Striking rock

It usually starts well. Full of eagerness I plunge into some new worthwhile commitment and see it confirmed in my heart with a sense of fulfilment and gush of purposefulness. As time marches on what began as a childlike response to God’s prompting becomes an uncomfortable burden. I have been wondering why.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)

Should I avoid the commitment in the first instance? I don’t think so; we are called to engage with the world. Am I misreading God’s prompting? The fruit produced in my life and in the lives of others suggests not. Have I missed a junction in the path at some crucial point and lost my way? I honestly don’t think so; everything I’m doing on reflection is still sound and seems important. Then what? I think I am running ahead of God instead of following his lead. I am going beyond where God would have me be.

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. (Romans 12:6)  

I have three wonderful children. When we go walking together as a family the older ones will run ahead full of confidence and curiosity predicting the direction the family will take by the direction already taken. When they get it wrong they have to circle back. This is like exercising spiritual gifts out of proportion to our faith. In our eagerness it is easy for us to do more than God had asked and in so doing do less than he would want. On the surface it looks like God is at work but it only us.

The LORD said to Moses, "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." (Number 20:7-8)

When the thirsty Israelites in Moses charge found themselves in the middle of the Desert of Zin they complained that it were better they had remained in Egypt. The water might look and taste like blood but at least you could drink it! So God gave Moses the privilege of supplying their needs in the most remarkable way. All he had to do was speak to the rock and water would pour forth.

 So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. (Numbers 20:9-11)

So Moses gathered together the Israelites, pointed out how ungrateful they were and struck the rock twice with the staff. To everyone’s amazement, out gushed the water. God did a miracle and once again saved his people. Moses, however, did not come off so well.

But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” (Numbers 20: 12)

Moses had stepped beyond what God had asked him to do. He expressed his anger at ungratefulness of the Israelites then he struck the rock; twice for good measure. This is not what God wanted, nor what he asked so Moses and Aaron miss out on seeing the promised Promise Land.

I often strike the rock full of good intentions and self-righteousness when I’ve simply been asked to speak. I often intervene helpfully in another’s life when all I’ve been asked to do is love. My well-meant advice often falls on ears not able to hear it because I’ve run ahead in my foolish eagerness to be useful. I think I understand but I don’t and by my actions become what I detest the most; disobedient.

Let us act only according to the faith we have and not imagine that by our own righteousness we are able to accomplish more that has been set out for us. Let us measure our pace and rest entirely within God’s will so that we might understand that his burden is indeed light.

Choosing a rod for my own back

 “And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9

Notice that there were two trees in the garden of Eden. We think mostly about the one that was chosen; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there was also one we were allowed to eat from; the tree of life. Surely the tree of life would have more tempting fruit than the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Well maybe not.

The serpent didn’t have to work very hard to persuade the first man and woman to eat from the wrong tree. He didn’t force them. Like the commensurate salesman, he worked with what he had; the God-given attributes of human curiosity, imagination and free will. We know they went for it and that through their disobedience sin entered the world. When offered life and obedience they chose knowledge and disobedience.

How unfair you cry; why should their crummy choice impugn me! Consider this; how often, when faced with a good thing, have you chosen a bad thing. “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Romans 7:15. Regretfully, I too have chosen on occasion the bad thing over the good thing.  And I fail to see why walking around naked in a garden with a similarly naked woman would make any material difference (though it’s fun to think about).  If you’re like me, you probably also would have chosen to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Perhaps it would be curiosity; to see as God sees. Or perhaps it would be that deep-seated drive to be master of your own destiny; not dependant on another. After all, you might rationalise, we’re just talking about the knowledge of good and evil – not evil itself, so how bad can it be? Well, not to put to finer point on it but disobedience to God is very bad indeed, no matter how you dice it! The bad choice is made by all of us on a daily basis.

So don’t blame the salesman. He just points out all the reasons why it made sense to take a bite. And don’t blame our progenitors for we have done exactly the same thing. We choose to disobey knowing full well there are mortal consequences. We choose the rod for our own back. Put us each in the garden and I figure we would eventually make exactly the same choice.

There are many bible examples which underscore this idea. Consider fledgling Israel living in a new land and surrounded by foreign enemies (1 Samuel 8). God had provided for them and protected them. To make sure the channels of communication stayed open he even gave them the prophet Samuel. But the people looked around and saw that their neighbours each had a king and scary armies. We also want a king they cried. Samuel explained to them that God was already their king. We want a human king the people cried. Samuel asked God who acceded to their demand but warned them through Samuel that a king really just meant death and taxes. We want a human king anyway the people cried. So Samuel appointed Saul as Israel’s first king and it mostly went downhill from there. When offered a perfect and infinitely capable God-king they chose instead a mere man. An astonishing compromise allowed by God as God allowed Adam and Eve to choose bad fruit.

Fast track to 33AD and we can see the same idea reflected in the Gospel story. The Jewish leaders saw the good in the teachings and miracles of Jesus but blinded by their own prejudice and love of power persuaded Piolet to crucify Jesus and release the terrorist Barabbas. The bad was consciously chosen over the good. Go figure.

Later in a letter to the Galatians Paul, from prison in Rome, comes down very heavily indeed on those Christian Jews who insisted to the Galatian churches that faith in Christ plus the trifling matter of obeying the law of Moses were both necessary prerequisites for salvation. Splitting hairs aren’t we Paul? Well, no not actually. Paul points out that if the Galatians were to buy into this dogma, “...Christ will be of no value to you at all.” Galatians 5:2. Instead, faith in Christ all by itself results in salvation and from this grows a desire to be obedient to the law; “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Galatians 5:16. Focusing on obedience, he points out in this letter (and others he wrote), has never actually worked because we can’t make ourselves good enough. It’s always been faith that leads to righteousness not obedience to law (which except in one rather obvious case has never been achieved anyway). We are entirely dependent on God’s mercy and the free gift of forgiveness that is transacted through faith in Christ. These well meaning but mislead early Christians have their followers today right through the Christian world. And they give Jesus a bad name.

Flee from anyone who would burden you with guilt and judge you according to their take on biblical law. These people may be eating from the tree of life (who’s to say) but they are also eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In their arrogance, they think that knowledge and self-discipline are required in addition to faith in Christ. They are wrong and they don’t understand the harm asserting this dogma does both to themselves and to others. Instead join with those who love God and love you. Those who are graceful and merciful are those who are only eating from the tree of life. This tree still produces fruit today. You can’t reach it on your own because a thumping big cherubim with flaming sword (Genesis 3:24) is blocking the garden entrance but through faith in Christ you can reach it unscathed. Oh, and by the way the fruit from the good tree actually tastes better anyway. 

Tipping point

You hear all about a climatic tipping point where greenhouse gases, having reached some critical volume, crash the weather system and dramatically change the face of the planet.

I think there is also a tipping point in our spiritual life. Having being transformed sufficiently into Christ’s likeness, God’s power is released through us and despite us and by us.  Up until this point, faith is a fickle thing and religion seems mighty attractive. After, and the values and personality of Christ are so intermingled in us that the two seem inseparable and our spiritual life becomes like breathing. At least, that’s the theory.

In my experience it is not at all obvious when we are being used by God in another’s life. God may actively hide this from us to prevent us from becoming self-conceited. If we can handle it, he may choose to encourage or inspire us by giving us glimpses of what he is doing. This is entirely at his discretion and we should be grateful when it occurs.

Just imagine what it would be like to see as God sees. The Australian poet James McAuley (1917-76) and a late convert to Catholicism once put it like this (JESUS):

Then turning from the book he rose and walked
Among the stones and beasts and flowers of earth;
They turned their muted faces to their Lord,
Their real faces, seen by God alone;
And people moved before him undisguised;
He thrust his speech among them like a sword.

That which is hidden from us in our corporeal form is plainly visible to God who as the risen Christ walks amongst us still.  If we stay in step with Christ then through Christ we can sometimes see that which God is accomplishing in the world through us; even using our imperfection and failings.

Personally I’m glad most of its hidden from me. Not because I don’t want to see what God is doing but rather because I’d get distracted by it and then take my eyes of Jesus.  “No one”, said Jesus, “who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke). Therefore, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...” (Hebrews).  Besides, I noticed early in life I have a genetic predisposition toward vanity and self-aggrandisement.  I’ve often been poisoned by drinking too deeply from the challis of my own accomplishments. God knows that I don’t need the validation, temptation or the distraction so he keeps it from me most of the time.

But from time-to-time he shows me that which is accomplishing through me, this for his own good purposes as well as mine. It seems to me that and as I have matured in Christ he is accomplishing more through me (I shouldn’t be surprised by this but I am). I am actually becoming useful to him; rather than just dependant on him.  Here’s the nub of it, I think I’ve finally grown up! I have reached the tipping point, I have received a right-of-passage and everything seems to be accelerating. It is clearly not of my own making. I just finally drifted into the path of the trade winds – which was God’s intention the whole time.

Last week on my way home from Brisbane I had a kind of Philip experience (Acts). Instead of an angel giving me directions to an Ethiopian on a chariot I was dropped off at a taxi rank outside a busy pub. The Ethiopian official was a Sekh taxi driver, complete with kirpān (ceremonial short sword), square-cut beard and turban. He was not, admittedly, returning to the Queen’s court in Candace but was returning to court in Deli, India as a barrister once his Master-in-law studies were completed.

I knew a little about Sekhism and, out of genuine curiosity, asked him about his religion.  He became highly animated as he explained its historical role as the defender of Hindus against the aggression of Islam.  Sekhism stands distinct from Hinduism in many ways including their rejection of polytheism and the cast system. When he returns to India his family will arrange a wife for him; he was entirely happy with this arrangement explaining that most love-marriages don’t work.

He asked me about my faith and I explained that when seeking out the truth I found Jesus. He expressed amazement at this. The essence of Sikh teaching is summed up by Nanak, the founding teacher, as, "Realisation of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living.".

He asked me what Christianity said about sex and how this might work in such a pluralistic, secular and permissive society like Australia. I told him that Jesus taught that to look lustfully upon a married woman was to commit adultery with her in your heart. I told him that my wife and I had come together sexually for the first time on our wedding night. This impressed him greatly.

Learning that he was trained to fight, I asked him what he thought about Jesus’ teaching that we should love our enemy and do good to those who persecute us. He said that Sikhism had a similar teaching and that he agreed.

I quoted Jesus saying that the greatest two commandments were to love God with all of your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself. This impressed him greatly.

According to Sikhism, the goal of life is to progress on a spiritual scale from self-centred (Manmukh) to God-centred (Gurmukh). This sounded to me like a familiar doctrine. So I asked him whether he knew anything about Jesus. He only knew that Jesus was born of a virgin.

I asked him if he had every read or seen a bible. He hadn’t so I explain a bit about it and offered him one. He was overwhelmingly grateful. When we stopped at the airport he gave me his address, asked me to send the bible to India (English and Hindi please), effusively invited me to visit as an honoured guest, and spoke of God’s providence is allowing him to meet me. He told me that many of his friends had converted to Christianity and that when he returns to India, like others in his law-firm family, he will enter the legislature!

Unlike Philip, I didn’t get to baptise him nor did I get instantly zapped home (which would have been amusing given that I had just paid $60 to arrive on time at an airport).  But I had not planned this. I had not expected this. There was nothing strategic on my part happening here. I did nothing except to love him, ask him a few questions and quote some of the sayings of Jesus. Something in the spiritual realm was happening; and of this I was given a glimpse. I sensed the opening of his heart, the lifting of his eyes to heaven. I think he recognised, reflected in me, something of that which he yearned for. “Blessed”, said Jesus, “are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” (Matthew).  Jesus said, “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke).  My taxi driver was knocking and by brilliant logistical planning on God’s part, it was me who opened the taxi door.

It didn’t end there. I met an old friend at the gate-lounge and had an encouraging hour with him due to a delayed flight. I finally sat on the plane looking forward to a glass of wine and an hour to myself and who should sit next to me but a petro-chemical engineer on way his home from Darwin and wanting to talk. We discussed his recent conversion to Catholicism and by the end of the conversation he had given me his business card and insisted that were now friends and should get together soon!

I can’t explain it but this kind of thing seems to be happening to me more frequently. So maybe I have crossed some kind of tipping point and finally become a spiritual man.  Go figure!

Hollow men

“Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart” God told Samuel when choosing the first king of Israel. This is an important theme in the bible. God values more highly the internal than the external and we should value the same. It is easy to be seduced by the external and it is easy for the external to seduce. But it’s the internal that has real lasting power and it’s the internal which is of great worth. Let’s be more than hollow men.

I’ve been working in companies including the operation of my own for 20 years. In all of that time I have consistently (not perfectly) acted in accordance with the principles embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Throughout this time I have attached greater value to the health of my inter life than I have the appearance of my outer life; which seems superficial and temporary. The quality of my relationship with God has been paramount and for the most part I have put the care of others above the achievement of my own ambitions (of which there have been many). It’s all about the long game; laying down the foundations for righteousness.

The first fallacy I would like to dispel is that career ambition and faith are incompatible, if fact a career can benefit greatly as can a spiritual man in a career. I have often been surprised that this idea is not more broadly accepted. Most people spend the majority of their time thinking about and engaging in career-related activities, much more time than any spiritual activity. Yet we believe the small matter of the soul is of the highest importance in the light of eternity. Surely then, the balance is wrong. Our lives are short, take it from a mid-life man, and they can be easily overwhelmed by the opportunities and distractions that present themselves. As most of us must work hard to meet our basic needs why not then submit our work, as we do more personal matters, to God’s oversight? Should we do this then amazing things will start to happen.

Here then there is no compartmentalisation of our life but instead unity and consistency. We are no longer hollow men. Should we do this, we have promises that the blessings of God will provide for our every need and even, according to his good nature, some of our wants. If we keep separate our faith-life from our career-life we not only miss out on the blessings but we are in danger of being swallowed alive. I’ve seen it happen! A career is progressing prima facie well and then his wife just leaves. He talks about spiritual matters after the church service but there is nothing substantially spiritual evident anywhere in his life. She talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk and then it all falls apart surprising everyone. If you give credence verbally to that which you believe but have no other transforming practice you spiritual growth will be stunted and the inner-life will wither and die. It all unravels from the inside taking quite a while to appear on the outside. These then are the hollow men among us having everything except, on closer inspection, that which is important. The beauty we aspire to should be that of the inner self which is of great worth in God’s sight. It must be carefully tended and encouraged if it is to survive.

There is another way to work and though I can’t say I have mastered it, I am certain that it may be mastered. If you subjugate your career-life to God he will become master of it. Your job will no longer be just an economic necessity but rather a means of spiritual growth. If you subjugate your work ambitions to God then they will no longer be just a means of paying the bills but rather they will become a beachhead through which the blessing of God will flow.

There is a spiritual principle at work here. Whatever is brought under the jurisdiction of God, will become the possession and tool of God to extend his kingdom in the world. Though we may not always see it, the world is a battlefield of our own making. In Christ we have the power to win every battle not by taking on but by giving up. Surrender, then, and brokenness, and humility (those things that make the inner-life beautiful) describe the attitude through which God’s power is liberated into the world. The man, says Jesus, who would take up his life will lose it but the man who would give up his life will find it. The first will be last, said Jesus, and last first. Blessed are the meek in spirit, said Jesus, for they will inherit the Earth. This of course goes against all common sense but what is foolishness to the world is wisdom to those being redeemed. We understand intrinsically this attitude of the heart because of the spirit he gave as a deposit what is to come.

I think a business, like an individual, can be a spiritual entity in its own right. The idea that the institutional church is the only organisation which can claim to be God’s workhorse in the world is naive. Para church organisations have been active in the Western world for hundreds of years caring for the poor and spreading the message of the gospel with great effect. It is not much of an extension then to think about the potential of a business, guided along different lines, to be a spiritual entity. Think about a business actually being part of God’s church rather than just a means of accumulating wealth. It is actively engaged in the world, reaching territory inaccessible to the institutional church. If we believe that the institutional church, full of faithful believers, is God’s instrument in the world how much more so a busy business full of faithful believers or one with a kingdom centred agenda. Let’s then sanctify and commission our business leaders and their businesses and encourage them to take up the mantle of spiritual responsibility that results from this shifted paradigm.

If you can accept this then you may also be able to accept that when Jesus said seek first his kingdom and his righteousness then all else will be added unto to you, the promise of provision might be extended to include your business or career. If this is true, and you were to accept it, I bet it would transform your business practice. It has transformed mine.

I wonder what would happen if you prayed for your staff, colleagues, customers and suppliers daily. I wonder what would happen if you made decisions according to faith and hope rather than just profit and growth.

The small taste I have had of this, I’m pleased to say, reminds me of home. Oh, but what a ride!

The thousand right choices

Imagine a train full of peak-hour passengers traveling to work on a still and sunny morning. The carriage is silent except for the rustle of turning newspapers and the occasional respectful mummer of traveling friends. There is the background rhythm of clickety-clack as some look sleepily out of windows watching the due-laden world wiz by.

Now imagine at the next station in bursts a man and his two children. They instantly shatter this morning calm playing roughly and nosily. The man sits heavily down staring oblivious into the middle distance. Everybody in the carriage looks up, eyes lingering, judgments forming. A few push their papers higher against the intrusion. The children get rougher until one starts crying. The man, presumably the father, does not appear to notice. He sits blankly; unreadable. Outrageous!

Eventually a nearby passenger leans forward, gets the man’s attention and says with some sharpness in is voice, “Sir, please control your children”. Slowly the man registers what has been said, turning slowly to his children then back replies, “I’m sorry, we have just come from the hospital where their mother, my wife just died. They don’t know how to handle it. Neither do I.”.

Have you had those moments in your life when your view of something suddenly changes? You have formed your opinions and made your decisions and then something happens which turns everything on its head. I had one recently:

I was in Melbourne a few weeks ago, my home town. I have lived in Sydney now for more than 15 years and have no intention of returning. But every time I visit sentimental memories are stirred up and I find myself contemplating the worthiness, or otherwise, of my life.

My family is still there. My brother the entrepreneur now has three children. One sister runs sports centers as a qualified PE instructor and the other as a single mum just graduated as a registered nurse. My parents are both still together, which in itself is an achievement, aging gracefully silver.

As a family we have always liked and respected one another and infrequent disagreements have been tempered with humility and grace. But, what struck hard during my visit a few weeks back was how far we have diverged in terms of our faith.

We were all raised in the same home by parents who valued making Jesus central to all of one’s identity and actions. For the large part, and to their credit, they unambiguously practiced and promoted this creed. Each of us went through Sunday-school and youth groups run by a large and full-programmed church. Each of us at some point made commitments to submit our lives to Jesus and to follow his teachings. Yet despite a common starting point, here we are traveling very different and divergent paths.

I have stuck and strengthened those earlier commitments and find great purpose and meaning the deeper I go. I see the hand of God frequently in my circumstances providing for me, testing and training me. I believe I am growing more like him and hope one day to be, as it says in the book of James, “…be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.”

My siblings, on the other hand, have put aside the things of Christ and are each striking out in a different direction. It seems to me that they are each heading for disasters of their own making.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Galatians 6:7

It may well be that God, still believing in them, will use what is reaped to once again get their attention. I hope the best for them and I pray for them but at the end-of-the day we are all accountble for our own destiny and we reap that which we sow.

So I had a wake up call! A good upbringing and the youthful acceptance of Christ is not enough to see you through. The path we walk is the consequence of a thousand real-time decisions any one of which leads into the wilderness or into the light. The matter of faith is a battle for the hearts and minds of humankind.

This is all has special relevance for me. I have a young family, three kids under six, and I desperately want them to discover Jesus for themselves and to make the thousand right choices so they might stand before God on judgment day with their head held high. My ability as a parent is plainly not enough. I can model a good and faithful life to my children, I can love them and love my wife, I can teach the truth which is the gospel but all of this provides me with no assurance. They will as adults make their own decisions. I can pray and hope and love and teach but this just gets them to the beginning of the right path; the hard choices are yet to come. For all of us it is a question of surrender and surrender implies great personal cost – how way are you prepared to go?

Like the man in the train I thought my perspective was right. I had held loosely to my faith, taking it for granted. But my Melbourne visit brought into sharp focus what a delicate and precious thing is faith – it needs to be fought for!

So I want to remind you of something crucially important: our faith is a precious and rare thing. It is not like the construction of building which with basic maintenance will stand a thousand years. It is a fire to be kept alight on a stormy night. We have to stand vigil, fuelling it and protecting with our lives. Let’s together lock onto the promises of God which give us a picture of the eternal and the reward which awaits those of us who persist despite hardship and difficulties.

Jesus said,

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-15).

Only a few! These are very serious words and we should take them seriously. The narrow gate is not membership of a religious institution or tradition. The narrow gate has nothing to do with a moral life, though this does have intrinsic value in its own right. It’s not about ideology. The narrow gate that Jesus speaks of is the relentless pursuit of God himself. It is the single minded and uncompromising love of your heart, your soul and your mind. The narrow gate leads to life and life everlasting.

The standard that this represents is frankly beyond me and I suspect also beyond you. Thankfully there is one who stands in our place when the scales of judgement come out - Jesus. The bible teaches us that Jesus will take upon himself the due penalty for our failure to make this standard. That by placing our faith in him we can be absolved of guilt, redeemed, renewed, washed and cleansed. All of this for placing your faith in Jesus – which is the heart of each of the thousand right choices we must make.

So take the matter of faith in Jesus seriously and fight to protect that which the bible and God’s revelation tells you is true, because this faith will become your path to redemption and the bridge to eternity.

The deconstructed church

The postmodern church is a term I’ve heard bandied about for a while now but like the idea of postmodernism itself, it’s hard to lock down a definition. A Linux software engineer once explained to me that his chosen operating system was the product of a bustling Bizarre transfigured with Microsoft’s colossal and internally consistent Cathedral. By Bizarre he was referring to the sprawling market of programmers whose individual contributions by natural selection have produced a functioning non-propriety operating system now used all over the world. Microsoft on the other hand by centralised control applied copyright and used the royalties to support its multitudes in what became a tightly defined and structured software juggernaut. The organisational models of Cathedral and Bizarre can also be seen in the Christian church. The models distinguish between the traditional social institution we’re all familiar with and the explosive and unaccountable mess of house churches, mission organisations and social networks of the faithful which like a Bizarre fill the car parking lots of empty Cathedrals.

I suspect that I am in fact a member of the postmodern church but it’s hard to say for sure as I don’t precisely know what this means. Of course, us postmodern types don’t like tags and definitions anyway so the “undefinition” doesn’t bother me greatly. Postmodernism aside, today’s church in the broadest sense of the word is worth thinking about because its mission and function is just as palpably vital as always. The church is still God’s chosen instrument in this world to the extent the Jesus called it his bride. And let’s face it, that recognisable part of Christianity having congealed into formal social institutions of various names is under significant pressure - numbers in the West have been in decline for decades. In the great tidal cycle of revival, institutional Christianity is currently on the ebb.

Christian institutions have always been slow to adapt which is a both a strength and a weakness. They have with all their intrinsic inertia communicated the essence of Jesus’ message for two thousand years. However at times the spirit of conviction has been subjugated to the force of tradition and love has given way to religion. What once reflected Jesus’ dynamic and relational vision has through history often degraded into unyielding and pretentious structures like those Jesus condemned while he walked the earth. These alienate the seeker and the sort rather joining with them in the great journey faith we share. Jesus didn’t found a religion he provided a way to be reconciled with God and one another in true unblemished community. Our well-intentioned efforts to manage and propagate Jesus’ message of reconciliation and community by institutionalising it have sterilised it instead.

The world and her communities are once again undergoing a massive social transformation to the extent unseen since the industrial revolution in late 18^th century. Transportation, communication and information technologies have effectively contracted the world blending civilisations and cultures like never before. We have not only amassed knowledge but have the means to rapidly and conveniently access it. Where once knowledge was controlled and disseminated by social institutions like universities, governments and the church it is now and will exist universally in the public domain accessible by browser. The role of these institutions is changing and we the church would do well to recognise the implications. There was a time when an ordained minister was the chief custodian of God’s word and work in his parish. With the wisdom endowed by his relatively superior education and connections he was a natural authority dispensing uncontested truths from an elevated platform on Sunday mornings. We now have a greatly reduced number of congregations who are highly literate, well read and in many cases much better educated than those tasked to instruct them. We have seekers who can find what they need much more easily with the click of a mouse than by sifting through the generalised and often dumbed-down Sunday morning sermon. In a world rich in visual and interactive content delivery we continue to rely for the main part with an oral monologue to get across our message. We persist in clinging tightly to a model of communication and community expression which has failed to achieve for some time now that which it once achieved – the enrichment of communities and the salvation of souls.

If you’re like me you long for true community. This is a longing for identity and belonging and purpose and it is entirely natural and good. We live in the great mishmash of decentralised communities less bounded by geographical considerations than ever before. We relate to one another through facebook and email and by phone and we never walk anywhere - we drive vast distances to be together. We have little community loyalty changing churches on whim (I don’t like the music) and moving between jobs frequently. Within one city there are many cultural groups living side by side with competing values, restaurants and religions. It should then not surprise us that static institutions have waned in popularity, the church included. We could try to keep up through a concerted effort of reform and modernisation but I doubt we could move fast enough. I suggest something entirely new is needed, something that you might call postmodern but which I prefer call deconstructed church.

My family and I go to a conventional Baptist church near our home. It’s conventional in its form of service, organisational structure and mission. But unconventional taken as a church building and the extent to which the church wants to contribute and connect to the surrounding community. When a new larger building was required, the church built two indoor sports stadiums one of which is used for services on Sunday. So we meet in a vaulted void and the building serves the community throughout the week for sports related activities. The idea takes the concept that the “people are the church” to the absolute limit. There is nothing to mark the building as a church apart from signage prominently displayed over its commercially styled entrance. There’s a café, offices and other multi-purpose rooms and the whole lot’s ringed by car parks and bushland. Ironically, it was the out-of-the-box building concept that contributed to my initial decision to get involved. My family and I have now been actively involved for many years in a number of the church’s ministries serving in leadership roles but to be honest, it’s a tough slog. Why, you ask?

I’ve thought a lot through the years about why I don’t feel at home in my chosen church or for that matter, any conventional church I’ve attended. I don’t think it’s because my standards are too high. I am graceful and generous and flexible and accommodating most days. It’s the concept embodied by the local church as a one-stop-shop and neatly constrained geographic community that doesn’t quite gel for me. I don’t feel the loyalty you might expect from a regular and involved member and could stop attending quite easily. This is no indictment on the church and I hold no poor opinion of the church I attend, its leadership or its members. It’s just that the church I belong seems so much bigger and more diverse – in fact it includes anyone who has put their faith in Jesus and is actively and genuinely seeking God’s will for their life. The church I belong to doesn’t have any practical geographical reference point it’s more of a social network.

The local church I see as a resource to facilitate personal works of faith and a context for making friends with people of like mind and heart. This is all part of a much bigger idea which I call “deconstructed church”. It may in fact form part of your experience of church even if you’re not aware of it yet. If you’ve stopped looking exclusively to your local church to facilitate your spiritual growth and instead, taking the matter into your own hands, sort out other inputs then you’ve begun to deconstruct church. Recognising that at this point in the great journey, you have many needs that a mass-market approach isn’t going to meet you hungrily look elsewhere. Perhaps like me you are involved in para church organisations or informal fellowships which stretch you and provide a strong sense of community. Or maybe you read Christian literature seeking deeper wisdom and understanding. Home groups and house churches are springing up all over the place many of which are not connected to any institutional church. It is a mistake to think that geography or religious denomination are universal descriptors for legitimate church expression. Accepting the legitimacy of a deconstructed church model may well liberate your thinking. Participating may be more beneficial and entirely less disappointing than expecting more than the local church can in practice deliver. It has its role to plan but there is much more to be had.

So is this postmodern or not? I really don’t care one way or the other. I am fully engaged and entirely satisfied with my deconstructed church experience where my attitude is to give where I can, release and utilise what resources I can for the sake of the kingdom and seek after God with all my heart. I have no particularly high expectations of my local church and I find across my network of friends and organisations all I need to spiritually grow. I spend most of time in the Bizarre but regularly visit the Cathedral. Of course, it’s not perfect but then neither am I.    

Weaving meaning on-the-fly

I’ve been giving thought lately to what special relevance the idea of Jesus has for emerging generations. It seems to me that his life speaks uniquely to each generation; his words somehow resonate for each at a different frequency. If you think about it, it’s remarkable that a poor man in roman-occupied Palestine could so indelibly impact two thousand years of human history. That his words and ideas and his very life could continue to engage imaginations and inspire the actions of so many people has to be significant.

Maybe the idea is the idea. Each generation contextualises reality within its own framework of meaning. This is partly inherited and partly invented afresh. The church then becomes a custodian of meaning; giving Jesus’ revolutionary message continuity. A culture encompassing a set of values imbues its members with a ready reference for translating blind data into subjective fact a.k.a. meaning. And ideas like glorious pearls of wisdom enrich our lives by putting a high value on things like self-sacrifice and honour and love. These and other things though lacking any real substance non-the-less enact real affect in the world. Ideas have power when they take hold in the human imagination.

Jesus message is worthy of serious consideration whether its lasting-power is in the quality of his ideas or because his ideas are accompanied by some deeper spiritual effect. I am not convinced, as are some, that Jesus is somehow becoming irrelevant after all this time. If you mapped his popularity through the last two millennia you would probably see ebb and flow with each tide larger than the tide before. It’s like each generation needs the temporary absence of Jesus-centred thinking to discover its true worth. Things really do fall apart as the centre looses hold. Or perhaps each generation is sufficiently vane such that it has to discover the thing for itself framing it differently; emphasising different features of the same message. Jesus says things so counter-intuitive that the dissonance created jars us into considering a completely different way of thinking. Love your enemy and do good to those who persecute you does not sit easily for many of us but we can’t help wonder of the impact such an idea practised would have in the world.  Should someone forcefully take your cloak then give them your tunic too flies in the face of nine tenths of common law but could well be a cure for the scourge of materialism. Jesus gives us a utopian vision for this world and, if you can believe it, the next. It’s a vision that has something to offer all peoples across all generations. It is worthy of serious consideration.

Conflict regularly strikes at the ankles of peaceful societies forcing them to rapidly write over the doctrines of passivity with the offensive language of kill-or-be-killed. From a conflict-affected generation comes a boom of babies who when full-grown hanker for peace and prosperity. But their progeny failing to understand the root of their inheritance harvest a fruit of materialism with disastrous consequences. The fruit is so plentiful that it’s tempting to take it for granted becoming obese and undisciplined with excessive consumption. Now think of the children of this over-fed generation. How much more do they expect to be hand-fed while they chase after that which brings the most ready self-indulgence? I give you the Y-generation!

So we have a generation emerging into adulthood without binding integrated values and with an overwhelming expectation that the world owe them a living.  Of course it doesn’t owe them anything which is rude shock. And when it finally dawns that life if what you make of it; there are unanswered questions about the relativity or otherwise of truth. A child raised in a moral mish-mash, with ambiguous roll-modelling and where diversions are amply available to avoid having to wrestle with the spikier questions of life is not ready for adulthood. So go to university. Stay at home. Loose yourself in music; or dugs if this doesn’t work. Delay facing the uncomfortable truth that the construction of meaning is personal and does not come download-ready.

Now in this context consider the words and deeds of Jesus standing concrete but somehow staying dynamically relevant. He says we are eternal and have a destiny. He says that we are lost without his real-time help. He says that he knows us, understands us and loves us. On the subject of relationships he says be faithful. On the subject of conflict he says turn the other cheek. On the subject of money he says lay up your treasure in heaven instead or give to Caesar that which is Creaser’s. On the subject of truth he says he is the truth and the life. Jesus personally models and represents a life worthy of emulation with self-sacrifice at its heart. Jesus provides a framework of meaning through which we can crunch our problems and find a way forward. Two thousand years of testing his ideas and every generation has found relevance. There has to be something in this from which we can benefit.

He asks that we accept his promises on face-value and that we put our trust in him. Then we have this amazing promise of life now and life eternal. He says we won’t have to go it alone, that he will always be with us. I don’t know how this actually works but I testify that it does work. I know his presence often and I see his intervention making straight my paths; I am a recipient of his provision. You’d be crazy not to give it a serious go because of some bad experience or half-formed prejudice. Forget about religion, this is something much more personal and it’s offered for free.

So Jesus weaves a tapestry of meaning through countless and diverse generations of those who choose to trust him. His message today is as relevant as when first enunciated two thousand years ago and it comes with a real-time sting.

Recipes for keeping belief honest

The earth is clearly not flat (thanks Christopher) and time, far from being constant, ticks relative to the observer (thanks Albert). These relatively new beliefs stack up well against observational data, so much so that we call them fact. But they’re really just beliefs like anything else. That the sun rolled around the stationary earth was universally held for millennia until Copernicus ellucidated his fully predictive mathematical model of the heliocentric solar system. A few dozen heritic matyres later and we all know better.

We may live in what we think of as scientifically enlightened times but for all our knowledge we’re still running the same hardware and operating system. We continue to have and act on beliefs in the absence of hard data or even despite it.  She truly loves me (I hope). My job is safe (today). UFOs are actually weather balloons (they said). Thalidomide is safe for unborn children (wrong). Beliefs continue to powerfully shape our world view.

And this is as it should be. We are not inflexible machines but adaptable, malleable and imaginative human beings. Love and faith and hope come naturally to us. This is something to celebrate. And it provides resilience and functionality. You see, we don’t have to wait for the facts. The absence of hard data is no impediment; imagination allows us to ride comfortably over bumpy ground.  Where a machine would pause for more and better data we plunge in, extrapolating on what we think we know and guessing the rest. Belief frames and guides our actions in the absence of complete knowledge.

Beliefs peek out from the river of information pouring over and around our conscious experience. They grow by snagging flotsam and producing about themselves wakes and eddies and turbulence. They are naturally self-enforcing because they affect that which we notice and fail to notice. If I believe (I don’t) that Jews are responsible for my country’s economic woes then whenever I read the Berlin Times I find corroborating evidence. If I am convinced that she is unfaithful then the betrayal I read into every situation poisons our relationship which becomes further proof of betrayal. If I believe that the stars influence my fate then the passage of Mars through the constellation of Scorpio explains why I just lost my job or made a new friend or won lotto. We find what we are looking for and we are usually unconscious of the back-of-house processes. Our brain is as much filter as memory stick and our beliefs and interests calibrate the filter.

Then there is the influence exerted by the communities to which be belong. Let’s say you believe a thing strongly. It’s only natural to gravitate towards others who believe the same – we are social animals. The gravity well of collective belief draws in more people of like mind until a new star is born (or a church or a club or a crime syndicate). Another’s convictions reinforce your own so that eventually the thing in your mind, rightly or wrongly, becomes an irrefutable and self-evident truth. You may have grown up where there were very logical reasons to burn crucifixes in the front yards of African-Americans or perhaps patriotism has you marching into war against all reasonable moral judgement. Cults gone wrong are just the obvious examples of harmful beliefs reinforced in closed communities of well intentioned believers.

You may have concluded by now that I am ranting against belief itself – but I am not. You see, I believe in all sorts of things and this is natural and good. Some of these things will turn out to be wrong but others (I hope) will prove rock solid. It’s just that I’m weary about unchecked or unaccountable belief. That brand of fundamentalism which actively cuts itself off from anything or anyone that might contradict. Close-minded belief disconnected from reason is as harmful as clinical reason disconnected from belief. I seek to strike a balance.

I don’t want to explore here the merit of holding particular beliefs but rather the extent to which we keep them accountable. We all have beliefs and they are important to our sense of meaning (without which we are lost) but some are wrong and others are outright harmful. Do we, or indeed should we, continuously test the veracity of a belief? Should we scrutinise it, holding it up to the light of logic and reason and fact or simply accept its unprovable nature and get on with the business of living?

In the final analysis a defence of ignorance is no defence at all. I hold we should be not only aware of our beliefs and the basis for them but should rigorously and regularly test their worthiness. This must be done if we are to avoid being blinded by them. This must be done if we are to spiritually and personally grow and mature. This must be done to find the truth because there is one to be found (though I admit this is a belief in itself).

The testing I speak of may begin as a simple internal objectivity. That is; turning your eyes inward and holding the belief at arms length – dissociating it from self long enough to treat it impartially. You ask the hard questions and stay open to the hard answers. This can be difficult if self is deeply tangled with a belief (as it often is) because it feels like heresy – you are potentially undermining all that makes you who you are.  A belief will protect itself when threatened.

If you’re game, a more intrusive form of testing a belief might involve actively seeking out a contradictory position. You might hold in your mind the opposite position and then play devils advocate to a belief. You might watch a film or read a book that represents a different view of the world and contrast it with your own. You might find people that disagree with you and have a frank and open discussion about your differences. This can be jarring and confronting and dangerous but if your belief is sound (so my theory goes), it will grow stronger as it defends itself. If the belief is not sound then it will quickly be overcome and your belief will change – which will produce spiritual or personal growth (or not).

Something in us instinctively avoids situations or ideas that challenge the beliefs we hold. It’s always unsettling to have the rug pulled out from under us. Our confidence is rattled when our precious paradigms are found to be false. So we form habits which insulate us from the discomfort of finding out we might in fact be wrong. The belief that the poor have the same opportunity as the rich - they just don’t work hard enough - is protected by the fact that we don’t really know any poor people.  We hold that the Bible is inerrant but we’ve never read or listened to any other point of view. We oppose a Muslim prayer house in the neighbourhood because we fear terrorism but we’ve never read the Quran nor do we have any Muslim friends. That Fox documentary proved that the lunar landings in the 1970s were faked and I won’t hear otherwise (how easy to prove otherwise)! We are not just lazy we actively obstruct facts that might challenge our precious beliefs. If we don’t recognise this and guard against it our beliefs will blind us from seeing the truth – the very thing we imagine our beliefs represent. The truth is out there but let’s not be so presumptuous and arrogant to think that we know it in its entirety. This life is a journey of discovery; an adventure packed full of surprises. We get to choose whether we push on and live or retire at the side of the road and die.

I know that all of this sounds very intellectual. In fact as I’ve been working through this topic personally that’s all it’s really been. To be self-credible it seemed important to me to be intellectually rigorous with my beliefs. And as described above I have through the years tortured my beliefs with questions to test their depth and dependability. I have tried to strike a balance between the fundamentalism of my Christian inheritance (it all began in the garden), scientific fact (the universe is 13.75 billion years old depending on how close you are to a gravity well) and the flexible reasoning (who’s to say God didn’t trigger the big bang) of 21st century western culture. I have been my own sceptic finding that I could happily hold two contradictory points of view whilst working out which was truth (or not).  I’ve tried to walk a line between reason and belief all for the sake of my own sense of intellectual internal consistency. This approach has had some major short-comings. The doctor did indeed take his own medicine but the medicine did not make him well.

If you’ve got this far you must be wondering where this discussion is going. This is a kind of internal personal dialogue I’ve been having now for a while. I wrestled with it for a month until the pieces started fitting together. And it wasn’t long ago that I reached a kind of conclusion which may or may not satisfy you. When the last piece clicked into place I found I was pregnant with a conviction that needed birthing in a blog sacrificially given to the world like an orphaned child. So here it goes.

My particular set of beliefs has the sovereignty and love of God for his creation squarely at its centre. I don’t remember a time in my life where I haven’t believed that God cares not just for the squirming multitudes of humanity but equally about little old dysfunctional me (that is he actually loves me). Reason has never needed to be far from my faith in God’s promises. The two friends sit easily side by side looking at the world quite differently but not incompatibly. They do however often compete for my attention.

I should first explain that faith and belief are (at least in my vocabulary) distinctly different animals.  Belief is what we think of as a reliable interpretation of that which we observe. Faith is courageously trusting in a promise. I once met a woman who 30 years ago worked for 20 years in a primitive and dangerous part of Papua New Guinea. She told me she went there in faith (a courageous decision in those days) but after repeatedly seeing God staying true to his promises came to believe in him deeply (heart-felt response). Hebrews 11:11 describes faith as being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. It is a vision of what will result from a promise and it demands a response. Faith is always connected to an action. Belief is more of a prejudice resulting in an interpretation – no action is demanded.

To live by faith is my end-goal and central to the teachings of Jesus (it actually produces righteousness). It is not as easy as it first appears because we are conditioned by life to be self-reliant.  A faith-life requires surrender of will which if you are anything like me comes at some cost.  But the reward is immeasurable in this life and the next. When you live by faith, and I only had a glimpse of this personally, there is a dynamic set up between the physical and spiritual realms. You find yourself becoming the out-working of God’s actions in the world. A faith-life is potent and unpredictable and effective. You feel the joy and the pain and the love and the sorrow and the brokenness that God feels for his creation. His values and yours are aligned. The terror of this repels and the awe attracts.

Why all this talk about faith? This dialogue is strictly not about faith. The faith connection is my personal revelation. You see, when one lives in faith he is testing belief all the time. It is not an intellectual test but a whole-of-life test. My faith in God’s promises is at the heart of my belief. As I act in faith, as I make the hard daily decisions on the strength of my conviction that God’s promises are true the outcome demonstrates the veracity of my belief. I don’t have to hold up the candle of reason as a counter-balance to my belief in God but rather I need to trust God and he personally validates my belief my fulfilling his promises (which by nature he must do). This is the way it’s supposed to be. To intellectually audit my beliefs or to attempt to prove their currency by dwelling on their opposites is intellectual masturbation with self squarely enthroned centre-stage. To act and decide to act because of the hope I have in God’s promises puts God centre-stage and at the same time vet the accuracy of my beliefs. Those beliefs which are false will be shown for what they are in the brilliant light of God at work through me in the world.

All of this is available free of charge and you don’t even have to be particularly smart. All you’ve got to do is come to Jesus like a little child full of hope and trust and openness and he does the rest - simple.

So I began by saying that belief is a necessary part of the human condition but unaccountable belief can blind us harmfully. I then played around with the idea that we can self-assess belief to keep it honest. Then I dismissed this in favour of a life lived in faith which has the belief-test process built in – no smarts required.

So live by faith not by sight and be prepared to have your world turned up-side-down. Pray the dangerous prayer – do with me as you will. And when the chips are down and all seems lost boldly declare in your heart (as did ancient biblical Job) “though he may slay me, yet I will trust him”. This is faith at work in a humble heart. This attitude will keep belief honest, enrich your life and at the same time will bring glory to God.

Immoral righteousness

There is a woman in the bible that has always both surprised and impressed me. Her name is Rahab.  Do you recall who Rahab was and what she did?

In the Bible in the New Testament we see her used as an example of how righteousness is produced by faith.

Hebrews 11: 31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

James 2:25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

Rahab gets listed as righteous along with all the usual suspects: Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Does this surprise you as it does me? Her vocation for one should surely disqualify her?

The story is found in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua which was probably written between 1400 and 1370 B.C. The story so far up to Chapter 2 has the Israelites hesitantly entering the Promised Land after decades circling Sinai under Moses eating manner and quail. Joshua is Israel’s new leader and just to be on the safe side he orders that spies scope out the land and determine if it is indeed ripe for conquest.

Joshua 2:1-7 1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. 2 The king of Jericho was told, "Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land." 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

So the spies go to Jericho, a great walled city, to stay with a prostitute called Rahab (as you do). When the king finds out that the spies are in the city he has some of his people quiz Rahab who sends them in the wrong direction.

She’s clever and even devious but would you agree with me that she doesn’t look like the archetype of a righteous woman! Was Rahab a Jew or one of God’s own people? No. Was she morally upright? (she was a prostitute) No. Did she know or practice the law of Moses including the recently published Ten Commandments? (no evidence of this) No.

Let’s read on:

Joshua 2:8-13 8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."

Well this is compelling evidence of faith. Rahab did not know God except by his fearsome reputation but this was enough to risk her life and throw in her lot with the Israelites. She covers for them and if you read on aids their escape by lowering them down the city wall.

What do you think will happen if she is caught? As a prostitute she is unlikely to have any protection under law or any protectors. Her life and perhaps that of her family would be forfeit. It’s a big risk to take but in faith she took it.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us:

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Rahab acted in faith. She could not see God nor did she live among his people or know of his promises. Yet she was sure of what she hoped for and certain enough to act despite the enormous risk.

And because of this faith, she is counted as righteous!  Wow. It was enough for Rahab to believe in the power of God and then to act on this belief (risking her life and betraying her people) by protecting those to whom God had shown favour. This act gets her listed along with Abraham as righteous.

James 2:24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Notice that here we also see that faith and action are always joined: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

If Rahab, in her absolute ignorance of God can be made righteous by faith expressed in action then there is hope for all of us. We have the revelation of Jesus Christ himself. We have the tradition of Christianity spanning two thousand years to point the way. We have the Bible chock full of God’s promises and we have the deposit of the Holy Spirit.

Yet despite all this, we still struggle to trust God and his promises. I put to you that it is as hard today to believe God for the small things in our lives as it was for Rahab the big things because we want to be reassured by seeing with our eyes – we want evidence. The challenge is to believe without evidence.

The righteousness that God desires comes from the action following our faith in his promises. And his promises are trustworthy. He is trustworthy.

John 14:1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."

Jesus promises to go before us so that he might prepare a place for us. All he asks is that we place our trust in God and also in him. If you do so your name will be added along with Rahab’s to the eternal honour roll of those made righteous by faith.

A clay jar is made of clay

Do you, like me, have a severe dislike of hypocrisy? Are you highly suspicious of those who present as perfect suspecting that you might not be getting the whole truth? Those of us who belong to a religious tradition often feel like we need to compensate for out private flaws by denying to others (and to ourselves) that they exist. We cling to an erroneous idea about ourselves and actively promote it to the world thinking the whole time that we're doing God a favour. After all, if we the chosen can't get it right then how are our righteous ideas going to be attractive let alone credible; right? Wrong.

Recently a friend was in a quandary. Having done something he was ashamed of, should he suppress it as best he could or admit it to those affected and possibly discredit Jesus who he openly professed to follow. The right way is often the hard way and this friend chose to come clean which was by far the best approach- the honest approach. The voluntary confession proved to those affected that he was truly contrite as well as a man of integrity. He benefited as well; receiving their forgiveness he learned about grace and the courage he showed went to character growth.

True religion, or the religion that we should be aspire to is not pretentious. It doesn't pretend to be that which it is not. It still holds up ideals which drive self-improvement but it does not lie. In fact the pretence we often adopt in the interest of protecting the good name of God does more harm than good. Most of us can smell pretence well before we meet it and we either shun it or we are infected by it - both are bad outcomes.

Shakespeare always impressed me for his write characters I could identify with - each had their warts plainly visible. Hamlet for all his moral certainty upon discovering the truth of his father's murderer vacillates between madness and genius triggering the suicide of Ophelia and causing the accidental slaying of her father. Likewise the bible is chock full of imperfect souls used by God in the most extraordinary ways. Take David for example; his Shepard-boy faithfulness kills Goliath when an army failed, becomes a great King, writes the psalms (an inspiration to Jews and Christians alike) but also commits adultery and sends the woman's husband to a convenient death in the front lines of Israel's war. Jonah needs a whale of a miracle to illicit obedience. The great Apostle Peter; first fisherman, then disciple (the rock on which the church is built) denies Jesus three time when it counts most. Thomas doubts, Paul kills Christians before seeing the light. These are the heroes of many who profess a faith in Christ and few will argue that their lives were ineffectual with regards the Kingdom of God yet the religious of us think it better to present to the world as perfect.

1 Corinthians 1: 26-31
"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.""

It's not because we have it all together that we are able to receive God's grace. We recognise the need for God's grace because we haven't got it together and we receive grace as a free gift flowing from the sacrifice Jesus made two thousand years ago (give or take). Paul writes to the Corinthians that not only is their imperfection not an impediment but that it resulted in them being chosen by God to reveal the perfection of the Christ.

What if we chose transparency instead of the pretence of perfection? What if we welcomed all people equally into our troubled worlds (and let's admit that we all have them) and continue to hold fast to the hope we have in Jesus? I know from experience that a transparent life has the affect of drawing in people not driving them away. We all love a genuine person or if we can't have that a genuine moment. The openness that this step of faith (letting the guard down) engenders becomes a tendon of relationship which strengthens like a muscle with use. The relationship becomes the vehicle by which Christ reveals himself to the other, through the revealed broken life.

2 Corinthians 4:7
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

The ignoble jar of clay, used for everyday purposes in fact contains a treasure of immeasurable worth. Letting someone close allows them to find the treasure for themselves. In this life, the jar will always be made from clay and no amount of effort on our part will make that jar be made of anything else. Representing our clay jay as something other than clay only works if everyone is kept at a distance - closer inspection reveals the jar for what it is. Pretence dissuades access to the treasure that is Christ revealed because it alienates us from others. But the openness, the embodiment of love, reveals Christ at work despite our flaws and his redemption on which we all depend.

Let's face it, we will not be perfect this side of heaven - let's not pretend to be.

Stoking the fires of faith

I facilitate a small bible study group of about 5 guys each in their early 20s. Over the last year we've trekked through James and allowed ourselves to get side-tracked on topics that engage us or where I feel there would be some benefit. The fact that the group has actually grown throughout the year is encouraging. That one of the guys has decided on bible college for this year and another can't help but tell anyone who cares to listen about what Jesus means to him (to the extent of having bumper stickers made up) is cream on the cake. Not that I can claim any direct credit but I'm sure I am having an influence - and this is heartening.

I've spent some time lately thinking on the whole point of the exercise. I don't mean this in the sense of why bother, but rather - where do I want this to go and why? So far I've been working at winning their respect as well as teaching them some of the things I've learned about the bible and the application of faith in the every day. The whole approach, though reasonably well prepared each week, has been disjointed. Not surprising really as there's been no master plan. Instead I've just responded and reacted and talked about what's been on my heart for them and/or for my life etc. It's an honest approach but I'd like to be a bit more deliberate for the sake of have a truly enduring impact in the lives of these embryonic great men of God.

So naturally I considered a curriculum of sorts. Which is another way of saying a list of the concepts or information I think should be imparted. A quick brain-storm brought up things like faith, love, prayer etc (fairly pedestrian!). Then I thought about categories and ended up with a matrix for considering the problem which kind of made sense. Very systematic you might say. I'm sure a web search or an hour browsing a Christian bookshop would have produced a complete and authorised guide but not coming up with it myself (even if I don't hit upon an original idea) seems somehow - dishonest. It certainly lacks informal authority which is much more persuasive in another's life than quoting someone I've never met and who is probably well outside my league.

I decided on a walk to clear the thoughts. Like you my life is very full and my mind inclined to accumulate clutter. While I walk I pray and free-associate which is good when you're pontificating on matters of faith.

Here's where I got to: what really counts is not information but motivation. What is the drive, the reason, the raison detre for what we do. If I want to produce enduring positive change in another's life I need start a fire not educate. We can have all the head knowledge but no reason to do anything with it. We know what is right and wrong, or what our calling is but don't care enough to choose the better way. Jesus was principally interested in the orientation of the heart, was it for him or not. Was it submissive, eager, thirsty for living water or ambivalent, proud, egotistical, distracted etc.

If I could somehow start a fire in the inner place that would burn it's own fuel and even with a little luck in time burn brighter the information and education would follow as required. The wise life of proverbs would be sort out with hunger. The asking, seeking and knocking would be granted, found and opened as promised. And the whole life would be self-sustaining and even auto-propagating.

Now fortunately for me there is a natural order of things designed, when properly used, to light fires. And as I think about it, it fits snugly into the most fundamental of Jesus' commands: Love one another. Love you see has imbedded within it the power to change the heart of a man. When I say love I mean the love described in Corinthians 13 (love is patient, love is kind, it keeps to record of wrongs etc). Not that soppy conditional feelings-based love but the tough and meaty type which sticks through thick and thick.

Here's how I think it works. I enthrone Jesus in my life and live to the best of my meagre ability according to his model and teachings and that of his apostles (a.k.a like the bible says). The result of this act of genuine heart-felt devotion is the glint of Jesus shining through those cracks which most of us treasure-filled jars of clay inherited from our apple-eating progenitors. Love is the channel by which another gets to know the real you and in the process can't help but noticing Christ-in-you. And this revelation of Christ in your life inspires change in another's life. This is how it's supposed to work. It all starts with Christ in you, producing love, producing Christ in another.

So let's now swing back to the question I posed to myself at the beginning of this diatribe: where do I want to go with this (group) and why? I can tell you that I don't want "mini-mes" nor do I want to see a whole lot of Christian experts wielding their religious arrogance at the world. There is a narrow way that we sense when we're walking right with Christ. I want these guys to walk the narrow way for their whole life at a steady and sustainable pace. I want to produce in them a vision of might be, what they might aspire to in Christ. I want them to take ownership of their own journey, that is to become spiritual men. To take on the mantle of leadership (as servants) in whatever field they find fits their talents and interests. To do this I need to keep my house in order (so that Christ can be clearly seen) and I need to love (allowing them to draw close enough to see Christ in me). Doesn't sound like much of a curriculum does it? I suspect however that this approach will achieve what a wonderfully complete curriculum could never achieve; light the fire of faith and fan it until the clay pot itself begins to crumble.