In the days after Christmas, while most people are recovering from the indulgence of Christmas Day or deeply immersed in the liturgy of the Boxing Day Test, the Church calendar commemorates the Holy Innocents, the children killed by Herod in a bid to maintain his grip on power. This is a part of the Christmas story which gets little attention in churches, yet it forms a major part of the biblical birth narrative. It is a day when we remember children and other innocent people killed by today’s Herods, who consider such innocents to be acceptable collateral damage in their quest for power and security. Children are still the most deeply affected by wars around the globe – 60% of Afghans are under the age of 21. 90% of those killed in wars now are civilians. (Simon Moyle)
In Melbourne there is going to be a peace procession from Victoria Barracks in Melbourne to Defence Plaza beginningat 1pm with prayers at Victoria Barracks on St Kilda Road, and process to Defence Plaza, 661 Bourke St. Melbourne, for further prayer and reflection. For details see: Simon Moyle
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Climate change - real and pressing
I find much of the debate on the issue of climate change positively surreal. For many people in the world the issue is not academic it is real and pressing in on their ability to sustain a reasonable existence for themselves and envisage a possible future for their children. From Nepal to Bangladesh the impacts already being felt of climate change by some of the most vulnerable and powerless people on the planet. These are our brothers and sisters who share our humanity.
People in our neighbourhood, representatives from Timor Leste, Indonesia, Vanuata, the Solomons whom I spoke to at a conference recently all reported noticeable changes in climate patterns over the past few years that are impacting unfavourably on the ability of people who are dependent upon subsistence farming in those countries to manage food production.
Is human action responsible for global warming? The best estimate that can be made based on the cumulative evidence of a wide variety of research over the past twenty years is that there is 90% probability that it is. That is a solid enough probability as a basis for action now. We pay insurance to cover ourselves for goodness sake against much smaller levels of risk to our homes without blinking an eyelid.
Under those circumstance the quibbling that is going on here in Australia where almost any excuse apparently will do to avoid dealing with the issue, starts to take on the character of myopic self indulgence.
Jesus in the Gospels had some scathing things to say about the attitude that generates moral blindness. "You can" he observed "tell what the weather will be like by looking at the sky. but you don't understand what is happening now. You want a sign, because you are evil and won't believe. But the only sign you will be given is the sign of Jonah". (Perhaps the plant under which he was sheltering that withered and died?)
People in our neighbourhood, representatives from Timor Leste, Indonesia, Vanuata, the Solomons whom I spoke to at a conference recently all reported noticeable changes in climate patterns over the past few years that are impacting unfavourably on the ability of people who are dependent upon subsistence farming in those countries to manage food production.
Is human action responsible for global warming? The best estimate that can be made based on the cumulative evidence of a wide variety of research over the past twenty years is that there is 90% probability that it is. That is a solid enough probability as a basis for action now. We pay insurance to cover ourselves for goodness sake against much smaller levels of risk to our homes without blinking an eyelid.
Under those circumstance the quibbling that is going on here in Australia where almost any excuse apparently will do to avoid dealing with the issue, starts to take on the character of myopic self indulgence.
Jesus in the Gospels had some scathing things to say about the attitude that generates moral blindness. "You can" he observed "tell what the weather will be like by looking at the sky. but you don't understand what is happening now. You want a sign, because you are evil and won't believe. But the only sign you will be given is the sign of Jonah". (Perhaps the plant under which he was sheltering that withered and died?)
Jesus was not interested in religion
Some comments from a collection essays and sermons by Christoph Blumhardt, chapter 6 "The Kingdom is at Hand" from Action in Waiting available in both hard copy and as a free e book from Plough Publishing: Plough books/ActioninWaiting.html
It is the task of Jesus’ disciples to put the nature of Jesus into action. This fact is generally not understood,since Jesus has been called a founder of a new religion.But that is not God’s word to the world. His aim was never to give us a new religion in order that we might live a bit more decently – in that case Moses and his law would have sufficed.
With Jesus’ simple command to the disciples the Savior is saying, “Don’t make a religion out of me! That which I bring from God is not a religion, for all religions are rigid. They don’t want to move forward, they don’t intend to change. They set up shrines, they institute museums, they set up councils, and because of all this they are a stumbling block to the world.” As a matter of fact – to be quite frank – our religions are a hindrance not only to the world but to the history of humanity.
Nothing is more dangerous to the advancement of God’s kingdom than religion: for it is what makes us
heathens. But this is what Christianity has become. Do you not know that it is possible to kill Christ with such Christianity! After all, what is more important –Christianity or Christ? And I’ll say even more: we can kill Christ with the Bible! Which is greater: the Bible or Christ? Yes, we can even kill Christ with our prayer.
It is the task of Jesus’ disciples to put the nature of Jesus into action. This fact is generally not understood,since Jesus has been called a founder of a new religion.But that is not God’s word to the world. His aim was never to give us a new religion in order that we might live a bit more decently – in that case Moses and his law would have sufficed.
With Jesus’ simple command to the disciples the Savior is saying, “Don’t make a religion out of me! That which I bring from God is not a religion, for all religions are rigid. They don’t want to move forward, they don’t intend to change. They set up shrines, they institute museums, they set up councils, and because of all this they are a stumbling block to the world.” As a matter of fact – to be quite frank – our religions are a hindrance not only to the world but to the history of humanity.
Nothing is more dangerous to the advancement of God’s kingdom than religion: for it is what makes us
heathens. But this is what Christianity has become. Do you not know that it is possible to kill Christ with such Christianity! After all, what is more important –Christianity or Christ? And I’ll say even more: we can kill Christ with the Bible! Which is greater: the Bible or Christ? Yes, we can even kill Christ with our prayer.
Monday, 7 December 2009
U2- theology - another book
Another addition to the collection of works reading U2 theologically.This one is entitled We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2 by Greg Garrett (WJK, 2009)
Hopefully I will get time soon to do some analysis of the volumes I've listed and add some useful blog sites.
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Christoph Blumhardt
Christoph blumhardtHis writings can be found as free dowloadable e books on the Plough Publishing web site, see the link Christoph Blumhardt.
He had a substantial influence on Karl Barth who observed that Blumhardt ... can do something which most of us cannot do: represent God’s cause in the world yet not wage war on the world, love the world and yet be completely faithful to God, suffer with the world and speak a frank word about its need while simultaneously going beyond this to speak the redemptive word about the help it awaits.
Blumhardt, particularly in his understanding and account of the kingdom of God does not easily fit into our narrow theological categories as the following account of his life makes clear:
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842-1919) was born at Möttlingen in 1842,. As his father had done before him, he took university training pointing toward a Reformed pastorate. However, he became disillusioned with the church and theology and so decided simply to return home to Bad Boll and act as a helper working with his father at the retreat and healing centre there.
In time, the younger Blumhardt became quite renowned as a mass evangelist and faith healer. But after a very successful “crusade” in Berlin in 1888, he drastically cut back both activities, saying,
"I do not want to suggest that it is of little importance for God to heal the sick; actually, it now is happening more and more often—although very much in quiet. However, things should not be promoted as though God’s kingdom consists in the healing of sick people. To be cleansed is more important than to be healed. It is more important to have a heart for God’s cause, not to be chained to the world but be able to move for the kingdom of God."
Blumhardt’s interest gradually took what could be called “a turn to the world,” namely, a focus upon the great socioeconomic issues of the day. Under the impetus of this concern Blumhardt chose, in a public and conspicuous way, to cast his lot with Democratic Socialism, the much maligned workers’ movement that then was fighting tooth and nail for the right of the working class. Although it brought upon his head the wrath of both the civil and ecclesiastical establishments, he addressed protest rallies, ran for office on the party slate, and was elected to a six-year term in the Württemberg legislature. He was asked to resign his ministerial status in the church. Blumhardt began as a very active and energetic legislator, but as time passed he greatly curtailed this activity and bluntly declined to stand for a second term of office. Clearly, the pattern was of a piece with his earlier retreat from mass evangelism and faith healing.
Blumhardt’s disillusionment with Democratic Socialism—i.e., with the party politics, not with the movement’s purposes and ideals—and the even greater disillusionment which came toward the close of his life with the dark years of World War I—these brought him to a final position expressed in the dialectical motto: Wait and Hasten. His understanding was that the call of the Christian is still for him to give himself completely to the cause of the kingdom. To do everything in his power to help the world toward that goal. Yet, at the same time, a Christian must remain calm and patient, unperturbed even if his efforts show no signs of success, willing to wait for the Lord to bring the kingdom at his own pace and in his own way. And, according to Blumhardt, far from being inactivity, this sort of waiting is itself a very strong and creative action in the very hastening of the kingdom.
Biographical Notes
Excerpted from the introduction to Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader by Vernard Eller
Second sunday in Advent
Luke 3:1-2 the Gospel reading for the second Sunday in Advent is the the sort of gospel passage you always hoped not to have to read aloud. All those hard-to-pronounce names, like Ituraea and Lysanias. And what does it matter who was tetrarch of Abilene anyway?
Well the difficulty with dismissing this specific locating by Luke of God's activity, in its relation to the political power structure, is that the Gospel story is not just some vague, disembodied spirituality or generic brand religion. It is specific, located in a particular geography, history and configuration of political power.
So it matters. It matters, especially if you're someone who cares about power and authority, and how it is exercised. God for the record seems to have been and remain deeply interested in such matters.
Let's try it again. In the second term of George Bush Jr as American emperor, Tony Blair being his loyal ally in the invasion of Iraq, and John Howard of Australia being a member of the coalition of the Willing, and Pope John II was Bishop of Rome, the Word of God appeared in a slum in Baghad. Or something like that.
You get the picture. It was a scandal. This Word overlooked the ruling powers, both secular and religious, and went straight to the edges of acceptability—to the wilderness. The lesson is, if you want to understand the reign of God, look in unexpected places. Go to the margins, to those who we regard as enemies, or at least outsiders.
And watch out for this Word. It is disturbing, discomforting and dislocating. It has the power to level the hills and fill in the valleys. It is like "a refiner's fire" and "a fuller's soap," according to Malachi. It will purify us by the torch and rub us clean until it hurts.
You were expecting maybe just an innocent baby, that when surrounded by kitsch decorations, could be enthusiastically promoted by advertising agencies to underpin a consumption oriented economy?
(With grateful acknowledgements to Joyce Hollyday at sojonet for the original idea)
Well the difficulty with dismissing this specific locating by Luke of God's activity, in its relation to the political power structure, is that the Gospel story is not just some vague, disembodied spirituality or generic brand religion. It is specific, located in a particular geography, history and configuration of political power.
So it matters. It matters, especially if you're someone who cares about power and authority, and how it is exercised. God for the record seems to have been and remain deeply interested in such matters.
Let's try it again. In the second term of George Bush Jr as American emperor, Tony Blair being his loyal ally in the invasion of Iraq, and John Howard of Australia being a member of the coalition of the Willing, and Pope John II was Bishop of Rome, the Word of God appeared in a slum in Baghad. Or something like that.
You get the picture. It was a scandal. This Word overlooked the ruling powers, both secular and religious, and went straight to the edges of acceptability—to the wilderness. The lesson is, if you want to understand the reign of God, look in unexpected places. Go to the margins, to those who we regard as enemies, or at least outsiders.
And watch out for this Word. It is disturbing, discomforting and dislocating. It has the power to level the hills and fill in the valleys. It is like "a refiner's fire" and "a fuller's soap," according to Malachi. It will purify us by the torch and rub us clean until it hurts.
You were expecting maybe just an innocent baby, that when surrounded by kitsch decorations, could be enthusiastically promoted by advertising agencies to underpin a consumption oriented economy?
(With grateful acknowledgements to Joyce Hollyday at sojonet for the original idea)
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Vatican on climate Change
In the light of the last two weeks of shenanigans inside and outside the Australian Parliament on responding, or not, to global warming, the following extract from the Vatican makes sobering reading. Catholic politicians should take note. the reference to the impact on those who are the poorest and te most marginal on the globe again is an issue that Christians of whatever tradition should be making their voice heard on.
Vatican’s Address to U.N. on Climate Change
The scientific evidence for global warming and for humanity’s role in the increase of greenhouse gasses becomes ever more unimpeachable, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change findings are going to suggest; and such activity has a profound relevance, not just for the environment, but in ethical, economic, social and political terms as well. The consequences of climate change are being felt not only in the environment, but in the entire socioeconomic system and, as seen in the findings of numerous reports already available, they will impact first and foremost the poorest and weakest who, even if they are among the least responsible for global warming, are the most vulnerable because they have limited resources or live in areas at greater risk. We need only think of the small island developing states as one example among many. Many of the most vulnerable societies, already facing energy problems, rely upon agriculture — the very sector most likely to suffer from climatic shifts.
Vatican’s Address to U.N. on Climate Change
The scientific evidence for global warming and for humanity’s role in the increase of greenhouse gasses becomes ever more unimpeachable, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change findings are going to suggest; and such activity has a profound relevance, not just for the environment, but in ethical, economic, social and political terms as well. The consequences of climate change are being felt not only in the environment, but in the entire socioeconomic system and, as seen in the findings of numerous reports already available, they will impact first and foremost the poorest and weakest who, even if they are among the least responsible for global warming, are the most vulnerable because they have limited resources or live in areas at greater risk. We need only think of the small island developing states as one example among many. Many of the most vulnerable societies, already facing energy problems, rely upon agriculture — the very sector most likely to suffer from climatic shifts.
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