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Wondering Pilgrim

~ the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner

Wondering Pilgrim

Tag Archives: theology

Lenten Voices: Synchronicity

05 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in books

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Alexander Shaia, anthropology, canon, gospels, Heart and Mind, lectionary, Lent, lenten journey, liturgy, psychology, theology, transformation

10846339_309160882623747_4347044108429222960_nOver the last twenty years, I have delved into deeper, more ancient understandings of the Christian journey, wandering in and out of an eclectic mainstream of traditions while steering firmly from my own tribal barque. The cross-cultural backwaters of orthodoxy, medieval contemplative mystics, holistic Celtic fervour, spiritual direction, the beauty of some sacred textual translations from Aramaic, and the stimulation of the progressive intellectual stream – all have fed and nurtured my rather ordinary suburban ministry in a small but vibrantly engaged congregation.

The last five days seem to have brought it all together, not as a conclusion, but a further launching pad.  Time spent with visiting author, Alexander Shaia, in seminars, worship and retreat, have drawn these dabblings forth and fitted them to a reframing of a familiar journey. He calls it Quadratos: the Four Gospel Journey for Radical Transformation. Mining deeply from his ancient Lebanese Christian heritage, Alexander Shaia employs the disciplines of theology, anthropology and psychology to uncover an inherent wisdom in the choice and placement of the four gospels that the ancient church used in a universal way of addressing the human journey. While the journey is universal across the stories of many cultures, the Christian journey has five particular keys that unlock its mysteries and engage the human quest for transformation. This ancient understanding, once lost, is now in the slow process of being recovered.

His book is “Heart and Mind” available on Kindle and as hard copy. 

Lent is indeed a journey of joyous discovery as one treads the hard road.

 

Place and Time: Peterson’s Pastoral Imagination

14 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Ministry, Personal, theology

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Eugene Peterson, kairos, pastoral, place, theology

Sinai Sunrise

Sinai Sunrise (Photo credit: Ernie Reyes)

Some of the most evocative reading I’ve engaged over the Christmas/New Year break has been from Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor: a memoir . The development of what he has famously described as “pastoral imagination” is to the fore throughout the telling of his autobiographical pilgrimage.

His opening section, Topos and Kairos, I found immediately compelling. The title invites consideration of place and time as markers of the pastoral journey, using biblical metaphors that are not so much the tools of trade of pastoral practice, but windows of awareness.

I found myself easily recognising such associations: Moses in the ordinary work of minding sheep encounters the burning bush at Midian. My “Midian” was the small electrical warranty and repair counter in Myers bargain basement in Adelaide. Who would have thought that the insistent call of the great “I AM” could occur in conversations with customers bringing in their broken toasters and burnt out irons?

Elijah’s Horeb cave and the discovery of the power of the “still small voice” was an Eremos retreat in a monastery on the outskirts of Canberra. The headiness of innovative outreach and dialogue amongst some of the movers and shakers of the land had ceased to satisfy. Elijah’s depression descended. The opening to a quieter more contemplative approach to ministry was literally a God-send.

The Patmos of John is a little harder for me to place – it seems most of my 40 years in ministry has been unravelling the essence of the “heavenly city” from its cultural accretions. The empire is all-pervasive. Sometimes I know John’s exile, but mostly I find myself complicit.

As the book unfolds, other places come to mind – David-king-in-waiting’s Ziklag, where resource-starved marginalisation constrains the vision splendid; the Sinai wilderness wastelands survived through the providential gifts of manna, quail and hidden springs; the place of congregational formation as tent, rather than cave or fortress.

With all these, I can make immediate association – and thus tap into the richness of the salvific direction of such events, times and places.

Peterson, retired now and spending much time in his beloved Montana cabin, swims against the tide of much Western ecclesiological management theory. I still find his voice a firm and clear (and, I might say, saving) call to the filling of pastoral vocation.

-31.911079 115.772731

Angel wrestling – which hold is best?

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Spirituality, theology

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angel, Jacob, poetry, struggle, theology

How to wrestle an angel – Eureka Street.

I love both these poems – especially the second one. In my humble opinion, theology is better expressed through poetry than propositional debate. It takes us to that place in human experience that is beyond, but not dismissive of rational thought. We should read more poetry. Maybe even write our own!

 

When knowing works backwards…

21 Saturday May 2011

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Spirituality, theology

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Ontological argument, Philosophy of religion, postaday2011, theology

I like this quote from writer John Shea:

We need an understanding of God that blows our mind.

…St Anselm created the ontological argument for God to remedy the ennui of monks. Without going into detail, the ontological argument states God is that than which nothing greater can be thought. If you carry out this experiment in thinking, you will always be approaching God without ever arriving. It will only dawn on you in retrospect that it is the incomprehensibility of God that brings consolation. Despite what we may think, we are not calmed by knowing-for-sure. Our hearts relax through a process of profound not-knowing that leads to trust.

Another way of saying this is: we dwell in essential mystery. Accidental mystery is something we do not presently know but will know someday. Essential mystery is the experience of “the more we know the more mysterious it is.” Increased knowledge does not end essential mystery; increased knowledge increases mystery. Spiritual and theological traditions value this type of knowledgeable not-knowing because it safeguards both the transcendence of God and the human capacity to acknowledge the divine without fully comprehending it. When our minds dwell in this rarified atmosphere of knowing and not-knowing, the smaller fears that normally terrorise us loses some of their power. It is not that they go away, but that we see through their menacing masks. Better said, they are taken up into larger truths that provide a meaning more in accord with love.

The more our minds entertain larger truths about God, the more we are personally and existentially in a relationship of trust…

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Book Review – The Shack

27 Tuesday May 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Spirituality, theology

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books, Spirituality, theology, trinity

Author: William P Young, Windblown Media, 2007

After more than thirty years of trying to come to grips with an adequate articulation of an intellectual understanding of the Trinity, this book has finally convinced me that it can’t be done!

No wonder the biblical writers avoided anything like the “T” word with its propensity for misunderstanding. Taking the lead of Jesus, they use metaphor and story to describe the compelling intimacy of God as revealed through Father, Son and Holy Spirit – an intimacy into which, through the gift of Jesus, all humankind is invited.

For this reason those who trust only a propositional approach to knowing God will not enjoy William Young’s exposition of the nature of God, even given that his work is classified fiction (a bereaved father spends an unexpected weekend with God at the scene of the crime – “The Shack.”) It sends too many doctrinal hares running, and the work of rounding them up is never-ending. It seems to me, however, that Jesus has no problem with this mode of exploring our relationship with the Divine. His use of parable and riddle was obviously a favoured method of opening minds to the possibility of being caught up in the ways of the Kingdom. Young has used a similar approach to entice us into an affective understanding of who God is and why God allows certain things to be the way they are, especially when they leave us cloaked in what Young calls “The Great Sadness.”

I enjoyed immensely reading “The Shack.” It challenged my stereotypes – even the ones in my unconscious. It led me to explore new places that have been slowly revealing themselves over many years in my own prayer practice. I was able to descend into depths of relationship with each of the expressions of God as encountered. The conversations reinforced some of my own discoveries surrounding the painful and vexed question of theodicy (or “why does an all powerful and all loving deity allow suffering?”)

The author doesn’t pretend that this is some ground-breaking theological dissertation – after all, it was originally meant as a story for his own family built on incidents and events in their journey together. In this sense it is similar to Jacob’s nocturnal wrestling with the angel before meeting his estranged brother Esau – the protagonist in “The Shack” emerges not only with a fresh “knowing” of God, but a new name, a new nature, and a new expression of conversion.

Bonhoeffer, Zimbabwe and the Prodigal Son

19 Monday Mar 2007

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in mission, Spirituality, theology

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Bonhoeffer, Prodiogal Son, Spirituality, theology, Wembley Downs, Zimbabwe

In recent times I have often used the illustration of a rope with its many strands to urge the contemplation of how the seemingly unrelated issues with which we wrestle can provide a unifying strength. This last week has seen me attempting to come to grips with Bonhoeffer’s approach to ethics, a challenge to participate in a meaningful way to the crisis in Zimbabwe, and the Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15). I also attended a Dayspring workshop with Steve Wirth on Contemplative Dialogue, possibly a promising tool in the context of the three seemingly disparate strands of the rope I was attempting to plait! Why these particular strands?

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer – I am conducting a study series for two congregations based on his life and thought in relation to Hitler and the Third Reich. A grassroots approach to discipleship and ethics saw him involved in a failed plot to overthrow the regime. He was arrested, imprisoned and finally executed. During this time he continued to write. His thought and commitment is relevant to issues before us as church and nation today.
  • Zimbabwe – we have affective bonds within my congregation with the people of this nation – we are involved with the housing and education of AIDS orphans, a farming project and water bores. In the light of the escalation of officially sanctioned violence over the last week, people are asking what more they can do. The Bonhoeffer studies are heightening such questions,
  • The Parable of the Lost Son was in yesterday’s lectionary. The sermon had to somehow address the unusual “ethics” within this story. The fresh discovery that the story makes no sense at all from an ethical point of view was somewhat liberating for those of us caught on the barbed wire fence of the ethical system suggested by Bonhoeffer. We came to an understanding of another awareness central to Bonhoeffer’s thinking – that of grace. Grace that is costly to both the giver and the receiver. The critical elder brother, self-expelled into the outer darkness because he couldn’t bare the celebrations, also experienced the offer of grace. The father came out from the party to be with him in his self imposed misery, not to commiserate, but to gently entice him to the place where there was light, joy and the possibility of reconciliation with his brother. Whether the elder brother received grace is unknown. Did he eventually go into the celebrations?

What does all this look like when twined together? Not much that will give answers to the dilemmas of justice that confront contemporary living. We have to work things out the best way we can (that’s basically what Bonhoeffer was saying, pointing to love for neighbour and the modelling of Jesus as his guiding principles). What we are offered is a stance – the stance of grace.

The overwhelming message from church leaders in Zimbabwe with whom we have had contact is that of courageous grace. This is shown through forthrightness in their will to care compassionately for and encourage their people, often against breathtaking odds. They are working out of an ethic that is saturated with grace.

Maybe our most important task is to learn from them.

Thinking Christology now and then – another symposium reflection

17 Saturday Feb 2007

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, theology

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churches of christ, theology

Again, I only caught a part of this presentation. Stephen Curkpatrick never fails to give me a bone to take away and gnaw. Stephen has a particular gift with terminology that can, at the same time, irritate and open up fresh pathways of conceptual understanding.

The gist of his presentation was to compare and assess Christology from earlier and more classic “nominative” points of view to more current “vocative” perspectives – “nominative” being the Greek propensity for naming and classifying and “vocative” relating, in Hebrew fashion, to identifying and answering the “call” or “summons” within the phenomena.

My mind wonders to contemplate that, as products of the Enlightenment, the rational processes of our pioneer thinkers may have been very much at home in the nominative, yet there was an ardent passion responding vocatively to that which they named.

I ponder how that tension finds expression in my own circles – how carefully we try to articulate, name and classify the collective elements of our faith, witness and mission and possibly miss that which is vocative within, or at least dilute it with our rush to classify. Of course the other danger is present, that of becoming so ardently passionate over that which calls us that we fail to spend the patience and discipline required to give it the nominative form that enables communication and team-building. I give thanks that the local congregation to which I belong, for the most part, seems to hold the tension nicely.

Stephen left us with some further interesting ponderables:

* “Consider: Jesus Christ exceeds our expectations of the exemplary, representing a unique trajectory in humanity with possibilities we can only engage in faith as response to the vocative word.”
* “Consider: Grace alone is able to redress the human inequalities within love, goodwill, forgiveness, imagination and hope.”
* Consider: the triune story is integral to ecumenical expression of the uniqueness of Christian testimony, identity and mission.

Pope Benedict XVI – that speech

21 Thursday Sep 2006

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in mission, theology

≈ 2 Comments

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Benedict XVI, Islam, mission, theology

Much has been written in the media concerning an excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI’s recent speech at Regensburg which cited a medieval Byzantine emperor’s less than favourable view of the Islamic practice of “conversion by the sword.” I don’t propose to discuss this, but merely to point a very thoughtful treatment by Gil Baillie of the speech and the reaction it has provoked. It is on his blog at http://cornerstone-forum.blogspot.com/ ( now archived under September 15th, 2006).

Gil Baillie is the author of the ground-breaking work, Violence Unveiled, applying the insights of the anthropologist, Renee Girard, to the implications of the applied gospel of Jesus Christ.

Riding the Apocalypse with Bob

17 Sunday Sep 2006

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, theology

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apocalypse, art, theology, Wembley Downs


According to artist, Robert Brittain, the last book in the Bible is best understood as a visual and visceral experience. The Apocalypse, or the Revelation of John, comprises a vision revealed to the early church pioneer while a prisoner on the Mediterranean island of Patmos around AD90.

Last Sunday at the Church of Christ Wembley Downs, Robert Brittain unveiled a frieze depicting the vision in twenty four scenes. Robert presented the broad sweep of the vision, focusing on key events inspired by the words from the Lord’s Prayer, “on earth as in heaven.” The following question and answer session revealed a high level of interest and engagement on the part of the congregation.

Two lasting impressions were the power of the integrity of the work and the responses elicited by some of the images. Earlier in the week, as the frieze was being laid out to be set up, passers-by offered similar spontaneous reactions. It is a compelling work that invites participation with a body of scripture that is rarely engaged because it is considered overwhelming, threatening and too difficult to understand.

“What is different about this is its lightness – and obvious joyful, hopeful outcome,” said one visitor.

Another starkly notable feature was the prominence of the victim’s suffering negating evil design, first in the depiction of the slain Lamb, and then in all who were blessed through participating in him.

Robert Brittain is available to present his work on enquiry through the Wembley Downs Church of Christ, 9245 2593 or djr@cisp.com.au Posted by Picasa

Coffe Cup Quote

13 Wednesday Sep 2006

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in mission, Spirituality, theology

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coffee, mission, Spirituality, theology

Someone sent this quote found on the side of their coffee mug:

“It’s tragic that extremists co-opt the notion of God, and that hipsters and artists reject spirituality out of hand. I don’t have a fixed idea of God. But I feel that it’s us — the messed-up, the half-crazy, the burning, the questing — that need God, a lot more than the goody-two-shoes do.”Mike Doughty, musician.

Part of me resonates deeply with this!

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