I am currently reading Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Monk.

Also I use the Jesuit’s web site, “Pray as you Go” which offers an mp3 download of 10-15 minutes of guided prayer every weekday.

Sometimes things in different parts of your life come together and lets you see things in a new way and this is the case this morning.

Pray as you Go takes its scripture passage from the Letter of Paul to the Galatians where he points out that we are justified by faith and that Jesus carries the curse of our sinfulness.

This took on a new meaning for me this morning in the light of having read some of Richard Rohr’s book last night. What I realised is that Jesus allows us to work in our sinfulness, in our fallenness, in our imperfections in our circumstances – and that somehow the Cross  helps us to work in the midst of all this and somehow the promise is that by faith (by believing that it will be the case, by believing in God’s promise that it will be the case) He will help us to come through and will give us the resources in the midst of this grappling.

Still have to pray more about this to make it a reality for me but it’s a wonderful hope - that instead of having to bewail my sinfulness and strive to get rid of it (working “uinder the law”) but rather to accept my sinfulness and to have faith that Jesus will help me to get through it as he’s taken the burden already.

This is “The Gospel” – the Good News and this morning this Good News has become a much more vibrant and real thing for me – and I hope it will be for you too – Very Good News indeed!!!

Goodgoat hasn’t posted for a while – I decided to only post when it felt like I had something interesting or useful to say. Well…there may have been one or two times when something has occurred to me and then slipped my mind, but today, today was different.

Goodgoat is in training to be a member of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis. Franciscans try to make Holy Communion a central part of their lives and to reflect on it. I was doing that this morning at a morning service and something clicked – you know when you’ve been thinking about one thing and then that one thing somehow combines with something else?

Well, in the week I had been thinking a lot about the Kingdom (the Kingdom of God rather than the Kingdom of the world) metaphor of yeast (leaven) – see the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 13 verse 33: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” What effect does yeast have on flour? It permeates it and makes it rise. It transforms the other ingredients into a lovely loaf of bread.

Well, nothing new there, this is something that people have heard and thought about for some time. BUT what about in the context of Communion??? The bread there is UNleavened – WITHOUT yeast…hmm, why is that, if the Kingdom of God is yeast/leaven? This got me thinking more. What is wine other than grape juice that has been transformed by the action of yeast? And in the Bible, wine is seen as something that gladdens people’s hearts but also something which is representing blood. Bare with me here – because its important to understand this further. I heard the Bishop of Durham, Rt Revd NT (Tom) Wright on the radio this week – and he was saying that Jesus’s resurrected body was no longer driven by the flesh – but of the Spirit – a Spirit-driven body. What a great idea – and the essence of Jesus, his life, his Blood is what was spilled for us. Hmm, so, the wine in Communion is that which the Spirit has already transformed.

Now…the bread is still to be transformed, and WE are called to be the crucible of transformation for God – what a wonderful idea – that we take Jesus’ body, indeed we are Jesus’ body (in the service of Holy Communion at the sharing of the Peace of Jesus the Priest says “We are the body of Christ…”) We receive the unleavened bread, to remind us that we are unleavened and then to allow the Kingdom, the already tranformed wine, the Spirit of God/Jesus to work in us, to transform us, so we can then go on to transform the world. 

What is happening to our Christian home? The Anglican Communion is seen as being under threat of schism. I’m just beginning to realise that this is a growing possibility – and yet in the midst of all the discussions and the suggestion of a Covenant (a statement of what it is to be Anglican, which, to my mind is the sort of legalistic stuff that Jesus would have had something to say about it in the same way as he did to the Pharisees) Archbishop Moxon of The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia seems to be lighting a beacon of hope amidst the gloom:

“Perhaps the challenge is to transcend the old ways of fighting or leaving, to find a new way of discovering what integrity we can trust in each other by virtue of the fruits of our baptism and by how much we may be prepared to live respectfully with what diversity God has given us. It is crucial that we use a Gospel based process of discernment, rather than the litigation, trench warfare and the labelling judgements of the world. We will need to look significantly different from the ways of the world in the way we process what happens from now on to have anything different to say to the world.”

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Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast (the book “Matthew”, chapter 13 in the Bible).

I have come across Christians who discourage other Christians from having any friends other than Christians. I am also aware of some churches turning in on themselves, just thinking about converting people and not looking at what they can do once they’re converted. Well, yeast on its own, unmixed with the flour does not bring life – it’s the transformative effect of the yeast when it’s mixed with the flour that is so inspirational.

So…to me at least, this indicates that we shouldn’t just have Christian friends and need to look to the world beyond church – it also suggests, perhaps, that we should be deeply immersed in our communities and do what we feel God is drawing us to?

Churches with pews in them tend to face a question nowadays - “should we reorder the church?”

This means taking out (I’ll say that rather than the more pejorative term “rip”), probably carpeting the space, or perhaps putting down a wooden floor and then having more comfortable chairs.

Well, the pros and cons of that are infinitely debatable BUT – what about church language?

Liturgy (forms and content of church services for worship) is full of phrases to “We Glorify You, Oh God” and references to Jesus as “Lord” – worship songs keep telling God how “Worthy” He is (I’m sure He knows, but perhaps we’re repeating it to tell ourselves?). Goodgoat got a bit sick of it all tonight at his evening service – now don’t get me wrong I love the richness of liturgy and having to work hard at getting to the inner meaning of texts – BUT, we don’t use this language in everyday life, do we? How about we spend some time reordering liturgy as well as churches – perhaps that way people enquiring about Christianity may see things more clearly?

Goodgoat can easily get jealous about other people’s abilities or what they seem to be doing compared to himself. Here’s something that may help if you feel the same way – Have you ever listened to the last movement of the Durufle Requiem (the “In Paradisum”, i.e. “In Heaven”)? Well…go on…take a listen it’s a beautiful work - but listen especially to the last movement – towards they end, and for at least a page in the music the choir sings nothing but one note for the entire page – just one note.

Now, I would have thought that this would make for boring music – but go on, listen to it – it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard. How can this be? Well, it’s all in the accompaniment – while the choir is singing its one note, the orchestra (or organ in one arrangement) is providing chords that support the choir and make the whole thing glow.

Now…how does that help? Well, whatever our own simple tunes – even if it’s only on one note, God can make us into the most beautiful music that can mean more to others than more complex tunes. 

Some time ago I heard a “Thought for the Day” on UK BBC Radio 4 that was given by the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones. He wondered whether it was not possible to see the face of God and live because in the face of God is seen the pain of the fallenness of the World, and that that pain is so intense that if someone like Sadam Hussein were to see it, he would be destroyed by the encounter.

Let’s take this idea a stage further…in my mind any encounter between God and evil amounts in the destruction of the evil. What if when Jesus returns to earth for the last judgement, all of creation, including all people, are exposed to God’s ultimate goodness, and are therefore subject to being destroyed by the encounter between their fallenness and an absolutely good God?

On the Cross, we see Jesus taking our sin, all of our wrongdoings and fallenness on himself – the only one (being God Himself) that can take the confluence of the fallenness and Good? So…it’s only by a relationship with God through Jesus that the encounter between God’s goodness and our fallenness that we can survive the encounter? God is being totally generous in providing this route – He shows us forgivess through grace (sometimes explained as an acronym – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense).

I find it very difficult to think about a God of Good that destroys anything that He has made – but the ideas given above help me to be able to accept this.

What do you think?

Good goat is just back from an evening at Greenbelt and can thoroughly recommend that you go! The variety of activities is truly breathtaking. It was great to see young people going around in groups enjoying themselves with outbreaks of foolishness (“The Grand Old Duke of York” being performed with actions while standing in a queue was quite memorable!) It as also great to be in the company of other Christians so that if you made a mistake (a friend dropped their change into a large jug of milk at a tea stall) or bumped into someone by mistake then both of you would apologise, smile and move on!

This really is an event that provides many opportunities to be blessed (and enjoy a wonderful variety of food!)

“…and He will sustain you.” That’s a quote from Psalm 55 verse 22 (you’ll find the Psalms to me more or less the middle book in the Bible).

I’m often intrigued by how some things that the Bible suggests are later echoed by organisations or people who are not, or don’t appear to be on an initial look, associated with the church or the Christian faith.

A friend refered me to something called the Sedona Technique – it seems to be portrayed as a panacea that cures most ills but at the core of it is the suggestion that if we release our negative emotions then we free ourselves up to live life more fully. It strikes me that this is very close to what Pslam 55 is saying – and for one I would prefer to think of me giving my cares or burdens over to someone who can take them and help me to sort them out (God) rather than just dropping them.

I’m also quite reassured that if the truth from one tiny half-verse of the Bible seems to be built into a business of helping people to make more of their lives, how much more can people get by looking at more of the Bible – as one friend calls it “the maker’s handbook for human beings”?

I was lucky enough to pass through Assisi driving back to the airport from my holiday on the Tuscany/Umbria border.

I decided to go to the Basilica to see where St Francis is buried. I had been to the Basilica before – both as a tourist and also to sing but this was my first visit since I started down the path to be a Franciscan Tertiary.

It was good to see the story of Francis outlined on the frescos in the Basilica – and the audio guide gave a good description of what each one contained. I then ventured down into the lower levels, eventually ending up near his tomb (at least I think that’s where I was!)

Very little of this made an impression on me at any depth – it was only when I took a turn into a side room that something struck me – and that was seeing Francis’s brown tunic – a piece of clothing that had clearly been worn a great deal, it gave the impression of a pair of well worn in comfortable shoes and different sections of it had been replace as they had worn out – so it was a bit of a patchwork – but the thing that struck me was that Francis was a real person, that he was human, and the humility shone through – quite difficult when you’re surrounded by oppulance to Francis’s memory…and some of the monks who were around reminded me more of Friar Tuck than someone who was living entirely by God’s grace (or am I being unfair and it’s just that God has been very gracious to the First Order monks?)

Well, sorry, being a bit judgemental here.

I also met a couple two weeks ago who are looking at how religious communities are established – and they said that often by a charismatic leader but that the words and principles then became the centre of the community rather than Christ…

So, how can we ensure that our lives are centred on Jesus Christ and not allow our busy-ness and the ideas that Jesus inspired in charismatic people in the past to stop us from listening to what He has to say to us today?

Your comments please!