I love Jason Evans’ blog from yesterday – particularly the statement “shut up and be something.” It’s so weird to think that there’s this war going on on in a land far away and that there are innocent people just like us who are faced with such aggression. I heard an interview with a guy about to catch a train in one London station, when questioned about the war: “it’s sad people have to die, but life must go on” as though his life is what life is about and those people the other side of the globe just don’t matter. I get easily upset by things like that.

{Lord, bring good out of this tragedy of war. Make us more real and less selfish. Help us to see the Iraq as groups of innocent people who want peace, not as some far off entity.}

Sometimes the disciples were so dumb. Jesus had sent them on ahead to make arrangements for hospitality on his way to Jerusalem. They called off at a Samaritan Village and went to ask them if Jesus could stay there. The people refused. So James and John ask Jesus “do you want us to call a bolt of lightning down from the sky and incinerate them?” Let’s blast them dude!

So how does Jesus respond? “Yeah guys, that’d be cool – let’s burn them so hard that you can see the smoke rise.” No, he ends things with a simple “course not.”

I guess it just dawned on me that the disciples had never seen Jesus harm anyone with his ‘secret powers’ and yet that’s exactly what they’re willing to do at the first opportunity (once given Authority).

Before I sign off, I just remembered something in Luke 8. Jesus takes three of his disciples with him when asked to restore the life to Jairus’ daughter. That’s how he trained people. He was himself, he took people with him to see how he did things, later they were given authority to do the same.

Jesus says “let’s go to the other side” then falls asleep while the others get him there. It’s quiet but soon a storm breaks out – they really and truly believe that they’re going to die, so they wake Jesus up to tell him so – he clicks his fingers, the storm stops, then he tells them off for not trusting him. Why did he tell them off?

I guess it must be because he, God had given them orders to get to the other side and being God, when he said it he didn’t mean “head for the other side so I can wipe you out on the way” – he meant “go to the other side.” The passage really spoke to me. So often I’m so absorbed in what’s going on around me that I think “how am I ever going to get through the storm?” But God has told me that he’s taking me to a place beyond that, so why should I give up trusting him just because the weather’s changed. If he orders, he’ll provide the resources.

I realised that I had so much to write on tithing that I didn’t mention anything else to do with his talks…I thought they were great, although aimed at a more traditional audience. Although he confessed that he didn’t know the Vineyard all that well, I had hoped that he would provide a certain insight into where we as a movement had come from. That doesn’t however mean that the christendom factors weren’t relevant to us.

I would have loved to hear his thoughts on sex, for example – particularly when Jay had mentioned spending most of his time trying to get (unmarried) people to stop having sex with each other! The explaination that most things in the new testament were not directly applicable, but that all are indirectly applicable was certainly helpful, but I would have liked him to expand on his ideas a little. Perhaps some ‘scholars’ would have a better idea of how to apply that concept to a fresh reading of scripture but I’m afraid I don’t (please comment if you have any tips!)

War

His reference to war was certainly an eye opener. I’d been long prodding this issue with a number of people to whom I had spoken. Some had mentioned the ‘Just War’ theory. SMW gave some insight to this idea, how it is a product of Christendom, and related it to our current situation – what is a ‘just war’?

1. War must be for a just Cause

2. War must be with good intention

3. There must be reasonable expectation of success

4. War must be waged by proper means

5. War must be the only possible way of removing evil

6. War must be declared and fought by a legitimate Authority.

He pointed out that the current US-UK-Iraq situation does not fit cleanly into this criteria. The circumstances are in fact closer to those of the (“more Biblical”) concept of a crusade. This thinking is a breath of fresh air. I couldn’t get my head around the idea of Jesus waging war in a physical, or political domain and so the just war idea had never sat comfortably. Now I know why.

If I think of anything else I shall blog on this topic further…until then “roll on death of Christendom!” I pray that it will be the quickest thing I ever learn and unlearn!

I’ve noticed recently that there are two parties in our community (don’t worry it’s nothing “essential”) – those who like the word church and who apply it to everything (i.e. I do church in a cafe with my mate, on a boat, in a moat (reminds me of Father of the Bride!)) and those who feel that the term is no longer useful to us, that it’s so full of misconceptions that we’d be better to drop it altogether.

There are two ways of looking at it:

1. Firstly to use anything other than church can cause confusion, for example trying to explain to someone that you’re part of a ‘missional community’ might get a bit tiring.

2. On the other hand there is the argument that when you speak of “church” they have images of the lifeless, the boring…

Should we redefine the term, or use something different?