The Shack

There are some topics/themes/subjects that are best dealt with through stories - because we need to be involved at the level of our emotions and feelings. Looking at academic arguments carefully laid out in essays, or even picking verses from the Bible, doesn't help us find answers to our deepest questions, because somewhere along the line the theory has to meet the experience - and the answers begin to come out of the wreckage of that collision!

Questions such as 'why does God allow suffering?', 'how can I forgive ...?', 'where is God in my pain?' can be relatively easy to answer in the classroom of a Bible college (especially if you have a background in philosophy as well as theology), but how do those answers prepare us to come face to face with the reality in our own lives and in the lives of those we love?

This is a book that begins to tackle some of these questions - but it does so in a way that won't leave you with answers in your head that you could put in an essay, but in a way that could potentially change your life.

I am aware that I do not want to give too much away - as it will spoil your enjoyment when you come to read the book, as I hope you will. So as far as outline I will give you no more than is written on the back cover. This book is about a father, Mack, whose youngest daughter, Missy, is abducted during a family holiday and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, and still struggling to come to terms with what happened, Mack receives a note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack and walks back into his nightmare. What he finds there will change his world forever. And as you read about Mack's experience and what he found there in the Shack it may change your world forever too.

I found this a fascinating work of fiction, that raises questions, answers others, and has the potential to radically alter the way we think about God and ourselves. From a quick read on different Internet sites it is clearly a book that polarises opinion - from 'this book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good' to 'Heresy'.

I know there are some pastors who have told their congregations not to read this book and it won't take long to find online reviews that pull it to pieces, making the case that it undermines the Bible etc.

But I want to encourage you to read it, to enjoy it, to cry and be moved by it, to wrestle with the questions it raises, to disagree with some bits if you want, to skip over bits that blow your mind if you want, to read it again, to talk about it with your housegroup, to leave a comment below... and you never know - maybe you'll be a different person as a result.

Let me know what you think.

Why every church should have a wormery!

This week we're looking at a well known parable - the parable of the sower - the guy who goes out and throws the seed all over the place letting some land on the path, or the rocks, or with the weeds, as well as on the good soil. If you're a gardener, you'll know that the quality of the soil will affect how well your plants grow. That's why I keep worms - to make compost - to improve the soil...

But of course Jesus is not giving us agricultural advice here (Luke 8:1-21). He's reminding us of what we may have already experienced - that when we try and share God's love with people we get a whole variety of responses. Some reject the message outright, others seem interested for a while and then drift away, others become enthusiastic followers themselves. The point? Not to be discouraged when the message is rejected - but keep on sowing the seed, because some will land on good soil.

But what about me? How well do I listen to God's truth? Proper hearing in this passage involves retaining and persevering in doing - putting what we hear into practice. Jesus seems to be saying here that this kind of hearing isn't automatic, but it takes some effort on our part. It takes a conscious act of the will to choose to listen to God, to choose to try and work out how something applies to me, to choose not to allow other distractions to get in the way, to choose to do the right thing...

It takes effort to cultivate good soil but the result of that hard work is a fruitful harvest.

Jesus wants to save Christians

Here is another challenging read from Rob Bell and Don Golden - Jesus wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008).

This book traces the story of the Old Testament from Egypt to Sinai to Jerusalem to Babylon - a journey that we read of many times and a journey that Christians continue to make today - although of course not literally.

Egypt is that place of slavery - whether addiction, anger, hate, prejudice, ego, lust, dishonesty... And Salvation is what happens when we cry out in Egypt, the cry that leads to God's intervention, to rescue, to redemption, to grace.

And this takes us to Sinai, the place where we find purpose and identity, the place where we join the God of the oppressed in doing something for our broken world.

And then we come to Jerusalem, which raises questions. What will we do with our blessing? What will we do with all that God has given us? Will we remember Egypt, or will we lose the plot?

And on the times we lose the plot we end up in Babylon, in exile, an exile which sometimes is so subtle that we don't even realise we are there.

An exile which means that in a world where people are still slaves, still go to bed hungry, still commit suicide, still die of AIDS...the church is irrelevant.

This book is a challenge to recognise our exile and to cry out again, to once again join God in doing something for our broken world. It is a challenge to hear the cry of others and allow that cry to change everything, because then we're with God, the God who will say 'Go' - a going that will take a multitude of forms.

Hard things to accept

There are somethings that we find really hard to believe. There a God, it will be sunny this summer, Exeter City may get promotion again this year... But one of the hardest things many people find hard to believe is that God loves me as I am, and there is nothing that I can do that will make Him love me less.

This Sunday, we meet a woman (Luke 7:36-50), who met Jesus and accepted that everything in her past could be dealt with, and that God's love and forgiveness was for her. But where do we fit in this story? Do we identify with the Pharisee and because of our good deeds and self denial think that we're actually ok, and in no need of God's forgiveness? Do we identify with this un-named woman and joyfully accept God's love and forgiveness?

Or do we look on at this woman, and wish that that could be us, but when push comes to shove we do not believe that God can love and forgive us, because what we've done is just too bad. The good news is that there is nothing we can do that will make God love us less. There is nothing that we can ever do that alters the fact that God loved us so much that Jesus died for us so that we can know God's forgiveness. Rather than doubt God's love, let's embrace it and be totally overwhelmed by it - like the woman in this story.

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