old churches, transition era

This beautiful old church building in my town was just closed and sold. It was old:

... built between 1870 and 1873 to replace an earlier church. In March 1852 James "Jimmy" Jeffrey, a digger, had preached on a tree stump near the site of the present church in Golden Square. In the same year, Rev Symons, stationed at Castlemaine, purchased a modest timber building at Golden Square which was the first Wesleyan Methodist church in Bendigo. This was replaced in 1859 by a larger stone building. Eventually the congregation outgrew this church and plans were made for a new one. 

http://www.onmydoorstep.com.au/heritage-listing/5282/uniting-church

It was built to hold 1200.  Some older locals recall 1000 people or so used to meet there every Sunday. That's the same era as when the local Anglicans used to hire out the whole train to take people to the church picnic, which people also still recall.  That era faded fast.

Its just been sold, after being decommissioned as a place of worship last year, having dwindled to a handful.

Mixed emotions i suppose, watching that  - the first large church from the goldrush era, from the Methodist revivalism, ending.

 I was tempted to be sad about this, although I'd actually never been inside  (there are quite a few grand old  churches and a couple of cathedrals like that in town, mostly under used and dwindling). But it is just a building - the investment in people is what lasts and matters.  It does seems a sign of the decline of that mode and denomination of church - repeated across the region.   (Some other denominations in renovated factories are now holding good numbers of people - ie a new variation on the old theme).    

However, maybe a new form is needed: less about coming to services in buildings of any form.

It reminds me of a series of images, akin to a gentle vision or trance,  almost day dream like, that  I wrote up last year.

So i'll add it now; the shift from church to hub and dispatch points is in view.

  (*notes at end).

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Seeing.

I saw a church on the top of a cliff with the sea beneath.  It seemed to be an attractive looking church building along classic lines, nice facilities, pews.  I sensed it stood for many churches of that sort.  It was actually sitting out over the edge of the cliff, supported with struts coming out from the rock beneath.

I had a sense that it was “overextended”, culturally as much as anything else.

I also saw that people had laboured to get the building into place – that rollers had been deployed to move it forward, and that people had pushed hard to get it to here. There was a bit of a risk that these methods could result in driving the people,  as if building pyramids, but it did not have to be so  - was also a sense of goodness over things, here.

In any case, it was now pressed up against the top of the cliff.

Despite its seemingly precarious and exposed positions there was no sense of it being in any immediate danger or falling into the sea. I heard the scripture

“To their own master, they stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. “ (Rom 14:4).   

(Later on I was a bit puzzled as to how it was standing so strong in such an exposed position. I saw large, oversize earth moving machinery as I asked, and had a sense that there was a well developed  “machinery” in the church, its methods and processes,  that has kept it in a safe place even when overextended like this, still connected to the rock with struts.  So there were sophisticated methods of supporting this structure.)

Nevertheless there was a clear sense that it was time to make some adjustment.  Even though it was not in danger of failing, it was still timely to reconsider what to do.

I saw a stone stair case  cut in the rock beside the church. It was a very stable and well made descent, had well laid steps.  It was a secure path, almost like a spiral staircase cut in the rock, leading down.

I could tell going down felt like a relief – descending with feet on the solid rock felt good -  a more natural and safe footing than the structure at the top of the cliff. 

The winding stone path lead down to a large gathering place near the bottom, which was buzzing with activity. It was like a staging point, a hub, and a lot of activity, all of which was very purposeful. 

This hub or staging point place led back inland - there were tracks back towards the land that the churches had once traversed.  

In this dispatch point things  were buzzing as people planned trips.  Young people with backpacks were planning to go in various directions, many were going to fan back out across the same land that the churches had rolled over.  I could sense that they were going to evangelize, in twos or small teams   - land the churches had once pioneered in – and which now needed reaching again. Others were going further afield, overseas.   

I saw Todd ushering a group of people forward. He had both arms out as though herding a flock of animals, although they were a small group of people. A bit like a tour guide escorting people on, but with more serious mission. 

His back was towards the sea and any potential danger. I knew he was willing to try to shield the group, although he was working more by showing a direction and a serious intent to keep them moving.  The group moved forward as he helped escort them. I’d never seen escorting people along a mission  as “shepherding”  before, but it seemed a true picture of that I think.

There was also a round stone clearing near the bottom of the cliff, which could be used as a helicopter pad.   Helicopters buzzed close to the ground as the group moved off on the paths, almost like a military buzz of activity around soldiers.

There was a lot happening here  - everyone had somewhere to go.

As the people streamed down the cliff from the church building, the operation of those who were left  in that structure got more serious and focused and efficient.   It started to shine like a light house – shining a very bright light out across the sea, sweeping from side to side  – warning ships of the rocks below.  I sensed the need for this so that large luxury cruise ships did not run aground.

[I felt some of these ships might be other ministries that were out on the sea – not all churches were represented by the church at the top of the hill – some seemed to out on the sea, large vessels with their own propulsion – seemed some risk of being a bit complacent and self contained in their travels.  They needed some bearings from old landmarks like this to keep off the rocks as well. I also had a sense that the brilliant light from the smaller church, now working like a lighthouse, was still an important warning to the world as well, including its own luxury cruises that could go astray].

This dynamic of letting people out of the over extended building,  down the stair case and fanning them out through the dispatch points below,  seemed like it would last perhaps a generation or two as the church adjusted. The light would shine during this time.

I sensed the brilliant light from that structure in some cases could, at some future point, ultimately end up being decommissioned,  leaving only a glowing red warning or navigation light,  but harder to see in the darkness.

 I saw at the top of the cliff, behind and beside the church, there was a lake that had been turned into a dam.  It was a pretty and peaceful scene.  Boats and people drifted around in a peaceful manner, with mountains in the background. It was a good and scenic place, although the mighty forces had somehow been domesticated into an idyllic picture.  

Then quite suddenly, the lake was released and became a mighty river – full of colour and life. A group of people in a raft were heading straight off the cliff, like over a waterfall,  and then turned in towards the land. This was an exhilarating and rather bouncy ride – it bypassed the gradual descent of the stairs and launched people straight off down the river.  Jess was one of these, about to go over the top and down the river.  I saw Katie S further down the valley, bouncing from one side to the other, touching on the shore here and there, stopping onto the shore every now and then. It was full of life and ornate colours.  It seemed everywhere she landed that revelation and encounters continued even if only during short visits.

There was Life in every aspect by this river. The trees that grew were almost like finely detailed works of art; seemed to be precisely made porcelain somehow. It was a bit of a crazy flow of life and colour, in a wondrous and good way.  (Where the river flows, everything will live – Ezekiel 47).  I knew it might be misunderstood as too weird and vibrant by those not in that flow.

Back at the dam, a few people who had never been in the church structure at all, seemed to go down with the water when it was released to a river, down through a  whirlpool at the bottom, and past a huge slow moving fan. Somehow as they came out the other side they were rapidly launched into helicopters.   Luke was one of these. It was like a rapid release and promotion   – in a grace filled way- to a flying role. Have somtimes seen LP like that too, since then, zipping out over the water,  island to island, piloting.   

Others were finding other ways down the face of the cliff. Some were rappelling straight down. One was climbing sideways, almost crab like, across the face of the cliff . Although that looked rather noble, a figure alone on a huge rockface, I wondered why anyone would bother taking such a hard path when there were other ways down. Then I felt like it was me.  I was a bit frustrated when I recognized that  – seemed I was always prone to take an un-necessarily  difficult and time consuming approach. It appeared there were easier and better ways down – why was I not taking one of those?

As I wrestled with that,  I saw that taking that path over the expanse of rock led out across to the top of a mountain range. On the way one could pause for a while, even talk with some others who would come to rockface from the land, and it was possible to rest in little caves,  before going back to finish the sideways climb.  Up on  the ridgeline there were large eagles nests.

The nests were in a position on the ridge where you could see to both sides of the mountain,. L was in one of these, facing in one direction  – pointing and calling out across the land  - out towards the region where the people had gone.   Up close I could see there were three little camp fires in one of the nests.   Despite  the formidable height on the ridgeline on a mountain,  it felt like a place I had known, and was a safe and even comfortable place.  It fact it was somehow so safe and cosy in this plain nest, that it  could be tempting to sit down there and camp  for too long.  I sensed a vague disquiet about doing that and looked how to move on.   (Later I felt the poetry of Psalm 68 –time to move on from campfires, from the good feathers and comfort, when God was moving over the mountains.)

A little further along was a path with steps leading upwards. I followed them and soon found it leading to a square fortress on the  side of the mountain.  It had large imposing walls and I could sense a role for watchmen on the walls; one on each corner. It looked a bit like the fortress at Masada. From this height you could see a long way down, way down to the river in the valley,  and could make out some of the activities where the people had gone.

All of the action and focus seemed to be in the way the teams had gone.

There was a figure leaning on the balcony of this place who looked welcoming. He was almost shining white. Something about him did not feel quite right,  and I vaguely sensed he might be drawing from odd sources. Still, any support here , any welcoming figure, was hard to resist, given I seemed to be rather alone, and so I temporarily disregarded my uneasy feeling.  I thought maybe it would be alright to see what he was about, even perhaps to partner in some way. He seemed to know the fortress well and showed me the inside. But this turned out to a bad thing.  Once inside the thick walls, the place was dark and gloomy.  

It was  a place where decisions had been made and were still made, and it seemed full of books and scrolls, relics of past councils. Something about that was very enticing – the place of decision making – and yet it was not a place of life, and could easily corrupt those who were drawn in. I could feel many of the decisions here invoked fallen wisdom, the knowledge of good and evil, rather than life.   After a while I began to see a hidden shape in the darkness that decisions were somehow fitting into, and it was the dark outline on the wall of a huge witch – as if the compromises here could amount to a pattern of witchcraft. I could see it would not be obvious at first, since it was a nearly hidden outline in the gloom. It could also become a place where principalities in ‘high places’ were involved, though that was not obvious at first as well.

This inner room was also ‘the death of prophets’. It almost seemed to be its name.  It seemed a bit unfair that this place, which was so hard to reach, could become a snare like this.  It seemed there was a valid role for watchman outside on the walls, to look out to see and report on what was happening and what was approaching.   If those with vision to see remained on the outside, using the height to see what was happening, they would bring useful information, and it would avoid some of fatal compromises.

But for those who were meant to be looking out, it was dangerous to turn inwards into the castle, and join the counsels inside of those thick walls, in the gloom. It made it a hampered and dangerous place - left both the fortress and the people relatively blinded.

Wan creatures seemed to be in the roof of the inner place, long corrupted.

The thick walls also seemed to be any strong system – church, military, government, that could lose touch with, or despise, its watchmen and prophets looking far afield.  Later I realized there were smaller outposts of this fortress,  along that ridgeline,  only able to house one or two people, but which from which it was much easier to keep an outward view; these structures were too small to have an inner room. From there you could really see without the risk of turning inwards to the false safety of the walls.  It seemed they might actually have been a safer posting even though they looked less grand.

 I knew staying inside here, with all the grey fallen wisdom, was fatal.   I looked for a way out and as soon as I did one of the walls opened out and became a ramp.  This led outside  - the only safe place around that structure.

A thin rope bridge with planks stretched across to another peak.   It had missing planks but was still passable. It was not easy to cross. The adjacent peak was covered with thick green heath. Len was there again, somehow.  He seemed pleased to see me, that I’d made it there. Something about this place, although still on a narrow and high peak, felt much healthier than the fortress. Maybe it was less momentous, but also less dangerous.

For some reason I turned to look away from the land, out towards the sea.  A huge figure was emerging up out of the water on the horizon, head and shoulders showing. The huge size of it seemed to indicate a final, climatic showdown of some kind. As it was raised up, swelling the water levels, I remembered the sea represented chaos to the Hebrew mindset, and I wondered if it partly represented climate change and its fears - and perhaps other turmoils coming to a head as well.

 As the thing rose and gathered waters,  the rim of the world was also exposed, and thousand of miles of  reef were laid bare.  It was as if the figure was unwittingly being used to disclose the living work that had been quietly forming, new life coming into the world but hidden beneath the surface. I felt this was revealing a new creation aspect that had been real but mostly hidden till now.

It depended where you looked as to whether  you saw fearsome intimidation or new goodness being revealed, as both were occurring at the same time.

Beside this figure and sea, there was a city full of slender skyscrapers. Revelation and strategy was being given into these tall towers.  This seemed to be the new city we are waiting for, but it also was for now, a  heavenly city overlapping with earthly ones - revelation was being given to business community and to others. The slender buildings seemed to represent revelation being given in a strategic and targeted way. It was as if a kingdom mandate was on them, able to receive from the heavens – like the communication on Jacob’s ladder – they could reach up into heaven’s wisdom and not come under judgments like Babel had. It was also being accelerated –-even as the sea  chaos entity was trying to raise itself to intimidate, beside it.   

Finally, in front of the city was a wide and flat expanse,  a surface that was smooth and solid. It felt like a place of worship. The face of Christ could be clearly seen reflected here – a huge image across the whole smooth surface.

 As the sun shone through clouds, the surface caught and reflected it. The whole space seemed designed to reflect God’s glory and it was soon shining and radiant from the people lifting worship  - not just in song but also somehow connected with the revelation and operations in the city – as though they were also acts of worship that reflected here.

As I watched the glorious intensity of this, a huge foot descended onto the flat plain, with a body ascending higher into the heavens than could be seen. “The earth is His footstool”.  

Somehow all of history, or maybe all redemption history, was contained in the huge figure, stretching further and higher up then could be seen. Every event and place, every green valley and town, each life, every marriage, all community and people  were contained in the huge figure that ascended above.  I’m not sure if it was Him – or His body the church who fills everything in every way.  (Eph 1:23).

Then I seemed to be before Him, as though above clouds, heavenly places, and could sense His intense pleasure and love.  I saw another, C, like an eagle, before Him. The eagle looked a little worn.  There was gold in the wings.

 I think the eagle represented prophets or prophetic roles. I sensed the fragmenting forces and tasks of this life would lose power to pull individual lives apart, to fragment, if we could just see that identity before Him.

I could then see other eagles circling a high mountain. 

So it was like a montage of images, the church letting out people at the top of the cliff, the bands being commissioned at the bottom of the cliff, the smaller church flashing its light out across the sea, the eagles nests and watch towers,  the dim fortress, the sea in turmoil, new creation revealed by the turmoil, the city, adjoined to the solid plain of worship revealing His face, and all for and unto and in Him, standing on and (re)claiming the earth, to heavenly spaces, and eagles and keys to identity, with others, before Him.

* Notes.
 These images came over a few days. . like a continuing thread. 

I’ve added a few comments as to what it seemed to mean, throughout. 

it’s a bit of montage.  It did feel revelatory, as dreams might,  and seemingly orientated around some of the current themes in the church and the era we’re in. It was not a dream, though flowed a bit like one.  Almost like a day dream of connected images, restarting in quiet moments over a few days,  a thread to it, and for those who are used to such things, just an extension of the imagery that pops into mind during prayer. ("It may just be me,  but i saw this picture", says every one who starts to cultivate that listening, and those who know always nod, expecting its probably not "just them" and there is really meaning and mystery to the image). No doubt imperfectly perceived and understood and my own views in the mix.  (This is, incidentally, perhaps the lower level of prophetic listening, fruitful as it can be). 

Most of the individuals I sensed in these scenes, were from a local group, which was a bit unusual – don’t know most of them too well.  In fact it started one day after a meeting with some of them.  I think all probably stand for other similar  types/roles of people too.   ... felt like a wider thing than just them.  I’ve called them all by one initial, now, to make it anonymous, after sharing it with one or two.

5/2017 update : (I see  the stair case as "winding down" of one mode, and calling to new adventures,  via the hub, as part of  all this)

shawn bolz

I'm liking Shawn Bolz's stuff, on many levels. I particularly like focus on relational and emotional intelligence. 

Here's a page out of his book - posted for my friend Will, since we were talking about how to reach the messed up kids in the school we both worked/work in.  

Notice the method with the girl he prays for - she "loans" his faith and gets the revelatory word herself.   

I was in Hawaii in 2012. The condo I stayed at was beautiful, but its entrance was very close to the area’s late night red light district. It was one block away from the main strip of Honolulu. I was hungry, and the only thing that was open after 10:30 when I got dropped off was a sub sandwich shop, so I headed there. It was a safe but seedy area after 10 p.m.  

On the way, a Hawaiian in his young twenties tapped my arm and said, “Hey brah, you need anything tonight?” 

I knew whatever he was selling wasn’t anything I was buying, so I said, “Nope, I am good, just out for a sandwich.” 

“Come on, brah, you want some weed?” He put his hands to his mouth as if he was smoking some. “No, that would make me hungrier. I just want a sandwich.”  

He laughed and said, “You want a girl?” and he pointed at three teenagers sitting on a closed diners’ entrance that I hadn’t noticed previously. It was two boys and a girl, all under eighteen, and the girl was only around fifteen. I got mad right away that he was trying to offer me this young girl, who was not dressed to be a prostitute like the others down the street. She looked very new or uninitiated in prostitution, but he was still offering her to me. 

I said, “No, but I want to talk to her real fast,” and walked over to her. 

“Hey, I’m Shawn, what’s your name?” Her wannabe pimp came over and stood beside me, and seemed at ease with me talking to her based on our previous rapport. “(name changed) Kayla,” she said, only slightly interested. 

“What’s your dream in life?” I asked. “What do you mean? I don’t have a dream,” she responded. 

“Well, I am a Christian and a pastor, and God talks to me about his dreams for me and helps me to form my own, so let’s pray for a minute and ask God to show you a dream for your life. He thought of you for millions of years before he ever created you, so let’s ask him what he thought about.” 

“Um, okay,” she said, sort of confused but amused. 

“Okay, borrow my faith and repeat after me, then wait for an answer. He is going to talk inside of you. Jesus, you love me and created me to enjoy life and live it to its fullness. Show me something that I was created for.” 

She repeated it then said, “Whew!” and the two guys on either side were giggling until she said that. She looked like she legitimately felt she heard something.  

“What did you hear?” I asked. 

“I heard I should be a cook . . . .” She said it with no insecurity, but had a look of wonder on her face like she had never expected that there could be anything else than the nothingness that had driven her to the streets.  

“You mean like a chef? Do you like to cook food?” I asked.  

“I think so . . . . I haven’t really done it much but yeah, I do!”  She was amazed. 

Before I let her ponder too much, I said, “God wouldn’t give you such a great idea without giving you steps to take, like tomorrow, toward this dream, so let’s ask him for some steps. Repeat after me: Father, you showed me something that I can do that would make me feel fulfilled and feel your heart. What is a step I can take this week toward it?” 

She repeated that and then said, “Woah!” 

Her friend next to her had huge wide eyes and said, “What, Kayla?” “God said to call my uncle who owns a diner! I never talk to him because my mom hated him and never let us call him or see him. 

Notice, the first time she just heard something inside. The second time she knew it was God and acknowledged him.  

“Kayla, do you promise me you will call him tomorrow and talk to him about this?” I asked.   

She promised she would. We were exchanging phone numbers when the guy next to her said he wanted a dream too, so we prayed and he had a similar encounter. 

Kayla called me the day she talked to her uncle. He and his wife were Christians and had been praying for her, especially since she had run away. They were so happy that she called. She told them what God showed her. They hired her and brought her to live with them. She was an incredible asset to their business, such a hard worker, and very smart about ideas that could bring in a fresh crowd to the diner they owned (that was frequented mostly by older locals). The business grew fast as she partnered with them both on food and business topics.

It was so amazing, because when she was turning seventeen, she called me to update me on her amazing turnaround in life. She had been saved for a while, was living with her uncle and aunt, and had finished school early with a full high school degree. She managed their diner too. Then she said,  

“Uncle wants to open up another location and wants me to be a co-owner and help!”
I was excited for her. 

“Are you going to go to school for business or for culinary arts?” 

“I don’t have time. We are opening it next month! I will own it in just a few years! God’s dream for me is bigger than I thought!” I was so excited for her! 

Can you imagine? God spoke to her. I didn’t prophesy to her. I simply helped her believe that God loved her enough to have a conversation with her. 

He is such a personal God that he knows we won’t always believe words someone else gives us, so he speaks to us. Pharaoh would never have met Joseph if Joseph hadn’t had the dream and the interpretation of it, but God put the dream in Pharaoh’s heart. 

Acts of the foodbank workers

Acts of the foodbank workers

After a recent conference, I woke early next day, with this burning in me. Although not directly addressed at the conference, the thoughts here are a clearer formation of a position gradually developed over time -  somehow catalysed by attending the event. 

Jerusalem.  Church home.

Re church – I think we (western church, myself) are often too passive about outreach. 

Our orientation is too Jerusalem centered.  We’ve pretty much configured church to be a come and sit at the feet of the apostles thing.  It's a mindset that says these leaders probably know more, or were closer to Jesus, or have a bigger headful of knowledge about him, and so can minister and explain to everyone for ever and day, what it's all about.

(And even if every now and then we say the opposite, the church is not the building, it’s the people, and, it's not a Sunday thing, it’s a Monday to Saturday thing, and not just these few ministering, it all of us – in most places these statements are really pretty secondary and  rhetorical. At best it’s a symbolic and indicative pointing to outwardness, that is not usually built upon or modeled, and soon assimilated by the other strand:  “Don’t forsake the assembling”.  “Learn”.  Being in the meeting matters.  “Give”.  “Find a role here” .

And then given the sheer weight of meetings, of church as meetings, led by full time ministers, we often don’t really put enough on the scales for the ‘everyone gets to play, all do outreach, all are priests,’ ideas to outweigh the gravity of the opposite claims, which are often heavily modeled in the structure and language. 

There are numerous qualifications needed to this: small groups change it, some press for deeper shared worship, some do model outreach, etc, but it's the dominant pattern that still holds in spite of these things. For example a few become missionaries and leave the home church and culture. But the home church tends not to see itself as missionaries to its own culture. There are exceptions to this, in my own community as well, but it's the pattern I'm after - the reasons the culture sees church as building, and expects people in rows, with a minister, priest or pastor up front doing the work - usually retelling the story in various ways, peppered with moral instruction.

Just like we know what to expect in most schools, we think we know what to expect in most churches - there is a common grammar of what happens.

And although the 'application' stage of the sermon is a very useful rhetorical space, a world of theoretical colouring in, it's usually the individual left to make the translation - not a lot of concrete models, and usually not in a corporate or teamwork sense.  (Bring others in? Be a hidden Kingdom influence?  Share explicitly?  Take a creation mandate to name the issues, confront idols, etc?)   Again, some do form teams around things, including outreach, which can be very good indeed, and I think is desperately needed (it still might leave the mystery of the workplace alone, for example, but a good theology of work is perhaps another question).

This can be ok, for a season

We don’t get a direct sense from the bible that this is wrong for the Jerusalem church. Indeed in the first flush of wonder at the new state of life, it's beautiful.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  (Acts 2:42ff)

 So a season of this might be good.  In each other houses too, if you please, as well as the temple. 

But it was certainly incomplete. Imagine if Acts had stopped with them all sitting in Jerusalem!

Church as pews and padded seats

It’s a church that hasn’t really owned the mission of going out. Hasn’t yet discovered it's for the whole world. 

It's like, using that timeline, that we haven’t yet discovered Paul.   Of course we know his writings. Indeed might meet every week to learn them. But we haven’t’ been shaken up from our ‘come and learn’ mode, to ‘go and tell, and be’ …

So the main format of the church has been, for most of my life anyway, we are gathered in Jerusalem, still trying to learn from those who might be closer to the Jesus story.

That’s changing though -  many changes afoot in how we think of church.

Paul

In a sense, Paul came upon the church twice.  As the sharp edge of hostile persecution, he was part of the scourge that scattered it from Jerusalem.  He upset the plans. And them as an apostle, he kept things moving in that direction, now with growth rather than destruction. 

And in doing so, in both phases, he helped the church discover its missional genius. The timing of the persecution was key. It happened just as they were setting up the home-base, getting systems sorted and stablised.

And they were indeed doing some good things. The radical sharing had generated a food supply for the needy – the widows among them.  And this is interesting – because it's from the group managing this foodbank, that we find the first martyr and the first evangelist. 

Problems sharing the bread

Ironically, given the cultural explosion that was about to take off, it seems there were some cultural boundaries to how this bread was distributed.

It was somehow being preferentially given to the real insiders, the strictly Jewish, Hebrew speaking, believers. Those from slightly more diverse background, the Greek speaking Jews, aren’t getting in, or are getting served leftovers, second place.

the Hellenistic Jews[ among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food  (Acts 6:1)

In any case this food supply is not yet seen as something for the city.  They’re not even eating with Gentiles yet.  No community meals yet. 

The first deacons – not your average 2nd tier

The apostles hear of the tension between the Hebrew and Greek speaking Jews, and agree it needs to be fairer - but think they have bigger fish, more spiritual fish, to fry.

‘It's not right for us to neglect the word of God and wait on tables’, say the apostles  - and so lets delegate to seven good folk (those “filled with Spirit and wisdom” is the actual description).  Good criteria, but a secondary job, it seems.  (Acts 6:2-3)

Now, maybe that delegation, freeing up some to just do the word, is ok. We do get a passing comment that alludes to a season of growth with this model in place -  'number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly'.  But before we build anything on that text, consolidate any theology of delegating tasks to deacons to release the leaders, we better follow what happens next. The next three chapters in fact. 

So they had selected seven workers. Notice the order, Stephen is named first in the list, Philip second. (6:5)  And so it must have seemed that now the apostles could get back to the real deal of 'the ministry of Word', with the foodbank all sorted.  After all, they had known Jesus first and longest - makes sense they teach and impart from that basis.

But that list in chapter 6:5, is really like a headline – watch these names. The  next 3 chapters (6-8) are about them. 

Acts of the foodbank workers.

As first we might call them helpers. They might look like 'Marthas' even, kitchen workers waiting on tables, while the apostles prepare the word (so if these 7 have a ministry, it’s the ministry  of food, to borrow a Jamie Oliver term).

Actually “Ministry” (diakonis) really means service, so "ministry of food" could be a fair term.  …  but seems it's a less spiritual and high powered thing than the “ministry of the word", the Jerusalem apostles plan to dedicate themselves to.

A note on ministry: maybe not what you think

The same author who wrote Acts (Luke) records in his gospel that Martha had previously complained of being left (or choosing) to do this sort of kitchen work while her spiritual sister listened to Jesus.  And the “work” she mentions,  is actually that word we translate as ‘ministry’ (diakonis) in other places.  "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the ministry, while Mary just sits at your feet?"

We don't translate like that, perhaps because 'ministry'  has come to mean, in many places, "what the clergy does".  But we shouldn't be so protective.  The famous phrase that we all  know about Jesus - he "was about 30 when he began his ministry", is actually a translators insertion – the text only says 'Jesus was about 30 when he began.'

That's worth thinking on.  Ponder the original text.  What did He actually begin? Would it be better if we were left to conjecture an answer to that ourselves?  

Try a few options out:  when he began ...  "his public career as a prophet?"  ..  "the work of redemption?"  ....  “the new exodus and re-formation of the people of God” .. “his prophetic embodiment and fulfillment of Israel’s history?"  .. the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise to all nations?"  ... “the strange path to kingship of the Messiah?"  .. "

“Ministry” seems strangely neutral, contentless as a summary, and has helped put us off these trails, I think. Better that we had been left to grapple with his life than have that loose catch all phrase inserted by a translator. 

In any case the biblical usage of “ministry” (diakonis) in the gospels is not a summary of what Jesus did, but includes Martha complaining about the kitchen “work” (and again it's the same author, Luke, writing Acts, whose writing contains all of these usages, hidden and invented, so it's worth noting).  It's rather unhelpful that our translations hide that single usage (diakonis as against listening to Jesus) , and invent that high profile instance  - summarising Jesus' public life  - no wonder we get rather miscued on what "ministry" means!) (As for "ordained ministry", we would need to lean on Exodus, to go back to Aaron's dedication, and ignore Peter's observation that all believers now inherit that role, to make that one work).

(Elsewhere in the NT diakonis means service, perhaps extending once or twice to a special career of service, but it's not primarily reserved as a term for a special vocation, not defined as a few fulltime people particularly dedicated to serving Jesus.  For example Ephesians 4 has all being prepared for "diakonis" / ministry / service, through a five fold model of training. The NIV does not call this work of the whole body 'ministry', but some other translations do.  Maybe NIV translators now balk at that inclusive usage given the way we have (incorrectly) reserved it for what Jesus did and those who are similarly dedicated to "his ministry".

So back to our 7 'ministry of foodbank' workers; they turn out to be a surprise packet in God's recipe. 

Food bank guy number 1 : Stephen

Stephen evidently knows the power of God (performed great wonders and signs among the people)  and is adept with the Word; argues with the religious elite who can’t keep up with 'the wisdom that God gives him'  (6:8-10). What a church they must have had!  Maybe he needed to sit and learn for a season, to get to this state, but it's been effective. 

I wonder if they knew what was in him.  Maybe they did. Even the apostles were considered religiously "unschooled, ordinary men" (4:13) - yet seems they've imparted enough to him, of what they had, that he now shakes the system. 

We see him under pressure – with the longest speech in Acts - before the stones fly at him. 

Then, after a lengthy and detailed review of Israel’s history, he ends with an emphasis on the nation's history of rejection of the unlikely leaders God has often chosen for them (Moses and others), which they are still doing with Jesus, the ultimate prophet and ruler in that line.

  

Paul and religious intolerance

Fleshing out this story of rejection and unlikely leaders, we first see Paul at Stephen's stoning, on the wrong side of the issue.

And soon Paul is “destroying the church”. It seems he leads the persecution; he is the hostile fanatic, convinced this little group inside Judaism is a cult that is poisoning true faith with its scandalous stories of a crucified Messiah.  He’s devoted to rooting them out. Raiding houses, issuing “murderous threats”  (disown this or die, presumably)  - gets them in prison, satisfied to see them stoned to death. A heavy guy.

Food bank guy number 2 : Philip

So we’ve had the first martyr; and the first hint of Paul, endorsing his stoning.

And then – after Stephen’s martyrdom – the narrative jumps back -  we go back to the second name in the foodbank list : Philip.  ( “They chose Stephen … also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor … ). 

They didn’t use bold headings, like this post does, but a highlighter wouldn’t go astray here to see what the author is doing. Chapter 6 and 7 run with Stephen, and then chapter 8 returns to pick up the second guy; Philip.  

So Stephen was great, sure, but maybe that was incidental. Now we’re running through a list of “also” guys . Surely they’re not all of that calibre– this Seven?

So let's have a closer look at Philip.

  

Philip to Samaria

Like Stephen he knows his stuff pretty well. He crosses some huge and primary cultural boundaries. He leads the mission to the next tier of outreach that Jesus had referred to, that they hadn't quite got around to somehow. (Remember “Jerusalem, Samaria, and the ends of the earth”?)

These Samaratians were a mixed group. In a culture that coalesced racial and religious identify, they were like a despised caste.  Jesus had travelled in here – to the woman at the well - and they’d talked about the cultural divide ('you Jews say Jerusalem is the place, but we worship here on the mountain' (John 4). It was not core Israel, and often reckoned beyond the pale.  

Philip evangelizes there – so effectively that demonic powers are dramatically broken, people are healed, signs are wrought.

It reminds me of Paul observing, after he later took the gospel way out into Greek territory, that "the gospel did not come to you in word only, but with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction". (1 Thess 1:5) These power dynamics are operating around Philip, as they had around Peter and John in Jerusalem (3:2, 5:15).   It seems it was the norm for the burgeoning gospel.   

  

What of the apostles?

The apostles do briefly re-appear in ministry in these chapters, following Philip's work (when they “heard Samaria had accepted the word of God”, they go there (8:14)).  No sense of tension there, just teamwork, following an evangelist. One does wonder if they would have seen this in him, the one they also had waiting on tables. Maybe they did. Maybe they all just hadn't yet discovered the dimensions of mission they were made for; were just finding they were all built for this, after a season of learning and growth.

Spirit and Conversion can be distinct events

Somehow, although Philip had baptized the new believers in the name of Jesus, and even after all that power and healing, and "accepting the word", they had not received the Holy Spirit - or there was a dimension of His being "on them" that had not occurred.  That’s a bit of a theological minefield, but it's in the text. Evidently baptism in the name of Jesus and becoming a new believer, even with dramatic testimonies, is not necessarily synonymous with some aspect of receiving the Spirit.  It could all be simultaneous, granted - but not here: 

When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit,  because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  (8:15-16)

Instating the Clergy?

In the heat of this excitement Peter does need to lay down the law about who is really clergy, and who is allowed to partake in ministry.

He says,  "You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God."   (The term for no share here is kleros, from which we get clergy).  He is not directing that clerical exclusion towards Philip, as if he can sense what elevated papal heights much of the church will later make out of his own legacy, or as though the leading apostle of the twelve wants to lay stake to a more primary role than the foodbank worker turned pioneering evangelist. That might make sense to us in retrospect but it's certainly not what he meant. No, his ban of "not kleros" is directed towards Simon the sorcerer, who is trying to buy his way in to the impartation of the Holy Spirit - that reveals a serious heart problem and misunderstanding of how God works - and indicates Simon has no share.

Similarly in Acts 1:28 we hear that Judas did originally have a share (kleros) in the ministry and blew it. So, evidently "not kleros" means "right out"; it's never directed against fellow believers in good standing.  We might want to think about that - if our use of "clergy", and "ordained ministry" reflect that original use in the church. It took another few hundred years before the church made such terms define and exclude who was really "in ministry", who had a share in the "priesthood" etc, as distinctions inside the believing church. And then we could ask, if in changing those terms, do we possibly work against things like this original teamwork of apostle and emerging evangelist?  Even then it took persecution to uncover and redefine roles, and form teams in the first mission. 

Pioneering evangelist

Then we follow Philip again – and he crosses another cultural boundary, spreading the mission further afield. He gets that role as well, leaving the apostles in the midst of the exciting work he had pioneered in Samaria.

Philip had been led by the Spirit there, to go the desert road. He must have wondered as he followed that instruction from the Spirit, away from the seeming action into the desert, but evidently he knew what it was to be led, to follow the Spirit beyond the established patterns.

He reaches a senior Ethopian official, returning from Jerusalem, providentially reading Isaiah 53 - so already a convert to Judaism, returning from the feast -  as he draws near.   No doubt, if he was there for the feast, a rumour of Jesus might have come to come to him.  Whatever his experience and understanding, Philip reaches him.

Leaving seems even more dramatic than the guidance that got him there, “the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing”.   (The apostles still need this sort of Gentile mission to happen via Peter, in one step - skipping the induction to Judaism -  too, in Acts 10, before they really get on board with this sort of cross cultural mission being in scope of their role, it seems.) 

  

Discipleship 101 : get radically baptized and move on?

The new convert was left.  No ‘come and sit in church with us, to learn what this means and how to live’?  He can hardly have had a home church to go to – and yet some wonder if that’s how Ethopia ended up being reached; if one deep and supernatural conversion would do it.  We know he was a reader -   did he have more than the single scroll of Isaiah?– maybe he read his way into the Gospel implicitly in this, freshly empowered with the Spirit.  Maybe others visited him.

God seems to have taken care of it, to have not wanted Philip to linger:

Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.  (8:40). 

Philip : good mates with Paul

Finally, after all that lead in, we leave Philip. Not permanently though.  He gets one more cameo – Paul stays with him on his final trip to Jerusalem for a “number of days” (Acts 21). It's no quick overnight visit.  This sounds more like recharging on the journey. By this stage Paul is no longer a feared adversary scattering the church outward, but the great apostle to the Gentiles.

I wonder what tales of outreach must have been exchanged, what stories might they have shared, what biblical insights formed in the pressure and reshaping of mission. What principles noted, theology hammered out. Maybe discussed Luke’s notes of a gospel outline, compared notes on gospel encounters.   And four young women, Philip's daughters, listening in, no doubt.

One of the Seven

So by the end of Acts these foodbank guys are like heroes. These are known as “The Seven” (21:8)– a term we haven’t heard enough of.   How did that happen? 

“Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven".  One of the Seven.  It sounds like the fellowship of the ring – one of the nine – or David’s mighty men, his mighty 30, or even his inner circle of three.

And sounds like Philip is raising his children in the same way.

A Final Frontier? 

“He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied” . It seems Philip is crossing another cultural boundary in empowering his daughters to knowing they too could move under the power and dynamic of the Spirit – the anointing that had formerly marked prophets and kings.  Perhaps the evangelist, the one sensitised to transfer the message, is also pioneering a first generation transfer of Spirit empowered life, a Spirit filled parenting, if you like. A new frontier in this innovative life. 

It should of course have been normal - the whole era had opened with a declaration that all could prophesy, men and women, young and old, as evidence of the Spirit among them (2:17). But it's nice to see it being passed on.  Agabus, a prophet, also comes in.  Would the prophetic types have compared notes on how they saw Paul's destiny?  I wonder if, between seasons with hectic dynamics of outreach and persecution, if Philip saw the transfer and gentle cultivation of this dynamic into the next generation as a key frontier, possibly occurring at less dramatic pace, in that open house by the sea. 

We don’t know what the exploits of the other five of “the Seven” were; but we can probably assume they walked in like manner.

Back to Jerusalem?

I’m not against sitting at the apostles feet.  No doubt the seven were so impactful because they had done that, for a time.  But just when that system was perhaps about to get formalized,  to settle down and get really organized into a two tier thing, where some are freed up for the Word and some waiting on tables, God allowed persecution to break it open.  The author (Luke) makes a point of highlighting that list of workers, and following them, even more than the Jerusalem apostles, for a few chapters. We know he has an eye for the poor and the marginal, for the women, from his gospel, and it seems his keen eye notes this unexpected dynamic and reversal as well. They evidently didn't discover that missional genius easily, it took hostile times to break it open, and unexpected players came to the fore. So a season of sitting and learning in fellowship,  and role in waiting on tables is good, as a starter, just not a life time assignment; God might have much more in store as we all find mission.  Changing and misplacing some of our words (ministry, clergy) have probably not helped us see that.

Or outwards?

So that deposit in you, in me, from that teaching, from meeting house to house for years, from being in a generation that aspires to the dynamics of his power – that’s for something.

Caveats

Finally, i don't imagine mission always looks like this.  It can, and it still does, in some places and times. Maybe increasingly so as we return to more oppositional surroundings.

But to reach our culture - any culture -  in our time, different expressions might also be called for.  So Acts is a key chapter in the narrative, rich with insights to glean and experience, but not always a manual for all outreach. I think we do need to let the text echo through us, before any stepping away from it, though.  It's an intense text, and some parts do not seem to relate to much of how we live. But lets not let ourselves off the hook - other parts might well be universal; I suspect some of our outreach and patterns should indeed look like this -  so we might need to let it recalibrate us, before we translate it.

We need, no doubt, to have a whole framework and backdrop of restoring His image in a fallen creation, of re-humanising humanity, in all of its realms and complexities. Looking into the face of Christ and being transformed by His Spirit will be at the heart.  How it's expressed, how the mission is phrased and framed, might look different to some of the Acts dynamics. It should be similar in some times and places as well - maybe in our time and place.   Each person and part of the body can be unique in how we express and translate that Good News.   So there more to be said and done, drawing out other aspects of the whole story  ... but enough for this post. 

Mountains

One day, when my son was 7, he invited a friend from school over. We chatted with the parents at the close, and ended up inviting them for dinner.

So .. turned out we had met the Cornerstone group, who were newly arrived in town, a few years after we had come to Bendigo.  

That little seed has been a big blessing to us. Probably symbolic that my son made the connection - its been a key for him.

After a little while a certain synchronicity in some of the friendships, led to some shared holiday adventures, sailing boats and so on. And then when my son was old enough for their youth group, I found myself driving him to beach and river and snow camps.  

Its all a bit different in emphasis to my view of things – but  just like every snow flake is different, or different parts of a body express creative difference under a common unity.     

That’s what i want to write on here.  Snow flakes, or a snow camp, to be exact. I’ve ended up driving to a few of these  events. So I’ll mention couple of them, trace a crystal or two, for the unexpected themes, of romance and faithfulness, spoken today.    

Year 1 : Winter and Spring
One year the snow camp spanned the last of Winter and the first day of Spring.   And the night in between, back at camp, they group went to watch Chronicles of Narnia.

The co-incidence seemed meaningful to me -  when you consider that the plot of that movie is structured around the end of a 100 year winter, and  a new Spring emerging. That’s laden with symbolism; the witches power is broken, the spring thaw starts, the endlessly deferred Christmas finally arrives. 

 We literally watched it in the final minutes of that year’s winter, with spring in the air, after a day in melting snow, icy rivers gurgling with the thaw nearby. 

As if to bring home the point further for me, I just happened to have a copy of that movie bouncing round the bottom of my backpack. And we actually needed my copy, since the planned one was scratched.  

Next day the student leaders tried to explain from Romans something about the need to align ourselves with the empowerment of grace to counter the remnant power of sin. Although NT Wright was known to them, I don't think anyone quite saw the parallel. Perhaps it didn't matter that it wasn't named, maybe we got it by immersion. I mean that our state in these matters is similar to the land we were in, writ large in metaphors of the movie we had just watched.   "The Winter is ended and broken and Spring is here"*;  spring will  triumph over all snow. The Lion is afoot, the witch's power is broken. And while He on the move to again breathe life into his land,  in some places he has not yet been seen, the thaw is still occurring,  and evil fights on.  Although one side will inevitably win, some deadly battles remain.
It didn’t really matter that connection was missed I think, though it might have been a good poetic way to draw threads together. 

Incidentally I think we don’t always see the setup embedded in the scene we are in.

And so, to today’s trip.  
(Note that the winter ending and spring starting, is from Song of Songs; the love poem). 

Trip 2 : Day and Night, and shadows between
This year at snow camp, I took a few minutes and sat down at the summit of mountain and read a little bit.Some  revelation came.  About love and marriage, promise and fulfilment, of all things.  

Something opened up for me in these lines of Psalm 128:

Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.  

You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. 

 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.   

Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.

What struck me here was the sense of land tended, bearing fruit, of reaping, “You will eat the fruit of your labour”.

So it says that fruitful  families, places of nurture and joy, are intended as a blessing, a fruit, of  walking with God. I’m blessed with a wife and children that sound like this fruitful vine and olive shoots, and grateful for it.  I know there are reasons and sometimes puzzles as to why it might not happen, or there are different paths, or seasons that might challenge that, but there is still a general principle laid out there.

(I also know that we can idolize that good state; or limit ourselves to it in a closed way, when 'family' is a DNA that is bigger, more expansive, more welcoming.  mapped onto our belonging in the Body of Christ, and it exist for all). 

It occurred to me. sitting on that mountain top,  how different that is to another verse, that also speaks of relationship, using similar metaphors (vines)   -  the romance of the Song of Songs.  “My own vineyard i have not kept”  sings the  Shulamite (1:6).  There is a sense of neglect here, perhaps of being distracted her from the basic responsibilities by “her brothers”.    

 The Song also speaks to me of a sense in which the extended courtship of the book, needs to occur, to some extent, in a land of shadows.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle  or like a young stag on the rugged hills.  (2:17) 

“Until  the day breaks .. “  the season of romance and courtship has an appointed time of shadows, of being hidden. Yet there is a timing, even an ending, to walking in these shadows. It must be subject to, contained, by light, daybreak.  

So I contrasted Psalm 128 - the fear of the Lord bearing fruit of healthy families, and the Song of Songs, which acknowledges a risk of neglect, a lack of fruit  (and later the vineyards in the Song are subject to ‘foxes’ which would damage them and must be caught). 

I also thought of Ruth. Of Ruth in the night: 

 Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!“Who are you?” he asked.“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”  (Ruth 3:7) 

However we dignify Ruth’s actions in terms of the rites and protocols of Hebrew culture, it must surely be an uncertain and charged moment in the darkness.  

It goes well. They talk. Boaz thanks her for the selection of him over younger men,  cites her character (even as a young foreign widow - a vulnerable position - that aspect is respected  in the village.) And then its debated and resolved, in the town square, whether this proposed relationship can be confirmed according to their customs.

It flies along quickly and all is well.

We don't debate quite the same points today of who has first right or responsibility in cases of young widows remarrying.

But even there it was more ambiguous than just a cultural deliberation of who was first in line.  Ruth still knew a negotiation of choice and romance in approaching her man, and he knew it too  ("you have favoured me, and not run after the younger men").

 Since what was proposed in the shadows, has stood the test of the light, of public discussion, they can be returned to a more valid intimacy.

Both of their characters has been molded in daylight, by service, by training, by suffering, by faithfulness  So the shadows are safe enough and traversed  - day breaks on this uncertain event, and  confirms and celebrates it, before night again.

So these things were quickened as i sat at the summit. And if i needed another reminder, when I came home that night,  I found a book on my shelf seemed highlighted. When I opened at random.the first sentence i read was :  "I felt the Lord tell me, i'm going to take you up to a mountain top to teach you something". 

So to repeat : the tentative proposal, that needed to made in the uncertain shadows, is all ratified in the light, or risks going astray. Maybe not quite as quickly as that story, but there is a principle there.  And the shadows of our heart must come to light, or we wander and stray. 

feedback loops
OK. So why, as a parent, past that stage, or more enjoying the vines and olives of a later stage, blog on such a seemingly random topic? And why would it be high-lighted to me?  Another snippet can tell. 

 I first rode the Great Victorian bike ride when i was 20 - thousands of us negotiating the same winding road.  Once, ascending a large hill, i passed an official on the two-way radio getting reports of crashes on the downhill side.  "They're still not learning!" exclaimed the exasperated martial into her radio as i rode past her.   

I remember thinking, "how can we be expected to learn, on this side?  Unless someone stands up to pass on the knowledge of the hazards on the other side, no-one is any the wiser - each of us only does this ride once".

The long stream of riders going past had no feedback loop. I often used to think of that as a school teacher - partly a role of feeding back to riders of whats ahead.  

And so maybe thats why i'm talking about this mountain top.

So to some thoughts on this.
Any good youth group has other goals than finding a Boaz for every Ruth, and knows there is a timing there  – it wants first and primarily to challenge people to know a devotion to that Lion, so they are ready to grow in authentic relationships, if that path is followed.    

But then at some point, in some season, however deferred and structured to honour the King, it's a necessary  'distraction' into a time of shadow.  (I deliberately use courtship here, too, as an old fashioned word that can still apply - its no older than the Lion seeking to melt and heal hearts).  So then, when establishing a relationship, time to linger, to be in the shadows to some extent, is needed. 

And when this season happens the mission might get a little blurry. 

But it's not for ever. Until the day breaks, symbolically speaking. There is a timing to this.

So I found that day, in what Christians often call "devotions",  a reminder of this principle:  There can be a time for walking in the moonlight, those shadowy places, and a time for such to be established and ratified in the midday sun.

 Otherwise the pleasant shadows, rather than breaking in dawn,  risk becoming a walk into darkness. 

And then one can end up neglecting vineyards. Sacrificing too much for romance. The Song also knows  love  “is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.”  The powerful forces can be deadly.

 (We see the sorry tales elsewhere; the classic errors of the king - more in my season - and the flow of stories that are off kilter across the generations - Amnon and Tamar and how it ends in brother killing brother and undoing a kings strength –- these forces are not something to miscue or invoke in untimely ways. "Do not awaken love", counsels the Song, "until its time". )

There is grace here too, for those who stumble, who come off the bike.    

My brief coffee devotion was ended.  The day panned out well this year, and I sensed the wisdom and need for this in the young charges in the group;  an embedded scene too. 

Day and Night : Winter and Spring 
Finally, a note to bring the metaphors together.

The Song, which knows a wisdom of shadows,  breaking in clear day, also knows a calling to be in His spring, rather than our selfish winter.

See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

  Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves

is heard in our land.

  The fig tree forms its early fruit;

the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;

my beautiful one, come with me.”  (S of S 2:11)

These are hearts that know Him first, and then each other. That way works better, lessens the unreasonable demand on the other, that otherwise can become idolatrous. Other melting and light has been known first.  The whole thing is a season in lightened hearts.  

So a permanent shift - from winter to spring – in our grasp of Him, our melting in Him first, is reported. It’s a better, many times over, in that order. 

Grace, remains, for those unwarned, or who tumble astray anyway. 
Better not to, though.