In Romans 6:23, Paul says:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Aside from the obvious quip (“That’s fine, thanks – I’ll sin on a voluntary basis”), I’ve been reflecting on this recently, and my own experience of sin and death. Sin, for the purposes of this post, is anything which is contrary to God’s will, plan, or nature. It must be kept that in mind that God, and Jesus’ sacrifice, are far greater than any sin we could conceieve of, or do – however bad we are (or feel we are), God always has the last word, and sees us as pure and sinless if we allow Him to.

Back to the verse; I’ve been wondering if this is a verse that operates on several levels (as a lot of them do), and it is referring to all three of literal/physical, metaphorical, and spiritual death?

The spiritual element is perhaps the most transparent reading, especially given the contrast with eternal life in Christ. If we reject God’s gift, we are choosing to spend eternity without God – separated from him by our own sin. Amazingly all we have to do is confess Christ as Lord, and repent of (i.e. say sorry, and turn from) our sin, and God’s gift is that He sees us just as if we’d never sinned. I think the spiritual means in the here and now also – in that sin robs of us the fullness of life. When we do stuff wrong, we feel guillty, grumpy, fed up, and of course separated from God. There is some overlap with what I describe as metaphorical death below – perhaps a better expression for that would be abstract or metaphysical. Not sure!

The physical/literal is an equally valid reading, in my opinion. If we (persistently) sin, our physical bodies pay the price here and now. This may be through the direct abuse of our bodies (drinking, smoking, drugs, driving when tired, not getting enough sleep, over/under eating, unfitness, suicide at the extreme). We’re told elsewhere in scripture that our bodies are temples or the Holy Spirit, and therefore anything we do which damages our body is out of kilter with God’s plan.
It might also be the direct effect of others’ sin. The obvious current example is the so-called IS. Their torture and murder is sin, but the consequential death is that of the victims. The refugees drowning are another group in this category – there can be no doubt that their plight is a direct result on sin on the part of others. Finally, physical death can be the direct effect of our corporate sin – whether that’s hubris (for example, arrogance around an unsinkable titantic, or building houses on fault-line/flood-plans, or tearing up mangroves), or our sin against creation – extreme weather, some forms of cancer.

But I think there is a third interpretation, which is metaphorical death. It’s probably easiest to explain this by example. If I sin against my wife (for example, by having an affair or using pornography), that will ultimately lead to the death of our marriage. It will lead to ‘little deaths’ in the short-term, as trust and intimacy is eroded, and long-term to the death of the relationship. Similarly, if I sin against my employer, by stealing from work, or not doing my job properly, this will lead to the death of my job (i.e. I get the sack), and possibly my career. If I sin against my children by being short-tempered, or abusive, that leads to the death of the relationship. If I am in a position of trust, and abuse that, it will lead to the death of that position.

Of course, there is death without sin. Bad stuff happens sometimes. But from what I see, sin always brings death, sooner or later, in one form or another.

All of the above said, Christians are also Easter people, and recognise that death isn’t the final word. Just as Jesus was resurrected, so is death ultimately beaten. This means even if (say) a relationship has died, there is still the hope of resurrection! As our physical bodies die, so is there hope (sure hope) of resurrection and eternal life with Jesus.

So far in my ordination training, the vast majority of assessed work has been via a written essay, usually of 2,500 words.

UPDATE: By the look of this year’s handbook, the citation rules have changed, and we are allowed to use the altogether more sensible Harvard referencing system. The styling also seems a lot more relaxed, with wording like “usually” and “normally”. The only hard requirements seem to be regarding the title page, and what it must show. The point about not doing it manually still stands though.

These need to be academic, with – frankly – some very odd style and reference guidelines. They approximate the Modern Humanities Research Association Style Guide, which in turn broadly approximates the Oxford referencing style.

The citation style and bibliography are horrible to do manually, and you shouldn’t even consider it. At the very least you should be using the referencing system in Word, with some sort of bibliography that you can re-use in subsequent assignments. I’m afraid I don’t know how to do this though! My colleagues on the course have managed to submit essays which met the required style, so it must be possible to set up Word in this way.

I personally use LaTeX, which is a typesetting system designed for publication of scientific documents, and is absolutely fantastic. It does all the styling, referencing, bibliography, page breaks, and creates beautiful documents. All I have to do is type in the actual content (which is where I want to be spending my time, not fighting against Word). It has three significant drawbacks though:

• It has a very steep learning curve,
• It is targeted at the scientific community, so there are hoops to jump through for humanities, and
• In this context, it only makes PDFs

The last one is the only serious one – on the Yorkshire Ministry Course (and therefore maybe Common Awards) there is a very strong preference for Word documents. I have so far been allowed to submit PDFs, but I fear the day may come when I’m not allowed to.

I guess another drawback is the fact that its name makes one think of rubber!! (Although it’s pronounced “lay tek” – and you’ll have noticed my careful capitalisation.)

Fortunately, in recent years it has become far easier to run LaTeX on Windows. I use proTeXt, which comes with the very good TeXStudio editor for writing documents. It’s even possible to get it running on Android, but I haven’t had too much joy.

Anyway, I have jotted down some notes on how to set up LaTeX to speak Common Awards over on the page called, funnily enough, using LaTeX for common awards.

Some years ago, I read a book called “Contemplative Youth Ministry”, by Mark Yaconelli. This was while I was a youth group leader, and it is a book that has changed my life and my spirituality. I mentioned it already in the context of Lectio Divino.

It’s a book about understanding God’s role, and our role. About moving away from anxiety driven ministry to Spirit lead (and equipped) ministry. It’s about saying “actually, these young people have a deep relationship with God, and maybe I’m here because God wants me to learn from them, and not the other way around. Or maybe this is the only way God can get my attention.”

At my best, I can hand the keys over to God. Usually, however, I still find it oh so easy to slip back into an anxiety driven mode of operation, and try to take the initiative where it should be left in the hands of the Lord. As a wise person once said; The problem with living sacrifices is that they tend to crawl off the altar.

The antidote to this anxiety and activity is, in my experience, contemplation and reflection. Slowing down. Stopping even. Waiting and listening. Being, not doing.

One of the exercises that really helps me do this is Lectio Divino, as I already mentioned. The other is the Awareness Examen. At this point I must mention another book – “Sleeping With Bread – Holding what gives you life” by Dennis Linn et al. This book revealed and released the Examen to me in a very helpful way – it’s not a big book, and doesn’t take long to read, but I whole-heartedly recommend it.

What is it?

As it’s most simple, it is a reflection on a given event or time-period (say the last 24 hours), that involves two questions:

• What did I like about it?
• What didn’t I like about it?

There are a million and one ways to phrase these questions – “favourite thing / least favourite thing”, “high point / low point”, “what gave me energy / sapped my energy” – but they all come down to moments of consolation and moments of desolation.

Consolation involves things that lift us, energise us, give us wings. Things that we feel we could do forever. Things that bring peace and rest to our souls and spirits. Times when we are who we are made to be. Desolation is just the opposite – things that drag us down, wear us out, leave us feeling run down. Our heart sinks at the thought of them, and they rob us of our energy. Times when we are a square peg in a round hole, feeling lost and confused.

How to do it

The Examen itself need only take 5 or 10 minutes. Start (as such) by stopping. Just stop. Put everything down. Find a quiet corner. Relax, and try to settle your mind – if anything important comes to mind, jot it down (so you don’t forget it), then move on. If you like, say a short prayer to God, asking for his wisdom and voice. When you are settled, cast your mind back to this time yesterday, and replay the events between then and now. Don’t analyse them or regret them – just bring them to mind, and remember how they felt. What went well? What was a disaster? What was neutral? What points particularly stand out, if any? Remember, you are just identifying them; not evaluating them, not trying to understand them, not working out what to do about them – just recognising them.

Once you have reached “now”, try to narrow down the events to one or two points of consolation and desolation. These may be events or great importance and significance, or events of little or no consequence what-so-ever. As always, I would strongly recommend you write it down in a journal, even just in note form (as long as you will still understand the notes in 5 or 10 years time!)

If you like you can now reflect upon these – although the first few times through there is likely to be little value in trying to get too deep. As you start to build up a history, however, you can start to reflect on whether any patterns are emerging. Ask God if there is something about the way He’s made you that He would like to draw your attention to. Write down any thoughts or insights or feelings the exercise or reflection brings.

It is worth highlighting that neither consolation nor desolation is inherently good or bad, in and of itself. It’s not automatically right to do consolation activities and automatically wrong to do desolation activities. It’s not necessarily good that certain activities are consolation and some are desolation. It’s not necessarily bad to have desolation (even though it may feel that way).

Why do it?

So what is the point? Well, as I understand it there are three benefits of the Examen. Firstly, it increases our self-awareness in specific situations. If negative thoughts and feelings start to bring us down, this may just be down to being in the middle of a desolation. This knowledge in itself gives us the opportunity to step outside ourselves (as such), and to perhaps respond in a more positive manner. Conversely we may recognise ourselves in a consolation, and fully immerse ourselves in the moment, enjoying it to the full. This is perhaps an incidental benefit, however.

Secondly, and more importantly for me, it paints a picture over time. It paints a picture of who I am, and how I’ve been made. It helps me see the things that give me life and joy, and the things which take them away. It helps me makes decisions about how I use my time, about my work, my ministry, my relationships. No one can avoid desolation – and it wouldn’t be healthy to try to – but equally no one can survive without consolation. You can’t give all the time without receiving. In fact, I would say you need more consolation than desolation, otherwise things are going to go south.

I’ve a friend who does the Examen every day with his family, and who writes down his own personal points of consolation and desolation in his journal. Through this activity he has gained a deeper appreciation of the things that provide support and comfort in his life, as well as a greater awareness of the things that drag him down. It hasn’t radically changed his life, but it has made him realise how precious certain things are.

The final benefit is as a contemplative exercise. The very act of stopping, and thinking and reflecting is hugely beneficial. As another wise person said once; we will quite happily sit at a bus stop for 5, 10, or even 15 minutes, waiting for a bus, yet how long we will sit and wait for God? I recognise in myself that a lot of my activity is fuelled by anxiety, and that at times I’m almost scared of being alone with myself, for fear of what I might discover – that I might discover that actually underneath all the activity there isn’t anything?

I’ll end with a quick test: When you find yourself with a couple of minutes spare, do you immediately get out your phone and check Facebook/Twitter/E-mail? Do you get your book out and snatch a page or two? Do you strike up a conversation? Do you start mentally reviewing your “to-do” list? These things aren’t bad, but my experience is that trying to fill every second of every day is an unhealthy way to live, and may be a indication of being driven by anxiety and the need to feel busy all the time.

So, could you commit to spending 5 minutes of time every night this week, perhaps just before going to sleep, to ‘replay’ the previous 24 hours and reflect upon the highs and lows?

Right – hopefully that’s everything back up and running again!

The hack didn’t affect my customised theme (and I’ve restored a clean version from my source-control anyway). I suspect there will be little dark corners that don’t quite work, but the site is looking much like I would expect it to.

My WordPress site apparently got hacked while I was away on holiday (which is why the site went down).

I’ve done a fresh installation, but am not going to copy the theme customisations across just yet until I have a chance to make sure nothing’s been compromised!

I think Life Verses are probably a bit of a marmite thing – you either love the idea, or hate it/don’t see the point. I must confess that I haven’t read any direct explanation of what they are, so I’ve inferred it from some of the youthwork books I’ve read and my own personal experience. As a concept, they perhaps grab youth a bit more readily, but I think there may be value whatever your age.

In essence, and as I understand it, a Life Verse is a particularly verse from the Bible that you feel God has given you as a ongoing guide and ‘touchstone’. It is a verse to keep coming back to again and again, when times are good and when times are bad. It’s a verse to memorise, and read again when facing life’s decisions. It may be because the content of the verse is particularly relevant, or because it was a verse that was given you to at an important or special place or time, and revisiting the verse takes you back there.

Either way, it’s a particular verse that speaks to you of God and His goodness, and His plan for your life, that is special to you. Probably worth mentioning that I don’t think it’s set in stone either, and your verse(s) may change as you time goes by.

How do you choose a life verse? Well, at the risk of going all Harry Potter, I think it chooses you; you just have to be open to God speaking. I certainly wouldn’t suggest starting at Genesis 1 and reading through until you find one! Keeping a journal is a good starting point – write it down when something strikes you or especially speaks to you (perhaps during a
Lectio Divino?). Write it down when someone has a word/passage for you. I intend to write about journalling in a future post, but it’s a discipline I highly recommend.

It may be this increased awareness/intentionally is enough – that you find a verse that immediately says “Life Verse” to you. It may take some deeper reflection and thought, and looking back through your journal. I would probably recommend avoiding the ‘obvious’/general ones, like I know the plans I have for you in Jeremiah, or For God so loved the world in John 3, unless these are promises that seem particularly relevant and personal to your circumstances or background. A Life Verse is a verse that is tailor-made for you.

I have two life verses at present. The first is from Ephesians 4.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13

My heart is for “equipping the saints.” Or perfecting, or preparing, or training, or knitting – however you choose to translate katartismon.

The second is from Jeremiah –

Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
Jeremiah 3:15

How did I choose these? Well, Ephesians 4 was a no-brainer. It was immediately clear to me as my calling when I started my serious walk with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit some 18 years ago. Jeremiah came a little later in the course of my ‘daily’ scripture reading. Again when I read it is leapt out at me as a twofold promise, (a) that God will provide shepherds, and (b) that they will be after God’s own heart, and lead with knowledge and understanding. The logical conclusion is that if God were to provide me as a shepherd, I will be after His own heart, and lead his people with knowledge and understanding. This is and has been an enormous comfort and encouragement to me as a potential leader.

I received both these verses before I knew anything about Life Verses. When I set out to discern my own Life Verse, the approach I took was to set aside an afternoon to write down all the verses I’d felt God had spoken to me through specifically. This included all the verses I’ve underlined or highlighted in my Bible, and any I’d written in my journal. This in itself was an interesting exercise, as I’d anticipated there would be perhaps 5 or 10 – instead of which I filled 3 sides of A4!! I knew Eph 4 would be one before I started, and as soon as I re-read Jer 3 I knew this was one as well. Nevertheless I completed the exercise, and decided to allow a couple of weeks to pray and reflect on which specific verses I should choose. This didn’t change the outcome, and actually the process of writing them all out was potentially more of a hindrance than a help – just revisiting them all was enough as it turned out.

So I guess the message is don’t sweat it. If the concept resonates with you, then you are probably already pretty close to having a Life Verse. It may be not a way God wants to speak to you/guide you at present, and it is certainly no substitute for time spent getting to know the Lord, His ways, and His voice. However it just may be something that you find helpful…

(Download PDF Template)

Sometimes a little bit of structure can make a huge difference, especially when trying to do a Bible study.

I must confess that I find it very hard to engage with the ‘standard’ sort of Bible study, where you start off with a list of comprehension questions (“Where was Peter when he first saw Jesus?” “Who else was in the boat?”), and then move onto discussion and application. I don’t want to be negative about this approach – which can be very helpful and appropriate, particularly for complex or less familiar passages – but I often struggle with them.

They also require a significant investment from the “setter” or leader – who needs to have studied the passage in depth, identified the key discussion points, and tried to discern God’s agenda for application to the particular group. Again this is an entirely helpful and appropriate approach, and when preparing a talk or sermon I would say is essential.

However, for a week by week Bible study in a small group, I believe there are other approaches which have a lower ‘barrier to entry’ and facilitate both discussion and deep engagement with the text – and with no real preparation required by the group or leader!

The principle is simple: Choose a passage. Pray. Split into small groups (2 or 3) and read the passage. Answer 4 questions. Reconvene and feedback/discuss your answers as the whole group.
It can also be done individually rather than in small groups.

The 4 questions are:

1. What did I learn, or what struck me in a new way?
2. What does the passage tell me about God?
3. What does the passage tell me about people?
4. What did I find difficult about the passage, or what questions does it raise?

These 4 questions can be on a piece of A4 paper, split into quadrants, and each group or individual has a copy. The four quandrants are marked with an icon symbolising the question: a candle (what was new), an up arrow (about God), a down arrow (about others), and a question mark (questions/difficulties). You can download a PDF version of the Swedish Bible Study for your own printing out.

The excerise can take as long as you like, but 20-30 mins is probably a good length of time for a typical study passage (15-20 verses) with 10-12 people, in groups of four – so 15-20 minutes answering the questions, then 5-10 minutes feeding back. If you opt for a discussion, prayer, and/or response time, then the sky’s the limit (but don’t let it drag!)

You may also want to include a response/application element – what action do a need to take as a result of this study? What changes do I need to make?

My thanks to the Growing Leaders course for introducing me to this study technique.

Well, I have just finished my first year of Ordination Training on the Yorkshire Ministry Course.

The highlight, without one doubt, has been the people. The other students, the tutors, the brothers of the community. Fellow pilgrims on the journey of ministry and faith, with a particular emphasis on this rather peculiar and specific call to ordained ministry. I can safely say that some of my fellow students will be friends for life, and I am sad about the people who have moved on from the course this weekend, even though I’ve barely got to know them in any objective sense.

The theological / academic side has been amazing. I have wanted to study (formally) the bible and things of God for all my adult life, and it is a joy and privilege to be able to do so, especially with such good guides. Some stuff has been re-affirming what I already knew, some stuff has been taking me deeper and challenging some sloppy thought, some stuff has made me have to revisit and change some deeply held opinion, and some stuff is plain “I’ve never even thought of that before” new! Don’t get me wrong – it’s hard work, and I miss all the other parts of life which have had to take a back seat, most noticeably time with my family, but also hobbies like photography and climbing. My wife and children are making big sacrifices to enable me to do this, and it wouldn’t be possible without their support.

The formational side has been tough, to be honest. God’s been working on my character and weaknesses, and I’ve spent an awful lot of the time feeling quite vulnerable and exposed. It has often been a very uncomfortable process, and without the safety of the course, and in particular the love and support of my new friends on it, it would have been very unpleasant, possibly unbearably so. As often as not the weekends have been roller-coasters of emotion – usually something of significance happens, but it often takes days or weeks to start to understand what!

One thing that has really surprised me is how quickly I fell into a regressive / infantile mode. Without really realising it, I felt and acted like a schoolboy rather than a grown-up at times, and one of the clear challenges from God towards the end of the year has been to just grow up a bit!! I think the structure of the course doesn’t exactly encourage a dependent mode of operation, but it does make it very easy to slip into. I am unsure whether this is avoidable, or is inherent in training and formation; still reflecting on that!

So on balance it’s been an amazing year. I am so so so glad it’s over – but also starting to look forward to it all starting up again in September.

It’s been interesting to see the reaction to Tim Hunt’s widely publicised comments regarding girls (i.e. women) in a science lab: “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls … three things happen when they are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry.”

Despite his very clear introduction “let me tell you about my trouble with girls” (emphasis mine), it seems to me that this has almost been universally interpreted as a statement about ‘girls’ (and specifically ‘girls’ in science), whereas it seems to me it is actually a statement about Tim Hunt (and probably about ‘boys’ more generally).

It has been said before that “When a man looks in the mirror, he sees a person. When a woman looks in the mirror, she see a woman” (can’t remember who said this), and I think there’s something in this. Now please understand me – I believe that the feminist agenda is incredibly important, and there is an appalling history of sexism and suppression of women by men and society. But actually not every statement or act that involves a woman is about women. Thankfully I think we’ve moved beyond raving feminists getting cross with a man holding a door open for them – for me, at least, it was never about holding the door open for a woman, as it was holding the door open.

I’m not defending the comment for a minute (what a daft thing to say, especially in that context, and even more especially to say “girls”), and there is no doubt a lot of work in addressing sexism in our society, particularly in “hard” subjects. We desperately need a better balance in science, engineering, and computing. But I do just wonder if Sir Tim was owning up that he (probably along with a lot of men, particularly in science), finds emotion a bit difficult to deal with. Despite the hilarious twitter campaign #DistractinglySexy, it is actually very easy to fall in love in the lab, and it often has very little to do with physical attraction. A meeting of minds is a far more powerful aprodisiac than a fit body, in my experience.

So I don’t believe for one minute that Sir Tim was saying that we don’t need or want women in science, or in labs. I’m not even sure he was seriously suggesting seggregation. I think he was just saying that as a science nerd he finds the whole women and emotion thing a bit difficult to deal with, and he would prefer it if he didn’t have to deal with it at work! To be honest, I can kind of relate to that too. I think it was a sexist comment, but that the sexism was directed against men, who – let’s face it – are pretty crap at this sort of stuff!

So it seems to me – yes – he shouldn’t have said it, and it’s not going to help anything (probably the opposite)… but it’s actually less heinous than the commentators are making out?

There are many ways to interact with the Bible – I have previously talked about
Lectio Divino, or holy reading, and FIER is another technique where you try to experience a passage “first hand”. Obviously unless you are The Doctor (or possibly a neutrino), travelling through time to experience it first hand is a tall order, but the next best thing is to imagine yourself there. This can be done by choosing one of the people present in a given passage, and putting yourself in their shoes – trying to imagine what they are thinking, feeling, seeing, smelling, etc. Having now done this several times, I can confidently say that I have acquired a new and deeper insight each time, both through my own thoughts and reflecting with others. I like the way that it takes the Bible seriously – the events actually happened, albeit a long time ago, and we can put ourselves in the shoes of someone who was actually there and actually did those things.

The exercise works well with any narrative passage – such as found in the gospels or in Acts – and should be carried out using a single episode or scene. For example, Jesus washing the disciples feet or the Transfiguration would be good examples. With a little bit of structure this is a very easy and powerful approach, and I am indebted to The Revd Simon Downham for teaching it to me. While it can be done on one’s own, it is very well suited to a group context, with a leader.

The exercise itself has four phases, as you might guess from the title; Familiarisation, Identfication, Experience, and Reflection. The first two stages are preparation, and the bulk of the exercise is spent on the third, before finishing with a review.

There isn’t very much required in the way of preparation, although the leader will need to be familiar with the passage, and will have ideally thought through what being there might have been like. For this example, I’m going to work through Jesus washing the disciples feet (John 13:1-17).

Overall it probably needs around an hour to do, although you can obviously shorten it by choosing a shorter passage or doing the experience stage more quickly. It could also take longer if you let the reflection extend into a more general discussion and/or application.

The leader should outline the 4 stages to the group, and then introduce each as they get to it. I’ve always found it helpful to participate with my eyes closed, although the leader doesn’t get that luxury (most of the time).

Familiarisation

The first phase is just to become familiar with the passage. The leader sets the context of the passage, and then reads it out loud to the group. This may include a few verses before and after it it helps set the scene. At the end of this phase, each participant knows how the story starts and ends, what happens, where it happens, and who the key players are.

In our example, it is the Passover meal, and we’ve just had the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus has been teaching about dying and rising, but the disciples don’t really understand it. It takes place in a room, and at least the disciples and Jesus are present.

Identification

The leader now reads the passage out again, this time inviting everyone present to pick a character in the story they are going to identify to experience the story as. This may be as one of the major explicit (named) characters, one of the implicit characters, or another person who could be reasonably assumed to be present. The leader should mention several possibilities for people to choose, especially some examples of ‘assumed’ characters.

At the end of this phase, the participants know whose shoes they are going to be walking in, as such.

In our example, the explicit characters are Jesus(!), Peter, and Judas. Implicit are the rest of the disciples. Other characters might be serving boys or girls, the owner of the house, perhaps one of the Marys.

Experience

At this point, everyone should be familiar with the passage, and have chosen a character in the story. The third phase to to experience the events as that character. The leader instructs everyone to go back in time and ‘become’ that character in their mind – they are no longer Johnny or Isabel, but they are now Peter, or Judas, or a servant in 1st Century Jerusalem, or whatever.

The leader then reads the passage through again, this time very slowly and pausing after every verse, or part of verse if appropriate. The leader should use the pauses to ask questions about what the characters are thinking, feeling, seeing, smelling, tasting. They should try and ask questions from each character’s viewpoint, and directed at individuals – “what can you see?” – leaving a gap after each question.

In our example, the leader might start off with the following questions:

• What sort of evening is it – warm or cool?
• What is the room like? What’s on the floor, the walls? Are there windows?
• What can you smell? Can you smell the lamb? The wine? The bread?
• What stage is the meal at – have you tasted anything yet? Are you hungry? Thirsty?
• Has it been a busy day? Are you in the mood for a special meal? Are you tired and just want to go to bed?
• What you you hear? Is it noisy or quiet? Are the disciples talking and joking, or more subdued and reflective? Is it noisy outside with normal hustle and bustle?
• Is it brightly lit, or darker in the room?
• If you’re the owner, do you feel this is a special meal, or just another one to bash out? What are you your concerns?
• If you’re the owner or a servant, have you recognised Jesus, or are you not that interested?
• How is the table laid? Is it lavish or simple?
• If you’re a disciple, does it feel different to normal? Is there any tension in the air?

Let’s say verse 4 is read:
So he [Jesus] got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist.

This may lead the questions similar to the following:

• What stage is the meal at? What have you eaten and drunk so far?
• How did Jesus get up – suddenly and obviously, or gently and quietly.
• What happened when Jesus got up? Did everyone notice straight away and the room go quiet? Or did conversations carry on?
• When did you notice him get up, and what do you think he’s doing?
• What are you thinking as he starts to strip off?
• If you’re the owner or a servant, what are you thinking? Are you embarrassed? Are you concerned about the nature of this party?
• If you’re Jesus, are you cold without your outer clothes on? What do you feel as you take them off?
• Where does he put the clothes down? Does he throw them on the floor, or fold them up? Where does he get the towel from?
• What do you think is going on as he wraps the towel around him?

As we get into the actual foot washing, the leader might ask what it feels like to have your feet washed by Jesus. What is like to be waiting? When do you realise he’s going to do everyone? Is the water hot or cold? Are your feet disgusting, or not too bad? Do you try and brush them off surreptiously before Jesus gets to you? Is it nice to have clean feet afterwards? If you’re Peter what are you thinking as he comes round to you? And Judas? If you’re not Peter, what do you think of his discussion? Does he make you roll your eyes, or do you agree with him?

The leader probably wouldn’t want to use quite as many questions as this after each verse, but I’ve written a lot to give an idea of the sort of things that can be asked, and how to think creatively about the story.

The leader should end with some time and space for personal thought.

Reflection

The final stage is debriefing – the participants should stay “in character” as they are interviewed by the leader about what they experienced. The leader takes a straw poll of who is which character, and explores the story with them from that viewpoint.

General questions such as what struck you about the story? or what was surprising or interesting? are fine, but more directed questions are also good – in our example you might ask a ‘Peter’ How did you feel as Jesus got closer to you?, or an ‘owner’ What did you make of it all?.

This phase can last as long as you like – in my experience people always come away with a fresh insight or thought about the passage, especially if it’s quite a familiar one. It’s also my experience that other people have thoughts and ‘angles’ that would never have occurred to me.

Once the reflection is finished, make sure you bring everyone out of character, and back to their normal selves. I know this sounds a bit “hypnotizey”, but it draws a nice line under the exercise; You are not in Jersusalem anymore, but are now back in England.

The only significant criticism I have heard of this method is that it steps beyond scripture. We can’t know who else was in the room, whether it was a warm or cool night, or even how dirty our feet were. The danger is the passage becomes to us the picture we’ve made up in our minds. For me, however, treating a given passage as if it were true and trying to experience the events as if they actually happened honours scripture, rather than diminishes it. Also, engaging with at this level really makes it stick in your mind – two decades on from my first encounter, I can tell you the passage that was used, who I identified with and what I experienced.