Last Sunday we had our fifth shared service with 'Dibley plus 1 mile' Baptist Church, for whom I really ought to be thinking of a better name by now. It was quite well attended though the beginnings of the holiday season are starting to show. The style was far nearer to our own, reflecting what they usually do in their morning services. Three out of four hymns were produced on sheets, not being in the 'green hymn book', and the one thing we sang from Songs and Hymns of Fellowship was. That made me smile to myself, but I was impressed by the efforts to a more contemporary approach.
I found the service intriguing, with its use of agrarian imagery and three Bible passages I would never think of linking, so well done for engaging me in deeper thinking.
We had the Mark 4:32 version of the parable of the mustard seed, complete with birds nesting in the shade. We were then asked whether the church was a place of shelter for those who come in. Good question, but for me it confused 'church' with 'kingdom': while the former should be part of the latter, I fear a danger of insularity lurking if we make them equivalent. It's probably not what the preacher meant (I know you read this stuff - please feel free to correct me!) and it certainly made me think about how people coming into the 'church' experience it.
Then we went (I think) to Ezekiel 17:3ff with the image of transplanting. If it wasn't this, then it was very similar. Alas, because the Ezekiel passage is on my own 'significant passages' list I half drifted onto another plane at this point. I think we thought about transplanting; I know the questions posed in the passage are ones I have asked myself regularly as someone who anticipated being in urban ministry and ended up in Dibley. Happily, I think that I am surviving in the place where I've been transplanted, and hope that my city ideas are bearing some fruit. Perhaps we were meant to think about transplanting our congregations - if so I'm not entirely sure it quite works, since as a minimum we're more looking at a graft than simply a transplant, I think. But maybe I missed the point being lost in my own little world. Tricky analogy perhaps?
Lastly we briefly pondered John 12:23 - unless an ear of wheat falls to the ground... Was this to be read/heard at the level of local congregations? That's how I heard it, certainly. If so, brave stuff to say. Certainly it echoes my own thinking about this process, and ideas I approach, if in a different way, with my own folk. The courtship phase is scheduled to continue at least another 6 months, so I guess it is time we started to move beyond small talk to real conversations.
Towards the end of the service we were each given a tiny poppy seed to hold in our hand as we prayed: giving them out was interesting and needed a little ingenuity! With this tiny black speck on my hand, I was struck afresh by the mystery of the potential that is contained in something so small and seemingly lifeless. All that is needed is to cast it into the earth and allow nature to take its course... To do that with our churches... If only it felt so easy!
As I see the poppies in the fields around this area, defiantly red or orange amidst the green stalks of wheat, yet frail and fleeting in the grand scheme of things, I wonder just what the parable of the poppy seed might be for us at this time.
Comments
You spotted me lurking at the back then!
I believe if the church is an expression or an agent of the kingdom it should express and act out the values and functions of the kingdom, so it should be intentionally setting about providing shelter and nourishment to those from beyond its boundaries, rather than simply providing shelter for itself. I was talking to the churches about how I felt they should understand their role in God's world as signs and embodiments of God's kingdom. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I got home on Sunday evening, picked up a commentary and discovered that the Roots notes I'd used had rather missed the/a point of Ezekiel 17! Ho Hum. My intention was to link the success of the little tree in an unpromising location with God's surprising choice of little beginnings and unpromising situations as the location for new life and abundance - a sort of a happy, jumbly conflation of kingdom theology with personal Christian experience (it doesn't matter if you're a tiny seed or a little tree, God works with these things most of the time - and by the way that's the way God's kingdom often works too). However, the commentary (Wevers' commentary in The Century Bible series) assigned a messianic significance to the little tree, contrasted with the opulence and fruitlessness of the cedars of the royal dynasties. The recurring picture of the birds and beasts finding shelter suggests that Jesus and the gospel writers may have been making messianic claims rather than just praising little beginnings. So my interpretation there was a bit more reader-centred (and plain confused) than it should have been! (but I am pretty convinced the parable owes a lot to the Ezekiel passage). That's my story... but it might not be in a couple of days!
The seed that falls in the ground and dies is one of my special passages (which is why I have to avoid boring people with it constantly). But I have repeatedly over 30 years seen its significance in the life of individuals and communities. The process of falling in the ground and dying may be painful, full of uncertainty and even conflict - but God does new things through cycles of death and renewal. Jesus gave us the best example of that, but I'm sure most LEPs could tell tales of dying to live. If we're not prepared to die and fall in the ground, we won't be renewed and we will remain alone.
Speaking of cycles of growth and renewal (which I wasn't quite, but I'll pretend I was) the orange song book has been quite a political flashpoint in our church in past years, (Oh we can't use that because so-and-so didn't like it!) so its happy acceptance on that occasion by those who used to find its presence offensive was itself a powerful symbol of growth and hope for the future. We've moved on, so Alleluia!
Thanks Andy, that's helpful. I hope I wasn't too rude in what I said! You've done a great job at 'D+1' and will be missed by them - and me - when you go elsewhere.
I think I share your take on the Ezekiel 17, though it's a very puzzling passage, and your use of the John 12. Had not clicked that this was lectionary-ish, obviously too busy working out what to say about 1 John 4 with its 34 occurences of 'agapetos' related words!
Orange books for you, Powerpoint for us: our progress may be small but it's progress! Alleluia indeed.