Latest article from Simon Swift… along the lines of ‘I have a dream’.
Generosity needs to be at the heart of our practice of faith. It holds in its scope the forms of goodness, hospitality, kindness and unselfishness. Giving is an action we can take, an antidote to the world of ‘take what I can’ that has infected our culture. Giving material things like food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and a place for the refugee are important. However, most of the time, in our daily lives, it’s about sharing things like love, smiles & hugs. At other times sharing tears and sympathy or standing with someone in need. At other times it is to share the joy of living and encouragement to those struggling.
Paul said we do not wage war with the weapons of this world. We cannot win our war with bullets and bombs. Our way of demonstrating is not with marches and placards, with throwing eggs or bricks. Our war needs to be waged with deliberate, authentic love. The daily practice of love and kindness, of generosity and forgiveness. The absence of judgmentalism and vindictiveness. We then become the salt of the earth, the light of the world.
Salt can be used for good and bad. Like the Romans when they finally defeated Carthage, we can salt the earth so nothing can grow. That is the way of judgmentalism, of hate and tribalism. There is to much of that in our politics today. Instead we need to be salt that seasons and brings out the wonderful flavours of life in our diverse world. Where we go we are to turn waste lands into oases. Where there is darkness and chaos with prowling wolves looking to devour sheep; we are to be the shepherds that safeguard the weak, champions of God’s relational justice. We are to shine as the light that transforms the darkness of our post industrial world, the barren wilderness of the techno-consumer society, into a garden; a garden of colour and beauty.
In this garden Heaven intersects Earth and it becomes a place where the disabled are valued for who they are. Where regardless of ones sexuality, gender, or race, one is given the opportunity to contribute to the diversity of God’s creation without the curse of judgementalism. Transgender simply adds another colour that enhances the beauty of garden. Its is a place where both men and women have a sense of worth, with the freedom to be contributors to the flourishing of the garden. A place where our children have hope; a place to emerge into adulthood being able to bear the image in which we were created. In this garden eternal life is to be found and lived.
Perhaps then we should avoid the language of war or battling the forces of evil. After all evil has no place in the garden. Instead use the language of gardening, of tending the earth, of sowing and harvesting. The language of growth and transformation, of fruitfulness. Of trees that line the river who’s leaves heal nations. A question then: Do our alters have a river that flows out from them that is capable of feeding the land with such trees?
I wrote an email today in a hurry to someone today who is way further on in the journey of authenticity of faith than I am, a privilege to read what they had sent me, and in my reply I wrote:
Religion provides answers to those who don’t want to process their questions.
That made me think some! We all have questions; religion – of whatever brand – provides answers. The answer comes and if we don’t continue to push into what the question is behind and beyond the question we articulate we might well be satisfied. Then what happens the question comes back to nag at us, but we have the answer so the nag is silenced, and the process never goes further. Any action is short-circuited.
I wonder what questions Jesus wrestled with, born not in the centre, living early life as a refugee. What questions did the well-educated Saul of Tarsus push down until he met Jesus who asked ‘Why?’. Not ‘what are you up to’; not ‘stop doing that’… but ‘why?’.
We can be so sure about the answers… the big one (is it the big one?) on ‘heaven and hell’ and what I am saved from. But ‘why?’. Maybe it would not be the big one if I slowed down and asked why that is important. Maybe I would come up with a question behind the question and be done with religious answers.
I am currently reading Lamb of the Free by Rillera. A substantial read and I am on my third reading of it. It is the most consistent challenge that I know of that pushes back against a substitutionary view of the atonement (and beyond that of the most common ‘penal substitution’). Most recently in Chapter 5 where he moves from Old Testament material on sacrifice to the New Testament I was very taken by how he holds together the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In simple evangelical theology we can be forgiven for thinking that the life of Jesus is simply a prelude to his death, and the resurrection proof that his death is sufficient.
The aspect that stood out for me was the description that Jesus was the ‘mobile holiness’ of God present on earth. As such he confronted and overcame the effects of the power of death, such as healing, casting out demons and raising the dead (and commissioned his disciples to do likewise) and then in death he confronted death itself which could not hold him captive. Living and dying ahead of us rather than for us in a substitionary sense. [An aside Paul uses the same language for the resurrection in relationship to believers as he uses for the cross. If Jesus died so we do not have to die then he was raised and thus we will not be raised!!! OOOPS!!]
A few days ago I posted concerning David’s desire to build a ‘house for God’. Here is the biblical text:
Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ (2 Sam. 7:5-7).
The mobile God… Jesus described his own body as a Temple – destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in 3 days, speaking of his own body… The Temple the location that God never requested; in John’s Gospel we read that he ‘dwelt among us’, using a very specific Greek verb σκηνόω – to dwell in a tent, to pitch a tent, to ‘tabernacle’. Mobility – the restoration of the tabernacle.
Post Pentecost – ‘Go’. Mobile not static. We are in process, there is a restoration of mobility. The way God always was and desired to be.
There is a fairly oft-repeated perspective that in many countries where symbols of Christianity were once prominent that we are now facing in those places Christianity being marginalised, and to such an extent that the suggestion is that those who profess Christian faith are even being persecuted. Along the same line great positivity is expressed when a writing comes out that outlines how the West has been shaped by the Christian faith.
There could well be some truth in the above, but…
The early Centuries after the death of Jesus those who lived by their confession that ‘Jesus is Lord’ were truly marginalised. Embedded in the Imperial world always living with the threat that they would not be able to buy and sell. So maybe if there is truth in the marginalisation / persecution narrative perhaps it will serve to bring us closer to the context (and faith?) of the New Testament. [A story: when back in the day and Gayle and I were travelling we had just finished a conference with a couple who are fairly well-known in the Christian world (many who read this post probably have a copy of one of their books on their shelves). We were told to get guns and be armed… initially I thought this is a joke with a punch line. However no punch line but the explanation that Muslims have a vision for Europe so we need to be ready to kill them! My reply – maybe for the sake of the Gospel ‘they’ might have to kill us… That story illustrates two different world-views.]
I read recently that 1) there is no God other than the Jesus-looking God, who is 2) looking for a Jesus-looking people who 3) are seeking to engage with the wider world in a Jesus-looking way. All views of engaging with the world need to be shaped in that way. Turning the other cheek (not a pacifist act but something much deeper), or expressed in summary ‘following the Lamb wherever he goes’… or as summarised ‘loving the enemy’, has to be present.
If we insist on Christianity not being marginalised we need to be sure it is the genuine article… we could end up (and I have a perspective so would use the verb ‘will’ rather than ‘could’) with Christianity re-established and Jesus marginalised. Let us not confuse Christianity with faith in Jesus. As I have oft-written no-one assumed that Paul was calling for those to pray a ‘sinners prayer’ and then attend Bible study sessions. The call was considerably deeper and one that motivated him to get to the ‘centre for the propagation for the gospel’ so that he could declare what he was convinced was the true Gospel in that place (Rome and the letter to the ‘Romans’).
I might be considered weird by some but I am not so weird that I am asking for all aspects of the Christian faith to be marginalised(!) but I am suggesting that we are at a very intense time of reset when either there will be ‘success’ in the traction to make Christianity central again, or… I like the ‘or’.
The central body of faith in Jesus’ time classified people as ‘sinners’. It was not as simple as ‘they broke the commandments’ but that they did not follow our tradition. One cannot come up with a one view as to why Jesus died but one aspect concerning his death was that he ate with the wrong people. Part of the ‘or’ alternative will be that a Jesus-looking people will be guilty of eating with the wrong people… of refusing to have arms and accepting the injustice of marginalisation.
If the restoration of Christianity means the marginalisation of Jesus and the marginalisation of Christianity means that Jesus can be witnessed to… I choose the latter. It is probably not a binary choice – but I deeply suspect that the Jesus-way is closer to the latter option than the former.
[W]ho through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two; they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground (Heb. 11:33-38).
I am writing this post a few days after the total power outage in Spain, Portugal and Andorra. There was some impact on other nations but the power outage was total here. We still do not have our internet back, hence replying to emails and putting a post here has been delayed. At a practical level a wonderful reminder to how so many people in our world live. We were in total darkness so had the wonder of seeing the stars in a way we have never seen them in Spain before; we had no water and had the privilege of being by the sea to use sea water to ‘flush’ the toilets… all that lasted around 12 hours, minus the internet (now 72+ hours). Many in the world have no access to clean water… we remain so privileged.
Our context
Gayle had a birthday with a number of guests who were here for 3-7 days and in the middle of that time we had a session to consider where we were at vis-a-vis Europe. The global scene is in major flux with global shifts taking place. The USA, China are currently the ‘big’ powers and other players will have to find fresh alignments. Some while back as I was praying I had an image of a world map and ‘Latin’ America shifted and positioned itself under Europe; the African continent simultaneously moved under China, while India remained in position. There is an obvious interpretation and I am sure it will not be as neat as that but there was a direction of movement of the south dislocating from the north and moving eastward.
Europe will have to make some choices in the coming years as to her alignment and into that the UK will need to make choices.
Prior to Brexit, some months prior, a person we highly respect and love, LA, had a vision and in it a hand took the UK out of Europe, the result being that the colour drained out of Europe down into the earth somewhere located in the Pyrenees. Later a hand put the UK back in. Against all expectations the UK left the EU; our response was to travel with a number of others (our ‘tribe’?) to the Pyrenees to pray. Now the UK – partly catalysed by the issue of the Ukraine – is having to determine her relationship to Europe. Coming back in (not necessarily to the EU) on a military and trade basis would be totally insufficient, but we watch and wait. We call for something more.
Biblical signs
They serve two purposes. They point to what they are signing and they draw to themselves the reality of what they signify.
Spain seems to carry a ‘gifting’ of being the canary in the mine (a recently published history book used this analogy to interpret Spain in the context of Europe). Something happens to the canary and it provides a warning of what is to come. I have been convinced for some time that with we saw in the Pandemic is one of a number of chaos-producing events to come. (I have no idea on timing but I have seen that we will face something catastrophic where the global population will be reduced significantly…)
Europe
Europe has to find a new unity and learn how to travel in the flawed Chinese / far east vehicle. We were privileged to have 3 Chinese people with us when we came to the session on Europe and their presence kept us reminded of the direction for our future. (I say the ‘flawed’ Chinese vehicle – the European and Western vehicle has some terminal issues that we have learnt how to patch over – time to abandon it!).
LA some years back sent us an old map of Europe showing Europe as a queen (Europa Regina) with the head being Spain, the neck being the Pyrenees. The map comes from an era to illustrate a unity and a euro-centric view of the world. (The Queen is standing up – the head is ‘hispania’ and our maps of course would have the head to the west. The heart is Bohemia.)
Europe as we have it today:
was laid by the Greeks
strengthened by the Romans
stabilised by Christianity
reformed and modernised by the Renaissance and the Reformation (15th abd 16th centuries)
globalised by successive European empires (16th and subsequent centuries).
We prayed… or rather focused on the map at two levels – this was a past scenario, though currently pulling on this past power flow, and this was a projection, so simply rolled it up from the feet to the head, rolling it up in Spain.
The power outage – and it will be months before anything definitive is released as to the cause – almost certainly took place at the ‘neck’ of the ‘queen’, at the Pyrenees, the connecting point of the Iberian peninsula to Europe. (And connecting with the Brexit vision.)
Other aspects
In this recent period of time a major earthquake in Turkey with tectonic plates shifting. Turkey is the meeting point of East and West (and the context for much of the book of Revelation in terms of the seven churches).
Pope Francis has passed away. With regard to his appointment and the previous one I was very agitated and pulled heavily for an African pope and was disappointed that a conservative one was appointed – Pope Benedict. Pope Francis has come in and has to a significant level emptied the seat of power (marked by many staunch Catholic politicians refusing to give him the title of ‘pope’!). I have no agitation over this appointment at all – whoever comes in is coming to a seat where the power has gone.
These events mark a significant break from the past and we have entered a time of ‘silence’ waiting for what is to come. The power outage marks this period. We wait (not a passive word… in many languages wait and expect/actively hope are the same word).
Back to Europe
A new unity
A new alignment where the far east has to figure
A new generation in the foundation (not standing on the foundation) as a new foundation is being laid
This latter point is important – the language of ‘again’; books on my shelf eulogising over Europe’s ‘Christian’ past as being the guide to the future are (my opinion) seriously misguided.
The path to the future is a new one… there is a movement from ‘church’ through ‘church in the city / region’ to a grain of wheat falling in the ground and transformation rising… rising as something comes down from above and something from below comes down.
Jerusalem, Rome and Far East
There is a NT movement that seems very clear. Jesus dies in Jerusalem and declares that no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. That death in Jerusalem has been understood (righty) for our sins – though not in a penal substitutionary transactional way; but that death carries so much more into the grave – kingship, hierarchy, all human / societal categorisational divides etc… That death was essential to take place in Jerusalem (the ‘religious’ centre) where religious power pulled on political imperial power in order to kill the incarnation of the divine. This releases Paul to go to the ends of the earth – to the oikoumene of the Imperial (and one-world government) of the then world. Constantine and Christendom is then where political power pulled on religious power to – as noted above – to stabilise (turn the world upside down… NOT) imperial rule. This is why the emphasis on ‘rolling up the Roman road’ from the early 2000s was so important.
Jerusalem to Rome – for me so clear in the NT. Founded on the Abrahamic vision of his seed being promised the world (hence I do not see a ‘promised land’ in Scripture, although it is present in some texts)… now we enter a new stage. Where is China / Far East within this? There equally was an Imperial (different order) in China in the time of the NT even though Jesus came at the ‘fullness of time’. Now we are arriving there. Uncharted territory. The Gospel cannot be altered but the application and expression of it will be.
Babylon’s peace
There is a major piece of instruction from Jeremiah to pray for the peace of Babylon (using the Hebrew word shalom). There is an old order being disrupted. Jerusalem is destined to have peace and reconciliation, but not through domination. In Jerusalem all that went into the grave… The new Jerusalem that is coming down that John saw was nothing other than the transformation of the whole world order. He did not see a temple with a city (the Temple occupied around 20% of the entire city of Jerusalem) but he saw a city without a temple. Babylon is in view, not Christendom. A challenge to all that has been the focus.
Big days are here!!!
Power gives way to presence
For some months I have been focused on a shift I see. The charismatic / pentecostal paradigm has been power with the ‘we will demonstrate the power of God to convince’. Of course that is present in Scripture, but I have been seeing a deeper call to live the presence of God. I am not reducing this to a style of worship where we ‘feel’ the presence, but something far beyond that. It is moving from activity ‘to’ someone / a situation and beyond something ‘for’ someone / a situation to being ‘with’ and ‘in’ the situation / circumstances. Then miracles happen for that is the incarnational presence. As I wrote above religious and political power combined to kill the incarnational presence of the divine.
There are new foci for us all. Realignements on the global scale are imminent, and deeply pressing at the personal level.
As one world order dies so another comes to life… I wholeheartedly believe we have a ‘vote’ on what comes. ‘Embracing tomorrow’ has always been the response of the prophetic and since Pentecost it is not simply the priesthood of all believers but the prophethood of all believers.
My reading this morning took me to 2 Samuel 7… and a little insight into God’s attitude to the Temple. Of course you are about to get my reflections on what I read – that is the power of Scripture and the danger of it too. Down to how do I read it… and that might be different to how you read it. That’s why I am looking forward to the day of assessment, looking forward to it with a little nervousness. Did I really live out my life authentically? Here is the bit that stood out for me,
Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ (2 Sam. 7:5-7).
There are those who hope and believe for a third Temple to be built in Jerusalem as some sort of fulfilment of prophecy. I do not read prophecy that way and the chapters in Ezekiel that are taken that way do not describe a temple location, just the Lord will be there (then we can jump over to Revelation in a short while). I loved the phrase that I have emboldened above, ‘I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle’. Mobility. Where the people go God goes; where God goes the people are to go. Hence the people who are born of the Spirit are like the wind – movement. Yes we can use the ‘wind’ as a description of the Spirit but Jesus applied that description to those who have been born from above. (That would make ‘evangelism’ interesting… not ‘who is going to raise their hand and pray this prayer’ but who will make a commitment to the God of the universe and live unpredictably from this time on in the power of the Spirit!!!)
Tabernacled – the same verb used of Jesus who ‘tabernacled among us’. The same thought at the end of Matthew’s account of the great commission to go into all the world and (here I reflect the OT parallel in 2 Chronicles) and establish a temple there. The same imagery as in Revelation – a city with no distinct, separate temple.
We get another insight to God in this passage. The compromising God. OK then ‘let him (Solomon) build a temple’. I am 100% convinced that this was not what God would have chosen, any more than he chose a king. But this is the God who walks and moves about with us. Jesus became of no reputation, not simply because he was human but because he was God in the flesh. I think we could add ‘and God has become of no reputation’ or at least ‘God’s reputation has been greatly tarnished’ because he has always moved about and not centred him-(her-, their-) self in some impressive way.
Here we are the other side of the resurrection. I totally believe in a historic resurrection of Jesus but what is vital is that there is a follow on to be part of the God who has never requested a building but to move in a tent and tabernacle in and through the whole ‘city’. That city that was the size of the then known world and the shape of the holy of holies.
Individual and corporate tabernacle(s).
Once we go down the route of ‘give us a king’ Temple building seems to follow. So I guess we need to make sure we do not go in the king making direction. Pentecost is to follow in our ‘calendar’ – the democratisation of the Spirit. We have probably gone down the route of domesticating the Spirit… and yet God, the Spirit, also becomes of no reputation.
In this time of global disruption could we who believe that heaven has touched us break out of some constraints and ‘move about’?
There are various quotes about history repeating itself. Here are two such quotes:
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (George Santayana). Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. (Winston Churchill).
And Mark Twain added a nice little nuance:
History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Not sure where this post will go but here are a few background elements that provoked me to write this morning.
I have been agitated over the various ‘again’ messages these past few years. ‘Again’ that looks back is not based in the eschatological vision of the New Testament. ‘I press on’ was one of my readings this very morning. Hence my seeking to understand how to align (chronological) time with heaven’s (‘kairotic’) time.
Late 1990s / early 2000s a major emphasis was the rolling up of the Roman way which culminated in Steve Lowton initiating a walk from Whitby (UK, where the Celtic church effectively submitted to the pattern and teaching of Rome in 664 AD/CE) to St Peter’s Square, Rome to bring that focus to a conclusion.
The strong belief that the Gospel is not from this world but is for this world. It is not political in the sense of ‘capitalism vs socialism’, or any other such supposed polarities but is deeply and essentially political with the language used being both explicitly and implicitly political.
Jesus was offered to become the Caesar of the then Roman world – he was offered the oikoumene, the term that was used of the Imperial territory.
Paul’s great desire, and understanding of ‘the gospel to the nations and then the end shall come’ was that of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Spain.
And of course my understanding of the book that shapes us is that we do not have within it ‘history written in advance’ (popularised as ‘the bible predicts…’) but as a provocative call to shape the future through our actions, relationships, prayer in the power of the Spirit.
There are other aspects I might wish to add, but the above will give a something of a window into any bias I carry!
I do not find it a great surprise that in our historical setting we have conflict within the Western world currently, as the conflict area is over the ‘offer of the oikoumene‘ – the offer to shape the territory that can express the Roman order with a ‘God-order’. Hence I respect those who are writing about how Judeo-Christian values are what has shaped European / Western culture but the conclusive appeal is normally that we need to revert to Christendom. ‘My kingdom is not of this world….’ The sword does not belong in that kingdom but as Paul points out (with great irony) in Romans 13 to the world of Imperial authority. Today the Italian PM (Giorgia Meloni) heads to Washington to represent the EU… I am not suggesting this is sinister but I do read it as a sign. Will the West be held together as ‘Christianised’ or will there be a division that will allow space for the radical followers of Jesus who are to be like the wind to manifest? (I have said for decades that the strength of Islamic ‘sharia’ law is that of Christendom. The very thing that is thought needs to be brought in place to hold the ground is the very thing that tills the ground for all levels of terrorism.)
At this critical point of history, in the shift from the West to the East, we have much work to do if we are going to find an increase of pace in the right direction. Jesus died in Jerusalem so that the Gospel could go West and bring down the Roman order – surely it is significant that Paul’s Gospel is best outlined in some detail in the letter to the ‘Romans’? – but there is nothing in the NT about the work to the East. Unfinished work.
I am no great student of history but the shift from Republic to Empire in Rome seems to carry a lens through which we can see what is happening currently. Rome was effectively an Empire before it became an Empire, but the shift came in a defined way through Julius Caesar and solidified with Augustus (in power 27BC/BCE – 14AD/CE). Jesus appeared at the ‘fullness of times’ into that era, hence what was happening in the world at that time is highly significant.
Augustus… The early signs in his reign was of the Senate allowing him to bend the rules without pushing back; of he introducing unelected people (including those of his own family) into decision-making roles, and the move was made effective through the support of the ultra-rich of Rome. (A simplified summary but one that can be expanded on should one choose to read a history on Rome.)
Through his actions Rome became what it always was – an empire in disguise. Honour was given to the god of peace (Pax) with the phrase the Pax Romana being held up as something awesome, but visit Rome and you would have seen that the temple to Pax was built on Mars field (Mars the god of war).
History repeats / rhymes.
We are in this critical period. My prayer is ‘Europe do not concede’, or better… come on those of you born from above and act like the wind. No one really knowing where you came from, or where you are going but influencing the future through helping to hold a shape for all kinds of wholesome aspects to come through.
My reading this morning was in Philippians… a city that Rome had named as being Imperial. Those who lived there were to work to make sure that Rome’s values prevailed. Into that Paul wrote that their citizenship was in heaven (nothing to do with going to heaven when we die) and therefore in that context to ‘stand firm’ in a way that was consistent with those who were waiting for a Saviour to come from heaven to earth.
Many aspects are converging. Global crises. History rhymes. Fullness of times. West and East. Christendom or Jesus.
I am currently reading the desire of Israel for a king (1 Sam. 8), and clearly something so deeply disturbing going on. The request is so that they might become as one of the nations (ta ethne – the Gentiles) and that the king might go before them and fight their battles for them. Even if we removed ‘God’ from our world view the alternative to there being a monarch (or dictator) is an awesome vision. (I think there are some keys in the ‘meals’ of the New Testament where they take place at so many different levels – another post, another day.)
Jump forward to the NT and we have the ‘we have no king but Caesar’ proclamation in that first Easter week; on the cross is nailed ‘king of the Jews’; Paul seeks to release in city after city an ekklesia when there already was an ekklesia present there. The city ekklesia being more than a city council as it had more powers than any current council and was mandated to implement Roman values and Roman culture into the territory where it held jurisdiction. To suggest that the Gospel at heart is not political is surely to miss how Paul’s proclamation was heard – ‘these people are proclaiming another Caesar’!
I am deeply troubled by our global crisis and without something that arrests its direction we will in a few short years be living in a world that has a few kings that seek to subjugate other lands.
Europe. Those who have been touched by heaven’s grace within this continent. I guess for some 25+ years many of us have been calling for something fresh in Europe, for something to appear that knows that we can learn a lot from the past but that the past cannot shape us as we move forward. I am deeply grateful for the advancements of the Gospel within this continent in the past, but we also need to understand that those were contextualised. The Reformation was not the final word! Theology and practice has to be revised; what it means to be Christian community and what it means to be community likewise has to be revisited.
We do not need a king; truth is no country needs a king / dictator, the result of such a move will only be oppression and we should not be surprised when such a person exhibits demonic behaviour… the story of Saul. We should not look (in the body of Christ) to where there are great claims of success (though there is much we have to learn). What can we do? Where will we go?
The history books will tell us what we chose when we look back post-2040. I sincerely hope that it will not be a few political voices that seek to call for a new order within Europe. Let the body of Christ in Europe stop following the kings we anoint (when we do we come under that ‘anointing’) and be brave enough to dream, pray, and eat our meals that demonstrate the Roman way has indeed been rolled up.
The future of the globe as is means that Europe will be sidelined. The globe will be carved up 3-way and those who centre on technology will at some levels transcend the carve-up. On both counts Europe will be sidelined and become irrelevant. Seems like a wonderful context for those who want to live out their lives for something this world needs.
Not a king to be like the other nations; but let us move away from our dictators (king) and learn from Europe where the old way of dividing people has diminished. I do see a ‘new Europe’.
Well they actually asked for Barabbas but there is a strong narratival echo in the story that pushes us back to think about Cain and Abel.
Although I am not one who follows the ‘church’ calendar I am aware that the two festivals of Christmas and Easter come round every year (don’t think I will earn any brownie points for that!). I have posted, in a previous ‘holy week’ about the contrast of Pilate’s entry to Jerusalem with full military show each year and Jesus’ entry on a donkey (thanks to Crossan and Borg). I don’t know if others see the parallel between Jesus and Barabbas and Cain and Abel but I do believe there is a deliberate echoing in the biblical narrative.
In some manuscripts (for Matthew’s Gospel) we have the name ‘Jesus’ added to Barabbas – original or not it seemingly underlies that there are 2 possible ‘Jesus-es’ we can choose to follow, and if we tie it to John 19 Pilate is persuaded that he cannot release Jesus the Messiah and continue to be a friend of Caesar. So here we have yet another time when the Imperial aspect comes through again in the Gospels, and for sure it is there with Pilate describing Jesus as ‘the king of the Jews’ (cynical or otherwise).
Cain and Abel. Two brothers, two sons of the same father. Jesus and Barabbas, two sons of the father (the meaning of Barabbas is son of the father). Do they have the same father? One in submission to the Father, one not dealing with ‘sin that crouches at the door’ and thus being controlled by it (Gen. 4:7).
Abel’s blood crying out for a justice that punishes, God hearing the ‘blood’ but in spite of his own law that there was to be the death penalty for those who murdered he covered Cain; there is no reciprocal penalty. Redemption does not demand payment; redemption is not even as the result of someone else being punished; redemption offers forgiveness for a sin that there is no sacrifice to cover (‘You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.’ (Num. 35:33)) . In the light of our choice Barabbas goes free; in the light of our God Barabbas goes free. The Gospel’s real offence is not in who is excluded but with respect to who is included.
How strong is that prayer for forgiveness for ‘them’ (us) who have no idea what we are doing!
I ponder many times as to the cosmic significance of what unfolded in that first Easter week. I don’t think I will ever get it because I still have a ‘god’ that is too much in my image. Little wonder Paul in summarising ‘sin’ says it is to fall short of the glory of God. Glory is revealed in the cross with a wonderful invitation to enter new life the other side. An invitation that extends to Barabbas, Cain and to Martin. For that I am very grateful for the reminder.
During Passover for the Jews of the Diaspora there would be a toast ‘next year Jerusalem’. What about us in a year’s time? Tough decisions are made by politicians and from the arm chair they can be easy to critique. My focus (and not necessarily one for everyone) is of a new Europe that might point a way toward the future. We await a Saviour from heaven (not we wait to go to heaven!) and not till then will there be the end of death, destruction, sin etc; not till then will the powers (sin, death and mammon?) be finally defeated but as we align ourselves with that eschaton we pray, work and hope (give an answer for the hope that is in you) for manifestations in the here and now of what will take place universally then. I don’t think I am being melodramatic to suggest that we are seeing an increase in pace of a new global matrix.
Around 2 years ago I was praying, looking at a map of the world and suddenly the American southern hemisphere (what we term ‘Latin America’) moved eastward and was located under Europe replacing where Africa is currently, and at the same time the African continent moved east and relocated under China. India did not move. All three aspects struck me and I suspect that in some way we are about to see re-alignments play out over the next – who knows – 2-3 years.
There is a move to the East with some kind of new world order coming into play. All the attempts to ‘go back’ or to redefine our futures simply along the ‘Christianity got us here’ so we must resist all change does not carry the weight to bring in a good future… reason being is it is more dependent on Christianity than on Christ.
Understanding ‘trade wars’ is beyond me, but for sure trade is no small theme in Scripture so I am not surprised that for now conflict over trade is central.
So what are you looking for? We have got to see way beyond ‘my investments are decreasing’. Please!!! John said he ‘saw a new heaven and a new earth’; Martin Luther King said ‘I have a dream’. Both spoke into situations that were not looking too promising. One locked up on the Island of Patmos; the other soon to be assassinated. But eyes that saw. The powers were not in agreement with them – how things were was going to be what was maintained… but those two saw.
As those Jews outside the land raised their glass at Passover with ‘Next year Jerusalem’ we are about to come to our ‘Passover’ where we focus on proclaiming his death (victory over all powers that resist the future) until he comes.
The hope that is within me is so key. Not a hope that is outside but within, that cannot be squashed.
This is why I am focusing on ‘reconciliation’ in every aspect of life. And if we focus on life for sure Jesus will be present at some level. His death is probably better understood from the ‘other side’ – it is a presentation of a perfect human life to heaven… representative life, for me, for you, for the world.
In this time of global flux and resultant change we learn not to simply hold on to what has brought us thus far (and probably served us well) but to embrace uncertainty of what we hold / held firm to (what not who). I know since the beginning of this year Gayle and I have been raising many issues as we know transition is here. ‘Next year…’ might be a change of location, maybe not, but each year we proclaim ‘next year more of the kingdom of heaven’ not a greater meeting but greater shalom in our streets.
Seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its shalom you will find your shalom.
Next year then is not ‘next year Jerusalem’ but ‘next year here’.
