Recently, we were visited by Rev Dave Bookless of A Rocha (the Rock) UK.

Dave told the fascinating story of the history of A Rocha worldwide, and the growing realisation within the church that perhaps, just perhaps, God might have something to say to us about how we interact with the rest of His creation.

Dave led us through significant portions of both the Old and New Testaments, challenging us to think beyond the temptation to see humankind as the ‘be all and end all’ of God’s work, instead asking us: what do these things say about the relationship between creation & God (not just people and God)?

Creation: in Genesis 1 – humankind is made in God’s image. This is a Job Description: more than anything else – we are charged with caring for the totality of creation, living beings and geological realities. In the story of Noah, God’s saving plans stretch far beyond humankind, (Dave refered to the gathering of breeding pairs of animals as “God’s Biodiversity conservation plan”), and the rainbow is given as a covenant with the whole of creation.

the fall – “cursed is the earth because of you”… when people’s relationship with God goes wrong, so does their relationship with the land – see also Hosea 2.

Israel – a people and a land. The given religious festivals are mostly about the land (or at least our relationship with it), The Sabbath is also given for the land.

Jesus – most of his stories are taken out of creation; the mission of Christ includes the restoration of creation: “in whom all things hold together… all things will be reconciled to God”. Creation reacts as Christ dies, and as he is resurrected.

The present & future age – Tom Wright calls the resurrected body “the template for the new creation”. This New Creation not ‘new’ in terms of throwing away the old, but more like something that has been reconditioned or renewed. Romans 8 pictures creation as a woman in the pains of childbirth, waiting to be set free from decay, not destroyed…

All of the above requires us to examine how we, as the community of God, engage with environmental work. Historically, such involvement has been sketchy at best – Dave mentioned conversations with some in churches who have been happy for A Rocha to get involved in such issues in order that they might “witness to the environmentalists”. Yet the implications of this go far beyond such a simplistic and limited course of action.

The late Rob Frost was fond of saying, “when Christians take the Earth seriously, people take the Gospel seriously”. Our interaction with the wider creation is more than an opportunity to convince those who lean towards ecological issues that we can be ‘right on’ too; it is a missiological call of obedience to take the world seriously.

Clearly there are numerous practical, alongside theological, issues that face any church which seeks to make some kind of local or global impact on the environment. A Rocha can help with some of these, but most of us will only begin to get past such barriers by starting to engage with wider creation: the 3 R’s, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle all are immediately achievable for most of us – at least in some small way.

For St Luke’s in the High Street there are a number of immediate challenges and opportunities:

• We need to hold each other accountable for how we use the resources we have available to us, including, for example, how we use power at our weekly stall at the Farmers’ Market, and what we do with any waste generated.
• We should examine what opportunities there may be within the wider community for us to work towards a more holistic engagement with the environment. One possibility for us to explore is to help those who have gardens but are unable to use them effectively to grow fruit & veg.

The science of the impact that humans have on the global ecosystem is ever-more convincing, the theology of what God may require us to do as a result is there to be explored more robustly.

We have started the New Year by looking together at the Gospel of Mark. The plan is that we’ll read a couple of chapters in the week, and share those things that have got us thinking each time we meet.

When we looked at chapters 1 & 2 a few things clamoured for our attention:

- how fast-paced these two chapters appear

- Jesus’ readiness to minister to individuals in different, but powerful, ways

- Jesus’ ability to see things as God the Father sees them, and act accordingly

- the potential relationship between temptation and ministry

St Luke’s in the High Street has existed in our present incarnation for just over 2 years now. By most standards and understanding of ‘new forms of church’ we are still babes in arms, gurgling and puking. We are faced with two equal and opposite temptations as we enter 2010 (plus countless others, no doubt!):

1) To run before we can walk – we are young, immature, lacking in knowledge and experience. We will make mistakes, we cannot do everything, we must allow time for relationships and ministries to develop at an appropriate pace; we must be realistic in what we can, and cannot, do. Many studies of ‘emerging church’ movements suggest that it can take 5, 7, 10 years for a project such as ours to have an impact and/or discover its’ true shape.

2) To accept our limitations, and in doing so limit God – The opening chapters of Mark, and the fact that, (as far as we can tell), Jesus himself only practised his ministry for around 3 years, indicate that God can and does move at a fast pace. By the end of chapter 2, Jesus has been baptised & tempted; has chosen some fairly unlikely disciples; has healed a good number of people; and has challenged the religious leadership of his day over some fairly significant points of theology and practice. He did at least allow himself a brief break to pray and rest – although he had to get up at a silly time of the morning to fit it in!

How are we to avoid these two challenges? It seems to me that the only way we have half a chance to get through is to take seriously the reality that we are not on our own. We must be accountable both to each other and the wider community (both believers and others). We must learn to listen to those who encourage us to push on and those who advise us to take stock; to those who praise the things we are able to do and those who ask us to recognise our limitations; to those who counsel caution and risk-taking. Ultimately, of course, it is God – not us – who will change both ourselves and those we work alongside.

It is our hope that 2010 will be a significant year for us. If you pray, please ask God to help us take appropriate risks this year, to help us see the things that He wants us to respond to, and to have the courage to do so.

If you are within reach of Walthamstow High Street any Sunday between 10am and 2pm, do pop in and see us at the Farmers’ Market – within 2 mins walk of Walthamstow Central Bus/Tube & Rail Stations!
We are there every week, selling cakes and hot drinks – offering a listening ear and a (mostly) happy face to the other stall holders and customers.

To slightly misquote the Faithless song “God is a DJ” – this is our church!

From time to time we like to do provide an extra service, and this Sunday (Dec 20th) some folk from the churches we share a parish with will be coming along to sing a few jolly Christmas Carols, while we serve freshly made Mulled Wine, and present prizes to the winners of the Advent Draw we have been running.

Carols will start by midday, mulled wine will be served as long as we have it in stock, prizes will be awarded once the singing has ceased.

See you there?

All creation holds its’ breath,
Desperate for the promised peace:
Violence and injustice silenced -
Everything as intended,
Nothing left corrupt, broken or incomplete.

The wait is over – a baby is born.

——

Jewish carpenter – also God -
Entered the very grain of creation.
Served, suffered and saved that which he inhabited.
Uncompromising in his self-sacrifice:
Salvation offered, hope restored.

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Last night we looked at the story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar who Jesus healed one day on the outskirts of Judea – the full story can be found here.

It is reasonable to presume that a blind person in those days would have considered their lack of sight to be the result of some sin that they had committed. Certainly others would have thought this about Bartimaeus, and his initial cry to Jesus – “Son of David, have mercy on me” – is a cry of desperation, possibly more about his spiritual state than his physical one.

Jesus asks Bartimaeus an odd question: “what do you want me to do for you?” Surely Jesus, Son of the living God, knew what this poor man wanted from him – why ask?

Bartimaeus’ answer, the wish for physical sight, might have come as a surprise to the beggar himself. Perhaps he was thinking of asking Jesus for a blessing, a promise of sins forgiven, or maybe he had assumed that Jesus would pass him by as so many others had before. Whatever the reasoning behind the request, Jesus takes it as an indicator of a faith great enough to heal.

Bartimaeus’ faith is not the robust, sure-of-everything, confident, all-knowing kind that so many of us often think of when we hear the word ‘faith’. His faith was more earthy, needy, all-other-options-have-failed; a certainty rooted in desperate doubt and fear, echoing the Apostle Peter: “Lord, there is no one else that we can go to!” and an anguished father: “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief!”

And this is an essential ingredient to the Christian faith – a readiness to admit doubt, acknowledge desperation, and hold onto a hope that cannot be seen, heard or touched – but must be there (please). And the wonder is that God looks kindly upon such weak, desperate, clutching-at-straws – and rewards us for our faith.

I wonder what your answer to Jesus’ question is?

Speak Truth! Not lies. Not even half truths. No porky pies.

Speak Truth! Open wide. Let me shine my torch way down inside.

Speak Truth! What’s that?! Look, have you seen this? Blind as a bat.

Speak Truth! It’s hard. There’s so much grey, soft as lard.

Speak Truth! Out loud. All the time, buck the crowd.

Speak Truth! Its time. Time to change. End of the line. Speak Truth!

© Tony Cant, 2009. (from Proverbs 3:3; 12:22; 15:28; Ephesians 4:17-31)

Check out this short radio interview I did recently on Premier Radio, regarding what we’re doing in mission in the High St. I think it came across OK. What do you think?

Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page, and then click on the St Mary’s Walthamstow link.

As part of our ongoing engagement with the story of the early church as reported in Acts we recently looked at chapters 25 & 26. Paul is once again hauled before the authorities, this time the Roman governor Festus and the local king Agrippa. Once again, the charge laid against him is that he is stirring up trouble amongst the Jews, challenging the authority of the Romans, and generally making a nuisance of himself. Paul doesn’t help his case by not directly denying the charges – although he does state that he has done “nothing wrong against the law of the Jews, or the Temple, or against Caesar” (25:8).

Much of chapter 26 is a re-telling by Paul of his zealous pursuit of God – firstly by seeking to defend Him against these dangerous heretics who claimed Jesus as Messiah, and then by seeking to tell the story of the very same Jesus. We have heard this before, of course. Paul has already been recorded telling this tale in various forms in a number of previous chapters. Each time he tells the story, you would forgive him for sounding a little frustrated (“come on, how many times do I have to tell you people!?!”) or creative (“let me tell you something I’ve told no-one else…”); but he sticks to the task.

This repetition is a common feature in Acts. Paul’s repeated story of his dramatic conversion; his retelling of the story and significance of the Cross; the Apostles being incarcerated; dramatic healing and other supernatural interventions; persecution and martyrdom – along with surprising church numerical growth.

We have spent a long time looking at the story of Acts now, taking a few chapters a week, often asking the same questions of the text: what themes do we see? What has impacted us about the reading? How does this apply to our own context? For many of us, these relatively few, often repeated themes were a source of some frustration. It was not always easy to be enthusiastic when the initial answers to the questions felt the same week after week. But over time, we began to think of the repetition from a different angle. Perhaps the themes are repeated because they are important. I know, it’s obvious really.

It occurred to us that our own stories should become familiar to us, repeated often (appropriately), and boldly. We are around 2 years old as an expression of church now, and have generated stories of God’s grace in difficult times, His provision in sparse times, and His generosity at all times.

We still have some way to grow with respect to the above. We are not as familiar with our own stories as we should be. We do not look for, or take, the opportunities to tell the stories as often as we could. But the story of God moving in Walthamstow High Street is being told. He walks with us as we make drinks and serve cake at the Farmers’ Market; He sits with us in the Pop-In Café; He speaks to us as we gather together at other times; and He whispers to us and through us the love He has for all His creation.

We are coming to the end of our engagement with the ‘Exilio’ course now. There has been much to think about on the way, and no doubt much we will need to revisit and grapple with in the months to come. One key part of the course is the challenges set by Mike Frost. We have listed them below (titles in bold refer to chapters in Frost’s book “Exiles“) – feel free to take up any you want to (let us know how you get on). At least one of us from St Luke’s will be attempting each of the challenges, and we hope to blog in the future about how we got on.

Exiled from a Hyper-real World

Keep a notepad on you at all times and for one week write down all the lies your culture tells you via TV commercials, TV shows, shopping malls, etc. Next to each lie from culture make a note of what the Bible says about these things.

The Exile’s Esprit de Corps

Interview 5 people (Christian and/or non-Christian), explaining firstly to them what the term ‘communitas‘ means. Then ask them to identify any experiences they have had that could be described as communitas.

Fashioning Collectives of Exiles

Make a commitment to bless at least one person each day for one week (both Christian and non-Christian) and Journal your reaction to the responses you get – see page 150 for examples.

Exiles at the Table

Watch one of the following movies: Babette’s Feast; Big Night; or Chocolat. Design a communal feast for Christians that takes Paul’s words in 1 Cor 11:23-26 seriously, but includes the elements of joy, hospitality, and feasting shown in those films. Include a menu.

Working for the Host Empire

Keep a Journal for one week, identifying all the ways in a typical week that your work and your lifestyle reflects your role as an apprentice to God’s work in the world.

Restless with Injustice

Enlist a group of friends to agitate on behalf of the poor. Choose a local or global organisation that is working for the good of the poor and oppressed and take part in one of their campaigns with your group of friends.

Exiles and the Earth

Watch the film: An Inconvenient Truth, and then go online at www.myfootprint.org and take the ecological footprint quiz to determine how much productive land and water is required to support what you use and what you discard.

Comforting the Oppressed

Visit the websites listed on p332 of exiles under the heading ‘on religious persecution’. Write a list of 10 things you could personally do to support your brothers and sisters who suffer persecution. Pray through the list and choose some to act upon.

Exiles at the Alter / The Songs of Revolution

Write a song or poem to help convey the radical truth about the parallel world of the Kingdom in opposition to the host empire.