Plass - War of the Worlds : How to Avoid Leading a Double Life

WAR OF THE WORLDS

WAR OF THE WORLDS

How to avoid leading a double life
Adrian Plass

Copyright 2011 Adrian Plass

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First published 2011 by Authentic Media Limited
52 Presley Way, Crownhill, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ES
www.authenticmedia.co.uk

The right of Adrian Plass to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78078-015-3

Cover Design by David Smart

CONTENTS

Themes are strange, elusive creatures. One moment they are there in front of you, as clear as clear. All of a sudden, as Bertie Wooster might put it, they seem to flicker, and are gone. As this has been my experience throughout the writing of this book, I thought it would be a good idea to attempt to explain what War Of The Worlds is about before you take your first tentative step into Chapter One.

I should begin by saying that almost all the ideas and explorations in this book were born out of reflections arising from the two years my wife and I have spent as community members at Scargill House Conference Centre, just up the road from Kettlewell in North Yorkshire (home of the Calendar Girls). Joining a community as Writer in Residence held a particular challenge for me. Travelling and speaking all over the world for twenty-five years has been a very enjoyable, but somewhat isolating experience. How would I get on in the unavoidably exposing ethos of intentional community? It is relatively easy to exude confidence when you stand up in front of groups of people who have come to hear you because they like your books. Was it not possible that cracks and faults would become horribly apparent in this new, intense situation?

Then there was my perception of a loving, laughing, hurting, puzzling, strangely lonely and misunderstood God. Would that hard-won notion survive the religious rough and tumble of community life?

Well, living at Scargill turned out to be challenging in all sorts of ways that I never anticipated, but we would not have missed it for the world. It truly has been a joy for both of us to mix on a daily basis with community members and with guests, and to find a valid role in both of these contexts. It is undoubtedly true that there have been times when all we wanted was to run or drive screaming out of the gates, and I think I love my own space far too much to live in this way for the rest of my life. But yes, I am reassured and warmed by the way in which the core of myself has somehow remained intact in day-to-day interaction with a bunch of (mainly) lovely people who simply cannot avoid one another.

And God? Ah, that, or rather he, is the reason for this book. Close, ongoing ministry with all sorts of folk over the last two years has made me more certain than ever that authenticity in individuals and churches is essential if we honestly do want to see the Holy Spirit working supernaturally in men and women, and loving them to life. To make this possible we may have to go to war. What kind of war, and for what reason?

The war in individuals is a conflict between the world of inside and the world of outside. Jesus does not call people to deny what they feel and think and fear and yearn for. He calls them to tell the truth and to discover a freedom that is the more spectacularly satisfying because it deals with all that we are, instead of an edited version of ourselves. It is a battle between giving in to the shame of inadequacy, and understanding that the one imperfect sacrifice that God will gladly receive from us is our flawed selves. We are called, not to be wonderful Christians, but obedient failures. We may be asked to cooperate with God as he works on changing aspects of our personalities, but in the meantime there is work to be done and, if we wish, he will use us to do it.

The planets warring with each other in the church are interesting, because there are times when they look oddly similar. In both worlds, you will see what appears to be spiritual fire. In one world, the fire is from God and has real power: in the other, it is fabricated by man and is impotent and misleading. On one planet there are words and music and patterns and claims, that appear to demonstrate a real concern for the desires of the heart of God, but are actually hollow and virtually meaningless. On the other, these things are filled with the sincere aspirations of those who know that they are weak and can do nothing, but who also believe that God is strong and can do anything. In one world suffering, damaged people are told that they can find release and healing if they become committed citizens, but are actually not allowed freedom to properly express their pain and are forced to role-play healing. In the other, the care never shuts people down. It opens them up and stays with them exactly as they are for as long as is needed. On one planet, dangerously open spaces are filled quickly before God has a chance to get in: on the other, there are large areas left for God to stretch his muscles as much and in any way that he wants.

Enough. My theme is beginning to do that flickering thing. Lots of laughs and tears in this book. I do hope you enjoy it. What shall we start with? I know, just to cheer ourselves up, lets consider the subject of Death.

One
Death

As I have pointed out on many occasions, if you scratch a Christian you will generally find a human being. But why is there a need to scratch? What are we afraid of, and which fears are allayed or hidden by these carapaces of carefully controlled religious observance or mindless, unconsidered optimism? Is it the case that we as a church push away the dread of inevitable darkness just as the rest of the world does, but through the employment of different means? We would-be followers of Jesus are going to have to accept that we are solidly in the life and death business, especially if we wish to respond to the call of Jesus in the fourth chapter of Johns Gospel when he calls us to become labourers and give him a hand with the harvest.

Almost nobody wishes to embrace death, but in the granular world of spiritual reality we must.

Heading for the grave?

Lets start with me moaning about getting closer to actually experiencing it.

Writers of Christian satire know that this genre is likely to involve an element of risk, particularly if they recognise the need to retain a cutting edge. Some you win, some you lose, thats what experience suggests, but when you think about it, thats what risk is all about. And this death business is a good example.

As I approach my sixty-third birthday, I find that death is working its grinning way fairly quickly up the queue of concerns that continually dogs my glorious, faith-filled life. Getting older is a pain. I dont want to. I dont like it. Now that Ive finally begun to do a bit of sensible prioritising of activities in my life, it seems ridiculous that Im not going to have much longer to put them into practice. Here is a silly poem that expresses some of my current angst.