Avent Street Ponderings ...

Well, after being out on the street on Saturday the cold I had been fighting kicked in and I've spent lots of time this week sniffling, coughing, sleeping and lazing watching movies. Aside from that I've been pondering in my mind what took place on Saturday.

A group of us met together in Buchanan Street, and were led by a wild minister (well, mildly wild!) to several locations to read some of the Scriptures relating to Christ's coming into the world and to take communion together in the street in an act of embodied faith.

One of the locations was Central Station - and much to our surprise we weren't thrown out, though someone did notice the police clock our presence. We read some of the Matthew and Luke accounts and then began discussing how it 'felt' to hear and to read in this place over and against where we usually hear it (i.e. our comfortable churches and houses). "Irrelevant" one person piped up, and many agreed. This provoked much discussion, no least in realising that Jesus came into the world quietly while people went about there business in ignorance, whereas today it just seemed irrelevant and there was a difference.

We were the largest group in the station, until beside us a group of deaf people gathered, and with much gusto stood in a circle and began signing to each other. That was it for me, it had been hard for me to hear the Scripture words before, but now we were discussing while the folks beside us signed they had my complete attention, for their actions conveyed conversation with each other, graceful movement to me, and added somewhat to our developing discussion. What about what we had just done. Was it a sign or a symbol? What difference did the words we spoke make? Did they make any difference, after all they were only spoken to each other, though in the presence of 'the other' who were invited to listen in I guess, but never really did? What made what we did difference to what someone else was doing with small figurines of Mary, Joseph and Jesus - placing them in locations where people could see them or not while their picture was taken.

Though I haven't properly developed any kind of theology around it, nor looked too deep into others, for me something was happening in the heavenlies when what we spoke was taking place. Something was going on that we could not see, yet though we could not see it does not mean that it was not happening if that makes sense. Paul writes in Ephesians:
Put on all of God's armour so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirit's in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:11-12 (NLT)
We are not fighting against powers and principalities we can always see, but they are there. We are in a battle and we are the ones involved. Yes, it's God's battle, yes it's God's armour ... I'm totally not disputing or denying that ... but we are not uninvolved. And so as part of the armour we are told to "take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (6:17).

Swords are things used to attack. That is their purpose. A shield, now that is for defence, but a sword is for fighting with. Part of the power of God's word is that it fights and attacks. It is a weapon that does things, things as Paul has already said happens in this seen world (as we know sometimes when watching people hear Scripture) and in the unseen world, in the heavenlies. Exactly what it does or how I have no real idea, but in my head I literally see pictures of opposing forces and beings doing battle above us. Therefore when we speak out Scripture, even when it seems irrelevant like in Central Station, it has power to do mighty amazing things that we simply cannot see or even imagine. God says that His word will not return empty but will achieve the purposes He desires (Isaiah 55:11) - and if it is a sword and actually also sharper than a double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) then that means that part of its purpose is to do battle. So the words that were spoken on Saturday were not just words, they had power and were actively doing something. Our words have power, and when our words are words of Scripture the power becomes especially potent. Something happens!!!

After the station came coffee, and after the coffee communion. We were using the Litany of Resistence (see http://peace.mennolink.org/articles/litofres.html or Shane Caliborne's book Jesus For President for an abridged version) and having words that we could speak together in unity stopped any self-conciousness and gave substance to what we were doing that words made up on the spot would not have had. Knowing how to respond meant that we didn't always have to look at the sheets either, and for me praying "forgive us for we know not what we do" became a heart-felt cry as people walked on by unaware and uncaring. To them what we were doing was meaningless, weird even, but for me in that moment repentance was taking place, repentance that went beyond just individual me somehow, extending in some way to those that were just walking by blindly. At the end being able to afirm and proclaim what we would do together gave a chance not just for repentance to have happened, but for hope to have been awakened, hope of a new and different way, hope of the actual alternative kingdom of God breaking into the here-and-now of the world. And so, sharing the familiar words from Scripture, the bread was broken before us and the cup lifted high and both were passed between us, one to another, and then the reminder was poured (not spilt!) onto the street, a symbol (for me anyway, others can interpret it how they like) that Christ died not just for us, but for those who walked upon this street and for creation itself.

After that our little party broke up and filtered seamlessly into the street amidst the crowd and on into the rest of the day. Yet, with the knowledge that our words had not been powerless, our actions had not been meaningless, and something had happened that day in the heavenlies and on the street that would not have happened had we not been there. The Word had come to life on the street.