Glocal Christianity

It's not often I feel this emotional...

I was SO blown away this morning. A single mum who we've been helping on and off for 2 years now, along with her 5 kids, who's been quasi-homeless at times, who we've walked with and prayed with through all sort of dramas, well, she rocked up to the service this morning just to tell my wife and I that public housing has come through. She now has a home!

And though it could have been anywhere in Sydney or beyond, as it turns out, its just about 2 minutes drive from us, on the SAME street where she is now. So she doesn't have to disrupt her family any further. I was ... ecstatic. Hell, I'm man enought to admit it, I've been teary. Still am now.

And now she's also looking for some scriptural instruction.

We've had our garage full of most of her worldy possessions for about 18 months now, we've seen her face all sorts of traumatic situations. Why, when she saw us this morning, it was with another 15 year old girl in tow, whom she has taken in because she's got no where else to go. But her prayers, our prayers, have been answered abundantly. This is just so awesome.

So, now my wife and I are talking about how we can free up my time, to enable me to disciple the family in the small one bedroom flat where they are currently staying, which belongs to her boyfriend. They're unchurched. Not dechurched. I mean unchurched, multigenerationally so. Would be eight people all up, of varying ages, and who knows who else may join in. Prayers for this would be appreciated.

Experiencing God, Experiencing Joy

Experience, experiential, experientialism ... are these words you associate with Christianity? Have you ever encountered people who insist, Christianity is about dogma, not experience? Is that your experience maybe?

Recently I came across a comment from a former Wiccan who said, "I didn't know that real Christianity was experiential, that true Christians have a deeply personal relationship with God." I thought, how unfortunate. I then thought, sadly, how unfortunate most introductory courses on Christianity focus on the essential teachings, without any teaching on experience! No wonder so many people get such jaundiced impressions.

It got me thinking about the range of emotions that people experience, in everyday life and in their encounters with God. What reflections have the apostles and prophets left for us? As it turns out, there's heaps if we care to look. I began ... with joy. 

Deuteronomy 16:14 
Be joyful at your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.

1 Chronicles 29:17 
I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.

Ezra 6:22 
For seven days they celebrated with joy the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because the LORD had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria, so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

Nehemiah 12:43 
And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.

Esther 8:16 
For the Jews it was a time of happiness and joy, gladness and honor.

Job 6:10
Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

Psalm 16:11 
You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence

Psalm 21:6 
Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

Psalm 33:3 
Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Psalm 45:15 
They are led in with joy and gladness; they enter the palace of the king.

Psalm 51:12 
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 71:23 
My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you— I, whom you have redeemed.

Psalm 94:19 
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.

Psalm 100:2 
Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Psalm 126:3 
The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Proverbs 12:20 
There is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for those who promote peace.

Matthew 28:8 
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

Mark 4:16 
Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.

Luke 24:52
Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

John 15:11 
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Acts 13:52 
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Romans 12:12 
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

2 Corinthians 7:4 
In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.

Galatians 5:22 
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness

Philippians 1:4 
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy

1 Thessalonians 5:16 
Be joyful always

James 1:2 
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds

1 Peter 1:8 
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy

Much to reflect on ... and much more if we look deeper.

Experiencing God

This evening I have been searching out the scriptures for references to personal experience. Here are the references I have found so far.  

Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. (Mark 5:29)

When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance (Acts 22:17)

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9)

If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. (Hebrews 10:2)

Why am I doing this? To clarify my own theology of Christian experience. If you have any additions to suggest, please do so.

Why would Jesus help a Muslim?

A Muslim speaks of his conversion experience.

The Quest for Personal Transformation

I have been meditating on transformation and change beyond conversion. Many new religious movements speak of the quest for personal transformation. What does the Jesus movement have to say? Here are a few ancient sayings I am sitting with:

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, (Ephesians 2:14-15)

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-23)

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:9-10)

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, (1 Peter 2:2)

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Revelation 21:5)

The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. (1 Samuel 10:6)

Who is like the wise man? Who knows the explanation of things? Wisdom brightens a man's face and changes its hard appearance. (Ecclesiastes 8:1)>

It is interesting to observe how often the apostles spoke of transformation and change in the present tense. It's not just a past conversion or future resurrection thing.

Pakistani Muslim Converted to Christianity

My Zimbabwean Experience

Ellen Haroutunian's recent comments on African Christian syncretism stirred up some old memories for me.

When I visited Zimbabwe, back before I was married, I struck up a conversation with a local taxi driver who affirmed Christianity but prayed to Nyaminyami, the Zambezi River God, as a sort of saint.

I was still quite syncretistic myself at the time, having not been out of the New Age movement for very long, so it was an interesting meeting of Christianities.

It's worth reflecting on how we can be syncretistic, how we can mix Christianity with non-Christianity, without being all that conscious of it.

Trusting God in Sadness

"Depression sucks the life out of more people—including Christians—than any other emotional issue. Perhaps you know what it’s like not to want to get out of bed in the morning to face the day… Or, to be so lonely that your skin screams out for a caring touch… Or, to have your mind full of self-condemning thoughts… Or, to feel so hopeless that you want to die…" For more read Trusting God in the Sadness

What is it like to be a Christian?

How would you describe 'the Christian experience'?

What is it like to be a Christian? For you?

Would you speak of tongues, epiphanies and peak experiences; or would you speak of the deeper transformation, that comes through perseverance?

Would you speak of physical healing? heart softening? renewal of the mind?

Do you know what it means to be born again? On an experiential level?

Would you speak of union with God?

We often speak of Christian teaching and Christian practice ... but what of the Christian experience ... what of your experience?

What is sacred ground for you?

When I feel the need to chill out, to listen to God at a more leisurely pace, one of the places I like to go to is Lake Parramatta, an area of native bushland half way between my place and my parents in western Sydney.

For those interested, I have uploaded a number of snapshots from my blackberry onto facebook for you to look at. The photo quality isn't fantastic but hopefully it conveys some of the rugged beauty of the native Australian bush.

In the bush I can get away from our so called civilization, I have more space to get perspective. There is something sacred about that. So I ask, what is sacred ground for you?

Radical Attachment to Jesus

Radical attachment to Jesus is not believing something about Jesus (a pietistic experience), or believing in Jesus (a conversion experience) but believing Jesus (in discipleship) and believing what Jesus believed (in imitation). So, as he believed, love of God, love of neighbour, and becoming one’s true self are three indivisible sides of the primary spiritual triangle.

David Augsburger – Dissident Discipleship, P23

Monopolar, Bipolar and Tripolar Spirituality

In his book, Dissident Discipleship, David Augsburger draws up a helpful table distinguishing between monopolar, bipolar and tripolar spirituality.

1	1.5	2	2.5	3
Monopolar Spirituality	Mirror of Self “My own God”	Bipolar Spirituality	Benevolent Self that Serves God	Tripolar Spirituality
Spirituality of in-search and self discovery	Spirituality of wish fulfilment and projection	Spirituality of God encounter, God as Other	Spirituality of gratitude, service and neighbour love	Spirituality of radical agape and enemy love
I am a church of one, me	My God and I fulfil my life	I know true self as I know God	As I love God I care for others	I love God only as I love enemy

 

I think this is a very useful tool, for both personal reflection and reflection on the traditions on offer in the spiritual marketplace today.

Myths about Christianity - Dogma versus Experience

I get a little tired sometimes of this dogma that Christians are only interested in dogma, not life transforming experience. So, here is a counter example from Orthodox priest, Father Steven Tsichlis.

Abandoning a successful career, Symeon became a monk and was eventually ordained a priest. As a spiritual father, hymn-writer and thinker, Symeon insisted that the meaning of dogma and the task of theology is to articulate and communicate these experiences of the Lord of Glory, to share the gifts which had been given to him with others. For him, experiencing the Crucified and Risen Lord is the content of the Church’s dogmatic formulations. Without this inner experience, dogma has no meaning and is little more than empty words without content. Conversely, a Christian who lacks an awareness of the great dogmas of Christianity easily becomes submerged in a sea of subjective experience, an experience without the objective “facts” of dogma upon which all truly Christian experience must be based. Thus, the dogmas of the Church are not a set of “alien” formulations which we must adhere to because some ecclesiastical authority is forcing us to do so; but rather, the documentation of the deepest and most profound human experiences which, transcending time and space, are handed over from generation to generation as a light in our darkness. And the church is not an institution arbitrarily forcing us to follow its rules, but a community inviting us to still our hunger and thirst for the Truth at its table.

We need to look beyond the false dogmas about dogma. Although some Christian leaders are notoriously dogmatic, it is equally true that others Christian leaders are notoriously experiential and loose on doctrine. On the whole however, Christian leaders have stressed balance, that we should love the Lord with heart and mind and body and soul.

But besides what others have to say, I can say from my own experience: I have encountered God, I have encountered Christ, and he changed my life. Don't just take my word for it, experience the good news for yourself. 

Christian Meditation: It's About Relationship, Not Rules

Do you sometimes get frustrated that the Bible has no proscriptions for meditation practice? Here are a few comments from M. Basil Pennington's article, "A Christian Way to Transformation":

Periodically there are persons who make the rounds. They go to the ashram and learn what they can of the eight limbs of Yoga. They spend some time at the meditation center learning insight meditation. And then they knock at our door and ask, "What is your method?"

My usual answer is that our whole life is our method. As the early Christians expressed it, we have entered into "The Way." Our Master and Lord, who spoke of himself as "the Way and the Truth and the Life," coming from the fullness of the Jewish tradition, summed up his way in the two great commandments: "The first and greatest commandment is this: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole strength. And the second is like unto this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." He went on to modify the second, saying: "I give you a new commandment: You shall love one another as I have love

This response, that our whole life is our method, usually does not satisfy insistent inquirers. They have found among the Hindus and Buddhists a seemingly rather concise method or practice and they are looking for the same among the Christians. At this point, insisting always that the practice must nurture a full pursuit of "The Way" and that outside of such a context it may well be fruitless in the deepest sense of that word -- we are to judge a tree by its fruit -- I tell our inquirers that our method is lectio.

Most striking about this Christian way to transformation is its simplicity. We have but to open ourselves to the revealing and all-powerful Word of God and he will do the rest. It is simple, but not easy. For such openness implies making time and space to hear. Making time is difficult enough in our busy lives. Making space in our cluttered hearts is more difficult, for if each day we do take the next step in faithfulness to his revealing word, in the end we will have to give up everything. But this is only in order to have the space to find everything, with him and in him, in all its potential fullness and magnificence, no longer bound by the confines of our limitations. In this way we come to live the first great commandment to love the Lord our God with our whole mind, our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole strength, and the second, which is like unto it, to love our neighbors and the whole creation as we love ourselves in that first great love. It is to be wholly in "The Way," identified with the Way, who is the way to the Father in the Holy Spirit of Love.

I think this is very true. Christian meditation is about relationship, not rules; a person, not a practice. We can describe methods, but we can't proscribe them.

Transformed in Him

Symeon the New Theologian:

“…I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? — Then
open your heart to Him

and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body

where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.”