We think we’re in charge…

chess-pieces-1463642955dfk.jpgSure we have agency for good or ill, wise or foolish. Some will think it a great idea for the Australian government to invest heavily in the military industrial complex and become one of the world’s major exporters of military equipment. As a strategy for long-term economic growth and employment, it is a winner!

For those who believe the world is already over-militarized and under-resourced in health, education and strategic peace resolution, yesterday’s announcement is disastrous. They do not buy the argot of “defensive weapons only” and “careful vetting of clients.” They know that wealthy arms manufacturers have a lot more clout when lobbying politicians than do aid agencies such as World Vision and Act for Peace. Cartoonists are wised up to the tension, as was George Bernard Shaw when he wrote the hard-hitting Major Barbara.

Today’s text from Isaiah 40:21-31 puts all in perspective, especially for those who believe they are ultimately in charge, but also for those who grow weary striving for peace in its many manifestations.

Not much to inspire here!

008-jobI open the sacred text in anticipation of inspiring insight.

Today the set passage is Job 7:1-7.

It lands us right in the midst of Job’s despair and he is giving full vent. He has lost everything – home, wealth, health. He has every right to his pity party and who could grudge him that.

So why is my first impulse impatience? Is it that my expectation of this daily time set aside to meditate and contemplate my tradition’s sacred text falls short? Does it remind me too much of my own stresses and challenges for which these short oasis times should offer relief? Is this text too depressing to be of any value?

Yet promise is present.

In the Hebrew context of confidence in G-d’s provision and Job’s experience of its total absence, Job is still free to express himself. And here’s the rub. Job is still addressing his complaint to the G-d that seems to be not there. He is still oriented to the Author and Completer of his faith.

The Via Negativa is a strong strand in Christian tradition and experience, forging hope and life and service out of things that “are not.” Once everything we believe we have and are stripped away, what is left?

So this passage that has nothing within itself to inspire can lead to a deeper place with a stronger foundation.

Is dispossession biblically sanctioned?

Convicts_at_Botany_Bay

The conqueror will always say “Yes!” and, for support, misappropriate passages like the one set for today (Deuteronomy 18:9-14).

There is a big difference, however, between the cultural and historical context of nation-forging from a horde of liberated Hebrew slaves preserving their fragile identity and colonial expansionism.

It is ironic that such a text emerges on a contentious day that Australia commemorates and celebrates the day the Union Jack was planted on the beach at Botany Bay (oops! Sydney Cove, actually) signalling the commencement of Britain’s new penal settlement. The overseers and convicts arriving on the First Fleet possibly did not see themselves as conquerors – neither did the unrecognised original inhabitants and stewards of the land. The language, attitudes and conflicts of conquest emerged as the needs of the settlement and its economy grew.

Back to Deuteronomy, the need to protect Hebrew identity and possession of land. Here also is a seed of wisdom for multicultural co-existence. The burden of the text is that the Hebrews do not adopt practices that are alien to their identity. The Deuteronomic code continues at length to describe the duty of hospitality and receptivity to those who are “other.” Multiculturalism is not about “making us like them” or “assimilating” the other to be like us. We are to be as comfortable and as confident in our own skin to know that our identity is uniquely formed. From such a base, there is no need for anxiety or defensiveness when faced with the other. We can move beyond tolerance to receptivity, differences and all.

Australia’s new six classes

465px-Lambert_Farbenpyramide_1772Aussies have long said, “Jack is as good as his master” – we are the land where equal status is championed and where we eschew the class consciousness that separated the lower convict class and their gentrified overseers at the outset of European settlement.

Sociologist Jill Sheppard, in a recent report, suggests there are six identifiable classes in Australian society.  Jettisoning the usual single streamed occupation marker exploring working, management and executive roles and, nodding to generational changes that have taken place, Sheppard adds social, recreational and aspirational factors that separate distinct groupings and their perceived standing in the community.

There are probably no surprises here. It has long been established that Western society fueled by a Christian Reformation work ethic has been inherently upwardly mobile and that the goal in life has been perceived as reaching the next rung on the ladder.  The transported convict aspired to become the freeman who aspired to lease an allotment who then aspired to outright ownership and some measure of control over those following behind.

It is an ancient phenomenon. In a kind of a coach’s pep talk, G-d tells the Israelites who have benefited from resettlement in their promised land not to forget the core values upon which their nation is being built. Deuteronomy 6:10-18. Their forebears were freed from tyranny to forge a new society that would be an attractive model for all nations. How easy it is to forget!

Presenting one’s credentials …

Healing_of_the_demon-possessedFirst impressions are paramount, our life coaches tell us. Suit up, look confident and practice that opening line if you want to succeed in love, finance and influence.

What if your goal is to begin a process that transforms the world from one beholden to despotic violence to one that exhibits the wholesome fullness of a paradise based on selfless care for the environment, one another and relationship with the Ground of all Being? How does one present one’s credentials?

Jesus went to his community’s regular gathering place to teach and expand a collective vision of shalom – a marination in the peace of the reign of G-d. (Mark 1:21-28) On cue, the darkest manifestation of the tyranny that opposes this vision arises in a troubled villager and challenges him. Jesus summarily dismisses the demon and the man is healed. The crowd is amazed and Jesus has established his bona fide before the end of the first chapter in Mark’s story.

Contemporary commentary on this story tends to focus on the phenomenon of “demon possession” and “mental illness.” This misses the point. Mark’s gospel sets the stage for understanding the nature of our engagement in a conflict of cosmic proportions. Jesus is presented as the one anointed with the influence and authority to overcome all that threatens to overwhelm and destroy.

In things non-essential, liberty… a caveat!

chain

“In things essential, unity; in things non-essential, liberty; in all things, charity.”

This eirenic phrase is attributed to St Augustine and has been taken up by various reformers, including the Moravians and the space within the spectrum of the Christian family to which I belong.

There’s a rub, however, when it comes down to deciding what things are essential. Any community that gathers for a common cause is on shaky ground here. We claim unity in Christ as our polar star, but it’s the navigation equipment that we debate. What is essential and what is not essential?

The Apostle Paul pleads a solution in 1 Corinthians 8:7-13. In summary, he says those who are on the stronger ground must accommodate the more fragile and vulnerable members of the community, even if it means laying personal freedom to the side.  Sacrifice a little bit of liberty for the sake of unity under the umbrella of charity (which for Paul and all who follow the way of Christ is supreme.) In a society where each is out for one’s own, this is countercultural. Communities like mine must model it if its wisdom and life-giving energy are to be visible.

As my church secretary says with just a hint of irony, “Just as well we aren’t doing something hard!”

One man’s meat …

800px-Porterhouse_steaks_grilling_barbecue_grills_meatThere’s an app I’ve discovered on my phone that can break down the nutritional value of my daily meals. It seems like I have a healthy balance in the meat department. My vegetarian and vegan friends might be appalled at such a notion, however, and point to many other sources of protein. We remain friends.

I have observed, however, that the kind of debate that erupts around diet can divide families and sever friendships. The Apostle Paul seems to mediate a similar dietary issue in the new and troubled Corinthian church. (See 1Corintians 8:1-6) 

It seems those who could afford to eat meat were scandalising their siblings in Christ by consuming temple burgers that had been dedicated to the Roman gods. “We all know these idols are false – that there’s only one G-d. It’s good meat – why waste it?”

Paul diplomatically agrees but says there is a more important question at steak (sorry – stake!)  – that is “What drives how I decide an action in a community where we strive to be one by looking out for each other in such a way that the world is transformed?”

Now that’s a meaty question!

To what extent do the sensitivities of a wider community impinge on something as personal as what I eat? Tho what extent do my personal decisions affect the overall harmony of a close community? Perhaps the answer is somewhere in the point that Paul concedes: “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

When we focus on what unites rather than what divides (without ignoring or discounting such), there is progress.

Chilling out as agents of change…

PeasHow does one address ill-fitting and unjust systems in family, church and community while maintaining a calm disposition? Isn’t there a necessity for the passion of a prophet, the zest of a zealot, the tenacity of a teacher, the resilience of a reformer to effect change?

When the Apostle Paul counsels the household slaves in the troubled church of Corinth to “remain in the condition you were called?” is he suggesting that they should not rock the boat? (See 1 Corinthians 7:17-24) 

Change is constantly necessary if human society is to function as it ought. Paul seems to be addressing where it begins – deep in each human soul. Unless we are free within ourselves, even under the direst circumstances, we are unable to connect sufficiently with others in order to bring about external change.

Immediately – right now, if not sooner!

alarm-clock-3872x2592_74121I’m a born procrastinator. I need time to think things through. “Immediately” is not a word that appears often in my working vocabulary.

It occurs twice and insistently in the text from today’s reading in Mark’s gospel. 

Four men instantly drop their work to go around with one who has just taken up the baton of his politically assassinated cousin. Critical moments call for instant decisions, I suppose. And let’s not de-politicise what was at stake here – it was the proclamation of an alternative empire to that of Rome.  ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ· is more correctly translated as “empire of God” than “kingdom of God.”

I would like to think that as one who is absolutely sold on the “empire of God” as proclaimed by Jesus that I would be as immediate in my response to claims by alternative empires, especially the dominant western one that claims my allegiance now and whose political masters brand many like me unloyal and unpatriotic when we measure their claims against his.

There was nothing rash or immediate about Jesus’ proclamation, however. It was 40 days in the making and rejected easy fixes to get to the nub of what mattered. Perhaps that’s why it evoked such an immediate response.

Jonah – the reluctant persuader

138.Jonah_Preaches_to_the_Ninevites
Gustave Doré [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Is it possible to sell a product you don’t believe in? How motivated does one have to be to persuade a client, be it one individual or indeed a whole nation with a message in which you have zero confidence?

Well, apparently Jonah pulled it off! (See Jonah 3:1-10) 

Admittedly, Jonah’s message is full of the fire and brimstone vitriol that matches his disposition but, apparently, the Ninevites believed they deserved it and responded fully to the action point that Jonah put to them!

Which just goes to show you can catch some flies with vinegar if you don’t want to give away your honey!