Contrasts

As you can see from the weather forecast Britain and New Zealand are very different places right now.

The last two weeks have been a whole range of contrasting experiences. Since leaving home and heading out across the world to see family and friends in Britain we've had a blast, battled with jet lag, reacclimatised to European winter, seen people we haven't for over two years, been though LA, spent a day in Disneyland, eatend more than is healthy, survived two long haul flights, watched inordinate amounts of TV, written hundreds of Christmas cards, tried to connect with friends and, at times, felt a bit displaced but mostly have felt loved and encouraged.

We're all doing OK in the travelling and moving about. We loved the weekend we had in Los Angeles, the Saturday in Disneyland was a real highlight but we were disapointed that our schedule made it impossible to get to the Crystal Cathedral on the Sunday before we flew out. We had an 8 hour wait in Munich airport whilst transiting to Manchester, England. So my mother and father in law came to meet us for the day. We wondered arond Munich Christmas Market in a daze, and ate (in a daze) and tried not to sleep. It was brilliant to see them and a real kindness to us to be rescue from 8 hours in an airport when we were so tired and travel weary.

We arrived in Manchester airport at 10pm, picked up our hire car and got to Liverpool by 11pm. We were all shattered and much of the next two days were simply spent recovering. Then it was into communication mode - Ines and I both writing Christmas cards, seeing family, keeping the kids entertained (which Ines does amazingly well) and trying not to feel to cold in the midst of winter.

I preached at Church last Sunday and it was great to join Christchurch Liverpool for their morning service. The sermon was on "Jesus as Prophet" and for the curious it should be online soon. The afternoon was spent in the theatre with my mother, sister and sister-in-law and their children watching "Dr Doolittle" with an elderly man playing the romantic lead opposite a woman in her mid twenties - the age disparity led to a couple of cringy moments in an otherwise enjoyable kids musical.

Time is packed full and we are not going to do all the things we wanted to do in our time here. The kids are homesick for summer, our house and the other familiar things of home but we are all enjoying life here in Liverpool and looking forward to our time in Germany.

Christmas is around the corner (you really didn't need this blog to let you know that) and this is the most precious thing of all. We are getting to celebrate the birth of Jesus with family and friends that we may not get to celebrate with again for a number of years. I'm treauring every moment and enjoying it tremendously.

It is in days like this that you realise how amazing God is in providing every day. Amazing how he stepped from eternity and glory into time and ignominity - how he took on everyday life, so that we might know and experience the glory of forgiveness and eternal life. Amazing!

Praise God that this is as true in the UK as in NZ. The contrasts between the two make the global reality of the gospel all the more evident and all the more precious; resulting in me being all the more thankful! Praise the LORD for Jesus.

Home and Away...

OK - so the soap "Home and Away" is filmed in Oz but the above youtube video makes me laugh and is a UK made clip that has antipodean influence; it makes me laugh out loud each time I watch it but it also captures something of my mindset at the moment.

HOME - of all of the concepts I've written about on the blog, I think 'home' get's more mentions than any other (except Jesus). Now, as we prepare for 6 weeks in Europe (leaving this Friday) people are asking us if we're looking forward to 'going home' or 'visiting home' and we are talking about the things we're going to miss about leaving our home (Summer, beach, Summer, friends, summer, barbeques on the deck, summer) here in NZ. It again leaves me pondering what and where home is - and inevitably (re)thinking about Hebrews 11.

"These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." Hebrews 11.13-16

For Christians home is not geographical question it is theological reality. Christ is our home, he is our shelter, our community, our identity, our cultural heritage and the primary locus of our identity. Jesus is Home. The writer of Hebrews is explicit - Jesus is the One in whom the previous generations of the faith-filled believed and hoped (though they didn't know the details) and now in the generations since his coming; we know that, through faith, we are at home in Him, and in Him alone.

Living and moving between cultures creates a dissonance with one's 'home' or 'primary' culture (see an excellent brief article on the experience of international students returning 'home' in the lastest TSCF magazine, CANVAS). I don't think this should be different for those of us who have consciously moved elsewhere because we are Christians, but I think that as Christians this gives us a huge opportunity to see it not in terms of loss of home but as gain of clarity about where our home lies.

AWAY - Family and friend see our 'absence' from the Europe and living in NZ there are times that cultural expectations are chasms away from one another. 12,000 miles IS a long way away from Europe. Cultural gaps are often unexpected in relating to Kiwi's and the other 'recent imports'. Some European friends have been skeptical about the need for 'missionaries' in NZ and several Kiwi's have shown suprise/shock at the idea too. This is a great place to live in so many ways but it is a society desperately in need of the gospel. A homegrown colleague shared a frustration with me the other day - "it's all well and good for Kiwi's to say they are concerned about the number of people coming into TSCF from overseas, but where are my fellow Kiwi's who are willing to stand up to the plate?" This is all part of 'living away' even when you live 'at home' - living counter-culturally for the sake of the gospel.

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." 1 Peter 2.9-12

Living 'away' is a result of having our Home in Jesus. I'm waiting 'away' from Home, looking heavenward for the Great Homecoming King.

I'm sure that in the next 6 weeks of living on the move, being Home and Away afresh and in new ways, there will be more lessons to be learned... in the meantime, watch the youtube video, laugh out loud and enjoy (and remember to pray for us if you're the praying sort!).