We sung this song by Jon Foreman this morning at Chapel – a rendition of Psalm 23. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtDXHgTi-5s. I really love this version and we have sung it at St Thom’s a few times before. If you haven’t heard it, hopefully you will enjoy the beauty of it.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
So my class last week was on ‘The Ministry of Reconciliation: For the Healing of the Nations.’ It was with a guy called Mark Buchnan, who has been a pastor for 24 years and is now teaching at a Bible College in Calgary, Canada. I now fully appreciate how pastors can make some of the best teachers as he gave the academic view as well as the application which I loved!
It was also a topic on something I have been thinking and reflecting on for a while – what is forgiveness and what is reconciliation and what do they look like in practice and what does the Bible have to say about both. Very helpfully he went through his definitions on what these terms both were, what apology looked like and talked about forgiveness and reconciliation at both a personal and a system level. I thought I’d share some of the definition descriptions with you and hopefully it may be helpful for you as well.
What forgiveness is not
- Not forgetting (at least not at first)
- It is not absolving the wrong-doer of consequences of their actions
What forgiveness is
- An abandoning or relinquishing of the personal right to hurt the other (eg. not holding the hurt against them)
- A move against our own anger and bitterness – unforgiveness takes up all the space
- Forgiveness is a move towards God – a step into understanding the heart and character of God. Everyone we forgive is a form of abiding (John 15 – Abide in my love)
- Forgiveness is practising blessing towards those that have hurt us – it is not condoning hurt but overcoming/transcending it
We can nurse forgiveness just like we nurse a grudge – we can dwell and abide in this practice so it becomes the defining story.
What reconciliation is
- Reconciliation is an event, a process and a goal
- Reconciliation cannot happen without forgiveness. Not all forgiveness leads to reconciliation and it shouldn’t always
- Restoration of relationship to what it used to be, or even more so – to a deeper level of honesty and trust
- Reconciliation is always a move towards the future, a forward motion
- Biblically it’s always personal – most often discussed in Bible as reconciliation between a husband and wife (eg. Hosea – God’s story of God’s heartache for reconciliation)
That’s a bit of an overview of how Mark defined some of the key terms – there was a lot more to it!
New song..
Over summer, there is Chapel for about half an hour from Mon-Thurs. I’ve really been enjoying this time and space in the middle of the day. Also, I’ve been picking up some new songs and really enjoyed this one from Trevor Hodge. It’s called ‘Micah Song’ – have a listen here: http://trevorhodge.bandcamp.com/track/micah-song
Faithful presence
As I mentioned last time, my first course at Regent was on ‘Cultural Discipleship in a Secular Age.’ This last week I’ve doing the readings for this paper and getting started on some of the assignments. A number of people have asked what these readings are so thought I’d give a bit of a summary as to what the course and the readings have been about.
The course was largely focused on how do we as Christians be a faithful presence in the world. It introduces a theology of culture and the debates that have taken place in the church over the years on how Christians engage in culture, particularly the late modern West which has been described as a secular age.
It was particularly focused on Christianity in North America – which I’d say is it’s own sub-culture within the worldwide Church. However, through the readings and in the class, the professor was saying the Church desperately need a new paradigm (the readings etc.. critique existing paradigms) – one that follows Augustines picture that at the core of what it means to be human is to love. The Church is therefore called to create schools and practices of love.
What does this look like in practice for the Church and Christians engaging with culture? Well the course argued that culture changes when institutions change. Therefore Christians are called to be practicing love at every institutional level – and being a faithful presence in the world. It heavily critiqued Christians from many different traditions that argue for cultures being shaped from the cumulative values and believes that reside in the hearts and minds of everyday people.
Intrigued..well have a read of the books! They were:
- Andy Crouch – Culture Making: Recovering Our Creating Calling
- James Davison Hunter – To Change the World: the Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World
- James K.A. Smith – How (Not) to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (note: this one is hard going, probably because its trying to make Charles Taylor more readable for everyone else! It’s interesting if you can get through it, probably wouldn’t spend heaps of time on it)
Or better yet, scrap reading them all, have a read of a summary of the one I found most challenging and interesting which was Hunter’s book. The summary is from Andy Crouch, who Hunter is critical of in the book, so there is some commentary from Crouch responding to the criticism! http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2010/mayjun/hownotchangetheworld.html?paging=off
I found where the book gets to I’m on board with but I’m still working through exactly what I think around the critique by Hunter of how the different Christian traditions have engaged with culture. Hunter is critical of new monasticism, but I’d say where he gets to in the end is very similar to the school of thought that I understand new monasticism to be.
This week I’m about to get going on the assignments a bit more – the first one is focused on exploring the themes from the course and the readings to write a reflection paper on on what the movie ‘Of Gods and Men’ can teach us about faithfulness int he secular age. I just watched this movie on Friday and had never seen it before. Using my favourite language it was ‘hauntingly beautiful!’
Here’s a link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrIyn3yuip4 and I do recommend watching it. It is based on a true story and real exploration of faithful presence in the world and the practices of love. I won’t write too much more here or else I’ll spoil the film!
Exploring culture..
So I’ve now been in Vancouver for nearly two weeks. It has been a time of exploring culture in many different ways. There’s been the getting used to navigating a new city (the grid system does make it much easier), the linguistic terms of Canadians (a lot of aye!), orange cheese that I can’t quite cope with as well as my first paper on culture – ‘Cultural Discipleship in a Secular Age’ to be precise.
I think the thing I was most struck by at the start of the course was the different culture of Christianity in North America compared to New Zealand. The amount of times my professor used the word ‘evangelical’ to describe himself and Christians that were different from the ‘liberals’ was very apparent. This sort of divide in North American Christianity is as strong as you think it is from having reading articles, books etc.. but even then it still surprised me. It is not a term that I often encounter in the church in New Zealand – perhaps I’m just in the wrong circles!:)
It seems that the ability to create new cultures within the church in North America that go beyond this us vs. them divide is quite challenging. I now understand more of the cultural context for why Rob Bell experienced such a backlash from evangelicals for his ‘Love Wins’ book.
Aside from this, I am learning more about culture and living faithfully as a disciple of Jesus in the course. A lot of the course helped me to put some frameworks to what I believe as well as thinking theologically about culture. I still have quite a bit of reading left to do and a few assignments which will help me to start to work all of these ideas through.
Tomorrow I start a new paper called ‘Vocation as the Common Grace for the Common Good’ so I think there will be a bit of overlap which will be nice. I even had a few Wendell Berry stories as part of my required reading:)
Home for the next wee while
So I’m living on the West side of Vancouver, staying in a family’s house (the Burtchett’s who are Regent alumni). Some of them were around this last week which was lovely but mostly they will be away for the next few months as they work for InterVarsity and run a summer camp over near Vancouver Island. Another family (who are also Regent alumni) will be coming to stay next week and sharing the house with me. Here’s a photo of the house and little vegie garden out front that I will care for over the next few months:)
I’ve also brought a bike off craigslist in order to get around (as well as the great public transport system they have in Vancouver). Here’s a photo of my bike – I got the bike store to add a basket in order to help me carry my weekly supermarket shop items:)
Welcome..
So friends and whanau, I’ve started a blog to update you on my journey and reflections over the next year. We’ll see how regular I am at updating it..
I’ve called the blog – ‘Breather’ – another word for sabbatical, which seemed to articulate a bit of what this next year is for me. I look forward to sharing photos, feelings and thoughts over this next wee while and hearing how you are doing as well.
Breather 