Weekly Blog 

Here our minister shares a weekly reflection: 

Sunday, 16 February — Being Rooted in God's Love, Mercy, and Grace

During this term, two of our church members, Prof Paul Fiddes and Prof Hugh Whittaker, have collaborated in facilitating a series of lectures in the university that focus on the theme of Love in business and economics.
 
I’ve been finding it a bit tough thinking hopefully about such a theme, as we witness from afar the antics in the USA, where billionaires who seem to represent the antithesis of love in economics run riot in the White House and dismantle so many of the safeguards that have been put in place for the most vulnerable in society. However, in Christ and through God’s restorative mission that we are called to play a part in, we believe that all the darkness, evil, and sin of this world will ultimately be overcome. That includes our fallen and prejudicial economic and political systems.
 
The challenge for us, as individuals and as part of organisations such as the church, is how we can engage in, and where necessary, subvert or prophetically show dissent against such structures?
 
At the heart of any answer to such a question has to be our need to remain rooted in the love, mercy, and grace of God, which is made known to us through Jesus Christ. This week we will hear from Jeremiah 17:5-10, which says:
 
Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
    and make mere flesh their strength,
    whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert
    and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.
7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,
    sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
    and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
    and it does not cease to bear fruit.
(NRSVUE)
 
Alongside the sermon on the plain from Luke 6, in which Jesus proclaims blessing to the poor and woe to the rich, these verses highlight how we are to be rooted in the presence of God, trusting in God rather than the material things of this world. This is easier said than done, of course, as we like to know that we are economically sustainable, and that we have a secure financial foundation in our own lives and as a church (the church as a charity is obliged to do this by the Charity Commission).
 
However, our faith and hope for the future should be our starting point, and the lens through which we make decisions that affect us and others financially. Our security comes through our shared identity as God’s beloved children, and the love, mercy, grace that we know through him. The first question as discern what we are called to do, should not be ‘can afford it?’, or ‘how it will affect our economic outlook?’, but rather ‘what is it that God is calling us to do?, and then ‘how can we afford it?’ or ‘how can we make it work?’
 
To follow Christ demands us to take decisions that might look like madness in the eyes of the world, especially within a neoliberal capitalist economy. Giving to the poor, choosing to act responsibly with regards the environment, investing in charity and lifting up the downtrodden, offering our money and time to sustain and grow the life of a church, repairing and refurbishing buildings for the good of others as well as ourselves – this can all seem rather foolish in today’s world.
 
Yet when we do these things, we are acting out trust in our Lord and saviour and living in light of the hope that we know in Jesus Christ. May we be rooted in God’s love, mercy, and grace as we discern God’s call on our life together.
 
Amen.


Sunday 09 February - Everchanging Maps

This week I’ve been at the Southern Counties (SCBA) minister’s conference in Cheltenham, where we were joined by speakers including Kang-San Tan (BMS General Secretary and former member at New Road), Dotha Blackwood (tutor at Moorlands College, who spoke on the goodness of God), Jo Williams (leader of the Blackley Centre for Peace and Reconciliation), and Craig Gardiner (Tutor at South Wales Baptist College).
 
Jo Williams was reflecting on the Association’s aim to become a ‘Restorative Association’.  It was good to hear the importance of restorative practice and good relationships being spoken about in the context of church life. SCBA is seeking to train a number of ministers and church members in restorative skills, so that conflict in churches can be addressed in a more restorative manner. I hope that there will be some exciting developments in that regard this year, as we along with the Mint House, The Blackley Centre, SCBA, and Regent’s Park College, are currently exploring what a ‘Restorative Faith Network’ might look like.
 
Yet it was an image from Craig Gardiner in his sermon that has stuck with me the most. He was speaking on the road to Emmaus encounter, when the resurrected Christ appears to two people on the road as they despondently leave Jerusalem following the crucifixion. They travel without knowing where they are headed, or what they will do next in their lives, but they meet their risen Lord on the journey and recognise him at the table. In that moment, the way they look at the world changes forever.
 
The lay of the land is changed, just as it will be in our own readings this weekend as we hear of the calling of the fishermen (Luke 5:1-11) and of Paul (1 Cor 15:1-11). They encounter the glory of God in Christ and life will never be the same again. What we come across in the New Testament are the disciples and early believers in Christ, Christian pioneers working out how to faithfully chart their course in a new world, even when they have no idea what their destination will be.
 
Craig spoke too of how it’s not only our understanding of the world and faith that develops as we encounter God, but the landscape around us is constantly changing too. He’s a lover of cartography, of maps, but would not have been able to easily find his destination for the conference in Cheltenham if he’d have relied on a map from 1850 to make the journey. As the map changes and our surroundings develop it demands reassessment in how we traverse the land that we journey through.

This is surely the case for us in Oxford too. The city is ever changing, the lay of the land today is not what it was in 1790, 1820, 1980, 2008, or even 2019. As we consider the nature of the journey that Jesus calls us to take in the coming years, reassessing the use of our premises, and discerning our vision for the future, we do so in a very different city centre to the one that we engaged in when the building was last significantly redeveloped. Of course, it will keep changing too. To some extent, we’re always charting a new course into the unknown, but we do so knowing that Christ promises to be with us on the journey.

Sunday 02 February - Being Distinctively Baptist in Speaking Truth to Power

This weekend will be a busy one, as we gather for our church away day on Saturday, and then to worship God together on Sunday, in a communion service that will include the commissioning of our deacons for the coming year.
 
Our gospel reading features the second part of Jesus’ visit to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. All had seemed to go well as Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah, words that have become known as the Nazareth manifesto. Yet, as he goes on speaking, the attitude of those present soon changes.
 
Jesus makes it clear to them that they will not receive special treatment on account of their status as those who were his neighbours as he grew up. He has come to share the good news of God’s coming kingdom to people beyond their horizons, to those whom they would consider to be outsiders unworthy of Jesus’ time and attention.
His listeners do not accept hearing such challenging words from this man whom they had viewed as being one of their own. They drive him out of town and threaten to throw him off the nearest hill. Even at this early point in the gospel story, the message of Jesus is resisted and provokes a hostile reception. People do not like being told that they have got things wrong and need to change the way that they look at the world and others around them.
 
As a church, one of the themes within our vision statement is that we claim to be distinctively Baptist. In a time when many do not have a particular sense of belonging to any denomination, it is worth exploring what that means. In part, of course, it means that we are committed to believer’s baptism being a key part of our initiation into Christian discipleship. It should mean that we long to see others baptised and to come to faith in Jesus, as they accept the good news that he brings into their lives. It means that we value congregational governance and seek to ensure that the voices of all church members are given the opportunity to be heard when we make decisions as a church community and seek to discern the will of Christ for us. Interpreting scripture and what it means for us today as we share in the mission of God is also a communal endeavour.
 
Yet another key part of our Baptist identity is that of a dissenting community. Early Baptists in particular knew what it was to speak the good news of God’s kingdom and to be met with hostility as a result. To opt out of infant Baptism, to practice believers’ baptism, and to break the law in refusing to attend worship in the Church of England was bad enough, but to speak prophetically against the monarch being the head of the church and to call for religious freedom for all people led to fines, imprisonment, and even death.
 
The Baptists in Oxford had property ransacked, were very much on the edge of the city in a dissenting corner of land (along with Presbyterians, Quakers, and later the Methodists), and couldn’t study within the university until the late 19th century. A key part of our Baptist identity is to speak truth to power, regardless of the cost, but in our relative comfort in the 21st Century, this is something that can be all too easily overlooked.
 
Perhaps, as we hear the words of Jesus in his hometown synagogue this weekend and commit to journey together once more over the coming year, this is part of our identity that we need to be reminded of. This is especially true when the rhetoric in our press and online against people such as asylum seekers, the trans community, and other minorities gets further emboldened in light of the second Trump presidency and when those without power, resources, or money are those who once more bear the brunt of cuts to public services and feel the effects of tax and national insurance rises. The call to speak truth to power, and to welcome and serve those overlooked and excluded by our unjust society is still very much alive. May we be distinctively Baptist, and evermore Christlike, in our vocal dissent to the injustice, prejudice, and greed that we encounter in the world around us. May we share the good news of God’s everlasting, abundant love as best we can. Amen.
 
New films share the story of our radical roots
 
If you’d like to know more about our radical Baptist roots, then a new series of films is being released by the Baptist Historical Society and Church from Scratch in an online event on Monday February 3rd at 7.30pm. More information can be found here.
 
Sunday 26 January - An Uncomfortable Truth
In our gospel reading this week, from Luke 4, Jesus returns to his hometown and is asked to speak in the synagogue. Maybe, as Jesus family and neighbours, they expected words of favour and encouragement, feel-good platitudes and the like.

Yet, Jesus turns to words of the prophet Isaiah that proclaim the overcoming of oppression, the liberation of prisoners, and good news to the poor. These are challenging words, ones that Jesus goes on to claim that he fulfils in their presence. We’ll probably hear next week what happens as a result of Jesus speaking uncomfortable truth in his hometown, but (spoiler alert!) they don’t take it very well, and drive him out of town.

This week, as Donald Trump sat alongside his family, billionaires, and political allies, in a church service prior to his inauguration, he was perhaps expecting some words of encouragement and affirmation. What he heard instead, in a bold and brave sermon from Bishop Mariann Budde, was the uncomfortable reality of gospel truth. She pleaded for mercy for LGBTQ people, for undocumented migrants, and all those living in fear that their friends and family members will be deported. She sought compassion for those fleeing persecution and war, reminding the president that:

Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people.

Needless to say, Trump did not respond graciously to such a message, resorting to playground put-downs of Bishop Budde, insulting her appearance and branding the church service as boring. Republican Mike Collins reacted by suggesting she be added to the list of deportees.

I give thanks for Bishop Budde, and her willingness to speak truth to power, and shall be praying for her wellbeing and safety following the vitriol she has faced since she dared to do so.

It’s easy for us to look scornfully at extremes such as Trump and the people of Nazareth in the gospel story, who react so strongly against the good news that Christ brings, of liberation and freedom for the least of these, and justice for the oppressed. Yet are we any different when we come to church on a Sunday? Do we long simply for affirmation and heartwarming platitudes? Or are we seriously ready to be confronted by the hard truth of the gospel, that favours first the poor, the oppressed, and those marginalised by society?

We gather in the presence of Christ, called by name as children of God, as we form the body of Christ together. This doesn’t make us better than others, but does place the responsibility on us to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world today. May we be a people who are not satisfied by platitudes and empty words, but those who actively seek to bring justice, peace, and liberation to the oppressed, as we are transformed by the gospel that we are called to live out together and share in the mission of God in the world. Amen.