The Pattern of Without

Whilst trying to find a patch of pattern for myself for this coming year and I came across this quote (very Rollinsesque) that reminded me of my last year and it is something that I want to carry with me into this year. It is far from a denial of hope, love and faith; It is a refusal to claim 'possession' of them. A awful acknowledgement that they are events not charms for rubbing, that they are often experienced as absences. That they,in their real form, are not born of self but born of God. That they are often as counter intuitive as God. That they are not (just?) informative but transformative.

I said to my soul,

be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;

wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing;

there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

T S. Eliot

(If you are in a Rollinsish mood then this is a great post - 'whose desire do i desire')

Sneak a peek at a couple of gifts

My gift to Pete Rollins this year seems to be a boost on technorati but at the risk of over exposure I thought you would enjoy a great little pod from Icon re a political reading of the Xmas story and also referring to the creation story - hence the image (hmmm... you want to listen now don't you). There is also another short one on here from Pete's new book for next year re Parables (Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales) - Mark - think you will like this one on the rapture.

Click here for both

Roll(ins) over for a Tickle

Great little series of short youtube vids with Pete Rollins and Phyllis Tickle discussing 'the great emergence' at the recent GE gathering in the States here.

Check Phyllis' book here.

Dance God Bear, Dance

Flicking through GodTV type channels (I know I know!) and a passionate guys was, I am sure sincerely, trying to help people live a full life - you know 'prosperity'. Anyway the guy said an amazing thing - "You must know how to activate the release of gods favour"

Wow - what a thing to say. No doubt this would then be followed by the exact process (e.g prayer of Jabez type stuff, donate(read buy) to get my prayer cloth etc etc) to follow to twist God's arm and make him dance

What an outrageous conceit, surely total idolatry, perhaps even divine puppetry - mastering the master to have him do our bidding. Who is God in this equation?

It reminded me of reading How (not) to Speak of God by Pete Rollins. Although he is tackling our intellectual/systemising reduction of God, this prosperity gospel stuff is surely another version of boxing and using God for our own purposes - Yikes - that ain't right! - but its always a danger.

Here are some quotes from Rollins that came to mind:

“God is not the object of our thoughts, but rather, he is the “absolute subject before whom we are the object.”

“To take our ideas of the divine and hold them as if they correspond to the reality of God is thus to construct a conceptual idol built from the materials of our mind”

“Christians testify to having been caught up in and engulfed by that which utterly transcends them.”

H(N)TSOG - get it on the Christmas list (alternatively stick with a little God you can keep on tight reins)

Two Great Podcasts fron N&J - Shane Claiborne & Pete Rollins

Pete Rollins with Nick and Josh - I was knocked sideways by his simple now obvious comment on fore-givness at about 17mins Click here

Shane Claiborn with Nick and Josh - Click here - and check the Litany that is refered to here

Knowing the mind of Christ?

This week I was listening to BBC 5live and there was an amazing interview in the wake of the CofE vote to allow women to be Bishops. Richard Bacon was interviewing a conservative Canon who felt deeply betrayed by the decision and Bacon asked him why he objected. After a few words on tradition that Bacon gently challenged the Canon stated, about the fact the Women should not occupy this position, that 'we know the mind of Christ' on the matter. Bacon was audibly taken aback by this amazing statement and asked something like 'sorry, you are saying you know exactly what Christ thinks about this?'. He continued by pointing out that the very office of Bishop only arose after Christ. Yet the Canon was adamant that he 'knew the mind of Christ'.

Now I guess I kind of admire the single minded and sure place of the Canon but I, like Bacon and probably many millions of listeners was disturbed by the absence of humility and open acknowledgement of interpretation and 'faith' that lay behind this statement. It was not in anyway provisional and so sounded almost tyrannical. Worse still it did not see tyranny in its own construct, its obvious complexity and its vulnerability to being used as a tool of oppression. The saddest thing was that the bearer of this position did not take responsibility for all this, for his interpretation and its potential, but all the images of tyranny that it conjured were projected not even onto the church but straight into the very mind of Christ. Whether or not one agrees with the Canon on who can be a Bishop surely this is dangerous stuff.

I don't think I can ever 'posses' the mind of Christ but I am, by the spirit, possessed by Christ. That's very different. In 1 Cor 2 Paul does say v16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. Wow but I see Paul says we 'have' not 'know' - it is not ours to instruct God - how crazy, proud and ultimately self destructive for all of us would that be. So what is it to 'have' the mind of Christ, it seems to be about being indwelt by the Holy Spirit v10-12 The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

So for me all this 'knowing the mind of Christ' might better be knowing/communing with God in me to understanding just what God has gifted me (which is perhaps a very different emphasis to telling someone else what God has not gifted them). Interestingly in the very next lines of his letter Paul begins to address divisions in the Corinthian church. The 'jealously and quarrelling' that have arisen from them still thinking and acting in a worldly way using their facts as power over another rather than thinking 'spirit'ualy . Craziness, we are the temple where God's spirit lives, how can we even think of violating one another.

Actually, says Paul, don't ever claim to wise at all - be fools - Ch3 v 18Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

So perhaps it would be better to lay down this anti wisdom of 'I know' and take up the fool's cap. Acknowledging that for now we see in part and that our call is to continuously seek by faith after an obvious oxymoron - the understanding of the unimaginable gift of God. And this seeking is not just in thought but in deed. And in so doing we may, in a very humble way, on 5 Live and everyday, be able to point people beyond our own straw Gods to Christ.

Phil 2 v5-8 (NKJ) Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

I am sure that in the background of my mind behind this post is not just the affable ex Blue Peter Mr Bacon but also the great book I just finished by Pete Rollins - 'How (not) to Speak of God' - buy it, its great, heck I'll buy it for you if you want.

Twist your faith melons with Pete

If you want to twist your melons then this is a great interview with Pete Rollins - not started the book yet but will post on it when i do.

http://emergingchurch.info/research/peterollins2/index.htm

Treating church as a fetish

No this isn't about Gothic dungeons! - but if you were searching for religious porn and found this site - welcome!

Really its a V Interesting piece by Pete Rollins that I found really challenging (as he intended i think - see the follow up comments) and a good/difficult question about staying or going when it comes to trying to find a place/people to live out ones faith in. Well worth a read. If I ain't really engaging with 'church' - what am I doing?

http://peterrollins.net/blog/?p=44

I just ordered his newest book - The Fidelity of Betrayal - “In this work I make the claim that, in order to remain faithful to Christianity, we must be courageous enough to betray the bible (section 1), God (section 2) and the church (section 3). Why? Do I think that we must abandon them as redundant relics of a by-gone era? Do I think that they have served their purpose? Or do I feel that they prevent the world coming of age? By no means! Here I argue for a betrayal that remains faithful to these very words by helping us to re-discover the truly untamed, white-hot, life-transforming reality that they house.” Now that sounds like post provoking material if ever there was any - watch this space.