Author: a fool

All alone with Jesus

a small funny

Many churches have reportedly started to consider having a plurality of qualified, biblically trained, non-celebrity pastors instead of putting one guy up on a pedestal and hoping he doesn’t use his absolute power to exploit church members and destroy the church’s testimony in the community. They’ve also begun checking a pastor’s character and qualifications against the standards laid out for a pastor in the New Testament, rather than simply allowing someone to teach because he gets visitors to come to the church week in and week out.

via Nation’s Churches Starting To Think Having Celebrity Pastors Who Are Accountable To Absolutely No One Might Be Bad Idea

Simple Meditation: Mark 2

After a few days, Jesus returned to Capernaum, and word got around that he was back home. A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word. They brought a paraplegic to him, carried by four men. When they weren’t able to get in because of the crowd, they removed part of the roof and lowered the paraplegic on his stretcher. Impressed by their bold belief, Jesus said to the paraplegic, “Son, I forgive your sins.”

He could not get to Jesus “because of the crowd”. The crowd who had come to hear Jesus proclaim the good news – the same crowd who do not understand the good news when they see it enacted before them. In John’s gospel the crowd follows Jesus not because of what he says or what he does but because they were feed. The crowd can have some very different motivation for being at the side of Jesus.

Does the crowd stop me from seeing Jesus? Do I follow the crowd, subject my individuality to the community, and in the process miss Jesus in my every day life? Do I allow the crowd to define me, to limit me, and in the process I no longer worship Jesus but the communal identity?

friendship

Today is my birthday and I have been thinking a lot about “friendship”. (The two are not directly related but just thought I would mention it.)

I have never been casually social. I would much rather be alone than with people I have no connection to or who make be anxious. I do not respond to negativity – if you cannot say it in a positive way maybe you should just be silent. Language is far too diffcult to waste on rubbish. I find people who are myopic diffcult. And myopic people who are opionated I try to avoid.

Now all that being said, I know I have a prickly personality. I am not approvable, nor the type of person “normal people” talk to. I have deep held beliefs and enough brains to defend them. So all of that adds up to the fact that I am alone much more than with people.

Yet, I do value frienship. A deep connection to another person is important. And having a person in your life that looks after your good is a very powerful way to grow and mature.

So I do value friendship. But I do not give it away! Friendship is not something that is taken but something that is earned. Simply belonging to a community or being “Friends” on social media does not equal friendship. It might be aquintance but it is not friendship.

I would rather be alone!

a simple meditation

I am hoping to reflect on the weekly gospel reading (from the Common Lectionary). I speak with no authority – whether scriptural or eccesiastical. These will be primarily addressed to me – they are personal reflection that I am hoping to share. I enjoyed preaching in my past life and found preparation a period of personal growth.