Why should the Devil have all the good apples?

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Apparently, in the old orchards of Somerset and Devon, we are entering Wassailing season- traditionaly 12th night (5th January.)

A lovely word is wassailing- thought to be from the old Norse influenced English- meaning ‘good health’. It rolls on the tongue like scrumpy.

Which is kind of appropriate, as the most common use of the word concerns an old tradition of ceremonies of song and dance and drinking to bless the apple trees, warding off evil spirits and willing the tree to produce a crop for the coming year.

Wassailing also is a word used to describe carol singing in the streets, around new year, and also seems to have been a time when feudal masters were celebrated by their subjects, in response to their seasonal munificence.

The origins of these ceremonies have all been lost in time, but they seem to have more than a whiff of the Pagan about them. The old festivals of the passing of the winter equinox, and the hope of a coming spring. The early Church, as with other festivals, embraced it, and made it Christian. The songs of the wassailers became ones seeking the blessing of God.

So the most well known Wassailing song is this one;

Here we come a wassailing
among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wandering
So fair to be seen.

Chorus:
Love and joy come to you
and to your good Christmas too
And God bless you and send you a happy New Year
And God send you a happy New Year.

We are not daily beggars
that beg from door to door,
We are your neighbor’s children
whom you have seen before.

Chorus

We have got a little purse
of stretching leather skin;
We want a little money
to line it well within.

Chorus

God bless the master of this house,
likewise the mistress, too,
And all the little children
that round the table go.

Chorus

So- why on earth am I going on about this, I hear you ask?

Well, I have been part of groups of charismatic Christians who have tended to understand spirituality as a warfare, first and foremost. So all things come to be measured according to what significance they might have within this unseen war.

This insight is an important one. In Pauls letter to the Ephesians, we read this famous passage-

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

An understanding flowing from these passages has led to a rejection of anything that has a hint of alternative spirituality- whether this comes from other religions, or perhaps even more so when Pagan traditions are invoked.

People seemed to express real fear that exposure to such things could in some way corrupt or damage us- we could be affected by a ‘Spirit-of….’, which could only be dealt with by those who practice deliverance ministry-releasing us from the bondage of evil influence on our lives.

This view of the world and the many things within it can lead to an intense exclusivity and isolation. Whatever the truth of the spiritual powers understood or suspected (and I should confess to a skepticism in some cases at least!) then I think it important to remember that like the festivals noted above, the early church seemed to have a very different way of working with the traditions and cultural symbols that they encountered.

Paul and the temple to the unknown God, recorded in Acts.

Peter and the Gentiles- the sheet from Heaven etc.

The establishment of early Christian shrines on pre-Christian religious sites that appears to have been common practice.

The example of the early Celtic Church and the use of pre-Christian images and symbols and practices to celebrate the new faith.

Is this corruption or syncretism? I do not think so. Accommodation with a spirituality that is damaging is indeed something that we should guard against- but boxing ourselves into fearful religious enclaves- this seems to me to be even more damaging.

We live in a post-Christian world here in the west, and increasingly, the world around us draws it’s spirituality from outside the Christian tradition. Like those early Celtic missionaries, we have no choice but to engage with this reality. The question that should concern us is how we bring Jesus with us as we move into an alien landscape. How do we live as Agents of the Kingdom in this foreign land?

So on this 12th night, let us put on the armour of the Living God and walk tall- secure in the knowledge that before Him, nothing will stand.

Why should the Devil have all the good apples?


Gaza- how do we allow the violence to stand unchallenged?

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I was watching some footage of the violence in Gaza on the news today.

A house destroyed by a tank shell. A mother and three children still in the rubble.

Two small bays covered in blood and concrete dust carried into a hopelessly overwhelmed hospital, staffed by western volunteers. Lacking crucial supplies because of a blockade imposed by the same people who now send the bombs.

Ali posted a link to this film below. If you have any interest- sit down with a coffee and watch it through…

What are we to make of this?

There are two main perspectives it seems;

Israel the defender of the free against the forces of terror.

Israel came into being as a rag tag group of survivors of a Nazi Holocaust took control of their own fate. The Jewish Diaspora was called home, to the land promised by Yahweh.

From the very beginning, they faced overwhelming odds- first the British ‘peacekeeper’ force, who were overcome by the gallant Zionists (albeit using terror tactics.) Then, outnumbered several times, they fought back attacks from every point of the compass by the surrounding Arab nations.

These surrounding nations could not accept the reality of a re-established Jewish nation, and so set themselves on a war footing- committed to driving Israelis into the sea, and returning Palestine to the Palestinians.

But Israel got tough. It’s fighters tenacity and idealistic strength were more than a match for anything the Arabs could throw at them, so the Arabs turned to terrorism.

So Israel fights on still- sending planes and tanks into the hills and streets of Lebanon, and Gaza- in measured, professional response to the missiles launched and the suicide bombers sent.

Israel the victim, striking back.

This view of Israel seems to find a ready home within some Christian groups- most notably, right wing Evangelicals. I have always struggled to understand this. As far as I can make out, this seems to be for a lot of reasons;

  • Theological reasons- Modern Israel is seen through a set of Old Testament goggles. Israel is the promised land of the Jews, and so God will always favour Israel.
  • Escatological reasons- there are understandings of the ‘end times’ predicted by the book of Revelation that centralise Israel- as a necessary stage for the final dramas of the Human Race. As such, the watchers and readers of the coming great tribulation seem to value their understanding of this Biblical prophetic work more highly than human life- or at least, Arab human life.
  • Political reasons- the American Religious Right has become a powerful political force. Mingled in with this is a strong bias towards Israel- perhaps for the reasons above- perhaps also because of other business interests- that familiar relationship between political and economic power. The accommodation with the spirit of the age that the Book of Revelation may also be understood to be commenting on.
  • A lack of understanding because of a media bias. The film above makes this point very strongly. To hear a journalist of the stature of Robert Fisk describe just how strong the media blackout has been on any critical news reports describing Israeli aggression gives more than a little pause for thought.
  • A willingness to believe ‘Christian’ sources, and discount any information that emanates from contradictory sources- such as Amnesty International, the Red Cross, or even Christian Aid.

So- to the second understanding…

Israel the aggressor, the war criminal.

Here a different Israel can be seen.

A people formed in terrible adversity who went from the victims of genocide, to the perpetrators of terrible human rights abuses within a single generation.

This is a story of UN resolutions ignored. Of internationally recognised borders ignored. Of property and land destroyed and violated. Of thousands of women and children murdered.

And of an allegiance with the worlds only remaining superpower, with an unlimited supply of armaments.

Of thousands killed in the refugee camps of Lebanon. Rockets and shells fired into densely populated slums- full of civilians.

Of an on going occupation of the West bank, and Gaza- against specific UN resolutions. Whose brutalised young people, raised on stories of martyrdom and oppression, lacking opportunities for work, or the hope of any kind of stable life. Lacking all the advantages of a people who live the other side of the fences and walls that surround them- these young people then turn to the very violence employed by zionist terrorists only 50 years ago.

They put bombs on buses and in hotels. They strap explosives to their bodies and walk into school yards.

What should our response be?

I am a follower of Jesus. In his name, we stand as peace makers, healers, chain breakers and bringers of sight to the blind.

No-one carries a sword in the name of the Prince of Peace. Even if many (starting with Peter in the garden) have made that terrible mistake.

So let us stand with Jesus with the poor and oppressed- wherever they are, and whomsoever is the oppressor. Let us seek to understand, and never call this weakness. Let us seek to love, and never call this treason. Let us seek to reconcile and never call this surrender to terror.

And let us raise voices that hold to account those who wield the sword over the weak. Let us be never accommodate and excuse evil- even when it is wrapped in a flag, or the ideology of freedom.

Let us also remember some of the followers of Jesus who remembered the way of the Kingdom under terrible oppression.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Quotes from Martin Luther King



Resolving…

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ny-resolution-randomiser

We had a bit of fun with this today- Resolution randomizer.

It works a bit like a fruit machine, matching up three options to generate some useful (if slightly bizarre) NY resolutions.

Because, let’s be honest, most of my half hearted attempts have been pretty boring. You know the sort- I will lose weight and get fit. I will read the Bible more often. I will get up early to pray before the rising sun. I will organise and focus. I will motivate and set meaningful goals. I will set sail into a silver sea of achievement and fulfillment.

Until torpedoed by chocolate, and the many distractions and diversions that reality rolls in my way on a daily basis. Oh- and then there is my innate weakness of character…

Perhaps I am hard on myself. Sometimes I have kept resolutions- for whole days at a time!

It seems that I may not be alone.

But aspirations to change- they can not be bad can they? We seem to make remarkably consistent ones-

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So do I bother this year?

No- but…

I have been thinking about what I would like to get into over the coming year.

I would like to get the wilderness mediations book/project thing into another gear- and for this, I will need to be fitter.

I would like to finish a couple of other writing projects.

Aoradh projects beckon too- a monthly session in a pub, the TENT thing, and performing 40 again in Lent.

Emerging Scotland stuff- our first meeting of the year is in a few weeks, and I would love to see this becoming a real network of friendship and support. I still see no other alternative that would provide this. (See here and here for more info.)

There are still other goals- but these are between me and mine. I may well fail, but perhaps that is never the issue…

As for you, my friends, may 2009 bring you adventure.

And may you remain in good company.

And walk with God.

2009- it’s here. Rejoice.

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I have had a lovely few days of celebration, music and laughter.

Every year, out house fills up with friends for a NY house party. Rooms accumulate gatherings stratified according to a fluid set of gender/age/interest divisions. Someone is perpetually brewing/ cooking/playing music/theologising or leading a party of kids out for an expedition into the great outdoors…

Nights become well used and long, sleep is snatched only when necessary, and we eat too much, and drink not a little- but, to be honest, as we are mostly too prone to hangovers- tea is the favourite tipple these days.

Highlights for me this year were;

  1. Walks into the hills with kids. We gave out digital cameras, and instructed the groups to take photos of things beginning with every letter of the alphabet. Some very hilarious and creative offerings followed- my favourites were Z for Zit (plenty of teenagers, so no probs finding one!) and Q for queue. Andy put the photos in a slide show, and we showed them on a big screen later.
  2. Music. Sometimes when you try to make music together, it is hard and difficult. Not this time. We had keyboard, guitars, bouzouki, flute, fiddles whistles and percussion. Oh- and perhaps most of all, we had a room full of kids who loved every minute of it! ‘Wild thing’ and ‘In the Jungle, the mighty jungle’- dreadful songs both, with live long in memory.
  3. And talking of memory- I really think that experiences like this create collective memory. things that, once shared, become something of who we are. It seems all the more special that it involves the kids.
  4. Kids plays. this years offerings were ‘the monster in the cupboard’ who just seems to enjoy killing children- very blood thirsty, strong on characterisation, but not on plot development. Then there was the talent show- ‘Williams room’s got talent’. Let us just say that I thoroughly deserved minus 2004 points.

There was one other more complicated part to the gathering. Neil, who would have loved this weekend, was not here. But to have the chance to have long conversations with Sheila, his wife, was precious.

So my friends, far and near- may 2009 be a blessing to you. May you construct good memories that build health and life. And may you remember the difficult broken things with love and care. And may you move forward…

In hope.

Some photos;

A day of mixed blessings…

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The fridge grave yard.

The fridge grave yard.

Today was a strange kind of day.

We have a houseful of friends coming to stay for new year tomorrow- around 25 will somehow sleep here I think. This means getting the house ready- cleaning up, making space where currently there is clutter, and stocking up the cupboards with food for the masses.

I am really looking forward to seeing friends, catching up with the stuff of life, sitting round the fire with guitars and slow walks with the kids. It is always a time of blessing.

What was not a blessing was the breakdown of the fridge freezer- full of food for the week ahead! We found a replacement, and I suppose the old one had done it’s job for long enough.

Alongside this, the lights in the kitchen packed in (transformer- now replaced) and Outlook Express has decided I am no longer to be trusted with my own e-mails, asking me repeatedly for my password. Modern technology huh?

However, one e-mail that got through was a blessing.

I had an e-mail from a guy in Chile- Chris Esdaile, who has used one of our wilderness meditations , converted into Spanish, with a group in the Atacama desert!

There are some great photo’s on Flickr– showing a very different kind of wilderness.

Technology can bring blessing then- a connection with something whole worlds away…

atacama-kite

Wilderness on my doorstep…

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I am just back from a tramp around the hills above Dunoon. Exercise, I feel, is overdue.

What a lovely day- crispy frosty grass underfoot- bogs the more friendly for a creaking coat of ice. Views opening up over the distant hills and mountains.

For those who are used to walking in England- the hills of Cowal were mad busy today. I saw more people than I saw deer! (For the record- two people, one deer.)

The downside for this lack of use is that there are few if any paths, and so progress is hard and potentially fraught with wrong turnings. Today I found the summit of Bishops Seat, cold and whipped by thin clouds. But an attempt to find a trouble free and easy descent was foiled by fallen trees and areas of clear-felled forest. I emerged very muddy but satisfied, tramping through all the clean dog walkers on the path around the reservoir with pride at my obvious adventure.

I have come to love the kind of local walking that follows a known route, then extends it into the unknown- a new peak beckoning, or a clamber alongside a burn as it forces it’s way through the forest. I do not use a map for these outings- they are of little use in the forest anyway (planting and felling changes the landscape all too frequently.) A compass is useful to ensure that a firebreak is in the right direction, but beyond that- it’s about following the nose…

And today, it was wonderful.

I know myself blessed to be able to live amongst such beauty.

Today, it was good to be alive, and easy to worship God.

Christmas through the eyes of a small boy…

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Christmas has passed…

We have had a lovely time- just the four of us for the most part- a rare and lovely thing.

Today we spent pottering in the house and garden- finishing some wallpapering in our bedroom, changing some taps and stacking logs. The kids had a lazy lazy day and did not even get out of their PJ’s.

We bought Will a camera. I downloaded some of his photos. It was an interesting insight into the mind and preoccupations of a small boy at Christmas time…

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‘The Project’- a Scottish festival of arts, culture and faith

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the-project

Here’s a plug for The Project

Who knows where its heading- but come along for the ride! Here’s the detail;

In August this year, Greenbelt Festival hosted a conversation for anyone interested in exploring the possibility of doing something like Greenbelt in Scotland. So a second meeting took place in Perth in November to take things a step further.

So ‘The PROJECT‘ was born… an interim process of small, viral, organic events during 2009 & 2010, building to the possibility of a larger event in 2011.

These small events would allow us to flesh out what a bigger event might look like; to more immediately model the kind of thing a larger event would contain; and to build a community of folk who’d be able to make a larger event happen.

It was clear at both meetings that any future event in Scotland should have its own identity, should grow out of Scottish culture and concerns, and not merely attempt to imitate Greenbelt. Although initially inspired by the spirit that Greenbelt (and other events) manifests, ‘The PROJECT‘ should develop a distinct Scottish nature, responding to the specific conditions, context and needs of this place and time.

WHAT IS ‘THE PROJECT‘?

A series of interim events leading to a larger festival event. As yet, there’s no specific shape or clear consensus about a larger event’s length, breadth, geography or season.

Whatever we end up with would be inspired initially by the spirit of Greenbelt, but should also learn from other Scottish & European models such as Street Level, Carberry Ferstival, Kirchentag or even the Edinburgh festival, The Mod, Celtic Connections.

The ‘interfaces of engagement’ would be: arts – faith – theology – ecology – politics – philosophy – spirituality – justice… basically celebration, inspiration, irreverence, laughter, tears, questions, argument, friendship, shivers up the spine – add your own noun to the list.

PROCESS & PEOPLE

The Perth meeting tasked Dot Reid, Graham Maule and John Cross to identify people who would be on an initial interim Steering Group.

There is some concern that ‘The PROJECT’ should not be owned by larger organisations, or become institutionalised. So that task brief was to identify people in terms of their interest and ability to take things to the next stage (and not in terms of being ‘representatives’ of organisations).

The interim Steering Group will organise 2 events in 2009 to bring people together and to help think through the possibilities of ‘The PROJECT’.

This group is not intended as a permanent group, but would commit to the interim 2009-2010 stage. If there is then judged to be enough energy and enthusiasm for the large event by that time, a new steering group appropriate to any more extensive undertaking would be formed.

INTERESTED?

if you want to join the community of like-minded people engaged in the task of realising ‘The PROJECT‘, you can join this Facebook group.

Or you can join a similar group on Bebo.

You can visit ‘The PROJECT‘’s interim website for details of the thinking behind ‘The PROJECT‘ and to find out about the events that will be taking place over the next couple of years.

And you can start to spread the word… tell your friends and colleagues about ‘The PROJECT‘ and get them to register their interest.

Dot Reid, John Cross Graham Maule.

The spiritual discipline of no longer coping…

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not-coping

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your own pleasures, your own ways of coping, and follow the way of the cross.

Walk close with me…

If you insist on saving your life- you will just end up losing it.

You will just end up WASTING it.

Only those who are prepared to lose it all for my sake, and for the sake of my Kingdom, will ever know what it really means to LIVE…

From Mark 8:34-35.

Heres a question: Is it possible that the things we do to enable us to survive, or to socialise-even to succeed- easily become the seeds of our downfall? Perhaps the stuff that insulates us from one another, and from God?

I have thought about this a lot. It is one of those many areas where my understanding of God has been enhanced by my work with people who have mental health problems.

You see, perhaps the most influential therapeutic approach today is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT encourages us to look at the way our thoughts, emotions, actions and physical sensations interact to form repetitive feedback loops that can be enslaving and extremely difficult to escape.

That is not to say that these loops are always dysfunctional. The truth is, much of how we engage with the world about us seems to be built on these things. We find ways, sometimes at a very early age, of managing the interface with the stresses and strains of life, and these tend to just continue into adulthood. For most of the time, this is just how it is- we do not need to examine this in any detail.

One of the things that CBT therapists will look for as we try to help people are ‘safety behaviours’. These are the things we do to enable us to get through. Of particular significance, and introducing the most complication, are those things we get into to cope with SOCIAL risks- that most subtle of human response to the risk of exposure, ridicule an embarrassment.

For some people, the safety behaviours may be highly damaging- drugs, alcohol, dependency on sex, or imprisonment in abusive relationships. For some, violence and anger become their defining emotion- enabling them always to be right.

For many of us, they may include more manageable, but still potentially unhelpful ways of keeping the world at bay- food, stuff that makes us feel good for a while, possessions, the pursuit of recognition and significance…

Then there are even more of us who appear to be doing OK. We have our things, our successes, and our projects. We know where we are going, more or less, and who we are going there with. We can cope with most of what life throws at us, because we are moving on our own tram lines- we have bought a ticket, and the only way is forward…

For those of us in the latter group, it is often only CRISIS that makes us take stock.

That makes us look at the safety behaviours we wrap ourselves in, and ask whether they are worth holding on to.

When I look at the passage above from Mark’s gospel, I wonder if Jesus knew all about this. I wonder if he understood that life lived for nothing is no life at all. That life insulated from people and from God is a lesser existence. That life where safety-comes-first will only ever be half life.

So I wondered about the need for us all to STOP coping.

To stop being in control.

To step outside the treadmill of the expected, the predictable, the manageable.

Into the great glorious unknown.

Where God is.