…But Not As We Know It.

‘It’s life. Jim, but not as we know it,’ was supposed to have been said by Dr Spock to Captain Kirk regarding some alien life form in Star Trek…

Yesterday, whilst we were doing the usual singing-prayers-sermon-church, our friend Esther was outside in our church garden, around a fire-pit, with her ‘Wild Church’… Church, but not as we know it.

Later, outside, in strong winds and threatening rain, we shared in Esther’s ordination as a ‘Pioneer Minister’. There was coffee and cake, glitter and bubbles, laughter, fun and creativity… Ordination, but not as we know it.

We heard a little of Esther’s faith journey, her training and work, not in formal churches doing standard vicar-minister-pastor stuff, but out in the community, being a chaplain, a ‘pioneer minister’, expressing faith in fresh ways… Minister, but not as we know it.

In ‘usual church’ Lou told the story of Abraham. God tells him to take his son, Isaac, up a mountain, to sacrifice him. We like to think of God as loving, merciful, gracious… this gives a different, harder picture… God, but not as we know it?

And Abraham’s response? An old man, goes on his three day journey, prepared to murder his son, because he believes his God has told him to. I reflect on my own family, my Christian friends… This is faith, but not as we know it.

This morning… reading Oswald Chambers. He says that walking on water, facing the crisis, the ‘not as we know it’ situations is easy…

However‘…it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we should do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things…’   

Musing on faith and life… the exciting, new ‘not as we know it’ … alongside the ‘ordinary, unobserved, ignored’.