In a community of humans -working amongst beautiful humans ..............
they soon get to know
that I am a person of faith
and questions are asked.
I keep my mouth shut
until I am asked questions.
I ask questions -
I am writing book of them
and have about 500 now.
Questions are beautiful and
most of the time I don't have an answer
but I try a fumble or stumble into some response .....
So - I ask questions/they ask questions loveitloveit
Once someone came up to me -
a young enthusiastic young man
"Pip ....... I want to become a Christian."
I turned to him and said
"Get lost"
I have had to develop a range of detecting 'crap factor'.
That is where 'Get Lost Theology' was born.
It came from breathing deep the same air
as the kids I was working with.
And living amongst.
Incarnational .....................
I am reflecting on past experience which still remains in the hard drive of my mind - feelings recorded too ......
I had last seen Mick when he first came out of prison;
our relationship has developed via many letters from prison.
I don’t think I’d seen his mate Frankie for about five years.
Both were twenty-seven years old now.
Their BMW cars parked outside.
So the three of us sat on the juke-box, drinking coffee and just reflecting.
But then, in the midst of talking about how drug use was an accepted part of life in the East End of London,
Frankie said,
‘We’ve done everything now – booze, thieving, drugs, girls – there’s nothing else to do.’
‘What about God?’ I asked, ‘or does God not fit your East End image?’
This provoked a conversation about the Government and the ‘Old Bill’:
‘There’s a lot of poverty around here now, Pip.
Once the pubs were crowded – now they’re half empty and even our mates ponce (beg) drinks all night …
there’s going to be riots … people are going to join with the blacks and there’ll be riots.’
What they were saying was fascinating in itself,
but what struck me with such force was that they were talking about God
in the same breath as the Government and the police.
In these times with a UK election day due
my soul is with those who are without.
The least.
The wounded.
Those who cannot cope with life.
My vote is with the party who stand with the poor.
Who work to give them chances
opportunities to break out -
break out of the cycle of deprivation.
Back to the Juke Box -
God being closely associated with a distant government ........
....... with controlled enthusiasm, I talked with them of the ‘underside Jesus’ who,
when physically on earth, spent his time with the leper,
the prostitute, the thief, the stigmatised.
He did not act as one in authority and with status.
Mick and Frankie were writing off God as they do a distant oppressive authority!
We have got to come to the same level, as groups of people,
and not stay ‘topside’ in positions of safety, comfort and status.
‘Get lost’ theology is risky because life is.
M Scott Peck starts his famous book 'The Road less Travelled' with these three words::
'Life
is
Difficult'
So we don't need to make it harder?
Or do we need to make it richer?
The Church Missionary Society has used the following on their adverts:
‘Has God called you to stay where you are?’
Unless someone moves - Africa stays as it is and the inner city stays as it is.
I am aware that there is more to this argument, but you can see the point:
‘If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem.’
Some inner-city Christians say to humans who wish to come into tough areas
‘keep out – you do more damage than good!’
That is true – unless the ‘underside’ way is taken and people come in to learn, not to give.
To be
To become
..... go on ..... tell me to get lost ............
