With us or against us?

Last week we had four people staying with us at Urban Seed for Mission Exposure, which is a time for people to find out a bit about what we do, and the ideas behind what we do. We started off the week by each sharing a bit about our faith journies, particularly how different things have influenced how we see God, the world and our place within the world. We tend to end up with some fairly diverse ideas in the room, so I started off the sharing time with some thoughts on some things Jesus said:

Then some people brought to Jesus a man who was blind and could not talk because he had a demon. Jesus healed the man, so that he was able to talk and see.
The crowds were all amazed at what Jesus had done. 'Could he be the Son of David?' they asked.
When the Pharisees heard this, they replied, 'He drives out demons only because their ruler, the Devil, gives him power to do so.'
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and so he said to them, 'Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long. And any town or family that divides itself into groups which fight each other will fall apart. So if one group is fighting another in Satan's kingdom, this means that it is already divided into groups and will soon fall apart! You say that I drive out demons because the Devil gives me the power to do so. Well, then, who gives your followers the power to drive them out? What your own followers do proves that you are wrong! No, it is not the Devil, but God's Spirit, who gives me the power to drive out demons, which proves that the Kingdom of God has already come upon you.
'No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.
'Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering.'
(Matthew 12:22-30)

An argument broke out among the disciples as to which one of them was the greatest. Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he took a child, stood him by his side, and said to them, 'Whoever welcomes this child in my name, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, also welcomes the one who sent me. For the one who is least among you all is the greatest.'
John spoke up, 'Master, we saw a man driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he doesn't belong to our group.'
'Do not try to stop him,' Jesus said to him and to the other disciples, 'because whoever is not against you is for you.'
(Luke 9:46-50)

This is a bit confusing, because it seems like Matthew has Jesus saying that people who aren't part of your group are against you, and as though Luke has Jesus saying that people from other groups are really trying to do the same things as us.
In 2001, after the terrorist attacks in the United States, George Bush paraphrased Jesus, saying to the nations of the world, 'Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.'
However, in both of these stories Jesus is actually working against division. In Matthew's gospel Jesus tells those who are trying to demonise him that he's doing the same thing as them, and that his power comes from the same place.
In Luke's story, Jesus' disciples are arguing about who's the best, and straight afterwards they're wanting to stop people who aren't part of their group from doing good things. Jesus tells them that just because someone is from a different group doesn't mean we're in competition with them.

Training week

This week we're taking a week off from running Credo, so that we can do some training and team-building stuff.
On Monday we went down to Sue's place at Ocean Grove, and in the afternoon we shared a bit about our faith journies. I started off the session by sharing a bit about two passages from the gospels, where Jesus says,

'Anyone who is not for me is really against me,'
(Matthew 12:22-30)

and,

'whoever is not against you is for you.'
(Luke 9:46-50)

I find it a bit confusing that Luke and Matthew put it different ways, but in both cases it seems like he's got a problem with people demonising people who aren't part of their group. (I think that's important to remember when we share about our experiences of different spiritual movements and ideas.)
In the afternoon some of us went to Norlane to visit the community dinner that the Seeds folk in Norlane have been running.
Took this from the van on the way home:

Today we were supposed to be doing overdose response training, but the person who was supposed to be running it had to pull out, so we'll be doing it some tiem in the next few weeks. Thursday and Friday we're doing mental health first aid.

Coke evangelism and other train station stuff

All the bins at Flinders Street Station have been replaced with transparent ones, so it's easier to see if someone's put a bomb in them or whatever:


When I was at the same station on Saturday, I noticed that Coke had a stage set up where they were giving away free drinks. They were actually yelling out slogans through a megaphone.

Some of us around here have been talking a bit about how similar the new Coke campaign (Why can't relationships come with a gap year? Why can't we have a big money job with zero responsibilities?) is to the offers the devil makes to Jesus during his forty days in the desert.

The devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.'
Jesus answered, 'It is written: "Man does not live on bread alone."'
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.'
Jesus answered, 'It is written: "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only."'
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down from here. For it is written:

'"He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."'

Jesus answered, 'It says: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."'
(Luke 4:3-12)

Coke and the devil both seem to be offering no limits, without any consequences.
I also wonder whether the only thing the new Coke contains that is actually good for someone's body is water, seeing as it contains no sugar.

Took this while I was waiting at Burnley, for the Glen Waverly train, so I could go and get my wallet, which was handed in at The Glen:


And when I got to Glen Waverly I noticed these on the train platform:

Hurricane Katrina: punishment?

Recently there’s been Christians saying that Hurricane Katrina ruined New Orleans because the people of the city had done bad stuff, like having lots of abortions and being poor. (Basically, karma.) Just been reading about how Jesus responded to similar ideas:

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.'
(Luke 13:1-5)

So Jesus says that people who die tragically aren’t any worse than people who die peacefully in their sleep at the age of a hundred and four. But he also says that this will happen to everyone who doesn’t return to God. At first this seems pretty contradictory to me.
I’m thinking now that Jesus is suggesting that a person appearing very unfortunate during their life isn’t necessarily a bad person, and that a person appearing very fortunate during their life is not necessarily a good person.
He seems to be saying that we’re all just as bad as each other, but that this can be accommodated and fixed if we agree to be reconciled with God.

More on hypocracy

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.
Then the Lord said to him, 'Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
'Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
'Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
'Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it.'
(Luke 11:37-44)

For some reason this reminds me of a clip from a surrealist film called Le Fantôme de la Liberté (Phantom of Freedom) we watched in Film Movements and Theories a few weeks ago. It’s a satire of the bourgeoisie (French middle class).
At the start of the clip it appears that a number of people have turned up to share dinner together. However, when they sit down at what appeared to be a dining table, it turns out to be surrounded by toilets. They all drop their trousers and skirts and sit down. As they use the toilets together they talk haute couture and complain about the smell of Madrid, until one of them excuses himself to go and eat.
And then, look! There’s me watching this clip, feeling distain for the middle class, and feeling that I’m so much better than them. Without God helping me change I’d be stuffed.

Jesus goes home

This is about when Jesus went back to his hometown and got to be the guest speaker in the synagogue:

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. ‘Isn't this Joseph's son?’ they asked.
Jesus said to them, ‘Surely you will quote this proverb to me: “Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.”’ (Luke 4:22-23)

It seems like Jesus is suggesting that they’re going to try and injure him, and see if he can save himself (‘Physician, heal yourself!’). Reminds me of later, when he’s being crucified, and people say, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’ (Luke 23:35)

Now Jesus says something they don’t like too much at all, and they do try to injure him:

‘I tell you the truth,’ he continued, ‘no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed — only Naaman the Syrian.’
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
(Luke 4:24-30)

Baptist John on ubuntu

'What should we do then?' the crowd asked.
John answered, 'The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.'
Tax collectors also came to be baptized. 'Teacher,' they asked, 'what should we do?'
'Don't collect any more than you are required to,' he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, 'And what should we do?'
He replied, 'Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely — be content with your pay.'
(Luke 3:10-14)

'Ubuntu'
'Ubuntu and shalom'

Two stories of Judas

In Matthew's account of the gospel, it says,

When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 'I have sinned,' he said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.'
'What is that to us?' they replied. 'That's your responsibility.'
So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
(Matthew 27:3-5)

But in Acts, Dr Luke writes,

With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.
(Acts 1:18)

I don't think I totally agree with inerrancy of the scriptures. I definitely think that they're inspired by God, but I still think that leaves room for human ¿errors?. (I'm a bit hesitant about describing them as errors.) In that ↑ case there's obviously two different stories of the same event. I'm pretty sure they can't both be right.