Worship in many parts by Trevor Jamison

26/05/2009 by idavidsonblog.

Worship in Many Parts 

What is your favourite element in worship? Do you thrill to the hymns, long for the time of prayer or most appreciate a really good sermon? Of course you are allowed to enjoy all of these aspects of worship but if you could only have one which would you choose? I’m willing to guess that different people in a congregation would give different answers and that this is true whether the congregation is a vast gathering in the hundreds or literally just “two or three gathered in his name,” 

As I write this letter Christian Aid Week is under way and tomorrow I’ll be trekking up and down garden paths to strangers’ doors, asking them to make a contribution to the collection. If asked to design a Christian event that will maximise public participation few of us would think to choose the offering as the element of worship most likely to get a good response. As it happens though, even more people than the number comprising the audience of Songs of Praise choose to take part in this event. 

In worship, with the possible exception of church treasurers, the offering is unlikely to get many votes for “Most Popular Moment in Service.” As far as men are concerned a recent survey of four hundred male readers of the magazine Sorted revealed that for them the most popular part of the service was the talk or sermon (72%). Although 60% of those surveyed liked singing in worship they had a clear preference for proclamational hymns rather than emotional love songs. Those surveyed did not like hugging, holding hands or sitting in circles discussing their feelings in church. 

Some readers of this letter (men or women) may be saying a fervent “Amen” of agreement to all of those views. Some (men or women) may be in total disagreement. Others may love the sermon almost as much as they are attached to hymns that qualify as “emotional love songs” or want more time given to proclamation in our singing but less to listening to proclamation from the pulpit. Just spare a thought for our worship leaders who have to create a service that meets the diverse needs and preferences of a congregation made up of men and women, younger and older, coming from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. 

Worship should reflect some of our preferences because they flow from the sort of people that we are and it would be strange to worship in a way that is totally alien to our identity. At the same time, however, since we are a mixture of people, individually and culturally, we cannot expect worship to suit our individual preferences all of the time, not taking into account the different preferences of our fellow worshippers. Also, all of us need to remember that although worship is essential in forming us as people we are not the object of worship. God is the object of our worship and trying to discern what is worthy of a God of creation, love, mercy and justice affects the content and the style of our worship: 

Lord of all good, our gifts we bring to thee,Use them thy holy purpose to fulfil:Tokens of love and pledges they shall beThat our whole life is offered to thy will.                                                A F Bayly (1901-1984)                                                Rejoice and Sing 404Trevor 

The survey of male worshippers is reported athttp://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/newstopics/religion/5278040/Male-worshippers-like-to-sing-macho-songs-in-church.html

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Christ, the unseen guest at every meal, by Rev Trevor Jamison

26/04/2009 by idavidsonblog.

“Christ is the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation”, or so ran the wording on a plaque which adorned the dining room wall in the house to which I had been invited to dinner. I suppose I should have found this sentiment a comfort but I must confess that at the time it seemed a little sinister to me. Not only was Christ keeping an eye on my table manners – mouth always shut when I chewed, no elbows on the table – but he was eavesdropping on every comment shared and any aside uttered by me during the course of the meal. At least I had been given fair warning but what about my manners and conversation on all those previous occasions when I had shared a meal and no notice was affixed to the wall? Perhaps it is better to have Christ as the unseen observer rather than some of the alternatives. The

UK, it is claimed, has more CCTV cameras per head of population than any other country in the world: 4.8 million cameras in 2005 and no-one really knows how many now. Next time you are up in central

London pause for a moment to consider that in Westminster Council’s CCTV control room someone may be watching you on one of forty-eight screens that control one hundred and sixty fixed cameras plus dozens of wi-fi-connected mobile cameras. This “state of the art” centre is frequently visited by representatives of police forces from around the world, impressed by cameras that can “id” you from seventy-five metres away. They may then choose to transmit your picture to the relevant police control room. So if you do pause to think about this try not to do so in a suspicious looking manner.

 It may be true that the camera does not lie but sometimes it does not tell the full story. Recent pictures of some G20  protestors breaking the windows of the Royal Bank of Scotland building in London show almost more photographers present than protestors so how representative was the image of what was going on that day? Likewise, images of police officers appearing to assault protestors may be made to stand for the behaviour of the whole police force for the whole of the day. On the other hand the camera can uncover truths otherwise unavailable to us. In 2007 I witnessed a “smash and grab” raid at a jewelry shop in central

Cambridge. As the robbers emerged from the shop they were confronted with a small army of passers-by, all holding up their mobile phones to take pictures of the faces of the perpetrators. Likewise, the photographs and videos taken by police, demonstrators and city workers (including at least one church member from this pastorate:www.flickr.com/photos/26916199@N03/) may be a force for good, uncovering truth and restraining poor practices and bad actions on future occasions. How we feel about being observed is greatly influenced by the view we have of the observer. Some feel reassured to know that “the forces of law and order” are watching over us. Others are worried that “big government” is watching our every move. Likewise, how you feel about being watched over by Christ depends not only on what you have been up to but what image you have of God. The picture of God as some irritable old guy, living only to catch us out in misdemeanors and possessing unimaginable powers to punish us, dies hard. The insight that “it was not to judge the world that God sent his Son into the world, but that through him the world might be saved” (John 3: 17) should help us here. God observes us and our failings, then acts to save or redeem rather than to condemn or punish. The instigators and operators of CCTV systems, however, are not God but human beings like us, prone to our failings and shortcomings. We might do well to be cautious about these unseen observers yet more trusting of the divine, unseen guest at each meal and in every life.

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Easter By Revd. Trevor Jamison

02/04/2009 by idavidsonblog.

April is a month for us to keep our feet firmly on the ground until the moment when we jump for joy. The problem is that we are tempted to leap too early. We need to keep our feet firmly on the ground, even on Palm Sunday. Apart from Jesus, who was riding into town that day,

Jerusalem was treated to the sight of a bunch of pedestrian disciples, walking along, cheering their man on as he entered into the holy city. It’s not to say that excitement was absent, with all the cries of “hosanna” and the route carpeted with greenery and clothes. (Mark 11: 8-9) It’s natural and right to get caught up in the atmosphere of anticipation and celebration since following a notable ministry this prophet is coming to

Jerusalem, the centre of affairs to sort things out. It’s natural and right that we should reflect all this in our Palm Sunday worship but it would be premature to jump for joy.

 It would be premature to because Palm Sunday, for all its excitement has, lurking in the background, the prospect of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. On both these days our feet are kept firmly on the ground. On Maundy Thursday we gather in the evening to worship, to share bread and wine as Jesus and disciples once shared bread and wine in a borrowed room in

Jerusalem. Our feet are on the ground for this is an occasion where material things are to the fore – bread and wine, the material products of God’s material creation – even though in the hands and words of Jesus they are employed to speak also of other things. Our feet are kept on the ground through observing mundane, human failings. Judas leaves the room and company of Jesus, both literally and metaphorically, as he departs to betray Jesus to the human authorities.

Jumping for joy must also be deferred on the following day, Good Friday. Not only are our feet kept on the ground but we wish the very ground might swallow us up. No cause for jumping about in celebration as we remember and re-enact the suffering and death of Jesus, both in our shared acts worship and walks of witness. One of my most uncomfortable Good Friday experiences was when I found myself drafted into a choir that was then directed to sing joyful Christian hymns at an ecumenical gathering on Good Friday. In our singing we were inviting one and all to jump for joy, but doing so in a setting that demanded sadness and sombre contemplation. Even the belief that God is using this horrific event to bring about reconciliation with the world is tinged with sadness that it should take this to achieve the goal. And then, at last, comes Easter Day.  The political and religious tensions, the human failings and transgressions that were in the background the previous Sunday and which resulted in Jesus’ crucifixion are shown not to have the last word as far as God is concerned.  Disciples who had used their feet to walk into

Jerusalem and to flee when Jesus was arrested are now, one and all, jumping for joy because they are convinced that dead though he was he is now alive.  This Palm Sunday and Holy Week we are all invited once again to make the journey, feet on the ground, grounded in the material, even dragged down to despair.  Then on Easter Day we are invited to experience, along with the disciples, the full impact, the contrast, when Jesus who was crucified, died and buried is raised to new life by God.  In their company it would be very hard not to jump for joy on Easter Day.

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What sort of bread? by Rev. Trevor Jamison

18/02/2009 by idavidsonblog.

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” (John 6: 35) So, if as he says, he is the bread of life what sort of bread is Jesus? In other words, if you were asked to imagine Jesus as a loaf of bread what sort would it be? There are many possible answers to that question and if you come up with one that I do not mention now please be sure to let me know what I missed out. For the moment, however, here are four suggestions for your consideration.  Let’s begin with the most popular type of bread on the supermarket shelf – the sliced loaf. This is presented to us, neatly packaged, with predicable, safe servings. It will not offend our sense of taste (for it has little or none) and is easily digested, though containing little in the way of nourishment. This is the Jesus of popular Western European imagination in our day. Like the sliced loaf he is usually experienced as white and unchallenging. He is reduced to the role of “good teacher”, with all the demanding bits about his life removed; the messiness concerning his death bleached away; and the challenge presented by his resurrection never added to the recipe. In this undemanding form Jesus enjoys an amazingly long shelf life. Nor is this Jesus absent from the churches. Recently I sat in a meeting in a room in a recently refurbished church. The walls were decorated with pictures relating to Victorian missionary work and a couple of large images of the white, fair haired, tastefully bearded Jesus surrounded by adoring children of different races. It may be that these were hung on the wall as an ironic comment on how we used to perceive Jesus but I’m not confident that this is the case. The United Reformed Church Jesus (in as much as the URC agrees on anything) is, of course, the wholemeal loaf. This brownish Jesus, more appealing to the right-thinking middle classes than any other group, is certainly nourishing. For some reason the wholemeal Jesus remains a minority taste, possibly because wholemeal, whilst it is perceived to be nourishing is seldom regarded as exciting, a duty rather than a delight. Both society and church would do well to remember a third possibility – the matzo bread Jesus. If you are ever in

Amsterdam and visit the brilliant Jewish Museum then making matzo bread is one of the children’s activities on offer there. In other words we all do well to remember that Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian (a Christian is a follower of Christ) and therefore be reminded that he is not just like us Western European Gentiles. This difference points us towards the fourth and final type of bread that might represent Jesus – a non-existent bread. To be like Jesus this bread must be popular amongst those who consume it, nourishing yet exciting at the same time, Jewish bread that sustains Gentiles as well. Whatever bread appeals to us for everyday eating, whatever bread is placed upon our communion table it can help us to remember Jesus, to experience Jesus’ presence in the here and now. They are all helpful signposts and experiences of Jesus though none tells the whole story. The wonder is that when we share bread and wine in worship they can become the vehicle through which we enter into the presence of God as we remember Jesus. And as for what sort of wine Jesus would be …

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Men are such liars by Rev Trevor Jamison

07/01/2009 by idavidsonblog.

Men are such liars … 

Nearly half of all men have lied about what they have read to try to impress friends or potential partners, according to a survey reported by the BBC in November last year.* A poll of 1500 people undertaken on behalf of the National Year of Reading Campaign found that they are most likely to lie when it makes them appear intellectual or romantic. Women (one third of who had lied about their reading habits) thought men should have read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography or Shakespeare. Men, on the other hand, would be most impressed by women not only reading Shakespeare but also news websites and song lyrics. Among teenagers, three quarters of those interviewed were prepared to lie about their reading habits, particularly about social networking websites and song lyrics. 

What would your choice be if, like one in five of those polled you chose to read a book whilst waiting for your date to arrive, in the hope of impressing him or her? Perhaps it would be a heavy tome on quantum physics or a serious work by a prominent political leader. Maybe you would be engrossed in the most recent Booker Prize winner or “re-reading” one of the classics of English literature. Whatever your choice, my guess is that unless you know it will go down well with the particular person you are meeting you are unlikely to be reading a Bible in order to impress. 

Wouldn’t it be fun (and possibly instructive) to commission a poll of 1500 Christians and ask them under what circumstances they have or would be prepared to lie about their Bible reading. Would a potential partner swoon upon finding that a man was well versed in Lamentations? Would you be impressed (or depressed) by discovering a woman well acquainted with the letters of

St Paul? Can you envisage circumstances in which you claim to have read all those Old Testament prophets, even the ones whose names you can’t quite remember but think might begin with the letter ‘Z’? 

In conversations held in the three congregations of this pastorate, undertaken as an introduction to the URC Vision4life process, many of us agreed that we do not know or use the Bible as well as we might. One intention for 2009 is that these issues will be addressed during the course of the year. Of course the responses of those polled on behalf of the National Year of Reading Campaign reflected social pressure to claim to have read something they have not. Christians, except in church settings, are more likely to be under pressure to deny having read something from the Bible, even if they have done so. In either case, however, reading or making claims about reading in order to impress others does not do justice to a book, biblical or otherwise. It short-changes the author, the book’s subject and whatever or whoever inspired it. A book only receives full value when we actually read it, open to the possibility that it might influence the way we think, change the way we see the world and make a difference in our lives. 

Time to curl up with a (the?) good book. 

Trevor 

 

* From BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/7776046.stm Published: 2008/12/11 02:47:26 GMT

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Patience is a Virtue by Rev. Trevor Jamison

07/01/2009 by idavidsonblog.

Patience is a Virtue

It was a surprise to see the tree that lay abandoned, its useful life at an end. Lying in front of the house, water glistening on its branches from winter drizzle that was falling steadily from a grey sky, it was now ready for collection. A line of string, tied roughly around the tree, held branches in check, preventing them from spreading too far and causing any inconvenience. I could just make out an irregular circle of green pine needles that had dropped to the ground around it. No doubt green would soon turn to brown, visible to all unless gathered up and taken away as rubbish or for recycling. It was a sad sight. Something that had once been living and valued now was dead and discarded. Out for an afternoon walk on Boxing Day, only one day after the big event, I had spotted the first ex-Christmas tree of the year.

Perhaps I am too sentimental. Perhaps disposing of the tree by Boxing Day is just the action of someone prepared to follow through on the logic of the Western Christmas. After all, Christmas, it seems, starts early, long before Christmas Day itself comes along. Driven by consumer demand, itself driven by corporate advertising, we are all encouraged to get into the Christmas spirit as soon as possible. Boxes of Christmas crackers and festive fare line the supermarket shelves from months ahead and the bombardment of perfume and toy advertisements issues from our television screens for what seems like an eternity. My personal favourite (congratulations to M&S here) was the display of pork pies, adorned by the signage proclaiming, “Essential Christmas Eating” whilst the date on the packaging informed us, “Use by 23rd December at the latest”.

This drive to celebrate Christmas early (and then to declare it over by the December 26th or soon after) is at odds with Christian tradition. For us, the period prior to Christmas Day is called Advent. It is a time of preparation, pondering and awaiting the coming of the Lord to a world in need of help. Christmas, in Christian tradition, only really begins on Christmas Day, or perhaps when the sun has gone down on Christmas Eve, marking the end of that day and the beginning of the next.

Not for the first time in life there is a gap between Christian theory and Christians’ practice. My first service of Christmas carols this year kicks off on December 7th. Previously, I have participated in a church Christmas bazaar (with Santa) that took place in November, on the distinctly un-ecumenical basis that “we have to get in ahead of the others”. I have, in my time as a church attender and member, grumbled about ministers who refuse to pick many Christmas carols on Sundays in December, despite the fact that they must know that most of us won’t be in church on Christmas Day itself. Like most people, I’ll be busily out and about in the run-up to Christmas Day this year, present-buying and making other preparations.

As Christians, we want to share the good news about Jesus with others. We would be foolish to reject the opportunities that this time provides, when people who seldom have time for things to do with church want to be involved in a Christian festival, however peripherally. Let’s face reality: a lot of this activity is fun for us as well. What we want to avoid is placing so much emphasis on Christmas celebration in the days ahead of Christmas that we arrive there, exhausted, jaded or bored. We want to be able to celebrate Christmas as the beginning of a season, not as its end, for we want to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a new beginning for the world that God loves.

Trevor

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07/01/2009 by idavidsonblog.

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