Rise up and Raise the Bar, a City is at Stake

2 Corinthians 8:1-15
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you— see that you excel in this act of grace also.
I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, "Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack."

No job? Low paid? Smaller bonus? Wondering about your financial situation for the coming year? Why don't we think about ourselves for a bit. Cut back on our giving. Don't support the families and people who earn less than us but have greater outgoings. Let's not be gracious givers. There's a credit crunch, so stop giving to the work of the local church or to missions, maybe just reduce our giving, after all, who cares about the hungry, the starving, the underprivileged and the eternal salvation of millions and the building of the future city. At a time of financial uncertainty I might not be able to afford more potential rusty, moth eaten stuff. I better bunker down, look after number one. If we all do the same, we'll all be okay. God is sovereign, he'll provide for all the unemployed or for the voluntary workers whose incomes are reduced far more than ours as we reduce or stop our giving, and anyway, they're 'living by faith'. Let's test their faith.

Rise up and raise the bar in a time of "Credit Crunch./ Crisis". God is still sovereign, the gospel is still true and heaven is still certain. It's time to invest!

Sauna Chat 1

Ages ago I said I would post about the weekend away and the sauna chat. Below is some of what we (young Christian men) discussed in the sauna (regards being members of small groups in our church). These two are particularly focussed on how we act during the Thursday evening time we're together. Thanks to AH for writing these up.

Don’t turn up to share your ignorance

Study the passage on your own during the week ahead of the study. Do it in such a way that recognises that this is valuable time in and of itself – relational time between you and God, as he speaks to you through his word and you respond in prayer – not just in order to have something to say in the group. But then you will have something to say in the group, and not just acquired knowledge, but an experience of God and how you were challenged and convicted, or encouraged and excited by what he revealed to you. If you can’t be bothered to listen to God first, why should we take time out of our week to listen to you?

Don’t always leave it to the leader to get the study ‘back on track’

In a normal week, we only spend 1.5 of our week's allowance of 168 hours studying the Bible together, so let's make the most of it. Tying in with not turning up to share ignorance, let's make sure that we maximise the time we do have, and be taking the lead to keep the focus on hearing from God, not just keeping the banter going. Don't think that it's the leader's job to lead the study, and your job to provide the humour. It's your job to encourage the brothers and sisters with your presence and contributions, which may include comedy. Banter is good, laughter is a gift from God, but there is also a time to be serious about the word - know the difference. And consider this: how often is your banter about glorifying God, and how often is it about glorifying you? By contrast, how often is the Bible about glorifying you, and how often is it about glorifying God? Worth thinking about.

Today I talked to God

Today I talked to God.
I told him he was great because he is. He made the world and he made me.
I thanked him for loving me. I thanked him that he loved me so much he died for me.
I told him that I loved him because he loves me and because I find him amazing and wonderful.
I told him I am looking forward to seeing him in the future.
I told him about my work and my life. I thanked him for those things and asked him to help me work well and live well.
I told him the things I know I have done wrong and asked him to forgive me.
I thanked him that he forgives me because of Jesus.
I asked him to make me more like Jesus.
I thanked him for my friends and asked him to look after them and help them with their difficulties.
I asked him to remind them that he is loving. I asked him to change the hearts of those who don't love him.
I asked him to help me be less self-focused and a better friend by putting others first.
I asked for his help to tell other people about him because often I am scared to do it even though I want to.
I thanked him for the day ahead.

Outside the City Walls

This weekend some of my friends from the city are getting together outside of the city. We're meeting in a hotel - which is a bit odd - but because no one has a house big enough to house us all we have to stay somewhere. This hotel has a gym, a swimming pool and beautiful grounds apparently. Nice. We're going to spend time doing what families do - eating together, chatting with one another, laughing (at least I hope so!) and the men at least are going to do sauna together.

We're also going to be hearing talks on the subject The Doctrine of God. That basically means we're going to hear about the king, architect and builder of the city.

I hope to blog about the talks (and the sauna chat) next week.

Home is the most important place in the world. Part 2

If you have a perfect home with God, then you can afford to have this home bashed around a bit, the wall paper written on, something stolen, your peace and quiet disturbed. Your home belongs to Jesus and his home belongs to you. It’s an unfair exchange, because yours is going to last for a few centuries at the most, his will last for ever.

So, here’s what Country Life, Home and Garden, and TV makeover shows won’t tell you.

Offer hospitality. Opening your doors to people and allowing them in can be a humbling experience if you don’t have much. Likewise, if you have a lot, it can be humbling for the people who come in. Either way, get over it! Nothing builds friendship quite like sitting in someone’s house and talking about each others lives. It shows acceptance and appreciation. The people who Jesus ate with and spent time with must have felt honoured that he would come into their houses. Conversely, the religious leaders ridiculed him and were offended by accepting hospitality from the lowly and the “bad”.

When offering hospitality or accepting hospitality, don’t think entertainment. Entertainment requires time and effort, has to be arranged beforehand and usually leads to people being stressed and frustrated before, during and after whatever meeting is taking place. No. Hospitality is about being open. It doesn’t matter what state the kitchen is in, you still invite your friend round for tea because you want to know how they are. Don’t hide your life under the carpet, let people see it in all its madness and show them how you’re living for Jesus in it. Hey, get them involved (especially if they’re students) in helping you clean, in dressing the kids, in doing the gardening and talk to them while you’re doing it.

So, have people round for tea and coffee or the national equivalent, cook meals or buy take away if you’re rubbish at cooking.
Host parties where lots of people can meet together from all walks of life.
Have people to stay overnight who are visiting friends or travelling between cities or attending a conference in your area.

Look after someone else’s children for a day or a weekend.

Give a room to a homeless person.

Adopt children – it’s ultimately what God has done for us. To the world it might look foolish, or it might look noble for a while. But there aren’t many things that reflect God’s love than adopting children and saying, “We love you and we will love you. We are your parents and you are our child”, no matter what baggage might come with that or what might happen in the future. Helping out a children’s home is good, but adopting children is gospel.

Buy another one! Sorry? Yes. Can you mortgage the first, therefore freeing up cash to buy another house in which another family can live or some people with a lower income? Can you allow others to have a home that wouldn’t otherwise because of their financial situation (and perhaps have difficulties with benefits because of crime, not being nationals, etc)?

Sell it. Can you downsize? Do you need to live in whatever size house you live in? Is it good stewardship? Or would it be better to live in smaller home and allow some of the money tied up in the bricks to be used elsewhere?

Don’t build a castle where you keep people out, celebrate your own achievements, watch trashy TV and try to ignore the world that’s going on around you.
Build a home. It might well be messy but it might well lead to people feeling loved, to finding friends and family and to talking about Jesus and knowing about the perfect home waiting for them.
Open your doors!

Home is the most important place in the world. Part 1

Ikea says “home is the most important place in the world”. Indeed it is. But real homes can’t be made by screwing flat-pack furniture together. Real homes are like an old kitchen table – messy from the day’s activities – phone bills, children’s homework, letters to send, phone chargers. They are battered with the knocks of having been moved around or having things bang into them as the layout of the house is changed. They are a store of conversations from decades ago and have felt the elbows of the old and young. Homes aren’t built in day.

Actually, homes, or rather home, is built in six days. The Garden of Eden was home for two people.

I think a home has 2 parts.

1. 
   
   A home is a place of physical safety and security - i.e. brick walls, a solid roof, unlikely to be washed away, no threat of attack. Essentially a permanent shelter from the elements and the actions of men.


2. 
   
   A home is a place of relationships - i..e we aren't alone. Go and visit your parents house by yourself, spend a week without your wife, wait for your flatmates to leave. If you ever live alone, it can be fun for a while, but I think, as time goes on, you'll actually find it very lonely, frustrating and not what a home should be.

In the beginning of the Bible, we read about a couple - relationship - who live in a perfectly safe place - security. They are put there by God - he has relationship with them and keeps them safe and provides for them - it's his home. They are more than his guests, they are family. They are involved in maintaining the home, pruning the bushes, raking the leaves, hoovering, cooking, cleaning the grime from the shower.

These first homestays basically decided the landlord wasn't worth following and decided to disobey his rules. When you disobey a landlord's rules, he kicks you out and that's what happens. Bye, bye home, bye, bye physical safety, bye, bye perfect relationships.

Fortunately God is very hospitable, he wants to open his home to people. He wants them to enjoy his home so he says, "Hey Abraham, don't put your roots down here. Follow me and I will give you a proper home." It's a place of relationship - lots of people, and a place of security - it's got borders.

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:1-3

The rest of the Old Testament is about God building a home for his people in Palestine. But it's only a picture of what he is doing in a much bigger way.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth... they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16

For about 30 years, Jesus makes his home with us. We don't like having God in our home, and so he was killed. Not very hospitable at all. However, Jesus is hospitable. In his home he allows criminals, prostitutes, traitors, basically, anyone who's able to realise they aren't sorted. He says, "in my house there are many rooms." He died so that we don't have to, and so that, when we get put in a small box and carried out of our house for the last time, we don't have to be separated from God for ever. Instead we can go straight home!

A place of perfect safety and perfect relationship.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:3-4

Jesus says, "come home". Stop trying to build your own silly flatpack home of a life that lasts a short time, is missing some screws, where the roof needs replacing and the mice run across your kitchen cabinets. Jesus says, "If you follow me, you have a perfect home. It is safe, I've built it, I've decorated it, and I am keeping it safe for you. Your room is ready.

This has some pretty serious consequences for our lives now as well. It's not just ethereal, make you feel warm and fuzzy nonsense. It leads to rough and radical living - of which I shall write soon...

Sunday in the City – It’s like Christmas

“So what do you think the Sabbath is for? What do you do?”
Is he testing my theological position? Is he looking for an answer to a question he is asking because he wants the chat or because he actually wants an answer? Does he work at the local kebab shop and is now asking, ‘Should I be there on Sunday?’
Actually, I knew my interlocutor well. He doesn’t work in a kebab shop and he probably has a much more strongly held and well thought through position than me.

“It’s like Christmas.” I reply. “It’s a time to celebrate. It’s a time to meet with people. It’s a time for remembering Jesus. It’s a time to stop what we do for five or six days a week and celebrate.”

Your week can be hard work, doing your job, writing essays, looking after your family, just making life happen or like me, spending most days looking for a job that in a couple of months I’ll probably say, “Oh, I wish I was on holiday!” Even though I’m out of work, I really look forward to my weekends and especially to Sundays. What, Sunday? Church? Singing? A sermon? Christians?
Yes! I look forward to Sunday a little bit like I look forward to Christmas Day. No one’s Christmases are perfect but generally speaking, Christmas Day is the one day of the year I know I’m not going to be at work, I won’t be writing an essay. I’m with my family, the people I love the most. We eat together, we talk together, we laugh at bad jokes, we reflect on the year, we eat good, wholesome food together. Both my sister and I no longer live with my parents, so going home to visit at Christmas is special. There’s always a lot to catch up and no matter what I’ve been learning to cook – Mum’s cooking and Dad’s choice of wine is always going to taste fantastic! We’re not a Christian family, so we don’t celebrate Jesus at Christmas but we celebrate each other and enjoy each others’ company and we enjoy life and the things we have.

When it comes to Sundays, and there are usually 52 of them each year, I have a similar enthusiasm. The week has perhaps been tough or perhaps really good – either way there are stories to share and people I want to share them with. There are people I want to know about because they are my friends and my family. I look forward to meeting them on Sunday at church. To hearing about their lives and to laugh with them or to cry with them. I look forward to saying by my actions, “God is in charge of my life so much, that for one day, I don’t need to look for a job, I don’t need to make phone calls or send e-mails or do internet searches.”

I look forward to celebrating Jesus with them. It’s Jesus who gives us unity together. It’s Jesus who ultimately gives us any reason to celebrate because he dies and rises for us so that we can have relationship with the living God. Together we sing about him and to him. We say sorry for not doing life very well and we ask for God to change us to do it better. We listen to his voice as the Bible is preached: We want to be reminded of how good God is and we want to know how to live well for the next seven days. We remember that a day is coming when all our labour will cease and those who trust in Jesus will be saved and will enjoy not a day of rest, but an eternity of rest with Jesus enjoying God!

After being together (or before if you meet in the evening) to celebrate we continue to spend time together, drinking tea, eating food and opening our homes. The ones with space in their house invite the students and those without space to have food with them. We share our belongings and our lives together. Or maybe we go to a café and those that can’t afford it are covered by the rest – because it’s Christmas isn’t it!?
Maybe afterwards we go to someone’s house to watch a film or we go and visit our friend who is ill. We comfort them and pray for their healing. It’s the day when you’re able to talk to your best friend without holding your newborn daughter or watching your toddler because people from the wider family in the church are looking after them, playing with them in the garden. Maybe it’s a day to take time alone or in a group to read a book on that doctrinal point you want to know more about, or to practice playing guitar, or to enjoy God’s creation by getting on your bike. Maybe it’s time to restore a broken friendship and say, “my friend, please forgive me for being an idiot. Can we be friends again this week?” It could be time to get your friends together and pray for your friends who don’t yet celebrate Jesus. It could be a time to pray for countries where Jesus isn’t celebrated very much and even less than the UK. Maybe it’s simply time to get to bed early in order to be able to work better during the week. Or maybe it’s time to get to bed early in order to fulfil some of your marital duties that you’ve been neglecting during your busy week!

Being a Christian and being a group of Christians is completely 24/7. But Sundays are special. Don’t waste your Sunday! Don’t waste your Sunday with work! Celebrate Jesus with Jesus’ people. It’s good for you and it’s a little picture of heaven.

City Walls - Photos

A model of the second temple - the one Jesus would have seen and the one he said would be destroyed.

The Garden Tomb. "He is not here, he is risen".

Bansky work on a wall in Bethlehem
The Security Wall around Bethelehem

City Walls - Jerusalem

I entered Jerusalem on a bus after spending a night and a day in Bethlehem. "O little town of Bethlehem how sweetly do you lie" it is not. It is the sight of military curfews and now a massive wall that encircles the town and area around. It was built to keep Palestinian "bad guys" in so they couldn't mount terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. It also keeps everyone else in, increasing unemployment amongst Palestinians who used to work in the capital.

One evening I stood on a hill with a local Christian man - a man beaten yet joyful because of Jesus - and looked out over Jerusalem. "I am like Moses," he said. "I can see it, but I can't go there".

Set against the backdrop of distant desert hills, medieval walls, medieval churches and mosques and contemporary architecture life in Old Jerusalem must be one of the most unique places on earth. Walking through the Damascus Gate, I hear "Allah Akbar..." - "God is Great..." - cry out from distorted speakers and I leave the sirens and horns to fight amongst themselves. The souks smell of raw meat, spices, and olive wood. You turn a corner, past a soldier and a police officer, both armed with an M16 or M14 and batons in their rucksacks and you arrive at one of the many churches, welcomed by "no gun" signs, the smell of incense, hushed voices, darkness, candles, glistening metal and priests and monks who act more like bouncers than spiritual guides. Getting the pilgrims/ tourists through the little hole that is supposedly where Jesus was buried is their main priority. I wasn't there for quiet reflection, just to have a look, but even if I had wanted to, we were quickly ushered out to keep the queue from getting too long.

Once again out into the bright sun - sunglasses back on - I turn down some smaller streets into the Jewish Quarter which soon reveals itself as wealthier by it's cleaner streets and quiet courtyards. Today is Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement - and so families are at home, shops are closed and Jews are making their way to the Western Wall. All are dressed in black and white, ranging from a fairly standard black skirt or trousers and white shirt, to full on black robes and huge hats that would suit the Russian Steppe in winter rather than the Middle East in late summer.

Turning another corner once again the evening sun glistens off the gold roof of the Dome of the Rock - without doubt Jerusalem's most beautiful building, surrounded by a courtyard and olive garden of peace and quiet in a busy, bustling city. It's only open to non-Muslims for an hour and I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

Having re-entered the buzz and once I've passed through the airport style security run by young men with handguns 'holstered' rude-boy style in their baggy khaki trousers I enter into the area of the Western Wall, where a festival atmosphere reigns in the cool of the evening. Men and Women take to their respective sides to pray against the wall. Others use the library to read psalms. Set slightly back from the wall are plastic chairs and a Rabbi shares his views on something. Though I can't understand the language I watch him for a full 15 minutes. He speaks with authority, without notes, he speaks clearly, seems to repeat his points and makes his ever-growing audience laugh and nod their heads in agreement with his oratory eloquence. At times, bent over his lectern, he rubbed his bald head in a Marlon Brando manner as if massaging his mighty mind before standing tall once again to proclaim I know not what. As I leave some men have found a space to sleep under a blanket, perhaps tired after a long journey to be here, without somewhere to stay, or simply wanting to sleep near this sacred sight.

Rising early the next day I and my travelling companions head to the Garden Tomb. This is next to a bus station and outside the Old City Walls. In the late 19th Century archaeologists found this place and discovered a tomb. Unlike the traditional location at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - this fits much more the location described in the Biblical accounts. But as our guide made clear, "It doesn't really matter where Jesus was buried, because he's not there, he is risen and is in heaven. You can find him there." I walked into the simple tomb, smiled at the notice on the door "He is not here, he is risen", exited and joined my friends in reading about the resurrection and singing about it. This garden is a place of light, a place of joy in the truth of Jesus and in deep contrast to the dark, 'religious' so-called Christian churches in other parts of the city where 'reverence and sadness' seem to be the order of the day. It seems to me that even in the location of his burial, Jesus continues to challenge the religious leaders with his simple message of "come to me in simplicity and with rejoicing".

You won't find Jesus in Jerusalem, unless you're spending time with Christians, you're praying or you're reading the Bible. But you can do that anywhere!

Rothko

On the Rothko exhibition at Tate Modern

Seagram Murals

Egg and dammar resin
Cadmium orange pigment
Dark warmth embraces small men
Who gaze as at Newgrange, Knowth,
Stonehenge - something bigger than self.
What lies in those forms? Who knows
Which way we look through
Window, jail or womb.

Black-Form

There is a darker-darkness
Once eyes adjust
There is a darker-darkness
Black and blue
There is a darker-darkness
There is a darker-darkness

Brown and Gray and Black on Gray

Lost landscapes
Starless skies
Desert sands
Hued horizons
In Polaroid
Where paint floats
- Distinct
Oil and water
- Insoluble
Solid.

Or yet they fight?
- Stalemate
Up close those strokes
Are in turmoil,
Layers of change
- Fluid

Fixed.

Die Welle/The Wave

I have just returned from watching Die Welle (The Wave). This German film, based on Morton Rhue’s novel The Wave is loosely based on real events from a school in California in 1967.
The question that is raised early in the film is, ‘could an autocratic system ever exist in Germany again or have we become better people?’ It fits alongside similar works such as Lord of the Flies in asking, ‘for all our dreams, is humanity capable of creating a perfect society?’ There are also plenty of similar characters – the sporty, attractive guys, the rebels, the outcasts but actually there is a wider and more complicated range of characters involved here. I’m not a German film buff, but I have seen mainstream titles such as Goodbye, Lenin and The Edukators. This film ties in with similar themes as those with a desire to question the current political and social culture whilst recognise the massive failings of the past. These German film makers are asking some great questions!
And so, with the question raised, teacher Rainer Wenger, or Herr Wenger as he is to be called, begins leading a social experiment – The Wave – amongst the members of his class. What happens? I won’t ruin the film for you, go and see it.

I was impressed that unlike so many films involving teens and young actors, these people seemed to be able to actually act (although I’m not a German speaker and perhaps they didn’t deliver the lines as they should, but visually they could).

I think the film sits nicely alongside my previous post. Not only would many of the kids in this film find a lot of their own angst at the world expressed by the Flobots, they’re also seeking to change the world – to unite together in creating a community where all are equal and they seek to do good. I thought, “Yeah, these guys are starting a revolution, but it’s ultimately not the one I want to see”. As the film unravels the actions they perform are not always good for everyone.

The kids are united by fashion, sports teams, grades – but these groups are small. As the experiment begins they become united into a much bigger, more powerful group that identifies itself in purpose, but also in fashion – which helps to define itself in terms of the other – who’s out and who’s in. It allows minorities to be accepted (by adopting the right clothes) whilst rebels to be clearly identified (by not wearing the right clothes).

At my Christian Union we used to say, half-jokingly, that it was ‘the only society that existed for the benefit of its non-members’. That’s true of church too. Unity in the church comes from unity in Jesus. It’s a family unity. There is no Greek or Jew, slave or free. This community shows itself as other by how the members live (i.e. lives of love and self sacrifice), not by fashion or social status, etc. It changes the world by welcoming others to see what it has to offer and introducing them to Jesus. If the unity comes from Jesus, then it’s Jesus who people need to meet. It’s Jesus who changes people from the inside.

In the church now, as in the city to come, there is deep unity and massive diversity.
Want to be part of something global, diverse, purposeful and truly good? Join a church!

Revolution in the City - Flobots

This afternoon, after applying for jobs, and between writing a talk on Mark's gospel I've been listening to the Flobots album Fight With Tools. It won't be everyone's taste. A mixture of hip-hop, strings, rock and even some quality funk. They're playing live at my former uni tonight. I enjoy their unashamed critique of society, their energy and desire for revolution and change. They recognise the hypocricy of our leaders that we find so often and the injustice that so many people face in the world. And they're angry about it! "We are not satisfied!" "We the people do not want war!"

Flobots' music is the sort of thing you might listen to on an anarchist march as you throw a bin through the window of your local Starbucks. It's anticapitalist, anti-'war on terror', and distinctly, "grass-roots" let's get up and change this nation (in their case, the USA)!

Check out some of their tunes at http://www.myspace.com/flobots If you like the Chilli Peppers, Eminem, Audioslave, and anything with violins you'll probably find something to like here.

In many of the songs there's a desire for a hero or heroes; for someone to stand up, not be afraid of losing his reputation and to bring change and be a better leader. I don't know exactly how Flobots' understand Jesus, but they recognise that he's a better leader than the ones we know. Jesus never threw a dustbin through the window of a starbucks, but

He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. He taught them, "is it not written, "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?" But you have made it a den of robbers."

Jesus wasn't a communist or anti-capitalist. He wanted all people to be able to worship the living God. As he spent time with women, the sick, prostitutes, national traitors and generally the unacceptable people he angered the religious and political leaders. I often think that Jesus would probably really offend me by what he would say or do. Death to my British middle class values!

Jesus is the king and with his Father and the Spirit, he welcomes any messed-up, broken person to receive grace from him and be one of his brothers or sisters. He changes them and makes them new. Jesus is raising up a people for himself to enjoy his perfect rule. As Flobot's song, Anne Braden says, "Everyone precious in the path of Christ"

Check out the songs "Stand Up" and "We are Winning". The former talks about being motivated by the suffering we see and by "a freedom fighter bleeding on a cross for you" The lattermakes me think about what the church should be doing in the city - an insurgency of good and change! This is what the city looks like according to Flobots,

Butterfly wing crosswinds send black hawks toward hurricane survivors

Roses sprout from empty lots and sidewalk cracks

Pacifist guerrillas move undetected through concrete jungles

New forms are beginning to take shape

Once-occupied minds are activating

People are waking up

The insurgency is alive and well

Rise of the flobots

Portrait of the new american insurgent

Rattle and shake the foundation of the world order

...

We are building up a new world

Do not sit idly by

Do not remain neutral

Do not rely on this broadcast alone

We are only as strong as our signal

There is a war going on for your mind

If you are thinking you are winning

Resistance is victory

Defeat is impossible

Your weapons are already in hand

Reach within you and find the means by which to gain your freedom

Fight with tools

Your fate and that of everyone you know depends on it

Celebrate the City

I am sitting with some friends in my garden in Mile End, East London after returning from three days in Dublin. The sun is shining, sunglasses are on, we’re drinking orange juice and we’re playing tunes out of the window. I just walked barefoot to the corner shop to buy bread. So far I’ve been listening to Sufjan Stevens, Whitley and Starship, We built this city on rock and roll. In central London two peace marches are taking place to stop knife crime. It can only be Saturday in the city.

Over 50% of the world’s population live in cities. I’m sure that’s even higher here in Europe. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to visit many of Europe’s finest cities so far in my short life – and most of them in the last few years. They’ve been capitals such as London, Paris, Berlin Belgrade, Minsk, Kiev, Warsaw, Budapest, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius and most recently Dublin along with other significant cities on the way.

I love cities. Cities are where people come together to order their countries, to form law and order, to govern. Cities are where great processes and systems take place in order to keep people watered, fed, traffic moving, sewage pumping in the right direction, and communication happening. Cities are often where the great projects of the world begin and find their fruition. Cities are where the universities have their home, where the students of the world come and learn about life, the universe, themselves and “media studies”. Cities are where culture flourishes and you can watch films, attend the theatre both professional and amateur, listen to a small trio in a pub or the finest orchestra in an Opera House. Cities are also places of parks, rivers – great for sitting with a book and looking profound! Cities are where history and the present day meet in stark contrast. They remind us of who we were, what we’ve been through and in some way, where we’re going. Cities are where the nations gather together and different and diverse people live side-by-side.

Anyone who has ever lived knows that cities aren’t perfect places though. They are places where over 5000 people can lose their jobs in one day. They are places where crime and violence can be rife. They have areas where most people would avoid. They highlight racial and religious diversity in having ghettos and areas where only one-type of person lives. The poorest of the poor often live in cities, trying to eke out an existence.

As amazingly wonderful as cities can be, and I often have my breadth taken away by things I see in them, they can equally be places of horror and sadness that should cause us to weep at the evil inside humanity.

Walking through Dublin and visiting the sites, I was reminded of one particular aspect to the European city – armed conflict. Whether it be terrorism, civil war, a resistance or all out nation-upon-nation war most European cities have experienced the fear and horrors of bombs, burning buildings and violent struggle. Growing up in London I remember being taught at school not to go near unattended packages on buses and remember hearing at least one bomb go off. Most recently we remember 7/11 and subsequent attacks. Yet throughout the history of London, bombs have been exploding or dropping and the 20th Century was arguably the most prolific. So too Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Minsk and others all experienced varying degrees of destruction – the latter two almost completely razed to the ground during WWII. Spanish cities have their violent history. Even smaller cities too, for example Vilnius and Riga experienced war and latterly armed aggression in the dying days of the Soviet Union. In post-War 1 Vilnius, a war was fought for control of the city between Lithuania and Poland and today the dead lie as a reminder in the largest of the city’s graveyards.

It’s worth remembering the cost of freedom and the cost of peace as we enjoy a unique time of peace in Europe. Without wishing to sound too glib, I think we need to remember Easter 1916, 1921, 1941, 1944, January 1991, 7/11 and so on. We should ask ourselves, “Why did people die? What did they die for? Did they die for this?” We can never know how long peace will last in our cities. So too we should celebrate our peace. We should celebrate every day we have to live our lives. Celebrate every evening we spend with friends, celebrate that we have work, celebrate our parks, celebrate in song, celebrate every moment of love.

In the Bible we are presented with two cities – Babylon and Zion. Babylon is the city against God, building its own kingdom, celebrating its own achievements and the people live against their creator. It is a city that is destroyed.
Zion, however, is the city of love, the city of peace, the city where God dwells and his people celebrate him. It is a city that lasts for eternity.

God lives in a city and his people will live with him there. There they will celebrate with fiddle and flute, with harmonica and drums, with all the instruments known to man, his goodness and his love and grace. God invites people to give up their own dreams of a city, to abandon Babylon and come into his city, to live with him. In that city, everything wonderful and amazing in the city you live in or the cities you’ve visited will be more wonderful.

John was given a vision of this city back in the first century (Revelation 21:2-4).

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed.

One of my favourite Bible verses is from Psalm 84:5 (ESV), “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” It speaks of looking forward to returning to a true home, to a perfect city. Even as I travel and as I celebrate what is good in Dublin, Edinburgh, Vilnius or London I set my heart and eyes to Zion because there I will see God, there will we truly live.

When Christians meet together in our churches in the city, we are looking forward to the city to come and presenting a small picture of people united before God. We join with the songs of heaven and remember “the lamb who was slain”, (Revelation 5:12). We remember that we don’t deserve to be allowed to know God or to live with him in his city, but that by his grace we have been forgiven our sins as Jesus died. We have more to celebrate than the end of a world war or a struggle for independence!

Let us also remember those in our cities who also lived and died for the city to come, that we might also live like them.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Celebrate your city, enjoy your city, live and love in your city. Change your city and maybe even die for your city. At the same time look forward to the future city, where celebration and joy will be complete! Live and die for that city. May many more people look forward to it with us.