Wondering Pilgrim

The Great Aussie Garage Sale

Today is the day before. An army of volunteers has arrived to strip down the church and set up the trestles. Poetry in motion – they’ve done this about thirty times before. Just as quickly tomorrow afternoon it will be returned to readiness for our Sunday morning communion and worship.

The painstaking stuff is happening now – every one of the thousands of items that have come in must be labelled and priced. There is a steady stream to my door as they ask me to check what is being charged at various on-line auction houses – mostly because we haven’t got a clue.

Tomorrow the local community, hot on the heels of the tinkers and traders, will visit us looking for a bargain. Our mission funding will climb and people will feel tired but happy, energised by the success and feel of a good old-fashioned community fair.

They wonder how much longer age and frailty will allow them to organise and run this annual event – but every year, volunteers appear out of the woodwork and the energy flows.

Time to stop writing now and attend to some minor repairs on some furniture that’s come in for recycling!

Universal truth or ultimate self-indulgence? (Finale)

We survived the panel! The three of us briefly summarised our previous presentations and then fielded questions, challenges and positions from the 40 or so gathered. These ranged from the philosophical to the pragmatic. 90 minutes later we had to draw a line under the energised and enthusiastic public discussion.
If it had an overall flavour, it was hopeful. Amongst the disparate views vocalised, there was a common returning reference point – the Christian hope in Jesus of Nazareth as the prototypical human in whom the human race finds its destiny. The boundaries of arenas in which this truth can be explored are limited only by our imagination and creativity. The conversation, of course, will continue…

Shopping ethically…

… almost requires a graduate degree in economics (another area I failed dismally in at high school). I can participate in Fair Trade campaigns and look to buy what is not necessarily cheapest and what seems to be a better deal to the producers, whether they be local dairy farmers or subsistence plantation workers in Brazil. But I find this Eureka Street article is somewhat daunting, even deflating … until I look at the last sentence: Cheap milk and supermarket ethics – Eureka Street.

Debating Global Warming…

… is not my favourite pastime as people’s minds are generally made up and difficult to sway. As a flunkee in high school physics I’m somewhat behind the eight-ball when countering climate skeptics’ arguments. What I can argue, however, is human responsibility to care for the planet. When someone gleefully seeks to trump this argument with the observation that the Genesis mandate is to “subdue” the earth (Gen 1:28), I can counter with a Hebrew word study that suggests “understanding” and “walking amongst” as a counterpoint to the violence we habitually associate with the word “subdue” – in other words it carries a benevolent relational flavour.

Anyhow Arguments from Global Warming Skeptics and what the science really says is a most excellent resource for scientific ignoramuses such as myself. I might just point my friendly adversaries there.

Universal truth or ultimate self-indulgence? (Part 3)

Neville can be counted on for controversy.

Eschewing Augustine for Irenaeus (“The glory of God is every creature fully alive”), Neville’s brief was to explore a projection of “the salvation of the human species.”

He proceeded with Frank Fenner, the Australian microbiologist who pioneered the eradication of smallpox who said “The human species is likely to go the same way as many of the species we have seen disappear – probably within the next hundred years.”

From this somewhat pessimistic outlook, Neville asserted that salvation today is about the salvation of the human species vis à vis the developing structure of self destruction. He explored this from various contemporary scientific and theological perspectives

In summary, Neville argued:

His initial premise that the glory of God is every creature fully alive.
We come into this world as creatures of promise, as part of the species homo sapiens, a species that is still evolving. Our task is to become who we really are, the pointer to which we see in Jesus of Nazareth.
In him we see homo humanus, life in all its fullness, hetero pacificus, the Word made flesh. The tragedy is that rather than become who we truly are, we live a kind of half life. In doing so we sow the seeds of our own destruction.
Evolution teaches us that existence and growth go together. Adapt or die. The world will go on without us – and there will be another dead branch on the tree of life.
The Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth offers us a pattern of being, a pattern of growth, that will save us from the inevitability of extinction. That is what salvation is about…

There was much more as our small groups discussed and responded to Neville’s input. Neville’s role has been somewhat of a Jeremiah amongst us in the past, prodding us awake to the inevitable outcome of certain human trajectories – he was part of the “human shield” team at the outbreak of the invasion of Iraq and continues as a passionate advocate for refugees and responsible action on climate change.
His provocative nay-saying fulfills a positive function, however – it awakens us to what is real and encourages us to lay aside what is fanciful and unnecessary, even a hindrance.
This Wednesday the three of us form a panel to debate one another’s input. Should be interesting!

Universal truth or ultimate self-indulgence? (Part 2)

Does popular culture have its own way of addressing theological constructs? We briefly considered three movies to see how they handled preoccupation with the tension between determinism and free-will – “salvation” being seen in terms of liberation from controlling forces, be they personal or institutional. You can check out for yourself the reviews of Groundhog Day, Minority Report, and The Adjustment Bureau. Movie Review Query Engine offers more than you need.

This angst carried over into a review of a current debate in the so-called “emerging church” surrounding Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” – it seems colouring outside the lines is still a no-no for some high profile church leaders.

“Salvation today”, however, to retain the integrity of its biblical meaning, is focused on a lot more than individual security in the hereafter. Jim Wallis, of Sojourners fame, in his book Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street, opens up a host of practical ways for communities to reorient themselves to practical ways of living the values of the Kingdom.

One might recall that when Jericho’s version of a Wall Street hot shot similarly adjusted to the bearings on his inner compass, Jesus remarked “Salvation has come to this house today.”

In summary, there are many angles to a discussion on “Salvation Today.” They are as varied as life itself. The relevance of the biblical view of salvation as holistic, integral, healthy and concerned with relationship that is intrapersonal, interpersonal, and in harmony with creation and the Divine, gives it entry into all spheres of human activity.

Universal truth or ultimate self-indulgence? (Part 1)

This is the subtitle of the “Salvation Today” Lent series cooked up by my local Uniting Church colleagues and myself. I did promise some context for yesterday’s “Saving puppies from a runaway train” conundrum.

In the wake of the visit of evolutionary theologian, Bruce Sanguin, we pondered the meaning of “salvation”, a word more often associated with the big top revival mission scene than its original biblical context. Such pondering led to the suggestion of a three part series:

Karen would get us reflecting on a historical survey from Augustine to Borg.
I would look at some contemporary cultural understandings, particularly the interplay between determinism and free will.
Neville would project us from the present into the future, reflecting on the “salvation of the human race.”

So here’s a summary of Part One – the historical survey.

Salvation in the bible has to do with collective wholeness, health, well-being, integrity, completeness.

The New Testament is witness to the announcement of salvation in terms of the “kingdom of God”, announced by Jesus of Nazareth, demonstrated in his life, death and resurrection, and inherited by those who adopt the way he has shown.

Cultural and historical movements within and beyond the church that followed have coloured our understanding of the meaning and living of “salvation.”

Augustine battled and defeated Pelagius, asserting divine over human initiative in this matter, leaving us the dominant legacy of the doctrine of “original sin” – the idea that there is nothing we can do for our own salvation since all are born in total depravity – a legacy of the fall of Adam and Eve.

Anselm’s “substitutionary atonement” view of the cross vies with Abelard’s “exemplary atonement” hypothesis. That is, Jesus died “in our place” to satisfy the demands of a just God versus Jesus’ death as an example of the length to which one imbued with the life of the Kingdom of God will spend itself, thus turning the nature of death on its head.

Followers of John Calvin have coloured salvation with a predestination outlook as opposed to Arminius’ view of the supremacy of free will.

So “salvation today” is seen in a multiplicity of ways – not just the cleansing of personal sin, but, equally, suggestive metaphors of liberation from captivity, blind receiving sight, healing of broken hearts, restoration of the poor.

I myself favour the word I often use as a sign off – the Hebrew word “Shalom” (“Salaam” in Arabic), meaning completeness in relationship with self, the other, the whole created universe, the Divine.

Saving puppies – saving the world

A Peter Singer inspired question pops up in the WordPress postaday stimulus today: “An out of control train is about to run over a pile of happy puppies. You are standing at the control switch and can pull the lever to direct the train onto a different track, saving their lives. But that other track has a smaller pile of equally happy puppies on it.
What do you do and why?”

Peter Singer is a contemporary ethicist and the question is beyond hypothetical. We have wrestled with similar issues in the local “Salvation Today ” Lent program, where the latest question was posed “Do you have a pessimistic or optimistic outlook on the future of the human race?”

Pessimism would answer the hypothetical by suggesting we are limited to two options, depending on which track we direct the out of control train. Optimism suggests a plethora of alternatives, limited only by imagination, but responses already in are roughly grouped around slowing or redirecting the train or snatching the puppies away with various devices. (The picture shows another!) Transposed to something like the ecological threat, the metaphors are suggestive – use our collective creative will and brilliance to slow down the pollution producing juggernaut or snatch the human race away in an interstellar net to another habitable planet. Prizes for those who identify which is more feasible. Or we could limit ourselves to the original alternatives – using some mechanism to decide which category of the human species will survive a natural or human-created cataclysm.

All this will, no doubt, be hotly debated in the final session of our Lent series next Wednesday night.

[Edit – of course, this is only one aspect of the nature of our “Salvation” discussions – more context in tomorrow’s post]

Raising Lazarus

Two weeks before Easter and it is not surprising that the story of the raising of Lazarus comes out for an airing (see John 11:1-45). Tales of “dead men walking” hold particularly morbid fascination for us. So compelling is the narrative, that a former Australian Prime Minister’s autobiography, which includes an episode of his fall and comeback, is titled Lazarus Rising.

It anticipates the big Easter question, “What is resurrection?” When responding to such questions, there is much focus on somatic physicality or “What do we understand about the nature of the resurrected body?” Discussing this with a colleague earlier today, we pondered how best to approach opening up the “meaning of resurrection.” Our former Prime Minister saw a particular meaning in his sphere of activity. John’s gospel, rich with symbolism and signs, obviously takes the meaning to be higher, broader and deeper. My colleague is presiding over the Easter service at which I am preaching, and I neither want to steal his thunder nor flag my punches, but it’s a good question to ponder as the next two weeks have us journeying to the cross and beyond.

Rebuilding trust with indigenous communities the first step

This morning’s article in The Age, Rebuilding trust with indigenous communities the first step, coincides with a conversation I was involved in earlier today. Recently, Reconciliation Australia’s barometer revealed that “trust” is the most significant current obstacle on the roadway to genuine reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia. It is so easy, in our respective communities, to discuss what is the “right” thing to do to improve life quality through health, housing and education – leading either to such heavy-handed initiatives as the infamous “intervention,” or piecemeal guess work.

Good intentions, however, are no substitute for sitting down, talking together and re-assessing presuppositions and mind-sets. What we thought was so might turn out not to be so. Some of our ready made “solutions” may, instead, simply exacerbate the problems that lead to poverty and sickness. The most successful communities have been collaborative ones, where mutual respect is cherished and indigenous and exotic expertise are blended.

Intervention is easy – it can be done with the stroke of a politician’s pen. But it kills trust.

Collaboration takes work, and it begins by sitting down in the community circle and listening with respectful ears.