Jesus Wore Silk Knickers

Jesus Wore Silk Knickers Part One: The Rose & St Cliff

I’ve been chewing something over the past couple of days since Christmas.  Listening to Radio 4 on Christmas morning Aled Jones (the lad who actually didn’t walk in the air with the snowman) interview Rosemary Conley of the diet fame about her faith.  Nothing wrong with that.  She explained as many do how she came to God during a real dip in her life; Divorce, death,  illness and business problems.  It’s not uncommon.  My own faith story includes some of the major fuckup scenarios that lead people to ask the big questions about life and to seek the answers through spiritual doorways.

It was a typical interview full of clichés (she even selected a Cliff Richard song!). 

“I suppose I considered myself a Christian but I was really just going through the motions,”   “I didn’t have a personal relationship with God. After I came to him, my whole life changed. Now prayer is the most important part of my day, not something I rush through mechanically. “I love morning prayer and reading Scripture. I often pray before important business meetings. God is my guide in every aspect of my life, whether personal or business.”

The thing that annoyed me most though was her presumption that you have to all but down and out before you begin your soul search or can live a happy life.  This is a common theme that runs within the christian faith.  The presumption is that everyone who “doesn’t know Jesus” must be having a really crappy life, that those who don’t “accept Jesus as Lord” are “Lost”.  Rubbish evangelical statements like “life to the full” is only available to christian believers is dished out relentlessly.

This is not true. Let’s take those three themes (and there are many more) and just unwrap them a little over the next couple of weeks:

Knowing Jesus:  Christians are in the main talking of “the personal relationship” with Jesus.  It’s sold as a true 1 to 1 relationship, face to face like the Pete and Dud monologues.  Total trust is put in the “fact” that when they talk to God then he hears every word and responds, just as if you were sat across the table from him.  It’s a lovely thought isn’t it?  Very comforting.  Especially if you are feeling delicate, lonely and vulnerable.  To be fair it’s also taught that even when you are in a good place you should “bring everything to the Lord”.  

"The fing is God - I'm not sure you exist like this"

My point in this section is that I reckon in having faith (total belief) that Jesus hears your prayers and responds to every request is setting yourself up for disappointment. 

When the prayers and requests fail to be fulfilled we are told, “ah but God’s ways are not our ways”.  The more fanatical Christian will tell you that “everything happens for a reason”.  Try telling that to the parents of the children massacred in the U.S. just before Christmas.  I’m sure even if the Right To Bear Arms was completely revoked (which it won’t – sale of guns and even armour plated kids backpacks have gone up!!) they would think the bloody murder of their infant was worth it.

My personal relationship with God is just that – Personal.  It goes much deeper than the my little pony, touchy feely relationship of a Father God and me his child.  Spiritually, I’m certain that I have had personal contact with the Almighty, even down to hearing an audible voice on a couple of occasions.  However, despite that I reckon that my day to day life goes on without the interference of a well meaning cuddly father xmas figure saying in a Harry Enfield voice “you don’t want to do it like that”.

Only Me!

For far too long I took (and offered) the advice of people who the church told me were well placed to offer me that advice and “authorised” to do so. -  Even when they had no experience of a particular life problem or situation.  -  Duff advice was therefore on occasion dished out.  The usual get out clause of some that had no real advice to offer was to “give it to the Lord” – pass the buck in effect – “take it in prayer to God and all will be well”.  In minor situations, the relief of worry by faithfully passing the buck, was indeed sufficient to bring a bit of peace to the situation.  But in truly serious situations the ramification of faithful abdication can be disastrous.

Some of faith have icon’s, figures of “saints” to whom you can offer prayers to who will intercede on your behalf to God.  This is a strange one to me as it immediately puts a barrier in front of the 1 to 1 personal relationship.  

The Christian commercial industry makes a literal fortune of selling merchandise to bring us closer to God.  Pennants, posters, bracelets, DVD’s and music, all designed to assist us in focussing in on the one “we love and who loves us”.

I can see a value in looking towards the wisdom of the Almighty, but I’m fucked if a fluffy Easter chick saying Jesus Loves You, will convince me of such a fact.

I have bits and bobs stuck about my study, pearls of wisdom, some from the Bible, some from Richard Branson, Winston Churchill, Nelson, Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Theressa.  I don’t worship any of these people as God, neither do I worship Jesus as God due to the hard sell of the Bible.  As I’ve said before, the Bible helped to teach me about Jesus but it aint Him.

My faith is in a Spiritual God ( I believe Jesus WAS a human manifestation of God).  Putting my faith in the Spiritual does make a difference because it assists me dealing with the negative thoughts in my mind and replacing them with those of a higher order and importance than my measly existence.  

Sometimes when I’m in a difficult “life situation” I look at all the people on my study walls, my mentors alive or dead and ponder that they all took a chance of doing what they really believed in.  I take comfort in  that this is the same for me, be it in my understanding of “Knowing Jesus” or in the day to day events of life, no matter how hard either of those things may be.

To finish this Part 1:  I recently read a book by John Suk, “Not Sure”.  It’s about a pastor struggling with doubt and faith:  He takes no prisoners when he turns to the widespread belief that the essence of Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus. His contentions are the following:

1. There is no theoretical consensus what this means.
2. Different religious denominations don’t offer official ideas on what it means.
3. Personal relationship has become what the person says it is.

 “The bottom line is that the huge emphasis contemporary evangelicals put on a great personal experience of and with Jesus as the be all and end all [don't overcook this "be all and end all"] of Christian faith has little or nothing to do with Scripture and everything to do with taking from our culture [individualism precipitates a longing for the personal] what it thinks human happiness is all about”   

In other words, they are creating their own designer religion.

The Personal Relationship demythologises God, it humanises God, it diminishes God, and makes religion cuddly and therapeutic.

Suk has pondered the Bible concerning this and says:
1. God is present; Jesus is present with us.
2. Jesus is especially present when we serve others.
3. God is sometimes distant; Jesus spoke of his absence (John 7:33, 34; 8:21).
4. Jesus’ absence means the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We want the same kind of relationship we have with a spouse but, Suk says, we can’t.  I agree.

Me and my bessie Big J

So what is faith? Faith is trust in the promise of God, a promise that says in Ray Bramfords case “ I believe that Jesus proved the existence of an Almighty God”  Instead of saying “I have a personal relationship with Jesus” I say “I believe in Jesus”.   My Faith is to believe in God and to love others (1 John 3:23). 



Next Time: Midnight at The Lost & Found.

Celebration Day

It’s been a long time since I rock n rolled on this blog thingy.  In terms of my “soul searching” or spiritual crusade, I suppose that is a good thing.  I reckon it’s an indication of how I am at peace in my spiritual skin these days.  It’s taken a long time to detox from the church.  There were so many restrictions, so many rules, so many controlling factors that I had to gradually set myself free from.

In doing so, as my rants last year show, I had to get a lot off of my chest.  I felt compelled to react to certain things I was reading or things that were being said both in the real world and on t’internet.

In the main this year, I have kept my mouth shut.  To the casual observer it would seem that I don’t have a spiritual perspective on issues.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  If anything my faith in God has grown.  I suppose what has happened is that I have stopped evangelising and or proselytising.   I used to believe that it was my duty to “preach the good news”.  These days I’m of the opinion that I should be the good news.  That’s not a new concept though is it.  The church encourages a show and tell mentality, but there is always an agenda – i.e. that if you share your belief you would like folk to join the club – whether you admit to that or not.  The thing is I don’t think that there are points to be earned by sharing your faith; unfortunately there are plenty of folk who still seem to think that there is.  My understanding is that if there is a creator God , then there’s nowt we can do to earn his love or attention.  It’s a given.  Equally, that love and attention cannot be diminished.  We can of course choose to reject Gods’ existence.   The fact that we choose to accept God’s existence is the beginning and the end of the “personal relationship”.  The moment when we choose to accept God is when the connection between “heaven and earth” begins.  The spiritual electricity starts to flow with a God realisation.  That is when we become aware of the enormity of Grace.

What has been interesting this year has been to observe the severity of extremes in both believers and atheists.  Atheists seem to be as bad if not worse than most people in their vehement and religious fervour towards God . The irony being is that they rant against a God they don’t believe in!?

A case in point recently was a very sad situation where a child of a friend of my brothers died. A truly tragic situation.  My brother an atheist, chose to vent his anger by posting a video of Depeche Modes’ “Blasphemous Rumours”.  I read the lyrics and it is indeed a rant at God about the injustices of life and death.  The point is though, how can one blame a situation on God if you don’t believe in them?  The problem is I suppose that is when bad things happen, we look for someone to blame.  Why God? 

The reason for that possibly lies in the upbringing of previous generations.  The church played such a vital and influential role in society, in terms of education / schools, politics and of course religion.  The UK used to be a Christian society.  Our history was shaped by the ruling classes adhering in principal to the teachings and control of Orthodox Christian belief.  Religion was indeed the opium of the masses.  The moral structure of society and law was directly influenced by the church and the churches teaching from the bible.  We were taught that God was everything.  That God was in control of everything.  That God was the Almighty King that divinely ruled over us as a benevolent parent.  We accepted this in the main. 

We were also taught about evil and Satan (Lucifer) who is the antithesis of Gods love.  We were taught that the ills of the world were the doing of Satan.  We forgot this in the main.

My point is this.  Deep in the psyche of most folk in my generation and above (50 upwards) is the notion that God Almighty exists.  A good chunk of society rejects that now (a real shame in my opinion).  However, what I’m finding when I talk to people about lapsed faith or non belief, is that they have actually rejected the church for its hypocrisy and its attempted control over them, rather than rejecting God.  Ergo when the shit does hit the fan, the person they want to blame is the one that the Church told em would love protect them i.e. God.  Not the evil one whose “dominion” or control over the earth they were taught was the bum deal over rebellion of angels and also the bird, snake and apple debacle.  No they blame God who they don’t believe in!  Bit of a fucked up theology really don’t you think?

Now.  Back to important stuff.  Back to me.

I’ve had my (un)fair share of pain and tragedy in life.  Most recently I lost a good friend who died..  A good friend who was a good man too.  Only in his early 50’s.  5 sons and a baby (daughter) on the way.  Died of a sudden heart attack.  Fit bloke.  Pillar of society.  Christian.  Where’s the justice in that eh?  There is none.  

Was it Gods fault?  No is the answer. 

I spoke at his funeral where the congregation numbered hundreds.  The service had to be relayed outside over loud speakers.  It was the biggest turnout that little church had seen in decades.  What did the vicar propose to do about reconciling the awful tragedy to the grieving mourners?  He attempted to isolate and exclude them. 

How?  By insisting that the funeral service came straight out of the book of common prayer.  That there was no room for deviation and no room for allowing folk to speak out publically – he didn’t want them “getting all emotional”.  The problem with this vicar bloke is that he is so tied up in the religion of the church that he’s forgotten who his church was built in honour of – Jesus.   Jesus arguably the most famous person ever to walk the earth.  Jesus the man who spoke the most incredible wisdom ever recorded.  Jesus who to those who accept Him as God, defied death to demonstrate Gods love for all.  The vicar forgot about Jesus.  The organised and orthodox church seems to have forgotten about Jesus.  Jesus would be interested in talking to the people who were hurting and suffering during that funeral.  Luckily he found his voice.  Along with the family and a couple of other speakers we high jacked the service.   Words of celebration for our dear friend were exchanged; words of comfort and support for the mourners were passed on.  Together we united.  Together we said Shalom.  We communed with each other and a higher force that day.  The vicar simply complained that heresy was preached.  He was a tit.  He knows his theology but he is ignorant to The Olgy of a united people – he misses the point entirely.

Since I gave up the Pastoring thing I don’t attend churches any more.  But I’m still interested in certain people who do.  One of those people is the ex Bishop of Durham Tom Wright.  He’s written recently a piece that better explains what I’m trying to say;

“With Jesus, it’s easy to be complicated and hard to be simple. Part of the difficulty is that Jesus was and is much, much more than people imagine. Not just people in general, but practicing Christians, the churches themselves.
Faced with the gospels—the four early books that give us most of our information about him—most modern Christians are in the same position I am in when I sit down in front of my computer. My computer will, I am reliably informed, do a large number of complex tasks. I only use it, however for three things: writing, e-mail, and occasional Internet searches. If my computer were a person, it would feel frustrated and grossly undervalued, its full potential nowhere near realized.

      We are, I believe, in that position today when we read the stories of Jesus in the gospels. We in the churches use these stories for various obvious things: little moralizing sermons on how to behave in the coming week, aids to prayer and mediation, extra padding for a theological picture largely constructed from elsewhere. The gospels, like my computer, have every right to feel frustrated. Their full potential remains unrealized”   -        N. T. Wright~ Simply Jesus

We live in a new age.  The world is so much smaller.  We share common languages via the internet – It’s like a new Babylon.  Theoretically we should all get along but the virus of intolerance seems to infect the lot of us and we can’t let those who think and speak differently be.  Equally though there seems to be a one-upmanship to religious and irreligious differences.  Each seems to have a need to be right.  Here’s the bottom line.  Theres no proof of right or wrong to the argument of whether god exists or not.  Personally I am certain – but I could be wrong.  But I put my trust and faith in the “fact” that I have met with the Almighty (on several occasions) and you can’t tell me I didn’t. 

  I suppose I could have been pissed though?

Mumford and Sons (the band) have a new album out called Babel.  Its title song is interesting in its discussion.  It seems to imply (to me at least) a really simplistic moral ; don’t overstep your boundaries – know your limits.  There’s also a possible warning of trying to get too close to the divine. Babel and Babylon is somewhat a story of confusion.  Perhaps the message is that is our inability to communicate and tolerate that leads to a breakdown in community.

Over the centuries Babel was inhabited by the Amorites, Semites, Hittites and Kassites –

The Babylon I am living in seems to be inhabited by Gobshites.  I am one of them.

There’s a great line in the Mumfords song and I’m adopting it: 

“Cause I'll know my weakness, know my voice
And I'll believe in grace and choice”.

Peace on You Folks!

Shalom

PS:  Depeche Mode is named after a French magazine and that name roughly translates as “Fashion News”.

A Stick To Stir The Shit

I love Jesus but isn't Jesus dead?

Jesus is dead. So is my Dad. So is my Mam. So are many other friends and family.

They lived and they died. All too soon. Including Jesus.

I still love them all.

There's one big difference.  Jesus rose from the dead.  For a while at least.

But it's that short term resurrection that has me a thinking my favourite question of the moment ~  Why?

Was the resurrection the ultimate miracle that Jesus as a man / as God performed to make us sit up and take notice?

Certainly the books in the bible describe wonderful words and deeds that Jesus said and did as a man whilst professing to be God. But did anyone truly believe that he was?  Truly? His closest followers were all set for denying, hiding or buggering off sharpish, when Big J got busted and executed.

All that Jesus had said to them in person, all that he had demonstrated to them before their very eyes meant diddley squat when the shit hit the fan.

It took a resurrection of a tortured, disembowelled dead man to make people actually believe in God. ~ Why?

Because they had seen this man, lived with him, fallen in love with him and watched him die.

But then come back to life!! Fully back to life!  Only God is possible of such a feat.

So they believed.  They believed so much that they were willing to die themselves to say it out loud and proud. “God is real”!

Not just a dozen close  mates but hundreds of first hand eye witnesses.

And so began a movement of believers.

I believe that.

What I don't believe in us the way that the message of belief in God became the message of power, wealth and control , that became the organisation known as the christian church. 

I don't think it's what Jesus, what God, had in mind.

Also I struggle with penal substitution theories. I struggle with the Scapegoat Theories - personal sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Certainly the idea of sacrifice in biblical times would be an incredible metaphor. Society was used to “paying penance” via sacrificial animals but that illustration doesn't quite translate into 21st Century North West England.
That's not to belittle my personal understanding of biblical sacrifice. It just means that if I was to try and “evangelise” sacrifice on the streets of Preston as a way of getting totally non believing people to think about a Loving and Graceful God, I'm not sure how big the sign up would be.

Actually, I am. I've done it many times. The sign up is minimal. Whereas, I believe the “need” for people to come to a God realization is Maximal.

Perhaps the marketing strategy and the USP might need a rethink?

So: Maybe God simply wanted to prove His existence by performing the ultimate miracle.  A man brought back to life.

It has worked. Millions believe in God because of the man Jesus.

We call these millions christians.

It certainly works for me.....

Now here's a stick to really stir the shit:

"If God performed this great miracle to get the attention of one group of people who became known as christians;  is it possible that God has revealed himself in other ways to other people who have become known as other things"?

So. My parents are dead.
Jesus the man is dead.

I believe this to be so.

I also believe that God is very well thank you very much and sitting in his heaven laughing his sack off at my attempts to work Him or Her out.

"You Believe What"?!

The Bramford Cock

Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda

I was talking to my mate over a birthday pint who decided to ask me a couple of BIG questions having read my blogs:

One. Do I believe that Jesus will come again as described in scripture. and
Two: do I believe in a heaven as described in scripture.

Big Q's. Far too big to answer in one blog session so I'll explore them for a while over the next few months.

The short answer to both though is no. No to both questions in terms of how the ancient scriptures describe heaven and the second coming. In fact just writing that last sentence makes me think that the two may be one of the same thing (maybe the bible is suggesting that anyhow) ..... I'll work on that thought

So: seeing as I mentioned The Kingdom of Heaven last time I'll start with heaven.

As the song goes and as I alluded to in my last blog "Heaven is a place on earth". Heaven is my place on earth. Heaven is waiting to be discovered in my own heart, mind and actions.

Heaven on earth we need it now.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5j6w1o8S5I

Here's a thought. A real my little pony thought, what does heaven look like for me? In my thoughts? What are my images?

Heaven to me would be sitting in a pub drinking an ale that really Tastes like an ale but is 0% ergo No hangover. Heaven would be to be discussing, philosophizing, joking, putting the past to rights, which of course it would be. Audrey and Hannah and Rory are there. And my friends and family are there. And their friends are there too.... Its a big pub.... But it still feels like it is intimate........ A corner table next to an open fire. And everyday they play the 2003  Rugby World Cup Final when England beat Australia 20-17 with a nail biting last minute drop goal by Saint Johnny Wilkson..... and I never know the score beforehand!!  

0utside. We have a view over the hills on one side and the sea to the other. I have a workshop. To write, to paint and sculpt and I have a big tarn in which to fish for fat trout.

Outside.

Outside my pub doors people are living their own heavens. There is peace, real peace. No war, no oppression, no hate, no violence, no rape, no sexism, no racism, no homophobia, no hunger. Every one is healthy, well with themselves and with the world and we've stopped wrecking the planet. Best of all "The Birdy Song" never existed.

Inside and Outside there is Love & Justice.

It's a hippy vision isn't it? But isn't Love and Justice a decent pair of metaphors for God? The glue that holds my heavenly kingdom image together? Is heaven a true realisation of God? A true consciousness of God within and of God in everything? Without the shit of the world which man has created since Eden?

Heaven on earth? We need it now. I'm sick of all of this hanging around...

Call Me Terry

I bought myself a present for xmas. An album I have never actually owned before, because I have always coveted it and also its not available on SpottyThighs.

It's by George Harrison. My fave Beatle. His debut - “All things must pass”

I've already quote George in my blog last year but here's another goody:

For every human is a quest to find the answer to, why are we here? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?…Everything else is secondary”. CBS This Morning, 6/12/97).

In effect George said continually, that he was on a quest to improve the quality of his life on earth....... So am I.

Not my standard of living - although I'd like to remain comfortable. Which I am. I am far from wealthy in western material terms though neither am I any where near poor by the standards of the majority of the world.

I am however rich in terms of desire and aspiration to better myself. As a person and as a spiritual being (is that a soul?).

In 2011 I have stripped back some of my “religious” beliefs though I remain certain of Gods interest in we plebs, his creation. Now I will leave the arguments of such things as creation – indeed Gods existence at all - to those who wish to argue (that's not to say I won't chip in). I did a lot of moaning last year about what I don't like instead exploring what I actually might.

What I have discovered so far is that I actually do believe in God. My belief is obviously influenced by my christian past and by my absolute certainty that God proved his existence through the man Jesus whom he manifested in 2000 years ago.

A good question then this year, possibly might be why? It is an important question I think, not necessarily on a philosophical nor a theological level. But more on an adolescent level. Why would a creator god be interested? Why would an Almighty need to prove themselves to anyone? Aren't they already Almighty with nothing to prove?

My aim hopefully this year then is to try

a) to get closer to god. Not necessarily in the touchy feely kind of way of the “personal relationship” - isn't the fact that I believe in God rather personal? - but to be perhaps a bit more hippy in literally “feeling god” and “why” it should matter anyhow.

b) to encourage people to think about the possibility of god on a personal level. Not a christian god, not a muslim god. The flavour doesn't matter. If God has been to the effort of exposing him/herself to different peoples in different ways i.e. though Jesus or through “The Prophets” or even through nature to some, then there must be a good reason for folk to come to a god realisation.

If god IS, then I think it is important that folk at least consider it. No proof, no answers. Just consider that god might be. Truly consider, without outside prejudice and outdated debates, nor with off the cuff crap one liners.

You see the fact that I do believe means that either that I am a weak minded fuckwit tree hugger. A deluded fuckwit tree hugger OR a fuckwit who is right.

You may call me Terry (one for old Viz fans there).

Everything else can wait, but your search for God cannot wait.

Paramahansa Yogananda