Thanks to the comment on http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/weekly_wellsprings/year_c/sunday_28.htm about the Samaritan leper who was healed by Jesus (Luke 17:11-19).
But one cannot simply go to the priests to be allowed back - he is a Samaritan and would only meet with contempt from any Jewish priest. Unable to take the route laid before the others, he returns to the One who healed him and praises God for the great thing that has been done for him.
Here is an intuitive response to Jesus' ministry. When our circumstances are such as preclude us from attending at church, what then? Jesus is still available - even if not within the religious culture. The same outcome that is assumed for the 9 lepers - that they would re-enter by the blessing of the priests the community they were barred from - is available to this one. Jesus has made him whole, and he longs for recognition; Jesus has restored his dignity, and he can celebrate life. But not in a religious form that is foreign to him - rather in a development of personal relationship with the One who has set him free.
The present-day church, then, has to learn once more that its structures are not able to relate to all who desire nurture for and celebration of their the relationship people have with Jesus. It may do so in 9 cases out of 10. But not always. Even since Jesus' time, there has been one who does not fit the mould. And for that one, Jesus was available.
Now, however, comes the interesting questions: Who stands in the place of Christ in today's world? It has been declared that the church (in which the Word of God is truly proclaimed and the sacraments rightly administered) was the presence of Christ in the world. But while it retains its exclusive culture (as the Jewish priests did), how can it fulfil Jesus' ministry to the ones who are excluded?
Friday, October 8, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Growing
I am awed by the insight in Mark 4:26-33 as it's identified in Brennan Manning's Souvenirs of Solitude (p71). How is it that I had not seen so obvious a truth? That it is God who makes the seed grow, it is God who does the work! Can it be that I have been so inculcated with the heritage of protestantism (called "the work ethic") that even the Scriptures have been veiled? Well, of course! That's the way it happens.
So God, through Brennan, breaks through again, and I am recalled to the truth. And Brennan goes deep, suggesting that it's not "Work as if everything depended on you and pray as if everything depended on God" but "Work as if everything depended on God and pray as if everything depended on you". This second is much more appropriate, because it is much more challenging. (And it fits with the comment in Stanley Grenz' Prayer: the Cry for the Kingdom, that "God has voluntarily made himself dependent upon our prayers." p51)
I had the opportunity today to share with someone about growing in Christian discipleship. We reflected on the story of the seed growing silently, and she grasped as a gift of God that her commitment to following Jesus is nothing less than being open to what God would have her do and be. There is no need for us to strain ourselves into fit some super program, but simply allowing ourselves to be planted in the ground, there to grow as God would make it happen.
Not my love, but Yours; not my will, but Yours; not my work, but Yours.
So God, through Brennan, breaks through again, and I am recalled to the truth. And Brennan goes deep, suggesting that it's not "Work as if everything depended on you and pray as if everything depended on God" but "Work as if everything depended on God and pray as if everything depended on you". This second is much more appropriate, because it is much more challenging. (And it fits with the comment in Stanley Grenz' Prayer: the Cry for the Kingdom, that "God has voluntarily made himself dependent upon our prayers." p51)
I had the opportunity today to share with someone about growing in Christian discipleship. We reflected on the story of the seed growing silently, and she grasped as a gift of God that her commitment to following Jesus is nothing less than being open to what God would have her do and be. There is no need for us to strain ourselves into fit some super program, but simply allowing ourselves to be planted in the ground, there to grow as God would make it happen.
Not my love, but Yours; not my will, but Yours; not my work, but Yours.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Names
Just read the comments on http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2010/09/pamela-hartigan-wants-to-dump-the-word-social-entrepreneur.html#comment-6a00d8341c5bb353ef013487d9e043970c and some of the responses.
The issue seems to be that names exclude people. That's fine with me. I don't want anyone else to be "Graham Vawser". (I don't think my wife does either!)
And on the other hand I can't see that there's any way of encouraging people to consider changing from their long held positions if they don't see a hope of finding themselves in a place they've not been before - a better place. Why move when there's nothing to be gained from it?
I've lived in the comfortable place, unaware of what was happening in other places. It's much more exciting and challenging to discover that there are people doing things I'm not part of. It makes me decide whether I want to continue to be out of it (=excluded) or learn new things to come in to the new place.
And so I want people to be able to see that there are some things that they're missing out on. I'll keep naming these things, and explaining them, and showing the sign posts, and providing the maps, so that others will come in.
The issue seems to be that names exclude people. That's fine with me. I don't want anyone else to be "Graham Vawser". (I don't think my wife does either!)
And on the other hand I can't see that there's any way of encouraging people to consider changing from their long held positions if they don't see a hope of finding themselves in a place they've not been before - a better place. Why move when there's nothing to be gained from it?
I've lived in the comfortable place, unaware of what was happening in other places. It's much more exciting and challenging to discover that there are people doing things I'm not part of. It makes me decide whether I want to continue to be out of it (=excluded) or learn new things to come in to the new place.
And so I want people to be able to see that there are some things that they're missing out on. I'll keep naming these things, and explaining them, and showing the sign posts, and providing the maps, so that others will come in.
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