a church (re)Wired

Mark is the gospel in a hurry. I mean there is no padding. There are no long reflective shots from the camera in this movie. Jesus is on the move. He is a man of action. His effect is immediate and powerful. The crowds flock to him; (Mark 3:20) "the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat."

In the midst of this power and success, which has healed people and cast out demons, his friends decide he has gone mad, and try and "restrain him." Even his family were worried, it seems. (3:31-5) He set himself apart from them.

"Who are my mother and my brothers?" 34And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 35Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."... Read on >>>>

In today's headlines, parents who let their children do things like the story below, get into trouble. It's not safe!!! screams the panic. I'm glad my mum let me have adventures. I also know she watched from the farmhouse as I crossed the paddocks all those years ago. We're posting this article, because Rev Dr Peter Sellick has kindly let us mirror his article "Are We Safe?"

The first journey I remember

I begin to remember as I am about to leave our farm. I cannot remember the preparations, or crossing our own paddocks. Memory begins as I approach new territory.

I am on the south boundary fence walking east, watching Heaslip's place across the Huddlestone road. I can go across to Heaslip's if I need help. To the south, through the fence, is one of Heaslip's paddocks, red and fallow. If I climb through the fence I can cut off some distance. I worry whether I can cross the creek that runs along the fence, but four or five years old, I carefully climb between the middle rusty barbed wire and the heavy number eight above it, and begin the short cut. After the scramble through the wash-away, it is much hotter on the fallow, and for a five year old the furrows are deep, and tough going to walk across... Read on >>>>

Peter Sellick writes...

"The tourists had insistent, unspoken questions and we just had to answer as best we could, with forged furniture. They were really asking, ‘Are we safe?' and we were really replying, ‘No, but a barricade of useless goods may help block the view'." Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish.

The climbing frames in the park at the end of my street, to which I take my grandchildren, are so safe our four-year-old is bored. There is an old steam roller that may be climbed upon which the council threatens to remove because it is not safe. Indeed our four-year-old has fallen off it and hurt himself, no permanent damage but a salutary lesson. Nevertheless, the council frets about duty of care. Uneven pavements represent potential law suits, as do falling tree limbs and unfenced lakes.

National defence used to be about the defence of the realm but has morphed into national security, a blank cheque written against future hazard that gives permission for pre-emptive strikes. National security chiefs must look into the crystal ball to predict who will become our enemy in the next 50 years and order the hardware to suit. It is not about our neighbours any more: any activity in any country may be seen as a security risk and has to be addressed, otherwise those in charge will be seen as negligent and lose their jobs. Quite a job description: accountability is an idol that will never be placated no matter how many sacrifices are offered... Read on >>>>

Week of Sunday June 28
Bible: Mark 5:21-43

My colleague Anne Butler brought this story alive one morning in college chapel. She read verses from Leviticus, about bodily secretions, which I have never heard read in church, before or since. These verses deal with the uncleanness of women. Then Anne read the story of the woman with the flow of blood from Mark. By healing her, she proclaimed, Jesus made all women clean.

After twentyfive years I remember few other chapel services from college days! I remember that as we left this one, the Old Testament lecturer was delighted. Other people were very offended. Some things just shouldn't be mentioned in church. Even if they are in the bible.

I have seen the pain hatred toward women has caused in my own family. It distresses me to find that I too, as a man, still have it deep within me. The reading in Mark seems to me to strike a profound blow against views of women as inferior. I have posted a sermon from my past. There is not much more to say...  Read on >>>>

In Mark 4:35-41, who else is asleep in the boat during a storm?

Jesus is another Jonah asleep amid a threatening storm. Except, called to "cross over to the other side", to non Jewish people, Jonah fled. And the storm overcame him; he was thrown into the sea. Jesus answers the the call of God, and has power over the sea. (You might reflect, that the three days Jonah was in the belly of the great fish, match the three days Jesus was in the Tomb!)

The Hebrew Scriptures reading today, is the story of David and Goliath. This story reflects on the Gospel reading, because it is a story of fear. The various traditions of Scripture, Dead Sea Scrolls and Josephus suggest Goliath was 61/2 feet tall, or maybe, 9 feet tall.

King Saul, was in the region of seven feet tall, himself! He, too, was a giant! The challenge of Goliath to single combat is actually a challenge to the largest of all Israelites, who was King Saul.

And Saul failed the challenge. He was afraid.

This story allows David to come on the scene. And it is here that his rise begins, and Saul's star fails.

One implication of this saga is that fear begins to conquer and diminish our lives, if we do not face it... Read on >>>>

Recently I received a concerned letter about a post I made to an internetdiscussion forum. It was polite and compassionate. I was surprised by the warmth I felt from a person whose position is very different from my own!

I've posted my reply here, as the issue we were discussing is important and current. What do you think? You are able to comment at the end of this article. (I've only included my part of the exchange, and left out a couple of identifying details.)

Dear ......,
thank you for your interest and concern.

I cannot agree with your assessment of the situation concerning Islam.

There is no doubt we have a huge problem in today's world with militant Islam. However, I find that the attitudes expressed by even the most extreme Muslims, are little different than those expressed by the militant conservative US and Australian Christians I read, and also by some followers of Judaism. It suits our media to highlight and report the atrocities of Islam, and its extremist attitudes. Yet I find that many of those same attitudes are expressed in Christian sermons and conversations in my own city, but remain unpublished. Or, they are spouted in newsgroup discussions, but not treated with the same (appropriate) outrage that would be accorded similar sentiments from a Muslim. Indeed, the most offensive material I have ever read was in a Christian newsgroup... Read on >>>> 

In this story they are in the dark- evening has come, and out on the lake over the deep water, the place where evil things lurk. Deep water is the place of mysterious and dangerous forces. It is, of course a symbol for the dark, deep, dangerous places of life. External places and times in our lives are symbolised by the lake, but so also are the storms and fearsome things of our deep inner selves... Read on >>>>

Mark 4:35-41 The story of Jesus calming the storm.

Going to the "other side," has a ring to it in our time; a kind of crossing over to difference. There was certainly difference on the other side; the story of the Gerasene demoniac follows this story! If we set our mind to do great things, should we be prepared for violent, even elemental opposition?

Asleep to the wind is perhaps the same as being untroubled by it. The lesson, of course, is that he could control even the wind and the sea, elemental forces. Forces that shape our lives, and may even end them, are trifling for this man. They obey him. He is not merely a teacher of troublesome stories. He is a man of power. This story introduces the stories of the demoniac, and the raising of a girl (and women) from the dead.

Experientially, "rebuking the wind," and confronting life's challenges, can lead to a great calm. I once went for my daily swim, to discover muddy three metre surf pounding our local beach. My normal kilometer along and back the beach was impossible. Then I saw kids on body boards out on the highest waves and thought, "Why can't I go out there!?" So I did, confronting a long held fear of the deep. Out in those waves, rising and falling with them, there was a dead calm. It was the most odd quiet; like being in a park with the traffic roar muted by the trees. It was so quiet I could hear little splashes next to me, not the roar of the surf I expected. I felt calm, relaxed pleasure, instead of the struggle to stay afloat which I had also expected. Archived here.

What always strikes me about these verses is that they say "The Kingdom of God is.... not will be, but is. The kingdom, a realm of power, is now. Maybe it's "now, but not yet", as one of my lecturers repeated many times, but certainly now. It is to be experienced now.

Parables are for contemplating. They are not a scientific, text book description of a process. They are not allegories, where each item in the story has a specific meaning. (Although, in fact, the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-9) is treated as an allegory by the later? verses 13-20.)

Parables are ambiguous. They provoke. They are, as our minister Peter said on Sunday, wrong in some way.... Read on >>>>

A Friendly Letter to Skeptics and Atheists
by David G Meyers (Jossey-Bass 2008)

Those wanting a book attacking science, and presenting a safe faith that can ignore scientific insight, will be disappointed by this book. It provides nothing of the sort. Christian readers who are anti-science will conclude David Meyers has crossed over to the dark side. Those other religious believers, whose faith proclaims science as the answer to everything, will also be disappointed. This is a brave book, avoiding the shallow arguments, condescension and abuse, which flavor much of the discussion about the relationship of science and religion. It is a friendly letter to atheists and skeptics. It is irenic and respectful, and an invitation to share common ground. The author also has that rare skill of being non technical without "dumbing down" his content... Read on >>>>

I had a boisterous tail wind riding home yesterday- a three gear wind. I raced down the bike track to the wet lands, passing a Muslim mum. She collects her son from school. I meet them some days if I am coming home early, or he has after school sport. She wears the hijab, and a full robe.

She was running, and I thought she must be late meeting him. "Salaam," I cried as I raced past. "Salaam!" came the echo, full of life. I felt a surprised joy from the simplicity of our exchange; two believers affirming the Divine.

When I reached home I checked the time, even though I say I don't race the clock anymore. I realized she was not late for school. She was jogging.

It's good to be alive!

Andrew
Archived here.

The perennial problems caused by translation and chapter headings in the Bible, is well demonstrated by this week's gospel reading. Bible verses did not exist until the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries after Christ. So they bear no necessary relationship to the intent of the original authors.In an English translation, itappears there is a division in John, between chapter two and chapter three. The first seventeen verses of chapter three are the lectionary gospel for this week. However, the more natural passage begins at John chapter 2:23.

The lectionary should begin like this:

23 When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.'...

The reason for this is hidden by the NRSV translation, which aims to be readable, and not to be gender exclusive. If we go back to my childhood English, in which women were invisible or deprecated, the text reads:

When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all men (understood) and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in man.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.' See the Greek

Man and men come from the Greek word anthropos and are meant to be gender inclusive in this situation. Male is andros, not anthropos.

Now we see the connection between the artificially divided chapters two and three. It has to do with "men", with human beings...  Read on >>>>

Thoughts on Pentecost

Something happened.

There was a group of people who claimed that Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified, was now raised from the dead. They used to meet together to pray. On the day of Pentecost, they had a massive religious experience, hearing wind, and seeing tongues of fire. They spoke in different languages. In the weeks that followed, this little group was emboldened, filled with the Spirit, and made a huge impression in Jerusalem. Thousands were converted to their cause. At the time people related it to the prophesy from the prophet Joel,

"In the last days it will be, God declares,that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." See Acts 2

People soon related the story to the old prophesy from Ezekiel. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel as he had the vision of the valley of dry bones:

I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord. Ezekiel 37

Things were being made new.

But not everybody had this kind of Pentecost experience. The Gospel of John, which has its own giving of the Spirit in Chapter 20, has never even heard the story... or... perhaps, John had- and he left it out, as a distraction from greater insights into the nature of the gift of the Holy Spirit.... Read on >>>>

I bind unto myself the name...

I was knocked off my bike last week. This weekwe're cracking jokes like, "You bump into the nicest people when you're travelling," but it was serious stuff. Things could have been much worse. The side is ripped out of my bike helmet, which is the best advertisement for wearing them, that I've ever seen. I came down under the bike, and felt my head hit the ground. There's no mark on the outside of the helmet!

It's confronting being knocked off. We bike riders know we are very unprotected, compared to the passing cars. Like last night, we can have lights, reflective gear, and bright jerseys etc, and the car driver can be doing the right thing, and yet accidents can still happen. We ride based on the probabilities, knowing that we can also be knocked over on foot, killed in a car, or mown down by some maniac.

In the Celtic Christian tradition, people often drew a circle around temselves, as a symbol of God's protection. It was called the caim, or 'encircling' prayer... Read on >>>> 

This is why you wear a bike helmet!

I felt the bang on the head when I was knocked off last night. it was hard, and I thought the helmet would be a mess. I couldn't find any mark on the outside of the helmet. When I finally got home, I looked at the inside. I reckon a fair amount of stress is needed to do that! Archived here >>>>