Sentimental Hogwash

Just recently at home we started to switch on the DAB radio in the kitchen . There was a conscious decision made that we would "tune in" to a Christian station rather than listen to self indulgent hogwash that comes from most other music stations. The noise buzzed in the background for most of the time with the occasional item catching my attention, that is until the beginning of December when this particular station started its Christmas programme.
Suddenly I was gripped, and started to listen with my attention-o-meter rising to it's highest level.
It began to dawn on me that I was listening to the biggest portion of sentimental hogwash that I had been served up in a long time.
Songs about snowmen, chestnuts, open fires and the mythical character santa clause had replaced the music that was Jesus focused, honouring, praising and declaring the King of Kings.
Short talks using dubious illustrations and making dubious points to fit in with the coming season made up the rest of this seasonal cheese sandwich.

Why is it that some Christians, not all,  find it difficult to use this celebration to love and serve humanity in the name and strength of the one who's birth is being celebrated,  instead getting drawn into the sentimental hogwash of self indulgent, glutenous celebration?

Maybe the problems that Roman emperor Constantine experienced in the 3rd century A.D. are similar to the situation today. He discovered that he had a lot of unconverted converts on his hands, who had  found it economically and politically expedient to convert to the religion of the empire but desperately missed the partying of two of the main celebrations of their time.
The restless and complaining masses caused Constantine, in his desperation to please the people, to declare two new celebrations to take place at the same time as the old celebrations, one in December to celebrate the birth of Jesus and one in the spring to celebrate his resurrection.
Everything calmed down as the people realised that they could still have their two main party times, albeit with different names and a bit of religion thrown in, party to excess was still going to happen, and it most excessively did!! ( you will need to check for yourself to see how Romans partied)

Maybe for the converted convert NOW is time the time to keep the celebration simple, to love the poor, to be a friend to the lonely, to visit the elderly or the sick, to make a place at your table for the homeless or the addicted, to move away from the mountains of food, the stacks of presents and the crates of alcohol, in favour of  "a world full of starving, deprived people who are silently and invisibly looking in on the self indulgent, sentimental hogwash, begging for a scrap of food, a rag to keep them from shivering to death, and an answer to their misery, suffering, and oppression" (Keith Green 1979)

Indulge yourself in the true meaning of the season, give yourself to the work of spreading the Gospel! Proclaiming freedom to the captives! Giving them bread to eat and pointing them to the bread of life.

Oh, don't ignore it, Christmas that is, don't join the bury your head in the sand brigade, grasp the nettle, quickly (stings less) and do something positive and purposeful.

Fear based retro thinking.

For many years now I have made a point of staying in touch with international and national news on a daily basis. This is a leftover from my days as a youth evangelist with YFC and affiliated groups. It was and still is important to be aware of the the world around us, especially if your life is constantly rubbing shoulders with those outside of the Church.
Of course you may well feel comfortable in your Christian bubble and spend your time avoiding contact with the world around you, afraid that the grime might rub off, or the temptation to sin might prove to strong and your demise as a child of the King will be the final outcome.

"Take heart" said Jesus, "I have overcome the world"(the Bible).
I guess that means.. BE ENCOURAGED, DON'T BE AFRAID, BREAKOUT OF YOUR BUBBLE, DON'T LET FEAR HOLD YOU BACK.

One of the most difficult things to watch is a brother or sister who hasn't allowed the fear breaking truth spoken by Jesus to impact their lives.
And while others are moving forward taking the good foundations of the past with them, they spend energies on trying to maintain the statusquo while attempting to re-establish things that have long ago served their purpose. This is motivated by the same fear that was crushed into oblivion on the cross of liberation, by the same Jesus who said "Take Heart-I have overcome".

Many of these brothers and sisters are in key positions in local or national Church ,and the result of their fear driven digging in of heels means that the foot soldier is not only fighting the advance but is also being bogged down in the mud and mire of tradition and misplaced loyalty to things of the past.

So come on you who are stuck in fear based retro thinking, have a look around you, see what God is doing and realise the liberty of following His NOW word.

A long six months.

We are coming to the end of the six month period that we imposed on our self, where we haven't travelled to any of Churches long distance meetings, instead using the time to recover from the harsh experiences at the end of 2009. This six month break has also given us the opportunity to try to repair some of the damaged parts of our natural family, namely our children.
We have had a small amount of success being able to provide a home for the last three months for our six year old grandaughter while the SS sort out her long term future (with their limited resources, lack of ability and downright useless behaviour).

During this time Caroline & I have visited Christian groups and Churches around Suffolk, something we havn't had the time to do in the past.
We have found many genuine and devoted followers of Jesus, a lot of good works and a whole load of stuf that has nothing to do with the Jesus that I know. I still conclude that although many of these Churches and groups are doing great things there is still nothing as radical and revolutionary as Jesus Fellowship Church. In my opinion we are the most imperfect Church in the UK, but I see that as a positive thing which gives us the edge in making radical disciples. And so we are still feeling the pain of exile at the moment, but are looking forward to the next six months as the adventure unfolds, the journey continues and the bond that we have with our distant brethren strengthens. In my thoughts at the moment are those members and leaders of the mJa who have experienced ongoing dissapointment,being let down by those whom they have invested their live in, yet still hold open welcoming arms when the wanderers return...such grace, it's outrageous, it's as though it comes from the very heart of GOD. Wow that a radical thought!1

Changes

Our grangaughters short term fostering placement is getting near it's end. The SS (remember them) are looking for carers for the long haul. Our experiance of the last 3 months tells me that they will need to be extra special people, and thats just to deal with the SS let alone our grandaughter.
It's only when we had a chance to take stock of our live's that we realised that the last 29 years of childcare (we still have a 12 year old at home) have left us very little in reserve, and we don't have the energy to cope with a troubled, difficult six year old.
Apart from that, and the one still at home, an emerging teenager (both female) clash constantly.. leaving us with the more than occaisional feeling that WW3 is about to break out.

upto-date.

It's around two months since my last post so a quick summary is in order.
We have Lauryn our six year old grandaughter staying with us under a sec 20 order from the SS (that's social services, some say it's difficult to tell the differance). Our ninth and tenth grandchildren have been born, and we are completely Knac.......d, (worn out). In the space of two months we have visited five or so differant Christian groups in Suffolk, trying to discover what is emerging, has emerged or who hasn't gotta clue. Most havn't gotta clue.

There is a general feeling of being in exile from our Church and even the community, knowing that there is very little else in existance that is as radical in nature and life giving brotherhood.

We begin to see why we had to return to Ipswich and why the timing of our move away was wrong, so as we wade through the swamp, we are looking to the future with a degree of expectation and a sense that a forty hour week at Skaino would be more restfull than our current occupation. Hmm.

Reformed or Reforming... uhmm.

Last few Sunday mornings have had an intersting slant to them, Toni, Caroline Myself have been visiting the C of E community Church that meets at the end of the road that our daughter Sam has just moved into. The Church plant happened some 20 years ago but ran into dificulties in the early days. It is placed in the middle of a local authority housing area that is known by its justly earned dodgy reputation. A great place to be Church. But as seems usual in many of these community based C of E Churches it consists mainley of a middle class group of parishoners led by their educated vicar, who in this case is female. I have no particular axe to grind about women in ministry but the last seven or so years of female headship in this parish has produced a very feminized congregation, giving opportunity to individuals of ultra feministic persuasion to assert themselves in the running of the parish.The vicar is about to retire so it will be interesting to see what will happen during the interregnum (between rulers), maybe the Men will rise to the challenge and a balance of rule will arrive. Caroline & I have decided to observe this group of believers during the six months of our time out period. We plan to attend some Sunday gatherings and a fortnightly home group as well as try to build up some relationships among the congregation. They have agreed to this with enthusiasm despite my resevations of all things C of E. You see I dont think they ever properly reformed and are probably still under the rulership of Rome, except for the lady vicar bit. A communion service in the local community hall (thats where they meet) would help to explain. A robed up vicar officiating at the fold up table doing the magic bits, and the liturgy projected from a computer onto a large screen only modernises things rather than reforms them. Despite my resevations a lot of these folk love Jesus so although they practise their Christianity differantly we have choosen to make friends and join in occaisionally with their borderline charismatic meetings and attend their very retro home groups. Why?? well because they are lovely and genuine folk and most importantly they are missional, although I'm not sure they would have the same meaning for the word as we do.

Way Back When..

In 1980 I married Caroline, for better or worse. That was easy to say back then, now I have a deeper understanding of this part of the marriage vows. 12 months later Caroline gave birth to our first child, five more followed at regular intervals and the seventh arrived about 13 years ago (you work it out). I don't have the brain space to tell you all of their life stories but in summary this is the state of play at the moment.
One is married with two children, three are single mums with two children each, one is a part time dad to one child and one is a heroin addict and up to just recently the primary carer for one child. Oh yea! one more still at home with us, she's 13 going on 21 with an intelligence level that matches her attitude.

I guess we could that our plans to bring up a regular family were totally blown out of the water. We still now have times of self examination "what on earth did we do wrong?" "Could we have cared for them better?" etc etc. But, like the rest of the journey up to now we have come to see that life's curve balls (if you are American) or googlies (if you are English) have all been part of a loving fathers training programme, preparing us for a life focused on others and following Him.

It's still swinging !

The pendulum not the sixties that is. I have vague memories of reading a book about the pendulum swinging, this is way back in the dim and distant when as a new Christian I had an enthusiasm that was both obnoxious and inspiring in an odd sort of way, well that's what folks would tell me. Anyway back then, when anyone and everyone became legitimate targets for my gospel six guns I remember reading this book that tried to explain away the excesses of various branches of the Christian Church. Basically any new movement always experiences the swing of the pendulum to both extremes before some sort of middle ground or balanced approach to matters of faith are found.
Around 2010 years ago a new movement started swinging it's pendulum, and its still swinging today.
Did the balance come? well you probably have your own take on that, from where I'm sitting I would say not.
The thing is, God entrusts us with His plan to reach into the lives of those around us, and then in His great wisdom lets us work out how to do it, while giving us little pointers along the way. I Wonder why everyone has a different little pointer, and why its the person who can shout the loudest and and who claims the biggest amount of spiritual authority who does the most pointing.
You might be thinking "that's a bit cynical" you could be right of course its hard to be totally objective after nearly thirty years in Christian ministry.
OK back on track again, it doesn't take a great mind, and mine is nothing like a great mind, to realise that we are in the presence of masses of people who have not been initiated with the peculiarities of the Christian Church let alone its excesses. Phrases like post modern or post Christendom are phrases the enlightened use in discussion and the outsider never uses full stop. So this is not a dialogue about what these two wonderful terms mean, but a gritty and real learning experience drawing on things past, things present and a quick look at things to come.