sustain:if:able kiwi

a stuffed saturday mouth or preaching what about the canaanites?

You know the feeling.

It looks attractive. So you take a bite. A big bite actually. Bigger than was necessary. And now you’re stuck chewing.

Not enough mouth space. Needing water but no room to drink. Swallow too quickly and you’re digesting unprocessed lumps sure to give you cramps.

That’s me. Last Sunday was the first crack at a 6 week series on Deuteronomy. A book about change, about how the people of God respond to change, how they refuse to stay desert bound, but commit to explore new practices in a new place. Great series for a church in change in a changing world.

Gleefully I had announced the series. That would include “What about the Canaanites? How can a God of love kill the Canaanites?”

Why? Yes I know it’s an important question. Yes I know it’s a question all thinking and caring Christians need to face. But really, why did I need to take that bite. I’m still chewing. It’s Saturday. And Sunday’s acoming.

Updated: I think it came together well. Some good feedback. Good interest in the extra handouts I prepared on reading the “law” and ‘what about the Canaanites. The question I am left with is: should I even be preaching this stuff. Joyce Meyer’s in town and is “so inspirational.” And here I am, preaching hard texts from the Old Testament. What the heck should we be doing from our pulpits?

baptist biblical imaginations

My particular interest is not so much in what Baptists do with the Bible, but how they do it. Modernity has deeply corroded our imaginations, reducing interpretation to the individual and the intellect. Ironically, postmodernity encourages an interpretive community (Fish et al), which has parrallels with our Baptist origins and it is reflection on the nourishment of such practices, their rigour and framing, within Baptistic congregations that I believe should be central.

sermons, videoblogging and mark 14

Last year at Opawa we experimented with videoblogging sermons. Put simply, the idea was to get someone wrestling with Biblical text in real time, real life situations. So here is Sunday nite’s video sermon, with Paul, one of our pastoral team, wrestling with Mark 14:7; The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. We had sent this verse out as a text challenge during the week. We invited some people to respond to this verse as a rich person, and others to respond to this verse as a poor person. And then we played the videoblog.

Is your Bible broadband? updated

Before you answer, think about the most recent church service you went to. Think about what practices affirmed the Bible was for the I, the individual? And think about what practices affirmed the Bible was for the we, the church?

So, is the Bible for the I, the individual? Or is the Bible for the we, the church?

Updated: Marty made this great comment, which I add below, plus a bold a contrary, counter practice, that I employed at Opawa on Sunday, as part of our “we engagement”. (This is not to say we’ve got it sussed, simply because I suspect that it is in this detail that the conversation needs to happen).

1. In our church, the preacher reads from the Scripture (most of the time) and then preaches from it (most of the time). Nobody else in the building gets to comment in that forum. No other voice is heard. Is the Bible just for the preacher? The congregations were asked what strategies they employed to discover the meaning of a new word, and the sermon was then shaped by the responses

7. 70 minutes of the 75 minute service is filled with the voices of the preacher, worship leader, singers and church business. Does God’s ‘voice’ get drowned out? Why don’t we hear the Bible for half an hour?

Can we keep the comments going …. the particular practices which surround our use of the Bible ….

the soundscapes of everyday life

I went to see Across the Universe today. It’s not a great movie. It has some decidedly wierd bits and it struggles to decide whether it should be driven by the songs or by the plot.

But it is a fascinating movie to watch in terms of missional church and cultural change research. It takes near 30 Beatles songs and places them in the context of the lives and loves of young adults facing the 60s, growing up in the aftermath of World War 2, facing Vietnam and race riots. In so doing, the songs become a soundscape of their lives and their context. The movie suggests an entire generation shaped by Hey Jude and Strawberry Fields. In other words, a pop cultural worldview rather than an intellectual worldview.

Such a possibility is what made Tom Beaudoin’s Virtual Faith, so fascinating, for he proposed a generation formed by pop culture. It is a similar trajectory to that proposed by Michel de Certeau in his The Practice of Everyday Life who argued that in order to understand cultural change, we must live at the level of everyday life, listening to the microtransformations being made by ordinary people. It is a project given tangible shape in Sardar’s The A to Z of Postmodern Times, in which he suggests a grammar for our decade based on reading lifestyle magazines. What these books do academically, the movie Across the Universe does visually and musically.

In my missional coaching classes I talk about micro-climates, meso-climates and macro-climates. That we need to listen to the micro-stories of our streets, the meso-stories of our suburb and city, and the macro-stories of our globalised world. What Across the Universe does so well is combine these three so well; the micro-stories of Jude, the meso-stories of Liverpool life, the macro-stories of Vietnam.

A few months ago, Al Roxburgh watched Atonement movie and asked what it means to form leaders in a culture losing memory. He quoted Goethe, “He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living hand to mouth.”

Across the Universe raises another possibility; that “She who cannot draw on three decades of popular culture is living hand to mouth.” I left the cinema humming Hey Jude.

Hey, Jude, don’t be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better

Practically, we need to, in response to the incarnation, let our pop cultural world get under our skin. To sit with the everyday narratives, whether micro-, meso- or macro-. To refuse to pay it cool, as a starting point for our missiology.

finding community voice part 2

In my last post, I celebrated helping a community find their own voice around Scripture. The upside is this genuine sense of a group of people gathered under a text and the realisation that the Spirit is the teacher and we are all learners.

The downside is when people bring their own agenda into the room. We all bring our previous experiences and learnings into a room and when used well, these can enhance a community voice. But they need to be placed carefully alongside the discipline of becoming genuine listeners, to a Bible text and to each other and to the Spirit.

Often when I do speaking around, and move into processes of helping a community find voice, I strike people who are not in fact listening to Bible and to each other, but are in fact using (abusing even), the space I have gifted the group, to bring their agenda’s into a room. My gut tells me that an audience participant is in fact doing this. And the coffee conversations often confirm this, as the agenda is named.

And so, as the one leading the process, I simply have to move the session on, because the disciplines have been broken and the “moment” lost.

And this is disappointing, and frankly immature. I too have lots of agendas and could spout on my hobby horses for hours. Indeed, I have been asked to speak to this group because of my charism. And yet I chose to spend my time seeking to elevate the Biblical text within a community. And so it is sad to see these moments highjacked.

In other words, this is a task best done in community and repeated over time, so that the disciplines grow. And it is a discipline that those with agenda and passion and existing knowledge find hardest. In other words, clergy!!

finding our community voice

Churches breed passivity. Over years, congregations have newsletters thrust into hands, visions spoken over their lives and the Bible dictated to them. It’s a lazy form of Christianity that breeds passive consumers.

Over the last few weeks, it has felt like Opawa has finally found it’s voice. Twice in the last 2 weeks, in the middle of sermon, I have invited congregational engagement, and been delighted by the depth of engagement and interaction.

Today we were exploring Acts 8:26-40 and I invited one third of the congregation to be the Ethiopian, another to be Philip, another third to be angel/Spirit/Lord. What began as a simply Bible reading suddenly developed into a vigorous chaired engagement back and forth between each of these groups.

It’s taken 4.3 years of encouragement and risk taking and perseverance, as people have got used to being asked to think, have realised that they can learn for themselves and that we are richer as we work together on the text.

waitangi day thoughts, thanks to Paul Moon

Today in New Zealand is a public holiday in honour of Waitangi Day, that moment in 1840 when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and when the Tangata Whenua and the Crown agreed to a shared future, one nation and two people’s.

It means for me that today is a lecture day. But because Luke 10 sends the missional church out, instead of gathering my missional church leadership students together, I have sent them out, the 15 in Auckland and the 17 in Waikato, to walk their local communities. They are invited to watch and listen to what people are up to today, and what that says about the narratives of ordinary people in ordinary communities. Over the next weeks they will interact online about this and I am looking forward to reading what they discover.

In preparation for today, I have been reading Paul Moon’s The Newest Country in the World. A History of New Zealand in the Decade of the Treaty. He concludes with these thoughts:

“The idea of New Zealand was not created, it evolved in an organic fashion as much in spite of as because of the policies of its rulers in the 1840s …. Thus, although New Zealand bore all the hallmarks of a colonial dependency, its destiny had already fallen into its own hands, and was ready to given shape.”

That suggests that it’s time to move beyond the crippling ideas of colonisation. I am by no means downplaying the need for justice and restitution for the past. I am simply reminded that this country is what we have made it, all nations, Tangata whenua (people of the land) and Tangata tiriti (people of the Treaty).

And that this country will be what we have make it, all nations, Tangata whenua (people of the land) and Tangata tiriti (people of the Treaty). I am glad to be part of this organic evolution and I pray that my students and my church can be a grace-filled part of this nation’s future.

Links:
Some history here. Waitangi Day worship here. Waitangi Day sermon here

Edmund Hillary and a theology of atonement

Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt Everest, died over the weekend. He was a man that perhaps best embodied “the spirit and essence” of New Zealand and will be honoured with a State funeral.

I used Edmund Hillary as an example in a sermon a few years ago. I was wrestling with the gap between the worldview of Jesus day and the worldview of our day, specifically how the world of Jesus believed that one person could represent all of humanity and thus first Adam, and second Jesus might be representative of sin and redemption. (My Bibical text was 2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

Yet when we approach the Bible, we do so from an individualized, Western worldview. In our world, one person does not speak or act for everyone. Which raises a crucial question for a theology of the atonement: How can Adam’s actions and Jesus as representative include independent, free-acting Western individuals?

And here is part of my sermon: Yet think with me a moment. Perhaps we do have our representatives? First, we do have representative New Zealanders. Look at our bank notes. On our $5 note is a portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary. When we think of Hillary, we think of toughness, focus, humility and giving, values that we believe might represent the best of New Zealanders. Hillary sums up many qualities that are representative of being a New Zealander. His values represent values we aspire to. There are times in New Zealand today, when one person does represent all of the people.

So might it be logical for us to see Jesus as on the banknote of Christianity, summing up all that is representative of being human. Jesus: loyal, healing, caring, deeply connected to God and people. Jesus is representative of human values.

So that’s my eulogy for Edmund Hillary, a man who in life offered a partial glimpse into what it means to be in Christ, to live life and live it to the full. (The sermon ended up in the a book, Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross.

Links:
For more on my chapter, go here
For more on atonement, go here.

updated: prayers for my dad please

Updated: Dad had surgery and is making good progress. It remains to be seen how the multiple sclerosis will be at work. Thanks for all the emails of support and prayer. Much appreciated.

My Dad had a fall yesterday and is now in hospital needing surgery for a hip replacement. He’s got multiple sclerosis and I’m really scared about the impact of surgery will have on his overall wellbeing. What with this and losing our family rabbit last week, it’s not so far been our best summer holiday.

can’t bring back the old days

An excerpt from today’s sermon, which was a creative meditation on the book of Haggai

At that moment my grandpa started crying. “What’s up grandpa?” I asked. “Can’t bring back the old days,” said Grandpa, wiping his tears with the back of his head.

The old days. Boy could my Grandpa talk about the old days. His eyes would mist over as he remembered the good old days. He could remember the large crowds going to church. Used to even fill upstairs, he would nod. And the magnificent choir that used to sing in the temple. All those great old hymns of David.

And then Grandpa paused and looked at me and waggled his boney finger. “Those great old hymns. So different from your new choruses” Grandpa sniffed. “We never sang “By the rivers of Babylon” back in my day.”

My response was to remind Grandpa that surely the God of Yesterday was the God of Tomorrow. Grandpa’s stories were always about this God who had done new things in the past, this God who had created new places of worship for David’s son, this God who had given new songs to Miriam and to David.

“So surely, Grandpa,” I said, “Surely your God of creativity is not dead. Surely this God can continue to create new things into the future.”

“Even new choruses like By the rivers of Babylon,” I teased.

avoiding the prophets

Questions asked at stoning the prophets on Sunday

If all Scripture is inspired by God,
then why do Christians so rarely preach the minor prophets?

AND why do Lectionary readings draw mainly on the happy parts of the minor prophets?

Christmas Journey of Peace

Latimer Square has a reputation as a more seedy part of Christchurch. It is a central city park that needs light and invites prayer that all of humankind will indeed find Christmas peace.

This Christmas, visitors to Latimer Square will encounter a 24 hour night light in the form of an outdoor Peace Labyrinth. The aim is to provide a still point in the midst of the busy Christmas season.

The Peace Labyrinth will consist of 700 straw hay bales, arranged in the pattern of a labyrinth, an ancient practice which invites one to find peace as they walk a guided journey, during which they encounter various stations focused on themes including peace at home, at work, in the environment and with God. A stable at the centre of the Labyrinth will proclaim the centrality that is found in the Light of the world.

The Peace Labyrinth is a continuation of the ministry of conceptual artists Pete and Joyce Majendie, in partnership with Opawa Baptist, Christchurch City Council and other local churches.

Their outdoor Christmas art installations have been the Majendie’s Christmas gift to the city of Christchurch for the last ten years. In the last three years they have moved location from Opawa Baptist into the central city, enabling them to reach far more people. Over 8,000 people visited their Christmas Journey, located in Christchurch Square, in 2005.

The Majendie’s ministry is based on using interactive art stations. Such forms of mission are essential in a culture in which so much contemporary communication is visual and participatory. A refugee station invites people to sit in a boat and consider what one thing they would take with them if they had to flee as a refugee to Egypt. A census station invites people to place a pin on a world map, indicating how far they had travelled to get to the Christmas journey. Rob Kilpatrick, then Director of tranzsend, upon seeing the world map in 2005, commented that the Christmas Journey was reaching more countries than the entire ministry of the tranzsend missionary society.

Thousands of “driftwood people” will be scattered around Christchurch shops and given to Christchurch schools. Made from driftwood, and fixed with two eyes, to look like people, they will come with a tag attached. “If you find me, please take me to the Peace Labyrinth.”

A website is being developed that will offer practical peace resources, including ways to bring peace into our relationships with family, work, creation and God. A promotional video, of the “driftwood people” moving from work and play toward Latimer Square, has been shot and finance is being sought to show this in local movie theatres.

In 2007, the Peace Labyrinth will be operating in Latimer Square from 7pm Friday 21st December continuously through to 9am Monday 24th December. All are welcome.

stoning the prophets: the pics

Stoning the prophets is into it’s third week. The concept is simple: I am preaching through the minor prophets on Sunday morning, so we have set aside a time on Sunday to simply read the prophet aloud. So Sunday was Amos, from chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 9:15.

We have created a dedicated space in the church. It is in an upstairs room (in the Friendship Centre):

In the centre of the room we’ve placed a whole pile of stones. When we’ve finished hearing the prophet, everyone picks up a stone, reflecting on what struck us from the passage, and then tossing the stone back into the pile. There is also a scroll plus the old church Bible, open at the prophet and flanked by two Stones jars:

Around the room we’ve used black shade cloth on the walls and white shade cloth to lower the ceiling. Tussock grasses enhance the environment, with chairs placed well back to increase the sense of being in community around the central Scriptures. And various stations, unique to each prophet, which also means the space is being added to week by week.

Another 18 people were present on Sunday, and it is very special to be engaging the Scriptures in this way. Roll on Obadiah this Sunday.