Facebook, Politics and Rising Nationalism

If my Facebook friends were the world - and liking official Facebook pages of politicians constituted real votes, then this is what the world would look like;

4.5% Like Jeremy Corbyn (Labour)
1.3% Like Boris Johnson (Conservative)
1.0% Like Natalie Bennett (Green)
1.0% Like David Cameron (Conservative)
0.8% Like Hilary Clinton (Democrat)
0.6% Like Bernie Sanders (Democrat)
0.3% Like Donald Trump (Republican)
0.2% Like Nigel Farage (UKIP)
0.2% Follow Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats)
0.1% Like Nicola Sturgeon (SNP)
0.1% Like Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union)

There's some odd stuff there and they're rather low percentages over all, but I'm kind of OK with the world as constituted by my friends - thank you friends.
However, taking the same list of politicians with the same rules and looking at the whole of Facebook we get this result;

7,871,190 Like Donald Trump (Republican)
4,012,803 Like Bernie Sanders (Democrat)
3,568,682 Like Hilary Clinton (Democrat)
2,030,104 Like Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union)
1,093,513 Like David Cameron (Conservative)
  620,285 Like Jeremy Corbyn (Labour)
  485,027 Like Boris Johnson (Conservative)
  351,007 Like Nigel Farage (UKIP)
  213,646 Like Nicola Sturgeon (SNP)
   53,493 Like Natalie Bennett (Green)
    6,841 Follow Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats)

(N.B the choice of politicians were selected by myself - there were others I looked at, but they didn't have official pages)

 

There are some encouraging and some disturbing things about both lists, but the 7,871,190 who have been fooled into supporting selfishness, bigotry and aggression towards our fellow human beings need to hear from the rest of us that this is not OK. It's not OK to build the politics of the future on who you hate, who you fear or who you consider to be different. It's not OK to build the politics of this age on walls, guns, being stronger than the other guy and blaming the poor for their poverty.

 

It is impossible as a Christian to support this kind of politics (if you think you are and you do then it's time go and learn some things about the Jesus you claim to follow). It should be harder than this for any intelligent human being of any faith or none to think this is the direction the world should be going.

 

We need to start speaking up for politics that are about caring for each other regardless of race, gender, culture or religion. We need to break down the walls not build them up; we need to be more together not more separated. National boundaries are a false division and the nationalism that is growing in global politics can only end badly if this tide does not turn.

 

The politics of the right in Britain are not so disturbing as Trump and America, but we are not without our problems; not without those who are willing to vote in similar ways for similar reasons, not without those whose fears about staying in Europe are rooted in that same false sense of separateness, not without people who will constantly vote for politicians who claim to do good for 'us' at the expense of 'them' and end up being bad for all but the very rich, because 'them' and 'us' are all part of the same system.

 

Jesus said "Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

Leviticus 19:34 says "The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt."

 

Jesus also said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

 

Paul said "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

 

And even if none of that had been said, choosing nationalistic politics that place the growth of national economies over the wellbeing of the poor and set the wellbeing of one nation against another, would still be a bad idea in a world with limited resources and a shared biological makeup. My wellbeing depends on your wellbeing; that is the nature of sharing the same eco system, the same creation, the same world that has no interest in national borders. Surely, at the very least, the international world of social media should know better.

Breaking and Pouring version 6: For a reflective service around a table

This is the 6th version of my alternative communion service. This version explores more fully than the others the exploration of the Biblical text.

 

A significant development in this version is that it offers a suggestion of how to account for the missing verb in 'this is my body ... for you', and perhaps how the 'broken' may have arrived in later centuries.

 

 

 

 

Communion Service

|Breaking and pouring version 6: for an unfolding Service|

N.B. the 'Unfolding' service is a small reflective evening service that explores theology in an experiential way.

This service is best done as a meal with the congregation sat around a single table

Presider: Jesus and his disciples came to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of the Passover.

The Passover was a weeklong celebration in the capital city, where they remembered the time when, through God's guidance, Moses brought them out of captivity in Egypt, the sacrificial lambs were brought to the temple, because, in the time of the Exodus, the blood of lambs was used as a marker on the doors so that the angel of death would pass over those houses. 

As part of the celebration Jesus and his disciples joined together in a traditional meal in an upper room that they had hired for the occasion; a meal of thanksgiving for their freedom. Tonight, instead of just expecting this experience to come to us, we are going to do a little bit of placing ourselves at that meal, to try to hear some of the words through the ears of the disciples as they sat around that table.

Raising a cup of water, the presider says;

And so in that spirit Let us raise the cup of freedom;

To Freedom

We proclaim good news to the poor;

Freedom for prisoners

A vision for those who have not seen,

And a lifting of the burdens of the oppressed Amen

Song: STF 410 (H&P 774) Lord Your Church on Earth is Seeking

A brief talk about personal experience of acceptance & togetherness at communion. This may be one individual who has prepared what they are going to say or it may be in the form of an open conversation. It may be helpful here to talk about the Methodist 'open table' policy here. 

Song: Lonely people ©1974 Dan and Catherine Peek (of the band America)

Presider: The Israelites celebrated their freedom, but their freedom was not complete; it was temporary and rooted in earthly promises.

A new promise was to be made there in that room by Jesus. Moses, great though he was, was only a man, speaking the words of God. But Jesus was God in human form;

When, just a few decades later, the Apostle Paul wrote about this meal just, and how it continued to be celebrated, he said that people need to discern the body before sharing the meal. What does that mean? Well, perhaps he was talking about the Church as the body of Christ and the need for us to get things sorted out before we eat together, but also in this act the bread represents the body of Christ. The Greek word we translate as 'discern' literally means 'through separating.' So perhaps, just as the bread needs to be broken and shared, so we need to be broken and our hearts remade. There is some controversy about a word that turns up in later manuscripts that wasn't there in the early ones. See if you can guess what the missing word is and how it got there as we share the bread.

Here in this place, just as Jesus did there in that upper room on the night before he died, we break bread together. Jesus said "This is my body which is...

(The bread is broken)...for you" (The bread is shared around the table)

In the breaking of this bread; we are broken;

Like the body of Christ; we are broken

And as we share in his self sacrifice; so we are remade in the image of God Amen (the bread is eaten)

Song: STF 556 Just as I am without one plea

Presider: From the days of Leviticus right up to the time of Jesus, when the priests made animal sacrifices, the priests would say that no one should drink the blood, because it contained the spirit of the animal. The spirit of the animal was poured out for the sins of the people and the aroma from the fire on the altar would carry the spirit back to God. Sin was seen as a burden, a weight to be carried, a weight that took its toll on your life, perhaps even taking the whole of your life. So it was thought that this spirit; that this life force, could be recycled, through God to make up for your loss of life, through the sin that you carried - this is atonement.

When Jesus offered himself as sacrifice on the cross, he declared an end to the sacrifice because his spirit was poured out for the forgiveness of all sins for all time. This was not the spirit of one of God's creatures, but the spirit of God himself being poured out for all people (The wine is poured from the central cup into individual cups) and there in that upper room he poured out the wine as his spirit would be poured out to all people.

Knowing what was about to happen, at the end of the meal he took the cup gave thanks and gave it to his disciples, asking them to drink from it, as he asks us to drink from it today - and as you do, imagine that this is his life force which is about to be poured out for you, to seal the new promise which God is making with all people.

This is God's spirit poured out for all for the forgiveness of sins. Amen

We all drink from the cups.

And Jesus told them to do this whenever they meet to remember him.

John's Gospel tells us that after the meal Jesus washed their feet, and insisted that they washed each other's feet, a humble act of service. It is above all things our call to serve each other as Christ has served us and to serve those who have not yet known Christ, just as once we did not know Christ.

We can serve each other and the world in the breaking down of things in our lives, churches and communities that have become stuck in wrong ways, or unable to move and grow like they should. And in that breaking down, God's spirit is once again free to be poured out to all people.

This is what we are called to do in the remembrance of Jesus

Debs: Prayer

Song: STF 272 (CMP 162) From heaven you came

Presider: It may well have been customary to end such a meal with the agreement to meet again in Jerusalem next year at the Passover, but having previously told them that he was the vine and they were his branches, he simply said 'I won't share in the fruits of this vine until I see you again in the Kingdom.'

Interestingly, all the written accounts of this meal use the same vague language about the bread and the wine. The word used for the bread is 'artos', which is a generic term for bread that can also be used to talk of food in general. As in 'give us this day our daily bread'. The specific word for the kind of bread used in this meal would have been 'azumos', which Luke uses as an alternative name for the Festival of Passover. Wine is never mentioned, only the cup. Maybe the fruits of the vine referred to the drink in the cup but maybe it referred to the people in that room, or maybe both. Either way, the vagueness of the language may imply that the emphasis was not so much on the bread and wine as how we live out our faith in community, as a people prepared to be constantly broken and remade so that the spirit of God can flow out from our gathering.

So, until we meet again, we do this in remembrance of Jesus who awaits the opportunity to share this meal with us in the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen

Share the grace

A Fractal Translation of Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 1:1-4 (A fractal translation)

1                 Ideas of Gatheress, a son of David - King in Jerusalem

2                 Fractal of fractals says Gatheress, fractal of fractals - the whole fractal.

3                 What is added to a human in the struggles they will struggle under the sun? 

4                 A generation walks and a generation arrives and the earth iterates to infinity.

The words above are the opening words from Ecclesiastes. Or rather they are a slightly cheeky translation of those first three verses. I have only translated the first four verses in this way so far, and I did it to see if it would work. But I think I need to explain why and in what ways this might hold up as a translation.

Ecclesiastes is peppered with the Hebrew word hevel (הֶבֶל), which is translated in different versions of the Bible as absurd, breath, bubble, enigmatic, fleeting, futility, meaningless, mist, nonsense, nothing, pointless, smoke, transient, useless, vanity and vapour. There may be more translations, but those are all I know. The reason for so many different translations is not because these are bad or confused translators, but because it's a really difficult word to pin down. Perhaps all together these words give a feel for the word hevel, but none quite get it right on their own. My take on hevel it is that the word refers to the fleeting transient nature of things. In this, the KJV and NRSV are technically fairly accurate when they use the word vanity, but whilst the KJV can be excused for its rather archaic take on the word vanity which now means something quite different, the NRSV has no such excuse and ends up being quite misleading in its choice.

Hevel is not about being absorbed by one's own beauty or the lack of it; it is not about extravagance or self indulgence. It is much gentler than that. The NIV's 'meaningless' does a quite a good job of updating 'vanity' to modern English, but like vanity, remains too harsh. Ironically, The Message translation offers us 'smoke', which is technically wrong; there is no suggestion of smoke in the original word, and yet it does the job it needs to do better than pretty much all the other translations of the word in modern English. Hevel, like smoke, is that which is here and then gone in a moment; ungraspable, uncatchable, gone!

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher is in some ways painting a bleak picture of a life without purpose, of a world where nothing we do has any lasting value. He, or perhaps she[1], delivers a damming blow to anyone who thinks that what they do, or who they are is significant, important or better than anything or anyone else. The teacher takes all of our works and achievements and grinds them to dust.

It is all too easy to see Ecclesiastes as a negative book, but it is honest and it creates a level (or hevel) playing field, it makes us equal in our insignificance, which is a great starting place from which to do all our theology. It also teaches us to enjoy and appreciate what we have, while we have it. I was recently talking to a friend who errs on the atheist side of agnostic. She talked to me about the self indulgence, the dissatisfaction and the angst she felt in searching for God and needing for a God to be there to validate her. There was for her a simple joy in letting that go, in enjoying who she is in this moment, in doing her best for others and not worrying about where it's all leading and what it all means. I think that to a great extent the writer of Ecclesiastes would commend her for her honesty and celebrate her capacity to enjoy what is good, and allow all that which is hevel to be hevel.

But the teacher does not let us go so easily. God is there in the text and meaning and purpose are present. They are all there gently and subtly, lurking beneath the surface. Above all the teacher doesn't remain with the tiny picture, the islands of happiness within an ocean of meaninglessness. Throughout the text there is a sense of the big picture, because there is a time for every purpose and because someday our islands of joy will be lost to that ocean. The teacher maintains that we don't know God's will, we don't know what happens to us when we die, but that God has a will is implicitly there within the text, there is a time for everything under the sun. A chosen time, a right time.

Like smoke, 'fractal' is the wrong word, but it does a particular and helpful job. To start with, it works grammatically in the proper context of the Hebrew sentence, allowing itself to be 'of' itself in a way that 'meaningless' can't and it can be 'whole' in a way that vanity can't; 'fractal of fractals - the whole fractal'. It calls to mind the other side of the teacher's narrative, the bigger picture. Fractals, like hevel are the same at every scale, they repeat to infinity and in spite of all manner of work done upon them and their displays of diverse beauty, their outcome and their origin remains the same. Under their complex and busy working surface, they are at heart simple in their essence, they reduce in concept to something with no substance at all, just an idea, a thought, an equation.

But unlike the meaningless, fleeting, vain, smoke of the usual translations, a fractal hevel is one that acknowledges the eternal interconnectedness of creation; an eternal nature that is there to be seen in the teacher's writings, if only we are sufficiently tuned in to see it. Generations come and go, but the entirety of creation remains, stays as it was and as it will be, ever changing, but unmoved.

Ecclesiastes 9:15 (NIV) says;                

Everything that happens has happened before,
and all that will be has already been
God does everything over and over again.

This theology of eternal return, as echoed in some far eastern religions, can be seen as a lifeless loop of unending purgatory, or if we are prepared to go where God is taking us, it can be a spiral, a helix, forever moving forward as on each turn of the circle we build in what was before, going somewhere new. Actually if we see the teacher's message in a fractal light it ceases to be about futility and becomes about the fact that you can't have the eternal without the fleeting moment and you can't be truly in the moment unless you embrace the eternal.

Fractal of fractals says Gatheress, fractal of fractals - the whole fractal.

---

[1] The word often translated as teacher (Ecclesiastes in the Greek - hence the name of the book) comes from the Hebrew word Qohelet, which is a feminine noun construct from the verb Qahal, which means to call. So Qohelet is a feminine noun for someone who calls or gathers people, for teaching or preaching. The word Qohelet is normally used in the Ecclesiastes in a male context, i.e. 'he said' etc, but there is one stray 'she said' in 7:27. On this basis I invented the word 'Gatheress' as an English equivalent of Qohelet.

Breaking and pouring version 5: A Short Communion for a busy service

A Short Communion

|Breaking and pouring version 5: for a busy service|

Jesus and his disciples came to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Passover, where they remembered how, through God's guidance, Moses brought them out of captivity in Egypt, the sacrificial lambs were brought to the temple, because, in the time of the Exodus, the blood of lambs was used as a marker on the doors so that the angel of death would pass over those houses. 

As part of the celebration Jesus and his disciples joined together in a traditional meal in an upper room that they had hired for the occasion; a meal of thanksgiving for freedom

But their freedom was not complete; it was temporary and rooted in earthly promises.

A new promise was to be made there in that room by Jesus. Moses was only a man, speaking the words of God. But Jesus was God in human form;

And here in this place, just as Jesus did there in that upper room on the night before he died, we take the bread and we break it and share it amongst his disciples...

(The bread is broken)

...and he asked them as he asks us today to take this bread and eat it, and to imagine that this is his body which is being broken for you.

And in the days of Leviticus when the priests made animal sacrifices, the priests would say that no one should drink the blood, because it contained the spirit of the animal which, was poured out for the sins of the people. When Jesus offered himself as sacrifice on the cross, he declared an end to the sacrifice because his spirit was poured out for the forgiveness of all sins for all time. For this was not the spirit of one of God's creatures, but the spirit of God himself being poured out (The wine is poured from the one cup into another) and there in that upper room he poured out the wine as his spirit would be poured out to all people.

Knowing what was about to happen, at the end of the meal he took the cup gave thanks and gave it to his disciples, asking them to drink from it, as he asks us to drink from it today - and to imagine that this is his blood which was about to be poured out for you, to seal the new promise which God is making with all people.

This is God's spirit poured out for all.

May we be transformed in the breaking and in the pouring as we do this in remembrance of Jesus who awaits the opportunity to share this meal with us in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Come gather at the table for all who love the Lord and all who seek the lord and all who would allow themselves to be changed by God's love are welcome at this table.

Presider: Let us pray - 'There is a Jewish custom, at the end of such a meal to agree to meet again in Jerusalem next year at the Passover, Jesus said I am the vine you are the branches, he also said 'I won't share in the fruits of this vine until I see you again in the Kingdom.' Lord may your vine bear fruit in us, may your kingdom dwell in us and may we always meet with you when we share this meal together. Bless us as we go out from this place that we, broken and remade in your image, may carry the out pouring of your spirit to the streets and the fields.

Amen

Breaking and pouring version 4: Communion Service for Maundy Thursday (version 2)

Communion Service 

for Maundy Thursday

|Breaking and pouring version 4: for Maundy Thursday version 2|

Presider: Jesus and his disciples had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of the Passover.

The Passover was a weeklong celebration in the capital city, where they remembered the time when, through God's guidance, Moses brought them out of captivity in Egypt, the sacrificial lambs were brought to the temple, because, in the time of the Exodus, the blood of lambs was used as a marker on the doors so that the angel of death would pass over those houses. 

As part of the celebration Jesus and his disciples joined together in a traditional meal in an upper room that they had hired for the occasion; a meal of thanksgiving for their freedom.

Raising the cup the presider says;

Let us raise the cup of freedom;

We proclaim good news to the poor;

Freedom for prisoners

A vision for those who have not seen,

And a lifting of the burdens of the oppressed

And so today we raise our thanks to the father of creation;
Thanks be to God, amen.

Song: STF 410 (H&P 774) Lord Your Church on Earth is Seeking

©Hugh Sherlock (1905-1998)

Lord, your Church on earth is seeking

your renewal from above;

teach us all the art of speaking

with the accent of your love.

We would heed your great commission:

sending us to every place —

preach, baptise, fulfil my mission,

serve with love and share my grace.

Freedom give to those in bondage,

lift the burdens caused by sin.

Give new hope, new strength and courage,

grant release from fears within:

light for darkness; joy for sorrow;

love for hatred; peace for strife.

These and countless blessings follow

as the Spirit gives new life.

In the streets of every city

where the bruised and lonely dwell,

let us show the Saviour’s pity,

let us of his mercy tell.

In all lands and with all races

let us serve, and seek to bring

all the world to render praises,

Christ, to you, Redeemer, King.

Presider: But their freedom was not complete; it was temporary and rooted in earthly promises.

A new promise was to be made there in that room by Jesus. Moses, great though he was, was only a man, speaking the words of God. But Jesus was God in human form;

And here in this place, just as Jesus did there in that upper room on the night before he died, we take the bread and we break it and share it amongst his disciples...

(The bread is broken and shared around the table)

...and he asked them as he asks us today to take this bread and eat it, and to imagine that this is his body which is being broken for you.

Sing (to the tune Hanover);

Presider: Are we now the Church, The body of Christ

The body, the bread, all gathered at once?

Will we let God break us, and take us apart

Remake our true image, reform us in love?

All: Yes we are the Church, The body of Christ

The body the bread, all gathered at once

We come to be broken, and taken apart

Remade in God's image, reformed in God's love

In the breaking of this bread; we are broken;

Like the body of Christ; we are broken

As we share in his self sacrifice; So we are remade in the image of God

We share together in the meal and the bread shared out becomes part of that meal. During the meal the following readings are read by various people;

Exodus 12:1-14 (NIV), Psalm 116:13-14 (NIV), 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NIV), Mark 14:23-26 (NIV), John 13:3-11, 15-17, 34 (NIV)

At the end of the meal the presider says;

In the days of Leviticus when the priests made animal sacrifices, the priests would say that no one should drink the blood, because it contained the spirit of the animal. The spirit of the animal was poured out for the sins of the people. When Jesus offered himself as sacrifice on the cross, he declared an end to the sacrifice because his spirit was poured out for the forgiveness of all sins for all time. For this was not the spirit of one of God's creatures, but the spirit of God himself being poured out for all people (The wine is poured from the central cup into individual cups) and there in that upper room he poured out the wine as his spirit would be poured out to all people.

As we hand around the cups, sing (to the tune Hanover);

Presider: The spirit of God poured out to the world

An unending gift, the cup that we share

The cleansing and healing, forgiveness and life

Abundantly poured out beyond these four walls

All: The spirit of God we gladly receive

An unending gift, this cup is for all

The cleansing and healing, forgiveness and life

We share in outpouring God's love to the world

Knowing what was about to happen, at the end of the meal he took the cup gave thanks and gave it to his disciples, asking them to drink from it, as he asks us to drink from it today - and as you do, imagine that this is his blood which was about to be poured out for you, to seal the new promise which God is making with all people.

This is God's spirit poured out for all.
It is freely poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Amen

We all drink from the cups.

And Jesus told them to do this whenever they met to remember him. Do what, I wonder?

Well John tells us that after the meal Jesus washed their feet, and insisted that they washed each other's feet, a humble act of service. It is above all things our call to serve each other as Christ has served us and to serve those who have not yet known Christ, just as once we did not know Christ.

We serve each other and the world in the breaking and in the pouring.

We do this in remembrance of Jesus

We do this in remembrance of Jesus who awaits the opportunity to share this meal with us in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Song: STF 272 (CMP 162) From heaven you came

© Graham Kendrick 1983

From heaven you came, helpless babe,

Entered our world, your glory veiled;

Not to be served but to serve,

And give your life that we might live.

            This is our God, the Servant King,

            He calls us now to follow him,

            To bring our lives as a daily offering

            Of worship to the Servant King.

There in the garden of tears,

My heavy load he chose to bear;

His heart with sorrow was torn,

'Yet not my will but yours,' he said.

Come, see his hands and his feet,

The scars that speak of sacrifice,

Hands that flung stars into space

To cruel nails surrendered.

So let us learn how to serve,

 And in our lives enthrone him;

 Each other's needs to prefer,

 For it is Christ we're serving.

Presider: It may well have been customary to end such a meal with the agreement to meet again in Jerusalem next year at the Passover, but having previously told them that he was the vine and they were his branches, he simply said 'I won't have the chance to share in the fruits of this vine until I see you again in the Kingdom.'

Until we meet again, amen.

We all leave in silence