Going out to 'play' with my creative homiletics class tomorrow. Feeling both excited and nervous about it at the moment. The basic idea is to explore ideas and issues surrounding an 'extreme' homiletical style - namely preaching and reading Scripture in public places and spaces, what are 'contested spaces.' As a class we're meeting in the centre of Glasgow's city centre, to do quite what exactly I'm not too sure ... but it will involve some reading of Scripture, some moving around, some discussion and most probably some coffee.
One of my lecturer's commented last week that I seem quite taken with "all this empire stuff", and I guess he's right. What I'm battling with is how to be faithful to Christ in what seems quite extreme measures, totally against what the empire values but is Kingdom values, all the while battling with my 'flesh'. The part of me that gets nervous, feels self conscious, needs to be liked, finds it easier to maintain the status quo etc. Yet increasingly I find that at odds with what I should / would be living like if I really was (to use a phrase I heard Shane Claiborne use recently) a 'Red Letter Christian' ... someone who believes Jesus really meant everything He said.
To some I may just be going out to 'play' in homelitics tomorrow, but to me at least its like I'm continuing in my battle. The power of Scripture and what it means ... plus all the 'stuff' that is involved in everything - all the principalities and powers, all the things at work seen and unseen - to do with spiritual battles etc ... is part of my personal battle and something that tomorrow represents in a small part at least. I mean, I say I believe in the power of Scripture, but am I prepared to read it aloud in the street with the same passion I would from the safety of the church building on a Sunday? Am I prepared for my eyes to be opened further as I read about what God requires of me (e.g. Micah 6) while seeing a homeless person selling the Big Issue out of the corner of my eye? Or after reading that buying coffee from Starbucks (which I really like) which may now be ethically traded, I may even go all out and get their fair trade blend, yet still buying it from a company that pretty much dominates the market.
This probably makes no sense to anyone else ... to be honest, I'm not putting it in a way just now that I'm fully happy with either, or that makes sense of what is going on in me just now ... but suffice to say tomorrow will be both informative and formative ... and so I'm excited and apprehensive all at the same time, in relatively equal measure. Guess I should just wait and see what tomorrow brings ...
