sustain:if:able kiwi

a royal wedding sermon for the Sunday after: creationary of Luke 24

A few years ago, I was thinking about weddings while preparing for communion and working on a sermon on Luke 24 and the resurrected Jesus. And I was thinking how at a wedding, we all stand for the “first meal” with the bride and groom. And I began to hear echoes of this in the Easter resurrection story and the Christian practice of communion.

Since we were celebrating communion that Sunday, I got four big tables and we dressed them with fancy table cloths, and placed seats and we had big loaves of bread and caraffe’s of grape juice and wine tasting glasses and we invited people to take communion imagining they were sitting at a first meal with Jesus.

So, for those interested, in light of it being once again post-Easter and it also having been a royal wedding and the fact that we are all apparently now kings and queens (!), here is the last bit of the sermon and seque into communion. (more…)

meeting a tallskinnykiwi: that charism that is Andrew Jones

It was 1999 and I was invited to participate in a US conference on new forms of church. I arrived and experienced a moment of profound disorientation. Despite the billing – new forms of church – the band were playing songs. They were then followed by the preacher. Who talked for well over 45 mins.

I left the first session in disbelief, trying to get my head around how songs + long preaching = new forms of church.

In the backrow was a stranger, who leaned across, introduced himself as a Kiwi and offered to take me for coffee. With gentle humour and some well told stories he fleshed out for me some of the history and background to what I was experiencing.

That moment for me sort of captures the ministry of one Andrew Jones Aka Tallskinnykiwi. A person with a profound sensitivity for those on the fringes. Combined with an ability to build bridges and promote understanding.

It’s a privilege to have him with us today in Adelaide. We’re working him hard

• a media interview
• discussion with faculty about training pioneers
• coffee shop gathering to encourage those pioneering
• a more public session on using social media in ministry
• another more public session on the justice of social media

and hoping that through Andrew we might see some fringes blessed and some bridges built.

a pioneer icon

Back last century, I attended a spiritual retreat in the the form of a weekend icon painting workshop. It was a fantastic experience, a mix of spirituality, creativity and theology that resonated deeply with me. Spirituality, because icon painting is an act of prayer, of becoming centred on God. Creativity, not in the sense of making from nothing, but in the mix of colour and hands on endeavour. Theology in that icons are God-talk, a careful and detailed attempt to articulate the human understanding of God. (I hope to blog a bit more about this over the next few days.)

One of my hopes in coming to Australia was that with the “ditchchange” (pun on “seachange“) there might be space to pick up icon painting again. Well, it took over 15 months, but an icon was completed last night. It’s one of the simplest icons, called “Christ the saviour.” Being a sort of first, for me it’s become a “pioneer icon.”

I looked around for icon painters in Adelaide, but found little. So in the end I brought a book and simply had a crack (something in there about pioneering I suspect!)

around the web: mission in digital frontiers and in australia

One, the Mission in digital frontiers learning day that we’re hosting at Uniting College on Thursday with Andrew Jones got picked up by the local media (here). Worth reading for the comments alone, and the realisation of the hostility which is the growing lot of Western Christianity.

Two, Welcome to Australia is a new justice initiative. It’s simple – thus simply great.

Between June 19 and 26, 2011, we’d like to say a big “Welcome to Australia” to asylum seekers, refugees, new arrivals and other migrants. We’d like you to throw a party in your home, street, office, sporting club or other community group to very publicly celebrate the beauty and depth that diversity adds to our nation.

I was chatting with the organisers and pointed out the irony of me participating given that technically, I’m actually a new arrival aka a migrant. So they asked for my story, which is here.

Three, another reminder of the mission challenge here in Australia (full article here):

Sydney is already one of the 10 most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in the world, along with Toronto, New York, London and Los Angeles.

Holy week at the movies: Never let me go, then Invictus on Easter Sunday

The fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith … the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously… if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate God’s mercy and God’s freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they’re using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. Tom Beaudoin

Never let me go: again
While at Hailsham, Tommy gives Kathy a cassette tape of a (fictional) singer Judy Bridgewater. Kathy grows to treasure one song in particular, titled, appropriately, “Never let me go.” She grasps it not as a love song, but as a mother’s plea to her baby. The song, a recurring musical note running the length of the movie, offers another way to understand the Easter experience. That in and through acts of perverse human brutality is the reality that in Jesus, we realise that God will “never let us go.”

Invictus

I’d want to focus on one stand out scene, when Matt Damon, playing Springbok Captain, looks out the bars of Mandela’s cell at Robben Island and struggles to grasp the impact of 27 years of back breaking hard labour:

“Thirty years in prison, cell and you come out and forgive the men who put you there.”

And Mandela’s understanding of leadership:

“The rainbow nation starts here. Reconciliation starts here. Forgiveness starts here. It liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it’s such a powerful weapon.”

Such is the power of “Invictus.” It offers a vision of the world in which forgiveness is centrally transformative, not just from the pulpit, but in leadership and through life.

Mark 16:6-7 “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you.

Holy week at the movies: Never let me go on Friday

The fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith … the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously… if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate God’s mercy and God’s freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they’re using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. Tom Beaudoin

This is a haunting movie. Directed by Mark Romanek it remains deeply disturbing long after the credits roll. The film is based on a novel by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. Short listed for the 2005 Booker, adapted for the big screen by Alex Garland, it provides some profound questions about being human and the person and work of Jesus.

The movie begins with Ruth (Carey Mulligan) watching her lover, Tommy (Andrew Garfield), preparing to be anesthetised on an operating table.

What follows is a cinematic triptych, elegantly woven together by the evolving love triangle between three friends, Ruth, Tommy and Kathy (Keira Knightley).

The year is 1978 and the friends are children (convincingly played by Ella Purnell, Charlie Rowe, Isobel Meikle-Small) at Hailsham School. What seems sheltered increasingly grows sinister, innocence hemmed by stories of dismembered bodies and evidence of repressed emotions.

Next, the year is 1985 and the children emerge into adolescence. The tension in the love triangle escalates and a sinister future becomes frightfully clearer. The three have been bred as organ donors, born to be broken apart in adulthood, spare lungs and limbs to ensure other humans are healthy.

Finally, the year is 1994 and in adulthood the three friends become re-entangled, each forced to confront their past and future.

In the final scene Ruth is alone. She contemplates her death, facing a fence on which pieces of plastic flap emptily on the wind. A chilling and senseless isolation is complete. All that remain are Ruth’s final words.

“Do we feel life so differently from the people we save?”

The word “save” jumped out, the idea that hunks of flesh ripped from one person’s body might prove essential to the salvation of another. Which brought to mind the Passion of Holy Week and the Christian gospels, which describe a body whipped and pierced. And the claim that such an act of brutality was essential to human redemption.

Are we really catching a glimpse of the Christian understanding of the person and work of Jesus?

Mark 15:33 At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Holy week at the movies: Dark Knight on Thursday

The fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith … the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously… if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate God’s mercy and God’s freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they’re using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. Tom Beaudoin

This has been a movie eagerly awaited.

First, because with Batman Begins, director Chris Nolan breathed fresh life into the comic genre and the darkly robed DC comic hero of Gotham City.

Second, because with the death earlier this year of Heath Ledger, this movie became a chance to honour the memory of a Hollywood star. Indeed (and sadly) it seems to somehow enhance the movie when you realise you are seeing in real time a man now dead.

The wonderful first. The pace is terrific and the plot is satisfying, the twists come faster than a batmobile. The special effects are eye-popping, with the Joker’s disappearing pencil trick and the truck crash a standout. The characters develop, with the Joker, malevolently superb. He outacts a star cast, including a convincing Michael Caine (Alfred), a mysterious Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman), an authentic Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), but a strangely wooden Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes).

Heath Ledger is reported to have lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the Joker’s psychology, posture and voice. His performance is a reminder that human acting can shine alongside the biggest explosions and shiniest Batman suits. Take a bow, and probably an Academy, Heath Ledger and Chris Nolan.

Which leaves the disturbing. Nolan has now directed a string of excellent movies, including The Prestige (2006), Batman Begins (2005), Insomnia (2002) and Memento (2000) which probe the darkness around being human.

With the character of the Joker, we meet evil. As the Joker calmly walks the street, Gotham Hospital exploding behind him, we peer into the human abyss. If this is evil, what is the nature of redemption? In this sense, Dark Knight continues the theological work done in Batman Begins. Both movies explores the way evil and suffering shatters the human person. The ending offers little hope, with the choosing of a lie in the hope of preserving public truth. The movie shreds any feel good, Pollyannaish, liberal dreams of a better world, for the Joker remains a character you would not want to meet in either heaven or hell.

Dark Knight asks us to ponder seriously how low should grace go and how wide should redemption stretch. Don’t offer any Christian piety until you have faced the Joker.

Mark 14:10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. 17When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me–one who is eating with me.”

Holy week at the movies: Gran Torino on Wednesday

The fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith … the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously… if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate God’s mercy and God’s freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they’re using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. Tom Beaudoin

A central figure in Holy week is Caiphas, the Jewish high priest, who announces that it is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish (John 11:50). Such understandings, of the power of sacrifice to ensure community transformation, are ingrained in Christian faith and are powerfully explored in Gran Torino (2008).

Gran Torino is directed by Clint Eastwood, who also stars as the main character, Walt Kowalski, an embittered veteran of the Korean war. Walt finds himself recently widowed, yet happily alienated from his family. From his front porch and down quiet Detroit suburban streets Walt growls over his changing neighbourhood and the growing presence of Hmong refugees. Like Walt, they too are struggling to cope with the evolving face of contemporary America, in which white picket fences serve as the battle lines for unresolved racism and unreconciled prejudice.

The silent star of this movie is Walt’s pride and joy, his 1972 mint condition Gran Torino car. Walt’s neighbour, Hmong teenager Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang) is bullied into stealing the car in order to gain initiation into the local Hmong gang. Caught by Walt, an unlikely friendship develops, one that will change Walt, Thao and his neighbourhood for ever.

The ending provides one image of atonement. Clint, arms spread in the crucifix position, offers his life. His act of sacrifice lances a boil, exposing injustice on the streets of his community.

A subtle, yet more image of atonement is provided by Thao’s sister, Sue Lor (Ahney Her). She is the person of peace who steps over barriers to embrace Walt into his changing neighbourhood. It is her sacrifice that becomes a catalyst for community change. Viewed with Easter eyes, Sue becomes a female Christ figure.

Gran Torino is never a great film. The opening 45 minutes meander. Some scenes deserve a decent edit and the constant racism is hard to stomach. Despite these shortcomings, the plot themes of sacrifice, and their location in the grit of multi-cultural urban America make Gran Torino a disturbing, yet powerful, way to appreciate Easter.

John 12:23-14 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Holy week at the movies: Serenity on Tuesday

The fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith … the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously… if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate God’s mercy and God’s freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they’re using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. Tom Beaudoin

The movie Serenity, directed by Joss Whedon, was released in 2005. It received generally positive reviews and opened at number two in the US box office and gaining a domestic box office gross of $25.5 million and a foreign box office gross of $13.3 million. Serenity won film of the year awards from Film 2005 and FilmFocus. It also won IGN Film’s Best Sci-Fi, Best Story and Best Trailer awards and was runner up for the Overall Best Movie.

The movie begins with the dramatic rescue of the imprisoned teenager River. She has mysterious origins, a past that has left her a tortured soul (a suffering servant). She exists in conflict with authority pursued by her former captors, the all-powerful Alliance. As a scapegoat, pursued by her former captors she is sheltered aboard a wilderness place, on board the renegade space ship, aptly named Serenity. She is performer of wonders, a woman in possession of intuitive powers of perception and superb fighting skills. As the movie reaches it’s climax, she chooses to enter her passion, offering her life to spare the crew of Serenity. Thought dead, she in fact experiences a metaphorical resurrection. The movie ends with River as the new co-pilot of Serenity, blasting into space, noting the first rule of flying “love keeps her in the air. love makes your ship a home.”

A theological gaze would note the development of River as a character. As she finds herself, drawn out by the love of her brother, Simon, she grows into a saviour. Her facing of her frightening mix of psychic and fighting powers parallels the gospel accounts of the Garden of Gethsemane in which Christ as a tortured soul seeks to discern his true identity.

Theologically, River gives her life for others. Firstly for her crew. In the climatic battle scene, River offers her life, retrieving the doctors medical bag to ensure his healing, then closing off a bulkhead door to seal the crew from the attacking Rivers.

Secondly River gives her life for truth. The crew of the ship Serenity have discovered that the Alliance have conducted a scientific experiment that has murdered millions. River discerns the pain and cries out that “somebody has to speak for these people.” A crew member quotes the advice of Shepherd Book, the religious figure in the movie: “If you can’t do something smart, do something right.” They crew of Serenity are thus on a mission to broadcast this truth through the universe, naming the Alliance’s evil. River’s act is part of unmasking the evil of the body corporate.

A closer theological reading would note the Biblical phrase, “It is finished,” during River’s “resurrection” scene.

Theologically, in Serenity, River is thus a form of Christus Victor, absorbing the evil of the world. Her tortured body undergoes a form of healing. River saves her body and the body of her crew. In the process she destroys the Reavers: who are “all made up of rage.” In her body she embodies intuition, emotional empathy and extraordinary feminine strength. Thus as a Christic-figure, she embodies a new way of saving the body.

Mark 14:3 While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Holy week at the movies: The Insatiable Moon on Monday

The fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith … the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously… if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate God’s mercy and God’s freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they’re using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. Tom Beaudoin

Only last week, The Insatiable Moon became available in New Zealand on DVD. It is a fitting way to start the journey of Holy week.

“The Insatiable Moon,” introduces John, walking the streets of Ponsonby, with a commitment to bless every passing wall and bench and his friend Arthur, who believes he is the second son of God. With their boarding house under threat from Ponsonby gentrification, Arthur senses a mission from God, first to save his psychiatric haven and second to shower his love on the Queen of Heaven.

Kiwi movies tend to be bred with a dark underbelly, from the haunted hills of “Vigil” to the secrets buried “In My Fathers Den.” “The Insatiable Moon,” a film dealing with the clash between mental health and urban gentrification, has a similar potential. Happily, the movie demonstrates a simple commitment to bless contemporary life, infusing human pain and suffering with an earthy humour and gentle mystery.

Two scenes – one pastoral, the other prophetic – remain etched in one’s memory long after the final credits roll. These scenes showcase Mike Riddell’s remarkable talent, the artist’s ability to sketch life, the mystic’s eye for the spiritual in the ordinary.

The first is the funeral of John (Mike Innes) and the pastoral drama created by the open mic and the pain of colliding narratives. It allows a superbly theological reflection on God and the suffering of being human. The scene is a must see for all those who stake allegiance to a God of love in a world of suffering.

The second is the public meeting, another collision of narratives, this time of developer with Ponsonby locals. Arthur’s entrance is superb, a powerful enactment full of strength, oratory and tenderness. Another must see scene for all those who yearn for prophetic transformation in our urban communities today. A powerful way to ponder the events of Holy week.

Mark 11:15-16 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

Holy week at the movies

The fact that popular media culture is an imaginative palette for faith … the church has to take that imaginative palette seriously… if part of the pastoral task of the church is to communicate God’s mercy and God’s freedom in a way that people understand then you have to use the language that they’re using, you have to use the metaphors and forms of experience that are already familiar to them. Tom Beaudoin

So I’m spending Holy Week at the movies. Each day I’ll be offering a film that I think speaks directly to the challenges, unsettling questions and faith demands of Jesus’ journey toward the cross.

On Monday, I’ll be watching The Insatiable Moon (2010), while reading Mark 11:15-16.

On Tuesday, I’ll be watching Serenity (2000), while reading Mark 14:3.

On Wednesday, I’ll be watching Gran Torino (2008), while reading John 12:23-14.

On Thursday, I’ll be watching Dark Knight (2008), while reading Mark 14:10.

On Friday, I’ll be watching Never let me go (2011), while reading Mark 15:33.

On Sunday, I’ll be watching two movies, Never let me go (again) and Invictus, while reading Mark 16:6-7.

local church in mission. starts practically here

These represent the next step in a local church practical mission project I’m involved in – postcards – given out to the church this Sunday. The front, including google map of the community,

And on the back, four questions to consider, with plenty of blank space to write responses

Back in January I conducted a seminar, in which I suggested that in our contemporary world, a theology of mission must begin with two ears. To make that practical, I suggested a range of exercises

• Listening project one – some growth questions to ask selected individuals
• Listening project two – observation walks around the community
• Listening project three – visual observation of the community, involving creating photo exhibits
• Listening project four – some Appreciative inquiry questions

(for more see here).

The church decided to make this part of their Lenten process. People were encouraged to choose one exercise and, with joy, seek to put it into practice leading up to Easter. During Lent, when the church gathered, stories were told, including a number of folk putting their listening project 3, the visual observation, up on the screen during worship courtesy of PPT. Very cool.

So with Easter approaching, it’s time for the next step. The postcards are intended to help with the bottom nature of this project. This is not about a select group or the leaders, but the whole church who’ve been invited into mission with their ears. Now it’s the whole church, any and all, given a postcard and invited to record what happened.

These will be collated up and hopefully, at Pentecost, the results will be shared. And the question asked: given what we, all, have heard, how then might we need to act?

In working on this over the week, I realised that this is yet another example of church resourcing both scattered and gathered.

I’ve blogged about this a number of times over the last month, the need for church practically in how it shapes it life to be affirming God at work when the church gathers and God at work when the church scatters

• a general introduction here
• a specific pattern here
• a worship treat here

This is a 4th example, in which the postcards affirm the church as both scattered, any and all engaged in practical listening, and gathered, being collected, collated, gathered as next steps in mission.

billboard theology: a dictionary of everyday contemporary spirituality

God is everywhere. While sadly sometimes Christianity reduces God to Sunday and to buildings, God by very definition belongs in all of everyday life. In honour of this, I’m building a dictionary of everyday spirituality.

This is a billboard hanging on the pub closest to my work. God is named. Heaven is depicted. What is striking is that to understand this billboard you need to know the creation story. Fascinating for an allegedly secular country! While I am not convinced that alcohol represents the fullness of heaven, I love the suggestion that life to the full – in relaxation, in enjoyment – might be part of God’s creative work.

(This is another entry in dictionary of everyday spirituality. For the complete index of all entries, go here).

finding your theological rut

1. How do you do theology?
2. How does your church do theology?

These are the questions by which we concluded our (post-graduate Master/Doctor of Ministry) Program Seminar yesterday. The post-graduate Master/Doctor of Ministry can only be taken by folk in ministry and by folk doing it part=time. In other words, folk a few years into ministry.  And I have this hunch that after a few years in ministry, a few years beyond formal training, it’s easy to settle into a rut.

Recent events in Australia and in the world – floods, fires, earthquakes, nuclear fear – make important the genre of lament. So that was focus of the class. We explored lament – in contemporary culture like U2 and Sound relief concerts, at nuclear disarmament protest marches and in the Biblical tradition.

Then at the very end we introduced the work of John O’Malley, Four Cultures of the West. He traces the history of Western thought and identifies four ways by which we can engage

• the prophetic culture that proclaims the need for radical change in the structures of society (represented by, for example, Jeremiah, Martin Luther, and Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• the philosophical culture that seeks to understand those structures (Aristotle, Aquinas, the modern university)
• the poetic culture that addresses fundamental human issues and works for the common good of society (Cicero, Erasmus, and Eleanor Roosevelt);
• and the performance culture that celebrates the mystery of the human condition (Phidias, Michelangelo, Balanchine).

We invited people to look in the mirror. To think about the latest tragedy they had encountered in ministry and to identity the main way they had responded. Did they engage in prophetic action, or want to think through the issues, or seek poetry or metaphor by which to name the suffering, or the liturgy they might have written? To group together with like-minded people.

And then to consider if that is a repeated pattern. Are we simply going to where we feel most comfortable? Where does the community we serve tend to go? Are they in a comfortable pattern? What might it look like for us to engage in a way of doing theology that is more unfamiliar to us, or to our community?

Because it’s easy to get in a rut. And part of our growth as leaders come as we push ourselves into different spaces and places.