I receive Jeff Fountain’s weekly newsletter. His latest is Why Celebrate.
So full of insight – here are two quote as he reflects on the Christmas message of peace:
[T]his paradox does not cancel the angelic promise. It clarifies it. The shalom the angels proclaimed was not merely the absence of war but the restoration of right relationship – between God and humanity, within human communities, and ultimately within creation itself. This peace is deeper than political stability, though it has political implications.
So two thousand years of conflict do not mean the promise failed. They are the long contested middle ground of history between promise and fulfilment. Paul describes creation as groaning in anticipation of liberation (Romans 8:22), not the groan of defeat but the labour pain of a world being remade.
Shalom, peace, reconciliation… beyond all ‘peace deals’ and negotiations. A longer read that resonates with this and might be of some interest is what I wrote entitled: Reconciliation – in Four Directions.pdf
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!
The resurrection narrative that recounts how Jesus appeared to the two on the way to Emmaus has always brought me great hope (Luke 24:13-35). Two disciples that numerous historic traditions have held as being Cleopas and his wife Mary. (In Jn. 19:25 Mary is described as the wife of Clopas (Aramaic origin; Cleopas being Greek).) Let’s take it for a moment to be a married couple (my conviction, or at least Luke has written it that way to help us engage with the text).
They are not only physically walking but emotionally walking away from the place where they had been living with so much hope. They had hoped that Jesus would redeem Israel but, post-crucifixion, are now devastated. It seems that Luke is drawing on the narrative of another couple who walked devastated with what had taken place for them. Let’s jump back to that story: Adam and Eve have to walk away from the Garden. The now-unreachable promises of God bearing heavily on them, and they walk with the sentence of death on them. For Mary and Cleopas the evening hour is approaching, that hour when God would come to visit in the Garden. Cleopas and Mary are completely unaware who has come to walk with them, and I suggest that when Adam and Eve (and all those who follow generationally) left their Garden they were completely unaware that they did not walk simply as a lone couple, but a Stranger walked with them, for God did not stay in the Garden but walked also with them, sharing the ‘sentence’ of death with them. God walked it all the way to the place of the incarnation and through the cross, until Jesus becomes a ‘life-giving Spirit’.
This Emmaus walk is one that we often take. Hopes have taken a bash or are even gone. And we don’t walk alone for we are accompanied by shame, disappointment, regret, guilt or another equally burdensome emotion. But Emmaus tells us we do not walk alone. We might use different words to ‘And it is the third day since all this happened’ to express the depth of the loss of hope. But I think heaven responds with those same words. There is a third day when he meets us on the way and invites us to take bread again from his hands.
We have a few more hours here in Marsala and then move to the east side of the island to the Catania region tomorrow morning. We think that (east side) will be the major focus for a while but will return this side to Agrigento and also Aragona before too long. So a little update on our time here.
This marker has been our main focus while in Marsala. It marks the most westerly point in Sicily, marking the entrance of Garibaldi and also the first Punic War between Rome and Carthage which was fought at sea just off the coast here. There were three Punic wars and when they ended it meant that Rome ruled the Mediterranean.
Garibaldi coming from the north with his ‘1000’ is the prime mover in the unification of independent states to form Italy. Did he liberate Sicily or sow towards its subjugation?
So a little summary… and I will use language that might not be exact but hopefully communicate what has gone on. We came to Marsala working out that it was the appropriate place to start as we had been given a ‘word’ by someone with a good credible background that the South West was where we had to spend time, and that there would be a ‘book’ that we would receive…
After a couple of nights here in a dream an angel came with a book, a big heavy book supported at three corners, one in the stomach and two in the hands fully stretched. At the final scene in the dream the angel placed it on a lectern where it could be read. Dream ended. We have worked with the one corner in the stomach of the angel being this place here – the extreme west; the other two points being the extreme south east and the north east. A simple ‘google’ search will show that not only is Sicily a triangle but it is marked by the three points. While here we have very much thought the early pages of the book have been written and the final pages are for us to ‘write’. Bring the past to a conclusion and from a clean place to sow into an ‘inception’ for the future.
We have found that there are strange experiences that we don’t have to make ‘literal’ (in some scientific sense) even though they are real. And a few nights after the dream, in a moment between wakefulness and sleep Garibaldi (more on him below) came and said ‘You cannot undo what I have done’. I am not interested in exploring what ‘really’ took place but in understanding what we should do in the light of this. For days we had been praying into the arrival of Garibaldi in Marsala resulting in the beginning of the unification of Italy (there was no Italy prior to this, Sicily was key in what was known as ‘the kingdom of the Two Sicilies’).
And at one level we cannot undo what has been done… But we can change the ongoing effect of the past. Same as an individual so with a geography. History shapes an individual and a geography but neither a geography nor an individual are subject to the history on an ongoing basis… but the past has to be finished.
We leave here in a few hours to the next geography though we think it will take more time particularly as we will cover a larger area geographically.
Life is an adventure! And each of us need to find the track that we are to be on. So yesterday I spent a couple of hours a few doors away – with a tattoo artist, someone who is of the land. With tattoos on either side of her head(!!!) and arms and fingers and who knows where else. But an hour of conversation – her Italian and my Spanish – with a few hand signs thrown in I explained about our interest in history in order to draw a line on the past and open up a possible different future. Her take on Garibaldi was mine totally – that the result was that of colonisation and oppression (Garibaldi : 1860 here and between 1901 – 13 25% of the population had to leave the island due to poverty… although prior to that the ‘Two Sicilies’ had more gold reserve than the northern states that were to become part of the united Italy).
And the conversation… sparked by a design I sent to the ‘Freedom Tattoos’ of Marsala with a rising sun and some composite koine Greek that I drew from Rev. 21 and 1 Cor. 5. ‘Is this a name?’ she asked. My reply – let me tell you a story, which will also explain why we are here!
Now we have to continue to live that out. We all need a dream – thank you Martin Luther King. But deeper – thank you John the Seer for your words ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth’ and for Paul who said that our whole vision is different if we are in Christ for there is a new creation.
Here then is the design…not a name, but in the light of the ‘Name’ a dream that we wish to live out. Europe – post-Christian, getting closer to the context in which John and Paul spoke of their vision. A challenge… can we consistently see (I chose the past tense ‘I saw’) a new heaven and a new earth, though I chose to shorten that.
A little while back I hosted an open zoom around the topic that I had written on ‘Reconciliation in four directions’. The sense was to put one more Zoom on this theme but to focus on Reconciliation with the land / creation.
If you were not with us in October the material in pdf form is found at: https://3generations.eu/journals and on the menu to the right it is Volume 7. This can be read online or downloaded.
I also recorded a short video that went with the original material. The video is found at: https://youtu.be/u6K32DyAZB4
Ro Lavender, Naomi Moore, Matt Scrimgeour and Peter McKinney will shape our time together and
WednesdayDecember 10th 19:30 UK time and the Zoom link is:
Our approach to this creation direction – when we next meet – will be narrative and so you are invited to consider bringing a land themed reconciliation story, that you may have the opportunity to share in either a breakout space or the larger gathered circle.
Peter has offered some framing thoughts, questions and part of his story as a way into our next conversation. You can view this video here: https://youtu.be/xumD5btVoOk
Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem has to be the place where Jesus (the prophet) dies. The fall of Jerusalem takes place in the Jewish wars of 66-70, but the ‘fall’ of Jerusalem took place over centuries prior to this. It had become the place of which Jesus said,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
Far from being a city set on a hill as a light to all, it has plunged into darkness. We all killed Jesus, all failure to be human (sin) killed Jesus, but it seems that religion in all forms and shapes (and pulling on imperial power) killed Jesus.
I have been reading for the final two months of this year the Spanish new testament and thus read a little slower not always being so familiar with what comes next. In Acts I have just noticed two occasions that Paul was to be killed on the way to Jerusalem / in Jerusalem.
In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who joined in this conspiracy (Acts 23:12,13).
They appealed to him [Festus] and requested, as a favor to them against Paul, to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, planning an ambush to kill him along the way (Acts 25:2,3).
‘Prophet’ Paul is not going to be killed in Jerusalem for once religious power (the ‘glue’ that holds so much together) had been broken there has to be a relentless push for Rome the centre of imperial oppressive power. Religion and imperial power together are so destructive, hence we have to be on high alert when we hear the oxymoron ‘Christian country’!
Religion says who is in and who is out; imperial power promises so much to one and all, seeks to reward those who comply (you can buy and sell) but the rewards flow back to the few at the centre. Put those two together and the imperial power claims divine blessing for what is done.
And the gospel of the kingdom? A God whose arms are open wide, who embraces the depth and shame of humanity with the ‘rewards’ flowing to the uttermost parts. (John records 28 cargoes flowing to Rome – including human souls; he also records the ‘Lamb’ 28 times. The fullness (7) from (for in the case of the Lamb) the whole earth.)
Paul your destiny is Rome not Jerusalem.
There are many, small and big, ‘Romes’ in our world. Some are tough to crack, particularly those that combine religious and imperial power. But the gospel of freedom has triumphed.
Over a significant period of time I was involved along with many others in the area of what might be termed ‘strategic prayer’ (for want of a better term) and undergirding that was a focus on removing the effects of the past. The past cannot be changed, but when there are ongoing negative effects those can be addressed. The same way things operate at a personal level so they operate at a corporate level. We see how Scripture addresses both ‘cities’ and land as if they are personal.
A big part of seeking to respond to the past is that of identificational repentance, and it is wonderful when we see something go full circle with national apologies made where there has been national oppression – a recent example is that of Spain’s apology to Mexico.
There are many Old Testament examples of ‘we and our ancestors have sinned’ type of responses but for me the clearest NT example is that of the baptism of Jesus by John. It was a baptism for ‘the remission of sins’ and thus it is understandable that John did not agree to baptise Jesus until… He refuses for how can he baptise the ‘sinless one’? The response of Jesus is to talk about righteousness. That term is not simply right and wrong but a covenant term. Jesus is suggesting that righteousness had not been fulfilled thus begging the question of whose righteousness. God’s? Certainly not. But that of the covenant people. Jesus identifies with Israel and the confession of his mouth is not his sin but that of the people. From that point on he carried the sins all the way to the cross. (We could suggest that the sin / death proclamation from Eden is carried all the way to the cross.)
I appreciate that the last paragraph might be exploring new ground for some but it opens a whole new window on the cross.
Living in our world what do we do when we come across something along the lines of the various pagan temples that we visited yesterday. Kneel, pray and stand in identification? I have done that on many occasions, but yesterday other than proclaim there is one God, maker of heaven and earth who does not live in a temple made by hands we did not do any IR at any significant level. I wondered why (and also am aware that we are yet to go to Agrigento and the valley of temples – maybe that will be different).
Of course the idea that we will have answers and understand everything is a wonderful myth, but I think I grasped something yesterday. To finish something does not mean everything is necessarily done, but that nothing is left to prevent a move forward. That is key. The future (personal / corporate) can be locked up by the past and the important part is the unlocking of the past so that the future is not a repeat of what went before (and thus further locking it up).
Maybe what I have written is a bit of a fog and not too clear, but I think it is another level of understanding for the many people who continue to seek to remove the effects of the past. The conviction of God is key as to what to address.
I am currently slowly working on Israel (not the current state but the theology of Israel) and key to that is to distinguish ‘Israel’ from ‘Jew’ (hopefully in 3-4 months time I will write on that) so have been coming to the disciples question to Jesus as to whether he was at ‘this time (chronos) he was going to restore the kingdom to Israel’. He gives them a continual direction to move in (with 3 clear allusions to Isaianic texts), for (tying it to Paul) it will be in ‘this way’ that ‘all Israel (not all Jews!) will be saved’. Hang in there!!!
The death of Jesus unlocks the past so that the future can change (chronos – the literal time) as God aligns the future with what needs to happen (God sets the chronos and the kairos together – Acts 1:7).
The work of Jesus is finished – the past cannot hold back what is coming… and yet Paul says he wants to make up what is lacking in the afflictions of Jesus. There is work for us to do – not saving the world – but dealing with whatever has been afflicting the world so that there is no lock up but a release of the freedom of the cross.
I am aware that a whole lot more could be written to expand the above… but there it is for now.
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…
Revelation – still stands head and shoulders above other literature as a critique of Imperial political power (not talking party politics but politics in the sense of dictating the life and culture of the polis). Mark of the beast etc… is a critique of economic unjust transactional trade (and a push away from buying and selling to giving and receiving as the economic culture)… All relevant then and deeply relevant now.
Revelation 4 and 5 are the pivotal chapters. Chapter 4 would have left John’s hearers somewhat in a daze for when Caesar came to town his throne was the centre and the elders (by Domitian, numbering 24) were around the throne. From there the future shape was determined, but John describes another throne, a heavenly one. But this is no simple vision of ‘just sing God is in control and all things will fall into place’, for he describes a major issue. He sees a book totally sealed that no-one can open so there is no alternative future but the one that Caesar (and the many would-be-Caesars that arise) determines. But there is hope – and the hope is rooted in Scripture:
Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness—who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and the obedience of the peoples is his (Gen. 49:9-10).
The (Jewish) hope that the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah and sort everything out, hence one of the elders declares:
Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
The book can be opened, human destiny, the purposes of God for humanity will be outworked. John stops weeping and turns to see the Lion who has overcome. He sees a Lamb bearing all the marks of having been slain. He hears of a lion, but he sees a lamb. As happens in Revelation the sight gives deep meaning and insight to the hearing. And Jesus is the revelation of God.
I have had a look and I cannot find another reference to the ‘lion’ after that first one. References to the lamb – yes, but none to Jesus as the lion. And I read of the call to follow the lamb wherever he goes.
The unlocking of human destiny is through the slain Lamb and the followers. The Lamb unlocks the scroll, but those that John represents have to eat the scroll (described as a ‘little scroll’ (Rev. 10) so probably indicating that it is not the whole scroll’s content but that there is still work to be done).
The rulership (kingdom) of God is not top down, but working from within; engaging at a level that embraced that which was top down: sin and death, those twin powers.
Paul’s gospel was one of transformation of what was offered to Jesus (the kingdoms of this world)… Jesus, Paul and John in a book full of violent imagery all agree. There is a path for us to follow.
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.
