Cinderelli's Threads...

I've found a great illustration of how the church becomes the Bride of Christ. In the Old Disney animation of Cinderella, her little bird and mice friends each take a role in putting together "Cinderelli's Gown". But all their efforts (their 'works') are destroyed by the two ugly sisters who pull off their cast-off beads and ribbons, and leave her standing on the stairs in tatters. It seems cinderella will not make it to the Ball. This is when the Fairy Godmother intervenes and magically transforms the birds and mice THEMSELVES (rather than their 'works') into Cinderella's entourage. They become a part of her 'outfit' as she is arrayed and sent to the Ball.
God will do something similar with us I think. Our churches will be overturned, destroyed And God himself will recreate us and put us in place so that Cinderalla marries the Prince in the end.

We try so hard to effect prophesies. We try to bring about "God's Kingdom" here on earth. We try to make love not war, and to bring peace to pass. But we are just mice and birds arrayed against powerful, jealous enemies.

Our Fairy Godmother awaits her cue: the right moment to step in and transform the events of the darkest night into a party, a Ball - with music, laughter, romance and dancing - when the Prince meets his Bride at last. See you there!

He has written his Law in our hearts.

I saw a documentary about the Aztecs, who believed that the gods had got together to create the sun by sacrificing themselves. Thus, men had to sacrifice themselves too to keep it rising and setting. Blood kept the cycle of life going. Funnily enough when Cortez arrived and the spanish conquistadors, bringing their Catholic Christianity at the point of a sword, the Aztecs bowed to this stronger warrior race with it's stronger (in their eyes) GOD. Their age, they believed was coming to an end, and with the passing of the fifth sun, they passed into Christianity. The idea that GOD sacrificed himself to SAVE men, must have come as a welcome relief to all that heart ripping devotion of theirs...

The Only way is Through

Why is it that we only learn in suffering?

After the Upper Room Feast, during which Jesus had acute pangs and plashes - anticipating what was before him. He stared at that cup, eyed the rim, estimated the volume of pain. Wished he'd drained it already but there it was before him and the clock ticked painfully slow. Yet his darkest hour loomed inevitable. Perhaps that's what he meant. "Whenever you eat this bread of pain and drink a draught of suffering, think of me. How much more do I suffer so that you DON"T HAVE TO.

Certainly it was a pre-occupied Jesus who ate that Passover Feast with his disciples.
Then in the Garden of Gethsemane that great Rock of human vices was laid on him and began to squeeze blood from him in place of sweat. Perhaps he of all people gave every last drop he had int he end.

When we face dark hours, when the cup of pain is put before us, lets reflect on teh fact that Jesus in his humanity cried for release, and begged for an escape too. But he WENT THROUGH IT. God was relentless with himself. He knew the outcome demanded it, and always it is the case when trouble lies in our way.

How did Jesus feel when after hours of agonised crying, while his friends failed to realize his need for their support (and chose sleep over friendship), how did he feel when he saw those lights glimmer in the dark garden and saw armed thugs round the bend towards him. Did his heart beat, did he feel a nauseous flop a a fish's tail in the guts. Did he think of running into the night - to hide in the desert or the caves? Did he find himself numbed fromt he emotional turbulence of the night, but with that final turnover of feeling there was nothing left to do but bottom out.

DId he despair?

WHen Jesus agreed to the mission in the comfort of heaven did he really know what it would be like? Were those his thoughts as he waited in the garden. Why? WHy did I agree to this? And did that dull answer come like the thud of a boot against his ribs.
"The only way is Through."

Mark 12:28-34

I can see this man. One of those quiet, sincere thinkers, who studied the ways of the Law and pondered the complexities of life endlessly. he was troubled I think by the condemning perfection which the law seemed to require, and long he had yearned to ask God himself about them. He dreamed of following God perfectly yet like St Paul found himself... falling short. When Jesus illuminated the underlying score - the water table of the law which flooded the dams and rivers - he saw the light break. LOVE! Love is the answer. It must be the driving force, else all fails. What a step he took that day as he saw the empty charade of sacrifices and ritgual washings. What lay behind them was the thing! The symbols had come to be the all, and all had forgotten what had brought them about in the first place.
He suddenly saw the terrible unbalanced scale, with heavy weight placed on burnt offerings and sacrifice. Meanwhile love of God and man was so much higher. It lifted him up, just as if he'd had the whole scale toppled and he was flung high with light love. I think Jesus' words 'You are not far from the kingdom of heaven' must have surged through him like new blood. He had asked his question, and GOD HIMSELF had answered him!

De-churching

You see,
In the beginning I went because my parents went, and then, I went because my friends went and soon I went because I'd always gone. I found I missed choruses - sung like anthems by the old faithfuls around me. I even missed the stale biscuits and weak coffee and the sense of warmth inside. I found myself longing, on Christmas Eve, for the 'Holy Night'. For cold stars and candles and high celestial voices. For a space in which to feel the tremors of first faith in a being I had begun to experience in an almost amorous way. He stirred in me a need to love, and gave to me a painful consciousness that the world hurt. It screamed. It raged. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. This was something I did not see. Instead, when I looked over the world, I experienced the same feeling I'd had watching a nature program, in which hyenas took bites out of a live wilderbeast even as he tried to run away. Finally the poor beast lay down in despair while the whole bloody frenzied pack gorged themselves on his still living body. The sense of horror this brought over me was almost beyond coping. I knew I was seeing the same thing around me everyday I was outraged in the face of this cruelty, and wondered at a God who allowed this to be so...

Devo Discovery