Tuesday, August 11, 2009

old prayers, good prayer

Please give us, Father-God, a clean start for beginners, intelligence to the young, aid to those who are running hard, repentance to those who fall, a revived spirit to those who are lukewarm, and to those who have given their best a good ending. Amen.

Irenaeus of Lyon (died AD 202)

Posted by steve at 03:46 PM

Monday, August 10, 2009

are you playing, or are you hiding, behind that gay card?

Big dust up in the New Zealand media while I was in Australia, as some (only some) of the allowances paid to New Zealand politicians were publicly named. In the midst of a recession, the Beehive residents have been made to look like greedy pigs, manipulating the public purse for financial gain, while demanding fiscal restraint from the suffering public.

Just this morning I was enjoying Colin Espiner’s opinion piece. “We may now know how much each MP has spent on travel and accommodation over the past six months. However, we still don’t have the details. We don’t know how much each MP spent on spousal travel. We don’t know how much was spent on international versus domestic travel (except for ministers). And, more importantly, we don’t know the reason for each trip. MPs have argued the public does not need that much detail, and to require it would be an invasion of their privacy.” (Paragraph 9, 10, 11). So there we are, a general comment on each MP (emphasis mine).

This was followed by turning the spotlight on specific MP’s. First to be mentioned was Wayne Mapp and Bill English. And then in paragraph 24, “MP Chris Carter is one of Parliament’s biggest spenders of our money, despite never having had portfolios that demand much travel.” No mention of sexuality by the way (emphasis mine).

Now I notice that the aforementioned Chris Carter is suggesting exactly the opposite. “Why was there no interest in any other minister taking their partner with them, only me? Why should that be? The only conclusion that I can draw from that is it’s because I’m gay, and that if I was a heterosexual minister taking my husband or wife with me, it would be of no interest.”

Well excuse me, Chris Carter, but as a tax payer I am interested in ALL MP’s use of travel. And so is the New Zealand media.

So from where I sit, I think you’ve simply pulled out gay card simply to shut down debate. You’re in the spotlight and rather than front, you’re trying to hide behind the gay card.

And that, frankly, IMHO is a pretty sad use of your sexuality. What’s more, it seems demeaning to all those who have fought so hard to remove sexuality as an excuse for discrimination. Step out of the closet Mr Carter!

Posted by steve at 09:48 PM

Sunday, August 09, 2009

we’re not as mature as we think we are

This morning’s sermon was a bit of a rework of my week. Since I’ve essentially given 13 different talks in the last 5 days, I thought there was some sense, being back at Opawa, in doing a recap. So I talked about how faith grows.

The Bible text was Luke 2:41-52, how does Jesus grow? We read the text through the eyes of a 12 year old, and then the parents of a 12 year old. Linked in with this, I contrasted the image of faith growing by passing through hoops – baptism, confirmation, ordination, with faith growing as a tree.

To quote John and Olive Drane: “our underlying theological starting points will to a large extent determine how we feel children can or should articulate faith. Those who prioritise the axis of Fall and Redemption, seeing people as irredeemably sinful until touched by the Church, are likely to view spiritual development in terms of jumping through hoops in order to conform to church order and discipline .. their real subtext is ‘you can be part of the community of faith, but we’ll let you in on our terms.’ If we are to prioritize the doctrines of Creation and Incarnation, however, our starting point will be rather different: ‘You are a person made in God’s image, how can we help develop that.'” (Family Fortunes, 119)

This suggests the image of trees; that all trees (young and old) are real trees, that trees grow in the right environment and in a slow, orderly way.

The ensuring conversation got pretty heated, as we wrestled with our images of Jesus as fully divine and fully human and of parenting. And the great (after church) question of what marks maturity? Are we as mature as we like to think we are?

With hoops, I guess it is simply have you jumped through the right hoops. With trees, what marks maturity? Perhaps the ability to give shelter, to be complex in structure, to be more likely to survive hard times.

What is it for you? What do you think should mark Christian maturity?

Posted by steve at 07:51 PM

Saturday, August 08, 2009

new mates, old friends

I feel like I’ve made a whole lot of new mates and shared a pretty special week with various leaders from around Australia. God took us to some deep and probing places and the final worship was a wonderful end, participative, joyous, attentive to relationship, weaving so many threads of the week around God’s grace in communion.

Which meant a trip back, and great to travel with Paul, who’d come with me from the pastoral team at Opawa/Angelwings end. Normally I travel alone, all exhausted and introverted and it was enriching to have time to hang, talk, laugh, reflect.

And now I type this sitting beside my youngest, who is also typing on her laptop. Home. And soon the hockey “lot” will rush through the door. Home. With best friends.

Posted by steve at 11:20 AM

Friday, August 07, 2009

father abraham where art thou?

Rublevs Icon, painted by a 15th century Russian monk, is a well-known depiction of the Trinity. Based on the account of Abraham welcoming three strangers in Genesis 18, it is an attempt to express what the communing love of God. (A short (children’s) talk I’ve done is here.)

I’ve loved the Icon, finding it very helpful for connecting with God.

But in recent times, as I’ve been pulling the material together for this conference teaching topic of faith:full families, I’ve become disturbed.

Where’s Abraham? Why isn’t he in the icon? He’s been written out of his own story.

Which seems a great shame. Because it seems to me that Father Abraham needs all the help he can get from God, to be sitting among God’s communing love as much as possible. Father Abraham is an appalling parent, sending Ishmael away and offering his wife as a sexual plaything to Pharaoah.

Faith:full families desperately need to be able to imagine God sitting around their everyday, ordinary, kitchen tables and in that sense, Rublev does a disservice by making Abraham absent from the table of Genesis 18.

Posted by steve at 10:56 AM

Thursday, August 06, 2009

can the dry bones of this church in this city live?

I am speaking at a retreat centre called Nunyara. The food is fantastic, the accommodation hospitable and the Australians friendly. The retreat centre is based in the hills, and the chapel has a breathtaking view over the city. Yesterday it was clouded in fog, offering a mystical yet loving enclosure.

Today the sun was out, offering a breathtaking view of city skyscrapers and streets running into the sea.

Morning worship was expertly and creatively curated by Sandy Boyce. With the conference theme of Breathe – she offering a creative, tactile, spacious engagement with the Spirit as lifegiving breath to dry bones in Ezekiel 37. All participants were offered a stone, cold, hard, to consider as pray began.

Can these dry bones live? A provocative question to ask amidst a Uniting church conference, a denomination declining in number and growing in age. A poignant question to consider as I sat in chapel and gazed over the city of 1 million people. In the grace of God, can this church denomination, amid this city, live?

Posted by steve at 01:36 AM

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

working hard, gaining lots

Here’s my current schedule in terms of speaking this week.

Monday – 2 hours + initiating small groups + initiating case study, then evening “interview/conversation”
Tuesday – 2 hours + 3.5 hour workshop
Wednesday – 2 hours + 3 hour coaching + meeting regarding book project
Thursday – 2 hours + debrief case study + meeting
Friday – 2 hours, then homeward bound (5 hour flight).

The evenings involve preparing for the next day, mainly powerpoint and getting my head around the material. It’s all new stuff. I’m enjoying it tremendously and the response has been very positive. There has been a lot of energy as the rawness of the Bible, the dysfunction of the family life of Abraham and David, has intersected our human stories and our family ministries today. But I’m working hard and would appreciate prayers for health and energy.

Posted by steve at 01:13 AM

Monday, August 03, 2009

not noticed by Jesus

Every now and again a Bible lectionary reading jumps out at me.

Take the story of Peter and John healing the lame man in Acts. So 3:2 “Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts” jumped out.

Now Jesus was a regular temple goer. So he must have walked past this man lots of time. And the man remains unhealed. It’s not until Peter and John walk past, post-Pentecost, that something happens.

They do what Jesus never did, heal this man. Was Jesus not aware? I doubt it. Instead we have the mystery of God: a saviour who does not heal everyone and followers of the Saviour prepared to do what the Saviour never did.

Posted by steve at 05:26 PM