Illegal aliens

So we have Theresa and John staying with us this week. This afternoon John had a discussion with our staff about the implications of being foreign people in this land, and the need to either 'go back where we came from' to connect with our ancestral lands, or to connect with this land, but on the terms of it's tradition custodians. I didn't understand it that well, but I think that is okay for the moment. John connected these ideas to some of Paul's ideas:

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 hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (Acts 17:24-28)

John and Theresa also ran a workshop at the Den tonight, called 'Living on Aboriginal Land'. I wasn't able to go - but anyone who did, it'd be nice to hear your thoughts.

'Romans 1.1-25: a targum in the face of economic collapse'

Brian Walsh (co-author of Colossians Remixed, with Sylvia Keesmaat), has posted a targum (a bit like a remix) of the begining of Paul's letter to the Romans:

To all of you who live in the empire of global capitalism, to you who live at the very heart of that empire and are called out to be an alternative people: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace. You won’t have one without the other, and both are on offer from Jesus.

You can download the targum from Empire Remixed here.
Props to Jonny Baker.

Street magic

So on Friday night I was doing a city walk with some high school students from Canterbury Baptist Church, and we had to do the first bit on the front steps of the church, instead of in the sanctuary, because our annual fundraising concert was on in the sanctuary. So I was reading with the kids from the start of Mark's Gospel, and this lady who was walking past, looking like she was dressed for a night out on the town, stopped and said to us, 'What are you doing? Are you reading the Bible?' I said, 'Yeah, we're going 'round the city a bit and reading scripture in a few different places,' and she said, 'Are you Christians?' and I said we were. She said, 'Okay, I've got something to show you then.' I was thinking, Uh-oh, what's she going to do... She showed us a little red hankerchief and said, 'Sometimes people tell me that because you can't see God, he doesn't exist.' She squashed the hankerchief into her fist, and then opened to hand to show us that the hankerchief wasn't there anymore, and said, 'You can't see it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist!' And she meade it reappear again.

Blessed are the cheesemakers

Yesterday I bought some Gorgonzola for a recipe I was going to try. After tasting this cheese I don't know why anyone would want to buy ecstasy. Gorgonzola is much cheaper and it's legal. It might be safer, but I'm not sure.
Gorgonzola is proof that God exists. (And she makes cheese.)

'Questions for penal substitution'

Simon's done a post about some stuff that I've also been wondering about for a lot of my life as a Christian, but particularly over the last year. Read it here.
(In case you're wondering, penal substitution is the idea that God wouldn't or couldn't forgive human beings of their sin unless Jesus died.)

Fragmentation

On Saturday I caught the train up to Bendigo, to talk to the Christian Union group (the Christian club at the university) there, at their training weekend. I was talking about how our society is very fragmented, and about some of the implications that has for Christians.
The first aspect of fragmentation I talked about was the fact that there are a lot of divsions between different social groups, and Christians in particular can end up isolating themselves from the rest of society. I explained a bit about how we try to respond to social divisions in Credo (inviting streeties and corporates to share a meal at the same table), and then about how I moved onto res when I was at uni, after realising that just about all of my social networks were with Christians.
The second aspect of fragmentation I talked about was the way that we tend to see different areas of our lives as independant from each other and completely unrelated. We see our faith as being unrelated to politics, economics, ecology, education and other areas of life. This can effect the way Christians understand and share the gospel, leading to it only being about getting to go to heaven when one dies, and forgetting the stuff about the restoration of God's kingdom on Earth. In other words, we can become completely focused on Christ's death and resurrection, and foget how he lived. One thing that I suggested was praying and reading the scriptures in contexts that we generally don't consider to be spiritual - like at uni, or on the bus or train, after football training, et cetera. Also, when we see how everything is related to our spirituality, it's a lot easier (possibly even unavoidable) to share our spirituality with others.
I also mentioned a couple of things about how we've ended up alienated from the rest of God's creation. Although God's original purpose for human beings in Genesis was to look after the Earth (2:15), we tend to see the Earth as something seperate from ourselves, which is ours to exploit. Also, because we've allowed ourselves to become distanced from the rest of creation, we have less opportunity for God's creation to remind us of God, and it's more difficult to believe in his goodness, or even existence.

Yesterday I went up to Bendigo again (three times so far this year) to hear Paul Dyson talk about nuclear power, uranium mining and nuclear weapons. I took this 15-second exposure of the moon on the way back:

We don't get to see the heavens very clearly here in Melbourne because of the light pollution.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
(Psalm 8:3-4)

The Practice of the Presence of God

Have just been reading The Practice of the Presence of God. It is about Brother Lawrence, a 17th Century monk who was constantly aware of God's presence. This bit explains how he managed to consider God in everything he did:

When he began his business, he said to God with a filial trust in Him, 'O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy Presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance. Receive all my works, and possess all my affections.' As he proceeded in his work, he continued his familiar conversation with his Maker, imploring His grace, and offering to Him all his actions.
When he had finished, he examined himself how he had discharged his duty. If he found well, he returned thanks to God. If otherwise, he asked pardon and, without being discouraged, he set his mind right again. He then continued his exercise of the presence of God as if he had never deviated from it. 'Thus,' said he, 'by rising after my falls, and by frequently renewed acts of faith and love, I am come to a state wherein it would be as difficult for me not to think of God as it was at first to accustom myself to it.'

Seeing as we're an activist organisation, it's quite easy to just get caught up in doing lots of stuff, and to become disconnected God, who initially motivated us to do these things. So I am thinking that we might find Brother Lawrence's disciplines particularly helpful.
If you want to read the book, there's an online copy here.

God's voice in the chaordic advice of loved ones

I came to a realisation this afternoon, as I was sitting against the heater reflecting. I'm not sure how literally true it is, but I think it is true, in some way.
It seems sometimes like the people who are important to me are pulling me in different directions. But what I realised was that all of these people want good things for me. God is using each one of them to show me different things that are important for me to consider.
From what seems quite chaotic and confusing, only a good end can come, if I'm attentive to God's voice.
That realisation made things easier for me to understand, at least for that moment.

Oneness

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
(Mark 12:28-34)

Just been reading this. Was wondering if there was a connection between Jesus saying that God is one, and saying that the most important thing is for us to be undivided by loving God with everything we are. So I've been considering other things compete with God for my heart, my mind, my strength, my soul.

Hosier Lane, featuring the garbage of Hosier Lane

Wednesday afternoon, for Pain in the Arts (the Credo art group), I went for a walk with Andre and Marie around the city, so we could take pictures of what's going on leading up to the Games. They wanted to take some photos of Melbourne's wonderful street art, but most of it's been taken down, so we took a few photos of the bare walls.
Before we went back to Credo we went up Hosier Lane, one of the few places in the CBD that's not being sterilised to impress our visitors.









I love how art can make the ugliest things beautiful. Not just concrete walls, but even garbage:




I drew this when we got back:

Got me thinking again about a conversation we had with Brian McLaren, when he and Grace were visiting a couple of weeks ago. We (mostly Brian and Marcus) were talking about the implications of calling something (or someone) waste. How can a part of God's creation be considered waste?
Been thinking over the last six months or so about what a creation myth would look like if it developed completely in an urban environment. Would the creator spirit of an urban mythology create towers and trains and powerlines? Would it create some really good rubbish for the people to find uses for?

Job

I've been reading the book of Job over the last couple of weeks. Finished it this morning.
The book of Job is a really long poem, with prose bits at the start and finish.
In the first prose bit, YHWH is talking to Satan about Job, and what a good person Job is. Satan says that Job is only a good person because he is filthy rich, rather healthy for his age and has a model family. So YHWH makes a bet with Satan, that if Satan takes away Job's wealth, health and children, Job will still be a good person.
The poem it basically Job asking why YHWH has let his children to be killed, and him to become poor and sick. His friends tell him that it must be because he's not really as good as everyone thought, or that perhaps YHWH doesn't even care what happens to insignificant human beings. One of Job's friends, Elihu, says,

Bear with me a little longer and I will show you
that there is more to be said in God's behalf.
I get my knowledge from afar;
I will ascribe justice to my Maker.
Be assured that my words are not false;
one perfect in knowledge is with you.
(Job 36:2-4)

Seems a lot like hubris. Elihu seems to reckon that he is absolutely right about everything, which (from my experience) is just asking for trouble.
Eventually YHWH himself actually turns up. He doesn't really answer Job's questions, but asks Job about where he was when the world was created, and other tricky questions about how the world works. This is one of my favorite bits:

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
but they cannot compare with the pinions and feathers of the stork.
She lays her eggs on the ground
and lets them warm in the sand,
unmindful that a foot may crush them,
that some wild animal may trample them.
She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers;
she cares not that her labor was in vain,
for God did not endow her with wisdom
or give her a share of good sense.
Yet when she spreads her feathers to run,
she laughs at horse and rider.
(Job 39:13-18)

YHWH points out to Job and his friends the unlikeliness of an animal like the ostrich being sustainable. Perhaps YHWH is pointing out that he is involved with the world, refuting Job's friends' assertions that God is not interested in the problems of human beings?
In the end YHWH says that Job was right, and that he didn't deserve what he endured.

Waking Life: André Bazin and pantheism

There's this bit in Waking Life where the protagonist is in a cinema, watching two men, who seem to be in a cafe, talking about film. One of them says,

Cinema in its essence is about an introduction to reality. It's just that reality is actually reproduced. For Bazin, its not like a story telling medium, really. He feels like literature is better for telling a story than film. You know, if you tell a story, like a joke, like this guy walks into a bar, he sees a dwarf, that works really well because you're imagining this guy and this dwarf in the bar and there's this kind of imaginative aspect to it. But in film, you don't have that because you actually are filming a specific guy, in a specific bar, with a specific dwarf, of a specific height, who looks a certain way, right? So for Bazin, what the ontology of film has to do with is also what photography has to do with, except it has this dimension of time to it, and this greater realism to it. So it's about that guy, at that moment, in that space. And you know, Bazin is a Christian, so he believes that God obviously ended up being everything, and for him reality and God are the same. So what film is actually capturing is like God incarnate, creating. And this very moment, God is manifesting as this. And what the film would capture if it was filming us right now would be like God as this table, and God as you, and God as me, and God looking the way we look right now, and saying and thinking what we're thinking right now, because we are all God manifest in that sense. So film is actually like a record of God, or the face of God, or the ever changing face of God.

André Bazin was a French film critic who believed that film should (and could) show objective reality.
I'm not sure how accurate this guy's conclusion that 'Bazin is a Christian, so he believes that God obviously ended up being everything' is, but I think this guy is touching on some interesting stuff, like the idea that everything in the world says something about God. More like panentheism than pantheism.

Waking Life index

Mr T gives up his chains

Mr T is going to do a reality show called I Pity The Fool where he helps people deal with fools. He says he'll more likely be wearing a suit and bow-tie than his gold chains.

"Because of the situation we're in now (after Katrina), I told myself, 'No, T, you can never wear your gold again. ' It's an insult to God."

props to Kyle

Esther

Started reading the book of Esther the other day, including the deuterocanonical bits. (I'll post on why I've been reading the deuterocanonical books later.)
Anyway, some people reckon it shouldn't be included in the scriptures at all, some because it doesn't directly mention YHWH, and others because it's debated whether it is a historical book or a Jewish remix of a story from the Babylonian mythology. And other people don't like it because the Greek version has bits that the Hebrew version doesn't. Either way, I don't doubt that it's useful.
There's a great big elephant of an argument going on about the book of Esther it here at Wikipedia.

Anyway, so far I've read the first Septuagint bits, where Esther's relative Mordecai saves the King of Babylon from a conspiracy.
And I've read the first chapter from the Tanakh version, where the Queen doesn't do what the King says. Men all over the country start to worry that they won't be able to tell their wives what to do anymore either, so the King has the Queen executed.

Bushfire

bushfire
Originally uploaded by Zimbo.

To you, O Lord, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field. Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
( Joel 1:19-20)

This reminds me that we are in fact fortunate when 'crap' stuff happens, because it means we turn to God. Truly, the poor, the weeping, et cetera are blessed, because it's easier for them to find God.

Is God generous?

I’m in Melbourne at the moment, so tonight (Sunday night) I went to my old church, where I was baptised four years ago.
We read the parable (or riddle, as I’ve been thinking of them) about the workers at the winery (Matthew 20:1-16), and then Mark (the pastor) got us to talk about whether God is generous. He got us to look through some papers, and talk about whether the things that we found made God seem generous or not.
What stood out to me was a photograph of this guy at his eightieth birthday party. I thought, Maybe that’s an example of God being generous; he’s let this guy live to see his eightieth birthday. It was in the ‘Review’ section of The Age, in a review of a book about the last fifty years of African history. I then realised that it was Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe. This made me really angry. Why should this corrupt politician get to live to see eighty years?
I realised later I was being a lot like the winery workers who worked all day. They were cranky because they’d worked all day but got paid the same as those who’d worked only a little while. I was cranky because I thought God shouldn’t be generous to Mr Mugabe. I thought I was better than Mugabe because I’m only a corrupt, European civilian, which is (supposedly) much better than being a corrupt, African politician.

The voice of God

Thursday night, Shaun, one of the guys at the writers group, was talking about one of his regular customers who talks a lot about his Christian beliefs. Whenever Shaun asks this guy how he knows any of the stuff he believes, apparently this guy just says, 'Because God tells me.'

But that's not exactly what I want to blog about. I probably won't be able to blog about what I want to blog about, because it's not very coherent.
Anyway, I might have been thinking about how one hears God's voice.
There is an artcile here at Internet Monk about such things. And I'm not necessarily asking, 'How does one hear God's voice?'
What I'm thinking is something like: Surely if God says something to someone, that person is going to know it. I can't really imagine God saying, 'Damn, they didn't get it. I'll have to speak louder.'

Here endeth the incoherency.
Perhaps.

Come on, fall over!

Last night I decided I was going to go to the church service for the first time in a while, but found out that our church had cancelled the evening service so people could go to hear this guest speaker from interstate at one of the Pentecostal churches. I went along because I was pleased that we 'Baptists'* were going to a church that has previously been seen as some kind of opponent.

Anyway. At the end of the service, I went up the front to be prayed for, and the guest speaker pushed me over. Because I had my hands in the air and my head back, he got me off balance. I probably could have got my balance back and stopped him from pushing me over, but I didn't really want to resist him for some reason. I didn't want to make a fuss.
For anyone who is a bit confused as to why this guy would be pushing people over in church, it's something that happens sometimes or a lot in some - probably not all - pentecostal churches. I think it's supposed to be that the Holy Spirit knocks you down, and I don't doubt that it could be real sometimes.
However, the guy had been saying in his sermon that If you claim that God told you something, when you just made it up, then that is blasphemy (and I agree). Therefore, wouldn't pushing someone over and pretending it's the Holy Spirit doing it be just as blasphemous?

*I don't actually consider myself to be a Baptist.

The Sandman #5: A Game of You

On Sunday I read A Game of You, from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.

Here's a page from it (click to view it full size):

What's just happened is that Thessaly (the one with the big glasses) has just summoned the Moon, who doesn't appear to be very happy.

It seems like the depiction of the Moon's been influenced by the idea that God is three but also one, with the threefold facial features, and the echoes in the central frame.

Also, when the Moon says,

You you you, need need need something thing thing from from from me me me? What have you given me? What have you done for me? Why should I do anything for you?

it reminds me of when YHWH shows up in front of Job and points out that he's far greater than Job and owes him no explanation for what Job's gone through (Job 38-41)

The Moon never catually admits to being obliged to do whatever Thessaly says. When Thessaly says, 'you are mine to disperse of, mine to command,' the Moon just says, 'Perhaps,' and warns Thessaly that her hubris will be her undoing.
I don't want to say anything about what happens later, in case it ruins it for someone who hasn't read it and wants too. So to keep reading, select the blank space below.
Because Thessaly summons the Moon, there's a hurricane, which ends up destroying the block of flats the main characters live in. Kind of like a nemesis.

Micaiah's vision

This is what Micaiah said to Ahab (once Ahab had agreed to summon him):

I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?'
One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.'
'By what means?' the LORD asked.

'I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said.
'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.'

So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.
Micaiah, 2 Chronicles 18:18-22

I don't get it. It seems to be saying, pretty blatantly, that YHWH was behind the deception of the prophets. Also, since he was trying to trick Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead, why did he let Micaiah know what was really going on? I suppose he knew that Ahab hated Micaiah, and wouldn't want to listen to him, but I'm still confused.