Been a while since I wrote about what we are up to in Sicily. I have page of notes that come close to boring me so not about to blah on for ever. I did write a newsletter today – if you don’t receive it then here is a link:
https://mailchi.mp/543da0e94eaf/january-2026-update
It will hopefully give a feel to date. We continue in Avola for this month.
Category: Personal Perspectives
The rhyme we call history
History keeps repeating and we don’t learn or as Mark Twain said
History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes.
We start another year – what does it hold? For us personally or big question ‘what does it hold globally?’ The book The Fourth Turning might have a focus on the USA and so its analysis of the rhyming of history might be looking at too short a period of time to rely on totally but it would indicate that we are overdue / coming to a time in the very near future when war will break out. Can we break the rhyme?
Occasionally Gayle has a dream where she meets a world leader and dialogues with them. This morning I was typing and she woke up with ‘I have just been with…’ In the dream she was advocating for another way and asked the leader ‘so when will war end’… ‘After this one there will be peace’. The leader was intent on being seen as a peacemaker but insisted that love is never the way and ‘this war’ will be necessary to bring peace.
OUCH!!!!
Jesus came at the fullness of time – not necessarily the most evil of times but at a time when the Greek / Gentile world has no hope and the nation that was called to be the redemptive nation was under its own curse. No hope for the world. And the Roman Empire was the archetype of, and for, all empires. As I have written before the Pax Romana was based on war. Building its temple to peace (Pax) on the field dedicated to the god of war (Mars). Peace for all who comply and have been conquered. And peace motivated to bring the resources of those territories conquered back to the centre (thank God we have the book of Revelation!!).
But can we see something different and the rhyme be broken?
We were in Augusta a military city in Sicily with a street that many cities have within them – a street called Via Garibaldi, but unlike the others we have seen it had a strap line: Eroe del Risorgimento: the hero! Does war bring peace? I appreciate that we live in a fallen world and there are horrendous choices that leaders have to make… maybe(???) war is a choice at times, but we have to measure everything against is it the most redemptive choice that can be made (my governing principle with regard to ethical choices).
Is there a hope? I am a big European advocate and am very grateful for the extensive time that John & Yvonne Pressdee spent praying over the numerous WWI & WWII battle field sites before the end of the previous century. Prayer and forgiveness can affect the rhyme.
Europe, a continent that many despair over. A continent that needs so much to turn within it… but maybe it can change the rhyme. Otherwise the new rising power will look to take its ‘rebellious island’ and the diminishing power that has inherited the Western imperial spirit (from Rome) will seek to take what it needs to take… but simply so as the resources will flow in the direction to the centre.
So I say ‘come on Europe… and little Sicily be a catalyst – you are in the centre of ‘middle earth’.
I wrote in a WhatsApp group a few days ago:
One aspect that we carry with us is a) we could be misled totally even coming to Sicily and b) our interpretation as we bumble along could be so far off… but hey ho!!!
So let’s push on with all the ‘hey ho’s’ that we can!!
Last day in Palermo
The capital city with just under 700,000 people in the city and over 1.2 million in the metropolitan area. It feels like a capital city with a far greater diversity than we have seen before, life on the streets and back alleys. We have greatly enjoyed our time here and move on tomorrow.
It has been and continues to be the stronghold of the mafia (Cosa Nostra – ‘our thing’) with CNN reporting concerning Palermo,
According to Italian police, the Mafia not only engages in extortion there, but also has a large role in the town’s legal economy—with its involvement in business such as wholesale food supplies, online betting and gambling.
More on the mafia a little later.
We sense that Palermo lives with an open wound, so life is very visible abounding but it would be so much healthier with healing of that wound. It is easy to idealise the past and histories are often written with a bias (an aside: consider Scripture and the difference between Chronicles and the earlier book of the kings). When we spent a year seeking to close the wound in Spain of the horrendous expulsion of the Muslims (early 1600s) we were very aware of the term ‘convivencia’ that was used to describe the era of the Islamic rule in Spain – that Jews, Muslims and Christians were able to live together with significant harmony between them, until the change to the ‘Christian kings and queens’!!! 1492 the conquest of Granada and the expulsion of the Jews, and the ‘discovery’ (rape) of the new world. Quite a threesome in one year.
Maybe ‘convivencia’ is overstated but there were significant historical documents and stories to indicate that there was more than some truth in the description. Something similar was present in Sicily during the Arabic rule. That is deeply provocative and so it should be for any follower of Jesus whose birth was announced with ‘peace on earth’. Rome of course was announcing the same thing and ironically built her temple to Pax (goddess of peace) on Mars field – dedicated to the god of war. Ironic? Or very visible. Empire have always built their peace on the battlefield.
Palermo is the most multi-ethnic city we have been in while being in Sicily. Many current social and historical commentators proclaim Europe’s multi-culturalism as a failure and the way forward as necessitating white supremacy and ‘Christian’ domination. (I have used the term ‘white supremacy’ acknowledging that is my interpretation of what is being strongly proposed.) Yes that would be one way… but the ‘Jesus way’?
Back to the mafia. There is a ‘No Mafia Memorial’ museum on one of the main streets with displays of brutal photos and a video. We have been in and through it twice. The first time to learn but the reality is that the brutality makes it visible, and the museum is (by default) holding death in the place. Gayle had a pretty much sleepless night processing and praying. We visited the second time yesterday to pray – I don’t think the wound is closed but hopefully a contribution to that end. ‘Lest we forget’ is an understandable response to horrors of war and of murders, and we have to remember but memory can hold something ‘alive’ so that repetition becomes almost inevitable. God in Isaiah says ‘remember… and forget for I do a new thing’ (my paraphrase / summary of Isaiah 43). Remember and forget so that we can embrace what is to come. Don’t forget but don’t remember in a way that closes the future down.
Just down the road from the museum is an obelisk. Historically the obelisk was something the Egyptians erected to honour the sun god. At the feet of it were sacrificed prisoners of war that drew the power of the sun god into the obelisk and therefore ‘blessed’ the people making the sacrifices. (Is it any surprise that many war memorials are obelisks in the western world?)
The obelisk is in honour of the martyrs of 1866 (Post-Garibaldi’s conquest of 1860). In that year there was a significant uprising as a result of widespread disappointment in the unification (and coinciding with a major outbreak of cholera in the city that claimed many lives). The result was 40,000 government troops were sent to put the rebellion down. Widespread killing and arrests resulted as ‘order'(!) was restored.
As part of the Second World War the entrance to Italy was via Sicily and in Palermo 40% of the housing was destroyed with huge loss of life of civilians. (This advance through Sicily also strengthened the position of the mafia.)
Palermo… a city with an open wound, where blood (and blood pollutes the land) has been spilled repeatedly is described as ‘the most culturally diverse city in Italy’. It had a past that I am sure was far from perfect that manifested some measure of ‘convivencia’ (could we say ‘partial-shalom’?).
The three monotheistic (and Abrahamic) faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been and are at loggerheads with each other. This is so deep in our European (and now global) history. Into the mix of those faiths we have to see a presence of Jesus-aligned-followers as yeast that leavens everything. In the ‘war book’ of Revelation we ‘know’ we will win as the ‘lion’ has overcome… but John sees a Lamb, and after that there are no more mentions of the Lion, but the Lamb comes 28 times – and John loves his numbers, he records 28 cargoes travelling to Rome on the ships. The Lamb for all, the cargoes (including human lives) for the empire.
A wound. Trauma. Palestine and Israel – two open wounds and great trauma. The imperial answer is to crush difference and impose one culture, suppressing all difference. The Jesus answer is in the totally different direction.
Could Sicily / Italy / Europe find a way to ‘partial-shalom’? That has always been the challenge for those who claim to be followers of Jesus for to them has been given the service of reconciliation.
Ever hopeful.
West to east to north!
Been a little while since I have blogged about our time here in Sicily. So an update is maybe due.
We left Marsala a week ago and travelled east right across the middle of the island to Catania via Enna en route. Enna is some 900 metres (3000 ft) above sea level and was the meeting point of the three divisions laid down in the time when Sicily was under Arabic rule.
A little impregnable!
The past week has been in Catania the second biggest city in Sicily. It boasts the oldest university (1434) being established almost 400 years prior to the university in the capital (Palermo). For me the stand out part in the history is that of the Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori (Sicilian workers league – fasci not to be confused with fascist – it is Italian for ‘bundle’) that had its origin in the city.
Between 1888-90 there were a series of failed harvests and thus famine in Sicily. After the unification of Italy wealth was removed from Sicily and the Italian government compounded the hardship through not giving any help in response to the famine. What has been termed as ‘the first and most influential modern social movement’ (by historian Eric Hobsbawn) was formed by necessity – beginning in Catania (May 1891) of the Fasci Siciliani dei Lavoratori. The movement spread throughout Sicily in the next few years. Totally eclectic but had a significant influence in forming the Italian Socialist party the following year in Genoa (1892).
In the movement there was a strong presence and influence of women – a journalist based in Rome who began to cover the movement commented that ‘girls as young as 15 years old were on the frontlines of the movement’.
Here is a quote from Mackay in The Invention of Sicily:
Arguably, the most radical manifestation of the Fasci took root in the Piana degli Albanesi just outside of Palermo, where those involved set up a series of agricultural cooperatives and worked them collectively, sharing all profits evenly among the community. This action was more that just a protest: it represented a new model of economic production that was entirely at odds with Italy’s modern capitalism… ultimately the Fasci faltered not because of their internal weaknesses, but because the Italian state recognised the danger they represented to the ‘normal’ functioning of the economy.
By the end of 1893 the Fasci had 300,000 members. By the beginning of 1894 central government sent in armed forces resulting in multiple killings and arrests. A year after the central committee was put on trial and condemned with prison sentences. The result was ‘victory for democracy and public order’ – so said the then prime minister of Italy!!!
The response to this movement also strengthened the Mafia who defended the landowners and thus found greater space to express themselves.
We left Catania this morning. Not been easy to get a handle on the place but I think this is because some of its ‘first-gifting’ and the artistic side has been suppressed. In our travels we are seeking to build a picture of ‘who are you, Sicily’ so as we can pray and call for her place in what we are looking for with the renewal of Europe in the context of so many parts of culture (including the demise of christendom) that are falling away.
On to Palermo this morning – a 3 hour drive, and this is an island! We are staying right by the main train station so it should be nice and earthy!! (Trains and earth???)
This morning I picked up this YouTube video that follows the Agnelli family. They own or control Ferrari, Fiat, Jeep, Chrysler, Maserati, and Juventus football team, as well as owning Italy’s largest newspaper and manage $200 billion in assets.
Their power base is in the north – Turin (of shroud fame), a city that has a strong link to Jupiter (Zeus for the Greeks), and certainly one that I was informed some 30 years ago is seen as the occult centre. What I find interesting is that Turin has been described as the political and intellectual centre for the Risorgimento (Garibaldi’s movement) and was the first capital of the new kingdom of Italy post Garibaldi’s conquest of the two Sicilies. The Garibaldi connection again – it seems to be truly a turning point in Italy – obviously as unification resulted – but also a turning point for Sicily.
Loads more to say… but hopefully we are beginning to see the layers. If not at least we are occupied!
New Testament context?
A ‘recovery’ of New Testament Christianity does it need a context in which to develop? The most influential flavour of Christian faith that impacted me was that of the ‘new church’ movement in the UK. I am very grateful for the decades I was immersed in that and the push for ‘church as in the NT’ might be something I would wish to reposition as ‘a recovery of the gospel of the NT’… or even ‘a recovery of the trajectory of the gospel of the NT’. For some time though I have wondered if we have to also embrace a NT context – i.e. something akin to the Roman-Graeco culture of that day.
Years ago I visited Pompeii then read passages from Revelation in the evening. Forget about ‘left behind’ and other such myths – we read what we had been walking through. Today Gayle and I went down the coast from Marsala and the last place we walked through was the archaeological site of Selinunte. A site of ancient (Greek) temples. Here is one of the many temples:
Impressive for sure! But imagine Paul’s world – coming to Athens and temples to each and every god, and even one to the ‘unknown god’! A challenging culture to proclaim that the ONE God, creator of heaven and earth does not live in temples made of stones and that this God has raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead! Amazing that people lined up to say – OK I am ready to follow.
And challenging to proclaim the gospel in that context. But this is what they did and with a long-term vision that everything connected to Imperialism would resultingly fall (the message of the book of Revelation as I read it).
So do we need a culture that more closely resembles that of the NT? Multi-faith so that in the ‘market place’ we make our presentation? Or maybe that culture is more present than we realise? What might be the temples in our city – temples that demand sacrifice of time, money and the future? Maybe if we could see them for what they are we might already find that we are in a NT context, then go on to discover what the presentation should be and then…
Dreams and nights
I have been blogging for over 25 years and it began when someone in Germany said to me that I should ‘blog’. My response was – I am not interested in what others are pontificating over so am not about to add my pontificates to theirs. Then I began to read what others were writing and thought if I can keep it away from the pontifications and lean into ‘these are personal perspectives’ it might help me to process where I have been and where I think I am headed… and maybe be a help to someone else to journey with authenticity. I am far from convinced that there is one response that all followers of Jesus should make, after all Jesus in response to Peter’s moan was that how John would respond to God’s leading had nothing to do with him. Of course there are issues that we are to watch out for but outside of that the leading of God is very personal. So in reading my posts they are ‘personal perspectives’, and one of the challenges is that no-one is right on everything, our problem being that we have no idea where we are wrong! Here then follows something as much for my benefit as for anyone else, reflecting on our departure from Oliva just over 3 weeks ago and how we set ourselves for the coming week.
Another week… Days, weeks, months (lunar or calendar?) and maybe even years are wonderful dividers for us. Take a day at a time is one of the wisest approaches we can take – in that sense I only have today. A good friend who sadly passed away in 2001, Johnny Barr, was asked to pray for a woman who had been diagnosed with 4 months to live… He said to her I can’t possibly pray for you on the basis of that prognosis. She asked him – so how long do I have? His response was – today. Scripture consistently says ‘today’. If you choose to live today I can pray for you.
I don’t know if the week begins on Sunday (‘first day of the week’) or Monday but we tend to take each week from Monday, so here we are. Dreams and nights are important for us. Gayle has maybe 5-6 dreams per month that we need to take note of; I, maybe 5-6 per year that are ‘pay attention’ dreams. We have been directed to geographic places in dreams, but also note patterns. Since arriving in Marsala dreams have increased but not so many have ‘landed’ – an indication of activity but contention. Then add to that how disturbed sleep can be – and when it is somewhat disturbed indicates a level of opposition. Land loves to respond to care and prayer for release from bondage (Rom. 8), but there is a process involved for (whatever is meant by spiritual powers) are rooted in geography and so do not simply shift in an instant.
We are now hitting the stage of… time to move on. Not the voice of heaven! The stage of – so how serious are you? That is the voice of heaven.
Time to dig in.
We are encouraged that across Italy there is a move that is continuing to hold a protest position against the inhumane situation in Gaza and concerning economy that profits from war. We observed this in Spain earlier in the year and our hope has been that this would spread across Europe. What has that to do with the gospel? Well if narrowed down to ‘hands up and sinner’s prayer’ we might give one response… but if we look at the bigger picture of what I term ‘the Pauline gospel’ we might give another response and a shift on the bigger picture removes a measure of the blindness that ‘the Satan’ brings over people.
Colonisation is coming right into view. There is no value in over-judging the past. If we were to do that we would judge many of the ‘saints’ of Scripture – everything fits the era it was in. Garibaldi and the conquest of Sicily? At one level irrelevant but a sign of something fresh that can be released. Hence something here to continue to pray so that fuel comes to a humanitarian push across this continent that is line with the image of God is in humanity, thus declaring all war as ‘civil war’.
Musings for the day… and maybe fuel for us as we go to the marker point of the most westerly point on the island. From the West… the western hegemony is coming to an end (ends of that nature die slowly) but out of the ashes something has to come from the west. The angel who brought the book in the dream (that we have not been able to read – yet) was struggling to hold the book due to its weight and size, but it was held at three points – to in the arms extended to the extreme and the other on the stomach. I think symbolically the three marker points on this triangular island.
A missing element so often is patience – not something passive but deeply active – for it is through faith and patience that heaven comes. Another week.
From the west
We have been interested in how the history fit together as history (for a person and a geography – hence Scripture relates to geographies as it does to people with over 1200 references to land… heaven and earth is a constant theme which has been replaced by ‘heaven and hell’ as if they are the constant contrasts) reveals what is located in a place or explains what is present now. Marsala did not arrive here this morning, nor did arrive here in 1860 but that era has caught our attention.
In 1860 Giuseppe Garibaldi arrived with his expedition of 1000 from mainland Italy (though it was not ‘Italy’ then) and landed at Marsala – on the westernmost point of the island of Sicily. From there he conquered Sicily as the first part of his vision for a united Italy. This phase finished at the border where Gayle and I stopped and prayed some 2 weeks ago – the northern border of the ‘kingdom of the two Sicilies’. We simply went with our ‘gut’ that we should make that stopping point on our journey and likewise when we entered Sicily in the north east we had a decision to make – go south or west. In our days when roughly planning the trip we thought we would go south but as we got off the ferry, we followed our ‘gut’ and went west to the furthest west on the island, here in Marsala. We did not know o Garibaldi’s landing here, the beginning of the unification of Italy.
The monument above is of two ships and I think we will visit it repeatedly to pray. Been there once, did not sense great traction – but who knows?
What difference does this make? That’s what makes me buzz. Not a clue!!! Doing what believe should do is the key, and yes a theology of land, history and city might indeed suggest that a difference takes place, but the wonderful part of seeking to follow God is never knowing totally what difference our words and activities make.
Sicily – the first place outside of Italia colonised by the republic (pre-Imperial Rome… though there will always be a pull for Republics to become Empires, and often Empires hide behind the term republic).
Patience is needed. I like things to happen instantly, but often it is repetition that makes the difference. Throw the nets in one more time… but we have fished all night, was the reply. We will go again and again, and walk the city and I think slowly insights and revelation will come.
Sicily sits in the middle of middle earth. It has been a crossroads for trade and imperial conflicts. Marsala has a history way before 1860 and we probably will need to go there, but for now praying for something to begin that might make a mark in years to come. Not the unification of Italy through military conquest, but a unifying across Europe. Let’s see… I think ‘my friend’ (as I like to call him!) Paul had such a vision.
The ekklesia in Europe?
I only put the ‘in Europe’ part as this is my geography and I am trying to intersperse comments about our little adventure in Sicily with posts focusing on Europe. But I also add the ‘Europe’ part as I have this crazy idea that in the body of this old continent something is slowly forming… for the sake of the world. And before anyone thinks I am some kind of ‘head in sand’ post-millennialist let me state that all the pre-, post-and a- are (in my humble opinion!!!) mistaken. (More opinion than humility there!) I am simply focused on the job we are to engage with and leaving all that ‘end-time’ stuff in the hands of God, as I find almost nothing in Scripture pointing me in that direction, but a call to live in the light of the coming age and seek to live, act and relate in a way that is consistent with that age.
Been planning to get a tattoo to mark the time in Sicily. Here is my first attempt at a profound design; Gayle is quite dismissive! And to think all my creativity went into it:
Want a clue? Though pretty obvious… I had to shorten John’s words of what he saw (Rev. 21) by substituting a Pauline phrase… though the form of the last word does not appear in the NT. Pretty sure I have got the form of the irregular noun correct – hope so!!! But waiting for Gayle to bring on her improved version.
A few little background notes. Paul left behind an ekklesia (usually translated as ‘church’) in the cities and regions where he went, doing this throughout ‘Europe’ until he was able to claim a fulfilment of Matt. 24:14. Quite a claim! If we were to do a word-association exercise and I was to say ‘church’ my guess is 90+% of us would imagine a building and a service at the centre. If we read James and the section about a rich person coming in and being given the best seat we probably would not first see a meal table but ‘pews’ or seats inside a building. I am not an iconoclast and given that we all prefer to live in buildings I don’t think anti-building is likely to get us anywhere. However, it is the focus of what we are centred on that is more important. Thomas Finger (Mennonite theologian) wrote that ecclesiology is the least innovative area of theology, so much simply being assumed.
What was Paul up to? Is he simply looking to form groups that are separate from their geography who are expressing a spirituality? If so then we would suggest that it is all about ‘salvation’ to escape from a future. There is that element there… but given that there was already an ekklesia in each place where Paul went we probably have to consider that there is a kind of ‘alternative’ that he is ‘planting’ there. (I like the word ‘planting’ as it is organic and situational.) The ekklesia that was there on behalf of Rome was commissioned to be actively committed to help shape the relevant geography to reflect the culture and values of Rome. Paul leaves behind an ekklesia not of Rome but of Jesus Christ. A company of people whose citizenship was not Roman but derived from heaven. Here then for me is the core clue: this company of people have a corporate purpose – one of enabling where they are planted (organically and situationaly) to mirror at some discernible level the culture and values of heaven. Of course such a company is made up of a mixed-bag, so the restoration of all of us who are ‘mixed’ (should that be spelt ‘messed up’?) is part of the process, but even in our mixed-up-ness we are to be present as agents of helping bring about a shape where heaven’s presence can increase.
[Sidenote: I am not a Universalist, but see a ‘wideness in the mercy of God’ that outworks in two ways – in the ultimate sense any inclusion/exclusion is issue is in God’s hands and not in the hands of any theological system; and the second way in the here and now there are those who are agents of the kingdom who are not disciples (Acts 19 and Asiarchs for me is very key in this approach.)]
Perhaps it is in Europe that an ecclesiology that is diverse – the multiplicity of the small and the richness of diversity – develops. We have that opportunity. Courage and faithfulness to the one to whom the ekklesia belongs and who is the source is required. And finally there is room for optimism. Corinth,for example, a city of around 200,000 in Paul’s day had a mixed-bag ekklesia (understatement) that was not large (Rom.16 shows this). Maybe 0.1% of the population. In desperate need of church growth? Well according to Paul in need of ‘faith-growth’ (but our hope is that, as your faith increases, our field among you may be greatly enlarged, 2 Cor.10:15). If that could happen he could happily get on his donkey and travel to fresh geographies.
I got to be an optimist! And even if that optimism were ultimately to be misplaced I got to keep the central focus of ‘let your kingdom come’, not ‘get me out of here’.
Into Marsala
Today around mid-day we move into the city of Marsala. We have taken an apartment for the next 32 days. With ‘booking.com’ so have not been able to see it but confident we can make it work. Street view below, and the entry door for us is the first on the left. (Parking of van…?????)
We are ready to enter the city after being on the edge for 5 days. We a) feel at home in the city and b) sense its significance for the next weeks. It is on the extreme west of the island – some 4 hours drive from where we landed.
Sicily is a triangle in shape and is marked at the three corners – the west point is here in Marsala and certainly feels the place to start. Walking the city, finding key points and let’s see.
The city is close on 3000 years from its initial beginnings and has been a ‘first’ in a number of ways. I have mentioned in a previous post that one natural reading of the unification of Italy is that it began here with Garibaldi landing with his ‘1000’ and from here eventually conquering all the way to Naples / the border of the ancient ‘kingdom of the two Sicilies’. This was not in our sight those days back when we were at that border but now seems to make sense. It was also where the first Punic War began (wars between Carthage and Rome 3rdC BCE lasting over 23 years) – the battle for supremacy in the Western Mediterranean. Finally in 241BCE the city was given to the Romans and soon became one of the most important cities in the Sicily.
History always gives some clues as to what is in the land, as in the same way that personal history shapes an individual. Sometimes of course the history covers over the reality… let’s see.
A few nights ago I had a dream that has stuck with me. First some background. (And if you wish to tone down the language that is OK – the substance / reality is always what counts…) someone said that the place to start would be like a portal for sight on Europe and that there was a ‘book’ there that we would receive giving details and strategy. So the dream. A few nights ago I was in a large space – either a large room or perhaps outside with some walls surrounding. I was not focused on that nor on whoever else was present, because an angel (don’t ask how one ‘knows’ what one knows in a dream – no wings to give away, but I simply knew this was not a human figure, but had come from a non-earthly location) had come carrying a book. The angel was small – maybe 5’5 (165cms) tall. And the book was large, heavy and very awkward to carry. I was aware that the book had come a long way so was deeply impressed that the angel had persisted and thought that I probably would not have persisted. To hold the book the angel had to bend somewhat as the book was too large to carry ‘normally’ or under an arm. The arms were to stretched to the furthest extent. I did not say anything, but the angel said – I will bring it, I have come thus far and not about to give up. Then with great effort the angel lifted the book on to a lectern, ready to be opened and read. End of dream. Of course it could just be a dream that rose from my sub-conscious, but…
So off to the city and whatever concludes about the book I think if we persist then we will leave here with something of significance.
Brave and good people
We spent a big part of yesterday in the city of Trapani and enjoyed our time there in a city that seems open and holding life. As we were leaving we walked past this burnt out car that has been preserved as a marker.
Carlo Palermo replaced his friend that the Mafia (Cosa Nostra as they term themselves:’Our Thing’) had killed. He carried on the work and was immediately a target. The car above was set up. Palermo himself was injured but survived and carried on the work of investigation and justice, The bomb however killed a mother and her twin sons – hence the three ‘flowers’ growing up out of the shell.
So very sobering when encountering people, or their memory, in the public arena who have stood at cost for a different future. Maybe some of them have lived with mixed motives but I am aware (moving now a little in a theological direction) that God honours what is good. From the generic piece of observable wisdom that ‘righteousness exalts a nation’ to the parable of the ‘good’ Samaritan – Samaritan of all people! There is no need to go down the line of ‘good works saves a person’ but neither should we dismiss what is genuinely good. It is a belief that my ‘religious’ activity gets me favour before God that is critiqued and critiqued strongly – your righteousness is as filthy rags.
Two aspects challenge me in this. One a humility that I am not the one who says who makes it into the age to come; and that I have to find a different narrative to the simple one that ‘born again = go to heaven’. There is no Scripture that talks of ‘going to heaven’ in such a clear manner so I need to find a different / bigger reason for knowing the Lord (or as Paul corrects himself ‘being known by the Lord’). That bigger picture for me is of the body of Christ taking responsibility for our world. We can create space where those come along who ‘do good to all’ and our world mirrors a tiny bit of heaven’s reality, and I think push back so that less innocent people are damaged by the fallenness of our world.
Don’t blame the world… As I once said to a group of people in the USA who were concerned about abortion and changes to the marriage laws in their country. I said that the WH had never legislated on such matters (they had at one level, but not at the level that counts)… I said people like you present in this room did. When you walk up the aisle making promises and then walk down saying I have found someone better you legislated about marriage (thank God there is wonderful grace re. divorse / remarriage, but an ‘opting out at first opportunity’ is not what Scripture talks about). And secondly when you tithe and raise your hands in church to worship but support the killing of ‘those bloody Iraquis’ (that was the era) you legislate who can and can not be killed. If you are blasé about human life that can be seen and interacted with we should not be too surprised that society becomes blasś about life that cannot be seen.
The Pauline gospel.
Yes there is the intimacy with the Living Lord that we enjoy… but there is a reason for the body of Christ on the earth. Praying for and rejoicing when there is any manifestation of the kingdom.