I’m always amazed (and also amused) by the number of people who make new year’s resolutions. More so when Christians make them, because it really doesn’t seem to make sense from the Christian understanding of our own will power that we could actually see them through.
I have no problem with a secular culture making such resolutions, especially one like ours which is so governed by the intellect and the (wrong) belief that we can think our way into improving ourselves. This is an expression of the religion of the irreligious who still have that innate need to reflect, confess, repent and be made new again.

But just because we resolve to do something and make a pseudo-pronouncement on the 1st January doesn’t mean we are any more or less likely to see it through.
I’ve been there! My gym membership card from 2003 still sits there in the same place gathering dust after I resolved to go to the gym 3 times a week to get fit, like when I was 18. I think I managed to go the whole of January, but then the cold and wet – oh and the darkness – got in the way, and well you know how it is…

I find it interesting that Lent this year starts as early as February 13th and is a time when the Church has traditionally entered into a 40-day period of personal reflection, confession and repentance. Perhaps whoever was putting the Christian calendar together had insight into the fact that it will probably only take 6 weeks before our new year’s resolutions fail and we find ourselves repenting again!
(The geeks amongst you will know that the Church calendar actually starts at the beginning of Advent, not 1st January)

Even a cursory reading of the New Testament, and especially Paul’s letters, leads us to the conclusion that we simply don’t have the strength of will to make such determinations and then actually see them through.
Paul sums up much of this when he says,
“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”
(Romans 7:18-19 ESV)

Paul is not alone. In fact he is perhaps better positioned than any of us to actually do what is right. As a “Pharisee of Pharisees” Paul’s life was about rule, discipline, focus and determination. And yet here he’s making it plain: he just can’t do it.

So what should we make of this?
Is it wrong to make a new year’s resolution? No, but it’s not a guarantee of anything either and certainly not a good plan to effect actual change.
Is it right to see what isn’t right in our lives and want to change it? Yes, of course it is, and you don’t need to get ‘super spiritual’ to see it.
A friend of mine told me that he’d decided his new year’s resolution was going to be to lose weight and so he ate as much as possible over Christmas and right up until 31st December before the new regime kicked in!
Losing weight will be a good move for my friend for a number of reasons, most of which are physiological, but his approach points to another area which could do with some help as well. The truth is that he and I both know that his resolution isn’t worth the paper it (isn’t) written on. We even joked about it, and he’s not deluded about that part, so why is he still using this idea of a resolution to try and provide the impetus or trigger to make something happen? A Tuesday in any given year is totally neutral and inert when it comes to affecting our behaviour as a lifestyle change. My friend knows it, I know it and Paul knows it.

So what should we do?
If we really want to change our behaviour then we have to understand our habits. Knowing why we do what we do is the key to understanding how to change what we do. But we don’t need to enter into any kind of psychoanalysis or cognitive behavioural therapy to change many of the things in our lives we might want to change.
We can simply start good habits and stop bad ones. This requires practise, not ‘overnight success’, or ‘lose 200lbs in just 4 days!’, and we have to confront the truth that more often than not we can’t do this on our own.
We need some kind of motivation and support to make these changes.

The basic idea of following Jesus is not to match his footsteps but to mimic him. Mimicking Jesus includes being entirely yourself and not trying to be someone you’re not and at the same time includes patterns of behaving and relating which are good for all of us.
If we look to Jesus and read in the gospels about his life amongst us, his encounters and exchanges, his passion and compassion, his righteousness and peace etc. then we have in him the perfect life coach or personal trainer or spiritual director or whatever it is you think you need to give you that support.
More than that, we have the body of Christ, the Church. Fellowship with other followers of Jesus who are also trying to figure things out, change their behaviour from bad to good, increase in compassion and mercy, worshipping together to put God before all other things etc. is the best ‘club’ we could join to actually help us achieve effective change. Better than a gym or Weightwatchers or counselling.

The Church exists to provide that fellowship for us. It is a safe place for reflecting, confessing, repenting and being renewed (or at least it should be!).
It is within the body of Christ that we can come close to the Master through each other and as the Holy Spirit dwells within and amongst us to bring truth and love.
Jesus has shown us in his death and resurrection that he has the power and the will to effect what he resolves to do. He offers us that same power because he intends that we live the same life.

So if you’re going to make a new year’s resolution this year then make it this one from Paul and a second one from the letter to the Hebrews:
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2 NIV) (emphasis mine)

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
(Hebrews 10:25 NIV) (emphasis mine)

Happy new – unresolved – year!

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
John 1:35-40 ESV

I’ve always had a soft spot for Andrew for two reasons: he was one of the first to find Jesus and follow Him, but then he hardly features in the rest of the four gospels. He’s instrumental in introducing Peter to Jesus who features massively in God’s plans for the whole world and yet doesn’t feature much in the stories himself. What a legend!

But there’s another side to this story which also intrigues me, and one which speaks to a kind of situation we can all find ourselves in at different times in our lives.

Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist which means he followed him, listened to him, learned from him and tried to be like him. He saw in John a man who spoke truth and who was somehow connected to God in a powerful, meaningful and transcendent way. But Andrew wasn’t looking to John alone. He was looking for God. He believed in the prophecies about the Messiah and when John announced that He was coming imminently – indeed that He was already in the world – Andrew must have figured that hanging around John was the best way to find the Messiah.

The most striking thing for me about this passage of scripture is the speed and suddenness of how Andrew drops John to follow Jesus. John says, pointing at Jesus, “there’s the Messiah, right there”, and Andrew turns to look and walks away from John towards Jesus, never to look back or go back. We know that John retained disciples and not all of his disciples dumped him for Jesus. But Andrew did, and we can determine from John’s own words, “I must decrease that He might increase”, that he would have been more than ok with that.

Andrew demonstrates something which is in each one of us. There’s a deep longing for purpose, for direction, for the truth, or on a more mundane and basic level, a search to know, “what do I want, and what is the purpose of my life?”
We seek for the answer to these questions in people we look up to. People we see something of God in, who when they speak, or teach, or by their actions show something of the nature of God. We are drawn to people like that because deep in our beings we are drawn to God.
We can, like Andrew, move from one person to another in the pursuit of satisfying this deep longing, but sometimes we’re drifting from one flickering light in the darkness to another without ever really knowing if we’ve found the light which is the source of all light.
Not all the people we look to for direction are like John either. Some hold us close and don’t send us away in the direction of the true light. They prefer to show you the light as they display it, rather than point you to the Original light.
We can all be like that for each other from time to time too.
John knew better. He’d seen the Original and heard the Father’s voice speak blessing over His Son, and he knew that his own life purpose was to point people to the Original light. The question deep in his own being was settled and he was living out of his life’s purpose.

Andrew was looking for meaning and purpose and only Jesus could reveal this to him. The same is true of us, which is why Jesus’ first words are stunning: “What are you seeking?”
He speaks directly to the heart of Andrew’s quest. He speaks directly to our own hearts.

If you are in that place of searching, looking, yearning for purpose, for direction, for “what should I do with my life?”, then may Andrew inspire us that as we seek, so we will find, and when we find Jesus we will discover that He is more interested in asking us what it is we want than telling us what we want.

May you search your heart and find God there in the deep, and may His ‘deep’ call to your ‘deep’ and bring you into light.
May you know that in the searching and in the following you will find the questions that bring answers, and the purpose that brings others into His light.

The Anglican Church, and more specifically the Church of England, has rejected the ordination of women as bishops.

As a non-Anglican I’ve watched with interest both the process and the reactions to the outcome. If you looked at this whole situation and knew nothing of the views and arguments involved you would still be able to clearly see that this issue has caused deep pain in the Church of England. And that’s not good for anyone. Not good for women, not good for men, not good for the Church of England and not good for Jesus who is the Church’s head.

Whatever people think or feel there are no winners in this. That is, there are no winners unless this leads into a way of grace and a deeper union with Jesus through the pain and struggle that Anglicans are feeling right now. 
One of the first things to go when we experience pain – especially if we feel it has been inflicted on us – is grace. Wounds can blind us to the path into healing, which is through grace offered and received.

But this reflection isn’t primarily about that. It’s really a way of getting my thoughts down on this issue because sitting on the fence on this issue doesn’t address it, and ignores the reality that it means a lot to a lot of people, on any and all sides of the discussion.

It seems that there are two overarching themes which hold within them a number of points of issue.
One is the matter of equality.
One is the matter of Biblical interpretation.

In listening to some of the pithy ‘sound bites’ which were used by several people in several TV interviews, each ‘side’ has tried to encapsulate their bias as to which of these themes matters most by including a nod to the other one. In other words, “It is all about my preferred theme, but I accept that your theme does have a place, albeit a small and insignificant one.” This may seem a bit too general, and even a harsh assessment, but it’s not intended to be. It’s what I’ve distilled from hearing repetitious, well-rehearsed arguments prepared as a sound bite.

The interesting question I’ve been asking is, “what would Jesus make of this?” After all it’s His Church, and He is the head of it whether we like it or not. No synod gets to decide that! No. Jesus has invited us into Himself, to become a part of His body. He hasn’t invited us into a system or organisation that would lead to division and pain.
If my premise is true then we should ask ourselves whether the divisions and pain are a product of man’s approach to Church or Jesus’ approach?

I don’t think Jesus has (or will) take a ‘side’ on this. If, like the Pharisees and Scribes, we pressed Jesus for a direct answer to a direct question I think we’d either get an unexpected answer or an unexpected question in return.
If there’s anything we can lean on with any degree of certainty in reading the scriptures it’s that Jesus won’t play our games and will more than likely surprise us with His response. If he constantly and continually did so with His closest disciples then we should expect that He will do so with us.
And if you’re unsure as to whether Jesus’ preferred mode of teaching is ‘the unexpected’ then consider all the post-resurrection eyewitness accounts and ask yourself whether what they were expecting is what they actually experienced.

But just because Jesus may not take a side doesn’t mean He doesn’t have a view. But we should tread carefully before taking what we perceive to be Jesus’ view and turning it into a cosh with which we can hit someone over the head if they hold a different view.

Jesus was very clear: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17 (ESV)
What follows in John’s gospel are a series of encounters and exchanges which clearly demonstrate this truth. Jesus shows us that He’s not in the condemnation business but in the salvation and redemption business. And His business is our business so we should avoid condemnation and look instead to how Jesus will bring salvation and redemption to His Church as He brings it to the whole world.

What is fascinating to 1st Century observers/readers, and should be to us in the 21st Century is just how much women feature in Jesus’ life and ministry, and the uniquely special role they play in a world dominated by men.
It seems to me that Jesus had more time for women than most men do, and that includes Christian men. It’s clear that Jesus’ own disciples were surprised, and at times shocked by the way Jesus related to women and the unnerving way He would go out of His way to meet them that He might bless them and release them into ministry.

Jesus created an evangelist – a public preacher – out of a sinful, adulterous woman whom He met at a well:
“28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.” John 4:28-30
What is most shocking about this? That she was sinful? That she was adulterous? That she was a woman preaching?
In the current debate on women bishops it seems that this last item is where she ‘crossed the line’! And yet Jesus freed her and empowered her to be just that.

There are many other examples and my own reflection of the scriptures is that God is always doing that. He’s always empowering and releasing people regardless of gender – or even trans-gender if you include eunuchs – to be His disciples AND His apostles (one who is sent with authority).

But I don’t think Jesus’ agenda here is ‘equality’. I don’t think He’s rocking the established order in order to establish a more equitable situation for women. I think He’s showing us that He has a purpose and a life for everyone and so He calls men AND women. He’s as passionate about liberating women from all forms of enslavement and subjugation as He is about liberating men of the same.
He even calls children to Him when everyone else is disregarding them. On this issue BOTH men and women in our culture bear responsibility in how we eschew children in our community of faith as ‘leaders’ and ‘signs’ to us, even though Jesus as a baby, wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger was a “sign” to us that a great leader had arrived (Luke 2:12).

It’s in this light of ‘the God who empowers and releases men and women to minister’ that I think we should interpret scripture.
It’s clear that St. Paul expressed a clear instruction that women shouldn’t teach men and that women should be silent in church, learning with submission. Or is it clear?
If you read it as is, in English, then it’s very clear. It’s almost impossible to argue with a verse that says, “As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.” (1 Cor 14:33-34 ESV)
Not being an expert in Greek I am not in a position to get into technical arguments about what words mean and how they should be translated.
What I am clear on is that scripture should be interpreted (different to ‘translated’) with context and other scriptures in mind. Otherwise we struggle to reconcile the God of the OT with the God of the NT and end up with some par-boiled nonsense which doesn’t even come close to describing YAHWEH.
We also come unstuck in all manner of ways where reality is constantly colliding with what we perceive to be the meaning of particular scriptures.
I am personally relaxed with the idea that scripture may collide with itself and reality, and the Talmud is proof that this is no stranger to the Jewish mindset of how to understand scripture. Jesus, in answering the question, “which is the greatest commandment?” elevated one scripture over another. Surely ALL God’s commandments are the greatest and ALL God’s revelation? Yet Jesus goes right ahead and elevates two of them over the rest.

We ought to be careful when we read St Paul that we don’t deify Paul as we seek to hear God through his inspired writings. We know that Paul was a mysterious character with some traits which made him somewhat abrasive and harsh. Yet we see the same Paul as being incredibly vulnerable and tender in some of his other writings. Is there a contradiction in Paul? “By no means”, as Paul himself would say. The lack of contradiction lies in the reality that Paul is a man with a complex being, just like you and me, not that he is always consistent in his attitudes or behaviours. He can insist you are kicked out of your church one year, and insist you are allowed back the next.

So when he urges Timothy to remember the authoritative teaching of his mother and grandmother (2 Tim 1:5 & 2 Tim 3:15) is he contradicting himself where he does not ‘permit’ a woman to teach a man?
Or is it ok for a woman to teach a man if she’s his mother, or grandmother, and only until a certain age (unspecified) and then it can only be men from then on?
Or what would Paul make of Jesus – God incarnate – being placed entirely under Mary’s authority (sorry Joseph, but thanks for looking after Him and teaching Him carpentry), and then placing His beloved John under her motherhood as He died on the cross? I’m glad Jesus was under Mary’s authority in the way He was as it’s the best proof that Jesus loves a party with flowing wine – and only the finest quality wine at that!
I cite these examples simply to highlight that it’s far from clear cut and only a very brave man (or woman) would stake such rock solid faith on these verses being elevated over the vast number of others which present the gospel as one which empowers and commissions women for ministry, including authority and leadership over men in some cases.

It seems that the fear of women having authority over men is rooted in Eve leading Adam astray (citing 1 Tim 2:14).
“Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”
But then Paul goes on to say that women “will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.”
Let me see if I’ve got this straight: women shouldn’t have authority over men because Eve was deceived, but don’t worry… if she has children she’ll be saved.
Forgive me for being a bit thick but that doesn’t read in a way that makes any sense to me. And it seems like really bad news for women who don’t have children!! Yet I’m totally confident that it made sense to the original hearers in their context and they would have known what to do with it.
So context matters, otherwise we’re going to have to find incredibly complex ways of explaining what Paul is technically saying and risk missing what he’s actually saying.
I have no doubt that Paul didn’t want women teaching in church and he didn’t want them chattering away whilst teaching was happening, or whilst the Holy Spirit was bringing a prophecy, just as I’m confident he didn’t want women wearing braids or jewellery, just like the shrine prostitutes next door.
I am not confident that Paul would say the same today. I don’t think Paul was pointing us to a ‘once for all’ commandment which was about the role of men and women – my experience is that sensible men and women instinctively know our limitations, strengths and weaknesses – but to an awareness and sensitivity to culture and more importantly to God.
Likewise when Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Matthew 5:38-41 ESV).
Is Jesus changing a law here which was in THREE of the five books of the Law? Or is He bringing new revelation of God’s unfolding plan which at one time required an eye for an eye, but now requires non-violent confrontation and blessed peacemakers?

I recoil at the idea that ‘we have to keep pace with the times’ as a basis for interpreting or understanding God’s word.
(Great article here on this subject).
But it flies in the face of the whole of scripture, and the practise of the Church throughout the centuries to suggest that all scripture is locked down indefinitely and that it sets out immovable rules that we must abide by. That is both the reasoning and practise of the Pharisee. God is not threatened if we question Him and His word. Abraham did it and was called ‘the friend of God’!
The story of scripture reveals the God behind the words, the stories, the lives, and we discover Him at work in the most unexpected place and people, of all creeds, colours, tribes and tongues.
True, not one jot will pass away, but scripture is not God, and Jesus was the most unconventional, counter-cultural person in all of scriptures and He is alive today to keep doing what He does and being unconventional in our churches and cultures, breaking in with the Kingdom of God which doesn’t bend to our culture but transforms it as we pray and usher it in.
That would be perfectly consistent with an inerrant, unchanging body of scripture. Scripture doesn’t change because it doesn’t need to because it transcends all time and culture, but at the same time remains directly relevant to any and all times and cultures.
So as culture changes we do injury to God’s word to apply it as if we were 1st Century near-Eastern citizens of a global Roman empire, when God’s word is alive and consistent today for today’s culture as it was then, even if we acknowledge Paul’s approach then and take a different one now.

Just one final thought… the ‘qualifications’ of a bishop/overseer/episkopos which Paul gives twice in two separate letters have remarkable parallels with Proverbs 31 which is all about the leadership and wisdom of a WOMAN. Any married man who has his head screwed on knows that his wife has wisdom, leadership and grace which he doesn’t have and which he can only access through her. And of course it’s true the other way around as well.
The Church needs fathers AND mothers, just like any one of us. If that was good enough for Jesus then it’s good enough for us. It’s no good for the Church to look at the rest of society and highlight the issues that have arisen because of children being denied access to both parents in a stable marriage when within the Church we deny the leadership of spiritual fathers AND mothers. Whether we’re male or female, old or not so old, there’s always a child in us that needs nurturing through the spiritual fatherhood and motherhood of others.

So if, as a woman, you believe Jesus is calling you into ministry as a bishop then I pray for you and pray for the Church of England that they might release you as Jesus is releasing you.

But if your agenda is ‘equality’ then learn Jesus’ lesson:
“6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:6-11
It may be that through this path of humility that Jesus might indeed elevate you to the ‘highest place’ and confirm you as a bishop in the CofE, but it won’t be for the sake of ‘equality’.

Mary herself proclaimed in ‘The Magnificat’ that, “he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate” (Luke 1:52 ESV)
What I am confident of is that Jesus is less interested in doctrine that divides and more interested in you being empowered and released to proclaim the kingdom of God at whatever level God raises you to, and He is in the business of raising up those whom the world pushes down.