am using this term as an overall term to cover what we call city / town / settlement, business, trade, commerce – any institution or corporate construct that is ‘placed’ on the land. I also have to include church within this though I think Paul’s vision for ekklesia was different to that, essentially being a body of people who with a vision of, and from, the future were to be a redemptive catalyst, enabling the land to reset and accommodate whatever would develop a future that was beyond simply creational beginnings but moving toward new creation manifestations. If that be true, once again we can note the phenomenal and crazy Gospel. A Jew suffered the fate that many fellow Jews suffered in the first Century, and the claim was that the entire order of things had changed (way beyond ‘personal salvation’). Hard to believe this could be a made up new religion, and the traction the message gained in the Roman context surely indictes that there was a major endorsemnt of the message from heaven itself.

The challenge is once land is polluted – and I have written about the four elements that seem to repeat as being that of idolatry, blood shed, sexual immorality, and broken covenant – land then subsequently draws to itself that which sits comfortably with the pollution, hence a stronghold is established. Those sins seem also to sit under the (not surprising) umbrella of power to achieve whatever is wanted with the exploitation of fellow-travellers trampled over: a de-humanisation process.

The encouraging element in the Babel story (same word as ‘Babylon’ which is tracked to a clear exposure in Revelation) is the unfinished nature of it. Evil is not complete, only Jesus is the one who ‘becomes mature’ and as the firstborn of all creation offers hope for us all, and for our world. Everywhere can experience some level of redemption. I am agnostic about the future but I am inspired in the present to look for a new future in every situation, and hopefully not naive to expect this will take place without elements of Babylon coming down (could have written dominant Western culture as that is my context).

Place… changes within institutions so that the Babylonish elements are in part dismantled, and elements that belong to the New Jerusalem (not what rises up but what comes down) manifesting.

These next years are inevitaby going to see a major shift of understanding and activity among followeres of Jesus toward being placed in diverse locations with a view to seeing this provocative Gospel being expressed in a way that works with the innate gifting of the land.

The first parable that Jesus spoke of in the set that are put together is the well known one of the parable of the sower / four soils. Jesus explained that one in some detail and he said if we don’t get that parable how would we get any of the other ‘kingdom’ parables. In that first parable the seed is the ‘word sown’ and the soils represent different responses. Certainly, and necessarily, indicating that a personal response and receptivity.

And the parables move on… the challenge is for us to move on, for the second parable also speaks of seed that is sown, but the seed this time round is no longer the word of God spoken but the word of God incarnated – the seed is ‘the children of God’ and they are sown into the world. Place / location.

In that context two incarnations grow up together (wheat and tares), and they grow up together to the harvest.

The pessimist sees the glass as half-empty; the optimist sees the glass as half-full – so we are told. I suggest that the one gripped by a measure of new creation sight sees the opportunity to help fill the glass fuller than it has ever been, in other words moving beyond pessimism or optimism. A full (or fuller) glass is envisaged.

I am one monnth away from another birthday, and this year will accept that I am now more than half way through my life (that is not an optimistic perspective, just a straightforward stupid one!), but I would love to see the Lord give us (as humanity) another 500 years to help move the land forward. Maybe the Trumpet will sound long before that, maybe even before my birthday… regardless (why does American English use the term ‘irregardless’?) of when the trumpet sounds there must be an apple tree that can be planted (placed) today. Small, ever so small changes, probably not visible above the land, but what and who is planted today determines what will be visible tomorrow.

Placed on the land – organisations, cities, institutions – they can all lock the land up or… they can help bring about a redemption. Redemption does not mean perfection but a better afterwards than before.

And in the 20 year reset (signalled by COVID) there will be displacings of what is on the land and prayerfully and slowly new placings. Perhaps this is why many have felt displaced over the years preceding and running through 2020.

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Land, place, people and time

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

I think we all love to have some measure of understanding: to have a perspective on ‘why?’ Maybe some are happy with ‘random’ as the explanation but I have not been content with that response. Theists and, I guess, scientists want an answer. I cannot comment on the latter set of people and with regard to the former I distance myself from those who resort to something along the lines of ‘God is in control’ in the sense of controlling all things. Maybe better to think of something like a chess game, where the ‘master chess’ player responds to every move that is made… make that into billions years of history and seemingly continual damaging ‘plays’ by human figures and the God that is presented is more than a static ‘unmoved mover’ but so much wiser and innovative than anyone can imagine. I say billions of years as that seems to be where scientists take us, and who am I to argue, and then if I stick an amateur theologian hat on I have to probably go to an eternal creation / eternal creations – otherwise the concept of ‘time’ is difficult to work with and one has to posit in some way a Creator God who was at some time not creating???? OK… early in the morning here but I do have a cup of coffee by my side.

Leaving all the above behind I have been thinking about the four elements in the title for some time. Maybe just in my inadequate search to find meaning… but I think however inadequate it is my search to find some sight on what are we supposed to do to co-operate in the invitation from the ‘chess master’ to be freshly positioned. The invitation always is from love and the invitation is to co-operate… to not be disobedient to the heavenly vision so that the grace of God toward us is not in vain. [A chess game might not be a good analogy as it is too small to illustrate cosmic movements and in a chess game the pieces are inanimate and do not determine the outcome of the game… but if we imagine a major, MAJOR, chess game and some very stupid self-willed pieces that are continually making the completion of the game look totally impossible, we might then have something that looks like our world.]

Land… what is all around and under us. Land that we are related to – from the dust of the ground bizzarely pushes us toward ‘mother earth’ (toward). Land that we are alienated from; land that is brutally affected by our sin, sin being that failure to be human in the sense of calling. It is not surprising that Scripture with its 1200 references to land has a theme of ‘the land being cursed / blessed because of you’, and in a global era there are theological aspects to our global land crises.

Land holds the corporate memory, and if that be true imagine what is remembered, the layers that have built up one on another. Can the land have its memory healed? Imagine that. God ‘imagines’ that and we are invited to as well, to participate with the God who makes all things new (not whose end goal is to make all new things).

More to come… but how about this image of the ‘keynsham clock’ that was put up to reflect the history of the town. The distortion of the hands that took place a few days ago are a mystery and they are going to be fixed… The clock might be fixed, but history and time? Distortions methinks.

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Very serious

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

I have been (when was I not) thinking about the challenge to the powers and to the systems; elections all around the world are probably some indication as to whether there are ‘real shifts taking place’. Moves to the extremes (right or left) are not a good sign. We can read it as – and I do – a shaking and a sign of collapse beyond the polarities, nevertheless are we very serious about getting wholesome shifts? A note first on the collapse. Something that does not simply leave those with the power intact but marginalises yet further those who are disadvantaged I would consider a healthy shift (no, that is not a ‘socialist’ comment’ but in line with OT social legal instructions and the ethics of the NT). There is a collapse coming, I have no real sight as to when but for some 8-9 months I have been seeing even a day coming when the population of the earth will decline significantly, perhaps aligned to critical food shortages and pandemics that overlap. Harbinger of bad news? Simply a pessimist? Hope not – our hope is in the God who has never abandoned the planet that we were given jurisdiction for.

So how serious are we? I do believe that ‘money’ as we have it – founded on debt – is a manifestation of the infiltration of powers (mammon included) into our world. We have to find a new way in this battle area, where people who have power to buy and sell feel they have no option but to set profit as the bottom line. Some years back… probably almost 2 decades back I asked for those who were on the property ladder and well settled in to pray with me that we would see a rebalancing of prices, so for us in a privileged state we would be expecting our properties to reduce in value. I had no volunteers to join me. Maybe I was simply stupid. But I was serious about seeking to make a contribution. How serious are we? Checking how much our property has gone up in value, checking our pension funds (now what were they invested in again?) I don’t think indicates we are very serious about bringing about a shift, but are probably happy that we are benefiting from the status quo (as Gerald Coates said ‘Latin for “the mess that we are in” ‘). I am not so smart on things economic but can certainly say that on the property front that our personal bank account was affected. I don’t know how, but when I went to the bank, one I had been with for 30 years, to ask if I could open a mortgage with them, they looked at all my figures and said – you already have a mortgage with another bank, stay there, for given your figures we cannot offer you anything. In those few preceding years we had been able to help three separate people enter into the property market. God has a way.

I understand how anxieties arise, and if you are reading this and are struggling financially, this post is not for you. Not all Scripture is for all time nor for all people – ‘sell all you have’ was biblical for that one person. Anxieties are real, but many anxieties are not based in reality. Gayle and I could certainly not sell what we have in Spain and move back to what we once lived in – we could not even purchase half of it. It is irrelevant – we are not moving back today. If tomorrow we were to move back then, and only then, it would become a real issue.

Anxieties are real, but as they relate to the future they are very powerful, and powerful spiritually. Paul instructs us not be anxious about anything but that in everything we present our requests before God. We are to be people of the future, hence how we relate to the future is important. I do see the whole economic basis of debt (borrow from a future that has not yet happened) contributes to a present manifestation of war and the taking of life (including abortion). Maybe I am single issue focused, the same charge that is often brought against the evangelical wing of Christianity, but my single focus seems to me to be a very central focus of Scripture.

Maybe Jesus will return and bail us all out? However, as much as I pray maranatha, I also pray let your kingdom come on earth as in heaven. And it is seldom when contemplating the powers that the shift that takes place is in some realm distant to me. If the shift takes place within me I think the powers have to give way.

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A discussion on the ‘atonement’

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

Pete Enns (very bad person and was ‘sacked’ cos he could not affirm inerrancy… so very BAD) is a very smart person but makes many things simpler for the rest of us and hosts podcasts on The Bible for Normal People and the one at the top of the list (Episode 273) is an interview with Jennifer Garcia Bashaw and gives helpful summaries on various theories on the atonement. A skim through summary. Maybe the most popular, penal substitution, gets zero votes and if you add my vote to hers then we have to work out the total of 0+0.

She leans heavily on what is becoming very popular – the end of scapegoating – interesting… my opinion – very attractive, but probably too influenced by a recent understanding that is read back (the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement does not operate in this way).

So, I am still pretty much sitting with the defeat of the powers – with the power of sin (singular, not the sum total of my sins plus yours) and death – being central to that. The work of God as human on our behalf (so not substitutionary and not dualistic of God and the devil in battle… so podcast guys, make a bit of a correction to the section where you talk of the weakness of Christus Victor being dualistic.

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Old and young

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Bad influences, avoid them at all costs… In a couple of months Richard and Christopher Hays (father and son) will publish a book that probably won’t come up with something totally innovative but will annoy the (theologically) conservative world because Richard’s previous writings were used to defend their position, often used as a quote… as Richard Hays says in The Moral Vision of the New Testament…

There is already some response to the forthcoming book with one of the best quotes being

Unfortunately, I’ve seen young adult children turn their previously biblical parents toward heresy, not more than once — including a president of a Bible college.

‘Young adult children’… quite a comment!! Richard is 76 years old and I guess Christopher is around the 50 mark… and Jesus was reaching maturity in his early 30s. By the standards of the quote I hope I am deeply influenced in my thinking by a ‘young adult child’, the one who pioneered true faithfulness in God.

Seems the term as used in the quote is simply a convenient way to say ‘don’t read this book as I don’t agree / like the contents’. And I guess we all like to do that at times, to say ‘don’t confuse me with the facts’ or ‘I have everything buttoned down so don’t disturb my certainties’.

The other day I noted that I am getting older(!), that I am just passing beyond the category of being a ‘young adult child’, and crazily a big percentage of my time is as a sounding board (I will progress to ‘mentor’ once I am past middle-age) to those younger than me – with some of them being considerably older than Jesus was, and as someone older I do have a perspective on entering the last phase of life. Circumstances, health and some level of energy allowing that phase should be the most productive of all phases. I however observe that a number of people just seem to keep on with what they were always doing, occupying space so that the multiplication that should take place does not happen; possibly out of a fear of ‘redundancy’ they continue – the world has moved on, they have not, and they continue doing what they have always done but the effect and circle of influence become ever smaller, and often unresolved issues that busyness has kept covered / in check surfaces.

‘Be less visible and more effective’ that I think is the invitation for us who are no longer ‘young adult children’… and to be influenced and challenged by those who are ‘young adult children’.

I hardly think Richard (the father) has at this latter stage of his life is about to become a heretic (Stanley Hauerwas says of Richard Hays, ‘There are few people I would rather read for the actual exposition of the New Testament than Richard Hays’)… he might change some of his views and in doing so adopt something ‘in error’, for like us all when he does pass away he will not have sussed out everything – that is not our goal in life! Life is an adventure, it needs to be centred in on devotion to Jesus so that we do not simply meander and travel into unfruitful areas. But ‘knowing’ the truth as in propositions… no… and hence a vote for all those young adult children (probably in the 20-30 bracket, not the 50+ age group) to provoke, and a vote for those who are intent on making space as they seek to be less visible and yet more effective.

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Rebuild the Temple

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Theology

The early disciples had a strange relationship to the Jerusalem Temple for they seem to have continued to visit the Temple, so for example we read in Acts 3 that Peter and John were going ‘to the temple at the hour of prayer’. When Jesus had spoken about ‘not one stone remaining on another’ those words came as quite a shock to the disciples. The building was awesome, immense and impressive. The Temple was a subject of conversation among travellers within the Imperial world. ‘But have you seen the Temple in Jerusalem?’ would be a comment when a traveller was recounting what they had seen as they travelled across the Roman world. The Temple site occupied around 20% of the entire footprint of Jerusalem – this was not so much a city with a Temple (Canterbury with its cathedral is a city with a cathedral) but a Temple with surrounding buildings. The reference of Jesus to ‘my Father’s house has many [store-]rooms’ is based on the historic Temple with its many storehouses.

The shock of it coming down certainly indicated the end of the age, in our culture something like the detonation of an atomic bomb, with a significant before and after. The trauma of AD70 was intense… The great hope was of God delivering Jerusalem with many prophetic voices asking the people to stay firm. In the midst of the years of assault the Roman armies withdrew as Rome central was in crisis – imagine how those who believed the prophets would have rejoiced. However Jesus had warned about such ‘false prophets’ and once Rome stabilised they returned to finish the work and the end result was utter destruction. [I am deeply concerned that a considerable part of the prophetic movement globally is caught in that position currently – when I hear of ‘go back’, ‘God will vindicate’, or I read of the rejoicing when an intellectual proclaims a return to biblical foundations I get a tad worried, for the prophetic is not about yesterday but about tomorrow. Yesterday might stir faith but it is faith for ‘a new thing’. I see parallels between Jerusalem and today – the crisis we are in is to bring us through to something different, to landscape that is all-but unrecognisable.]

There is a hope for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem that is held to by some Zionists and Christians influenced by Dispensationalism, but seems so unlikely to me. There is no hope found in early Christian literature of the hope of the Temple being rebuilt that I am aware; Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple is never specified as being in a specific location, other than the city shall be called ‘The Lord is there’. Ezekiel’s vision fuels John’s vision in Revelation 21 of the New Jerusalem, the city that comes down with dimensions that fill the whole earth, and John says ‘I saw no Temple there’… The old Jerusalem was a Temple with a city around it, and any visitor would say ‘I saw the Temple’ for there was no way that one could visit the city and not see the Temple. John’s statement is in total contrast. A city without a temple! Or as we read we know the city is both a city and a temple. The eschaton has no hope of a third temple.

One final text that is quite powerful are the closing words of Matthew’s Gospel known as the Great Commission. Matthew begins his Gospel with the Genesis of Jesus Christ, he often then writes of Scripture being fulfilled, then comes to the close with the Great Commission:

Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Let any of those among you who are of his people—may the Lord their God be with them!—go up.

OH, did I get the wrong quote? Maybe not. The last words of the Writings (2 Chronicles) – the ‘Great Commission’ of king Cyrus, to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem… ‘Go to Jerusalem’ from the place of Exile, and may God go with you… OK here comes the quote,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

The direction has always been the radical opposite, Jerusalem… to the ends of the earth, Jerusalem to all exilic places; temple building, but not with stones one upon another. Presence – now what does the Presence of God look like / feel like? The Presence is the evidence. Presence with, among not simply for people and certainly way beyond a power to act on people. There is a Temple being rebuilt, and maybe these next years will see a ‘temple’ that we are convinced will remain intact being removed one stone from another? I am not an iconoclast, but I do believe in a journey into the unknown, hence the promise of ‘I am with you always’ is so important.

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Who knows?

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Ignorance – something we seem to share in significant measure… and when we put it in relationship to heaven’s knowledge and wisdom, our ignorance will be seen as more than a significant measure!

I like to know things. I like to do something that I know is world changing(!) but always have to come home to rest with ‘that day will reveal all’. I have pointed out that once we take away the artificial chapter divisions that are immediately preceding the amazing prophecy of fall of Jerusalem / the Temple is the widow who puts her two coins into the Temple treasury both releases Jesus to prophesy and is a major catalyst to bring the Temple down (probably coupled to Judas’ monetary contribution). The sight I did not have on the widow was that she did not do her act as something ‘prophetic’, as something full of knowledge (Steve Watters – thank you!).

Now a bit of a jump to Paul’s words in Rom. 8:28

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (NRSV Updated edition… though not wholly happy with the translation this time!).

I like the NRSV because it tries to come at things without a bias, it should be more ‘evangelical’ in places, but also de-evangelicalises in parts where the language is more neutral… this time round it kind of goes back to the KJV(!!) with its ‘all things work together for good’ – a very fatalistic interpretation, so let’s correct that one first and bring it in line with most modern translations… God works all things together for good. Not ‘all things’ are what they should be, but we need to know that God is not passive. Craperoo at a personal, social and cosmic level exists… but God. what a place to start. God is involved in my life, my world and the world.

Let me (with all my expertise???) try a translation that might push a direction – and also one that might fit the wider context of the groan of creation just a little better (to those who want to follow along or simply be impressed the ‘original’ text as best we have it):

Οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τὸν θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ εἰς ἀγαθόν,
τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς οὖσιv.

We know that (a challenge to start – do I ‘know’ this) to those who love God (might be ‘with those who love God’) s/he works all things toward good (all things – normally used not of my personal circumstances but of the ‘all things’ of creation, probably indicating that God is working everything within the context of the whole of creation toward ‘good’… cf. to Genesis 1 – and saw that it was ‘good’), with those who are called according to [God’s] purpose.

Here we go… Creation and the redemption / restoration of creation is the ‘goal’ / eschaton we are headed toward, and in the same way as creation follows humanity (Genesis 1 – 3) so Paul indicates that now (fallen) creation is looking to those of God’s family for freedom, longing for the same freedom. In that context I think this verse sits… God’s purpose and focus is creation’s redemption, and the how is WITH those who are called. It is beyond FOR, and it is beyond my circumstances. It moves beyond the widow puts her two coins in the treasury and comes back home to find an incredible gift of 200 coins (a hundred fold) on her door step. Maybe… and we can declare ‘God looks after the widow’, or certainly we can declare that God has always instructed that we look after the widow… but it goes beyond the multiplication of coins to a process toward the good. The corrupt temple, with its exploitation through the ‘sacrificial’ system has to come down. [The Temple occupied approx 25% of the city; the many mansions / rooms in the place that was intended to be God’s house were mainly storehouses!] A process where God works with this (ignorant) woman toward good was unfolded. Ever since religion has sought to rebuild the temple… ever since we are provoked to both find the Presence of God and to take the Presence of God to the entire cosmos, to work with God so that the dwelling place for God might be in totality with the totality of humanity. If we align with that – with all our ignorance – then there is a release for God toward shifting all of creation toward what is truly ‘good’, a place of harmony, reconciliation. That can be at the personal level – many are ‘lost’ in the sense of not knowing who they are, are in conflict within themselves; at the relational level – many are ‘lost’ within their context… and of course at the cosmic level, and of course of course ‘lost’ in that they have never heard that ‘I/Thou’ question of ‘Martin where are you?’ the answer of which begins the journey with God.

All things might not line up for me so that I have the life I have always dreamed of (did Paul… ship wrecks, beatings, prison, despairing of life itself)… but in and through all the things where I respond so positively… and in the many areas where I do something that I think has no value (like the widow) makes a contribution to the future of this world. That great day will be beyond wonder – imagine the face of the dear widow that we read of (not to mention Judas’ face). I hope I have a few shocks too as I ask the question – but when did I visit you in prison, when did I give you a cup of cold water?

Who knows the value of our amazing contributions? But we know God works with us, with all our ignorance.

I am not elevating ‘ignorance’, I think we need simply to encourage one another to align with the future so that we might be included in those who God partners with – those who are called according to God’s purpose.

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The contract

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

Years ago I read Renegotiating the Church Contract (author: James Thwaites) which gave an insight to how within the church there is often an unwritten contract between leadership and followers. This is more true within the charismatic and non-denominational brand of churches where the emphasis is on moving ahead, so ‘leaders’ are vital (my background). It is part of what is getting unravelled at this time, and the nature of unravelling is not a lot happens for a while as ends are pulled, then at a certain moment something gives and then the whole process speeds up enormously.

A sect is not a bad thing, for even followers of the way were sociologically a sect within Judaism, but it is when cultic elements make their presence and become established that the problems begin in earnest. Cults are deviant, but cultic elements can be present in all kinds of orthodox movements (and of course are often present in ‘secular’ corporations).

I am convinced that someone with 5% discernment could enter many organisations and without being given clues about the structure could soon establish who is part of the leadership, the aspiring leadership and the followers. I have sat in the distance observing some movements – one in particular that has entered the great unravel currently – and even from a distance can see that there was an unwritten contract in operation. Leaders who hold to a world view of the dangerous, evil world with a certain amount of conspiracy thrown in; followers who carry deep anxiety about the world so need to find safety which they find in the strength of the leaders who also helpfully carry something of an inside track on the path to the future. Made for each other. Make sure the ratio of leaders to followers continue at a level where the honour flows.

Same story over again and again. ‘We want a king… a king who will fight our battles for us’. Well there is a price to pay for that contract. This contract operates within the church and as it takes root it often then sets in motion something very unhealthy in the church / political realm.

I believe ‘the heart after God’ that was sought for in the successor to David is not so much the person who can pick up the harp as the one who will bring that contract to an end – to do so we might need to pick up the harp, write poetry, be reflective, rather than pick up the sword, shed blood and boast. Finally there was one who did just that, the son of David, the king of the Jews, the one who took all that to the cross:

Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” (Matt. 27:37).

Jesus broke the contract, and from the depths ascended on high to pour out gifts, so that the entire body might come into a fullness. That fullness is not getting to the heights and forgetting the depths, it is filling all things from the depths to the heights. In that way the contract disappears.

Leadership is a gift (and it is difficult sometimes to get new words when old words have been filled with a different meaning) but when any level of cultism invades that gift – in whatever realm – the gift will only serve the system not the filling of all things. Cultism (like the desire for the king) flourishes in that in-between space; the ego within the ‘king to be’ needs to be suppressed so that s/he is not finding the baggage as a temporary hiding place but remains there till the ego gives way to sober self-identity; the desire for security within us all has to find a place of settlement that reluctantly knows we will have trouble but can find stillness within for Jesus has overcome

‘Not so among you’. Could it be?

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Sects, cults, -ish and -arians

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by Martin Scott
Posted in Personal Perspectives

So if the article does not get your attention I hope the title does! I have an offspring who loves to tease me… dad of course we grew up in a cult, ‘I don’t think it is normal for the father to be casting out demons in the front room while we eat our dinner in the other room’. Still trying to work out who she means by ‘the father’. Please help me identify this strange character.

Sect… a sect is that which shares the beliefs of the wider community they are a part of, but they believe they are more faithful to that view. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes all believe in the God of Israel but which the challenge was as to which of the approaches was the most faithful. Those Sadducees were just too liberal for the Pharisees, then within the Pharisees there were different schools – Hillel or Shammei, so of course not all Pharisees were in agreement. And the Essenes (assuming they are at Qumran) had had enough with that old Temple stuff, they were the true prophetic pioneers. Then comes the Nazarene followers… Sects have an ability to multiply!

Cult… deviant on core belief issues. Mormons – though when Mr Romney was a front runner it looked for a time that Mormonism might just be brought in under the ‘Christian’ label. A little fickle, methinks. JW’s, Seventh Day Adventism… the list goes on, but in the spirit of the member of my family, how far ‘off’ qualifies? Life in heaven in an eternal worship meeting? Penal substitutionary atonement? Any belief that holds to Christendom as the kingdom of God?

Secterian… now we are looking at an attitude toward others. I will separate myself from you because I judge you as in error. Thank God when I met all kinds of believers in churches that were ‘compromised’ in the 90s I soon realised that there were many rooms in ‘God’s house’ and I was no longer so sure that mine was not on the outskirts of it all! Now I meet all kinds of people who profess no faith I am on a different challenging path. All healthy for me. As I said to my professed atheist neighbour (and a softening one!) I with my faith might just be needing you more than you need me. A journey for him and for me.

Cultish… It is possible to part of main-stream and cultic. A cult is deviant belief-wise, but something cultic is deviant practice-wise and particularly with a focus on leadership structure and style. A common feature in a cultic scenario is the ‘hermes principle’ where there is no direct access to the leader (‘main gods’) but that there is a ‘Hermes’ character in place to interpret the god(s) and who has direct access to the divine counsel. [Paul and Barnabas encountered this, and many ‘apostolic’ movements embody this, hence many have a ‘Hermes’ figure system in place.]

I am still pretty much on the ‘sect’ trajectory… partly due to my understanding that it is only in the second half of life one becomes reflective. I am still ignoring all the blooded noses I have manifested to possess much ability to reflect. I am still running up the next hill proclaiming ‘this is the one’ only to find the answer to all things was not there… but the next mountain will definitely be the one. I don’t think though I am sectarian.

A cult… if it means to be deviant from the main core of our faith. No, No, No. Never possible! And cultic… I think I am innocent of that one or of giving my allegiance into something that is main stream but cultic.

So to all my offspring… no you did not grow up in a cult… and I am still focused on the front room activity (maybe – the jury is out) with a little more wisdom.

I am pretty stubborn but my defence is ‘I am where I am because of the journey I took and am far too young to harbour regrets’. That might render me not too smart, but am naively happy on the way.

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