Wondering Pilgrim

World Cup Blues

Members of my congregation were somewhat exercised that Brazil appeared on yesterday’s list for intercessions under the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle. Within 14 hours, Australia’s Socceroos were due to play Brazil, the top contenders for the World Cup. How do you intercede for a nation with which one’s own is in contest, even only recreationally? We all know how deeply sporting competitions affect the passions in the psyche, possibly sublimating those used to maintain balance in ancient inter-tribal rivalry. So how do we pray for the opposition?

Honestly! We first confessed our perplexity given the coming face-off. Then we offered thanksgiving for the vibrancy and joie de vivre that is Brazil’s gift to the world. We prayed for Brazil’s national leadership, particularly in striving for outcomes of justice and mercy for the poor and dispossessed of that nation. We prayed for the church of Brazil in all its expressions and with all its challenges.

The outcome of the match is now well-known. We lost 2-0. Brazil showed why it is Number One, but the newcomers, the Socceroos, revealed a stamina and determination that did us proud. And Aussies love a good party. Nothing could keep them away from participating in Brazil’s celebrations. Better than the riots and destruction sometimes expressed by supercharged fans.

So ends a somewhat narrowly self-focused reflection on the phenomenon of the World Cup as it touched us yesterday. The phenomenon of the World Cup raises a whole lot of other issues for reflection, but more on that later.

A Christian Peacemaker reflects at Easter

“Christ teaches us to love our enemies, do good to those who harm us, pray for those who persecute us. He calls us to accept suffering before we inflict injury. He calls us to pick up the cross and to lay down the sword.
We will most certainly fail in this call. I did. And I’ll fail again. This does not change Christ’s teaching that violence itself is the tomb, violence is the dead end. Peace won through the barrel of a gun might be a victory but it is not peace. Our captors had guns and they ruled over us. Our rescuers had bigger guns and ruled over the captors. We were freed, but the rule of the gun stayed. The stone across the tomb of violence has not been rolled away.”

– Christian Peacemaker Teams member James Loney, in an Easter reflection published by the Toronto Star about his 118-day captivity by Iraqi militants and rescue by British special forces troops.

As cited in Sojomail, the weekly newsletter published by Sojourners. See www.sojo.net for more information on how to subscribe. The editor, Jim Wallis, is an alternative Christian voice in America while still identifying strongly with the evangelical scene. He recently visited Australia.

The Gospel of Judas

Easter must be drawing near. The media is getting hysterical over another “latest discovery” guaranteed to scuttle the Church’s battered barque once and for all. This time it is the release of info relating to the discovery of documentary fragments purporting to belong to “The Gospel of Judas”, where it is claimed that Judas, rather than betraying Jesus, colluded with him in his demise.

(Yawn)

Knowledge of the Gospel of Judas, along with many other extant writings from diverse groups within early Christianity, has been around a long time. Irenaeus, a well-known and influential Church leader of the 2nd century, refers to it and dismisses it rather curtly. Not that the assertion in the Gospel of Judas makes much difference to the essential themes of the Christian gospel. But such details are important to some.

For details visit http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gospeljudas.html

But what of Judas as presented to us in the canonical gospels? I find him an enigmatic figure. It is very easy to project all the worst that is in us onto him and he becomes our scapegoat. I don’t think this is what the gospel is about. Some helpful reframing questions might be, “Is the gospel of Jesus for Judas along with eveyone else?” “If so, what are the implications for me when I accuse myself of being beyond the pale?”

Tom Fox: martyr

Tom Fox was found dead in a Baghdad suburb a few days ago. He was one of four Christian Peace Makers Team members kidnapped three months ago. His voluntary role in Iraq was to act in liaison between detainees and their families and to escort medicines to clinics. He was always aware that such involvement could end in his death. It is most pertinent that his death occurred as many of us around the world were preparing to speak on the set gospel text, Mark 8:31-38, where Jesus says, “Whoever would gain their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake and the gospel’s, will find it.”

Tom Fox wrote in his web log in October 2004:

If I am not to fight or flee in the face of armed aggression, be it the overt aggression of the army or the subversive
aggression of the terrorist, then what am I to do? “Stand firm against evil” (Matthew 5:39, translated by Walter Wink)
seems to be the guidance of Jesus and Gandhi in order to stay connected with God. Here in Iraq I struggle with that second form of aggression. I have visual references and written models of CPTers standing firm against the overt
aggression of an army, be it regular or paramilitary. But how do you stand firm against a car-bomber or a kidnapper? Clearly the soldier disconnected from God needs to have me fight. Just as clearly the terrorist disconnected from God needs to have me flee. Both are willing to kill me using
different means to achieve he same end–that end being to increase the parasitic power of Satan within God’s good
creation. It seems easier somehow to confront anger
within my heart than it is to confront fear. But if Jesus and
Gandhi are right then I am not to give in to either. I am to
stand firm against the kidnapper as I am to stand firm against the soldier. Does that mean I walk into a raging battle to confront the soldiers? Does that mean I walk the streets of Baghdad with a sign saying “American for the Taking?” No
to both counts. But if Jesus and Gandhi are right, then I am asked to risk my life, and if I lose it to be as forgiving
as they were when murdered by the forces of Satan. Standing firm is a struggle, but I’m willing to keep working at it.

Push-ups, Palamas and Prayer

My doodle of a Benedictine monk exercising speaks of a convergence of thoughts. My post middle-aged frame is now being subjected to regular workouts at the local gym (under the wise eye of a personal trainer, I hasten to add!) I’m also attending to the continuous development of Dayspring’s coursework in the practice of prayer. I’ve seen an article by Ralph Eibner, ‘Gregory Palamas: The Body in Prayer and Spiritual Transformation” in Presence (Volume 11, No. 4, December 2005). Presence is an international journal of spiritual direction published by Spiritual Directors International .

Gregory Palamas is a fourteenth century Greek Orthodox theologian whose writings challenge the familiar stereotype of the duality of flesh and spirit – a uniquely western phenomenon. The simplified notion that matter is evil and spirit is good gave rise to some pretty bizarre prayer practices far removed from the spirituality of prayer practiced by our Hebrew and early Christian forbears.

Palamas offers reflection on the combination of the silent prayer that is the basis of the hesychastic tradition in orthodoxy, and the infusion of spirit and body. Prayer posture is thus a key element in his writings, not as a means of expressive gesture, but as part of the very essence of prayer.

Eibner says, “The integration of the body in prayer and spiritual formation that we are seeing in contemporary spirituality is simply a practical application of the kind of incarnational theology and spirituality that Palamas indicated.”

Think on that next time you’re at a charismatic praise service! All those raised hands may have a greater historic significance than we have been prepared to countenance!

A good read

How does Christian faith, based on a unique revelation, relate to other world faiths? Depending on one’s comfort zone, this might be experienced as either a stimulating question on the one hand, or irritating and threatening on the other.

Within the Christian confession, there is widely accepted typology of three dominant views set out by Alan Race (1993)

From within Christian faith, one can take an exclusivist stance in relation to other belief systems – that is the Christian tradition is the only effective purveyor of religious truth and holds the only path to salvation.

Another perspective is the inclusivist view. This affirms the availability of saving faith in other traditions because God who acts most decisively and fully in Christ is also redemptively available in those other traditions.

Finally, there is the pluralist view, maintaining that some other belief systems are independently valid paths to salvation and Christ is irrelevant to those following those traditions, but serving Christian believers as their means to the same end.

The ongoing debate seems to wind backwards and forwards through this typology. S. Mark Helm, in The Depth of the Riches: a Trinitarian Theology of Religious Ends (Eerdmans, 2001), bypasses this typology by suggesting different ends for different belief systems. When differing faith systems are in dialogue with each other, they ultimately discover the difference in their goals. From a Christian point of view, not all have Christian salvation as an end. So why not simply acknowledge engage in mutual exploration of the end in question?

As Helm says, “The question is not ‘Which single religious tradition alone delivers what it promises?’ Several traditions may be valid in that sense. If that is so, the truly crucial questions become ‘Which religious end constitutes the fullest human destiny?’ and ‘What end shall I seek to realize?'” (p4).

The rest of his book explores these questions through the lens of a trinitarian theology. A good read for all missiologists.

Synchronicity strikes again!

I was at a planning meeting today where the lyrics of this song were posited as evidence of the contemporary individual’s inner search for meaning (“Wake me up inside”). At the end of the day, when I opened my e-mail, there were the same lyrics in a message from halfway around the world, part of an e-mail discussion that had arisen on pop music as a vehicle for expressing the faith. Is there anything significant in this coincidence? The lyrics themselves seem to speak of an impact of a more romantic nature. Some contemplatives, however, note the strong connection between “eros” and “agape.” Others think that’s drawing a rather long bow. Here are the lyrics, so consider your verdict!

“Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence(feat. Paul McCoy)

how can you see
into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I’ve become so numb
without a soul
my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there
and lead it back home

(Wake me up)Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)Wake me up inside
(Save me)call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)before I come undone
(Save me)save me from the nothing I’ve become

now that I know what I’m without
you can’t just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

(Wake me up)Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)Wake me up inside
(Save me)call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up) bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)before I come undone
(Save me)save me from the nothing I’ve become

Bring me to life
(I’ve been living a lie, there’s nothing inside)
Bring me to life
frozen inside without your touch
without your love darling
only you are the life among the dead
all this time I can’t believe I couldn’t see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I’ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don’t let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

(Wake me up)Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)Wake me up inside
(Save me) call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up) bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up) before I come undone
(Save me) save me from the nothing I’ve become
(Bring me to life) I’ve been living a lie, there’s nothing inside
(Bring me to life)

Kairos and chronos – finding the door to Narnia

A certain large cat, witch and article of household furniture continue to hold their own at the box office. The jury is still out on whether C.S. Lewis intended The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as an allegory or even analogy of the Christian kerygma. Be that as it may, I find some compelling parallels that help me grapple with the mystery of the disruptive invasion of kairos (a significant and compelling event) on chronos (regulated time, “clock and calendar” time).

This phenomenon occurs in Mark’s gospel (1:14-20) where Jesus strides onto the scene saying, “The time (kairos) is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.”

Such is the impact of the good news and so eventful is its sudden arrival, it can be likened to the Pevensey children’s stumbling through the back of a wardrobe into the land of Narnia. The extraordinary breaks into the ordinary – a true kairos occasion.

Further, the children find that engagement with a quest, aided by the great lion, Aslan, and opposed by the white witch, leads to personal transformation and accomplishment of a great thing that is beyond themselves. Indeed, Aslan installs them as monarchs of the land of Narnia, where they spend the rest of their childhood years growing into adulthood. But one day, they stumble across the back of the wardrobe and tumble back into the ordinary world. It seems that not a moment has passed; they are children again, yet the transformation remains. Such is kairos – that which is significant and eternal in essence takes scant notice of the turning of the pages of the calendar.

I wonder if this doesn’t go some way to answering a question that is often asked, sometimes incredulously, of the next part of the story in Mark’s gospel. In response to Jesus’ pronouncement, four fishermen, separately and one after the other, leave their nets and follow him. For them, a kairos moment has begun. For the time being, chronos can look after itself.

Incarnation strikes retail hub

I ventured into Perth’s CBD this morning, on leave from my pulpit and looking for a church service to sneak into. For the first time, I saw the new street decorations, unashamedly and unabashedly telling the story of the Incarnation, from the Annunciation through to the Flight to Egypt. The replicas of medieval paintings enthralled me and I almost didn’t make it to the service I was planning to attend. It was probably the unexpected surprise of seeing these large icons dominating Perth’s retail hub, now quiet and deserted on the morning of New Year’s Day. I guess one could respond with cynicism over crass exploitation of Christian symbols by a commercialism that is almost manic at this time of the year. The vision that appeared to me was of the Celtic cross in the ancient marketplace with one or two monks explaining to the gathered crowd how its symbols and markings tell the greatest story ever told. I also thought how ironic, that in our irreligious society, it is possible to tell this story so clearly under the sponsorship of a city council, while similar exercises are banned under interpretation of separation of church and state laws in more overtly religious cultures, most notably the USA.

Van Tuong Nguyen

A single flower in the church courtyard fountain measures the strength of community feeling over this morning’s execution of convicted drug mule, Van Tuong Nguyen. It is understated but eloquent, for indeed, community feeling is divided.

Public debate, emotive as it is, lines up as retribution vs rehabilitation. The apparent rehabilitation of Nguyen, enhanced by non-resistance, poise and concern for others around him, has leant more strength to the rehabilitation side than is usually the case.

It is Sir William Deane, previous Governor General of Australia, however, who hit the nub of the matter. Nguyen’s particular case aside, there is no natural justice in a state’s imposition of a mandatory death sentence for any offence. Forget appeals for clemency – there is always sufficient grounds for appeal on the basis of the harshness and injustice of mandatory sentencing that does not allow a court to assess all the circumstances.

Such voices of reason are drowned out however, when community emotions run high. The Australian community joins the rest of the world in paying a high price in the cost of young lives lost to the illicit drug trade. The true perpetrators are adept at avoiding the kind of trial which the naive Van Tuong Nguyen endured.

Today, we pray for all who suffer the effects of the greed of those who drive the illegal drug trade, including the now deceased Van Tuong Nguyen and his family.