Give what you can

Here's the sermon I preached this morning at St Catherine's for the beginning of Stewardship Month: 

I wonder how many of us here today think that we have a lot to give to God. My guess is that most of us actually think we have very little we can give to God.

We may think that we have nothing special in terms of our talents. We may think that we have little by way of time because of the many pressures that we face in life. We may think that we have little spare cash because of the significant costs of living. As a result, we often think we have very little to offer and may hold back from offering at all as result.

This is a particular issue when it comes to the suffering and distress that we see on our TV screens around the world, whether through conflict or lack of resources and relief. Global issues seem so huge that the contribution we could make pales into insignificance and we think there is no point doing anything ourselves as our contribution will simply be a drop in an ocean.

It is easy for us to think that big is best and that what we have and are is too little to make an impact but today’s Gospel reading says otherwise (Luke 21. 1 – 4). Jesus sees and values the contribution which the widow makes. Everyone else gave from their surplus wealth, but the widow, from her poverty, contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. So Jesus uses her example as a challenge to the wealthy and well resourced who often give less proportionately while the less well off give more of what they have.

A New York Times Magazine article in 2010 highlighted the myth of philanthropy and the “benefits to the poor” of having the super wealthy. What this well-researched article revealed was that the super wealthy, the wealthy and ostentatious “scribes” of today, as a percentage of their income actually give less than those who have middle and lower incomes. Most absurdly, what Jesus observed in his day remains true today — those with the least continue to give more, by percentage of their resources, than the wealthy! (http://datinggod.org/2010/08/22/today%E2%80%99s-parable-of-the-widow%E2%80%99s-mite/) So this is a message that needs to be heard in these times of austerity where budget cuts are often focused on the poor rather than the wealthy.

Small is beautiful, as E. F. Schumacher once reminded us, and our small actions or contribution, combined with those of others, can then have a big effect. The butterfly effect which is found in Chaos Theory and the Multiplier Effect in economics both show, on the basis of research, that small changes and small contributions can have significant effects.

Here's one story that demonstrates that truth. Hattie May Wiatt was a young girl in Philadelphia in the 1880s who began saving towards the building of a church which could accommodate the large number of children going to Sunday School in those days. Hattie May died young and after her death the pastor of the church, Rev. Russell Conwell was given the 57 cents that she had saved. He used these to begin a fundraising campaign which resulted in the building of a church, a University and a Hospital.

Stewardship month is an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

Our Parish needs a whole series of small contributions at present as we need new volunteers across the whole range of our ministry. We are looking for a new PCC Treasurer, members of our District Church Councils (the DCCs) and Parochial Church Council (our PCC). We would value new members of our choir and people who could work with children when they come to our services. We always value help with administration, pastoral visiting, prayer ministry and with our publicity (website, social media etc). The packs that you have been given include more information about Stewardship and response forms to help you think more about the ways you give currently and what might be possible in the future. The packs include a form you can fill in to offer your help.

When it comes to our financial giving, we have faced significant challenges as for a long time we haven’t been able to give the Diocese the Parish Share that is needed to cover the cost of clergy and the other support that the Diocese provides. We also face a significant financial challenge here because of the underpinning work needed to secure the long-term future of this building. We are gradually increasing the amount we give to the Diocese for our support year-on—year and have raised funds for the first two Phases of our repair project. However, we need to maintain and improve that situation this year, so ask that you reconsider your giving at this time and use Stewardship Month to decide what you can contribute to St Catherine’s and our Parish in future. There are forms in the Pack which can be used if you want to start giving or if you are able to change what you are giving.

For those who are tax payers there has for some time been a way of increasing the value of the gifts you give. Gift Aid enables us to reclaim the basic rate tax from HMRC for those who are taxpayers, so for every £1 that you give we can claim an extra 25p. That means that, if you are a tax payer, we need you to fill out a Gift Aid declaration form in order to reclaim that money. There’s a copy in the Pack for you to fill out. There are three ways you can give using Gift Aid. The Parish Giving Scheme provides simple and secure ways to give regularly to this church; online, by phone, or by posting a giving form. Joining PGS means they claim the Gift Aid and send it direct to our Bank Account. You can also use our yellow envelopes for cash donations or fill in the Gift Aid declaration on the Card Reader where giving using your bank card.

Jesus commended the widow for giving the small amount that she had. Rev. Conwell took Hattie May’s 57 cents and used in to build a church, a University and a Hospital. We need the contribution that you can make to our Parish, however small it may seem to you, and in whatever way you can make that contribution. Thank you so much for all the ways you give currently and the different contributions you make. They are vital to the mission and ministry of our Parish and we are very grateful for them. The mission and ministry of this church is the combined effect of the contributions that each of us make. We need you now, more than ever. God has given you resources, time and talents, so this Stewardship Month I encourage you to reflect prayerfully on all that you can and do give back to him in order that together we can combine our individual offerings to make a bigger impact for him. Amen.

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Natalie Bergman - You've Got A Friend in Jesus.

God's transformation of our small offerings

Here's the sermon that I shared in the 8.00 am service at St Mary Magdalene Great Burstead:

They '... brought barley loaves and fish to Jesus ... Barley loaves ... were one third of the price of the wheat variety; it was the bread of the poor. And then there were the two small fish. The Greek word used for these fish in John’s gospel is “osparion”, which meant they were certainly not fresh fish from the Sea of Galilee. “Osparion” were either small dried or pickled fish ... [They] may have generously offered all he had but that offering was meagre in the extreme. Little wonder that Andrew should say despairingly to Jesus: “But, what are they among so many”?

Yet, Jesus willingly took what was offered and, far from commenting on the poor offering set before him, he gave thanks over the loaves and fish. And, as Jesus gave thanks a transformation took place and there was enough for all to be fed and ... to be satisfied. With the transforming grace of Jesus even our poorest offerings can become something extraordinary.' (Mark 8.1-9)

'Tom Wright … says ... that all God calls us to do is to bring what we have to Jesus in prayer. We tell Him what we need. We then let Jesus bring the two together and make it enough for all! As that marvellous prayer puts it, the Lord Jesus truly can ‘transform the poverty of our riches by the fullness of his Grace’.'

It is easy for us to think that big is best and that what we have and are is too little to make an impact but this story says otherwise. Jesus takes and uses the little that is offered. Small is beautiful, as E. F. Schumacher once reminded us, and our small actions or contribution, when combined with those of others, can then have a big effect. The butterfly effect which is found in Chaos Theory and the multiplier effect in economics both show, on the basis of research, that small changes and small contributions can have significant effects.

Hattie May Wiatt was a young girl in Philadelphia in the 1880s who began saving towards the building of a church which could accommodate the large number of children going to Sunday School in those days. Hattie May died young and after her death the pastor of the church, Rev. Russell Conwell was given the 57 cents that she had saved. He used these to begin a fundraising campaign which resulted in the building of a church, a University and a Hospital.

Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed is another illustration of this truth. In this brief parable a small action, the sowing of a small seed, leads to the growth of a large plant. Jesus says that, in a similar way, the kingdom of God has small beginnings but grows to become something much larger.

We also see this illustrated in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. Long centuries have come and gone but all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings and queens that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of human beings upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is the ultimate expression of a small action with a big impact.

What this means is that the contribution you can make to St Mary Magdalene is needed, however small it may seem to you, and in whatever way you can make that contribution. The mission and ministry of this church is the combined effect of the contributions that each of us make. God has given you resources, time and talents, so I encourage you to reflect prayerfully on all that you can and do give back to him in order that together you can combine your individual offerings to make a bigger impact for him here.

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Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Have Mercy.

Bring what you have

Here is my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

We live in an age of austerity where our government has implemented a series of sustained reductions in public spending, with more still to come, all intended to reduce the budget deficit. As a result, we live in a time of relative scarcity compared with years of a booming economy prior to this time of austerity.

The reality of living in a time of scarcity has parallels to the feeding of the five thousand where Jesus and those with him are in the wilderness with no food except for the five small barley loaves and two small fish offered by a boy in the crowd (John 6. 5 - 14). Jesus’ disciples essentially despair in the light of their situation as there is nowhere to go to buy food, they have insufficient money for the numbers involved and the boy’s lunch is too small to share with any but a few.

Jesus, however, brings abundance in the place of scarcity. He prepares the crowd to eat, gives thanks to God and begins to share the little that they have. As the sharing commences, the food is found to be sufficient for everyone’s needs with 12 baskets of leftover bread gathered together at the end of the meal.

How did this happen? It began with a young boy bringing barley loaves and fish to Jesus. Barley loaves were one third of the price of the wheat variety; it was the bread of the poor. And then there were the two small fish. The Greek word used for these fish in John’s gospel is “osparion”, which meant they were certainly not fresh fish from the Sea of Galilee. “Osparion” were either small dried or pickled fish. The young boy may have generously offered all he had but that offering was meagre in the extreme. Little wonder that Andrew should say despairingly to Jesus: “But, what are they among so many”?

Yet, Jesus willingly took what was offered and, far from commenting on the poor offering set before him, he gave thanks over the loaves and fish. And, as Jesus gave thanks a transformation took place and there was enough for all to be fed and, we learn later in the chapter, to be satisfied. With the transforming grace of Jesus even our poorest offerings can become something extraordinary.

Tom Wright in his commentary on St John’s Gospel says that all God calls us to do is to bring what we have to Jesus in prayer. We tell Him what we need. We then let Jesus bring the two together and make it enough for all! As that marvellous prayer puts it, the Lord Jesus truly can ‘transform the poverty of our riches by the fullness of his Grace’.

It is easy for us to think that big is best and that what we have and are is too little to make an impact but this story says otherwise. Jesus takes and uses the little that the young boy offers.

Small is beautiful, as E. F. Schumacher reminded us. Our small actions or contribution, combined with those of others, can then have a big effect. This year’s BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal for St Martin-in-the-Fields uses that thought in its slogan ‘Small Action Big Difference’. The butterfly effect which is found in Chaos Theory and the multiplier effect in economics both show, on the basis of research, that small changes and small contributions can have significant effects.

Hattie May Wiatt was a young girl in Philadelphia in the 1880s who began saving towards the building of a church which could accommodate the large number of children going to Sunday School in those days. Hattie May died young and after her death the pastor of the church, Rev. Russell Conwell was given the 57 cents that she had saved. He used these to begin a fundraising campaign which resulted in the building of a church, a University and a Hospital.

What can you give to God today? It doesn’t matter if it seems very little or very small. Brother Lawrence that ‘We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.' In addition, as he did with the small offering the boy made in this story, Jesus can take the little that we can offer and can use, transform and multiply it. The important thing then is that we offer what we can. What can you give to God to today? Whatever it is, the important thing is to offer it – however small it may seem.

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G.F. Handel - The King Shall Rejoice.

Small contributions can have significant effects

Here is today's sermon for the Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook based on John 6. 1 - 14 and collaged together from various sources:

'... the young boy brought barley loaves and fish to Jesus ... Barley loaves ... were one third of the price of the wheat variety; it was the bread of the poor. And then there were the two small fish. The Greek word used for these fish in John’s gospel is “osparion”, which meant they were certainly not fresh fish from the Sea of Galilee. “Osparion” were either small dried or pickled fish ... The young boy may have generously offered all he had but that offering was meagre in the extreme. Little wonder that Andrew should say despairingly to Jesus: “But, what are they among so many”?

Yet, Jesus willingly took what was offered and, far from commenting on the poor offering set before him, he gave thanks over the loaves and fish. And, as Jesus gave thanks a transformation took place and there was enough for all to be fed and, we learn later in the chapter, to be satisfied. With the transforming grace of Jesus even our poorest offerings can become something extraordinary.'

'Bishop Tom Wright in his commentary on St John’s Gospel says ... that all God calls us to do is to bring what we have to Jesus in prayer. We tell Him what we need. We then let Jesus bring the two together and make it enough for all! As that marvellous prayer puts it, the Lord Jesus truly can ‘transform the poverty of our riches by the fullness of his Grace’.'

It is easy for us to think that big is best and that what we have and are is too little to make an impact but this story says otherwise. Jesus takes and uses the little that the young boy offers. Small is beautiful, as E. F. Schumacher reminded us, and as the images we have been viewing this morning state, our small actions or contribution, combined with those of others, can then have a big effect. The butterfly effect which is found in Chaos Theory and the multiplier effect in economics both show, on the basis of research, that small changes and small contributions can have significant effects.

Hattie May Wiatt was a young girl in Philadelphia in the 1880s who began saving towards the building of a church which could accommodate the large number of children going to Sunday School in those days. Hattie May died young and after her death the pastor of the church, Rev. Russell Conwell was given the 57 cents that she had saved. He used these to begin a fundraising campaign which resulted in the building of a church, a University and a Hospital.

We need the contribution that you can make to St Stephen Walbrook, however small it may seem to you, and in whatever way you can make that contribution. The mission and ministry of this church is the combined effect of the contributions that each of us make. God has given you resources, time and talents, so I encourage you to reflect prayerfully on all that you can and do give back to him in order that together we can combine our individual offerings to make a bigger impact for him.

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The Voices of East Harlem - Little People.

Start:Stop - In conversation with God

Bible reading

God took the Man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order … Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” (Genesis 2: 15 - 23)

Meditation

Last week we thought about this passage in terms of work being to do with naming the good and the possible. This week we think about it in relation to work being done in collaboration with God, each other and with the creation. In the passage we read of Adam and God engaged in conversation with each other, of the search for a partner to work with Adam and of that search happening through an engagement with other creatures.

This passage suggests that work is intended to be carried out in conversation with God, each other and the creation itself Paul Ballard has said that “human beings can enter into a creative partnership with [God] in terms of [our] own powers over creation” and that the “power to work is a God-given power that finds its place in relation to the service of God and man’s place in creation”.

As a partial example of this, in relation to working with others, Christian Schumacher has written in his book God in Work about team working and the way in which, in teams, “each person should be willing to give up the ‘raw material’ of his or her own ideas in order that they can be subsumed or absorbed into the pool of other ideas being contributed by other team members, so that a new and better ‘product’ of the team’s combined endeavours can be created”. He suggests that this experience “of unity in a warm, effective and strongly bound cohesive team operating within divinely compatible structures” has moved people “to deepen their own inner lives” and has drawn them closer to God.

However, much of the work we have done as human beings has been with our back turned to God - we have been ‘out of conversation’ with him - and, therefore, instead of caring for creation we have exploited it for our own selfish ends. We need to get back into conversation with God in order to have productive conversations with each other and with the created order.

The beginning of John’s Gospel can be read as saying that conversation, dialogue and partnership with God is actually what life is all about: “It all arose out of a conversation, conversation within God, in fact the conversation was God. So God started the discussion, and everything came out of this, and nothing happened without consultation.

This was the life, life that was the light of men, shining in the darkness, a darkness which neither understood nor quenched its creativity …

The subject of the conversation, the original light, came into the world, the world that had arisen out of his willingness to converse. He fleshed out the words but the world did not understand. He came to those who knew the language, but they did not respond. Those who did became a new creation (his children). They read the signs and responded.

These children were born out of sharing in the creative activity of God. They heard the conversation still going on, here, now, and took part, discovering a new way of being people.

To be invited to share in a conversation about the nature of life was for them, a glorious opportunity not to be missed.” (John 1: 1-14 revisited)

Prayer

Holy Trinity, you invite us to share in a conversation about the nature of life. This is a glorious opportunity not to be missed. Enable us to fully grasp that opportunity and, through it, discover a new way of being people.

May we enter into creative partnership with you and find our place in your service and within creation.

Holy Trinity, forgive us because much of the work we have done, as human beings, has been with our back turned to you and, as a result, we have been out of conversation with you. Your Son fleshed out the words but the world did not understand. He came to those who knew the language, but they did not respond. As a result, instead of caring for creation we have exploited it for our own selfish ends.

May we enter into creative partnership with you and find our place in your service and within creation.

Holy Trinity, teach us to use our powers as human beings creatively in partnership with you for the service of others and in ways which serve creation. Enable us to create teams which experience unity through warmth of relationships, effective operations and strong bonds within divinely compatible structures. May the members of such teams or partnerships be moved to deepen their own inner lives and draw closer to you.

May we enter into creative partnership with you and find our place in your service and within creation.

Blessing

Sharing in conversation with God, entering into creative partnership with God, finding our place in God’s service, deepening our own inner lives and drawing closer to God. May those blessing of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon us and remain with us always. Amen.

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Washington National Cathedral - Take My Life And Let It Be.

Creativity and care

Here is a slightly expanded version of the sermon I preached today at Salvation Church, who share space with us at St Stephen Walbrook. This sermon can also be heard by clicking here.

At the weekends the City of London is very quiet, apart perhaps from those, like yourselves, travelling in for services at those churches which have Sunday services. But Monday to Friday first thing in the morning and early evening, Walbrook is a river of people travelling to and from their workplaces. These people pass by the church but, in the main, don’t come in and that is probably also, in the main, symptomatic of people who see little connection between the work they do and the Christian faith. As Mark Greene has written, “Society encourages us to believe that our faith is private and has no place in the working world. Indeed the working world operates on an atheistic basis. God, it believes, does not show up on the balance sheet. What we do in our own time is up to us, but there is no place for biblical ethics and claims about truth on the factory floor or in the board meeting” (Thank God it’s Monday, Scripture Union, 2002)

According to the most recent Business Register and Employment Survey, 392,400 people are employed in the City of London. This represents 8.3% of Greater London’s employment, and 1.4% of the UK’s total employment, meaning over 1 in 100 of the UK’s workforce are employed in the City. The great opportunity that the City’s churches seem to have, if it can be grasped, is to engage with working people and demonstrate the connections that do exist between the Christian faith and the world of work.

Those connections can be made. One example comes from Romans 12 where St Paul talks about offering the whole of your life to God as an act of worship, which includes your work whatever or wherever that may be, paid or voluntary. Or as Eugene Peterson puts it in his paraphrase of that passage: “Here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”

This was an important passage for me when I worked in the Civil Service for 18 years prior to ordination. What did it mean to offer the work that I was doing then – which involved seeking various ways to assist disabled people to find and keep jobs – to God as an act of worship? For me, it meant doing my work as well as I could – bringing all my experience, skills and understanding to the role – and doing my best for those I was seeking to assist – by offering as holistic a service as I could within the constraints of the role instead of going through the motions by doing the basics of the role but no more. I also explored opportunities to make connections between the work I was involved in and the social action that churches and other faith groups were engaged in. This led to a project which demonstrated the value to Jobcentre staff of engaging with their local faith communities and provided them with resources to enable that engagement to happen effectively.

When I was ordained this continued to be a focus of my ministry. So I have provided working people with weekly work-based reflections and prayers, written resources on being a Christian at work, led a network on Faiths in London’s Economy and have set up ESOL courses and social enterprise projects in parishes. As a result, when the shared partnership development role with St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Stephen Walbrook was advertised providing the opportunity to minister to working people in Central London and set up partnerships between churches and the organisations around them, it seemed too good an opportunity and too close a fit with my interests to overlook.

So, I’d like to explore with you this morning some more of the connections that exist between faith and work before concluding by telling you a little about our first initiative here at St Stephen Walbrook to make these connections for those who pass by this church each weekday.

As we do so, I’d like to take us back in time to the beginning of time and to the stories of Genesis of the creation of our world. In Genesis 2. 8 – 23 we read:

8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, to the east, and placed in the garden the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God planted all sorts of beautiful trees there in the garden, trees producing the choicest of fruit. At the centre of the garden he placed the Tree of Life, and also the Tree of Conscience, giving knowledge of Good and Bad. 10 A river from the land of Eden flowed through the garden to water it; afterwards the river divided into four branches. 11-12 One of these was named the Pishon; it winds across the entire length of the land of Havilah, where nuggets of pure gold are found, also beautiful bdellium and even lapis lazuli. 13 The second branch is called the Gihon, crossing the entire length of the land of Cush. 14 The third branch is the Tigris, which flows to the east of the city of Asher. And the fourth is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and care for it. 16-17 But the Lord God gave the man this warning: “You may eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the Tree of Conscience—for its fruit will open your eyes to make you aware of right and wrong, good and bad. If you eat its fruit, you will be doomed to die.”

18 And the Lord God said, “It isn’t good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him, a helper suited to his needs.” 19-20 So the Lord God formed from the soil every kind of animal and bird, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever he called them, that was their name. But still there was no proper helper for the man. 21 Then the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs and closed up the place from which he had removed it, 22 and made the rib into a woman, and brought her to the man.

23 “This is it!” Adam exclaimed. “She is part of my own bone and flesh! Her name is ‘woman’ because she was taken out of a man.”

Now there are all sorts of reasons why we might think this a surprising passage to look at in relation to faith and work but, as I hope to show, this is a passage about the very first tasks allocated to human beings and, because it comes before the Fall and before the entry of sin into the world, shows us something of God’s original intentions for work, to which it is imperative that we return.

Within the Biblical Creation stories human creativity is seen in: God’s blessing of humanity which included the tasks of increasing in number, filling and subduing the earth and, ruling over living creatures (Genesis 1: 28); Adam’s working and taking care of the garden (Genesis 2: 15); and, Adam’s naming of the living creatures (Genesis 2: 20). Albert Wolters notes that: “Adam and Eve, as the first married couple, represent the beginnings of societal life; their task of tending the garden, the primary task of agriculture, represents the beginnings of cultural life." (Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview)

This story from Genesis 2 suggests that work is intended to be about creativity and care - naming the essence and possibilities of a good creation and I would like to explore three points with you in relation to this understanding.

The first point is about creativity and care. Our task is to cultivate creation (to make it fruitful) and to care for it (to maintain and sustain it), just as God told Adam to work the ground and keep it in order. Now, cultivating creation is a creative activity based on understanding the essence of each thing that we cultivate. This understanding comes from the task God gave to Adam of naming the creatures brought to him. Names in ancient culture are descriptive of the essence or meaning of objects or people. So, in this story Adam’s task is to identify the essence of each creature that God brings to him.

Because the creation is good, Adam is being asked to name all that is good, integrated and coinherent within it. James Thwaites has suggested that this is what Paul, in Romans 8, suggests creation is crying out for from us as human beings (Romans 8: 19-22): “It must be crying out for its goodness to be fully realised and fully released. The creation cannot be good apart from the sons and daughters because we alone were given the right to name it; we are the image bearers who were made to speak moral value and divine intent into it. We were created to draw forth the attributes, nature and power of God in all things.” (The Church Beyond The Congregation)

As we do this, as we look for the essence - the attributes, nature and power of God in all things - we also see possibilities inherent in creation. Everything in creation is both what it is in its own right and what it could become. God has given us the task of naming both what things are - their actuality - and what they could become - their possibilities.

The philosopher Paul Ricoeur has noted that: “In the case of human willing, the possible precedes the actual, for the forming of a project precedes its realization: “The presence of man in the world means that the possible precedes the actual and clears the way for it; a part of the actual is a voluntary realisation of possibilities anticipated by a project.” (Biblical Narrative in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur)

“… according to Ricouer, human being is possibility: “it does not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3: 2). Human existence is “forward-orientated,” constantly projecting itself in front of itself towards a possible way of being. Possibility is therefore intimately connected to the imagination which projects it, and to time, specifically the future. Human being, then, is not limited to the here and now, that is, to actuality … there is a “surplus of being” to human existence, and this surplus of being is nothing other than possibility. We are not as we shall be. Thanks to this surplus of being – possibility – humanity can hope.” (Kevin Vanhoozer, “The Image of God and the Epic of Man” )

So, in our work, we can explore the actual by looking both for the good in the work itself and in those with whom we work and we are to name the good when see it. We are also called to look for new possibilities in our work - both in the work itself and in those with whom we work - and to name these possibilities as we see them. Because we live after the Fall, our task is one of attempting "to change the world in the direction of its promised transformation, imaginatively grasping and realising the objective possibilities in the present which conform most closely to the coming Kingdom.”

The second point is that we are not made to do this alone but in collaboration. Our work of naming the good and the possible is to be done together with God, with each other and with creation. We are to be in conversation with God, each other and our world. Paul Ballard has said that “human beings can enter into a creative partnership with [God] in terms of [our] own powers over creation” and that the “power to work is a God-given power that finds its place in relation to the service of God and man’s place in creation”. As an example of this, Christian Schumacher has written in his book God in Work about team working and the way in which, in teams, “each person should be willing to give up the ‘raw material’ of his or her own ideas in order that it can be subsumed or absorbed into the pool of other ideas being contributed by other team members, so that a new and better ‘product’ of the team’s combined endeavours can be created”. He suggests that this experience “of unity in a warm, effective and strongly bound cohesive team operating within divinely compatible structures” has moved people “to deepen their own inner lives” and has drawn them closer to God. But much of the work we have done as human beings has been with our back turned to God - we have been ‘out of conversation’ with him - and, therefore, instead of caring for creation we have exploited it for our own selfish ends.

To turn away from this blindness about ourselves brings us to the third point. We need to see that work is also about our own self-understanding or comprehension. Again, Paul Ricoeur is helpful here as he suggests that “in determining to do something, I likewise determine myself: “In the same way that a project opens up possibilities in the world, it opens up new possibilities in myself and reveals me to myself as a possibility of acting. My power-to-be manifests itself in my power-to-do …” The “possible” is therefore an essential component in self-understanding. I achieve self-understanding when I grasp what possibilities are open to me." (Biblical Narrative in the Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur)

Work is intended to develop our understanding of ourselves because, as we name what is good and what is possible, we also develop our understanding of ourselves. As Adam named the good and imagined possibilities for each creature that God brought to him, he was also coming to an understanding of his needs as a human being and rejecting each creature in turn as a suitable helper for him. Therefore, when God created Eve, Adam had the necessary self-understanding to recognise Eve immediately as the helper for which he had been seeking. Work is intended to be a place in which we grow in our understanding and comprehension of ourselves.

So, work is intended to be about creativity and care - naming the essence and possibilities of a good creation. It is about collaboration - a conversation with God, each other and our world - in order to better comprehend or understand ourselves and our world and so see the creative possibilities for developing our world and culture in line with the essence of its goodness.

As I hope we can see from these brief reflections on one passage, the Bible contains significant wisdom on approaches to work. I would like St Stephen Walbrook to be seen as a place which is able to draw on its significant history in the City of London and the wisdom resources of Christianity to offer services which will make a difference to the way businesses in the City work and to those who employed here. To do this I would like to build a network of people able to offer support and consultancy services which could enable businesses to address issues of diversity, ethics, faith literacy, relationships, social enterprise, social responsibility and spirituality as they affect customers, employees and suppliers in workplaces and the markets.

It is vital that businesses understand their clients and their diverse cultures. Religion is a key influence globally and has very varied cultural expression making faith literacy important for working effectively on a global basis. Gaining some background knowledge about faith communities in a safe environment can give staff the confidence needed to engage with people from faith communities more directly and appropriately.

Research among managers by Roffey Park has indicated the extent to which managers are looking for more meaning in their work (70%) and to which tensions are experienced between personal spiritual values and daily work (39%). Values play a defining role in motivation at work. So, an organization that has identified and examined the values by which their staff want to live, is a workplace with motivation potential. The closer the fit between personal (often faith-based) values and company values, the higher the level of motivation.

Workers in the UK took an average 5.3 days off work in 2012, according to the 2013 CBI/Pfizer Fit for Purpose survey, with stress, anxiety and depression given as the main causes of absence. There is a growing body of research which suggests that prayer and religion rank high among the best stress busters. Use of a church or prayer/quiet room for meditation, reflection or prayer on a regular basis can assist greatly in the management of stress. “It is now widely accepted that those organisations which have a ‘spiritually-friendly’ culture, show universally lower than average rates of absenteeism, workplace stress and staff turnover”. (Spiritual Care Matters NHS Scotland, 2009)

We have begun to provide, in a small way, the beginnings of this type of provision through Start:Stop, our new regular Tuesday morning opportunity at St Stephen Walbrook for City workers to start their day by stopping to reflect for 10 minutes. Every 15 minutes between 7.30am and 9.15am, a 10 minute session of reflection begins which includes bible passages, meditations, music, prayers, readings and silence. City workers are encouraged to drop in on their way into work to start their day by stopping to reflect. Between 40 and 50, but sometimes as many as 70, people are availing themselves of this opportunity.

We would be glad of your prayers for this new area of ministry and for our engagement with the working life of the City. Some of you will work here in the City yourselves and might be able to participate in or contribute to Start:Stop and other work-related ministry that we intend to develop. Others can support us through yours prayers for this new ministry and its development. I would be very happy to talk further with you about this area of ministry if you would like once the service is over and have brought some examples of resources with me which you would be welcome to look through.

We often think of worship as being about the services which are held in church but, when St Paul says in Romans 12 offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your true and proper worship, he is saying that what we do outside church in our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life is our real act of worship. Time spent gathered together as we are today should resource and re-energise us to live as Christian people in our homes, communities and workplaces, wherever those may be.

St Paul seems to be saying in Romans 12 that our natural inclination as human beings is to be focused on our own self interest. Our thinking needs to be transformed by our faith in order to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who was focused on the needs of others. It is when we are transformed by the renewal of our minds – so that we think and act, to some extent, in Christ-like ways – that we can then live lives, which through service of others, are an act of worship to God.

At last Tuesday’s Start:Stop we reflected on Genesis 2 and concluded with the following prayer:

Creator God, you have given us the task of naming what things actually are, by looking for the essence of things and seeing the attributes, nature and power of you in all things. Enable us to do this in our work and for those with whom we work by naming the good when see it and by speaking moral value and divine intent into our workplaces and relationships. Through our speech, may we draw forth the attributes, nature and power of you in others. Guide us to see the good in our colleagues and workplaces. May we name and develop new possibilities in our work and colleagues.

Creator God, you have given us the task of naming what things could become - their possibilities. Enable us to look for new possibilities in our work - both in the work itself and in those with whom we work - and to name these possibilities as we see them. Guide us to see the good in our colleagues and workplaces. May we name and develop new possibilities in our work and colleagues.

Creator God, you have said that our work is intended to be about creativity and care - naming the essence and possibilities of a good creation. May we cultivate creation by making it fruitful and care for it by maintaining and sustaining it. Enable us to cultivate creation as a creative activity based on understanding the essence of each thing that we cultivate. Guide us to see the good in our colleagues and workplaces. May we name and develop new possibilities in our work and colleagues. Amen.

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Sufjan Stevens - All the Trees of the Field will clap their Hands.

Stewardship: The Widow's Mite

I wonder how many of us think that we have a lot to give to God. My guess is that most of us actually think we have very little we can give to God.

We may think that we have nothing special in terms of our talents. We may think that we have little the way of time because of the many pressures that we face in life. We may think that we have little spare cash because of the significant costs of living. As a result, we often think we have very little to offer and may hold back from offering at all as result.

This is a particular issue when it comes to the suffering and distress that we see on our TV screens around the world, whether through conflict or lack of resources and relief. Global issues seem so huge that the contribution we could make pales into insignificance and we think there is no point doing anything ourselves as our contribution will simply be a drop in an ocean.

It is easy for us to think that big is best and that what we have and are is too little to make an impact but today’s Gospel reading says otherwise (Luke 21. 1 – 4). Jesus sees and values the contribution which the widow makes. Everyone else gave from their surplus wealth, but the widow, from her poverty, contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. So Jesus uses her example as a challenge to the wealthy and well resourced who often give less proportionately while the less well off give more of what they have.

A New York Times Magazine article in 2010 highlighted the myth of philanthropy and the “benefits to the poor” of having the super wealthy. 'What this well-researched article revealed was that the super wealthy, the wealthy and ostentatious “scribes” of today, actually give less than those who have middle and lower incomes. Most absurdly, what Jesus observed in his day remains true today — those with the least continue to give more, by percentage of their resources, than the wealthy!' So this is a message that needs to be heard in these times of austerity where budget cuts are often focused on the poor rather than the wealthy.

Small is beautiful, as E. F. Schumacher reminded us, and as the images we have been viewing this morning state, our small actions or contribution, combined with those of others, can then have a big effect. The butterfly effect which is found in Chaos Theory and the multiplier effect in economics both show, on the basis of research, that small changes and small contributions can have significant effects.

Stewardship month is an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

Jesus valued the Widow's mite and took the small meal that one child offered using it to feed more than 5,000 people (Matthew 14. 13 - 21). Rev. Conwell took Hattie May’s 57 cents and used in to build a church, a University and a Hospital. We need the contribution that you can make to St John's, however small it may seem to you, and in whatever way you can make that contribution. The mission and ministry of this church is the combined effect of the contributions that each of us make. St John’s needs you, now more than ever. God has given you resources, time and talents, this Stewardship Month I encourage you to reflect prayerfully on all that you can and do give back to him in order that together we can combine our individual offerings to make a bigger impact for him.

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Supertramp - Give A Little Bit.

Transforming the Workplace

This evening I ran a session on 'Transforming the Workplace', as part of the Continuing Ministerial Development programme in the Diocese of Chelmsford, with a very engaged and responsive group of curates.

Last week I listened to the second in this year's series of Keene Lectures at Chelmsford Cathedral where Revd. Will Morris outlined his understanding of the issues which led to the credit crunch and argued for a positive engagement by the Church with the world of work together with a postive theology of work to underpin that engagement. My 'Transforming the Workplace' session, which I had previously delivered for St Mellitus College students and which adapts materials from the Christians in the Workplace resource pack, seeks to outline such a theology of work.

I used as a framework N.T. Wright's idea of salvation history as a five act play suggesting that in 'Act 1: Creation' work is seen as a collaborative partnership developing the possibilities inherent in God's creation. 'Act 2: The Fall' is then our choice to undertake the task of developing the created order independently of God and, in aiming to exploit creation for human ends, to work against the best interests and inherent possibilities of creation. As a result, work is experienced as toil and hardship. The end of the play ('Act 5') sees our experience of work being restored to its original form (Isaiah 65.21-23).

At the heart of my suggested theology of work is a quote from Richard Baukham regarding our present experience of “painful contradiction between the promise and present reality.” Bauckham writes: “The contradiction arises from a hope for the world, for the whole of this worldly reality, which it exposes in all its god-forsakenness. The Christian’s suffering is thus a loving solidarity with the whole of the suffering creation … and a hopeful solidarity in expectation of the transformation of all creation … Love and hope for the world involve the Christian in a movement towards world-transformation which has two moments: critical opposition and creative expectation … In the first moment, hope liberates the Christian from all accommodation to the status quo and sets him critically against it … In the second moment, it gives rise to attempts to change the world in the direction of its promised transformation, imaginatively grasping and realising the objective possibilities in the present which conform most closely to the coming Kingdom.”

As an example of work-related liberation from the status quo I used Mark Greene's summary of Biblical teaching on work. Greene says that work is “intended as a source of satisfaction and pleasure”; “an intrinsic part of our walk with God”; limited by our need for rest and by our ultimate value being found elsewhere; “done for God” as worship and therefore needing to be done well; “any activity that contributes to the provision of human needs – cooking, washing, food shopping, car maintenance – as well as those activities that generate money directly”; and a means of provision (for families and for those who don’t have), mutual service, and personal development. I argued that seeking to live these approaches to work with integrity involves a liberation from the status quo of ways in which work is viewed and approached within our culture.

For Bauckham that is only one part of a fuller response to living between the promise and the present reality. I illustrated the second aspect of being critically set against the status quo by using the example of Distributism, which aims to be "a third-way economic philosophy that sits between socialism and capitalism. According to distributism, the ownership of the means of production should be spread as widely as possible among the general populace, rather than being centralized under the control of the state or a few large businesses or wealthy private individuals.

Distributism was developed by Hilaire Belloc from Roman Catholic social encyclicals and has since been a thread knitting together the journalistic pronouncements of G. K. Chesterton with the alternative arts and crafts communities formed by Eric Gill and Father Vincent McNabb, the ‘small is beautiful’ economics of E. F. Schumacher, and the work structuring methodology devised by Schumacher’s son, Christian. Gill, for example, wrote that the “factory system is unchristian primarily because it deprives workmen of responsibility for their work.”

Finally, there is creative expectation; "attempts to change the world in the direction of its promised transformation, imaginatively grasping and realising the objective possibilities in the present which conform most closely to the coming Kingdom.” This I illustrated with the example of Christian Schumacher who, in his work as a company consultant, restructures work so that each workgroup member can personally plan, do and evaluate at least one transformation in the work process. Schumacher “asks that … each person should be willing to give up the ‘raw material’ of his or her own ideas in order that it can be subsumed or absorbed into the pool of other ideas being contributed by other team members, so that a new and better ‘product’ of the team’s combined endeavours can be created”. This experience “of unity in a warm, effective and strongly bound cohesive team operating within divinely compatible structures” has moved participants “to deepen their own inner lives” and has drawn them closer to God.

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The Jam - Smithers-Jones.

Steve Scott dialogues 4: Torrance, Gunton & Bahktin

SS: I just joined the Thomas F. Torrance `fan' page on Facebook (I've been a Torrance fan since the 80s) and I found a bunch of online lectures/papers etc including this one. I noticed Colin Gunton's `The One, the Three and the Many' in one of your book lists (at your `between' blog). Both Gunton and Torrance have (survived in their work) much to tell us ...

`That Thomas F. Torrance is a scientific theologian seems beyond dispute. But that he may also be understood as a theologian of culture is a permission given us through a consideration of his doctrine of God as triune Creator, his doctrine of creation as contingent, and his doctrine of humanity as a mediator of order and priest of creation, whose work results in, and is enabled by, the development of social coefficients of truth. If Torrance provides us with the fundamental assumptions and dynamics necessary for the development of a theology of culture, then we are also given permission to begin to see his work in this light and to develop it toward this end.'

JE: What I'm particularly interested in, I think, is the Trinity as a pattern for aspects of life which is why I enjoyed Gunton's 'The One, the Three and the Many' with its exploration of the implications of God in relation within himself as Trinity through the transcendentals – relationality, substantiality and perichoresis – which Gunton argues underpin all pattern and connection within the created order. This has similarities with Dorothy L. Sayers in 'The Mind of the Maker' and Christian Schumacher in 'God in Work'.

Gunton uses his theology of creation to identify three concepts that he calls (drawing on Coleridge) ‘open transcendentals’. That is, “possibilities for thought which are universal in scope yet open in their application” Gunton’s three open transcendentals are: relationality (“[a]ll things are what they are by being particulars constituted by many and various forms of relation”, p. 229); perichoresis (“all things are what they are in relations of mutual constitutiveness with all other things”, p. 178); and substantiality (all things are “substantial beings, having their own distinct and particular existence, by virtue of and not in the face of their relationality to the other”, p. 194). Sociality is a description of the social relation of personal beings, “their free relation-in-otherness” (Gunton, p. 229.). Gunton notes that, outside of God and humanity, “the rest of the creation … does not have the marks of love and freedom which are among the marks of the personal” and so cannot be said to be characterised by sociality.

Within the creation stories, sociality is seen in the joint working in which God and Adam shared to find a helper for Adam (Genesis 2: 15 - 25) and the conversation between God, Adam and Eve in Genesis 3: 8 - 19. Dorothy Sayers remarked on the fact that the one thing we know for sure about God at the point that he makes humanity in his own image is that he is creative [D. L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker (Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1941)]. She argues that it is therefore logical to suppose that creativity is a significant aspect of humanity’s being made in the image of God. Within the creation stories human creativity is seen in: God’s blessing of humanity which included the tasks of increasing in number, filling and subduing the earth and, ruling over living creatures (Genesis 1: 28); Adam’s working and taking care of the garden (Genesis 2: 15); and, Adam’s naming of the living creatures (Genesis 2: 20). Albert Wolters brings both sociality and creativity together when he comments that: “Adam and Eve, as the first married couple, represent the beginnings of societal life; their task of tending the garden, the primary task of agriculture, represents the beginnings of cultural life" [A. M. Wolters, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1996), p. 37].

Among those who have developed practical proposals for the implementation of relationality, perichoresis and substantiality through sociality and creativity are:

· Christian Schumacher with his system of work structuring outlined in God in Work: Discovering the divine pattern for work in the new millennium (Oxford, Lion Publishing plc, 1998);
· David Lee and Michael Schluter with the dimensions of relational proximity which they outline in The R Factor (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993).

Schumacher draws on Sayers and Distributionism to create a Trinitarian model while Lee and Schluter draw on the work of Christopher Wright who argues that the Israelite society of the Old Testament provides a paradigm for contemporary Christian lifestyle.

Gunton makes his argument based on Coleridge's work on transcendentals, which I haven't read in any depth, but was interested to have Coleridge's thought commended again in reading Dru's book on Charles Péguy. Not sure that any of this relates to Torrance particularly.

SS: Yes, at first blush I'm going to suggest that Torrance provides a lot of deep background in both patristics and quantum physics (and scientific ideas and history thereof) that hums away in the deep background of Colin Gunton's work. I'm prejudiced because I discovered both Torrance and Gunton `at once' on a sale/clearance table in Logos books in Berkeley in the late 70s or early 80s. There's a good book called `The Knight's Move: relationality in science and theology' (I think) that suggestively links Torrance, Niels Bohr, Kierkegaard and someone else whose name escapes me ... Ah. M. Polanyi. Here are some amazon reviews.

Fascinating second review; suggests that the author as a result of this book is going to read some T F Torrance. Anyway. If the (Trinity in) creative process includes aesthetic judgement (saw that it was good) and there's something optimally human or humanizing about our creative calling ... then this would link what that guy was saying about Torrance (Triune God, contingent creation, priestly Human) and the `open transcendentals' of Gunton's Trinity argument. They become `co inherent' categories that inform not only our `place' in the world, but also the inner dynamic of our art ... everything from the formal arguments about material and design up/out to the social /shalom implications of the work in context ... a la Bourraiud and Loraine Leeson and co. And this would make the Christian contribution to interfaith dialogue via, through or with the arts a distinct one.

JE: I particularly liked this quote from the essay on Torrance that you sent over:

"... human persons are not blank slates to be socially programmed as we wish, nor is the created order passive material that we can arrange as our needs and socioeconomic goals dictate. There is an order already present in reality, created into it by ‘the ultimate controlling ground of order’ prior to our ordering activities. Our task is to create cultural/conceptual tools that enable us to discern that order so that we may cooperate with it, not impose ourselves upon it. This is simply Torrance’s theological science applied to the social and material world."

I've tried to explore what I think this sense of partnership with God might involve in an outline theology of work. Underpinning this is the idea that I first came across through Dorothy L. Sayers in 'Mind of the Maker', but which is unpacked more fully by Paul Ricoeur, that humanity is made in the image of God because we enjoy the power of creativity.

“… according to Ricouer, human being is possibility: “it does not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3: 2). Human existence is “forward-orientated,” constantly projecting itself in front of itself towards a possible way of being. Possibility is therefore intimately connected to the imagination which projects it, and to time, specifically the future. Human being, then, is not limited to the here and now, that is, to actuality … there is a “surplus of being” to human existence, and this surplus of being is nothing other than possibility. We are not as we shall be. Thanks to this surplus of being – possibility – humanity can hope.”

Kevin Vanhoozer notes that: “In his essay “The Image of God and the Epic of Man,” Ricoeur suggests that humans are in the image of God because they too enjoy the power of creativity. Thus the image of God, creativity, gives rise to the images of man, in the sense of the images that man makes. These images constitute “the sum total of the ways in which man projects his vision on things.”” Ricoeur suggests that through our imagination we can determine (God created) possibilities and define the (God created) essence of all that is around us. Essence, in this sense, is similar to Gerard Manley Hopkins' idea of 'inscape'.

Possibilities are, Ricoeur argues, real, although unactualised and it is through imagination that actualisation occurs and with it self-understanding:“The point of phenomenology is to describe the meaning of “lived experience” rather than its factuality. Husserl calls the meaning of a thing its “essence” (eidos). We come to know the essence of a thing by exploring its various possibilities. These possibilities are explored in the workshop of the imagination. Ricoeur notes of phenomenology that “its favourite technique is the method of imaginative variations. It is in varying the possible realizations of the same essential structure that the fundamental articulation can be made manifest.” Husserl’s example of the meaning or “essence” of a table is helpful. By “free imaginative variation” we can alter its form, its color, its material. By then looking to see what there is in common among the various examples, we can determine its essence. We can also imagine possible uses of a table: we can eat a meal on it; we can write letters or do a jigsaw puzzle on it; we can stand on it to fix the lightbulb etc. These variations are not present, but they are imagined as possible. Phenomenological description is thus closely related to fiction and the realm of as if. As far as phenomenology is concerned, we may define the meaning or “essence” of something as the imagined ensemble of its possibilities”.

We see this happening too in Genesis 2. 18-25, where God brings all the animals in the Garden of Eden to Adam for him to name and, at the end of this naming process, Adam recognises Eve as his soulmate. The key to this story is that names in ancient times described the essence of the thing that was named. So Adam looks and listens in order to understand the essence of each different creature and then creates a name that reflects that essence. By so doing, he also sees what is different between himself and the creatures, so that when he sees Eve he is able to immediately recognise her as his soulmate.

This is also what I understand the Bible as doing for us. The Bible is a diverse book. In fact, it is more of a library than a book; a library of 66 different books containing biography, drama, history, law, letters, prophecy, poetry and proverbs. Mike Riddell calls it "a collection of bits" assembled to form God's home page while Mark Oakley uses a more poetic image in writing of the Bible as "the best example of a collage of God that we have." They use these images because the Bible contains, as Oakley writes, "different views, experiences, beliefs and prayers" drawn "from disparate era, cultures and authors" which are not systematic in their portrayal of God. As Riddell states: "The bits don't fit together very well - sometimes they even seem to be contradictory. Stories, poems, teachings, records, events and miracles rub up against each other. They come from all over the place, and span at least 4,000 years of history."

The point is that the Bible gives us many different perspectives on God and on human beings. These different perspectives produce new ways of thinking, seeing, imagining and creating in us. As we see God and human beings from different perspectives and through fresh eyes we are opened up to new possibilities. As we see and imagine possibilities we have the same experience as Adam and come to know ourselves better - we see the essence of who we are - and we change to become more like the people that God created us to be.

This is living creatively, living artistically. The art of life is to be open to the diversity of life in order to see life's possibilities from different perspectives and, as we compare and contrast these possibilities, to identify the essence of who we have been created by God to be and to become. By understanding ourselves and by responding to the essence of others, we are able to develop and use our talents for the enrichment of other people's lives. In doing so, we express the fact of being creative creatures made in the image of our Creator God.

I think all this connects well with your description of Torrance's argument; Triune God, contingent creation, priestly Human. Gunton's open transcendentals (and other Trinitarian patterns - Sayers, Schumacher etc.) would then help in exploring the essence of each thing that is around us; including artworks. To critique artworks in terms of relationality, perichoresis and substantiality would indeed be a fascinating and distinctively Christian approach to art criticism and would extend Bourraiud's Relational Aesthetics considerably.

SS: Yes, all true, and some of my thinking on this enhanced by a couple of books by Timothy Gorringe, and the collaborative/partnering with God in Eden was touched on by David Thistlewaite in his `Art of God'.

"As Richard Bauckham has stated, the Christian is thrust into a “painful contradiction between the promise and present reality”:

I think Colin Gunton made some remarks on this in light of Romans 8, and in the framework of his talking about `catharsis' and Trinitarian Aesthetics (a lecture he gave at Kings of which I got a reprint somehow .... and used for `the light by which we see' included in `Crying for a Vision' and is borne out by much of below ...)

“The contradiction arises from a hope for the world, for the whole of this worldly reality, which it exposes in all its god-forsakenness. The Christian’s suffering is thus a loving solidarity with the whole of the suffering creation … and a hopeful solidarity in expectation of the transformation of all creation … Love and hope for the world involve the Christian in a movement towards world-transformation which has two moments: critical opposition and creative expectation …. In the first moment, hope liberates the Christian from all accommodation to the status quo and sets him critically against it … In the second moment, it gives rise to attempts to change the world in the direction of its promised transformation, imaginatively grasping and realising the objective possibilities in the present which conform most closely to the coming Kingdom … .”

Yep, so the `imaginative grasping' probably includes the groaning of Romans 8.

“… according to Ricouer, human being is possibility: “it does not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3: 2). Human existence is “forward-orientated,” constantly projecting itself in front of itself towards a possible way of being."

I once had a coffee mug that was imprinted with a Ricouer slogan: `If you want to change a people's obedience, you must first change their imagination.' which, I think brings art to the front of the conversation about community and change......

“The point of phenomenology is to describe the meaning of “lived experience” rather than its factuality. Husserl calls the meaning of a thing its “essence” (eidos). We come to know the essence of a thing by exploring its various possibilities. These possibilities are explored in the workshop of the imagination. Ricoeur notes of phenomenology that “its favourite technique is the method of imaginative variations. It is in varying the possible realizations of the same essential structure that the fundamental articulation can be made manifest.” Husserl’s example of the meaning or “essence” of a table is helpful. By “free imaginative variation” we can alter its form, its color, its material. By then looking to see what there is in common among the various examples, we can determine its essence. We can also imagine possible uses of a table: we can eat a meal on it; we can write letters or do a jigsaw puzzle on it; we can stand on it to fix the lightbulb etc. These variations are not present, but they are imagined as possible. Phenomenological description is thus closely related to fiction and the realm of as if. As far as phenomenology is concerned, we may define the meaning or “essence” of something as the imagined ensemble of its possibilities”.

"This is also what I understand the Bible as doing for us. The Bible is a diverse book."

Polyphony. and the ideas of Mikhail Bahktin. Have you read any Bahktin on dialogism and the novel? Also, some people have done work on Bahktin's ideas about culture and implications for the Bible (or our reading of it).

JE: "I think C Gunton made some remarks on this in light of Rom 8, and in the framework of his talking about `catharsis' and Trinitarian Aesthetics (a lecture he gave at Kings I got a reprint of somehow.....and used for `the light by which we see' included in `Crying for a Vision.' and is borne out by much of below...."

Gunton stated in The Actuality of Atonement that “the victory of Jesus stands behind; the final revelation lies ahead [and] it is the gift of the Spirit to enable anticipations of the final victory to take place in our time”. As a result, “the Christian community lives neither in the sphere of the lie nor in the kingdom of heaven where we shall know as we are known, but ‘between the times’”. This ‘in between’ time, David Ford suggests in Self and Salvation, is eucharistic time: “In between the Last Supper and the expected consummation signified by the Kingdom of God there is history punctuated by obedience to the command to ‘Do this’. This is eucharistic time – time understood and shaped through the reality celebrated repeatedly in the eucharist.” All this is where the title of my blog derives from.

"Yep so the `imaginative grasping' probably includes the groaning of Rom 8"

Yes, and the resurrection; as Jurgen Moltmann says, the “resurrection of Christ does not mean a new possibility within the world and its history, but a new possibility altogether for the world, for existence, and for history.”

"I once had a coffee mug that was imprinted with a Ricouer slogan: `If you want to change a people's obedience, you must first change their imagination.' which, I think brings art to the front of the conversation about community and change..."

Fully agree. Moltmann also says that we have to perceive God’s activity in the gift of the future and in the stream of new possibilities.

"Polyphony. and the ideas of Mikhail Bahktin.Have you read any B on dialogism and the novel.....also, some people have done work on Bahktin's ideas about culture and implications for the Bible (or our reading of it....) ??"

I've read a bit on polyphony in relation to Solzhenitsyn (I think it must have been Krasnov on Solzhenitsyn and Dostoevsky - very interesting stuff and very relevant to the arguments I've been making about the structure and form of scripture) but I haven't read Bahktin. What would you recommend?

SS: Here are all the pdfs in my Bahktin and bible sub folder. I've got a couple of his titles, and I've read some things on Bahktin and cultural criticism/carnival etc. I'm still coming to understand him.

JE: Thanks for this. Have just skim read the Bahktin and the Bible pdf which is one of those 'ohmigod, someone is articulating what I have been thinking' moments. Much of what I was writing in my posts on 'The Bible: Open or Closed?' (click here, here, here, here, here) seems to be expressed more clearly in this article which I'll clearly need to read more closely together with the other Bahktin files. Having read the Krasnov book, I've clearly come across Bahktin's ideas but without having incorporated them directly into my own thinking and writing on these issues. So, am very grateful to have these essays to fill in this gap.

SS: Excellent. I've long been a fan of the polyphonic/mosaic approach to `the Bible' as a whole ... as was the author of Hebrews ...

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Noah and the Whale - 2 Bodies 1 Heart.

Faith-based models of leadership (6)

‘Whole’ work

Christian Schumacher argues in his book God in Work that all work processes involve cycles of ‘death and rebirth’. He calls these basic transformations which “occur in all authentic work processes whether in manufacturing, health, education or any other sector of society.”

Basic transformations in a work environment are easy to recognize because they:

• are the activities involving step-function or quantum-jump changes to the state of the product;
• are often irreversible; what is done cannot easily be undone;
• can be the most complex and difficult stages to control in a work process; and
• involve major physical, chemical, electrical, informational or other changes to the internal constitution or function of the product.

They represent the reason why other activities take place, embodying the purpose of all work processes.

Drawing on his Christian understandings of God as Trinity and of the Church as the body of Christ, Schumacher has identified seven principles for the structuring of work which are based around basic transformations and which lead to the creation of ‘whole’ work:

1. Teams and their leaders must be able to plan and organise as much of their own work as possible. This reflects the work of God the Father in originating human work.
2. Work must be organised around basic transformations to form ‘whole’ tasks. This reflects the work of God the Son in death and rebirth;
3. Teams should be able evaluate their own performance against agreed performance measures. This reflects the work of God the Spirit in bringing work to its fitting end.
4. Team working should be encouraged in order to reflect the nature of the Church.
5. Each team member should be able to plan, do and evaluate at least one transformation in their team’s processes. This reflects the nature of the Church as a body.
6. Each team should have a designated leader in order to reflect Christ’s leadership of the Church.
7. Each team should contain between four and twenty people in order that everyone can communicate fully with each other.

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Charlie Peacock - In the Light.

MiLE Gospel Reflection - Mark 16. 1-8

This is my Easter Sunday Gospel Reflection for the MiLE website:

Resurrection involves transformation. The good news of Easter Day is that Jesus is alive with a transformed body. That transformation means that Jesus’ project to transform the world, the kingdom of God, has been launched and will happen. Accordingly, his disciples are transformed from fearful beings to those who will go to the whole world with this transformative good news.

Work is also about transformation. Christian Schumacher has argued that all work involves a death and resurrection transformation. This is most obvious in physical processes such as the iron and steel industry where rock deposits are transformed into steel ingots but it is also true of services such as health or education where the transformations made involve wellness and wisdom. The key is to identify the central transformation and structure the work around that change.

Truly transformative work not only mirrors Christ’s death and resurrection but becomes part of the new creation that Christ’s resurrection begins.

Prayer: May your resurrection transform not only our lives but also our ways of working that we might share with you in seeing a transformed world – the kingdom of God – come. Amen.

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Creed - My Sacrifice.