I love lunch club days; they are frenetic, hard work but our members love it so much that it is all worth while.

Today was no different from any other month except that John (not his real name) was having problems with his false leg and we had to lift him on and off the coach to get him to the restaurant.  Not dignified, not safe - not good enough.  So we booked a wheelchair friendly taxi to take him home afterwards.

There were definitely some comedy moments as I walked along, pushing the wheelchair with John's leg tucked under my arm.  Thankfully, he is a man with genuine good humour and saw the comedy value for himself. 

WWJD?  Well, there are no stories of miraculous regrowth of amputated limbs, so it's an interesting one isn't it?  I'd like to think he might have had to call a taxi too!  

So today's Baptist news esweep brings to my attention two very different articles, one that encourages and one that dismays.

On the one hand we have Rick Warren trying to encourage ministers, even if his cookie making analogy is not the greatest, recognising that life includes some pretty grotty stuff and saying that 'God never wastes experiences – good or bad. He wants to use your experiences to make you a more effective minister.'  Then we have a Nigerian Archbishop reportedly telling us of the evils of multiculturalism and inclusivity, and warning newly trained ministers about the evil world beyond the safe confines of the seminary: 'the “consequences” of multiculturalism were “grave. We end up with what looks like Church but in reality is not.” '

As I've thinking about leading services on 'grace' and 'mercy' and re-reading a little book called 'Our God has No Favourites' with its focus on accounts of Jesus inclusivity in a multicultural milieu (scandalous!) the words of the venerable gentleman make me very sad indeed.  The archbishop is probably right in saying we can end up with what looks like church but isn't really - I'm just not sure I'd define 'right' the same way as he does.  And if that makes apostate or a heretic bound for eternal damnation, well, hey, I reckon I'll be in pretty good company! 

I've had some fun today playing around with the idea of grace in the light of suggestions that 'grace', or at least 'charis' has associations with abstract concepts like 'charm' and 'beauty.'  As part of my introduction on Sunday I'm using a picture of ballet dancer and a swimming swan, which are often seen as 'graceful' - the elegance and beauty belying the effort and concentration 'under the surface.'  But the idea of 'graceful' - being filled with grace - as becoming beautiful, beguiling, attractive, winsome and so on appealed.

But if grace is of God, then in some way these words each something of God's Godness - and it is a wonderful challenge for me to contemplate such ideas as the 'winsomeness of God.'  I am reminded of one of my favourite childhood hymns 'God is love, his the care' with its refrain 'God is good, God is truth, God is beauty, praise Him.'

Grace is free in evey sense of the word - not only is there no charge, but it is unbounded.  I am finding that my metpahpors around 'grace' and my metaphors around 'Spirit' are overlapping and am wondering if that matters?  One of my favourite film images of God is in the (dire) film 'Dogma' where God appears as a young woman turning cartwheels (I know I've mentioned this in a past post but am too lazy to check back where, and if it's good enough for the likes Theresa of Avila...).  Might there be a playful delight in grace as well as all the intense doctrinal stuff?

God you are...

beautiful 

beguiling 

winsome

ethereal

real

funny

scary

playful 

serious

vulnerable

powerful

closer than my breathing

yet beyond my imagining or understanding

beyond words

yet word of life...

The photo may not be the 'greatest,' and I make no apologies that neither of the signs is legible, but it is nonetheless a signficant moment.

A 'for sale' board has appeared outside Dibley chapel as it goes 'on the market' today.

I was surprised by how much more 'real' it felt to step out of my front door and see a large red and white sign announcing the fact to all who pass by.  In a few weeks time it will (DV, as my grandmother used to say) no longer be my problem.  My one hope is that whoever buys it gets on with removing the building before the vandals so any more harm...

Watch this space for further updates

No, not the dodgy theology that says sin more to get more grace, but just the abundance of stuff on/about grace and the intense mystery of what it must really be.

This morning I have read no less than four entries in theological 'dictionaries' on grace.  So, the SCM dictionaries of Christian Theology, Ethics and Spirituality and the Oxford Companion to the Bible.  I could also read McGrath on this topic but not Grenz because I lent him to someone else, but my brain is already overflowing with what people think meant by the word 'grace' or the Hebrew and Greek words thus translated (hesed, hen, eleos and charis).

So

Charis - gift, rejoicing, charm, beauty, kindness, goodwill, gratitude, favour, boon, gratification, delight

Hesed - mercy, love, covenanted love

From these comes a doctrine of grace as

• undeserved election
• new birth
• adoption
• incorporation in the body of Christ
• bearing of fruit (charismata/'graces')

Or, forgiveness coupled with participation in the divine life

Or, forgiveness and ongoing transformation/empowerment

And then, if this wasn't enough to boggle the old mind, a whole list of varieties of grace:

• uncreated grace
• created grace
• habitual/sanctifying grace
• actual grace
• elevating grace
• healing grace
• prevenient grace
• efficacious grace
• sufficient grace

And all that before we get onto the topics of 'means of grace' or 'irresistible/resistible grace' and the shenanigans they cause.

I feel like rather than a couple of sermons, I have a whole undergraduate module here!  So, what am I going to do with it all?

Firstly, to acknowledge the mystery (I seem to be getting fond that word at the moment) and complexity of the concept.  Then something about open-handedness of this gift - but even that is impossible to explain adequately (and I have no desire to go through the Calvin/Arminius debates).  Then something along the lines of it as transformative and leading to action as well as attitude.  I think the first week will introduce the theme and concentrate on the 'vertical' (us to God) dimension and the second week on the 'horizontal' (us in the world) dimension.  So in week 1 we'll pick up threads from  Romans (where else?!) although there will be some other stuff too.  In week 2 probably the story of David and Mephibosheth and/or the John 8 adulterous woman (thanks Angela and Julie).

All in all, then reading has served it's usual purpose of confirming that there is a simple sermon to be preached on any topic - and it will simply be inadequate.  And now, back to trying to write the first sermon...