Archive for November, 2011

Desparately seeking Samaritans

Friday, November 25th, 2011

Just heard this story on Rhema news and was disappointed by its timeless similarity to Luke’s story of the Good Samaritan

“It’s not an easy life for a person with an intellectual handicap, particularly if they aren’t severely handicapped, because they realise what is going on, and they realise they are different.  And it’s not easy being a parent or having a sibling that’s intellectually handicapped, because of these incidents that are happening. […] And what were these people who walked past him thinking? What sort of person would walk past someone sobbing on the street?”

Many with intellectual disabilities do realise what is going on and do realise they are different.  Is it their lot to spend their lives dealing with a society seemingly incapable of bridging the gap and simply meeting them where they are?  Surely we are better than that?

Sad.

A Harvest Of People

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

For all my friends  – especially those celebrating Thanksgiving today – I’m blessed to know you.

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks;

For generous friends…with hearts…and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends, as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we’ve had them;

For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter.

For all these we give thanks.

A Harvest Of People by Max Coots

 

Occupy Aotea: sit-in sell-out?

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

Pizza

Hmm.

Earlier today, I saw a pizza delivery guy delivering to a tent amid those of the ongoing protest in Auckland’s Aotea Square.  Call me old fashioned but doesn’t secret snacking on a garlic-infused stuffed crust 12″ meat-lovers kind of undermine the integrity of one’s staunch commitment to the anti-greed/consumerism/globalisation/everything cause?

Just saying.

The Money Lenders & The Temple

Monday, November 14th, 2011

Stpaulslondon

A little light web wandering this evening brought me to this pointed observation by Scott Paeth.

“It’s always instructive to see how religious heirarchies are likely to respond to movements for social change. Religion is often, though not always, a conservative force in society, so that militates against the possibility of Anglican officialdom siding with the Occupy movement. But beyond that, it seems that religious leaders only really start to lead when they’re forced to follow the most radical implications of their traditions. And it’s fortunate that there are many Christians in the square outside St. Paul’s who are more than happy to remind the men in the great big building behind them that the building itself was erected in honor of a man who overturned the tables at the temple, who preached good news for the poor, and who died horribly at the hands of the representatives of the official party line.”

 

From How Radical Can An Established Church Be?

If you click through, do listen to the excellent Woody Guthrie track embedded in the same post.

 

Pulling things to pieces

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

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Arriving home last Sunday and keen to make the most of the early summer sun, I whipped up a ‘whatever is left in the fridge’ salad and headed for the deck.   Munching away, I was keen to read Frederick J. Tritton’s The Discipline Of Prayer (Pendle Hill Pamphlet No.42) but couldn’t get past this passage on the first page:

We are critical and analytical, rather than appreciative and creative, and this tendency at its worst leads to a habit of pulling things to pieces, including other people’s reputations. Some persons simply cannot resist it, and we are all to some extent infected by the complaint.

While I am not conscious of pulling anyone’s reputation to pieces, I am indeed infected by the same complaint.  I am keen to pursue a simple faith which I can model to others and yet I am often too vocal about my struggle with much of the stuff that ‘religion’ and ‘church’ tends to involve.   On occasion, I find myself over-analysing and criticising rather than being conciliatory and appreciative and I spend a good deal of time wishing I could be more constructive and creative.

I want to be involved in a faith community and be part of seeking a way to tackle the issues that seem to plague ‘church’ as we commonly see and experience it.   However, I struggle to reconcile my belief in God and my faith with the doctrine and the orthodoxy of mainstream religion and I find myself failing to exhibit the behaviours I hope to see in others.  Unlike Paul in 2 Corinthians, I seem unable to find strength or, indeed, even grace in my weakness.

That said, I pursue and seek answers in scripture for, while it is the source of the limitless interpretation, literalism and biblicism that abound, I believe that it is through understanding it better in my own context that I will progress in my journey.

I also read a good deal of non-fiction works on faith and religion to increase my understanding and Tony Jones has recently blogged about two titles which have caught my interest and which I will add to my reading list.  The first is The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith and the second The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited by Scot McKnight.  They won’t provide the ultimate answer – of that I’m certain – but they may help with the next step of my walk.