We begin Passiontide today, the week before Holy Week, the last week of Lent. There is a whole bunch of getting ready for this huge event on Good Friday. Although of course this Good Friday event does not make sense without Easter Day. The death of Jesus does not mean much by itself, it only makes sense when Read more
Kate has this amazing ability. I can go to the cupboard and see that they is nothing for supper; but Kate can go to the same cupboard and produce something to eat for whoever happens to be at our house at the time. This ability has become a source of humour between Kate and I; that she can essentially produce food from nothing
It seems to me that Jesus is doing the same thing in our passage today. Read more
Jesus turning our assumptions up-side down – again. The market in the temple had become a normal way of doing things. People arriving at the temple for their acts of worship needed these services; to change money and purchase their sacrifices. Perhaps it is my capitalist conditioning that means that this is just obvious and if I were such a visitor I would be lamenting that I hadn’t though of providing such services to such a captive audience.
But perhaps it is precisely my capitalist tendencies that need turning up-side down and to hear the challenge; the challenge that asks whether their is anything more important than convenient services and financial growth. Read more
Having suffered too many seminars and workshops at the hand of lecturers. Having wasted too many hours listening to stuff I already have experience of or knowledge already acquired or learned. Having sat for so long on uncomfortable chairs calculating the number of hours represented by the group that equate to each minute spent listening to someone say “We’ll skip that bit because we are running out of time!” I just want to ask… is there not a better way? Read more
Tentmaking is certainly as old as Christianity and probably older. Paul, the one of the Damascus Road, is known to have been a tent-maker. Literally one who makes tents so as to be able to support himself and offer ministry without charge. This was practice amongst some rabbis too and therefore certainly an influence on Paul. Tentmaking, as many who are reading this will know better than I, is still the majority practice amongst many recognised missionaries. For some it serves as a segue away from the illegal practice of being a Christian in the country they are living/serving. For others it is because the missionary activity has no chance of being funded any other way.
I have been struggling with tentmaking! Read more
I have been in lots of wars. Some of the most fierce were with my brothers that only ended in peace because of the intervention of parents. Even then there was not a lot of peace that followed, only discipline. I have had wars with friends because of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. I have even been at war with my best friend, my wife, although in each of these cases I came to realise that it was my fault and that I should say sorry first!
It only takes a single word to Read more
There are all kinds of rumours floating around the establishment of the Church of England about the future of stipendary ministry. Out of these rumours arrive various futures.
For anyone who is not aware, a stipend is a living expense, paid to priests, vicars, ministers et al, so that they are freed from the necessity of working for a living. Thus freeing up one’s time to attend to the things of the Lord.
I have been in full time stipendary ministry for 10 years now [the last three of those were as one in training for ordination]. Although I could not have formulated a sentence about it at the time, entering full-time was very much part of my conversion: in retrospect, was also a call. However, this year it’s different as I am job-sharing a curacy with my wife, Kate. Job-sharing means stipend sharing and of course part-time work. In two years time I am most likely to be non-stipendary, or what is called in the trade NSM [non-stipendary minister], whilst Kate takes on a stipendary position, i.e. being a full-time vicar. All of this means that I am paying attention to what it means to be part-time, see previous post, what it means to have a stipend and what it means to be earning money alongside this.
It seems to me that these questions soon begin to cut to the heart of what it means to be a priest, or at least what it might mean for me? It also brings into play all these rumours, and to what extend I might be pre-empting one of these futures?
The lectionary readings for Harvest festival Year A caused me some difficulty: Deut 8:7-18 and Luke 12:16-30. The Luke reading is the parable of the rich farmer and the exhortations not to worry. In the end I extended the Luke reading a little, to include the reason why Jesus is telling this parable: a young man comes to him with some family troubles: access to the inheritance. Our faith can get disabled by the complexity of life and the situations in which an easy answer is either not available or too destructive. Disabled faith when the harvest is still wet and the ploughing is already late. Disabled faith at home when you brother’s marriage has fallen to pieces and he doesn’t seem to care. Disabled faith when you’re at school and you can’t work out why your still been left out! In the face of these and other complex and painful situations ‘Don’t worry’ seems to be patronising simple.
Our parable and following words of Jesus do not say, ‘poor you, let me sort it out for you’. Instead, Jesus reminds you of some of the child-like simplicity of our faith. A child-like simplicity that is true whatever age you are. God loves you, the creator knows you more than you know yourself, knows where you are where you’ve been and where your going. God loves you. In the face of a complex situation [which, lets face it are always apparent], which could easily swallow up what even large portions of faith, Jesus wants to remind us that God love’s us.
So now we are caught! On the on hand we have complexity of life and on the other we have simplicity of faith. Allowing one or the other to dominate our perspective has the potential of disabling our faith and the tyranny of the ‘or’ has beaten us again. Hidden in Luke’s advice to disciples is the glory of the ‘and’. Face life’s complexity and remember that God love’s you.
This is the first-time in 11 years that I have done part-time ministry. I was very excited about the idea of part-time [job-sharing a curacy with my wife] and I still am, but the problems with it run much deeper than I thought they would.
Let’s get over the idea of full-time ministry to start with. Of course I know that everyone, from baptism or conversion, is called to full-time ministry in the Kingdom of God: I am and perhaps you the reader are too. So I want to clarify that I am talking about full-time ministry in the Church of England. Actually receiving a stipend so I do not have to earn a living thus freeing my time to ‘do stuff for God’.
Part-time ministry, in this case 22 hours per week, forces you to say no to a whole number of things. Most of which start in my mind as some kind of vision for starting something new. The one at the top of my mind at the moment is around the senoir school in the area, but not in my parishes. There is currently no specifically Chrisitan input. Well lots of schools are like that, but this one is the catchment school for this area. Most of the teenagers in the 8 parishes I work in go to that school. … here I am getting carried away with thinking about what an opportunity this is! Do I actually have time to get motivated about this kind of thing?
I have been Assistant Curate here since July this year, three months now. The summer was very lite and I am grateful for that. September has been very different. I have worked more than my 22 per week every week, and every week I have been asking myself why is this so? I now have a few reflections…
Part-time cannot be pretending to be full-time. There are certain luxuaries that full-time miniters can participate in: chapters, clusters, long-staff times and other types of clergy gatherings. I have attended a few of these since being here and plenty in this month of September. Many of these times have been helpful in all kinds of ways not least in getting my bearings, meeting people and getting a flavour of church and village life. However, 2 hours for one gathering in the context of a 44 hour week is very different if you only have 22 hours.
Clergy Centric Behaviour. An Assistant Curates post is only for a limited time: 3-4 years. This in itself should be enough motivation for avoiding anything that is clergy centric. By which I mean something that needs the clergy to be there or in which they have a role that is curcial to the operation of that role [Eucharist, Funerals, Baptisms and Weddings to one side at the moment]. Double motivation therefore comes from the inmovable reality that I am part-time. I can’t be there. Sometimes that even means on Sunday morning. Adopting such an does not mean just saying no, but rather finding someone to say yes. This get to the heart of my initial excitment about part-time ministry; it forces my values about lay ministry into practice.
Kingdom and Church. My expereince of full-time paid [lay] ministry is that the edges between the kingdom and church, or more specifically Church of England, are very blured. It is quite easy to find oneself working ones butt off doing 50 hours+ a week and soothe ones weary body, at least in part, knowing that it was all for God. Part-time ministry, if you have the eyes to see, can clarify the issue very well. What am I doing that is actually pointing people towards God and what am I doing to support a superstructure whose very existence is currently up for debate in all kinds of ways at the moment?
These are the things occupying much of my mind at the moment, at least the ones I have managed to put into words. One some level they are very personal issues as I try to inhabit the new land of ordained ministry in the Church of England. One another level I think they are issues that will becoming increasing relevant as full-tim clergy numbers are cut again and again whilst the numbers training for part-time volunteer ordained ministry are rising.
Unlike lots, I like Trinity Sunday. More particularly I like preaching / teaching / talking on Trinity Sunday, as I am tomorrow.
Although every doctrinal statement is an interim statement, since we only know through a glass darkly, we can discern between good theology and bad theology. Good theology is harder to identify, primarily because the fruit of good theology takes longer to grow. Bad theology is much easier to recognise, if one has eyes to see and ears to hear. Unfortunately, I think the culture in which we swim has dulled our hearing and smudged our sight. Trinity Sunday is a good place to start trying to unblock and clean-up
Trinity is not a question of Maths. The problem is not 3=1. It is not something that we can think our way through and arrive at an understanding that is repeatable and teachable.
Trinity is not about substance, how are 3 things 1 thing as if the things in question are the same thing. by which I mean, it is not a question of divinity; if there is one God how can it be 3 God’s? What are apparently cultrually acceptable explanations of Trinity that involve eggs or clover leafs fall at this point. The persons of the Trinity are not bits of God like the yoke is a bit of an egg. Neither are they only part of a clover leaf! The question is not about bit, things or substances.
Jesus is a person and so perhaps rather than things it is about a person. Perhaps God is a person, who appears to us in different ways, as the Father, the Son and the Spirit. This is captured by another popular trinitarian analogy: H2O. Just as water appears to us as steam, liquid and ice in different circumstances, perhaps God appears to us as the Father, the Son and the Spirit in different circumstances. This would of course mean that God talks to himself! As Jesus prays to his Father in Heaven, as the Father audibly acknowledges the Son at his baptism etc. But maybe we are happy with this idea of a God who can talk to himself – we do after all!!
No none of these popular explanations of the Trinity make any sense!
There are 3 persons, the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
The other thing we know, or say about God is that God is Love. Perhaps it is this love that has something to do with their oneness?
We say a similar thing in our culture. When two people love each other enough, they shall leave their mother and father and shall be joined together as one in marriage.
This is not a good parallel though since these statements are either going out of fashion or in fact, when it comes to it, don’t actually mean anything!! But maybe that’s the same difficultly we have with the Trinity, we can’t grasp at a Love that would mean Oneness to the extent that it is eternally faithful?
The Trinity is not a maths question, or a question about things or appearance. It is primarily about encountering persons, persons of Love, a Love that encourages us towards itself and each other.
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