Rambling Reflections from Rabbits to Redemption…

Posted by David Ward on 14/08/2024
Posted in: aging, Bible, Books/Articles, discipleship, Personal thoughts, Theology. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“Watership Down” is the story of a group of misfit rabbits who go through a whole range of difficult and deadly experiences on their journey to find a place where they can live safely and securely, led by Hazel, a rabbit who stepped up as leader when needed. Some see in it a bit of an allegory about the dangers of oppressive government and leadership, which caused China to ban the book!

Once the rabbits have settled on the Down, and the dangers are in the past, Hazel lives many more years than the two or three usually given to a wild rabbit. In the Epilogue of the book, we find him dozing and waking in his burrow on a blustery morning in March. On waking, the elderly rabbit realises that there is another rabbit ‘lying quietly beside him’.

As Hazel struggles to remember the rabbit’s name, he ‘saw that in the darkness of the burrow the stranger’s ears were shining with a faint silver light’. He is being visited by El-ahrairah, the immortal Prince of all rabbits. El-ahrairah has come to take the dying Hazel to join his immortal bodyguard, the Owlsa. Hazel leaves his body, which he doesn’t need anymore, on the edge of the ditch. Before leaving, Hazel pauses to watch his rabbits, and El-ahrairah reassures him: “You needn’t worry about them. They’ll be alright – and thousands like them. If you’ll come along, I’ll show you what I mean.”

I was sat in a coffee shop, when something in the Introduction to the new book I was reading reminded me of “Watership Down”, a book I read many years ago, and particularly the ending of its Epilogue. Quoted above.

The book is the recently published “The God Story” by Alain Emerson and Adam Cox. The book is an attempt to highlight the overarching themes of the Bible, to help people “find personal meaning within the grand narrative of God’s unfailing love and his awe-inspiring plans for humanity”.

I’ve only just started reading the book, so I can’t comment yet on how well it succeeds in its  bold aims. The bit that started my rumination was:

“Our great ambition is to pass on The God Story to our generation and our children’s generation in the hope that its sacred themes will capture their hearts, shape their lives and catapult them right into the centre of a story still unfolding.” From the Introduction, p. 3

Since the age of 10 years, my life has inextricably found identity and inspiration in “The God Story”. So much of who I am, what I do and how I try to live my life has been influenced by not just the story, but a relationship with the God who is behind the story…as the Apostle Paul says to the people of Athens in Acts 17: 28, “in God with live and move and exist”. I believe that as I’ve found my place in God’s unfolding story, God has asked me to play my part in making sure that The God Story is faithfully and passionately passed on to future generations.

Like Hazel in “Watership Down” I’m getting older. The question the two books, so different in genre, have caused me to ask of myself is: “Have I faithfully handed on what God has given me”. I’m always relieved to remember that it’s Jesus who will build his church, not me, but in as much as God has invited me to join in that building project, have I been a good and faithful builder? Does my life reflect the Saviour I’ve lived with and for during 60-odd years?  When I was inducted into one of my pastorates, someone gave me a word they felt was from God: “I want you to build something that lasts”.

It’s not just the act of handing on to the next generations either…the content of what we pass on matters too. Are we faithfully passing on the Gospel of Jesus or some culturally biased, denominationally dogmatic or personal interpretation, based on our experience as we live for Jesus in ‘our’ world?

That’s a difficult one to answer. It’s clear that certain projections of Christian faith are far from faithful to the Gospel (eg Christian Nationalism), but for the rest, is it just a matter of our personal preferences as we follow Jesus. How can we know what’s true?

To begin with, Jesus didn’t give us a rule book to work from. He did say the rules could be summed up as: “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. [30] And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ [31] The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Mark 12:29-31 NLT

So, if our gospel fails to reflect our love for God and our love for others (reflecting God’s unconditional love) and if it fails to faithfully hand on the whole sweep of God’s story of a lost and redeemed creation something must be wrong.

Jesus gave something better than a rule book…he filled every believer with the Holy Spirit, who he promised would: “…guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard.”
John 16:13 NLT

And of course, the Spirit works in us, changing us to be more like Jesus, producing a character that reflects him (Galatians 5: 22-25)… does the faith we pass on reflect the character and person of Jesus?

This post is rapidly becoming like the introspective ramblings of an aging man, but I think it is asking questions of each of us, regardless of age or Christian maturity:

  • Am I faithfully and lovingly handing on the faith I have received?
  • Is the faith I’m handing on true to the whole God Story, of God’s loving quest to recover, redeem and restore his creation, culminating in the gospel of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus?
  • Does my life now more fully reflect the Saviour who I claim to follow than it did when I started out?

Personally. I continue to ask myself these questions all the time, and each of us needs to ask these three questions as we continue to walk with Jesus on the path to becoming more like him, and encourage the generations that follow to do the same.

Building for God’s Kingdom in Retirement…

Posted by David Ward on 12/08/2024
Posted in: aging, Books/Articles, Personal thoughts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Those of you who have stuck with my spasmodic blog posting for some time will be well aware of the way that sometimes things I’m reading, conversations I’m part of and experiences I share come together to crystalise something I’ve long been mulling over and motivate me to finally commit those thoughts to writing. Sometimes they remain thoughts that are for my life and growth alone, and you, the reader get a glimpse in what’s going on in the mind of Dave. Sometimes, I’m told, they strike a chord with others.

So, I’m reading a book called  “Jesus and the Powers” by Tom Wright and Michael F Bird (SPCK, London 2024). We’ve just had an election in the UK, and the USA and parts of Europe are also in a period of elections. My colleagues in the Northumbrian Collective (www.northumbrian.org) have been blogging about this and other things that are making our world an unstable and uncomfortable place to be. So, I thought I’d better catch up a bit, and this is one of the books I’ve chosen to read. The book sets out to “address the pressing question: how can Christians engage with the turbulent politics of our time while remaining true to the teaching and example of Jesus?” It’s a book that should make uncomfortable reading for those in the West who are compromising their faith and selling out in order to have a seat and a say at the table of power.

The book contrasts the Bible’s teaching about the ongoing growth of the Kingdom of God since the resurrection of Jesus inaugurated a new creation of spirit-filled people whose task it is to build for the Kingdom (notice, not “build the Kingdom”…only God can do that, but he has chosen to partner with new humanity to do this…what we do and the way we do it matters) with the way others try to build ‘kingdoms’ or even try to build God’s Kingdom for him.

The passages that I read, that spoke into things that are significant to me at this time are these:

“Whatever your age, ableness, sex, education, limitations, fears, stage of life or self-doubts, you have something to contribute to the coming kingdom. Why else is the spirit given, other than to convict us, inspire us and empower us to do what we would not ordinarily be able to do by ourselves? Let your heart be burdened by the needs you see about you. Let your mind be haunted by a great missionary task that remains unfinished. Let your conscience be pricked by a grave injustice that goes on blighting your land. The, as far as you are able, in your season of life, pick one ministry in your church to help with and one cause to partner with…Look around. We live in interesting times, dire times, dangerous times, tragic and terrible times. What will you do with your life? Give it over into staring into some luminous screen or do something that echoes in God’s new creation. The world needs kingdom-minded Christians now more than ever.” P88 and 89

I have arrived at that time of life we call retirement. I’ve already retired and then returned to work once, mainly for economic reasons. But a recent enforced move of home and locality have taken me away from the place I’ve lived and worked for the last 14 years. This has led to an unexpected loss of focus, direction and purpose in my life, and I’m working hard to try to put things back together. The fact that I’m also ‘old’ now is not helping. In case you think this is just an opportunity for me to have a good moan, I came to where I am now fully open and expectant that God would bless this new stage of my life and give me fresh opportunities to build for the Kingdom; that is why I describe my experience as “unexpected”. I’ve been praying and working, talking and listening to people but have struggled to fight off the overwhelming sense of being in limbo and to find God’s way forward.

A Zoom meeting with the support group someone I pray for regularly has really helped me to put some structure on my jumbled thoughts, and I offer it here with thanks to my friend and in the hope that it may be useful to others who are navigating the waters of the retired life, especially, but not solely those who have been in some kind of paid role in a church, Christian organisation or charity.

Some things to help us discern the way forward as we age:
CALLING
Under God’s guidance, what has been the thing that our vocation and passion has revolved around?
For example, a friend once said to me, “It wouldn’t matter what you’re doing, you’ll always be a teacher”, reflecting my passion to help people grow in understanding and knowledge, which hopefully results in changed behaviour.

CAPABILITY
As we age, we begin to be aware of limitations that weren’t around in our younger years.
Don’t think I need to comment on this one.

COMMITMENT (to family)
At this stage of our lives, we have more time available for our partner and our children and grandchildren (if we have them).
I still have a working wife, and I think that the way I respond to this one is probably different to  if I was part of a retired couple or a single person.

CHOOSING
Taking the first three factors into consideration, what things we’re doing do we need to put down and what new opportunities do we need to pick up or say “no” to.
Nowadays, I find that if I over-commit myself I rapidly become anxious, and often end up pulling out of whatever I’ve committed to, which isn’t a good way to be. I’m getting better at saying ‘no’, even to things I would enjoy or have been good at in the past.

“Just because I can do something, doesn’t mean I should”, has become a bit of a mantra for me.

What about you? No matter what stage of life you’re in, how do you make decisions about the things you give your time to?

Quad Bike Shepherd…

Posted by David Ward on 23/04/2024
Posted in: Personal thoughts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

A busy Saturday afternoon on the A189, headed towards the coast road. Ahead, I could see that something was causing a problem for other drivers – braking, slowing, sudden overtaking…

As I got closer the cause became obvious. Seven sheep had escaped the safety of their field and decided a road trip would be a good idea.

Only, it wasn’t. As each vehicle braked or overtook, the more and more panic overtook them as they were driven more and more dangerously down the road.

Suddenly, in my rear-view mirror I caught sight of a quad bike, overtaking the column of vehicles as quickly and safely as was possible…the shepherd, with small son as a passenger, come to rescue his sheep.

He caught up, the traffic stopped, the shepherd whistled and called. At the sound of his voice the sheep stopped their panic-stricken dash and moved onto the wide grass verge. Encouraged by the shepherds voice they turned and began to make their way back towards the open gate, their field and safety.

There was a lump in my throat as I witnessed such a vivid enaction of something Jesus said in the New Testament

“But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. [4] After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.”

John 10:2-4 NLT

The Christian Community of which I am part is currently going through a very tough time. At yesterday’s service the visiting speaker brought a message from Psalm 46, especially verse 10:

“Be still and know that I am God! I will be honoured by every nation. I will be honoured throughout the world.”

Psalm 46:10 NLT

His wife felt that God specifically wanted her to share that God wanted us to know that he knows each of us by name. She reminded us of Mary Magdelene, in the garden on Easter morning:

“Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her. “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” [14] She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. [15] “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?” She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.” [16] “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

John 20:13-16 NLT

When Jesus spoke her name, everything changed for Mary. She knew Jesus was alive! She knew he cared deeply about her and the other disciples.

Sometimes we can be a bit like that flock of sheep. Although we are full of faith, when the lorry of sickness overtakes us we run, filled with panic. When the car of financial pressure screeches to a halt behind us, we run just a bit faster. When the van of relationship struggles roars past we stampede. We are in danger of wearing ourselves out with sadness and weariness as we plead in prayer for those we love. We’re in danger of focussing on the difficulty and distress, of blaming the evil one who opened the gate to our suffering. Until…

…Until the good Shepherd arrives. Maybe he doesn’t speed up on a quad bike, but he knows how to capture our attention. He speaks our name, and we recognise his voice. We stop our headlong flight, we are still, and he becomes the focus of our eyes and hearts.

What is it that he says to my heart, to yours, at this time and for this situation? And as he comforts and directs us, what new comfort and direction are we able to offer each other? Will we discover that although nothing in our physical circumstances has changed, in our hearts everything is different.

As we focus on Jesus, perhaps one of the burdens that will be lifted is the realisation that when God says, “Be still and know that I am God”, he is also gently reminding us that we are not God, and we can’t fix it however much we may want to.

We continue to trust in Jesus, the one who can.