Small Wonder

There are times when we feel really good about life & times when we don’t - times when we feel strong in faith and times when we don’t. In Psalm 40, the Psalmist writes about the good times, when his faith was strong and he was full of praise & thanksgiving.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me & heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

But then there comes times of trial & attending doubt. We all have them. He is aware of his sins, failures & short-comings; of life’s problems and challenges. He needs God. Where is God, anyway, when you need Him?!

 

Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord; may your love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.

In her book, ‘Small Wonder,’ Barbara Kingsolver writes: “The closest my heart has come to breaking lately was on the day my little girl arrived home from school & ran to me, her face tense with expectation, asking, “Are they still having that war in Afghanistan? I suppose there are a lot of things that may break our heart. . -- the passing of a loved one, the absence of a friend, the hopes and fears that turn into dashed dreams and the reality finally happening: something we had greatly feared actually happens As if,” she continues, “the world were such a place that in one afternoon, while kindergartners were working hard to master the letter I, it would decide to lay down its arms."

Her daughter said: “If people are just going to keep doing that I wish I’d never been born.”
 

Kingsolver writes that she “sat on the floor and held her tightly to keep my own spirit from draining through the soles of my feet.”

“It used to be, on many days, that I could close my eyes and sense myself to be perfectly happy. I have wondered lately if that feeling will ever come back. It’s a worthy thing to wonder, but maybe being perfectly happy is not really the point. Maybe . . . the truer measure of humanity is the distance we must travel in our lives, time and again, ‘twixt two extremes of passion: – joy & grief,’ as Shakespeare put it.”

 

We try -- God help us, to keep on keeping on, to try to make sense (or keep trusting) when it seems senseless what’s happening when there’s only misery & mystery beyond explanation, beyond our human insight; -- & there’s mostly silence when we try to pray.

 

The Psalm does not end on a light, happy note, for God’s People are not immune from the ups & downs of life, nor from the cold, wet spray of the heaving breakers & waves on shores of the world around us. Rather, the Psalm ends with the challenge to keep stumbling heavenward, as God’s faithful ones, despite the polarity of these ongoing passions: joy and grief in what we experience in life. 

 

And so we try to keep balanced, or get balanced – somewhere between the extremes,

for we need a faith that sustains –something beyond mere optimism & wishful thinking; and & the ability to hang on, God helping us, when all seems lost – to find - as the hymn puts it, that: ‘when all around our soul gives way, He still is all our hope and stay.’

 

We will continue to receive on one hand - gifts of joy, but also, on the other -- injustice & grief. And so with the Psalmist we pray:

May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”

But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay.

Sabbath

Christian professor Henri Blocher of France, writes: "Sabbath protects us from total absorption by the task of subduing the earth. It anticipates the distortion which makes work the sum and purpose of human life, and it informs us that we will not fulfill our humanity in our relation to the world which we are transforming until we raise our eyes above, in the blessed, holy hour of Communion with our Lord. The essence of mankind is not work. Nor is the essence of mankind rest or play."

Selling

Ernest Dichter, generally acknowledged to be the inventor of image advertising, advised one of his associates that the "best technique for selling is to paint for the customer a total picture of the kind of person he or she would like to be and then make them believe your product is a necessary part of that picture."  (quoted by Sally Helgesen in Harper's Magazine)
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Angels in our Midst

Bridge of Angels, Rome

Anyone Can Enter

No one is born there. Everyone must choose to go there, the religious and the non-religious. Whether we know ourselves to be 'chosen' or not, each one of us may know that we are invited, called to the party, called to the banquet, called to the Life that Jesus called 'abundant.'

Listen to Your Life

“You never know what may cause them. The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it, or a piece of music, or a face you’ve never seen before. A pair of somebody’s old shoes can do it…. You can never be sure. But of this you can be sure. Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go next.” - Frederick Buechner, 'Beyond Words'

Follow Jesus, Not Merely Ideology

“The faith passes, so to speak, through a distiller and becomes ideology. And ideology does not beckon [people]. In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements… The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians.”   — Pope Francis

Moving Forward

Those of us who have gone “beyond evangelical” have moved on from the early 20th-century fundamentalist vs. modernist debate that our forefathers passionately fought . . . a fight that continues to rope many contemporary Christians into today, some 100 years later. This fight leaves people with a false choice between left or right. The alternative direction of “forward” doesn’t appear on the radar screen. Those who are “beyond evangelical” have moved on from that battle to discovering, exploring, and displaying the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Crossroads

The body of Christ is at a crossroads right now. The two common alternatives are to move either to the left or the right. It’s our observation, however, that we are living in a unique time, when people are frozen as they look in either of those directions. When they look to the left, they decide that they cannot venture there. When they look to the right, they feel the same. Whether they realize it or not, people are looking for a fresh alternative—a third way. The crossroads today, we believe, is one of moving forward or backward (Jesus Manifesto, p. xiii).

- Leonard Sweet, Frank Viola

On her Blog, Aubry Smith writes: -

"Westerners want everything to conform to a rule, just as nature conforms to the laws of physics, and just as the rules we set for our children. We want them to apply to 100% of people, 100% of the time. A rule is a rule is a rule . . . 

"We want everything to apply to us, all the time. But the biblical writers and audiences weren’t as concerned with rules as we are; instead, relationships were the basis of reality for life. 

"This is why the Mosaic Covenant wasn’t over when Israel sinned and broke the Law – when the rule was broken. They did this millions of times before the Covenant was broken! Instead, the Covenant ended when the relationship was severed — and this took quite a long time."

Barber Family - Fressingfield, Suffolk

The following information about the Barber Family of Fressingfield, Suffolk, England is gathered from The Bohun of Fressingfield Cartulary, Edited by Bridget Welss-Furry in the series Suffolk Charters XIX. Bohun kept track of the transfers of various lands (and related families) in Fressingfield, many of them about his own family, but also including other ‘prominent’ families of the area.

From an online Amazon description - The documents edited here tell a story of aspiration and social mobility in late medieval Suffolk. Edmund Bohun, the younger son of a prosperous yeoman from Fressingfield, managed through good contacts and good luck to obtain a position in the center of administrative and political power in London, thence achieving armigerous status as well as acquiring considerable amounts of land, both in and round the village itself and elsewhere in Suffolk.

Having no son of his own, he left his land and coat of arms to his nephews, thereby establishing the family's fortunes on a level which they were to retain for several generations. His cartulary describes the properties which he accumulated, and reveals much about the social links of local society, and the financial dealings of its yeomen and farmers who actively traded land between themselves.

This edition of the cartulary is presented with a detailed introduction which analyses its contents and places it in its historical and social context; it also includes other charters concerning Fressingfield which are preserved in the Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich.

The name is spelled variously  - Barber, Barbur, Barbour, Barbourgh, Barburgh, le Barber le Barbur, le Barbour, etc.; Bober, Bobir, Bobur, Bobyr

Barber, Edmund p 16

Barber, Hugh (fl 1350-1347), 25, 51, 56; land of, 142,143; of Fressingfield, 145; witness, 62, 143, 180-1/200-1

Barber, James (fl 1475), 57, of Fressingfield, 118

Barber, John (fl 1323-1441), land of, 65-6, 70, 74, 80, 145; land formerly of, 38, 48, (1359); messuages formerly of, 49 (1370); witness, 8, 43, 59, 62, 65,66, 70, 73, 141, 145, 179/199, 214, 217, 260, B36; of Fressingfield, witness, 120

Barber, John (fl 1437- 1462), 27, 9, 14, 24-5, 27, 57, 80, 89, 234(e), 250-3; land of, 234 (b, c, d); 258; land formerly of, 164 (1467); of Fressingfield, and Isabel his wife, 25, 68, 152; witness, 89, 154 184, 198, 207, 228, 230, 231, 232, 264, 265; the elder, holding formerly of, 166 (1479); the elder, land of, 234 (c); the elder, of Fressingfield, 157-6; the elder, witness, 153

Barber, John (fl 1437-1475) 14, 27-8, 57; of Fressingfield, 118; the younger, 234 (f); land of, 234 (c); of Fressingfield, 161; son of Roger, 5; of Fressingfield, B10; of Fressingfield, witness, 163

Barber, John (fl 1574) 13, 19, 146

Barber, John (unspecified) 14-5, 17, 19, 24, 48, 57, 63, 73, 77, 79; lands, formerly of 55; messuages, formerly of, 55; witness, B9-B10

Barber, messuage of, 4

Barber, Richard (fl 1368) 55, 66, 24

Barber, Richard (fl 1462-1477) 57, 14, 27, 63, 284; of Fressingfield, wheelwright, 254

Barber, Robert (fl 1307-1317) witness, 67; the younger, 55-6; 67, 211

Barber, Robert (fl 1352-1378) 54, 56, 60, 67, 69, 72, 82; son of Hugh, of Fressingfield, 133; land of, 125, 132; pightle of, 28, 30, 32; of Fressingfield, witness, 144, 278; witness, 12-14, 24, 28, 44, 46, 50-52, 63, 132, 167-9, 172, 276, 279

Barber, Robert (fl 1378-1395) brother of Roger, 25, 68, 74, 156; of Fressingfield 136, 147, 197-8; witness, 262, 283

Barber, Robert (fl 1420-1438) 234(d); land of, 255; witness, 154, 207, 228, 255

Barber, Roger (fl 1378-1386) 7, 25, 54, 56; brother of Robert, 68, 74, 156; of Fressingfield, 147

Barber family, 61, 67

Bober, Hugh, 82

Bobyr, Peter, 54; land formerly of, 68, 237, (1344)

Bobyr, Robert (fl 1352-1382), 24-5, 41-2, 54, 56, 59-60, 68, 74, 82, 32, 126, 138, 149; and Agnes his wife, 39, 42, 54, 68, 74, 156; land of, 170; pightle of, 149, 168, uncle of Roger and Robert Barbour, 147; of Fressingfield, 30, 37, 46, 61, 148, 150, 156; of Fressingfield, and Agnes his wife, 146; witness, 9, 12-13, 24, 28, 33, 36, 44, 49-50, 52, 63, 71-2, B2/269, 123, 125, 129, 133-5, 144, 167, 169-70, 172, 185, 224, 276, 278-9; of Fressingfield, witness, 11, 261

Bobyr. Sara (fl 1335) 54; messuage of, 179/199

p 60  “Among the dozen, Robert Bobyr, his brother-in-law or nephew, Robert Barber . . .(+7 others), came from established Fressingfield families. Bobyr had no children and left his lands to his Barber nephews; . . . “

pp 60-61  “Among the well established group, only Barber and Dade had descendents (i.e. in Fressingfield), or at last individuals of the same name, who remained prominent in the village until the latter part of the following century.” (ie. the 1400’s)

p 67 (footnote): “Robert le Tanner had between a frequent witness to charters between c 1290 and 1309, appearing on the last with his son Robert, and in 1299 had granted a piece of land to Thomas Kembald. His son Robert occurs as Robert de Fressingfield and as Robert le Barber the younger, so the elder Robert may also have been known as Robert le Barber, an interesting variety of trades if these names are indicative. A Robert le Barber had witnessed a 1307 charter. The son Robert alienated a curtillage next to his croft in 1314 to the rector Philip de Thorpe and by 1317 this croft had passed to Richard Edward. Thorpe obtained quitclaims of the curillage from Alice, widow of Thomas Mannock and John de Metfield, who may have been kinsfolk, but whether Margaret Perleman was the widow of Robert the father or Robert the son, and whether these Roberts were ancestors of the prominent Barber family which appears frequently until the end of the following century, is unknown: 209-11.)

Tanner, Robert le (fl 1290 – 1309) 35, 37, 55-6, 67, 83; lands and buildings, formerly of, 175 (1319); of Fressingfield, 202; witness, 18, 55, 66, 76-7; his son Robert, 62; witness, 55; his son and heir, Robert de Fressingfield, 209

Backyard Wisdom

So, I’m (almost) finished raking my leaves (it’s teaching me the meaning of the word ‘eternity’) and although my body has been very active (as you can just imagine), my mind has been too – as it’s been involved in uh, erm - contemplation (sorry).

I’ve been pondering the meaning of the changing seasons (my own as well as nature’s), the falling leaves and other things (gravity wins), the cold approach of winter – grey and white . . . (all that stuff . . .). 

Having had more than one season doing this (experience) I have thought about the implications of the above (wisdom), and I’m going to share it with you – now.

1.     Apparently one has to rake up leaves every year. Get over it.

2.     Not all will fit in the bag; make sure you have lots of them – or lots of room.

3.     Eat the fruit of the tree (if there is any) and throw out the leaves.

4.     You can’t save the leaves for next year’s trees.

5.     The tree will make its own leaves; you don’t have to do anything in that regard.

6.     Some of the fruits (like some of one’s ideas) are for the birds.

7.     Keep the tree.

8.     If it’s dead, cut it down before it falls. Get rid of it.

9.     Not all of the saplings around the trees should you keep. Pick and choose.

10. Water and feed the trees if you want (only the living ones); but it’s mostly unnecessary.

11. Prune your fruit trees; leave the other ones alone – they’ll figure it out.

I wonder if any of the above applies, say, to traditions, institutions, churches, strategies, missions, exploits, best-laid plans, marriages, families (I could go on – teaching the meaning of the word ‘eternity’  . . .).

Life's Autumn

Life's autumn fails, dark memories too,
We strive to hold the life we knew;
The loves, the face we treasured, gone
And death now silences the home.

But Love will always with us stay
Though faith and hope will have their day;
These sturdy guides will come to pass,
When all is changed to all that lasts.

The hope that helps us in our night
Will not be needed when there's light;
Since faith persists though lamps are dim
We'll grasp Love's very essence then.

 

     - L. Barber, November 2012

Are we Asking the Right or Wrong Questions towards Right Answers?

Jesus is the Messiah and He is Lord; the Lord and Messiah is Jesus.

There were Jewish and there were Gentile implications to be concluded. When Saul (who would become St. Paul) was confronted with this reality, there were many, many aspects of truth for Israel that had come to fulness and that would be further carried forward within the plans of God for this world and for all creation.

Throughout the history of the Church, we can see and describe the various ways in which Christians wrestled with the reality of God comes to earth in Jesus, and with the resulting implications for their day, context and times.

It's difficult to discern what it is that God wants us to be doing in our day, in the light of the fact that Jesus is Messiah and Jesus is Lord. We can describe how the early church lived this out, for example in the inspired accounts within the Scripture itself, and for instance in the Book of Acts. We know some of how the early Church Fathers sought to work out the implications in their day, often against the powers and authorities of their times. We can follow various threads - in the development of the Western Church, the Church in Africa and the Church in the East. We can see how Luther, Calvin and the other Reformers wrestled with the implications, asking questions and answering them as best they could, God helping them and given their measure of biblical insight and understanding about the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. We see how during periods, say, of 'great awakenings' as in the UK and America under the influence of such leaders as Whitefield and Wesley, the revival and expanse of the Church, as followers of Jesus, well, followed.

The difficulty if not the danger in ascertaining the implications of the Lordship of Christ, and the fact that He is Israel's Messiah, lies in asking the questions of another time and fleshing out answers as for our times but which are not correct nor helpful. They answer questions rightly asked in and for other times, and we may agree (or not) that the living-out implications of such biblical perspetive in those times was right. But may we also say that such questions and answers are not necessarily normative for all times, let alone for the specific times, contexts and situations in which we live. Jesus is Messiah but what does that mean for today? Jesus is Lord; what now it's implications and applications for our lives and faithful ministries?

The questions and answers asked and answered may indeed be right (to a point and/or to a pointed situation), perhaps in essence continuing the needed strands of faith and faithfulness for our times, but perhaps not giving the nuance and specificity or totally different window of approach and application that is needed. We must return time and again to the essence of the Scriptures and of the  Gospel, praying and listening to the Spirit, yes in seeking to learn learning how that's been worked in previous times and other contexts in history, and perhaps even contemporaneously with us albeit in other parts of the world, but even more so seeking to find the fresh truth based on eternal verities of the Word that God would yet reveal to and through us, that written Word and that Word Who became flesh and dwelt among us for a season, and who continues to indwell and lead His Church by His Spirit.

Giving medieval answers framed by medieval questions will not guide the Church clearly or nearly enough, as it should be guided in the 21st Century by Jesus Himself, Who remains Lord and and Saviour, the Messiah of Israel and the Christ of God and of the Gentiles.

What did St. Paul understand and have in mind, written by God's Spirit's guidance in the First Century, that remains true in all times and in all places? And what, if anything, changes or whose light and truth flashes forth with more clarity and impact, as it is fleshed out in the various times, cultures and contexts of history and particularly for us, of our day?

Of Potters and Pots

 

We have this treasure, writes St. Paul, in earthen vessels . . .

It may seem to us sometimes that the biblical analogy of God being the Potter and we being the clay pots that he creates and shapes for His purposes, make Him and His Province to be such that we are mere, passive, almost inanimate objects. Following the insight and words of the prophet Isaiah (in chapter 64) again we may think that in the 'working with clay analogy' we are passive and God is totally in control/charge. Apparently one might think that, until one starts working with clay. (I've not done that: I'll take the word of others who have).

An initial steps involved when working with clay is called Wedging  (now, don't go there) – where you work hard 'to beat the life out of the clay.' Actually you are beating and kneading out air bubbles. If you don't, the bubbles will make the new creation crack when it hits the kiln. Or, it may blow up and, potentially everything around it. There are ‘bubbles’ that need to be removed from our lives if we are to be and achieve the purposes of our Creator.

Another step involved is something called Centering – a difficult process because (who would have known?) clay is naturally very resistant. One’s whole body weight has to be pushed into the play until you feel no anomaly as the clay is going around in your hands – until you know it’s ‘centred.’ If it isn’t centred, it will be wobbly or collapse entirely. God is always wanting us to centre our lives in and around Him. What in our lives need to be centred around the Lord?

In Jeremiah 13, we find that the pot that was created became marred in the potter’s hand so he crushed the clay and formed into another pot. Similarly, God moulds us into different shapes and purposes, painful as that often seems to us. It is His doing even though we often (usually?) resist the process.

Am I accepting of God’s God’s centred will and priorities for my present and future? How am I active in working with, rather than resisting what God is doing in shaping me (or other aspects of my life and ministry)? Can we discern and welcome the changes He is bringing? Do they perhaps indicate that there is a lack of alignment, a difference or out-of-step aspects to my life in general, or in some particular are

How do we listen, look, trust and acquiesce more without giving up our responsibility and part? Could even our brokenness, resistance and doubt be part of what is repaired strengthened for the good as we the clay sometimes wrestle with the Potter in what He is doing and in how He is doing it? 

The Old Barn

Soon winter comes and deepening roots in blackened soil of centuries past
Go cold, though growing still and white-snow laden;
And barns of garnished grey and boards with virgin knots no more,
They plank-faced hang, their sagging doors with crimson lost.

Knowing shadows capture freeze-frame moments passing there,
Those fleeing memories, stories of a fleeting day;
Such sturdy byres will soon be gone and, well --
Will children know, remember them, or care?

Liquid Times

I have written a Shutterfly (picture and poem) book entitled Liquid Times about what it's like to be living as missional Christ-followers in these days of change.

How to live, when all seems fluid
in the mean-while, this in-between 
of culture's shifts on history's shores,
spread between the old and new?

Wish It Were So

 “You have to work hard to offend Christians. By nature Christians are the most forgiving, understanding, and thoughtful group of people I’ve ever dealt with. They never assume the worst. They appreciate the importance of having different perspectives. They’re slow to anger, quick to forgive, and almost never make rash judgments or act in anything less than a spirit of love . . . no, wait! I was thinking of Labrador retrievers!”
- Steve Brown, Three Free Sins

Manningford Abbots Church

A little church in Manningford Abbots, Wiltshire, 

where my Newman ancestors were christened.

Rome Interlude