the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner
A day off! What does it mean today!
* getting Jenny’s car serviced
* packing away some chairs and tables
* calling on a friend in hospital
* some recreational reading
* seeing if there’s a movie worth catching
* fixing some household stuff that Jenny will no doubt draw my attention to
All quite undemanding – even relaxing. Not an ode but it feels like one!
Jesus looks over the crowd and declares “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world…”
How did he know? What did he see in the disparate mob gathered there? Fisherfolk, tax collector, tenant farmer – the curious, the cynic and the desperado.
Was he declaring what was already innate or something that was yet to be? Or both?
Answers gladly received as I prepare Matthew 5:13-20 for Sunday’s harangue.
A few of my friends are nervous about Egypt right now. Some are predicting an outcome similar to that of the Iranian revolution. Others see the possibility of the beginning of a new phase of more open and accessible governance as opposed to repressive and despotic regimes in the Middle East.
Truth is, much remains unknown while the dramatic events in Cairo and Alexandria are still unfolding.
Two articles from the last day are helpful in background however.
The first is the Huffington Posts’s “4 Reasons Why Egypt’s Revolution is not Islamic.” It lays a lot of inaccurate comparisons to the Iranian Revolution to rest.
The next is from Jim Wallis (Sojourners) who critiques his country’s role in the lead-up to and aftermath of the current events. His article, Let’s Be Honest About Egypt, concludes:
“There are three crucial tests now which will determine what will happen next in Egypt. First, will the protests that were started by a new generation young people who want a better and more democratic way of life remain peaceful? Second, will the military keep its promise made last night not to attack our “great people?” And will the United States be willing to abide by a new democracy in Egypt that doesn’t have to always agree with American “interests?””
I think parallel universes would come in handy at times. Right now I’m setting up several meetings that involve different people from disparate settings. My usual mode is to send out an email saying “Give me your days and times and I’ll attempt to match them up using the most common denominator.” Invariably the days that suit some, others urge me to avoid at all costs. If we had access to an asynchronous parallel universe or two we could handle calendar clashes – just slide from one reality to the next!
How to keep track? Outlook already allows multiple calendars. Those who still carry appointment books could colour code them. You’d have to be extra vigilant, of course. Trying to remember which universe you absent-mindedly left your car keys in would be an extra challenge.
To home school or not? Today’s article in Eureka Street discusses its benefits against a constrained and competitive school system.
We are long past our child’s school days, but we had to work hard to ensure his particular needs were met through the public system.
The argument seems to be that home-schooling provides a more confident, well-rounded and self-motivated individual, while too many lose their way in the classroom. Of course there are exceptions, and home schooling depends on effective access to resources, socialisation and a wholesome environment – an equal challenge for for both home and institution, testing the resourcefulness and creativity of all concerned.
Perhaps two pertinent affirmations arise from the debate – parents cannot afford to be uninvolved in their children’s education, and education is not just something that happens in school hours.
I don’t know if the Coen brothers intended it, but their remake of the 1968 Charles Portis novel made famous by John Wayne plays out like the conflicted symbiosis of Freud’s id, ego and superego.
The self-assured 14 year old Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) confidently represents the ego – self-aware and able to negotiate what she wants – in this case vengeance on the man who murdered her father. One-eyed and grizzled US Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) is the id, cunning, almost animal like, but no match for the insistent drive and purpose of the young woman who hires him (against his will) to track the killer through the western frontiers. High minded Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) supplies the superego; he is also after the killer for his own reasons. The interplay between these three characters could be seen as a fascinating study of the war within each of us – our baser instincts, present conscious drive and our higher yet censorious self . Each discovers its need for the other, each has the chance to show ‘true grit.’
On another level, the bleak and grim background of the American western frontier in the 1880s displays the grandeur and the poverty of the elevation of the unquestioned and unexamined idolatry of the rise of the individual. Virtue is seen in the height one can attain by beating the other down. When connection is made, it is through grudging admiration of the other’s ability to shine in cunning and manipulation.
And I thought I was just going to see another Western!
Many countries deserve our thoughtful prayers from week to week and we are certainly mindful of the dramatic events affecting millions of people in Egypt right now. Focused attention on troubled and changing regions does not deplete a disciplined and planned approach to prayer, however.
Ireland and the United Kingdom comprising England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales are the countries featured on the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle this week.
The Church of Christ at Wembley Downs participates by featuring the week’s countries in newsletter, feature wall and Sunday morning intercessions. Groups and individuals are encouraged to pray for these countries through the coming week. The following prayers are from the featured web page.
Intercessions
Give thanks for:
The witness of saints and missionaries, who faithfully proclaimed the gospel to these and other lands.
Ecumenical initiatives to bring Christians closer together.
The work for justice and peace in which Christians join with others to imagine a better world.
Centres of Christian renewal.
Tartans, bagpipes and boys’ choirs singing in ancient cathedrals.
Poetry and song.
Pray for:
Immigrants and asylum seekers who seek a better life in these countries.
Reconciliation and an end to enmity between peoples.
Strength for those who combat racism.
Churches which try to be faithful to Christ in the midst of secularization and change.
Those who feel they have been left behind: the homeless and unemployed, those whose education seems inadequate or their skills out of date, and those who are long-term patients in mental hospitals.
Those whose industry has been ravaged: the coal miners and slate workers who know of pit and quarry closures and who suffer emphysema and pneumoconiosis, the farm and land workers who have lost their livelihoods and have seen their communities changed dramatically, the factory workers who have lost their jobs, the young who cannot find work, and the elderly who depend on support in residential homes.
Prayer
Lord, you made the world and everything in it;
you created the human race of one stock
and gave us the earth for our possession.
Break down the walls that separate us and unite us in a single body.
Lord, we have been divisive in our thinking,
in our speech, in our actions;
we have classified and imprisoned one another;
we have fenced each other out by hatred and prejudice.
Break down the walls that separate us and unite us in a single body.
Lord, you mean us to be a single people,
ruled by peace, feasting in freedom, freed from injustice,
truly human, men and women,
responsible and responsive
in the life we lead,
the love we share,
the relationships we create.
Break down the walls that separate us and unite us in a single body.
Lord, we shall need ever new insights into the truth,
awareness of your will for all humanity,
courage to do what is right even when it is not allowed,
persistence in undermining unjust structures until they crumble into dust,
grace to exercise a ministry of reconciliation.
Break down the walls that separate us and unite us in a single body.
Lord, share out among us the tongues of your Spirit
that we may each burn with compassion for all
who hunger for freedom and human dignity;
that we may be doers of the word and so speak with credibility about the
wonderful things you have done.
Lord, direct us in ways we do not yet discern and equip us for the service of reconciliation and liberation in your world.
The famous opening lines of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount come up this Sunday. (Matthew 5:1-12).
Contextually, they form the foundation of the manifesto for “the Kingdom of Heaven” that is at hand and announced successively by John the Baptist and Jesus. More contemporary language might replace “Kingdom” terms with the “all-pervading consciousness of the presence of God” that begins within one’s self and one’s community and begins to transform the world in ever increasing circles.
Jesus begins his movement of raising this new but continuous phase of God-awareness in Galilee’s lake district amongst the indentured fishing industry. His appeal is largely to crowds dependent on subsistence economy.
Consequently the Beatitudes are not a summons to behaving in a particular way, as religious leaders of the time may have urged, but a recognition and affirmation of the poor circumstances in which the peasantry of Galilee lived and the call to a new orientation of how they perceived their circumstances – not as victims of Herod’s oriental hierarchy in collusion with the heavy footed might of Rome, but as God-cherished denizens of a new society operating to selfless yet self-affirming standards of behaviour. These principles will be outlined further as the Sermon unfolds.
Food for thought as the Middle East experiences uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Lebanon against systems of rule widely perceived as tyrannical. One might be tempted to ponder how the orientation of the Beatitudes might apply in such circumstances (getting past the fact that many within the crowds are calling for the Islamification of government rule). One recalls the tremendous show of solidarity by the Egyptian populace with the beleaguered Coptic community in the wake of the New Year bombing in Alexandria. However, the call is to recognise the proximity of the Kingdom of Heaven to us. We can only respond from ourselves and not the distant neighbour, no matter how closely we hold them. This response however, ultimately embraces all. See a previous post on how prayer works.
Still pondering, but this is a start!
For my edification, I am reading Stephen S Hall, Wisdom: from philosophy to neuroscience.(University of Queensland Press, 2010).
As a science writer, the author is particularly keen to explore potential new insights provided by the emerging neurosciences without jettisoning more conventional understandings of wisdom. In fact, he conjectures, wisdom is a phenomenon that cannot really be grasped without standing back and appreciating the multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted contributions of generations of human existence. One early observation, however, is that it is most often conveyed, not in the rarefied atmosphere of academia or sanctum, but among and within the human population at large.
Without daring to deign a definition, he does lay out some tentative principles associated with wise behaviour before launching into his investigation:
Today I join many others in saluting the first nations of our land.
An excellent coloured poster size map (small or large) depicting the language, tribal and nation groups of Australian Indigenous peoples is available for purchase from the Australian Institute of Aborigine and Torres Strait Islander Studies. The map does not claim precision, but relies on published works to depict the multi-faceted mosaic of human habitation in this land for thousands of years before European settlement.
Copyright restrictions prevent the map from being represented here, but a visit to the site will give you an idea of the nature of the map and how to purchase it.
Wondering Pilgrim 