unity

All posts tagged unity

“ONE” – First things

Posted by David Ward on 04/10/2016
Posted in: Community, Personal thoughts, Relationships, Spirituality, unity. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

“Never resign yourself to the scandal of the separation of Christians, who so readily confess love for their neighbour, and yet remain divided. Make the unity of the Body of Christ your passionate concern.”
Rule of Taizé

odo-comforts-his-troops

There is an often-repeated error that there is a famous scene in the Bayeux Tapestry that shows William the Conqueror “comforting his troops” by poking them with a spear.

If my Latin translator is correct it’s actually Odo, the Duke’s half-brother, who was known to be a nasty piece of work. No surprise then that it looks for all the world to me as if what he’s doing is ‘comforting’ them by waving a heavy club at them.

Pokey stick or heavy battering… sometimes the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, seems to do that to me too. Something pops into my head, often while I’m reading or praying, and from that moment on it doesn’t stop causing me discomfort until I really ‘hear’ it and do something about it.

It all started when I was asked to speak at a regular “Contemporary Service” at a local church. Almost instantly the phrase “that they may be one” landed on me like a blow from that club. I re-read a book by Robert Benson called “The Body Broken” and the pummelling continued. Then it was a few sly blows from “Beauty will save the world” by Brian Zahnd. I was beginning to feel like the spiritual equivalent of “A study in Black and Blue” (I haven’t found a real work of art called that…I made it up!)

So, not being too slow on the uptake, I chose to use that theme for my “Contemporary service” talk. It would be very easy to berate a gathering of Christians about our failure to become part of the answer to Jesus prayer in John 17. It must have been important because he prays the prayer several times:

“that they may be one as we are one”
Jesus words recorded in John 17: 22b.

However, I wanted to be positive and encouraging (although I suspected that for some of my hearers it might be a bit ‘comforting’…you know, ‘pointy spear heavy club’ comfort!), just as it was for me.

As I prepared I quickly became aware of a number of snags in my plan. For starters the people who come to these services and lead them come from a variety of different flavours of Christian spirituality…Baptists, Methodists, Anglicans, Salvation Army and embryonic Vineyard Church (apologies if I’ve missed anyone…wouldn’t be a good start). Surely these were the last people who actually needed to be encouraged to do this.

The second thing that troubled me was that I felt it might all seem a bit naïve and idealistic…the sort of sermon I might have preached in my teens (yes I started early). In those days I was convinced that denominations were totally sinful, so it was good to discover that I’ve mellowed a bit since then.

Finally, I wanted to give people something small and simple to go away and do to follow the message through with practical action. It is only too easy to be challenged by a message only to find the challenge just too big and not know where to begin.

The underlying subtext was the importance of Christians truly working together and demonstrating love for one another despite our differences, because of the view in the world of us all fighting and competing with each other, which is a real turn-off and a stumbling block to building Jesus alternative Kingdom in a frequently dark and hurting world – “By this everyone will know…if you love one another” (John 13: 34-35).

I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge but I went ahead and prepared. On the night the talk was longer than I wanted, even after dramatic cutting as I prepared. Some bits that deeply moved me had to be taken out and stored for another time.

The challenge of changing our entrenched attitudes became only too obvious when, about half an hour before the meeting began I got into the opening exchanges of an argument with someone who interprets the Old Testament a bit differently to me. It’s a good job we’re both grown-ups as we were about to play together in the worship band. I also happen to respect him as a person and fellow follower of Jesus…

What follows in the next few posts will be slightly expanded versions of the talk I gave that night. It’s not particularly ‘deep’ but I hope it’s encouraging, challenging and practical.

It does represent my attempt to be obedient to the not-so-gentle prompting of the Spirit.

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…that there be no divisions among you…Is Christ divided?”
Paul’s words from his letter to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 1: 10-13)

celtic-one

Journey’s End?

Posted by David Ward on 09/07/2011
Posted in: Community, Personal thoughts, Pilgrimage, Relationships. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This has been a tough week. The journey that we have been on as a family and as a church has finally ended, and not with the outcome we had come to expect.

For the last few months I have been part of the application process for the job of pastoral leader (part-time) at my own church in The Scottish Borders. As each stage of the journey has unfolded I have experienced a time of uncertainty, followed by a time of action, followed by a time when I have deeply experienced God’s peace. Deciding to apply, filling in and submitting the application, all the waiting, preparing for the interview going to the interview, hearing that I was the preferred and endorsed candidate, waiting for the church to vote…at each stage the process of doubt, action and peace has been my experience.

In the end I failed to make the 80% ‘pass mark’ set by the interview group, and thus have been unsuccessful in my application at the final stage. It was unexpected. Those most closely involved in the process are baffled and, in some cases, battling with anger.

I feel surprisingly OK. If this had all happened even 3 years ago, I would have been devastated, but now (and I may yet run out of adrenalin and have a few sad days) I am disappointed, not just for myself, but for all of us, but fundamentally I’m fine.

In part, it’s because I realise that ‘it’s not all about me’…there may be more important things at work here. In the special sermon I preached just before the vote God seemed to be asking me to particularly emphasise the words of Romans 14:19 “So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for building up one another.” (New English Translation), during which I particularly warned of the dangers of competing personal agendas and of ‘majoring on minors’. As I chatted with a member of the leadership team yesterday he felt that the warning was timely and potentially being played out now.

I continue to feel a very real sense of God’s peace and the feeling that it’s not all over yet. What matters to me is that a group of people I love are not unduly broken or distressed by what must follow.

I’ve written extensively about Pilgrimage and the idea of life as pilgrimage (starting back in June 2010, I think). In particular I have been committed to the idea that travelling, actually being on the journey, is every bit as important as our arrival at a destination. This has certainly been true for this journey. As every waymark has been reached and successfully negotiated I have grown and changed. Things I thought I’d lost in the 16 years since I was last in pastoral ministry ‘officially’ have been restored to me.

This process has been good for me, and I’m glad I took the risk of starting it in the first place.

There will be others who will be confused, hurt and angry, and I will need to be there for them too, as the aftermath is worked out…I see a degree of irony in this!

The blog post about “Arriving” that I wrote back on 07/12/2010 has taken on new a relevant meaning. There has been an ending which we need to mourn, appreciate (if not understand) and resolve, but I also wonder what will be the new beginnings that open up as a result of that ending?

Church in Exile or aTime of Recovery

Posted by David Ward on 17/08/2009
Posted in: Books/Articles, Personal thoughts. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
Two men look out the same prison bars,
One saw mud, the other stars.”
~ Frederick Langbridge

Many commentators are telling us that the church in the West is about to go into a time of Exile, when we no longer have central stage in the cultural and political arenas. In a way that particularly appeals to those who are fond of bashing “church-as-we-know-it”, they expound this theme with all the doom, gloom and negativity they can muster.

Though I don’t disagree entirely with many of their observations, I think there may actually be a much more positive way to look at the changes that are going on at present…that’s where the idea of a Time of Recovery kicks in.

The way I see it, much of the research also points to real possibilities for the church to change and grow as a result of it’s changed status. These are just my initial thoughts but they may give something to think about, and certainly represent a positive position of hope.

During this time of change, the church has the opportunity for the:

* recovery of ancient practices…these are corporate and personal disciplines which enable as to grow in our relationship with Jesus. They are tried and tested by time and also provide us with a bridge to those of other faiths, each of which has similar practices. The big seven are: fixed-hour prayer, fasting, Sabbath, the sacred meal, pilgrimage, observing sacred time and giving. Brian McLaren’s excellent book “Finding Our Way Again” introduces a series of books about each of these practices. These practices have both a formational and a missional dimension.

* recovery of a place among the people on the margins…as the church loses its statuatory power so it will need to learn again how to live from a position of powerlessness, how to major on a corporate and individual life that that bears witness to the reality of faith in Jesus, rather than trying to demand a hearing. It may be good for our humility and our dependance on God!

* recovery of respect from other spiritual people…much research bears witness to the fact that in a culture where belief in “Something There” is growing, few regard the church as an institution with anything to offer. Many believe that the church has sold its birthright for a seat at the table of the status quo, and consequently has lost its credibility and right to speak on matters spiritual and ethical. Maybe, just maybe, this will change as we once again side with the poor and powerless of the world.

* recovery of mystery…doctrine, dogma and right belief seem to have replaced right behaviour, so a kind of self-righteous hypocrisy seems to characterise the church. Maybe if we have the humility to admit that God defies our attempts to explain, catagorise and control, that we don’t have all the answers, we will once again be able to help those who are seeking to explain their deep seated sense of a Greater Power and the many ‘spiritual’ experiences that we all have, sharing and valuing God’s reaching out to them.

* recovery of unity…once again, there seems to be a new drawing together of many Christians in to a sense of a new commonality of belief and practice. Evangelicals appreciate liturgy and fixed-hour prayer and social-actionists are studying the scriptures…Phyllis Tickle writes in her book “The Great Emergence” about a “gathering centre’ of Christians from all the great traditions, summarised as liturgicals, social justice believers, conservatives and renewalists, increasingly more aware of their commonality than their differences.

* recovery of community…the proliferation of new monastic communities is but one indicator that the superficial relationships of many traditional churches have been found wanting. Many churches are also trying to become something more than Sunday-only communities. In this arena the mega-church will perhaps find it hardest to demonstrate a genuine depth of shared life than the smaller expressions of church, both community and congregation. Acts 2 speaks volumes about the missional power of faith shared in the close relationships of a communal setting.

As I said, this is just the start of my thinking…if anyone reads this and has stuff to contribute, I’d be most grateful.