Today the latest issue of BMS Mission Catalyst landed on my doormat.  It is one of umpteen Christian publications that do so.  It is one of the few I read cover to cover; one of the few that I can say I make time for.

This one is about the Bible and about attitudes to its inspiration, purpose and reliability, to name but three.  Now rocket science it is not, but it does have a level of honesty which some will find discomfiting, especially if they have managed to evade any proper Biblical studies, church history - or even failed to read the stuff that is printed in the back of the Good News Bible I've had since my teens or the beginning of the Lion Handbook.

Trouble is, I suppose, very few people will actually read it.  Those who have a more fundamentalist view will dismiss it as 'liberal' and those who accept probably already know what it says.  It needs to get past ministers (at whom it is aimed) to 'people in the pew'.

Anyway, if you are interested and don't have direct access to a paper copy, you can always read it on line here (though having just looked it hasn't appeared there yet!  It is issue 2/12.  Plenty of other interesting issues to look at in the meantime)

Whoops, I had two No 22 posts... and it seems either no-one noticed or everyone was too polite to comment (assuming of course that the comments are working at the moment...)

Anyway, it's Friday, I've had a great morning being very busy, and it's time for a break and a blog.

Today's readings are:

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Daniel 12:5-13
Ephesians 1:7-14

Having played with the psalm already I'm not planning on a revisit.  The Daniel is just plain bewildering, and all attempts to explain it are probably wrong.  So that leaves the Ephesians passage which is well worth a little ponder...

For by the blood of Christ we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God, which he gave to us in such large measure! In all his wisdom and insight God did what he had purposed, and made known to us the secret plan he had already decided to complete by means of Christ.  This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head. All things are done according to God's plan and decision; and God chose us to be his own people in union with Christ because of his own purpose, based on what he had decided from the very beginning.  Let us, then, who were the first to hope in Christ, praise God's glory!  And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised.  The Spirit is the guarantee that we shall receive what God has promised his people, and this assures us that God will give complete freedom to those who are his. Let us praise his glory!  Ephesians 1: 7 - 14 GNB

A very long time ago now, I read a book that challenged evangelical Christians to be more alert to environmental issues at a time when the received wisdom, at least in some parts of evangelicalism, was that (a) the earth was flawed and destined for destruction anyway and (b) it was there to be exploited in the meantime.  A couple of decades on, it is terrifying to think that people of good will and profound faith thought that way.  The little book I read all that time ago showed me a very different way of reading scripture, that showed God's profound love for the whole of creation.  Passages such as this one from Ephesians formed part of the argument the book put forward.

It is probably fair to say that most evangelical Christians, at least in Europe, have a reasonably good attitude to environmental issues.  We switch off lights; we turn down the heat; we turn off taps; we recycle sermons plastic, glass, paper... But it is also probably fair to say that the view that the universe is headed for perdition or oblivion is still quite widespread, very much contra scripture.

Reading this little extract, we begin with a nice evangelical statement - by Christ's blood we are freed from sin.  However, what we don't get next is something along the lines of 'and this is your ticket to heaven away from the nasty, hell-bound earth'.  No.  We get something more amazing and wonderful that is God's 'secret plan' (Don't you love that concept?  I do!)...

This plan, which God will complete when the time is right, is to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.

What is, I think, challenging about this Ephesians passage is that it brings together in one place ideas held very dear by evangelicals and liberals, by universalists and whatever the opposite is.  There is a kind of both-and going on here, I think.  Yes, Christ died to redeem us from sin but also to redeem everything from sin... it is personal and universal in scope.  It is, I think a helpful reminder than none of us has the whole truth and that God's 'secret plan' is revealed only slowly (in human terms) as we begin to grasp the enormity of what it means both in the here-and-now and in a framework of eternity.

I guess the rub is that a consumerist use of the planet is sinful, and therefore necessitates the redemption wrought by Christ.  That gives me pause for thought.

A secret plan, God,

Do you really have a secret plan for all creation?

'Mysterious ways'

Is probably a more accurate rendering

But less enticing

Less exciting

Perhaps Francis of Assisi

Glimpsed this plan

In his canticle

All Creatures of our God and King...

Like the psalmists before him:

Tree clapping their hands

Stars singing

The heavens declaring...

How did we lose our way?

Become so utilitarian?

When did we forget this thread

Woven through

All scripture?

Teach me to love your creation

To tread lightly on your sacred earth

To work with you to bring all things together

Under Christ

Forgive my sins

Of wastefulness

And greediness

Of complacency

And criticism

Forgive me

Help me forgive myself

Help me forgive others

And

Having glimpsed your secret plan

Help me to work with you

To bring it to pass.