My feeling was that it was a relevant and interesting one for Holy Week – lots in there about reconciliation, loss, discomfort, need, justice, equality and hope. Stephen’s piece was brilliant (funny) short film about family reconciliation and repairing past mistakes.
For my part, I talked a little about the re:source course that I’m on this year, especially relating to mission and culture that we’ve really been focussing on. Jonny Baker’s presentation on these two, and their relation to postmodernity, really spoke to me at the last weekend, and I magpied some of his material to share.
I started by using two quotes. The Chuck Kraft quote, "I have nothing against those, who as part of their devotion to God, choose to follow God according to the patter of Europeanized African culture. These are truly God's people... But my heart yearns for the 300 million who will not westernize in order to become Christian."
…and Rob Warner’s revised version, "I have nothing against those, who as part of their Christian devotion, serve Christ according to the patterns of traditional Western culture. These are truly God's people. But my heart yearns for the 90% who will not traditionalize in order to become Christian."
For me, it’s about valuing the minority that will conform culturally in order to be Christian (chino-wearing, Cliff Richard-buying, etc), but also being one of those who will not fully conform in order to be part of The Church. That feels more than a little uncomfortable to me sometimes. And surely The Church is big enough for all of us? If we can accept that it’s got room for those who do conform to the institution's cultural norms, can we also accept that there should also be for those who are awkward or uncomfortable with making that transition? It seemed to strike a note with a few Sanctonians... wonder why? ;-)
I also used the PS2 fleacircus advert to explore and explain my feelings of discomfort and contradiction because of being a po-mo, emerging, urban 20-something woman and also wanting to be part of the institution of The Church, without leaving my culture at the door.
One final observation that lifted my spirit and took me out of myself... For me, there are break-through moments of God’s grace and abundance illustrated in the most amazingly ordinary things. Last night’s was when Ben hesitated about pouring the contents of a small bottle into a deceptively large glass, and then tipped the rest in, relieved that it was going to fit easily after all. Another that springs to mind was my godson blithely offering me half of his chewed dried apricot during a Sanctus2nds communion once. Grace abounds. I’ll eat dried apricots and drink my fill to that.
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