A Reasonable Faith

While on holiday in Austria recently I met with a member of the Faraday Institute of Science and Religion at Cambridge University.  With both of my children studying in the area of science it was encouraging to meet with a leading scientist who found his Christian faith not just compatible with his study of science, but also enriching of it.   

Both science and theology involve a pursuit of truth, but many assert that their pursuits are divergent and detached, one concerned with facts and the other concerned with opinion.  In reality it seems that both science and faith connect with both opinion and fact, and indeed enrich one another.  So, for example, the fine-tuning of the universe that enables life to exist enhances my view of God as a wonderful creator.  The Christian faith is based on factual truth when our eyes turn to the incarnation of Jesus – a real man set in time and place, the creator taking on the form of the created.

Having a holiday in the Austrian Tyrol afforded me the opportunity to lift my eyes to the mountains once more (not much that I could call a mountain in Didcot other than the inbox for my emails!) and to see through eyes of faith the handiwork of the creator God, and marvel again that he came down to earth to make his love known to the world.

The Liberty Tree

James Philippo sailed to Jamaica in 1823 as a missionary with BMS.  He arrived in a context of brutal slavery on the island with great suffering and death as part of everyday life.  He was sent to preach the gospel, but could not do so without also challenging the practice of slavery.  I had the privilege of visiting the church that he planted in Spanish Town that remains standing and thriving to this day.  Many African slaves paid the ultimate price of their lives as they fought against slavery.  For their stand against slavery Philippo and other BMS missionaries like William Knibb faced persecution, imprisonment and beatings.  Their message of liberation was of necessity woven into their fight for liberation of the oppressed.
 

Every text has a context.  If someone says, “I love you”, the differing contexts of a romantic meal with one’s wife, or gazing at a slick and shiney new car, then the knowing the context is vital.  In the same way speaking of faith needs to be understood in terms of the context.  Jesus himself spoke and lived out his mission in context.  So for example his words “Go and sin no more” cannot be properly understood apart from his compassionate encounter with a woman for whom the religious people were practically baying for her blood.  Jesus too stood up for the weak and the oppressed.  He both proclaimed and demonstrated freedom.



Freedom Tree outside
Philippo Baptist Church,
Spanish Town, Jamaica

This week I am coordinating a series of seminars for Baptist leaders from across the world that gives opportunity to hear how we try and hold together text with context in mission both historically and today.  How we hold together the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel is frequently described by the term ‘integral mission’.  Mission is to be integral not in that two separate things are pushed together, but rather that they are inseparable and form two aspects of a whole and complete expression of God’s love.

It is my privilege to send time with people across the world hearing how they are trying to work out the challenge of holding together text with context, or words with actions, in a way that honours God – people who try to follow humbly in the footsteps of Phillipo, Knibb and others before them.  Every early Baptist church in Jamaica has a 'Liberty Tree' planted outside and buried beneath lie the shackles of slavery.  The tree is a reminder of both emancipation from slavery and freedom in Christ.

Is it sacrifice?

“Is it sacrifice?” - This is the title of a book authored and given to me many years ago by Bill Lees, who passed away just before Easter.  Bill and his wife Shirley left the relative safety and security of the UK to share the love of God with people on the remote island of Borneo.  They had returned to the UK when I met them while studying in Reading, where they continued to invest in young people like myself.  I am reminded of the chorus of a song that we used to sing that had the words, “I want to give my life for something that will last forever”.  This is certainly true of Bill and  Shirley.

 

Over recent weeks I have been travelling in southern Africa and spending time with many folk serving with BMS overseas and with our partners.  These are ordinary people who, like Bill and Shirley, have chosen to sacrifice much of what the UK society says we should chase after, in order to bring light and life to others in often harsh situations.  There are folk working in the harsh physical conditions of baking hot Chad to bring healthcare to those who would otherwise be excluded.  There are others in tropical Guinea seeking to equip a minority church to make Christ known.  There are others in central and southern Africa bringing their development skills to bear among people struggling to survive, with initiatives ranging from agriculture to baking cakes to justice for the marginalised (Annet Ttendo in the picture).

 

 

These folk, and others like them across the world, are investing their lives, not in personal gain, but in making Christ known.  Is it sacrifice? – Yes it is, but it is also giving lives for something that will last forever.

Adaption or transformation?

Shoib sat with me outside his house under the images of various gods.  “I am fearful of these gods” he said to me, and so I was able to share a little of my God who does not induce fear but rather a response of love.  After some time of conversation tears filled his eyes we, prayed together and he too experienced something of the love of God.  Then we shared a cup of sweet tea and a some roasted corn as we looked out at his personal shrine and I wondered to what extent Jesus might simply be just an addition to the shrine, as opposed to a complete replacement of it.  How much would Shoib’s life be changed following his encounter with Jesus?  So today I pray for those who will follow up on this encounter and seek to disciple my new brother and help him to walk the tightrope of living in his culture, while allowing his newfound faith to challenge and transform his way of life within it.

The challenge faced is put well by Leslie Newbiggin when he wrote, “How far should the Gospel be at home in a culture and how far should it resist domestication?”  The debate that has carried on since the time of the birth of the church is the battle between syncretism (the combination of different faiths) and contextualization (the adaptation of the Gospel to a particular context).

The incarnation itself is a remarkable story of contextualisation – Jesus taking on the cultural form and identity of a 1^st Century Jew to make the news of the kingdom of God relevant to his audience.  Missionaries have and continued to wrestle with this tension today.  Can someone follow Christ in a mosque?  Can they continue to retain their cultural identity?  To what extent does there need to be a radical disconnect form the religious and cultural practices of the past?

The challenge of overseas mission is equally relevant to the context of the UK today.  The gods of the West may be less immediately visible than the doorstep shrine in Asia, but they are equally captivating and hard to pull away from.  Individualism, materialism, consumerism and the enticement of celebrity culture all too often have a hold on the followers of Jesus in the UK today.  We can too quickly be critical of others without casting a searching eye over our own battle with syncretism.  Our faith can live  unquestioningly alongside our materialism and other trappings of Western culture.  We need to continue to wrestle with what it means to faithfully follow an incarnational model of Christian living in our own culture.

Murmurs in the sky

A murmuration of starlings is a wonderful sight!  This happens at dusk as starlings congregate in ever increasing numbers to dance rhythmically across the darkening sky.  It is quite amazing how they seem to do this without colliding and falling to the ground.  Staring at the sight, as I finished my digging in the vegetable plot at the end of the garden, was an inspiring end to the day.  Having been talking earlier about the nature of church it was inevitable that the two should in some way be combined. 

Firstly there is the beauty of the birds flying in unity that points to the beauty of the unity of the community of believers that Jesus prayed for and is recorded in John 17 – “I pray that all of them may be one…”  It is a beautiful sight when the people of God live in unity.

Secondly there is the sound of the birds flying together that would pass imperceptibly if it were a solitary starling.  This points to the wonderful synergy of the family of God coming together.  The impact of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts when the various gifts, talents and characters are combined.

Thirdly there is the common sense of direction as the birds move together and not in opposing directions, pointing to the common purpose of the people of God to know God and to make him known.  Serving the Lord with a shared vision and purpose is great.

Finally there is the responsiveness to change as the birds move together in one direction and then shift to another.  Changes in direction are something that the church frequently struggles with, but in doing so finds new life.

God reveals himself in creation, and I was glad to catch a glimpse of this in the vegetable patch today!

Fishing and Following

This month I spent a day with fishermen in West Bengal.  I travelled out of the city of Kolkata along dusty and pot-hole ridden roads for about 2 hours, before boarding the boat given by BMS to one of our partners involved in church planting.  The boat enables teams of Christians to travel to the myriad of islands and visit villages that have never heard of Jesus.  It was great to leave the bustle of the city and to chug in a more genteel manner along the river where life has changed little over many years.

 

On this particular trip I spent time with two particular village men who were both fishermen by trade.  While they fished in the river and man-made fish ponds, I was aware that their context was very similar to that of Jesus when he met with fishermen by the Sea of Galilee.  No electricity or modern communications were available in either context but in this less rushed world there was time to sit down, to enjoy hospitality and to talk about things that really matter in life.

 

Many of the stories of the New Testament can seem far removed from the setting in which I live in the UK and yet here the stories came to life in fresh ways.  While we did not meet a lost sheep, we met a lost goat and carried it back to safety.  We saw fishermen mending their nets and talked about the catch of the day.  We stood in the fields where farmers prepared their ground and tended their crops.  And in this wonderful setting we took time to share God’s love with folk who were keen to listen and respond.

 

Recently a friend said, “If you are not fishing, then you are not following” – a reminder of Jesus words to the first disciples when he first called them to follow him, “I will make you fisher of men”.  What a great time to be with fishermen of both types, and a challenge to me to do likewise.

Looking backwards, looking forwards

As the office door is closed for the last time in 2013 thoughts inevitably go to the year that has passed.  One aspect of the year that is always a highlight are the travels overseas.

March saw time in India.  Kolkata has now become a regular place to visit with its incessant bustle of life and multitude of colour and noise.  In the midst of all of this it is encouraging to see Christians seeking to make Christ known, often in the face of extreme poverty.  Mizoram in the north east of India, wedged between Bangladesh and Myanmar seemed a world away from Kolkata, with its steep forested hillsides and peaceful Christian people worshiping Jesus in their own unique way to the beat of a drum.  The community of Christ rightly takes many different forms and ways of expression, and yet is one body.

From the peace of Mizoram, I travelled next to the insecurity of central Asia, where living out the Christian faith looks very different.  Nevertheless, it is great to see how folk are trying to make Christ known in this very different context.  Just as Jesus took on a very particular cultural form in his incarnation, so folk here adapt to their context while still seeking to remain true to their Christian faith and to demonstrate his love, in acts of service and giving answer to the hope within when asked.

 

In the summer I visited first Chile and then Peru, two countries in a continent transformed by the Gospel over the past century.  Here it was great to meet the diverse BMS team working in places ranging from deep in the Amazon jungle to high in the Andes mountains.  The image of the church as the body of Christ comes to mind with such diversity combined with a unity of purpose and an interdependence of people. 

Lastly in November I travelled to the county of Chad on the edge of the Sahara desert to visit a Christian hospital in an area with a minimal Christian presence.  I was struck by the sacrificial service of many people sharing God’s love by using their medical skills and taking opportunity to pray together and with patients.  Sometimes we speak of ‘integral mission’ where words and works go seamlessly hand in hand, and here in Chad, in the middle of nowhere I found a fantastic example of this.

What a privilege it has been to see God at work in so many different ways and varied places.  As we remember the incarnation of Christ at Christmas, we see him incarnate by his Spirit today in the lives of ordinary people across the world.  I'm looking forwards to seeing much more next year!