Page 2 - Contact Spring 2019.indd

Earthing the faith
Some of you may know I spent a few
days in Israel during February and I am
hoping, God willing, to take a party of
folks from the church to visit some sites
in Israel next year.
When I went on this trip I went with a
blank page in terms of expectations
as I know some people had been before
and been disappointed, but on the
whole I found it a unique and very
inspiring experience. I went with a
group of pastors (mainly Elim) and we
got on very well and the banter was
good and added to the experience. At
a couple of the sites they began to sing
and I must say I was moved to tears as
old truths took on a new resonance
and power. Beside the Sea of Galilee
and at the garden tomb in Jerusalem
I was profoundly moved as it began
to sink home that Jesus had walked
these very beaches, hills and gardens.
It came to me with a new force that our
faith is based on an historical figure; a
God who took on real flesh and blood,
clothes and sandals, and experienced
real life in all its joys and sorrows, just
as we experience it. This is the God we
follow and worship – he came down.
For me the earthiness of it all was
satisfying and moving. The holy sites
where churches proliferated left me
somewhat cold, as to me it spoilt the
earthiness and normality of where
Jesus walked and what he experienced.
Much the same as Peter, James and
John on the mount of transfiguration
wanted to build a shelter, a chapel or a
tent to mark the place of meeting with
Elijah and Moses (Mt.17) we tend to
want to erect memorials and
monuments.
But our faith is a living faith and
God cannot be tied to monuments –
walking on the same soil and beach
was enough for me and seeing the
same mountains, lakes and wilderness
that Jesus experienced I found really
helpful. It rooted the places I read in
the Bible and the maps came alive to
me more than I expected. This is the
God we follow and worship – he comes
alongside and engages with our real
lives in real places.
Something else that surprised me was
the new power I found in reading God’s
word at places where certain events
happened. It is hard to explain but
Scripture came even more alive.
I reflected on Jesus calming the storm
as we were on a boat with the wind
getting up on the lake of Galilee. And
when I read aloud Matthew 5, as I
was asked to do, on the hill above
Capernaum (where Jesus delivered
the Sermon on the Mount) with people
of all nations milling around, you are
struck by the potency of this teaching
and how radical it was coming from
a small town Nazarene Rabbi. It still
unsettles 2000 years on. This is the God
we worship – the One whose word still
profoundly changes and re-orientates
lives in all nations and cultures.
I am looking forward to going
back. Different places in this unique
landscape will speak to people in
different ways but you come away
the same and yet changed. It’s hard to
describe. Maybe the best way I can put
it is this way - it earths it.
Norman