Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

More From Brian McLaren on Lambeth

Paul writes – This time an interview (post-Lambeth) from Christianity Today:

“…CT: The Anglican Communion is struggling to hold together Anglicans with many different theological positions. What's your approach in bringing polar opposite Christians to sit together at the same table?

BM: I think three things can help us a great deal. First, Scripture. The fact is, Scripture can be used as a weapon to exclude, wound, discredit, and vanquish opponents, but it also can be used as a kind of flashlight to guide us in dark times so we can learn to walk together through differences and divisions - of which there were many in New Testament times.

I think we're far wiser when we don't simply troll the Scriptures seeking to find verses that prove "them" wrong and "us" right - but rather when we ponder Scriptures that teach us how to treat one another when we differ - 1 Corinthians 13 being a prime text in this regard. (I always tell people, 1 Corinthians 13 was written for church controversies, not weddings!)…”

You can read the whole interview here…Brian also offers a few thoughts on his blog here…

Imagining and Entering into the Place of the Other

Paul writes – I was struck again by the way Archbishop Rowan Williams is trying to make possible the building of “bridges” between opposing factions within the Anglican Communion. He continues to offer an alternative way; a gospel way… a way of embodying God’s “good news” centered on and in Jesus Christ. This is not the way of politics and of scape-goating; the way of the bully; nor is it the way of business in managing conflict. This is the way of love, love which lays down its life for the “other”. A love which makes space for the other.

Here’s an excerpt and the two important perspectives Rowan is wanting to bring into conversation; a conversation and way of being toward the other that trusts God and trusts the other.

I want now to engage in what might be a rather presumptuous exercise — and certainly feels like a risky one. I want to imagine what people on different sides of our most painful current debate hope others have heard or are beginning to hear in our time together. I want to imagine what the main messages would be, within an atmosphere of patience and charity, from those in our Communion who hold to a clear and traditional doctrinal and moral conviction, and also from those who, starting from the same centre, find fewer problems or none with some recent innovations. Although these voices are inevitably rooted in the experience of the developing world and of North America, the division runs through many other provinces internally as well.

So first: what might the traditional believer hope others have heard?

And then: what might the not so traditional believer hope has been heard?”

To find out how Rowan described the experience of both sides, you can read his whole Presidential Address here as a PDF. This is his second Presidential Address to those gathered at Lambeth.

Three’s – A Way of Reading, Listening, Experiencing God and Discerning Together

“…Services for … [Alt-Worship / Emergent] gatherings can be quite bizarre for a traditionalist—filled with such things such as walking through labyrinths, sitting in couches in the round, having informal and participatory conversations with the preacher, or with having many things go on at the same time during the service…”

Scot McKnight

 

Paul writes – This an old post re~posted. I do so because of my continued belief that we need different practices of engaging together with Scripture. We’ve relied overly on preaching (where the congregation becomes an “audience”) and individualized “bible reading”. I also want to continue encouraging good practice of gospel / culture engagement and communal discernment (learning to recognise God and God’s activity.

“A significant experience for me over the last 12-months has been my regular participation is a small group – my “three”. It’s actually four persons (we remained as a “three” for the whole course), and flows out of an hour long contemplative experience (imaginative prayer with Scripture, lectio divina etc – That sort of prayerful practice), followed by 30 minutes of journaling – of sitting with the content, feelings, images, sounds, colours, and experiences of our prayer. We then gathered together as a “three” and prayerfully listened to each other & God present with us, as we:

1.        Share what happened for me during the contemplative prayer? Where was God in that experience? Who was God for me? And, how was I for God? The Bible is engaged with formationally and not primarily informationally. 

2.        We then journal again. The person sharing reflects on their experience of “telling” – how was the experience for them? What new insights did they gain as they told of their experience? The other members of the “three” journal and notice the effect on them of listening – they are paying particular attention to their feelings and what they experienced as they listened - “how was it for them as they listened?”

3.        We then talk to the group about this additional experience. The person who shared talks about their experience of sharing, the others talk about what they experienced (including the insights they gained, what they felt (e.g. excitement, sadness, confusion etc) as they listened. We listen for the “more” – the places where we discern the presence of God, life, and passion/energy.

4.        This is repeated three more times – each person sharing, the other’s listening, and then dialoging. Time wise it’s limited to an hour.

It is an excellent practice for growing, deepening ones engagement with God, and learning (about ones self, others, Scripture, God etc) in a “corporate” setting. Parker Palmer talks of his taking, “an inner journey in community”, and that’s exactly what happens – “three’s” is about taking “an inner journey in community.”

Spirituality Takeaways…?

Paul writes – I was struck by a short piece that Cheryl on the other side of the Tasman recently came across. It’s a piece about rituals and the modern search for meaning. It also reflects on pick n’ mix spirituality… The author makes some good points, and his closing paragraph should be an encouragement to many denominational churches that have in their traditions some wonderful (and often much-neglected) treasures.

Indeed, what might happen if we shared some of our resources and trusted God to be in the searching and the yearnings so many feel for meaning, transcendence, God etc…?

Here’s the opening paragraph:

“…We are living in a moment of profound transition in the way many…understand and use religious ritual and practice. Not surprisingly, as with any transition in life whether personal, familial, or social, there are fault lines, divisions and serious misunderstandings that arise between people. Stated very simply; for millions of [people] religious rituals and spiritual practices no longer function as they have for millennia. They are no longer sources of identity or behaviors necessarily connected to a particular tribal or creedal identity nor acts embedded in a coherent or larger theological framework…”

You can read the whole article here. It’s worth a read.

Reflecting on Lambeth

Paul writes – Before I offer some thoughts on Rowan Williams and the “middle way”, here’s a three links you may find interesting:

Rowan Williams’ Presidential Address

Brian McLaren addresses Lambeth and liken the Church “to an old male tortoise”.  Also a brief chat with Brian. Bishop Alan Wilson reflects on McLaren’s address at Lambeth. Episcopal Life picks up on it too.

Archbishop says truth is not held by any one party.

Now for the bulk of today’s post. I continue (and will continue to do so) to have a very high regard for what Archbishop Rowan Williams is trying to do and how he’s trying to do (the way he conducts himself)… He’s trying to hold a middle way (via media) – a way of deepening, (com)union, holding things in life-giving tension, space-making, trust and love. Whether that way; which is a deeply Jesus-centered way, is likely to bear fruit in a communion pulled by interest groups in multiple directions is yet to be proven and I suspect it won’t be. There are too many people in too many different spaces. Perhaps it’s not an either/or situation but rather a both/and… at some levels clarity is required for the sake of those who need it; on other issues the place of sitting with the tension of opposing views is appropriate?

If you think of things Anglican through the lense of “faith development” – thinking of work by James Fowler, Alan Jamieson, and Nicola Slee (to name three people whose work I’m relatively familiar with) and you imagine people spread across that faith continuum, and you also think about somebody like Rowan Williams and those who could be characterized as being “stage 2” or “3” (significant groupings in many churches, particularly in Evangelical contexts – anecdotal comment! I’m also aware of the issues around talking about “stages”) then I’m not surprised that there is a fundamental disconnect between Williams’ approach and large groupings in the Anglican Communion.

In this sense I see Williams holding Anglican’s to a higher and a harder standard… a standard that demands more and promises more. It’s the way of the cross! A way that should uniquely characterise the Church, but in these shrill agenda-driven times is seldom evident. Neither is love. While we often talk of the “middle way” and a wide-way it is in fact a narrow way and few are willing (clearly) to walk it. Truth is after all embodied. It’s relational, not rational.

Sydney – Backdrop to the greatest story ever told

Alan writes – There are many aspects of the Roman Catholic Church that I have learnt to admire and draw from; so being near Sydney at the time of the ‘World Youth Day’ events was too good an opportunity to miss.

We waited two hours with hundreds of thousands of others to see the Pope stream past in a whirr of speed and security. Seeing all the security at work – dogs, diplomatic squads, helicopters, police on motor bikes, police on horses, police on push bikes and police in boats etc made the two hours nearly as quickly as the Pope. We wandered the closed of streets with tens of thousands of young Catholics. We toured the harbour to get a feel for the extent of the crowds – 200,000 people is a huge crowd. We watched the Stations of the Cross (see here) from a park in Circular Quay with the noise of trains, rail announcements, helicopters, ferries and cars all around. It was a very moving portrayal in the midst of the market place. And somehow the story of the crucifixion made more sense in the midst of the realities of a large city.

This was the first time I have ever seen western-secular-capitalist-society dwarfed by the Christian story, Christian values and young people openly and unashamedly living their faith. There were no evangelistic hard sells! No one peddling tracts! (oh; us protestants have so much to learn. Why are protestant gatherings like conventions of commission salesmen?) There were just tens of thousands of young Christians waving flags, singing and laughing all over the city. And they ruled the city.

The streets were closed to traffic but awash with people. Sydney, it seemed, didn’t know what to make of it – yet everywhere there was delight in what was happening and open conversations about faith, spirituality and belief. They were happening on the streets, in the cafes and the pubs. The shop keepers, proprietors of flash hotels and restaurant owners seemed more perplexed than annoyed that theses crowds weren’t buying. And all the talk of protests and concern about apologies might have been part of the media view but it wasn’t what it was like on the ground.

As we wandered the streets and listened and watched it slowly dawned on me this was the first time I had ever seen secular capitalist society step back, move beyond perceptions and prejudices of Christianity and enjoy watching, listening to and being with Christians. So for one weekend, in my life time, I can now say I have seen a major western city become the backdrop to the greatest story ever told. And to be honest, from my perspective; most Sydney-ites seemed to enjoy it, be moved by it and value it just as much as we did.

The Importance of a Local Congregation

Paul writes – Stanley Hauerwas has a wonderful turn of phrase, “… the way the gospel is known is by one person being for another person the story of Jesus.” He reminds us that “our responsibility is to be faithful to the task God has given us. The result [of that task] is God’s doing.”

Missionally speaking, the local church (and thus individual Jesus-followers too) is an important locus for the gospel. Lesslie Newbigin reminds us that this locus has two important dimensions, both of which, if they’re not present, undermine the proclamation of “good news” in the public arena. This focus on the local congregation is one important reason why I involve myself in Allelon’s Mission in Western Culture Project (see also here) 

The first dimension is that the local congregation needs to be known in its own context as the place (and people) in which, and amongst which good news is distinctively, authentically, lovingly and joyfully embodied. The only way that people get to see and experience the significance of the Jesus-story is by means of a local congregation (gathered and dispersed) that believes it and lives it. A local congregation and its members embody the significance of the story of Jesus, and it is as a consequence of this embodying that they are able to see “to challenge public life with the gospel.”  Jesus “did not write a book but formed a community.”

The second dimension is that the good news must be enacted and worked out. It must flow outwards. The local congregation enacts Jesus’ priesthood in the life of the world. It is in the ordinary and everyday contexts of the members of a local congregation that the mighty power of Spirit and gospel “is released into the world”. It is in the “sacrifices of love” and “obedience offered to God” that “the work of Christ is to be manifested.” 

The local churches “members will be advocates for human liberation by being themselves liberated. Its actions for [reconciliation], justice and peace will be, and will be seen to be, the overflow of a life in Christ, where God’s [reconciliation], justice…and peace are already and experienced [reality in their communal life together].”

Newbigin again reminds us that “It will only be by movements that begin with the local congregation in which the reality of the new creation is present, known, and experienced, and from which [all ages] will go into every sector of public life to claim it for Christ [by being present as the story of Jesus]. [It is the local congregation dispersed that will] unmask the illusions which have remained hidden and [will] expose all areas of public life to the illumination of the gospel.” “But,” Newbigin adds, this “will only happen as and when local congregations renounce an introverted concern for their own life, and recognise that they exist for the sake of those who are not members, as sign, instrument, and foretaste of God’s redeeming grace for the whole life of society.” (Any emphasis in quotes is mine).  For another very useful take on the importance of a congregational hermeneutic, see this 2006 post and this one by Steve Taylor. The insights are still as important today; perhaps more so, than they were in 2006.          

Your Gospel is to Small…Bradley Nassif

Paul writes – Bradley Nassif, an Eastern Orthodox theologian has recently written an interesting essay, The Poverty of Love. In it he responds to the question, “is our gospel to small?” His conversation partner is “desert spirituality” – the desert “Father’s & Mother’s”

“…If these desert dwellers were alive today, I believe they would tell us that our gospel is too small because our wills are too big. The core battleground, they argued, is the human heart. They would counsel us to declare war on the inner adversaries that hide secretly in our hearts, and to be watchful of their stealth attacks. We're wisest, they taught, when we concentrate our energies on the source of all our problems, the inner person; its selfish orientation, dark impulses, sexual preoccupations, greed, lust, anger, unforgiveness, hatred, and other "works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:19&21). Every believer still has a powerful attraction to sin. So the monks took decisive action in their reliance on God, engaging in the hard work of holiness, something they called ascesis or spiritual training…”

Again I’m struck by the importance of the inward dimension of the Christian life. Those of you who listened to the recent interview with Abbot Christopher Jamison will recall the stress he placed on that dimension and its ongoing importance for the outward / missional dimension of the Jesus following life. I’d want to describe this heart-work in terms of the counter-cultural work of the desert in the heart. It is the important but much neglected work of orthopathy (typically neglected in favour of “orthodoxy” and more recently “orthopraxy”. I first heard the term used by Brian McLaren. Alan Hirsch writes about it here. Henri Nouwen was describing it in his little book, The Way of the Heart). Parker Palmer might want to describe it as “the inward journey of the cross”. Thomas Merton might want to describe the journey and the work of the heart in terms of “the recovery of the True Self”. Others might want to talk about it in terms of an integral part of our becoming more fully human, more fully alive!

Additionally I’ve been listening to some great 10-14min podcasts by Nassif. They include an introductory series on “Desert Spirituality for Ordinary Folk” – a series on desert monasticism. He also has some other excellent podcasts including a two-part interview with Scot McKnight on the Atonement. You can find all of his podcast’s here – scroll through them and have a listen to those that interest you. They’re also downloadable as Mp3’s.

Parker Palmer – Celebrating with him the Contradictions in the Christian Life.

Paul writes – Jossey-Bass has done us a wonderful service in reprinting (2008) Parker Palmer’s simply wonderful, The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life (2 Introductions plus 145 pages of text. The book is hardcover and is 13.5cm X 18.5cm). Ave Maria Press originally published the book in 1980 while I was in my late teens and I was still years from discovering Palmer. The original introduction by Henri Nouwen remains, but has now been supplemented by an excellent 13-page introduction by Palmer.

As I read Palmer’s introduction on the eve of the Anglican Lambeth gathering, I couldn’t help think of the importance and relevance of Palmer’s notion of paradox and the Christian life. I want to a paragraph and a few additional lines of text. This sets the tone of the book.

Palmer writes [with an addition by me]:

“ …The capacity to embrace true paradoxes is more than an intellectual skill for holding complex thoughts. It is a life skill for holding complex experiences. Take for example our encounter with “the other,” with the person who sees a different reality from ours because he or she stands in a different place. To some extent, the other contradicts not only our thoughts but also our lives, and that can be threatening. If we lack the capacity to allow this to segue into a paradox – a both-and that has the potential to open our minds and hearts to something new – we will most likely fall back on our hard-wired “fight or flight” response. But if we understand the promise of paradox, our encounters with “the other” have the potential to make our world larger, more generous and more helpful…

If we are willing to “hang in there” with a country, a colleague… a child [or a fellow Anglican with a different understanding of Biblical interpretation, sexual ethics, truth, and orthodoxy] – holding the unresolved tension between reality and possibility and inviting something new into being – we have a chance to participate in the evolution of a better reality…” (Pp. xxx-xxxi).

Cultural Accommodation…?

Paul writes – Nice little quote from blogging friend Jason Clark:

“…A great deal of academic theology and thought explains how the modern church has lost touch with culture due to the influence of postmodernity, and it’s enculturation to modernity. In other words the modern church [on the ground] mistakes some of what is thinks as biblical and theological, for cultural accommodations, as has been the case with every other form of church in history. And when culture changes, the church is left disconnected from people…”

Link, here…