Ryle - trusting in anything except Christ

In himself [the regenerate person] sees nothing but unworthiness, but in Christ he sees ground for the fullest confidence, and trusting in Him, he believes that his sins are all forgiven, and his iniquities put away. He believes that for the sake of Christ's finished work and death upon the cross he is reckoned righteous in God's sight, and may look forward to death and judgment without alarm. He may have his fears and doubts. He may sometimes tell you he feels as if he had no faith at all. But ask him whether he is willing to trust in anything instead of Christ, and see what he will say. Ask him whether he will rest his hopes of eternal life on his own goodness, his own amendments, his prayers, his minister, his doings in church and out of church, either in whole or in part, and see what he will reply. Ask him whether he will give up Christ, and place his confidence in any other way of salvation. Depend upon it, he would say, that though he does feel weak and bad, he would not give up Christ for all the world...

J.C. Ryle, Knots Untied

Calvin - Sacraments

God did not establish the sacraments so that if men strove to keep them they would obtain some virtue which would count for righteousness. Rather, he did it so to teach them that they need to find righteousness in him.

...

What do I mean? Well, baptism teaches us that we are full of filth and corruption within. Why else do we wash hands, face and body, but because we desire to wash off the dirt? We are told that baptism is our washing; therefore it follows that when we come to be baptised, and when we bring our children, we are declaring that from the mother's womb our children are already lost and condemned....

Secondly, when we receive the Lord's Supper, what is it we are doing? Are we there to acquire some merit in God's eyes? No, we are there to confess that we are like dead men who have come to seek for life outside of ourselves. The flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ must be our meat, and his blood our drink, for in him we find all that we need. Thus, the sacraments should not make us swollen with vain pride, but they should make us walk in humility, so that, empty of pride, we only seek the provision that God has made out of his infinite bounty, and that he would bestow upon us the treasures of his grace according to our need.

John Calvin, Sermon on Galatians 2:14-16

Piper, the Prosperity Gospel, suffering and evangelism

Well, John Piper really really really doesn't like the prosperity "gospel"...

Shocking stuff. But it reopened the bit of my mind that had been mulling on the context of 1 Peter 3:15-16 for a while.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience
1 Peter 3:15-16, NIV

They're so often trotted out as the standard verses for evangelism, and so often we ask why evangelism in the West is so much harder than evangelism elsewhere, and we completely ignore the context of those verses.

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
1 Peter 3:14-18, NIV

The opportunities for real evangelism that are talked about in 1 Peter 3 are the opportunities that come from the way that we suffer for doing what is right. And by and large, the church in the West is not willing to suffer for doing what is right. And so we don't get the people asking us for the reason for the hope that we have in the same way. And so evangelism is so much harder.

I've only led two people who weren't already Christians to Christ. In one case, someone close to me was regularly attempting suicide. In the other, my gran had just died. Evangelism works through suffering.

(more stuff on why the Prosperity Gospel is wrong here)

Selecting Leaders

What do the following Biblical characters have in common?

• Mirian and Aaron in Numbers 12
• Abimelech in Judges 9
• Ish-bosheth in 2 Samuel 2
• Absalom in 2 Samuel 14-18
• Adonijah in 1 Kings 1
• Jereboam son of Nebat in 1 Kings 12
• Zimri in 1 Kings 16
• Omri in 1 Kings 16
• Athaliah in 2 Kings 11
• Shallum in 2 Kings 15
• Menahem in 2 Kings 15
• Herod
• Diotrophes in 3 John

There may be others, but those are the ones I can think of quickly.

Answer - they are the people I can think of who put themselves forwards as leaders over God's people. All of them persuaded others it would be a good idea. And all of them are judged for it.

Now how do we go about getting leaders for churches?

I hadn't thought this through as clearly when I was going through selection for ordination in the C of E. But I knew I didn't want to put myself forwards. On the other hand, however, the vicar at my church was fairly new and hadn't got round to setting up a group or anything to ask people if they would think about ordination, and it was pretty clear he wasn't going to ask anyone to think about it just yet. It took me ages to get to the point where I felt compelled to ask him if he thought I would be suitable, and even then I felt horribly guilty for asking, but it felt like I had to do it.

This post arose out of a conversation I had a few days ago with a leader at a local church. He said he got people involved if they volunteered rather than asking them. I think that's the wrong approach.

Leaders should not volunteer. They should be selected.

Of course, there is still plenty of scope for "we need 5 people to help out at this event" or conversations along the lines of "Have you thought about getting involved with any groups in the church?" // "I'd really like to help out with the children's work" // "Oh - that's great."

Self-Esteem

The stereotypical female psychological problem is that of lack of self-esteem. The stereotypical male psychological problem is that the self-esteem is based on the self.

So often I see events aimed at Christian women (for example) trying to boost their self-esteem or sense of self-worth. All that does is teaching women to sin like men instead of like women.

The cross tells us that our self-esteem should be zero. Our sense of self-worth should be zero. Our Christ-esteem can never be high enough. Our knowledge of the fact that he accepts us despite our zero self-worth (and then seeks to transform us and use us for his glory) is where our confidence should be.

Not in self-esteem.

Sermon on Jeremiah 13:1-11

I preached in college chapel this morning on Jeremiah 13:1-11. The other reading was Mark 6:14-29. This is roughly what I said...

It's very easy to take only the comfortable bits of God's word, but I'm convinced God speaks through all of it, which is just as well given today's readings. We're in Jeremiah this morning, and it's profoundly uncomfortable.

Having said that, I love this passage – it's one of those glorious passages of scripture which at first sight seems completely irrelevant, but which has so much to teach us.

It's be far more interesting as well if the TNIV hadn't bowdlerised it so badly. Here's the KJV for verse 1:

“Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.”

In other words, get some priestly underpants, wear them and don't wash them. Then go to a place a few miles away, and hide the used, unwashed pair of pants in a crack in the rocks, where all the water is going to run down over them when it rains. Then “many days later”, go back and get them. If I'd been astonishingly organised, this is where I'd say “here's one I prepared earlier”, but I think we can imagine what a pair of dirty linen pants are going to be like after a few months with rain water and mud running through them. Surprise, surprise, when Jeremiah goes to get them, they're completely useless.

It's a great visual image, isn't it? Verse 9 – God says that he will ruin the pride of the people just like those worn, soiled linen underpants were ruined. Even the people themselves are going to end up like a ruined, soiled, unusable loincloth. In context, God's going to do it by sending Babylon down on them (the place where Jeremiah had to leave the pants - “Perath” - has a name which is pretty much the same as the Euphrates, which is used as a symbol of Babylonian power).

So what on earth has this got to do with us? What I want us to notice is why God did it to them. Why would God ruin his people like that? Verse 11

“For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me” declares the LORD, to be my people for my renown and praise and honour. But they have not listened.”

God bound Israel and Judah to him to be his single people for his renown and praise and honour. But they didn't listen. They followed their own heart and ran after other gods.

You know what? The best part of 3000 years later, and I think that all too often God's people still aren't listening much.

God has bound us to himself, to be his people, for his renown and praise and honour.

God has bound us to himself. He has taken us, stupid, sinful, pitiful, lost, dead people who deserve his wrath, who aren't any better than that ruined soiled loincloth, and he has bound us intimately to himself, to the perfectly wise and living God who does whatever he wants to do.

And yet we forget that. We start going off and thinking that we're worth something independently of God or that we can somehow get to God by what we do or we look at other people who seem so sorted and we think that we're somehow worthless. But God has taken us and God has attached us to him. It's not to do with our effort. It's not to do with how good we are or aren't.

And you know what? God didn't do it so that we could be our own, empowered people. He did it so that we would be his people. Not our own. His.

He didn't do it for our renown or so that we could boast about what excellent churches we've come from or are going to. He didn't do it so that more people could hear about Alpha or Christianity Explored or Reform or New Wine or Pusey House or Wycliffe Hall. He did it for his renown, so people would hear about him.

He didn't do it for people to praise us, or say how clever we are, how pastorally sensitive, how wise, how passionate, how good looking, how cool, what good preachers we are, how well we lead worship. He didn't do it so that if we have a reunion in 20 years time we could all show off about how much God has done in our churches, what organisations we're leading or what silly title the church has given us. He did it for his praise, not for ours.

He didn't do so that people could talk about us, or about our churches. He didn't do it so that we would think we were any sounder than other people, or that we better enabled encounters with God than other people, or that were more reverent than other people. Those are all judgementalism. He did it for his honour, not for ours.

Our attitude shouldn't be like Herod's, who cared more about what his dinner guests thought of him than about the truth. It shouldn't be like Herodias's, who was so proud that she hated John because he rebuked her. Our attitude should be like the disciples who are sent out into a world where people hate and try to kill those who stand up for Jesus, and who act not for their own glory, but only so that Jesus becomes better known. Our attitude should be like John the Baptist's. Jesus must become greater, we must become less.

And one day, when Jesus is everything and we are nothing except what we are in him, when we see that all things are for his praise and renown and honour, then we will praise him forever.

But at the moment, I know that so often I'm not doing that. Too often I'm trying to hold onto myself and some shred of ownership of my life or of my renown or my praise or my honour. And I know I'm not the only one. If we're honest, so often not we're not living as God's people, for his renown and praise and honour. So often we're not listening. And God says that when his people are like that, he will ruin us and our pride. God will do what it takes to humble us. If that means ruining us so that we end up like that soiled ruined loincloth, then that's what he'll do. When we try to be proud or independent, God humbles us. God disciplines his children, even if that means breaking us and ruining us.

I guess I've felt that a bit over the last week or so. As some of you know, I haven't exactly had a great time of it, and I know I'm not the only one here. And yes, on one level I can try blaming people and whatever, but on another level God has been humbling me and showing me more and more that I can't rely on myself to keep going. Yet again, God has been breaking my pride.

And, if I'm honest, a lot of the time I hate it. I really don't like the idea that God cares far more about my attitude to him than about my service for him. But that's my pride speaking. I want to see God using me more than I want to see myself humbled before him. That's because there's still pride in here – in glorifying God with my gifts, I hope a little bit will rub off on me.

But that's not what God wants. God says in Jeremiah 13 that he will ruin his people – he will make us completely useless, if that's what it takes to get us humble before him. God would far rather that we are humble than that we are useful. I'll say that again. God would far rather that we are humble than that we are useful.

And if necessary, he will make us useless if that's what it takes to make us humble. God would rather we are useless than that we are proud before him. God would rather we are useless than that we are proud.

A word then to those of us who are suffering at the moment. May this suffering draw you closer to God in reliance on him. Be encouraged - God is treating you as his children and working for your good, even when we can't see it and even when it doesn't feel like it. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

So keep on going and keep turning to God, he has bound us to himself to be his people for his renown and praise and honour.

A word to those who aren't suffering at the moment. Are you proud? Are you even proud of not being proud? Then if you are really God's child, he will humble you because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as a child.

God made us for himself, he bound us to himself for to be his people for his renown and praise and honour. Will we listen?

Science Quote

The game of science can accurately be described as a never-ending insult to human intelligence.
Joao Magueijo, Faster than the Speed of Light (p13)

Experiencing the Life and Death of Jesus

We can't experience Jesus' life without experiencing Jesus' death.
We shouldn't experience Jesus' death without experiencing his life.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
2 Corinthians 4:5-11, ESV

I hear lots of claims of experiencing Jesus' new life. But here the apostle Paul says that it is necessary to “always carry in the body the death of Jesus” in order for his life to be manifest in our bodies. We can't experience Jesus' life in our bodies without also (and at the same time) experiencing Jesus' death in our bodies.

On the other hand, some people, myself included, tend to emphasise the experience of Jesus' death – the self-negation, the giving of self over to death, “the never-ending road to Calvary” – without remembering that Paul says that the carrying around of the death of Jesus is “so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies”. We shouldn't experience Jesus' death without also experiencing his life.

Sermon on the Magnificat

This is lightly adapted from a sermon I wrote last week for preaching class. The passage is Luke 1:46-55.

Suppose you had to pick a woman to change the world. Who would you choose? Someone famous - a pop star, an actress, a celebrity, a TV presenter? Someone influential - A politician, a top lawyer, maybe a teacher or a doctor or an academic? Or maybe you'd go for someone spectacularly bad who could be turned around – a prostitute maybe or a criminal?

Chances are you wouldn't do what God did in v27 of Luke 1. God is going to change the world, and he starts with Nazareth - a town so obscure that no-one had ever written about it - in Galilee - a provincial backwater that most people ignored, and he starts with Mary, probably a teenage girl who's never even had sex and is engaged to be married to a guy whose only claim to fame is that 1000 years before, he'd had a famous ancestor. Lets face it, she's not the obvious choice for the job. At least get someone with maybe some influence, or useful life experience or at least from somewhere people have heard of! But that's not the way God does things. God chooses Mary.

Reading from verse 28...

The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you."

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

“How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail."

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me according to your word." Then the angel left her.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!"

Mary has had an angel appear to her and tell her that she's “found favour with God”, and that she's going to be the mother of the Son of God. Even her respectable relative, Elizabeth, is acting like she's amazing. She's probably realised that she might well become the most famous woman of all time.

How does she respond?

She takes everything people have said and points it back to God. It's not about her at all really. Listen again to what she says:

My soul glorifies the LORD – literally that's closer to “my soul bigs God up” - and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant – that would be better as the “humiliation of his servant”. From now on all generations will call me blessed for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name.

She's praising God because God has noticed her, even though she's nothing.

Actually, it's not just Mary. She doesn't even mention herself again in the song, but she notices that actually when God chose her, he did what he's always been doing.

His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers (powerful ones) from their thrones but has lifted up the humble (or the humiliated ones – the low ones). He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised his ancestors.

God has been doing what God has always done. Mary has been looking at the Old Testament, and realising that's always the way that God acts, and that's the way God promised to act. You know, they say that 60% of this song is lifted directly from lots of different bits of the Old Testament, and the other 40% is heavily influenced by it. How many teenage girls could do that. Come to think of it, how many adults who are regular church attenders could do that?

Mary's been studying her Bible, she knows what God is like. She knows that God always looks out for and helps the humiliated, the low, the hungry ones who fear him, who respect him, who honour him. He doesn't go for the proud, the powerful, the rich – if anything, God brings them down because they are too cocky, they don't respect God properly. So God chose Abraham. He was a nobody too – he was a nomadic Chaldean sheep herder. He was so unimportant, archaeologists reckon they'll probably never have any archaeological evidence that he even existed. But God met him and told him that he would become a mighty nation. Why? Not because Abraham was great, but because God loved him.

Here's Moses speaking to the people as they are about to enter the promised land. It's Deuteronomy 7

The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

God didn't choose his people because they were great. He chose them because he is a loving God. He loved them because he loved them, he made promises to them because he wanted to. God doesn't choose the best people, he chooses whoever he wants.

God chose Mary.

And when he did that, he did exactly what he always does, and what he's promised he'll keep on doing. He chose the foolish things, the weak things, the despised things, so that no-one can boast.

We need to hear this today.

Maybe you're feeling weak. Maybe you're feeling foolish. Maybe you're feeling despised. Maybe you're feeling like you're a nobody. Well if so, Mary would say that's great, because God chooses people like you. If you respect God for who he is, if you fear him, then God will show mercy on you. God will lift you up, God will fill you with good things. That's what Mary's son Jesus came to do – to show mercy to people like you so that you can know the incredible joy of knowing God for yourself, and praise him as Mary does here.

If you to find out more about how you can come to know God, e-mail me, or talk to a Christian you know.

Or maybe you don't feel like that. Maybe you're proud, maybe you're powerful, maybe you're rich. For you then, this isn't such good news, because God scatters those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He brings down the powerful, he sends the rich away empty.

To you, what this passage is saying is “Change”. Come before God, recognise that he is the amazing God who created the universe with a word - the God who keeps everything in the entire universe running, the God who is so big and so powerful that we can't even begin to get our heads around it, the God who is so pure that if anything or anyone is less than perfect in his presence they just get burnt up. Come before that God, and realise that you are nothing. Realise that however rich you think you are, you are bankrupt in God's sight – that however clever you think you are, you are a complete fool – that however powerful you are, that you can do nothing. Recognise that, then maybe when you see that you are poor, that you are humiliated and worth nothing, when you are hungry for God, then he will have mercy on you. Or maybe, like me, you're a bit of both. Maybe you need to hear that where you are weak God is longing to bless you and to build you up, but where you feel strong and rich, he will tear down your pride so that you come to trust in him alone.

Because that's what he's doing by choosing a nobody like Mary. That's what he's always done. And that's what he's promised to do.

Lets pray.

Father God, where we are proud, break us. Make us into people who recognise our poverty, our humiliation, who hunger and thirst for you, and then who know what it is to be filled and lifted up by you, and to rejoice in God our Saviour.

Quote about consciousness of sin

Never let us be discouraged with ourselves; it is not when we are conscious of our faults that we are the most wicked: on the contrary, we are less so. We see by a brighter light. And let us remember, for our consolation, that we never perceive our sins till He begin to cure them.
Francois Fenelon (1651-1715)

more quotes

Discpline

The more we fear crosses, the more reason we have to think that we stand in need of them: let us not be discouraged when the hand of God layeth heavy ones upon us. We ought to judge of the violence of our disease by the violence of the remedies which our spiritual physician prescribes for us. It is a great argument of our wretchedness and of God's mercy, that, notwithstanding the difficulty of our recovery, He vouchsafes to undertake our cure.
Francois Fenelon (1651-1715)

Collect for Easter Eve

Grant, Lord,
that we who are baptized into the death
of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
may continually put to death our evil desires
and be buried with him;
and that through the grave and gate of death
we may pass to our joyful resurrection;
through his merits,
who died and was buried and rose again for us,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Brokenness

There is no true Christianity without brokenness.

If we are not broken, then we have not met God and we do not know ourselves.

Isaiah's response to the vision of God's glory was “Woe to me, I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king – the LORD Almighty.”
Isaiah 6:5, NIV

Why should we be broken? Because God is not like us.

When we start to see what he is like, we realise that we are nothing.

If we understand something of God's power – that power that spoke and the heavens and earth were formed – the power that sustains everything, upholds everything and can accomplish whatever he wants – we cannot fail to see that we are totally impotent and pitiful.

If we begin to fathom the extent of his wisdom – that he sovereignly planned all things, from the intricate functioning of atomic nuclei to the most distant galaxies, and who uses even outright rebellion against him for his glory – we must then realise we are totally ignorant and foolish.

If we glimpse something of his love – the love that would seek out his enemies and die so that they might be reconciled to himself, then we see that we are condemned by our selfish uncaring attitude even towards our friends.

The more we see that contrast between ourselves and God, the more we are reduced to a state of shocked silence as we see that we are totally unworthy of even existing in his universe, the more we see that we are incapable of understanding him and the more we must throw ourselves onto him.

That is not a bad thing – it is the right state for us to be in and the state in which we are most useful for God. As Paul wrote:

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
2 Corinthians 4:6-10, ESV

It is when we are at our most broken, our most clearly foolish and powerless, our most dead that the power and wisdom that is working in us and the life that is displayed in us is most clearly not our own.

And yet, so often, we see and hear even church leaders approaching God in prayer and in praise without this sense of reverent silence, of brokenness. So often we hear people pray without recognising the One to whom they are praying. I know for my part that I find that increasingly difficult to do – I find it really offputting when others do it, but ultimately I suppose I feel sorry for them. If they have not been struck with awe at what God has done – if their god is so small, so weak, so foolish that they can approach him like that, then I cannot see how they can be satisfied in him or rejoice in him either.

I have been very much struck recently by Mark 1:39-3:6. There are six episodes there – the first three with outcasts, the unclean and sinners coming to Jesus for physical and spiritual healing. The second three have confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees who thought they were righteous, cumulating in them plotting to kill him. And in the middle, we have Mark 2:17.

Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mark 2:17

I act as if I am righteous every time I condemn someone or think myself better than them. I act as if I am righteous every time I pretend that I am ok and that I am capable of holding myself together. I act as if I am righteous every time I try to come before Jesus other than broken and crying out for mercy and grace. If we think ourselves righteous, Jesus does not call us, a path which leads ultimately to us killing Jesus because of his claims (as in 3:6). Wholeness leads to condemnation.

If we recognise that we are sinners, and come to Jesus humble and broken, as the leper did in 1:40 who came begging on his knees, then Jesus will heal us and forgive us, then he has come to call us and save us.

If we do not, then he will not.

The Wound of Knowledge

I've just finished reading one of Rowan Williams' earlier books - The Wound of Knowledge. It's basically a review of "Christian Spirituality" from the New Testament as far as Luther and St John of the Cross.

What Williams means by "Christian Spirituality" is the experience of being a Christian, especially in terms of what it means to take up the cross and follow Jesus in terms of our minds - what it means to die to ourselves, to know nothing except Christ, what it means to be people who follow, worship and dwell in a God who became human and died. In doing so, he covers quite a lot of historical theology, including the Gnostics (and anti-gnostics), Augustine and Aquinas. I found that helpful in terms of seeing how, for example, Arianism and Gnosticism both stemmed from (Neo-)Platonism.

His style is very different to the classic "evangelical" style - he seems to try to present each view as if he agrees with it, and doesn't do much in terms of critical evaluation, rather seeking to explore tensions between views. That sometimes makes it difficult to see what he actually thinks himself - perhaps he accepts that all the writers he considers are straining after the same reality, trying to verbalise it in different ways. That means that his take on Luther, for example, is very different to the one I'm used to - his main focus is on the experience of Luther's understanding of the unworthiness of people in God's sight and God's transcendence rather than on the reformation solas

For what it's worth, I think his actual views are somewhere between those of Luther and John of the Cross (whose views I'm aiming to write about soon). His treatment of the Biblical stuff is pretty good...

Emptying

I would like to write about something I read recently, but don't have time just now. So this is a reminder to me and a "teaser" for you.

What I'd like to write about is some of the views of St John of the Cross, as I understand Rowan Williams' explanation of them in The Wound of Knowledge. I don't wholly agree with these, but I think they are very interesting. Here's a sample:

"...the purifying of mental and spiritual life; understanding is reduced to faith, memory to hope, will to love.

Illumination is the running out of language and thought... the need to let go of cerebral activity when that point is reached.

Power and Jesus

I guess one of the key concepts in society at the moment is the concept of power. This is especially true when we are thinking about communication. The people who do the communicating have power over those to whom they communicate. They manipulate the information to their own ends and so cannot ultimately be trusted.

As I understand it, that's just basic pop postmodernism. Yet it's amazing to me that, while it is widely understood (though not perhaps widely articulated) in society, people seem to be surprised at the consequences. For example, it explains very well the disillusionment with politicians. If everyone is communicating primarily to gain or exercise power over you, then you cannot trust their information. Politicians cannot be trusted, though there still seems to be a residual (and inconsistent and unjustified) level of trust for the media.

This mistrust applies also when we try to communicate the Christian message. In my experience, people are happy to think about or talk about Jesus, or what Christianity means to me, or anything like that. But they are not happy and rapidly get uncomfortable if the conversation turns to them and Jesus' claims to authority over them. The obvious reason for this is that it has suddenly become personal - the stakes have been raised and what is said now might have a moral cost to them as well. After all,

The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
John 3:19-20, ESV

I'd like to suggest there might be another reason as well, one which is an unhelpful obstacle we put in people's way. When we start speaking about Jesus' authority over other people, we are implicitly making a claim to power over them. All of a sudden, instead of being their friend, we have become a politician - someone who is communicating with the aim of gaining power, and so therefore we can no longer be trusted. We are doing just the same thing as the world does.

One of the many great things about the Bible is that this is already dealt with. We can see, for example, how Jesus used his great authority over people.

[Jesus], though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:6-8, ESV

Jesus used his authority and his power to make himself nothing. He did the exact opposite of what so many in the world do. He communicted with us by becoming nothing. Amazingly counter-cultural and amazingly attractive.

We see something similar in Paul's approach to speaking about Jesus:

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants [δουλους - slaves] for Jesus' sake.
2 Corinthians 4:5, ESV

Paul's approach seems to be still to make the claims of Jesus' authority, but to do so being very very clear that he himself is not gaining power in this claim, but that he is a servant, even a slave, of the people to whom he is speaking.

I hope and pray that I will be enabled, by God's mighty power, to do the same.

Self-Acceptance

I'm just writing a short article about the area of self-worth and self-acceptance. A lot of my thinking on this springs from my own journey of self-acceptance and also my experiences of having a sister who struggled with anorexia for many years.

And I suppose in a way that's the best place to start, because it's one extreme view. One of the problems with anorexia is often that the person has or at least presents such a low view of their own worth that they want to starve themselves, harm themselves or even take their own lives.

We see the same kind of thing in a lesser form in a lot of other places. I know that one of the difficulties of being a teacher is helping pupils who have very little self-esteem achieve anything. Their lack of confidence in themselves can be paralysing.

And it's a problem society in general has latched onto as well. I'm sure if you go into most bookshops, you'd find books on how to build your self-esteem. And in my experience, the normal ways to try and build self-esteem are to base it in some way on who we are or on what we do. So people accept themselves – they think that they are worth something – based on their job, or their family, or their ethnicity, or their money, or their looks, or their sexual prowess or their fame or their fruitful ministry. They think that makes them worth something.

But at the end of the day, that doesn't work either, and I can see three main problems with it. The first is that it can lead to jealousy and dissatisfaction. You see, if I'm worth something because I'm clever, then surely if I meet someone who is more clever, then I'll think they are worth more than me. If I'm worth something because I'm popular, then that means celebrities are worth more than me. If I'm worth something because of wealth, then someone who is richer is worth more than me. And so we end up jealous of others. We end up idolising them, but secretly wanting to pull them down, so that we can be better than they are. We see it all the time.

Another problem is that it fails to cope with the reality that life isn't always easy. If I'm worth something because I'm a talented sportsman, then what happens after a car accident which leaves me in a wheelchair? What about Job?

But the biggest danger with basing our self-worth on who we are or what we do is that it leads to pride. If I'm worth something because I'm middle class English, what does that mean about those who aren't? Are they worth less? If I'm worth something because I'm wise or rich or strong, what does that mean about those who aren't? So if that's true then why shouldn't I boast? Surely if it makes me worth something, it's worth me boasting about!

But God brings low our pride, so that he alone will be exalted.

This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise boast in their wisdom or the strong boast in their strength or the rich boast in their riches, but let those who boast boast about this: that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these things I delight,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:23, NRSV

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and I regard them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him...
from Philippians 3, NRSV

What is it about me that is worth something? According to Jeremiah and to Paul, only the value of knowing God, in Christ Jesus my Lord. And that isn't because of something I've done. It's nothing to be credited to me. It is entirely because God is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. It is because God the Father made me, because God the Son became a man and suffered and died for me, because God the Holy Spirit dwells in my heart and is bringing me into union with Christ.

Anything else I could trust in would fail me in the end, but God is my strength and my refuge. It is in him that I can accept myself, not because of anything I have done or can do, but because God loves me and has accepted me. And therefore, I should accept others because God has accepted them.

Scars

One of the best ways of recognising bodies is by the scars. Scars define and make us who we are.