Storehouse of Kingdom Things

M Fraser Ian

Description

Ian Fraser has been a prophet in our land - and far beyond - for the lifetimes of most of us. Here he reflects on the banking crisis and the world order, getting rid of war, Israel and Palestine, the USA and Cuba, fundamentalism, proselytism and evangelism, law and grace, the theology of fashion and much more.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Wild Goose Publications
• Date de parution: 24 juillet 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849521697
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

A book that sums up the concerns and work of a lifetime
Ian Fraser has been a prophet in our land – and far beyond – for the lifetimes of most of us. Now, nearing the end of his life journey, he offers A Storehouse of Kingdom Things: Resources for the Faith Journey .
Ian writes: ‘Wild Goose Publications guessed that I might be like the householder in the Bible who had a treasure store of things new and old which could be drawn upon.’
In this rich and ranging book, Ian reflects on: the banking crisis and the world order, responding to God, getting rid of war, Israel and Palestine, the USA and Cuba, fundamentalism, proselytism and evangelism, hindrances to the full life of the church, church in the becoming, saints made and unmade, waiting watchfully, transcendence, otherness, purity, law and grace, prayer, the theology of fashion, the importance of food-sharing, sexuality and spirituality, atonement, success …


Ian Fraser has been a pastor-labourer in heavy industry, a parish minister, Warden of Scottish Churches House, an Executive Secretary of the World Council of Churches, and Dean and Head of the Department of Mission at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. He is the author of numerous books, including Strange Fire , The Way Ahead: Grown-up Christians , and Reinventing Theology , which is used as a standard theological sourcebook throughout the world.
Ian is one of the original members of the Iona Community who helped George MacLeod to rebuild ‘the common life’ and the Abbey buildings on the isle of Iona. Throughout his life Ian has travelled the world, alone and with his wife, Margaret, visiting basic Christian communities. He has walked alongside slum dwellers in India and Haiti; Nicaraguan and Cuban revolutionaries; priests, nuns and catechists facing arrest and/or death in Central and South America; and small farming and fishing communities in the Philippines …


www.ionabooks.com

Copyright © Ian M Fraser 2010
Published by Wild Goose Publications Fourth Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3DH Wild Goose Publications is the publishing division of The Iona Community Scottish Charity No. SC003794 Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243
PDF: 978-1-84952-167-3 Mobipocket: 978-1-84952-168-0 ePub: 978-1-84952-169-7
Photo of Ian Fraser © John McLaren
The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of The Drummond Trust, 3 Pitt Terrace, Stirling FK8 2EY in producing this book.
The publishers also gratefully acknowledge the support of The Baker Trust in producing this book
All rights reserved. Apart from reasonable personal use on the purchaser’s own system and related devices, no part of this document or file(s) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For any commercial use of this material, permission in writing must be obtained in advance from Wild Goose Publications at the above address.
Ian M Fraser has asserted his right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Market speculation and world order: a case study
Homing in on reality
Reckoning with realities: What’s there and what matters
Responding to God
A meander round intrusive kings and the conversion of star-gazers
A pagan takes on the role of Messiah
Allies and critics
The world is the agenda
Nations under judgement
Israel’s anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial
Vilification and reality: the USA and Cuba
Getting rid of war
The Trinity: a way of exercising power
The church – as given to be, as found to be, and in the becoming
Cameos of Christ, the Head
The body
The blood
The Head
A meander round evangelism and proselytism
Fundamentalism
Saints made/unmade
Church as found to be: shape, resources, hindrances
Reconciled diversity
Lippen on the Holy Spirit
Living as People of the Way
Wait watchfully
Transcendence
Otherness
Purity: a meander
Law and grace
A meander round grace
A meander round prayer
Theology and fashion
Oh to be wrinkle-free
The importance of food-sharing
Sexuality and spirituality
Atonement
Success: a meander
Dancing from Lent into Easter
Sources, acknowledgements and notes
To my Margaret
I never got used to you:
always the freshness
like dew on spring grass
told of your life-giving:
always the grace
always the love in your face.
I never got used to you:
forty plus years, and still I’d awake
to you, and the miracle
that you were mine:
always the grace
always the love in your face.
I never got used to you:
in rain and sunshine
constant your spirit
lively and resolute:
always the grace
always the love in your face.
I never got used to you:
deep were the sources
of life-springs within you
drawn from the Spirit:
unending the grace
unending the love in your face.
INTRODUCTION
When my Margaret was first prepared to go beyond a relationship of friendship with me, tears would fill her eyes, and she would say, ‘I love you deeply but can never marry you, because I can’t believe the way you do!’
I have never wanted anyone else to believe ‘the way I do’. Faith journeys, in which people seek to make sense of reality and find a basis of conviction to draw on as they face different circumstances, are particular and precious. Whatever our own standing ground we need to be teachable before bases for living discovered and chosen by others. Growth comes from a sensitiveness to what lights up life for others, as well as from discoveries made on one’s own journey, and shared. The Christian faith is not as in a pass-the-parcel game, conveyed carefully packaged down the generations. It has to be discovered afresh. At different points of history there needs to be gratitude for faith surely believed and lived in past times; and gratitude for a new day with its fresh challenges which will produce a new critical understanding of the past and new insights to add to faith perceptions. Jesus said, ‘The things I do you will do also; and greater things than these shall you do because I go to the Father.’ His risen life, conveyed through the Spirit, enlarges and enhances understandings of what we should believe and do, age after age.
So I told Margaret that I would rather marry her than anyone else in the whole world – even if she ended up as the most convinced and committed atheist in the land. She realised I meant that. It released her. She found that what she had been afraid of was that her love for me might overcome the integrity of her own position. So in her own time and way she took off on a personal faith journey, testing out the reality of the Christian faith, asking the sharpest questions of it, and coming to a rich and deep and joyous belief which was her own.
This book is about faith journeys. You can come across them anywhere: I was leaving a political meeting. There was a trit-trot of footsteps behind me. A nurse caught up with me. ‘Tonight’s meeting convinced me that I need to talk with you,’ she said. ‘I share the same justice concerns which you express. But when you speak it comes through that you draw on a basis of understanding of what gives life significance which I don’t have. Would you be willing to spend an evening with my husband and myself just speaking with us about the Christian faith?’ I did. If the result could be called a conversion experience that was only because they came to realise that, subconsciously, that faith was already their unrecognised standing ground. All that was needed was to bring to the surface what was already there. The encounter provided means of affirming it. I find many people like that. It illustrates the situation in Jesus’ parable of the Last Judgement. Those who he said were his did not even recognise him. They just lived his way. That was what mattered.
People express faith in very different ways. Some have the words but not the practice. Some have the practice but not the words. Some by their practice enhance words tellingly. Louis Armstrong expressed delight in God, God’s world, and people all made in God’s image in music and song – and also by recognising musical gifts in others which he could weave together in the rhetoric of jazz.
This book had its origin a year or two ago. Staff of Wild Goose Publications suspected that I might be a ‘learner in matters of the Kingdom of Heaven’ who was like a householder who had a store of things new and old which could be drawn on. They urged me to dip in. I did so, on the understanding that it would be an editorial matter to decide what, if any, pieces found their way into print. After a bit, it became clear that a number of the essays and reflections were cohering and that a book was emerging.
This is it. Though written at different times the pieces belong, or their affinity can be discerned. The article ‘Allies and Critics’ is originally from the 1960s. ‘Ecumenical Assignments’ was written as the book went to print. Almost all the other reflections were written between 2005 and 2008, and are ‘pre-Obama’.
Thanks go to Margaret Boon, Leslie Cram and Johan Mailer for all their word processing help; to John McLaren for the back cover photo; and to Barbara Baker for all her support.
Ian M. Fraser
Market speculation and world order: a case study
The financial meltdown in 2008 calls for rigorous economic and social analysis, but that is not enough. Theological appraisal is essential. Faith insights need to be brought to bear.
At root there is evidence of a primitivistic trust in magic – the market being treated as if it were like a self-righting lifeboat.
There is trust in unregenerate human nature – as if the creativity which can lead to imaginative initiatives would be held back by accountability and regulation and should be allowed to proceed unfettered.
The reality of sin was not taken seriously. Men and women in bespoke suits and costum