Shalom in the City

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the message on Sunday. We had a visiting guest speaker, Mark Lau Branson (a professor from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA) give a message out of Luke 10:1-16. It is the passage where Jesus sends out the 70 (actually 72 is the better translation). Now I have had a 'head's up' on extended time in this passage because we spent an hour each morning as a class when I was at my cohort classes in January at Fuller in it. But it still challenges me and takes me to new levels of reflection!

Mark told an amazing story on Sunday... of an artist from his church who had been robbed at gun point and who used that as a 'door' into the brokenness of her community. She was fishing for the ones to who Jesus shalom could be made known. The same people who Jesus says that the Kingdom is inbreaking for through (in him) in Isa 61. And I have been reflecting on the powers of this world and how they subtly grab hold of us and take us captives to the thoughts and mindsets of this world, rather the the liberty and freedom that we can have through following Jesus.

Jesus sent these people out into a dangerous world and taught them how to incarnate naturally into local communities (ie. don't take a suitcase full of stuff which gives away the fact that you are a newcomer to that village). And he taught them how to offer shalom to those that took them in and how to avoid others. In short, Jesus was teaching them about the powers that were in operation of that day (ie, culture, the Roman Empire, Jewish selling out through Herod, etc). So I started thinking about the powers today that capture us/me and inhibit us from shalom and the offering of it to our city? Because, surely our presence here should announce that shalom (Acts 2:47).

Two things about Love

As I look deeply into Paul's famous 'love' passage in 1 Corinthians 13 I see that there are two actions that love compels. Paul says that 'love is patient, love is kind'. Gordan Fee says of this that Paul is doing two things here:

1. He is referring to the two responses that love compels. First, patience is translated in the King James Version of the Bible as 'suffereth long'. Sometimes in the name of love we are powerless to do anything but 'suffereth long'. Second, The other thing that Paul says about love is that it is kind. Kindness speaks of 'taking action', often in a compassionate fashion. So, love compels us to either: wait or take action as ambassadors of Christ. We can trust the Holy Spirit to guide us in both contexts.

2. But on a deeper level these two 'love responses' are symbolic of God's actions for us. They are actually what he has done for us. He waited and withheld what we deserved and then he acted through the sending of his son, Jesus Christ. Read John 3:16! Wow!

Which Theologian are you most like?

This survey described me as this?

Who are you like?


You scored as Karl Barth.


The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology.

60%
Karl Barth

60%
Jurgen Moltmann

53%
Friedrich Schleiermacher

53%
John Calvin

53%
Charles Finney

53%
Martin Luther

47%
Augustine

40%
Paul Tillich

27%
Jonathan Edwards

Check it out at: www.quizfarm.com

What I Learned at Kinder Today!

Every Wednesday I spend the mid-morning with the four year-olds at our kindergarten. It is a cool time where we sing songs, I tell stories and we pray together. Today I gave them a paraphrased version of Luke 10:25-37, 'The Parable of the Good Samaritan' and then asked them to tell me what it meant.

We all know that Jesus said that it was kids who most 'got' the Kingdom of God. Us adults are the ones to justify, modify and rationalise things beyind the point of recognition of their origional meaning. Not these four year olds. They got it.

One replied, "Andrew, that's easy... We are meant to care for people who need help." I asked the rest of the group if they agreed. They did (although a couple of them thought Spiderman and Batman also helped the police when they needed help!). And I thought to myself as I walked out, "It is that simple! Jesus 'helped and helps us' and we are to do the same to others. That is what will tansform our community from its anxiety driven consumerism and fear of 'the other'. That is what the community will never despise the church for... "Out of the mouths of babes..."

Perfect Community: Our Example

On Sunday we explored the nature of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). As we looked into the interconnectedness of the three members we saw that material examples of the Trinity like an egg (shell, yoke & white) or a triangle or water (in the forms of ice, liquid and steam) while helpful were insufficient because they didn;t help us with the aspect of fellowship.

For the relational aspect of the Trinity we dug into Eastern Christian thought. I held up my Russian wedding ring and we saw how the three rings were interconnected, unseperably. That is our example of what we need to become if we are going to follow Christ and be his example to the watching and waiting world. Six things stood out to me about the Trinity that we should 'live by or die by' in our church:

1. Fellowship/Relationship
2. Generosity of heart
3. Joy in Service
4. Mission orientation
5. Trust and Confidence in each member
6. Unity in Diversity

Indeed an exciting and great vision for us as we live into the Biblical narrative as God's People in Camberwell.

Andrew