e~mergent kiwi

are our noses a mistake OR a theology of revelation

The following brief interchange yesterday got me thinking.

Question: Is it OK to use some aromatherapy at a worship station?

Response (from me): Yes. Unless God made a mistake and didn't mean to give us noses.

I was partly in jest, but it has kept me thinking. I believe that God gave us senses - the gifts of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching. So surely if God gave these, then God is able to use these. So surely God desires to speak through our senses - our hearing, our seeing, our smelling, our tasting, our touching.

Why are some branches of Christianity allergic to God speaking through the bodies that God gave us? Why is it so rare to have, say smell, in some forms of church worship? Are these types of church actually scared of our God-given bodies?

God the hairdresser

I wrote the following for my fortnightly radio slot. Those who have seen me in the flesh recently might appreciate that this post has multiple layers.

I got a glimpse of God at a hairdresser this week. It's not a place I usually expect to see God.

But I was early for my appointment and I had to wait. As I waited I caught a glance. Just as the hairdresser finished cutting, made the last snip on a beautiful new hairstyle. And the client saw herself. And this look of pure joy crossed her face. And she stepped off the chair. And she was different. More confident. More like a new person.

It reminded me of the image of God in Ezekiel 16:10-12:I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments. I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.

This image of God as like a fashion designer, wanting to make the nation of Isreal look good. Just like that hairdresser. Creating a new hairstyle and making a person look good.

But clothes and hair are on the outside. Surely God is more interested in our inside?

Which reminded me of the way in a well-known Australian hairdressing salon actually select hairdressers.

First they advertise: Wanted hairdressers:

If you apply, they then send you on a 3 day "discovery" week. On the first day they invite you to tell their story. And you are watched. And you're sent home if you don't listen well. So that's their first criterion in selecting candidates to be hairdressers: do you listen well.

On the second day, they test for creativity. They ask you about your hobbies. Do you enjoy being creative? If not, they send you home.

On the third day, they check for team players. In other words, can you work with other people. Can you be creative as a team with your client?

And only then does this hairdressing company set about training you to cut hair.
Because hair dressing is not just about the outward appearance. It's not just about cutting hair. It's first about listening and relating with people. It's second about creativity. It's third about being a team and together creating.

Which explained that moment that I saw in a hairdresser's this week. That last snip. That new hairstyle. And that look of sheer joy. That sense of change both inside and outside.

And perhaps that's why I saw God. Because God is like a hairdresser:
Ready to listen to each of us.
Able to create.
Wanting to share that creativity in partnership with us.

This articlehelped shape my thinking, as did the excellent book by Robert Banks, called God the Worker.

made in God's image? guest post by Mark Stevens

A post of mine, large people and airplane seats, has set off a hailstorm of comments, and left me reflecting on how our Christian faith does, or does not, shape our perceptions of body image. How to talk about body size? Am I (Steve Taylor) personally hateful of fat people, as I have been accused of being? Why are we so sensitive, when our churches blithely proclaim we are "made in God's image"? What on earth can "made in God's image" mean in our world today?

So I have invited a number of people to guest blog around the theme of "made in God's image." Here is the first guest blog, by Mark Stevens. I welcome any other guest contributions, as we keep trying to talk (in contrast to shout) with each other about an issue that is deeply personal.

"Why, if Christians are made in the image of God, is it so hard to look at ourselves n*ked in the mirror?"

My first response to the question was a cheeky "speak for yourself", however, the truth is, like most people, I find it hard to accept who I am in the flesh. I wonder why this is the case? It's like the dream where we are n*ked and walk into a room, so we go out of the room and put clothes on and then re-enter the room only to find that we are n*ked again. Why don't we just say "stuff it I'll just hang around here in my birthday suit"?

I was recently reading an article about Angelina Jolie in which the journalist remarked, that in person her "features are disproportionate, almost cartoonish. What looks beautiful on film is actually outsized in person". The same brave journo further remarked, "she is just a freakishly fortunate fraction of a millimeter off not being beautiful at all"[1]. Who decides the parameters of beauty in our culture? Obviously someone has set a benchmark against which this journalist can judge Angelina and by which we often judge ourselves. When it comes to body image it's as if society is trying to build its own Babel of beauty; trying to create humanity in their image. When we look at ourselves naked in the mirror I don't think we see ourselves, so we want to leave the room and get dressed and then re-enter. Often, unless we are very disciplined mentally, we see what society tells us we are not! The benchmark has been set, not by imago Dei but rather by imago humanas!

[1] The Australian Magazine, Being Angelina, p18, August 18-19 2007