Rules? What rules?

It really is very simple.  So why do we Christians complicate things so much?

Human beings live messed up lives. We act selfishly, hurt others and hurt ourselves.

One way to correct that is to try to live by some rules. Rules give us boundaries. With rules, we know exactly when we have gone wrong. But there are problems with living by rules. The first is that we cannot keep all the rules we set for ourselves, let alone those imposed by others. So we re-shape the rules to suit ourselves while often holding other people to an unbending standard. 

The second problem is that, if we manage to keep some rules, we end up looking down on other people who don’t. Of course we are still rule-breakers ourselves but others’ offenses are always much, much worse than ours... 

The big story of the Old Testament of the bible is about people messing-up and then trying to live by rules. Now don’t get me wrong – rules can be better and kinder than everyone doing what suits them without regard to others. But for me the big lesson of the Old Testament is that living by rules - the 10 Commandments as well as the hundreds of other regulations - simply doesn’t work. More and more layers of complexity, failure, guilt and judging others. Which leaves humankind in a bit of a pickle.

Here’s the simple bit. 

God loves all the things he has created. He loves us. He understands our human tendency to mess up. He knows we cannot successfully live by rules. So he chose to fulfil all the rules for us, on our behalf. If we believe that and choose to allow him to re-code our spiritual DNA to accept it, then we are set free to live by the spirit (the underlying intention) of the rules, which living by the letter of the rules could never bring about. 

Good, isn’t it?! That’s why the story of Jesus is called ‘gospel’ (literally, good news).

Except that so many churches and Christians still want the rules. OK so they no longer want to stone to death people who wear polycotton underwear or who enjoy a prawn sandwich.  No, the so-called ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, they say, were for then not now. And I agree. But they still want the certainty of the moral laws, or at least the ones they can keep.

Sadly, it gets worse.  People who want to keep the rules then turn New Testament writings into a new set of rules which they think Christians are obliged to keep. So, for example, they say women are not to teach men. Or that church leadership must be male.

Professor F F Bruce – arguably Britain’s foremost evangelical biblical theologian of the 20^th century - wrote this:  "I think Paul would roll over in his grave if he knew we were turning his letters into Torah (that is, biblical laws)."

While the laws of the bible will always be there, their purpose now is to remind us how powerless they are to help humankind. Written rules and their demands upon us were nailed to the cross of Christ and are now dead. They have been fulfilled already by Jesus. We have been given all that is necessary to live lives of love for God, others and ourselves.

I just don’t understand why this mainstream Christian theology is so rarely taught in churches.

Those who place their trust in Christ must no longer place their trust in written rules. All the rules of the Old Testament were for then, not now. The 10 Commandments are no longer to followed slavishly. None of the teachings of the New Testament are to become a new legal code. Instead, we are to live in breathtaking freedom to live rightful lives, guided by God’s spirit. In the words of Jesus, our rightful living must exceed that of the Pharisees, who were noted for trying to keep all the bible's rules.

Which means that when we are reading the many great stories of God’s enduring love for people to be found in the bible, we must not automatically import the solutions chosen by people then into the life we are called to face now. That’s just laziness. We are to live a life that is much more exciting and fulfilling than that. We have the Spirit of God and are called to work out our own salvation, with the nervous trembling that comes from having to discern here and now what it means to live as followers of Christ. We may not always agree but that's fine if we disagree lovingly.

We humans often do not handle freedom well. But the solution to that is not to trade it in for slavery to rules once again.

Some thoughts in the hours before Ash Wednesday

Tonight’s the night when traditionally we feast on all the remaining fat and flour in the house in the form of pancakes (best eaten, of course, with sugar and lemon juice or maple syrup). For tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, when the fast of Lent begins.

Lent is not found in the Bible – the name refers to the lengthening of the days in spring – but the tradition relates to Christ’s 40 days of fasting in the desert at the start of His ministry. It is a time of repentance and self-denial before the events of holy week, Good Friday and the resurrection at Easter.

Why is a Baptist writing about Lent, with its high church connotations?

One reason is that I have many Muslim friends and they often ask me about Lent – perhaps wondering how it relates to their fasting month of Ramadan. During that time, Muslims do not allow any food or drink to pass their lips during daylight hours. Explaining that we Christians have bravely chosen to forego chocolate for the season tends, perhaps, to leave them wondering about the strength of a Christian's commitment to God.

Another is that our free churches – you remember them? the ones with the perfect ecclesiology – have tended to neglect fasting: an example of how we cherry-pick our Bible teaching. In chapter 6 of Matthew’s gospel, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus teaches “When you pray…” and offers His hearers the words of the Lord’s Prayer which, for most Christians, are pretty central.  We would argue strongly with anyone who wanted to disregard the Lord’s Prayer.  Except that a few verses later, Jesus teaches “When you fast…” At that point many Christians start to think this is a little extreme. 

I do not want to build a theology of fasting on the one word “When.” Nor do I regard the Bible as a book of rules we must keep.  We are set free from living under written rules in order to live by the spirit.  But fasting – however you do that - does seem to me to be a normative concept in the teaching of Jesus and the bible. That is, we are led to believe that it is good for Christians to do something intentionally for a time to remove the focus from the (good but) demanding drives of our human nature so that we can focus upon God’s values and listening to Him.

But if fasting in any way puts us back on God’s wavelength then we must move beyond religious practices alone:

 “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

“Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”  

Isaiah 58: 6-7

God links the spiritual with the practical. He tells us that we need to see and treat people differently if we want to be His followers. It is impossible to love God with all our hearts while, at the same time, ignoring God’s call to care for people on the edges. People who tend to get sidelined.  

The extent to which we love others is the only accurate way of knowing how much we love God.  

Bob's place

Thirty odd years ago I worked in a public building. At the rear there were some staff-only rooms and, at the end of the corridor by the back door, was Bob’s Room.  By the time that I worked there Bob had long since retired, although I did meet him from time to time as, with his wife, he would drop by for a mug of tea with his former workmates. Though retired, he still felt he belonged. 

His room was full of the junk that builds up over the years, when people like the public areas to be tidy but lack the willpower to throw things away. But a careful look revealed that this room had once been a workshop, equipped with tools, benches and bubbling pots of pearl glue. For Bob had been the caretaker / handyman. 

When Bob retired, he was not replaced. For a start, fewer people had the skills and the interest to turn their hand to the range of practical matters that would occupy Bob’s working day. Health and safety concerns meant that simple plumbing and electrical matters now had to be attended to by qualified practitioners.  It was cheaper to discard any damaged Ercol furniture than to repair it (but don’t throw it away – put it in Bob’s Room!).

However the real reason Bob was not replaced is that this was the beginning of the era of efficiency savings. The stripping-out of the ‘dead wood’ from the system that would help to make public bodies as efficient as their private sector cousins. So now, when a fuse or high-level light bulb needed changing or the back of a seat started to work loose, a manager would raise an order for a maintenance company to come in. Eventually, someone in their 20s would turn up in a company van, make an assessment, cost the job and wait – sometimes weeks - for approval to proceed.  And, in bare economic terms, I daresay there were savings although, heaven knows, Bob’s salary was fairly meagre.

Is there a purpose to this reminiscence?  Archbishop Vincent Nicholls has today added his voice to those who believe that our government’s approach to welfare is increasingly ‘punitive’.  More and more Christians and others of goodwill are both saying this and taking practical steps, such as food banks, to show that the punishment of people on benefits should not be done in our names. Now I believe that welfare reform is much needed and long overdue but it needs to take place in a compassionate way that recognises that we have reached our present state because of society’s choices and our collective failures to do what is right. 

But also – and here’s the relevance of the Bob story – because for the past 30 years so many choices seem to have been made on grounds of financial efficiency alone. Wouldn’t a truly just society ensure that there are places where people can contribute and belong even though, economically, no business case would support that? 

You may say I’m a dreamer; but I’m not the only one. We Christians are here to model an alternative way of living – one that reflects the many hundreds of bible verses that consistently reveal God’s bias towards those shoved to the edges of human society.  The suggestion that we revert to a society which found employment for Bob is economic madness. I am content to be thought naive. But our reaction to what I suggest might be one measure of how far we are colluding with the values of the world around us, which are content to leave millions of people without a way to contribute and belong. 

A super Pea Soup

We had a really fun church brunch yesterday, beginning with a chance to do some thanking for 2013 and some thinking and hoping for 2014. It was great to see all ages taking part, with the ice-breaker won by a young team, as well as really good contributions from Daniel and Charis.  Afterwards we shared a meal and managed to see off the final remaining mince pies of Christmas. The main feature was winter soup:  a sweet potato and lentil and a pea and smoked bacon.  Several people asked about the latter, so here’s the recipe for a soup that is tasty, warming, colourful and very cheap to make.

You need (for 4):

• 2 dessert spoons of cooking oil
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped up small
• 1 medium sized potato, diced into 1cm cubes
• 0.5 litre of stock - can be stock cube + water 
• 500 grams of frozen garden peas
• 200 grams of smoked bacon chopped to around 2cms size

Place 1 spoonful of oil into a saucepan on a medium heat. Add the chopped onion and fry gently until the onion is soft but not brown.  Then add the diced potato and add enough stock to cover, return to the heat until the potato is cooked. Add the garden peas and any remaining stock and bring to the boil. This may take a few minutes, so meanwhile fry the bacon in the other spoonful of oil until cooked and then set aside.  After the peas are cooked (2-3 minutes after coming to the boil) turn off the heat and blend the soup using a hand blender or a potato masher until it is smooth and without any lumps or solid peas. Add the bacon and some freshly ground black pepper and stir.  Don’t be tempted to add salt as the bacon will season the soup.

An impressive clergyman

 Studdert Kennedy

There was a time when, to be an impressive clergyman, it helped to have an impressive name. 

To walk from the vestry into the sanctuary in my former church, one strode through a gallery of photographs of my predecessors.  Day after day I would walk under the gaze of the founder of the church, The Rev Augustus Jones, with his Edwardian lamb-chop whiskers.  

Not far from him was The Rev William Thimble Thorpe. Although Mr Thorpe did not sport whiskers, you would have to admit that his name is deeply impressive. Sadly, 60 years after he resigned his ministry, the old greybeards in the church still shook their heads on the rare occasion his name was mentioned.  It turned out that Mr Thimble Thorpe had left under something of a cloud. There were dark mutterings that he had allowed his wife to take paid employment…

My sister’s researches into our own family tree have revealed a remarkably impressively-named clergyman, three generations removed from us: The Rev Theodore Theophilus Pitcher.  In giving him such a God-centred pair of Christian names (God’s gift + friend of God), were The Rev Theo’s parents giving him, from birth, an ever-so-gentle steer towards his eventual vocation?  We may never know.

Some impressive clergymen of the past didn’t always need to be named: their titles were enough.  Throughout my time as a minister I have kept a large grainy photograph of The Rector of Stiffkey above my desk. This has served as a reminder of what happens when a minister goes wrong. He also has a rather fun, rakish stare. Google him – his tale will repay the effort – and spare a prayer for ministers, that they may not end their careers defrocked and killed by a lion in Skegness, as he was.

Anyways, all this is but an introduction to another impressively named, and much more admirable, clergyman of the past who in this anniversary year of the beginning for WW1 ought to be better remembered today. The Rev Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy was an Anglican priest and poet. He was nicknamed 'Woodbine Willie' during World War I for giving Woodbine cigarettes along with spiritual aid to injured and dying soldiers. 

The Rev Studdert Kennedy was awarded the Military Cross during World War I. The citation reads: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He showed the greatest courage and disregard for his own safety in attending to the wounded under heavy fire. He searched shell holes for our own and enemy wounded, assisting them to the dressing station, and his cheerfulness and endurance had a splendid effect upon all ranks in the front line trenches, which he constantly visited.”

Having been rather gung-ho about the war at its outset, he became a Christian socialist and pacifist as a result of his wartime experiences and, on return to civilian life, wrote a great deal about democracy and the problems of unregulated capitalism and greed.  He finished his career as an industrial chaplain, campaigning for the rights of working people and offering them in the workplace the same selfless spiritual aid that he had given to comrade and enemy alike in no-man’s land.

Which, it seems to me, is pretty impressive.