Category: Uncategorized

by Jennie Hurd

According to the July 2017 issue of Country Walking magazine, pilgrimage is the fastest-growing sector in the European tourism market. Similarly, more than two million people participate in a recognised pilgrimage in Scotland every year, and over 330 million people across the world make a pilgrimage of some kind annually. Pilgrimage in Britain has possibly not seen such popularity since its fourteenth century heyday, when Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales gave insights into pilgrims’ motivations and the kind of activities they got up to as they travelled the medieval roads.

I confess to having contributed to these figures within recent weeks. With a group including some Methodist District Chair colleagues, I walked a version of the Peak Pilgrimage from Ilam to Eyam over two days in May. On the way there, I found myself making an unplanned visit to Englesea Brook Chapel and Museum, which turned out to be an almost-accidental pilgrimage of great blessing. In addition, as I write, I have today made a pilgrimage to the chapel of St Peter’s-on-the-Wall at Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex. I have wanted to visit St Peter’s for many years, and spending an afternoon there in glorious weather to think, pray and reflect on ministry and vocation has been humbling and inspiring. I cannot imagine it will be too long before I go on some kind of pilgrimage again. I am a child of the age. I am one of the 330 million.

Given that an intention of pilgrimage is to spur the pilgrim forward on her spiritual journey of life and faith, it seems ironic that it almost always involves travel back in time to an historic site, a place of significance because of its heritage and what has happened there in the past. It seems illogical and counter-intuitive that something that is intended to inspire forward-movement and looking to the future should have such a strong characteristic of retrospection and revisiting times gone by. Wouldn’t it be better to go on pilgrimage to a place where God is doing completely new things, where the visionary and the innovative are taking place?  The very resurgence in the popularity of pilgrimage could be seen as retrospective, resonating with the growth of new monasticism as written about in these pages recently by Roger Walton. Why this looking to the ways and places of the past, and what are we hoping to gain by it? Is it of God, and if so, what is God wanting to give us through it?

Andrew Jones reminds us that Rowan Williams speaks of the importance of “remembering for the future”[1] and of how “memory is central in moving on, with hope and expectation…”[2] Every Sunday in worship, and especially in every celebration of Holy Communion, we look to reconnect with our roots and origins and to be strengthened and renewed for travelling on. So with pilgrimage: it is not merely a nostalgic, sentimental journey but, rather, travel to review our life’s story and to meet again with God in Christ, anticipating that same but deeper encounter at our ultimate destination. The journeying can be important for its own sake, as for the Celtic missionary monks who set off simply as an act of witness with no particular destination in mind. However, the place to which we travel usually holds deep significance: as Jones says, the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim is that a tourist passes through a place, but a pilgrim allows a place to pass through her[3].

If it is paradoxical and ironic that pilgrimage involves travelling back in time in order to move forward, there is further irony in the way in which it ends back where the pilgrim started – at home, dealing again with the ordinary stuff of life. Yet this is where the true value of pilgrimage is seen and where its worth and impact is proven, when the healing, renewal and resurrection born of the pilgrim encounter with God makes a difference to the daily routine. It is a continuous process of looking back in order to move forward, participating in a way of life where “Getting to where we need to go often means finding a new language for where we’ve already been.”[4] Renewed by looking back in order to move forward, God’s pilgrim people travel on.

[1] Williams, Rowan 1994, Open to Judgement: DLT quoted in Jones, Andrew 2011, Pilgrimage: BRF: 33

[2] Jones, Andrew 2011, Pilgrimage: BRF: 33

[3] Jones, Andrew 2011, Pilgrimage: BRF:35

[4] Lane, Belden C 2015, Backpacking with the Saints: OUP: 15

by Anne Ostrowicz

In the week of the Westminster attack I found myself marking a set of year 8 (12-13 year-olds) exercise books, responding to questions on John 8:1-11, often entitled, ‘the woman caught in adultery’.

A few weeks earlier we had been studying Jesus’ parables of the lost and I was surprised at just how many in the class, from a wide range of religious and non-religious backgrounds, were really quite indignant about the forgiveness which the younger son received, including that offensive party; it seemed so unjust to the hard-working elder son!

Studying John 8 together, me more-or-less acting what happened in the outer court of the temple, we imagined this woman being dragged, terrified and shaking, by a crowd of men who cared little for her. We focused on Jesus’ silent, measured response, as he knelt and ‘wrote’ in the ground, trying to imagine the effect of this action on the atmosphere, and what Jesus might have been up to.

As I talked I was very aware that in the class was one who has suffered severely for a misdemeanour in his past. And I wondered what he was feeling about Jesus’ response; I know the pain is lodged deep in this young boy’s heart. And there are pupils in the class whose home background, or religious upbringing, can be very harsh when it comes to responding to misdemeanour.

But the pupils began making links with others Jesus treated in similar fashion: Matthew the tax-collector, Mary Magdalene, Peter…  We remembered, too, that forgiveness, compassion, are lauded in all the major religions as the ‘higher way’.

Returning to reading their written homework thoughts, I was deeply moved. Several had been sufficiently interested to go to the internet to research further on what Jesus had been doing ‘writing in the ground’. One turned up the historical detail that this was how verdicts were delivered – in writing first. Another, that it was the older men who had the right to start a stoning. Even more moving was the sensitivity shown to Jesus’ concern for this woman, the power that his grace, this undeserved kindness, would most likely have had to effect a change of heart, possibly a significant change to her whole life. And they were remembering the times in their own lives when grace had had a deeper positive effect than a harsh response of punishment would have done.

And I felt that there had been significant movement in the minds of these young boys: movement towards the beauty and power of forgiveness and grace over judgment and punishment. The possibility of embracing that ‘higher way’.

This time round only one individual was critical of Jesus’ response…

It is a privilege to read my pupils’ thoughts. Their writing also re-ignites in me the awesomeness of Jesus’ teaching.

I have been re-reading Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward. He writes about the less black-and-white attitude many of us enter in middle-age. But why shouldn’t the less black-and-white, often paradoxical truth possibilities, be put to our young people? In my experience, they ‘get it’ and deeply appreciate depth and complexity of thought, provided we give sufficient time to explain and to explore.  John 8 teaches that infringement does not have to be punished, that justice does not necessitate punishment, for the goal is a changed heart, surely the greatest of all achievements.

Rohr suggests that spiritual growth is perhaps not so much avoiding sin, but growing through it. My supposition is that the woman of John 8 became a far more beautiful person, having sinned and so had that encounter with Jesus and herself, than if she had never made the mistake in the first place. Isn’t that just the truth about us humans? Mary Magdalene, Peter, Matthew, Zachaeus…

This week, teaching about Islam to the same class, we listened on-line to the imam at Finsbury Park Mosque who, in the most tense and violent of moments, spontaneously spoke and acted forgiveness and peace. I watched as the Muslim pupils sat a little taller, as they so often do when I draw out the beauty in their own religious traditions and community.

This month I lose my upper sixth, many deeply thinking individuals: Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Sikh, atheist, agnostic. My deepest prayer is that they, along with the many other thoughtful teenagers we have in our country, will be ‘yeast’ in the communities in which they find themselves in our country, aware both of the beauty that can be found in religion, and its complexities.

by Sally Coleman

I like going to the hairdressers. I must admit that that was not the opening phrase I had anticipated opening a post for Theology Everywhere with, but I like going to the hairdressers. The time is booked, and I usually anticipate being there for an hour, wash, cut, blow dry, coffee, being pampered, but for me that is not the key thing. The real and lasting enjoyment comes not from a new haircut but from a deep engagement, and conversation with someone who I might not otherwise encounter.

Over the years, talk over the mirror has been about many things, from motherhood and daily life to deep spiritual things, especially when people find out who I am (I was going to write what I do, but I won’t unpack that now, that would probably be the subject for a different post). I have been asked about ghosts and angels, whether I believe in the supernatural, about multi-faith issues, politics, justice, sexuality and so much more. The space is not my space; it is a commercial space where people come and go, a space I must respect and honour, and where I must win the opportunity to engage in conversation. Very often though, I find that those I have met over the years, who have held the power of scissors over my head, are hungry for spiritual engagement and want to talk.

I have found the same in other contexts too, in coffee shops, in placing stalls into town festivals, music festivals, and into Mind Body Spirit Exhibitions, not in order to win people to the church, but to meet with them where they are and to offer a space to talk. Perhaps the best thing about all of this is that each of these encounters has pushed me to think more deeply about the God that I do and don’t believe in, and to encourage those I meet to do the same.

As I reflect upon the Gospels in the light of this, I notice the way that Jesus simply encountered people where they were, how he encouraged them to drive the conversation, to express their needs, voice their doubts and ask questions. His responses were given in parables which again offered those with the desire the opportunity to delve deeper to seek out the meaning, and those stories, simple though they seem, are so nuanced that they still speak to us today.

As a member of a church that is asking deep questions of its future, what challenges me, and what I learn from Jesus’ itinerant ministry, makes me wonder how we might create safe spaces for the type of conversation that I have been describing. How might it look if instead of being curators of Methodism and what it stands for, if we were to become chaplains, meeting people along the way and daring to journey with them. How might it look if we were able to find a way of making the most of our resources, relinquishing buildings and using those that are fit for purpose to their full potential. I know this has been an ongoing debate, and that it has its own problems, pains, and frustrations but we can’t cling on to what is not the answer, and never was. The story of the people of God has always been one of journey/ pilgrimage; even the exilic accounts can and should inform our sense of who we are, and while there are encouragements to settling down (Jeremiah 29: 4-9), they are set in the context of blessing the people that we find ourselves amongst, which may again demand a new thing of us.

Yet none of this is new, these are questions that we have been returning to repeatedly, but so often with the underlying assumption that this is about the survival of Methodism and what it means to be Methodist, and while the theology of the Methodist Church is what has won my heart to Christ and the Christian walk in so many ways, I want to ask what would happen if we were to give ourselves away. To ask not what Methodism is for the present and future age, but to learn from the encounters that we have with those around us. I leave you with the words of Jesus.

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10: 39)

by Roger Walton

New monasticism is a term widely used to describe the emergence of various communities and groups who express their Christian faith through patterns and practices that resemble the rules and rhythms of earlier monasteries. Sometimes these communities are people living together in a physical space or location, often identifying with those who live in poverty or who are homeless. Others are dispersed, held together by a pattern of prayer, a series of commitments and a rule of life.

There is, currently, much talk of new monasticism in Methodism. The Methodist Diaconal Order, as a religious order, lives by a rule of life. A number of Methodists are members of the Iona Community; some belong to the Northumbria Community and a few are third-order Franciscans. Several ‘fresh expressions’ of church and pioneer groups have adopted this language and developed simple patterns of daily, weekly, monthly and/or annual commitments. In the discussion initiated by the Faith and Order Committee, we are to explore whether Methodists other than deacons might share in a rule of life. My impression is that many would welcome such an opportunity.

This may be a good moment to reflect on what new monasticism might offer for Methodism.

Just as Anthony, and later Benedict, pioneered monasticism as a response to changing times for both church and culture, so new monasticism is seen as a response to the end of Christendom, postmodern culture and growing hostility towards Christianity.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, credited with coining the term ‘new monasticism’, wrote his famous and widely quoted note in the face of the rise of Nazism and corrosion of the church in colluding with the regime.

‘The restoration of the church will surely come from a sort of new monasticism, which has in common with the old only the uncompromising attitude of a life lived according to the Sermon on the Mount in the following of Jesus.’[1]

This particular failure of the church, identified by Bonhoeffer, seems to many to have been prophetic in relation to the end of Christendom. Stuart Murray writes:

‘New monasticism: rules of life and rhythms of worship may be essential to sustain communities of resident aliens in post-Christendom.’[2]

In relation to culture, Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue (1981) was significant. Writing, as he saw it, in the context of the breakdown of moral discourse in modern society, MacIntyre ends with a call for a ‘new Benedict’. Jonathan Wilson developed this idea in Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World (1998). All writers on this subject emphasise the need for Christians to be counter cultural in the face of corrosive consumerist culture.

So new monasticism offers Christians a way of living out faith in Christ in a radically changed and sometimes hostile culture.

Methodism developed at a time of change for church and culture. There is much evidence (but not enough space here) to argue for early Methodism as a form of new monasticism. John Wesley’s rules and aphorisms gave shape to the societies. Their watchnights, love feasts, preaching services and annual covenant service, alongside attendance at band or class, supplied the rhythm. Together these formed communities of Christian disciples. Those early Methodists lived by a rule of life and a rhythm of worship and witness.

What might a modern Methodist rule of life be like?

We could develop one from the Our Calling statement, emblazoned on our membership tickets. My sense is, however, that this is more of a reminder of the breadth of our discipleship than a rule of life, and we have no inbuilt accountability structure for how we are attending to it. More could be done.

But maybe we are no longer in a top-down culture. Even if we could develop a rule of life for all Methodists, our natural non-conformity would resist it. In any case, it may not go far enough to touch our daily activities and individual sense of calling. Perhaps what we need is rules of life around particular callings – local preachers, pastoral visitors, youth workers, those who exercise their discipleship in the health service, industry or the home. They could be developed by those who sense this calling and devised not individually but together with others, so that there is prayer, support and accountability for all.

Perhaps we could work at both levels, so top-down and bottom-up might inform each other.

[1] Bonhoeffer, D., et al. (1995). A testament to freedom : the essential writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. [San Francisco, Calif.], HarperSanFrancisco.

[2] Murray, S. (2004). Church after Christendom. Milton Keynes, Paternoster.

by Jill Baker

Writing about silence is almost as ironic as speaking about silence. If the heart of silence is an absence of words, then a blank sheet of paper (or screen) might be the best way in… but a few observations, none the less.

This week the 2017 Methodist Conference is meeting in Birmingham; a gathering of around 300 people, with many reports to debate and decisions to take. Not a natural arena for silence, and quite a contrast to the setting where I drafted these thoughts; during a “Five-Day Community for Spiritual Formation”[1] in Northern Ireland just a few weeks earlier. As the name suggests, around thirty of us lived in community for five days, hoping to be spiritually a little more formed by the end of it – time will tell. Alongside teaching, worship, listening time and wonderful Irish hospitality, one of the tools for the formation was silence. After each presentation, morning and afternoon, we kept an hour’s silence, and following Night Prayer remained silent until Morning Prayer next day.

This could be a delight but could also be a challenge. Silence can be threatening; we often use noise and activity to distract ourselves from our deepest emotions and from an encounter with ourselves. Silence can break down the defences and make us vulnerable. Silence can also be abused; whilst it may be a tool it must not be a weapon. If a person has been silenced by others, they have been violated. Too often in the power struggle which has never been far from the history of Christianity, bible texts have been used to silence women and other groups.

Silence is not our natural state and has to be learned. We do not come into this world in silence; a silent baby would struggle to survive. Susanna Wesley may have been able to teach her children to cry softly[2], but that is not a widespread practice! Indeed, the idea of “suffering in silence” in adulthood has about it a stoic quality which, whilst it may be commendable at times, also suggests a martyred attitude, an unhealthy repression which will, in time, bear bad fruit. The psalmist seems to agree,^; “While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long”.[3]

So why might we consider silence a practice worth learning? There are around a hundred references to silence or keeping silent in Scripture, many of them occurring in the “wisdom literature”. Perhaps that affords a first reason; Proverbs reminds us; “Even fools who keep silent are considered wise; when they close their lips, they are deemed intelligent.”[4] Silence can save us from speaking hastily, rashly, hurtfully, selfishly. Monks living permanently in community have been known to reflect that it is the silence which enables the community to survive.

Perhaps the most famous Bible reference to silence is Elijah’s encounter with God at Horeb⁵. Elijah is expecting God to “pass by”. Wind, earthquake and fire all fail to reveal God’s presence, but then comes the “still small voice”[5]. Almost the only thing I remember from three years of studying Hebrew at Durham is our professor’s own translation of this almost untranslatable phrase, “a rarefied, audible silence”. Elijah certainly recognises the presence of God in this silence, for he covers his face as he goes to the entrance to the cave. The voice follows, but the silence comes first.

So silence has two directions (at least); we learn to be silent before God – sometimes waiting for God to speak, but often rather learning to hear God in the silence. In human relationships silence is often used to express disapproval, anger or indifference. Sometimes it may simply mean that our interlocutor is no longer present to us. But at other times, silence in conversation may itself be a language. Barbara Brown Taylor’s little gem of a book, “When God is silent – divine language beyond words” explores this idea very helpfully. Silence may not mean absence, but may be a deep communication; the silence of lovers, the silence of those who are communicating without words.

The final biblical reference to silence comes in the book of Revelation[6]; after the seventh seal has been opened by the Lamb, “there was silence in heaven for about half an hour”. A fascinating thought!

[1] www.5daycommunity.com

[2] Susanna Wesley. Thoughts on Raising Children, July 24, 1732.

[3] Psalm 32:3

[4] Proverbs 17:28

[5] I Kings 19:12

[6] Revelation 8:1

by Tom Stuckey

The whole world is passing through a huge paradigm shift the likes of which have not been seen for generations. What is the Spirit saying to the Churches in Britain and to the Methodist Church in particular? In my new book I contend that Britain is a modern Babylon where mammon reigns. The Church has unconsciously absorbed the values of Babylon into its structures and strategies with the result that it has ceased to be prophetic and become a public utility offering cheap grace to a consumer public looking for peace and security in troubled times.

BABYLON

Today we serve the god of consumerism and worship him in our cathedral-like shopping malls. Babylon had its ziggurats. In London we demonstrate our delight in the money god in the profusion of the towering of skyscrapers monstrously designed to shock and awe.  Babylon is both a city and a Whore, a term used to signify luxury, sensuality, sexuality, seduction and allure. Although her appearance in the book of Revelation is magnificent (Rev 17), she is not to be trusted. She rides upon a beast of corruption. She is a celebrity who loves to be looked at yet takes even greater delight in gazing at herself.  She is the mythological origin of the ‘selfie’. The message of Revelation is clear. Beware lest you are beguiled by her charms and drawn into the nihilism which she personifies.

THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH

Martin Luther wrote a pamphlet with this title in October 1520. In it he attacked ‘indulgences’. These bits of paper were sold to enhance the glory of the papacy by raising money for the building of St Peter’s. They were expressions of ‘cheap grace’ giving  people a ‘feel good’ experience without requiring discipleship.

John Hull gave us a devastating critique of the Church in Britain. ‘We looked for a mission-shaped church but what we found was a church-shaped mission.’[1] The seeking of justice for people and the environment is at the bottom of the agenda of most churches. This is because the culture of Babylon has so permeated the Church that we cannot confront the sins of Babylon without confronting ourselves. Words and noise are the background music of a consumer society. Babylon has invaded the worship of our churches. Boredom is the enemy so we fill the time with image, song, visuals, clips, chat and a short snappy address. The worshippers have become a consumer audience.

James Laney in a sermon about Christian identity in a comfortable Babylon says ‘When we look back at the history of the Church, every time we see that the Church has become captive to the dominant identity of its society, every time it has become comfortable with its role in culture, it has lost its universality. With the loss of universality, it has lost the power to create, not merely to evangelize, but also the power to become renewed.’[2]

 METHODISM

Methodism has singularly failed to theologically address this deluding Babylonian culture which has almost totally infiltrated our church. Without the corrective of prophetic theology we have embraced the managerial and mechanical solutions of Babylon.  Over the past couple of decades we have been shifting the furniture of worship and tinkering with our structures. Martin Percy looking in at British Methodism is puzzled by our heavy organizational baggage and ecclesiastical civil service. He comments that ‘our bureaucracy is stifling our democracy and democracy has triumphed over theocracy’.[3]

The Babylonian captivity has robbed Methodism of its ‘holiness’.  ‘Know your disease! Know your cure!’ was the dictum John Wesley employed. His diagnosis of humanity’s problem was that the image of God within had become distorted. Although reason and practical activity were important for him he believed that only the transcendent power of God’s grace could work the cure.

My new book entitled  ‘Singing the Lord’s song in a Strange Land’ will be launched at Conference. It will bring a theological critique to the Church in Britain with a particular reference to Methodism.  Does Methodism have a vibrant future?  Not if we continue as we are!

[1] John Hull, Mission-Shaped Church: A Theological Response, SCM Press, 2006, p.36.

[2] James Laney, ‘Our New Identity’, in Logan, Theology and Evangelism in the Wesleyan Heritage, Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1994, p.178.

[3] Martyn Percy, ‘Back to the Future: A Search for a Thoroughly Modern Methodist Ecclesiology’, found in C. Marsh, B. Beck, H. Wareing and A. Shier-Jones (eds), Unmasking Methodist Theology, Continuum, 2004, p.207.

by Frances Young

I guess we’re not very good at confessing uncertainty, but I was challenged to address the theme at a Science and Faith weekend.

I began with the recently circulating film, Silence – a dramatic realisation of a novel I’d read years before, by a Japanese Christian author who imaginately retells a true story.[1]

It’s 1643 and two Portuguese Jesuits set out for Japan, a place where Christians are savagely persecuted, to search for their former teacher and mentor who had disappeared. There were rumours he’d apostatized. The priests are hidden by Christian peasants and watch their sufferings; the main character is betrayed, imprisoned, and prepares to die as martyr.

The ‘Silence’ is the silence of God. Desperate prayers are repeated:  ‘Lord, why are you silent? Why are you always silent?’ (p. 153) “… you never break the silence,” he says. “You should not be silent for ever”.’ (p. 172) ‘The sea was silent as if exhausted, and God, too, continued to be silent.’ (p.  210)

The novel thus captures that sense of God’s absence which has been the 20^th century experience. ‘If I were God, I wouldn’t let my children do to each other what they do,’ said a Professor of Jewish descent. Uncertainty is everywhere.

That God is Creator and sustainer of all that exists is fundamental to Christian theology, but the kind of creationism some defend is not, nor indeed the claims of intelligent design as usually enunciated. God is not to be conceived as a craftsman, needing some kind of material to make things out of. God created everything other than God out of nothing. And for anything other than God to exist the infinite God has to withdraw (Simone Weil wrote, ‘Creation is an act of abandonment’). The absolute otherness of God is fundamental, and the reason why there are no knock-down philosophical proofs. It is also the reason for the apparent absence of God.

Religious language must always be a sign, a symbol, a metaphor – that’s why the name of God is unutterable in the Jewish tradition. Religious epistemology involves profound agnosticism, but it is an agnosticism with a particular stance – neither indifference, nor intellectual superiority. Rather a profound intellectual humility before the known unknown.  Without doubt,  every concept of God, every linguistic description, becomes an idol, a projection, a reduction of God to a mere item in the universe.

Thus, uncertainty lies at heart of Christian theology.

Human nature craves certainty, control and closure.  That’s why it’s so easy for religion to breed dogmatism,  intolerance, etc., and it’s why fundamentalism resorts to literalism. The need for control is precisely why it’s necessary to establish the principle of uncertainty at the heart of theology.

Let’s go back to Silence.  The book/film is not  only a profound commentary on the absence of God, but also on the nature of love.

He had not been able to save the Christian [peasants]… His pity for them had been overwhelming; but pity was not action. It was not love. Pity, like passion, was no more than a kind of instinct. (p. 219)

Cross-examined and held in solitary confinement,  he identifies with Christ:’ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Yet gradually he becomes more and more uncertain. The Inquisitor says, ‘you came to this country to lay down your life for them. But in fact they are laying down their lives for you.’ (p. 220) His old teacher challenges him: ‘You are preoccupied with your own salvation. If you say you will apostatize … they will be saved from suffering…  Is your way of acting love? A priest ought to live in imitation of Christ. If Christ were here … certainly Christ would have apostatized for them… For love Christ would have apostatized.’ (pp. 168-9). So he apostatizes and lives uncertainly with the terrible guilt of betrayal.

You can never be certain – all you can do is let go of the need for control, and TRUST. For trust in a moral and spiritual reality vastly bigger than yourself, beyond yourself, a reality capable of creation and re-creation, of blessing beyond anything we can ask or think – that’s what faith is.

[1] Shusaku Endo, Silence (Japanese, 1967; Penguin, 1988).

by Martin Turner.

My friend the late Rev’d Geoff Cornell was a great reader of fiction, using modern narratives to enhance and apply to his always interesting preaching. For reasons that were never totally clear to either of us we had been invited to join a black minister’s group on a trip to Ghana, it was a long plane journey but I noticed Geoff was totally wrapped up in a book so I asked him what it was. He told me he was reading it for the second time and that it was one of the most thought provoking works of fiction he had ever read – so I thought that if it was that special for Geoff it must be outstanding and when I returned to the UK ordered a copy.

The Book was Gilead by Marilynne Robinson,  I want to focus this week’s reflection upon this most remarkable book and it’s two sequels, “Home” and “Lila”.  It may well be that you feel that this slot is for theological reflection and not a book review, but this is a book which can offer far more theological insight than any poor thoughts of mine!

Marilynne Robinson is an American author who has written just four novels, however her output in non-fiction, essays and reviews is prolific and she has won numerous awards and honorary doctorates.  Robinson was 37 when her first book, Housekeeping, was published in 1980, it was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize two years later.  There was then a twenty four year wait for Gilead to be published and this won the Pulitzer a year later.  Four years later Home, which won the Orange prize,  was published, then after six years Lila. The fascinating thing about these last three being that they tell the same story with the same characters, but each with the narration from a different character’s point of view.

The books are profoundly Christian; Robinson is a Congregationalist, she sometimes preaches and theologically she has been greatly influenced by John Calvin. She is also profoundly American, capturing all that rural mid American life is about from her home in Iowa.

I remember Donald English speaking about the Starbridge novels by Susan Howatch and saying that there were more theological truths in them than in many specifically Christian books, but that unlike Christian books people – mostly non Christians – read them!  Gilead, my main focus, is such a book – I was especially struck by a review where the author ended with the comment that he almost wished he was a believer.

Gilead is the story of an elderly Congregational minister called John Ames who has spend all his life serving the small community of Gilead. Ames’ young wife died in childbirth, as did the child, thus for many years he has led a solitary existence, sustained by a deep friendship with the local Presbyterian minister Boughton. Boughton has a son, Jack, who Ames distrusts deeply – Jack’s return home is a tragic version of the prodigal son, told in the second book Home. Then into Ames’ life there come a most unlikely character, Lila, an illiterate drifter very much younger than him with who he falls in love, marries and has a child – her version of events is told in the third novel, Lila. Thus Ames has a small son, but is elderly with a failing heart.  Gilead is the journal he writes so that when his son grows older he will know something of the life, history and thoughts of his father long gone.  So these are books where not a lot happens, the pace is slow, the events largely ordinary, but in them very deepest issues of life are explored and touched – never before have I burst into tears whilst reading a book, but I did in reading Gilead!

So why should you read Gilead?  For ministers the reflection upon what he has achieved across the years is sobering – I was especially moved as he wonders what to do with his sermons – I have several hundred neatly boxed and filed and wonder what my own children will do with them one day! There is also deep theological reflection, where he wrestles with his Calvinist theology, a challenge for we Arminians. This theological debate comes especially into focus in the third book where Lila wonders how God will deal with the woman who has mothered her and yet is clearly not a believer.

This is a book about friendship, about how difficult family life can be, about faith, about facing death. No review of mine (or the many other reviews on line, especially Rowan Williams’) can do it justice. It is a marmite book, it will either bore you or stir you as none other – try reading it!

by Ruth Gee.

On Friday May 12^th computer systems across the world were attacked by a virus affecting more than 200,000 victims in 150 countries. The UK was among the worst hit of the countries and 61 NHS trusts in England and Scotland reported problems.

In the following days I found myself, as a follower of one in whose life power was shown through vulnerability, reflecting on the use and abuse of power. In this instance much of the power was held by those who had specific information. Events were influenced by the ways in which they chose to share or to hold that information.

WannaCry ransomware encrypts the files on computer systems so that they cannot be accessed and then demands a ransom, paid in Bitcoin to unlock them. On this occasion the problem was made even worse because of the use of a tool known as Eternal Blue. It was reported that Eternal Blue was used by the National Security Agency in the USA and leaked by Shadow Brokers, a hacker group. Eternal Blue allows WannaCry to infect all the computers in a network once any one has been accessed.

WannaCry, Eternal Blue, Shadow Brokers and Bitcoin: a series of mysterious and evocative words hinting at mystery and dark secrets to the uninitiated. When translated into language we can understand it becomes clear that this is the language of subversive power and exploitation, it is the language of piracy, domination and theft.

As the computer systems in hospitals became useless, operations and procedures were cancelled and vulnerable people suffered. In the North East, the Nissan plant had to cease production. Internationally, there was widespread disruption. Ransom money was paid into Bitcoin wallets, digital containers for a digital currency that is not linked to any bank or government and can be used anonymously. The piratical blackmailers made a killing and it will happen again.

We are undoubtedly enriched by the ability to use technology to increase the efficiency in hospitals, transport networks and industry. Those who have access to computer systems and the internet are able to communicate fast and effectively. Through the World Wide Web we can access reports about events almost as soon as they happen, from almost anywhere. Such technology is a great gift and, at its best, it can be a means of providing support fast and well to those in need, of offering educational opportunities and of increasing our understanding of the lives of others. Communication and sharing are important elements in the life of a community and through modern technology we have the promise, or perhaps the illusion, of a world-wide community.

On May 12^th we were reminded of the vulnerability that exists alongside the promise of enhanced communication. It is a vulnerability that is at least partially due to an imbalance of power, where some people hold knowledge and decide how and where it will be shared.

Eternal Blue was a very useful tool for the National Security Agency. By making use of vulnerability in computer systems, agents could hack into the computer networks of terrorist groups and access information that could lead to the prevention of attacks and the apprehension of criminals. That same vulnerability could be exploited by criminal hackers. Jay Caplan, formerly a worker at the National Security Agency described the dilemma in these words in the Guardian, “It’s this constant tug of war. Do you let intelligence agencies continue to take advantage of vulnerabilities to fight terrorists or do you give it to the vendors and fix them?”  Had Microsoft known of the vulnerability earlier, the problem might have been rectified more effectively but the security agency chose not to share their knowledge.

Other decisions made by people with power impacted on events on May 12^th. Many affected NHS trusts were vulnerable because they were working with old computer systems that could not be updated and properly protected. Warnings had been given but hard choices had to be made with limited funds and it is reported that some chose not prioritise updating computer systems. Decisions made in good faith led to increased vulnerability and disruption for those needing care.

The 8^th century prophets criticised the abuse of power by those in authority in Israel. They condemned those who used false weights and measures, who enriched themselves and lay on golden beds whilst the faces of the poor were ground into the dust of the earth. Jesus challenged the religious leaders who held power and had deep knowledge of the scriptures and religious tradition but failed to recognise the priority of loving their neighbours.

In the story of WannaCry (still unfolding as I write) there are questions for those who seek to do justice and love kindness about use and abuse of power, the sharing of knowledge, accountability, and vulnerability.

by David Bidnell.

It was on 13^th November 1945 that Moscow Dynamo played the first match of their post-war tour of Britain against Chelsea. The result was reasonably inconsequential – a 3-3 draw. It was the impression it made on the London crowd and the British press that really counted. In advance of the match the Russian team had been all but dismissed as a bunch of also-rans, only to astound both the spectators and the Chelsea team by the speed, flexibility and imagination with which they played. David Downing, in his novel Lehrter Station, recounts how the press reported the match:

“Much was made of the Dynamos’ willingness to interchange positions without getting in each other’s way – a revolutionary tactic which had completely flummoxed their English opponents.”(Downing 2012. 33).

It is this “revolutionary tactic” of imagination, of re-imagining how the world might be and how people might relate to one another, which emerges constantly from the pages of the Gospels, whether it is in the narration of encounters with Jesus or in the narratives he himself relates. It is a re-imagining that some find so perturbing and threatening that they seek a solution in crucifixion. Jesus does not go looking for death. Rather his crucifixion is the consequence of his commitment to life. It is because he chooses life for those around him, that he is put to death – but not before the seeds of imagination have begun to take root in the lives of those following him.

Vaclav Havel’s definition of hope helps provide some focus for this way of understanding Jesus’ life.

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” (Havel 1990. 181).

This seems to be a pretty good description of the way Jesus sees the world. His focus is on living out what “makes sense”, and he is prepared to take the consequences, even if they are not pleasant or welcome.

If the crucifixion is the authoritarian response to the kind of hope, freedom and imagination embodied in Jesus’ living, the resurrection is a response to the crucifixion, which rejects the kind of triumphalism sometimes found in our Easter hymns and songs, and invites us instead to perceive more deeply the ways in which Jesus’ life makes sense and how we might pick up the threads of that life as an act of resurrection or as a means of putting resurrection into practice.

This idea of resurrection as “picking up of the threads of a world re-imagined” is reflected in the story of the “mother of the sons of Zebedee”. We meet her at two critical moments in Matthew’s Gospel. The first of these is when she approaches Jesus to request for her two sons places of honour at his right and at his left when he comes into his kingdom (Matthew 20:20-28). The story differs from Mark’s version, where James and John do the asking themselves (Mark 10:35-45). Why does their mother take the lead in Matthew? Is it because she is a pushy mother dedicated to trying to get the best for her sons? Is it because her sons do not have the courage to approach Jesus themselves? Is she pushed into it by her husband, Zebedee? After all, it is worth noting that she is identified, neither by her own name, nor by the names of her sons, but as “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (Mathew 20:20). Though we are in the realm of speculation here, what is significant is the way in which she hears Jesus turn on their head notions of greatness. What matters are the values of humility and servanthood, of choosing life, even if it costs life.

This brings us to the second critical encounter. Interestingly enough Matthew is the only Gospel writer to include “the mother of the sons of Zebedee” explicitly among the women at the cross (Matthew 27:56). On Jesus’ right and left are not her sons, but two bandits. The vocabulary Matthew uses to describe both this woman and the idea of being on the right and on the left is strikingly similar to the first story in chapter twenty, suggesting that Matthew wants his readers to make connections between these two episodes. The depiction of this mother as one who is now there with Jesus until the end, waiting with him, sustaining him with a sense of her presence, suggests that she has learned much from what Jesus said about servanthood and greatness. Even before the act of crucifixion is complete she has begun to live out the resurrection. She is picking up the threads of a world re-imagined for her by Jesus.

It seems she is not only the mother of the sons of Zebedee, but perhaps also the mother of resurrection!

Works Cited

Downing, David. Lehrter Station. Brecon Old Street Publishing Ltd, 2012

Havel, Vaclav. Disturbing the Peace. London: Faber and Faber, 1990.