Easter 2009

Dear friends

The Nature of our Easter God

In reflecting on our recent Clergy Retreat where we were challenged to not just expand our spirituality, but to seek greater depth, I realise that I need to re-explore my understanding of God. The complication is that I am comfortable with the ‘limited’ God I believe in; the God defined by Christian doctrine and Anglican tradition.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to worship the ‘God’ of plaster and gold – imposingly 27 metres high and almost 3 metres wide – created by King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3); and I ask why did Nebuchadnezzar find it necessary to create such a God? His anger at the three’s refusal to bow down in worship seems to have little to do with the ‘God’ and more to do with his own desire to control: “Who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?” Nebuchadnezzar asks. He clearly believes this wondrous statue has no power, yet demands its worship.

And so I reflect on my ‘limited’ God, as magnificent and wondrous as my Christian faith and Anglican tradition proclaim God to be; and I wonder how much I truly believe, how much I –like Nebuchadnezzar – seek to use God as a form of control in a world increasingly chaotic?

I do not question God, exactly, but the limits we have placed on God. Can God be defined? If so, what drives us to define God? And if not, why do we place so much effort into doing so? And then what is the basis for our Easter hope?

Scripture and human experience point to God being both absolute and infinite.

That which is truly absolute and truly infinite cannot really be defined by what it is or is not (define ‘0’ for me …), but only, perhaps, by what it is greater than. To do otherwise is to declare it finite, and what is finite cannot really remain absolute. And so, because I am limited in my use of words, in my ability to fully imagine an absolute and infinite God, I – like Nebuchadnezzar – create a ‘limited’ God, designed to my own specifications, empowered by my own need and human limitations, and I become unhinged when you challenge my creation.

I am thus challenged to begin to believe in God who is always substantially greater than my ability to define ‘God’, who is continuously ‘beyond’ my understanding, who remains absolute and infinite ‘mystery’. Anything and everything else is anathema, without substance, without power, without true existence; unless it is embraced in the absolute and infinite mystery of God. A reminder, too, that all that I am, all that I have, is through the grace of God: absolute, infinite, mysterious.

I’ve always been attracted to the Baptismal Creed (An Anglican Prayer Book 1989, pg 59) because of its simplicity, its willingness to sacrifice the complexity of belief described by the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. What better describes God than ‘Creator’, ‘Redeemer’ and ‘Life-Giver’? What better describes the absoluteness of God than declaring God to be ‘One’? What better handhold to the absolute, infinite mystery that is God than these concepts?

And yet we insist on defining God further, on making God like us, on using God for our own ends. Idolatry is, then, not the worship of other gods, but the worship of God diminished by our own attempt to define the absolute and the infinite, to demystify the mysterious. And then what is the basis for our Easter hope?

Our limitation of God is most visible in the religious rules and regulations we adopt. We see Jesus in his own context lifting two laws out of the plethora of Jewish rules that define not God, but our response to God: love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind (Deuteronomy 6:5); and love your neighbour as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). And so our Easter hope begins to find value in our active response to God and neighbour.

Our Easter hope is manifest in the activity of the one and only, the absolute and infinite God: Jesus’ death and resurrection reveals God’s faith in us, and God’s gift of abundant life unlimited now by sin or death.

All things become possible because I have faith in God who is beyond my ability to comprehend.

And I respond by caring for my neighbour.

Easter Blessings

Mark

March 2007

Dear Friends

On Parish Renewal

The Diocesan “3 Year Programme on Mission and Ministry”, motivated at our last Diocesan Synod, calls for us to begin at home, and to focus on the renewal of our parish life, starting with our own families and moving on from there. This year, entitled the Diocesan Year of Mission and Evangelism, is all about finding the lost sheep and bringing them back into the fold. I was encouraged by the efforts many put into bringing a family member or close friend – who do not normally attend Church – to Church at the beginning of February. The challenge now is to keep them coming and to integrate them into our parish life. A further challenge is to identify those who reside on our Parish Roll but not in our Parish Church, and to draw them back in.

Love Your Neighbour

Our Archdeaconry focus for Lent is “Love your neighbour”. As a parish we are responding in two ways: firstly we are attempting to understand our neighbour, and our Lent Course focus is on giving us an opportunity to explore different aspects of Christian Spirituality – both to help us discover and deepen our own Spirituality, but also to understand where other fellow Christians come from, and how we interlink with each other as Anglicans and as members of different Christian denominations; secondly we are seeking to build friendship by inviting you as parishioners to hold a meal in your home, inviting a parish family you know and a family you don’t know to share food and fellowship.

Young People

It was exhilarating to find an excited group of young people running around the parish grounds last Friday evening (I believe the T-bone was eventually found … and later devoured!), meeting in the Hall for some Scriptural reflection, and later sharing fellowship around the Braai-fire. It was a wholesome mixture of fellowship, fun and interaction with scripture for our teenagers. Our Young Adults have also had some positive interactions, including a braai at Epiphany House. One of the challenges for our young people this year will be to draw back in those who have been confirmed over the last five-years, but sadly have treated their Confirmation as a form of “Church Leaving” graduation.

Willow Glen Mission

Our missionary Deacon, Vernon Foster, reports elsewhere in this magazine on this exciting mission initiative. I sincerely ask for your prayers for this development, and for Vernon in particular. He has taken up this challenge, and has thrown himself into it with fortitude. Your support – however you are able to demonstrate it – is valued.

Security

Corpus Christi has joined the Garsfontein Proper Residence Association, which links into the Garsfontein Community Policing Forum. The challenges in addressing crime and violence are massive, and although seemingly overwhelming, there is light on the horizon. You may have noticed substantially increased police activity in the last two weeks, and this is a result of the Garsfontein Police Station being able to access significant additional resources since the President’s “State of the Nation” address to Parliament. The key, though, is for us as residents to begin to take back responsibility for the safety of our own areas by working together. So get involved with a Home Owners Association in your area, support the local Community Police Forum: be involved!

Blessings

Mark