Living Faithfully - Chapter 1

7/28/2019 Living Faithfully - Chapter 1

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PART 1

Facing God

Sutl i was 31 i was codet i cold acheve more or less ay task

i took o mstry as lo as i had eoh tme to do t. Ater the

ae o 31 i kew i eeded god’s race ad streth to do ayth at

all. What made the derece was a epsode o ervos exhasto,

whe i od that all the essetal oras o my body were mak

ther dspleasre kow at the same tme becase they were be

starved o scet eery to perorm ther ormal tasks. i eeded to

stop. From the o i kew rom experece rather tha rom theory that i eeded the streth ad wsdom o god to be a eectve

dscple.

What’s the problem?

Former Archbshop Wllam Temple oce wrote: ‘Whe we al ds-

cpleshp t s always or oe o two reasos: ether we are ot tryto be loyal, or else we are try or ow streth.’1 i we are to

be ollowers o Jess t’s mportat that we ollow ad do’t try to

et rot o hm. it’s possble to beleve we beleve god whe

realty we are oly belev orselves ad or ow capacty to be

Chrstas.

i r the Chrsta race t wold be a strae dscple who

ra wth a ll-leth mrror held ot rot o hm, eabl hm

to look at hmsel, assess hs ow perormace ad adjst hs ow



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Facing God

appearace or maxmm eect. Ad yet that’s what t ca seem lke

we make or pot o reerece or ow selves, so that t’s ‘my ath’,

‘my mstry’, ‘my sprtalty’ ad so o that absorb s. ‘How am i

do?’ may be a letmate qesto every so ote, bt Chrsta lvs ot a exercse arcsssm. Or costat pot o reerece as

dscples has to be the re o Jess.

How could we think about this?

i remember a coversato i had wth a ordaed RE teacher whe

i had recetly od a ath or mysel rather tha a ath rom my

amly. i was try to expla the derece i ow expereced, ad

spoke abot ow be a ‘commtted Chrsta’. He rather abrptly

asked me what i meat by a ‘commtted Chrsta’ as opposed to a

ordary oe. i was rrtated; t was so obvos. Oce t had bee a ath

whch i beleved god a examed ad eectve way ad

wet alo to chrch prst o rlreds; ow t was a ath wth

the lv Jess Chrst at ts heart ad the promse o a deepe trst

ad redshp wth god or a letme.i mht have bee a lttle ache the way i expressed mysel bt

there s, srely, a derece those two versos o Chrsta ath. Eve

we have bee lelo, athl members o the chrch commty,

most o s ca dety a tme whe ath became a more scat

dmeso o or lves, whe the raph o ath wet p more sharply.

Chrstas have all sorts o ways o descrb the experece: ‘god

moved rom the ede o my vso to the cetre’, ‘a secod-had ath

became a rst-had ath’, ‘god moved rom optoal to essetal my

le’, ‘Jess stepped ot o the paes o the gospels ad to my ow

experece.’ i my case i ote say that i had may o the peces o the

Chrsta jsaw scattered arod, bt i seemed to have mssed the b

cetral pece – the lv Jess – ad t was whe that pece wet

that the rest o the jsaw tted to place.

Ths move rom the ede to the cetre s whe the jorey o ds-

cpleshp properly starts. Beore that, the Chrsta ath s rather lke



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Facing God

look at maps ad read debooks; ater that, ath s walk the

paths amo the lakes ad motas, ad ollow the gde who

kows the terrtory lke the back o hs had.

The move rom oe to the other, however, has o bleprt. Ater all,we may cross a border to a ew cotry by smply wader alo

a cotry path wth mmal awareess o where we’re o, or by

com to a border post ad mak a coscos decso to eter the

ew terrtory, or by rsh throh a hhly deeded border-cross

wth s blaz arod s. Whchever way t s, we d orselves

ew terra ad radally, over tme, the d ereces the cotrysde,

the archtectre, the laae, the cltre, become clearer. The cltre

o the kdom o god shold emere atrally as oe o love, jstce

ad joy as we travel deeper to ts heartlad.

The jorey o ath, thereore, may be qck or slow, or qck–qck–

slow. it may be aloe or accompaed, more tellectal or more emotoal

character, ad wth a wholehearted or a ertp ath as a reslt. no

matter how t happes, what matters s that the jorey has etered a ew

ad potetally exct phase, ad the term ‘dscple’ seems approprate

at last. it’s sober to remember that Jess ever seems to have vtedayoe to come to chrch (syaoe). it s’t chrcho that s

o the essece o be a Chrsta, bt ollow Jess o the path o

daly dscpleshp, be deret ad mak a derece as we o.

I In 1938 . . . I [Simone Weil] was suffering from splitting headaches; each

sound hurt me like a blow . . . I discovered the poem . . . called ‘Love’ [by George Herbert]. I learned it by heart. Often, at the culminating

point of a violent headache, I make myself say it over, concentrating

all my attention upon it and clinging with all my soul to the tender-

ness it enshrines. I used to think I was merely reciting it as a beauti-

ful poem, but without my knowing it the recitation had the virtue of

a prayer. It was during one of these recitations that . . . Christ himself

came down and took possession of me. In my arguments about the

insolubility of the problem of God I had never foreseen the possibility



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Facing God

of that, of a real contact, person to person, here below, between a

human being and God. (Simone Weil)2

Dscples may be sad to eter a patter o relatoshps (a dace),

whch the Chrsta ath s called the Trty – god as Father, So

ad Holy Sprt. Yo ca’t take a dace apart wthot los ts beaty,

so t’s dobtedly artcal to aalyse the dace o love the Trty

too mch. nevertheless, whe dscples partcpate the le o the

Trty, t meas be:

Fascinated by God The god qesto hats or socety bt to Chrstas

t has the added qalty o a holy ascato. Ths s a god who caot

be smaller tha ty, eve thoh sceptcs sst o try to lay god

ot o a table as oe object a eld o objects. The oly cocept o god

worthy o the ame s oe who ‘maed’ the verse to be ad

sstas t by hs thoht. Ths s o dve errad-boy wat to do

trval tasks or s. Ths s the god beyod creato who evertheless

vtes creato to jo the dace o love or love’s sake. i ladly admtto be ascated by god, ad happly have my vso o god elared

by scetsts, erched by artsts, ad deepeed by theoloas. There’s

eoh materal to explore here or a te mber o letmes.

Friends of Jesus Christ Ths s the term sed by Jess Joh’s gospel

whe he remded hs dscples at the last meal they had toether that

he dd’t call them servats bt reds (Joh 15.14, 15). We hert thatprvlee. Chrst vtes s to that tmacy whch St Pal cosstetly

descrbes as be ‘ Chrst’ – althoh he also descrbes the relatoshp

as: kow Chrst (Phlppas 3.10), recev Chrst (Revelato 3.20),

Chrst lv the belever (galatas 2.20), ad more. ‘Fredshp’ s

aother lovely metaphor. As preset-day ollowers o Jess Chrst we’re

jst as mch lke Keystoe Cops as the rst dscples, r arod

wthot mch cle as to what we shold be do, bt we mht et a

lttle less erratc we keep or eyes o ths best o all reds.



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Facing God

Full of the Spirit A prayer ote o my lps at the start o the day s

that i may be ll o the Sprt so that i ca lve god’s world wth

god’s help. The problem s that we all leak. The mae o a ootball

the corer o my stdy tells the same story. Becase t has a pctret’s partally defated ad thereore wheever t’s kcked ts shape s

dstorted: t were pted dow the eld t wold sk to the rod

wthot a boce. i the pctre were to be repared, however, ad

ew ar blow to t, the ootball wold resst the kcks ad be ll o

boce. it wold be what t’s meat to be. i the same way, Chrstas,

ll o the Sprt, wold become the ollowers Chrst vtes them to

be. O corse, ths s the deal; we are all pctred to some deree or

other, bt ‘resh ar’ s always avalable.

What could we do differently?

Ths secto o the book s probably the shortest bt t’s the most mport-

at. We ca’t lve ths Chrsta le or ow streth. it’s too demad-

, too mch o a ore laae or socety, to tackle by orselves.

All the rest o the book depeds o ett ths rst stae or dscple-shp rht. We eed to ace god ad draw o god’s lmtless le.

The characterstc stace o dscples, thereore, s that they have

ther lves tred towards god as ther cosstet pot o reerece.

Ths s as practcal as t s prood. At ay tme throh the day the

dscple s able to remember the presece o god, wthot eed to

be dly pos or to show o by radom levtato. Look the

drecto o god or a momet s a tmely acto wheever we do t.

it pts ths perspectve, t remds s whose we are ad whom we

serve, ad t opes s to race. Bt eve more tha ths tetoal

look towards god, hav or lves tred hs drecto s a

atttde o le ad a dsposto o the heart. The deal s that t’s ‘jst

the way we are’, whatever we’re do.

To help s lve or lves ac god we have the ts o Scrptre,

sacramet, prayer ad the ellowshp o the Chrch. These are the or

les o a strdy table where we ca st ad eat. We ore ths east at



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Facing God

or perl becase ths relatoshp wth god s lke ay relatoshp – t

does’t forsh o ce thohts ad ood tetos; t eeds tme,

love ad commtmet. Dscpleshp starts wth a le that characters-

tcally aces god, ad loves to do so. We lve the aze o god, adoe way o descrb the le o dscpleshp s that we sped or lves

try to retr that aze. To be held that aze, ad to retr t

orever, s to be heave.

From that vatae pot all o le takes o a deret mea. Every

acto s scat as oe that may refect the vorat presece

o god. geore Herbert caht ths precsely the words o a well-

kow hym:

Teach me, my god ad K,

all ths thee to see;

ad what i do ayth

to do t as or thee.

A ma that looks o lass,

o t may stay hs eye;

or, he pleaseth, throh t pass,

ad the the heav’ espy.

All may o thee partake;

oth ca be so mea

whch, wth ths tctre, ‘For thy sake’,

wll ot row brht ad clea.

A servat wth ths clasemakes drdery dve;

who sweeps a room, as or thy laws,

makes that ad the acto e.

Ths s the amos stoe

that treth all to old;

or that whch god doth toch ad ow

caot or less be told.



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Facing God

i we look throh the srace level (the lass) o ay acto we ca

see deeper scace (heav’), ad by do t ‘or thy sake’ eve

meal tasks (sweep a room) ca take o mea (‘makes that ad

the acto e’). Ths s the secret o dscpleshp (the amos stoe).Ay part o or lves, oered to god, ca be tred to old.

They said this

The oe th trly worthwhle s becom god’s red.

(greory o nyssa, ad 395; the last words o hs last book)

i yo ca stad where Jess s stad, yo ca say what Jess

says; yo ca come to god as ather wthot o throh a lot o

complex relos or rtal codtos. To be wth hm s to be – so

to speak – der a clear sky, wth o termedares betwee yo

ad the maker o all ths . . . He has marked ot the place or s

all to stad. (Rowa Wllams)3

god s lke love o everywhere.(Amada, ae ve, apropos o oth at all, strk p aother

theolocal coversato at the tea table)

Taking it further

Anchor passage : 2 Corthas 5.16 –ed

Read oce, take a ll two mtes to refect, the read t aa.

To think about

Opeer: Share the most terest experece yo’ve had ths last week

as yo’ve tred to be a dscple o Chrst – a ecoter, a actvty, a

coversato, someth read, someth prayed, someth derstood.

l Everybody looks p to, or ollows, someoe. Who or what do people

we kow love to ollow?



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Facing God

l Share the most scat phase o the jorey yo took com

to yor ow ath. l i what ways do yo thk yo are deret ow rom the way yo

wold be wthot ath? (Or s 2 Corthas 5.17 ot tre?) l How do yo try to lve wth yor le ‘tred towards god’? l What verses or phrases o the achor passae stood ot or yo as

spot o, or as eed rther explorato?

Prayer : The rop pars o ad each perso s asked to tr ad look

lly to the ace o the other. (i yo are aloe, se a mrror.) Ths

mht case embarrassmet, bt that’s part o the pot. it’s hard to

look wth a steady, search ad car aze at aother perso who

s’t yor le parter. Cote to explore the other’s ace, what yo

see, what yo woder at ad woder abot. The tr back ad pray

sletly or that perso, hold them beore god who sees s lly ad

loves s. The leader draws the prayer tme toether.

Living Faithfully - Chapter 1

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