“Crisis always comes with opportunity,” suggests the Chinese pictogram. How this relates to the current ascension of the greed of the few and the corresponding upward spiral of cost to the many is elegantly demonstrated in this video clip:
Human history seems to reveal a default trend of societies devolving from the most altruistic ideals to the rule of a powerful elite. There will always be a counterforce of opportunity to redress the balance.
This was no less true in the biblical accounts of the development of Israel as she sought to move from tribal confederacy to monarchy so that they could be “like other nations.” The move to monarchy and its attendant dangers was inevitable. What was also inevitable was a “holy subversion” to keep such dangers in check. The call of Samuel as the first in a long line of prophets related to Israel’s monarchy begin a tradition of strong interface between the natural human inclination to power and control and the bigger picture for the common good.
The nuances of the latter are pointed out in the involvement of “the least” elite. Commenting on the call of Samuel while still a young boy, the Rev’d Dr Keith Rowe (With Love To The World) says:
An easily overlooked group become vehicles of newness – an elderly mother, a near blind priest troubled by the anti social behaviour of his sons, and a fragile child with acute spiritual sensitivity.
When despairing over the latest revelation of greed and abuse of power in high places, look for the Samuels and Hannahs in our midst. There are the opportunities. There lies our hope
Who would want to?
Some call it the silly season. Its those first few weeks of a southern hemisphere January. The office is quiet. I’m at work making use of the downtime from the regular weekly program to engage in some tidying up and planning for what must take place in my final six months here – and beyond. There is a kind of relaxed urgency about all this.
Seeking human favour always carried amber warning lights in my ministerial formation. We’ve seen too many examples of fall from grace in the political arena – and church leadership ain’t far from politics!
Everyone thinks clergy have some secret hotline to God. How does a retiring one increase a state that is already deemed to be “perfect?” Let’s lay that myth to rest.
Stature – now there’s a giggle. The transition has been lifelong – from the skinny, gawky unco-ordinated youth to what I overheard someone describing as that “round little man.” It seems my stature increase has been outward in all the wrong places rather than upward. Daily moderate exercise and lean eating have done little to modify such a transition, yet I continue to attend to both. Sometimes one just has to flow into one’s genes.
At its best, tradition is like a tall sailing ship, navigating the uncharted narrow shoals of postmodern times. Its cargo is the virtues and values that create civilisation. From time to time, its crew has found it necessary to discard outdated, redundant and no longer serviceable jetsam. To navigate unknown shallow waters, the art of “kedging” or “warping” is applied. A dinghy rows forward a small anchor attached to a hawser while simultaneously sounding the depths. The mother ship then hauls itself forward. Rinse and repeat. In this way, the good ship “Tradition” makes its way forward through brave new worlds. When done well, such tall ships are feted and celebrated. (I am indebted to Leonard Sweet and his book, Aquachurch (Group Publishing, 1999) for this helpful concept.)
Wondering Pilgrim 