A COUPLA NEW BOOKS - THE DANGEROUS BOOK

(you can read the full book at: thedangerousbook.blogspot.com)

According to all records I haven't posted anything so much as a fullstop for about two years and four hundred months. So, having since had three books rejected for various reasons, I decided to post them up here a chapter at a time. If you have too much time on your hands then feel free to enjoy...

THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BLOKES

Chapter One

The Most Dangerous Book in the World

Matthew 5: 17-20 & Matthew 10: 34-39

‘Don’t misunderstand why I have come,’ Jesus says, studying the faces of the crowd closely. ‘I didn’t come to destroy everything the prophets told you. I didn’t come to make you forget Moses. No, I am the product of everything they told you. The prophets came to wake you up, the law of Moses is about fullness of life, Godly humanity. Everything in the old writings really matters. Now, listen up. I’m a man of peace but my coming will cause conflict. Men will fight against their fathers, and daughters against their mothers, brothers and sisters, in-laws and cousins – they will fall out over me. Following God can cause terrible division and risk and challenge. Your enemies will be right in your own household! But don’t be deterred - take up your cross and follow me. You see these friends and heroes that are dying brutally on these crosses all around us. Following me is like that – it’s painful and dangerous. It’s not the easy option. It’s giving up your life. If you cling to what you have, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it.’
He scoops up a handful of grit and dust and watches it trickle through his gnarled fingers. ‘Anyone who obeys God’s rules of good living and teaches them to others will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven. But I warn you—unless you do a better job of obeying God than the religious teachers and the Pharisees, you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all!’
The people look confused, surely the teachers of the law and the Pharisees are the example to follow? Surely they are the experts?
Jesus shakes his head and beckons to a boy playing nearby.
‘Little children, they are the experts - questioning, persistent, honest, humorous, seeing God in many places. Without their perspective then you won’t see what the kingdom is about. Read the prophets. They revealed everything about the Messiah to come.’


Dangerous (adjective ) - involving risk or difficulty; full of or causing danger; perilous; risky; hazardous; unsafe; dodgy, treacherous, chancy, daring, threatening
antonym: safe

Can you really call the Bible dangerous?

Surely dangerous is too strong a word for the good book. I don’t think so. On the down side, when misunderstood, it has caused wars, atrocities and terrible prejudice. It can make whole groups of people defensive and divisive. It can be so easily misused, misunderstood and misapplied. On the up side it has radically changed lives. It has altered the course of history. It has inspired men to climb mountains, fight tyrants, rescue slaves, battle for justice and change the world. It has made men change their occupation, their marriage plans, their home address and their bank balance. It’s a book stuffed full of heroes and villains, comedians and killers. It’s also the most shoplifted book in the world. I think it’s a very dangerous book indeed.

It’s also really difficult to read.

We may not like a statement like that but our lives betray us. Most of us just don’t read much of it.
The biblical stories are dense and full of cultural and contemporary references which need a shed-load of unpacking for us now. So I’ve dedicated much of the last ten years of my life to finding out what’s inside it and then retelling it in a less dense, more contemporary way. Kind of like taking the Encyclopaedia Britannica and turning it into Star Wars. I see no problem with this. Everything in the Bible was relevant and contemporary when it happened. It wasn’t out of date, or couched in weird language or a throwback to a previous age. It was immediate. The events and parables slapped people round the face and made them laugh and cry and gasp and argue. I want guys to experience this dangerous book in the same way today. I want to expose the comedy and the homicide and the triumphs and the misdemeanours tucked inside that huge biblical jigsaw.

And of course the main reason the Bible is dangerous is because it features Jesus. The glory of God disguised as a carpenter with calloused hands and scarred fingers, covered in sweat and sawdust. The man who had the guts to sit down with sluts and liars and losers and wash their feet.

If Jesus entered a Jesus look-a-like contest I think he’d probably come about fifth. (Charlie Chaplain once entered a Charlie Chaplain look-a-like contest and came third.) The guys back in Jesus’ day didn’t recognise him as the messiah and I think we’d struggle too. We have so many contrived ideas about him. We look at Jesus through our own filters. We’ve seen him portrayed by too many distinguished actors with posh voices. Someone should make a movie with Jim Broadbent or Jack Black playing Jesus, it might well be closer to the original. Jesus was a regular guy who knew how to run a business, bantered with the guys and regularly told funny stories. He didn’t suffer Pharisees gladly and wasn’t bothered about looking holy.

I have led a stack of workshops about faith and men in the last five years. I’ve also been to a lot of Christian events organised for blokes. And I’d say this. For a lot of men the faith is best worked out not in organised meetings, singing lots of songs and listening to a monologue delivered from the front, but in our daily lives, in our working and leisure and unemployment. Jesus’ example should give us plenty of clues. He taught the guys as they did stuff together. And it’s all very practical stuff. Work, travel, meals, encounters. I once sat down and went through the first half of mark’s gospel picking out the things that appealed. Here’s the list.

How did Jesus relate to men?He offered them a jobInvited them to ‘follow me’ - men follow menGave them nicknames - the Rock, Sons of Thunder Bestowed responsibility - sent them out – took a risk on themTook them travelling Went home and ate with themAllowed them to break Sabbath lawsMade use of their working skills - sailing and fishingCommissioned them with tasks and powerTold stories about workersTold them they were part of something - gave them the secrets of the kingdomUsed men as key characters in his parablesShowed his power in the context of their lives - fishing and stormsUsed their boats to travelTaught by exampleSent them off with short sharp instructions. Made it risky and challenging, survivalist, told them to take minimum luggage (great news if you’ve had to pack a car for a family holiday)Gave them chance to debrief - listened to their storiesTook them off for some Rest and RecuperationInvolved them practically - made them do stuff – like feeding thousands of peopleSent them off on a difficult journey at nightMade himself vulnerable

Now this isn’t a traditional take on Mark’s biography of Jesus, but there is no doubt that these things were a vital part of the way Jesus chose to connect with the guys around him. And if anyone understands the way guys are wired up, then it has to be Jesus. He did the wiring in the first place.

One day, Jesus took his mates to a spiritually dodgy place, Caesera Phillipi. A place of goat worship. Jesus’ mates must have been thinking, ‘If my mum and dad knew I was here…’ and yet God took them there. Just around that time Peter told Jesus that he was convinced he was the Messiah. (Do keep in mind though that Peter’s idea of a messiah looked more like The Terminator than Mother Theresa. A sort of first century Indiana Jones. A Jewish James Bond who would start a revolution and kick out the hated Romans.)

Jesus’ reply to Peter includes the phrase ‘I’m going to give you the keys of the kingdom.’
Now there’s a lot of debate and chit-chat about what that means, as there is with many bits of the Bible, but one understanding of this is that Jesus is handing over permission and freedom to unlock the kingdom for other people. On another occasion Jesus tells his friends he is giving them the secrets of the kingdom. Now here he is encouraging them to unlock those secrets for others. I believe that goes on from one generation to the next, the keys are passed to us so we may unlock the secrets of the kingdom for others. Welcome to this book.