No king… please, no king!

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’.

A new book

I had a note yesterday about a new book that will be out in May by Greg Boyd & M. Scott Boren (no relation!) entitled ‘God looks like Jesus’. The back cover apparently has a brief summary as follows:

In the past several decades, a grassroots global movement has people rediscovering a Jesus-looking God who is raising up a Jesus-looking people to transform the world in a unique, Jesus kind of way. 

The three elements are so succinct and I wish I had come up with them:

  • A Jesus-looking God

I think so many of us have a sneaky suspicion that parts of God looks like Jesus, but there are some ‘tough’ parts that Jesus did not show us… and even in one movement that crept into the charismatic world and also the Reformed world was that such instructions as we find in the Sermon on the Mount to ‘turn the other cheek’ are only temporary instructions for the day will come, in the future… and because the movement was post-millennial, in this age when that instruction will not apply. Far from turning the other cheek we will be the ones admonishing people and we will be the ones who ‘strike them on the cheek’!!

But God is like Jesus – the fullness of deity dwelt in Jesus, to see Jesus is to see the Father. The cross becomes the meeting point for humanity and deity precisely because the life offered there was none other than truly the God and the human life. The cross is not the appeasement of wrath / payment but the point of reconciliation – as I have oft quoted ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’.

God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world; the ‘delay’ in the parousia is so that none might perish (we have to allow that to modify any exclusivist view that only those like me will be saved!).

  • A Jesus-looking people

Oh… this is the challenge. Orthodoxy has reigned supreme – do I believe the right things; orthopraxy has been left aside – my actions, my responses. Or when I have acted it has flowed from what I believe rather than seeing the person. That is why a percentage of ‘evangelism’ is not ‘good newsing’ it but approaching others as others and inferior. which leads to:

  • A Jesus kind of way

I am convinced at the centre of the good news is that through the crucified one the transformation of all creation is announced. But a Jesus kind of way. Recently I had some dialogue around The Lord of the Rings and the character Borrowmier who had a goodish heart and motivation but wanted the ring to bless others. To use power for good! That one cuts deep and I have been convinced for the past couple of years that this is where the Spirit is drilling deep among us.

The Jesus way. I am still working my way through on the legitimacy of using power (I think primarily of political and economic, but also need to include gender, class and race) for good. Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world… a Jesus kind of way.

The three points from the book are where it is at. We have to move on from views of God that owe more to pagan philosophy (the unmoved mover, omnipotence, omniscience etc) to the Jesus-lens. We have to become guilty of resembling Jesus – would my neighbours ‘accuse’ me of that? BTW – that was one of the Pauline requirements for leadership among the people of faith! And cleansed of ‘we have the power’.

I hope the book is good… for sure the agenda of the above three points remain, have always been in the foundations but are being examined in this season by the Holy Spirit.

Good deeds

I am grateful to those who came along to the Zoom a couple of nights back and thanks for the feedback then and subsequently. I made a statement that I thought might be worth expanding on in a post. I said something along the lines that I am not sure that God is too concerned about the exactness of what we believe but is focused on how we live out our convictions as we serve others. To use language that we will remember from school (surely allowed as Paul used all sorts of illustrations borrowed from his world) at that final day what will be on the exam paper? What did you believe about the millennium? How did you understand the answer to the question of the disciples about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel? I know there will not be a question on the secret rapture as God knows how much money, time and effort has been given to convince people of its reality… I think s/he will have much grace for those who have believed that!

No, the questions will not be about ‘beliefs’ and I think God will be happier if I have some errors in my beliefs (and that is not a confession that I have any errors!) but have acted in a way that represents the kingdom of God and the heart of heaven.

Brings me to a not so popular biblical theme – not so popular with those who hold to ‘you must be born again and all righteousness is as filthy rags’. That is a strong wing and look I have quoted a couple of verses right there to back them up. The not-so popular theme is being judged, wait for it… by works.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books (Rev.20:12).
If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Cor. 3:15).
He will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life, while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but injustice, there will be wrath and fury (Rom. 2:6-8).

We could add a few other verses such as: Ps. 62:12; Prov. 24:12; Jer. 17:10; 32:19; Matt. 16:27; Rom. 14:12; Rev. 2:23. My point being that the ‘exam paper’ will not be over beliefs but over behaviour.

A couple of points that we need to hold in tension: it is not saying ‘saved by good deeds’ but judged by our deeds. And yet it is not categorically saying ‘damned in spite of good deeds’. Oh my… if only God made everything so clear that I understood it all; I just don’t think things are as tied up as I would wish them to be, and it means two things… I leave things in the hands of God who will ‘do all things right’ and I need to make sure that I respond with the huge big good work that will get me a sweet reward… other than it is not about doing things for a sweet big reward, but acting as God would, and that acting as God would is not the big good work but the giving of a cup of cold water when required.

Eschatology is a big word, with all kinds of complex ideas within it… but as per all theology it is deeply practical. There is a huge day coming and I need to live in the light of that. Always practical.

Spirituality and Creativity

Another post from Simon Swift… his ‘January contribution’. I suspect Simon enjoys writing for many reasons but if he is like me (I suspect in this aspect he is) it is also a means of finding one ‘s own ideas being crystalised. And if that be true then as you read this piece I hope a few of your ideas also crystalise. OK… here it is.


Sometimes, when I am writing a poem, I find it starts to speak to me about how it wants to be written. Maybe it doesn’t like the structure or my approach to the subject. I know I’m the creative one but none the less I get this feeling that I should listen to the poem and let it direct me. Doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s definitely not me; it’s the poem. Once I listen then the poem starts to take shape.

This highlights what I believe is the spiritual nature of creativity. It gives a sense that ideas and inspiration are alive and trying to communicate with us. Wanting to be birthed by us into the physical world; we are merely a conduit for ideas to be realised.

In her book ‘Big Magic’ Elizabeth Gilbert talks about ideas in this way. She believes that ideas are energetic life forms that have a consciousness, wanting to communicate with us so they can be manifest. She believes that so much she insists that we should be polite to them even if we should decide that a particular idea is not for us – just in case word gets around about your rudeness and ideas start avoiding you.

Now you may think that is going a bit to far, even silly, and I admit that it’s probably not what’s really going on, at least scientifically, but it helps to think that way because spirituality and creativity are closely related to each other. It useful to use a language that helps us to understand our creative processes, to help speak and think about it. When scientists research the creative process the language used may not be very helpful to the average creative who needs to understand their way of interacting with the process of creativity and inspiration. Spiritual language comes in helpful here as it is related to experience and the relationship artists have with inspiration and ideas.

So what about the Christian faith, what has the bible to say about it. Well, in the book Exodus we find God giving instructions on how to build the tents, make the priestly cloths and all the utensil and the alter, even giving details about the size of things. Then God goes on to claim that a man named Bezalel has been given abilities and intelligence with knowledge and all craftsmanship along with Oholiab they are anointed as craftsmen. Could we then say that the holy spirit is often involved with us in giving us ideas and in having inspiration.

Now I do believe if we work hard enough and focused enough we can learn anything. However, how good we actually get at something often depends on our interest in it and if we pick it up easily. That is to say somethings we naturally seem to gravitate to and get quickly, usually something that gives us pleasure. I myself have learnt to play a few instruments at an elementary level. Yet I know people who can pick up an instrument they have never played before and within a few minutes they are playing it at a level that would take me weeks to match. So I do think we can have a bent towards a particular creative discipline. Does this then come from God that picks individuals out or is it more a case of being willing to listen to the spirit, to be receptive in a way similar to how Elizabeth believes, which is all about cooperation and being open.

Greeks talked about muses and Romans of having a genius. Today we talk of people being geniuses. The trouble is it can leads to arrogance and aloofness. We know God is creative and we too have that ability, it’s part of who we are as humans and that is all of us. We honour God when we use our creativity and so we should be humble and thankful, showing gratitude to God and possibly to the ideas themselves that we have been chosen to birth. We can reject an idea because it may not be the right time for us or some other issue is at hand and so we should do so graciously least we should offend and I think that keeps us grounded and stops egos taking over.

Our artistic creativity is a place where we can express our deep emotions. Through images, stories, and sound we can share something more than just facts, communicating in a way that connects us to others. Sometimes though, it is for just the fun of creating something that’s pretty. You see this with crafts like sowing and needle work. These crafts can fill a functional need, but can also be used to express our creativity and add something into the world that takes us beyond the mundane. For the artisan it gives them a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Creativity is not just about fine art and crafts, there are many areas where we can apply our creative abilities; science and medicine, industry and business, technology and philosophy. Humanity has seen tremendous advancements in these areas. Unfortunately that same creative spark in us can be used for destructive purposes and there has been many a regime and political leadership that has done so, bringing misery, subjugation and death into the world. Nuclear technology is a prime example, being used to kill thousands of people while also being used to provide energy to keep our modern society, so dependant on electricity, going. Who knows what other ways we can advance though using our creative capacity. But there is one possible threat to our creative spark that is on the horizon.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, but at the moment it is difficult to see how this will impact our lives and what it means for not just the creatives in our world but for all of us. The UK Government has recently announced that it wants the UK to be at the for front of the technology. Yet it has already caused concern from the creatives fearful of their intellectual property rights being bypassed by the AI companies as they use web scrapping to collected such material for training AI machines. Will we become lazy and become content creator instead of artist? Will it cheapen such art if anyone with an idea can just get an AI machine to do the work for them, removing any need for skill, or is that a good thing?

If spirituality and creativity are closely connected then what does that mean if machines do all the creative stuff? Do we just end up with content creation and fail to do one of the most important parts of being human: expressing love, joy, pain, fear, and loss into a body of work that can move the emotions of those exposed to it. I’m sure there will be many benefits to AI, but what we must not do is allow it to steal from us one of the defining attributes that has been given to us by God: The ability to be creative and add something to this world that is meaningful, beautify and a blessing.

Palestinian pastor from Bethlehem

Two peoples acting from trauma, cease-fires can only go so far as there has to be a deep healing of trauma for true shalom to come. Resolution does not come through violence as violence breeds violence; regardless of how one reads the Bible to call for co-habitation is anything but anti-Semitic and neither being in opposition to Zionism is to take an anti-Semitic stance. Munther Isaac is a pastor, a theologian from Bethlehem and with great grace speaks into the history and the current Gaza atrocity. (The link to the podcast / interview is below… Nomad Podcasts give a platform for voices to be heard that can open up fresh sight… recommended!)

Humility… greater than it is cracked up to be!!

God is a short word but what we fill the word with makes a huge difference. Is ‘Allah’ God is a strange question for Allah means ‘God’. The bigger issue is whether my God is truly the God of Israel and the Father of our Lord Jesus, or in simpler and very relevant language – is my God a Christlike God? None of us have a perfect vision / understanding of God, for it is when ‘he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is’ (1 John 3:2). There is a ‘test’ we can apply (oooooffff it is a tough one) we are more like God the clearer I see God / Jesus. So I have a way to go!

What words do you immediately associate with God (as revealed in Jesus). Maybe all-powerful, loving, accepting, harsh, tough… One of the words I associate with God is that of humility. Jesus being in the form of God (NOT IN SPITE OF) humbled himself – Jesus takes the God path. In a parable he suggests that in the age to come the one throwing the party will get up from the table and serve; while alive he gave us the instruction not to lord it over others.

Genesis and the tower of Babel (same word as Babylon) presents a humanity on a different path to the God-path. ‘We will be great’ being the banner.

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4).

The next verse is full of irony. A tower that truly reached heaven would be visible to the one who inhabits heaven, but we read that the God who can see all things came down to see the tower – obviously so did not reach heaven!!

Humility is the cloak of invisibility to the Slanderer; it is deeply set in the Lord’s prayer with the request that we be not led into temptation.

Big years globally lie ahead. Many rough waters to be traversed; many times the Lord will come down to see. While reading Genesis I have also been reading Matthew and in chapter 25 we might well have a reflection on the nations in the immediate post-70 AD/CE scenario but the application probably goes beyond that and it is expressed as a judgement of the nations. In separating the goats from the sheep the response was the same from the two separate groups:

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’
Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ (Matt. 25: 37-39, 44).

How you treated / reacted to the least of those that Jesus identifies as ‘family’ was the response.

Humility. I have been too close to movements that have thought they are the movement that will change the world. No, I don’t think so… I should put that stronger – no you are not! If God has given us something we should live and act as if the world will be deeply impoverished (oppressed) if we do not fulfil what has been entrusted to us, but we also realise that it might be the smallest contribution to the future. I (probably!!) have less years left than I have already had but be they few or many I aspire that humility will be part of my clothing and there will be no attempt at, or participation in, building a tower that reaches heaven… but if I have ‘two coins’ that I will knowingly or even accidentally throw them so that the impressive edifices come down.

Personal faith or ‘Personality faith’

I theoretically like all the personality tests and approaches, and one that I have been drawn to is that of the ‘Enneagram’. Like other similar approaches it does not box one in but helps one to see what box one is already within. I say I theoretically like it as I probably pay no attention to it when it comes to myself! But ever so useful for all other people on the planet. It helps / could help them to grow to maturity. Anyway that is enough self-disclosure for the year.

We love to think that our faith in God is ever so objective. There is God out and over there and we know exactly who HE is and we have a relationship with that person called God. We read in Galatians 4:9 how that perspective is somewhat skewed:

 Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God (emphasis added).

I know the God who is the one I have created and as my faith strengthens so does my belief in that God, hence if I truly have some knowledge of God the image of God I have will change and develop. There will come a day when I know as I am known, but until then there will be a process that is incomplete. (I cheekily wrote in the paragraph above the word ‘he’ in capitals, though sadly it is not cheekily enough. There is an old joke about a preacher who was very clear on male headship (for headship read ‘top dog’) and an implicit underlying white-superiority belief and that they died and thus experienced a major shock post-death when they discovered that she was black.) I grew up with the ‘hell-fire’ belief and when I first met people who held to a view of unconditional immortality my ‘faith’ was given a knock as I thought ‘why then be a Christian’ if it is not to escape the wrath of God!!! It was not my belief in eternal punishing (side note: not the same as eternal punishment) that was shaken but my belief in ‘my’ God that was shaken – my belief in MY God.

Back to personality types and faith. I am not likely to end up with an expression of faith that includes genuine meditation and quietness. I am too busy trying to justify my being by activity for that (one could at this point say ‘too immature’ but my personality has a strong gift of denial within it so that observation would not stick). I will not drift that way simply because it is not ‘me’ as I present myself to the world.

In certain charismatic circles I have noted a combination of personality numbers 8s and 6s (enneagram number). The faith of the 8s in that setting are convinced the world is an evil place and we need to be vigilant and are in a state of war. Add to that their incredible knowledge of Scripture and they can teach where things are at and where it all goes. Then along come the 6s who have a strong sense of anxiety and know the world is not safe. The 8s confirm that their anxieties are based in reality and as their anxieties inevitably raise their level of concern over the future so they look for authority to help them find a safe place. Surprise, surprise the 8s end up as the anointed leaders and the 6s the wonderful followers, with any younger 8s among them on track to become the next generation of leaders. A marriage made in heaven… or something a little different to that!

The charismatic world is the Christian world I have inhabited for some 50 years so is the one I know best; other expressions probably could be viewed similarly using the same kind of lens. In other words our faith is not simply objective but is our faith, we connect to God (and to ‘god) through who we are, through our personality. That is how it always will be for it is not possible in that full sense for me to enter into God’s world, or to know God… wonderfully s/he enters my world, meets me.

One of the challenges regarding maturity is that we can mature in ‘our’ faith, but in reality the faith we have is simply being strengthened through greater knowledge, that then goes on to re-enforce our behaviour. That sadly is not a true reflection of maturity. A big part of maturity probably includes a measure of uncertainty. And given that I am certain of that…

Leaving the land of the dying

Jimmy Carter has passed away yesterday, 29th December, aged 100 years old. Not perhaps your ‘normal’ president but a humble man who was involved in humanitarian work and expressed clear faith in the Living God. His grandson in May this year said:

He really is, I think, coming to the end that, as I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him. And there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end. And I think he has been there in that space.

And he himself said when addressing the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia:

I assumed, naturally, that I was going to die very quickly,” Carter told the congregation at . “I obviously prayed about it. I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death.

Profound words from the mouth of someone no longer present in the land of the dying.

A few days earlier (26th December) John Cobb passed away, a few weeks shy of hi 100th birthday. Who is John Cobb, I hear you ask… He belonged to the school of Process Theology, very articulate and a prolific author. Process Theology is not viewed as being too orthodox, but theology per se does not bring us to a knowledge of God. One of the last (perhaps the last) essay he wrote is on Thomas Jay Oord’s page:

Amipotence vs. Omnipotence

Orthodox (and what is that?) or not it is well worth a read, and for it to be a challenge; he writs beyond the personal but here is one quote:

[T]here is a strong tendency for those who feel secure in their relations with other people to love them. If we know that God loves us, it is much more likely that our feelings toward God will be loving. But also, we are more likely to love God’s other beloved creatures.

The presentation of life

The cross… death, dying in my place etc…

We have been in the UK for a few days and set the date to arrive for the funeral of Lucie Moore, passing away at 44. She was born literally a few doors away from where Sue and I lived, and the Moore family have always been a connection and more than that an inspiration of faith, humility and above everything love.

The parish church in Luton was packed with a real testimony of Lucie’s amazing impact. Never one to shout out about her own achievements but present were family, work collegues, University contacts, neighbour, friends from childhood, inter-faith groups. Hugely moving, and of course premature at 44 years old, but a testimony to a life lived to the full and for the transformation of our world.

(Her focused work was as CEO of CEASE.)

Got me thinking too about death and the death of Jesus. With the death of Jesus (and for this I owe my developing thoughts to Andrew Rillera’s published work in Lamb of the Free) it is more about the presentation of life to God – if Jesus was not raised from the dead then we are still in our sins (1 Cor. 15), and though the redemptive work on earth is finished with the cross, but beyond the cross in the hours that were the other side there was the continuance of work leading into an ever-continual intercession. Death of the saints? I am sure that there is the presentation of life, our life’s work to heaven’s presence.

I am sure that for Lucie her life’s work are having a continued impact, not simply through inspiration, but an impact into our world. I was provoked. One life, today to respond and act, and every cup of cold water given noted by heaven. Changing the world through one cup at a time, a life presented to God.

Annual(?) podcast with Richards and Scott

How many consecutive years and we can legitimately call something ‘annual’? Anyway here is this year’s podcast that Martin Purnell (off Grid Christianity) hosted with a Christmas Quiz (sadly I think Noel won this one) and some serious banter… and some not so serious banter. Anyway here it is to bring life and insight into your Christmas!!

Perspectives