David Watson
Are you a theological newt?
I am sure I am not alone in being asked, on a regular basis, “What exactly is a Reader?” For me, the answer lies in a pond!
Some years ago, I had the privilege of attending a summer school in Cambridge and to take part in some seminars being led by one of the United States’ leading practical theologians, Revd Professor Dr Stephen Sprinkle. What a name … what an inspirational man!
His thesis was that in the journey we make through the books of the Bible – from Genesis to the great Revelation at the end – the Letter to the Hebrews is the hinge. The gathering point on which all our practical Christian activity pivots.
Professor Sprinkle, who was for 10 years pastor to a poor community in Texas, described himself as a “theological newt”, because he, in his own words, “lives in the swamplands that are practical pastoral theology”.
He taught us much about looking at worlds within worlds and how it is actually the edges of the pond that teem with life. Not the middle, or the surface, or the bottom, but the edges. The swampy muddy margins where the water meets the land, where liquid interacts with solid, where gills give way to lungs and fins become legs, where grotesque larvae hatch into delicate caddis flies and kaleidoscopic dragonflies. And it is at the swampy muddy margins that some of the most beautiful of wild flowers abound.
The creatures of the swampy margins are not always pretty though … newts and frogs and toads are seldom described in terms of beauty or endearment, as many a fairytale will attest. And the swampy muddy margins often smell, releasing noxious methane gas that sometimes self ignites to give us the mysterious Will o’ the Wisp.
Professor Sprinkle told us that to become real practical, pastoral theologians, to find Jesus in action, we should get our hands and feet dirty; that we should leave behind the comfort zones in our lives, those places where we know we can succeed, and seek out those places and tasks where we fear failure. For it is only when we fear failure that we will truly trust ourselves to God’s will.
In support of this, Professor Sprinkle would often quote us verses 12-13 of Hebrews, chapter 13:
‘Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come’.
So maybe to find Him, we too must travel to the margins, to the edges, the wetlands of this world … to the swamp. To the places in our communities where rich meets poor, where well meets sick, where comfort meets desperation and depression, where emptiness and loneliness need hope.
To be outside the city is for us to enter the wastelands and to get our hands dirty. Jesus suffered humiliation outside the gates of the city of Jerusalem and he was crucified there for the redemption of our sins and to secure for us the hope of eternal life.
To be outside the city, outside the camp, then, is to be with Jesus and to share in his work of relieving the suffering of others. Of sharing the knowledge of salvation that is ours. Of imparting unconditional love.
Jesus says to us: “Show kindness to strangers; sympathy for those who have been mistreated; respect for one another and the bonds of relationships; and be satisfied with what you have.
“Come to the margins. Come to the edge of the pond. Come to the swamp. For that is where you will find me.”
And that is where we Readers can be found too.