A guy called Mick led our session this week and he used this great blessing by another guy called John O’Donnahue. I liked it. I thought it was good and all.

May you listen to your longing to be free
May the frames of your belonging be large enough for the dreams of your soul
May you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart that something good is going to happen to you
May you find a harmony between your soul and your life
May the mansion of your soul never become a haunted place
May you know the eternal longing that is at the heart of time
May there be a kindness in your gaze when you look within
May you never place walls between the light and yourself
May your angel free you from the prisons of guilt, fear, disappointment and despair
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you and embrace you in belonging
So may the God of grace, our creator, redeemer and sanctifier, bless you.
Amen.

John O’Donnahue – Annam Cara

A few things today. Firstly – Bible reading is going well. Spoke to a friend of mine about Old Testament stuff and he mentioned the fact that the reason to read a lot of the Old Testament is actually so you know what bits of the Old Testament really don’t matter all that much… and there are quite a few things in the section I’ve been reading that fall into that category. Now – I am sure a lot of people will shoot me down for saying this but I think there are far more important things than how many were in the family of Reuben at a certain point in history.

Having said that there are a lot of important things in there too. Like how God is pretty powerful and it’s not wise to rub him up the wrong way (I just checked the biblical accuracy of that statement with Sian and she said it may be a bit of a understatement but it’s ok…) Also a lot of the ‘fine detail’ is kind of a glimpse into how to live as a community. Like the going to war thing, and returning stuff to people if you borrow it, and the whole gleaning thing, and lots more. It’s all good stuff.

Moving on. Are you with me?

I’ve read a couple of other things recently that I wanted to mention. The first (in fact both) come from a book called “Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture” by Michael Frost. He’s Australian. I think. But the book is quite American. I’m enjoying it but this paragraph struck me as amusing though:

I don’t think it’s too simplistic to conclude that reality TV works because it offers a fragmented and disconnected Western audience the opportunity to vicariously enter into a pseudo-community via the television or the radio.

It has to be said that there is nothing simplistic about that. Are you with me?

The other thing though is a bit more serious. Frost writes this:

Why are we obsessed with the singular event rather than seeking the rhythm of a community churching together?

It is a question I keep asking at the moment. A question about community and a question about church. A question about why the two things so often, for me, feel so far apart… church is so often about an event (or a few events during the week) and so often not about the way that we live our lives together. I’m going to come up with some answers soon…

Finally – I just want to say – are you with me? It’s weird. At first I thought it was only Rob Bell who said it all the time. I am a bit of a fan of Rob Bell and often listen to his teaching when driving to school. But he asks “Are you with me?” quite often. I remember one talk he gave and the whole way through I was just thinking “No Rob, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about” and he kept asking me if I was with him. But then Mars Hill got a new teaching pastor – called Shane Hipps or something like that… and he started doing it so I thought it was a Mars Hill thing but then one of our lecturers at School of Ministry started saying it too… I guess it’s like their version of me saying “erm” all the time.

So that’s me – I’m jumping on the bandwagon – next time I preach I’m going to try it.

Are you with me?

I have to say it’s going to be a struggle keeping up with this one. So much of me wants to say it’s great to read all the detail about how the Levites should work and how and what sacrifices should be made and to learn in more depth about the ways of the Israelites as they strived to create their way of living as community but I have to be honest – I don’t find it very interesting.

In other news – I have an iPhone. And the great thing is it has been provided by the amazing Helen (off of Facebook & York) without a charge (well – there is a kind of charge but I’m going to talk about that more when I’ve paid it)

But the even greater thing is that it came about because Helen was… actually… I’m going to let her explain. Quote:

I was inspired by your note about living simply a while ago…made me think about holding on to all things (possessions, time, expertise) more lightly. And the more we share our needs/wants with each other, the more we allow other people the chance to help! That for me is the bigger deal…

It kind of ties in with some things I’ve been thinking over lately. And a talk by Rob Bell that I heard the other day. He spoke about the need to be willing to ask for stuff! And that we shouldn’t apologise when we ask for things. I’m not really sure he meant things like iPhones. I think he probably meant slightly more important things (like the example he gave of when his very pregnant wife woke up in the middle of night unable to breath and he needed to ring someone to ask them to come look after his other kid)

A lot of the time I want to help people, I want to be better at being a Christian but I’m not sure I put myself in a position to do this. Now – I know it’s my responsibility to do that so I figure if I start using the places I hang out (Facebook, my blog, Java Lounge etc) more effectively then I will (hopefully) begin to see more opportunity to be helpful. But also by expressing my needs (and sometimes wants!) in those places then I can also provide other people with the opportunity to help… to provide for those needs.

So – you can but ask. Feel free to use this place to ask for stuff (and by stuff I mean stuff you need…) I can’t say I’ll have it or be able to give it but if you’re in need then you’ve gotta ask.

We ate together. It wasn’t a meal after the service. It was the service. Inspired by Deuteronomy 14 where the Israelites are called to tithe their food and things and eat together in the presence of the Lord.

Mealtimes are so important to family life – to community life – you can learn so much about people at mealtimes. Things that can stay hidden behind a well rehearsed act can so easily be broken down by eating together. It’s a bit like the episode of Friends when we found out that Joey doesn’t share food… Joey is the nicest guy but when it comes to sharing food he draws the line. At mealtimes we find out things about people. Stories can be shared, troubles can be halved, concerns voiced and hurts can be healed by spending time together round the dinner table.

Most cultures in the world recognise this importance but it is something that seems to be slipping away in Western culture. Meal time has become something to rush through, to get over so that we can get back online or back to work or back to whatever it is that is more important than taking time to just stop.

Mealtime is also an amazingly biblical thing to do – so many times in the gospel we hear of Jesus being somewhere eating, or inviting himself round to someone’s house to eat. Example – at a mealtime we see Christ’s attitude to forgiveness. In Luke 7 we read the story of when Jesus is at Simon’s house – Christ’s feet are anointed by a ‘sinful woman’ and we read about forgiveness. Example – in Luke 6 we see Christ declaring his rule over the Sabbath by eating with his disciples and talking about David’s eating of the consecrated bread. Example – in the last supper we see Christ sharing bread with those who are nearest to him. Example – in Luke 19 we read the story of Zacchaeus. Christ calls him to account but goes to his house and shares a meal with him. This simple act speaks of Christ’s love for the ‘least’ and the ‘lost’.

By eating together we grow as community. By sharing our lives, and our food, we become more like Christ.

Today at St John’s we took a step towards that. We worshipped and we shared together. As we search to go deeper with God this year I think it will follow that we also go deeper with each other. As we strive to be more like Christ we will start to see where Christ is among our community.

The challenge, I think, is to look around and see who is missing from our table. And then to show them that there is a place prepared for them.

This week has been more Exodus. A great story and some good sections of reading. The part I want to mention today is Exodus 16. It’s the whole manna from heaven thing. A really simple post this time. When the Israelites collected food some gathered much, some little, but they all ended up with as much as they needed.

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.

My question is this – what do you reckon we would be left with if we just had as much as we needed?

Another pretty obvious one that kind of ties in to the first key to living the simple life today but I thought I would share it anyway.

This one is “be willing to share anything you own”. Get into the habit of lending people stuff. And then don’t ask for it back. Whatever it is really. Books, DVDs, money, your car, your shoes… get into the habit of letting people use your stuff. As I said, it’s not really your stuff anyway. So if someone is in need let them use your provision for that need.

The not asking for it back isn’t a hard and fast rule – just a suggestion really – obviously if you need it back, like if you’re not very tall and you lend someone a ladder you may need it back to get something out of the fridge… but anyway – lend people stuff and don’t worry if you don’t get it back.

It all comes down to the stuff not really being ours. Sian has been reading Acts just lately and has been excited about the early church sharing stuff. There are parts in Acts where it says some early church members sold everything they had and lived off a common purse but I don’t think the bible suggests this as a hard and fast rule for Christian living. The idea of it though, and indeed the thing that I think excited Sian, was the idea that everything we have (and indeed everything we can do) should be available to our family, our community.

I’ve probably not explained this too well but I’m kind of hoping Sian might comment on it!

Firstly I should point out I stole this title from another blog. It’s written by a guy named Jon Cooper. Or Jon for short. I was actually going to cut and paste his whole post and claim it as my own but I decided to do the right thing and just point you all in the direction of his blog…

It’s his latest post that is what I’d like to draw your attention to. And (never start a sentence with eh Coops?) not really the stuff about leadership (although that is great) – it’s the stuff about living a life really that I think people should pay attention to… I think the leadership most of us are called to is a leadership by example – kind of in the same way as the Israelites were called to be an example of community many years ago.

Go and read his post – it makes more sense than I ever will.

Also – keep an eye on the St John’s Audio pages this week and listen to Nick’s sermon from church today. I didn’t do the best listening ever but it was good! And I think this current series (that is possibly being made up as Nick goes along!) is going to be great – we’re looking at going deeper with God and there are some practical tips and things coming up too. Certainly worth a listen – this week was kind of an introduction (even though we’re four weeks in!)

This week I have mostly been finishing Genesis and starting Exodus. And by mostly I mean only. Where were we last week? Had we had Joseph and His Coat With Long Sleeves (it wouldn’t be as good a title for a musical would it?) We had? Ok – well – this week we finished the whole Joseph story, Jacob died, Joseph died and things moved on. The big thing from the end of the Genesis story I picked up was Joseph’s insistence that even though his brothers handed him over to the slave traders to get rid of him God actually had a much bigger picture in mind. Genesis 50:20 sees Joseph say “You tried to harm me but God made it turn out for the best.” Which is a pretty impressive thing to say after all his brothers had put him through.

I remember when my brother sold me into slavery… no… not really.

Moving on – I’ve started the whole Deliverer story now which is another great one. So far the thing that has struck me (again) is the stick in Moses’ hand. Not literally. That would hurt. But it’s the whole “what’s in your hand?” Ali, who I seem to mention in most of my posts at the moment, spoke at St John’s about this a while ago… listen if you get the chance.

But in the process I have fixed a few things around here so the category pages should all work and the links to comments in the sidebar now link to the comments rather than just the post where the comment is. Which is nice. I still need to finish a few things. Which is a shame as I’m getting itchy theme feet and may be changing soon. I like this one but I have to change every few months.

Anyway – in the process of fixing the category pages I realised I said I would post a bit about Readers training as and when it happens. That kind of stopped after my Exegesis post back in November. So I thought I would pick up again before going to bed.

It’s going well – I got a good solid B for my Exegesis which I am happy with. It means I’m not the typical mature student who gets a first all the time but that I still know roughly how to write an essay (which came as a bit of a surprise). Since then I have written an assignment on the theme of justice through the Old Testament and have started the next module on Ethics.

Ethics week 1 – we were given quite a few scenarios to discuss. “What would you do if…” kind of things. I thought I’d find out the ethical standards of the blog readers by sharing one with you. I can’t remember the exact wording but it goes something like this:

You’re on a plane that has been taken over by 2 armed highjackers. They are going to fly the plane into a building (ala September 11). A realistic opportunity presents itself for you to take on take one of the guns and shoot the 2 terrorists. What would you do:

1. Take the gun, kill the terrorists because it’s the right thing to do.
2. Take the gun, kill the terrorists but it’s still an immoral thing to do.
3. Do nothing, it’s all in God’s hands.

You can only choose one.

Go.

I’ve just reached the end of Genesis 40 and have started the story of Joseph in Egypt. The beginning of the build up to the Exodus really.

The main thing I’ve noticed through this lot of readings (apart from how badly the readings are distributed – Genesis 27 to 31 in one sitting was tough!) is that there are a lot of messed up things going on at the ‘beginning of time’! So many times people seem to take things into their own hands to try and sort things out. And there are so many repeated mistakes too – people don’t seem to learn from their mistakes. People keep pretending their wives are their sisters or decide to sleep with servants so they have offspring and all that. The book seems to be about messed up family really. God still works through them and blesses them though. Interesting. Sometimes I get the impression that God’s there blessing people but shaking his head in dispair at the same time.

Nothing too deep or serious this time. But one thing I would like to point to is a book my sister lent me called “God’s Big Picture” – it’s by Vaughan Roberts and is a great introduction to the narrative that runs through the Bible. It has been great to start reading it alongside starting out on the Bible in a year. I’m pretty sure God’s Big Picture won’t take me a year to read as it’s “a good size for a book” but I am also sure it will be helpful to keep the overall picture in sight, especially as I move into the sections of the Bible that may not be so interesting to read.

Anyhoo – first real challenge this week as we’re on the Yardley Family Christmas this weekend – changes to routine (however good!) are usually what get me on the whole bible reading discipline type thing. I’ll keep you posted.

And one more thing – Ali (see earlier post) posted something pretty cool the other day – it’s about a project called Postsecret – I won’t go into the details here but do check out his post.