Raising up and tearing down

Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Mary's Runwell:

Picture a massive road building project cutting through hills and valleys to create a new straight, level road. The vision from Isaiah (Isaiah 40: 1-11) that John the Baptist quotes in our Gospel reading (Mark 1: 1-8) is one that seems to require bulldozers. It reads like the specification for a new motorway or by-pass. “Get the road ready … make a straight path for travel.” “Every valley must be filled up” and “every hill and mountain levelled off.”

John the Baptist uses this image to describe his role in preparing for the coming of Jesus. His aim is for the whole human race to see God’s coming salvation. The idea is that everything that would obscure or obstruct sight of God’s salvation would be torn down or raised up so that throughout the entire world there would be no obstacle able to prevent people from seeing God’s salvation. Everyone should be able to see Jesus because there would be nothing impeding our view; no mountains blocking our vision and no valleys from within which we would be unable to look out. The purpose of John the Baptist’s ministry was that everyone should clearly see who God is and what God does. Picture a vast flat expanse across which the light of Christ can be seen from wherever you stand and you will get the intended idea.

The purpose of this road building project – in other words, the purpose of John the Baptist’s ministry – is that Jesus, God’s salvation, should be plainly seen walking down the road towards us. Everyone is able to see him because there is nothing to block our view; no mountains blocking our vision of Jesus and no valleys from within which we are unable to look out. The purpose of John’s ministry then is that everyone should see Jesus clearly.

So it is worth asking, what are the mountains in our lives that could prevent us from seeing Jesus? John’s ministry was a call to repentance, turning away from all that is wrong in our lives in order to turn to Jesus. The mountains that need to be torn down are the sins that we cling onto, those things that we struggle to renounce or leave behind and which therefore stand in our lives in the place where only God should be; the centre. When we put something or someone at the centre of our lives then that thing or person becomes a barrier which prevents us from seeing God.

As individuals there could be many things which may obscure our vision of Jesus. There might be things in our lives that take precedence over seeking after God. We may have besetting sins; things that we know before God are wrong and yet we are unable to bring ourselves to actually give them up. We might worship our car or home or making money, for example, and our love of these things may prevent us from making our relationship with Jesus our priority. Our priorities may need changing particularly at Christmas when there is so much pressure on us all simply to consume without regard for the person who is actually central to the season.

What might these things be in our lives? Well, that is for us to decide individually, but, in Church history, people have sometimes talked in terms of the seven deadly sins; of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

The words of Isaiah and John also speak about valleys. When we are in a valley we are low down, in a depression, and can’t see a way out; so can’t see God. Here we are not talking about sins which block our view of God, instead we are talking about fears, anxieties, hurts and depressions which bring us down so that we cannot look up and out and see God. What are the fears, anxieties, hurts and depressions in our lives at present? If we want to see God more clearly then we need to be raised up so that we are no longer looking at life from the depths of a depression.

For some of us it may be that instead of barriers between us and Jesus which need to be torn down there are depressions that need to be raised up. Many of us are prevented from seeing Jesus because we feel that we are not good enough to be found in his presence. As a teenager, that was very much how I felt and, for me, those feelings only changed after I felt God speak personally to me in some words from Romans 5: “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” God’s love for us has nothing to do with how we act. None of us are good enough for God and yet he loves us and showed that love by dying for us. I found that love liberating and, for me, it raised me up so that I could begin to see the glory of God in Jesus for myself.

All this talk of tearing down and raising up is not something that is just for us as individuals though. It is also something that needs to go on in our society too and is part of the role that we can play as Christians in society. Think for yourselves for a moment about some of the barriers that need to come down if our society is to fully see the glory of God in Jesus. During my curacy in Barking & Dagenham I chose to get involved in setting up a Faith Forum because I was aware of the many people who equate religion with conflict and, for whom, this idea is a major barrier to their seeing truth in Christianity. To tear down that barrier it was necessary to demonstrate that people of different faiths could live and talk and work together peacefully.

In a similar way, there are many disadvantaged people within society that need to be raised up if they and others are to be able to see the glory of God in Jesus. We have seen this kind of activity before in the involvement of Christians in the abolition of slavery and in the struggle against apartheid. More recently it has been seen in campaigns to make poverty history, with which the Church has been intimately involved.

Tearing down barriers and raising up depressions leads in Isaiah’s vision to a flat land and a straight path. A similar contemporary phrase might be a level playing field; a phrase that comes from our contemporary concern with equality. It seems possible that Isaiah’s vision is suggesting to us that the glory of God can seen in the achievement of equality, as barriers to inequality are torn down and those who have been treated unequally are raised up.

Isaiah’s vision challenges us to look at ourselves and identify where we have barriers or depressions which prevent us from seeing Jesus which need to be dealt with. But his vision also challenges us to be active in our world to address the barriers and inequalities that prevent many from seeing for themselves the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This Advent let us resolve to prepare for Christmas by tearing down barriers and raising up those who are down that we might prepare a level playing field on which all peoples can see the salvation of God. 

John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is the construction project for our lives which enables us to see and receive God’s salvation in Jesus. As we turn away from the mountains of sin and the valleys of depression, we turn towards Jesus who stands ever ready to receive us with open arms.

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Steve Bell & Malcolm Guite - O Come, O Come Emmanuel. 

One World Week

One World Week brings people together at many local events happening at around the same time, across the country and beyond, to share ideas about global issues. “More Than Enough?” is the theme for One World Week 2013.

OWW asks you to support or organise events that enable us to consider whether we:

 • have had more than enough of consumer culture getting in the way of relationships with others in our communities and across the globe? 
• have had more than enough of being defined by what we possess?

• have had more than enough of seeing our planet irrevocably consumed?

• take more than enough ourselves?

This year, OWW, alongside many of its partners, has signed up to support the campaign: http://enoughfoodif.org/.

Local community groups, religious and voluntary organisations, churches, inter-faith groups, environmentalists, youth groups, schools, universities and campaigners as well as local branches of national organisations. People from all faiths and none take part in One World Week to build a just, peaceful and sustainable world.

Local activities are organised by people working together to create events which are accessible and yet challenging to all in their community. Here are events that are either local to me or with which I am involved:

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Elvis Costello - What's So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding.

Greenbelt 2013: Life Begins ...

My Greenbelt this year was rather different from previous years as we took a commission4mission market stall to the Festival and this reduced considerably the number of events to which it was possible to go.

The flipside was that being on the stall was great for meeting friends, as well as making new contacts. So, for me, the highlight this year was definitely time spent with others; in particular the members of my cell group, most of whom were at the Festival and two-thirds of whom were able to share the excellent (if, at times, historically inaccurate and lengthy) Communion service together. Mary Grey, MacDuff Phiri and Barbara Brown Taylor as witnesses giving powerful personal testimonies were by far and away the best part of this service which was well led by the Wild Goose Resources Group.

As with last year's music lineup, I found little that felt like a must-see; that is until we reached the final day when I watched the wonderful Thea Gilmore, had Courtney Pine as background music to final contacts and conversations on the commission4mission market stall before packing up the stall to the strains of Duke Special. I first heard Thea Gilmore at St Martin-in-the-Fields as part of a Christian Aid event for Trade Justice and fell in love then with her intricate yet direct word play, stunning voice and classic rock and roll stylings.

The literature stream was where I spent the most time this year. Malcolm Guite is a great performer of verse as well as being an engaging raconteur plus a knowledgeable and insightful speaker on poetry. He read from his sonnet sequence for the church year, Sounding the Seasons, and from his forthcoming collection, The Singing Bowl. His recommendations are, therefore, well worth following up and he particularly commended Michael Symmons Roberts' Drysalter, a session I was unfortunately unable to attend. His talk 'Upending the Rainstick' explored the nuances of the Seamus Heaney poem with this title in order to argue for poetry as a means of upending our perceptions of reality.

Jon McGregor gave a thoughtfully dramatic reading, laced with humour, of short stories from This Isn't The Sort Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like You. A panel session chaired by Andrew Tate and comprising Debbie Fielding, Simon Jones, Katherine Venn and Anthony Wilson aimed to survey the literature of the past 40 years. Struggling with this vast undertaking generated some amusement but relatively little light while considering teen fiction, literary prizes, markets, morality and spirituality.

The participants listed their favourite book of the past 40 years: Dart by Alice Oswald (Catherine Venn); New Addresses by Kenneth Koch (Anthony Wilson); The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Debbie Fielding); and any R.S. Thomas anthology (Simon Jones). Mark Oakley gave a moving talk on the effect which the poetry of R.S. Thomas had had on his life and ministry, drawn back to ordination training as he came to realise that absence is a vital and valid part of faith and ministry.

Absence, death of God and kenosis are all key concepts in Radical Theology which was discussed and debated in a stream developed by Kester Brewin, which involved John D. Caputo, Peter Rollins and Marika Rose. Caputo argued that Radical Theology is based on constant change because the impossible deconstructs every contemporary stance and space. In a panel session which ended the stream, Caputo used the example of Rosa Parks to suggest that this understanding leads to interventions in the present which seek to change reality in the direction of the impossible.

For me this makes sense of many of Jesus' sayings which are essentially impossible to fulfil. They are not literal demands but challenges to the comfort and stasis of wherever we currently are; the challenge to change is always before us, whether we are as saintly as St Francis or as evil as Hitler, not because of where we are but because the challenge and call is always out of reach e.g. be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Whatever we do as a result is temporary and provisional because always deconstructable by the impossible. What we do, then, is to create temporary signs of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the impossible. This leads to a position of doing the exact opposite to current teachings on Church growth. Instead of focussing on and doing a small number of things well, we are profligate in 'casting our bread on the waters' and create a number of projects/initiatives knowing that they are provisional and temporary.

This has been my underpinning ethos in life and ministry - discovered more through imagination, the Arts and the Way of Affirmation than through Radical Theology, apophatic theology and the Negative Way; all of which have been, for me, more recent interests - which has resulted in a past and current set of projects/initiatives which have/are lived/living and have/are died/dying. These include: Barking & Dagenham Faith Forum; Christians in the Workplace; commission4mission; Faith Communities Toolkit; Faiths in London's Economy; Living with other Faiths; New Life Church Centre & Noah's Ark Daycare Centre; Sophia Hubs; SOULINTHECITY Barking & Dagenham; and Voice of the People Trust.

Emotionally, I am constantly struggling with the birth pains involved with creating these temporary signs and also mourning the ending of them when they die, while understanding intellectually that this is the reality of their provisional and deconstructable nature. Genuinely living in change and flux is both creatively stimulating and emotionally draining at one and the same time. In reflecting on this year's Greenbelt event I think I may have understood and acknowledged this where I was unable to do so, although needing to do so, at last year's event.

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Thea Gilmore - This Road.
     

Congratulations: Steven Saxby

Congratulations to Steven Saxby who has been appointed as Executive Officer to the London Churches Group with effect from 1 March. He will also remain as Priest in Charge of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, a church which is a member of London Citizens, active in the CitySafe campaign and a key member of Walthamstow Migrants Action Group. 

Steven has a strong record of social action, ecumenical and multi faith engagement that will stand him in good stead in his new role. This includes as Waltham Forest Faith Communities worker (2002-2003) and later line manager for his successors (2003-2007), developing the Faith Forum for Waltham Forest, serving on the Local Strategic Partnership and advising the local authority on faith matters since 2002. He also founded the London Boroughs Faiths Network in 2002, which is still going strong.

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Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World.
 

Shared Faiths response to the credit crunch

Last year Faiths in London's Economy (FiLE) published a shared faiths response to the credit crunch which calls for: non-interest bearing transactions; mutual societies; business accountability to a wider range of stakeholders than shareholders alone; transparent and ethical business practices; and recognition of the role that artists and communities play in generating real wealth.

The document was picked up by the Faith Engagement Team in the Department for Communities and Local Government and posted on the G20 London Summit site as part of the Faith Debate section. The full text of our ‘Shared Faiths response’ was published in the ‘Faith in Business Quarterly,’ an article on the document was prepared for the Three Faiths Forum newsletter, the document informed a consultation on the issue undertaken by the East of England Faiths Council, and a Faiths Conference organised by the Basildon Faiths Forum.

Stephen Timms responded to the shared faiths response to the credit crunch in a speech to the East of England Faiths Council. In this speech, he focused on two aspects of the Shared Faiths response:

Firstly, he said that the paper is right to highlight how the faiths value work – how: “The work ethic is seen as a noble endeavour in many faiths.” Secondly, he focused on what we describe as the ‘breakdown in the relational aspects of the economy’. "You say ‘many faiths reflect on transparency and the hidden (often in terms of the imagery of light and dark’) suggesting that where actions can be hidden, injustice and wrongdoing often occur’. Rowan Williams said earlier this year: “our faith depends on the action of a God who is to be trusted; God keeps promises.” I think you’re right. Hiddenness, and a lack of transparency, has been one of the causes of this crisis."

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Gillian Welch - Everything Is Free.

Redbridge One World Week events

Redbridge's One World Week events have been organised by the One World Week subcommittee, comprising representatives from the following community and faith organisations: Vine URC, Redbridge Faith Forum, Awaaz, St Luke’s Church, League of British Muslims, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, FairCare, St Mary’s Church.

The group aims to raise awareness about what’s going on in the world – both on our doorsteps and far away, to take action to overcome poverty, promote justice and work towards sustainability and to celebrate the good things about being part of one diverse yet inter-connected world.

* Monday 19th October, 7:30pm - Hungry to Live and Work Together: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2-4 Audrey Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 2DY.
* Tuesday 20th October, 6.00pm - Visit to Synagogue, South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue, Oaks Lane, Newbury Park, IG2 7PL.
* Tuesday 20th October, 6:30pm - One World Confronting Poverty – Faith Perspectives, community conversations: South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue, Oaks Lane, Newbury Park, IG2 7PL.
* Wednesday 21st October, 4.00pm - Inter-faith Reflection – Faith: Guru Nanak Satsang Sabha, Sikh Gudwara, 400 High Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 1TW. 5.15pm - Visit to Gudwara.
* Saturday 24th October, 6:00pm Humanity Café – Multi cultural social event. Storytelling and food from many cultures. Vine Church Halls, Holstock Road, Ilford, IG1 1LG.
* Sunday 25th October, 6:30pm - One World Week Service of Worship: Seven Kings Methodist Church, Seven Kings Road, Ilford, IG3 8DQ.
* Sunday 1st November, 12:30pm onwards - Music & Multi Cultural Event, Ilford Community Centre, Eton Road, Ilford IG1 2UE.

For further information contact: Peter Musgrave Tel: 020 8708 2478 / Email: peter.musgrave@redbridge.gov.uk. Please share this information with your friends and colleagues. Further information about this and our other programmes can be found on
http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/community__life_events/faith_communities/redbridge_faith_forum/faith_forum_events.aspx.
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Gordon Gano & The Ryans - Man in the Sand.

Reducing oil dependency (and other resource scarcity issues)

Redbridge Faith Forum have published a report from the meeting held with Redbridge Green Fair on 'What can Redbridge do to reduce oil dependency?'

At St John's we have decided, following our PCC Away Day, to look at some materials giving a Christian perspective on peak oil in our homegroups in the New Year and will be using materials that Sam Norton has posted to do so.

On Monday I attended a very useful day's training on 'Energy Efficiency and Community Buildings', again organised by the Faith Forum and delivered by the Energy Saving Trust. Their national support programme, Community Action for Energy, is a network of like-minded people with an interest in community-based energy projects. Membership of the network is free and offers:

• Community helpline;
• Community support network providing 1.5 days of professional consultancy;
• Travel bursaries;
• Training courses;
• A guide to energy efficiency projects;
• Website;
• Case studies;
• Newsletter;
• E-news updates; and an
• Annual conference.

Finally, last night I went to the Tomorrow Network event on 'The Future of the Food Crisis' at the Royal Society where I heard Duncan Green, Director of Research at Oxfam, and Alex Evans, of the Center on International Cooperation, discuss the current food crisis throughout the world and its future prospects.

Among the points they made were the following:

• Recent food price rises represent a structural shift not a temporary blip because of four resource scarcity issues: energy (tight supply fundamentals and effect of bio fuels); water (demand has tripled over past 50 years); land availability (only 12% usable arable land left and pressure for other uses of it); and effects on agriculture of climate change (low crop yields and emissions from agriculture).
• The cost of high food prices is 850m + hungry people selling their futures (e.g. livestock); getting credit from loan sharks; sending children to work; and parents eating too little in order to feed their children.
• Agriculture must be made pro-poor through: small farmer-based agricultural growth (e.g. Viet Nam and India); effective states with active citizens (e.g. consumer associations such as the grain banks in Uganda); shifts to low carbon production; addressing the challenges of supermarketization, biofuels and outmigration; and solving the dilemma of food vs feed vs fuel.
• Property rights matters for poorer people and women in particular. A fairer distribution of land leads to greater growth (e.g. Taiwan and South Korea).
• Build community resilience to climate change i.e. addressing the loss of inherited knowledge when climate patterns change.
• Actions needed now include: raising yield and making food production more sustainable, resilient and fair; invest more in agriculture; focus on small farms (largest employer in the world); aid donors to focus on the four resource scarcity issues; social protection for poor people; develop security of supply through buffer food stocks and equitable trade agreements with developing countries; address effect that Western lifestyle (bio fuels and diet) has on the rest of the world.

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U2 - Love and Peace or Else.

How Cuba survived peak oil

Exciting developments tonight in our local discussions of peak oil because a showing of the film How Cuba Survived Peak Oil by Redbridge Green Fair has brought together a significant number of local people and organisations interested in the issue, including the Redbridge Faith Forum, Barkingside Agenda 21, other churches and community groups. This opens up the possibility of working together with others locally on the issue and, most importantly, getting experience, advice and ideas from those such as the Forest Farm Peace Garden who have been working on responses locally for several years.

How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is an interesting short film produced by Community Solutions which is all about how Cuba coped when its oil supply ran out and all the benefits this brought on a community level. Following the film there was a short facilitated conversation afterwards looking at any lessons we can learn for Redbridge, how we can become less oil dependent and bring the power of communities working together in the face of climate change.

One of the areas about which there was common agreement was that the issue has considerable implications for urban planning and reveals the folly of proposals made by Redbridge Council to build on allotments. One of the urgent implications is to get peak oil issues onto the agenda of urban planners and this is something that I will seek to do locally by raising the issue initially with TASK and hopefully through them with the Planning & Regeneration Department in the borough. Interestingly and importantly, Sam Norton spoke on the issue of peak oil at the recent SRNet Conference held in the Diocese meaning that the issue was raised with Regeneration Advisers for Dioceses across the UK.

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John Coltrane - My Favorite Things.

Increasing participation in Faith Forums

At the request of the Bishop of Barking and the Barking Episcopal Area Regeneration Group, I've recently written some draft guidance intended to encourage Anglican participation in Faith Forums (and other similar inter-faith groups).

Significant opportunities currently exist in the Barking Episcopal Area for us to become involved or extend our involvement in regeneration initiatives (including the Thames Gateway and 2012 Olympics, among others). The route into these opportunities is increasingly via local and regional Faith Forums and these new opportunities for Church involvement exist to a significant extent because of our multi-faith context both in the Barking Episcopal Area and nationally. These opportunities also present us with a challenge; how to be engaged in regeneration and faith forums in a way that is distinctively Christian? My draft paper seeks to suggest some answers to that question and to encourage each of us in the Barking Episcopal Area to make the most of the opportunities that currently exist to be involved in and to influence the regeneration of our Area.

However, before issuing the paper in a final version we are asking those involved in inter-faith groups whether they could discuss the paper and give feedback on the following issues:

• whether your group feels this guidance strikes the right balance and addresses the right issues to increase participation in Faith Forums from the Anglican Church (and the wider Christian Church, if used ecumenically);
• whether representatives of faiths other than Christianity in your group would be willing to say why their faith encourages their involvement in inter-faith activity, and whether they would be happy if their statement was included in the final version of our guidance; and
• whether your group could provide one or two brief stories of the ways in which you engage in inter-faith activity or dialogue, and, again, whether the group would be happy if a selection of such stories were included in the final version of our guidance.

If anyone would be interested in seeing a copy of the draft paper and giving some feedback then please let me know.

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Iris DeMent - Let The Mystery Be.

Redbridge Conversation

The following has come from the Redbridge Faith Forum:

Redbridge Council has just launched the Redbridge Conversation. The Council is asking everyone who lives or works in the Borough to talk about the long-term improvements they want to see, and how the Council should pay for them.

Residents are being invited to take part in discussions and events across the Borough, and on the Council's website. It will be the biggest public consultation the Council has ever run.

The Council is asking members of the Faith Forum to consider hosting a Redbridge Conversation discussion with members of their own faith group. This could be a focus group with around 6-10 people or a presentation for a larger group such as a committee meeting or social gathering. The Council can provide speakers and other resources to make sure people taking part are properly informed and the discussion goes well.

The Council wants to make sure that voices from all parts of the Borough are heard in the Redbridge Conversation, which is why it has asked the Faith Forum for help. The results of the Redbridge Conversation will be sent to Councillors, who will be taking decisions that will shape the Borough's long-term future.

You can find out about all the Council's investment and funding options on Redbridge i, the Council's website.

For an alternative view on the Redbridge Conversation, see this week's Ilford Recorder. However, I would echo the plea of Ali Hai, from TASK, encouraging us to participate to ensure that Seven Kings is put on the map and that our priorities are recorded by the Council. He argues that the chances are that only the loudest voices will be heard and therefore we should play our part in making sure the Council hears the voice of Seven Kings.

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Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up.