sustain:if:able kiwi

fixing your Bible when it doesn’t make sense

What do you do when a book doesn’t make sense? Here’s one fairly harsh choice – you rip out the bits that don’t fit. (It’s a scene from the Firefly series).

It’s not a novel solution. Back in the first century, Marcion of Sinope decided the God of the Old Testament did not make sense with the God of the New Testament. (More on the God of Old Testament here). He kept Paul’s letters, ripped out all the Old Testament and cut and pasted together his own Gospel (called the Gospel of Marcion). The logical part of my brain wants to know what Marcion did when Paul quoted various verses from the Old Testament. Surely those should have been deleted, leaving quite a “holey” Bible.

What is interesting is to ask Why? Why does it not make sense? For River, it doesn’t fit her patterns of logic and symbolism. Which strikes me as ultimately quite arrogant. Why should a readers patterns of logic become the judge of the text of another?

Shepherd Book suggests to River another approach. “It’s not about making sense. It’s about believing in something. And letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It’s about faith. You don’t fix faith. It fixes you.” This suggests a certain humility. The reader remains open to mystery, to what is beyond their understanding. It also has the danger of a naive fundamentalism, a simple “The Bible says it and I believe it and that settles it.”

I love the tug of war that begins to develop. “Give me that”, says Shepherd as he tries to tug the Bible away from River. “You hang on to those then” he says as he gives up. Who should “own” the Bible. Shepherd? Or River?

Historically, Christianity has considered the Bible God’s gift to neither River nor Shepherd, but to the church. As Westerners, we like to assume individual ownership, when in reality, the Bible is the book of the community. This provides another way to think about what to do when the Bible makes no sense. It is to seek the wisdom of the community. This alternative does overcome naive fundamentalism, as the “I” decides to enter a conversation with the wisdom and insight of other readers.

The danger is that this notion of being a “gift to the church” becomes a power trip. The history of patriarchy is evidence of how one group in society can assume power over a reading. So this notion of “gift to the church” needs to be applied with care. This for me, is one of the most important insights of postmodernity: the suspicion of how power is used to supress absent voices. (For more on this, see here).

When a text no longer makes sense, frustration is inevitable. We face a range of options: ripping out pages, naive fundamentalism, claiming exclusive ownership, failing to appreciate the interpretative power we have. Which starts to make sense of the following prayer:

Our Friend, who is in heaven,
sacred is Your Word.
Your kingdom come,
Your Words be heard on earth as they are in heaven.
Forgive our neglect of them in the past
as we forgive those who neglect them around us.
Lead us toward an encounter with You
each time we delve into the Scriptures.
That Your presence, Your power,
and Your glory might be ever present among us
now and forever. Amen.

a christian response to swine flu part 2 (creative storytelling of Mark 1:39-45)

Today, in response to Mark 1:39-45, we prayed for all healthworkers. Everyone was given at the door either a white piece of cloth or a gold piece of cloth. One – white – stood for Mother Teresa, the other – golden – stood for Princess Dianna. Both became famous for touching the sick. And the challenge for us, whether rich or poor, young or old, to be willing to touch the sick.

In a creative moment, the Bible text became a story, of Jane and her rabbit and how healing touch overcame the impact of quarantine. (Following on from last Sunday’s creative storytelling of Mark 2:1-12- Bill and Ben and their goat called raisins).

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Bill, Ben and their goat called raisins: Mark 2:1-12 storytelling sermon

Here is a storytelling in relation to Mark 2:1-12. (And in relation to the question I asked on Friday, about what is sin to a nine year old). The service today included a focus on a ministry reaching boys in the community. Which got me thinking about what it means for men to be followers of Jesus and how friendship and innovation (what we Kiwis call no.8 wire) might be important to how men express their faith.

Then reading Mark 2:1-12, verse 5 stood out: “Son, your sins are forgiven.” It got me thinking about being a “boy” in this story and having faith honoured by God. I’d also been reminded during the week of the Message translation of Romans 8:15-16: Christian life as adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?”. Add to that a pastoral conversation with a new community mum, so scared that church folk might glare at her baby when it makes a noise. Other background resources included this description of Capernaum, typical first century housing and what boys in Jesus day might play.

From that emerged Bill and Ben and their goat called raisins, who get to see God, with straw in his hair, mud in eye, grin on face, talking, back and forth as best mates! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together – it was quite some fun. Big hat tip to my blogging commenters, and my two Aussie storytelling friends, who offered critical comment as the thing took shape over the last few days.

Bill and Ben were probably too similar in name. And being in a sermon slot, I might have got a bit preachy at the end explaining a few textual issues. But success was the 10 year old community kid in the front row who kept getting drawn back in, the young dad who went home wanting to have his own crack at writing a Bible story and the number of men who gathered around to reflect, in essence, on being male and being Christian.

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art, theology and worship: Pentecost 09

An www.friend emailed me this link, a video explanation by an artist of a recent large scale Pentecost art installation.

I find it fascinating as follows:
1. The way it weaves art into church practice, particularly in preaching, including the art installation explained, the use of interactivity, the role of imaginative storytelling. Great work.

2. As an example of using art in large scale gatherings (a conference of hundreds of people). i love the way that this is participative and interactive, ie people given colour cards and invited to sit on seats, because most art comes complete with a sign “please don’t touch”, and thus reduces art to eyes only, rather than a five sensory experience. Having said that, I’d like to see more mess. Sitting on a chair is pretty sterile. I’d like to see people invited to paint prayers of thanks on the chairs of the “other”, to place their palm print on chairs as signs of “Spirit-led” discipleship. Stuff that allows much more messy engagement!

3. The way that art still needs to consider Biblical accuracy. One of the premises of the art piece is that in Acts 2, the people in Jerusalem were other ie different and that difference was in the fact they were enemies. That’s not how I read the presence of Parthians, Medes, Elamites in Acts 2:9. Since it was a major Jewish festival, they were most likely God-fearing pilgrims. They had travelled hundreds of miles to be present at this major feast. So they were other, different in terms of ethnicity and language, rather than enemies. So the art explanation is certainly right in it’s basic premise, the need to make space to hear God through people different than us, but it could have got there simply on the basis of language and culture.

what is sin to a 9 year old boy?

Updated: the finished product ended up here.

I’m working on Sunday’s sermon. As part of the morning service, we welcome one of our community ministries, to 8-12 year old community kids. Since we’re working our way through the early chapters of the gospel of Mark, the story of Jesus forgiving and healing the paralyzed man stands out as quite appropriate.

I mean, this guy had good mates, who stuck with him even when he got sick. This guy also had problem solving mates, willing to whip the lid of a roof. And I’ve started writing a story. I’ve not done storytelling as a sermon for a while. And it seems a good way to access this Bible text through the eyes of a 9 year old.

Currently I’ve got Bill and Ben and their goat called raisins. How they argue, as boys do, and fight as boys do, about the boring old synagogue and what God actualy, really looks like. How Ben got sick and Bill’s a good mate who sticks beside in. Until the day of the big adventure, when Bill and Ben suddenly realise they’ve suddenly discovered what God actually does look like – straw in hair and mud in mouth.

What I need to know is this – given Mark 2:5, when Jesus says “Son, your sins are forgiven” – what is sin to a 9 year old boy?

today I split the church

And it seemed to work well! In our Sunday morning congregation I am preaching through the gospel of Mark. The text today was Mark 1:14-20. Jesus comes proclaiming the Kingdom and forming a community around that proclaimation. It seemed a good time to talk about the (me-God) gospel of individual salvation in contrast to the gospel of Kingdom community. (Beautifully summarised by Scot McKnight here and here.)

Now for some people, I wondered if this might be new. But for others at Opawa, it might not be at all. Equally, some at Opawa enjoy the Bible backfilling, while others like to get practical and to discuss.

Which is how I split the church. After a 12 minute introduction, I offered people a choice. Those who wanted more Bible were welcome to stay and I would provide a further 10 minutes of background.

Those who wanted to discuss and apply, were welcome to move into the foyer. I had made up a worksheet, and they could gather in groups, discuss and note their observations, and were welcome to return for the final song and benediction.

We have a growing culture of participation and workshopping in groups. And our foyer has sofas. So while this is the first time I’ve done something like this in terms of offering choice within a sermon, it seemed to work well, to cater for a range of learning styles all within one overall framework.

(For those interested, here is the worksheet I made up, simply taking two of my powerpoint slides, adding three questions, blowing them up as A3 and providing pens.)

a wilderness faith

Update: I think this sermon has roots in this reflection I wrote in 2005 – on the place of wilderness faith for the emerging church.

I don’t normally put up sermons here, both due to time constraints and the fact that sermons are a spoken, not a written encounter.

(Taken by Mike Bischoff here)

But there’s always a time to break a rule. Also because this is the sermon I would have liked to preach to frame a “wilderness spirituality2go” web-project I designed last year. Everyone was given a rock, and this was used at the end, by way of prayerful mediation. So with a few edits, here is a reflection on Mark 1:2-13 and the need for wilderness in spirituality.

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It’s all in the story

Hat tip to Paul Windsor for a creative spark.

It’s all in the story – It’s the advertising byline for TV3 news. It includes billboards with fatigued reporters in Afghanistan and well-groomed presenters in city streets.

The news is to find the story and tell the story. This is not “story” as in fictional, fairy story, but story as in an eyewitness account that has implications for how then we might live.

On Sunday I start a series on the gospel of Mark. The purpose of Mark is found in 1:1
This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the son of God.
It began as the prophet Isaiah had written … (GNB)

Mark has found a story and is telling a story that has implications for how then we might live. It’s a story rooted in God’s big story – from Adam, through the liberation found in Moses, to the unifying leadership of David, to the passion for justice and the gentle comfort spoken through the prophets.

It’s a story which turns the spotlight on Jesus who is the new Adam and the real liberator and the ultimate unifier who is both comfort and passion.

Might be a story worth reporting, in person, using the best of contemporary technologies, through us as embedded journalists ready, live, with some implications of how then we might live ….

preaching Christ in a credit crunch

Blog question: If you had the opportunity to teach a four-week sermon series to a congregation that would help them sift through some of the current economic issues, what would your topics be? (And just to be clear, I’m not talking about a giving or money management series, but something that reflects a biblical mindset towards economics in general).

My response: Hi, I’m working on this very question, down here in New Zealand, as my seminary has called a conversation (tonight) between business and community leaders and theologians (and I’ll be preaching on Christ and the credit crunch this Sunday at our Harvest Festival). Here’s my suggestion:
Week 1 – creativity – co-creators with God in 21st century – Genesis 1, Psalm 8, Parable of sower, parable of talents
Week 2 – justice – distribution of resources – Old Testament, host in Luke 14, Zaccheus, Joseph of Arimathea
Week 3 – sustainability – how to live within ourselves individually, communally, nationally
Week 4 – how then should we live – stories of how Kingdom is being earthed in local communities in response to credit crunch.

thoughts? comments?

bible days kickoff

Gospel of John, this Saturday 21 February, 3:30-5:30pm, Opawa Baptist. In just two hours you will get a helicopter overview of the gospel of John, skills in how to apply it to life today and tools to encourage ongoing reading. Open to anyone (with a $5 cost for those outside Opawa).

Why Bible Days? Last year the Bible Society surveyed over 3,300 Kiwis about their Bible reading habits. They found that only 11% of Christians read the Bible daily and only 23% of New Zealanders regularly discuss the teachings of the Bible with others. Not the best stats.

At the same time, I had been reading the history of the Bible Reading Fellowship. It started from one local church, keen to encourage Bible reading, who began to offer monthly Bible teaching, linked to daily Bible reading. I was struck by the way this would deepen reading by applying scholarship, the way that one-off evenings in fact allow continual promotion of what is a regular practice and the potential to blend the individual and the corporate.

Hence Bible days. Seven times in 2009 we have asked some excellent Kiwi Bible teachers for two hours of their best on their favourite Bible book. The books are chosen based on the daily Bible reading plan published in the church newsletter. In other words, in the week the Bible reading plan switches to the gospel of John, so comes the Bible day – Saturday, 21 February.

Previously we have provided overview courses – how to read the Old Testament and New Testament for all it’s worth. Well worth doing. But once the course, is done, what next? With Bible days, we are freed by the lectionary calendar, able to offer short 2 hour bursts that sync with our existing practices around Bible reading.

As the project builds (it won’t all happen the first day) we hope to
– make the 2 hours podcastable, so anyone can access it.
– place in the 24/7 room resources to allow further study
– provide ways online and offline to encourage ongoing daily discussion.

I’m quietly excited. It feels simple, yet allows multiple access points to different generations. And maybe, in the process and through the mix of 2 hour teaching, daily reading, internet technologies and multiple discussion options, Opawa might actually become better Bible readers. (more explanation here).

cartoon theology over a stimulating lunch

Had a most stimulating lunch with Paul Windsor, who flew down from Auckland for the day to discuss his potential D. Min dissertation. He’s making some fascinating linkages between the Engels scale, contemporary communication, the parables, church billboards and cartoons.

“fill the billboard space outside the church with self-deprecating, subversive imagery that constitutes a public confessional for our ‘unChristian’ behaviour and creates discussion in church and community”

And he’s looking for cartoonist’s to interview about how their creativity works, how they read culture and frame their responses. So, blog readers, who are the cartoonists you admire for their ability to read contemporary culture subversively, humorously, tongue well placed in cheek?

missional imagination resouces

Some of the resources I used yesterday; speaking on “leading in a post-Christian era” with Churches of Christ, South Australia:

These books; ONE – Picturing Christian Witness by Stanley Skreslet: and

TWO – Do Christians know how to be Spiritual? by John Drane:

THREE clips from this video of church on the move;

FOURthis video of missional imagination;

Benched from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

updated: The broadband Bible. A living text for I or we?

update: The seminar went well. About 30 in the room and some excellent interaction. I got a bit polemical at the end, but hey, I’m not a protest-ant for nothing! It took longer to prepare than I thought, with my thoughts ending up being about 3,000 words and taking a whole day to pull together. But I probably have the guts off a paper, (which is a bonus) – just need to find a home for it. — Wanted — journal publishing in the area of how the Bible is used in communities today.

I am due to deliver a post-graduate seminar at Tabor College tomorrow, 10 am-12pm. Here is where I think I am going ….

Modernity has been traced to Rene Descartes famous dictum: I think therefore I am. While a robust Trinitarian theology offers a more complex relationship between the one and the many, the “I” and the “we”, Descartes might well feel at home amid much contemporary church practice, where the dominant use of the Bible tends to focus on the intellectual employment by one individual, commonly called a sermon.

1 – art images referencing Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
2 – the authoring of the Pauline corpus
3 – the Book of Kells and a Celtic scriptorium
4 – the front cover of a NIV Life application Commentary
5 – the practice of Dwelling in the Word
6 – Lectionary readings
7 – Kingdom signs blogs

u2 conference

At last! I’ve been looking for an excuse for a few years now, an excuse to put some of my course teaching, into words! As part of my Living the Biblical text in a contemporary context course (which I am teaching at Tabor Adelaide, in a few weeks), I look at how U2 develop, and then redevelop their songs. I use the metaphor of DJing (as developed in my Out of Bounds Church? book). So this conference just might be excuse to turn the teaching into a paper!