One for the road...

Womb with a view: the endings and beginnings of eternal life?

The upcoming 'what are we waiting for conference' (download updated flier here ) has got me thinking about the end of the world - not in a gloomy chicken licken end is nigh  or in a 'good riddance' way but reflecting again on the profound mystery of it all.

What struck my imagination was the language of creation/birth/beginnings - of a (re)new(ed) earth, followers of Jesus described as  new creations, who experience new birth/life in that most magical and mysterious of tri-une interactions so that we are reconceived and  'born again."

In the beginning, so the epic poem of creation in Genesis 1 (the opening book of the great sypmphany of life that is the bible), there is a new earth/creation formed and in the end, so the last book in the bible,  Revelation, tells us, there will again be a new earth - or the old earth renewed/reborn.  In the beginning there was the miracle and mystery of new life and in the end life will again be created new. 

In other words when we believe in Jesus we become part of creation that is remembered, renewed, recreated - in Jesus all of the universe, all of us, gets knitted together, finds a place to be needed and fully formed.  In Jesus we get to live for ever, apart from Jesus our lives fragment and drift away - we are not remembered/restored/resurected.

In my mind I wondered whether the life that we know now is like a baby in the womb - we are aware of our phyiscial environment, we interact with it, we are alive, we feel, we touch and we can even interact with the world beyond what we can see - if someone prods us from beyond the veil we can prod back.  However, we have no idea really of what the world beyond is like, what we experience we know and that is our reality.  When we are born, we leave the darkness for the bright light and enter into a whole new, bigger world, which makes our previous experience seem so finite and limited in comparison (no wonder babies sleep so much to process the sensory shock of their new environment)...

Maybe life as we know it now is as limited as a baby in the womb?  Maybe we resemble our future eternal selves as much as a baby resembles the adult they will grow to become , with all the vast range of skills, knowledge, experience and sensory input that becomes available - between baby and adult there is a vague similarity but so vastly different that it is hard to imagine.  And yet to the proud parent maybe there is no lessoning of their love from when the baby is conceived to when he or she is a fully grown adult.

Is death a stage like the new born baby who sleeps all the time - a state of recovery, transition, aclimatisation?  Maybe that's why the bible writers partly refer to death as being like a sleep (or maybe?

Is the womb of this world where we have opportunity to grow, develop, form character, personality, individuality  - and if we allow the Spirit to shape us those elements of us will echo on into eternity - an eternal life in Jesus where we become fully formed, recognisable as who we were in this life - now no longer babies but fully grown, fully human beings?

Death becomes not the end but another beginning, a transition, a birthing experience that ushers into something so much more wonderful than we can begin to understand or imagine

I wonder:

• How do you imagine eternal life?
• What do you imagine our resurected life to be like - what does it mean for you you to think of our bodies and our humanity fully restored/reneweed/recreated? 
• Do you find the image of a baby/adult one that inspires you in thinking about this?
• What other metaphors/thoughts would you use?

Triune image bearers: Temple, Jesus and humanity as God's cruciform 'idols'

I have finished my essay on the Trinity for the module I took with WTC.  The snappy title of the essay is:

In terms of both continuity and discontinuity, describe how the Jewish understanding of the temple as God’s unique ‘dwelling place’– the ‘union’ of heaven and earth – is recapitulated and reinterpreted in the context of YHWH’s Trinitarian self-revelation in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Taking into account the OT understanding of humans as God’s ‘idols’ (Fletcher-Louis), how do temple and image come together in the corporate reality of the Church, as the ‘body’ of the Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, joined to the fellowship of the Triune God? How is this image reconstituted by Jesus’ cruciform life?

After 3,000 or so words, here's how I concluded:

"I have explored how Jesus embodies something of the Jewish understanding of the temple but how this is too narrow a means to contain the initiation of his kingdom project of restoring humanity.   For that it requires understanding of us as created in the image of the tri-une God and the restoration project of God to restore that image as shown in the perfect image bearer, Jesus.  As Smail says “God’s life and character have been perfectly reflected in the human life of Jesus.  In him the mirror of our humanity loses its distortions and regains its proper focus on God, so that in Christ the image is restored and through him can be restored in us as well.”   

It is about more than our own individual private reconnection however but for us to be communities of cruciformity for we are created in the image of the other-centred tri-une God.  The trinity exists in eternal communion and therefore the restoration of our image sees us restored both to the eternal community and a human one, as image bearers together.  This restoration sees us called to follow the same way, truth and life of our Lord Jesus and learn to live it out in other centred love and service of those around us, in such a way that that there is a cost as we learn together to give up our rights, including the right to be right. 

To live as communities of the cruciformity then come at a cost, it will cost us time, it will cost us money and, it is an inconvenience that undermines our individual rights.  Then again such is the price that has been met in the life, death and resurrection of Christ and is a price that our tri-une God continues to bear in, with and for relationship with us."

That is my conclusion but what do you think?

If you are interested you can download and read the full essay by clicking on the link below:

Download in_terms_of_both_continuity_and_discontinuity.doc

We're all heretics now...

Jason Clark has recently had three  (1, 2 & 3) excellent posts on his blog about heresy. 

This echoed a thought I had whilst thinking about the trinity - that to some extent we are all heretics. By that I mean if there is a plumb line called truth it is a line that is not static but that quivers from side to side – or maybe the line doesn’t move but our perception does.  Since none of possess the complete truth but live out our lives in relationship to The Truth – Jesus – it means that we are always in danger in our thinking in swinging too far one way one or another and be indeed to recentre our thinking and actions.

The question for then is not so much the questions we ask or struggle with but when have we gone too far in our thinking such that we loose something of the bigger/greater Truth.

One of the things that I really appreciated about reading some of the church fathers was the number who fell into heresy – in other words their thinking took them to a place where they had
an answer but had lost other answers as a result.  As far as I can tell when this happened it didn’t lead to a burning at the stake or ostracism but instead a process of communion where the
other Fathers would write letters, preach sermons and hold conversations where they would seek to highlight why this was a heresy – what was in danger of being lost that would make our faith poorer as a result.

Community challenge?

For me that brings home again how much we need to have open conversations with our theology and resulting practice – to be open as a community to each other to the prompting challenge of the Holy Spirit amongst ourselves, to peer review and to seek to learn from each other. 

I often do training events where we talk about the effects of implementing, sometimes very complex, accounting practice.  I find that at some point someone will put their hand up and say
“Excuse me, this is probably a pretty dumb question…” and then go on to ask one that is far from anything but dumb – like the little boy who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes on – we need each other to ask the questions that bubble up within us. 

It also makes me aware that we need to be aware of our history as a Christian community which has experienced 2,000+ years of this shared correction amongst each other  - many of the heretical positions I can move in to are not that particularly new and many of the course corrections that happen within the life of the church are people realising that they have moved into a heretical position and therefore compensate for it. 

For example, the emerging emphasis that Christianity is more than about getting souls into heaven, getting a better cloud or even more harp time before the celestial throne is in many ways a reaction to and the correction of the reappearance of a form of heresy - Gnosticism - in Christianity – that we are trapped by our human bodies and need to escape them and he world.

Of course in making the correction that instead of  focusing on souls escaping we need to focus on bodies/resurrection/material presence/life lived now etc we are in no doubt just as likely to overcompensate and find ourselves in need once again of making a correction back the other way.  So once we were about saving souls with the bodily/material secondary, now we may become body obsessed - seeing our mission as about saving bodies/material  [with souls becoming secondary].  Back and forth we'll bounce off the centre, like some form of crazy Newtonian cradle.

Practicing together?

This is not about some super spiritual heresy police but ordinary everyday Christians like you and I thinking well what does to believe this mean for me living out by faith?  What are the implications for the other doctrines I believe? Are we gaining more than we are loosing by holding this view? etc

So with that in mind I would like to invite you to share any of the questions that you might be thinking of around the christian faith, doctrines, and practices.  Not so much that we can come up with the correct answer (although we might together be able to share and increase our understanding) but so we can practice as a community thinking through issues together and helping each other see both what we gain and loose as a faith community as a result.

Me vs the Many: identity, community, mission in the reality and image of the Tri-une God

More and more I think an understanding of the Trinity is key to our own understanding of the church, community, mission and the cruciform life of Jesus that we are invited to be part of.  This post is long but it is how my thinking is starting to be shaped and I would really value your thoughts and comments as we explore the other-centred self-revealing nature of Tri-une God and what that means for us as people created in the image of that Tri-une God...

The one [me] or the many?

In the film Star-trek II: The Wrath of Khan the logical Mr Spock proposes that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few whereas the emotional Captain Kirk , in Star-trek Episode III, in rescuing Mr Spock with the help of his trusty crew, demonstrates to him that the needs of the few, or even the one, can outweigh the needs of the many.

I  raise this by way of introduction because we live in a time where in our western world it is firmly dominated by over 2,500 yrs of a philosophy, history and sociology based on individual thought and expression.  We in the west live our an individual based life with little thought/concept of how our own actions/beings effect the wider community - our maxim can be summed up in the phrase it's my life, or possibly for those of a religious persuasion, it's my faith, and i'll live it out however I want.  No one is getting hurt, it's private, it makes me happy - i don't tell you how to run your life so what right do you have to tell me about mine?

We wonder why church as a communal other centred activity has become just another part of our individual expression/choice - one where we can choose to participate in or not.  One where we can choose where we go, what style we want, what theology we like and who we attend with - or not at all.  After all me and God is a space that doesn't need anyone else to clutter it up.

In the Global South the philosophy, culture and history is the opposite - the needs of the many, the tribe, the family come to the fore and are ranked about the needs of the one/individual - it is something that our own western theology needs exposure too but in return they also need to hear our individual based thought. 

We are image bearers of a Tri-une God

Neither a philosophy of individualism or tribalism is complete in and of itself because neither is a full reflection of the Tri-une God.  God is not a singularity he exists as both individual, Father, Son and Holy Spirit but the three is also One [not 3 separate Gods or One God with 3 masks]. 

Each member of the trinity is other centred i.e. they are intentionally for the other rather than for themselves - this other centred is reflected in the way they eternal shine the spotlight on each other rather than themselves - their is no order or hierarchy within the trinity as that would imply that their individuality overshadowed their oneness and lead us down the route of 3 separate Gods.

On the other hand each member of the Trinity seems to have their own identity/character/nature/expression which is revealed to us by God - God is the creator and ruler of all for instance; God ultimate self revelation comes in Jesus becoming flesh and living as a human - limiting his divine nature but still living a  tri-une life  - obedient to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

As God's idols - created by Tri-une God in the image of Tri-une God we reflect the nature of God - individual being but a deep hunger to know and be known.  God did not create us as one but as a pair - male and female and together we reflect the image of God, we need each other in a way that is above just sex or companionship - as anyone who has ever been in love will know. 

For God and for christians a singularity does not exist, God to create us in his image needed a plural, it is together men and woman that we bear the image of God.

Individual expression

Perhaps the best way of looking at our individuality is in the context of our identity - we are all individually made, shaped and loved.  Our character, body, temperament, skills, abilities, nature - all of it is different.  Therefore that means that none of us are individually complete in part because we were not created in the image of God who is individually complete. 

The beauty of the story is that the Tri-une God finds us each individually as we are, where we are.  They are not complete enough not to search for each one of us and they do so in the most other centred way possible - not by compulsion or dogma but by love, grace, sacrifice - a revelation of their own identities through Jesus, fully God-fully human, who was obedient to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus who lived out this other centred life and then invites us to join him, through him, with him and by him we are adopted by the Father as co-heirs, sons and daughters and empowered through the Holy Spirit.  For more on this see my post on is Jesus the only way to God.

We can relate to God on the basis of our individuality and are loved, known and distinguished by who we are.  We can also relate to God on the basis of his individuality, his character and nature - we may have a particular member of the Trinity who we pray to more often for instance - but we do not get a relationship with just one of them - they relate to us and we relate to them, for where one of them all of them are - and their other centred nature means that they want us to know not themselves but the other, each wants to reveal the other to us.

Our own individuality then becomes the blessing - we can share who we with each other and in doing so our good and our bad, our own blessings and trials become wider blessings - as we express ourselves we are not just individuals but connected intimately to each other and this world in all its complexity and different inhabitants and habitats.

Other centred living

We can not therefore get Jesus  or get saved- like he is some form commodity and being saved is some form of personal private therapy/beauty treatment - although i often find myself thinking we can.  No - Jesus gets us!  We trade in our own individual kingdoms and join God's kingdom, we learn to lay down our own lives, our own rights and our own choices instead for the dreams, wish, of this Triune other centred God.

Although we are found by the Tri-une God on an individual basis, like the story Jesus told of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, we are not left lost or on our own.  Like the Shepard who leaves his 99 sheep for the one, the woman searches her house for the lost coin and the father who embraces his runaway son, this tri-une God calls us into a relationship with them and the community of believers - just in the same way the sheep was returned to the flock, the coin to the dowry and the son to his family. An understanding that we are not this disconnected private individual and it doesn't matter what we do as long as no-one gets hurt and we have no need of the other is something that this tri-une understanding shatters, imho.

That we are gathered together as an us, the people of God, the image bearers, eikons, kingdom workers, livers and lovers - who dwell in one kingdom - is reflected in the rich metaphors of the NT - the body of Christ, the royal priesthood, the temple of God, living stones.  All of us then need each other and are for each other.  Of course we don't often like the stones we are built next to and want to wander off and form our own wall of there somewhere, or wish that everyone was a brain or a hand like us rather than all these messy other pretty useless looking parts.  We desperately wish that more christians looked like us and put ourselves forward as the model image bearers forgetting that it is not me in who's image we are made but in God's.

The trinity has been on a mission since the beginning of our creation to call a people that reflect the image of God and they will not stop searching, calling, shaping, and revealing themselves and transforming ourselves who seek to hand over our lives to them in order to do so. That they invite us to join them in that revealing, in that reaching out and calling of others to enter into the Kingdom too, is just another facet of this wonderful tri-une relationship - we ourselves get to join them in God's eternal dance along with all creation.

That Jesus said the mark of the image of God that would be recognised by the world was our love for each other is a recognition that people would see and encounter the other, loving, giving nature of God through our own treatment, self sacrifice and giving to people that our individuality would normally tell us to avoid at best and hate at worst.

The Cruciform life: serving God, each other and the world

My final thought is that in Jesus as the revelation of the incarnate tri-une God that we get to see that God is for the world, that God is relational and is seeking to call and restore us so that we can continue our original calling to care and serve this creation in relationship with God.   

To me that is through our individuality, our gifts, skills, personalities in relationship with Tri-une God where we follow the servant way of Jesus, in obedience to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can join the Trinity in their dream for restored, healthy, healed, whole, rejoicing, peace filled creation.

We then are both transformed on the inside so that we can transform the world around us, blessed so we can be a blessing and learn to be for the other as much as this Tri-une God is for us.

Thoughts?

• what ways do you see the cruciform life impacting how we live as christians?
• how do you see the trinity as being essential for our understanding of church, community and mission?
• needs of the me or needs of the many - how do you struggle with the reality of living that out in your own experience/journey?

the kingdom of God challenge...

I have had some fun interviewing each of the recent guest artists/contributors who have been posting on Jason Clark's blog.  My last  question was to ask them to define/explain/express what the Kingdom of God meant to them in five words or less.    What inspired me was the range of different creative thoughts that the guests came up with in response to this challenge.

So why keep a good thing private!   Today I threw open this challenge to everyone who reads Jason's blog,  by invititing any one, in this post, to have a go for themselves and leave their version for everyone to enjoy.  So head on over and take the challenge for yourself :).

Revolution: God style!

"In Jesus, we meet our beloved God.

From now on we know that our God is not a god of despair but the God of hope; not a god of wrath but the God of mercy; not a god of condemnation but the God of compassion; not a god of imperial power but the God of the cross; not a god of domination but the God of loving service; not a god of oppression but the God of liberation; not a god who blesses injustice but the God of justice; not a god of war but the God of peace; not a god of violence but the God of nonviolence; not a god of death but the God of Life.

From now on we know that we have been created to share in the fullness of life, in God’s own life of love and unending mercy.

God’s revolution is greater than our most utopian dreams..."

Source:  Jesus the rebel

HT:  inward/outward

Read more: Katie's post "Revolution is not just a word"

God's domination-free order - exploring our own ongoing liberation

"In his Beatitudes, in his extraordinary concern for the outcasts and the marginalised, in his wholly unconventional treatment of women, in his love of children, in his rejection of the belief that high ranking men are the favourites of God, in his subversive proclamation of a new order in which domination will give way to compassion and communion, Jesus brought to fruitition the prophetic longing for the 'kingdom of God' - an expression we might paraphrase as "God's domination-free order."

Whilst we might dream of a domination free order we seem to be living in a domination full world.  A world full of systems and structures, powers and people who oppress us, who push us down, who seek to control. 

Sometimes we are aware of these when our own space and self is under threat...

sometimes we're the pushers, when we want something, when it's our will/want that we are out to get or just someone to take the fall/blame  for us. 

Sometimes we are unaware,  just part of the system, to quote the definition of the Matrix, the system/culture is "the world pulled over [y]our eyes to blind us from the truth..." so for instance economic systems where what we consume comes at the expense of someone else's sufferings/exploitation [third world workers, the environment], or where it is the taken as the norm, like slavery 200 yrs ago, blacks not having less rights in the southern states of America.

"Some of them want to use you, some of them want to be used by you..."

So sang the Eurythmics and I am sure we all have our own experiences with living in/with domination. 

For me personally I grew up with one dominating parent and one passive one, that effected me in many ways not least in taking a decision not that i would not be passive.  To fight domination I refused to be dominated by anyone, ever! 

That decision was to impact me in many ways,  I could never lose an argument, which meant I never listened.  I was always right so I was never very teachable.  I also needed to be in control and there is nothing more likely to end up in abuse as a husband like me who took being obeyed very literally indeed and didn't bother too much about the servanthood of a sacrificing love that also goes along with that part of the bible.

It also impacted on my sexuality and the desire to dominate and be in control led me via the wonderful world of the net to discover BDSM and decide that a sexuality based on the giving of submission and the exercise of domination was how i was created to be.  I've talked about my experiences more here and here and how i came not only recognise not only that my desire to dominate was born out of my fears but also how God helped me changed and is helping me change so that my character has become more about giving and less about getting, more about me growing in self awareness and surrendering/giving up/laying down my rights - including my right to be right.

Dream with God and me of a domination free world

I want to do a couple of posts looking at the idea put forward by Walter Wink [who I quoted to begin with] of a domination free order - what would that look like, feel like - particularly with some of the issues that seem to be just the way things are as christians in the way that slavery was a couple of hundred yrs ago [and indeed this is still a live issue even today].  Before  I do, i'd like to hear your thoughts:

• what you feel when you read the quote and think of a domination free order being a way of expressing the kingdom of God?
• your own experiences of systems/structures/circumstances of domination whether conscious of them or not at the time?
• you own experiences of liberation/grace/freedom from these?
• your own thoughts as to where there are such domination systems today in our thought/world view/culture/experience
• anything else that you've thought/felt/inspired to share...

An exclusive inclusive Christ - is Jesus really the only way to God?

Is the christrian exclusive claim that Jesus is the only way to God an arrogant monopoly that is outdated in these inclusive and tolerant times?  Do not all religions lead to God?  Why then do we need to worry about Jesus then - is it just another sign of a power hungry, oppressive religion that can brook no competition enforced by arrogant believers who think their way is better than everyone else?   Christian who through out history has imposed on people for the 'greater good' this need to believe in Jesus, sadly  often by using the threat of violence, fear and intimidation whether in this life or in the after one, or both?

In chapter 8 of a New Kind of Christian, Brian McLaren discusses other religions,  the character Neo says:

"Dan, when it comes to other religions, the challenge of modernity was to prove that we're right [christians] and they're wrong.  But I think we have a different challenge in postmodernity.  The question isn't so much whether we're right but whether we're good.  And it strikes me that goodness not rightnes, is what Jesus said the real issue was - you know, good trees produce good fruit.  If we christians would take all our energy we put into proving we're right and others are wrong and invested that in pursuing and doing good, somehow I think more people would believe we are right...

...I believe that he [Jesus] is truly the way, that if we believe in him and follow him, he will bring us to the Father.  Too often when we quote the verse about him being the way, it sounds like we're saying he's in the way - as if people are trying to come to God and Jesus is blocking the path, saying 'oh no, you don't! You have to get by me first.' I really don't think that's what he meant when he said he was the way...

...I really believe he is the truth. He is reality; he is authentic; he is genuine and real and not fake or false in any way.  And I really believe he is the life, that fullness of life is in him.  And I really believe that not one person will be in real contact with God the Father apart from the work, wisdom and love of Jesus.  If I didn't believe that, I don't think i could call myself a christian..."  p61 & p65

In other words christians often seem to portray all these religions as wrong, they cast doubt on whether they are seeking God unless they get a stamp from Jesus – he is the divine bouncer and we christians have become his heavy handed enforcers who if Jesus doesn’t have our name on his checklist then neither you are and I are not coming in!

I think it would be the ultimate act of hypocrisy if this image of Jesus is true – after all his fiercest criticism was aimed at the religious authorities of the day who were doing precisely that – in their bid for a sin free society they were doing so by firmly labelling people as insiders or outsiders – they defined if you were in or out.  Jesus modus operandi didn’t seem to be about trying to sweep sinners out of sight under the carpet of society/social conformity but instead offering them the opportunity to rethink how they were doing their life and to swap it instead for the life he had to offer, a life lived in the radical revolutionary redemptive reconciling kingdom of God.

If Jesus is not acting as a roadblock to God is there another way then that we can understand his words?  Not as a barrier but as door of opportunity, not as a limiter but as an unparallelled open invitation? 

In the rest of this post i'd like to explore a way of trying to understand Jesus claim to be the way/truth/life in a way that views him as helping us as spirtual beings recover/express our full humanity rather than barring us from the divine.  I'd then like to do a follow up post on this tomorrow where by I expand in my own life of my own struggles in following Jesus and how his way/truth/life have been well life changing for me....

The Trinity - jus a lil bit of formal faith thinking then...

One of my goals for this year is to start getting to grips with theology on a more formal basis, so I'm very excited about signing up for this course...

Anyone want to join me..?

Exercising faith thinking...

Laura M has asked these great Qs at Conversation at the Edge.  I found that i had 2 ways of responding:

• the first and quickest was to trot out the easy apologetic answers to her Qs, to defend my orthodoxy;
• the second and harder was to think about Laura's questions, to give them the consideration they deserve and acknowledge in my response that I don't have complete easy answers but that i have valued the opportunity to think/reflect and the ongoing opportunity to consider these as part of a conversing community of faith.

My faith thinking is below - Laura'  origninal Qs are indented and in italics.  I'd love to hear any further thoughts you have on my thoughts and leave your own thoughts to the Qs either here or preferably over on the oringinal post...

Responding to Laura

"wow what great Qs... sorry its taken me awhile to respond, you've been making me think... i don't think i have ansers per se but happy to share my thoughts that have formed so far...

Is it possible that ‘receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord’ and ‘all things through faith in him’ simply means in modern English…You must become a follower of Jesus, there is no other way to save yourselves?

In other words, that you must try live your life by the principles that he preached, having faith that this is the way that God wants man to behave? That he is Lord because he is the Master, and we are his followers, his students, dependent upon his word? Wouldn’t this mean that a simple prayer isn’t sufficient? Couldn’t it also mean that belief in Jesus’ divinity isn’t really necessary? What is necessary is following his humanitarian teachings?

yes i think a simple prayer is a reflection of the process, if the way into the kingdom of God is to admit that we choose to not be independent kings/queens of our own kingdom and choose God's kingdom then that prayer is a step of faith into something different, like crossing over the border, or saying a pledge of allegiance etc...but i don't think that should be the stopping point either, it should be the beginning of a lifetime of searching, honesty and humility not just entering the kingdom of God but learning to live/be/act like one of its citizens.

As for Jesus divinity i think that is part of the searching humble hopeful attitude that we are committing too - in that it is not just about cherry picking what Jesus said but applying it, doing it, as much as we understand where we are in the journey.  That doesn't mean we should not ask hard Qs, wrestle with things we find hard to believe and stop being honest about these matters - i think more than that it is part of the life of faith Jesus calls us too - not just believe things about Jesus but more to believe in him and to put his teachings into practice...

Can’t ‘Ask, in my name, and you shall receive’ simply mean keep Jesus’ words and teachings in mind when you ask of God and of yourself what you want out of life?

Yes I think it does mean something of that - about blending belief into practice but i wonder if this again is not part of that faith growing/shaping process - taking the focus away from me taking or achieving and therefore relying on my own strength or power and instead asking for help, practicing humility, learning to detox from consumer filled culture where it is all all about me getting what I want when i want it...

Can’t ‘In Jesus’ name ‘ simply mean belief in the sayings attributed to Jesus’? In other words, ‘In the name of Jesus’ could mean ‘by the teachings of Jesus’, or in modern English… those sayings (quotes) have Jesus’ name all over them.

Yes i like the image this gives me of certain ways of being/doing steeped in Jesus, looking like Jesus, smelling like Jesus, smiling like Jesus, accepting like Jesus, partying like Jesus, serving like Jesus...etc

I'm not sure what the full context you were thinking in terms of the phrase 'in the name of Jesus' but i like that family name idea - this is the trademark/calling card etc of God...

Could terms like ’shall not perish’ and ‘ever lasting life’ refer to the future of humanity as a whole, rather than the individual?

I'm sure the context is a key to understanding the reference of such texts but then since they were undoubtedly addressed to people rather than to outer space there must, in my mind, be a dimension of them applying/being applicable to all of humanity.

Could ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ mean it is here within your grasp?

I love this picture of the kingdom  of god, i think the literal word used for heaven is atmos which is where we get atmosphere so Jesus is saying the kingdom of heaven is here, it's all around us and we can be part of it now - i find that most hopeful, that life can be transformed, impacted, encountered for the better, here and now - not just waiting to ship out to heaven.

More than that I like the invitation that Jesus gives is not to say a prayer containing a certain number of correct points - it's do you want to join my kingdom then step on in, you are now part of it, go and make your family, your community, your country a better place - go and be like me and more than than I'll go with you and send some more of my friends to join with you - so you can be catalysts - yeast, seeds etc. 

There is frequent talk about preparing for heaven. Could this mean that followers of Jesus are obliged to prepare Earth and their fellow humans in a manner so as to create an environment similar to what is expected to be there for them in heaven?

I think this is a valuable insight that people like Brian Mclaren and others have expressed over recent yrs.  Whilst there is the hope of heaven there is also a call, as Jesus phrased it in his prayer, for God's will to be done on earth as in heaven - God's wish being carried out  as it were -and his primary agents/ambassadors/activists for participating in making these dreams come true, i would say, should be the followers of Jesus.

The fact that we often fail is because we are not perfect and another reminder to me for an ongoing need for humility and as part of the weaing process of trying to achieve God's wish through building our own kingdoms up again by using methods/systems/structues that resort to power, manipulation, bullying, conquest, exclusion, hate, fear etc...

Now here’s a real stretch… Could ‘He died for your sins’ mean Jesus’ death was a result of the sinfulness of those around him who did not speak out against the injustice of his execution? The result being, he died because of their sins. He paid the ultimate price, loss of his life, because of the sins of man (the men and women who didn’t stop it)? Perhaps the purpose of his death to teach mankind the horror of injustice which is not condemned?

I do not think this is such a stretch, there are several traditionally recognised views of the death of Jesus [which go some way to helping us understand part of what happened] and the suffering servant/perfect penitent ideas echo much of your own thinking - in Jesus death we see the evil, compromised, man made power structures as they truly are - selfish, petty, hatefilled, vengeful and ready to sell out the threat to such power even if it means compromising beliefs/practices/moralites - it's the ultimate moment of hypocrasy.

It is also the moment as well, where for me, Jesus demonstrated radical love, reconciliation and redemption is possible - in the darkest of moments of so many personal failures was born a hope through his death and resurection that things can be different, that the cross is about commitment, forgiveness, suffering and love and becomes the way for the followers of Jesus to follow him in embracing a world of hurt, shame and injustice by literally laying down our lives if necesary and our rights almost certainly.  For instance when it comes to environmental chaos it is the poorest who are least responsible that will suffer most - those of us who are rich need to look at our current rights to carbon based high consumption lifestyle...

Thank you so much Laura for asking these Qs... thank you for making me exercise faith thinking and for encouraging me to search on and reach further rather than to rest comfortably on a soapbox..."

Any thoughts/comments/feelings/faith thinking of your own..?