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.

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.