Theology Everywhere

by Caroline Wickens.

‘When I was growing up, Marsabit was a green oasis with streams of water and many trees’. A Kenyan colleague was describing his childhood in this hilltop town in the deserts of Northern Kenya. Marsabit has been in the news recently. After five years of drought, it’s finally raining there – but the earth is so dry that it cannot absorb the water, and the remaining animals are being swept away in flash floods.

The pattern of climate change is repeated, in different ways, right across the continent, with devastating impact[1]. In a context where churches play a massive role, African theologians are increasingly reflecting on the ways in which God is calling the people to respond. One starting-point is an understanding of human nature as fully embedded in God’s good creation. From Kenya, Jude Ongong’a rejects the ‘anthropocentric outlook advocated by the European Renaissance’[2], alongside several other writers who resist the spirit/matter dualism that flowed from Greek to Christian thinking and has continued to influence aspects of Western Christianity. They understand humanity as essentially relational. Human beings exist in a three-way relationship with the natural environment, with one another and with God[3], in patterns that are co-operative, not autonomous, and certainly not dominating or exploitative[4].

Several scholars explore broader concepts of unity and harmony. Kenyan theologian Eugene Wangiri focuses on urumwe, a Kikuyu concept expressing ‘a harmonious existence of entities whose being is ‘being-together-with-others’[5]. His invitation is to ‘live urumwe’ by recognising the interconnectedness of creation as the place where an incarnate God is revealed to us as Emmanuel, God with us.

Zambian theologians Kuzipe Nalwamba and Teddy Sakupapa use the New Testament language of koinonia to develop this approach[6]. They affirm the whole of creation as ‘God’s beloved’ and locate humanity within that wider community, in fellowship with the earth and with God, creator of all. Koinonia fosters an outlook on life where creation’s common life and good are at the core of all relationships. It challenges the disregard for creation with which Christianity has historically been linked. They identify our celebration of the Lord’s Supper as a key location for shaping our koinonia with one another, with creation and with Christ, focusing the essence of the church’s being and calling as an ecological community. Their reflections include a striking focus on the Holy Spirit, enabling fellowship as the one who gives life to all. Alongside this, Mary Gecaga invites participation in the ‘dance of creation’, where the perichoresis of the Trinity is mirrored as mountains and hills join in God’s dance[7].

Diakonia opens a second space for reflection. Environmental degradation creates hardship for millions, and the church’s call to service echoes Christ’s call to be good neighbours to those who struggle. However, our diakonia needs to go beyond offering practical help to folk in need, or reforming our own practice towards greater ecological responsibility. As God’s people, we are called to sustain and affirm creation as the location of God’s life[8] from a perspective that is hope-filled and kingdom-centred. Paul describes creation as ‘subjected to futility’ (Rom.8:20) but living in hope that it will be set free from its slavery to destruction. Margaret Gecaga illuminates this hope and ties it in with the story of creation by saying that we must be ‘gardeners as well as guardians’[9], an image of collaboration with God’s world in the expectation of new growth, flowers and fruit.

Finally, worship matters. Ghanaian theologian Robert Agyarko[10] writes about kerygma. Within the framework of proclamation, he names the importance of lament as a way of expressing our experience of disruption and longing for transcendence. Lament subverts the damaging status quo, names injustice and violence, protests ecological destruction, joins with the Spirit’s groans (Rom.8:26 – 27). It is an act of divine interruption, naming what is happening and creating the space for imaginative engagement with the question ‘how could this be different?’

What will all this mean for the people of Marsabit? The work of African theologians resources African churches to articulate what is happening to them; it also challenges the churches of the northern hemisphere to transformation, as part of the body of Christ.

This is the third article in a series – also see Naming (in)justice: an exploration of some conversations from the Global South and Naming (in)justice: women’s voices from the global South

The Methodist Church is currently undertaking a two year exploration of what it means to be a justice-seeking church through the Walking with Micah project.  Theology Everywhere is working in partnership with the project to host a series of articles about justice. For more information visit www.methodist.org.uk/walking-with-micah/

---

[1] Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel peace prize in 2004, describes this in The Challenge for Africa, Arrow:London 2009

[2] Ongong’a JJ, Towards an African Environmental Theology, pp.50 – 70 in Theology of Reconstruction eds. MN Getui and EA Obeng, Acton:Nairobi 1999:63

[3] Ongong’a 1999:60

[4] Gecaga M, Creative Stewardship for a New Earth, pp.28 – 49 in Theology of Reconstruction 1999:31

[5] Wangiri E, Urumwe Spirituality and the Environment, pp.71 – 89 in Theology of Reconstruction 1999:72.

[6] Nalwamba K and Sakupapa TC, Ecology and Fellowship (Koinonia): a Community of Life, pp.75 – 93 in The Church in God’s Household: Protestant Perspectives on Ecclesiology & Ecology eds.CW Ayre and EM Conradie, Cluster:Pietermaritzburg 2017:75

[7] Gecaga 1999:34

[8] Nalwamba and Sakupapa 2017:83

[9] Gecaga 1999:38

[10] Agyarko RO and J Cilliers, Ecology and Proclamation, pp.31 – 53 in The Church in God’s Household: Protestant Perspectives on Ecclesiology & Ecology eds.CW Ayre and EM Conradie, 2017:45

by Gary Hall.

John of Patmos is both seer and artist. Artists invite us to linger over things we might not ordinarily see or choose to gaze upon, gradually revealing to us what is not easy to communicate. Learning to trust what art and scripture can reveal is an art in itself, an art which begins with attention without understanding, and a capacity to abide with unresolved tensions. In the strange apocalyptic landscape of Revelation we may just learn to see differently and therefore to inhabit life differently, once we have mustered the kind of courage and curiosity which led Lucy through the wardrobe, or Alice through the looking glass, or which led Neo to take the red pill in order to see The Matrix unveiled.

The Apocalypse is not safe territory. Traces of paranoia and dreams of vengeance cling stubbornly to the contrasting and more appealing images of joyful restoration beyond mourning and crying and pain. In the seer’s imagination, the way of the Lamb and the way of the Predator sometimes mingle uncomfortably – and this very fact, this ambiguity, may be a clue about how the prophetic drama can energize and guide us.

If we set aside our instincts to resolve or avoid every tension, and if we let go the fantasies of final, conclusive battles, then we can discover a text that reflects back a world where beauty and horror, wonder and sorrow always co-exist. This is the world we inhabit, and Revelation can help us abide creatively with the tensions experienced by all who dare to trust in the risen Christ and the restorative work of God, whilst facing the indisputable facts of everyday grief and horror, and the contradictory impulses which lurk within us and our institutions.

When we turn away from the mesmerizing drama of cosmic warfare and the sinister lure of militarized force, we notice the irony of a slain lamb on a throne, revealing the blasphemous heart of death-dealing cultures with their deceptive ideologies of redemptive violence, or wealth as salvation. Alongside the Lamb are his comrades who are neither deceived nor allured, who (despite all they have suffered) know that living is more than self-securing, even in the face of death. Their trusting is their triumph. Their faithful witness to the martyred Lamb is a gateway to eternity. They love life, but they do not love their own lives too much (12.10-11).

In contrast, there are those who entrusted their futures to the idolatrous empire of the Predator and her economy of meaningless luxury (18.11-15), who now mourn the collapse of Babylon/Rome. Amongst the mourners are rulers whose own power depends on alliances with the death-dealing superpower, and merchants who have grown rich through plunder and a corrupt economy built and sustained at devastating cost to human lives (18: 13). Then there are other mourners for whom we may feel a trace of sympathy, for surely these seafarers are just ordinary workers trying to earn their keep (18:13-17)? It is not so simple; for without them the corrupt, dehumanizing system cannot flourish. Their collusion, whatever the reason, sustains injustice and devastation. More to the point, their concern is not for the prophets and saints and every victim whose blood stains the ruined city (18: 24), but with securing their own lives (18: 17-19). They do not love life after all; they love their own little lives too much to take a costly stand alongside the Lamb.

The prophetic art of Revelation can guide us in the ways of peace and justice, mercy and hope when we let go our desire for conclusive victories, final solutions, so that we can focus instead on the art of navigating the tensions and ambiguities of everyday living. Decisive outcomes are not in our own hands. By grace, however, we can discover what it takes to live through transient victories or defeats in hope, faith and love, without being derailed by the persistence of injustice, threat and destruction.

The company of the Lamb is for those who are learning to not love their own little lives too much, so we can go on learning to love life in all its fulness.

A version of this reflection is included in the 2023 Bible Month booklet on Revelation, available at https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/the-bible/bible-month/

by Will Fletcher.

Do you like walking? Do you like gardening? These seem to be two of the most commonly asked questions that I get as a minister. The truth is that I do enjoy going for a walk, and I do also enjoy spending time in my garden. Yet I’m always a bit cagey about answering these questions positively. For it often seems that if I say that I enjoy walking that therefore must mean that I want to push myself to walk the furthest mileage possible, up steep craggy paths, barely stopping for sustenance let alone to take in the view (this may have something to do with first being minister on the edge of the Peak District, and now on the edge of the South Downs). If I answer that I enjoy gardening the expectation seems to be that I’ll be out spending every available moment tending my immaculate garden, and that I’ll be an expert in growing a variety of plants and vegetables.

Anyone who has been for a walk with me, or seen my garden, will know that neither of these things are true. I get side-tracked in both activities by stopping to look at all manner of bug or flower (that some might call weed). I don’t care how far I walk, or even how challenging the terrain is, being out walking is enough. And the best walks have an extended pub lunch with a pint in the middle of them! My garden isn’t immaculate, because I don’t actually know a lot about what I’m doing, but it is a haven of calm where I try and make room for all wildlife – slugs and snails included.

It did make me wonder whether the assumptions behind the questions point to attitudes in society that we always have to aim at being the best, going the furthest, never being satisfied, always looking to the next thing.

Our Methodist heritage may contribute to that assumption. The Wesleys’ desire for Christian perfection, meant that they could never be satisfied, and always had to be looking to the next step, the next experience, moving that little bit closer to God. This can be a positive intention, but it can also leave us dissatisfied or feeling like we have to keep pushing ourselves, and not rest.

Having that mindset of yearning for perfection can lead us to aiming only at the greatest spiritual experiences or feats. We have to give up everything for Lent, or go on one of the huge pilgrimages, or spend x number of uninterrupted hours in prayer. Anything short of the maximum doesn’t feel worth it; and anything short of some profound new spiritual experience feels a bit of a let-down.

Now Jesus obviously spent his 40 days in the wilderness fasting and praying, so he wasn’t opposed to such endeavours. Yet we see far more often Jesus and his followers walking from village to town around Galilee and Judea. Even when he had turned his face towards Jerusalem, he didn’t seem in a rush to get there. The journey was important, not just the destination. When Jesus was on the way to Jairus’ house when his daughter was taken sick (Mark 5.21-43), he was prepared to stop when the woman who was haemorrhaging touched his cloak, and restore her to wholeness. So many times do we see Jesus walking along but being prepared to stop to offer healing, to notice a fig tree, to visit a tax collector’s house for tea.

I was asked recently when the last time I ‘went paddling with Jesus’ was. It was a question that pulled me up short. In the focus on ministry and striving to be the best disciple I can be, have I failed to make space to be with Jesus – not swimming as many lengths as I can, but just to enjoy being in his presence.

In recent years we have started learning that immaculate gardens aren’t always great for encouraging the beautiful diversity of God’s creation to thrive, that being a slightly lazier gardener might not actually be a bad thing all the time. So I wonder whether we might all be called, at least on occasion, to be less worried about how much, or how far, or how ‘perfect’, and instead make space to notice the little things on the journey, which might be just as important as the destination. Maybe we all need to make time to ‘paddle with Jesus.’

by Simon Sutcliffe.

We are pleased to continue our partnership with Spectrum, a community of Christians of all denominations which encourages groups and individuals to explore the Christian faith in depth. This year the study papers are written by Prof Anthony Reddie and Rev’d Simon Sutcliffe on the theme ‘Being the Salt of the Earth (A look at some peace and justice issues)’. This is the fifth of six through the year…

In a church that loves ‘to do’ we might assume that if we want to learn how to make a difference then we need to develop techniques and resources for the task of doing. Attend courses and workshops on mission and challenging injustice; and whilst these courses are important, there is one other, often overlooked, focus for our learning. I want to suggest that learning theology is another really important tool for us to become salt in the earth, but not of it. In fact, it is the theology that stops the church from being another NGO. We have our own, unique, and different story to tell. In a book called The Pioneer Gift I wrote these words:

‘I understand theology as the language and memory of the church that has developed over thousands of years and in which I now participate. So just as a child learns language through the listening and participating in a particular cultural setting so I, as a theologian and a pioneer, have learnt how to speak of the things of God by being present with the architects and innovators of Christian thought. It is what it means to be a Christian, to be rooted in that memory and narrative to such an extent that it begins to shape my thought and practice’.

As with all memory traditions there are those groundbreaking moments: granny’s 80th birthday party, the time my dad fell off my push bike, my first kiss, the first time I held my child … in the same way theological memory is punctuated with kairos: the exile, the incarnation, the edict of Milan, Luther’s 95 theses … all mould my understanding of what it means to be a Christian — whether I know it or not! Equally language has developed that becomes common place to my community. In West Yorkshire where I grew up, we went chomping for wood near bonfire night and my mother would fettle things; where I now live in North Staffordshire, I am cold because I am nesh. Likewise, theology uses words that are rarely, if ever, used by other communities such as resurrection, sanctification, incarnation, ecclesia. Some of the words we do share with other communities take on new or different meaning such as hope, pray, God etc.

It is this language and memory of the church, theology, that shapes the kind of practice we engage in. Or to put it another way, learning our language and memory helps us to answer the questions ‘why should we be salt? And ‘how should we be salt?’

Another metaphor we might use for theology is that of lenses. Theology, this deep tradition that is held, shaped and passed on by the church, is like a lens that enables us to see more clearly, or differently, from what we might see without wearing it. Cyclists will often have a set of interchangeable lenses for their glasses. The purpose of the glasses is to protect their eyes, but in order that they can see more clearly there is a dark lens for bright days, a yellow lens for less sunny days, and a clear lens for cloudy, dull days. Each different lens helps the cyclist to see better.

A final metaphor that might be helpful is to see memory and language as being fundamental to identity. Our hearing, speaking and thinking are informed by our language (vocabulary) and memory (the tradition we can recall). It is this identity, knowing who we are, that enables us to have confidence in our vulnerability when we are guests.

If we want to be truly salt, light and yeast in the world, then learning our theology, our language and memory is as essential as learning our practice, our techniques. Together they help us to develop phronesis – practical wisdom, wisdom of, and for, salt in the world, but not of the world.

Questions:

1.  How would you define the word ‘theology’? What is your experience of it?

2. Can you think of theological themes which need re-definition for today’s world? (examples might be forgiveness, sanctification etc.)

3. Which theologians have most influenced you? How might you go about discovering more of the language and memory of the church? (for instance, do you know of the circumstances that led to the Nicene Creed been written? Have you read any of the theology that came out of German speaking world such as Bonhoeffer and Barth?).

by Philip Turner.

The Samaritans, the listening service set up by a London vicar in 1953, launched in 2017 the campaign ‘Small Talk Changes Lives’.^[i]  It is based on the premise that, when we initiate a conversation we create the potential for transforming a life.  Yet what I find especially striking is the idea that the conversation that transforms a life doesn’t need to feel extraordinary, at least not to the the person initiating the conversation.  The Samaritans suggest the relative banal question, ‘Hi, where can I get a coffee?’, might be all it takes to interrupt suicidal thoughts, and be the intervention that helps set someone on the road to recovery.

Too often we overlook and undervalue the common, the ordinary and the banal.  It seems too obvious, unoriginal and not nearly complex enough.  Yet I have come to see the value of what I might have once considered to be insignificant and unproductive.  Today, in my role as a chaplain in an acute healthcare setting, I see so-called ‘small talk’ as a key pastoral care practice.  Where ‘small talk’ starts is inspired by visual cues offered by the patient.  So, I ask people about the books they like to read, the puzzles they find easiest, what’s noteworthy in their newspaper and what mini-series they find most absorbing.  There is nothing enlightened about the questions I ask.  It is all rather ordinary, except that the ordinary is often a window into something extraordinary.  Like a sacrament, skilful ‘small talk’ provides the opportunity to reveal the sacred, because a kindly put carefully-phrased everyday question often enables extraordinary conversations.

There are many angles on the Lenten story of the woman at the well.^[ii]  Scholars wonder about whether there is an ancient betrothal motif present^[iii] and the gnostic Heracleon sees five husbands plus the current partner as equalling six, the number of imperfection^[iv].  There is potency in these and other angles, yet let us not overlook the obvious and common place.  The story of the woman at the well is also an everyday story of someone who has been let down by relationships that too often go wrong.  It is an ordinary story of how someone felt ostracised, ashamed or alone in the heat of it all.  It might even be a story of a woman gazing into a well searching for relief, wondering whether to draw water out, or throw herself in.  We will never know, for one singular reason: Jesus interrupted her thoughts with a banal question.  It wasn’t, ‘where can I get a coffee’, but it feels similar.  The question ‘give me a drink’ was the ‘small talk’ that created the opportunity where Jesus revealed his genuine agape love.  His intention was not to ‘save’ her, though the story points to that outcome.  Love, as I am coming to understand it, does not seek to achieve anything.  Divine love does not have an answer to the question ‘why’, but reflects what James Finley articulates as the ‘anarchy of infinite love’,^[v] which is the love that has no purpose other than to be given away.

There are few times in ministry, let alone in life, where it can feel safe enough to talk about about how we feel let down – by others as well as ourselves.  There are few times where we might risk mentioning the regrets and the shame we feel.  ‘Small talk’ is not that conversation, but it might be, like the moment at the well, or today at a water-cooler, an opportunity for you and I to demonstrate Christ’s genuine agenda-less care.  ‘Small talk’ might be the moment when someone has the chance to discover that the person listening is really listening, not because they need to be ‘fixed’, but because they are loved. Good chaplaincy, as an expression of divine love, is meant to be experienced rather than described.  It is in the experience of someone without an aim to ‘do’ anything, but of someone who has something to be given away.  It is the gift of being present to the mystery of each human being that God has created.  It usually starts with ‘small talk’, not because of an anxious need to eliminate awkward silences, but as a gesture of genuine interest.  The outcome may, or may not, correlate to our effort, but we will be sharing in Christ’s life-saving ministry.

---

^[i] https://www.samaritans.org/support-us/campaign/small-talk-saves-lives/

^[ii] John 4.1-42.

^[iii] See, for example, Andrew T Lincoln, The Gospel According to St John, London: Continuum, p.170.

^[iv] See C K Barrett, The Gospel According to S John 2nd Edition, London: SPCK, p.235.

^[v] https://cac.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TTTM_Transcript_JON_LQ.pdf.

by Carolyn Lawrence.

This time of year is traditionally a season for Spring cleaning.  I am not sure how many people do have a good old clean of the curtains, skirting boards and cupboard tops around now, but I find that is hard to find time for the basics of housework let alone more in depth cleaning!  Along with the cleaning, often comes a bit of decluttering and that is something I am always trying to do!  Moving every five years helps me not to hoard too much but it’s amazing how quickly clutter builds up!   

When we have a tidy up or a good old sort out, we get rid of things that we don’t want or need any more; things that just clutter up the place and make it look untidy.  The same is true when we declutter our personal lives and Lent is traditionally a time when we are encouraged to take stock of our spiritual lives in the run up to the events of Easter.  As we go about our day to day living we seem to gather things that can clutter up our relationship with God and prevent us living in close relationship with him and other people.

In chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews the writer lists a ‘faith hall of fame’…people who have gone before us who have demonstrated great trust in God despite some pretty difficult circumstances.  He follows this, at the beginning of chapter 12 with the encouragement to us all, in the light of all these inspiring fore runners to

‘…throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’

I wonder what it is that is cluttering up your relationship with God and others as you read this?  Are there things that have made your life complicated and stressful that you need to lay down before God? 

These could be any number of things – unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, over work, over spending, addictions, people pleasing, lack of boundaries, bad habits or attitudes, wrong priorities, fears and anxieties…the list is endless.  Jesus tells us that when we follow him, his yoke is easy and his burden is light and yet sometimes we are our own worst enemies and try to carry loads we were never intended to bear. 

It can be a great exercise to reflect on the things that might be cluttering up our lives and relationships with God and others and my encouragement to you is to take some time in the coming weeks to rest in God’s presence, fix your eyes on Jesus and invite the Holy Spirit to shine his light on any areas of your life that are entangling you and cluttering up your soul.  It may be that there is something for which you need to say sorry to God or someone else, a relationship that needs restoration, a habit that you need God’s power to break or an attitude that you need God’s help to change.  I pray that as you reflect on the clutter in your lives, you may find the freedom, lightness and joy that comes from living in peace, simplicity and harmony with God and others. And if anyone feels the urge to come and help me clean the house, do let me know! 

---

by Richard Clutterbuck.

I sometimes – tongue in cheek – describe myself as a ‘recovering existentialist’. Let me explain. Back in the 1970s, when I first fell in love with the study of  theology, existentialism, and the theology that leaned on it,  was still in vogue. I revelled in John Macquarrie’s Principles of Christian Theology[i], drank deeply from Rudolf Bultmann’s Theology of the New Testament[ii] and made copious notes on Paul Tillich’s Systematic Theology[iii]. I devoured the novels of Dostoyevsky and I even bought a shelf-full of books by Soren Kierkegaard – though I can’t claim to have read them all. What was the appeal? Well, there was the emphasis on personal experience, belief and decision. Bultmann, for example, made a powerful case for the heart of the New Testament to be the call for a decision to follow Jesus and his kingdom here and now. And existentialist theology also seemed to offer a way out of some of the thorny problems of modern thought. Did the language of the traditional Christian creeds still make sense in the modern world? Was it still possible to read the biblical stories as historically accurate? Existentialist theologians like Paul Tillich offered a reinterpretation of traditional belief that seemed more in tune with contemporary culture.

So far, so good. You may, however, sense an impending ‘but’ – and you’d be right. As the zeitgeist moved from the modern to the postmodern, existentialism turned out to be just one worldview among many, so hitching the theological wagon to this engine did not necessarily mean we were going to reach our destination. Furthermore, existentialism was revealed to have its own blind spots. In concentrating on subjective experience, it was inadequate to deal with global issues such as conflict and injustice. In its focus on the present experience of existence, it failed to do justice to the role of time and history in Christian theology. It had a tendency to collapse narrative and history (including the biblical narratives) into existential experience and universal truths. Then, from the late 60s, a new generation of theologians, Wolfhart Pannenberg and Jürgen Moltmann among them, argued that God is revealed through history and that the eschatological future is an indispensable part of Christian faith.

So, I’m no longer an existentialist, though I do have a lingering nostalgia for what it once meant for me. I’ve recently been working on the theology of one of my teachers, the Methodist theologian and ecumenist, Geoffrey Wainwright, and I think he could help us to bring together some of the positive elements in existentialist theology (the focus on the personal and the present) with the more realistic (and, to my mind, more faithfully Christian) movements that have followed. Wainwright was almost unique among twentieth century theologians in the way he combined liturgical studies with doctrinal theology and with the search for Christian unity. His most substantial work was Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life[iv], but there were several volumes of essays that emerged from his engagement with the international ecumenical movement. I’ve been especially drawn to a paper he presented to a conference in 1979. Its title is “Sacramental Time”[v] and it argues that the sacramental life of the Church gives us clues about how God relates with us through the medium of time. He develops this under the three headings of ‘Ecclesial Time’, ‘Existential Time’ and ‘Cosmic Time’.

Ecclesial time involves the affirmation that Christ’s presence in the sacraments is objectively real, and not merely subjective and psychological. In the eucharist we, as the Church,  re-present the past and anticipate the future of God’s salvation. In this present moment, where past and future meet, we are given time to proclaim and act out God’s love.

Existential time takes us to the more personal dimension. Baptism involves a participation in Christ’s death and resurrection as well as God’s gift of time for newness of life. Similarly, in the eucharist we are caught up in the tension between the ‘already’ and ‘not yet’ of the kingdom.

Finally, cosmic time. Sacraments point to the way God’s redemption embraces the whole created order of space and time, including the rhythms of daily, monthly and yearly time. As we speak of sacred space, so we can speak of sacred time; time set apart for our relationship with God.

I’m still working on the implications of Wainwright’s teaching on sacramental time. I suspect it has implications for our discussions on ‘online’ communion, where sharing the time set aside for worship may be more important than sharing exactly the same space. But I can answer the question, ‘who knows where the time goes’ with the simple answer, ‘God knows’.

---

[i] John Macquarrie, Principles of Christian Theology (London: SCM, 1966).

[ii] Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament (London: SCM Press, 1955).

[iii] Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology (Combined Volume) (Welwyn, Herts: Nisbet, 1968).

[iv] Geoffrey Wainwright, Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life (new york: Oxford, 1980).

[v] The Ecumenical Moment: Crisis and Opportunity for the Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983). Chapter VII,

[i] The allusion, for the benefit of non-baby-boomers, is to a song on Fairport Convention’s 1969 album, Unhalfbricking.

by Josie Smith.

Some of my favourite television programmes are the archaeology ones, where people dig trenches in ordinary-looking places and find evidence of a whole community, a whole way of life, maybe a whole lost civilisation in which people (who were just as real then as we are now) lived lives a lot shorter and harder than ours, and unwittingly left bits of themselves behind as evidence.

People like Professor Alice Roberts, or earlier the equally entertaining characters on The Time Team, get all excited about tiny shards of crockery, wisps of fabric, twisted bits of metal or the remains of a child’s shoe, and point to the ghosts of post holes where buildings once stood.     Sometimes they literally strike gold.

One of my cousins, a farmer,  moved into a new (to him) farm many years ago as a newlywed.     He was intrigued by a raised bank at the bottom of the garden, obviously neglected for years, and wanted to level the ground so began to clear it.    He found among the weeds and rubble a sizeable collection of unbroken, ancient glass bottles, some with those built-in glass stoppers, many of which were now ‘collectors’ pieces’ and actually worth money – and could be dated to a time long before the local council started collecting such things in a refuse wagon.     Generations of previous occupants had simply put them out of their way.

We are learning the art of recycling now.     (Some of us who can remember W.W.2 never lost the habit.     There were constant reminders to Make Do and Mend.)  There are recycling sites at which lines of cars queue to deposit unwanted ‘stuff’, and television programmes dedicated to ‘up-cycling’ in which something old is cleaned up, given a coat of paint or new fabric or whatever, and put to use again sometimes in an unexpected form.    We are advised about going through the wardrobe and selling e.g. unwanted party gear worn once, and charity shops proliferate on every high street where you can find a ‘pre-loved’ bargain.

Not just inanimate objects, either – I had a rescue cat once, the runt of a litter, unwanted by anyone even its mother, which became the subject of a story and was published in a book about cats.     He continues to inspire long after his final visit to the vet.    And there are many children, the despair of teachers because they seem incapable of learning to read or do sums in the conventional way, who become beautiful, kind, gentle, thoughtful grown-ups.

What has all this to do with Theology?

I was once asked to lead morning worship at a residential weekend where almost all the other participants were entitled to wear clerical collars.    What on earth could I possibly bring to a gathering so versed in Scripture and so practised in prayer?     I went to bed hoping for the answer to be revealed to me as I slept.    It often is when there’s a problem.    But no, nothing spoke to me.     No revelation from on high.     And then as I drew back the curtains in my room in the morning, I saw, two floors down, the edge of the garden.     It had a number of bays separated by wire fences, each one containing garden rubbish at varying stages of becoming compost, good garden earth in which food would grow rich and tasty and nourishing.   That’s it, I thought.     That’s my thought for this morning.     Whatever we threw on yesterday’s rubbish heap is silently, unnoticed, becoming nourishment for another day and other people.     The sun shines on it and the rain falls on it, and time makes it new again.    We behave as though we think it’s our idea, but it was God who invented recycling.

Think now of people who were once the rubbish of society.     Hardened criminals, drug users and pushers, thieves, caring nothing for the welfare of others.    Some of them, against all odds, are now new people.    From prison cell to pulpit is not an unknown progression!

This Monday morning spot on the web (or wherever it is) is called Theology Everywhere, and I find God in rubbish because I know what can happen to it with time, rain, sunshine and a skilled gardener.    I think that is Theology, and it is certainly to be found Everywhere if one has eyes to see.

One of my favourite mental pictures is of a little broken and apparently dead twig, found on the pavement, broken off a flowering tree in my garden by a passing youth with nothing better to do.     I was sorry for it, brought it into the house, put it in a specimen vase in water, and left it to see what would happen.    Some time later it put forth tiny leaves, then later still burst into the most beautiful vivid flower.     I almost expected it to sing!     I was intrigued some year later to see in somebody’s downstairs loo a print of a very similar ‘rescue twig’ painted by David Hockney, but there had been no collusion!

Creation is happening eternally, and God who invented recycling is at the heart of it.

Thanks be to God. 

by Philip Sudworth.

In Jesus’ time there were lots of social and religious boundaries, which excluded people. If you associated with people who were unclean, you became unclean yourself.  It mattered a great deal who you ate with, because eating with people was to accept them as equals.  Yet Jesus went for a meal to the home of Zacchaeus, who was a collaborator with the Romans, not only collecting taxes for them but cheating his own people as he did so; and who had, in both the general view and in his own eyes, sunk as low as it was possible to sink. Jesus didn’t go in order to tell these people how sinful they were; they knew that. Instead, he enjoyed their company, and they enjoyed his. Indeed, he was accused by the Pharisees of partying too heartily – not an image we tend to associate with Jesus! But his was a personality that attracted children as well as men and women.  I suspect that he told some of his stories with a twinkle in his eyes and had a chuckle at some of the responses.

He breached other conventions. He spent time at the well with a Samaritan woman, who was spurned by her village because of her immorality.  He touched lepers and handicapped people, and healed a woman with a haemorrhage.  All these people were desperate, and Jesus reached out to them.  His love and compassion were not constrained by social and religious rules. These outsiders were healed spiritually as well as physically.  He accepted them but offered them the chance to live fulfilled lives and to realise their potential.

In an old Jewish story about the End of Time, all people are gathered when God announces, “Gabriel will read out the commandments one by one.  If you’ve broken that commandment, you must depart into Outer Darkness.” The first commandment is read and half a million troop off with downcast faces.  Thousands more depart after the second commandment; and so it continues. When Gabriel reaches the tenth commandment, God looks round at the smug, self-righteous faces of those few who are left and imagines eternity surrounded by these.  “Whoa!” he shouts, “Everybody come back. I’ve changed my mind.”

Paul in the letter to the Galatians is anxious to point out that Christ has brought us freedom from legalism. We are saved by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone. He is also insisting that no one group is better than another group.  Their differences as Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, male or female are subsumed in their identity as Christians. We all acquire our value in and through our relationship to Christ. Perhaps in our day, instead of “neither Jew nor Gentile” we should substitute, “In Christ there is neither Catholic nor Protestant; neither Evangelical nor Progressive; neither black nor white; neither straight nor gay; neither resident nor refugee.” Anyone who feels morally or spiritually superior to another group has rather missed the point.

There have been times when the church has been too focused on who is and who isn’t acceptable. – you are only acceptable to God, if you belong to their denomination, believe what they believe, follow their rituals, and conform to their moral standards. In contrast, rather than try to convert Muslims and Hindus on their deathbeds, Mother Teresa encouraged them to grow closer to God within their own religious tradition. How willing are we to encourage people whose journey of faith differs markedly from our own to continue on the route that suits them? There are Christians living alongside and working with the poorest people in shanty towns across the world.  They’ve taken the view that the church doesn’t just exist for those who are in it, but also for those outside.  They obey the instruction, “Go out into the world and take the Good News of hope and love. And be good news to those who need you.” 

We’re called to support one another, practically and spiritually, to encourage one another on the journey of faith, to recognize that we’re all at different points on our journey, and that, while some are enjoying high points, others are going through dark valleys of suffering or distress, or of doubt, or are struggling with the mists of confusion.  We’re also called to reach out beyond the church walls. John Wesley said, “Go not only to those who need you, but to those who need you most.” 

Reflection points:

1. Who is Christ for? Are there groups that are outside God’s love?
2. Which groups feel excluded by the Christian church? What can we do about that?
3. How do we overcome, or learn to live with, differences within the Christian church?
4. Who are the people who need us most? 
5. How helpful is it to imagine the tone in which Jesus said things? Did he have a sense of humour?

by Andrew Pratt.

I looked out on the sunset. The sky, deep red, but fading, could not be captured by a camera’s lens, held for eternity. I mused. Different wavelengths of light refracted by the atmosphere, received by a retina, passing through a tangle of neurones, conducted by chemical and physiological interactions, perceived by something we might label consciousness. And is this all? Later I played with water colours, fluid, wet on wet, running into one another out of control, unpredictable. This was nearer to what I believed I saw. But this did not explain or make sense of it. And a realisation rose rather than forced itself on me of something ‘other’. Call that conversion if you will. It was a glimpse of the ‘other’, I will go on calling it that for want of anything better, that changed the direction of my life. Marcus Borg spoke of the light that glances into our lives rendering significance which, he felt, was something of the shared experience of the mystics. And it began an exploration that could never be complete, a pilgrimage that could never achieve its destination. I was seeking understanding of experience, trying to make sense of all that life opened up to me of joy and elation, of pain and sorrow, of love and anger, of all that is. This would encompass all of existence, birth and death and all that lay between, but also beyond, before and after. This was immanence and yet transcendence. If anything this was love.

The problem, the danger of such exploration, is that we categorise and constrain. We seek to fit into boxes an understanding greater than our human capacity can grasp. We organise it, then call it faith. And when it breaks the bounds we have set for it we say that we have lost it. Really all that has happened is that we have discovered the truth that you cannot hold or constrain that which is boundless. Neither do we have language to express the inexpressible. Yet that is what theology is often reduced to.

My early theological training was dominated by systems in which concepts and doctrines were organised. Any challenge to that organisation was viewed as dangerous, even heresy. But you can only organise things you understand and understanding suggests power, control and knowledge. By definition a total understanding and knowledge of God is a contradiction in terms. In the book Thirteen Moons, the author, a native American, ponders:

Writing a thing down fixes it in place as surely as a rattlesnake skin stripped from the meat and stretched and tacked to a barn wall. Every bit as stationary, and every bit as false to the original thing. Flat and still and harmless. Bear recognized that all writing memorializes a momentary line of thought as if it were final.[1]

I have pondered on this. So often this is what our systems of theology have done. Poetic imagination fired the prophets to enable change, to allow the understanding of God to develop, evolve. Poetry has more freedom than prose. Hymns have so often reversed that process, pinned down our theology, closed it to speculation or changing context. Sydney Carter saw folk music as owned by the singers, generation to generation – a sort of sung liberation theology, always changing.

But I return to art. A few years ago the, then, youngest member of our family was taken to Tate Modern. She reported back on the experience, ‘It was weird!’ So called modern art isn’t always easy ‘to get’. And that’s it, I think. Theology is trying ‘to get’ what is beyond our human capacity to understand, or express. Mark Rothko painted massive, single colour panels. To many they mean nothing. Others report a profound sense of the other when they view them. If ‘the other’ is such as I have suggested, perhaps these are honest admissions and, as such offer that glimpse that mystics seek, and a representation beyond words or understanding of that which we seek.

This is not to deny the validity of theology, but to recognise that theologians need to draw on the  widest possible range of disciplines. These should include, but not be limited to, scriptures, languages, art, science, poetry, philosophy, music. Even then we need the honesty to admit that any theology that we elaborate can never, ever be more than a very crude approximation of the subject we are seeking to address. The quest must be open ended, never closed down, never dogmatic.

---

[1] Frazier, C., Thirteen Moons, Hodder & Stoughton, 2006, p 21