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"So the World Cup 2014 has ended and I have to say that I am in the ‘Not bothered’ camp. I’m more concerned about the pigeons trying to nest under my solar panels!"
Peculiar bird’s
pigeons. They appear to be habitual; the female has decided her preferred roost
would be in the same location under my solar panels, each time she wants her
mate to build the nest. I must appear very odd to my neighbours, hanging out of
the roof window, pushing away the twigs from under the panels each day.
However, after two months, they have relocated to the gutter. This involves a
ladder to climb the two stories to remove the nest before she lays her eggs.
What is so incredulous to me, is that the birds have been roosting on an
abandoned factory unit and could easily nest in any location on its expansive
roof and overgrown shrubbery. But no, each day, they fly over to my house and
start the ritual again.
I can’t help but
reflect that our human nature is not too dissimilar to the habitual pattern of
the pigeon. We can repeatedly carry out actions which cause us distress and on
many occasions, are harmful to our sense of well-being. There is usually a perfectly
good provision made for us if only we looked up and around, rather than naval
gaze on our own issues. Often, we can be too preoccupied by our immediate needs
to recognise that these needs could be met with a little bit of lateral
thought.
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Our street has
been recently gained a new resident. Our neighbour unknowingly helped the family locate their caravan in
an inconspicuous spot in the corner of the concrete apron that is in front of a
former factory building. This is the same building that the pigeons roost on,
which was left partially derelict by a fire. However, it began to dawn on some
of the other neighbours that this family seemed to have effectively ‘moved in.’
On Friday, this territorial claim became quite heated, threats were made, and
the police were called.
It appears that this
family has had their home repossessed. In order to find a place to live, the
family had bought a caravan to escape living on the streets. I expect there is
more to this story than first meets the eye, but you cannot help but have pity
for them. In trying to find a way to exist in our civilised society, the very
community that they are trying to be a part of, reject their attempts to grasp
at any retaining vestiges of their personal dignity. Maslow’s hierarchy of
human needs, puts shelter as one of the first priorities for human existence,
so it is only natural that this young man wants to protect the territory he has
claimed.
Observers would
view the unsightly scene as a slur on the neighbourhood, attracting other
people who they perceive to be painted with the same social brush. This
paranoia is fuelled by neighbourhood gossip and unsubstantiated claims or wrong
doing. The only criminal offence that I can perceive, is breaking and entry and
illegally drawing electricity from a source they do not own or pay for. It is
the land owner’s problem to solve. The police do not have cause to move them on
as they are not on public property. So it really boils down to our perception
of what is decent and correct. I’m not sure how my neighbours would deal with
the favelas of Brazil, whose residents have capitalised on the world cup by
renting properties out to football fans at much cheaper rates than the official
hotels of Rio de Janeiro or Copacabana beach.
How do we define
our human existence? Is it culture? Or is it like the pigeon? Our ingenuity
to succeed at all cost; our apparent taming of our built environment? When we
strip away the technology and the veil of civility, what remains? Is our
fundamental motivation in life to survive? And at what cost would we strive to
attain that which we desire? When we go beyond our own needs and desire those
things that our neighbours have, how do we justify our methods at attaining
that which we wouldn’t be able to achieve through established patterns of
etiquette or lawful ambition?
Do we beg, cheat,
borrow and steal or are we more evolved? No one in the western world would
survive within the conflict zone’s we see on our TV screens. We are totally
divorced from our food supply chains and collection of water. We would feel
lost if we couldn’t charge our smartphone to check social media or our e-mail,
for fear of missing out, let alone, in finding shelter during an air raid. My
family and I love camping. There is nothing more grounding than sleeping under
canvass and having no immediate washing or toileting facilities! Yet we still have
access to the farm shop, cafés and a place to relax when the weather is bad, as
it is a self-imposed exile from 21st century living.
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We cannot begin
to understand what it must be like to live with the fear of sniper fire,
incendiary devices and the potential for our own death, while doing something as innocuous as collecting water.
I’m certain we cannot be empathetic for the person’s plight, yet people live
like this every day.
My neighbours
have managed to chase-off the homeless family through veiled threat and
intimidation, and I may be winning the battle with my pigeons, but the problem
is just being pushed elsewhere. Do we each accept the meaning and purpose
of our being from our experiences of life, or do our personal victories over
pigeons and such like, define our expectations of life? Is there something much
deeper to life than this superficial existence? What would we be prepared to
suffer for, particularly if we felt powerless to change that which we perceive
to be greater than ourselves?
A little bit of
sunshine like we are having in the UK at the moment, can help us to ignore the
problems we may have previously dwelt upon, due to the effect of the warmth of
the sun on our skin and the apparent freedom it gives us to escape the winter
blues. What is obvious though, as the summer nights draw in and the darkness arrives earlier each evening, is that this feeling is temporary. We can soon
begin to feel the effects of our responsibilities in whatever field of work we
are in, once the summer draws to an end. Life too is like this. We can be going
along quite happily when our psychological and emotional dials are on full, but
as soon as that autumn breeze arrives, those feelings that we were able to
eliminate whilst the going was good, quickly return to consume us.
If you were to
walk along Southend High Street in the summer, you can see the different groups
of people milling around. Those living on the street are easier to spot now
because the sun means they do not need to find shelter. As they carry or wear
all that they own, it is easy to spot them amongst those in their summer
clothes, free from this burden. The school children, grandparents, holiday
makers, shoppers, and bankers, are more obvious too, as it is easier to decipher
uniforms, customer service badges, corporate logos and casual attire, when
we aren’t encumbered by a heavy overcoat. You can see too, the hierarchy of
wealth and status, as the type of branding and the style and quality of the clothing
differs.
In the light of
the sun, we can see a lot more than the darkness of winter, which is an analogy
for how Jesus would describe himself, if he was to be walking in Southend High
Street. “I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me, will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of
life.” (John 8:12). It turned out that the family in the caravan were
drinking, smoking dope and had declared their small site as the ‘Squatters Rave.’
Music would be blaring out at all hours of the day and the smell of cannabis
was pungent, even for the non-accustomed. Listening to my neighbour speak, you
could sense his hostility to the squatters and his disdain for what they had
done. It’s funny how we approach confrontation and become obsessive with our
own sense of what is just and honourable.
This is the sort
of darkness that Jesus refers to. Where humanity conspires against itself,
setting itself up as better than others, at the expense of the powerless, in
order to protect what we perceive to be our rightful claim. My neighbour felt
it was his right to rid the street from the perceived threat he had of the
squatters, in much the same way I wanted to get rid of the pigeon. He would
bemoan how nobody else in the street cared; that it was him that rid us of the
threat the caravan represented; it was he alone that perceived the threat and
did something about it. His personal anxiety was expressed in his actions,
whilst he made judgments about the state of his fellow neighbours actions,
finding them lacking. I wasn’t concerned about the squatters in that they did
not affect my comings and goings… perhaps if they affected my home-life
negatively, I would have responded differently, perhaps ‘shooing’ them away
like I try to do with the pigeons, just as my neighbour claims to have done.
What is obvious
however, was that our new neighbourhood squatters were victims of society. No
matter how much their own actions seemed to contribute to their immediate
circumstances, they had become disillusioned by what society offered them;
seeking alternative lifestyles that seemingly anaesthetised them from life’s
toil. You can happily deal with the problems you have through abusing alcohol
and drugs, just as much as any other short term fix. Some choose food or sex,
but the essence of why we chose behaviours that are outside of the norm, is
down to the individuals rejection of what society holds to be true.
In a similar way
to the caravan squatters, a friend of ours is happy to claim his social
security benefits and ‘couch-surf.’ This is where you don’t have a permanent place
to live, but you have enough acquaintances to find somewhere to sleep at least
for one night. You would spend the day wandering the streets, planning where
next to lay your head. If you were lucky, you may get a few nights in one
location and be able to leave a few belongings there. He is happy to live this
type of life because he believes that he is accountable to no-one but himself.
When he has nothing to live on, he will blame all sorts of issues on his
predicament, immigration, the unfairness of life, government cuts…
The issues that
he faces have helped to fashion the circumstances he now finds himself in, but
they are too deep, too engrained and there are too many layers to unravel, without
a long period of counselling, prayer and support. But he needs his pain. He has
lived with it for so long, that it defines his existence; hence wandering the
streets in solitude, gathering his thoughts. In this last week, I have listened
and counselled different men, all with psychological conditions that determine
their actions. All desperate for an end to their inner turmoil, but each one
dealing with their own stuff in the best way they can.
Christians
believe that we are all in a battle for our hearts and minds. Like any battle,
there are two sides, good and evil. Hollywood has had great success in pairing
enemies on the silver screen for our entertainment, but the reality is far more
personal. We have our naturally occurring desires and ambitions which are
governed by our ethical and moral understanding, as well as our cultural and social
pressures. Religion too play’s its part but even this differs, depending on
your interpretation of God. What is certain for Christians is that God has the
absolute moral authority to determine how we should live and conduct ourselves.
So life is not simply an aimless sojourn from one experience to the next, but
is the working out of God’s plan for his creation.
When we
understand that there is a heavenly purpose for us, we can assimilate what goes
on around us in a more positive way. No longer would we strive to flatter our own
ambition rather, we want to honour Gods ambition for us. My reaction to the
squatters was not to drive them out necessarily, but to understand them and to
point them in the direction of housing support and food. The land owner could
use the law to evict the squatters if that was his ambition but I would not
take matters into my own hands to rid the street of a fellow human being who
was desperately out of luck.
My response to
this situation is tempered by my faith in God, who commands Christians to take
care of the poor, widowed and orphaned… to seek out the lost and the broken; to
reconcile all men to God through his son Jesus. This is how the message of love
is communicated: that while we were still living in our sin, ignorant of Gods will for us; the Father comes running towards us, seeking us out and
proclaiming that what was once lost is found (Luke 15 1-32).
Christians hope
that through social action and through serving our community, that Jesus is
revealed in the way we live our lives. Not everyone will want to accept what
God offers them, as they feel that what he demands of them is too costly. Of
this, Jesus says: “This is the verdict: God’s light came into the world, but people loved
the darkness more than the light because their actions were evil. All who do
evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear that their sin will be
exposed. But those who do what is right, come to the light so that others can
see that they are doing what God wants.” (John 3:19-21, NLT)
If we love God,
we will do what he asks of us. If we love the enemy of God, we will do what he
asks of us. Our humanity is in conflict between what we know to be true and
that which we know is wrong, and yet we still choose to do it, despite ourselves. This is
what Jesus says of the enemies of God: “For you are children of your father the
devil. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, for
there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
This is stern
stuff. There is a clear decision that each of us has to make. Do we respond to
God’s call on our lives, or do we stand against him? It is the spirit of this
age to prefer naturalism, evolution, or some form of pantheism, where man
conforms to his own image of self, rather than recognise the moral authority of
a creator God. It is convenient for us to disregard God as the source of an absolute
truth in favour of our own sense of self because that helps us to negate the
negative emotions that we experience when we go against our conscious
reasoning.
Where we canvas
opinion or seek answers from science, we move our reasoning to a position of
moral relativism. Some might disagree with the position you have taken to
determine your future, but those opposed are encouraged to tolerate your diversity
for the sake of preserving the status quo. In this position, no one is right or
wrong… moral authority is entirely shaped by the traditions, customs and
practices of our culture… man is
the measure of all things. If what we value is neither good nor
better than an opposing view, it is up to our culture to determine what it is
prepared to accept as being morally acceptable, and what it deems to be
intolerable. Similarly, no culture can deal in absolutes, as each race will
have an alternative basis from which to accept truth. Friedrich Nietzsche
believed that "we have to assess the value of our values since values are
relative to one's own goals."
Whether we accept
moral relativism, or we are in favour of a more logical scientific approach
that determines our moral values on the basis that our species can be successfully
proliferated, we are still in need of the ability to arbitrate our differences.
I find that there is still an ambiguity to the reasoning being used to promote
this view, due to its attempt to avoid the obvious; that an absolute authority
can be attributed to an agent beyond our human metaphysical experience. Theists
place this authority on a creator God, rather than the created being, causing
those who are troubled by such philosophical debates, into making a decision on
which side they will choose to adopt.
So what does this plan look like? Well, we have to look to the cross for answers, and to the last book in the Bible, Revelation, to make sense of it all. Through the lens of Jesus, we can look back across our history to see God in action. We can also look through the lens of Jesus to make sense of the present, as well as look to the future to help us determine what is to come.
The book of Revelation
is in fact a prophetic letter that uses metaphor, symbolism, allegory and
rhetoric aimed at informing, motivating or persuading particular audiences to
action. It utilizes our logic and our reasoning in order to perceive unfamiliar
concepts in a heuristic that gives us a glimpse of an eschatological view of
the end times. There are a variety of interpretations of what might happen when
humanity reaches its ultimate end but there is a way to untangle the symbolism
for today. Essential to interpreting the symbolism contained in revelation, is a
resolve to stay true to the theology of the Gospel story: That God reigns
eternally; Jesus came, died and was resurrected to new life; Jesus will come
again to judge the living and the dead.
Our perception
today is that technology and social change seems to be accelerating at a speed
greater than some can adapt and this out-dated religious rhetoric is
unimportant. Similarly, some political and economic factions are determined to define
the development of our civilised behaviour, cutting the ties with the past in
order to bring about change in ways that we might otherwise have been resistant
to. These agents of change, working through our human interactions on a global
scale, determine our future hopes, leading to either prosperity and peace or
hostility, depending on your world view.
Revelation seeks
to reveal how God is at work, drawing all things to a conclusion in order to
reveal his future glory. We have already glimpsed this future through Jesus. We
know that those who choose to accept his will for our lives over our own, are
guaranteed a future eternal hope unlike the secular world, whose futures look bleak with environmental disaster, water and food shortages, radicalisation and
the constant threat of war.
In fact, revelation mentions all of these events within the symbolism of the prophetic narrative. I am sat here in the shadow of the newspaper headlines:
These do sound like the warnings of the apocalyptic account found in the pages of revelation however, each generation can see the same warnings as we do today. This is the purpose of these prophetic writings: to call each generation to consider God as the author of this life. Can we really
know the fixture? Surely all that we can be certain of in the present, is
indeed only the ‘now.’ Perhaps we
can understand what is happening now with an eye on the past but certainly, it
is difficult to predict specific future events, otherwise we would not get into
the mess we do at times in our lives.
Time however, is a human construct and a
tool used to help us place the past, present and the future within a context
that we can understand. We have witnessed the seasons, observed the interplay
of the cosmos and feel that we can interpret the apocalyptic with some sense of
certainty.
The fact that the
passage of time or indeed, the reaching of significant dates in our timeline,
does not necessarily mean that we can interpret with any certainty that the end
is near. Indeed, the last millennium of 2000 had tremendous significance to
humanity, but very little significance to God. The setting and rising of the
sun from one day to the next means simply, a new day.
The revelation
speaks of a millennial reign of Jesus on the earth, where the kingdom of God is
established and those who have chosen Jesus as Saviour live on the earth for a
thousand years in peace. This can be interpreted from the apocalyptic letter
and some of the New Testament scriptures, as an event that occurs after Jesus
returns. A case can also be made that this millennia of peace occurs before Jesus returns or even that it could be happening right now.
There is also
mention in the apocalyptic account of a great tribulation: a time where all
that humanity has become, is thrown into chaos through a self-destructive cycle
that triggers its own end. This tribulation is destined to occur either before
the millennial reign of Jesus, during the millennial reign of Jesus or after
Jesus has first rescued the church from what is to come, in a process known as
the rapture. In this last view of a rapture event occurring, those that declare
Jesus as Sovereign in their lives will be saved from the tribulation, before
descending with Jesus and the martyrs who died before us, to the earth to enjoy
the fruit of the millennial reign.
All of these
viewpoints are subject to interpretation, but what we can be certain of, is
that whatever the order of the apocalyptic events, whether they be a pre, post,
or an a-millennial reign of Jesus, with all of the different derivatives
suggested by the scholars who seek to interpret the revelation, that Jesus will
judge humanities obedience to God and his stewardship of the earth.
Jesus has the
authority to judge the living and the dead due to his sacrifice on the cross.
Jesus defeated the enemy when he took on the sin of this world, by taking it with
him to the grave. Death could not hold him there, for his character and his righteousness
is holy, perfect and divine. Jesus was resurrected bodily to new life,
conquering the wages of sin, death. In accepting Jesus as Lord, Saviour and King,
we enter into a new covenant, sealed by his blood, that whoever believes in
him, will not perish but have eternal life.
Revelation shows
that Jesus alone is worthy to judge humanity for its actions. At the end of
time, Jesus will call each person to account for his life. Those who profess
his name, declaring their allegiance to him, will be rewarded for their
obedience to his will and granted atonement. Those outside of his will, will be
cast into hell, where they will have to endure an eternity, separated from God… “I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Some get offended
by the idea that they are answerable to a deity that they didn’t ask for or
care for. This is the true nature of man, to assume in his arrogance, that he
is in control of his own destiny. I can only assume that at the trumpet call
signalling the end of this age of man, that those who refute God’s sovereignty,
would continue to deny his authority even when they see him, such is humanities apostasy and as such, reel in their just reward.
At the cross,
this was the scene that was presented to the casual observer of the events that
happened on Good Friday. Each of the robbers that hung beside Jesus, witnessed
the spiritual and physical trauma which Jesus endured. On the evidence of what
they both saw, one of the robbers continued to deny Jesus, while the other,
recognising his own condition in the light of Jesus’ suffering on the cross, acknowledged
that Jesus was who he said he was. He also accepted that he was due the
punishment that he deserved but that Jesus had the authority to release him
from his sin and grant him an eternal hope.
It would appear
that right up until our last moment on this earth, that each person, each soul,
will have the opportunity to evaluate their lives and renounce sin, but the
choice is your own to make. Just as it is our choice to determine whether God
has the moral authority to judge our conduct, it is also our choice to respond
to his call on our lives to repentance and faith. To assist us in these
choices, God’s glory is revealed in the wonder of creation and through the work
of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus spoke in much
the same way using the imagery of a story; a parable that uses allegory referred
to himself, the Pharisees who questioned his teaching, the temple authorities
who asked him where he got his authority from to perform the miracles he did,
the teachers of the law and the Jews. The parables or stories, pointed to the
nature of man and his need of salvation. The parable of the vineyard for
example, indirectly refers to the Jewish nation who were given the Promised
Land as a gift from God. However, when God sought payment for the land he had
bequeathed them, the tenants acted unkindly to the stewards he sent, including killing
his own son. We can look at Israel today and wonder (Mark 12:1-12).
Those that
understand the metaphor he is using, can deduce meaning from it and respond as
they chose, either rejecting the truth of the message or in accepting the
truth. When we identify our human nature with Jesus’ teaching, through the
power of the Holy Spirit, we can be transformed by the renewing of our hearts
and minds; to be born again. When we have experienced God’s love for us through
the outpouring of his grace into our heart, we will willingly want to make
reparations for the wrong that we have knowingly caused to others and ourselves.
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Metaphor is also used to help us understand the context of our own lives within the
apocalyptic vision. Without this framework, we would be unable to comprehend
the mystery of God working his plan out in the very real history of human
existence. The end of the plan is unknown even to the heavens and the spiritual
realm, for we know not the time or the place when the Lord will return to judge
the living and the dead.
Until that time,
the enemy of God, and his people will fight a rear-guard action knowing that he
will be ultimately defeated, indeed has been defeated, by Jesus’ actions on the
cross. The enemy seeks to take as many with him as possible in order to thwart
Gods rescue plan. Ultimately, his efforts will be for nothing. God works
through history to call all those who are willing to hear him, to accept him and
believe. Until the time that God calls us to account, the church is charged to
be the agent of change, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in order to
bring about social justice and to offer guidance to our communities that brings
honour and praise to God.
For a time, the church will also
experience hostility on every side as the enemy uses politics, economics,
ethics, science and man’s own arrogance, to deflect the purposes of God into
more transient aspirations that flatter to deceive. We could call this the
tribulation, where the spiritual battle between good and evil takes place here
on the earth. For now, heaven and earth overlap through the life of the church
and the light of the world, Jesus. Through him, we gain access to the
storehouse of heaven, where we can call on the Holy Spirit to bring restoration
and healing, justice and grace. This is the theology that we use in the
Vineyard Movement of the ‘Now and Not yet.’ The kingdom of
God is here, inaugurated through Jesus on the cross. However, the enemy of God
is minded, until Jesus comes again, to cause as much chaos as possible.
Jesus sits at the
right hand of God and reigns eternally. As Jesus is already enthroned, the
future hope of the Kingdom of God is here in the present, hence the principle
of the ‘Now and Not yet.’ Heaven has touched earth through Jesus who leaves us
with the gift of the Holy Spirit. His kingdom is not yet fully established
until Jesus returns again in glory to bring his rule and reign to the earth.
Until that time we live in the tribulation, with the church standing as
testimony to God’s grace at work in the world through Christians who hold to
Jesus’ teachings by being called into action to serve the lost.
We are anointed
by the Holy Spirit to be a royal priesthood, ministering love, faith and hope
to a world that has lost its way. It has always been the vocation for all
humanity to honour God in the way we live in community. Jesus works out this
plan because he stands before God, on behalf of mankind, to mediate for us due
to our sinful nature. Jesus died so that all of us who recognise that our soul
has been corrupted by sin entering this world, can accept his covenant that
whoever believes in him will receive a spring of water welling up to eternal
life (John 4:13-15).
Through the power
of the Holy Spirit, the church prepares for his return, not knowing when he
will come but to expect that the Lord will return as a thief in the night. "So you, too, must keep watch! For you
do not know the day or hour of my return.” (Matthew 25:13, NLT).
So will you join
us?
