The Idealist - 1

For the first time the other day I was listening to the song King Herod sings to Jesus in 'Jesus Christ: Superstar". Until that point I was going to write about the Realist first but that song got me thinking about the Idealist and so that's where I'll start.

The song is essentially Herod trying to goad Jesus into performing some miraculous sign right then and there which, he claims, will make hime believe. Jesus, however, refuses to be goaded and Herod ends up dismissing Him in disappointment and anger.

Last week at the University Eucharist Will preached on Original Sin, which phrase centuries ago, he explained, would have been used in a similar way to how we now use 'The System'.

These two events (which happened on the same day) made me think about how God combines the refusal to submit to any worldy system or expectations (like Herod's), while at the same time dealing with life as it is.

He will not compromise. 'Uncompromising' is not generally seen as a particularly flattering word these days (Meryl Streep in Doubt springs to mind, and her refusal to compromise on the modernisation of the church and school), but in this context it is a wonderful, and essential, aspect of God's character. He is not like the politician who uses the end to justtify the means, rather He finds another way, in which both the end and the means are glorious, though the means may not be much fun for Him (think of the cross) who those who have promised they will do anything for Him (think of Paul's tribulations, which he describes a couple of times in His letters).

I need to go and play squash now but I'm not done with the Idealist yet so I'll be writing more on Her soon.

The Realist and The Idealist

I'm going to explore here the idea that God is fully both.

As a probably-not-too-quick aside, It seems to me that the Lord (the scamp, as my friend often refers to Him. Should that have a capital S do we think?) is fully both, when our natural tendancy would be to look for 'balance' or to see 'tension'. The most famous example is surely the incarnation. Jesus Christ was made fully man while remaining fully God. He did not maintain a 'balance' between God-ness and man-ness, and I'm not sure I'd be happy saying He lived in the 'tension' between the two. He was simply fully human, and fully God at the same time.

Getting back to the title, our tendancy is to label people either a realist (at best one who deals with things as they are, at worst one who lacks ambition), or an idealist (at best one who dreams big dreams, at worst one who can't deal with reality). Often we will acknowledge that an effective team, for example, needs both. I would agree but I would go further: I think each person needs both, and I think God is fully both.

More on this to follow.

The Complexity of Hope

Let's think for a moment of the Kingdom of God as a field (sure I've heard that before). Underneath the surface of this field is treasure. As we begin to dig and discover this treasure we react in different ways at different times.

Sometimes we dig for a while and are amazed at what we find. Then we stop digging because we feel we need to rest and slowly, and often subtly, our rest turns to laziness, and our laziness to apathy.

Let's put that one aside for the moment though and assume we keep digging. There are two options open: We can think to ourselves "My goodness, if this wonderful treasure is in this part of the field, what must the rest be hiding?", and go and mine different varieties of goodness elsewhere in the same field. Or, we can think "Well the surface didn't look too promising but it was hiding this glorious treasure, what could be hiding under here?", and continue to dig where we are, going deeper and deeper and discovering treasure of greater and greater worth, in the same area.

Before we get into tunnels and the analogy falls apart (or gets too complex for the point I'm making) let's leave it there and move back to literality. The first option is analagous to someone spending a while growing in, for example, the peace of God, and then feeling it was right to spend some time practising unconditional love. In the second option she gets so captivated by this peace thing that she just keeps pursuing it and pursuing it (the reality is that that'll lead her closer to God and all His other treasures will follow, but again, that's slightly beside the point).

For the most part, I'm a first option kind of guy, but every so often something comes along that really stays with me, and at the moment it's hope.

I should acknowledge that God used the church calender, namely Advent, to start this off. During the pre-Christmas season I was encourage by my regular contact with Anglican worship to meditate on hope. I did, and I still am.

Hope is a necessity. It is, we are told, one of the three things that will last, along with faith and love (this fact alone is intriguing: what need for hope when the Kingdom is fully come?). If it wasn't for hope there are times when I'm not sure I could go on. This is not because my own circumstances are especially pitiable, on the contrary I'm greatly blessed in my friends and family, my work, my house etc, and I'm gradually getting better at living in the moment, which I think makes life more enjoyable.

However, the world is a mess, and there's got to be something that can be done about it. Here are three examples from my day so far:

A man is stopped and asked to leave while weeing against the outside of a church wall. It's actually snowing so he's got to be pretty desperate to take such a step but he is given short shrift and moved on.

A man rings the bell on the door leading from the public part of the church to the offices. I open it. He's clearly out of it and not in a good way. He keeps saying "Can I speak to..." and then trailing off. My first instinct is to block his way in, which I do. After a minute or two he tells me not to worry and leaves. I am mighty glad to see him go.

I am in a situation a where I either have to lie or say some very unpleasant things about a friend. I choose the latter. He doesn't know yet and I feel I'm stabbing him in the back.

This stuff tears me up. As I think about it I want to scream at the heavens. There's got to be a more constructive outlet though. There's got to be solutions to these issues. This is why hope is a necessity, and I'm very glad to hear that God is able to do more than we could ask or imagine. My hope is in Him. To be honest it's there at the moment simply because it's got nowhere else to go, but I suspect that over time it'll find it's a pretty good place to be.

I'll probably be writing more about hope soon, so far the digging's been tough, and that's usually a good sign.