Don't polarise at Pentecost!

Not many things annoy me (apart from those plastic seals under milk or sauce bottle lids with a tag so small only a child can grasp it and a seal so strong that only an Olympic weight lifter can move it). But my real bugbear is the habit of polarising ideas or viewpoints.

One allows for competition in sport – there can only be one winner of a race or a game. But you see it in adversarial politics when everything one party stands for is good and everything the other one stands for is rubbish. You see it in the adversarial nature of some court cases in which QCs treat victims of crime as if they were the criminals. And you see it among Christians getting vitriolic towards people who question their pet beliefs or views.

We know what we’re comfortable with and we don’t like to face the possibility that we might have to change our views. So we attack or belittle those who challenge them.

The apostle James wrote, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness…This should not be” (3:9-10). And that applies in all aspects of human interaction, not just in religious debate. Discuss, yes; abuse, ridicule, dehumanise, ostracise, no. “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,” said Paul (Colossians 4:6) – and by seasoned he meant make it tasteful.

Polarisation or fossilisation of beliefs or ideas, and slapping down people who want to explore them further, is a handicap to discipleship, and a weight dragging down spiritual and church growth. American writer and speaker John Ortberg has said “overconfidence can be a problem. It may sound strange but some people would be better believers if they had a little more doubt”.¹

This is the Pentecost season, when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to launch the Christian church on its Christ-given mission. Pentecost (or at least the Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit) often provokes mystification, and as a result polarisation. We can just about conceive of the Father or Creator; we can almost visualise Jesus on earth, born, teaching, dying. But the Spirit – coming as a wind, a fire, making people speak in unlearned languages – what is that all about?

Use the right brain



Imagine!



Think for a moment of what we know of the human brain. The way its billions of neurons and trillions of synapses interact makes us the people we are, and because of those interactions we are all different in personality and understanding. The brain is immensely complex but one generalisation is helpful. It is that the left hemisphere of the brain (which controls the right side of the body) is also the main seat of language, ideas, analysis and concepts. The right side of the brain is more involved in meanings, imagination, creativity, intuition and feelings.

An emotionally and spiritually healthy human being should have both sides of their brain in relative harmony. We should be able to analyse issues and understand words but also intuit meanings and body language. In practice, each of us tends to veer more to the left or the right. At the extremes, people on the autism spectrum are heavily left-brained; people who are illogically impulsive are heavily right-brained. Part of the discipleship task, part of growing in maturity, is recover a balance.

However, our culture is predominantly left-brained, while the Hebrew culture of the Bible was predominantly right-brained. The former chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, helpfully explains this in his book The great partnership on science and religion². He points out that middle-eastern languages are written from right to left and engage the right brain, while western languages are the opposite.

That’s perhaps why in the west we analyse theological ideas while the Bible tells human stories and is almost devoid of any “systematic” theology. And why therefore we tend to focus on the word and ideas which we can either accept or reject (as in science), while the Bible focuses on the Spirit, the meanings, experiences and images which we need to mull over (as in art) and which may have multi-layers of meaning.

It may also be one of several reasons behind the frustrating inability of western countries to understand governments and cultures of the east. We assume that they think as we do, and cannot understand why they do not welcome western trading standards and democratic systems.

So when the Holy Spirit came to the apostles he was experienced as a wind because he is a breath of spiritual fresh air, renewing those parts the precepts of logic cannot reach. He came on the day when the Jews celebrated the giving of the law to Moses because God is breathing – blowing – new life into his people and establishing a new law and covenant. He came on a day which was also a harvest festival because his arrival is the culmination of the previous three years of the disciples’ life with Jesus, showing what all that was about, just as harvest is the culmination of a year of agricultural preparation, showing what the toil of ploughing, sowing and cultivating was for.

The Spirit is God as he is to be experienced, not as he is to be analysed. That’s why, as Jesus said, the Spirit blows where he wants (John 3:8) and we can’t work out what he’s about. But the Spirit is also the author and inspirer of the word (1 Timothy 3:16), the one who speaks to admonish or encourage through prophets.

Micah was an 8th century BC prophet speaking to the erring northern kingdom of Israel. The Spirit of God gave him insight into the social and spiritual situation which he articulated to the people. So he says “I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin” (3:8). He discerned something unarticulated by the Spirit, and he put it onto words to address a specific situation. No conflict. No polarisation. Both-and. And with it a call to change their selfish ways.  

An excessive emphasis on the left-brained word can lead to a dry and dusty formalism. An excessive emphasis on the right-brained Spirit can lead to flights of fancy not always closely connected with the teaching of Jesus and the apostles and more often confirming with what a person fancies. We need both. We need to use both sides of our brain. In the whole of life.

Be prepared for change

Change means leaping out of the comfort zone

Without the Spirit, the word is dead. Without the word, the Spirit is disabled. We need both. They’re never to be separated. And they always precipitate change.

Just think what an upheaval that first Pentecost was. For three years the disciples had had their lives turned upside down by the teaching of Jesus which challenged so much of what they’d been taught. Just as they were looking forward to a new era, Jesus was killed and their new world fell apart. Some like Peter tried to pick up their old life, and went fishing. Then suddenly Jesus was there again. Only he wasn’t, not in the same way. They endured six weeks of utter confusion.

One day they saw Jesus graphically leaving them for good. What next? What was going on?

And then the Holy Spirit filled them in a fresh way, and their lives and future changed again. They’d experienced more changes of belief and viewpoint and practice in three years than most of us do in a lifetime.

The spiritual writer Henri Nouwen once wrote that “Essential for mature religion is the constant willingness to shift gears, to integrate new insights and to revise our positions.”³

The call to change is made even more dramatically in what is known as the Gentile Pentecost. In Acts 11 we meet Peter after the event when he’s gone back to his base in Jerusalem. He’s had an amazing time in Caesarea on the coast. He’s seen God working in people’s lives in a way he never imagined could be possible. He must be full of it. And what’s he met with? The grim faces of people locked in their polarised world.

Not joyful celebration but stern accusation. “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.” The news – the gossip – had beaten him back to the capital. Controversy always spreads quickly – and it usually gets garbled or taken out of context, and polarised in the process. Good news is tucked away on an inside page or left for the “And finally” upbeat (or off-beat) last item on the TV news bulletin.

Remember, Jesus was a Jew. The first Christians were Jews. They saw their new faith in Jesus the Messiah as the fulfilment of their Jewishness. The church was a denomination of Judaism. Jews would not mix socially with non-Jews for fear of becoming ritually contaminated. To eat with them risked consuming food that wasn’t kosher or prepared in the so-called proper way. You did what? What were you thinking of Peter? How dare you – and you a leader!

And so Peter patiently explains what has already been recorded at greater length in chapter 10. The repetition indicates how important and significant Luke, the author of Acts and a Gentile himself, saw this in the context of the whole story of the early church.

Peter explains his vision and the message God was clearly giving him. He wasn’t to regard any of God’s creatures unclean or inferior, least of all human beings from another cultural, racial and religious background. All are equally made in God’s image and all equally deserving of time, attention and respect. All are loved and cared for by God and embraced freely in his plan of salvation.

The right-brain visions given to both Peter and Cornelius must have been extremely powerful because neither man was in any doubt. So when Peter saw the evidence of God at work as the Holy Spirit transformed his Gentile hearers, he said “who was I to think that I could oppose God?” So he baptised them.

Notice that he didn’t also circumcise them. He confirmed their Christian faith, he did not impose his religious culture. He abandoned his natural left-brained desire to polarise. Here was something totally new. And so it seemed to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem when they listened to Peter: “So God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” We can’t blame them for being so surprised. This was a huge culture shock. A massive transformation.

But it didn’t last. The old polarisation crept back in. Left brain logic took over from right brain intuition. Judaism was a protected religion. The church as a branch of Judaism was secure. Outside it, it was vulnerable to arbitrary persecution. In the next chapter of Acts James was murdered on the orders of King Herod, who saw that it pleased the Jews.

Many Christians decided not to rock the boat, to keep their heads down. So we find Peter later refusing to eat with Gentiles (Galatians 2:11-16). We find the whole church debating how to handle Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles in Acts 15. Old habits die hard. It takes a long time to change opinions.

Now read this, from a commentary on Acts published way back in 1901. “If Peter required a divine vision to open his eyes, it is not surprising that it should take some years for the hidden principle to be fully understood and accepted by the Jewish church. Nor is this slowness peculiar to the apostolic age. It is almost more inconceivable how in the 17th century a good protestant English captain could be praying and reading the Bible on deck, while beneath the hatches he was carrying a cargo of negro slaves to work on American plantations. Nor must the church today throw stones. In foreign missions it is still difficult in practice to recognise the equality of the converting and converted races: while in America there are practically two churches, one for the coloured and one for the white people, it is hard to believe that the principle that God is no respecter of persons has been fully realised as yet.”⁴

Obviously we’ve moved on from those days but if that author was writing today, I wonder what examples he would give of contemporary polarisations that the Spirit might want to challenge. Might he, I wonder highlight attitudes towards people with gender identity issues who wish to follow Christ?

Or people with severe learning difficulties who make uncontrollable noises in church services or the odiferous man who sits in my church most days during the week given a rather obvious wide berth by others? Or those on the autism spectrum who are stand-offish, blunt, unable to cope with spontaneity or understand humour? Or people with the hidden illnesses of a mental or neurological origin who feel unvalued, and are unable to take initiatives to join the ranks of that terrible current mantra, “hard working families”?

The fruit of the Spirit, wrote Paul, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Actions which speak louder than, and either reinforce or give the lie to, words. No polarisation there. Just a breath of fresh conciliatory air much needed in our increasingly polarised society. Spirit and word combining to show, and not just tell, the Good News of Jesus, of which we still have much to discover.

Think and talk

1. Look up the Bible passages in the text and meditate on them. Especially read Acts 11 and consider how huge the changes of attitude were.
2. Consider ways in which our speech and conversation dehumanises or belittles people. Why do we do it?
3. Think of how you, and people around you, over-stress left or right brain thinking. How might you work to restore a better balance?
4.  Polarisation on many issues is endemic in western society. How might we forge a more conciliatory way of debate without sinking into lowest-common-denominator compromise?

References

1. John Ortburg, Faith and doubt, Zondervan 2008; quoted in an extract in Christianity, January 2009.
2.  Jonathan Sacks, The great partnership, Hodder & Stoughton 2011; especially pp. 40ff.
3.  Henri Nouwen, Seeds of hope, Darton, Longman & Todd 1989, p. 46.
4.  Richard Rackham, The Acts of the Apostles, Methuen & Co 1901 pp. 163f

There is more about brain function and Christian thinking in my forthcoming book The Judas Trap, to be published by Instant Apostle in October 2016.

 

(c) Derek Williams 2016. Material from these posts can be reproduced for private or small group use.

All I want for Christmas

A 12 year-old girl in the Midlands has apparently saved her pocket money for a year in order to buy over 200 presents for children who would otherwise receive none. She was reported as saying that it wasn’t fair that some should go without.

Indeed; “out of the mouths of babes” comes simple but profound truth. Sadly, though, she will probably discover as she grows older that there are many things in the world which are not fair. Some we cannot avoid: the accident and illness that affects old and young, good and bad, alike. But others are of our own making.

So here’s my letter to Santa, repeated in a prayer to God, for a sack full of fair deals, with suitable Bible texts to back them, and in no particular order. Unfortunately, current laws prevent me from nailing my theses to the door of number 10 Downing Street or tying them to the railings of Westminster.

All I want for Christmas is:

·       For politicians to stop saying “Yes but” whenever they are presented with unpleasant facts such as one million people accessing food banks. People need bread today, not the promise of jam tomorrow that assumes current policies will actually bring universal change. Matthew 5:37

·       For internet trolls and pub philosophers to start respecting people with whom they disagree instead of slagging them off or even threatening them. Such behaviour causes distress and contributes nothing to sensible debate about often complex issues. Proverbs 10:18; Matthew 5:21-22

·       For customer service and public service personnel to recapture afresh the true meaning of service, and to view their role as actually being to help people in need rather than assume they are stupid, time wasters, or on the make. Mark 10:45

·       For the media, and the tabloids in particular, to refrain from sowing discord and hatred through exaggerated or nuanced reporting based on what they think their audience wants to hear and which that audience is simply not equipped to see through. Matthew 5:37; James 3:5-6

·       For a widespread recognition that acquiring more stuff is neither necessary nor conducive to greater happiness. Matthew 6:25,31-34

·       For a grassroots movement to denounce and resist the demonic power of “market forces” which is merely a synonym for greed, so that more people can actually afford to rent or buy homes where they wish instead of being condemned to pay rip-off private rents so that they are unable to raise a deposit for their own small pad. Isaiah 5:8; Amos 8:4-7

·       For a greater sense of international responsibility so that people made homeless and hungry for whatever reason in other countries are supported by the surplus readily available in the west. Galatians 6:10; Ephesians 4:28

·       For proper long-term public investment in public transport and renewable energy to reduce toxic emissions and road congestion, especially in cross-country road and rail routes, and an end to Nimbyism which mostly focuses on personal preferences, a dislike of change, and not on the common good. Numbers 20:14-21

·       For the Christian churches to offer short, simple seeker-friendly worship and teaching opportunities, especially in town and city centres, on weekdays at times when people are naturally out and about. 1 Corinthians 14:9-12

·       For the care of the elderly to become a laudable vocation once again, instead of a profit-making, low-resourced enterprise it is increasingly becoming. Leviticus 19:32; Matthew 15:3-9

·       For all kinds of work to be seen (by everyone, but by Christians especially) as building blocks for the Kingdom of God, and not simply a means to a personal end. Colossians 3:23

·       For international peace and co-operation among “allies” rather than competition between nations. Micah 4:2-5

·       For a major reduction in waste, a determined resistance to a throwaway culture, and a fresh embracing of the value of contentment. Philippians 4:11-13

·       For a universal recovery of joy in the small and simple things of life, for the beauty of nature and the wonders of science and its discoveries, not just at Christmas but all year round. Psalm 104:10-26

·       For us all to learn afresh how to “think on these things”: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy….And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9

Pope Francis has declared that 2016 should be a year of mercy, a jubilee year which began on 8 December 2015. “Mercy is not an emotion, but a practical response to need.”¹ May we indeed have a peaceful Christmas and a merciful new year.

Think and talk

What else might you add to this list?

Reference

1.  R.T. France, The Gospel according to Matthew, IVP 1985, p. 172 (commenting on Matthew 9:27; see also Matthew 5:7)

© Derek Williams 2015. Material in these blogs may be reproduced for personal or small group use with due acknowledgement.

Stop the shop early for Christmas!

Thinking about wasted food, dumped goods 
and spiritual priorities may enhance our Christmas

This is the time of year when most people’s thoughts turn to Christmas. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost upon us when it is estimated that UK consumers will spend some £2bn over the weekend on bargains and Christmas presents.

But there is also the news that one-third of consumers will borrow money for Christmas presents (the majority using credit cards), and one-fifth needing to borrow money for Christmas food. Somehow, that doesn’t feel right. Especially when one takes into account the fact that suicides and family splits tend to peak in December-January, as the dark cold days of winter exacerbate the dark cold facts of debt.

Along with that are the startling revelations on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recent TV programmes on waste. One third of all the UK’s edible food is dumped much of it by supermarkets and largely for cosmetic reasons (wonky carrots and the like).The rest is dumped by consumers whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs. Remember that when you buy the sprouts for Christmas that no-one eats (and there’s a bumper crop this year).

Hugh found a charity making 80,000 meals a day from just two per cent of the edible food dumped in the UK. And that at a time when it is said that 13m people live in low-income households¹ (many of whom who are struggling to find enough to eat) and school meals are facing financial cutbacks.

He also highlighted the seven tonnes of garments dumped every ten minutes across the UK, with the associated energy, labour and transport costs wasted. Many clothes are only worn once or a few times before being discarded for something new that hasn’t featured in a selfie on Facebook. Charity shops and re-processors could give it all a new life.

Of course, at this time of year there is also a traditional chorus of complaint about the commercialisation of Christmas, but this isn’t part of it. We can’t blame the shops for that. They only stay in business if they sell us stuff, and it’s their business to sell as much as they can. But we can do four things: we can think about why we overspend (and not just at Christmas); we can examine some biblical principles about using our resources wisely; we can make a pre-Christmas resolution to be more careful and circumspect; and we can join Hugh’s war on waste (see below).

Why we overspend

Consumer spending is a political necessity. The west is locked into a market philosophy which considers that continuous economic growth is necessary for public welfare. To grow the economy, people need to spend money. So while government isn’t telling us what to buy, it sends regular subliminal messages that Spending is Good, and regularly talks about policies that put money into people’s pockets.

Added to that is the subtle social pressure of keeping up with trends. No longer do we wear clothes until they fall apart. No longer do we retain electric and other goods until they wear out, but we replace them with the newer and (allegedly) the better models just because – why? Because we want to keep up with “everyone”? Because we’ve lost the simple art of appreciating what we have? Because we’ve been conned by advertising that tells us we must have the new model? Why must we?

We binge-spend at Christmas because we always have, perhaps. It’s the thing to do, according to false social assumptions. Or because we think people expect us to (do they really?). Or perhaps we don’t want to be thought mean or reveal just how hard it is for us to make ends meet. Or because we think that children will be happier with the most expensive and “latest” craze toy than with something more basic. (Ever seen a young child play with the paper rather than the gift? Children of all ages need love, not luxury, and to learn that they can’t necessarily have what others also have.)

Perhaps it is time that more of us challenged false assumptions and stood up to the pressures even if we have to face down work colleagues or relatives who thoughtlessly expect more of us than we can afford. Perhaps we simply need to be upfront about what we can spend; truth is as important as prudence. Some others may be grateful that we have the courage to do what they would like to do but feel they can’t. We might even set a trend: shop wisely for Christmas. We certainly do not need to miss out on fun by being more frugal.

Back to basics

Social psychology studies have shown that the more we have, the less satisfaction we gain from each item. This is not a modern insight; it was recognised in Old Testament times: “Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless”.² Of course it is; as Jesus warned, there is much more to life than getting and spending. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions.”³ But somehow, over the past few decades especially, we have been conned into believing that more is always better.

Certainly what we have is intended to be shared rather than stored, handled wisely rather than being hoarded, used rather than admired.⁴  We can’t take it with us into the next life (although people in some cultures obviously hoped they could, to judge by the goods found in ancient tombs).

Just spend less

There are some simple things that we can do to buck the trend, reduce the risk to ourselves, and perhaps even make a small contribution to reducing waste and pollution.

·         Set a budget for Christmas – so much per person for gifts, so that you do not have to use a credit card or. If you have to use credit, budget in advance for what repayments (plus interest) you will need to make in the months after Christmas which will add to your monthly outgoings, so that what you spend now is affordable and the debt doesn’t drag on.

·         Use charity Christmas cards and local delivery arrangements organised by charities in many towns to reduce costs.

·         Avoid the pre-Christmas bargains unless you really do need a new gadget / dress / whatever because the old one is broken beyond repair (not just because it is so last year’s model). “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

·         Plan your Christmas food needs carefully; rather than just piling lots into your trolley. Work out what each person is likely to eat and stick to that.

·         Likewise budget for alcohol so that you don’t have so much that everyone drinks more than they need to “because it’s there”.

·         Research creative and nourishing ways to use left-overs (Sainsbury’s is one of the supermarkets with specific ideas for this on their website).

·         Join the war on waste: http://www.wastenotuk which includes a petition to supermarkets and tips on how to avoid waste and how to recycle food and goods.

Think and talk

1.  Consider the suggestions above and ask yourself honestly what is realistic for you?

2.  Talk to family, friends and work colleagues about making a pact to reduce needless spending. The more people who do so, the happier everyone will be: it reduces stress and increases gratitude with what we do have on a community level rather than just a personal level.

3.  Do some Bible study and take the ancient wisdom seriously:

·         How to be content what you have: Psalm 62:10; Proverbs 22:1; 30:8; Jeremiah 9:23; Philippians 4:11-13

·         The negative effects of striving for, or getting, more: Proverbs 23:4-5; Ecclesiastes 5:10-12; Matthew 19:21-23; 1 Timothy 6:9

·         Put God before gain: 2 Chronicles 1:11-12; Proverbs 3:9; 15:16; Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 12:13-21

References

1.  “Monitoring poverty and social exclusion” report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 23 November 2015 - https://www.jrf.org.uk/mpse-2015

2.  Ecclesiastes 5:10

3.  Luke 12:15

4.  See for example 1 John 3:17-18 and Matthew 6:19-21.

 

© Derek Williams 2015. Material in these posts may be reproduced for private of small group use.

Six keys to greater wholeness

"In all things transitory resteth no glory" -
a good household motto and a key to wholeness

Most people want to be better people. We want to improve – our prospects, our wealth, and above all our well-being. But we tend to think in terms of technique – what will help me do this or stop that – and we tend to look for relatively quick fixes. One of the Bible’s classic stories of healing has some important – and challenging – clues to well-being, or wholeness, which are neither techniques nor quick fixes but are pretty essential.

It is the encounter between Naaman and the prophet Elisha, although it all starts with an unlikely, anonymous au pair. A young woman – probably a teenager – had been abducted from northern Israel by an Aramaic (Syrian, in our terms) raiding party, and sold into slavery. She became a maid to the wife of a senior military commander, Naaman.

And at some point Naaman had a problem. He contracted a disfiguring skin disease that could have made him an outcast. The text calls it leprosy but the term was used for several skin conditions. True leprosy today is a curable disease of skin and nerves but it isn’t definitely known to have existed before the second century BC – and Elisha was operating in the ninth century. But whatever it was, Naaman was fragile, and his immune system needed help. And he probably ran the risk of losing his job and status, if he was thrown out of society through the fear of contamination.

1. Listen!

So he did the right thing. He listened. To his wife. She had herself listened to her maid who said that if Naaman went to Israel, a prophet there would heal him. But would you as an experienced and well respected national leader listen to a foreign teenage au pair advising you how to solve a personal medical problem? And that you’d have to go to her country to do it? It would have sounded like a naive plot so she could go with the entourage and escape back to her home.

But Naaman listened, and decided to act on her advice. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote “Christians are talking when they should be listening. He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be listening no longer to God either.” Listening is a key ingredient of wholeness. You never know where or how God may speak through another person.

2. Wait!

So Naaman set off for Israel’s capital Samaria and did what anyone in that situation would do. First he made sure he could pay for the treatment. He loaded his wagon with gifts. And secondly he went to the king of Israel with whom at the time Syria had a truce. He assumed that Elisha would be part of the royal court. Which was a snag. He wasn’t. In fact, the king thought the visit was a clever ruse to break the truce and pick a fight.

So Naaman suffered what many of us suffer when we pray, for healing or anything – delay. We go looking for help and we’re met with either silence or a brick wall. He’d come a long way. He was probably tempted to turn round and go back home. Just as when nothing happens after we pray, we too are tempted to give up. But Jesus, of course, told us to be persistent in prayer. To wait patiently on and for God.² Waiting is anathema to us. We know what we want and we want – and expect – it now. But there’s no such thing as a spiritual credit card to buy a bargain in God’s shop window. Waiting is essential to wholeness. Naaman paused, waited. And Elisha stepped in and called Naaman to visit him.

3. Let go of pride and status

Naaman’s hopes rose. And then were dashed again. Elisha refused to see him. Instead he just sent his servant with a message to wash seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman was furious. He was a man of status. He expected to be received with courtesy, deference even. He was also a man of grand gestures – he was a military strategist. At the least he expected some visible sign, some dramatic ceremony to effect healing. And the Jordan? Not much more than a muddy ditch. The rivers in Syria were fed by melting snows and were clear and pure. Even Naaman knew that dirty water wasn’t always health-giving.

He went off in a huff because his natural pride was dented. Elisha was reminding him that beneath his worldly status and achievement, he was just a man. A fragile man, who needed help. Humility, like listening and waiting, is a key ingredient in the recipe for wholeness and vital in every situation for which we pray. Humility isn’t just about confessing our sinfulness in contrast to God’s holiness, perhaps mouthing a confession in a church service while thinking of nothing more than a forgotten appointment. Humility is standing in silence before the eternal creator God, acknowledging his power and authority, knowing, feeling we’ve no right to special treatment, and placing ourselves in his hands come what may.

Naaman was lucky. He had good advisers. Once again, he listened. They told him he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. It wasn’t a big deal. Letting go of pride and status never is a big deal when we get down to it. In fact, it’s liberating. It’s a burden off our back. So he went.

4.  Do what God says!

He did exactly what he was told. Obedience is another key ingredient in wholeness and healing. If you’ve ever had a course of antibiotics, you’ll know that you’re supposed to finish the course even if you feel better after a few days. You have to be thorough, to make sure you’re free of the bacteria that invaded your system. Similarly we’re called to be obedient to God in every part of our lives. In detail. How can we expect his help in one area if we’re ignoring his wishes in another?

So Naaman washed, seven times. Seven in the Bible signifies completeness. And I guess he didn’t rush up and down the bank, dipping his toe in seven times. It reads as though he washed. Came out. Dried. Changed. Then went down and washed again. Seven times. With no sign that it was doing any good – until after the seventh time.

5.  Be grateful!

He was healed. Imagine the relief. But notice the response. He went back to thank and reward Elisha. Elisha refused the gift – it was God who’d healed him – but the act of going back was important. Remember Jesus’ encounter with ten lepers? All were healed but only one came back to say thank you, to express gratitude. And to him alone, Jesus said “your faith has made you whole”.³ He received something more than a clean bill of health. He was changed on the inside too; he became a better person, and by implication found God in a personal way. Gratitude is a forgotten source of peace and wholeness.

6.  Be gentle!

But Naaman hadn’t quite finished. He asked for soil to take home so he could worship God. Bodily healing wasn’t an end in itself – it led to the greater wholeness of Naaman finding God. Israel’s God was still regarded as a tribal God so having Israelite soil meant God would be where Naaman was. Elisha didn’t challenge that theological inaccuracy although he could have done. He recognised that Naaman’s faith was real but weak and imperfect. Now was not the time for a sermon.

And he even accepted that Naaman, in his official role, would have to take part in cultural ceremonies that were directed to non-existent deities and at which Naaman would cross his spiritual fingers, as it were, and think of the true God. Elisha was OK with that too. The fiery prophet was exercising gentleness towards a new believer: another key to both our’s and others’ wholeness.

Listen. Wait. Let go of pride and status. Be thorough in your spiritual life. Be grateful. Be gentle. It won’t make you perfect, but you will feel more fulfilled and you are likely to be of more use to God and to other people.

Think and talk

1. Take time to listen. Set aside time each day when you can just be silent in God’s presence. Don’t jabber on about your needs or go through a shopping list of requests. Just “Be still and know I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

2.  When you are waiting for God to act, what do you feel? Anxiety or trust? How might you discover more of the latter and loosen the hold of the former over you?

3.  Humility is recognising that we have no special claim to preferential treatment.

4.  Read Galatians 5 19-26. Which of the negatives do you need to let go of, and which of the positives do you need to work on if you are going to be thorough in your Christian life?

5.  A good spiritual exercise is to find at least five things (secuolar therapists suggest 10!) that you can be grateful for at the end of each day. You’ll be surprised at the difference it makes to your life.

6.  We expect other people to think and act exactly as we do, but they don’t because they have different backgrounds, understandings, personalities and experiences. Who do you need to be gentle with this week? Look at Jesus’ example in Matthew 12:18-20.

References

1. The story, the longest account of a single healing in the Bible, is in 2 Kings 5.

2.  For example in Luke 18:1-8

3.  Luke 17:11-19

 

(c) Derek Williams 2015. Material in these posts may be reproduced for personal or group study with appropriate acknowledgement.

Gratitude: the forgotten source of peace

All good gifts around us: every day is a harvest thanksgiving
day. We have so much to be grateful for.

Recently we experienced a 20-hour power cut caused by a burnt-out underground cable. It was a vivid reminder of our dependence on electricity: light, heat and appliances all died. Electricity is one of many things that we take for granted; rarely are we consciously thankful for it. During the cut, however, the cable company connected homes to emergency generators, and teams of engineers dug holes and located and repaired the fault. Another cause for gratitude: skilled people were quickly organised to remedy our problem.

We are very fortunate, compared to many people in the world. Certainly compared to our forebears of only a few generations back, for whom the convenience of electric power was unknown. And compared to people in developing countries where breakdowns are not so speedily repaired.

Gratitude is an often-forgotten emotion. We may express it at an unexpected gift, or as at this time of year in harvest thanksgiving services when we pay lip-service to God’s provision of the natural resources from which all that we have – including all manufactured products – are derived. But generally, gratitude is not part of our mental and spiritual way of life. It gets crowded out by our full diaries and our constant striving to achieve. As a result, we miss something important: peace and contentment.

What gratitude does

Daniel Defoe’s morality tale Robinson Crusoe has the island castaway coming to his senses after some time in his lonely environment. “I learned to look on the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side,” Crusoe says, “and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I lacked.”¹  The more we want, the less we appreciate what we already have.

Gratitude creates within us a sense of well-being, of contentment; when we’re thankful, we’re not straining for yet more. It is a vital component of emotional, mental and spiritual health. Studies have suggested that people who are mindfully grateful tend to experience less stress and fewer minor illnesses regardless of their personal circumstances: our state of mind does affect our physical well-being.

Gratitude puts life into perspective. It reduces anxiety in the present and fear for the future. It stimulates care, contentment and compassion; gratitude and greed are mutually exclusive. It overpowers guilt from past incidents about which we can do nothing and on which we dwell only at the expense of our peace of mind. Gratitude melts away anger and increases patience; there is so much more to be grateful for than to be exasperated by. It stops us comparing ourselves to others and so helps us avoid the crippling folly of criticising them or complaining about them.

And above all, it is a means by which wholeness is developed. It renews our relationship with God and opens us to the possibility of discovering more about, and receiving more from, him. Gratitude makes us more mindful of God and careful towards others. It was the one leper out of ten who received wholeness when he alone went back to thank Jesus (Luke 17:11-19). 

What others say

American Catholic writer Robert Wickes writes that “gratitude feeds a healthy perspective. In turn, a healthy perspective allows you to see the world with a greater sense of gratitude. Gratitude and perspective form a circle of grace.”² 

And former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, observed that “It is possible that in most of us the spiritual life is stunted because we give so little place to gratitude. It is more important to thank God for blessings received than to pray for them beforehand.” He goes on to suggest that forward-looking prayer at least partly self-centred, whereas backward-looking thanksgiving is selfless and “akin to love”.³ 

So it’s hardly surprising that biblical writers knew, and extolled, the value and importance of thanksgiving. It’s a constant theme in the psalms irrespective of the writers’ current circumstances (see below). Perhaps the most significant passage is Philippians 4:4-9 in which Paul points to positive benefits of gratitude. He begins by encouraging us to “rejoice in the Lord always” – focusing on God’s loving greatness irrespective of however comfortable or difficult our personal situation may be.

Rejoicing helps to stimulate gentleness (his next exhortation), which is a careful, mindful approach to other people and possibly difficult situations. That encourages us to pray about everything “with thanksgiving” – remembering who God is, what he has done before and what he can do now. And the result is “the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Here is the circle of grace Robert Wickes wrote of: gratitude leads to prayer, prayer generates peace (as opposed to anxiety), which in turn restores our sense of gratitude and contentment for the unchanging, unflappable nature of God.

But that’s not all. He continues with the sort of exercise that modern mindfulness teachers advocate: “Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things….And the God of peace will be with you.” Meditating on whatever is praiseworthy – and there is so much – is a source of peace, contentment, confidence in God and compassion towards others, just as long as we remember to notice it.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”⁴ Try the exercises below and see for yourself that in a relatively short time, they’ll make a difference to the way you see things, the way you feel and the way you act.

Think, talk and practice gratitude

1. In what circumstances did psalmists give thanks to God? Look at Psalm 7:17; 30:12; 100:4; 107:1; 118:1.

2.  What did Jesus give thanks or praise for? Matthew 11:25; 14:19; 26:26; John 11:41f.

3.  What can you learn from Paul’s exhortations to give thanks? Ephesians 1:16; 5:19; Philippians 4:4-9; Colossians 2:6f; 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

4.  “We must know how to say thank you. Our days are filled with the gifts the Lord showers on us. If we were in the habit of taking stock of them, at night we should be like ‘a queen for a day’, dazzled and happy with so many blessings.”⁵  Try this exercise: at the end of each day: think of at least five things (secular psychologists recommend 10, so start with five and increase the number steadily each day) that you have done, used, experienced or seen during the day that you can give thanks for. And quietly say “Thank you God” for them.

5.  Or this: sit quietly in a room (any room), a garden, park, countryside, seaside, and look around. Take conscious note of everything you see: natural and human-made. As your eye lights on something, pause and give thanks in your own way for what it is, what it does, and for who designed and made it from other components.

6.  Or this: at the start of the day, with your first cup of tea or coffee, your shower or your breakfast, even the bus or the train – take a few moments to pause and say thank you for these or other common daily things you do and need. It will give you a greater lift than caffeine alone!

References

1.  Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Penguin Classics

2.  Robert Wickes, Prayerfulness, Sorin Books 2009, p.113
3.  William Temple, Readings in St John’s Gospel, Macmillan 1945, p.189f
4.  G.K. Chesterton, A short history of England, Chatto & Windus 1930, p.59
5.  Michel Quoist, Prayers of life, p. 47

© Derek Williams 2105. Material in these posts may be reproduced for small group or personal study with due acknowledgement.

The creed in plain words - (6) All one in Christ

We don’t need a building to be church or to worship Jesus:
A united churches open air service in rural Northamptonshire.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Words are important. It’s hard to convey our exact meaning at the best of times; using ambiguous words multiplies the risk of misunderstanding. The compilers and translators of the creed chose their words carefully. Each of these final statements uses a specific verb to amplify and apply the point they make.

We believe…

Believing in the church – a flawed, divided and sometimes corrupt institution – is a tall order! Especially when elsewhere in the creed, as in the New Testament, “believe” means “put one’s trust in”. There certainly is a sense in which the creeds, based on scripture, are trustworthy and the major but varying formularies of the churches provide a practical framework for church membership, even though they tend to emphasise the distinctive emphases of that particular denomination.

But here, “believe” doesn’t refer to a specific institution. There is one church, not many: the holy (that is, set apart by God for a purpose) catholic (that is, universal) and apostolic (that is, adhering to the teaching of the apostles revealed in the New Testament) church.

It consists of a worldwide community of believers who are united by their common faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour, regardless of our different cultures, worship styles and organisational structures. “You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus…There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26-28). That is the church we belong to simply by virtue of faith in Christ.

And that is something we can believe in, celebrate and commit to! We are not alone. We really are God’s new community with the shared responsibility of bringing the values of God’s Kingdom into the world by our words and deeds (look at 1 Peter 2:9). What we do in our small corner matters; it’s either a brick in the kingdom God is building, or a sledgehammer that damages it. God does not despise our small endeavours. United ministry and witness makes an even bigger impact on our community, of course, which is why the support of and co-operation with others in smaller groups, and through bodies like Churches Together, is so important.

We acknowledge…

You can acknowledge someone in the street whose name you don’t know but whose face is familiar – a near neighbour, perhaps. But here “acknowledge” means much more than a nodding acquaintance. It is a recognition of the validity and value of baptism as a sacrament, a sign of God’s promised grace. A person who is baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, no matter where (church or lake), when (adult or infant) or by what method (sprinkling or immersion), does not need to be re-baptised if they subsequently join another church. There is one baptism (Ephesians 4:5), a sign of God’s forgiveness and renewal, which we must individually, consciously and continually appropriate by faith in Christ.

We look…

It goes without saying that we want to make the most of this life, whatever our personal limitations and circumstances. But this life is just the start of an eternal adventure. The Bible tells us virtually nothing about what life after death is like, and we’re not encouraged to speculate. It is beyond human understanding or imagining. The common pictures of clouds, of angels with harps, of heaven as an unending “service” of worship, are less than helpful. Heaven, or the new creation, is a renewal of all that is good in this life and made so much more better than we can possibly imagine. We are encouraged to look forward with hope and trust in an infinite God who makes all things new and does all things well. We are not encouraged merely to hope for the best.

Seeing our current circumstances in an eternal context, recognising that God has long-term purposes for us and our family, community and world which we can never fully appreciate, can help us to face the challenges of today positively and even reduce the anxiety they may otherwise generate.

Think and talk

1.  Look at how Paul, writing towards the end of his life under house arrest in Rome sees this life in the context of eternity: Philippians 1:20-27 and 3:7-16. Ask yourself if you share this perspective, and how you might increase it.

2.  God’s creation and provision for human beings began as a garden (Genesis 2:4-17) and is renewed as a city (Revelation 21). What does that tell you about the way God takes and uses what we do? How might that encourage you (a) to take seriously the call to build “the Kingdom of God” and (b) to think about the true nature of life after death?  

3.  Paul says that the body of Christ (the church) has many parts and each has an important function. Look up and list the parts he identifies (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:27-31; Epohesians 4:11-14). What is your function in the universal church, and what might be the function of your local church community?

4.  The debate about forms of baptism and the age at which it can be administered has been the cause of church splits in the past.

 

This is the final post in a series on the creed that was originally prepared for a church magazine and has been expanded here. It may be reproduced locally for personal and group use with due acknowledgement to the author and this website. Future posts will revert to fulfilling more closely the aim of “Gentler Word” to consider current issues and especially personal attitudes to people and situations.

© Derek Williams 2015