The Berlin Wall

We used to live in a flat beneath a German man and his wife. One day he was telling us that as a student in East Berlin, he had a quiet night out with friends. He went to the cinema to watch a movie, came back to one of their flats for a few drinks, then they all fell asleep. He woke up the next morning to hear on the news that the Wall had come down. He’d been in Berlin the whole time and missed it.

 

Books: Novels, Mission, and Communion

You hay have noticed that the reviews of novels have stopped. That is basically because I’m reading War and Peace which is quite long, so it’s taking me a while! I read Grisham’s ‘The Broker’ before that which i enjoyed and have written a review of on this site.

Before that I read a book called ‘God’s Smuggler’ by Brother Andrew, which is the story of the Christian missionary who used to smuggle Bibles through the Iron Curtain back in the 1950’s and 60’s. It is extremely challenging in the way we think about our faith. For example, he used to leave the Bibles in plain view of the guards when he passed through a border, convinced that God could avert their eyes if necessary! Very challenging.

I’m currently reading a book called “Mass Culture” edited by Pete Ward. It looks at eucharist, how we do it, and its implications on youth work and the general church. As the common meal passed down to us by Jesus, it has to be central to Christian worship, but Ward claims that the way in which we have been doing it in the church has become almost sacrosanct, and by failing to adapt, it often fails to speak to our congregations and culture. He suggests that we allow ourselves to play around with it a little more within the context of worship to regain the lost significance. I’ll write more on this when I’ve got further through the book.

 

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A conversation with Phil

Hi Phil. I’d forgotten that my blog posts automatically get imported into facebook! You said ‘convince me’, let’s open the discussion! Those were good deep questions and I want to take them seriously so this is not a short answer!

Nigel, you and the whole family have been through a terrible time, there’s no denying that. There has definitely been a whole lot of injustice and lack of compassion from the police and prosecutors.

Surely what this shows is what we know all along – that the world is broken and it doesn’t work as it should or as any of us would like it to. This, believe it or not, is the story of the Bible. Taken as a whole, it tells us how humanity wandered away from God and wanted to do it their own way (Genesis 1-3). This act of wanting to do it our own way resulted in the world becoming broken and was the source of all selfishness, difficulty, hardship and tragedy in the world. The problem is that humanity is separated from God (Gen 3). The rest of the Bible tells us how God desperately wants to bring humanity back to him. The Old Testament is about God fulfilling a promise to the whole world – a promise that would be realised through Adam, Abraham and eventually the OT people of Israel. (All the ‘warlike’ passages in the OT reflect God’s commitment to his people and the promise that he made. I’m not going to pretend that these passages are easy). All this culminated in God breaking into humanity himself in Jesus. Whilst he was on earth he taught with authority, performed miracles, had authority over evil, calmed the power of nature, gave broken and sidelined people hope, and eventually overcame death through his own death and resurrection – This signified that all that separated us from God is defeated, including death, evil and injustice. The resurrection is a foreshadow of what is to come when through faith in Jesus we will experience the defeat of all of those things and the broken world will finally be ‘fixed’. So the whole story of the Bible is about God wanting to get us (humanity) back.

It all rests on the resurrection. Did it happen? If it didn’t then we can safely disregard everything else Jesus said and did. If it did then it is the central event of human history and we have to take Jesus seriously. I’ve written some thoughts on this before (a talk in fact) that I’ve put here.

You are right in saying there were other faith healers around at Jesus’ time. However, none of these had the power over demons, nature or death that Jesus did (and none of them came back to life after they had died – again the resurrection is key).

You asked about the “Son of God” term. In the Gospels, Jesus is continually recognised as the son of God by the demons (Matt 8:29), the disciples (Matt 14:33, 16:16), the Roman centurions (Matt 27:34), and even God himself (Matt 17:5). Jesus himself confirms it when he gives a direct answer to a direct question posed by the Jewish leaders (Matt 26:63-64). He also consistently applies the term ‘Son of Man’ to himself which is an Old Testament way of saying he had come from God’s presence (see Daniel 7:13-14 and compare it to what Jesus says in Matt 26:64). There are similar examples in Mark’s, Luke’s, and John’s gospels.

You also asked how accurate the gospel’s were given that history is written by the winning side. The gospels were all written between about 55 and 90AD. At this point Christianity was not the winning side. It didn’t become the winning side until the Emperor Constantine became the first Christian Roman Emperor in 324AD (he converted in 312 AD). When the gospels were being written Christians were being persecuted first by zealous Jews and then by the pagan Roman Empire (Emperor’s Nero and Domitian whose combined reign was from 54AD to 96AD were well known for persecuting Christians).

So how can we trust these documents? They are the earliest accounts of Jesus’ life. They were written within the lifetimes of people who saw and met Jesus, either by the eyewitnesses themselves (John) or with significant input from eyewitnesses. Although there are no fragments of the original parchments in existence, there are hundreds of fragments of early copies which show a remarkable uniformity (there are minor differences but most of these are simply errors in copying and none of these would result in doctrine needing to change). The evidence for the reliability of the New Testament manuscripts far exceeds that of any other manuscript of a similar age, including those that people take for granted, like Julius Caesar’s writings.

If the resurrection is true then through Jesus there is hope for all that you and the family have been through, because God has not left us alone and he will execute that perfect justice that this broken world cries out for. It may not be in our lifetimes or in this broken world but it will happen.

The final chapters of the Bible describe a vision of life in heaven when God’s love, compassion and justice reigns (Rev 21-22). In that vision, God is described as wiping away every tear from peoples eyes, “where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain!” (Rev 21:4)

 

Young people’s challenge to the church

In her new book, Visualising Hope, Dr Sarah Dunlop explored the values and spirituality of students in Central and Eastern European countries. She wants to know what makes them tick, what their hopes are, and if the church is meeting them. In a very creative way, by getting students to respond to and take photographs of things that are significant to them over a period of time, Dr Dunlop gets underneath the pat answers and stereotypes to discover their real motivations.

The top values and concerns, she discovers, are to do with self-expression and creativity, freedom – from institutional rules and to be able to think for themselves, quality relationships, and fun.

Given that, she writes:

“The students perceive the church as a place where they would be expected to conform to a set of rules and unthinkingly forced to subscribe to outdated beliefs. Therefore, it is no surprise that the students reject the church on the basis of their values: self-expression, freedom, fun and relationships. We believe that if church leaders take time to engage with young people’s values, they may find that young people become a part of their community, and their contribution to the worship of the church will be vibrant and full of life.”

It’s a good point. There is nothing wrong with values of freedom, self-expression, relationships, and fun. In fact, Christianity is supposed to make us more free. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand ourselves and apply our gifts in a way that is tailored to us – we are made uniquely – isn’t that the ultimate statement of self-expression. Relationship and community is at the heart of the faith – the early church was a congregation that welcomed, loved and supported each other. These values are not the sum total of the faith, but they are definitely there.

When did these positive values get lost from congregational worship? When did it become dry, unwelcoming, and irrelevant? It is true that there are many in the fresh expressions network and emergent church that are beginning to counter this stereotype.

This book is a wake-up call to the church, leaders and congregations, to find out which essential Christian values they are not meeting, and to life them out in ways that are accessible and welcoming.

It is available on Amazon.com in the USA and in the UK.

 

Mormon missionaries

There has been a number of mormon missionaries hanging around the shopping centre of my town over the last few months – young boys from Utah sent across the Atlantic to talk about Mormonism to passers by in the shopping centre. I’ve spoken to one on a couple of occasions for a couple of reasons. Firstly to engage with them by trying to discredit the book of mormon – the fact that it just appeared on some plates which came out of the sky is troubling, and there is no evidence to show where it came from, and the plates no longer exist. And secondly becuase, if the missionaries are talking to me, then they’re not talking to someone else.

Their whole premise of discerning whether Mormonism is true is to read the Book or Mormon, and then pray to God if it was true or not. They were quite confident that God would show us that it was.

Last night at our (Christian) church, I met a young guy who had come to church for the first time – never been to church before. A few months ago he met one of these mormon missionaries on the street and decided to try out the mormon church for a few weeks. I guess he did exactly what the mormon missionaries had asked him to do – to try it out and ask God if it was true. Well, he decided it wasn’t, came to church for the first time in his life, and is now exploring the Christian faith for himself. Wonderful. Thanks mormons for being the first step in his path towards God!

 

The atheist delusion

There’s a great article in the Guardian from a couple of days ago talking about Dawkins, Hitchens and the new breed of atheists that seem to be zealous about their faith. He underlines the flaws in believing solely in scientific progress, and highlights some of the less than scientific theories that it is built upon. I don’t pretend to understand it all but it’s worth a read.

 

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Christmas in America III

I’m back. Not blogged as much as I was hoping to. Ah well. Here’s a list of high and low points from my month away.

Highs:
- Spending lots of time with my wifes large family. There were 12 of us in the house just after Christmas.
- Having a fun day out nordic-skiing
- Having time to read – White Teeth (Zadie Smith). Excellent book which paints a very real picture of first and second generation ethnic minorities.
- Going to Atlanta to be Best Man for a school friend, who was also marrying an American.
- The temperature being 20 degrees celsius in Atlanta for a mid-January wedding.
- The Pound/Dollar exchange rate.

Lows:
- Being ill on Christmas day and missing Christmas lunch.
- The lack of snow in New Hampshire, limiting the amount of skiing possible. Although Colorado, Texas, and the Mid-West had unusual deluges, New Hampshire had its first smowless Christmas in 20 years.
- Realizing still quite how many American Christians still don’t believe in global warming – mainly, it seems, because the first people to promote the theory are pro-choice democrats.

 

Christmas in America II

Stuff that I have noticed so far:

1. Detroit airport is quite fun. There is a cool fountain type thing, a monorail which takes you from one end of the terminal to the other, and a blue light-show thing (above) on an underground walkway, and regular tv screens showing American Football games. However, Detroit airport is not complete. It has a huge void at its centre. The planners made a major mistake which affects every single passenger. Detroit airport suffers from the lack of a Dunkin’ Donuts. Every airport should have a Dunkin’ Donuts. That’s why I come to America.
2. Away in a Manger, and some other carols are sung to a different tune (my wife would be very proud that I didn’t call it the ‘wrong’ tune!). Not that there is anything wrong with the tune – it is a perfectly nice tune, but it made me realise how slight cultural differences and small changes in established Christmas traditions can change the feel of Christmas a little – putting emphasis in different places. Whilst part of me is thinking “It shouldn’t be done like that”, the other part is enjoing the enrichment that different cultures can provide.

3. Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings. We have started to hear this a little in England (Birmingham named their Christmas season ‘Winterval’ a few years ago), but here, although there are many more practising Christians, the standard greeting from shop assistants and in town centres is ‘happy holidays.’ Presumably this is so that practising Jews, Muslims, Seikhs and others will not be offended (usually, these people wouldn’t be offended anyway). Maybe this is a good thing that the consumerism of the season is separated, albeit slightly, from the birth of Christ. Nevertheless, I always have a policy of replying with ‘Merry Christmas’.