Jesus Saves

Following my last blog entry, I have started a web-search looking other similar items to the 'Jesus Adhesive Plaster' on sale in UK high streets. I found Jesus lip balm with the slogan, 'Looking Good for Jesus'. Jesus Bubble Bath declaring; ' Refresh, Renew - follow in his footsteps' and for economic tough times; 'Jesus Saves' money boxes.

True, the subject of money seems to pepper the gospel like no other topic and nothing seems to hold the attention as the value of currency either in our bank accounts or pockets.

Recently, Dr Rowan Williams attended A Common Word, a conference of Christian and Muslim scholars, aimed at promoting better understanding between the two faiths.

The scholars examined areas on which both faiths agree, such as the need to speak out against persecution of Christians in Iraq and other minorities around the world, including Iran.

But they also looked at the credit crunch from the perspective of Islam, which prohibits charging interest on lent money, and Christianity, which has changed its teaching to allow interest but still teaches against financial exploitation of the weak and vulnerable. Dr Williams said he would like to see a dialogue with Islam about what constituted a just and reasonable rate of interest. “The Christian tradition has always been cautious about interest.” For many centuries, it was at one with the traditional Muslim approach, he said.

This changed around the time of the 16th century he said. The question since then was to work out “just and proper” rates of interest, rather than go for absolute prohibition.

Dr Williams said: “I would like very much to see a dialogue developing with Islam about this question of what a just, a reasonable rate of interest might look like in the light of a religious ethic but this is a work very much in its infancy, to put it mildly,”

I wonder, what does it mean when it says, Jesus Saves?

Jesus Adhesive bandages With Free Toy Inside

Have you noticed the number of Jesus, 'memorabilia' items that are on sale in UK High Street shops? I had to smile at the irony of Jesus Adhesive Bandages I found within a stationary shop. I began to wonder whether there was theological significance lurking here.

Jesus the healer, the one who protects, the one who clings to humanity, the one who shares his image. But what about the free toy inside?

I like the definition of toy as, 'An object, often a small representation of something familiar, as an animal or person, for children or others to play with.' Playing can be a serious business. Just watch any toddler totally captivated with their favourite plaything; completely absorbed within the world of make believe that for them has a a greater sense of reality than the adult world around them.

Whilst some Christians will find the Jesus trivia to be almost blasphemous, the intended send-up also has a significant message for the believer. Hauerwas and Willimon in their book, 'Resident Aliens' claim that the church has lost its bearings because it's forgotten its Jesus-centered tradition. Rather than dwelling within that tradition, realizing that the church's mission is to build community that exemplifies the Kingdom and the Kingdom's values, Christians too frequently accommodate to the world in order to make their beliefs acceptable. In doing whatever they can to ameliorate the "scandal" of the gospel so as not to offend anyone, they betray the Kingdom and their tradition--and God.

Hauerwas and Willimon write; "What we call church is often a conspiracy of cordiality." "This accounts for why, to many people, church becomes suffocatingly superficial" and is it any wonder they view it as trivial; a free toy on the inside. The need seems to be greater than just using a sticking plaster.

When is an atheist not an A Theist.

How would you define an atheist? There appears to be two types of atheism; passive and aggressive. The first would seem to say that it does not believe in a supreme being but accepts that others do. Does not usually bring up the above fact unless attacked for being an atheist.

An aggressive atheist on the other hand could be defined as one who attacks other religions and is often intolerant to the follower of other religions. Often brings up the insensitive fact that faith is the "complete acceptance of a God without proof," somewhat equatable to ignorance which, among other things, is the "complete acceptance of an idea without proof."

But I've noticed in recent years that there appears to be a growth of what I would call aggressive passivity that seems to becoming more vocal. It almost has a become a secular religion evangelically attempting to say I'll let you believe in your God, but don't infect my space with your religiosity.

It would appear anything that smacks of an evangelical approach is seen by an atheist as a firm attack upon their space. Consequently, religion and particularly Christianity is under pressure to stay within a the closet marked "private".

Over the next few posts I want to explore what this means for the mission of the church.

Snapshot Decisions

Making a decision on limited knowledge or information is always a precarious activity. We all have been in the position of late with many paralyzed in their decision making because of the shifting sands of reality. Whether it is stock market or domestic cash flow decisions, the uncertainty has a striking similarity.

In another blog, http://www.therubicon.org/?p=1299, the encounter of Jesus with Nicodemus is compared with that of the Samaritan women. Whilst the conclusions are worthy it posed the question for me whether the writer had cameoed this Jewish leader by the result of this one encounter. What many Gospel readers fail to note is that Nicodemus appears a further two times in the gospel narrative.

The first is where this man stands before Jewish legislative to defend Jesus. In John 7:50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51"Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?"52They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."

The second John 19:38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.

Often our snapshot, knee-jerk, spur of the moment evaluation of another, is often flawed because we are not in possession of all the facts or perhaps more damagingly, because we are selective in our reading of the entire picture.

This also raises the issue of our encounters with Jesus. All too often we fail to see the Christ in our midst because of our preconcived image of how we feel he should appear.

I am grateful to the celtic saint Patrick who urges us to see Christ in every encounter.

Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.

Cabanet Resuffle

I wonder, what would have happened if God had used the same rules as today's media applies when making judgments as to an individual's suitability for public office. Would Jesus have called the same 12 to his inner cabinet? Would ambassadors Moses, or Jonah ever have been put on the short list or Paul appointed special envoy to the Gentiles?

I have heard and read the political commentaries on Mandelson's appointment and have yet to make my own judgement but I am also questioning whether my reading of the gospel is too simple? Jesus words were and continue to be counter cultural in terms of prodigals return, love for enemies, forgive 70 times 7 and so on.

The whole if the tenure of Yahweh's dealing with his people was through his underling Hased, loving kindness.

There is a sense in which the judgment values that we us to define another fails to be used when considering our own action. I have no flag to fly for Mandelson nor a real understanding of Brown's reason behind such an appointment, I simply wonder why it is that the theology we present from pulpit is not applied to our political ponderings.

United Methodist Bishop William Willimon writes “One of our duties as pastors is to renarrate people's lives in the light of the story of Jesus. This rescripting shows us how our ordinary lives are caught up in the great drama of salvation. We have become victims of narratives inadequate for the truthful living of our lives--narratives derived from psychology, economics, sociology and other secular means of defining ourselves and what happens to us. But through teaching us a new way of seeing and naming, through new words, pastors can create new worlds for us. Through words we enable people to fit their lives into the plot of God's story, and thus to turn those lives into pilgrimages.” Elsewhere he quotes Brueggemann as saying to preachers: “You preachers are world-makers. In your words, you make a new world. And if you won’t let God use you to render a new world, then all you can do is to service the old one and that’s no fun. ” (In Copenhaver, Robinson, Willimon Good News in Exile p.113 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998))

Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

In ancient mythology, Odysseus' faced a dilemma as he passing between Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla was a monster on the cliffs and Charydbis was a dangerous whirlpool. Neither fate was more attractive as both were difficult to overcome.

In a sense, the world's politicians seem to be facing similar unpalatable choices as they sail into uncharted waters. Some commentators are calling these parliamentary decisions as a "legacy vote" with inevitably long lasting implications.

Making ethical choices when the options available is often difficult seems to be our constant 21st centenary companion. In hia book, The Peaceable Kingdom, Stanley Hauerwas, a Methodist ethicist, points out that Christian ethics is not primarily about making the right decision (What should I do?), but about being the right kind of people (Who should we be?).

What story am I telling by my life and by my actions?

The notion of my story is as important as the notion of my actions. This is precisely what the society seems to deny as it gives priority to my story over our story that might shape our character. For Hauerwas, however, the human being is essentially a story-telling creature. The story of which we are a part precede the actions which we take. For we are social creation, not an individual one. The unity of a person’s life resides in the unity of a story which connects birth to life to death, and gives our story meaning. It is the primary essence of Christian belief and practice. Thus the basic question for Christian morality is not, “What am I, as an individual, to do or decide?” but “Of what stories do I find myself a part, and thus who should I be?”

Our passage between a rock and a hard place may well prove to look the same, but would our destination be more assured?