Category Archives: mission

Wooing the one who jilted you …

10 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in environment, international politics, mission, Personal, Spirituality, theology

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door of hopeWho would want to?

The Hebrew prophet Hosea – that’s who! Initially, he nurses the pain of anger when Gomer leaves him for a polyamorous dalliance with others. The patriarchal law of his time and place would have allowed his claim on her life. Instead, we see a tender wooing back, prompted by an insight into YHWH’s yearning for his wayward people,

In a tender love poem, Hosea once again courts Gomer. (Hosea 2:14-23) 

The Rev’d Dr Keith Rowe contrasts the harsh history of the valley of Achor and “a door of hope” (v15).

As much as I baulk at the uncompromising retribution in the face of the greed of Achan described in the above link, I cannot ignore the parallel suffering of the vulnerable caused by today’s uncompromising focus on greed. The “door of hope” that Hosea so eloquently espouses matches much of our yearning for the cessation of violence, comprehensive care for others and nurture of the natural environment.

The contemporary gift of Hosea is a reframing of the context for the frustration and powerlessness experienced by many who seek to act for change against uncompromising commercial and political forces – our valley of Achor. A shift of perspective that focuses on our love (God’s love) for uncomprehending and fickle game-changers will unlock the “door of hope.”

In Between Times

30 Wednesday Dec 2015

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I’m at work in the church study. It is eerily quiet on a day that would normally be abuzz – the rooms full of people going about their art and craft activities, sharing stories, encouraging, commiserating, inspiring.

This is an “in-between” time – a space of silence affording me time to do a little extra thinking and writing in between the shredding, re-organising and generally tidying things up. I’m looking at the passage set for January 3rd, the final Sunday of Christmas. It’s from the Gospel of John’s prologue and moves on from the piece I wrote on this blog yesterday – see it here.

John’s Christmas story is somewhat understated if one is looking for shepherds and angels and Bethlehem. “Understatement,” however, is hardly the word that comes to mind as one ponders the “Word (Reality, Wisdom, Ground of Being) become flesh” and dwelling amongst us.

“From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.” So John’s community reflects almost 100 years after the precipitating event. No trite piety here. The writer reflects a reality that is true to a community that has endured expulsion, persecution, and martyrdom that is familiar to many fleeing the Middle East today. “Fullness” and “grace” are words that still sprinkle the conversation of Orthodox Christians that have been forced from their ancient homelands.

It seems these “in-between” times are not just fallow paddocks where nothing much is happening. Beneath the soil is a lot of activity. “Fullness” and “grace” are being nurtured and are ready to flourish for those prepared to dig around and get their hands dirty.

This is where Christmas gets real!

See a wrong and right it

23 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in Africa, mission, theology

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English: Murray River at Murray Bridge

English: Murray River at Murray Bridge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My brother-in-law, Des, is preparing a 665km kayak trip down the River Murray.  It’s not just his love of kayaking that prompts this venture; there’s been a fire in his belly ever since he visited Kitgum, Uganda, with my sister Janet, who had previously delivered relief to the school and orphanage there, a place of refuge and rehabilitation for many orphaned by AIDS and war. A number of the children there are previous child soldiers.

So Des has initiated a sponsored fund-raising trip for the foundation that runs the village. Details are at http://www.irenegleesonfoundation.com/content/events/gjj8i0

 

I  reflect on this as I prepare tomorrow’s message on The Power of Lament. The passage is Luke 13:31-35 where Jesus laments over Jerusalem. He recognises the short fallings of places of power that are meant to be places of healing. The imprints of rejected and murdered prophets and sages are here, and their ghosts continue to cry out the summons to healing, wholeness and peace. Jesus will be the next to meet his end, but he embraces his path willingly, for his end is not defeat, but teleos, accomplishment.

Jerusalem can be a symbol for wherever we are. We are called to embrace the pain of the world, but not in defeat. We engage suffering, not in self-indulgence, but in purposefulness. It is to accomplish expression of the shalom of which the prophets spoke and which Jesus achieved in completeness.

I suspect this is something of the drive behind what Des is attempting. May we all have occasion to reflect and respond similarly where we see opportunity.

Exousia…

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in mission, Personal, theology

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Gospel Graffiti II

Image by Peat Bakke via Flickr

… is our word for the week. When we speak, act, relate out of exousia, we are doing so from the very essence of our being. We are acting out of the passion of authenticity.
The source is deeper and wider than ourselves however – it taps into the transcendent mystery of the universe.
Exousia is what makes Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech so great.
Exousia is what gives continuing muscle to Kevin Rudd‘s Sorry Day action.
Exousia is what gives power to the mild-mannered mum who advocates for the resources her special needs child requires to thrive.

Exousia is a Greek word that is frequently found in the Gospels of the Christian tradition – often translated as “authority” (as in Mark 1:22  “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” (NRSV)

A lot of Aussies, with our traditional larrikin zeitgeist, dislike the notion of  “authority” – ghosts and images of  “whipping parsons”, wowsers,  the nanny state  and Big Brother abound.

“Authenticity” on the other hand, draws us like bees to a honey pot. There is a hunch that not all authority is authentic!

If I had my way, the Koine Greek term exousia would be translated “authentic” where it appears in the gospels.

Another reflection on Australia Day

26 Thursday Jan 2012

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Some thoughtful words for the sake of those who go a little overboard on claiming Australia’s Christian pedigree:

The Great South Land – Synchroblog | RodneyOlsen.net.

Christians have a role to play in what is essentially a secular nation – but it’s one based on service rather than some notion of a divine right to rule. As one of my lecturer’s used to say “read,mark, learn and inwardly digest!”

Jonah the Bogan

22 Sunday Jan 2012

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Jonah was Israel’s bogan*.

He drove a lime green V8 ute* with a bright chrome roo bar, chrome twin exhausts, chrome wheel rims and a CB radio with a tall antenna from which, on important national days, he could fly his country’s flag. The esky* toting vehicle was festooned with bumper stickers – “Love it or leave it”, and “[Beep] off, we’re full.”

Jonah was a great supporter of Ezra’s renationalisation program. When the Emperor of Persia introduced his policy that cultivated cultural diversity by allowing annexed nations to return to their homelands, the exiled people of Israel returned to Jerusalem with great rejoicing.

Here was their chance to rebuild and become a people with a national identity again. Ezra was a dedicated public servant charged with the responsibility of making it happen. He reintroduced people to the Torah, establishing strong adherence to the Hebrew tradition. He legislated against mixed marriages, retrospectively and he enforced the rule with meticulous ardour. The Hebrew line had to be kept pure.

Hebrew nationalism, a corrective to several generations of identity absorption, was on the rise.

“Hebrew, Hebrew, Hebrew, oi, oi, oi!” was the new cry.

And Jonah was there in the stands, initiating the Mexican wave with patriotic fervour.

The sages of Israel looked at all this and were worried. In the fervour to re-establish Hebrew tradition, the actual core of their identity was being lost – YHWH’s promise to Abraham that their ultimate purpose was to be a blessing to all nations.

So the wise ones gave to Ezra, and to the new people of Israel, and to us all, a story where Jonah becomes the reluctant instrument of blessing to their greatest historic nemesis – Nineveh.

Jonah the bogan, fighting and struggling against the Epiphany of YHWH, finding himself in tremendous conflict as his exclusive outlook is turned upside down, finds himself transformed into the Billy Graham of the Ancient Mediterranean world.

People have been responding to such epiphanies ever since.

* bogan – Aussie version of redneck

*ute – sedan like truck

*esky – coolbox for keeping shrimps and chilling drinks

A tale of two double speed economies.

17 Saturday Sep 2011

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cleaners

Image by zoetnet via Flickr

A newly released report on the privations of those worst-affected in Australia’s two speed economy offers an apt foil for tomorrow’s parable of the workers in the vineyard.

The working poor of Victoria are the focus of this Uniting Church report, particularly those contracted as cleaners in large suburban shopping centres. What is analysed in this report could provide interesting comparisons here in the West, where the resources boom has inflated the prices of many commodities, thus drawing very sharp distinctions between those in the high paying occupations and those filling more menial and poorly rewarded roles. Inequities that might otherwise roll under the radar become more sharply pronounced as families decide between paying power bills and eating properly.

The “kingdom of heaven” parable is about inequities of a different order.  The workers who only worked the last hour of the day harvesting grapes draw the full day’s wage, the same as those who had worked since daybreak. Of course, this is seen as grossly unfair by the latter, and they complain bitterly. The owner, however, is not disposed to discuss the fairness of his largesse. He simply says they were paid what was agreed, and he has the right to be generous to whomever he chooses. Another “last shall be first story” that fetes compassion and generosity over economic rationalism. Those hired in the last hour of the day would likely to have been the “leftovers” of the labour exchange, possibly through old age, frailty, disability or criminality. For subsistence living, a break every now and then is a windfall worth celebrating.

Bring these two realities together – the circumstances of the Uniting Church report and the economy of the reign which Jesus champions – and it’s plain that we have some work ahead of us – a seismic shift in what we truly value as a community.

Related Articles

Creating Communities of Compassion and Hope

13 Friday May 2011

Posted by in Ministry, mission, Wembley Downs

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From a previous church camp at Landsdale Farm School

Our church is in camp this weekend. It’s our annual pilgrimage to Landsdale Farm School, a state education department residential facility about 20 minutes from home. We hang out, eat, converse and have fun. There are lots of animals to keep the kids enthralled and we have a couple of group sessions around a theme – hence the headline, inspired by a TED talk which I blogged on back in February.

We will explore creativity in relation to community, compassion and hope – looking to some of the most overlooked to assist us. We never come back from a church camp feeling we have not gained something in bonding, growth in maturity and understanding, and confidence in being who we are called to be.

“Avagoodweegend!” – ‘cos we’re going to!

Churches across Australia assist the world’s newest nation

03 Thursday Mar 2011

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Act For Peace is the action arm of the National Council of Churches in Australia. The annual Christmas Bowl Appeal raises large sums of money for its programs. This report shows how churches across the land contribute not only prayer, but muscle, towards peace building endeavours that carry the hallmarks of sustainability and justice, particularly in Southern Sudan.

Churches across Australia throw their support behind the Christmas Bowl.

Reasonable hope after the earthquake

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

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I’ve avoided writing much about the earthquake – not really knowing where to start after a season of flood, fire and storm. What can be said that hasn’t been said before? How does one reach out anew?

Then Eureka Street publishes an article contrasting ‘reasonable’ and ‘unreasonable’ hope reflecting on the image of the collapsed spire on Christchurch’s cathedral. Worth a read!

Christchurch’s reasonable hope – Eureka Street.