Wednesday, 10 August 2011
The Flesh
Richard Beck has a good post on sarx and soma here: http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2011/08/slavery-of-death-part-4-on-sarx-and.html
Can we do better?
I've been thinking back to the church's response to the riots in the 1980's. A lot happened that was good, but it was superficial. Most of it was minister-led, and the nature of the Methodist system ensures that this can never be the answer. Ministers move on, and nothing they run can ever last too long. That, I think, was the nature of the system back then. We were still living in the days when the slightest breath of criticism of a minister was always met by appalling patronising speeches about how wonderful everything in a dog-collar was, from officials who were, of course, 'nominated' to office by ministers, and probably lived up their backsides. Hopefully, the church has moved on a little.
Most of these ministers were perfectly well-meaning, though there were a few empire-builders involved. None, as far as I know, ever asked serious questions about systemic problems; mostly, they set up 'projects' designed to alleviate the situations they found in the inner city. Theological thinking, such as it was, was superficial, and soon sank without trace. Funding for projects ran out, ministers moved on, and everything came to a halt.
We can certainly build sustainable projects. We have a charity shop at my church which predates the riots. It's survived because we run it ourselves without outside money, paid workers, or significant minsterial involvement. So that's one thing we can do. Set things up which we can run ourselves, long-term. That, however, is still just sticking-plaster on the wound. It doesn't solve the problem.
We need some serious theological thinking. The church is a theological community, whose way of being is intimately involved with its theories about God, the universe, and itself. A hierarchical church will tend to develop a theology which makes hierarchy essential; look at the Roman Catholics. A church which is cosy with the political powers - as much of it has been for most of its history - fails to challenge them as it ought. We've developed a cosy doctrine of salvation which is about repentance from personal sin, and about 'souls', whatever they are, going to heaven after we die. That's obviously simplistic, but I think it sums up the position.
We've tended to emphasise the individual sins of the poor (why do we find it so much easier to condemn a rioter than a greedy banker?) at the expense of those of the rich, and particularly at the expense of the great social sins - poverty, injustice, and so on - which the Bible has rather a lot to say about. We've taken this to the point where it's possible for preachers to invent the 'prosperity gospel', castigate the poor, make the agenda of the greedy rich into the agenda for their churches, and still get away with calling themselves Christian. At best, we've patched up peoples' wounds, and helped alleviate the worst evils of an unjust system without calling its existence into question. We've accepted the increasing inequality in Britain with nothing more than an inaudible squeak.
The root of the problem is often that we fail to question tradition. We make a big noise about the Bible, but at the same time we accept a situation where it's normal to take a snippet here and a snippet there, rearrange them to suit ourselves, and use them uncritically to prop up doctrines and ideas which simply aren't there in the text. The 'prosperity gospel' is an obvious example, but I'm concerned about the stuff we accept without question. It's easy to find passages which condemn, for instance, adultery - plus the odd one which suggests that perhaps we shouldn't condemn it too hard - but how is it that significant sections of the church manage not to notice the stuff about poverty? Sexual behaviour, abortion, birth control, all become central to some sections of the church, while war or discrimination are treated as lesser evils, or even lauded as virtues. Something's rotten in the house of Denmark, and I think it's our understanding of salvation.
According to what records we have, Jesus didn't come telling us to go to heaven. He proclaimed a much worldlier salvation, to do with the coming Rule of God, and this rule was to be established in this world, not the next. The dead may rise to be judged, but there's no radical discontinuity involved. Rather, it's a question of one age - the age of the sinful, man-made world order which creates so much suffering - passing into the next, the age of the Rule of God. Somehow, we manage to ignore the apocalyptic dimension of the New Testament. The fact that the authors concerned were wrong in believing that Jesus' return was imminent doesn't mean they were wrong in everything except the bits we happen to find convenient!
Then again, salvation in the Bible is never individual. In the Old Testament, it's about the salvation of Israel, or at the very least, of the righteous remnant who remain faithful to its vision. Or maybe they're actually developing a new vision, leading it out of paganism towards the worship of one God, but whatever, they're faithful. In the New Testament, it's about the church, the new community which, again, is groping its way towards something, trying to live as though the Rule of God was already established. Perhaps we could describe it as an outpost of the Kingdom (more familiar, but it doesn't get the sense so well), attempting to be obedient to the risen and exalted Christ, rather than to the powers and principalities of this world.
And what of those powers and principalities? The people who wrote the Bible thought in terms of angelic powers lurking behind political structures; once, each people had its own god, now they each had their own angel. The absolute monotheism we're used to didn't exist at the time, boundaries were a lot fuzzier, and angels tend to look rather like lesser gods by any other name. Satan doesn't sit on a red-hot throne nursing his burnt bum and dreaming of cosmic revolution, or murmering sweet nothings into the ears of those he tempts; he appoints the one who rules over all the kingdoms of the earth, and anyone in the ancient Mediterranean world could have told you who did that. The job has to be in his gift, or how can he offer it to Jesus?
So often, Biblical powers and principalities seem to have political and economic dimensions. That's what we need to grapple with; we need to reclaim these areas of the New Testament from the lunatic fringe, grapple with them seriously, and develop something which isn't spiritualied out of sight, and can address the real problems of the real world. I think Marxism could be described as a secular apocalyptic, and it certainly recognised its equivalent of demonic powers. So what would a 21st Century apocalyptic look like? Somehow, we need to rework our whole understanding of the faith, and turn it into something which puts engagement with the world around us at its core, rather than running away, or becomeing the polite end of an unjust system.
Most of these ministers were perfectly well-meaning, though there were a few empire-builders involved. None, as far as I know, ever asked serious questions about systemic problems; mostly, they set up 'projects' designed to alleviate the situations they found in the inner city. Theological thinking, such as it was, was superficial, and soon sank without trace. Funding for projects ran out, ministers moved on, and everything came to a halt.
We can certainly build sustainable projects. We have a charity shop at my church which predates the riots. It's survived because we run it ourselves without outside money, paid workers, or significant minsterial involvement. So that's one thing we can do. Set things up which we can run ourselves, long-term. That, however, is still just sticking-plaster on the wound. It doesn't solve the problem.
We need some serious theological thinking. The church is a theological community, whose way of being is intimately involved with its theories about God, the universe, and itself. A hierarchical church will tend to develop a theology which makes hierarchy essential; look at the Roman Catholics. A church which is cosy with the political powers - as much of it has been for most of its history - fails to challenge them as it ought. We've developed a cosy doctrine of salvation which is about repentance from personal sin, and about 'souls', whatever they are, going to heaven after we die. That's obviously simplistic, but I think it sums up the position.
We've tended to emphasise the individual sins of the poor (why do we find it so much easier to condemn a rioter than a greedy banker?) at the expense of those of the rich, and particularly at the expense of the great social sins - poverty, injustice, and so on - which the Bible has rather a lot to say about. We've taken this to the point where it's possible for preachers to invent the 'prosperity gospel', castigate the poor, make the agenda of the greedy rich into the agenda for their churches, and still get away with calling themselves Christian. At best, we've patched up peoples' wounds, and helped alleviate the worst evils of an unjust system without calling its existence into question. We've accepted the increasing inequality in Britain with nothing more than an inaudible squeak.
The root of the problem is often that we fail to question tradition. We make a big noise about the Bible, but at the same time we accept a situation where it's normal to take a snippet here and a snippet there, rearrange them to suit ourselves, and use them uncritically to prop up doctrines and ideas which simply aren't there in the text. The 'prosperity gospel' is an obvious example, but I'm concerned about the stuff we accept without question. It's easy to find passages which condemn, for instance, adultery - plus the odd one which suggests that perhaps we shouldn't condemn it too hard - but how is it that significant sections of the church manage not to notice the stuff about poverty? Sexual behaviour, abortion, birth control, all become central to some sections of the church, while war or discrimination are treated as lesser evils, or even lauded as virtues. Something's rotten in the house of Denmark, and I think it's our understanding of salvation.
According to what records we have, Jesus didn't come telling us to go to heaven. He proclaimed a much worldlier salvation, to do with the coming Rule of God, and this rule was to be established in this world, not the next. The dead may rise to be judged, but there's no radical discontinuity involved. Rather, it's a question of one age - the age of the sinful, man-made world order which creates so much suffering - passing into the next, the age of the Rule of God. Somehow, we manage to ignore the apocalyptic dimension of the New Testament. The fact that the authors concerned were wrong in believing that Jesus' return was imminent doesn't mean they were wrong in everything except the bits we happen to find convenient!
Then again, salvation in the Bible is never individual. In the Old Testament, it's about the salvation of Israel, or at the very least, of the righteous remnant who remain faithful to its vision. Or maybe they're actually developing a new vision, leading it out of paganism towards the worship of one God, but whatever, they're faithful. In the New Testament, it's about the church, the new community which, again, is groping its way towards something, trying to live as though the Rule of God was already established. Perhaps we could describe it as an outpost of the Kingdom (more familiar, but it doesn't get the sense so well), attempting to be obedient to the risen and exalted Christ, rather than to the powers and principalities of this world.
And what of those powers and principalities? The people who wrote the Bible thought in terms of angelic powers lurking behind political structures; once, each people had its own god, now they each had their own angel. The absolute monotheism we're used to didn't exist at the time, boundaries were a lot fuzzier, and angels tend to look rather like lesser gods by any other name. Satan doesn't sit on a red-hot throne nursing his burnt bum and dreaming of cosmic revolution, or murmering sweet nothings into the ears of those he tempts; he appoints the one who rules over all the kingdoms of the earth, and anyone in the ancient Mediterranean world could have told you who did that. The job has to be in his gift, or how can he offer it to Jesus?
So often, Biblical powers and principalities seem to have political and economic dimensions. That's what we need to grapple with; we need to reclaim these areas of the New Testament from the lunatic fringe, grapple with them seriously, and develop something which isn't spiritualied out of sight, and can address the real problems of the real world. I think Marxism could be described as a secular apocalyptic, and it certainly recognised its equivalent of demonic powers. So what would a 21st Century apocalyptic look like? Somehow, we need to rework our whole understanding of the faith, and turn it into something which puts engagement with the world around us at its core, rather than running away, or becomeing the polite end of an unjust system.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Looting aftermath
This was the view from the flat at 1.30 last night; the family were panicking, wouldn't let me put a light on, and didn't want me to call the fire brigade in case we got targeted. It took ages to get through to them, but they came very fast. It was a car which had been dumped and set on fire.
I went into town this afternoon to do some shopping; a lot of places were closed, only the vegetable end of the markets was open, and shops were closing early. Shop workers I spoke to were really scared. Bad as it was, damage was being fixed at a rate of knots, and it was nothing like the looting I saw in Soho Road in 1993. That time, there was a power cut across Handsworth, and people descended from all over the West Midlands to fill up their cars. Every shop window in the entire road was smashed, every shop emptied - even the shoe shop and the butcher's - and a police car toipped onto its roof and completely wrecked. That, in turn, was nothing like the 1985 riots.
I don't know what happened here; nobody was killed that I'm aware of.
The glaziers must be making a fortune.
Monday, 8 August 2011
Riots
I spoke to my daughter in Hackney earlier; she's OK, but they're rioting round her way and she couldn't get to her placement. She's horrified by what she's seeing; as she said, the damage will only make things worse. After rioting here in 1985, and looting in 1993, I'm a bit more used to it, but destroying your own community isn't going to solve anything.
It seems to be the old problems all over again; police behaviour towards black people, plus deprivation. There was hope in the air in the late 1980's, with both the government and the church taking an interest in the inner cities. That evaporated, and history is repeating itself. This time, we need to avoid dependence on outside funding - that runs out and whatever you're doing evaporates - and build sustainable projects which can last, and give people real help. Our church shop is one; we run it outrselves and it's been going for about thirty years, and the food bank we're planning may be another. Trouble is, these only put sticking plaster on the wound.
We need to build a society where people are treated properly, have real opportunities, and when things go wrong, redress is available to all, not just to those who can afford legal fees. That's going to take a better response from the church than the superficialities of last time.
Correction: the looting in Handsworth occurred on 2 September 1991, after a fire led to a power cut across the entire area. I'll never forget walking down Soho Road through the middle of it. I never felt threatened, despite the fact that every shop in the entire road was being looted all around me. Another thing I'll never forget is the patronising attitude of one or two ministers who thought it was all right for them to check out what was going on, but not for me to do the same thing!
It seems to be the old problems all over again; police behaviour towards black people, plus deprivation. There was hope in the air in the late 1980's, with both the government and the church taking an interest in the inner cities. That evaporated, and history is repeating itself. This time, we need to avoid dependence on outside funding - that runs out and whatever you're doing evaporates - and build sustainable projects which can last, and give people real help. Our church shop is one; we run it outrselves and it's been going for about thirty years, and the food bank we're planning may be another. Trouble is, these only put sticking plaster on the wound.
We need to build a society where people are treated properly, have real opportunities, and when things go wrong, redress is available to all, not just to those who can afford legal fees. That's going to take a better response from the church than the superficialities of last time.
Correction: the looting in Handsworth occurred on 2 September 1991, after a fire led to a power cut across the entire area. I'll never forget walking down Soho Road through the middle of it. I never felt threatened, despite the fact that every shop in the entire road was being looted all around me. Another thing I'll never forget is the patronising attitude of one or two ministers who thought it was all right for them to check out what was going on, but not for me to do the same thing!
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Worship
We had a discussion after church today, following on from a conversation some of us had with the Super last week. Basically, we've agreed to do our own preaching plan, which can then be incorporated in the official one. The first step is going to be to get dates from Novette, the minister, as she obviously has to fit in her other churches as well. Then we plan whatever dates we want for our own preachers and worship leaders. We may be only a small church, but we have a tradition of getting people involved in leading worship, so we've no lack of talent available. One Sunday a month will be left for Paul to plan a preacher from the rest of the Circuit, so we're still functioning within it rather than trying to secede or become a law unto ourselves.
That should give us ample scope to develop our own worship style further. I'm preaching at Ladywood in a couple of weeks, and I may well let one of the Worship Leaders organise the service, and just preach the sermon. It's a common enough pattern in other denominations, and many of our people will be familiar with it from having previously been in one or other branch of the Church of God.
We've also agreed to have a barbeque in four weeks' time, on the 28th. That gives us ample time to plan, and we'll just have to hope the weather lasts. Only we don't want it to last without a break here and there, because the stream at the bottom of the allotment has dried up, and we'll be having major problems if it doesn't rain before then!
That should give us ample scope to develop our own worship style further. I'm preaching at Ladywood in a couple of weeks, and I may well let one of the Worship Leaders organise the service, and just preach the sermon. It's a common enough pattern in other denominations, and many of our people will be familiar with it from having previously been in one or other branch of the Church of God.
We've also agreed to have a barbeque in four weeks' time, on the 28th. That gives us ample time to plan, and we'll just have to hope the weather lasts. Only we don't want it to last without a break here and there, because the stream at the bottom of the allotment has dried up, and we'll be having major problems if it doesn't rain before then!
Sunday, 24 July 2011
16 years
This is us out for a 16th anniversary meal yesterday. People forecasted disaster, tried to sabotage the wedding, claimed Namissa was only marrying me to get her stay here. Our minister at the time wrote and asked me not to go ahead since she's Muslim. Despite it all, we've failed to murder each other, divorce, or do anything else to cause an irreparable breach, and as you see, we're still together. We've never had a single row about religion either. It's the same God, and beside that, what else matters?
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
A couple of good things
I'm not sure the first is really so 'good'; there's a local initiative to start a foodbank, and we had a request to use our premises. The fact that we need such a thing is a thoroughly Bad Thing, in fact a Disgraceful Thing, but given that the need is there, it's good that the church should respond. I don't know enough about it yet to answer the questions people in the church are asking (another good thing; they're speaking up and asking rather than sitting there like sacks of potatoes while others do the talking!), but I'm arranging for someone to visit the church to discuss it.
As a result, I found out on Monday about a meeting for local churches last night to find out what sort of community outreach we're all doing. I've heard about a lot of exciting things which I didn't know about, and there was at least one person there who didn't know about our community shop. We're going to keep in touch, and if nothing else, it should throw up some extra sources of the secondhand clothes we're always in need of.
As a result, I found out on Monday about a meeting for local churches last night to find out what sort of community outreach we're all doing. I've heard about a lot of exciting things which I didn't know about, and there was at least one person there who didn't know about our community shop. We're going to keep in touch, and if nothing else, it should throw up some extra sources of the secondhand clothes we're always in need of.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Mariatu
I thought I'd post this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRU86Jxz8qs . I met Mariatu some years ago, when she was fifteen. She was on the way to Canada, where a family was adopting her, and had stopped in the UK to be fitted with the latest artificial hands. The woman looking after her was an old school friend of my wife's, hence the connection. The hands were purely cosmetic; I remember her struggling to eat a biscuit with them at church. As soon as she got home, she dumped them behind the door with the shoes (no shoes in our house!), put on an elastic wristband, and managed to eat with a fork stuck in it.
The Sierra Leone ivil war was was nothing more than a glorified bandit gang taking over most of a country whose goverment had collapsed under the weight of its own corruption. They never seriously wanted to rule, just to use the country as an extended diamond mine. Killings, rapes and mutilation were a way to drive away the civilian population and leave the diamond fields to themseves and their slaves.
The Sierra Leone ivil war was was nothing more than a glorified bandit gang taking over most of a country whose goverment had collapsed under the weight of its own corruption. They never seriously wanted to rule, just to use the country as an extended diamond mine. Killings, rapes and mutilation were a way to drive away the civilian population and leave the diamond fields to themseves and their slaves.
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Banned?
Ostensibly, the Dutch government has just banned kosher and halal slaughter: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/06/201162945027320392.html . However, the law is that animals must be stunned before slaughter. Most halal meat in the UK is stunned - see this report, for instance: http://www.themeatsite.com/meatnews/13683/stunning-use-under-halal-kosher-practices-revealed - and most Islamic scholars would agree that the practice is perfectly legitimate for Muslims; see, for instance, this page: http://ehalal.org/Stunning.html . I assume practices in Holland are similar to those in the UK, or if not, they could soon be brought in line.
Kosher slaughter seems to be another story, judging by the Meat Site report. I can't find anything decent online about it, but there may be a problem there. If this is motivated by Islamophobia - I don't know, but the current political climate suggests that it may be - then they seem to have scored an own goal.
Kosher slaughter seems to be another story, judging by the Meat Site report. I can't find anything decent online about it, but there may be a problem there. If this is motivated by Islamophobia - I don't know, but the current political climate suggests that it may be - then they seem to have scored an own goal.
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Sunday School
We're making progress getting this organised. We had a discussion after church - it's much better to make decisions in a wider group, rather than having a bunch of stewards deciding everything in a back room - and came up with a lot of ideas. The two ladies running it are keen to organise an open day, and do some leafleting in the area. So we talked about the age group (5-12? Younger wouldn't be too practical unless the parents were in the building), activities, and so forth. I'm trying to get some training organised, on a circuit basis.
The great thing is that it gets a couple of the younger people involved in organising something. We couldn't go on indefinitely with the same group of people trying to run things, but moving on from that has been a major struggle, and we're not out of the woods yet. With one vital person retiring to Jamaica, and two more stuck in London, it's sometimes felt hopeless. It's God's church though, and his resources are more than ours!
The great thing is that it gets a couple of the younger people involved in organising something. We couldn't go on indefinitely with the same group of people trying to run things, but moving on from that has been a major struggle, and we're not out of the woods yet. With one vital person retiring to Jamaica, and two more stuck in London, it's sometimes felt hopeless. It's God's church though, and his resources are more than ours!
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