godbiblelife

Forty Days And Forty Nights

The Baby Boy gazed up at the leaves being moved by the gentle breeze. He had no words or concepts of things like leaves, trees or sky; for him it was an overwhelming kaleidoscope of fragmented green, constantly shifting and moving, all possible shades and variations, with the steady deep and clear azure behind. He didn’t know, in any kind of cultivated adult sense, what beauty was either – and yet he knew that this was beauty, heartbreaking and unbearable loveliness, the dazzling light of the sun muted and torn to little translucent green forms, like fairy spirits moving, dancing and bowing before him. He scarcely had any concept of where his tiny limitations finished and the green, blue and golden beauty before him began.

He began to cry. His mother came over to him, with full, heavy and aching breasts. He drank, was quietened, and fell asleep.

The Dark Man was there too, almost invisible, blending in with the shadows under the trees. He watched them both for a while and then left.

Thirty years or so later and the Baby Boy was now a Grown Man, hungry, empty and weak, standing up on the hillside. The sky had grown dark, inky black clouds drawn across in a premature dusk. A ragged gash in the clouds, a couple of miles away, caused heraldic sunbeams to slant down onto the distant city, making it shine white amidst the gloom, like the celestial city, the city set on a hill.

It’s yours, said the Dark Man, who was there too, and was also regarding the city. Of course, it’s yours. I can’t do it, all that I touch turns dark, the touch of my fingers turns all to dust and decay in the end. Not you though – your reign is a rule of light, truth and beauty, of righteousness and peace. Take it, it’s yours, I can give it to you and all other cities like this one, from this time and all times to come. Bow to me, receive it from my hand and take up your rightful place. The old restraints and prohibitions are soon to be done away with, they have served their purpose. The ancient monogamy is no longer required, all you touch becomes clean, consecrated. They are waiting for you, the perfectly formed bodies under the flowing garments. Bow to me, and take up your kingdom.

The Grown Man saw all these thoughts and enticements but they did not enter into his heart and will, like ships declining to enter a harbour, like apples that refuse to fall to the ground in a bitter gale. He saw the shining city but did not look at it, fixing his gaze above and beyond it, just as he never looked at the Dark Man, but always off centre, looking past and over him, seeing him only ever with peripheral vision.

He turned, showing his back to both the Shining City and the Dark Man – get behind me Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shall you serve.

Four figures appeared, tall and shining, in the deepening gloom, standing, facing one another, in enclosed quadrant formation. They sang a song that rose and fell, but continued as a constant eternal flow. They regarded one another from time to time, casting the song back and forth between them but always at the very edge of forgetting their own being, so compelling the music they were making together, so devastatingly, beautifully irrefutable, the never ending hymn of praise which will – one day – burst through that thin membrane that separates their world from ours and sweep away all darkness before it.

The Grown Man stood and listened for a while and thus helped and strengthened, slowly made his way back to the town.

Coffee, Cake, and Yucky Pus

This short piece of creative writing is a dream that I had, a long time ago, and has stayed with me over the decades since. Interestingly, shortly after I had this dream, I went into a period of very difficult emotional and spiritual turmoil, almost to the point of not being functional any more in my daily life, as the leaders of the christian community I lived in at that time, didn’t approve of my engagement to the wonderful woman who has now been my wife for nearly 26 years. In the end, as I could not recognise any biblical reason for their concerns, nor any concerns about the character of the woman in question, I persisted with the engagement and we married, in April 1995, something I have never regretted for a single moment. I was later able to be reconciled with the community leader who had been the main source of the conflict and he even went as far as to give his blessing and approval of our marriage. I didn’t really need it any more at that point – but it was great to have it!

The kind late summer sun meant that it was easily warm enough to sit outside, so the table was set up underneath the linden trees, the gently moving branches sending light and shade across the tabletop, where a crisp white cloth bore finest china, silver cutlery, several homemade cakes, a bowl of fruit and pots of steaming coffee and tea. My kind hosts, the two ladies from Germany and the gentleman from America got proceedings underway, the cake was cut and we began.

The interruption came not long after….. Coming on quite quickly, I very suddenly and with no prior warning, began to experience something like an unendurable grief welling up inside of me, overpowering and absolutely not to be resisted. To my consternation, I began weeping, powerfully and uncontrollably.

I glanced up at my companions and even in my distraught condition, noticed that they seemed utterly unperturbed by this sudden outbreak. They looked at me with expressions of deep love and tenderness, moving closer, placing hands on my back and shoulders. Other than that, it seemed almost as though they had been expecting something like this to happen, had no particular plan but were quietly confident that all was unfolding as it should.

Worse (or so I thought at the time) was to unfold though…. The tears which were following freely down my face seemed to take on a deeply unpleasant viscous and sticky quality, I became intermittently blinded, and was horrified and repulsed to find that the tears had developed into a pale sticky pus, now flowing out of not just my eyes, but from my nose, ears, nostrils, mouth and every pore in the skin in my face and scalp. It got everywhere, coffee, cake and fruit were all ruined and I wept on, managing, in between times, to catch a glance at my companions, still gazing at me fixedly with absolutely unbroken love, concern and tenderness.

I managed to utter a broken I’m so sorry…. However, looking again at their faces, I realised that apologies were superfluous and massively missing the point somehow, as I noticed not even the slightest shade of repulsion or disgust at the horrible display in front of them, as they – quietly and confidently – with no bloody sacrifices or tiresome incantations – invoked that powerful and loving presence, with it’s mercifully muted light – to come and do with all of us, whatever it was he so desired.

Mary and the Sword

The angel appeared to Mary with good news – a baby boy, he will be great, a king, his kingdom shall never end. All that joy and hope contained in that tiny human packet, a gift of love, nurtured by love and the grown man giving himself in love.

And yet, and yet….. What did the priest say to Mary and Joseph as they later held that little baby in their arms in the temple? A sword…. A sword shall pierce your heart… This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Is there then to be no love without the sword, piercing the heart? Is there no joy without suffering and loss? Why then do we choose to give ourselves in love? We all know it – the sword is waiting for us too, in various ways, revealing itself as the years turn into decades and the final moments of our lives come.

Would we turn away from love if we could see ahead and sense that sword penetrating our hearts, whilst still in the first flush of love?

And what about the thoughts of our hearts being revealed? Why those uncomfortable ideas of the baby Jesus actually being someone who reveals our hearts and can see into our inmost being? Perhaps Jesus seeing our hearts for what they are and what is contained in them, the good, the bad and the ugly, isn’t something scary or shameful, but simply the first step out of the gloom into light, truth, beauty and order.

But back to the sword – the final word has not yet been spoken… Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O grave, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?

And so, we love. We choose to give ourselves in love and to be loved by others. Come what may and despite the sorrow that comes to all those who love.

In the big scheme of things and in ways we cannot always see or understand, love always endures, love always wins. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love – greater also than the grave, greater than the sword.

The Weeping Man

It was the sound of weeping that woke him. Was he really awake, though? He certainly became aware of lying on his back, in a rather stiff and formal manner, but…. awake? He wasn’t sure yet. He had often had that strange experience of being asleep but dreaming of being awake, and decided that this was what was happening now.

There it was again – weeping. A grown man, weeping, very close by, immediately next to him, quiet, insistent, desolate and disconsolate, like someone who did a lot of weeping. Almost musical in tone, very nearly like singing, it went on in continuous rhythm and was clearly the voice of a man who knew all about sorrows and was acquainted with grief.

But why had he thought the sound was close at hand? It was now certainly further off, coming from outside. But outside of what? All he knew, in that vague and dreamy condition, was that he was inside somewhere and the weeping man was outside. This distinction between his inside and the weeping man’s outside seemed to be important and terribly significant, but it was just another unknown to him in his still dreaming condition. The weeping became louder, rising, step by step, to a tone of outrage and plain anger, reaching something like a terrible shout, a lamentation and even perhaps a war cry – the kind of sound a man would make if he were fighting and defeating an enraged lion or bear with his bare hands. And then…silence.

He continued lying there, closer now to true wakefulness, but still knowing himself to be asleep. Other than that, he didn’t know anything at all, just his dark and enclosed inside and the man who had been weeping outside. He had no idea who he was, what had gone before, no memories of anything at all.

Sound returned, in the vague murmur of other voices, going back and forth, talking in low insistent tones. He thought also that he could discern other wailing and weeping voices, further away, women’s voices perhaps? Then two or three male voices came much closer, until he could almost begin to pick out individual words. Sounds of exertion, grunting and heaving, followed by a brief stab of light which disappeared for a moment, only then to return, and become instantly dazzling, blinding him, despite the fact that he seemed to have some kind of arrangement of cloth over his face.

Then – his name…

The weeping man called out his name…

LAZARUS!

The first piece of returning memory… Lazarus, that’s me, that’s my name. He now felt very close indeed to breaking the surface of the lake of sleep he was still submerged in. The man’s voice continued in a commanding tone, forceful enough to flatten trees a hundred miles away and even knock planets out of their course, but aimed with absolute precision at him and him alone…

COME FORTH!

With that shout, the return of the memory of his own name and then that not to be resisted command COME FORTH! he knew – clearly and indisputably – that he was now fully awake, able, for the first time, to flex muscle and move limbs.

Now that he was properly awake, the knowledge and sensation of being inside in that enclosed space and there being a very clear outside became rather oppressive. COME FORTH, the voice had commanded, so – of course – he obeyed. And that was still all he knew, the entirety of any knowledge he could muster. His name, the sensation of being in that enclosed space and now the command to COME FORTH.. Slowly and carefully he sat up, then stood and began to walk, in slow shuffling gait, towards the light, which he was very clearly aware of, even though he was still effectively blindfolded. There was something outrageous, something that felt as though it should Not Really Be Allowed, something impossible about this action of standing and walking – he didn’t know why that should be. It simply shouldn’t be happening, rather like following the command to walk over a cliff edge, with the assurance from somebody or other that there was an invisible surface to walk on. He was also very dimly aware of a dull and confused racket, perhaps hordes of squealing, hideous voices, a long distance off, gibbering in rage and dismay, very faint but sufficient to frighten him a little, so he advanced his steps towards that light and warmth, and then – he was no longer inside – but outside, out into what he would soon remember to be sunlight and fresh air. For now though, like a baby that had been accidentally born with an adult body, he stood there still knowing and remembering nothing.

Footsteps and voices approached, he became aware of hands, gentle and hesitant, plucking and pulling at the pieces of cloth that had been encumbering his movement. And how they stank! A sweet but sickly smell arose, dark and repulsive, as those filthy rags fell away and his limbs became free to move again, face free and open, eyes still screwed tight shut against that blinding and dazzling light and warmth.

Those same hands gently guided him forwards, into another space that was also inside – but not an oppressive feeling this time, a good, safe and welcoming inside. They stripped him of his garments, and helped him with cleansing and washing. The sickly sweet death smell (as he later realised it was) faded away, and – piece by piece – memory and recognition of his friends, family and events returned, with wonderment, relief, smiles, joy, then eventually shouts and laughter..

The friendly helpers washed themselves too. They felt themselves to be in something of a quandary; had they touched a dead body or not? It felt as though they had, and yet, technically, hadn’t. However, if there was ever a time to not be standing on ceremony, it was clearly now…

Later, after all the spontaneous festivities, singing, laughter, as well as earnest conversation and reflection, were over, he lay down again, and – without fear or apprehension – let himself sink back under the surface. Not the deep and dark waters this time but the caressing, shallow, mild and sunlit waters of God-given sleep and rest.

Jesus hates Religion

Well, you know, I hate religion… and you know what? Jesus hates religion too…

I’ve been hearing Christians say things like this from time to time for about 40 years now and it’s something that seems to have been cropping up more often in recent times. The vehemence has increased as well. I recently read a post on the internet from a large charismatic movement that shall remain nameless, talking in prophetic language about a new generation of Christians that will sweep through the land, ushering in revival, healing the sick and raising the dead even. The words religion and religious were used quite often in the post and in the comments underneath, and exclusively as very negative and pejorative expressions, such as the old religion will be swept away…. Stench of religion…. Oh, and they hate religion…. etc….

I’ve felt increasingly unsettled by this kind of talk and tried to analyse the reasons for it. I’d like to describe just three reasons why I think that this is at least not as straightforward as some might think and suggest that we should try to be clear about our language and what we really mean with it. So, here are three reasons (there may well be more, but three is probably enough for the time being) why I personally have moved clearly away from using the word religion or religious in a negative sense. I’ve listed the three in reverse order of importance:

Words have useful meanings – don’t confuse matters by making up your own definitions

This reason is – I admit – the one that perhaps most opens me to charges of being pedantic, arguing about meanings and definitions. But I’ll press on anyway because I think it’s actually rather important. Here are some reliable sources which give the meaning of the word “religion”

First, from the Cambridge Dictionary:

The belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship.

A second and less formal meaning is:

An activity that someone is extremely enthusiastic about and does regularly: For example: He goes for his walk around the block religiously every morning.

And from Merriam Webster:

The service and worship of God or the supernatural

Or: commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

Or: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

A look at many other dictionary definitions give the same definitions, just using slightly different language: belief in a deity or deities, and a system of activity and worship centred around that belief.

Do you believe in God and attend church? Do you engage in charitable work, fired by your belief in God and the urge to help others? Do you donate money to a church? Do you stand in a room with other people and sing songs of worship to God? Just a few examples, but if you do any of these things, sorry, you might not like it, but yes – according to all the accepted definitions – you are clearly religious… But it’s OK! Christianity is definitely a religion, but has relationship at its heart (or should have, at least)

A family member suggested to me that this is perhaps an example of a word changing its meaning over time, and if that were the case, then it would be a bit Canute-like of me to try and hold back the tide of common and accepted parlance, but in this case I really don’t think this is what is happening. I believe it’s only an unlikely alliance of atheists and charismatic Christians who are insisting on this misuse of the word.

Again, this may seem pedantic, but I actually believe that it’s important to name things by their proper name. If you hate legalism, i.e. the idea that slavish adherence to a set of precisely defined rules of moral behaviour, going into the minutiae of everyday life, even what is considered decent dress codes, abstinence from certain kinds of food, or alcohol etc…. Then, yes – attack legalism, and you would have my full support.

If you hate hypocrisy, i.e. putting on a show of being a really good Christian, whilst clearly and deliberately living a dark kind of lifestyle when people aren’t watching, well, yes, that’s also a legitimate target and I’d be with you.

But let’s not go making up new definitions for words that simply don’t carry that meaning. Interestingly, my non christian friends use the word religious in its proper sense, when they say to me – completely respectfully – You’re a religious kind of person, aren’t you? To which I reply with a simple Yes, I am – because I know exactly what they mean, that I believe in God, that belief is a really important thing in my life and I attend church regularly.

Don’t put words into Jesus’ mouth that he never said…. It’s true that Jesus speaks out his harshest words for at least some of the religious leaders of his day. From Matthew 23:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

It’s worth reading the whole of the chapter, it’s pretty much a lengthy rant against the religious leaders of the day – not for being religious but for not caring about the people they were supposed to be guiding, (verse 4) for putting on a big show of righteousness to try and impress everybody, (verse 5) for hindering, rather than helping people enter the Kingdom of God (verse 13) confusion about what really matters ( 16 – 22) and trust in outer appearance but neglect of the true inner life of the heart ( 17 – 32)

However, as regards actual religious practice, Jesus tells his disciples not to neglect this… In verse 2 he says:

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

In other words: It’s not the observance of the law of Moses that’s the problem but the abuse of positions of power and influence and using the law as a stick to beat people with rather than a help to stay on track.

Who are we to say what’s “religious”

I’m afraid to say that I have – in the past – dismissed certain expressions of Christianity, as “empty religion” but not really because I truly sensed that it was so. I was born and brought up in the brethren assemblies, or the “Open Brethren” – my memories of this time is that they were very gentle and kind folk with a very deep commitment to a life with God. We were, however, a bit snooty and superior when it came to our attitude towards liturgical forms of worship, especially in the Church of England. For us, a prayer was only a prayer if it was extemporaneous, or – as we would describe it – directly inspired by the Holy Spirit. You couldn’t possibly read a prayer off a page, the liturgies and patterns of prayers and responses in a Church of England service were all “man made religion” and as such, dead and useless… It was only a bit later on in life that I grew to love the Church of England liturgies, the amazing words of concise, compressed truth, expressed in beautiful phrases – albeit very blunt and direct in places (Have mercy on us miserable offenders!)

Looking back, what I condemned as “religious” or “man made religion” was simply something that I didn’t understand, it was completely outside of my experience.

I remember visiting a small charismatic fellowship in my area, for one of their meetings. I had visited on occasions before – in the intervening time the fellowship had shrunk quite dramatically in numbers attending. The friend I went along with attended the local C of E church. One of the leaders of the fellowship said to my friend, in reference to the C of E church Can’t you get them to come here, can’t you get them out of their religion? The irony was, that the C of E church had been undergoing something of a revival, extending the building to cope with the increased numbers, while the fellowship was in its death throes….

I recall also, when attending a pentecostal church when I was at college. Again, they were very kind and genuine people and I have many good memories of times spent with them. They were suspicious, however, of the fact that I also attended a youth group at the local Anglican church, run by Michael, the Vicar. Deeply concerned about our welfare, spiritual and otherwise, he put a lot of effort into our meetings, encouraging us to think more deeply about our faith in Jesus. He was referred to only with a sneer, though, by the pentecostals: Bring the vicar along Jonathan – he needs it!

I sometimes wonder if – at the heart of this persistent misuse of the word religion and religious – is really a difficulty in believing or appreciating, that other outward forms of worship are really worship. Of course, liturgical worship can be “empty” if it is treated casually or insincerely – but so can any other kind of worship! And if you are going to define “religious” as using funny or mysterious sounding lingo or vocabulary, then funky and culturally “cool” fellowships can easily compete with any other branch of the church. I recall another occasion on which I attended another charismatic fellowship. The band struck up a song, an up tempo number that you would normally be able to jig around to. The trouble was, they didn’t get the tempo right, playing it far too slowly. The leader of the fellowship stepped up to the microphone after the first attempt and said I’m sorry, I just don’t think we had the anointing from the throne room – could we do it again, a bit faster? Of course, a simple Could we try that again, a bit faster please? Would have been perfectly fine!

Of course, this can work the other way as well – I once heard a proponent of liturgical worship describe an excitable charismatic worship event that he went along to, as like the prophets of Baal leaping around the altar…

Well, who knows? Maybe I’m wrong about all of this – these are just my thoughts and feelings. Perhaps my compromise suggestion would be to say that yes, Jesus certainly hates bad religion rather than just religion… I feel that this is borne out in the book of James, chapter one, which I’ll leave here as the final word on good and bad religion:

(Verse 26) Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

What is Tohu Va’vohu?

It’s a remarkable thing, that the very first description of anything in the bible, in Genesis Chapter 1, verse 2, is of a condition of darkness, formlessness and desolation. Why?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep (Genesis 1,1 & 2, New American Standard Bible)

Or, in Young’s Literal Translation:

In the beginning of God’s preparing the heavens and the earth the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness [is] on the face of the deep.

And from the Orthodox Jewish Bible:

In the beginning Elohim created hashomayim (the heavens, Himel) and haaretz (the earth). And the earth was tohu vavohu (without form, and void); and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

Why the darkness and chaos?

That’s thought provoking, isn’t it? The opening words of the bible paint a picture, not just of an empty but tidy creation, waiting to be filled with light and life, not an orderly but blank canvas, but darkness, desolation and chaos. The two Hebrew words, used together, to describe this condition are Tohu Va’vohu. It turns out that this expression Tohu Va’vohu occurs only three times in the bible, one in the passage in Genesis that we’re considering now, and two other times, in Jeremiah 4, 23 and Isaiah 34, 11. In both of these passages, the phrase comes amid very dark descriptions of chaos and desolation, coming specifically as a result of unfaithfulness to God.

Tohu Va’vohu and rebellion against God:

Jeremiah, chapter 4, verses 22 – 26, contains the expression Tohu Va’vohu, as part of a very dark and melancholy rebuke by God, against Israel and Judah, for unfaithfulness to him and idolatry:

“My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good.” I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; (Tohu Va’vohu) and at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

A similarly dark passage of rebuke and warning from God to “the nations” but also specifically Edom, is found in Isaiah 34, verse 11:

God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. (Tohu Va’vohu)

Tohu Va’vohu not the final reality

Back to Genesis 1. It’s a mysterious thing, but before God declares, or proclaims Let there be light! the initial condition of things is not anything you could look at and say Behold, it was good…. However, very soon we can see that perhaps this darkness, chaos and desolation is not going to be the final reality. In verse 2 we also read:

…and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters… (NIV)

Or: … the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters (Young’s Literal Translation)

Or: …and the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the face of the waters. (Orthodox Jewish Text)

What kind of image does this concept of the Spirit, or “breath” of God, hovering, or fluttering over the surface of this darkness and chaos conjure up in your mind? One image of the Holy Spirit that we are perhaps used to as Christians, is that of the dove. A few chapters on, in Genesis 8, Noah wants to find out if the flood waters are beginning to recede from the earth. Again, the earth has become a desolation, because of God blotting out all life, through the flood, except for Noah and his family, safe in the ark: Genesis Chapter 8, verses 8 – 9:

Then (Noah) sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. (NASB)

We can imagine the dove, flying here and there, but then returning to Noah in the ark, as there is nothing to alight upon, other, perhaps, than the corruption of bloated and floating corpses of animals and humans alike.

Jesus as the perfect resting place for the Spirit of God

In a huge leap forward to the New Testament, the image of the dove for the Holy Spirit comes up again in the story of the baptism of Jesus, in Matthew 3, verses 16 & 17:

After being baptised, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

The Spirit of God is not “hovering” or “fluttering” here, but alighting because – in the person of Jesus – he finds the perfect and clean resting, dwelling and abiding place, as Jesus is the spotless and sinless Lamb of God.

Let there be light!

Back again to Genesis 1 – God interrupts this condition of darkness and chaos with what some consider to be a command, some not so much a command but simply a statement of what will be: Let there be light!

Then begins what we perhaps consider to be the actual beginning of the account of creation, Light and dark, day and night (the first day) the separation of the heavenly waters from the earthly (second day), the earthly waters separated into sea and dry land, vegetation, plants yielding seed, fruit trees bearing fruit (the third day) lights in the heavens for signs and seasons, the sun and moon to govern the day and the night and also the stars (the fourth day) the waters teeming with living creatures, birds flying in the heavens, every living creature that moves. On the sixth day, God makes man in his image, male and female, and they – together – are given the task of benign rule over the earth and everything in it.

So… Initial conditions, right at the start of everything, describes desolation, darkness, chaos, but this is interrupted with the command Let there be light…

The Good Way – away from Tohu Va’vohu towards “Let there be light!”

The good and right way, the way of light, clarity, order, beauty and life, is always away from Tohu Va’vohu and towards Let there be light. We don’t ever want to be slipping, in a degenerate process, from Let there be light, backwards towards Tohu Va’vohu. In many ways, though, it’s possible, from this point on in the bible to its conclusion in the book of Revelation, to see things moving either one way or the other, at all times, whether in individuals or groups of people. There are indications of the Tohu Va’vohu making a comeback, in God’s pronouncement over the natural world, after Adam and Eve’s sin and the resulting fall, not only of Adam and Eve, but the created world too:

…cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field.

As mentioned earlier, the darkness and desolation, once again covering the surface of the earth, as a result of the flood, is another dramatic episode in which things were slipping backwards, away from Let there be light back to Tohu Va’vohu.

What about our Tohu Va’vohu?

Well, what about us, today? How is this relevant? It’s my firm belief that an individual, an institution, a church or a nation will always and at all times, being moving in either direction, away from God’s light, beauty and order, towards Tohu Va’vohu – desolation, formlessness and darkness – or (hopefully) from Tohu Va’vohu, towards God’s light, beauty and order.

Jewish Commentator, Helena Hawkins, has written a pretty hard-hitting article for Jewish Press.com with the title Why are we embracing Tohu Va’vohu? In it, she says:

The first act of creation involved making boundaries. What does that mean? That without boundaries – without distinctions between light and dark, heavens and earth, man and woman – we live in chaos. In Tohu Va’vohu. We, as a society, have thrown away the very first lines of Bereshit. And it will come back to bite us – hard. Fleeing from reality only works for so long… We have flaunted our new immorality with all the fervour of a child who has finally gotten his way. But that child inevitably later learns his lesson – and so will we.

Only when we have finally learned to redraw G-d’s boundaries will we prosper. At that point we will become partners again in creation, and G-d will create a new heaven and a new earth – on a higher dimension. As the navi says “For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the first ones shall not be remembered, neither shall they come to mind” (Isaiah 65,17) – May that day come soon.

(Read the whole article here: https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/why-are-we-embracing-tohu-vavohu/2019/11/08/ )

The topic of gender, male and female, has been a hot topic for a long time, but intensifying in various ways over the last 10 years or so, here in Europe, and many other countries worldwide. This is a very difficult topic to comment on, as all kinds of political and ideological movements are involved, but often – at the heart of the shouting and accusations – are hurt and confused individuals. However, as a broad and general observation, the more obsessed a society gets with blurring and eradicating the differences between – for example – male and female (one of a number of binary categories or characteristics laid down in Genesis Chapter 1), the more that society is slipping backwards towards Tohu Va’vohu.

So, how can a society, a church or an individual, move from Tohu Va’vohu, towards God’s light, truth, beauty and order? In the description of the Tohu va’ vohu, in the passage from Jeremiah chapter 4, there are descriptions of conditions that remind us of things that are reported as having happened during the hours of Jesus’ crucifixion:

I looked on the earth and behold it was formless and void and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked and behold there was no man and all the birds of the heaven had fled.

The passage describes darkness and something like seismic activity, with the hills and mountains quaking. In the account of Jesus’ crucifixion, in the gospels, it is also described how darkness covered the land from the 6th until the 9th hour, and also that an earthquake happened. Hints of the Tohu Va’ vohu there too, but mixed with victory over it, as – during that earthquake – the veil in the temple was split in two, tombs burst open and many people were resurrected and appeared in the city.

And so, back to that simple question at the start of this piece. Why? Why is the very first description of anything in the bible a picture of darkness and desolation? Maybe it’s because the bible is – although some will vehemently deny it – at least partly about us, about me, about the Tohu Va’vohu of who we are, the darkness and desolation in our innermost being, the forces and urges that are there, that will always be tending to pull us away from the centre, from the light, the True Light. Maybe the account of the creation is saying something about how God wants to proceed in our hearts, bringing his light, his truth, order, beauty and fruitfulness.

Jesus came to this earth to talk about God’s Kingdom, and to testify to it with signs and miracles, and through his death on the cross, he opened up the way to be able to leave our own darkness and desolation of heart, our own Tohu Va’vohu, and into his light.

And so, as an antidote to the opening scene in the bible being that scene of desolation, here’s the final scene that’s painted in the final chapter of the bible, Revelation 22, and where we hopefully all want to get to, through many a trial and tribulation no doubt:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

If you sense the Spirit of God hovering over your own chaos and desolation, may you be able to open your heart to him, and may God be able to say, triumphantly, “Let there be light” and begin that process of New Creation in your own life.

Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester and Mark’s Gospel

Reader, she married him…. finally… eventually…. at last…. But what trials and tribulations Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester had to go through to get to a wedding day without disruption from lawyers and awkward in-laws, after the previous attempt, a year or so earlier, was traumatically abandoned after that grim voice spoke those devastating words: This marriage cannot go on – I declare the existence of an impediment…. The revelation was then spoken out that Mr. Rochester had a wife, still living, shut up as a lunatic (to use the language of those times) in the attic of his house. On being found out and confronted, before the marriage to Jane can go ahead, Mr. Rochster says:

Bigamy is an ugly word! — I meant, however, to be a bigamist; but fate has out-manoeuvred me, or Providence has checked me,– perhaps the last. I am little better than a devil at this moment; and, as my pastor there would tell me, deserve no doubt the sternest judgments of God, even to the quenchless fire and deathless worm.

With the words quenchless fire and deathless worm Rochester is referencing Mark chapter nine, so he had clearly been paying at least some kind of attention during his scripture lessons. Those words, from that passage, which I’ll come back to in a moment, were to come back and hit him hard – but also pointed the way to his eventual redemption.

In the meantime though, after the quiet but dramatic scenes in the church, the story continues. Jane resists Mr. Rochester’s attempts to persuade her to become his mistress and flees Thornfield Hall, with no plan of where to go, or what to do. She very nearly dies of exposure out on the moor before being rescued and taken in by Clergyman, St. John River and his sisters, Diana and Mary. A year or so passes by, Jane resists St. John River’s marriage proposal, so that she could be his missionary wife in India and – having now come into an inheritance, making her an independent lady of means – decides to set out to discover what became of Mr. Rochester. She finds out that after she had fled Thornfield, he had spent his time and energies, searching for her, roaming the countryside, far and wide and – unable to find her – had then shut himself up in the house, alone and morose. One night, Bertha, his deranged and dangerous wife, managed to set fire to her chambers, thus setting fire to the entire house. Mr. Rochester bravely tries to rescue her out of the flames, unsuccessfully, as Bertha throws herself to her death. Mr. Rochester is injured in the rescue attempt, losing – very significantly – one eye and his right hand in the process.

Maybe I’m a bit dense, maybe everybody else has noticed this and it’s nothing new, but I read Jane Eyre a number of times, before realising that these events take us back to that passage from Mark chapter 9, that Mr. Rochester so bitterly references after his first attempt to marry Jane has to be abandoned. Here is that passage, Mark Chapter Nine, verses 43 to 46:

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot is causing you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life without a foot, than, having your two feet, to be thrown into hell. And if your eye is causing you to sin, throw it away; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.

And so, Mr. Rochester experienced both a literal and spiritual fulfilment of that passage he had spoken out – in a kind of unintended prophecy – at that aborted wedding. He had – quite literally – lost his right eye and his right hand, in the fiery flames of Thornfield Hall, but to escape the fiery flames mentioned in Mark 9.

After their reunion, Jane and Mr. Rochester spend time together talking and comparing their experiences over the previous year. Mr. Rochester is in greatly reduced circumstances, but clearly sees the merciful hand of God in his situation. He says:

… you know I was proud of my strength: but what is it now, when I must give it over to a foreign guidance, as a child does its weakness? Of late, Jane – only of late – I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my maker. I began sometimes to pray; very brief prayers they were, but very sincere.

If you haven’t read Jane Eyre maybe put it on your reading list. I know nothing about the author, Charlotte Bronte’, I have no idea if the clear Christian theology that is interwoven into the storyline – as well as very clear condemnation of some of the very harsh and uncaring expressions of churchmanship of those times – comes from deep personal conviction.. Judging only by the book, though, it would seem to be from personal conviction, but maybe others can correct me here and when I have some time, I’ll do some research. At any rate, Jane Eyre has, as it’s very final words, while quoting the character of St. John Rivers, the same words that appear at the close of the bible:

“My master,” he says, “has forewarned me. Daily he announces more distinctly, – ‘Surely I come quickly!’ and hourly I more eagerly respond, – ‘Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!’”

Truth and Spirituality

“ But I thought you agreed that Spirit was the good – the end of the whole process? I thought you religious people were all for spirituality?…didn’t we agree that God is a spirit? Don’t you worship him because he is pure spirit?” – “Good heavens no! We worship him because he is wise and good. There’s nothing specially fine about being a spirit. The devil is a spirit”

(Exchange between the devil-possessed Weston and Ransom, from the novel Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis)

It’s 2021 and the New Atheist wild party that began in the 90s, through to the 2000s, has come to an end. Dawkins and co. have failed to convince with their insistence that science and rationality are all we really need to build an individual or collective life. In the aftermath, as before the movement began, many folk are interested in and open to something called spirituality.

Pressing individual people I know for definitions has not been a great help in finding out precisely what’s meant by spirituality, but – fair enough – perhaps not everything in this world can be neatly defined and categorised. It seems to be a recognition, or a hope, that this life of three score years and ten – plus a few more these days because of improved living conditions and advances in medicine – is not the end and that the thought of an individual consciousness dissolving into eternal non-being, seems unsatisfactory, to say the least.

Perhaps also it’s the sense that this life we’re living now contains some kind of mystery, some kind of extra dimension, that science or psychology can’t adequately explain. We sometimes catch tantalising hints and suggestions of this when listening to music, reading poetry, admiring great works of art and so on. Maybe also the mystery of self-consciousness, or self-awareness, the ability to observe ourselves and our thoughts, to see a future self that could be better than the one we are now, is also a hint that we are more than a few bits and pieces of chemicals guided by blind chance and DNA alone.

In my work as an independent funeral celebrant, I visit about 200 families every year, to discuss funeral arrangements and hear about the life and times of the deceased family member or friend. I conduct these services for people who have deliberately chosen not to have a church or clergy led service. It’s been surprising to discover that not many of these people have been committed to an atheistic or humanistic worldview. Very few have subscribed to the “after death is nothing at all” view and many of them have held a very firm belief in some kind of an after-life and the hope of friends and families being reunited. As far as it goes, I find this encouraging and positive, as an affirmation of a spiritual dimension means that we are also affirming ourselves to be spiritual beings, which, in turn, points us to the possibility of some kind of unseen spiritual force outside of ourselves. But how far does a belief in something called spirituality take us?

This is where Christianity and the purpose and life of Jesus Christ begins to diverge from a more general search for spirituality. Christianity is not primarily the search for spiritual or mystical experiences, but a search for truth – truth about the reality of the human condition without God and the wonderful possibility of a life that is re-ordered, re-oriented and given purpose and meaning by an encounter with the man who is also God, Jesus Christ, The Way, The Truth and The Life.

Of course, the mystical experience – a sense of the presence of God, of some kind of communication and interaction with him, is a hugely significant part of the Christian experience, but at its beginning, the Christian life is about admitting the truth about ourselves and our spiritual bankruptcy, despite the positive things we might be doing with our lives. It’s about realising that a life that excludes God is massively missing the point – that we were made to live in day by day relationship with God and to realise and embrace our dependence on him for everything. To receive from him all the resources we need to live the life that he calls us to live.

At this point and in an outrageous and mischievous manner, I’m going to deliberately misquote and thus completely wreck a few passages from the bible. In all of the following quotes, I’ve removed the word truth and replaced it with spirituality:

…and you will know spirituality, and spirituality will set you free.” (John 8, 32)

Behold, You desire spirituality in the innermost being, (Psalm 51,6)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, spirituality, and the life; (John 14, 6)

Do not let kindness and spirituality leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart. (Proverbs 3,3,)

Enough bible vandalism! If you would like to, re-read those passages, but use the correct word truth instead of spirituality.

What are my pieces of advice or recommendations worth, above anyone else’s? I’m not a teacher, pastor, guru or anything of the kind – but if anyone were to ask me about this, my advice would be don’t be searching for spirituality, search for truth instead… and in the search for truth – who knows? – maybe you’ll find that you get a satisfying experience of spirituality thrown in…

Pontius Pilate, the roman governor of Judea, who presided over the trial of Jesus and eventually – albeit reluctantly – handed him over for crucifixion, famously asked Jesus What is truth? I admire him for that question but how ironic that the man he had standing in front of him was Jesus Christ, The Way, the Truth and the Life….

Truth and spirituality are not opposed to one another, the one doesn’t exclude the other, but in the first instance, the search for spirituality needs to be focused on truth. We need a proper understanding of the problem associated with the human condition, rather as a physician is looking for an accurate diagnosis. Most religions probably consist of two things, broadly speaking, a sense that all is not well with us human beings, there is some kind of an underlying problem that needs addressing. They then, in their various ways, and depending on what they see as the diagnosis, suggest the cure for it.

I contend that Christianity offers the most serious and devastating assessment of the problem but also the most wonderful and liberating cure, offering at it’s beginning a new birth, leading to a new life, in which that self knowledge of our own darkness of heart is not something that oppresses but leads into forgiveness, light, truth and beauty, despite the continued difficulties with this life.

So don’t search for spirituality – at least not for the time being – search for truth instead. Search for ultimate truth in the person of Jesus Christ. Read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Pray, in a spirit of humility, of acknowledging that out of all that there is to know, you (and I) know only the tiniest of slivers, and ask God – whatever you have thus far perceived him to be – to give you the same experience those two disciples had, in the book of Luke, chapter 24 and verse 32. (you’ll come across the story as you make your way through) They had an encounter with Jesus, and even though they had initially failed to recognise him, they said to one another afterwards:

Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

In this amazing but understated episode, truth and spirituality merge and become essentially one experience, as Jesus Christ, who is The Truth walks with them, explains the plans and purposes of God to them, fitting all the pieces together. Imagine that – the man who is God, and truth himself, also speaking out words of truth and this, in turn, leading to the most satisfying experience of spirituality you could ever wish for, hearts burning with love and appreciation of the truth, and knowing that they have not just heard the words, but been together with him, walking and talking together with him on the way.

The Day of my Funeral

It was shortly before dawn, on a perfect summer morning in May. Outside, in the meadow adjoining the orchard, rabbits left dewy trails in the drenched grass, birds sang their deafening chorus, the unstoppable rising flood of light and life rose and swelled with the sunrise, now just starting to send the first stabbing, blinding rays over the edge of the window sill, and straight down onto the bed, where I lay dying.

Yes, my time had come, all too quickly. My illness had followed the typical course of mysterious symptoms, a shocking diagnosis, various courses of treatment, apparent recovery, relapse, and then rapid decline into the condition where life is all about simply gathering strength for the next tight and agonising breath. From my last year, I had reached my last month, the last week, the last day, hour and minute, and now there was not the strength left to draw the next breath, and so, dazzled and all but blinded by the risen sun, I simply stopped breathing, my heart stopped pumping, and my life was over.

The sense of hearing – as I had often heard said in my earlier life – is the last faculty to fade away at death. I can confirm this to be not only true but an understatement of monumental proportions. I lay there, to an observer a corpse already, but hearing with a clarity I had never experienced before. The unrelenting and constant rushing sound and thumping of my restless pulse had stopped, and I was free to hear, as I had never heard before, in those final seven seconds. Years before, I had visited the Gobi region in Mongolia, and had walked about a mile away from the tiny village where we were staying, in order to experience Silence. As I sat in the deathly calm of the Gobi scrubland, things certainly did become very quiet, but I became increasingly aware of the rushing of the blood around my veins, the thump of a restless pulse, which became louder and louder, the quieter my surroundings became. It seems that we carry our own racket around with us, to protect us from any danger of Real Silence.

Now, however, having just let go of the tinnitus that is life itself, I lay there, absolutely still, bathed in dawn’s early floodlight. With the short-lived gift of perfect hearing, the sound of the birds outside increased, and swelled, until I could well believe that I was hearing the sound of angels, singing unceasing and unbearably loud praises to one another, with fiercely joyous faces, lit, dazzlingly, by that tremendous all-encompassing light, which shone from behind them. The last seven seconds, bathed in the new day’s golden light, and the music of the bird-angels, I slipped away, I know not where.

Who can recall and recount their life before birth? Is there anyone capable of telling and describing the dim weightless warmth and comfort of those paradise months? Is it a dreamlike, drowsy state, or a condition of intense, sharp experience and delight? I do not know, and neither do I know where I went, or what it was like after that slipping away and departure from the only life I had known.

How long was I gone? It felt as though scarcely a second had passed, but it could have been countless aeons, I have no way of telling, but I can say that, against all attempts at explanation or credulity, I found myself, alive, breathing normally, deeply and easily, in a standing position, next to that same bed, in which my just-died self was still lying.

Yes – there I was – back in that same room I had so recently left – not crippled and struck down by those evil and distorted clumps of rebel cells, warding off all attempts to reign them in, but standing up next to my death-bed, alive, well, strong and fit as in the days of my youth.

How had this miracle come about, the alive me and the dead me? I have no idea at all, why or how I was singled out for this amazing undoing and reversal, but there I stood, looking down at my poor old self, an already corrupting dead thing, dark gash of a mouth, drawn tense and immoveable, blood no longer flowing, but pooling and coagulating, a piece of wreckage, pale and yellow, no rise and fall of chest betraying any flicker of life, eyes open and staring, no facial expression betraying any emotion, whether of joy or despair.

I have to say that I did not look down on my dead self with any sense of affection or sentimentality at all. No, I gazed upon myself with a very deep distaste, disgust even, and saw a piece of unsavoury wreckage, a dead corrupted thing to be covered over, got rid of, disposed of as soon as possible. All manner of shadows, twistedness and corruption seemed to be sticking to that object which was – unbelievable as it seemed – my former self.

I left that room and called my doctor, who happened also to be a good friend of mine. When he had finally managed to apprehend the miracle that had taken place, we consulted together, down in the kitchen, the early sun now shining on the flagstones in that ancient house. What should we do now? Should he write out a death certificate for me? This could make life a bit complicated, he pointed out, as – with a valid and official death certificate – I, of course, would no longer exist in a legal sense. Better, we agreed, to hold a simple and quiet funeral service as soon as possible and avoid any complications.

And so, working as quickly and quietly as the now hot mid-morning sun would allow, we dug a short trench in the middle of the orchard, and then fetched that pale and yet dark object from the room upstairs, wrapped it in a sheet, laid it into the ground and said a few short words and a prayer. I raised my eyes from that hole in the ground, now covered over again with freshly turned earth, and smiled at my friend, standing there grinning back at me, as the blood-red cherries hung on the tree nearby.

Despite my brand new life and body I felt tired after all that digging, and lay down on the bank, outside the orchard, adjoining onto the meadow, and, with the bird-angels quieter now, but no less joyous, allowed myself, for the second time that morning, to be engulfed by the warmth, light and glory of that risen sun.

The Church and Social Media

Imagine the following scenario: It comes to your church’s attention that it’s possible to post little texts, photos or videos, which appear on gambling slot machines in betting shops, casinos, amusement arcades and other leisure venues all around the world, with the potential to reach millions worldwide. As people place their bets, your little video, written text or photo message appears. They can be placed there with no financial cost, and with relatively little technical equipment.

How would your church respond? I’m pretty sure there would be a lengthy discussion about this, some folk – the hardliners – saying that this is something we should have absolutely nothing to do with, and not support gambling in any way. Even with the most positive message in the world we’d be supporting the downfall and ruin of many individual lives, plus that of their families.

Others would take a more nuanced line. Yes, they would say, of course, gambling is a really dangerous thing for people to get involved with, but here is an opportunity to get a gospel message across – and we could also encourage folk to leave the gambling too, if it’s become a problem.

What would the final decision be? Would your church go ahead and use this platform and potentially “reach” a lot of people with a gospel message and information about the church, or no, it’s just too destructive, and something we don’t want to have anything to do with.

If you noticed the title of this post you are possibly thinking through all of the possible flaws in the analogy between social media and gambling slot machines and yes, all analogies have their weaknesses and shouldn’t be pushed too far or depended on too heavily. My point with the analogy however, is that – no matter what your church finally decided about the slot machine content posting – there would at least be a serious discussion about the ethics of it all before you went ahead and used it as a platform.

The analogy between social media and gambling slot machines is not as far fetched as you might imagine. In his excellent book Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, author Cal Newport quotes Tristan Harris, former start-up founder and Google engineer, from an appearance on Bill Maher’s 60 Minutes show, with the title Brain Hacking. In the interview, Harris holds up a smart phone and says: This thing is a slot machine… every time I check my phone I’m paying the slot machine to see “What did I get?” There’s a whole playbook of techniques that get used by (the technology companies) to get you using the product for as long as possible” Bill Maher concludes the segment with the memorable lines Philip Morris just wanted your lungs. The App store wants your soul”

It would take too long to enumerate all of the very skilful tricks and shiny bells and whistles, that tech and social media companies use to fight for our commercially valuable attention minutes but I thoroughly recommend the book (Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, by Cal Newport, published by Portfolio – Penguin Random House – on February 5th, 2019)

Of course, it could be argued that if there really is such a thing as social media addiction, it’s relatively benign – your teeth don’t start falling out, it doesn’t usually lead to loss of income and livelihood, and those people who decide to leave social media overuse generally find it much easier than escaping alcohol or substance abuse. That doesn’t mean though, that the compelling nature of likes, approvals, comments, affirming responses, doesn’t cause actual harm in terms of fragmented concentration, an eroded attention span, and weakening of actual “real life” relationships. It seems also as though God didn’t design us to be in constant touch with all of the bad and destructive things going on all over the world, in a constant stream, from when we get up to the moment we go to bed – and beyond bedtime even, in many cases!

Even more worryingly, in his previously mentioned book, Cal Newport posits a very good case for the remarkable and dramatic rise in anxiety and depression amongst young people born between 1995 and 2012 to be largely down to this generation being the first generation to grow up from a young age with smartphones. A quote from the book, from journalist Benoit Denizet Lewis, from an article in the New York Times Magazine: “… anxious kids certainly existed before Instagram, but many of the parents I spoke to worried that their round-the-clock responding to texts, posting to social media, obsessively following the filtered exploits of peers, were partly to blame for their children’s struggles”

If you google the question Should your church be on social media you’ll find many articles, youtube videos, blog posts etc.. from various churches and ministries worldwide, all pointing out completely valid and good reasons why it’s good for churches to be posting quality content on facebook, Youtube and other platforms. I am definitely not saying that this is a black and white issue and that Mark Zuckerberg is the anti-christ etc…. But what I am missing – and missing very much – is at least an acknowledgment – in these various articles, that for many many people, the destructive, fragmenting and yes, addictive nature of social media is something that churches have a serious responsibility to be aware of and offer practical help and guidance with. The cumulative effect of reading one article after another, all pointing out the absolutely critical necessity (as it is usually described) of your church having a social media presence, without at least acknowledging that for many people it causes unhappiness, constant distraction and harm to real life well being and relationships seems naive at best – and uncaring at worst.

For decades now I’ve accepted that in most of the free churches and fellowships that I have attended, we drink a strange syrupy red liquid at communion, instead of actual wine, and I’ve also accepted the reason given, that there could well be someone present for whom alcohol is a problem. Well, the smartphone has become ubiquitous now in our Western (and other) societies, especially among the younger folk but by no means restricted to them. Many people have a healthy and normal relationship with their phone and any social media platforms they are on, using them intentionally, with clear purpose and to great benefit to themselves and others. I think it’s also true that a significant number of people have a serious smart phone problem though and really are addicted to notifications, comments, news flashes, email and text message pings in a constant attention demanding stream throughout the day. Just as we concede that some folk have a problem with alcohol during our communion services, so has – amongst all of the excitement about the endless possibilities of outreach and posting high quality teaching material to potentially global audiences online – the time come for us to also acknowledge that for many of us, the permanently connected mobile internet world is having serious harmful effects on us. Put simply, there are significant numbers of people who own smartphones and engage with social media platforms, who really shouldn’t and would discover – after an initial withdrawal – a great sense of release and freedom. As a recovering social media addict myself, this is something I can testify to.

In summary – yes, social media is an incredible tool that a church can use to potentially engage with a global audience, with well put together and presented Christian content, in the form of written postings, pithy quotes and comments and video content. However, in all of the excitement about these new possibilities, it can’t be ignored that the stratospheric rise of google, facebook and co has come at a very high price in terms of its negative and damaging effects on many many people, especially our young. We owe it, to our congregations, our young people, and potential followers wherever they may be, to at least suggest that they review the way they use their phones and engage in social media. Are they using it intentionally, in a controlled manner? Are the much spoken of benefits of “connectedness” through social media perhaps coming with a big price tag, despite it being “free” to use? And maybe we shouldn’t feel intimidated by the claims of absolute necessity of using these platforms, but use them only if we can see clear benefits and that those benefits don’t come at such a high cost to our lives and our ability to engage with one another and with God, so as to be – in the final analysis – prohibitively expensive…