Wondering Pilgrim

Correcting the Teacher

Image via Wikipedia

We’ve all done it in our student days – or held our breath as others have been foolhardy enough to attempt it – correcting the teacher. We learned a lot from how the teacher responded, particularly when the student was actually right.

Adolescent joy abounded if the teacher blustered and blundered and obfuscated around his error. Power had momentarily transferred from the master to the great unwashed!

Respect and awe occurred when the teacher owned the mistake and thanked and praised the student for their astuteness. We gladly ceded deserved authority.

We see something like that happening on a deeper and broader scale in today’s lection from the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus, seemingly beholden to his identity as Jewish Messiah with restricted scope, almost dismisses the Canaanite woman seeking his help.

She is persistent and bold – a real tiger mum (John Shea). Matthew means us to keep our attention focused on her as she turns out to be the real teacher in this instance. It seems that the end result is the expansion of Jesus’ own self awareness, expressed in his awed response at the wit and singlemindedness of the woman considered by all present to be an “outsider” who has claimed her place within.

The best teachers have always been those who are open to correction.

The joys of being a railway tragic…

Railway siding — Image by Leonard John Matthews via Flickr

I went through a boyhood phase of wanting to be a train driver (when I wasn’t wanting to runaway and join a circus). I don’t think the desire ever left me.
Then I came across this full length silent Buster Keaton movie:

Heaven on a stick!

Monkeying Around with Genetics

Important scenes in the Planet of the Apes ser... — Image via Wikipedia

Another cinematic prequel has arisen. Many may remember the fascination we had with the late 60s TV series and eventual movie Planet of the Apes. The plot explored what it might be like to consider a kind of reversed evolution process, where humans were a subspecies to the intelligently superior ape. Rise of the Planet of the Apes purports to demonstrate the feasibility of such a scenario, introducing a range of contemporary contentious issues and treating none with more depth than simple recognition via a single line of dialogue raised in the form of a question and the exchange of glances. The result is that one could use it as a discussion starter on such things as human genetics, animal experimentation, corporate greed, and species-ism – or one can just thoroughly enjoy a “chewing gum for the mind” movie treat.

‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ Too Scary? Here Are Memorable Monkey Movies for Your Kids (moviefone.com)

One thing my training never equipped me for…

… is IT troubleshooting.

For a small, ageing congregation, we’re very wired up. We digitally record our services, network with one another through email and a few are even braving Facebook and Twitter. This week I ventured into Android tablet territory and began teaching myself its various idiosyncracies and exploring the wonders of syncing it with my phone and desktop. Until a couple of years ago, I was the church’s “go-to” guy for computer difficulties. Pastoral visits invariably included fixing something that had gone awry on someone’s PC. Thankfully we have some IT savvy folk in the congregation now, but we still occasionally get our heads together and scratch them to sort out a solution to one pressing tech problem or another.

When I did my basic ministry training in the ’70s, this practical area was not even dreamed of, let alone covered in our administrative subjects. Like most of my generation, we just learned it (or not) as we went along. I was fortunate in being on the ground floor in a congregation containing several computer engineers when IT began to make inroads on the SOHO market, so could begin to learn in an amateurishly, largely intuitive way from first base. Who would have thought how ubiquitous and accessible it would all become?

It’s still a delight, however, to receive a “first email” from an 87 year old who has just gone online for the first time!

Jumping to conclusions and landing on our faces…

We are quick to name the culprits if there’s a possibility of reinforcing our prejudices.
Two instances are apparent today:

the London riots – in this far flung outpost of the old empire we hear alarmed predictions of “how the same will happen here if we don’t stop the boats” and “just as Enoch Powell predicted.” Yet nothing I have seen or heard attributes the riots to ethnic unrest. On the contrary, I hear interviews where disaffected young people name a range of issues that affect their sense of empowerment. It has reached powder keg stage and it doesn’t take much to cause an explosion. History is replete with this sort of scenario. Kudos, by the way, to the thousands of “riot wombles” – volunteers who have appeared with broom in hand to clean up the streets and reclaim their neighbourhoods. There is always a better way than revenge and confrontation. And I must say, how wonderfully British!
a local primary school, as a result of a survey showing 24% parental opposition, has ceased the practice of reciting the Lord’s Prayer at assemblies while it seeks further advice. Public response has been, again, to vilify foreign interlopers who “threaten our culture and way of life.” Most opposition to Christian based religious exercises, in my encounters, comes from those representing a “no faith” stance than an “other faith” position. And, whatever the reason for their disquiet, their voice needs to be heard and addressed reasonably, not hysterically.

Either side in a polarised community can fall into the trap of creating straw men to set on fire, thus diverting attention from the central issues that require further talking and listening with the purpose of finding common ground.

Of course, I could be jumping to a conclusion that common ground is common desire, couldn’t I?

Census night

The choice tonight is to catch up on this blog or fill out the census forms. My son with eagle eye already discovered a discrepancy in the registration number on our form and rang up about it. Sure enough, the number was ‘invalid’ and we had to arrange for the census office to SMS a new number and access code for web entry. Never knew we had a natural bureaucrat in the family. Perhaps I should just get him to fill out the whole form!

When the High Court saves us from ourselves…

There’s a very good reason for the separation of powers – particularly law and governance:

High Court puts Malaysia deal on hold | News.com.au.

There will be many who gnash their teeth and wail that a High Court intervention interferes with the so-called “will of the people.” It depends, however, on what the issue is. Many of the same have high hopes that the High Court will intervene and prevent the continuance of federal funding for the School Chaplaincy program – which is fine – we’re human beings and that doesn’t mean we are perfectly consistent.

But a High Court with its limited function filtered through constitutional interpretation is a safeguard against our inconsistencies – in this instance – our government’s blind spot where basic human rights are concerned. Today’s decision indicates that, even without a Human Rights charter, there is sufficient punch within the Australian Constitution to question the unconscionable action of the so called Malaysia deal. Let’s hope, in two weeks’ time, the full bench squashes this policy forever.

Peter picked a permanent positive pistuous posture

A variant on Peter picked a pepper?

No – just some leftovers from this morning’s ruminations on the Gospel of Matthew’s account of Peter walking on the water and sinking.

I would never dare use such a pretentious alliterative phrase anywhere else but here. I reiterate the view, however, that Peter was not being typically stupid and impetuous in acting as he did. This story did the rounds of the early Christian communities for a reason – and it had nothing to do with tripping the light fantastic across the waves.

It is about ultimate trust. You can stay in the safety of the boat or clamber out and walk on the midnight terror that buffets your worst fears and anxieties. Peter tried the latter and found himself beginning to be overwhelmed. The fact that he refocused on the “I am” in the person of Jesus vindicated his initial impulse, however.

The failure of Peter was not that he tried the impossible and sank. His failure was in reaching out to express a movement towards higher consciousness and discovering it requires even greater effort in trusting that which pulls one forward.

Maybe not a failure at all when you consider the alternative of remaining and cowering paralysed with fear in the boat!

One of many considerations to winkle out of this very evocative passage.

Trying a Triantiwontigongolope

It was my usual charge in and grope my way in the dark. I needed some things from the office, so I felt for the right shaped key, found the lock – turned the knob and entered the dark cave I call my study. I reached out my hands and felt around the desk. Bother – I’ll have to put the light on. Click goes the switch and – 6 inches from my nose dangling on an invisible thread is this:

Well, we just stared at each other for about 30 seconds. I think I won because the huntsman aka triantelope abseiled up his rope and disappeared behind a rafter. Nothing to be afraid of – they are quite harmless and will even eat meat morsels proffered by hand.

It reminded me of this piece of doggerel by C J Dennis:

There’s a very funny insect that you do not often spy,
And it isn’t quite a spider, and it isn’t quite a fly;
It is something like a beetle, and a little like a bee,
But nothing like a wooly grub that climbs upon a tree.
Its name is quite a hard one, but you’ll learn it soon, I hope.
So try:
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope.

It lives on weeds and wattle-gum, and has a funny face;
Its appetite is hearty, and its manners a disgrace.
When first you come upon it, it will give you quite a scare,
But when you look for it again, you find it isn’t there.
And unless you call it softly it will stay away and mope.
So try:
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope.

It trembles if you tickle it or tread upon its toes;
It is not an early riser, but it has a snubbish nose.
If you snear at it, or scold it, it will scuttle off in shame,
But it purrs and purrs quite proudly if you call it by its name,
And offer it some sandwiches of sealing-wax and soap.
So try:
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope .

But of course you haven’t seen it; and I truthfully confess
That I haven’t seen it either, and I don’t know its address.
For there isn’t such an insect, though there really might have been
If the trees and grass were purple, and the sky was bottle green.
It’s just a little joke of mine, which you’ll forgive, I hope.
Oh, try!
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope.

Paying the tax collector

Having just labored over and electronically lodged my tax return (how tremulously the finger hovers on the “send” button!), I now sit back and ponder.

The question of taxes is not a light one. A conflicted standoff over how much and under what circumstances and “what for?” recently brought our inhabited cosmos to the brink of financial collapse. At what point does individual freedom and enterprise trump the common good and vice versa? And is the question as pure as this? How do prejudices, hidden agendas, old wounds and ancient fears influence what I’m content to give and what I seek to withhold from the tax collector?

But these are philosophical questions – my preoccupation has been with getting a necessary task out of the way. And no matter how simple and dumbed down the questions are in the “electronic interview”, why do I feel that I may have misunderstood something and not answered it correctly? Which is worse, a human wagging finger with a frown behind it or a faceless, electronic warning to make sure you have it all absolutely correct before hitting the lodgement button?

I think I prefer the censorious accountant, but the latter is quicker and easier .

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