Books & Theses - Part 2
JONATHAN`S BOOK
WINNING THE LOTTERY OF FAITH
7: ITS ALL IN A WORD
'God said to me this morning…'
When someone comes out with a statement like that you can see the quizzical look cross the face of a newcomer. The language goes on:
'But the lord has told me….'
'I must ask God whether I should or not.'
'I live my life by the Bible, because it's God's word.'
'Jesus came to me last night.'
'It's not me it's the lord.'
'I couldn't do anything without God's power.'
'I have given my heart to Jesus and now he lives inside me.'
Certain Christians have a disconcerting way of wanting to describe ordinary life in a mystical and supernatural way. The desire to do so isn't surprising, after all, life can be tedious.
However, for someone with eyes to see, living by religious fantasy is as dissatisfying as living through Hollywood films. Life itself is marvellous and mysterious without having to take a drug, spiritual or otherwise.
ROLL ON THE INTERPRETER.
So what do Christians mean when they speak like this. If you are sensitive you can explore this by asking them precise questions. You can then quickly learn the art of translation yourself. What does ' God said to me this morning…. ' actually mean? Does it mean that they actually heard God's voice in the same way they would hear anyone else's voice?
What was the experience that the person had? The experience comes first and then the person tries to find language with which to describe what happened to them. Unfortunately instead of stumbling around and putting it into words that make sense for them the church steps in and gives ready made phrases and convenient words that the newcomer quickly learns.
Press them on exactly what happened and don't be satisfied until you can picture the event. Resist any vague language.
What will begin to emerge is something like this the person was sitting alone reading the Bible as the church had suggested they should. In it he/she reads something that rings a bell, strikes a chord, applies to something with which he/she is involved. Perhaps it even seems to suggest an answer, give a clue, point in a direction. The person has a sense that someone knows about the situation and is providing some help. Indeed what a wonderful thing that is. He/she is not alone. Suddenly this great big world is not quite such a lonely place. God is there and is close at hand.
The person feels excited inside. A warm feeling rises within them. They go away with the words, ' God spoke to me this morning ' ringing in their ears.
INSPIRATION ALL AROUND US.
'Fine,' one can say. 'That's a constructive experience.' The divine intervention is communicated in a very natural human way. Realising this helps make such an experience of inspiration available to us all and not just the 'very devout'.
Inspiration can come from many sources. Some feel something connect in a book, a film, on television, in a song or through a coincidence. All of these people are finding that something outside them has been meaningful in some way.
Learning to hear and distinguish between all the hidden energies and influences all around us is a spiritual skill. Perhaps its like tuning in a spiritual radio and getting to know all the stations that are around and choosing to tune in only to those which bring God's light and love.
As we all know, some of the influences can be very sinister and unhelpful. Some people have lived in terror for years or just been bugged uncomfortably because of what a fortune teller told them.
Religious links can be equally disturbing if handled in a random and unfiltered way. Some links people have made in the Bible have caused people to do all sorts of crazy and cruel things. Some have left unbelieving partners, or rejected their wayward children, or thrown their families into chaos by leaving secure jobs, or joined suspect groups and rejected lifelong friends. Others have developed entire political systems that have created suffering and hardship for millions as with apartheid.
THE ROULETTE WHEEL
Every time an unthinking Christian reads their Bible or prays, they spin the roulette wheel. Sometimes it will fall happily on an innocuous verse or a constructive thought. At other times it could precipitate damaging decisions and unpredictable behaviour.
The problem lies in the absence of any objective or external arbiter. There is no religious ombudsman to whom individuals or their families can go. In a fundamentalist style church, that can leave a new comer exposed to arbitary influences. Fred turns up saying that God has told him that morning to leave his engineering job and begin missionary work. Who can resist God?
The empowered person, who has learnt the art of translation and can apply a mature and well developed filtering system, isn't intimidated. If it is going to cause unnecessary heartbreak it may well not be God at all they are dealing with, but Fred.
HE'S MISTAKEN!
It's tempting to write off such moments of inspiration as too risky altogether, but if you can pass through the frightening stage and disarm the language, then, as I indicated earlier, it can reveal much about the person or situation concerned.
If a right assessment concludes that on this occasion Fred is mistaken, it can still tells us that perhaps Fred is unhappy in his present job or feels unfulfilled in his career or life so far, or has hidden goals or unrealised dreams. There are so many possibilities. Knowledge of Fred would enable someone to translate his religious experience into useful insights that showed how he was feeling about his life.
People who go heavily into religion and start having wild and extreme spiritual experiences need to be understood and helped through what is a crisis. That does not mean that you have to be controlled by their language as I have explained, but you should try and see through the windows it all provides to the hearts of the people concerned.
The trouble is that such people or experiences can often be quite extreme. Those involved go on about it and are very eager to validate what they believe is happening to them. You can meet a degree of hostility if you don't agree with them.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE SOUL.
It would be of great help if education included slightly more about just how complex our personalities are and what goes on inside us emotionally, and why, very often we remain clueless about the most amazing life form that we will ever be close to, namely ourselves. We can learn the wizardry of computers and achieve scientific feats that leave us breathless, but still be uneducated about how we work.
This is why religion has such power over us. What we don't realise is that religious language can unlock the hidden treasures and darkest secrets of our lives. When used properly it can provide a language with which we can tap into our longings and our terrors, our tears and our joy. It can give us the ability to discover and talk about hitherto unreached areas within ourselves.
THE FRIGHTENED CHILD WITHIN
Just look at the phrase, ' I live my life by the Bible'. There are many people who find growing up so daunting and too lonely. As children there were always adults to keep the boundaries, to point us in the right direction, but hit the problems of later life and it's up to you.
Decisions and choices vie for attention and it's not just what dress or tie to wear. We have to decide which career move to make, whether to propose, what house to buy, where to live, whether to have an affair, whether to have a tumour removed, how to cope with an unwanted pregnancy and so on.
Where is someone who can give us the answer?
Mum and dad have lost their role, teachers are a faded memory, so its God to whom people turn. ' GOD will tell me what to do and his word will show me the way. All I have to do is find out and follow his will.'
It's so enticing to believe that God has the perfect plan for our lives, a constantly updating best for each one of us and that all we have to do is pray enough, ask enough, seek enough and all will be revealed.
What happens is one of two things. Either people are led astray by randomly selecting signals or leads which they interpret as God's will. This can lead to difficulties for them, or others involved. Or, they manage to manipulate the guidance that God has given to fit their own ideas.
The problem with this is that they won't take responsibility for the decision themselves and they resist every attempt to advise them otherwise with the pious words, ' Well, I don't expect that you will be able to understand, but it's God's will and you can't argue with God!'.
If such people were amenable, they would need to be helped to see how they were using religious language, how they had been avoiding their fear of decision-making. Then they could be helped to begin to take the brave step of making up their own minds.
8: IF YOU WANT A HEALTHY BELIEF IN GOD, DON'T BELIEVE IN BLACK AND WHITE.
Many people make the basic mistake of thinking that they have to believe that the Christian faith is all literally true.
When the church speaks about God, heaven and hell, the miracle stories, the virgin birth and the resurrection, they think they have to accept it all as objective fact.
The trouble is that there are many priests today and many churches that have lost their way and simply require this approach from the faithful! How they reduce the treasures of the faith by doing so!
People don't realise just how dangerous words can be!
They have an experience of some kind. Perhaps they are sacked or have an accident or lose a parent. Something has happened. They then begin to speak about it. In fact everyone caught up in the experience will speak about it, and each will describe the events differently. Different words will be used, presenting different insights, feelings, interpretations, ideas and conclusions.
Anyone who has been involved with the courts or the media will be able to tell you that trying to find out what exactly happened from the thousands of words spoken afterwards is an almost impossible task.
SORTING INTO BOXES
In trying to find out, it is useful to sort through the language. Into the first box we should place the language of fact; who was standing where and when, when they moved , what they did and what they said.
The second box can then be filled up with the language about feelings; who was feeling what, what was the mood during the happening, what emotions were felt and how were they expressed.
The third box is for the language concerning people's views and interpretations, their ideas about the reasons and the causes for what happened from an earthly point of view.
The fourth box is for language that reflects on what can be learnt from the happening and how that wisdom can be protected in the future.
THE BIBLE'S BOXES
The problem is that when the Bible was written, people did not distinguish between such boxes and they used language in a way that many people today find loose and confusing.
For instance, the story of the garden of Eden and Adam and Eve seems to be written as a factual account of how it all began. However, those writing it would have looked surprised if you had said to them, ' So this is what happened is it?'
They were writing religious stories and poetry to pass on their insights and wisdom as they did not witness what actually happened.
The arguments that take place about the miracle stories, the virgin birth and the resurrection raise similar issues.
But that is exactly the ambivalence of language. How can you be sure that your words will not be misunderstood, that what you are writing will not get misrepresented? How can you stop Jesus' exciting and radical approach to religion being changed into a system of religion which has as many problems as the Judaism of Jesus' day? You can't!
RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE IS NOT THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE
Some people describe God like a Teddy bear to be cuddled, Jesus an SAS soldier who will rescue us and heaven like a Butlin's holiday camp.
When this happens we have reduced religious language to a banal and useless level that feeds the worst of our childishness and dependencies and we have corrupted the very resource whose function is to lift us to greater maturity and fulfilment. In fact the arena of argument in which people waste hours trying to prove this or that element of belief ruins the wisdom and beauty of the Christian faith.
We need to understand one simple thing about religious language and we've cracked the code. It is a way of talking about us, our experience, our lives, our situations and our understanding.
I am not saying that God does not exist. Far from it. What I am saying, though, is that in God existing the religious language that we use does not and could not begin to be accurate. God and all that we associate with God remains hidden from our observation. There are no facts about God, only feelings, interpretations and gathered ideas or wisdom.
SO WHAT IS THE CHURCHES TEACHING ALL ABOUT?
Quite simply, the church's teaching describes us, as do our dreams which give us such provocative insights into what goes on inside our heads and how our subconscious processes our experience. So too it is with our religion.
The Bible stories and the beliefs that arise from them are almost like a series of intricate and marvellously woven day dreams. They are our fantasies and our imaginings.
SO THEY'RE NOT REAL THEN?
Quite the opposite! People's beliefs provide us with a treasure chest of knowledge about them and about ourselves and point us to the divine. I say to people, 'Don't tell others your dreams.' It's like letting them look inside your box of secrets. So too your religion. Handle the material carefully.
If religious language is meant to protect what we have learnt from experiences by providing us with neat and easy remembered story lines, then it can be fun thinking about them. Perhaps it's like going to the trouble of peeling an orange to taste the glorious fruit inside.
In some of the following chapters I am going to peel away the rind of religion and get to the juice inside.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RIND.
For me and for most ordinary people I meet, the rind of religion is very bitter indeed. It makes the face screw up and the stomach ache. Of course it can be attractive when used for decoration and it can add zest when grated into life's dishes, but it is not meant to be food for our staple diets.
The biblical stories and doctrines about Jesus being perfect as the son of God, and the second coming, heaven and hell, the body and blood of communion, are like poetry or the impressionist's art.
It is disturbing to listen to adults talking about when the trumpet sounds at the second coming and how amazing it will be when the faithful had gathered up in the clouds. It is to focus on the detail of the story when what is important is the overview.
THE GREAT TEDDY BEAR
For many people God fulfils a range of functions from being a Father Christmas replacement to a cuddly Teddy bear. The devil is a useful bloke for passing the buck to. The holy spirit comes in handy for an extra boost of power when our confidence fails. Confession comes in handy if you want to forget about the past, and heaven is a useful but rather deadly way of ignoring the urgency to make as much as is possible of your life here and now.
In fact, if you list all the devious ways we use religion which end up reducing and robbing us of our lives, we should be very angry with it indeed. But it appears like many things to which we are addicted, short term kicks and long term tragedy.
If you don't want to be hurt when you sit down with your Bible, or listen to a sermon or think about belief, remember that your task is to journey to the heart of the language to find out what it really has to say about you and your world and in embarking on that adventure you will encounter the God that leads us to life.
9: THAT GUY CALLED JESUS
If only the tabloids could do an expose on Jesus! What the headlines might be! The trouble is that the paparazzi weren't around then to catch him in compromising positions, neither were the tabloid sharks looking for a juicy bit of gossip or innuendo. Unfortunately, the truth about Jesus has been lost for ever and what we are left with is the highly biased writings of his closest friends and supporters. They were out to make a point, drive home a message, salvage a disaster and save their necks. They distribute what is clearly propaganda promoting the cause.
Don't misunderstand me. Parts of the biblical writings are beautiful and inspiring, but only safely so if we realise what we are reading and how it came about.
I enjoyed the part in the film The Life of Brian when Jesus loses his shoe accidentally on the way to the cross. His followers interpret it as a sign that from then on any would be disciple must only wear one shoe!
There is so much that is false talked about Jesus. He has been used as a coat hangar to cover with all our own ideas, hang ups and needs. For most church goers it's not a question of what Jesus thought or said, it's what they decide which matters.
WHAT A CRAZY AND DAMAGING CLAIM
One of the worst things that comes up time and time again is the fact that people claim that Jesus was sinless. They claim that he was God and that he was Man but that he never put a foot wrong or messed up in any way.
You can see even the most intelligent people becoming blind when reading the Bible. In fact it's quite chilling watching them ignore the facts in order to keep their own mistaken beliefs safe and intact.
Even in the Bible you can see that Jesus was far from this uncomplicated saint like character floating through Palestine. Yes, he was inspiring, passionate, creative and perceptive ( to name just some of his good points ) but he was also temperamental and he made mistakes. What is more at times he was prejudiced, even rude and offensive. As a child he went missing. When his distraught parents finally caught up with him, he showed no regret and answered their questions cheekily. I'm not sure whether Joseph and Mary punished him but he deserved it.
In a later episode when he'd grown up and was surrounded by supporters, his mother and father come looking for him. Someone interrupted him with the news of their arrival but his reaction was uncaring. As far as he was concerned everyone there was his family, so what was so special about his mother arriving? It was the sort of reaction that parents complain about today when their children get sucked into various cults and are brain washed into cutting their family ties.
THE TRUTH TAKES US DEEPER
So many people cherish a rosy view of Jesus as gentle meek and mild, but if you read the Bible, a more complex picture emerges.
At one point a distressed mother, quite beside herself with sorrow, comes to Jesus and begs him to heal her sick and dying daughter. We're sure that his heart would be moved with compassion, that he would only want to help and that he worked one of his many miracles.
We're mistaken. First, when he was told she had come, he was annoyed and wouldn't see her. She was kept outside and, worse, told to go away. But she wouldn't and her persistence annoyed the disciples who were embarrassed at all the fuss she was making.
In the end Jesus let her in and she poured out her heart to him. Jesus remained stony hearted. 'No' is his reply. He can't and he won't help. The reason--because she comes from a different country and a different faith. His gracce is for the Jews only! To add insult to injury, he doesn't mince his words. He likens her to a dog at a party; the food is for the guests, not for an animal.
But she is some woman! She argues with Jesus that he may think of her as a dog, but even dogs at a party are given scraps to eat. Is he so ruthless that he won't throw a morsel down to help her daughter?
'Goodness me !' you should be thinking, 'Is this Jesus? It is, I'm afraid- but on the other hand, actually, I'm not afraid.
BETTER WHAT'S REAL THAN A LIE.
The Jesus of our fantasies is a worthless figure, sinless and unreal. No one has ever met anyone like it. Those who pretend to be like it are so artificial and spend their lives in torment crushed by their continual failures.
How many people do you know who live under the shadow of guilt and self-recrimination because of their weaknesses and their mistakes? Throughout history the church has enjoyed spreading the message that Jesus was perfect and we are sinners because this puts us firmly in its power.
The church appears to hold the key to our freedom and our healing. In fact many churches preach a very simple version of Christianity which goes something like this. We are sinners. Jesus is perfect. On the cross Jesus was able to take our sins away and his dying and rising was like a cleansing bath making us all pure. All we have to do now is give our hearts to Jesus and we're heaven bound.
And guess how we give our hearts to Jesus? Through the church!
Such an approach has allowed the church to become the powerful and wealthy organisation it is today. The message plays upon people's fears and uncertainties, it gains access to their hearts and loyalties, and it drains their pockets.
PLEASE WILL THE REAL JESUS STEP FORWARD
Here is a real man like us. He was a good lad at times and naughty too, who needed the normal discipline good parents provide.
He grew up to be a man with fire in his belly, love in his heart, and a vision in his soul. He was a dreamer and a thinker, a poet and a philosopher. He discovered that love was more important than anything else, even where matters of religion were concerned, and that made him flexible and spontaneous in his contact with people.
But as with us all, it was a learning process. He made mistakes, judged things incorrectly and had his conclusions challenged, as by the woman above.
At times his emotions took over as with the well known episode in the temple when he was so angry at this holy place being turned into a corrupt market place that he exploded with anger. He damaged the trader's property, whipped them, shouted abuse and threw them out. In today's world he would have ended up in court convicted of assault, criminal damage and disturbing the peace, and people reading the paper would have been going, 'Tut, tut!'.
I like this man Jesus. He is useful. He is real. Here is a man able to adapt, to change, to grow, able to change events around him, even indeed the history of the world. Here is a special man whose life and memory lives today giving so many good insights and great wisdom for us all.
In fact, his life had such an impact upon others that his followers gave him the highest and greatest accolade of all; they said that God had been with them, and they began to refer to him as the 'Son of God'.
THE VIRUS SPREADS
What people do not realise is just how dangerous words are and how the beliefs which spring from them mould the way we think and the way we behave. The innocent words 'Son of God' soon turned into a nightmare.
From Son of God he was elevated in their thinking to be God himself; as God he couldn't have sinned so he was declared sinless. If he was sinless he couldn't have been born in the normal way so Mary must have been a virgin. If Mary had to be a virgin then something had to be wrong with sex.
If Jesus was perfect, male and unmarried, then priests should be unmarried, male and perfect as well. In fact if anyone was to follow Jesus they had to strive to be perfect and after all, if he as a man could manage it, why couldn't we?
The whole thing had become derailed and was bound to create many anxieties.
10: SUNDAY SCHOOLS
Sunday schools can be dangerous places which should be regulated by a watchdog and parents advised about what happens. They are normally staffed by well-meaning old ladies or eager converts.
The children are taught that what the Bible says is true and that the stories really happened, even the miracles. They are exposed to a world of make believe which the teachers say is real and not fantasy.
If children question the party line they are made to feel unfaithful and points about doubting Thomas are made and that God is really pleased with those who believe in Jesus without needing to see him.
If one steps back and looks at the process, it could be seen to be a form of intellectual abuse. Children are brought up in a world blessed with the scientific advances which have changed the course of our lives. But religion has been kept in the cupboard with the weekly dusting by the faithful. It's a world where men float on clouds, where dead people climb out of their coffins, where snakes talk, and money for your tax turns up inside a fish!
If one is allowed to view this allegorically, like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, as an alternative to literally, then that is fine. But if your teachers are insistent that you believe it is all literally true, then there is a problem.
C.S.Lewis's books about Narnia are bestsellers; children love them, but they don't spend their time banging on the back of their wardrobes in hope! They can handle well the concept of metaphor.
THOSE POOR KIDS
Imagine sane people choosing to send their children to the Moonies or some strange cult to be taught about religion. They would not. But these same people wouldn't think twice before sending them up the road to Sunday school.
In their mind it's a whole different set up. Let me warn you that it may not be, and what happens to the poor children when they go, is far from being helped to enjoy the treasures of the Bible, they are given a version of believing that if they cannot reconcile with the real world or other academic disciplines, they will discard at puberty as being irrelevant.
FOR A START LET'S CHANGE THE NAME
The word Bible perhaps needs to be changed. It carries too many ghosts and too much of a stigma. Perhaps The Eastern Collection would be better. We need to get rid of its image.
Then the church has perpetuated a confusion by calling it God's word, although it is. If people dare to question it, or rather how the church interprets it, they are being disrespectful to God. It's hard to process the guilt that it creates and it keeps most people quiet.
But let us see the Bible for what it is. God did not actually sit down and write the words, human beings did under divine inspiration. If you want to understand how the Bible came about then go into any bookshop and look at the array of books on the shelves and the papers at the counter. We have to tell stories about our lives, set our imaginations free and reflect upon our experiences.
Of course some authors are better than others and each year we watch the round of awards ceremonies. It was at an earlier award ceremony that a group of believers made various nominations. The categories included best lyrics for songs, best poem about the earth's formation, best account of Jesus' life etc. The winners had their writings put into a collection called The Bible for general reading, something like having some of the Booker prize winners poured into a single volume. That is such an innocent process and it is such fun to read through all the entries and express our opinions.
'What a beautiful story! That one leaves me cold. That's powerful'
THE TORTOISE INSTINCT
You only have to look around you to see how much people resemble tortoises. It's the hibernating instinct. Everyone finds a nice cosy way of life full of the things they always do and the places they always go. They climb into their little boxes where everything is the same and they feel safe. It's a way of sleeping your way through life!
Change is the monster to be avoided. Luckily, in everyday life things are advancing so rapidly that people's boxes keep getting knocked over or destroyed all together.
Not so with the church or with its Bible. Convince vulnerable people whose worlds are being turned upside down that there is one place that always remains the same and one manual that is never out of date and you are onto a winner.
You only have to look at the books written 100 years ago to realise that the writers lived in a different world. Of course there are similarities with our day but so much of what they knew and how they felt is alien to us.
It is true that Jesus said wise and challenging things which resonate with us and are useful for us. He also came out with some things which rose from his experience and which needs to be interpreted by us.
That is the healthy and proper relationship we should have with the Bible. You should be setting about its pages as a minor digging for diamonds, confident enough to discard the waste and preserve what is valuable. But this is in stark contrast with the dreamy-eyed approach in which every word is indispensable and nothing can be set aside. On that basis there is no distinction between rock and diamond.
THE ROCK
We do not have to look very far for proof that parts of the Bible should be set on one side. In the Old Testament are tales of the mass slaughter of people because God was angry or wanted their land, people being stoned because they had dared to collect wood on the equivalent of our Sunday, women who were thought of as dirty for a week if they gave birth to a son and for two weeks if it was a daughter, gays and mediums who were to be put to death, and a ban on anyone with any defect from becoming a priest. There were to be no wheel chairs at the altar!
In religion, watch out for the people who have an answer for everything. It is hard to argue with them. When you confront them with the sticky passages from the Old Testament they either claim that God's ways are beyond ours or they say that it is the New Testament that is for us today.
THE STICKY TRAIL CONTINUES
It does not take long flicking through the New Testament to find more rocky passages.
God strikes two new converts dead for stealing, Paul warns that gossips, the arrogant and boastful, those who disobey their parents and the gays and the lesbians all deserve death, he teaches that God has put every government in place and we must obey them; one wonders about Hitler's; and he writes that people should not marry unless they can't control their sex drive.
We are told that God will trick the people who do not believe into doing wrong and so have an excuse for destroying them and that the world as we know it will end with the coming of beasts and dragons.
Now many people are taught by the church that they must believe all of this word for word. It's like taking a dreaded medicine, they are encouraged to hold their nose, close their eyes and swallow hard.
THE GREAT SIEVE AND DAZZLING DIAMONDS
There is a very sensible alternative to this approach. Everyday people wrote down their ideas and reflections about life. You only have to look at how children's views differ from their parents and how each generation comes up with new ways of doing things. Add to that the astonishing advances made in science and technology and you can see how thought develops in leaps and bounds.
Someone writing a thousand years ago certainly had different ideas from someone writing 2,000 or 4,000 or 8,000 years later! So the reader of the Bible has a fascinating task of watching people's ideas about God changing.
They find the early writers describing God as someone who was jealous, angry, vengeful, unjust and unmerciful and then the later writers correcting their description to God being someone who was more tender, loving and compassionate. In fact, as the great mystics of faith have tried to help us realise, all spiritual writing is a record not primarily about God but about ourselves and how we understand our world and our lives.
Having taken a great sieve and shaken hard to remove the prejudiced, inaccurate, and more primitive material, there before you remain jewels of considerable value.
11: TREASURE
Having mentioned some of the rubbish, it would be good to become Aladdins and open the treasure chest and pick up handfuls of gold.
The brightest and most perfect parts of the Bible are those which speak about love. They say that if we are to have a healthy way of describing God then it must be in terms of love, so much so that where ever you find love you have stumbled across God. They expose the fanatics with telling remarks that anyone who doesn't love those they live with, can't claim to love or even know God!
The writers tell us that if we love each other then God lives in us and his love is made complete and perfect in us. There is no talk about church attendance, confession, doctrines or the like, just the simple and healing practise of loving.
But this loving is not the sickly sweet Hollywood variety, it has teeth. It's the love that feeds the poor and helps those in need, that visits prisoners and tends the sick, it's a love seen in action and not just heard in fine words.
God is described as being patient with us and as caring for us, someone to whom we can turn, who will share our problems and our pain.
Such talk about God is a way of pointing us towards a way of living together based on the practise of love. It's a way of life in which we try and sort out our own messes and problems and support others while they do the same for us, but where no one accuses, judges or condemns another. Indeed such love should flow between us that we could even tell each other about our weaknesses with confidence.
We are encouraged to stand up to evil and to bear the cost of doing so with dignity and grace, to be self disciplined and to hold on to all that is lovely and good.
Love must always come first, blossoming in patience, kindness, gentleness and most tellingly in the offering of forgiveness. We are set high goals in terms of striving after truth, but again not the skin deep variety which is about keeping our noses clean; much more the penetrating truth of being able to know and work with what is, in all its raw reality. This is me, this is the situation, warts and all.
PURE GOLD
The writer's lead us to realise that immense power lies within us, that our inner reserves of hope and courage and joy run deep if only we would spend time in finding them, in fact so much so that there is nothing too difficult for us to overcome.
They speak of discovering a place of inner peace which is pure contentment, in which each and every need has been supplied, every desire fulfilled, every longing satisfied, where all is calm, all is complete.
A key is to learn how to love one's self, or how could we ever love another person whom we don't know, if we can't love the one person we really do know!
SCATTERED NUGGETS
Working our way through the Old Testament can be some task and there is not much reward as lorry loads of waste get taken away. However, there are special parts. With a little imagination and editing, the stories can be read and told in an exciting way, especially for the kids.
Surely every child should know about Noah's ark, the Tower of Babel, Joseph's coat of many colours, the Ten plagues, the Parting of the Red Sea, Balaam's donkey, the Golden Calf, the Fall of Jericho, Samson and Delilah, Samuel hearing God's voice, David and Goliath, David and Bathsheba, King Solomon, Elijah and the prophets of Baal, the sufferings of Job, Jonah and the whale, to mention just a few.
Likewise every adult should know about and have read the Psalms, the love poetry of the Song of Songs, the wisdom of Ecclesiastes and the words of the great prophets like Isaiah, Amos and Hosea.
SELECT, SIEVE AND BE SENSATIONAL
Some of you may be thinking, 'But I don't want to tell my children about some crazy God who drowns everyone or hurts people's lives like Job's just for the sake of it.
Fair enough! I agree, and that is why people should have the confidence to read the Bible selectively, editing out the confusing parts and explaining what's left so that it makes sense and its point is heard.
If you do not want to, you do not have to suggest to the children that Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale or that Balaam's donkey actually spoke or that God actually flooded the whole earth. Instead you can tell the story with enthusiasm and fun and then begin to speak with your children about the invisible world of which they are already well aware.
Talk to them about the hidden voice of conscience that tells Balaam off, pictured in the donkey speaking, and the dark, consuming and dangerous place we find ourselves in if we practise evil, very much like the stomach of a whale. Talk to them about the way we can find ourselves at odds with the whole world with everything going wrong when we live selfishly , very much as if we were hit by a disaster like a flood.
The explanation is the key to unlocking the treasures of the stories. If a child can go away thinking that God is the sort of God who would wipe out thousands as a punishment or would send great monsters to swallow us, this is to make the stories frightening and strange, and yet that is what happens in most Sunday schools, even from most pulpits, week by week.
LET'S TRAP GOD.
But the conundrum is that those who claim to be most faithful in believing in God often do so out of insecurity and fear. Their ideas about God end up by being so frightening to them that they have to gain control in some way.
The Bible becomes a type of cage in which they think God is caught. 'This is God's word' they say, 'We can understand everything about God's will for us, all we have to do is obey!' What they are in fact saying is that if we can reduce God's words to be the text in a book and if we can hold that book in our hands and speak about it and explain it, we achieve a useful shift of power and focus away from God to ourselves.
They really mean, 'it's us you must listen to, be taught by, follow and obey. Our interpretation, explanation and way of doing things is right.'
They end up being in the place of God!
SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
The God of the Bible is a God found everywhere and not exclusively anywhere. So the adventure to create a clearer picture of God involves a humility which is constantly being surprised at where God pops up next.
Devout Christians shouldn't be surprised if atheists know God better than they do, or drug addicts better than the archbishop, or a Muslim better than their priest. Do not be shocked when God speaks to you more powerfully through the Sun than the Bible or through Eastenders rather than Songs of Praise or through walking over mountains rather than a church service.
That is why those Christians who think that the main way they will grow in their knowledge of God is by sitting in church are very much mistaken. It is one of the last places that you are likely to discover God.
Go out into the world. Read widely, including the Bible and other spiritual works, but also anything and everything. Live fully, have open arms towards those you meet, listen to their opinions, ideas and insights, don't be afraid of life and what it offers and within the energetic nature of all this rich and varied experience, if you are looking and if you desire to see, will grow a spiritual awareness and a sense of God.
God's word is a living conversation spoken in the inter-weaving of all our lives.
12: BELIEFS THAT MAKE SENSE
The approach I have taken towards the Bible should be our approach too towards what the church teaches.
Throughout the world people remain bowed down under mountains of guilt and live in fear of God's anger. They worry in case their actions offend God and hope they are carving out a safe niche in heaven. Jokes abound about the gates of heaven and the fires of hell and people build their whole lives around trying to do 'what's right'.
One cruel teaching has been the Roman Catholic crusade against condoms and contraception, but it does not end there. You only have to listen to a judgemental Thought for the Day on the radio or visit a local church to cringe at some of the views being expressed. My heart goes out to all those who I can feel being crushed by judgement and condemnation, whose sense of identity is being ridiculed and who are being quite clearly put on the scrap heap by the church.
Whenever you come across a church teaching that makes no sense and is crippling your life then have the confidence to distance yourself from it.
VAMPIRES AND CANNIBALS
One of the beliefs that has bedevilled the church up to this day involves the bread and wine of communion.
In many church services they share out some bread and wine. It's a simple and lovely symbol of a family sharing a meal together while they remember loved one's past and present, especially Jesus who started the idea.
But then the religious language takes over and contaminate this lovely act with intricate theories and philosophies. In what sense is the bread and the wine actually Jesus' flesh and his blood? The arguments that ensue mess up the beauty of what the meal was meant to achieve. Instead of it encouraging love and understanding it has created some of the ugliest arguments throughout church history and has separated husband from wife and set communities at war with each other. It's an example of belief running wild with terrible consequences. Here's to those who hold their own communion services or who take communion whether they are baptised or not, whether they are Catholic, Anglican or whatever. Here's to those who break through the barricades erected by the church and by religious language and sit down happily to eat together.
THE SACRAMENT OF PIE AND MASH
What people do not realise is that beliefs are not valuable or real in themselves, but find their value in directing our attention to the importance of something which is real and every day.
Some people walk away starry eyed from communion saying they have met with their lord, yet would never invite anyone to their homes to eat with them, certainly not a stranger or someone in need.
If people really wanted to experience communion they should want to invite their neighbours round for a meal, then the local street dwellers, the Jews from the synagogue, ex offenders from the rehab unit, even their enemies. This is communion.
The most intense experiences of communion I have experienced were receiving Prasad in a Sikh temple, sharing food at a Jewish Passover meal, being given biscuits on a train by a Czech family, being invited to share a ball of lentil paste with a beggar in Calcutta and eating a Macdonalds with a tramp in Croydon!
PASSING THE BUCK
Prayer is another example. If you have ever listened to the prayers in church or on radio you will perhaps have had the same sinking feeling. Every week it is, 'Dear God, we pray for the poor that they may have food, for those whose legs have been blown apart by landmines that they make be healed, for the unemployed that they may find work, for prisoners that they may be helped.
It is a shopping list of doom and woes. Those who prepare the prayers and some Christians seem to gain a satisfaction from naming the suffering, as though in some way they are proving that however ghastly things are, nothing will knock their faith and trust.
The people who have prayed in this way so often have done a comprehensive scapegoating job. . 'Hear our problems God, now you sort them out!' When they leave church they may have no intention of giving their money to the poor or challenging unjust trading practices. Campaigns against landmines are not for them. The local unemployed project is written off as the work of loony lefties and they probably wouldn't go near a prison if you paid them!
MEANINGLESS
Prayer like this loses so much of its meaning and it falls so short of its aspiration. That is not to say that prayer, when properly practised, isn't helpful.
Prayer at best is a means of focussing on areas of concern both personally and in the world generally. It's a means of growing in empathy, identifying potential for change and for progress. It is understanding if we have a part to play in affecting the issue, mustering and unlocking inner resources for action and feeding upon the reserves of hope and beauty and healing which lie beyond us. As such it is an energising, enthusing and enabling experience, very different from the great opt out clause in most church services.
HEAVEN AND HELL
No one knows exactly what happens when we die. So when there is talk about heaven and hell and life after death we are not moving in the corridors of science.
However, if someone you love dies it is impossible for you to believe that they have gone, the sheer stupidity and cruelty of death makes us angry. How dare God or anyone take our beloved away. It's an outrage.
It is not surprising that we fill the dark loneliness with words and images that bring comfort, answer questions and heal the pain. Heaven is a good pain killer.
But just as so many commit suicide using painkillers, so the heaven solution can be deadly. You often hear people express the hope that they are going to heaven, and the church has often chided people to behave well to make sure that the pass through the pearly gates.
But the result, as with much of religion, is to deaden the conscience and produce moral light weights. It is the consumer society all over. Play your cards right, save up enough spiritual points and what a bonanza, heaven awaits you! The incentive for keeping to the straight and narrow is a reward, like the system of loyalty cards which their major supermarket stores have issued.
The most devastating result of this can be heard when Christians smugly say to one another, 'Well this life isn't what it is all about, I am banking on what is to come!' What a tragedy to miss out on the life that God has given to us because our mind is taken up with heaven.
BRINGING HEAVEN TO EARTH
So let us make sense of the language. People, unless they had been born with some disorder or have been damaged along life's way, have a sense of right and wrong. They are also aware that doing wrong messes you up, whereas trying to do good leads to fulfilment and happiness.
Around the world, in our own neighbourhoods and in our lives , there are endless examples of heavenly and hellish situations brought about by the people involved or by circumstances out of their control.
Our job is to push back the frontiers of hell and to spread the experience of heaven. We want to create a world where wars do not rage, where people can eat, where disease is overcome, where happiness is widespread, where people are understood, accepted and loved.
SO WHAT ABOUT THE HEAVEN UPSTAIRS?
We need the language of poetry and pictures to help us express the bonds of love which forever tie us to those we love. Even beyond death they remain alive for us in our hearts and in spirit. We dream of them, feel them and smell them. They influence our thinking and our choosing and we are never free of their presence. The language of heaven gives us a home in which they can live, a place of beauty, warmer and more true to their involvement with us than the soil of the grave.
What we should not do is press the pictures or demand that they hold specific scientific truths for us, that Sue or Brian are actually walking around there, then we create more problems than we can solve and we reduce the impressionist's art to ridicule.
13. PANCAKES AND PASSION
Another regular hassle is Lent, when everyone is told by the church to give up something. Chocolate, beer, sex, all come a cropper in the desire of the faithful to please God by their sacrifice!
My fear is that it is a cosmetic job and it misses the point. The story of Jesus struggling in the desert is not anything to do with chocolate, bed clothes or Hammer House of Horror devils trying to trick him into a pyrotechnic display of miraculous magic. Nor is it an American style drama featuring the latest hero as Jesus, the underdog, caught in a titanic struggle between good and evil and managing to come home all flags waving having championed the world.
It is about the ordinary and every day struggles that you and I face throughout our lives. It's about whether to queue jump, be held back in our job by helping a colleague, make vulgar signs to the next driver, support a campaign working with the poor or spread bad word about someone. It is about whether to go on and on buying more things for ourselves, do voluntary work, spend all our time in the pub or golf club, bear a grudge against people, or deliberately cause harm to someone.
It is about whether to gazump someone, take drugs, sell your story, stab someone in the back, help an enemy need, have an abortion, take someone to court, divorce, sell a dodgy car.
TURNING UP THE HEAT
All of us face thousands of choices throughout our lives. The fanatics would want us believe that it is all a straight forward battle between God and the devil, that the Bible gives us all the answers and that choosing is simple.
These same people often come a cropper, because life is not like that and such an approach produces either artificial puppets or a nervous breakdown. The frightening truth with which we are faced is that there are not easy right and wrong pathways. While there may be common factors and trends, nearly every decision is unique and every set of factors different.
The image of the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert trying to make up his mind is about the heat he experienced, the endless time and the loneliness involved in choice.
The whole charade of giving up petty things sells us very short indeed. In fact when I hear Christians joking about what they're going to give up this year, I realise that for them it is an easier option to keep Lent at the sweet shop level than to enter the desert of personal choice.
TONGUES
Perhaps you have had experience of those churches that use a different sort of spiritual language sometimes in worship. At first sight people speaking an unknown language, called 'tongues', may be rather intriguing to the newcomer. It may also be frightening!
Such groups regularly claim that God is more fully present in their church than in other churches, that his spirit is available to fill the lives of those who ask and that once filled they will be able to experience all sorts of things. For instance, they should be able to speak in tongues, or speak a message directly from God, or perform miracles.
SAFE IN THE RIGHT HANDS
Believers are told that God will give them a whole new language, that strange sounds will come out of their mouths, that they only have to try and their language will flow. It all sounds rather worrying and odd. In fact it is a perfectly normal earthly process and nothing to be afraid about at all.
Language is made up of different sounds. Some sounds form words, others sighs or tones. If you experiment, anyone can enjoy the fun of making different sounds with their mouths and vocal cords and begin to produce a pattern which takes the shape of a new language.
I remember as a child developing a wonderful array of sounds which I would speak to the other foreign children on holiday as though I was speaking another language. It was great fun. In the end the sounds became familiar and, as with any language, could sound beautiful or rough.
WHY NOT JUST TALK ENGLISH
The idea of using tongues is that words require thought and thought often gets in the way of being able to relax or express the feelings inside you. Perhaps you are really angry, distressed out of your mind, worried sick, or on Cloud Nine; we are not all poets or writers and our words can let us down, but sound can say it all.
In the same way that listening to a song can grate because the words may not fit our mood, listening to some instrumental or classical music can carry our emotions and give vent to our longings. Tongues give us an orchestra to play out our innermost senses.
Tongues can be beautiful when used privately and when they are used with others, either spoken or sung, but when one person uses them in a church it brings us to the next gift.
PROPHET
No sooner has the tongue finished than the prophet appears, the one whose gift it is to interpret the sounds that have been heard. Someone in the church will stand up and begin speaking as though they were God or Jesus. ' I am pleased with my people………' The rest listen and receive God's message. Many are overawed with the idea that God is actually speaking to them.
God uses a person as prophet who perhaps has the sort of personality, intellect, creative mind or imagination to be able to capture the mood of the community, express its feeling or be perceptive about what will be the next challenge it might have to face.
Sometimes what the prophet says is very apt, sometimes not so. Those who hear it must discern whether or what parts constitute God's word.
THE ART
Tongues and prophecy used like this can be very beautiful. Learning about using tongues may be as helpful to Edith as Yoga is to Bob. Growing in confidence to be able to speak a word from God may be as fulfilling for Andy as painting a picture is for Charlotte.
The 'spiritual gifts' as they are called, are available to anyone. They do not require any special status, any miraculous experience, any special prayer or extraordinary happenings. They are as miraculous as learning to walk, talk, right, draw, sing, act, swim or any of life's array of opportunities for self expression.
AND THE SECOND TIME AROUND.
So what is all this second coming business with Jesus coming back for the great day of judgement and bringing the world to an end as we know it?
Its 'Independence Day' stuff, the bread and butter of sci-fi fans and the like, but it is confusing if you take it at face value.
By now perhaps you are getting into the swing of my lateral approach and can do your own interpretation. Let's look for the heart and thrust of the story.
All of us are capable of constructive interpretation, but to get you started, the belief is meant to make us feel as though we had just heard that a very special and dear friend would be coming to visit after a long time away. It makes us remember past experiences, take stock of what news there is to share, make practical preparations, wonder what the friend will make of us and think of us now, indeed everything begins to be taken up with the knowledge and awareness of the possible visit.
In the case of knowing that Jesus is the friend, the feelings might take on a sharper focus, as the visitor is also our teacher and moral guardian all rolled into one. As though in a way the visitor is our own conscience.
Believing in the second coming is not really about some 'end of the world' drama. It is about whether we live our lives and make our choices in such a way that should a good and holy conscience and a living God pay us a surprise visit, then our hearts would not go-a-racing because of what we had to hide.
14: MADAME TUSSAUDS
I am not sure whether people assess their level of fame by whether they have been immortalised in wax. Some say it is hard to tell who is false and who is real in Madame Tussaud's. People begin to strike up a conversation with their pop idol or revered politician and find them particularly dumb!
The church is brimming over with wax. Not only are so many of the people wax look-alikes, posing and posturing as Goody Two Shoes, but also the way they believe has turned what is true and what is false upside down.
Prayer meetings, holy communion, church services, Christmas, Easter and Whit Sunday, these things are not in themselves real. At best they are rather lovely festivals that we enjoy, works of art that we love or plays that we perform together. The task of a painting or a poem is to present life while not itself being life and that is the task of religion too.
The danger, however, is that church goers become so caught up with their religion that it is as though they had become obsessed with art and are unable to leave the art gallery. For them the real world is an unwelcome distraction. They adore an impressionist landscape but despise the real countryside. They see Phantom of the Opera 20 times but have no time for the disabled. They become consumed in Mills and Boon but cannot make a relationship work. They say that they love God but have not the time of day to give to anyone around them.
MELTDOWN
Sometimes it is necessary to turn the heating up and light the fires until the dummies have slowly gone.
I used to infuriate certain members of my church by suggesting that they regarded themselves as devout and faithful believers but that they had not a clue what their beliefs meant and that their believing was thus perhaps a waste of time.
They would go red in the face and their hearts would race as they declared, ' But I believe in the crucifixion and resurrection and that Jesus was the son of God and that he healed the blind, cured the lame and in the end that he ascended into heaven in front of everyone.'
These were the same people who could not work with difficult situations, seemed unable to offer forgiveness to others, were unaware of how to find hope in despair. They were uninterested in helping people see their way through problems or getting someone back on their feet. Their beliefs were all words and talk, convenient cushions with which to buttress the invading world, a pleasure park of contrived forms of speech which provide a thrill here and there but sent them out into the world empty handed.
UNPACKING WORSHIP
Church services can be either horrifically dull or top entertainment but whichever form they take they are meaningless unless you understand what is going on.
For a start let us cut God out of the picture. Although the people involved may want to boost their own egos by thinking they're putting on a dazzling circus spectacular for God, the truth is that the experience has little if anything to do with God at all.
A church service is a group of people choosing to put together a programme of words, music and actions which carry meaning for them. The question someone attending should ask is, what is the meaning?
It can be fun to sing together, it is special to enjoy beautiful words being read, particularly if those words are wise or instructive, it can also help us to think together of common concerns. All these things happen naturally in worship. There is nothing mysterious about it. You find similar ingredients in concert halls, theatres or poetry evenings.
Then there are other more intriguing parts of the service. We are invited to confess our sins, to seek forgiveness, to offer praise to God, to declare our beliefs and to receive bread and wine. These appear rather religious but on closer inspection they too are very ordinary.
The idea is to encourage people to be self critical, to desire improvement, to learn to be grateful, to express what makes them tick and be willing to sit down and eat together with friend and enemy alike.
They are the raw ingredients for happy, healthy living together and in a church service they take this stylised form.
BUT YOU CAN'T BE A CHRISTIAN IF YOU DON'T GO TO CHURCH
How often have we heard that said? I do not agree! As I tried to show there are some who do the stylised bit perfectly; the hymn singing, the communion taking, but they can be some of the most unpleasant human beings.
In contrast, there are some who would not be seen dead , in a church but they know their faults, try hard, love life, protect their wisdom and have time for and would share their last penny with anyone. These are the true Christians, the genuine believers.
If it is ever a choice between religion and reality, between church and conscience, between liturgy and love, choose reality, conscience and love every time. If asked to burn the Bible, renounce your faith and put the sacrament of bread and wine down the toilet, do it, if it means protecting someone. There is nothing in religion or about God which is ever worth causing damage to your soul or to your family or to others.
PITY THE SUICIDE BOMBERS AND THEIR VICTIMS
The world is full of people doing terrible things for God. They cut off people's limbs, blow up busses laden with passengers, gas commuters, gun down children, torture prisoners, knee-cap victims, slaughter and hijack.
The young strap bombs to their bodies and drive their lorries towards check points, they plant bombs in their luggage and board an aircraft. In the inferno that results their bodies along with many others are obliterated. Why?For God and for dreams of heaven. Oh, how much the priests, the holy men and the spiritual writers of the past and present have to answer for!
Such wild and crazy actions may seem a long way from home, but that is only because we have tamed the hairier sides of our religion and made it respectable. Beware, though, the potential terrorist, with whom you supped tea this morning or beer this evening.
It may have been the sweet lady or jovial chap who slips into the conversation had God has told them to change job, move house, go to church more often, or give up gambling. So far so good, but tomorrow it may be to reject their parents, disown their child or break a life times friendship. It is the same mentality that leads people to maim their opponents and kill their enemies.
Once we start to unquestioningly believe that God is telling us to do things, no one knows where it may lead.
NOT AT MY PARISH CHURCH
So many parents watch unperturbed as their children innocently trip up to church for the youth club or uniform service. Localised religion seems so harmless in this country, and often it is.
However, there is an upsurge of fanaticism and many of the local churches had been affected. What is even more dangerous is that as these same churches get their acts together and present themselves with a glossy freshness, so they appear more consumer friendly and modern to young people.
People come away thinking that all is well at St Swithin's and isn't the new vicar lovely. But what they need to find out is what the vicar and the church goers believe. Underneath the glitz and the glamour can be a deadly and ruthless belief system which could seriously threaten you and your families health.
THE SAFEST AND THE BEST
If you are one of those people who has a belief tucked deep down within you who is quite comfortable in saying a prayer now and then as the need arises, who quite likes popping into church at Christmas and harvest and who intends to try and live in a Christian way, to you I would want to raise a toast. You are the safest and the best form of Christian I have met. Do not let anyone knock your faith or make you question your status as a believer. You are as much a part of the church as any churchgoer is , and God loves you just the way you are.
You keep the true faith alive and well and preserve it from the zany, the fanatics and the over the top brigade, as well as from the dour, the stalwarts and the stick in the muds. You're the salt of the earth, the gentle light that pervades our world.
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