Chapter The First

Dinner for two at Angelo's

2012-01-30T18:09:00.000+11:00

Now for a collection of links... I will write some of my own stuff again soon I promise :P. It's just that these posts were too good to miss (thanks to Laura for drawing them to my attention).

Douglas Wilson is responding to Mark and Grace Driscoll's recent and controversial book, Real Marriage. He introduces the discussion with great wisdom and fair-mindedness here. He then continues his introduction by drawing on 1 Thessalonians 4:4-5, making the following observation:

So we do not yet know what the distinction is exactly, but the important thing is that we now know that there is one. This means that there should be some kind of qualitative difference in how a sanctified and honorable man approaches a woman and how a man full of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life does. From the passages noted above, the difference is clearly not a difference with intensity.

Next Wilson explains frankly and persuasively why anal intercourse is "unnatural, unhealthy, unclean, and unnecessary". He then turns to how you go about deciding what is right and wrong when the Bible fails to mention modern sexual practices. His answer is in part: "a couple who seriously put into practice the great principles in the first part of this book will overwhelmingly not be interested in some of the questions in the controversial section".

Wilson concludes by explaining how understanding the culture you live is in a right and good thing to do:

The Bible tells women to dress a certain way, in order to achieve a certain effect, and tells them to do this without giving them a dress code. This means that obedience requires women to make decisions about their sexual attractiveness in their culture. Here is the principle -- certain kinds of obedience cannot happen unless we learn how to go beyond Scripture. Women need to learn how to be attractive without attracting all and sundry, and they must do this without specific warrant from the Scriptures for any one of their particular decisions.

All these same realities apply to the marriage bed . . . . In order to able to obey this, in order to make love not like they do, it is required that we be able to read what they are doing. And when we read what they are doing, and why, we are not reading it in the pages of the Bible. But we are doing something better -- we are obeying the pages of the Bible.

What are we trying to accomplish anyway?

2012-01-30T17:41:00.002+11:00

Ifind it very difficult, impossible really, to take action unless Ifirst understand a thing. So it's been very much on my mind tograpple with the mission of the church. I know what individualChristians are called to do, but have been less sure of the role of thechurch as the formal institution imagined by the New Testament. Onceagain, I happened upon a useful book – What Is theMission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, andthe Great Commission by KevinDeYoung and Greg Gilbert. I'm aware that this is written towards oneend of the spectrum of views on these issues, but I trust that won't prevent me from reaching my own conclusions ;).

Afteran introductory chapter, the book does some thorough-going exegeticalwork in Genesis 12, Exodus 19, Matthew 28, Mark 13 and 14, Luke 4 and24, John 20, Acts 1, and Paul's letters (other passages are exploredin later chapters). You will have to read the book to see how theirworking goes, but a shorthand way of doing some of it is toask, 'How would this passage/book read if it were talking aboutbuilding community or improving economic participation (etc)?' Thissort of question exposes the word-based ministry found throughout somewhere like the book of Acts. We don't see the apostles stopping to advocate for the poor in the cities of the Ancient Worldor instructing others to do so. Their primary concern and whatthey spend their time doing is to spread the Gospel of life and tosee believers built up in their faith. It is this that DeYoung andGilbert conclude is the mission of the church – “to gointo the world and make disciples by declaring the gospel of JesusChrist in the power of the Spirit and gathering these disciples intochurches, that they might worship the Lord and obey his commands nowand in eternity to the glory of God the Father.”1

Nowthe reason that God's Word focuses on proclamation of the Gospel andteaching of disciples is notbecause ending poverty, conflict, and environmental degradationaren't important – but because this is Jesus'work, not the church's. What's more, this is work he has alreadyaccomplished on the cross, theresults of which will be finally and fully realised at his return.Jesus doesn't need our help in bringing about world peace, for he hasalready done it. It's not for us to build the Kingdom, we are simplyto enter in. And so the most compassionate thing we can do for suffering peopleis to urge them to join his people and then to together pray to hurry the return of KingJesus. This is exactly what he has commandedhis church to do. Of course each Christian still needs to live as his faithful servant, and that may mean caring for other people or for the environment in some practical way, but we shouldn't think we are 'helping Jesus out'.

There are of course passages that exhort us to care for the vulnerable and suffering.DeYoung and Gilbert don't argue with this – it's just that theydon't see these passages speaking of the mission of thechurch. They also argue thatthis care is rather more narrow than we might think. TheBible urges especial concern for the destitute among fellowbelievers (cf Mt 10:40-42;25:31-46; 2 Cor 8:13-15; Gal 2:10; 6:10), for people who are oppressed and exploited, and for those near to us in someway. The second of these categories is bound up with the biblicalconception of 'justice' – which is not so much concerned with theaid and empowerment of the poor and disenfranchised, but rather with putting a stopto “a corrupted judicial system, an arbitrary legal code, andoutright cruelty to the poor”2 and a concern that people “should notsteal, bribe, or cheat”3. From this the authors conclude:

Wedare say that most Christians in America are not guilty of thesesorts of injustices, nor should they be made to feel that they are .. . . If we are guilty of injustice individually or collectively, letus be rebuked in the strongest terms. By the same token, if we areguilty of hoarding our resources and failing to show generosity, thenlet us repent, receive forgiveness, and change. But when it comes todoing good in our communities and in the world, let's not turn everypossibility into a responsibility and every opportunity into anought. If we want to see our brothers and sisters do more for thepoor and afflicted, we'll go farther and be on safer ground if we usegrace as our motivating principle instead of guilt.4

Thethird point (care for those near to us in some way) isillustrated in the parables of the Good Samaritan and the RichMan and Lazarus – “the rich man in Luke 16 is damned because heignores poor Lazarus at his gate. His sin is a sin of omission. Butthis omission is more than a general failure to 'do more' or 'doenough'. His extravagant wealth makes him blind to the needs rightin front of him.”5 Similarly in 1 John 3:17 failure to help a brother inneed is a grave sin. However Paul is much less severe in 2Corinthians 8-9 – because the brothers live some distanceaway and are not part of his readers' local church community (cf 8:8;9:5).6 DeYoung and Gilbert observe:

Thereare no easy answers even with the principle of moral proximity, butwithout it God's call to compassion seems like a cruel joke. We can'tpossibly respond to everyone who asks for money. We can't give toevery organization helping the poor. Some Christians make it soundlike every poor person in Africa is akin to a man dying on ourchurch's doorstep, and neglecting starving children in India is likeignoring our own child drowning right in front of us. We are toldthat any difference in our emotional reaction or tangible responseshows just how little we care about suffering in the world. Thisrhetoric is manipulative and morally dubious.7

Theyhelpfully add, “This doesn't mean we can be uncaring to everyonebut our friends, close relatives, and people next door, but it meansthat what we ought todo in one situation is what we maydo in another.”8

Let'send on an upbeat note:

Ifwe want every church to move into the city, drink fair-trade coffee,focus on ending world hunger, and feel like guilty oppressors when wedon't do these things, we're going to have a hard time backing thatup with Scripture. But if we want every church to look outsideitself, exercise love beyond its doors, and give generously to thosein need (especially those on its member list), we will have amplebiblical support.
Allthat is to say, as we see the physical needs all around us, let'smotivate each other by pointing out salt-and-light opportunitiesinstead of going farther than the Bible warrants and shaming eachother with do-this-list-or-you're-sinning responsibilities.We would do well to focus less on prophetic 'social justice'announcements and more on boring old love. Love creatively. Lovewildly. Love dangerously.9

1 KDeYoung, G Gilbert, What Is the Mission of the Church?Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission(Illinois: Crossway, 2011), 62. (italics theirs)

2 Ibid, 159.

3 Ibid,161.

4 Ibid,176-77.

5 Ibid, 167. (italics theirs)

6 Ibid, 170, 185.

7 Ibid, 184-85.

8 Ibid, 184. (italics theirs)

9 Ibid, 193. (bold theirs)

Couldn't God just forgive?

2012-01-30T17:17:00.000+11:00

Ihave been meaning to write this post for a long, long time. A fewyears I think. I wanted to critique TheReason for God (which I otherwise adore) for its chapteron the cross. I think it's a dangerously misleading chapter because itseems to suggest that what really happened on the cross was somethingother than 'penal substitution' – that is, the innocent Lord Jesussuffering the Father's wrath in our place so that we might not haveto. But as I thought about beginning to write, I realised that Ineeded to be more sure that penal substitution was really at the heart ofwhat happened on the cross.

Piercedfor our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitutionwas just what I was looking forand I commend it to y'all. It's an intimidatingly fat book, butstructured in such a way that you can dip in and out. So far I'veread chapter two – the exegesis section, and some of the answers toobjections in part two. Chapter two takes you through Exodus (12), Leviticus (16), Isaiah(52:13-53:12), Mark (10:33-45; 15:33-34), John (1:29; 3:14-18; 6:51;10:11; 11:47-52), Romans (3:21-26; 4:25; 5:8-10; 8:1-3), Galatians(3:10-13), and 1 Peter (2:21-25; 3:18). This list alone hints at thecentrality – or at least the ubiquity – of this teaching. Youwill have to read the book (and the Bible!) to see if you areconvinced by its exploration of penal substitution. Personally, while there were no points I actively disagreedwith, I was not convinced by every argument – but this hardly tookaway from the force of the authors' conclusions, which drew on a number of arguments for each passage/book. Overalland on most points, I gave a hearty 'Amen'.

Having established the validity of penal substitution, theauthors explain its centrality by making use ofa 'jigsaw puzzle analogy': “Pieces at the centre of a jigsaw are indirect contact with a greater number of other pieces than those atthe corners. Removing a central piece will therefore disrupt moreelements of the picture than omitting one of the corners.”1 They follow:

Wehave seen that the doctrine of penal substitution is necessary tosafeguard the justice and holiness of God, for to deny it is tosuggest that God is content simply to overlook evil whenever heforgives someone. To discard penal substitution would also jeopardizeGod's truthfulness, for he has promised that sin will lead to death.Moreover, other aspects of the atonement cease to make sense if penalsubstitution is denied. We argued in chapter 3 that penalsubstitution is essential to Christ's victory over evil powers . . .to his restoration of the relationships between sinners and God(reconciliation) and to the liberation he brings from captivity tosin and Satan (redemption or ransom). Farfrom being viable alternativesto penal substitution, they are outworkings of it.As the hub from which all of these other doctrines fan out, penalsubstitution is surely central.2

Withthis in mind, I return to The Reason for God.The chapter I take issue with is chapter twelve, 'The (True) Story ofthe Cross'. I love all the other chapters and if only chapter twelvewere different, I would be buying many copies of the book and giving themto all my friends. But because I think this chapter is climatic –and misleading – I cannot.

Inthis 'problem chapter' Keller's line of argument begins well: “'Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn't God just forgive us?' This iswhat many ask, but now we can see that no one 'just' forgives, if theevil is serious. Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of makingthe wrongdoer do it, so you can reach out in love to seek yourenemy's renewal and change. Forgiveness means absorbing the debt ofthe sin yourself.”3 Where I think Keller goes wrong is intrying too hard to make what happened on the cross comprehensible to his paganreaders. This desire drives him to work from human experience offorgiveness to God's forgiveness, when he should be going the otherway round. “As Bonhoeffer says, everyone who forgives someone bearsthe other's sins. On the cross we see God doing visibly andcosmically what every human being must do to forgive someone, thoughon an infinitely greater scale.”4 Now while he does go on tosay some thoroughly biblical things (eg “on the cross [God] absorbedthe pain, violence and evil of the world into himself”5, “Therewas a debt to be paid – God himself paid it. There was a penalty tobe borne – God himself bore it.”6), I rather think these comments willbe glossed over by readers who have just read a detailed descriptionof what human forgiveness entails -

Forgiveness meansrefusing to make them pay for what they did. However, to refrain fromlashing out at someone when you want to do so with all your being isagony.It is a form of suffering. You not only suffer the original loss ofhappiness, reputation and opportunity, but now you forgo theconsolation of inflicting the same on them. You are absorbing thedebt, taking the cost of it completely on yourself instead of takingit out of the other person. It hurts terribly. Many people would sayit feels like a kind of death.7

Sowhen Keller speaks of God absorbing our debt, it doesn't bring to mind ajust punishment meted out on Jesus to spare us from hell, but the emotional pain ofthe process of forgiveness itself. If this were true, Jesus would have died and justice wouldstill be waiting to be served. And thatis not the good news which the Bible everywhereproclaims.

1 SJeffery, M Ovey, A Sach, Pierced for our Transgressions:Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution(Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2007), 210.

2 Ibid, 211. (underline mine)

3 TKeller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Scepticism(London: Hodder & Stoughton,2008), 192.

4 Ibid, 192.

5 Ibid, 192.

6 Ibid,193.

7 Ibid, 188-89.

Go and do likewise

2012-01-30T16:55:00.003+11:00

OldTestament Ethics for the People of God does a lot of things inits desire that we learn from all the Old Testament, not only the obviouslyapplicable bits. While each take is solid and stimulating, it's notclear to me that each section's conclusions inform his workingin the next, or even exactly how this might be possible. Still, it's a fine book.

Onething Wright advocates is the concept of 'paradigm' rather than'principle'. He does acknowledge that “To use a paradigm you do have tolook for and articulate the principles the paradigm embodies and thensee how they can be reconcretized in some other context”.1 However, the problem with the 'principle' approach as Wright sees it is that “it canlead to the eventual discarding of the specific realities of the OldTestament text, the concrete, earthy history of Israel, the good, thebad and the ugly. Once you have a principle in your pocket, why keepthe wrapping?”2 In contrast, when you're thinking 'paradigm',the original story matters – for it is the very example that youare seeking to reapply. And that is what the Bible is – not ahandbook of rules and principles, but a collection of stories andliterary genres. And making sure that we never divorce ourselves fromall this particularity also prevents us from smoothing over allthe “hard edges, all the jarring tensions and all the awkwardcorners of earthy reality”.3

Wrightprovides a few examples of people in the Bible using Scripture ina paradigmatic way4 – God graciousness to Israel in slaveryas a call to be merciful to slaves (eg Dt 15:14-15), Nathan's parableabout the sheep stealer to expose King David's wife-stealing sin (2Sam 12:1-10), the parable of the Good Samaritan as a call to love anyand all people as 'neighbour' (Lk 10:30-39), the fair provision ofmanna in the desert as a call to share (2 Cor 8:13-15), the provisionfor the working ox as a call to provide for ministers of the Gospel(1 Cor 9:8-12) - and, finally, Christians are called to imitateChrist, not in the details of his life, but in things such as love,humility, and suffering (Eph 5:2; Phil 2:5; 1 Pet 2:21).

Nowthis idea of paradigm could make some think that telling a story isall that is needed, that there is something coldly analytical andbludgeonly didactic about spelling out principles. But I would liketo point out that, in all but one of the examples above, theteachers (Moses, Nathan, Jesus, Paul, Peter) tell theparadigmatic story and then spell out the principle. For example,“Give to him [the slave] as the Lord has blessed you.Remember you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemedyou”, “Live a life of lovejust as Christ loved us and gave himself for us”, “Your attitudeshould be the same as that of Christ Jesus who . . . humbledhimself . . .”, “If yousuffer for doing goodand you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you werecalled, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, thatyou should follow in his steps”, “Our desire is . . . that theremight be equality . .. . as it is written: 'He who gathered much did not have too much,and he who gathered little did not have too little'”, “For it iswritten in the Law of Moses: 'Do not muzzle an ox while it istreading out the grain.' Is it about oxen that God is concerned?Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? . . . . If we have sownspiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap amaterial harvest from you?”And while Nathan's parable doesn't explicitly spell out theprinciple, it goes to such great lengths to identify David as "theman" in the parable and to show that what he has done mirrors theparable's story, that he pretty much did. The only exception to thispattern is the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus concludessimply by saying “Go and do likewise”. So it is clearly okay to sometimesleave the principle implicit, perhaps when it is especially obvious - and yet this is not the usual pattern.

TellBible stories. Say what they mean for us. Tell people to go do that.

1 CJ H Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God(Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004), 70.

2 Ibid, 70.

3 Ibid, 71.

4 Ibid, 71-73.

Warning

2012-01-30T16:44:00.001+11:00

I'm about to post three lengthy book reviews/reflections. Ugh. Hopefully they are stimulating! I certainly enjoyed reading the books, as well as feeling relieved I'd finally got to them. Hoo roo.

Blind faith?

2012-01-26T09:27:00.000+11:00

Here are a couple of my favourite Bible passages. I'm taking these prints with me to Chile.

By themselves, these passages might smack of blind trust, even fatalism. But this next grounds them and grants them beauty and maturity.

The same person

2012-01-25T15:23:00.001+11:00

My own sin used to confuse me. A huge question mark was cast over everything I once thought I was and I felt as though I had been masquerading as a good, kind person and to continue to act that way would be a lie. Nowadays I still hate myself for what I've done, but my identity doesn't crumble. I know that I'm a child of God and growing in him. While my godliness is genuine, it's mixed with sin and I do still stuff up. Yet even in my sin I can still act righteously by grieving over it and by humbling myself, apologising and taking steps to change.

'Walk up'

2012-01-25T14:46:00.001+11:00

Across this month my church has been running The Endless Summer of Love, a chance for us to get together and enjoy the summer as a Christian community. There's been something on most days - fun things like watching the cricket at someone's house or a grassroots bike race up a steep hill, as well as good deeds like clearing a property of thistles or praying for working class suburbs.

We've also been heading out to the mall each Wednesday and Friday lunchtime to talk to people about our faith. Not something I would normally do, but I can make myself rise to the occasion. I've tried to keep it pretty contained, for my sanity's sake, and it's proved a real winner. I aim to have two decent conversations each day. I only talk to women who are sitting down and by themselves, because they're more likely to be happy to talk. I don't like to take up too much of their time, so the whole thing usually goes for no more than 10 minutes. The last five times I went out there were only two people who didn't want to talk. Today I got knocked back by four people in a row, so I just called it a day before I got discouraged.

Overall it's been an encouraging experience. I'm not always happy with what I've said, but I do trust that some of it has hit the spot. I've given away a few Bibles and treated people with gentleness and respect. The people I've spoken to have been very polite and have shared sincerely, even when the conversation hasn't gone too deep. And the whole thing has gone some way to assuaging my fear of strangers - who have turned out to be perfectly nice, ordinary people not so very different to me.

Humble yourself that he may lift you up

2012-01-19T11:15:00.002+11:00

After my recent-ish post about self esteem, one of my friends explained that when he gets to work he feels constrained to work within the prevailing worldview, as if to challenge the notion that we are good and improved self esteem is all we need to overcome would kill rapport and leave him looking uncaring. This was my reply:

I think part of the trick is to yourself remember that increasing someone's self-esteem isn't actually the most helpful thing you can do for them - it would actually be more helpful to get them to see that they have some responsibility for how things have turned out and to encourage them to sort things out/seek forgiveness/change themselves.* I think it may be possible to do this with gentleness and without ruining rapport. And this approach also demonstrates a greater respect for them than pretending they are better than they are - and hopefully they will sense this.

You can do all this while 100% affirming their value as a person (even if you're not affirming their goodness). This is the sort of self-esteem that we are totally for.

What do you think? Is this workable in actual day-to-day practice?

* Of course even this is of limited usefulness, as we know that no-one will never really be able to sort things out or change themselves (though they may be forgiven by another). But it is still a step in the right direction - in acknowledging a) your sin and b) your inability to fix yourself and c) turning to God for forgiveness and change.

Shooting through

2011-12-23T12:13:00.002+11:00

Dear readers, I am now the proud owner of a plane ticket to Santiago! I'm heading out from Hobart on the 23rd February next year. I thank God for everyone's interest, concern, prayers and generosity. I feel I am heading off with a mass of support and very much in partnership with a whole bunch of people, which is a huge blessing and help.

Please pray that God will count me worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of mine and every act prompted by my faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in me . . . And that I will make the most of my final weeks in Tassie, my commissioning service will be a blessing to my church family and any of my non-Christian friends who decide to attend, and finally that I will have a good attitude during my first few weeks in Chile.

Better than busy

2011-12-20T17:48:00.003+11:00

People keep asking, "I guess this is a busy time of year for you?" (ie because I work for a church). My response was less than inspired - "Not really" I'd say (ever the great conversationalist). But not any more! Now what I say is, "It's not actually particularly busy, but it is an important time for me".

Self esteem

2011-12-19T15:33:00.000+11:00

As we spoke about worldviews at house-church on Sunday, it became increasingly obvious that Australians tend to think that, a) people are fundamentally good and can make the world a better place [ie people are responsible for good], and b) sometimes people stuff-up, perhaps as the result of a troubled upbringing, being under a lot of stress or a personality disorder, but whatever the root cause, that's not who they are [ie people are not responsible for bad].

This sort of thinking makes life a nicer place because you always have reason to feel good about yourself and never to feel bad. That's pleasant and endurable. But it's also dishonouring and dehumanising, as it make us out to be less capable and less mature than we are.

We are not victims tossed around by our circumstances; we are adults who actively make the choices we want to make. When we do wrong, it's not because we suddenly forget ourselves and lose our personhood; we make our choices out of who we are. They are real choices. I'm not saying that our circumstances have zero effect - their effect is significant, yet that does not change the fact that we could always chose differently. We are making that decision, not our circumstances. (Obviously I'm not thinking of something terrible like a hostage situation here, which is terrible in large part because it does strip away all our dignity and volition.)

Taking responsibility for our actions, whether good or bad, hands us back our human dignity because it says that we have the capacity and power to think and act. Indeed we are so noble that we even have the capacity to do this in the face of awful circumstances.

Of course, with responsibility comes the burden of failure. But hope is found in Jesus, who didn't patronise us but took our wrongs so seriously he chose to die in our place, and who now holds out forgiveness to a people so full of dignity and potential, yet so shot through with perversity and self-centredness.

Reach for the stars. No, cancel that.

2011-12-19T14:51:00.001+11:00

Watching the wonderful So You Think You Can Dance on Friday night the American narrative was blindingly clear: We celebrate battling through adversity to achieve your dreams. Then, at the Saturday night showing of Sydney's Carols by Candlelight, the Australian version came through loud and clear: We celebrate battling through adversity with your loved ones by your side. No dream-realisation for us: we've too much gritty realism and humility/tall poppy syndrome.

I wonder what other nations esteem?

Better than Aragorn

2011-12-19T14:40:00.002+11:00

Here in Australia, we know what it is to be 'saved' or 'rescued' - we have secular narratives that celebrate these events (the Bondi lifesavers, nurses and doctors, giving blood, Search and Rescue). But I don't think we're familiar with the concept of following a 'lord' or 'king'. I can't think of anything that depicts such a relationship - well aside from Lord of the Rings. Because of this, I have found it difficult to feel emotional resonance with Jesus as my King. It leaves me, not so much cold, as unaffected. It doesn't mean anything to me.

Yet when I think about it, I do consider him the one authority over my life. I attempt to do as he says in everything and bring him only honour by my actions. I do entrust my very life to him and feel confident that he is good, just, tender-hearted and powerful. I think of him as I would a perfect king.

Maybe this means that when we speak of Jesus' kingship, we need to spend a little time talking about what that relationship looks like or about the sort of Person and Leader he is. If we stop at the word alone, we may leave people feeling... nothing.

Sprachgefuhl

2011-12-19T14:26:00.001+11:00

Speaking of the Hebrew language, here's a fascinating article about how writers rose up out of the mass of "functionally illiterate" Jewish boys at the outset of the modern Israeli state.

Eire and Yisra'el

2011-12-19T14:19:00.001+11:00

The land of Ireland and the language of Hebrew warm my heart. I don't know why, out of the many things in this world, it should be these two, but it is. I lived in Ireland for nine months and my heart broke a little to say goodbye. I hated the winter, my relationship with my fiancé was horrible, and I never really connected with the Irish people, but still it stole my heart. It was the language as much as anything - so whimsical, formal and archaic, like stepping into a fairytale.

And again, I hated learning Hebrew and was rather hopeless at it, but fell in love with its sweet plainness and the poetry of its repeated forms. I only have to see its letters to feel a rush of affection. It's an achingly sweet, minimalist language, one that conveys great profundity with the slightest twist of a word.

It's the words isn't it.

Introverted round-up

2011-12-19T14:00:00.000+11:00

Those who follow this blog will know that I've been struggling with introversion - and I mean, while I definitely am introverted (case in point: my two favourite days of the week are devoid of people), I'm not even that extreme. So I hate to think how hard some people find it to navigate the world. Here are three things that have been a massive help:

Crafting my week. For me this means two days of downtime and recuperation - Saturday and Monday. Saturday is my rest day, when I retreat from the world and especially from my responsibilities. This is particularly important given how people-intense and weighty my ministry job is. Saturday is a day for rest, for creativity, for living simply and in the moment. Then comes Sunday with its many people. Monday is my thinking and writing day. I sit in my bedroom or lounge room all day long and don't talk to anyone. I think through complex things, I give expression to my thoughts, and sometimes I read articles or books. I'd go crazy if I didn't have these two days in my week. I do realise that not everyone is free to structure their week as they please - it's one of the blessings of doing fulltime ministy, but maybe you could still tweek it a little.
Cutting myself slack afterhours. In the past I have felt guilty and complicated when I passed on an evening or weekend social event and when I never initiated such. But then I realised that I'm working with people all the time in my job, giving myself to them and (hopefully) being a blessing to them. This counts. And if I don't have the emotional energy left to spend lots of social time with acquaintances and even with friends, that's okay.
Enjoy people. My recent ephiphany really has worked!

Before Christmas was a cultural event

2011-12-19T12:40:00.000+11:00

Last night my Dad was singing in the massed Carols by the Bay Choir so me and Mum went along to watch. I felt like I was in Sydney, it was such a glitsy, polished affair. I also felt like I was in America, with all those modern carols about Santa, wint'ry streets and huddling by the fire with family and friends.

Christmas as a cultural event is so ingrained in me that I find it difficult to appreciate as a Christian - its predetermined expression somehow strips it of authenticity. But last night was different. I sang through the Christmas story in The First Noel surrounded by unbelievers ("The first noel, the angels did say, was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay . . . noel, noel, noel, noel, born is the King of Israel! They looked up and saw a star shining in the east beyond them far . . . noel, noel, noel, noel, born is the King of Israel! . . . Then entered in those wise men three full reverently upon their knee, and offered there in his presence their gold and myrrh and frankincense" etc), and I thought, I actually believe these words, this is exactly what I think happened in that place all those years ago. I don't just love it as a heartwarming tradition; I love it because that sweet, prosaic, magnificent story changed everything. This wasn't a simple, beneficent act of God; it was God himself getting dirty on this planet, born onto a muddy floor amidst all the blood and gunk. This story is as gritty and confounding as it is beautiful.

Besties

2011-12-05T15:17:00.001+11:00

People come to church expecting to make friends. But you can't plan for friendship. And it's not what the church promises to be. The Bible speaks of church as a holy temple, a purified bride, a flock of sheep, a family of adopted children . . . but never a group of friends. It's been said that Christians are likely to leave new churches within six months if they haven't made seven friends.1 We should work hard to provide environments conducive to making friends, but perhaps we also need to alter people's expectations. Our society offers friendships; we offer family. And the thing about family is that, it's family. You don't have to wait to see if you connect with seven people; you're one of us from the very beginning, bound together by Jesus' blood. We need to work hard at conveying this to people and living as if it is so.

1 E Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches, 290.

21st century conservatism

2011-12-05T14:26:00.001+11:00

I often find myself feeling anxious before I hang out with my non-Christian friends. Even if they are old and dear friends, we have opposite views and it's like I'm stepping into their territory, a place where I am expected to play by predetermined rules. The eyes of my society bear down on me, watching to see I keep to the permissible. In a conversation about tragedy, someone concludes, "I just try to do my best, to live the best life I can". They have done well; that is what should be said. To point to a better life beyond this one or a God of compassion and justice would be to go heedlessly against the rules. So I smile politely, and the conversation shifts.

It's not always this way. The trick is to remember that every place is his. He reigns over every inglorious situation and I am always his child. My society writes its expectations in ignorance and blindness. But my allegiance is to my King, to his rules, rules of truth and goodness, of right and wrong. His rules trump my society's for they are anchored in truth and they ever will be.

Equilibrium

2011-12-05T11:51:00.001+11:00

We ask God to help us live a balanced life, but is that what he wants for us? When we speak of balance we have in mind such things as church-work-chores-family-errands-friends-fun. But such a list betrays a twofold problem - they all look like tasks and they all seem to be of equal importance.

Here's my take on the Bible's better vision:

The first thing this better picture does is draw the eye away from your own life (balanced or otherwise) and upward to God. [Well, maybe not this specific 'better picture' ;)] The key is to live for God, whatever the details of your life. It also speaks of identity before task. As a Christian, you (and your husband or wife) are part of the church. That's who you are as you go about life in the world.

First of all, this means that the question to ask is not 'Is my life balanced?', but rather 'Is my life glorifying to God?'. Secondly, a married person will always think of themselves as a married person, and, because of this identity, they will care for their husband and wife, spend time with them and help them out with stuff. In the same way, as a Christian you should always think of yourself as part of the church, and, because of this, you should care for your brothers and sisters, spend time with them and help them out. And for those who are married, you will find your marriage strengthened as together you do this work of service.

Homebrand //2

2011-12-02T11:09:00.001+11:00

A few posts back I began exploring the ethics of homebrand. A friend very kindly directed me to some more articles on the topic (see here, here, and here), which helped me to develop my thinking a little further. But not too much. I have three reflections:

I do care if a product that I love is no longer stocked (as in John Birmingham's La Gina tomato problem). It's important for me to be careful with my money (I don't have much of it and I want to continue being able to not only look after and spoil myself but also give a little away), but if a product is awesome I will happily pay more (take Carmen's muesli bars as an example). If there are enough of us (middle class) people around to purchase great muesli bars, then my guess is that Carmen's will stay, even though there is a homebrand alternative. (Is my thinking right here?) And if I'm only one of a handful who appreciate this product and it disappears, then I'll suck it up.
But now I'm sounding callous, like I don't care if companies shut down and people's livelihood and life's work goes down the drain. I do care - it's a horrible reality. But I get so overwhelmed by the complexity of systems like food production that I need to assess coldly so I can actually reach an ethical decision. And I believe that the people who supply the homebrand label are equally deserving of a wage.
I've realised one major problem though - when the massive supermarket chains subsidise products so much that the consumer ends up paying below cost. This makes it impossible for alternative brands to be both competitive and break even. I've heard that the $2 two-litre milk falls into this category, so I'm going to stop buying it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

How porn has hijacked our sexuality

2011-11-28T15:12:00.001+11:00

*****warning: discussion of explicit material below*****

Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality is a disturbing and important read - and not for everyone. I'm pretty skilled at skim-reading and glancing over pages but I still accidentally read stuff I wish I hadn't. I'll try to make this post less explicit than the book but, unfortunately, it will still be necessary to mention some ugly stuff and to use swear words. You don't have to read it of course.

The topic of porn is important and complex enough that I'm going to quote quite a lot of what Dines has to say. She begins the book by describing what she found after googling "porn". It accorded with a study that found "if we combine both physical and verbal aggression, our findings indicate that nearly 90% of scenes contained at least one aggressive act, with an average of nearly 12 acts of aggression per scene".1 Dines concludes that porn teaches that women are "always ready for sex and are enthusiastic to do whatever men want, irrespective of how painful, humiliating, or harmful the act is,"2 and men are "soulless, unfeeling, amoral life-support systems for erect penises who are entitled to use women in any way they want."3 She says:

In a world populated by women who are robotic 'sluts' and men who are robotic studs, the sex is going to be predictably devoid of any intimacy. Porn sex is not about making love, as the feelings and emotions we normally associate with such an act - connection, empathy, tenderness, caring, affection - are replaced by those more often connected with hate - fear, disgust, anger, loathing, and contempt.4

For this to be possible, "[i]t is especially important for the pornographers to shred the humanity of the women in the images, as many porn users have sustained and intimate relationships with women in the real world."5 They do this by having the male performers call the women abusive names, thereby reducing them to sex objects. And women are portrayed as seeking out sex "because [they] love to be sexually used," so lessening any guilt the viewer may feel.6 Dines reaches a disturbing conclusion: "This framing of sexist ideology as sexy and hot gives porn a pass to deliver messages about women that in any other form would be seen as completely unacceptable . . . . By wrapping the violence in a sexual cloak, porn renders it invisible, and those of us who protest the violence are consequently defined as anti-sex, not anti-violence."7

It gets still more horrible:

At first these images may well be exciting, but the more seasoned user will soon find that porn, because of its formulaic nature, becomes predictable . . . . Missing from porn is anything that looks or feels remotely like intimacy and connection, the two ingredients that make sex interesting and exciting in the real world. Drained of these, porn becomes monotonous and predictable to the point that users need to eventually seek out more extreme acts as a way to keep them interested and stimulated.8

Yet however ugly porn sex is, it is, in some sense, 'successful':

it offers men a no-strings-attached, intense, disconnected sexual experience, where men always get to have as much sex as they want in ways that shore up their masculinity. The sex acts are always successful, ending in supposed orgasm for both, and he is protected from rejection or ridicule since in porn, women never say no to men's sexual demands, nor do they question their penis size or technique. In this world, men dispense with romantic dinnners, vanilla sex, and postcoital affection and get down to the business of fucking.9

However when men who use porn enter the real world they:

feel like sexual losers . . . . They worry that they're not good-looking enough, smooth enough, or masculine enough to score, and since the porn view of the world suggests that women are constantly available, these men are bewildered by rejection. They often express deep shame about their inability to hook up, and this shame morphs into anger at their female peers who, unlike porn women, have the word 'no' in their vocabulary . . . . Hooking up, however, brings its own set of disappointments since the mind-blowing porn sex they were anticipating looks nothing like the sex they are actually having . . . . With these feelings of inadequacy also come feelings of anger towards the hookup, as she is not as willing as Pornland women to have porn-like sex . . . . What troubles many of these men most is that they need to pull up the porn images in their head in order to have an orgasm with their partner.10

The attitudes towards women promoted by porn will help push some men to rape, "but many more will beg, nag, and cajole their partners into sex or certain sex acts . . . Some will use women and disregard them when done, some will be critical of their partner's looks and performance, and many will see women as one-dimensional sex objects who are less deserving of respect and dignity than men, both in and out of the bedroom."11

Porn is damaging for women for more reasons than those canvassed above. The porn world means that the "Stepford Wife image, which drove previous generations of women crazy with its insistence on sparkling floors and perfectly orchestrated meals, has all but disappeared, and in its place we now have the Stepford Slut: a hypersexualised, young, thin, toned, hairless, and, in many cases, surgically enhanced woman with a come-hither look on her face."12 Dines continues:

what is different about today is not only the hypersexualisation of mass-produced images but also the degree to which such images have overwhelmed and crowded out any alternative images of being female. Today's tidal wave of soft-core porn images has normalized the porn star look in everyday culture to such a degree that anything less looks dowdy, prim, and downright boring. Today, a girl or young woman looking for an alternative to the Britney, Paris, Lindsay look will soon come to the grim realization that the only alternative to looking fuckable is to be invisible.13

This normalisation of porn culture is bolstered by women's magazines which promote - and teach - kinky sex, as well as instructing women not to make too many demands of their men.14 In all:

the sheer ubiquity of the hypersexualised images . . . gives them power since they normalize and publicize a coherent story about women, femininity, and sexuality. Because these messages are everywhere, they take on an aura of such familiarity that we believe them to be our very own personal and individual ways of thinking. They have the power to seep into the core part of our identities to such a degree that we think that we are freely choosing to look and act a certain way because it makes us feel confident, desirable, and happy.15

As it does for men, this capitulation to the porn world brings with it a degree of success - it enables women to be:

sexually wanted by a man: the way he holds you in his gaze, the way he finds everything you say worthy of attention, the way you suddenly become the most compelling person in the world . . . . it feels like real power; but it is ephemeral because it is being given to women by men who increasingly, thanks to the porn culture, see women as interchangeable hookup partners. To feel that sense of power, women need to keep sexing themselves up so they can become visible to the next man who is going to, for a short time, hold her in his lustful gaze.16

Sadly though, hookup sex isn't what women really want - they want a relationship, and experience regret, low self-esteem and depression when this doesn't work out, as well as the risk of being labelled a 'slut'.17 Yet Dines argues that women have come to believe they deserve nothing more.18

In her conclusion Dines acknowledges that the gargantuan porn industry will be difficult to stop, but commends individuals who take a stand in their own lives. She has started a pressure group which produces resources designed to raise people's consciousness. She advocates a positive vision of "a sexuality that is based on equality, dignity, and respect."19 Dines is not a Christian and nowhere does she suggest that marriage is the best place for this, but it's certainly what comes to my mind.

1 G Dines, Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010), xxii.
2 Ibid, xxiii.
3 Ibid, xxiv.
4 Ibid, xxiv.
5 Ibid, 63.
6 Ibid, 64.
7 Ibid, 87-88.
8 Ibid, 68.
9 Ibid, 63.
10 Ibid, 89-90.
11 Ibid, 97-98.
12 Ibid, 102.
13 Ibid, 104-05.
14 Ibid, 107-09.
15 Ibid, 108.
16 Ibid, 112-13.
17 Ibid, 114-15.
18 Ibid, 117.
19 Ibid, 164.

Doubt and be saved

2011-11-28T14:21:00.001+11:00

It's okay to doubt you're saved. It's not nice and it doesn't have to be that way, but doubting won't lose you your salvation. You are saved because of Jesus, not through strength of character or even strength of faith. You could go through each day of your life doubting your salvation and still be welcomed into heaven at your death. In fact, it's rather people who take their faith for granted who may have cause for concern. We need to examine ourselves and make sure that we do know Jesus, that we are not one of those to whom he will say "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" (Mat 7:23). It is to these people that the terrible warnings of Scripture are written (eg Heb 6:4-8; 10:26-31) - to his own Jesus says, "I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day" and "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (John 6:39; Heb 13:5; see also 6:17-19; 9:15).

Knowing this means that you can cut yourself some slack when you doubt. Emotions can be unkind and unruly things and doubt may come upon you unbidden. Or it may be Satan's doing. Either way, you must simply stand firm, continuing to believe the Gospel of salvation (John 6:40). Or, if your doubt comes from a small view of God, a lack of understanding that he will hold onto you even when you cannot hold onto him, all you need to do is repent and get to know him better.

Books

2011-11-28T13:19:00.001+11:00

My old SMBC lecturers (old as in they were my lecturers in times past) have been busy scribbling away. They are a very gifted, intelligent, thoughtful and lucid bunch and I would like to commend their works to you.

Bruce Dipple has written a deceptively simple book about how local churches can do a great job of cross-cultural mission. Be sure to read it carefully as it's dotted with considered, insightful gems. I don't agree with all the structures he advocates, but that's okay.

Stuart Coulton has written a novel-length church history and, as ever, communicates in a clear, engaging and easy-to-understand manner, while everywhere including nuance and carefully won conclusion.

And while I haven't dipped into it yet, if Alan Thompson's commentary on Acts is anything like his lectures, it will be eminently intelligent and faithful to the text, with warm and lucid expression.

Reality check

2011-11-28T12:50:00.001+11:00

In proper yoga the physical is coupled with the spiritual; physical movement being a way of engaging with the divine. Some say that Christians who do yoga inadvertently subscribe to this false spirituality. The problem with this line of argument is that yoga has got it wrong. There is no 'divinity' with which you connect as you do physical movement, just as in Paul's day there were no "so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth . . . there is but one God, the Father" (1 Cor 8:5-6). This reality means that we are perfectly free to do yoga exercises, giving glory to the God who is there.

So the problem with doing something like yoga isn't that we're getting caught up in some wrong spiritual action - it's that we might be seen to be. We might be a stumbling block to Christians who haven't thought this stuff through (1 Cor 8:7-13) and we might bring the Gospel into disrepute as non-Christians interpret our behaviour as supportive of eastern religion. But even this isn't always a bad thing - it may create an opportunity to explain that actually we think there is only one God who created all things good (1 Tim 4:4).

Making church say what you want it to say

2011-11-28T12:16:00.001+11:00

My friend (and workmate) Nick is starting up a church in the working class suburb of Glenorchy. He's starting to think through what a church service should look like and asked for my thoughts.

There are things that work for anyone, irrespective of social class. Preaching that is biblically faithful, sincere and passionate. Leaders of authenticity, integrity and compassion. Then there's the other stuff. I think that everyone needs to see a) the Sunday service playing out in the rest of the week, b) the festive, life-well-lived side of Christianity, and c) the caring Christian community.

Middle class people need to be shown the relevance of the Christian message for everyday life (think a pointed, concrete conclusion to a sermon). We need to see that you can be a Christian and still embrace creativity and aesthetic (think creative branding and experimental service structure). We love things like meeting together each week, sharing a meal, playing barefoot bowls, going to someone's shack.

Working class people don't need to be shown the relevance of the Christian message - they need to see ordinary people talking about their actual life (think a public time of sharing what God has been doing in the past week). They need to see that you can be a Christian and still have fun (think sport, video games, fairground attractions, food - but don't fuss over aesthetics and don't mess with the traditional church service). They love things like have a barbie and getting stuck into a project or helping out someone in need.

Am I right? I'm very much middle class, so the working class stuff is just based on observation. Also, I think my middle class comments are more for the 'younger generation'.

Seventy percent

2011-11-21T17:49:00.001+11:00

I'm delighted to say that, as of last week, I've reached 70% of the ongoing financial support that I need. When I get to 80% I can book my plane ticket! I'm anticipating hitting that mark in the next fortnight or so and heading off at the start of February. This will give me time to do a good job of finishing up my work for Crossroads and to have a decent holiday/prep time.

I'm very aware that it is because of people's generosity that it is all coming together for me. My supporters are absolutely serving and caring for me, yet at the same time they are serving God as they fulfill the role that he has for them. Indeed, people's generosity is "a sacrificial offering to their God as part of their obedient worship. Their giving is to be just as thoughtful as when the Israelite of the Old Testament went and chose the lamb without blemish from his flock. It is intentional. It costs. But it is an act of spiritual worship that pleases God because it is in tune with his desire that Christ be known" (see Philippians 4:14-19). How lovely.

Quote taken from B Dipple, Becoming Global: Integrating Global Mission and your Local Church: a Practical Approach (Sydney: Sydney Missionary & Bible College, 2011), 73-74.

Homebrand

2011-11-14T14:09:00.001+11:00

I always buy homebrand if the quality's going to be okay (so no asparagus or tuna). I've gathered that there are reasons not to, but preferred to wallow in my ignorance than take the confused path to knowledge. Happily The Weekend Australian explained it to me (they've gone digital, so no reading this article unless you pay).

The problem with homebrand is that anyone could be behind it. This means that the supermarkets can switch suppliers at whim (does it really? don't they have contracts or something?), which isn't very nice. It also means that it has the potential to reduce competition over time, as the supermarkets reduce the number of other brands - which means that the price of homebrand products could actually rise over time. While there may be truth to this, it does seem a little silly to buy a more expensive product in the hope of keeping prices down longterm. Then there's the argument about how homebrand undermines 'buying Australian', but I've always been just as much a fan of supporting producers overseas as I am of supporting locals - though then you get into the craziness of transporting food hundreds of miles when it could be locally produced or you could just do without until something's in season . . . yet I still care about supporting those overseas guys.

So I think I'll keep buying homebrand for now, unless I find out that it really does mean that they stuff round their suppliers.

He has shown kindness

2011-11-14T13:08:00.001+11:00

On a couple of occasions the book of Acts sees Paul presenting the Gospel message to Gentiles who had no knowledge of either Jewish religion or Jesus himself. Early on in both addresses he spoke of the Creator God:

We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." (Acts 14:15-17)

And later in Athens:

The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us." (Acts 17:24-27)

We find it harder to begin our appeals like this today. Even if we don't think that science has in any way dethroned God, then my guess is that we're not very good at arguing for this and we don't want to spend our time there. But maybe folks are more on our page than we imagine - afterall, a fair whack of people think that there is (or could be) "something beyond this life that makes sense of it all" (from here), and the Bible tells us that at some point God's eternal power and divine nature are "clearly seen, being understood from what has been made" (Romans 1:20).

So maybe we should kick off as Paul does. Hobart people should certainly be able to identify with the provision of food and joy.

Christian language

2011-11-14T12:12:00.001+11:00

I can't seem to find it but I'm pretty sure I wrote something about my desire to speak plainly in front of my non-Christian friends. Praise God I've more or less got there. Now I want to have the courage to use Christian language. I want to be free to use words like "forgiveness", "sin", "reconciliation", "resurrection" and "grace", instead of always avoiding them or translating them into ordinary language.

I find encouragement from the apostles who adapted the content of their preaching to their Gentile audiences, but didn't necessary adapt their language. So for example, Peter spoke simply about "the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all" and about how Jesus "is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead . . . . everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:36, 42-43).

I want to be someone who in conversation will sometimes uses phrases like, "the living God", "message of light", and even perhaps, "judge the world with justice" (Acts 14:15; 26:23; 17:31). I wouldn't want it to be very often, but I would like it to be there.

Happy endings in Australia //2

2011-11-14T12:00:00.001+11:00

My quest has its own happy ending: The Tree.

When women and SMART goals don't mix

2011-11-07T16:03:00.001+11:00

The Crossroads staff is pumped to see our church grow and mature. We're passionate about seeing people take the 'next step'. We don't mind how soon it happens or how rapidly they progress - we'll leave that with God, as any change is his doing - but we want to do all we can to facilitate their growth. Trouble is, this sort of thinking lends itself to a task-oriented approach that doesn't quite match with what I'm doing...

With most of the women I meet, identifying concrete goals and working towards them hasn't seemed the way to go. Instead I've ended up helping them with stuff as it crops up (eg lack of assurance, peer pressure at work), helping them mature in 'incidental' godliness, rather than furthering them along a pre-planned path.

One of my fellow staffworkers has helped my thinking here. While acknowledging that women are less task-oriented than men, he identified that a more planned approach can be helpful for:

Habitual/learned 'shortcomings' ("not necessarily sins, though! . . . . e.g. a woman who complains, 'I've gotta get more organised!!'").
Competence ("I find it helpful to think of growth in terms of the MTS categories of ministry suitability [Character, Competence, Conviction]. Regular Bible study will move people forward in character and conviction; I have no doubt about it. But it won't necessarily help them progress in competence.")
Specific areas of character and conviction ("e.g. 'I've always wanted to understand what the phrase in Christ is on about'--it's possible to set some goals and help them move forward there.")
And finally, "I wonder if the 'incidental' approach nevertheless benefits from a dose of 'deliberateness' . . . For example, as we discover someone's lack of assurance, rather than *simply* reading John 6, we could set the 'goal' of writing out a prayer based on v37 for them to come back to when they're feeling 'lost'."

This is all a most helpful addition to my more, ahem, organic approach. But I do think that with women there will be times when structure has to be temporarily abandoned. This is because even if they might be interested in progressing in some planned way, they (we!) can find it almost impossible to start on this when there are other issues troubling them. Women seem to get more rocked by/caught up in stuff than men (?) and really do need to work through an issue before they can return to what was planned. [Of course this can become unhealthy and get way out of hand, but I'm more thinking of the average, mature woman here.]

So in these times you have to cut women quite a bit of slack, ditch your plans and address what needs addressing now - while keeping in mind where you are ultimately wanting to go with them (and how this thing you're dealing with right now might fit into that). Of course this calls for a good amount of flexibility and discernment.

Women and men - a bit different. Who'd 've thought!

H/T Bernard

More to say

2011-11-01T12:48:00.002+11:00

I want to more often take conversations to the next step. In talking about my car accident this morning, my physio said "It makes you realise how precious life is", and I enthusiastically agreed. I would like to have said "Yeah and, as a Christian, it really brought home that God is watching over me". I would like to do this.

Not cutting slack; cutting slack

2011-10-31T14:59:00.000+11:00

We should want to show people respect and compassion, but sometimes you can't do both. We want to treat a fellow adult with dignity and let them make their choices and exercise their God-given responsibilities without stepping in to read their minds or cushion things for them, even as we see them making bad choices. We don't shelter them from the consequences of their actions as we might shelter a child. It is dignifying to them to have to experience what comes of what was done, and may also be more helpful long-term. Justice and discipline borne of God are beautiful - because they show that our choices matter, that the people making them matter.

Yet we want to treat a fellow human with compassion, to cut them slack and show mercy towards them in their weakness, remembering that we have many of our own. We want to step in and ease the way for them, take the burden of failure away, shower them with generous, merciful care, and help them in their present need. This mirrors the beauty of God's mercy towards us hateful, rebellious sinners.

Sometimes it's one and sometimes it's the other, and sometimes you can see your way clear to a bit of both. It takes a wisdom and courage that only God can give, so it's just lucky that he does :).

TV as blessing

2011-10-31T14:18:00.000+11:00

It was my habit to watch TV most evenings. I was tired - I wanted to sit down and not think. I wanted to find out what was happening in the lives of my screen-buddies. But it stopped me getting things done, made me tired the next day and pushed out any chance for creativity. Hence the new regime...

If I feel tired at the end of the day, I'm to have a nap, get up and embrace the evening.
I can watch TV, but only over dinner or for a favourite show.
I can watch boxsets, but the characters' lives must not take over my own.
My evenings can be humble and mundane - they can be for errands and housework - but they must be owned and lived.

Persistent in effort; stubbornly tenacious

2011-10-24T15:08:00.003+11:00

After a week of gorgeously sunny days, it's raining. I do hope that doesn't colour this post. Well as I said earlier, I've just returned from a week going around Presbyterian churches in the north of the state. I loved the people's warm welcome but, once again, found myself squirming when I was introduced in glowing terms or commended for my selflessness. As the week went on, I realised that I just don't see myself in these terms. I am very aware of my sins and deficiencies.* That in turn got me thinking about what effect my more sober view might have on my ministry.

I know that I don't work stupidly hard at my ministry - I'm disciplined in taking rest and I delight in it. And I know that I don't work to earn God's approval or to somehow make it up to him - I rely utterly on Christ for that. Yet I do work doggedly. I think I do so because I feel unworthy and 'scrappy'. What else could someone like me do when I have been given so much? So I work, not exactly out of gratitude and not out of cold duty either, but out of loyalty and because it is the only fitting response.

Loyalty is a good starting point, but I am forgetting that I wasn't redeemed by some high-minded stranger, but by the big-hearted, compassionate, extravagant Almighty God. The God who rejoiced to see my redemption. I'm forgetting how free I am, how completely released from the burden of guilt and striving. I'm forgetting that while I should certainly throw myself into serving him, I'm to do so with glad exuberance.

I think my job has been confusing me. I've signed up to a working week full of speaking and thinking about God. That's my role and that's what people pay me for. But I'm forgetting that I'm not under complusion to do this work. "Tend the flock of God that is in your charge, not under constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly." (1 Pet 5:2, and with thanks to John Piper for the reminder.) I chose to do it, because I thought it was important yes, but also because I wanted to and because I enjoy the work - which is just how God would have it. So I need to not see my loyal service as the essential thing and my enjoyment as an (embarrassing) add-on. I need to do my ministy with glad exuberance. :)

* Nb Another thing I've come to see is that, while it is right not to think of myself more highly than I ought, but rather to think with sober judgment and honesty about my complex motives, my sometime meanness and the swath of things I have left undone, and so be cautious in accepting other people's praise . . . it is also right to recognise all the good that God has wrought in me and so to gladly receive commendation.

True feelings

2011-10-22T16:34:00.000+11:00

So that I might stand and lie, I have spent the last few days 'attending' Moore College's 2011 School of Theology - 'True Feelings: Emotions in Christian Life and Ministry'.

One of the key threads running through the talks was that we are complex beings, with emotions an integral part of who we are. Many speakers observed the range and intensity of emotions experienced (and thereby validated) by Christ and his apostles. Another key theme was that, if we are to mature as people, we must grow emotionally. This was said to be true not only of our engagement with people and life's circumstances, but even with the process of 'knowing'. A number of speakers suggested that the emotion bound up in biblical narrative, poetry and song helps us to process reality and knowledge in a holistic way. A couple of speakers (Richard Gibson and David Hohne) argued that the Bible depicts emotional growth and the Spirit's presence in times of personal suffering and as we empathise with the sufferings of our brothers and sisters (in contrast to the secular vision for gaining 'emotional intelligence').

I'd like to get better at telling people of my love and concern for them. I'd like to care about them more, with the passion of Paul (and even of Christ), and be more brave in sharing in their joys and sorrows. I'd like to find some Christian music that I actually enjoy, so I can be built up by it.

I rejoice in the fact that we don't just know stuff about God, but we know him. I rejoice in how he has made us, and how his Word is designed to mature us as whole people, and how that's not at all dry. I rejoice in being able to stand together and sing.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Why I care about Christianity

2011-10-21T17:48:00.001+11:00

Apologies for the hiatus. I was up north for a week trotting around churches letting them know about my missionary plans. They made me feel very welcome and adopted into the Northern Tasmanian community. Then as I was almost back home, I was part of a nasty four-car accident so have had the last few days off to recover. I'm grateful to be alive and believe that God was actively protecting me that night (and the other people involved in the accident). I'll see how I go with the blogging - it might continue to be a bit thin over the next couple of weeks as I got whiplash and am supposed to be minimising my time on the computer.

For today I wanted to share with you something a friend told me. She was showing me respect by being honest with me, letting me know that she just doesn't care about Christianity. So I asked if she would like to know why it is I do, and she said she would. It's taken a while to express it truely, but this is from my heart...

I care about Christianity because God gave his Son to die for me though he didn't have to.

I care about Christianity because in doing so, he has given me everything that matters - no condemnation, acceptance, peace, adoption as his child, the confidence to approach him as my Dad, help in my life - comfort and strength and stepping in to change circumstances - trust that he is watching over me and working out all things for my good and that even if I die it's okay, certain hope for the future, no fear of death, knowing the right way to live, always being free to live that way, being changed from the inside so I become a better person.

I care about Christianity because Jesus is the most important and wonderful person in my life.

Please pray that I'll be able to convey this to her.

Happy endings in Australia

2011-10-04T15:39:00.002+11:00

I'm keen to take an Australian film toChile, to show them what my country's like. One set insuburbia that captures the spirit of our culture, is neither violentnor depressing and would make sense to someone not familiar withAustralian culture (thus ruling out The Castle,sadly). The last criteria is a particularly challenging one,as I'm sure you're aware. (One critic described Australian films as "so dispiriting that they make Leonard Cohen seem positively cheery".) The films I watched were Peaches, OnePerfect Day, Danny Deckchair (well, half-watched), Hey HeyIt's Esther Blueburger, Till Human Voices Wake Us, PrimeMover, Mullet, Ten Empty, Two Fists One Heart,Strange Planet, Travelling Light (half-watched), ThreeDollars, and Two Hands. A mixed bag. A few wereself-consciously Australian, not in an exuberant, CrocodileDundee sort of way or in anearnest, Australiasort of way, but in a mildly ironic, emblematic, indie sort of way.Prime Mover,Mullet,and TravellingLight arethe ones I'm thinking of. Plus some,like Peaches andStrange Planet,which also had a quietly hopeful, prosaic plot.

Somemoved beyond this quiet, suburban irony by exploringsubcultures, raving in One Perfect Day,boxing in Two Fists One Heart;teenage experience, Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger,Travelling Light, Till Human Voices Wake Us;and the criminal world, TwoHands. Danny Deckchairwas one of those gentle,self-mocking comedies that I don't find funny. Ten Emptywas your typical, unredemptivetale of family dysfunction. Till Human VoicesWake Us delved into fantasy andmagic realism.

Prime Mover andMullet were both good, but my favourites were Three Dollars, asincere, character-driven, redemptive story of a seemingly ordinaryman's downfall; Two Fists One Heart,a believably complex story about boxing, fathers and sons,girlfriends, and Australian-Italian culture; and Two Hands, anentertaining fast-paced tale of an unwilling crim. This won thecoverted prize of Going In Fiona's Suitcase, for its laconic, unhurried conversations. These three were excellent films,and gave me hope that we can produce hopeful, winsome,sophisticated films after all.

Out of reverence for Christ

2011-10-04T15:08:00.003+11:00

Ephesians 5:22-6:9 is about wives andhusbands, children and parents, slaves and masters – but I thinkit's fair enough to carry the gist of these verses across to men andwomen more generally, to children and adults, workers and bosses.Let's picture it in our churches. How beautiful it would be if inevery church, the women respected and submitted to their brothers inChrist; and the men loved their sisters and gave themselves up forthem! How beautiful if children obeyed adults; and adults didn'texasperate children, but instead brought them up in the training andinstruction of the Lord! How lovely if workers and church membersobeyed those over them with respect, fear and sincerity of heart andserved wholeheartedly, as if serving the Lord; and ifbosses and church leaders didn't threaten the people underthem, but showed them the same respect and service! I praise God thatI do see something of this in my church.

After you have done everything

2011-10-04T15:04:00.002+11:00

I'm quite fond of this year. Thingshave been going well, nothing heartbreaking has happened and God has given to me a large measure of peace and joy. But it's also been ayear of struggle. For many months my heart was telling me that ministry workwasn't worthwhile and I was a self-indulgent drain on theresources of people doing an honest day's work. When that eventuallypassed away, I found myself feeling that, while ministry workitself was valuable, my particular plans didn't count for much. And afterthis, I began doubting my own godliness, heavy laden with(disproportionate) guilt. Then I mercifully experienced a few weeks' reprieve,just in time for a round of supportraising at other churches. And most recently, the uncertainty of everything – my departuredate in particular – started to make me feel unsettled,frayed.

I tell you all this not to get it offmy chest but to testify to what God has told us in Ephesians 6. Iassume that all these distracting emotions have been Satan's doing. So to fend him off, I did what God said to do: I put on his full armor, thearmor of 'truth', 'righteousness', 'readiness', 'faith', 'salvation', 'the wordof God' and 'prayer'. Shielded by these, I was able to 'take my standagainst the devil's schemes', to 'stand my ground', and 'after I had doneeverything', 'to stand firm'. I didn't do anything spectacular or decisive, I just kept on going, reminding myself ofthings that my mind and heart once knew to be true, reading his wordand praying to him, and not giving in to what I was feeling. It'sbeen a muddled time, but it's been okay too. I knew God well enoughto feel sure that he would look after me, as he has indeed done. Things are going well and I thank him for it.

Good to see ya

2011-10-04T14:53:00.002+11:00

I love my church but, usually, I find it tricky to relate topeople of a Sunday afternoon. As I look out on the crowd of people, I become a little overwhelmed, befuddled and panicked. My confidence and social adroitness almost palpably drop away. I remind myself that itcan be about quality - I can talk with just one person all evening ifI want. This helps me to relax, but I remain rattled by the sense ofall the people around me.

All this until the last couple ofSundays when maybe, just maybe I hit upon a solution. The Sundaybefore last was the first time back in the adults' service for acouple of months. I was pumped to be sitting there with my people,listening to the sermon and worshipping God. After the service I found myself wandering around, gladlytalking to people. I think that could be the key: simply be happyto see everyone and the rest will take care of itself. When I'm happyto see people, I invest in them, easily. I chat warmly tonewcomers, and keep an eye out for lonely people, but not in an intenseway. I forget the pressure-fuelled relating that a crowd usually inspires. I stop talking to people out of duty. I forget mysocial skills, which means they're actually there. And it's not as though being happy to see people is something I have to force - I love those guys!

Where I live

2011-09-19T18:34:00.000+10:00

Playing to your strengths?

2011-09-19T15:21:00.000+10:00

My friend and I were talking about how to serve our church and community. There are so many things we could do! Perhaps it's enough to work out the gifts and talents that God has given us and concentrate on using these for the common good (1 Cor 12:7). But what about needs and opportunities that don't play to our strengths? What about esteeming weakness, so that God's strength might be revealed?

When Paul rejoices in his weakness, it is because in weakness, God's power becomes sufficient, even perfect (2 Cor 12:7-10). In the midst of his weakness, God's power rests on Paul and so he revels in God's strength. So too, our gifts are given to us in our weakness - "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" (1 Cor 4:7). These strengths not of our own making are God's power resting on us.

We are to use our gifts to serve wholeheartedly. And we are to remember that we are part of a body, with all the parts arranged just as God wanted them to be (1 Cor 12:18). So if a need or an opportunity comes along that we would do a poor job of, it might very well be that another part of the body can step in and step up. But we are not to be dogmatic about it; we are to imitate our Lord's spirit of generosity and sacrifice. We must trust that, as he daily gives us the familiar power of our gifts, he will also give us unusual power to do this fearsome thing.

H/T Shiloh

What's should women's ministry look like?

2011-09-19T14:38:00.001+10:00

You can't decide in abstract what workers a church must have - you have to begin by looking at the needs of the actual group of people and potential leaders that God has given you.

Any church leader's role (male or female) is to help the pastor lift up the whole congregation, to prepare the people for acts of service. This is generally done by calling on people's shared humanity. There is no longer male or female for we are all one in Jesus, and we are to use our freedom to serve one another in love. I think that this is the best way of affirming any one category of people within the church, whether women, singles, internationals, or the elderly. It's something I love about my church - we know that we should each do our bit, as we are able, so we pitch in and help each other.

As part of lifting up the whole church, a particular leader can be given responsibility for a specific group - say the women (as in Titus 2). In this situation, the leader is not the "older woman" of Titus 2, but a pastor. Their goal is to see the older women of the church training the younger. The pastor may explicitly disciple and ready the older women for their role, or they may simply model the teaching of younger women. (There may also be times when they forget all this and just get on and do the work, because it needs doing.)

The person taking on this 'women's pastor' role can be a man or a woman. It may be better for a woman to do it because of her unique insight/experience, or because people aren't ready for a man to take on the role. Again, I like it how at Crossroads we uphold women - and expect men to be competent at traditional women's roles. So we have one man heading up our children's ministry and another managing our weekly mums' Bible study. It wasn't planned this way: they were just the best people for the jobs at the time.

H/T Dan

Support

2011-09-13T13:15:00.001+10:00

Dear reader, if you would like to support me financially in my missionary work, then I would be very glad of that, especially as this is just what I'm waiting on before I can head off. Write to fiona.lockett@sim.org or facebook message me and I can send you out a snazzy brochure.

If you would prefer to join in my work through prayer then get in touch with me and I'll put you on the email list for my (monthly, brief) news & prayer letter. Or you can just pray about stuff you read here and on my other blog.

And if you'd like to write and encourage me, then please leave comments on my blogs or write to the email address above.

Big thanks for your big heart, and to God for his.

Fiona the Life Coach

2011-09-12T17:56:00.001+10:00

I've interviewed people at the MTS Challenge conference before and felt out of my depth, like I didn't have anything much useful to say. I must've learned a thing or two since then, cos I had no trouble reeling off advice to younger women trying to work out their life's direction. Either that or I've just become more opinionated.

If you're really pumped for your current study/job, then devote yourself to that. Work out how to be a Christian accountant or security guard and do it wholeheartedly. Don't do an MTS apprenticeship - it's not designed to be experience for its own sake, but for a particular end (to work out if you're cut out for fulltime paid ministry and to prepare you for it). The only reason you'd do an apprenticeship is if you're considering doing part-time paid ministry and part-time 'secular' work. Then perhaps you should give a part-time apprenticeship a burl - keeping in mind that it's tough to do both well.

If you can't knock a particular sin on the head, think if you've understood God's freely-given grace. If it's still a mystery, then pray hard about it and concentrate on getting your head around it and your heart in love with it. Keep battling with your sin, but cut yourself a bit of slack and don't expect too much until you have better understood his grace.

If you struggle with some church teaching, work out why it bothers you. It could be a wrong cultural or upbringing thing, in which case you can't make it go away but you can stop it from affecting your actions and decisions. It could be an understanding the Bible thing, in which case you should weigh up the very best arguments on both sides. You don't have to do this stuff alone either - you can recruit your pastor or a friend.

If you really believe your non-Christian friends are heading to hell, then you will want to obey God's command to make the most of every opportunity to evangelise them. But don't lose the rest of the Bible's teachings in the process, or your God-given humanity. The God of urgency also commands us to speak with gentleness and respect. And if your friends reject your message, then you are to love them still and keep on enjoying life with them.

Consider holding off on getting married until you've hurt each other bad and had to work through that, and until your relationship has lost its thrill and become 'normal'. It's a massive decision, so take people's advice on board, but also know that there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to romance. It's a mysterious thing and the most healthy marriages can have had the most messy starts. In the end it comes down to whether you are happy to commit to this person for life.

If you're flat out doing Christian activities, stop and think about where your primary responsibilities lie. First up should be your church, your immediate family (of birth or marriage), (your boyfriend/girlfriend), and your studies/job. Then comes your parents and siblings if you're married, your friends, and any other Christian ministries you're involved in. Think if you're doing a good job of your primary responsibilities. If you're not, you may need to cut back on something from the secondary rung. Remember that the world won't fall apart if you do - God will sort things out.

Don't think that being a Christian physiotherapist or teacher is the same as being a pastor or youth worker. Peppering your working days with conversations about Jesus doesn't always play out - often the reality is that you're simply too busy doing your job to talk about anything meaningful. Probably the most luck you'll have is with your workmates, and even then lunchroom chatter can be pretty bitchy or bland. It's still a profoundly valuable ministry to plug away at being a productive and reliable employee and to go out of your way to show care and concern for your colleagues. You may be the only Christian that people know and that is a precious thing. But it could be that you would be more effective if you worked fulltime for the church.

If you already do a bit at church, you enjoy what you do and think you might be okay at it, then you should begin to consider fulltime paid ministry. The best way to do this is to ask people who know you what they think your gifts are and what they think of the idea, and to keep on having a go at things. Push yourself; try things outside your comfort zone - you'll get a better idea of what you're capable of and you might just enjoy it. If you have a passion for something or someplace - maybe you love teaching teenagers or you are fascinated by Chile - then take that seriously. Our God is the sort of God who would (generally speaking) have us love what it is we do.

If you're considering fulltime paid ministry, then do an MTS apprenticeship. The whole point of it is to give people a try - so there's nothing to lose. If it ends up not being for you, then you've gained some valuable experience and skills and you'll be an excellent support to your pastor. But only do it if you can find someone who would do a great job of supervising you. Just because they're a great pastor doesn't mean they'll be a great trainer. The apprenticeship stands or falls on how good your trainer is.

Don't think that you have to finish your uni degree. You probably should: it's good practice to finish what you start and it could be helpful later on. But you don't have to if there's good reason not to.

If you have hesitations or concerns about going into ministry, take them seriously. You don't have to go into ministry - you must be willing and eager. It can be a tough gig and it's unlike other jobs. You do have to have a certain amount of toughness or resilience, especially if you're a woman. Even if your concerns are sinful, they are still there and need to be dealt with.

If you're thinking of being a missionary, the first step is to have a look at your church involvement here. It's pretty unlikely that you'll be able to contribute in another culture if you're not doing so in your own. Work out if you're a leader or not. You can still go if you're not, but it will affect the sort of roles you should consider - you'll need to go to help out with something specific or to do your regular job and live as a mature Christian in a place where they may be few and far between.

Two people

2011-09-05T17:33:00.002+10:00

We are clearly two people. We are who we are and who we want to be

- The Gruen Transfer (31/8/11)

The quote goes on to say: "and in advertising we tend to focus on the second one, and we want to be healthy eaters, we want to be a Supermum, we want to be great parents, and we feel guilty that we're not actually achieving these things".

Perhaps this is as close as our culture gets to talking about sin and human limitation. It's a place worth starting.

Tassie Christians

2011-09-05T17:02:00.000+10:00

At the recent and throughly awesome MTS Challenge conference, Andrew Cameron made a passing comment about the unique perspective of Tasmanian Bible college students. He spoke a little hesitantly, perhaps afraid that we might feel patronised, but he needn't have - we love hearing serious talk about our uniqueness. (We are - that is, I am - not so keen on jokes about the same.) He said he couldn't put his finger on just what it was, so I've had a go.

I think that Tassie Christians bring three things to the Sydney scene. For starters, there's not many of us down here: in most circumstances you'd have to work pretty hard to live your life in a Christian bubble. We all go to school and uni with non-Christians and have plenty of workmates and friends who don't share our beliefs. We know what it is to stand up for what we believe and to make ethical choices; we know how people around us tick, almost without thinking; and we don't get our knickers in knots over peripheral issues.

We're also creative people. Not only creative, but eccentric. Or if we're neither, we're probably comfortable with both. The eccentricity comes of living on an island - it does something unusual to people, or perhaps it just attracts certain types. This gives permission for normal people to express their eccentric side. The creativity just comes from this place. I'm not sure why, but at least some of it has to do with the gorgeous beauty of this island. Anyway, these things enable us to come up with fresh ideas and approaches or fresh packaging of old ideas. And because we're familiar with oddities and grey areas, we're slow to jump to conclusions, to interfere or judge others, because, rather than doing something wrong, they might just be doing something wierd. So we give people space to be or to develop and change.

What do you say?

Yoof

2011-09-05T16:18:00.000+10:00

Faithful readers of this blog (note the emotional manipulation) will know that I have 'a thing' about how we treat teenagers. I'm all for treating them as adults before their time (well, adults with assistance). I know it's nowhere near that simple in gritty practice.

I've come across a couple things lately that sit nicely with my idealism. In one Hobart church, young teenagers are given sermon outlines (much like churches might do for international students), and sat off to one side of the room with their 'youth leaders' while the sermon is preached. This way they can quietly talk through any points of confusion.

A northern Tasmanian church holds 'youth group' straight after the Sunday service, so everyone can eat together and talk through what they learned.

No games here folks: I'm the Fun Police.

H/T Elbie and Simon

Like a stranger in a foreign country

2011-09-05T16:01:00.000+10:00

Though I'm a Christian, I feel as Australian as I ever did. Yet there are some things about me that are un-Australian. I don't feel a pull to buy Australian-made (because I worry about people overseas as well). I don't bitch about our politicians. I'm not looking to buy a home. I don't think that hanging with family and friends on the weekend is what life's all about. I don't always feel 100% at home here, and I even sometimes feel closer to foreigners who are Christian than to my fellow Australians. So perhaps I actually am a little less Australian than before. But I don't feel like I've been denied - being part of God's beautifully diverse people is better by far.

So much for my cultural identity, but what of others? I never want to be the sort of missionary who forces/entices people into giving up what is precious and good in their own culture. I certainly don't want to create a mini-Australia in Chile. But I do want the people there to give up the things in their culture that are bad or that come from an feeble vision of what life can be. I want them to join me in looking for a better country and for the heavenly city prepared by their unashamed God.

At the market

2011-09-05T15:49:00.004+10:00

Church communities always want to be a meaningful part of the wider community. We already are, of course. We each go to the shops, to our jobs, see our relatives, have a sign out the front of the church... But how can people really get to know us, and not just individually, but as the messed-up, diverse, connected group that we are?

One way is to get involved in the community. Host a soup give-away, draw up a roster for visiting folk in an Old People's Home, or field an indoor soccer team. But maybe then we'll never quite get around to talking about church or about what it is that joins us Christians together.

What one church up the north of Tassie does is to have a stall at the local market. I don't know what they have on the stall - I imagine Christian books and pamphlets and maybe some homemade jams to give away or sell for cheap. You could put a heap of effort into this sort of thing and be massively generous and welcoming... and informative. That's the good thing about stalls - they have an identity - it's not just a group of people, but this group of people. You'd soon get known as 'the church stall' (or something ruder), and if the people manning the stall were friendly types, they'd soon get to be known as friendly types. And maybe someone might come along who would like to learn something about what joins us Christians together.

H/T Peter

I don't usually go for conspiracy theories

2011-08-24T22:35:00.004+10:00

I've only been keeping half an eye on the news lately, but it seems to me that things just aren't adding up in Libya. I don't want world leaders to tell me the whole truth and nothing but the truth - I've seen enough of West Wing to know that political maneuvering is complex and that sometimes spin is for the greater good. What I do expect is that the official line will vaguely approximate the truth. Here's what I'm seeing:

The vulnerable people of Libya are protected by Nato airstrikes, but not the vulnerable people of, say, Syria.
Nato countries agreed to airstrikes in order to protect the people of Libya, but, without explanation, rhetoric and efforts soon shifted to ousting Gaddafi.
The poverty-striken Libyan people have acquired sufficient arms to mount a ground offensive against Gaddafi's presumably well-equipped military.

Just what is going on?

Unified together and apart

2011-08-24T17:24:00.003+10:00

I love the unity that is shared by all Christian churches - but I don't think that unity has to necessarily be given expression in joint ministry. I was trying to work out why some inter-church activities float my boat and others don't. This is what I came up with. I'm passionate about healthy local churches. Wherever possible, I want to see individual churches taking responsibility for things like world mission and women's teaching and fellowship. But I also love to see churches banding together to pull off a conference or bold ministry project they never could have done apart.

Seeing it for what it is

2011-08-24T17:12:00.003+10:00

You may be noticing a theme here... ;). It's borne of doing missionary promotion at churches not my own and with people unfamiliar to me. So here's another thing I've been learning: you need to be grateful whenever people show affection and ownership towards you and your ministry. If they don't do it how you would like it, so what - their intentions are beautiful. You need to forget the exterior and look to the heart.

The gist

2011-08-24T16:46:00.004+10:00

This isn't a biggie: more a note to self. And other people like me. Before you, Fiona, go getting your back up about something biblically unsound that someone has said, stop and think about what they meant. Very often you'll be okay with what they meant, even if you wish they'd used different words to say it.

So when someone prays that you will be "in the centre of God's will" (as a number of people have been praying for me recently), it's charitable to assume that they don't believe in a impotent God who is stymied by our choices. What they probably mean is that in this life we can act rightly and wisely, or wrongly and foolishly, and that to chose the former is to keep in step with the most wholesome and happy vision God has for our lives. And if we stray from this, it's not that God somehow loses control over things, just that our lives are more difficult and damaged than they might have been.

Getting inside their head

2011-08-24T16:26:00.002+10:00

One thing that always bugs me is when people make no effort to understand each other, when their first reaction is to assume the worst of another person, rather than examining the part they themselves play. If people aren't signing up for your event, don't just lay a guilt trip on them - reflect on the attractiveness and relevance of the event. Perhaps it is relevant, but sloppy promotion doesn't get that across. Perhaps the packaging's sexy but the content doesn't hit the mark. Maybe for your event to flourish it will need to achieve these things across a cultural barrier of ethnicity or age or money. Whatever the case, it could be that if you change things your end, you just might change everything.

Capítulo El Segundo

2011-08-15T15:25:00.004+10:00

There are a few new posts over at Chapter The Second which you might like to check out. It won't really get cranking til I'm in Chile though.

PS I have no idea if that word order is okay in Spanish, or if it has the same, old-school effect.

Raising kids

2011-08-15T14:51:00.001+10:00

I was speaking to some women the other day who were heavily involved in raising their younger siblings. Now they're in their thirties, in happy relationships but with no desire to ever have kids of their own. I found that really sad. A good reminder to not ask kids to be adults before their time.

Not fair

2011-08-08T15:18:00.004+10:00

Kids say "It's not fair!" when what they mean is "I don't like it!". So why the appeal to justice? I wonder if, in being forced to do an unpleasant thing, they presume that the adult is choosing to be mean and tightfisted when they might be magnanimous and kind. The sort of ugly assumption made by Eve.

Or, perhaps it's a protest against the very existence of unpleasant things, a no to the very possibility of packing up toys and not being allowed to start painting before dinner.

Dora and heaven

2011-08-08T14:56:00.004+10:00

When I was visiting a friend last Monday, she had to go comfort her little girl weeping in her bedroom. She was upset because one of her best friends, her teddy Dora, won't be going to heaven. Now while I've come to terms with leaving Big Ted behind, I can still relate to how she was feeling. I hope to get married one day and the knowledge that there will be no marriage in heaven has always troubled me.

What my friend told her little girl is what I need to hear when I worry that good things will be missing in heaven.

Heaven is a real place, just as real as Hobart and it's going to be a good place. It's going to be perfect! And God knows you and loves you very much and he will look after you in heaven and you will be very happy.

H/T Nikki

How art should be used to grow a banana

2011-08-01T15:57:00.005+10:00

Some while back the Christian group at Tas uni hosted an artists' forum. Gosh it was good - and just as dense and stimulating on the second and third listen. On the panel were a poet/writer, a graphic designer/musician and a poet/painter/writer. They had all obviously given a lot of thought to their responses, and spoke with honesty and insight about their experience and observations on the process and place of artistic endeavour. The first 20 minutes was about their personal journeys and individual crafts, and after that they explored the relationship between Christian faith and art.

I kinda did a painting course at Art School and that was when I became a Christian. So I guess a few people who became Christians around that time can relate to this feeling of being a bit punk about being a Christian and having a lot of impatience for aesthetic subtlety and stuff that takes a long time and stuff that perculates and relationships... [Nicholas Gross]

I think it can sometimes stretch art - and I guess I'm talking about especially figurative art, not so much books and films cos they've got a bit more scope - but it's stretching that medium a bit to ask it to do too much and to be too didatic. And just thinking about your conversion story, I guess we're so sensitive about kitsh, we're so sensitive about happy endings - I'm not sure why, whether it's just we see such a volume of pictures and read such a volume of things that we're very sensitive to that kind of easy answer - so maybe it is hard to picture and to represent that kind of stuff in a convincing way, in a way that really compels - you really need those twists. [Nicholas Gross]

Art can have any number of functions and forms and aesthetics that go alongside it. To say that art is just about representing reality is a very sort of maybe 15th to 16th century view of art into about the 19th century view of art. I mean art for the Egyptians was a completely different thing and thus took different forms. Art for Rothko was a very different thing and took different forms. So I can imagine art for conversion I guess - because as a liberal minded person I want to say that art can be used for all sorts of things, and throughout history has been used for all sorts of things. But I think that, given our culture's understanding of the function of art since the early 20th century and through a tradition that began earlier than that, I think it's really difficult to think of art as being directly towards conversion. Cos it's a bit like saying how art should be used to grow a banana or something like that - it's missing the point. [Ben Walter]

A trap of your own making

2011-08-01T14:18:00.004+10:00

In The Weekend Australia a few weeks ago Frank Furedi wrote an insightful piece about the intolerant exclusion of those opposed to homosexual marriage from even the conversation of 'modern society'. I commend it to you.

Yet, for all its perspicuity, the article suffers from the same thing it criticises. Furedi chides those who define an anti gay marriage position out of all consideration - "The declaration that certain values and attitudes are incompatible with modern society tends to serve as a prelude towards stigmatising and attempting to silence it. That is why the so-called enlightened opponents of 'old-time religion' more than match the intolerance of those they denounce as homophobic bigots.".

But this is exactly how he frames his own argument. He begins with: "Whatever one thinks about the pros and cons of gay marriage, a tolerant society cannot deny the right of homosexual couples to formalise their relationship", and ends: "In such circumstances elite-sanctioned snobbish intolerance is no more acceptable than anti-gay prejudice". It seems that the pull to be on "the right side of the cultural divide" is even stronger than Furedi recognises. A careful reader needs must come away confused. It is intolerant and unfair to simply dismiss those who oppose gay marriage - that much is clear. Yet it is equally unacceptable to be in any way won over to their position. So one must tolerantly allow their participation in the national discussion, as long as one's mind is made up from the get-go. Huh?

My love is like a red red rose

2011-08-01T13:54:00.004+10:00

Listening to a foreign language is like dancing. You enter this strange state of passive alertness. Not knowing what will happen next or not understanding everything that is said, you have to sit back and wait. You respond as you can and as it happens.

Unmerited suspicion is like rascism. You haven't done anything wrong and you have no bad intent, but the other person thinks the worst of you. They treat you with a severity and defensiveness appropriate for a rebel. You recoil at your false label and wish to explain or protest, but you have been prejudged and there is no-one who will hear.

Simple and strong

2011-08-01T13:46:00.002+10:00

Sometimes emotions take over and what's good and right no longer feels that way. We adults become more like kids, unable to understand very much at all. That's why it's so good that even kids can understand the Gospel - Jesus died for us when we were sinners so that everything might always be okay between us and God. That's the sort of thing you can tell yourself when you're overwhelmed by guilt and melancholy - and though it might not feel true, you can still hold on to the fact that it happened and that not even your negativity can undo what was achieved on those two beams of wood.

Cine en español

2011-08-01T10:47:00.009+10:00

For the last five months I've been watching one Spanish-language film a week - and I've just run out. I've seen all the films in the Sandy Bay, South Hobart and North Hobart video shops - well, all except for a couple in black-and-white, a B-grade sci-fi and a handful that look especially violent or erotic. I'm not quite sure what to do next, but I thought that I could at least share my recommendations with you. Oh, and do keep in mind that I can only faintly remember many of these.

Rudo y Cursi [Rudo and Cursi] - Mexico ✭✭✭✭ Hilarious comedy about a couple of dimwitted half-brothers who make it big in football, only to squander their riches. A great introduction to latin cinema and a rare treat in that it can safely be watched by the whole family.

Under The Same Moon [La Misma Luna] - Mexico ✭✭✭ Another excellent introduction to latin cinema that can be watched by the whole family (although the second half gets a bit scary). An engaging, entertaining and poignant story of a boy trekking through Mexico to join his mother trying to make some money in the US.

Bombón: El Perro [Bombón: The Dog] - Argentina ✭✭✭✭ Another family-friendly film (the last of the three) with an unusual subject - a poor Patagonian mechanic who has the chance to make it big when he is given a prize-winning dog.

The Secret In Their Eyes [El Secreto De Sus Ojos] - Argentina ✭✭✭ An ex-cop returning to an old murder investigation and a romance. Excellent, engaging, character-driven, poignant and ultimately disturbing thriller.

Pan's Labyrinth [El Laberinto Del Fauno] - Spain ✭✭✭✭ I enjoyed this more on the second viewing. Quite unlike any other Spanish-language film I've seen. A dark, inventive fairytale. Violence.

Amores Perros [Love's A Bitch] - Mexico ✭✭✭ Excellent, edgy drama. Infidelity and a dogfighting underworld. Violence.

Y Tu Mamá También [And Your Mother Too] - Mexico ✭✭✭ I seem to remember a lot of sex/sexiness in this film - it would be excellent if only it wasn't there, but then it's that sort of film. Infidelity and experimental sex on a roadtrip.

Talk To Her [Hable Con Ella] - Spain ✭✭✭ This is an excellent drama but quite uncomfortable to watch because somehow the unhealthiness of the main character creeps up on you. Intermingled lives and women in comas.

Volver [Return] - Spain ✭ This was an annoying, caricatured comic drama about a dead mother and a recent murder. It could just be a case of humour not crossing the cultural barrier. But it does include some magic realism, which always gets me off-side.

Sin Nombre [Without Name] - Mexico? ✭✭✭✭ Excellent edgy drama about a girl making the dangerous trip through Central America to the US with her erstwhile absent father, uncle and cousin, and about an unlikely friendship that develops along the way. Gang culture. Violence.

Broken Embraces [Los Abrazos Rotos] - Spain ✭ An irritating film for similar reasons as Volver (and by the same director - but I do like his other work). This one's a serious drama and the over-dramatic acting and storyline never worked for me. Infidelity, romance and tragedy.

The Sea Inside [Mar Adentro] - Spain ✭✭ Great drama about a man's campaign for his own 'euthanasia' and the relationships with the people in his life. The man - and the film's - dogged pursuit of death made me feel a bit ill though.

All About My Mother [Todo Sobre Mi Madre] - Spain ✭✭✭ Great drama about stars, ordinary people and transvestite prostitutes. The storyline is poignant but the content disturbing.

Nine Queens [Nueve Reinas] - Argentina ✭✭✭ Fun thriller about a money-making scam.

Maria Full Of Grace [María Llena Eres De Gracia] - Colombia ✭✭✭✭ I watched this a long while ago but it was very powerful. I felt like it captured both the ordinariness and extremity of this girl's life and experience as a drug mule travelling to the US.

Intacto [Intact] - Spain ✭✭ Strange, faintly magical thriller about luck and variants of Russian Roulette.

El Crimen Del Padre Amaro [The Crime Of Father Amaro] - Mexico ✭✭✭ Great drama about druglords, devotion, girls and moral compromise in the Catholic church. Bit too sexual in places.

Belle Epoque - Spain ✭ Massively B-grade comedy set in civil-war Spain about an ex-soldier choosing between (read: taking turns of) a farmer's daughters. Could only bear to watch it because of the Spanish, but then maybe I just don't get Spanish humour.

El Método [The Method] - Spain ✭✭ An engaging and somewhat troubling thriller about a strange, nasty group job interview. Quite a bit of gratuitous sex :(

Our Lady Of The Assassins [La Virgen De Los Sicarios] - Colombia ✭✭✭ Evocative and well-acted story about survival, homosexuality, companionship and violence. Leaves you feeling a bit used and despairing-

Nicotina [Nicotine] - Mexico ✭✭ Madcap thriller about a diamond heist gone wrong.

Like Australia cinema, latin cinema often focuses on the dark side of life. It tends to do so in a fast-paced, dramatic style, rather than the relentlessly ugly grind of Australia drama. Violence, gangs, drug cartels and trafficking and illegal immigration crop up repeatedly, as does everyday poverty and infidelity. In my opinion, the films are generally of a very high standard - excellent scripts, characters and cinematography.

Spiritual warfare

2011-07-11T16:48:00.011+10:00

Wierd, 'spiritual' stuff happens in Latin America. Perhaps the animist beliefs of the indigenous peoples have had a greater influence than in Australia. In any case, it made sense for me to think this stuff through. I was helped by Christ's Victory Over Evil: Biblical Theology and Pastoral Ministry1, although I have sometimes drawn different conclusions. Here goes.

Satan's capabilities

Satan is furious - he is running around the earth, trying to cause as much damage as he can in the short time that remains (Lk 4:6; Jn 12:31; 1 Pet 5:8; 1 Jn 5:19; Rev 12:7-17; cf Jn 17:15) before his own destruction (Mt 25:41; Rev 20:10).

His methods are to: make people forget or misinterpret the truth (Gen 3; tempting of Jesus; parable of the sower; 2 Cor 4:4); promise better things than God (Gen 3; Lk 4:5-6); 'close doors' (1 Thess 2:18); lie (Gen 3; Jn 8:44; Acts 13:10; cf Rev 2:24); cause suffering (Job 1-2; Lk 13:16; Paul's thorn in the flesh; Rev 2:10); murder (Jn 8:44; Rom 5:12; Heb 2:14); tempt people to sin (Job 1-2, 1 Chr 21:1; Jesus, Peter, Judas, Ananias and Sapphira; 1 Cor 7:5; 1 Thess 3:5); seek worship (Mat 4:9; 1 Cor 10:19-20); accuse (Zech 3:1; Rev 12:10; cf Heb 2:14); produce counterfeit miracles (2 Thess 2:9); and cause division (2 Cor 2:10-11; Eph 4:26-27).

Any and all of these things are done with God's permission, and as part of a larger, good plan (Job 1-2; Lk 22:31-32 and John 21:15-19; Acts 2:23ff; 2 Cor 12:7-10; Rev 12:7f).

At the cross, those who trust in Jesus were completely freed from slavery to Satan and from fear of death. He no longer has any claim on us, nor is there ever a situation in which we will find ourselves unable to resist his temptation (Jn 12:31; Rom 8:5-9, 15; 1 Cor 10:13; Col 2:13-15; Heb 2:14-15; Jas 4:7; 1 Jn 2:13-14; 3:8-10; 4:4; cf Acts 26:17-18; 1 Jn 4:18-19). God is protecting us, and there exists no accusation or demon that can ever separate us from his love (Jn 17:15; Rom 8:33-39; 2 Thess 3:3; 1 Jn 5:18) - yet life will not be without suffering (Jn 15:18-20 etc).

While we live on earth we are in Satan's domain, and, though we no longer owe him any allegiance, we are not yet wholly sanctified. This means that at times we will sin (1 Jn 1:8-10). It is even possible for a beliver to sin badly (cf Moses, King David, Peter). Yet - provided we do not continue in unrepentance (Mat 18:15-17; Rom 2:4-5; cf Heb 4:14-16; 10:19-22) - we are still just as much a Christian as we were before, for our standing before God depends not on our own righteousness but on Christ's (Rom 3:21-24; Gal 2:15-16, 21).

If we do follow Satan's ways and sin, it is always a choice we have made, stemming from the evil desires that remain within us (Rom 7:8; Eph 2:1-3; 4:17-24). As far as I can see, the Bible speaks only of non-believers being possessed by demons, yet I think it possible that a Christian can be so caught up in a sin that they appear to be possessed by it. The key is that, whatever they may feel or however bad the situation may seem, a Christian is never actually a slave to sin or demonic influence - they can break away at any point.

The Christian response

Christians are to be on the lookout for the devil's schemes. We are to resist his advances and stand firm in our obedience and faith, looking instead to Jesus (1 Cor 7:5; 2 Cor 2:10-11; Eph 4:26-27; 6:10-13f; Col 2:16ff; Jas 4:7; 1 Pet 5:8-9; Rev 2:10; cf Heb 12:1-2). We are to pray to God for strength and protection (Eph 6:18) - but we don't have to perform any special ceremony to ensure our protection; we don't have to speak to demons; we don't have to pray a special prayer for Jesus' blood to cover us. We just have to keep on living a righteous life even when this is very hard to do. And, should we fail in this, we just have to ask for God's forgiveness.

Despite the fact that this normal Christian response is to be unspectacular, I think that it could be appropriate to command a demon to leave a non-believer in Christ's name, or perhaps to tell a demon to stop tempting a believer (the latter has less biblical warrant). Yet even if this is okay, I would not expect it to be a regular feature of Christian life, or it would have been commanded in the New Testament letters - and certainly any actual conversation with demons should not be entertained (Isa 8:19-20 and Jesus' silencing of demons). But I can think of no reason why the sort of exorcism performed by Jesus and his disciples would be categorically wrong today. I don't mean to equate my role with the disciples and obviously never with Jesus himself - I'm more coming from a place of knowing that it is, generally speaking, good to imitate their righteous actions.

So, in all, Satan is clever but conquered, and because of this, Christians are to be alert and unafraid.

PG Bolt (ed), Christ's Victory Over Evil: Biblical Theology and Pastoral Ministry (Nottingham: APOLLOS, 2009)

εὐαγγέλιον

2011-06-27T16:08:00.007+10:00

Sometimes I hear critiques and I know they're wrong but I can't quite tell myself why. I'm a bit ashamed to say it, but this has happened with the Gospel. I've heard people accuse 'my type' of being in love with words and ideas - and say that's why we place so much emphasis on reading and understanding the Bible. An educated, middle class, Western preoccupation. I've heard others talk about how important it is to live the Gospel, and have come away with the impression that there's a legitimate choice that can be made between living it or preaching it.

So it was with gladness that I came across a recent article by my old favourite Don Carson, entitled "What is the Gospel? - Revisited".1 The article begins with a boring looking section on the biblical use of the Greek words for "gospel/good news/preaching the gospel". It is kind of boring, but taking the time to work through it is really very instructive.

The second half of the article sees Carson drawing some conclusions. His principle conclusion is that the "gospel" is "the good news about God's redeeming work in Christ".2 Carson notes that there are different foci to this gospel message:

The narrower focus draws you to Jesus - his incarnation, his death and resurrection, his session and reign - as that from which all the elements of what God is doing are drawn. The broader focus sketches in the mighty dimensions of what Christ has secured. But this means that if one preaches the gospel in the broader sense without also emphasizing the gospel in the more focused sense of what God has done to bring about such sweeping transformation, one actually sacrifices the gospel.3

Because this is what gospel means, "it is to be announced: that's what one does with news".4 And this isn't because Christians love ideas or because "ideas themselves reconcile us to God, but because the ideas are about Christ, and he reconciles us to God".5 "So when one hears the frequently repeated slogan, 'Preach the gospel - use words if necessary,' one has to say, as gently but as firmly as one can, that this is smug nonsense."6 ;) Now Carson is, of course, well aware of the importance that the Bible places on right living, but notes that this is the outcome of the gospel, the "stipulation that God requires", not the good news itself.7

1 DA Carson, "What is the Gospel? - Revisited" in S Storms & J Taylor (eds), For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 147-70.
2 Ibid, 157. (italics his)
3 Ibid, 162.
4 Ibid, 158.
5 Ibid, 169.
6 Ibid, 158. Carson also notes in passing that 1 Peter 3:1 is "not an exception. That passage says that husbands who do not believe the word may be won over by the Christian conduct of their wives. That presupposes that the words have been uttered". (footnote 12)
7 Ibid, 159, 161.

Fresh like fatlaces and dukey ropes

2011-06-27T15:48:00.003+10:00

Here are some cool ideas for mixing up Bible studies:

Summarise the main points of the passage
Put the passage into your own words
Do an interview or role-play based on the passage
Draw a for anything that makes sense; a ? for anything that doesn't make sense; a ➙ for any challenges
Draw the passage

H/T Jenny

Knowledge and discretion

2011-06-27T15:24:00.003+10:00

As I was reading Proverbs this morning it occurred to me that this sort of teaching would be so helpful for teenagers. A big part of those years is learning to live as an adult in the world. Anyone who's been doing this for a while knows that there are clearcut rights and wrongs that we can pass on to teenagers - but there is also a lot of nuance and complexity. Proverbs does a really good job of exploring this stuff (the classic example being, "Don't answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you'll be like him yourself" which is followed by "Answer a fool according to his foolishness, or he'll become wise in his own eyes. 26:4-5 HCSB). I also think Proverbs' emphasis on living wisely or foolishly is tremendously helpful, especially because it shows that these life choices really matter. It's not only dumb to be a fool, it says volumes about what you think of God and leads you to places you don't want to go.

How about these for starters:

As shameful conduct is pleasure for a fool,
so wisdom is for a man of understanding.

What the wicked dreads will come to him,
but what the righteous desires will be given to him.
(10:23-24)

Don't lose heart

2011-06-27T15:08:00.002+10:00

It's easy to get discouraged when friends refuse invites to church. But we should remember that we don't know what's going on in their life. A refusal might have nothing to do with us or our religion - they may simply be having a crappy week. So rather than wallowing in despair, we should just ask them again another time.

H/T Nick

You may not want to read this post

2011-06-22T10:03:00.007+10:00

** Bible nerd alert **

I'm eager not to forgot what I learned at Bible college, so in my morning 'devotions' this year I've been reading the books of the Bible that we covered, and glancing through my lecture notes as I do. I've been alternating between Ancient Greek and Hebrew subjects so as not to get too rusty at either. It's been great.

This week I went a bit off track and started reading through Proverbs. When I say 'reading' it's with heavy dependence on the Accordance Bible software (which a friend very kindly bought for me). Anyway, I heartily recommend Proverbs. Because each verse is self-contained it's not daunting; rather, it's a joy. I love Hebrew. I'm really very hopeless at it, but I still love it. It's so different from English, which is a beautiful thing in itself; plus it means that, even with very basic skills, you can notice all sorts of things that aren't easily translated.

The word "cover" (כסה pronounced "kha-sa") keeps cropping up in the early verses of chapter ten. Unlike English, this isn't bad form or the sign of a limited vocabularly - in Hebrew, repetition of words is a deliberate and significant literary device altering the reader to echoed ideas. Use of different words where you would expect to find the same is also highly significant.

So far I've observed that "cover" is used to refer to something negative - eg "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked" (10:11). The word translated "overwhelms" is literally the Hebrew word "covers". It's hard to work out if it is the violence that is 'covering' the mouth, or if it is the mouth that is 'covering/concealing' violence (as in the HCSB translation)...

Either way, when you get to the next verse the positive use of the word "cover" is striking. The NIV has, "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs", but a more literal translation would be something like, "Hatred uncovers dissension, but love covers over all wrongs". So I think the idea is that hatred unveils and brings to pass a whole heap of ugliness (rather like Pandora's Box), whereas love - rather than just being neutral - actively covers over these same wrongs. Word order is another significant feature of Hebrew, so the fact that "all wrongs" is found at the beginning of the second half of the sentence in the Hebrew draws the reader's attention to the extent and efficacy of this 'covering' - it's all wrongs that love covers over.

Anyway just thought you should know.

Too long we've been apart

2011-06-21T14:05:00.004+10:00

I've been reading through the website of the church I'll be part of in Santiago, and I noticed a nice expression. I don't know exactly how the word should be translated in English, but the literal translation reads: "Each Sunday at 11 Ñuñoa church reunites to praise God as a people...". They don't meet, they reunite - how lovely and apropos is that!

Living on an island

2011-06-20T21:30:00.016+10:00

A fascinating Radio National panel discussion. Here's some samples to whet your appetite:

I've embraced the whole Hobart thing where here you can have a big house with a garden and a trampoline and a cricket pitch and a vegie patch and look at the mountain and look at the sea and go sailing at the weekend.
. . .
History impinges upon your consciousness here in a way that it doesn't so much in Melbourne or Sydney.
. . .
I find in Hobart I'll sit in a coffee shop and I'll start talking to someone I'm having coffee with but then I'll look behind my shoulder to see who might else be in the coffee shop and to see who might be listening. Now I never do that anywhere else, but in Hobart you're always just watching who's around-
. . .
[W]hat I do notice is that strangers are friendlier to one another. I find it very difficult now when I go to Melbourne or Sydney. I'm walking down Pitt St or Collins St and I nod and say hello to people and they immediately cross to the other side of the road thinking "Who is this loony?", but you get into the habit of it.
. . .
It's the first thing I look at every morning. I get up, I go outside for the newspaper and I look up at the mountain: "What's the mountain doing this morning?" . . . . The mountain is always there and you're always looking at it, and it sort of becomes your guide to what the day is doing.

H/T Kate

Flee from all this

2011-06-20T15:49:00.002+10:00

In his helpful, biblically grounded, but densely written book, Tim Chester provides some useful illustrations of what fleeing from evil desires looks like in real life:

Colin always wanted to be in control. So at work he stopped monitoring tasks he'd delegated. At first he worried about them, but he refused to let himself check up on people. He put his electronic personal organizer in a drawer and went back to a paper diary. At home he threw away his lists. He decided not to plan his Saturdays but take them as they came.

Emma found refuge in shopping. She cut out window-shopping and browsing online. She went shopping only when she needed something and always used a shopping list. She hit the TV mute button during the commercials, canceled her shopping catalogs, and stopped buying glossy magazines.1

May we be people who know our weaknesses and have the heart, insight and discipline to create boundaries for ourselves. May we respect what we each must do and encourage one another in it.

1 T Chester, You Can Change (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 137.

Aesthetic

2011-06-20T15:30:00.007+10:00

I think I may have been born one hundred years too late. I've loved art deco for a long while...

but only just realised my love for synthetism...

Not so keen on the androgynous fashion though.

Destination ✓

2011-06-20T13:03:00.001+10:00

Read all about it over on my other, custom-made blog.

Choice

2011-06-13T13:53:00.003+10:00

Here I go again, quoting Noel Pearson. I must love him almost as much as The Australian. His latest piece was an examination of the notion of 'choice'. Pearson is all about allowing Aboriginal people the freedom to make choices: "Choice is a power. It is a power for development and progress, starting with individuals and their families and adding up to social change because social change is ultimately the sum of a whole lot of individual and family changes . . . . It is the individual right to self-determination, the means of personal empowerment, means to what psychologists sometimes call self-actualisation: having control over one's life."

Yet this is not all:

The flip side of freedom of choice is an aspect I had not fully appreciated until we reflected upon it: choice is also a discipline . . . . That is why allowing people to make their own real choices is more effective than any other approach to individual and social change. When individuals take ownership the change will be sustainable and real. Because choice, properly understood, includes responsibility and discipline.

The problem with the traditional welfare paradigm is that libertarian welfarism proposed that people should have the right and freedom to make their own choices but not wear the consequences. Here is the social support, there are no conditions attached to it, you are free to do with it as you wish, and if you and your children come to grief we will make sure there is another safety net to tackle that fallout as well.

True choice would mean individuals are indeed free to choose, but the choice must be real. It must imply responsibility as well as right, freedom and discipline.

from N Pearson, "Liberal Thinkers are Right About Power of Choice to Help Close the Gap" in The Weekend Australian (May 28-29, 2011)

Sacrifices

2011-06-13T13:24:00.004+10:00

I went to Melbourne last weekend (with my trusty Advocate, Kate) to attend a SIM training day and final interview. We got a lift back to where we were staying with a guy who's going to Africa for a couple of months. He was saying he wasn't sure he could ever go for any longer because of the sacrifices he would have to make. Now I'm so accustomed to this path that I don't usually think in terms of sacrifices, but he got me thinking...

I reckon there are three sacrifices that you make in being a missionary - career, money and people. I gave up the first two five and a half years ago when I began my church apprenticeship. It didn't seem like that big a deal. I was looking for a new line of work anyway and, as it turned out, I loved doing 'ministry'. And I was never someone who was about the money. But I am about the aesthetic and the lifestyle, and oftentimes that stuff needs money. I just can't buy nice homewares or paintings or a car. I have to live like a student when most people my age were done with that years ago.

Now if you've been following this blog awhile, you will know that this was a major problem for me a couple of years back. So it was interesting to find myself in the bright city lights again, thinking about sacrifice. And it's been interesting to see how I have coped with a suddenly reduced income (I need to do more fundraising!) on my return.

The seduction and the anxiety are still there, but it's a timid, reedy voice compared to what once was. I could actually go into shops in Melbourne and think "Gosh it would be nice to have that" but not in a covetous sort of way. And even while I was thinking it, I felt this steady confidence that that stuff's not what life's about, that it's a pretty illusion. I knew that relationship with God, with people and righteousness of character is where true class and beauty lies. Praise God - his burden is light.

Ten Canoes

2011-06-13T13:00:00.008+10:00

Here's a little talk I gave before Block Cinema's screening of Ten Canoes:

Ten Canoes is a postmodern film, in that the main narrator speaks from the present, telling a story about his distant ancestors, and, as he speaks, the camera switches to be in their world – which shot in black-and-white – and we hear them speaking. But not always: sometimes we find ourselves watching their story while the present day narrator's voice continues.

The story that is told about these ancestors is about a time when the older brother told a story to his younger brother about an episode in the life of their ancestors, back not too far from the beginning of the world. Now this doesn't sound too postmodern so far, but, interestingly, the main narrator also narrates this second story – and it is shot in colour, giving the impression that this far, far distant time is somehow more real than time that is more near.

My guess is that this is because Aboriginal culture is grounded in the past. The film speaks about the “same law now as then” and the very fact that the contemporary narrator is teaching us viewers by telling us a story set in the past, and that in this story, the older brother teaches the younger by telling him a story set in the past, shows the authority of the past for guiding life in the future.

There is wisdom to this and we Westerners can learn much from it, for we too easily dismiss our past and our ancestors. We even think we are superior to the recent past – to our grandparents – and only rarely do we turn to them for wisdom and advice. And yet, as the film portrays the more distant story (the one shot in colour) we see that, rather than being unusually wise, even perhaps semi-divine people (as I think the Aboriginal ancestors are often portrayed, by both Aboriginal people and by respectful whitefellas), they are ordinary people, not so very different to us. They joke around, fart and worry about their appearance. The women are jealous and nasty to each other, a man's opinion isn't believed by his friends and husbands and wives get crabby with each other and escape out of the home for some time to themselves. When planning what to do next, they imagine idealised, comic scenes. They speak of someone being at the waterhole like we would speak of someone being outside Myer and they can recognise who carved a spearhead like we can recognise someone's handwriting.

So what is the wisdom that these ordinary, ancient ancestors have to offer the people who come after them? Well there are all sorts of things, but one thing the film picks up on is the law. This law contains the way that the community of people is to live. The film doesn't pretend that this law solves everyone's problems or makes everyone perfect, but it does keep a certain order to society. So when someone is murdered the murderer must receive 'payback'.

This reminded me a lot of the history of the Jewish people, the spiritual ancestors of Christians. They also had a law that they had to obey, a good law that kept a certain order to society. But, as with Aboriginal culture, it didn't solve everyone's problems or provide an answer for the ongoing ugliness of people's motives and cruelty. That came later with Jesus. But that's a story for another time. For now, let's sit back and enjoy Ten Canoes.

Hobart

2011-05-31T18:05:00.003+10:00

Introverts three ways

2011-05-30T12:35:00.004+10:00

You know how I raved about that introverted book a while back? Well here I'm going to share the author's description of what makes an introvert. Hopefully this will be helpful in itself, or else it will whet your appetite enough to get your hands on the book.

Introverts are energized by solitude. We are recharged from the inside out, from the forces of our internal world of ideas and feelings. Just as a geyser finds its power from a subterranean water source, introverts derive strength from hidden places. We generally fill our energy tanks in private or in the presence of one or two close friends, or else in a public place without interacting with those around us.

Some people miscontrue the introverted need for solitude as being antisocial. But it's not that we don't like people, it's that time with other people in the external world has a draining effect on us . . . . Long periods without quiet refueling leave introverts feeling physically exhausted and emotionally hollow. [p35-36]

. . .

In our culture we are continuously bombarded by stimuli, in the forms of information, images, conversation, and a multitude of other data and experiences. In order for introverts' lives not to degenerate into disassociated states of confusion, we need to process these stimuli and integrate them into our lives . . . . Introverts process internally, in the workings of our own minds. We integrate and think silently . . . . Our thinking precedes our speaking, which means we will often pause as we reflect and carefully chose our words . . . . When the finer filters of introverts become clogged in the presence of people, we often go silent. Though we may appear composed on the outside, our minds are in a state of constant activity. When important or difficult information comes our way, ideas swirl in our heads in a hurricane of mental activity [p37-39]

. . .

A third distinctive of the introverted temperament is the preference for depth over breadth. This applies to various aspects of our lives. Introverts tend toward high degrees of intimacy in our relationships . . . . We may find small talk disagreeable and tiring . . . . Introverts also prefer to have depth in fewer interests . . . . Our passion for depth also applies to our understanding of ourselves . . . . Introverts are experts in our internal worlds, aware of the strata of motivations, feelings and assumptions that determine our choices and behaviours. [p41]

Very human

2011-05-30T11:58:00.002+10:00

A long time ago I was having a rather serious chat with a dear friend of mine. She had some very thoughtful and intelligent things to say, so when I went home I wrote them down. I came across my notes the other day and thought I would share them with you.

My friend was arguing that you must always divide someone’s actions from their person. You shouldn’t say “Good girl” or “Bad boy” because their actions are not them. When people act badly it’s not because they are bad - they were making the best choice they could from the options they were aware of. Even when someone deliberately choses to do something they know they shouldn't and will later regret, the very fact that they persist in making the wrong choice shows there is more going on than they are conscious of. Life brings hurt and disappointment and we all carry with us a degree of anger and fear that make our choices less than wholly rational. Our bad actions may stem from nothing more than the very human desire to protect ourselves or get revenge - motives that my friend argued were understandable and perhaps even excusable.

But I think that just because something is understandable doesn't make it excusable. The fact that we are all victims in some way doesn't give us the right to be perpetrators. So what are we left with? If we are both hurting and without excuse, then is there nothing we can do to protect ourselves or ease the pain? This is where I believe the Christian God comes in. Christians are told to turn to him with our hurt and disappointment. It's from him that we seek comfort, justice and protection. And it is in him that we find joy, meaning and wholeness - rather than in always looking to people who disappoint. Life lived under these truths gives us the freedom to chose the right.

Tell you Mona what I wanna do

2011-05-30T11:27:00.003+10:00

I had a great time at MONA, the spectacular Museum of Old and New Art (not this), which is situated on a goodly part of a peninsular jutting into Hobart's Derwent river, in the middle of working class suburbs.

I loved the entrance - a door framed with glitsy aluminium tucked away at one end of an unused tennis court. Cheeky. I loved taking a glass elevator down to the massive underground cavern that houses MONA and stepping out to behold soaring sandstone walls. The museum is three stories high and at different points you can see floors and staircases cutting across the space, creating a kind of angular architectural abstract art of its own.

I enjoyed many of the artworks. They let you take photos too, which freed me from being a passive observer and meant I could wander around with a compositional eye. There were cool experiences - big bean bags to fall into, a quirky steampunk sort of movie, a talking maze, one giant rock with an optical illusion and another with mad moving parts. There were some pleasing individual pieces - a Howard Arkley painting, a dead bird surrounded by sepia strands, brightly coloured geometric paintings, an Arthur Boyd, cheeky satirical referencing of Australian art.

Much of it was macabre, violent or perverse. Far too much genitalia, even before getting to the innumerable elegantly sculpted vaginas (vulvas actually). I don't like looking at this sort of stuff, although sometimes I will if there's a composition to be admired or a serious point to be appreciated. It didn't shock me though - I already knew that life was dark, distorted and perverse. Nor was my faith rattled - Christianity is all about facing up to the brevity of our earthly life and the darkness of our secret deeds.

Though I loved it, I have to be honest and say that when one of my friends asked if I'd seen anything beautiful, I scrambled for an answer.

Discussing sex, politics and religion online: some tips

2011-05-23T15:14:00.005+10:00

If you think you might not be very good at expressing yourself, stay out of the debate. Pray for and support those who are.
Be aware of who's listening to what you have to say, what their personal experience is of the issue at hand and if they're intellectual or practical sort of people. Don't be intimidated by them - God is over the discussion.
Work out one big thing you're trying to get across. Feel free to get help with this. It's usually good to express this in positive terms, because Christianity doesn't stop with exposure of sin.
Remember that apologetics has a limited role to play. Yet if God's ways really are the most healthy and life-affirming, then some of your readers may come to recognise this. You may also be able to remove barriers that get in the way of someone ever listening to the Gospel message.
As you craft each of your contributions, think about what the other correspondents have just said, what you should say and how you should say it. Pay careful attention to what they actually said and keep your emotions in check. Decide which battles to fight and try not to take attention away from your main point. Sometimes you may need to establish the legitimacy of the Christian viewpoint to be heard before you can proceed to the issue at hand. And don't fear anyone's intelligence - we have been given the very truths of God. Write using normal social skills and courtesy. It can be okay to be blunt, but it's never fine to be aggressive. Don't be defensive either - be unashamed, calm, confident and compassionate. Use commonplace words and explain yourself so that a teenager could understand. Read over what you have written, preferably out loud. Read it a few times, each time imagining that a different person is listening. Better still, leave it until morning to post. And best of all, get someone you respect to read over it for you.
Pray really, really hard.

I cannot proclaim it well

2011-05-23T13:04:00.002+10:00

Only on Sunday did I see the loveliness of these lyrics. If you want to hear the music, Sufjan Stevens sings it on YouTube to black and white stills of African animals. No-one knows why.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

The library in my room

2011-05-18T12:59:00.003+10:00

I own just over 30kg of big, fat theological books and I love em. My collection is light on commentaries mainly because I'm going overseas but also because I get overwhelmed by choice - a problem non-English speaking pastors would kill for. I know how much they weigh because earlier this year I stuffed them all into two $4 stripey bags and lugged them back to Hobart. I've only read bits of most of them but they all come highly recommended and I'm looking forward to their assistance in the years to come.

possibly helpful tips

2011-05-18T10:11:00.005+10:00

Ages ago I wrote a post about how to help suffering people. It wasn't based on anything other than a bit of the Bible and my own experience, but maybe it will be a help to some of my readers. There's also a chance that this sort of analysis can stop your gut instinct doing a perfectly good job of letting you know what to do - so please only read it if you feel the need for assistance. Looking back, I think the most helpful points are:

pray for them;
treat them the same as normal, only more more gently;
remind them of God's truths;
cut them slack (in responsibilities and in social interaction);
remember their pain, ask them how they are and comfort them for a long, long, long time after the awful thing has happened (months and years later).

Charity

2011-05-09T18:12:00.004+10:00

Orwell also describes instances of charity. One church gave a free tea to tramps once a week – a “one-pound jam-jar of tea each, with six slices of bread and margarine”. Straightaway a church service began, during which the tramps behaved atrociously. Wondering why, Orwell concluded that “The explanation, of course, was that we out-numbered the congregation and so were not afraid of them. A man receiving charity practically always hates his benefactor” [p186]. But he then describes one situation where that was very different – that of a clergyman who:

was shy and embarrassed, and did not speak except for a brief good evening; he simply hurried down the line of men, thrusting a ticket upon each, and not waiting to be thanked. The consequence was that, for once, there was genuine gratitude, and everyone said that the clergyman was a – good feller. [p187]

PS I have been reading authors other than Orwell - just had some catch-up blogging to do. You'll be hearing from a more varied pool soon ;).

Homeless people

2011-05-09T18:02:00.008+10:00

George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London1 is a wild read for anyone who hasn't been homeless. Conditions are astonishingly, almost creatively, bad, and even when there is work it is so profoundly awful and so minimally paid that it provides for nothing more than a hellish cycle of existence. Yet somehow – perhaps because he was out of it when writing – Orwell writes with calm, wry good humour and sensible insight. Here he talks about the disrespect that society has for beggars:

A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course – but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout – in short, a parasite, but a fairly harmless parasite . . . . Why are beggars despised? – for they are despised, universally. I believe it is for the simple reason that they fail to earn a decent living. In practice nobody cares whether work is useful or useless, productive or parasitic; the sole thing demanded is that it shall be profitable.

Later he mentions “three especial evils” that mark the homeless person's existence – hunger (“nearly every tramp is rotted by malnutrition”), enforced idleness (“a dismal, demoralising way of life”) and being cut off from women...

It is obvious what the results of this must be: homosexuality, for instance, and occasional rape cases. But deeper than these is the degradation worked in a man who knows that he is not even considered fit for marriage. The sexual impulse, not to put it any higher, is a fundamental impulse, and starvation of it can be almost as demoralising as physical hunger. The evil of poverty is not so much that it makes a man suffer as that it rots him physically and spiritually. And there can be no doubt that sexual starvation contributes to this rotting process. Cut off from the whole race of women, a tramp feels himself degraded to the rank of a cripple or a lunatic. No humiliation could do more damage to a man's self-respect.

Now – other than giving some money to Anglicare one time – I never did anything for the beggars in Sydney. I'm shy around strangers and not a particularly generous person either. But I did try to think of them with respect as I passed by and sometimes I would look seriously at them or smile. So at the very least, let's be sure to regard these people with respect and not to measure them by their lack of money.

1 G Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (London: Penguin Books, 1933), 175, 206-07.

Shameful

2011-05-09T17:51:00.002+10:00

Some days I feel like the ministry work I do isn't very valuable. I don't know why I feel this way now – I was convinced of its worth back when I did my MTS apprenticeship. I suspect the Devil's trying to get my 'off my game'. This feeling can be so strong that all I can tell myself is that it's “probably” not true. It has made me pray timidly, fundraise woodenly and squirm uncomfortably when people express their support.

What seems to be going on in my messed-up mind is that I'm thinking people in 'secular' jobs are doing the real, noble and wholesome work; whereas I'm being indulgent, dabbling in some luxury pursuit while living off other people's charity. Some of my thinking comes from what has been said to me in the past and some of it from a genuine respect for secular workers. But when I see clearly, I know it's false.

I know that doing ministry work does not make me more faithful, and that working in a secular job is righteous and that God can achieve great things through it. And yet I also know that teaching people the Word of God, helping them grow more like Christ, enabling them to pass on the Word to others and focussing on people's eternal state are matters of first importance. I know that while I do love my work, I'm not doing it for self-satisfaction, seeking to please myself at other people's expense. I'm doing it because I believe it's an important and legitimate job. And I know that I'm asking for people's money not because I don't want to take responsibility for myself (which would indeed be shameful), but because I'm working for these people and deserve a wage for my work.

I would really appreciate it if you, my dear readers, could pray that I'll remember these things, and perhaps even remind me of them yourselves :).

What is truth?

2011-04-27T11:13:00.003+10:00

George Orwell, writing at the close of the Second World War, draws some thought-provoking connections between totalitarianism, postmodernity and literature. He argues that the view that "all historical records are biassed and inaccurate" plays into the hands of the totalitarian state which demands "the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth" and may make it easy for such a government to "set us a schizophrenic system of thought, in which the laws of common sense held good in everyday life and in certain exact sciences, but could be disregarded by the politician, the historian, and the sociologist".1

He also argues that "good writing stops" in any society that not only permits falsification but insists that the false record be presented as true. This is because the presence of taboos dries up the creative impulse - "the imaginative writer is unfree when he has to falsify his subjective feelings, which from his point of view are facts . . . he cannot say with any conviction that he likes what he dislikes, or believes what he disbelieves"2. "To write in plain, vigorous language one has to think fearlessly, and if one thinks fearlessly one cannot be politically orthodox."3

My main response to all this is, gosh, it's a different world today, and we're blessed not to live in this sort of repressive climate. Yet even in this age of peace and political freedom we have taboos, and postmodern perspectivalism (is that a word?) can lead us to accept any interpretation of past events without pausing for critical reflection. As Christians, we need to resist these impulses and speak truth, with due sensitivity and picking our battles, but that should still be our aim.

1 G Orwell, "The Prevention of Literature" in Books v. Cigarettes (London: Penguin Books, first published 1946, here 2008), 28-29.
2 Ibid, 31.
3 Ibid, 33.

Santa Claus and the miracle of travel

2011-04-27T10:40:00.005+10:00

I forgot that kids are kids and think of them as short adults. This is good because it means that I treat with them seriousness and respect, and try to get to know them and their interests. But I tend to forget how small their world is and how little they know - and how significant my words and presence can be in their lives. George Orwell reminds me that, "A child may be a mass of egoism and rebelliousness, but it has no accumulated experience to give it confidence in its own judgements. On the whole it will accept what it is told, and it will believe in the most fantastic way in the knowledge and powers of the adults surrounding it."1 He goes on to tell the story of illicitly buying some sweets as a child and, on coming out of the shop, seeing a man looking his way whom he earnestly believed was a spy placed there by his boarding school headmaster.

He also talks about how adults can abuse childish ignorance, and explains that being caned for wetting the bed taught him that his behaviour was both wicked and outside his control. "I was crying . . . partly also because of a deeper grief which is peculiar to childhood and not easy to convey: a sense of desperate loneliness and helplessness, of being locked up not only in a hostile world but in a world of good and evil where the rules were such that it was actually not possible for me to keep them."2

May God help us to treat kids well.

1 G Orwell, "Such, Such Were the Joys" in Books v. Cigarettes (London: Penguin Books, first published 1952, here 2008), 83.
2 Ibid, 69-70.

Decency and tolerance

2011-04-27T10:02:00.004+10:00

I was excited to read Christopher Hitchen's brother's book - and a little concerned. My concerns turned out to be well-founded. It's not that the tone was bad; it just wasn't particularly warm or compassionate. And it's not that the cross was omitted; it was just that the health of societies seemed his greater passion. Oh, and he's not as fine a writer as his brother. But the book does include some smart critique of anti-theist thinking. Here are some good quotes:

[I]n all my experience of life, I have seldom seen a more powerful argument for the fallen nature of man, and his inability to achieve perfection, than those countries in which man sets himself up to replace God with the state.

. . . utopianism is dangerous precisely because its supporters are so convinced that they are themselves good.

Godless regimes and movements have given birth to terrible persecutions and massacres . . . . This is a far greater problem for the Atheist than it is for the Christian, because the Atheist uses this argument to try to demonstrate that religion specifically makes things worse than they otherwise would be. On the contrary, it demonstrates that our ability to be savage to our own kind cannot be wholly prevented by religion.

[S]ome of the arguments of atheists also lead them into a dangerous intolerance of Christian moral opinions, and of the Christian education of children, which do not sit well with their self-image as apostles of enlightenment and liberty. Like all foes of liberty, they are all for it except when they are really, really against it. (p119)

I say unequivocally that if a man wishes to bring his child up as an atheist, then he should be absolutely free to do so. I am confident enough of the rightness of Christianity to believe that such a child may well learn later (though with more difficulty than he deserves) that he has been misled. But it is ridiculous to pretend that it is a neutral act to inform an infant that the heavens are empty, that the universe is founded on chaos rather than love, and that his grandparents, on dying, have ceased altogether to exist. I personally think it wrong to tell children such things, because I believe them to be false and wrong and roads to misery of various kinds. But in a free country parents should be able to do so. In return, I ask for the same consideration for religious parents.

from P Hitchens, The Rage Against God (London: Continuum, 2010), pages 111, 101, 113, 152.

Justice

2011-04-27T09:07:00.005+10:00

Back in December a man was murdered and his relatives wanted to enact 'traditional retribution', but were prevented from doing so and rioted. The magistrate, David Bamber, told them, "There is no place for violent retribution. The days of payback with violence should end . . . . [They] should be concerned with changing their law. They should be working out ways to deal with disputes without violence rather than feeling aggrieved with whitefella law preventing them from carrying out their old punishments". But I wonder if whitefella punishment is more arbitary and abstracted than Bamber thinks, and if spearing the leg of a person who has commited violence could sometimes be the fairer punishment. Yet I do agree with him that "violence begets violence".

Five months later, the unrest continues. I want to tell the family of the murdered man that they don't need to take justice into their own hands; that there once was a Man who bore the perfect payback they are keening for.

Tough questions

2011-04-26T14:03:00.003+10:00

I'm not always very good at answering people's objections to Christianity. Thing is, I need to train someone else in this. So I tried to find a good website that could help us both - and here it is.

H/T Tim Chester (via Nick)

It's not better and it's not real

2011-04-22T15:46:00.007+10:00

We're foolish people. Sometimes we think we have a better idea than God of what is good for us and we yearn for this imaginary life. We need to remember:

There's no better life that you're missing out on . . . you're not actually losing out on anything. It's good to live for God, to live for eternity – it's actually the good life . . . . There's no other life that's a better life than living for the Kingdom of God. There's nothing actually to envy out there somewhere. Living for the Kingdom of God is reality. It's the good life. It's the way things actually are. Is a purposeless life of selfish indulgence and endless holidays actually, really going to make you happy? ...the hollowness, the aimlessness ...really? Is the life of the ungodly really a happy life, a perfect life? . . . . Living for God is always the good life. Beware of confusing sacrifice for the Gospel with actually losing out on stuff that really isn't actually good. Beware of the logic 'If I weren't a Christian I'd have so much more fun'.”
(Mikey Lynch, Ministry Challenge conference 2010)

First & foremost

2011-04-22T15:17:00.006+10:00

I want to be the sort of missionary who sees the strengths in people. I imagine that this will be an precious attitude to adopt in a confusing world where people don't do things the way I expect them to. I don't want to spend my time pining for 'how we do things back home' or daydreaming about how everything could be overhauled. Instead I want to recognise and esteem the good that is before me. I would appreciate your prayers that I will actually be able to think this way once I'm there.

H/T Kate

Less = more

2011-04-22T15:06:00.002+10:00

Realising that I'm an introvert was really helpful on my recent trip to Sydney where I had to visit my old church and college and spend a week doing missionary training with a group of strangers. Knowing my weaknesses, I didn't expect to achieve great things, but allowed myself to get to know people slowly or to focus on individuals who crossed my path, rather than thinking I might end up knowing people well or attempting to get around everyone. I don't think I did achieve great things but I was there for the people I did talk to and I felt like myself. Now if I can just keep remembering this...