disruptive grace

Guilt-Ridden Faith from Recycle Your Faith on Vimeo.

I’m not sure what an arts pastor is, but David Taylor is apparently one. I really like him, and not just for his great sideburns. This video will make it all clear. The subject is close to my heart — art — but the implications are wide ranging.

David Taylor-In His Own Words on Vimeo.

I know only one place and group of people doing what David describes in this video — a café-bar in the center of our city, run by friends of mine — local hero’s who get no fanfare or round of applause, and often misunderstood by many well intentioned believers. But, they are living ordinary lives of creative goodness for the sake of others, particularly the creative community.

I found this video encouraging, stimulating and provoking. Now, I must go now and do some drawing.

Following our entering through the ‘door of sanctuary’ with virtue, Abbot Christopher suggests we need to lay a floor of silence. The Abbot recommends a period of silence in the morning and another at night – effectively book ending our days with silence.

Catherine de Hueck.Doherty has this to say about silence and the ‘desert place’:

“If we are to witness to Christ in today’s marketplaces, where there are constant demands on our whole person, we need silence. If we are to be always available, not only physically, but by empathy, sympathy, friendship, understanding and boundless caritas, we need silence. To be able to give joyous, unflagging hospitality, not only of house and food, but of mind, heart, body and soul, we need silence.
“True silence is a suspension bridge that a soul in love with God builds to cross the dark, frightening gullies of its own mind, the strange chasms of temptation, the depthless precipices of its own fears that impede its way to God.
“True silence is the speech of lovers. For only love knows its beauty, completeness, and utter joy. True silence is a garden enclosed, where alone the soul can meet its God. It is a sealed fountain that he alone can unseal to slacken the soul’s infinite thirst for him.”
[from Poustinia by Catherine de Hueck.Doherty]

The need for silence and holding our tongue is prevalent through out the ancient scriptures, particuarly in the Psalms and Proverbs (and also the book of James).

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely O LORD.
[Psalm 139:1-5]

We do not need to prove our existence with our many words, or prove ourselves to God with our mouths. We are free to be silent in his presence. As wonderful as it is to produce sound and meaning with our bodies, we are not defined by these actions.

When asked about how she prays Mother Theresa replied, “Mostly, I listen”.
The frustrated interviewer then asked “Well then what does God say?”
“Mostly he listens.” She replied.

Be still and know the LORD is God.

For the life caught up with following Jesus, the inward journey and outward journey are linked and find energy and momentum from each other — like a pendulum swinging back and forth. Both motions orientated around the fulcrum of God, but one expressing that relationship outwardly in love and service to others and the other dealing with the need for growth, healing and transformation in ourselves. One cannot function fully without the other, if we are to be people who bless others we must be the kind of people are are capable of naturally blessing others. In the words of Jesus:

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

[Luke 6]

Among our group of friends, there is a desire to be people who love and bless others, in order to do this we must be transformed inwardly. Advent is approaching and has traditionally been a time for reflection, but in modern times it has been bombarded by the busyness and hype of the festive season. Abbot Christopher Jamison suggests that we live in a consumer society which can only find peace by “getting away from it all”; however, we actually need to find sanctuary in the midst of our lives, seeing that transformation can come from within. Sanctuary is not a consumer commodity that can be bought, or merely attached to a life that is continually engaged in strife. Peace by its very nature must be just and deal with our relational life. Spirituality is inherently relational.

Abbot Jamison writes in the book, ‘Finding Sanctuary’ that the door way to sanctuary is virtue. He uses a passage from the rule of St Benedict to help us locate this doorway, he then suggests putting “I” in the passage so to make a statement to live by:

I do not act in anger or nurse a grudge
I rid my heart of all deceit.
I never give a hollow greeting of peace
and I never turn away when somebody needs my love.
I speak the truth with heart and tongue.

If you find it hard to read, read this in the morning and at night, Abbot Jamison suggests, consider your life in light of it. Celebrate your successes and consider your failures. Let it slowly, day by day, make the journey from your mind to your heart, until they start to shape your day and its relationships.

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy mountain?

Those whose walk is blameless,
who do what is righteous,
who speak the truth from their hearts;

who have no slander on their tongues,
who do their neighbors no wrong,
who cast no slur on others;

[Psalm 15]

When ever I have conversations about living for the benefit of others, often myself or my conversation partner will say, ‘but I’m not sure what to actually do’. One answer to this is to learn to be aware of your surroundings, the people and goings on around you. And it is important to be prayerfully present in our communities.

On a very practical level there are other tools and means to augment this. Fix my street is a website created to bug the city council to sort out local problems – but it could be used to find the areas of need around you – places where you can serve.

These are the closest 7 reported problems near my house:
• Persistent dog fouling from owned dogs. (0.4km)
• Dog mess..offensive and dangerous (1.1km)
• Blocked gulley (1.3km)
• Graffiti on utility box (1.4km)
• Graffiti on utility box (1.4km)
• Rubbish in street (1.4km)
• Vandalised utility box (1.4km) (fixed)

You don’t have to look very far to see the economy, which so many of us have put our trust in (deliberately or inadvertently), is in turmoil at the moment. This is a time that could cause great pain across the world and it’s likely that those at the poorer end of society will feel the problems the most. But, this is also a time of great opportunity, to re-evaluate our values, and to seek justice and mercy.

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Over the past few years I’ve become interested in the idea of mission and monasticism, and their place in the life of a follower of Jesus. So Allelon’s current article on their discussion’s on a missional order is of much interest to me.

For around six years now, Allelon has been a great resource in thinking through the issues surrounding living a missional life in the 21st Century, and they have consistently done so with grace, integrity, passion and imagination, as well as drawing on the the teaching of many people I’ve come to respect, including Tom Wright, Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson and Todd Hunter. Interestingly the missional order they are exploring draws on the rule of life established by the Northumbria Community – who I have also benefited from particularly the Daily Office which has been part of my prayer life for the past four years.

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After a year long break my wife and I have decided to start leading a small group again. To go with this we’ve been thinking about how we’d like the group to work and what would be its focus (a “vision” as some put it). To help me get my head around this I decided to write it out – “the longer version” below is a document of this. In the process of doing this I stumbled apon this quote by Dallas Willard, which puts it beautifully.

“We want to become the cooperative friends of Jesus; seeking to live constant lives of creative goodness.”
[Dallas Willard]

THE LONGER VERSION…

The Starting Point

God is at work in our everyday lives, in our neighbourhoods, in our city, at our work, in the here and the now of our lives. Often we* overlook him working right under our nose – or for some reason we don’t quite manage to get involved in what he’s doing.

We know the principles, follow Jesus, love God, love our neighbour, act justly love mercy walk humbly. But we* need encouragement in order to live it out more. Someone to say, “yes do it”, or “that’s crazy but it might just work”, “wow, keep doing that, that amazing”, or “can we pray for that “, or “can I help you with that”. So the thinking is supposed to be positive and spurring us on, encouraging us to keep going on this path we’re on.
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Not sure how to be an agent of disruptive grace? Then why not take a look at this weeks misson for the Soul Action’s Act of Kindness Day