Getting Dirty

Last month I posted my church magazine article so I thought i would do so again.

Are we covered in Dust?

A couple of years ago I watched a Nooma DVD (Rob Bell) called Dust. It was about discipleship. This year at Spring Harvest there was reference to the same term Dust of the Rabbi. It is an interesting term and idea.

It suggests that in the first century AD, and for some time before, young Jewish men would be called to be apprentices or disciples (talmidim) of a Rabbi. Rabbis did not necessarily teach sat down in schools or synagogues, although that was part of what they did. A Rabbi would walk from place to place teaching as they went along. A group of disciples would be around 12 and they would walk with and behind the rabbi. If they were keen students then they would try and keep pace with the rabbi following very closely at his heel. They did this in order to hear every word that the rabbi spoke, every bit of wisdom, comment about the creation and God, every bit of interpretation of the Torah.

To be a disciple meant giving up home and family for the period of training, it meant following the rabbi wherever he went. The aim of the disciple was to become like the rabbi, not simply to learn facts or the teachings o that they could pass their discipleship exams. It was not a course of study to undertake but a lifestyle to observe and learn, it was teaching to understand and live by. The aim of the disciples was not to acquire knowledge but to become like their Rabbi. The teaching was not simply transferring knowledge from one person to another but something that went so much deeper. This was about learning through formal instruction, observation, imitation and practice. The more devoted the disciple was the closer they walked to their rabbi, the more covered in the rabbi’s dust they would be.

The question that has been going through my mind recently has been: how covered in the rabbi’s dust are we at Cottingham Road Baptist Church? Do we pay attention to what the rabbi Jesus taught, do we spend time listening for: pearls of wisdom, interpretation of Torah and observing the way to live? Do we spend time closely following the Rabbi? Do we learn by observation of the rabbi, by imitation of the rabbi and by putting what we have learned into practice? How dusty are we?

One of the aspects of discipleship was to take on the yoke of your Rabbi. Jesus says that his “burden is easy and his yoke is light” (Matthew11:30). Does this mean it is easy to be a disciple? Does this mean that it does not take effort? From experience I would suggest that what Jesus is expressing is that his yoke, his interpretation of the Torah is not as complex as other teachers of his day. Jesus was not trying to create a set of complex interpretations to understand and learn and then to live by. He defined adultery quite simply as looking lustfully at another person; he defined murder as getting angry in your heart. There was not the same degree of complexity of interpretation instead he developed a way of understanding what was at the heart of the Torah (law). This in many ways makes it harder to follow rather than easier. Most of us would prefer a set of rules that laid out what was right and what was wrong in black and white. Instead Jesus understands that even if the rules are not broken then our attitudes our way of being can be equally sinful.

Jesus also said “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). Discipleship is therefore not easy, it can be life threatening, it can be difficult, yet that is not because of the rules and complexity of the laws but due to the radical life style that being a disciple entails.

This month can we all ask ourselves Are we covered in Dust?

your fellow, far too clean, follower of Jesus

Richard

I Did

In follow up to the post should i where i posed the question as to posting a letter in my church magazine - I DID!

The response has been limited:

1. Phone call from an 80+ lady saying that she did not want to share her sex life with anyone.

2. A tongue in cheek comment from one house group leader in the house group - so this is second hand and i may be misrepresenting what was said - that they now had to sit and talk about sex!

3. The BT (baptist Times) have asked if they can print it for the blog watch section, or an edited version of it not for content but length.

4. A previous minister of the church, who still receives the magazine and i needed to speak to this week, was very impressed by the letter.

5. Other comments more hearsay than anything else have been along the lines of not taking what i wrote seriously.

Unfortunately i think many of my folk missed the point, i wanted to encourage conversations over things that actually matter. Things that we seem to be able to talk about in the pub or coffee shop with friends or even in facebook status updates but would shy away from in church. Why are there such taboos? I wonder if we talked about these things of faith, sex, money in churches more would marriages be saved, would there be less tension over finances, would peoples faith grow and deepen rather than be shallow.

On another note I recently played 'Indescribable' (available here) it is fantastic, it is one of those feel good expressive, joyful, pieces of theatre/worship/spontaneity. Yet i had some complaints afterwards because it was American! What do you do?

My First Animation

Did this earleir it took about half an hour to do but is okay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYCgLKoJEqM

Should I?

Each month i write an article for the church magazine. Each month i wonder what to put. Each month I wonder if anyone has actually read it. This month i think i might put this in.

I think that there is a problem in church today. We are failing to live as the body of Christ. I do not single out Cottingham Road Baptist Church for such a comment but generally the churches I have been a part of for the past 40 years or more have all failed to live up to the ideals and expectations of what I think we see being advocated in the bible. Paul refers time and time again to the church being the Body of Christ (e.g. 1 Cor 12). He says how if one part hurts all hurt. Yet so often I church life we fail to even communicate with other parts of the body, we do not know what is going on in each others lives not as a way of gossiping or prying but as a way of sharing burdens, caring, loving, supporting. Let me give an example I heard recently, paraphrased and reshaped by me.

In churches we do not talk about sex. The whole world it seems talks about sex but not the church except to say to our youngsters – don’t do it. But what about the single person who has never experienced that intimacy and wonders what might have been? What about the widow(er) who has recently lost their life partner, soul mate and may also be missing their lover? What about the young couple who have recently got married and wonder if it is normal to only make love once a month; because the media impression is that they should be doing it daily! What about the couple who never find the time and one of then sadly looks else where. What about the divorcee who misses doesn’t miss their spouse but misses making love? What about the person who thinks they may be gay or bisexual? What about masturbation and fantasy? As a church we should be able to talk together about these issues in a loving supporting way. I am not advocating chatting about it over coffee after church but what about in house groups, friendship groups, with people we know well. Maybe that would help the young singles, the older singles, the widowers and widows, the young married couple, the middling and old married couple with their sexuality. Conversations about this wonderful God given gift on a deep level should be able to happen we are after all the Body of Christ.

Then of course another taboo subject money. When was the last time we talked to each other about our finances and financial priorities. I am not talking about all brining our bank statements to church, but it seems to me the only time we mention money is when we set a church budget and hope that we can meet the targets. But in this time of financial uncertainty is there scope for talking about how we budget as people, whether we should tithe or have free will offerings or in some circumstances give nothing…... What about the person who is single and struggles to make ends meet, or the couple who both have to work to be able to afford the bills? How do we show love and support for them? What about the person who will be made redundant next week (btw I do not know anyone who is yet) has anyone come along side and taken them to the bank to negotiate a mortgage payment break or helped them complete the housing benefits form. Could we have those conversations as one body?

What about doubt? When did you last admit to someone in church that your faith was all over the place? I assume that we are all the same and have moments when we ask if God is real? Or wonder why when I pray it gets worse not better. We come to church and put on that “all is well with the world” face and get on with it. When inside we doubt, struggle, wonder, question; but because we are in church everything has to appear wonderful, great, super. As the Body of Christ is there scope for being honest with each other over our issues of faith?

I can imagine this letter has upset a few folks because I am suggesting that we should talk about issues that are personal and intimate. But that is what a body is – personal and intimate. I have only mentioned things that affect every single one of us in the church, issues that go deeply in each of us. Sex, Money, Faith. If these subjects care off limits in church where will we be able to have conversations about them that are healthy and include God? If we rely on the world we can easily see a warped and distorted view of sex it has, how money goes hand in had with greed and faith is a personal issue. Where as if we are disciples of Christ these issues can be talked about in a Christ centred community and we can bring God into the equation hopefully developing health attitudes to sex, money and faith.

Enjoy your conversations and do not be afraid to have them.

Your fellow follower of Jesus


Richard

Schools

This past couple of weeks i have been into the local school to take year 7 lessons on the subject of Worship. It has been a fascinating experience. There is a lack of understanding of what goes on in Church. They did not really know what the Bible was - when I told them it had war stories, love stories, poetry, philosophy, biography, futuristic stuff, myth and legend, history all contained in it they were flabbergasted. They could not understand how it was written by many different people over a long time. When we talked about Baptism they were amazed at the whole idea of a pool and going under water and really warmed to the fact that it was the persons own choice and not forced like with a baby as one of them put it!. But the biggest eyeopener was playing some music. We discussed church music and they said it was boring. The only music they seemed to have heard is the odd hymn from primary school. Playing Tim Hughes - The Greatest Day in History was a great move - that Brenda suggested.

All in all a good experience.

Roll on Friday when i take 2 Y11 classes for GCSE revision - I act as a resource for them

Cadburys Fairtrade

For the past couple of years i have not bought any chocolate that did nto havethe fair trade logo on it. This was part of my own commitment to stop the traffik campaign. My youngest daughter took it upon herself to write to some of the major chocolate manufacturers about the use of slaves in cocoa production. She received some ver interesting repiles att eh tiem and now two years later Cadburys have emaield her again. witha press release that can be found here or here

Roll on the end of summer. Whilst i eat Divine Chocolate it is not a patch on Dairy Milk. Now if only kitkat's especially chunky ones became fair trade...