Vicky Gene and the Interruption of the Biker Dude

This is footage of a sermon, given on Sunday, by openly gay Angican Bishop Gene Robinson - first name Vicky. It's interesting, because of the unexpected heckling by an audience member - resulting in the service abruptly jumping from 'sermon' to 'hymn' with all the elegance of a Virgin Pendolino trying to jump from the Birmingham to the Edinburgh line at 120 mph.

What are your reactions to the clip?

Gene: Freedom fighter, or moral terrorist?

Interrupter: Defender of the faith, or homophobic bigot?

And how does God see it? Obviously he loves both actors in this drama - but of which one has read the script properly?

We must remember the context. The Anglican church is slowly coming apart, like two enormous icebergs - Icebergs that are being irresistibly pulled on by the undercurrents of very different social contexts. In many western countries, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is a criminal act. Is it any wonder society sees the church as ridiculous for denying people office because of what they get up to in private? In many parts of Africa homosexual activity is an offence punishable by imprisonment. Is it any wonder Africans are reluctant to appoint Bishops who could go to jail?

Maybe God is big enough to be happy with both protagonists of Sundays performance, confronting each other from opposite icebergs: One unswervingly stands up for inclusion and an end to prejudice against huge opposition. The other publicly defends truths that been the majority view in the Christian tradition for 2000 years. Neither of them, and none of us of us sees things from God's perspective.

A man who I believe tries to is Rowan Williams. He has a foot on each iceberg, and is trying to hold the two together. (There's a great and quite fair article I read today on him here. I have a lot of sympathy for him - let's pray for him).

At risk of irresponsible passivity, I'd say that what most Christians will be doing in this debate will be an exercise in waiting for one or other iceberg to melt. Let's remember to be humble and loving as we do it, and pray that the Anglican church would remain one - after all, the larger the block of ice, the less likely it is to thaw.

Prayer.

I'm fairly good at praying about me. I'm not traditionally very good at praying for other things.

Like many Christians, the problem of unanswered prayer bothers me. If God can allow awful things to happen to Christians (and he does), then what's the point in praying for anything? Or at least, that's what I tell myself. Sometimes I suspect that really I just feel guilty that I don't pray for others more, and the above thought is just a way of rationalising my way out of feeling guilty: a way to make it God's fault that I don't pray for others, and not my fault.

Well, a number of things have built up, like water behind the straining dam in a disaster movie, to challenge this long held 'grievance' I've been holding [against the creator of the universe. Ha!]. These things are:

- Hearing Pete Greig, the founder of the 24/7 prayer movement, saying that we do need to be really honest about unanswered prayer (he's written a book about that), but that we don't need to get cynical - miracles happen when we pray

- Reading a section from Dallas Willard on fully abandoning one's heart to God's purposes, no matter what the circumstances. I was really annoyed with its simplistic, modernistic approach. And then I realised I was really annoyed with the way it was challenging me.

- Reading Jeremiah 40: he had had a really rough deal, but he experienced God's grace in a really practical way it. Then I remembered Moses, Elijah, David, Job and the whole Israelite nation, who all experienced the same - God showing his grace in horrible situations.

- Hearing the same day from a friend of mine for whom I'd been praying. She'd just been at the funeral of a close friend, who was diagnosed with cancer 2 months ago. She saw the hand of God in the funeral, and in his life leading up to it.

I've made enough excuses. Now I'm committing myself to actually PRAYING.

It's fairly simple - I just want to pray for one thing, that's not directly about me, every day.

Hold me to account on it, and if I there's anything can pray for you, let me know!

The Emerging church

I've just started doing a module on the Emerging Church for my theology course.

This is a BRILLIANT description and critique of the emerging church movement, (although the sound quality isn't perfect). It's by Jason Clark, who's a friend of the pastor of our church, and is an all round good egg. I'm subscribed to his blog.