Hope seeps back into the world
Like the first light of dawn
And life is bathed in a new light; glowing
Golden, tangential, like the evening sun
Spring has sprung me from my gloomy cell
That which seemed dead, resurrects,
And proves itself eternal.
Possibility abounds.
So after wandering the streets of Heaton for almost exactly a year, this morning was our Church Community‘s first gathering back home after the completion of some pretty major building work. We celebrated.
LOUDLY.
And with balloons. =]
It was lots of fun. It was great to experience the truth that our King loves a party – that He often gives good gifts of Joy and celebration to His people. I like it when that happens
Our church community is so blessed by our creator to be called his children and to be given these new facilities: Two bits from the written heritage i enjoy as a follower of Jesus sprang to mind today: Where God blesses Abraham, so that he can be a blessing to others. And where Paul of Tarsus shares his heart with the church community in Philippi
To meet together and eat together with my family in a “renewed building, for a renewed people, in a new day” was fantastic. Taste and see that God is good. Amen.
In heaven, it is Easter Sunday every day. Discuss.
So this whole Passion thing is causin a stir on the net, unsurprisingly, and i’m enjoyin having the chance to soak it all up at my leisure on this day off.
Things that have taken my fancy today:
FB status: [my mate] is staying off b3ta until Easter is over.
Facebook also taught* me today that Thomas is the patron Saint of Architects, which figures.
This beauty from Jon Birch:
Some Church History from Dan Hames
And, via Robb, well… verily, this particular telling of the story hath relevance for my time.
And this from twitturgies. Amen.
.
* see – it is educashunal, honest.
Its 3 in the morning. Just got woken up by dreaming that my flatmate was trying to wake me up. My first thought was that i’d slept through my alarm, but that particular terror quickly subsided. The whole experience was weird though, cos it seemed so… audible. I’m not claiming a Samuel moment by any means, here, but experientially it felt pretty much like i imagine that did. Which was disconcerting. So obviously i awaited further missives from on high.
These were not particularly forthcoming, except that i got to thinking about this evening just gone, and i thought some stuff that seemed worth writing down, so here it is.
I spent the evening being hospitalised by my good friend and ex housemate, Docherty Duncan*, and his Bonnie and Buxom** wife, MM. It was great to see them and benefit from the richness of their company. I learnt the difference between a monk*** and a friar. I almost learnt some ancient greek. I also learnt a bit about myself, having thought about some stuff that happened in the course of the evening. You see, it occurred to me that whilst everyone in the room, as it happens, would certainly claim that “being like Jesus” is pretty much their fundamental goal in life, last night this aim produced wildly differing results in each person. And that got me thinking.
I tend to get some stick for regularly drinking my nice cup of tea from a “Wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana” memorabilia type mug. The mug has some significance for me, but that’s another story. The reason i bring it up is Prince Charles’ famous quote about love. Whatever that means. Amongst other things, it was at least a very honest remark. And i think its often applicable to my clumsy attempts to be like Jesus. Whatever that means.
I use the phrase “being like Jesus” a lot, and i’m realising now, i’m not always sure what it means. Or at least, i realise i’ve only grasped a tiny amount of what it could and should mean.
Recently in my thinking, i’ve been focusing on the outrageousness of Jesus. Jesus the radical. Jesus the guy who turns your world upside down. Jesus the guy who says what you’re not allowed to say, talks to who you’re not allowed to talk to, and pisses off all the people who you’re not allowed to piss off. And some of that thinking came out in my actions last night. No bad thing. Except that MM once again reminded me that Jesus is also all about gentleness and kindness and sensitivity. If you asked MM what “being like Jesus” is all about i’d hazard a guess that she’d talk about his incredible purity. And she’d be right to do so. Because it’s not a choice between outrageous and pure, or shocking and gentle.
The answer, as is so often the case in these matters, is not one thing or the other. Its both. Jesus is outrageously pure. He is shockingly gentle. I reckon its good that the guy we are entrusting everything to turns out to be deeper than our first glance revealed.
Sometimes in my eagerness to be outrageous, i forget that its all about outrageous love – for forgetting that tonight, i owe MM an apology. Sorry MM. And whilst i still hold that its probably not genuine Christian fellowship until every guy in the room has referenced some kind of sex toy at least once in the conversation, its definitely not Christian fellowship if my attitude is one of self-obsession and self-importance. Its good to be reminded that being provocative as an end in itself is not “being like Jesus” at all. Its good to have friends whose example keeps you straight and opens your eyes to what’s missing in your thoughts and actions. Which is a pretty good working definition of prophecy, when you think about it. So maybe this was a Samuel moment, after all.
*Names have been changed to protect the guilty.
**This phrase doesn’t mean what you probably think it does, but MM qualifies either way.
***Random aside: If you become the disciple of a monk, does that make you a monkee?
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