The questions of hindsight

How different would history be if hindsight was given to everyone?
Would the disciples be less prone to error and more in the wonder of the moment?
Would more people have followed Jesus, and would the cross even have happened?
Would the persecuted church still be persecuted?

How different would life be if we had a certain amount of hindsight?
Would this election campaign be worth fighting if we knew who would win?
What would we go back and change or do differently with our life?
Would we opt in or opt out to the NHS national compute system (something that was on Radio 2 yesterday)?

And would I really want to know the exact date and time my child is to be born?... well at the moment, yes, yes I would!

Football and Mission

I hope you would excuse me as I blog about something in my life that I really enjoy and try not to mention too often as I am aware it can be a real annoyance for some people... and that is football. The following clip of a football report from one of last weeks games, I think speaks prophetically into several areas of Christianity in the following way:
1) How as Christians we can be fully involved in life, yet blissfully unaware of what is going on.
2) How it is our responsibility to be telling people about what is happening in God's world, yet like this reporter we seem quite unaware
3) How sometimes it takes other people to tell us what is happening before we act or even lead the way or even understand what we have seen.

See what you think!

I think that we need to take the lead though and be on our toes in God's mission, otherwise we could end up looking as useless and embarrassed as the reporter (although I do think Chris Kamara is quite funny!)

Politics and Faith

Two potentially controversial subjects.
I was driving home today (through the many road works that now appear) and caught the tail end of a political debate from the 3 major parties to do with trying to get the economy back to a fit state. I started to realise how my parents, family, social status, have all directed my political views. All that I was hearing was being heard through the tinted glasses (or appropriate hearing metaphor) of how my family would respond. The kind of family I grew up in and the place I am in life makes me wonder with all this conditioning, do I have a democratic vote? I am my own person, but part of me is what has made me, me and that includes the impact my family has had on me.
And so to faith, what impact do our parents, family and social status have on our faith? Are we too conditioned in this part of life. I could give you all the answers to why the baptist Church is where I find a deep connection to my spirituality, but I have to also recognise that I was brought up in a Baptist Church by the family and that all I see is through those eyes. I am not saying this is a bad thing, but I think we need to recognise it.
Similarly in faith, people who grow up in a Muslim country are way more likely to become a Muslim than any other faith (this is a sweeping statement, not a thought out essay with evidence), so what does this mean for faith?
And in what way does our social status affect the kind of church we go to, the people we speak to?
We all have free choice, but maybe sometimes it is good to look at the influences that go into making us be the free thinkers we are.

Photo

Hello All, the week after Easter is usually a bit quiet (although on Radio 2's thought for the day we were told that this is still easter time!) So I have taken the time to set up a photo's page on the website. Hopefully it will be up in by 2.30pm. Have a look and maybe we can start adding lots of different photo's that show a wide range of what happens at Horfield.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone.
May the last week and all the pain and sorrow be brought to an understanding in the Resurrection that we celebrated today.

Hopelessness

Easter Saturday is a funny day, because nothing really happens. There is no event to remember, no services (usually) and not that big a difference from any normal Saturday. However, today I was left wondering about the Hopelessness of this day, all the other days seem to have hope. Easter week, Jesus was still with His disciples, Good Friday, hope that death would be avoided and even if it got to the cross, hope that if He really was the son of God then He will save Himself. Easter Sunday, full of hope, but today, there was no hope, He was dead, there was nothing anyone could do. He was gone...
Maybe the normality is intentional, life goes on, death had happened, back to how things used to be...
Good Friday is a sad day, but maybe the barrenness of Saturday is as dark and as emotional.
Maybe today is Hopeless Saturday.

Good Friday

"Do they know it's Christmas time" a famous song by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, one that if played now would probably seem out of place. I know the song speaks into the poverty of the third world, against the commercialism of the seasonal time and not necessarily into the deeper meaning of Christmas. However, I have been struck to ask the question "Do they know it's Easter time?", as I drove back and forth from church and then down to pick up my mum, I wondered how many people actually realised that today remembers one of the most pivotal moments in humanities history. People going about their day, celebrating, not the sacrificial love, but the fact that schools are out and the long weekend begins. "Do they know it's Easter time?"

On Sunday it will be great to see visitors from our community that come to share Easter Day with us, however, I am reminded of a comment that someone once made: "Coming to Church just on Easter Sunday (it was in reference to Christmas day, but I am sure for this reason we can alter that) is like watching 1/52nd of a film and thinking you get the whole film"

Maund(a)y Thursday

You may ask why the A is in brackets, well truth be told, I did not know it was not there until quite recently. Anyway, as we get ever closer to Good Friday for me the mood changes and the undertones of the week start to become more apparent. Here is the reflection I wrote for tonights service at church (my punctuation is bad... I know!)

Vulnerable, not a word that we necessarily would associate with Jesus; our accounts are full of wisdom of teaching of miracle of rising above the powers that try to trap him, of love, of kindness, of an authority that speaks deeper than words. But here, in this garden as tears fall, vulnerable is probably a good word.

The road had led him to this point, all that had gone before would be realised in the journey ahead. All that prophets had foretold, all that was planned before time, all that those who were close by wanted to prevent, was coming; was close.

It is almost as if the darkness was marching around, triumphantly. Calling on all its powers to engulf this moment; seeing an opportunity, a possibility of extinguishing the eternal light. Wherever Jesus turned there was darkness;

His friends, the ones he loved, the ones that he also had prepared for this moment, were asleep. Even at this critical moment, their tiredness had won and caused pain.

In the distance, soldiers’ came, he knew why, he knew that one of His friends led them. He knew that their destination was the spot where he was standing. It is ironic that so many see their destination in faith as Jesus, and yet at this moment, Jesus being the destination brought darkness.

He knew that running would bring its own darkness.

Darkness surrounded Him in anticipation of His next move, assuming that any move would cause Darkness itself to triumph.

Jesus was prepared, but was his disciples?

They had followed, given their own opinion on things, watched, listened and yet… it always seemed to take a while for the penny to drop.

They seemed to struggle to see the deeper message in things, rather than just the surface story.

There was no doubt they loved Him, but did they love him enough to let Him go and fulfil what had been prophesied from years ago?

Would they be prepared to watch Jesus suffer, to continue to the journey to humanities wholeness?

Would they be prepared to trust, even in the pain, even in the uncertainty, even in what seemed like a terrible thing? Trust that God held them close, even in this most darkest of moments?

And I suppose it asks the question of us? Do we know that even in the most darkest of moments in our life, God loves us, holds us and draws alongside us?

We that follow, like the disciples, may never get the answers, may never quite understand, may never feel we are prepared enough to go through whatever it is we are going through.

But the promise of God is that even in our most darkest and most difficult of moments, when all around seems to swamp us. He is there, walking alongside and shining His light in our lives.

When we are vulnerable, God holds us and keeps us and never lets us go.