see-through faith

You might have noticed that this blog hasn’t been very God-focused recently. There are a zillion reasons for that – partly I’ve been distancing myself from the church, and partly I’ve been rethinking (again) what it means to be a follower of Jesus. All too often here in the west we are so dualistic in our thinking. Things are either Holy or Secular or so we think. We even make the mistake of putting Mary and Martha into two opposite camps.

One result of all this thinking is that I’ve started to see life – Christian life – in more holistic terms. And I’ve been very impressed here in London how so many of the churches (the people that are the church) are involved in everyday life and tackling issues (such as homelessness, and unfairness in society). I wish we in Finland were more mission minded but that’s another story. What understanding life more holistically means however, is that I’ve started to notice God at work – His Kingdom if you like- in many guises out and about.

I’m in the process of starting a new blog (this one will continue of course) but over at eyes of faith I’m going to try to post a photo a day (from September 1st, though the blog is already up and running). The idea is that the daily photo will show some aspect of God’s Kingdom (through my eyes, and taken with my camera).

Eija came up with the idea of making this a challenge that we can all join. More information here. We’d love to see God at work through your eyes.

This was the view from Vauxhall station yesterday. You can clearly see the headquarters of ‘The Big Issue’ in the background.

For those of you unfamiliar with BIG ISSUE, it is charity which since 2005 has produced the Big Issue, a weekly magazine produced for homeless people (and the vulnerably housed) to sell in order to earn a legitimate income. Even once housed vendors may continue to sell the magazine  for a while (they keep 50% of all sales) in order to be able to move away from the conditions which caused their homelessness in the first place. So it’s well worth supporting and I have to say I quite enjoy browsing the magazine too – especially the book and film reviews!

Since my friend moved here in South London (back in October) we have got to know one lady who regularly stands outside Tescos selling the Big Issue. We always stop to talk to her when she’s there, and try to buy the magazine once a week, (and in some ways I feel that IS just as important as supporting her financially!). What is so exciting is that she is slowly beginning to turn her life around – which is so encouraging.

There are so many homeless in this part of London that it really is heartbreaking. Although the homeless are much more visible in the winter as they roll out their sleeping bags or blankets and huddle in doorways or under the railway arches at nights, even during this heatwave in London  I have come into contact with many of them (although in fewer numbers). Just a week ago a homeless man (from the North of England) sat next to me on the bus. He was starving for conversation. He didn’t ask me for money (and I didn’t give any, though I wished I had had some food/drink in my bag to give him) but he wanted to talk to me about the book he’d seen me reading!

Last autumn some of you might remember I was privileged to help out at St Peter’s Vauxhall on the Robes Project. (There are very few possibilities to be missional in this way in Finland). There – while sharing supper with some of the homeless guys- I got to hear some of their stories of how they’d ended up homeless. There was a pattern of stories from Eastern Europeans (Poland, Latvia etc) which began to get to me. They, like the woman selling the BIG ISSUE,  had been lured here by companies who had no intention of keeping their end of the bargain in either the job they originally advertised or the conditions (accommodation etc) they had promised for the immigrant workers. These men and women had ended up stranded in London, in the coldest winter in centuries: they were jobless, homeless and without the fare to go back home.  My heart went out to them and still does!

The Big Issue foundation stands behind the belief that it is wrong for anyone to be without housing, to not have the support of others, and the most vulnerable in every society are worthy of our support. It’s well worth getting behind, even if it’s ‘only’ buying the magazine regularly from a local vendor.

AS I said though I do enjoy flicking through the magazine too. Today the editorial by Charles Howgego caught my eye. He writes

It’s 25 years since Live Aid, Bob Geldolf’s Wembley Concert that attempted to highlight the plight of starving Ethiopians by putting together the greatest line-up of pop and rock musicians ever

(I have to say that makes me feel SO old. It’s hard to believe it’s 25 years since Live Aid and even longer since Do they know it’s Christmas? (also a Geldolf initiative) hit the top of the charts!)

The editorial went on to say that Live Aid was one of the biggest global TV audiences of all time … and in one sense, I guess, it was a time the world came together around one issue  - one big issue – the plight of the starving people of East Africa. (This kind of global response to a huge tragedy was also see in the post tsunami efforts!) However, according to the editorial, Live Aid came and went: (although we surely remember it, and must recognise it has done untold good with the money raised, as well as challenging ordinary people that they too can do their bit to help the poor) and Howgego goes on to argue that BIG ISSUE  model of helping the homeless help themselves is a good one because it is sustainable and is infinitely reproducible in other nations (and a BIG ISSUE scheme similar to the one in the UK has just been launched in Korea, and is already up and running in other industrial nations such as Japan, Australia and South Africa where homelessness is rife). That really got me thinking!

All too often the papers (here) go on about people claiming thousands of pounds in state benefits (and it is clear that some people really do abuse the system, while for others -crazily- they find themselves in the position of being better off (financially) by choosing NOT to go to work!) … but the homeless are the people who fail to get any regular benefits at all because they are ‘of no fixed abode’ and they persistently fall through the gap. They really are the vulnerable in society, (and the orphans and widows the Old Testament told us to ignore at our own peril!)

It makes me so thankful that some in society have banded together to support the production of the BIG ISSUE, that advertisers are willing to place ads there (to finance it), so that the homeless can be given a job and a future, and that ordinary people -like you and me- can give a helping hand to help the homeless dig and claw their way out of the pit they find themselves in by shelling out the £1.70 to get the magazine. It’s not much, but it’s a start, and the smile of our friend outside tescos as she shared the stories of how she was turning her life around really put  a spring in my step as we walked home from the supermarket today.

God is good – sometimes we are called to extend his hands of love! What a privilege that is!

Read a funny thing on the train yesterday, entitled ‘excuses excuses’

It was a short article explaining delays on the way to (or worse from!) work. I expect we’ve all heard the ‘leaves or (wrong kind of ) snow on the line’ excuses, and apparently even too much sun can ‘bend the track’ or ‘obscure signals’ but the funniest one was the account of a rail company’s failure to pay the electricity bill which resulted in the supplier simply cutting the electrical supply to a busy signal box!

as the article concluded

only in England!

Indeed!

That said, the train I travelled back to London on last night must have fallen under the grace of God or something! It wasn’t on time, it was announced – with great surprise I might add – that we had arrived one and a half minutes early. Well done Great Western. Shame the train to cornwall was 28 minutes late because of signal failure. Wonder if it was you who had failed to pay your electric bill (grin!)

Paddington station might be famous because of the bear from darkest Peru who was adopted from there, but Paddington station (and the whole area) is my least favourite of the busy long distance stations. And it’s really quite a rough place to wait for a bus. The one I caught back ‘home’ was a ‘bendy bus’ (two carriages) and which attracts homeless people and other down and outs because you can board on any door (and therefore dodge paying!). A very pleasant and young homeless guy, beer can in hand but definitely not drunk, got on, sat next to me and struck up a conversation about the book I was reading. He told me a little of his life story. He’s been on the streets for several years and recognised that he was caught up in the cycle of not being able to get somewhere to live without having a job. He was pretty honest too about the fact that he didn’t really want a job anyway and actually preferred to live by begging (though interestingly he didn’t ask me for money). And we spoke about some of the difficulties in living on the streets.

There are an awful lot of homeless people in this part of London (probably all the poorer parts too to be honest). Last winter (as you may have read here on this blog) I was privileged to help out at Robes here at St Peter’s Church in Vauxhall (offering shelter to a small group of homeless men and women on Monday evenings).

When I commented that there weren’t so many around in the summer, and speculated that maybe they had managed to get temporary seasonal jobs … my new friend put me right “oh no, they’ve all bunked off down to Glastonbury!” I have no way of knowing if it’s true or not, but it made me laugh. I suspect there are as many homeless as ever (unemployment alone in the UK is running at half the population of Finland!) , but when the weather is warmer and drier, there are simply fewer homeless guys sleeping under the railway arches in Vauxhall and other stations and therefore less visible that’s all.

It raises the question as to what our responsibility as Christians is in the area of social justice. John Wesley had a lot to say about that … but I’ll leave that for another time!

A disparaging comment made by a member of the public towards the Truro Street pastors the other day was

You aren’t street pastors. You are street wardens!

That got me thinking.

I read this article this morning about nightlife street chaplaincy in Bournemouth (Dorset).

IT’S hard to find God on the night-time streets of Bournemouth but you can find people doing his work.

They might talk to people outside lap dancing clubs but they don’t tell them to love Jesus instead of Chantelle.

These Christians help those rendered helpless by drink and drugs – or provide a friendly face to confide in.

It’s clear that the local community get that the volunteers are there to help those in distress, and to keep the people out and about on the streets on a Saturday night safer. It’s very admirable and obviously needed. But is it church? And is it building the Kingdom of God?

Both the group in Bournemouth and here in Truro have a prayer support group back at HQ (in both cases in a church in the city centre). But it does seem to me that there’s a real tension here. It’s easy to become too evangelical (and therefore no longer able to build relationships because people will feel condemned or at least put off) or then to become purely a social minded para police (i.e. street wardens) organisation.

What struck me by the man’s comments was that he seems to have expected (and perhaps longed for) the street pastors to be more God-centred and mission oriented.

It’s one thing to choose not to be overtly Christian, but it seems to be very naive or unrealistic to believe that people will automatically see a street pastor and ask for prayer. The idea behind “just here to be loving,” must, surely, embrace a more holistic viewpoint, and remember that it’s as important to tend to the needs of the soul as of the body (and vice versa). It’s not enough to take care of only one part. That means, I think, that as well as handing out bottles of water, flip flops, plasters, taxi cab numbers and of course a listening ear, street pastors might need to be willing to practice double listening skills (i.e. be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit) and offer to pray for someone, and then follow that prayer through by offering means of contact before the following Saturday binge drinking/clubbing comes round again.

Bono wrote about the longterm aftermath of Bloody Sunday here.

I only got to read it today, and wish I’d seen it -what four weeks ago?- when it was first published.

What strikes me most is how the ministry of reconciliation can be so powerful, especially when powerful men and women take a deep breath and utter the words

“I am deeply sorry.”

particularly when they are preceded by the words “On behalf of our country/church/organisation”

There is a lesson for all of us -particularly those of us who are in leadership – in this, I think.

When I arrived in London two weeks ago a copy of this book was waiting for me

Priceless by Tom Davis

It’s a fictional story about the dramatic rescue of girls and young women who are caught up in the s-x slavery business in Russia, and is based on true life stories. As Natalie Grant (Christian songwriter) says

I applaud Tom’s courage in tackling this subject matter. While this is a fictional account, the s*x trade is a reality for millions of people.

I heard a really good sermon here in London on Sunday.

The churches here are much more political and community minded than those back in Finland. The Lambeth parish and circuit have been having a month of teaching on healing. Many churches I’ve been involved in / visited have had healing meetings, but the focus and emphasis here was very different. The topics tackled have included the healing of the nations (war, conflict, racism and violence) as well as the healing of mother earth (poverty, environmental issues etc). As the vicar, Alison, said on Sunday.

Making poverty history will become irrelevant because unless we do our bit against climate change and reduce our carbon footprint, poverty will become permanent.

Talking of politically minded churches … Just down the road from here Steve Chalk OBE (Anglican vicar) has launched a campaign STOP THE TRAFFICKING which tackles the very same issues as Priceless i.e. women and children (male and female) who are forced into the s-x business, indeed into slavery. Part of the campaign is to raise awareness of this very issue.

It’s so good to see not only individual Christians getting involved in making the world a better place, but churches too (and way beyond the let’s drink Fairtrade tea and coffee too!)

***

England is world cup mad. It’s all very exciting. Or was until England got knocked out by Germany a week or so ago. What the millions of fans here are far less aware of however is that lots and lots of women and girls were shipped into south africa for the duration of the camps to satisfy the needs of men in Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and other places where the matches were being played. Football truly has a seedier side.

Now, none of those men are likely to read the novel Priceless. It’s not aimed at them to be fair, and Priceless is definitely a ‘girlie’ type novel. Its primary readership will be Christian women, particularly Americans, some of whom will be from more conservative / fundamentalist backgrounds and therefore perhaps are less likely to read secular literature. But none the less it’s a good book with an important theme and deserves a wider audience.

The twist in the story is that while the heroes of the story have (some) faith, the (Orthodox) Church comes out smelling more like the fertiliser spread on the roses rather than the roses themselves.

The book has two parallel stories that of the photographer who gets caught up in the rescue operation and Marina an orphan who is freed. It’s very readable and the plot moves along quite quickly, with some very believable (and horrendously sad/scary) scenes in it. It does have a touch of Hollywood in that this episode does have a happy ending (and would make a good film), but the reader is well aware that this rescue was the tip of the iceberg and there are thousands of other women and girls (not only in Russia) still imprisoned, still s-xually abused, still trapped not only in poverty but enslaved to the perv*erted s*xual persuasions / addictions of others.

So what about the book itself?

I read the book fairly quickly -over a period of a few days, and was glad that I had the opportunity to read and review this. Any good review also lists a book’s shortcomings. So it’s only fair to say that what I didn’t like about the novel was the use of Russian in the dialogues (with translation into English in brackets). That was really irritating. It didn’t make the story more authentic for me. I didn’t learn any Russian because of it. And it slowed down the story. Worse, in some ways it felt that the author was simply showing off. Also, for those of us who do read a lot of secular literature, the plot lacked depth. It’s clear that the author’s goal was to highlight the travesty occurring over in Russia, but I felt there could have been more descriptions of what the girls were really being freed from, not in a smutty sense, but all too often it felt that this was the sanitised version as if Christian women could not cope with the harsh realities of what was really happening.

So 10 /10 for bravery in dealing with a topic that cries out for more public exposure, and over 7.5/10 for the book itself.

I’ve offered this copy to anyone who wants it. Several people signed up for the draw over at facebook (where I will also post this reflection) and I’ll draw it tonight. My hope is that this book will do the rounds, so that many women can read it (and then talk to men about it).

William Wilberforce stood up against slavery. Today we can, if we choose, stand up together to stop trafficking, which is, afterall, the slavery of the C21st.

Almost a week ago now I sat on a sunny outcrop in southern Finland with three other women of God. For reasons which escape me now we got into 1 Cor 7.  If you don’t want to look up the Bible passage in question it’s the one where Paul writes on marriage, divorce and re-marriage and we wrestled with the text

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. (1 Cor 7:10-11)

We discussed why people get married: why they divorce; and whether a church which allows divorced people to re-marry is wrong or right (and in what circumtances). I won’t bore you with our arguments – suffice to say we didn’t come to any firm conclusions (or even unanimous ones!), though we all agreed that Paul made it sound very easy to find one’s mate for life!

Since then I’ve been thinking about the Bible (on and off) a lot. I’ve even gone back into some of the studies I did at seminary on Bible Criticism (which is fascinating btw). And I’m left wondering why it is that we feel we can dissect some passages (because of their content and context) while others (even unpalatable ones) we leave intact and so on. And why we elevate some teaching to the heights of importance while we neglect others.

In conservative evangelical circles, for example, there’s a lot of dicussion about the validity of women in ministry, about divorce, what the Bible says about homosexuality, is s*x before marriage acceptable in God’s eyes or not, not to mention there’s the whole emotive question of abortion/stem-cell research etc etc. But are any of these issues really the heart of the gospel? I don’t think so! Sometimes, to be very honest, these issues seem (almost) to be the only things the church really cares about – (well that and managing the buildings we meet in!!!). We, the body of Christ, seem to fall into the trap of neglecting a lot of the other instructions we have been given: Instructions like the Great Commission to make and baptise disciples  for example; or the one that tells us to  love our neighbour as ourselves;  or the one that talks about fogiveness and regularly breaking bread together and being in unity with one another, and the one that emphasises caring for the poor among us.

Paul was horrified that the Corinithians failed to do the latter.

And Jesus was equally firm.

He told his followers that when they give a cup of water / something to eat/ clean clothes to the least of my brothers they give it/them to Him. (Mt 25:31-46) It couldn’t be clearer. Yet still we don’t get it, (or we don’t want to). We – at best – give lip service to it throwing a few coins the way of a social needs project -usually overseas – or by buying fair trade products (bananas and tea/coffee) to salvage our consciences! More probably we ignore it all together by over spiritualising it.

Yet we will be held accountable for how seriously we were about our treatment of the poor and the marginalised. And it really isn’t enough to  talk about feeding the poor with spiritual food i.e. the Word!

General Booth (Salvation Army) understood this. He discovered that hunger pains drowned out the words of preacher, and so taking care of people’s physical needs (soup and soap as one person put it) became their mainstay.We need to take what he learnt to heart. John Wesley and the other members of the Holy Club were men of the same ilk.

Wesley’s motto is often branded about. “Earn as much as you can. Save as much as you can”. (Makes for good Protestant work ethics doesn’t it?) … but he had a third part of his motto (which is often passed over), which was to  “give [away] as much as you can”. Wesley wasn’t some tele-evangelist (an achronism I know, but you get the point!). He wasn’t wanting to fill his own pockets, or  even the church coffers (saved for a rainy day to repair the leaking church roof/the organ fund) … what Wesley practiced and preached* was that the people who called themselves Methodists would reach into their wallets and make space in their schedules to help the poor and the marginalised, free those in debtors prisons, provide doctors and medicine (as well as prayer) for the sick etc.

They are heros of faith, and should spur us on to greater things too. But, as I said Wesley and Booth are from a bygone era. What about today? Where are we today in this respect?

There has, in recent years, been a whole re-discovery of what is best termed incarnational theology, with Christology is at its heart. Put in another way, grappling with who Jesus was and what His presence in our life means for us today is regaining in importance.

Rock star Bono has caught the same vision that Booth and Wesley had. In his words

God is with us, if we are with them [the poor]. – Bono

The resonates with me. The question is what am I  -and you – now going to do with it?

****

*In 1744, Wesley wrote

“When I die if I leave behind me ten pounds . . . you and all mankind can bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber.”

When he died in 1791, the only money mentioned in his will was the miscellaneous coins to be found in his pockets and dresser drawers. Most of the 30,000 pounds he had earned in his lifetime he had given away. As Wesley said, “I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors.”

What’s crazy is that the US, less than six percent of the world’s population consumes nearly half of the world’s resources and that the average American consumes as much as 520 Ethiopians do, while obesity is declared a ‘national health crisis’.*

Someday war and poverty will be crazy, and we will wonder how the world allowed such things to exist.

*Shane Claborne is American and writes from a US perspective.

To be fair IMHO we in Europe also add to the huge imbalance in the use of the world’s resources, and while obesity is less of a problem here (due in part to the fact that i) we eat out less often and ii) portion sizes are generally much smaller than I’ve encountered in north America), we struggle with diet-related health issues such as hypertension which is a prime cause of strokes.

Claiborne’s book Irresistible Revolution: Living Life as an Ordinary Radical sure is giving me food for thought – but what am I going to do with that knowledge/awareness. That’s the question.

never fails to get me. Re-reading his book Irresistible Revolution challenges me to the core

In our inspire band meeting yesterday I found myself spurting about being a real Christian. There are homeless people more or less on our doorstep, and every Friday morning the poor come to the Salvation Army distribution centre to get some food. I can no longer continue to walk past and think my prayers alone are enough!

We have lost our astonishment. The Good News is no longer good news, it is okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. Jesus doesn’t change people into wild-eyed radicals anymore, He changes them into ‘nice people’.’

But radical Christianity wasn’t nice; it was category-smashing, life-threatening, anti-institutional; it spread like wildfire throught he 1^st century and was considered by those in power to be dangerous.

‘I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating tht I am considred wild and unpredictable and … well …dangerous’. I want to be dangerous to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered dangerous by our predictable and monotonous culture. Dullness is a cultural issue.’ Robert Farrar Capon

H/T to my friend who sent me over to Ali’s blog Reclaiming the Good News for the Emerging Culture.

One of the things I’ve really been being convicted about this year is whether my life, – my lifestyle, my choices, my patterns of behaviour, the way I treat people, the way I view them – is actually open to being changed by my relationship with Jesus.

I’ve been re-reading Shane Claibourne’s book:

and while it’s a great read – it isn’t an easy read at least this time round. I’m left pondering ‘What am I playing at?’  Am I content to play church? Am I content to settle for being ‘nice’. I am so scared that sometimes my answer might well be a miserable yes

One of the tragedies of the early Methodist movement – I feel – is that one of the results was that as the people were saved, they were able to be pulled out of their dire circumstance and gradually became ‘nice and respectible’  -they moved up in society if you like – and the dire consequence of this was that they lost their roots with the real communities from which they came. In latter day Christendom we’re still there! Church is – all too often – full of middle class values and any contact we have with mission and charity is at best ‘outreach’ into another place or simply opening our wallets to appease our consciences. Isn’t it time to either move in with the poor – or have them move in with us?

I may not have a job right now, and our family finances are dire – but we do have a house (which we keep warm) and IMHO have all the mod cons we need (though the consumer society in which we live will say we don’t!) …  We have a freezer full of food and a well-stocked pantry. All of us have a bicycle (though we finally gave away the extra one to someone in need – hallelujah!) and even have a car with half a tank of fuel!  When I look around we have closets full of clothes that we never (or hardly ever) wear. Can I live like this when scripture says otherwise?

What’s worse is that less than a couple of miles from our home there are those who are really on the margins of society – the drug addicts and alcholics who cannot break their addictions and so end up living in a shack by the river in a sort of commune. If I am unwilling to be Jesus to them can I really call myself a follower of Jesus? I wonder.

Like Robert Capon ‘I want a faith that is considered dangerous by our predictable and monotonous culture. The question is am I ready to lay down my life for Jesus and follow Him? Or will I continue to play safe ..