andygoodliff

ten ways to resist empire

Tomorrow I'm preaching on Revelation 17-19. My main theme is unveiling and resisting empire and so as a practical resource I thought I'd give the church some ideas of resisting empire.

1. join the campaign not to renew Trident - the replacement of Trident is the empire mentality that trusts in military strength to keep Britain safe and secure; nuclear weapons are anti-gospel, they go against Jesus command to love your enemies and the exhortation that blessed are the peacemakers

2. don't let your charity become commodified - more and more recently charity has been linked to entertainment and consumerism. 10p of this call goes to charity; buy this 'thing' and we'll give £1 to this charity. charity is about giving voluntary to those in need, it shouldn't be about us getting some in return. see kester's reflection here and here

3. reconsider where you buy and your food - what food can you grow in your garden? what food can you buy fairtrade? what food can you get locally? what would happen if as many people in the church as possible grew food and we shared it with each other? many global food and clothing companies are destroying the world's resources and enslaving the poor. find out where your food is made and by who. boycott the worst offenders.

4. become less addicted to our cars. Most of us are slaves to our cars - what have forms of transport can we use? what would happen if as many people in the church as possible shared lifts on sundays and in the week?

5. orientate our lives around being a community of God - around praying together, reading scripture together, visiting one another, being hospitable to one another, worshipping together, being truthful to one another listening to one another - what would happen if we made time to be together as a church family? how could we celebrate sabbath as a time of rest and worship?

6. become globally aware - too often we're ignorant of what is happening around the world and how our lives, our governments and multinational companies are affecting the lives of others around the world - what would happen if everyone in the church - young and old - chose a country to pray for and learn about? what would then happen if we made time to share stories from around the world to inform our intercessory prayer and our day to day choices?

7. reading scripture together - what would happen if we read Jesus' sermon on the mount so regularly it become written on our hearts and minds? we need to school and train ourselves in christian politics - that is a vision shaped by compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love and peace

8. affirming self-image - one of the biggest lies a empire mentality tells us is that we are not beautiful, that we are not the right bodyshape, we don't have the right clothes - what would happen if we removed the magazine and tv adverts that lie to us from our lives? what would happen if we discovered ways to affirm and celebrate the way we look? what passages from scripture or  moments in our communal worship help affirm one another?

9. disconnect your television - how does the empire mentality sell us its myths? the answer is namely television. why don't you disconnect it every once a while? what would happen if we were more selective in what we watched (i.e. cut out the rubbish)? what would it mean to turn the TV while we eat? what would it mean to only have one TV?

10. become ethical bankers - how about switching accounts to more ethical bankers? how about checking where your money is being invested? if you have a credit card, switch it to a tearfund or christian aid one.

A question from Stanley Hauerwas

Taken from an interview here

[Dean Jones asks:] Bill has asked you  a lot of questions, others have asked you several questions. What    question would you like those of us gathered here to be thinking about as we depart from here?             

What do I need, or what do we need, to be a community of friends that can not only tell one another the truth, but want to be told the truth?

Christian Ethics According to Hauerwas and Wells

The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics is a book that deserves to be read and then re-read. Edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Sam Wells (two of my favourite theologians) it describes a way of studying ethics through worship. The opening chapter begins 'the aim of this volume is to stretch, inspire, and develop the readers' conception of Christian worship in order to challenge, enrich, and transform the reader's notions of the form and content of Chrisitan ethics.'   That is the way in which  we worship shapes and grounds the way we act as the body of Christ in the world. This is a theme that both Hauerwas and Wells have touched on before, but here in this companion it is described in full. They have collected together a wide range of contributers from Kevin Vanhoozer and William T. Cavanaugh to Stephen Fowl, T. J. Gorringe and Rowan Williams. I'm currently borrowing it from All Nations College Library, but hope to acquire it at some point.

Sam Wells has a new book out soon called God's Companions: Reimagining Christian Ethics, which if the synopsis is anything to go by, looks good.

Grounded in Samuel Wells' experience of ordinary lives in poorer neighborhoods, this book presents a striking and imaginative approach to Christian ethics. It argues that Christian ethics is founded on God, on the practices of human community, and on worship, and that ethics is fundamentally a reflection of God's abundance. Wells synthesizes dogmatic, liturgical, ethical, scriptural, and pastoral approaches to theology in order to make a bold claim for the centrality of the local church in theological reflection. He considers the abundance of gifts God gives through the practices of the Church, particularly the Eucharist. His central thesis, which governs his argument throughout, is that God gives his people everything they need to worship him, be his friends, and eat with him. Wells engages with serious scholarly material, yet sets out the issues lucidly for a student audience.