Marcus Curnow
I like to think of the bible as a stick of dynamite, sitting in the basement of every church in the location of empire, waiting for those with ‘eyes to see’ to light the fuse. With the tools of literacy, the power of the dominant culture’s dreams about itself can be broken and the power of the story to awaken us from our sleep broken open.
Ched Myers Who will Roll away the stone.
"The churches story will not interpret the world to the world's satisfaction. Hence there is a temptation ( no weaker word will do) for the church to deny her "counter, original, spare, strange" starting point in Abraham and Jesus and to give instead a self account or theology that will seem true to the world on the worlds own present terms. Surely, it will be said, the salvation of the world must rest on some better foundation than tales about an ancient nomad and stories of a Jewish healer? "
(McClendon 1986 Systematic Theology: Ethics, Nashville, Abingdon p.17)
I will tell you something about stories, (he said) They aren't just entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don't have anything if you don't have stories. Their evil is mighty but it can't stand up to our stories. So they would try to destroy the stories let the stories be confused or forgotten. They would like that They would be happy Because we would be defenseless then.
Leslie Marmon Silko "Ceremony"
Eric Drooker
Place & Saints of Para Plains
October 28, 2007
I had the priviledge of speaking in the graveyard of my Great Great Great Grandparents to the Back to Burton Society who were launching my fathers new book, "Pioneering the Para Plains". Lots of people have asked for a copy of my rant and so my rough notes are posted here below.
I would also acknowledge the Karuna as the Traditional Owners of this place upon which we stand, the spirit of their ancestors and their present day elders. I pray these words may be work for reconciliation between people, the earth and its creator.
It’s good to be here in the burial place of my own ancestors. I have never lived here but I feel a strong connection to this place.
As the son of a Methodist minister with its peculiar circuit system I have lived a transient lifestyle in many places across South Australia and Victoria.
With my work these days I often move around the Basalt Plains of Western Victoria and as I do my thoughts are often drawn to this plain.
In my house we have a cross that was constructed out of some of the original timber of the church that once stood upon this site. My children call it the “family cross” and we often take it with us when we attend public functions or protests as a reminder of why we are here, where it is that we come from and the land on which my people first stood in this country .
In a world of great social and economic mobility it is hard to know where we belong anymore; to know where our roots truly are.
I am conscious of this each day as I work in Melbourne with people who are homeless, who are often the most disconnected and transient in our society. This is most evident as I sit and listen to urban indigenous people whose sense of displacement and pain seems so much greater than my own.
One of my work colleagues travelled to England for the first time recently and spoke about it as a spiritual awakening; of the power of physically being on the land that has shaped his culture, of the palpable sense of living history and becoming conscious of ones roots.
This was a mixed blessing as upon return he realised how little we know of any sense of ancient or sacred history of this place and how foreign and even at odds with the land our Australian culture remains and indeed much of our iconic battler identity is based . he was haunted by the question “Can we ever truly feel at home in this place without some form of cultural reconciliation?”
Upon return he was sharing this tension with a local indigenous leader. In a powerful moment of gracious invitation the indigenous elder looked him in the eye and said.…..”You belong here! This is your place!”
It was a reconciliation experience that gave him the focus and sense of call and connection to continue his work to build community in one of the poorest suburbs of Geelong.
As I have grown I have watched as my fathers interest has been sparked and then grown through similar travels to Cornwall and the inevitable processing that occurs on the journey home. Much of this traveling; the book that we are launching today; and I would suggest gatherings like today, involve personal, spiritual, identity work, with which many people here would identify.
I want to share briefly the importance that land and Place have had in shaping some of my own journey.
My fathers love of the stories of this place has led me to reflect upon the idea of songlines.
Myers says a truly contextual spirituality “must pay attention not only to history and social location, but to the songlines of the land,” By songlines, he refers to the Aboriginal cultural ways of seeing, describing and navigating their way through landscapes.
These are powerful stories of creation from which, and for which, Australian indigenous people believe themselves to be created. They are also often quite practical stories about how to survive, where to find water, negotiate tribal boundaries, and find shelter at different times in the land.
Another colleague of mine has just returned from a tour in Northern South Australia structured by such songlines where ancient rituals and sacred stories were told as part of the journey. She noted that the particular stories of one people group often overlapped with that of another between tribes, giving a sense of interconnection and allowing people to navigate large distances. (John Magor's hand drawn map in the back of my father's book is a highlight for me as it has many pictures from stories that occur through the book...a kind of songline may i suggest!)
Unfortunately I believe that in ‘settling’ or seeking to make this place their spiritual home our pioneering parents often transplanted songs from another place (the hymns of Charles Wesley spring to mind) at the expense of listening and knowing the stories or songlines already here.
One view of our pioneering forebears is of religiously zealous, pioneer farmers armed with the protestant work ethic and a vision of political and religious freedom who built the city of churches which has formed the basis for today’s prosperity.
An alternative view that I am struck with as I stand in what is now a car park where our pioneers church once stood, and as I look at the many decaying chapels, dotted over the denuded and drought stricken landscape is one of our forebears as, economic and religious refugees. A profoundly dislocated and desperate people who sought to recreate an ideal of home that belonged to another place. So desperate in fact that we imposed our songs on the landscape and its people with an often unconscious violence.
Whether we ascribe to a black or white arm band view of Australia’s history. (Personally I think mine is grey!) The question that each of us must ask of our ourselves, our spirituality, our church traditions and structures, our land and economics is. What is that can truly take root in this country? What is it that is truly sustainable?
The Australian spirituality writer David Tacey suggests that Western and European spirituality is associated with 'ideas' and is accessed through the ‘head’. Such ways of seeing imply that Aussie culture a secular rejection of such ways. Tacey suggests we are spiritual but that the unique Southern landscape calls us to experience spirituality from the ‘feet’ up, arising in stillness and silence from the land itself.
Far from a trendy new age concept such ideas can be found in the best parts of the Christian heritage. Land is also sacred in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Land forms the core part of the covenant promises to the ancestors as a connection point through the generations. The religious laws of Torah provides that place, opportunity and freedom that comes from land may be extended to all not co-opted by a few. Adelaide based Theologian Norman Habel has written on the ways in which the earth itself is seen as a character, an active participant which has its own voice thoughout the biblical story.
Highlighting similar biblical songlines (eg. Isaiah 42), Ched Myers sees the task of contextualisation as “to reclaim symbols of redemption that are indigenous to the bioregion in which the church dwells. To remember the stories of the people of the land and to sing anew its old songs. These can be woven together with the symbols, stories and songs of our own traditions.” He suggests that this will necessarily be a local and personal exercise.
I personally believe that the roots of Methodist Revival in Cornwall which have so shaped the spirituality of the place on which we stand can be traced back to an earlier Celtic spiritual tradition. Andy Philips, the founder of the recently establish Celtic Christian community of St Peran suggests that for Celtic monks, a rooted-ness in the land was essential for spiritual wholeness. There was deep reverence for certain places which were considered holy or sacred, even if, (perhaps especially if) seen as such by pagan traditions before the coming of Christianity. The Celts described Thin Places; where heaven and earth seemed closer.
I’m not sure if any of us experience Burton as a thin place? The Celtic monks often worshiped outdoors in the extremes of nature and I can sense some of that same spirit is here today. (100 people sitting in a car park /cemetery, 35 degree day, hot northerly wind!) The contemporary resurgence of interest in Celtic spirituality is in part because it is a non institutional spiritual tradition, which has a sensitivity to environment and other cultures not found in much modern Christianity.
My late uncle in law from Yorkshire was a dear friend of mine and wrote in the cover of a book about Celtic saints which I treasure…… “From one dreamtime to another”.
Another idea that has helped my journey is that of the spirits of the ancestors of a place which I acknowledged at the outset. Jung suggests that as we deepen our connection with place, the place slowly conquers us. “Man can be assimilated by a country.”
Some indigenous traditions also assert that one cannot conquer foreign soil, because in it there dwells strange ancestor-spirits who reincarnate themselves in the new-born.
Whilst the Methodism of our forebears has no doctrine of reincarnation or ancestral spirits, David Tacey suggests it is the power of this ‘spirit of place’, however described, that has caused many sensitive Australians to feel at ‘home’ in Aboriginal Australia. Ched Myers makes connections between local Aboriginal ‘spirits of place’ and the great ‘cloud of witnesses’ spoken of in Hebrews 12:1.
The best way for Aboriginal Australians to bring about a social revolution is not to shout “Europeans, go home”, but to cry “We are your soul”, then observe the changes says Tacey.
Myers observes these changes in his own life using the metaphor of the parable about the ways of God being like the germination of a seed that is sown in the earth. A seed which has a life of its own.
“The love in the land has summoned a love in me for it. This love was buried in my soul like the smallest of seeds, placed there by ancestors I never knew. The nights and days of my life have passed and the seed has grown, ‘I know not how’ (Mark 4:27; 1994 p.368, emphasis his).
My father writes in the book we are launching today….
“While we will never pioneer the land again. Our culture and way of life will not survive on memorabilia of the past.” That is not what this gathering is about…”When it comes to making and shaping our identity… every generation is called to make its choices and set its priorities.”
I believe this place, the land itself, needs to be our guide in creating this identity. I am not naïve about the difficulty of this process. The authors I have quoted are contested in the culture wars of our day. One must avoid the temptation of superficially synthesizing or consuming romantic ideas. Whilst not easy, this process calls for the same pioneering courage and determination exhibited by those that have gone before us. This is why we are drawn here today. This is the spiritual work for our generation.
The land has a power transcends our denominational, religious, cultural or political differences.
When this weeks round of tax cuts have come and gone, long after the latest homes that now surround us, or the contemporary religious buildings be they supermarkets or mega-churches are rubble, long after our own bodies have gone, the land will remain. The love that created it and that remains in it will call its inhabitants to make a place, to listen and learn its stories, its songs of love and of lament and to live wisely.
As we gather today we are not alone but we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses; the spirits of our pioneering mothers and fathers, and those of the ancient dreaming.
They bear witness to this moment and our choices. Amen.
Posted by marcus at 02:45 AM | Comments (0)
Recasting! Luke 5:1-11
February 06, 2007
Recasting!: Fishing for the abundant alternative economy.
A reflection on Luke 5:1-11 from "The Water's Edge".
“To be sure the economic problem itself, that is the need to struggle for existence, derives ultimately from the scarcity of nature.”
“Scarcity is not attributable to nature alone but to ‘human nature’ as well…the insatiable appetite of the human temperament.”
Robert Heilbroner
Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’
6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Context
For millennia, fishing at Galilee had been a self-reliant and seasonal affair in the lakeside villages. Rapid spoilage fixed a limit on a localised and self-sustaining market. However, under the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, who was anxious to make his backward region productive for his Roman overlords (by both taxes and exports), and with the development of preservative techniques in which hauls of sardine and carp could be pickled or salted, the pressures of a wider market seemed to alter the economy.
Romans developed a taste for salt-fish. Spicy sauces and fish stews were highly valued as both condiment and medicine. Magdala, lakeside hometown of the disciple Mary, became a kind of factory town nicknamed Taricheae, the "Town of Salt-Fish." Little more than a large freshwater lake, The “Sea” of Galilee was becoming virtually ‘industrialized’ and perhaps even overfished.
While the boat owners/fishers may or may not have also been involved in fish processing, this would not have made them wealthy, and certainly not "middle class," as many authors have contended. In such a highly regulated, taxed, and hierarchical political-economy, the fishers could not be classed as "entrepreneurs". The "surplus" went to the brokers and the ruling elite.
Against such a background the story of fishermen working all night and coming up empty and of a miraculous net-busting catch, takes on a different cast.
Perhaps they weren’t organizing a maritime union, but when Peter and friends dropped their nets to follow Jesus they were certainly signing on to a movement that offered a sweeping alternative community—economic, political, and spiritual—to the dominating imperial system of Rome.
Our Context
Classical economics is based upon two suppositions: the natural condition of scarcity; and the human propensity for unlimited appetite. The first justifies inequality whilst the second fuels ideologies of unlimited economic growth.
‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing.’
The notion of scarcity creates a ‘poverty’ thinking that is dualistic and generates conflict. (winners /losers, have/have nots, labour/capital etc.) It sees only what is lacking, only those motivated by power and greed with whom we must compete and breeds a sense that we are ‘owed’.
Jesus however, demonstrates that the economy of God is based upon an abundant creation, and calls followers to respond through risky self giving, thankfulness and reverent self restraint.
‘Go away from me, for I am sinful’
Our imaginations are often captive to the economy of our world. Our sense of what we are ‘due’ as well as our concept of health, wealth and what will ‘save us’ are profoundly culturally conditioned and reveal much about our spirituality.
‘Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’
Reflective Exercise
At the waters edge become aware of the created order and the abundance of energy that surrounds you. Become aware of your breathing, breathed in you by the Creator:
Exhale: Breathe out scarcity. Let go of false assumptions and accompanying fears.
Inhale: Breathe in God’s abundance for yourself and an impoverished world. Hear Jesus call “Do not be afraid.”
Offer a prayer of appreciation (an economic term meaning to ‘add value’.)
Posted by marcus at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
Mark 9: 38-60 (Proper 21) Deformity is better than Conformity
November 10, 2006
Hey Marcus. Was sitting in Bourke Street Mall this morning,and saw one of the billboards getting taken down. The wind was blowing the vinyl around all over the place, making the model look all deformed. Reminded me of what you were saying on Sunday. (from Christop).
My rant was based on ideas from Ched Myers, Who Will Roll Away the Stone and basically my points were:
Deformity is better than Conformity.
What does a healthy body (personal and political) look like in our world?
Living alternatives means the church will often look deformed and defective to the dominant culture.
Those who are de-formed or seek to live de-fectively can often “see” what is wrong with our world more clearly.
When we try and live alternatives its easy to get judgmental and even get masochistic. Cast out the evil member among us etc
The passage suggests we need to have salt and fire, traditional cures for amputation and live at peace with each other.
Quotes I based this around were:
In the house where all cry out “I see!”and continue to do the works of evil
there is only one classic action open to the wise:
Strike yourself blind and explore that Kingdom.
- Daniel Berrigan
Every Christian community must know that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the community. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When Christian leaders go to government to call for sweeping structural change, we have more integrity and power when we can say:
"We are part of Christian communities that are already beginning to live out what we are calling you to legislate." Our call for costly changes in foreign policy toward the Two-Thirds World designed to implement greater global economic justice has integrity only if we are a part of Christian congregations that are already beginning to incarnate a more simple lifestyle that points toward a more just, ecologically sustainable planet.
Our call for nuclear disarmament and international peace has integrity only if there is growing peace and wholeness in our families and churches. - Ronald J. Sider
Posted by marcus at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)
Turn on the lights
October 18, 2006
My personal response to Andrew Bolt's column in the Herald Sun on Friday the 13th.
Dear Andrew
In spite of the assertions made in your article on Friday 13th I don’t feel that Urban Seed can take responsibility for keeping the lights off in North Korea. Urban Seed does take responsibility. however, for running an open lunch each day at Credo Café in the basement of the building of the Baptist Church.
Some days we have capitalists at the table from the foundations and charitable trusts you mentioned in your article. I don’t always agree with their economics, where their money comes from or their ideas of success.
Some days we have socialists at the table like those from the Stop G20 coalition. I don’t always agree with their economics, where their money comes from or their ideas of success either.
Both groups share the table with those who are homeless, drug addicted, mentally ill and refugees. In my experience the capitalists put in a bit more money, while the socialists are better at doing the dishes, but we all have a lot to learn about our economics and the true nature of poverty from those at the bottom of the pile.
“Just what will make those lights go on?” you ask. In my experience Melbourne is not as light and dark as your column suggests. We can not apologise for relating, educating and debating with both ends of town. Many people love diversity and feel a deep human need to hear and connect with the “truth” of their “enemy” beyond their own partisan perspectives. Capitalists, socialists and those with no place to lay their head all keep coming back to share lunch at Credo Cafe. This is the basis of our politics. You may call this a “fascination with the politics that enslave” but as a “salvation seeker” I see the “lights go on” for people all the time.
Of course, our politics make us an easy target: play one group off the other and attribute guilt by association. Our inspiration, Jesus of Nazareth, copped guilt by association for those with whom he ate and was ultimately crucified under the false charge that he would destroy the temple (read: economic system) of his day. It was a false charge because, I believe, Jesus knew that in the end the “temple” would destroy itself (and I would suggest any system of economics that becomes an “–ism” always does!) All he did was predict it. Of great concern to him were the victims it would take with it. He was also concerned with how people could begin to imagine and practice an economics of “enough” for all.
This concern motivates and informs Urban Seed’s work each day. It is because we know and love the capitalists, the socialists and those who are marginalised that we will continue to be actively involved in the important meetings and debates that shape our culture – from inside and out.
Contrary to what your article implied, our activities around the World Economic Forum in 2000 involved legal observation, prayer and actions to de-escalate the “battlefield.” This was merely an extension of our respected daily work of nonviolence with drug users, rough sleepers, schools, traders, police and council in seeking to keep the city safe for everyone.
Of course, creative protest and civil disobedience are also tools of nonviolence and essential to healthy democracy. From a Christian perspective, blockades formed part of the strategy of Jesus. Indeed, he wasn’t above a little symbolic property damage and blockading in order to make the point that our “light giving” structures are never divinely permanent. He taught that the real light that is produced by an economic system can’t be measured by satellites in the sky. For the “Son of Man”, the real temples of worship are our bodies. The ultimate source of light is found in people, especially the poor.
Being a rather confrontational tactic, table turning blockades should always be a last resort. Some would say that Jesus wasn’t as lucky as us to live in such a wealthy, “well lit”, liberal democratic society as our own. Urban Seed has at no point said the G20 should be stopped and Brent has said clearly that the meeting should not be blockaded. We have encouraged both G20 and Stop G20 participants to attend our bible studies about economics and workshops on nonviolent community safety and protest to explore the question of “What would Jesus do?” together.
Your description of a benevolent G20 trying to make “trade a bit easier... and the competition for energy less nasty” is generous at best. Whilst poorer countries are present with their many and varied levels of democratic representation (eg. China!), the self proclaimed agenda of the “highly representative” gathering is the promotion of G8-type policies of privatisation, trade liberalisation, deregulation and increased flexibility of wages and labour conditions in order to serve competition which is described as the key to economic growth and prosperity. Pursuing such policies may or may not make a nation state wealthy, however I believe that failing to also acknowledge the negative impacts of such approaches upon the poorest in these countries, as well as the to the fabric of human community and the created order is dishonest and dangerous. It potentially impoverishes us all.
Urban Seed has been supportive of those seeking to place debt relief, fair trade, and more and better aid higher on the agenda of the finance ministers at the G20. Yet, while pursuing the Millenium Development Goals will produce many important outcomes for the poor, they will not “Make Poverty History”, especially if tacked uncritically upon the back of this system. Unfortunately the need to keep a broad based, celebrity driven, anti poverty campaign “feel good” and positive for the media means that hard truth’s can be inadvertently glossed over. That we in the global North must also “make the poverty of affluence history” is a much harder message to “sell”.
I am under no illusions as to the fragility and weakness of our position. Whilst we have sought to place our bodies at the coal face of the sufferings of the present system we also enjoy many of the benefits of the grand economic plans of others. I strongly agree with you that “bright ideas can have black consequences”. I will point the finger not simply at the failures of capitalism, but also at those of the Christian church, and my own community in particular. Influenced more by the culture around us than by the story of Jesus, we have not always had the courage to risk and scheme ways of redistribution with the same passion and fervor with which we have scrambled after wealth. Idealistic fundamentalists of any economic agenda can do much damage and for the times that I fall into this category, Andrew let me say to you with all the humility I can muster, I’m sorry!
The great Christian protestor Dorothy Day was a communist before her conversion and so was always torn by the seeming inadequacy and ineffectiveness of her own network of Hospitality Houses. Faced with criticism of her rejection of grand schemes to alleviate poverty she concluded that “In the end only love ever changes anything.”
Urban Seed is small because we hold convictions about scale, and economies of scale. Truth-full love is not abstract, but very particular. Our small lunch and our own efforts at redistributive living are not much of an economic system. Neither do they appear to offer easy, obvious or pragmatic answers to the deepest and immediate cries of the world’s poorest. We are not naïve about theses tensions and remaining authentically small whilst maintaining a large voice is a constant struggle.
It is always easy to dismiss something small as irrelevant. Your comparison of Stop G20 promoting “community gardens” to the policies of the North Korean government website, whilst amusingly clever, are superficial and ultimately leave me unconvinced. I remain doubtful that the policies of Kim Jung Il, the meeting of G20 nation states, or buying a Make Poverty History wristband (I do have one!) can capture the love of which Dorothy Day speaks. On the other hand, I am often inspired by some truly amazing community gardeners.
Such small efforts may well be seen as an escapist “freedom-fearing desire to go back to the womb, back to the cave, back to the tribe”. A perplexed wealthy man once asked Jesus, in the shroud of darkness, what is necessary to enter God’s economy. Jesus’ reply is that being “born again” is possible, not through re-entering the womb, but only by the Spirit. Far from an escapist, privatised spirituality, he makes the famous “For God so loved the world…” quote, indicating that spiritual transformation leads to loving deeds that stand up in the light of day. “Those who do what is true come to the light, so it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (John 3: 21)
Far from escapist, I would contend that the witness of this Spirit in action through small, often misunderstood groups of people, from Jesus, to the early church and throughout history, is that love can and will, time and time again, make capitalism impossible and communism unnecessary.
You say that our pastors Mark and Brent “sure do not do irony” because we critique capitalism, and take money from capitalists. Let me assure you, (and feel free to check this with our funders) that when it comes to Mark and Brent, irony is in no small supply!
We believe in redistribution and so we greatly appreciate, but do not depend upon, the money of capitalists. We trust in the abundance of post-competitive economics and believe that love will always turn on lights that money cannot. So our policy with regards to donors is that if it’s a choice between giving us money or coming to lunch, we would prefer they gather around our table, bringing their bodies even without their chequebooks. Like Jesus’ own demonstration of “alternative” economics with 5000 in the wilderness, our lunches keep happening and, miraculously, there is always enough!
Jesus shared his last meal with a capitalist, a terrorist, and some self-employed representatives of the fishing industry who were obviously dissatisfied enough to down tools (at least for a time). Taking bread, he broke it as a symbol of solidarity with bodies broken by our systems, and of the ultimate power of self sacrificing love. (Talk about anti-competitive behavior!)
God’s light is spread, but not through organisational establishments or structural systems. It is spread like a disease – through bodies, through touch, through breath. It is spread by people infected with love. At Credo Café, capitalists learn how to do dishes and socialists learn how to fund things and we all learn how to love our enemies. Come and join us sometime as we break bread, confess our arrogance and remind ourselves of Christ’s body broken in the world. We know this as the Economy of God and its lighting up the entire world!
Posted by marcus at 06:07 PM | Comments (9)
Mark 8 / Proverbs 1 Stations (Yr B, Proper 19)
September 23, 2006
Had fun putting this together with Annette for Sunday September 17. Annette is a great story teller and memorized paraphrases for both the Proverbs 1 and Mark 8 readings. She did "Wisdom callin on the streets" as a call to worship. We all walked out into the public square in Chinatown and she stood on a rock and went for it....stunning stuff! We then returned indoors for the gospel reading and people spent 20 mins or so interacting with the content through worship stations...
Seeds: Year B, Proper 19, Worship Stations:
“Peter’s Confession and Wisdom’s Call”
The Body and Blood of Christ
“Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
We often see God as all powerful but central to Jesus understanding of what it means to be a Messianic saviour is a vision of a God who is made vulnerable for the sake of love. Consider vulnerability (God’s and your own) as you partake in the Lords Supper.
At Seeds we use water for our cup to identify with our land, our history, those imprisoned and Christ’s offer to be the “living water” by which we would thirst no more. Jesus said “This is my lifeblood poured out for you.” “This is my body broken for you. Eat, Drink and Remember me…”
Wisdom Calling in the Streets
“Wisdom cries out in the street….”
Spend some time sitting in Chinatown. Be aware of your senses, notice people moving about, images, dynamics etc. Now re-read the words of Wisdom from Proverbs how do these words shape the way you observe the city? Do they affirm or create dissonance in the way you discern?
Wisdom as Sophia
“…in the squares she raises her voice.”
Among many cultural images that early Christians used to interpret Jesus was the biblical wisdom tradition with its central figure, Hokmah, Sophia, Holy Wisdom herself, a female figure of power and compassion.
The biblical picture of Sophia is a composite one, formed of differing presentations in Job and Proverbs, and in non-canonical books such as Sirach, Baruch, The Wisdom of Solomon and Enoch. Portrayed as sister, mother, bride, hostess, female beloved, woman prophet, teacher and friend, but above all as divine creating and redeeming Spirit, Sophia's portrait has its roots in the Great Goddess of the ancient Near Eastern world.
Scholarly debate on how to interpret this figure, this icon, abounds, not least because various biblical books depict her in differing ways. What did this mean for Christ and his followers? What might it mean for us today to see God in this way? Consider the images on the Prayer Pyramid. What feminine cultural image might best represent God as Wisdom today? Which one most connects with you and why? Write a prayer on the pyramid or add your own image.
(source: Elizabeth A. Johnson)
Broken Pieces Jigsaw
“You’ll be looking up at rock bottom, with the broken pieces of your life falling through your fingers.”
Spend some time putting the jigsaw together. Consider the ways in which a failure to hear the call of Wisdom has led to fragmentation in your life or in our world. Take a fragment with you or place it in the sand tray as a prayer.
Who do you say I am? : Gospel of Vic and Aussie Icons
And they said to him, “Some are saying, “John the Baptist”, others “an ancient
Dreamtime warrior”, and others “one of the fair dinkum Aussie icons…”
Inspired by re-writes like Clarence Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospels, The Gospel of Vic version of Mark’s Gospel was written by Urban Seed Central House residents in 1999 as a way of reflecting upon what the Word meant for them during their moment of living and serving in the city, the centre of our culture. Read the passage from the Gospel of Vic and consider our own “icons” and their way in the world. How is it similar or different to the way of Jesus?
This station also linked to “Celebrity! Exposing Robin Sellick” in the Atrium at Crown from Monday 7 August until Sunday 17 September 2006. It features more than 60 brand new portraits of prominent Australians captured by Robin both here and overseas over the last twelve months. The exhibition looks at the essence of the people that define our culture and values.
”I wanted to explore what it is to be Australian and these celebrities symbolise who we are culturally, they are the people whose voices we hear on the radio, we read about in books, play on our sports fields and define our foreign policy,” he said. "At a time when people can be labelled a celebrity by simply appearing on a television show, it's important to recognise people whose efforts are collectively creating and influencing Australian Culture"
Rock Station
He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."
Peter, the name given by Jesus to Simon means Rock. It can be seen as both a positive or negative image; a symbol of strength of faith or of stubbornness and lack of flexibility. In this passage Peter makes a bold confession of Jesus as “Christ” but stubbornly refuses to accept his definition of what this will entail. In the gospel stories Peter is always the strongest, bravest disciple but often the one who fails most boldly. In the end however his stubbornness leads him “where he does not want to go”, to his own martyrdom. Peter's faith—halting, unsteady, and weak, but never giving up—is ours
How might being rock-like be both a strength and weakness for you? Choose a rock and hold it as a prayer for strength.
What is it in your life that you need to hold on to with fierce determination? Keep the rock with you or place it in the prayer sand tray as a prayer. OR What ideas or situations are you, like Peter, stubbornly refusing to let go of that you need to. Drop the rock and walk away.
Confessional Crisis
In church history, especially Protestant tradition, it is recognized that there are extraordinary times when the church's very identity is imperiled. If its confession is not made unequivocally clear, nothing less than the meaning of the gospel within the church and before the world is at risk. This special time, a status confessionis, is brought on by a historical crisis within the church or without. To discern and name the crisis is incumbent on the community of faith, and to distinguish, clearly as it possibly can, between truth and error, even between life and death. (Bill Wylie Kellerman)
Read some of the quotes and consider various status confessionis moments in history. What might be the confessional issues for our world or for yourself today? (Quotes included Boenhoeffer, Barth, Tutu, MLK, Stringfellow etc. from various historical moments.)
Taking up your cross
"I don’t think we Christians have understood what carrying the cross means: the path of baptism. We are not carrying the cross when we are poor or sick, or suffering small everyday things. They are all part of life. The cross comes when we try to change things. That is how it came for Jesus." Miguel D’Escoto of Nicaragua
Consider some of the situations in which you have heard the phrases “bearing your cross” or “the cross you have to bear” used.
Why were they or were they not good examples of what Jesus was talking about?
What have been some of the more difficult consequences of your choice to follow Jesus?
What is challenging and/or daunting about the current choices you are faced with?
Quotes about Losing / Finding Life and Denial of self
Losing one’s life is the way to find it! This is not abandonment of self care, but abandonment of preoccupation with building and maintaining a self at the expense of others.
The idea of renouncing self has led to oppression within the church particularly men over women, The "self" talked of here is the self that resists the invitation to inclusivity; refuses reconciliation, the practice of saving justice, and God’s invitation to recreate the world (Psalm 19:4). (Peter B Price)
Denying yourself means relinquishing the right to determine which issues you’ll stand with Jesus on and which issues you’ll keep quiet about. Denying yourself means that every time the way of Jesus comes into conflict with the ways of the world around you, you will not make the decision on the basis of what is best for you, you will simply follow Jesus, taking up your cross and copping the consequences. (Nathan Nettleton)
Readings:
Proverbs 1:21-33
Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?
Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster."
Annette actually told the story using Nathan Nettletons modern paraphrase at laughingbird.net
Mark 8:27-38
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah." And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Gospel of Vic version
And Jesus and his disciples went out to Chapel
Street, South Yarra. And on the way he was asking
his disciples, saying to them, Who are the media
painting me as? 28 And they said to him, Some
are saying, John the Baptist, others an ancient
Dreamtime warrior, and others one of the fair
dinkum Aussie icons from the 30s and 40s. 29
And he was asking them, But you, who are you
saying I am? Peter answered and says to him, You
are the Christ. 30 And he put them under oath not
to say anything about him. 31 And he began to
teach them that the Human One must suffer many
things, be rejected by the media, politicians and
business consultants and be killed and after three
days rise again. 32 And he is speaking the word
openly. And Peter took him by the arm and began to
rebuke him. 33 But, turning and seeing his discipleship
community, he rebuked Peter and says, Get
behind me Satan because you are not thinking the
things of God, but the things of humans!
And summoning the disgruntled electorate with his
discipleship community, he said to them, If anyone
wants to come after me, let them deny themselves,
take up personal and political suicide and follow me.
35 For whoever is seeking to save their life will lose
it; but whoever loses their life for my sake, and the
news of the successful takeover, will save it.
36 For what does it profit a person to dominate the
global economy yet sell out their life? 37 For what
will a person give in exchange for their life? 38 For
whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this
wicked and adulterous generation, the Human One
will also be ashamed of them when he comes in the
glory of his Father with the spirits of the ancient
dreaming. (Gospel of Vic, Marcus Curnow, 1999)
Posted by marcus at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)
Seeds: A Taste of Slow (John 6)
My rant from recent Seeds Gathering based on Mark Pierson's Slow Food work, a shorter version made the Vic. Baptist Witness paper. (Slow Sunday image from a Docklands promo postcard I found in the city.)
Seeds: A Taste of Slow
It’s pretty easy to eat poorly in the fast food culture of Melbourne’s CBD. The over worked corporate grabbing a burger on the run often bumps into the under employed beggar coming in the door united by the temptation of sugar, salt, and fat. It’s a meal of convenience that feels OK while you’re eating it but does little to satisfy and long term makes you fat, lazy and sick.
As a “mob” of people who live, work and worship in the city Urban Seed has sought to create an alternative food culture by establishing a worshiping missional community around the production and consumption of a meal which is inclusively offered to homeless people and corporates alike, where you can “taste and see” some different values.
Sharing a meal a core part of our Seeds life.
• The obvious one described above is Credo Café hosted by Central House residents and Credo volunteers.
• But also in other places:
• Brent and Belinda, Tony and Sarah at Norlane Baptist in Geelong
• Wednesday nights in Footscray with, Chris and Katherine, Meggsie and Bri, Rachael and I.
• Brunswick with Gin and Jeff and Tomsy and Amber. Etc…
Slow Food
Some of the different values of these meals take their cues from the Slow Food Movement which arose in Italy as a response to the negative impact of multinational food companies and is spreading around the world – slowly! Starting in Italy in 1986 by Carlo Petrini as a protest to the introduction of a multinational food company it has become a movement that today has branches over the five continents, in 130 countries, with about 80 000 people.
Slow Food opposes the standardisation of taste, protects cultural identity tied to food and seeks to safeguard processing techniques inherited from tradition. It involves valuing time to prepare, eat and build community through food. It is sometimes critiqued as being an upper class pursuit, however far from extravagant eating, Slow Food is about the celebration of the connections that food can make with sustainable production and local food traditions that are often lost in our economy.
Anyone who has shared Cornish Pasties at my house will know that you are consuming much more than just the pasty.
• There is the story of our local organic food coop; the ethical farming where the food came from and the way the co-op has worked as a basis for our local relationships.
• There is History; the famines of the 1840’s that caused my forebears to come to Australia from Cornwall.
• Learning process of learning how to chop, prepare, put them together crimp etc. and the stories of why this was important in the original context.
• The debates about what makes a pasty ”proper” Cornish, sauce or no sauce etc.
(A rather funny link here where a literature site devoted to Sam Pepys Diary gets taken over by pasty enthusiasts causing some to despair!)
This is what Slow Food has to say to fast food culture. You call that food but you’re missing out on so much. It is like what Jesus is says in this weeks passage. “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Jesus is trying to tell us there is much more than just bread.
The Slow food movement has helped us reframe our understanding of what it means to be “church”. We believe that if you read the gospels without getting hungry you aren’t really paying attention. Just look at the lectionary for Ordinary Time. After 6 weeks on bread in John 6, we travel next week back to Mark 7 in which we debate foods that are clean or unclean. The how, what, where and with whom Jesus eats is a central point of gospel conflict and, coming out of the feeding miracles, ”understanding about the loaves” (Mark 6:52) is presented as essential to understanding Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation.
Slow Worship
After a decade of sharing lunch with homeless people we have decided we want to explore a slow worship movement. This has little to do with singing slower or less songs (although this has been a useful result!) Rather than just picking up a pre-packaged worship meal it’s been about reflecting on what we are wanting to do/achieve in worship and taking time, in our local setting, to use local resources, that reflect our local community culture.
Firstly our worship is slow because it has taken a long time to come about. It is worship that has come out of a sense of mission. The first Urban Seed worship gathering was a prayer time before lunch at Credo Café. As homeless people started assisting with meal preparation the nature of the prayers changed and the meal itself became a kind of sacrament. Lots of our prayers, songs and interactive style have come from this dynamic. Our Slow Worship is often improvisation that has come from a core of people who have been bonded by the communitas of difficult mission and after a decade of being the church on everyday except Sundays.
Slow food looks at the connections between consumption and production and this is also vital for our worship.
Consumption
Some of the principles that Mark Pierson shaped up at the beginning of these gatherings included a commitment to good consumption where the emphasis is upon creating spiritual desire rather than just meeting spiritual needs.
So much of our church culture seems to be about meeting needs. I must admit I’ve always managed to skip and avoid doing pastoral care subjects at theological college. Ill invite you to my house for a meal but I’m not the most caring or careful person going around! Perhaps one reason for this is because I rarely see Jesus as being a tingling mass of availability for people. In the gospel reading tonight Jesus teaching about food produces huge negative reactions in his followers and many of them leave!
I want to suggest that Jesus teaching methods were more about creating spiritual desire than meeting spiritual needs. Like a great TV commercial (and some would argue these are the most sophisticated and demanding forms of art/communication in our culture) Jesus left people bemused, shocked, thrilled, confused, never bored, always hanging for more.
Desire and need are connected. Much of negative consumer culture is about the production of false consumer desire…redefining wants into felt needs. The response of the disciples who stayed; “Where else will we go”? says something of worship and necessity. The only communities that work are those of necessity; we all need to eat; physically and spiritually and so we need to base worship around peoples deepest needs.
Another key positive of consumer culture is the choice it gives us. Through regular use of worship stations participants are given real choice to interact with the style, aspects, themes they most need at a worship gathering, taking a smorgasboard approach rather than a set menu.
Production
We also have high production values which reject the so called “excellent” entertainment culture for a more simple, everyday creativity that express broad and deep connections with, God, the earth and our culture.
Mark Pierson has recently been on an overseas trip running Slow Food and Worship Seminars (lots of these ideas are his!) He suggests what people are longing for in worship is breadth and depth.
Our Dead Man Waiting Easter Saturday service was attacked by the Sydney Anglicans as being superficial. Alternative worship prioritizing image over words and style over substance. As if a church service containing 125 kilos of ice would somehow water down the gospel!
Actually the service was far from superficial but based around the psychological stages of grieving…Denial, Anger, Guilt/Shame/self blame etc. Some people would not have realized the depth of this framework shaping the event in any conscious way however the substance of this allowed space for people to grieve their lives. It was very powerfull for many Christians who had not considered these themes at depth and also for non- churched people who appreciated the non threatening invitation to explore very threatening themes!
Breadth includes ranges of peoples and backgrounds, stages of faith, good explanations and intros or worship elements, a variety of learning styles, a balance of traditions and repetitions with new forms and ideas. It sees worship within broader context of justice, politics, economics, pointing to worship as life in the real world as local and global followers of Jesus.
Production and Censorship is also important. I believe Slow worship should be honest; rather than cover over our differences it should allow them to come out.
During my recent trip overseas I spent time with a pastor who has worked with this approach over some time. In her absence she had left the communion in the hands of a Gay Bretheren man and a Wiccan pagan who is seeking to follow Christ. The process of working it out together had been extremely challenging for both of them.
I would much rather have someone preach something heretical or even hurtful and then have to deal with that pastorally as a faith community, acknowledging this difficulty within our midst than have worship that doesn’t allow the honest expression of our identity, culture and struggle. Let us bring our difference to the heart of the liturgy. This means you may not like what is going on in worship any given week but you have the opportunity and perhaps more importantly the spiritually responsibility to produce otherwise next week. In my experience our dominant worship culture rarely encourages or requires spiritual responsibility or gives people spiritual authority.
Some of our favourite prayers from Credo were written by unlikely people. Homeless “worship curators” who get the “Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head” better than those of us with mortgages!
Emerging worship isn’t about video loops and candles or art, it’s about worship that is authentically for the people, by the people and of the people.
Slow Church
As an activist missional “mob” it is ultimately about a Slow Church movement. Slow Food and Sabbath are profoundly connected. At “Seeds” we don’t expect anyone to attend anything or do anything and actively celebrate when people choose Sabbath rest over showing up on Sunday.
Upon reading this my colleague Kate Allen questioned whether any church could really celebrate the non attendance of its participants.
Our guiding principles push us to see our sense of community in the broadest terms ie. those connected by geography, interest, world wide web, occasional attendance, attendance at specific resourcing events. We also should know that the ‘Sunday Worship’ event is only one element among many resources offered to the wider community. Part of my vision for Seeds is that we may begin to develop cluster communities, small networks of people in different places bonded by the disciplines that have made Seeds what it is. 1. Discerning what is “The Word” on the Street, 2. Sharing slow food, and 3. Re-imagining what Jesus missionary instructions of Healing, Teaching and Casting out Evil might look like today.
I believe the charism of Seeds is that we expect people to follow Jesus with the whole of their lives and be consumed not by ‘church” activities but the mission of God in the world.
Whilst speaking at the recent Urban Neighbours of Hope Conference I was struck by the positive response of people to these ideas, hungry for new ways of being church.
Slow Foodees are missionaries.They understand their community, their congregation, and what they are trying to achieve in their worship in a specific place and time. In a fast food world we need a taste of Slow Food, Slow Worship, Slow Church.
(The Slow Food Victoria Festival “A Taste of Slow runs from Aug 28-September 10 2006, www.atasteofslow.com.au)
Posted by marcus at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)
2 Samuel 11-12, Year B, (Proper 10-11): David, Bathsheba & Nathan Stations
August 21, 2006
Annette Buckley blessed our Seeds Sunday Gathering @ The Den by telling us the story of David and Bathsheba. Annette is part of the Australian guild of the Network of Biblical Storytellers (NOBS). She is amazing in that she memorised the story and told it by walking around to each of the stations which represented a different location/character in the story. The stations were then used for responses by the mob after the story had concluded and this included some great sharing by people about the passage and how much is gained by hearing it performed. Much Grace to you Annette. Stations below...
2 Samuel 11-12
Characters
With whom in the story do you identify and why? Who are you in the story?
• David
• Joab
• The kings men
• The whole Israelite army
• The soldiers & archers of Rabbah
• Bathsheba
• 'Someone' who David sends to find out about Bathsheba, and 'the man' who tells him who she is - probably the same person
• Eliam
• Uriah
• The messengers who are sent to get Bathsheba
• The person who brings word to David that Bathsheba is pregnant
• The person who takes the order for Joab to send Uriah
• The person who takes a gift for Uriah after he's spoken to David
• All David's servants, who Uriah spends the night with
• The person who tells David Uriah did not go home
• Servers at the meal where David gets Uriah drunk
• The messenger Joab sends with the account of the battle
• Abimelech & Jerub-besheth
• The woman with the millstone
• Women who would have mourned with Bathsheba (??)
• Unnamed baby
• Nathan
• The rich man, poor man and his family, and the traveller in Nathan's story (and the sheep!)
• Saul
• Saul's wives
• David's wives
• David's house/household
• 'One who is close to you'
• All Israel!
• The elders of David's house
• The servants in David's house
• Solomon
• The king of Rabbah
• The people of Rabbah
Response Stations
Rabbah Station: War Corner
Take the pliers. Cut a piece of the barbed wire and use as a holding cross. As you hold it observe the newsprint pictures from this weeks papers. Remember bodies and places that are torn by violence this day in Israel and Lebanon, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Arrests in London re War on Terror etc. Place in the sand tray as a prayer or take wire with you to remember these prayers through the week.
Throne Confession: What might Nathan say to you about your own use of power? What convicting story or image would be used? Identify with David’s confession by attaching your own upon the throne using the words provided and pins. (or feel free to write your own). As you do you may wish to consider the words of The Son’s of Korah’s version of Psalm 51 (attributed as David’s response to this situation.)
Nathan Station: The Writing on the Wall
Think of the “big” prophets. People who have power to speak truth about hotly contested issues in our world this week. Consider times when you have been put in the position of Nathan. What situations in your life are you called to play the role of whistleblower? In what ways must you speak truth to power? Offer a prayer for politicians, advocates or yourself by writing on the wall.
Servant Station: Consider the roles of the “little people” in our world who act courageously. Wash your hands in the bowl provided to remind you of those who serve you and the small acts of service vital for your own life of following Christ the Suffering Servant
House of the Lord : Eucharist Meal
Help yourself to the Lords Supper or make a tithe. At Seeds we use water for our cup to identify with our land, our history, those imprisoned and Christ’s offer to be the “living water” by which we would thirst no more. Jesus said “This is my lifeblood poured out for you.” “This is my body broken for you. Eat, Drink and Remember me…”
Bathsheba & Uriah’s House: Light a candle as a prayer for those who mourn, are used and abused.
Discussion:
What questions or responses does the story raise for you? What does the story make you want to say, to others or to God? We will conclude our response time with a chance to share your thoughts with others.
Posted by marcus at 03:35 AM | Comments (0)
Mark 6: Year B (Proper 9): Communitas
A while back (Proper 9) I ranted at our Seeds Gathering @ The Den about the lectionary passage from Mark 6 where Jesus sends his community on mission. Out of this I reflected upon four themes that I felt had been important in my life and that of our mob.
1. Rejection and Scarcity;
2. A Stranger at Home and at Home among Strangers;
3. Dependence upon the Hospitality of Others;
4. You have enough for your mission!
(Unfortunately I haven’t got to post it yet... As with half my rants this year they are only ever half prepared to preach let alone for posting in public domain nevertheless I will post this one of these days as a proper Seeds website is currently under construction)
Being in the middle of John 6 for the last few weeks I used the Lectionary for communion and decided to rant about this passage again around the theme of communitas and Seedy Mobs. A concept which Mike Frost and the Forge mob have been giving a good run for a while now. (It's in his new book Exiles is out in America) It is good to give this stuff another run because during my recent trip to Aotearoa with Brent we have been thinking hard about the historical importance of this passage in hooking together a sense of shared mission, identity and “communitas” at Urban Seed and beyond. (eg. The current Street and Hospitality Team at Central House have been doing some great reflection around Healing and their work at Credo Cafe). I feel this passage may emerge as important in trying to keep maintaining and building connections with each other and help to support similar missional activities beyond Melbourne’s CBD.
Communitas:
Mike Frost describes the work of anthropologist, Victor Turner who studied initiation rites in African tribal groups. This involved a process of three steps which include
1. Expulsion from tribe;
2. A liminal (transition, in between) phase (often involves renaming etc.)
3. Re-entry.
In this culture boys grow up in the world of women and don’t mix with male hunter/ gathering culture. They sing songs, they play games, they drink milk and learn the stories of their culture. At a certain point of your life the men of the village drag the boys out into the jungle, circumcise them, give them some advice and for a time leave them exposed to the rigors of the wild.
What Turner discovered is that at first each would go in separate directions fending for themselves, however after a day they would come back together. In the quest for survival the group would develop a sense of community and intimacy so great that upon re-entry it would have a re-energising effect for the whole tribe. The connections and memory of similar experiences was life giving for other tribe members.
Beyond society, community or fellowship Turner adopted the Latin word communitas, to describe the intimacy that people experience when a group faces struggle or ordeal the likes of which no one can survive by themselves.
Other studies show that any group that feels marginalized by the mainstream society can experience this communitas, (eg. artists in NYC, gay community etc.) The key for finding true fellowship is to move into some liminal space, ordeal and adventure….which gives us an interesting framework to understand the Christian experience of mission and the missionary intstructions of Jesus in Mark 6.
Communitas and Risk: The vulnerablity of the disciples sent without stuff.
Communitas and Diversity : Jesus discipleship community includes a Roman Sympathizing Tax Collector (Levi) and an Anti Roman freedom fighter (Simon). Communitas provides the neccessary context for working out unity across lines that divide us. A bigger purpose. Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” is the classic story of this.
Communitas shapes cultures: Another anthropologist Margaret Mead. The only thing that ever shapes cultures and changes the world is small groups of highly committed people.
Mike Frost was very critical of what he describes as the contrived nature of what passes as Christian Community in a lot of our churches. Communitas calls us beyond mustering up devotion for each other in our safe religious spaces, small group bible studies. He described it as a bizarre act of joining with people we don’t really know and singing love songs to Jesus when in Australian culture you can't just burst into song; It takes an experience of shared ordeal, eg. An Aussie Rules Footy Match to get a bunch of blokes, and a whole stadium authentically singing with passion. Many churches have set themselves up on an entertainment basis where the only commitment is to turn up and tithe. The “audience” become passive observers of the communitas of the worship team. (who often work themselves into the ground striving for excellence but have a great time trying to do it...till they burn out.)
Frost suggests that we are often baby Christians. "We are mothered, we play games, we drink milk, get cosy, fat and complain." Instead of singing another love song surrounded by strangers in community without conflict he suggests we need to leave the tribe and become a wilderness communitas, a band of brothers and sisters.
Communitas is a basic human need and reflected in Australian society through the popularity of team sports and amateur theater which act as liminal experiences of intimacy and reliance upon other people.
What does communitas mean for us at Urban Seed church or Seeds?
• At one level just turn up and tithe is a big commitment for us at our Sunday Gathering (we don’t even have that expectation!!!) However central to Urban Seed’s spiritual life there has always been core staff many who share communitas by living together and sharing Communitas around the agenda of Christ's commission in Mark 6.
o Preach: Youth and Schools Team, City walks and education
o Heal : Residential Community, Hospitality, Credo Cafe as healing
o Casting out of EvilAdvocacy and Engagement: Personal and Political Action in the face of evil eg.casino protests.
• This has been one of our points of tension with the mother church CSBC which started Urban Seed by inviting young people to live in communitas. For a city church community is a rather more detached concept. Some who have burnt out on communitas may choose and like the anonymity of a city church.
• This may describe numbers of people here. For those that aren’t staff or ressies... What is your sense of mission? Where is communitas? How could you find or re-find this and of what value would it be in your life?
• Mission oriented churches often tell people your mission is your workplace but we leave people stranded and alone as individuals in this. All the responsibility for healing, preaching and casting out the demons without providing the communitas; the intimacy and accountability needed to sustain this work. Ultimately an impossible task.
• Jesus sends people out in twos. I like threes. Dave Andrews always said with three people you have four relationships as opposed to one. This is good for energy, conflict circuit breaking and accountability. How could you find two other people to join in a common sense of mission in your life, work place, sport etc?
• I have always played Cricket. At times it has been life giving and at other times it has been exhausting and frustrating. Re-creation can be a powerful force for community in our society or equally enforce values of competitive individualism. This year I found a way to play cricket with homeless people through Credo Cricket and find a way to hang out with them and a couple of other Christian's around my local club. These simple changes have transformed my enjoyment of cricket and have added to the vibe around the club.
• In giving this emphasis I want to also to say that I think its ok for the church to be a place of refuge for people. What is important to me however is the question; What is the nature of that refuge? What creates it? Annette once said of our gatherings “ it seems like a safe place to feel terrified” I like this because it doesn’t suggest escapism. What’s unique about this place to me is not that it’s just low commitment church in a funky alt. worship type setting but that it is a low key way of activist types have found to gather in a way that is not exhausting but honest and even reenergizing. Hopefully it’s not just an escape from church we hate but a place for the hard therapy and imagination that we need to be able to reengage with the difficult reality of the inherited church and the difficulty of the economy and terror of the world we find ourselves up against.
• With the move to the Den I have been keen to explore the notion of Seeds as opposed to Urban Seed church. Seeds has been a brand for assorted discipleship activities over the decade of Urban Seed’s life. What I like about it is that it helps me think beyond my preconceived ideas of church as a worship service in the city to a movement of people committed to communitas that comes from a shared mission. My question is how can we better structure what we do to support people in their mission of joining with other people, in their suburbs, in their workplaces in the whole of their lives? This is much more important to me than cool graphics on a power point or quirky liturgy tricks with paper shredders.
• This Sunday gathering is just one point of meeting, it is not the main event, it’s not an institution, it's temporary, it's an improvisation that has come from a core of people who have been bonded by communitas and after years of being the church on everyday except Sundays. Stuart Murray Williams suggests that churches should “reimagine themselves as a monastic missionary order, communities of encouragement, support and training from which we emerge to live as Christians in the workplace and to which we return for reflection and renewal.” This is my hope for Seeds.
• I think that this concept of communitas also raises many questions that can’t be easily explored here. One cannot live permanently in communitas or its power is rendered meaningless. The whole concept depends on an ongoing tribal life. As a youth worker I mourn our lack of truly liminal, risk taking, rites of passage in our culture but this is surely connected to the fact that families and tribes themselves are under threat. In many ways the sustaining of any sense of community is vitally important and countercultural. In our bid for the heroic let us always remember the menial acts of servanthood that hang any sense of discipleship tribe together. It concerns me that this process of communitas can be presented as a very male journey/energy etc. I have a problem with this if it excludes women or devalues the importance of communal values, energy, arts etc. that are often described as feminine.
• Whilst there are many (and often necessary) compromises I believe that Mark 6 indicates that whatever our position in life it can never simply be business as usual following Jesus. Communitas is the sort of community we are created for, called to, long for and need.
Posted by marcus at 01:57 AM | Comments (1)
Its the Economy of God STUPID!
July 18, 2006
Tim Jefferies was nice enough to take some random notes on my rant on the Economy of God at the FORGE intensive last week. It was good having the FORGE guys around the city as I've wanted to explore some of these ideas with them for a while. Most of this content has been inspired by free forming around Ched Myers stuff who works out of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries. ....and after all that I cant believe I forgot to talk about The Magic Pudding!!! doh.
Posted by marcus at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)
Floral Industrial Complex vs. Christ's Fruitful Vine
May 21, 2006
I am the Vine, Wantanabe, 1960
This weeks rant took the Acts 8 reading of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch and ended with the John 15 passage on “remaining in the vine” which we had used earlier as our prayer of confession.
Nonviolent love for friend and stranger! What does it mean to “abide” especially on Mothers day? You can’t bear the fruits if you don’t have the roots!.....
Against a violent backdrop, Bill Wylie Kellerman sees in this passage the roots of non violence. The story of Phillip chasing down the Ethiopian official comes directly after the stoning of Stephen during which its protagonist, Saul, launches a follow up campaign of terror before his dramatic conversion in the chapter that will follow. (Urban Seed director Mark Pierson met Shane Claiborne during his recent time away in the States. His book includes his letter about going to Iraq as a Christian peacemaker. In it stated that “If I believed that terrorists were beyond redemption I would need to rip out half of my New Testament scriptures, for they were written by a converted terrorist.”)
In between these events we see Phillip chasing down an Ethiopian chariot. It’s a bizarre image. I’m reminded of protesters running after limo’s of foreign dignitaries of today’s empire. Just imagine if you will that one day the limo actually stopped and a conversation ensued. Phillip takes the suffering servant songs from Isaiah and seamlessly weaves its themes with that of the Jesus story. Kellerman describes the Isaiah 53 text as classic manifesto of non-violence that remains perplexing and intruiging for rulers, then as now.
What ever Philip says the official is converted, the limo screeches to a halt and he says “What is there to prevent me from being baptized?” Dylan finds the question ironic in terms of a church history full of demarcation disputes over who can or can’t be baptised.
“Now Lets see, what is there to prevent you from being baptized?” Well there is the tiny matter of the fact that you are a Gentile from beyond the bounds of empire….in many ways an alien and enemy…..and of course there is the little detail of the operation. You are a sexual minority and Deuteronomy 23:1 clearly states that you should be excluded from God's people.
The book of Isaiah that the eunuch reads stands against this tradtion by suggesting that anyone should be able to worship. Phillip has already taken the gospel to the hated Samaratins (Acts 8:5) and in this story we again see the power of the Holy Spirit to transcend social boundaries.
The danger of activist spiritual traditions is that they often need enemies. We like to see ourselves as those chasing the limo banging on the doors for justice. But what if the limo were to stop and our enemy desired baptism, full inclusion and communion with us. What does love of enemies look like in our day to day experience? If I were to be honest in my own experience its often easier to privately curse the limo as it passes me and my prejudices by.
In Luke-Acts, love of enemies is the acid test of the gospel. In the letters and gospel of John, the acid test is to love one another in community. (I won’t presume to judge which is the tougher.) In the other reading of this week (John 15:1-8) the commandment to love is connected to the vine (another image that goes back to Isaiah, 5:1-7).
Rather poetically Walter Wink traces his journey in understanding this connection. What does it mean, "to abide?”
Deep strata of memory are excavated by those words: a former piety, a profound but now defunct Christ mysticism, prayer without ceasing, attempts to implant myself in God and an entire libretto of frozen feelings, from "I tried that" to "pious claptrap" to "let's get on with living in the real world." For me "abide" once meant: Think only of Jesus. Drown out all other voices. Choke down the rebellion. Manhandle the resistance. Deny the inner darkness. For me, it all added up to a religion of repression.
But we grow with the text. I had somehow mis-learned to regard the command to abide as a personal admonishment. I took the "you" as singular. My God and me, and all that. But that "you" is plural, providing a rich image of the body of Christ, of Christ seeking a body in the world. Had I thought of it as plural, I would have understood it as a reference to the church. Now I would leave it loose, to apply to anyone who abides, whatever his or her beliefs or affiliations.
Understood in this way, the implications of prioritising connection with “the vine” on Mothers Day are not lost on Dylan.
We appreciate our mothers, and I do think that we tend not to appreciate them anywhere near enough. But every Mother's Day, I think also of all my friends, who feel judged as a failure by everyone around them because they don't have our culture's ideal: a lawfully married spouse (or at least a life partner) and kids, preferably living in a well-kept house the adults own. The floral-industrial complex -- and far too many Mother's Day sermons -- leave them out entirely.
And then I think about some other mothers who won't be getting flowers, breakfast in bed, or ice cream cakes this Sunday. I think about mothers in Darfur facing agonizing decisions about which of their children to feed. I think about a mother in Zimbabwe I read about recently in the newspaper who wonders who will care for her children once the menengitis she's suffering from -- a treatable condition, but she can't afford the treatment -- takes her from them. And as much as I want to love and appreciate and honor the women in my community who give of themselves to love and nurture the children I see playing in church I want to pose the question that seems unthinkable in our culture, and especially on Mothers Day:
What if we saw every mama as our own mother or sister? What if we welcomed and nourished and stood up for every child as if each one was our very own flesh? Jesus' love -- the love we have received, and therefore are equipped to live out and pass along to our world -- is such that he said, "I will not leave you orphaned"...
Dylan suggests we replace the image of the floral industrial complex, with that of the vine that bears the fruits of love. The sort of love described in 1 John ( the other reading of the day) which encourages us to get active. “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us -- and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” Sure buy flowers for mum on Mothers Day but lets also visit the One campaign or the Tear Gift Catalogue and remember forgotten mothers and orphans who abide with us in the vine.
Once again I find Wink’s journey helpful for activists:
I once heard the bit about "bearing more fruit" as a demand that I get cracking and strain hard to bear much fruit if I wanted Christ to abide with me. Then I was taught that I was justified by grace and needed no works, so I forgot about the fruits. Now I begin to hear it as a simple promise: trust yourself to the water and let the current take you where you need to go. The water will both bear you up and accomplish God's purposes. This has been a great stress reducer, to the degree that I have lived it.
The vine of course has always been a symbol of the relationship between God and his alternative social experiment, Israel. The roots of this vine, or in Wink’s imagery "the waters" we trust ourselves to are communities grounded in the practice of Jesus’ self giving, nonviolent love.
I will never forget Dave Andrews' workshop on social change entitled “How to subvert your local church” in which he compares the image of a vine with that of a pyramid. If you plant a seed beneath a pyramid it will be crushed but if you place a seed at the edge of a pyramid, the seemingly fragile, weak, organic vine finds the cracks that can literally grow a pyramid down.
Whether its Shane Claiborne or Phillip; Going to Iraq or going to the Samaritans; Chasing down Ethiopian chariots or getting tele-transported to Azotus "star trek" style at the end of the story… the point made is that the vine is literally sprawling across the map. The branches keep finding the cracks around the barriers, the boundaries and the border guards!
Nonviolent love for friend and stranger! What does it mean to “abide” especially on Mothers day? You can’t bear the fruits if you don’t have the roots!
Posted by marcus at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
Truth is Troth!
May 10, 2006
In light of the previous post and the predictably boring comments made by the Bishop of South Sydney about the emerging church not taking propositional truth seriously, I would like to suggest that this is crap. Nevertheless I've been loving "Colossians Remixed" by Walsh and Keesmaat and particulalry their take on truth. Truth is troth...fidelity to time, people and place. In scripture truth "comes to us", it is active and organic, it is personal, relational and social.
Pierson also sent me this blurb on doctrine off the emergent website which I found useful.
Doctrinal Statement
From Tony Jones, National Coordinator, Emergent-U.S.
Yes, we have been inundated with requests for our statement of faith in Emergent, but some of us had an inclination that to formulate something would take us down a road that we don't want to trod. So, imagine our joy when a leading theologian joined our ranks and said that such a statement would be disastrous. That's what happened when we started talking to LeRon Shults, late of Bethel Seminary and now heading off to a university post in Norway. LeRon is the author of many books, all of which you should read, and now the author a piece to guide us regarding statements of faith and doctrine. Read on...
From LeRon Shults:
The coordinators of Emergent have often been asked (usually by their critics) to proffer a doctrinal statement that lays out clearly what they believe. I am merely a participant in the conversation who delights in the ongoing reformation that occurs as we bring the Gospel into engagement with culture in ever new ways. But I have been asked to respond to this ongoing demand for clarity and closure. I believe there are several reasons why Emergent should not have a "statement of faith" to which its members are asked (or required) to subscribe. Such a move would be unnecessary, inappropriate and disastrous.
Why is such a move unnecessary? Jesus did not have a "statement of faith." He called others into faithful relation to God through life in the Spirit. As with the prophets of the Hebrew Bible, he was not concerned primarily with whether individuals gave cognitive assent to abstract propositions but with calling persons into trustworthy community through embodied and concrete acts of faithfulness. The writers of the New Testament were not obsessed with finding a final set of propositions the assent to which marks off true believers. Paul, Luke and John all talked much more about the mission to which we should commit ourselves than they did about the propositions to which we should assent. The very idea of a "statement of faith" is mired in modernist assumptions and driven by modernist anxieties – and this brings us to the next point.
Such a move would be inappropriate. Various communities throughout church history have often developed new creeds and confessions in order to express the Gospel in their cultural context, but the early modern use of linguistic formulations as "statements" that allegedly capture the truth about God with certainty for all cultures and contexts is deeply problematic for at least two reasons. First, such an approach presupposes a (Platonic or Cartesian) representationalist view of language, which has been undermined in late modernity by a variety of disciplines across the social and physical sciences (e.g., sociolinguistics and paleo-biology). Why would Emergent want to force the new wine of the Spirit’s powerful transformation of communities into old modernist wineskins? Second, and more importantly from a theological perspective, this fixation with propositions can easily lead to the attempt to use the finite tool of language on an absolute Presence that transcends and embraces all finite reality. Languages are culturally constructed symbol systems that enable humans to communicate by designating one finite reality in distinction from another. The truly infinite God of Christian faith is beyond all our linguistic grasping, as all the great theologians from Irenaeus to Calvin have insisted, and so the struggle to capture God in our finite propositional structures is nothing short of linguistic idolatry.
Why would it be disastrous? Emergent aims to facilitate a conversation among persons committed to living out faithfully the call to participate in the reconciling mission of the biblical God. Whether it appears in the by-laws of a congregation or in the catalog of an educational institution, a "statement of faith" tends to stop conversation. Such statements can also easily become tools for manipulating or excluding people from the community. Too often they create an environment in which real conversation is avoided out of fear that critical reflection on one or more of the sacred propositions will lead to excommunication from the community. Emergent seeks to provide a milieu in which others are welcomed to join in the pursuit of life "in" the One who is true (1 John 5:20). Giving into the pressure to petrify the conversation in a "statement" would make Emergent easier to control; its critics could dissect it and then place it in a theological museum alongside other dead conceptual specimens the curators find opprobrious. But living, moving things do not belong in museums. Whatever else Emergent may be, it is a movement committed to encouraging the lively pursuit of God and to inviting others into a delightfully terrifying conversation along the way.
This does not mean, as some critics will assume, that Emergent does not care about belief or that there is no role at all for propositions. Any good conversation includes propositions, but they should serve the process of inquiry rather than shut it down. Emergent is dynamic rather than static, which means that its ongoing intentionality is (and may it ever be) shaped less by an anxiety about finalizing state-ments than it is by an eager attention to the dynamism of the Spirit’s disturbing and comforting presence, which is always reforming us by calling us into an ever-intensifying participation in the Son’s welcoming of others into the faithful embrace of God.
Posted by marcus at 06:49 PM | Comments (3)
Mark 8:27-9:1 Bono, Cronulla and Peter's Confessional Crisis
March 22, 2006
Year B, Lent 2, Mark 8:27-9:1
Bono, Cronulla and Peters Confessional Crisis!
Had a great Seeds for Lent Circle the other night with four of us at the Den. These were our initial questions in relation to the text and some notes we gleaned from various blogs, commentaries, articles as we went. We then moved to stories from our world and experience...
I've included the image of the Bible Societies "Power in Action" copies of Mark's Gospel that are being handed out around Melbourne by evangelicals during the Commonwealth Games. Whilst the testimonies of althletes in it are OK I find the title and the whole piggy backing with the Games ironic in light of the subject of this weeks lectionary. In Mark's gospel its "Power in Action" that gets Jesus killed! I'm running a Chasin Mark Seeds Circle in Footscray throughtout the uni. year on Thursdays from 4pm with the Salvos at 101 Droop St.
Mark 8:27-9:1
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’ He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’ And he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.’
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The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Ancient Word
Our Initial Questions
Vs. 28 What’s the significance of Mark including John the Baptist and Elijah as possible alternative titles for Jesus? Why did Peter answer “You are the Messiah” – what was his understanding of Messiah? Does Peter both see more clearly and stuff up more than the other disciples? Why does Jesus order silence about his Messianic identity? Vs 33. Peters “thoughts of man, human nature, human things” Why does Jesus shut Peter down? Is Peter Satan? OR Is Peter’s reaction to the horror of the cross a justifiable/ natural human response? Is “human nature” Satanic? Is it natural/human to believe in or practise “power over” others rather than power from weakness/below? What are Greek words for Satan in this passage, Mark in general? (We Considered Chapter 3 Beelzebul conflict with scribes. Diabolos in the temptation stories: to throw around confuse ) What does saving and losing life really mean? What is self denial and taking up your cross really mean? Is it possible to have the right beliefs/ideas about Jesus but not understand his way/praxis in the world? Is this what Jesus calling evil/Satan? How does the Kingdom of God come in power before some of them die?
Some Notes
Much is written about the popular conception of Messiah being a political leader who would usher in change through a violent popular revolution and Jesus subverting this expectation.
The call to take up the cross is not simply about Jesus determined to die to save our sins by fulfilling some divine contract. His death is a result of the way he lived which was a constantly creative response to human power.
I think it was Martin Luther King Jnr. who in the midst of the civil rights struggle over non-violent tactics and suffering once said that if someone hasn’t found something for which they were willing to die they were not fit to live.
Obviously dying for religious causes and ideology hasn’t had great press in recent years for good reason. Martyr means witness….What are we bearing witness to in our suffering?
Faith calls us to give ourselves and our will over to the will of God, who by God’s very nature is self giving love and so sacrifices power against our human nature of self preservation.
I love the terrifying and frightening story of Abraham being tested to offer his son as a sacrifice and the way faith can / must ultimately transcend rationality.
The importance of seeing this story in the context of the discipleship catechism of Chapter 8-10. The three teachings about the way of the cross. The three misunderstandings of disciples and Jesus sayings about self giving. Bookend-ed by the stories of the healing of blind people which mirrors the struggle of the disciples to see clearly.
Word in the World
Confessional Crisis: Germany, Aparthied, Civil Rights Movement.
In a powerful article in Sojourners Bill Wylie Kellerman suggested that in church history, especially Protestant tradition, it is recognized that there are extraordinary times when the church's very identity is imperilled. If its confession is not made unequivocally clear, nothing less than the meaning of the gospel within the church and before the world is at risk.He outlined critical moments when the church has been faced with such a confessional crisis.
In 1933 Adolf Hitler had just come to power. Swastikas lined the altar of Magdeburg Cathedral and the dean explained from the pulpit: "In short, it has come to be the symbol of German hope. Whoever reviles this symbol of ours is reviling our Germany. The swastika flags around the altar radiate hope—hope that the day is at last about to dawn." Paul Althaus, a notable German theologian, hailed the rise: "Our Protestant churches have greeted the German turning point of 1933 as a gift and miracle of God."
Having proclaimed Hitler as a Messiah at a time of great depression the German Church was then faced with a confessional crisis that came in the shape of the Barmen Confession of Barth and Bonhoeffer. Kellerman considered other confessional moments included the Kairos Document critiquing apartheid in South African and efforts at confronting racism during the civil rights movement and asked what is the confessional crisis for our own moment, and would anyone care either way?
Bono as Messiah
Having all watched the interview on Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope on Monday night. We discussed Bono as potential Messiah material. His argument was that the issue of Africa and what he describes as ‘stupid poverty’, such as children dying from easily preventable diseases, was the confessional crisis of our age. In light of this we considered whether “Take up your “Make Poverty History Wristband” and Follow me” is akin to taking up your cross in our context or merely consumer “slacktivism”?
One of the most hotly debated aspects of his talk around Urban Seed was his “Red” proposal. Apparently in his talking with financial heavy weights one neo-liberal economist who was opposed to ideas such as debt relief had taken him aside and said if they wanted to achieve their ends they would need to approach it like a corporation would a new market. In order to raise money for such an approach Bono was promoting a credit card style rewards scheme where instead of getting rewards the money would go to raising the profile of global poverty campaigns.
We considered the compromises of campaigning for justice locally and globally of how we ourselves fund what we do and compared what we feel is necessary or pragmatic alongside what Peter felt was necessary and pragmatic. We considered if Jesus would say “Take up your Red Visa card and fund a marketing campaign to save the world…it wont cost you more than 1% on your normal purchases.” Somehow the cross seems a bit lost in all this….Didn’t Jesus himself say “Render unto Visa what is Visa’s and God God’s?”
Whatever you feel about Bono, I was impressed with the way that he answered in very careful and measured ways when Denton tried to corner him on matters of faith. He didn’t quite say get behind me Satan but he was pretty keen to avoid being typecast as Messiah material….for a rock star at least!
Four Corners and the Cronulla Riots
The other essential viewing of the previous evening had been the Four Corners expose and analysis on the Cronulla race riots in Sydney interviewing both “Surfies” and “Lebs” who had been involved in the race riots over Advent.
Kate was disturbed by the personal risks that seemingly ordinary people were willing to take for such a vacuous cause such as “Beating up the Lebs” and “Defending the beach.” If the Markan passage acts as a “call narrative” we considered the power that the so called “dog whistle politics” of our political leaders hold as a potential call to a costly discipleship of racist nationalism.
This lead us more deeply into the question is it natural/human to believe in or practise “power over” others rather than power from weakness/below. Does something happen to make these human tendencies turn into something more powerful, evil violent racist attacks? I
n light of taking up one’s cross Kate was disturbed that she felt that she didn’t know any Christians who would be willing to get out on the street so passionately for a cause that they believe in. Whilst small in comparison, Luke took heart in recalling that numbers of Christians had gathered on the street for vigils over the same period to protest the execution of Van Nguyen the young Australian man arrested for couriering drugs in Singapore.
Kate’s Word
Kate then recalled a story which for me at least captured some of the essence of this reading for our context. She was walking back from the Van Nguyen Amnesty Vigil carrying the Credo Cross. The cross was made in memory of one of Urban Seed’s open lunch volunteers who died of an overdose. It’s a sizable piece of timber but it’s big enough for one person to carry with some difficulty and so its has become a bit of an icon for us at protests and vigils.
Literally carrying the cross back home past Flinders Street Station, Kate was getting the usual wry comments and jeers when a group of Christians came up and put a video camera in her face. Here comes the confessional crisis! They were doing a vox pop for their Advent services about what Christmas means for you. I’m not sure if they saw the cross on her shoulder or not but Kate responded by talking about what she had been doing at the vigil that night and why. She said they stared at her blankly and simply asked the question again. “What does Christmas mean to you?”
I’m so often exactly like these Christians. The invitation to, demands of and even people carrying the cross stand right in front of us. I feel at best like the blind man in the passage immediately preceeding this one whom Jesus takes two goes to heal. He sees people “but like trees moving about.” (the story is placed there by Mark for this exact reason). Like Peter’s disciples right through this section of the gospel I’m enthusiastic about the life of discipleship but its hard to ‘get it’. The power of weakness and the weakness of power is such a counter cultural call to all that we know.
Raised in a culture of privilege and consumer choice where freedom is sold as keeping options open at all costs, Jesus’ call to discipleship asks questions that disturb our comfort, that polarise the compromise and the comfort of the easy peace and false truces we make with power…What is worth suffering for? What is worth dying (or even more difficulty sometime) living for? What is worth giving oneself too generously, utterly and completely?
Posted by marcus at 02:31 PM | Comments (1)
John 1:43-51, Epiphany 2 ,Year B, Nathanael's True Blue
January 30, 2006
John 1:43-51: "Come and See" : Nathanael and the True Blue, Kangaroo, BBQ!
“Under the Southern Cross I stand, a sprig of wattle in my hand, a native of my native land, Australia……..”
This Australia Day some of my friends will make light of recent hoo-ha around sedition/terrorism/ refugee detention/ race riots etc and throw an un-Australian Party (they going to throw some kangaroo/emu on the barby in a symbolic Coat of Arms bbq). Others I know are up for official awards at formal presentations. I was wondering what Nathanael would have been doing for Australia Day had this story taken place in Australia this month!?
John goes out of his way to paint Nathanael as the ridgey-dige, fairdinkum, you beaut, true blue Jew. Unlike Phillip he has a very Jewish name and carries lots of parochial Jewish prejudices; especially when it comes to Nazareth (an out of the way hick town known as a terrorist hideaway). Nathan thinks if he knows Jesus dad and his hometown then he’s got Jesus boxed.
Invited to test his prejudices with “come and see”, Nathanael is big enough to take a journey into reality. And it is he who is immediately dis-armed and “known”! Jesus literally sees him coming and announces Nathanael “as a true Israelite in whom there is no guile.”
Nathanael is taken aback, exposed. Dylan suggests that he asks Jesus literally, “from where do you know me (to be)?” -- not meaning, as the NRSV misleadingly suggests “where did you have a chance to get to know me?” or “where have we interacted before?” but rather something more like “what do you believe to be my hometown?”
Jesus says, “I saw you under the fig tree,” in words reminiscent of Old Testament passages in which this image stands for one's home (see Malina and Rohrbaugh on this). In other words, Jesus saw Nathanael at home, and therefore knows everything he needs to know about him.
Is he just doing what Nathanael has just done to him?! Is he trying to make an ironic point? Either way, interesting te-ta-te about understanding “from whence” people (and especially Jesus) really come from is important in John as we will see with Nicodemus in Chapter 3. Beyond surface impressions, titles, backgrounds, where are we “really” coming from?
In his book “Binding the Strong Man,” Ched Myers quotes Telford’s study of the fig tree in the Hebrew Bible which indicates the fig tree was important in the everyday life of Palestine. As the most fruitful of all the trees it was held in high esteem, its fruits being among the principle first fruits to be brought to the sanctuary. He suggests that the fig tree was an emblem of peace, security, and prosperity that is prominent in descriptions of Golden Age’s of Israel’s history; past, present and future.
John the Baptist has just announced he is making Jesus know to Israel (verse 31) and so Nathanael becomes a representative of Israel and is subsequently promised (vs.51) a vision very similar to that of founding father of the nation Jacob (see Genesis 28). Ironically Jacob was an Israelite full of guile!
A bloke called Nathan sitting under a fig tree having Jacob-esque visions…sounds a bit like sitting under the Southern Cross with a sprig of wattle in your hand on Australia Day!
Whatever the “miracle” here in Jesus “knowing” Nathanael (perhaps Jesus has named his politics and his prejudices), the box fits and Nathanael gets it. He confesses that his Messiah is coming from a place he would least expect!
Jesus questions the basis of his belief. As John will show, like Nicodemus (3:2) we can acknowledge Jesus miracles and not get it. In the same way simply confessing Jesus as Messiah is not enough (see 6:14-15). For Nathanael the call to discipleship will be a journey in giving up a lot of his prejudices, about Nazareth and about what a Messiah is really on about.
All this talk of symbolic trees got me thinking. Throughout the scriptures the blossoming fig tree is symbolic of God’s blessing whereas the withering fig is symbolic of Yahweh’s judgement. In the Mark 13 Apocalypse we are reminded to observe the “fig tree” as a way of considering the signs of the times.
On Australia Day much is made of the fact that we sit under the ‘fig tree’ of a prosperous economy. I recalled the International Climate Change Conference that Australia hosted earlier this month. (Remember we failed to sign the previous Kyoto protocol). Despite no targets being set, a reduction of 20% of Greenhouse emissions over the next decade or so was expected out of the gathering. That’s a 20% reduction in business as usual which means a huge increase in actual emissions as China and India’s energy consumption rapidly grows. One report I saw suggested some were predicting between a 2 to 4 degree increase in global temperature in the next century….. enough to wither more than a few figs!
Jesus cursed a fig tree before trashing the temple (Mark 11:12-14; 20-22). I don’t know if this is anything akin to throwing the coat of arms on the bbq on Australia Day but then, as now, our symbols of prosperity need to be judged according to their true fruitfulness.
Seeds Circle Questions
Texts from our World:
Undertake an Implicit Association Test and discuss the results with each other. What surprised you about such?
What are the places that you are sceptical about, that you, your peers or our nation would consider that nothing good could come out of? Upon what are these prejudices based?
Sacred Text:
Nathanael sits under a fig tree. Telford suggests that The Hebrew bible “on the whole knows very little of non symbolically trees”
Consider Fig Trees in Jer 8:13; Is 28:3f;Hosea 9:10,16; Micah 7:1; Joel 1:7,12. What is the significance of Nathaniel sitting under the fig tree?
How is Nathanael characterised? How does he compare with Jacob in Genesis 28?
How is Israel represented in the rest of John’s gospel?
Personal Texts:
“Come and see” : Describe times when you have been invited to participate in a community of love, light and truth such as that in John’s gospel. Who invited you? What did you see?
What would it mean for you to test your prejudices? Would you be willing to journey to groups that are different from you like Nathanael? What could such a journey involve?
Posted by marcus at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)
Mark 1:14-20 Year B Epiphany 3- Disentangle
January 27, 2006
Mark 1:14-20
My reflection on this weeks gospel lectionary is called Disentangle from a bible reading/liturgy/reflective resource I put together called "The Waters Edge"....
Jesus call to go “fishing for people” is not simply reference to the building of a religious movement of followers. “The hooking of fish” in the Ancient Hebrew scriptures is a symbol of God’s judgment on the rich and powerful (Jeremiah 16:16, Amos 4:2, Ezekiel 29:4)
In the time of King Herod the fishing industry was a regulated economy. Herodian rulers sold fishing rights to brokers, who in turn sold to fishers. The toll office in Capernaum, operated by Levi, probably identifies him as a contractor of royal fishing rights. Fishing families, like those of the sons of Zebedee, formed cooperatives or collectives in order to bid for fishing leases and in turn hired day labourers to man their boats.
In the ancient world the social fabric of the rural extended family was tied to the workplace, simply ‘downing tools’ was unthinkable!
Hearing the call to follow Jesus requires not just assent of the heart, but a fundamental reordering of social and economic relationships.
The first step in changing the systems of the world is to overturn the world of the disciple: in the Economy of God the personal and political are one.
Unlike students of the day who competed to gain access to a teacher, Jesus freely calls class enemies to join together with him in his struggle to transform the existing order with an urgent uncompromising invitation to “break with business as usual.”
The Economy of God has dawned, for those who choose to follow the world is coming to an end.
The adventure has begun…
(Punters are given a net with fishing hooks and line entangled)
Take the net and disentangle the hook...
As you disentangle consider how the sources of your social and economic security may also entangle you.
What would an invitation to interrupt “business as usual” look like in the economy of your life?
For what dream or cause would you drop everything, risk all, pay a great price?
As you hold the hook consider some of the “big fish” in the economy of our world, your work, or family experience.
Offer a prayer for a circumstance of poverty, scarcity or injustice that connects with your experience.
Confess to the ways you accept ‘business as usual’ in this circumstance.
Ask for courage to ‘take up the hook.’
Posted by marcus at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)
Matt 2: 1-12 :Year B (Epiphany) The Magi Remixed
January 13, 2006
An Urban Seed Nativity: The Magi Remixed
This is a blantant tinker with Nathan Nettleton's attempt at connecting the shock and offense of the Magi's arrival with his own congregation at South Yarra (check the Sermon "Shocking News" under his link for this week). I connected with this because the laneway in Baptist Place is a busy place for injecting drug use and I have often felt disturbed when I see a child in a pram down there with parents who are using....perhaps this kind of feeling is a good one to have if we wish to get a feel for the drama of the nativity....
Once upon a time God decided to become human and be born as a baby on earth. He was born, on a Saturday night, to a couple of street kids called Mary and Joe who were sleeping rough in the back laneway of Collins Street Baptist Church. The next morning all the regulars turned up for Sunday worship, completely unaware of the tiny family out in the laneway. Half way through the service, there was a knock at the door and three strangers came in. They looked something like a cross between yuppies and gypsies, sort of smartly dressed but with lots of jewellery and strings of crystals round their necks and stuff. “Excuse us,” they said, “but we're the staff from the Mythic Reality New Age Enlightenment Centre in Smith Street, and we're looking for the manifestation of the divine that has appeared just around here.”
“What are you talking about?” replied the startled regulars at the church.
“Well, we're not sure of the exact details, but Sasha here was reading the Tarot Cards this morning, and the cards clearly said that an omnipotent divine presence had just appeared as a baby in Collins Street. We were a bit surprised at first, but then our brother Moonlight here spent half an hour calculating the astrological chart for today, and sure enough, there was an unusual conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter last night, and that occurring under the sign of Capricorn confirms what the cards had said. So we've come with a good supply of healing and empowering crystals as a gift for the baby.”
At that moment a baby's cry was heard from out the back and on investigation a baby named Jesus was discovered with his frightened parents in the back lane.
Posted by marcus at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)
Luke 2:22-40 Year B Christmas 1
January 06, 2006
Simeon and Anna bless the child Jesus...Remixed
Luke 2:22-40: Simeon and Anna
Re-mix:
Luke 25:22-35
Now there was an old battler in Footscray whose name was Simeon; he was Bulldog through and through, and was looking forward to the triumph of his beloved Footscray footy club; he was the spirit of the club and the spirit of the club was him! The spirit had revealed to him that he would not die before he would see a Western Bulldogs premiership. This spirit guided him to the Phone Dome and when his parents put their son Jesus up in the draft as is the requirement under AFL regulations, Simeon hugged him, sung “Sons of the ‘Scray” and said.
“Now I can die in peace, for my eyes have seen the salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all the clubs, a revelation for footy and for the glory of the Doggies.”
And the parents were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon patted them on the back and said to the boys mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and rising of many reputations in footy, he’ll be a marked man and heavily tagged, so that the motivations and agendas of many will be revealed - and you will also cop a shirtfront, that will break your heart.”
There was also a cheer squad member named Anna, the daughter of a club legend. She was an old widow who had been married to footy and the Bulldogs forever. She had never missed a game, day or night, and was seen around the Whitten Oval every day. At that moment she began to barrack and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of the Doggies.
Seeds Circle Questions
Texts from our World:
Scenes from the movies Searching for Bobby Fischer or Kundun,
Searching for Bobby Fisher is a true story about a man who tutors children in the game of chess, hoping that he will happen across the next great natural chess player, the next Bobby Fisher.
Kundun is the story of the Dalai Lama. When a Tibetan lama, or holy man, dies, Buddhist monks set out to find his reincarnation in a young child.
Sacred Text:
Luke 2:25 says that Simeon was looking forward to the consolation of Israel. The same expression reappears in 23:51 and 24:21. What does it indicate about Luke’s understanding of the nature of salvation?
What does Mary and Jospeh’s sacrifice reveal about them? Read Leviticus 12:8.
Luke 2:22-24,27, 39 Luke seems to be preoccupied by the observance of the Law. Anna and Simeon are presented as true faithful prophets of Israel. Consider Luke 16:17. What is Luke suggesting about Jewish traditions and the Law. How is this similar/different from other gospel writers?
Anna is described as a widow, the first of many in Luke/Acts (Read 4:25; 7:12; 18:3; 20:47; 21:2; Acts 6:1; 9:39) What is the significance of widows in Luke/Acts?
Personal Texts:
What is something you are having to or have had to wait patiently for?
What is something that you would like to see/ believe you will see in your lifetime?
What power would such a big picture vision bring to the way you lived each day?.
Which old radicals do you know? What do you admire about them? What can they teach you?
What’s the difference between a silly old bugger and a true believer?
Consider the impact of prophetic living upon loved ones—"a sword will pierce your soul too" Luke 2:35. What opposition have you encountered in your discipleship journey and how has this affected those around you?
What secret thoughts are exposed in you?
Posted by marcus at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)
John 1:1-14: Year B Christmas
January 01, 2006
Pic #1: Milk Crate and Cardboard Manger with the ‘Credo Cross’
Pic #2: Carols by Candlelight, Sydney Myer Music Bowl.
Lighting the Way Home
Bill Loader demonstrates how John describes the mystery of Christmas through an amazing mixing of the philosophical ideas of Logos, “the Word” (Greek) and Jewish ideas of Sophia or Wisdom seeking to find a home.
“The Word became flesh and made home among us.”
“The light that shines in the darkness and enlightens everyone.”
It made me think of my own experiences of home and light this Christmas.
“…and made home among us”: Home #1
Tis the season to be… exhausted!
It’s hard to celebrate Christmas when you work with homeless people for whom Christmas magnifies marginalisation. A reminder of loneliness and family lost.
Nevertheless we put on a great ‘Credo Christmas’ meal for the homeless on the banks of the Yarra river.
As part of it we read a rewritten Christmas story to emphasise Jesus’ homelessness. It’s a simple, earthy, meaningful liturgy.
It’s also chaos, an exhausting, last gasp, end of year effort by a few to offer meaningful hospitality to many.
Of course the many will do the welfare rounds and receive more pressies and Christmas dinners than myself. At Christmas time there is much goodwill and guilt to consume, but its not home!
The end of the party marks the end of the year for my activist ‘mob’, we flee the many, the city, and each other and travel ‘home.’
“…and made home among us”: Home #2
Home is hard.
The journey….. preparation, kids, roads….advent readings fill my mind, the hope filled promises of the prophets to the returning exiles versus the reality upon arrival. All that is famil-iar. Memories good and bad.…the road trip home is always a metaphor.
Generations and threads of family collide and entwine for a time. People who knew you at the start the journey and can dig to your roots. Joy and awkwardness mix, relating to people with whom you share so much and yet so little; with and through whom similarity and difference is so often defined. Past, present and future coalesce in moments of meaning that act as a Melways (Melbourne street directory) for life’s journey. Where am I…… from, at, going?........
Jesus asks me, ”Who are my mother, my brothers, my sisters?” (Mark 3)…. I have always held that the proof is in the (Christmas) pudding!
I smile… politely at my family across the Christmas meal.
I consider… who the ‘many’ homeless I have left behind are looking at over their Christmas lunch?
I wonder ... if home is really in the text messages (from the seedy bunch of assorted spiritual co-travellers) that vibrate in our pockets ‘under the table’.
“…light shines in darkness”: Carols by Candelight #1
Across the Yarra banks the camera pans the sky-scape of the city, the lights are on at ‘the G’, preparing for the coming Boxing Day Cricket. The family sits down to watch Carols by Candle Light broadcast live from the iconic Sydney Myer Music bowl.
I recall... that Sydney Myer’s philantrophic foundation has also funded
our Christmas carols and bbq with homeless people on the same Yarra banks.
I wonder… what the pioneer Melbourne retailer would have thought of each Carols celebration.
I consider… that Sydney Myer was Jewish, (or did he “convert” to try and
make it into the exclusive, establishment Melbourne Club????) .
I recall… that this year is the first in forty odd that the Jewish Candle lighting festival of Hanukkah coincides with Christmas day. (A festival that celebrates the Maccabean liberation of the Jewish people from Hellenistic occupation before the birth of Christ).
Back from the ad break and every saccharine celebrity from Melbourne’s hoi polloi seems to become a born again Christian for the night! Ray Martin, Denis Walter, Daryl Somers and Plucka Duck! The mix of the locally famous, marketing schmaltz, paternalistic charity and superficial sentiment makes great television… but its not cool to be sophisticatedly cynical on Christmas eve… is it?! These are, after all, the memories (or should I say celebrities) of my childhood. ‘Our’ Debra Byrne and her five year old daughter sing “Silent Night” together. It’s abysmal and captivating all at once. I’m tired and emotional. I shed a tear.
I wonder… if Joseph lit a Hanukkah candle at the birth of the child as a
reminder of the liberation of his people from an oppressive force.
I wonder… what it might have meant to him as he nursed his betrothed and
newborn in a shed, dislocated from home by the Roman census.
I wonder… if the Romans had their own celebrities running a Hanukkah candle lighting as a census entertainment spectacular.
“…light shines in darkness.” Carols by Candelight #2
The family turns off the television and drives on out to a Midnight carol service in a bush church house that stands in the middle of a paddock/nowhere.
It’s a tiny, uncomfortably primitive chapel built by and for generations gone and yet out of the summer darkness people arrive as if in some Tolkienesque ritual.
This night the faithful ’hangers on’ of this ‘heritage’ congregation are joined by the many and the usual empty relic of a place is packed out. Lit only with candles, we sing the roof off.
My father just back from Cornwall hosts the event and contrasts the barmy Aussie night with his last Christmas eve where he stood in the hail and sleet singing carols in the streets of St. Ives. He recalls the roots of the Australian tradition when in the 1860’s Cornish miners in Moonta would gather outside the mine at the change of the shortened Christmas eve shift and sing ‘curls’ to the light of their ‘Fat Jack’ tallow candles stuck to the front of their safety hats with dabs of damp clay while the mine managers turned a blind eye.
He gives a simple gospel message about how Jesus can be the light in the darkness of our world and our lives.
I consider…In this place, at this moment, it could still be 1860.
Finale
I wonder in all this… Does our Christmas celebrate grace and truth, the timeless Word that has come and made its home among us, the light that enlightens all?
Or does our Christmas become a less than enlightening attempt by ourselves to re-constructing home as some sort of abstract ideal that is based in other stories, places and times, while the Word has come home and we have not recognised?
Happy Christmas, Hanukkah, Holiday.
Marcus
Posted by marcus at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)
Luke 1:26-38 : Year B (Advent 4) 'Hail Mary'
December 21, 2005
Given the sort of risk and physical crap the bible says Mary had to survive in order to have a baby I’ve always thought that Lara Croft (from the video game Tomb Raider) might be a more appropriate image of the mother of Christ rather than domesticated, insipidly pale faced, blue veiled, watery eyed portraits we’re used to. If you consider that talk of a new Davidic line would have likely been considered seditious in the then occupied Palestine and consider the content of Mary’s Song in the next passage “The rich are sent, empty, away” (A passage that appears nowhere in the 3 year lectionary cycle!), it becomes clear that Mary stands in the radical prophetic tradition of her culture and knows just what’s at stake when one births a “Messiah”.
In this vein I put together my own ‘Hail Mary’ which uses some bits of the traditional Catholic Hail Mary Prayer and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin.
Luke 1:26-38 : The Angel Gabriel Visits Mary
Luke 1: 39-56 : The Magnificat “Mary’s Song”
Reflection:
Marcus’ ‘Hail Mary’:
Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
Behold the blessed and perilous path of women who dare!
To risk shame and death at the hands of male honour and announce to your family, your betrothed, and your village (occupied by a foreign power), that you are possessed by the Spirit and impregnated with the impossible.
A peasant virgin to raise up a child to the throne of David!
Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Impossible fruit!
Fruit from nowhere?
Fruit from Mary, a virgin child?
Fruit from a barren old, Elizabeth?
Fruit from Nazareth?
From a nobody from nowhere,
who reckons herself with the lowly!
But this nobody knows the songs of her culture!
Songs of fruit from nowhere!
Songs of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, the mother of Samson, and Hannah,
And so she sings her own anthem of revolution,
Sings the world upside down,
Sings the impossible into being.
Magnificat!
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Mother of the revolution,
Queen of prophets,
Nemesis of Kings,
Shrewd entertainer of sedition,
Subverter of the Empire,
Resister of the occupation ,
Restorer of the broken line.
Your body is a Temple,
Beautiful, Strong, Resilient.
An Ivory Tower of David,
A House of Gold,
Ark of the Covenant.
The body that marches,
(heavily pregnant, at the forced dislocation of Imperial Census.)
That bleeds,
(birthing in the squalid shed of the homeless outcast,)
That runs,
(from the death squads, forced underground by officially sanctioned slaughter and cover- up.)
Mary,
Blessed, Revolutionary, Virgin
Exiled Mother of the Nation,
Believer in the Impossible,
Wild and Liberated,
Slave to the cause.
pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
That we may also say yes to life in the face of death.
That we may too give birth to a miracle.
Amen.
Last Weeks Seeds/mail reflection : Firey Beach Baptism: John 1; Year B Advent 3
Posted by marcus at 09:44 AM | Comments (2)
John 1 6-8,19-28: Year B (Advent 3)
December 19, 2005
Pic #1 : Celebrity Nativity, Madame Tussaud's, 1994.
Pic #2: Madonna and Child with Saints in the Enclosed Garden, 1440, Follower of Robert Campin.
John 1:6-8, 19-28
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
9 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ 20He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’* 21And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ 22Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ 23He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord” ’,
as the prophet Isaiah said.
24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah,* nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ 26John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ 28This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
The New Revised Standard Version
Reflection 1
Inside church last Sunday this gospel is read whilst outside race riots rage.
Reflecting on John last week I said that “this Advent our story tells us to “Prepare the way of the Lord!” To get on out and get marching!” On Sydney’s Cronulla Peninsula crowds flock from the centre to the margins, responding to the call (txt messages actually) for Anglo Aussies to “reclaim” the beach from “Lebs” and “Wogs”. This wasn’t the ‘interruptions to business as usual’ I had envisioned. (Gaining much more media attention than things like the “Make Poverty History” marches and meeting of the WTO.)
This week of Advent has seen reaction and counter reaction, rioting, ‘blame game’ finger pointing, the predictable sound byte diagnosis of left and right and the now common place rush to strengthen legislation.
The striking image for me was of a bare chested white anglo “Aussie” youth, draped in the flag (ala Superman), with the words “I grew here, you flew here.” scrawled across his chest.
Sydney radio “shock jock” Alan Jones was quick to claim the prophet’s mantle of “a voice crying in the wilderness”. Almost revelling in the apocalypse he said "I'm the person that's led this charge here. Nobody wanted to know about North Cronulla, now it's gathered to this." The usual questions have been asked about the role of the media. “Is it the reflector or the director?” asked Michael Franti.
Certainly John the Baptist is presented in the gospels as a wild man with a penchant for the apocalyptic. He was pretty effective at drawing large crowds to water with a message of fire.(Luke 3:7-9) I wonder how John the Baptist might have reacted had he been baptising on Cronulla beach last Sunday? Particularly given last weeks portrayal of John the Baptist as an indigenous Australian elder…..(perhaps a different perspective on who “grew” here!..... Let’s also not forget the recent Redfern riots). Either way John was threatening enough to draw media attention from the Jerusalem inquisition which travel’s out to demand some answers about his credentials (or lack thereof).
John’s message was controversial because he boldly said it’s about more than where you “grew” or from where you “flew.” For the dominant culture of his day you were in God's in-crowd based on blood. To be ‘in’ you needed to be born of Jewish blood or assimilate into Jewish culture (by practicing blood sacrifice of animals and/or circumcision). John however confronts any sense of racial superiority or privilege by saying “God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham” (Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:7). John the Baptizer was perhaps the world's first evangelical. He believed people needed to experience conversion, to make a choice to be ‘in’ and act in light of it. In this way anyone, (indeed only those!), regardless of bloodline, who were literally willing to “take the plunge” would be welcomed by God. (See Sarahlaughed for more)
Much commentary of this weeks events has tried to paint and bigger picture. John the Baptist was also into the big picture, but refused to be boxed into any of the prevailing orthodoxies of his day. He defuses the media grilling by pointing to a higher power, a prediction of something and someone coming who would leave the impact of his own waterfront actions for dead.
Apocalyptic events such as the riots that took place this week are great at unveiling the ugly realities of our world that we often prefer to keep hidden. Dealing with racism however is a complex beast for which quick fix messianic solutions will always be inadequate. The way of Jesus is no easy path. There is a core message to this story about holding to high hopes whilst maintaining low expectations. Mark Pierson recalled a sermon title this week that he has never forgotten, “The expected Messiah is not the Messiah we expected!” Even for John, his confidence in an apocalyptic resolution of his ministry, of “someone greater” was surely shaken. He dies in prison with an ambiguous answer to the question he'd sent messengers to Jesus to ask: “Are you the Coming One, or are we to wait for another?” (Luke 7:22)
Reflection Part 2
At Urban Seed: church on Sunday we reflected upon the nativity image (See Pic #2 above) as part of our Advent in Art series. In this non traditional nativity the artist has placed contemporary 15th century martyrs/ hero’s of faith at the foot of the Christ child. Also included is John the Baptist who appears holding a lamb and again pointing to the big picture (the Lamb of God).
The tradition of incorporating prominent people into the nativity made me think of the controversial Celebrity Nativity at Madame Tussaud's last year. (See Pic #2 above) Who are the “Saints” of our own day and age. Whilst the 15th Century celebrates martyrs and the enclosed garden is a symbol of virginity our own culture replaces the Holy Family with The Beckams. Prince Philip, Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W Bush as wise men, Kylie Minogue is an angel, and Hugh Grant and Samuel L Jackson are shepherds.The Vatican said the tableau was "if not blasphemous then certainly in very poor taste".
We considered hero's of faith whom we would place in our own contemporary nativity. Our thoughts were not far from Norman Kember and colleagues from Christian Peacemaker Teams http://www.cpt.org/ , kidnapped in Iraq on November 26th and who’s deadline for execution passed this Sunday with no new announcements (Aljazeera report). Norman had always preached that we should be willing to take the same risks for peace as those young men who fight for our armed forces. Our prayers for the prophet in the wilderness this Advent.
Last Weeks Seeds/mail reflection Mark 1, Advent 2
Posted by marcus at 03:08 PM | Comments (1)
Mark 1:1-8: Year B (Advent 2)
December 08, 2005
"Prepare the Way of the Lord"... I used this weeks gospel reading as the Call to Worship at Urban Seed church on sunday....
This week’s gospel reading is again about the coming of Christ as presented in the prologue of Mark’s story of Jesus. Marks gospel has been very important to me and to Melbourne discipleship communities over the years. (Presente Athol Gill!)
This love of Mark inspired my “remix” (a rewrite in light of contemporary events) that we ended up calling The Gospel of Vic(toria). I wrote this in mid 1999 during what was to become the last days of the Kennett era. (Jeff Kennett was our Premier in Victoria from 1992-1999. He aggressively and for a time successfully, promoted the values of economic rationalism.)
The Gospel of Mark (Mark’s Version, 65-75 CE)
1:1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,”’
4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel of Vic. (Marcus’ Remix of Mark, 1999 CE)
1:1 From the beginning of the ancient dreaming, the news of the successful takeover bid of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it stands written in Isaiah the prophet:
“Look I am sending my messenger before you,
he will construct your way;
3 A voice of one crying in the bush:
“Create space in the forward line;
a paddock inside 50 for the ‘King’ to run into.
Build a straight road for him!”
4 John the Baptiser appeared in the bush preaching a baptism of “saying sorry” and for the reconciliation of debt. 5 All of regional Victoria and all the people from Central Melbourne were flocking to him and were baptized by him in the Birrarang (Upper Yarra), confessing their debt. 6 John normally wore a possum hair coat with a leather belt around his waist and usually lived off the bush tucker of the land. 7 And he was preaching, saying, “After me comes one who is mightier than I, I am not even worthy to bend down and untie the laces of his boots. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Great Spirit.”
9 And it happened in those days that Jesus came from Moe in Gippsland and was baptized by John into the Birrarang. 10 And the moment he came up out of the water he saw the heavens ripped apart and the Spirit Bunjil Maman swooped down upon him like an eagle-hawk. 11 And a voice came out of the land, “You are my dear Son, with you I am really pleased.”
12 And straightaway the Spirit throws him out into the scrub. Satan was in the bush for over two hundred days tempting him. 13 And he was with the wild beasts and the spirits of the ancient dreaming were ministering to him.
14 Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Gippsland announcing the successful takeover of the economy of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled and the Economy of God has drawn near. Change policy and acknowledge the good forecast.”
Picture of Kulin creation myth which once stood along the Princes Bridge, Melbourne as part of The Another View Walking Trail. It depicts the story of Bunjil the Eagle Hawk forming people from clay. This story was apparently first told to non-indigenous settlers as clay and stone on the Yarra was unsettled during the building of the Princes Bridge in 1840.
Reflection
“The beginning…”
Mark invokes the Jewish creation myth of Genesis to give his story authority. I chose to add the creation myth of our own place by adding the “ancient dreaming” which progressive indigenous Christians believe to be as significant as the biblical Hebrew traditions of land and law.
“successful takeover bid”
The term gospel (‘good news’) is thoroughly religious to us now but to Mark's readers it was a wholly secular term, most commonly associated with Roman propaganda announcing military victory and eulogizing Caesar as the "divine man". By calling his story of the anointed man Jesus a ‘gospel’, Mark sideswipes the authority of Rome by expropriating their vehicle of propagation for his own, quite non-imperial "good news." For ‘The Gospel of Vic’ I chose to adopt “successful takeover bid” to highlight the contest between Jesus’ message of the “economy of God” with the economic power and consumer messages of trans-national corporations.
“Look I am sending my messenger before you, he will construct your way;……… Build a straight road for him!”
The “On the Move” Kennett era aggressively promoted itself on the back of ambitious private sector road building projects including the ‘user pays’ City Link project with the Transurban Obiashi consortium.
A voice of one crying in the bush: “Create space in the forward line; a paddock inside 50 for the ‘King’ to run into.”
Australian football reference to a strategy known as ‘Pagans paddock.” It was designed by successful coach Denis Pagan for the then dominant player of the league Wayne Carey (nickname “The King”). Team mates would clear out of the forward line so that Carey could compete ‘one out’ with a lesser opponent.
In this verse Mark has done his own ‘re-mix’ by sampling quotes from Malachi (3:1) and Isaiah (40:3) about judgement and temple corruption. It is a way of prefacing the agenda of his story that Jesus will stand in a prophetic, apocalyptic tradition in conflict with the temple state. My prologue introduces the Gospel of Vic’s critique of ‘economic rationalist’ ideas of “progress” and the exploration of the changing nature of Aussie Rules Football as a contested community tradition.
“John normally wore a possum hair coat with a leather belt around his waist and usually lived off the bush tucker of the land.”
Mark’s introduction of John characterises him as Elijah the prophet, invoking the Hebrew wilderness survival tradition. Having started with indigenous traditions it made sense to follow through and paint John the Baptist as a Koori elder.
“Saying sorry and for the reconciliation of debt”
The controversy over the Australian government’s refusal to offer a formal apology for previous policies of the removal of Aboriginal children from their families was at its height at this time. Dubbed “The Stolen Generation” it inspired a popular response of National Sorry Day. “Reconciliation of debt” is a viable translation of the original Greek and on the lips of a Koori elder gives us a much fuller sense of the political significance of “forgiveness of sins” which is often spiritualised in our context. Perhaps this explains John’s arrest in verse 14.
“All of regional Victoria and all the people from Central Melbourne were flocking to him”
This image always reminds me of the huge marches of people crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge or Swanston Street in Melbourne for the marches for Reconciliation. (held sometime after this was written. Pic#1) Marks prologue emphasises an interruption of business as usual for people as they take a movement away from centres of economic and religious power such as the temple. This will become a standard of discipleship in Mark. The crowds from the margins are a key character throughout Marks gospel. Ironically it was a backlash from rural areas that saw a Kennett’s unexpected electoral demise later that year.
“Jesus came from Moe in Gippsland”
For Mark’s audience Nazareth was another way of saying “nowheresville” whereby he continues to emphasise polarity between social centres and margins. At the time of writing the infamous Jaiyden Leski child murder case ensured that Moe was widey characterised in the tabloids as a rural backwater of child abuse, domestic violence, chronic unemployment, welfare and drug dependency….an unlikely place for a Messiah!
"the Spirit Bunjil Maman swooped down upon him like an eagle-hawk. And a voice came out of the land…"
Beyond verse 8 I move beyond the lectionary but wanted to include the baptism and temptation in this reflection to demonstrate how I continued to adopt indigenous cosmology in replacement of New Testament imagery throughout the rest of the passage. Bunjil the Eagle Hawk was the creator spirit of the Kulin tribes that occupied the area around Melbourne (Pic #2 above). The “over 200 days” is a play on Marks 40 days with which he invokes the Hebrew’s 40 years of “wilderness trial”. It is a reference to years since non-indiginous ‘settlement’ of the land. I thought it was a useful way of describing the wilderness experience/trial of indigenous Australians since colonisation.
Thoughts for Advent 2005.
Any attempt at remixing various ancient sacred traditions with contemporary politics is fraught with difficulty and is inherently political. I would suggest however that this is exactly what Mark is attempting in his own text and to not do so now is to lose the power of the gospel for our own historical moment.
Obviously appropriating indigenous imagery is a sensitive issue that brings many reactions from indigenous and non-indigenous, Christian or otherwise. I don’t do so uncritically and simply ask for your reaction. What do you think or feel?! How does it sit with you? How does it change or reinforce the way you understand God or the emergence of the ‘good news’ in our world, then and now? Is it useful or unhelpful; liberating or domesticating from your perspective?
What does it mean for us to have ‘a way’ prepared? God breaking in to our reality! This weeks lectionary made me think about a number of important interruptions to ‘business as usual’ that are presently taking place.
A number of “Seedy” people marched in silence last Thursday night as part of the Amnesty vigil for Van Nguyen, the Australian man convicted for drug trafficking and executed by hanging in Singapore this last week. The march also marked the 1000th person executed in the USA since the reintroduction of the death penalty. In light of the fact that John and Jesus were both victims of state execution let us pray and act for the Nguyen family and those who are presently on death row.
Across the world people walked in the “Walk against Warming” marches to strengthen resolve of governments to act on fossil fuel emissions and draw attention to Australia’s refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol. More marches will take place across the world in this next week to continue the “Make Poverty History” campaign. For Melbourne details email terrencer@oxfam.org.au.
This Sunday saw people walk with Michael Long, the Aboriginal Aussie rules footballer who last year walked to Canberra to speak with the Prime Minister and thereby draw attention to the stalled reconciliation process and inequalities face by indigenous people in this country. “The Long Walk” at Melbourne’s Princes Park raised funds for a leadership development program named after the great indigenous Christian leader Sir Doug Nichols.
This Advent our story tells us to “Prepare the way of the Lord!” To get on out and get marching! It gives me hope to see popular movements for personal and social change. I am encouraged that people can still interrupt business as usual for the sake of the good news about the emergence of alternatives in our world. In the tradition of John and Jesus we announce such movements as “the successful takeover of the economy of God” and cry out from the margins, “The time is fulfilled and the Economy of God has drawn near. Change policy and acknowledge the good forecast.”
For more info and download of Gospel of Vic
Posted by marcus at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
Luke 15:11-32 Prodigal
Rachael reading at the Common Life Annual Dedication Service, Advent Sunday. (Ewen is in baptisimal!) This is where people undertake to live by 'The Common Rule' for the period of the church year. Peter Chapman spoke on the theme "Coming to our Senses" using the text of The Prodigal Luke 15:11-32.
11 Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with* the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ” 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”* 22But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate. 25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” 31Then the father* said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” ’The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition)
Les Murray quote about
Aussies going away, charcteristic of many Australian peoples spiritual journey, the desire and need to 'go away' from church etc etc....and returning.
Exile, Isaiah 35
Prodigal: Other names for this story lost son, waiting father, 2 sons
The son was in trouble along time before eating with the pigs
He was a long way from home, even when he was home.
So was the older brother and he never left!
The most difficult thing to believe in faith is that God is gracious, is that God is like the father in this story.
Most everyone at some point has said "Im going to take the gift of being alive and being able to create and do what I please with it."
This is the journey of our culture, the way of life that we have grown up in.
For those of you with children. Some of you will lose relationship and have to learn the love, pain and patience of the waiting God.
If we want to be whole we must journey home.....return to the community and economy of God.
Dorothy Day quote about her conversion being about trying to get to a certain place and not getting sidetracked by the many side roads and distractions.
look around and be thankful for those who are on the journey with you....in this you will find the real meaning of your lives.
Posted by marcus at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
Mark 13:24-37: Year B (Advent 1)
November 28, 2005
Pic #1 Culture Jammed Billboard, Finders Street Station
Pic #2 Sentinel, Foyer, 101 Collins Street
Pic #3 Graffiti, Baptist Place Laneway
Snapshots from the War on Drugs (which is my week...) ...reflection below...
Year B (Advent 1): Mark 13:24-37
24 "But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. 27 Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. 28 "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 32 "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35 Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake." New Revised Standard Version
Snapshots from the “War on Drugs” (that is my week….!)
Snap#……Singapore government look set to execute Van Nguyen, a young man from the Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley a man with no previous convictions for smuggling heroin who did so in order to help his twin brother’s drug related debt. Talk back radio runs hot on the issue of whether or not he deserves to die. Think of all the kids that would have died if the heroin had got to Australia…..our own kids are at threat!!! http://www.amnesty.org.au
Snap# Herald Sun runs front page headline “School Dopes” about Year 9’s from a Melbourne private school buying and smoking marijuana on their end of year exposure trip to Figi called “The Big Experience”. I had spoken to the same students earlier in the year during their city experience about their stereotypes of so called “druggies” and “junkies” in the city. www.theage.com.au
Snap# Michelle Leslie is released from custody in Indonesia for possession of the drug ecstasy. The “outer wear” of the former “underwear” model and recent convert to Islam is the subject of vicious speculation. Was her conversion and her hijab wearing authentic or about gaining favour with foreign media/legal system? We are told that what has been revealed in an Indonesian court of law is not the real truth of the story which we can expect to be revealed by the tabloid press who rush to Singapore with cheque books open to secure the rights to her “truth” before her return.
Snap# After ten years of harm minimisation practise, successful responses to overdose, and Christian hospitality in Melbourne’s Baptist Place Laneway residents, church and Urban Seed mission staff gather to debate the merits of re-prioritising to make our laneway “drug free” and “safer” for other groups of people.
My work of popular education in the heart of Melbourne is a cultural war zone. I often feel bombarded as the voices of the news and talkback keep finding ways to overlap with my work, my experience, my deepest hopes and fears. The War on Drugs, The War on Terror, Culture Wars around Christmas, The war on…….. (add your issue of choice, passion…) Of course a good fight can have it positives in which we are forced to unify, to clarify our core values and act courageously as moral agents. The downside is that war also polarises reality, communities and opinion! As George Bush famously said in his response to the 9/11 attacks, “Anyone who is not with us is with the terrorists!”
Sadly truth, the hard truth, God’s truth, the truth about ourselves is often the first casualty in this process. At times this week I have felt powerless and alone…… “Am I stupid? Am I an irrelevant softie? Doesn’t anyone else think its more complex than that?” Jesus earlier words in Mark 13:13, "You will be despised by all sides because of my name" are both painfully depressing and ironically comforting. “What’s the point of my work?” …its hard to get out of bed! One is tempted to stay asleep with the luxury/ lethargy of self flagellating middle class activist depression.
Thankfully this weeks lectionary cuts through the sedating talkback as the voice of Mark’s Jesus reminds me to WAKE UP!
It was written close to the time of the 9/11 of the Ancient Jewish world, when the Jewish rebellion (and temple) were crushed by the Roman Empire. Mark's story of Jesus is structured around two fundamental "moments": the in-breaking of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:15) and the outbreak of war (Mark 13). Both represented historical crises that challenged his community. The kingdom, pregnant with the possibility of human redemption and transformation, demanded costly discipleship. The war, with its manic militarism, demanded an equally costly choosing of sides. The two moments co-existed but must not be confused, for only one was the kairos, the other only pretended to be.
To understand the truth of each moment, Mark argues, requires "eyes to see" and "ears to hear." His story narrates true religion as a struggle of the senses; the tragedy of blindness (Mark 4:12,6:51-52,817-21), and the hope of healing (7:31ff, 8:22ff, 9:14ff, 10:46ff).
How does one “see” or “hear” Chapter 13 with its second coming, cataclysmic apocalypse and secret signs which seem difficult to interpret. My immediate image is of my crazy religious uncle with bumper stickers all over his car and letterbox, warning the mailman and other drivers of impending doom. “Warning: In the event of rapture car may be left driver-less!.” Unfortunately apocalyptic texts are easily trivialised, ignored or exploited.
In the face of the polarised voices of his culture Mark knew the “spin” most appropriate for wartime was to be found in the powerful resistance literature of apocalyptic. Apocalyptic symbolics used dualism and myth to scratch the surface of warmonger’s propaganda in order to "lay bare" the true character of historical events. (In much the same way that a culture jammed billboard seeks to today. (Pic #1 above.) This biblical tradition was forged during political/military upheaval. Daniel, for example, was written during the Maccabean revolt; the apocryphal 1 Enoch during the breakdown of the Herodian dynasty; and Revelation during the pogroms of the Roman Emperor Domitian. I often describe apocalyptic as the Michael Leunig cartoons of the ancient world!
In the face of war and myths Mark's Jesus engages the battle of the senses by delivering two of his own style of anti- terror advertising campaigns calling us to be alert but not alarmed! (I knew the Australian Government got their ideas from somewhere!) The first “fridge magnet” calls people to "Listen!" (4:3,9,23,33), the second to "Watch!" (13:5,9, 23,33).
Earlier in Chapter 13 Mark’s Jesus has called people to beware of deception. All is not as it seems. “The war” is not to be seen as a sign of world transformation. He parodies the claims of those who would market conflict as a great struggle for a "drug free society," or "freedom and democracy” or jihad. Mark’s Jesus tells us that war is not the end, but rather the beginning of suffering (13:5-8). It is the 'predictable consequence of the arrogance of the elite, here exposed as "false prophets and leaders" (13:6,21-22). War therefore should not come as a surprise, and it’s easy to be deceived!
Marks counsel in the midst of life threatening media wars of Jewish Nationalists and Roman Imperialists….. “head for the hills” (13:14-20). In short, refuse to participate in violent and polarised conflict, remain radically critical of both sides, see the way that war damages those who are weakest and in the long run serves only to strengthen systems of power they claim to be reordering.
Critical detachment (or is that irresponsible cop out???) is obviously both difficult and dangerous ground to hold in a war zone and so Mark’s story concludes with this weeks lectionary as a reminder to look for the true transforming alternatives. Mark starts with a “shakedown” of the dominant system (Vs.24-27). In conservative Hellenistic thought, the "powers in the heavens" were a metaphor for the highest structures of law and order, upon which both the cosmos and society were built. Like Isaiah before him (Isaiah 24:18-23) Mark deconstructs their claim to be an eternal reality. Their power is relative and ultimately subject to one crucified by that very system.
Mark then goes green with the plea to consider figs, but the cross reference (again with Isaiah) shows us that this is far from escapist tree hugging.
"All powers of the heavens will melt, and the heavens will roll up like a scroll, and all the stars fall as leaves from a vine, and as leaves fall from a fig tree" (Isaiah 34:4).
It is also an allusion back to Jesus' earlier table turning temple blockade and cursing of the fig tree (Mark 11:12-25). Note the tight rhetorical link of the disciples: "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" (11:51) and "Look, teacher! What great stones and large buildings!" (13:1).
The parable suggests an answer to the disciples earlier inquiry about signs of “The End”.(13:4) It is not to be seen in war, which is merely symptom of how status quo power continues to work in our world, but in nonviolent resistance that understands and attacks systems of oppressive power at their roots—in Mark's case the fig tree was a symbol of the temple-state, the ideological and economic foundation of an oppressive social order.
So what does it mean for me to stay awake, dig for the roots of power and resist the superficial (yet deadly) wars that surround us? To steadfastly watch in the same way as “The Sentinel” does (Pic#2 above) over the headquarters of corporate power in Collins Street?
Of course there are wars and wars! Staying awake for me means SEEING the connections between various conflicts. Most of the world’s heroin for example comes from marginalised places such as Afghanistan and Burma and funds both terrorists and corrupt anti-terror police forces alike.
This week I’m awakened to the fact that Singapore has strong economic links to places like Burma and that the sacrificial killing of Van Nguyen (one of “our own” children) to the idol of “the law” and “security” will do precious little to address the real causes and evils of the drug trade. (He will be simply one of thousands of drug users/dealers executed in Asia and beyond each year.)
Federal Government Minister Amanda Vanstone last week awakened us rather graphically to the limitations of our own measures at creating safety in response to threatened violence. By suggesting she could take out the Prime Minister with a well aimed pencil through the eye and into the brain, she highlighted that various airline security measures were as much to calm the public fear as effectively reducing threat! Just don’t say such a thing when you’re lining up to board a plane Amanda!
I’m awakened to the ways that such security measures, be they on our houses, churches or public space in general (eg. gates and cameras, anti-terror laws, etc) can easily backfire, and literally serve to lock us away in fear with increased distance from real people and issues. Instead of being alert but not alarmed we can easily end up alarmed (in both a psychological and technological sense) and less alert, with a false sense of security.
As the anti terror squad cased out our laneway recently in preparation for the Commonwealth Games I was mindful of the things that create true security and the lament of Jesus over his own city. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem… would that you knew the things that make for peace.” The refrain of Mark 13:.29, “He is near, at the very gates” reminds me of who is usually excluded by our security measures…..The Christ who comes to minister to us as the outcast, the stranger or our enemy!
I’m awakened to the drug use of “our own” kids, be they travelling private school students or underwear models. I resolve to work harder in my work of education locally and to LISTEN to hear the stories which reveal the real causes of drug use amongst our own.
I’m reminded of Michael Douglas’s character, the crusading anti-drug politician, who confesses at the end of Steven Soderheim’s classic movie Traffic, “The war on drugs is a war against our selves.”
Finally I’m awakened to the reality of a higher power and that our safety and security are not of our own creation. Mark suggests that ultimately the how and when of the powers being overthrown is not something that we can control or predict (13:32). This is not a way of obviating the need to act, far from it (the rest of the chapter has counselled costly decision making!) In this way Mark does however suggest that power is not for us to grab and, like Gandhi after him, severs the practice of nonviolent action from the tyranny of visible results.
This makes me think back to my crazy religious uncle. Wes Howard Brook says
“It's all too easy to make fun of the extreme examples of prophecy belief that we encounter on bumper stickers and best-seller lists. When people talk breathlessly of the dangers of Universal Product Codes and automated teller machines as signs of the impending Tribulation, giggles and head shaking are hard to repress. But in many ways, adherents of premillennial faith in the Second Coming of Jesus and the battle of Armageddon show themselves to be more astute analysts of our times and exhibit more trust in God than many who fancy themselves "liberal" Christians….. The idea of the rapture may be bizarre to many, but those who proclaim it are at least witnessing to a faith in a God who is powerful and involved in human affairs. For many Christians caught up in the socialized mindset of our secular world, the idea that God actually is capable of breaking into everyday reality with strength and justice is embarrassing. We profess belief in Jesus' healings, exorcisms, and resurrection, but as a practical matter we often put our faith more in science, reason, and other fruit of human striving.
Faith in a God who breaks in!!!?? Pretty tricky when everyone is claiming God’s intervention for their own side!!!
I have always considered the “Jesus Loves Junkies” graffiti (Pic#3 above) from our back laneway as a sort of apocalyptic image. One of the most popular images of the early church was Jesus as thief in the night (1Thess 5:2,4; 2 Peter 3.10; Rev 3:3; 16:15). I have often thought that perhaps it’s more likely to be Jesus who is knocking off your VCR! Of course Jesus lifestyle was probably a lot more akin to that of a homeless drug user than we are often comfortable admitting.
If Advent is about the coming of Christ we need to recall Jesus own words that his mission was one of “breaking and entering” in order to plunder “The Strong mans” house. (Mark 3:27) Its easy to point the finger at strong men like Bush, Osama, the drug barons etc but what about ourselves!
The advent of Christ “breaks in” to our status quo, questioning our own relations of power, challenging any sense of security we may have constructed for ourselves behind the gates of our well entrenched opinions as the wars rage on outside.
Whatever the strongman, whatever the war, John the Baptist does a Morpheus and reminds us in next weeks lectionary (Mark 1:1-8) that One is coming who is stronger.
May we see clearly what it means to remain Alert but not Alarmed in this Advent of war!
This reflection draws heavily upon two articles from Sojourners magazine. A Gethsemane Awakening. by Ched Myers. Sojourners Magazine, April 1991 and Apocalypse Soon? by Wes Howard-Brook. Sojourners Magazine, January-February 1999.
www.sojo.net
Posted by marcus at 11:16 PM | Comments (2)
Matthew 25:1-13: Sermon
November 10, 2005
Mark Pierson's rant on the Wise and Foolish Virgins at Urban Seed: church Nov. 5...
Matthew 25: 1-13 While speaking to his followers, Jesus said, “When the time comes, the kingdom of heaven will be like this: At a wedding celebration, ten young women were given the job of holding up oil lamps and forming a guard of honour to greet the bridegroom when he arrived at the reception hall. Five of them had their wits about them, but the other five were not the full bottle. These five dim-wits had their lamps alright, but they didn’t bring any spare oil. The five bright-sparks had some extra with them, just in case. The bridegroom was delayed by several hours, and the ten girls all fell asleep in the foyer while they were waiting for him. Finally, on the stroke of midnight, there was a shout, ‘Quick! The bridegroom is has just come round the corner. On your feet and get those lamps waving!’ The ten young women all jumped up and trimmed their lamps, but by that time the five dim-wits were almost out of oil. They turned to the well-prepared women and said, ‘Our lamps are going out. Can you spare us some oil?’ But the well-prepared women replied, ‘Sorry! If we try to make it go around all ten of us, then all the lamps will run out and there’ll be no lights at all. You’ll have to go down to the shops and get some more for yourselves.’ But while the five who had not kept their stocks up ran down to the shops, the bridegroom pulled up, and those who had been ready for him waved their lamps and followed him into the wedding feast. The door was locked behind them, and when the other five returned, they couldn’t get in. They banged on the door and called out, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us.’ But the bridegroom replied, ‘I’m telling you straight, I don’t recognise you.’” “And so,” Jesus concluded, “Keep yourselves ready, because you have no way of knowing when the time will come.” ©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Matthew 25:1-14 (New International Version) The Parable of the Ten Virgins 1"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' 7"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' 9" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' 10"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' 12"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' 13"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Matthew 25:1-14 (The Message) The Story of the Virgins 1"God's kingdom is like ten young virgins who took oil lamps and went out to greet the bridegroom. 2Five were silly and five were smart. 3The silly virgins took lamps, but no extra oil. 4The smart virgins took jars of oil to feed their lamps. 5The bridegroom didn't show up when they expected him, and they all fell asleep. 6"In the middle of the night someone yelled out, "He's here! The bridegroom's here! Go out and greet him!' 7"The ten virgins got up and got their lamps ready. 8The silly virgins said to the smart ones, "Our lamps are going out; lend us some of your oil.' 9"They answered, "There might not be enough to go around; go buy your own.' 10"They did, but while they were out buying oil, the bridegroom arrived. When everyone who was there to greet him had gone into the wedding feast, the door was locked. 11"Much later, the other virgins, the silly ones, showed up and knocked on the door, saying, "Master, we're here. Let us in.' 12"He answered, "Do I know you? I don't think I know you.' 13"So stay alert. You have no idea when he might arrive.
Mark Pierson's Rant (Urban Seed: church, Nov.5 2005)
This is a bit of a messy story. Not one I would naturally choose to tell.
That’s why it’s useful following the Lectionary – lectionary = a calendar of different readings from the bible for each Sunday. Follows a 3 year cycle.
Today’s gospel reading in the lectionary is MT25/1-13.
If I wasn’t following the lectionary I might avoid this story!
It has several problems for me.
1. It’s about ‘the kingdom of Heaven’ or ‘God’s Kingdom’ – well what is that?! The story never tells us.
2. It’s about people being excluded – the door is shut and some people are locked out….Messy. It doesn’t sound like good news does it.
Two questions I always want answered when I read any bible stuff
1. What did the words mean when the first people heard them ie in this case, what did Jesus mean by what he said.
2. What does that mean for me today, as someone doing his best to follow Jesus in Melbourne at the end of 2005?
The What? And the So what?
One way to help understand the story is to do what we did last week, and that was look at a few different translations of the same passage.
Well I did that and they didn’t throw any light on anything!
They all use ‘The kingdom of heaven is like….’ Or ‘God’s kingdom is like…’, Without any explanation. And they all tell the story in the same way.
Not very helpful.
And we can’t look at how the story appears in other gospels, because Mark, Luke and John don’t record it, only Matthew does.
So then I looked at what some artists had done with this story, how they had interpreted it in their art. Sometimes this helps. Artists have a unique view on things.
Here’s some of the paintings and sculpture I Iooked at on the internet.
(Keynote slides)
Any insights come to you from those interpretations? Not for me either!
OK Let’s read the text again. (Message)
This story isn’t about virgins. I reckon it’s about people and the choices they make.
Jesus could just as easily have told a story about 10 people who queued up all night to meet the rock band U2 arriving at their hotel after travelling from their Sydney concert.
5 of them didn’t pace themselves, drank too much and had to go off to the toilet, and while they were gone U2 arrived and invited the front runners who had paced their food and drink intake, up to their lounge for private concert.
The others arrived back and found themselves locked out.
Does that fit?
Jesus could have told that story, but he wasn’t a big U2 fan and he knew his audience wouldn’t have any idea what he was talking about.
So he told them a story they would know about – a wedding in the style they did back then.
The problem is that 2000 years later, the story doesn’t mean much to us. We do weddings differently.
But it’s not really a story about virgins, or weddings, or lamps and flat batteries, or falling asleep. It’s not even about high or low intelligence; and it isn’t about not sharing what you have!
It’s a story about choices. Jesus is telling a story about making choices.
Does that sound reasonable to you? Can we agree on that?
I think it’s about making choices that are part of a preparation for something. It’s about being ready. Being prepared.
One bible translator, Eduard Schweizer calls this ‘The Parable of Readiness’. Maybe that starts to help us understand what Jesus was on about?
It certainly gives us a better steer than ‘The Wise and Foolish Virgins’ does!
And these choices that prepare for the future, that look ahead, are called wise choices,
and those that aren’t made with an eye to the future are called foolish. OK?
And somehow these choices affect this thing called the ‘kingdom of heaven’ or the ‘kingdom of God’. Or they influence it. Or something…
31 times Matthew mentions ‘the kingdom of heaven’. Mark, Luke, John almost never do. Luke has a lot of references to ‘the kingdom of God’ though, and Matthew never talks about the Kingdom of God. Which is all also a bit messy.
Especially when The Message translates all or Matthews references to ‘the K of Heaven’ as ‘God’s Kingdom’!!
Pretty much everyone who has ever written about what the bible means by the K of God and the K of Heaven, agrees that they’re the same thing.
Matthew didn’t want to use the word GOD because he was writing for Jews and they were fussy about never speaking the name of God – so Matthew talked about the K of Heaven instead.
Luke and the others (mostly Luke) didn’t have that problem so they talked about the K of God.
What’s a kingdom? A kingdom is where a king rules. The K of God is where God rules; where God is in charge.
MT is talking about a place on earth where God is sovereign; the boss; the king; the ruler.
And that means in the lives of people who let Jesus, God’s agent, be in charge.
So…back to the story.
When God is allowed to be in charge on this earth, that’s like when 10 virgins were waiting for a bridegroom to arrive…. Or 10 fans queued up outside the Hyatt waiting for U2 to arrive and…
I reckon Jesus is saying to those people 2000 years ago – when you follow me, you have to keep making choices. You can’t coast along. You have to be ready. Prepared. If you’re not, you might miss out on something I have for you. Now maybe there’s a future reference to Jesus coming back, or maybe not. It doesn’t matter. The point is be ready. Be prepared. Make the best choices you can. Look further ahead than the now.
So what? Well…I think Jesus would say the same things to us today.
The kingdom of God/heaven is among us, and we are part of it, when we are choosing to follow Jesus, to let Jesus be in charge of our lives and choices…
He’d say, ‘If you’re following me, part of the K of God, the first choice you make to follow me, well that’s just that – the first choice. There’s a whole lot more choices to make, and some of them have consequences, they move you closer to me or further away, so stay alert. Keep working at it.
Well…that was a whole lot more complicated than I had intended it to be. A long way round to a very basic point.
Hang in there with Jesus. Stay in the Kingdom. Keep making the choices that will keep you close to Jesus. It’s possible to make choices that shut us out.
Other stories in the New testament tell us that being shut out isn’t the end, but it is possible to make choices that take us away from Jesus, rather than closer to him. I think that’s what this story is about. As we move into communion, sharing bread and drink that remind us of Jesus’ great love for us, I invite you to reflect on the choices you are making every day, and how they move you toward, or away from being close to Jesus.
Posted by marcus at 03:53 PM | Comments (1)
Bible Study that doesn't Suck!
August 28, 2005
Some of the principles and frameworks that I have found helpful in running bible study. Sorry if its not all clear, but these are notes and bits and pieces from the Genuine Connection workshop... its still a work in progress ....
BIBLE STUDY THAT DOESN'T SUCK
Genuine Connection Youth Leaders Training Seminar 2005
OUTLINE
My Hints for Bible Study
Circles of Story
Ched Myers ‘Cartoon’ Method
Walter Wink Method
Action Based Theme
Lectio Divina
Contextual Rewrites and Performance
HINTS FOR BIBLE STUDY THAT DONT SUCK
1. Love the stories! Word, World, Your own and the punters!
2. Do lots of Bible Study with as many diverse groups as possible!
3. Be willing to fail: Do lots of Bible Studies that suck!
4. Improvise: Respond to the Spirit, Demonstrate creativity and risk taking, overlap methods.
5. Understand context: What are the stories that are ‘in the room”? Why are people there? What are the questions they face?
6. Be a Bard:
• Vocation and Calling
• Do the work: Build your own knowledge of the Circles of Story and that of your participants!
7. Develop lots of your own questions based on text.
8. Love and trust the questions!
9. Lead don’t dominate!
10. Make memorable Sacred Spaces.
11. Understand Learning Styles/Teaching Methods
• 4MAT Learning
• Left Brain/ Right Brain: Singing, Audio-Visual, Street, Theatre
12. Understand and adopt principles of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal.
• Generative Themes
• Codify and De-Codify
• Action Reflection
• Spectators to Spec-Actors
13. Gym Coach: Build interpretive muscle, literacy is a confidence thing
14. The ‘Word’ is out there(on the street)!...not on the page.
15. Expect transformation every time!
CIRCLES OF STORY
My aim is never to simply study the bible but to promote literacy in three narrative worlds or what I call "circles of story" of the participant. The Biblical Story, Stories of our World, and Personal Stories. My aim is in any bible study to at least touch on each narrative world and find connections between each. Its often in the overlap of these circles that transformation takes place.
Some ways I encourage groups to become more literate in each circle over the course of a study series:
WORD /TEXT/ BIBLICAL STORY• Get a copy of the text your are studying, read it, carry it, live and breathe it. Let it become a rule for life and practise.
• Pre read the story/s we're studying, consider it from the three circles perspective.
• Write out the passage by hand.
• Do a critical Study of the structure and agenda of the story; Identify episodes (I call them DVD Chapters), themes and links,characters, settings, plot, allusions to older stories.
• Pray the Scripture yourself through a Lectio Divina method
WORLD/ CONTEXT/ SOCIO-POLITICAL STORY• Read the paper with the Biblical story in the other hand, consider themes, links, agendas. Cut and paste alongside each other, how does one read the other & vica verca?
• Mapping our Social, Cultural, Economic and Political Worlds. Growing in awareness of our localities history. How much are you aware of how power is distributed in your community; among the people you minister to, our state, our government etc
US/ PERSONAL/ FAMILY STORY • Critically evaluating the stories of our lives, the stories we tell about ourselves and the stories that are told about us through a Narrative Therapy approach.
• Mapping our family Histories for Alcoholism, Suicide, Domestic Violence, Divorce Religious and Cultural Traditions, Political Location, Social Mobility, Unemployment or Elite Work, War or Revolution, Poverty & Affluence, Education options, Class or Race tensions.
'CARTOON' METHOD
based on "Who Will Roll the Stone Away", Ched Myers, Orbis 1995 p.72-73.
This method takes a text that the participants are passionate about (cartoon, movie, advertisment etc.)helping them to interpret it in a deliberate way before then moving to interpret and make connections with the ancient biblical text.
No society has ever been quite so mystified in quite so many ways as our own, saturated as it is with messages and information.” Christians have a unique responsibility to decipher the hieroglyphics of capitalist culture but we can only do this by way of “the stronger language of a more fundamental interpretive code.”.
A central criticism of Marks’ Jesus was the biblical illiteracy of his listeners. He understood that literacy in the texts of scripture can facilitate literacy in the texts of this world.
This exercise allows us to imagine how narrative strategies of allusion, parody or ironic twists might be going on in the gospel text, which comes from a historical and cultural context not immediately intelligible by us. Often we are guilty of reading our newspapers with more complexity than our bibles.
The momentum created by analysing a sophisticated but familiar text (we are literate!), helps us overcome our remoteness from the symbolic world of those unfamiliar bible texts.
Also; seeing how religious texts are political helps us overcome our paralysis before the ‘sacred’ texts of capitalism. We can then recognise how political texts/images can be religious.
SECTION A : TEXT FROM OUR CONTEXT
• Write down in as short and succinct a phrase or sentence as possible the meaning of this text as you interpret it.
• (Particularly if the above is difficult…) List what sort of information you would need to know about to interpret this text properly? How might you get this info?
• Now think about how it was that you came to your conclusion? How did you interpret it?
• De-construct the image by analysing the narrative form:
Genre:
How is this type of communication normally understood? What are accepted norms for this form of communication? What of this genres’ conventions have been used, avoided or manipulated in this instance?
Character:
List all the things that identify, describe, define, (ie. characterise) each character.
Settings:
List all the things that identify, describe, define (ie. characterise) the settings.
Plot:
How does the story unfold? Identify introductions, build ups, climax, conclusions etc.
• What images is the writer using? List.
• What is the context in which they appear? (surrounding text/s, social historical moment at time of production)?
• What images could be considered political?
• What images could be considered religious?
SECTION B : OUR LOCATION
• How have the images used by the writer here been used in the past?
• Why are they lodged in our (political) subconscious? How do you feel, What do you think about when confronted by these images?
• Having considered in Section A how the image could be considered political? What are the specifics of this? Who is the author for or against? Where/what is the power of this image?
• Is the author persuading you to think or to do something? What are the ethical implications of this view? How do you think you should respond?
• Do you agree or disagree with the author’s perspective?
• Recall the historical moment to which the author is referring. Where were you located at the time ( physically, socially, ideologically etc. )…… and now?
• What were your feelings at the time?….. and now?
• How did/does your location affect your feelings and response to this text.
SECTION C : BIBLICAL TEXT
• Questions as in Section A
• List what sort of information you would need to know about to interpret this text properly? How might you get this info?
SECTION D : OUR DIS-LOCATION !?
• What was the narrative and historical moment?
• How might you have felt about the narrative / historical moment if you were various characters (depicted or addressed)
• How is the image political?
• How is the image religious?
• How might the story have affected the first hearers of the story? What is its power?
• Does that power carry through for us today? List ways in which its themes might be relevant? What connections can we make between our world and this one? Also identify barriers and differences.
• How does the biblical story illuminate our own experiences? What personal stories can you bring to bear?
• What does this mean for our lives? How should we think or act?
FREE FOR ALL: Moving around the circle
Name as many connections as you can between the two texts. These may be similarities or differences. (eg. Characters, Settings, Themes, Ideological….etc)
I like to think of the bible as a stick of dynamite, sitting in the basement of every church in the location of empire, waiting for those with ‘eyes to see’ to light the fuse. With the tools of literacy, the power of the dominant culture’s dreams about itself can be broken and the power of the story to awaken us from our sleep broken open.
We need to liberate bible study
* Bible College; biblical criticism needs to deprofessionalise
* Sunday School; bible study needs to be more critical
* Small Groups; need to overcome the reflect/act dichotomy.
TRANSFORMING BIBLE STUDY : WALTER WINK METHOD
Method based upon work of the Guild for Psychological Studies, San Francisco.
Ground Rules
1. The text and not the leader of the group is the focus.
• Questions guide and give focus to the group
• There is not one right answer. Good questions lead to many good answers
• Leader does not approve or disapprove of answers except for errors of fact.
2. We are seek insights not information
• Everyone’s experience and participation as being vital for this process.
3. We are all equals before the text
• We are each experts of our own experience
• The intersection of text and our experience creates valuable and unique insight.
Process
1. GROUND RULES and CENTERING
2. CRITICAL ISSUE and AMPLIFICATION QUESTIONS
3. APPLICATION EXERCISE.
Developing profound questions is the most crucial aspect and most difficult part of leadership in this mode.
Go through your final questions, try and come up with two good answers to each question to ensure they are not to narrow.
The goal is not educating biblically illiterate Christians, but aiding them to find life changing truths in the text.
Allow people to ‘feel’ into images, meanings and symbols.
Strengths
• How to develop questions.
• Group process and the leaders journey
• How to introduce Biblical criticism
• Engaging the other side of brain
Posted by marcus at 01:29 AM | Comments (2)
hacker yeast: Matt 13:33
July 22, 2005
Matthew 13:33 remixed
He pitched them more spin: "The Economy of Heaven is like a computer virus that a hacker, having created, hid and sent in an email attachment until the whole network was infected."
notes below...
Matt 13:33 Actual:
He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."
nrsv
My rewrite was inspired by an article by Jim Douglass (author of "The Nonviolent Coming of God") which I found at Sojourners.
He suggests that for Jesus, leaven was a symbol of moral corruption.
In those days leaven was made by storing bread in a damp, dark place until it moulded. In Exodus leaven symbolized the unholy (Exodus 12:19). Paul understood leaven as symbolic of the morally corrupt. He twice cites a proverb, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8), whose meaning by his application is the same as our own saying, “One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.” Jesus shows the same understanding when he warns against the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod (Mark 8:15).
Douglas' assumses that the parable begins with the common assumption: Leaven equals moral corruption.
With “three measures” (about 50 pounds)being enough to make bread for more than a hundred people, the leaven of God is far more corrupting than a rotten apple!
The "kingdom" is likened, not to the actions of a king but to —a woman, probably a poor and oppressed one.
She doesn't just put the corrupt leaven in the flour. She hides it. She has to sneak in God's tiny corrupting power. (Lots of translations lose the "hide" thing!!!)
Douglas's remix: "The reign of God is like a tiny, corrupt substance, which a shrewd woman took and hid in a huge amount of flour, until it accomplished a transformation."
Given this I wondered what spin Jesus might make if he was mixing it in our Mircosoft driven world of today....
Posted by marcus at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)
Seeds or Weeds? Matt.13:24-30...
July 21, 2005
Notes from my rant at Urban Seed Church on the Parable of the Weeds....
![urban-seed-church-logo[10].JPG](http://www.urbanseed.org/journal/mt/mc/archives/urban-seed-church-logo[10].JPG)
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 13:24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 13:25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' 28 He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' 29 But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
13:36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." 37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
13:40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!" New Revised Standard Version.
There's not too many better images to preach on at Urban Seed than verse 24. "The economy of God is like someone who casts good seed in a field" It captures the essence of how we see our work..... small things, great potential, great hope...
But verse 25 interputs us with the enemy we dont expect, while sleeping, this ideal image is interrupted with the subversive, destructive, distrubing image of the weeds among the wheat.
Such an image struck me powerfully this week (17 July 2005)as we consider the realities of the world in which we live and worship. The unexpected enemy within. Weeds among the wheat...
1.Insurgent Suicide bomber in Iraq blows up children accepting lollies from US. forces.
2. Aftermath of the London Underground bombings reveal that the perpetrators are British born, "sound as a pound" nationals from normal backgrounds.
3. "Mr Baldy", Victoria's most notorious child sex offender is released after decades in jail and is discovered and hounded out of his new suburb within hours by angry media and residents.
Lets take some time to think about how these instances make us feel?
3 thoughts came to mind as these texts from our world merged with the ancient teachings of Christ.
1. The world is not getting better or worse but is in Christ's hands
2. The Dangers of Violence
3. Seed Sowing as Active Nonviolence
1. The world is not getting better or worse but is in Christ's hands
"You know your problem…..you need to read your bible!”
I still recall the acerbic tone of twangy, American accent “in my face"...Its not something that I’m told very often!
I was having a discussion with Tony Campolo during last years Blackstump Festival in Sydney
I’d questioned a couple of his comments that he’d made (I’d also heard him make them at the UNOH Surrender Conference last year) where he quoted global statistics about a reduction in children dying of preventable causes and an increase in literacy rates to suggest that despite all that you hear from the doomsdayers, we can make a difference, we are” winning” , the world is become a better place.
My concern was that it was just too easy to string a few stats together and say that the world is getting better. What about the
20th century being the bloodiest of Centuries, the War on Terror and its ever spiralling cycle of violence, Global Warming etc, etc.
"It feels a bit easy" I blurted in reply "A bit social gospel"......I’ve always had a 'warning light' for the world really is getting better myth of progress type statements.
What’s wrong with the social gospel” came back Campolo, obviously assuming (with some reason!) that I was into private faith but not politics.
I had to agree with Tony and kick myself for being so inarticulate. The gospel is inherently social, it's never abstractly pure in some Greek dualistic sense but it always incarnates in a time, place, economy, politic with all its strengths, weaknessess and compromise. Urban Seed has been based on the profound spiritual connection between the public and the private. However the danger with equating the gospel with any particular form of social progress is that we too easily confuse the two to disatourous effect.
When I used the term "Social Gospel" I was reffering to its use in connection to the brand of liberal Christianity that was triumphant at the turn of last Century. Western technology, air, steam, electricity etc. were going to see the world become Christian. It was inevitable. Unfortunatley this 'gospel' ended as much about the progress of western technology, economic and political agendas than anything Jesus of Nazareth seemed to be on about.
Too often our idea of the "social gospel" walks too closely and uncritcialy to the 'dominant' culture. Such was the case with the liberal church in Germany did not have the spiritual resources to be able to stand against Nazi ideology and consequent "weeding out" undertaken by Hilter in the 'final solution' of the holocaust.
Coming out of the revolutionary struggles of the poor in South America, Liberation Theology of had a tendency to align the 'gospel' with militant Marxism.
Whatever agenda we have we like to use evidence in our favour to suggest that the world is working out our way.
Religious right in America, Freedom in Christ = freedom and democracy as judged by US foregin policy.
The voice from the "right" that caught my attention this week was Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. His agenda was to prove that liberal, lefty media only report negatives and that contrary to this, the War on Iraq is progressing well and that freedom and democracy is prevailing along with many positive (unreported) social outcomes.
He was qouting the speech of an Australian General involved in the War in Iraq. In concluding the General made comments the effect of "freedom isn't free", but is secured by ongoing sacrifice and willingness to shed blood for what we believe.
It sounds alot like the gospel doesn't it. Blood shed for freedom however is also ancient pagan idea.....child sacrifice would pacify the gods and bring peace and prospertiy.
I often get concerned that at ANZAC day we confuse the sacrifice of our children in war to the idol of Western liberal democracy with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross....an instrument of torture which the Romans, the keepers of "peace" and the bearers of "civilisation" in that day and age reserved for terrorists. I believe the freedom that Christ offers on the cross in fundamentally nonviolent and so dosent give us the freedom to inflict violence on others or ourselves....more on this in a moment.
We can be too positive, naively optimistic about how social progress and the gospel connect but we can also be too negative.
Campolo told a story of his college Basketball team where the coach would say.....just dont lose to badly! He quit! Who wants to play in a team that always loses.
He went on to bag the worship, preaching of depressing Christian radicals and the "poverty" advertisments of Christian Aid agencies as being like playing on a team that is always losing....at worse it can produce a 'works driven' masochistic inertia that is as negative and evil in its outcomes as anything its against.
Marty Costello's reported last week about the Hillsong Conference last week and their positivity and how this compares with his experience of working and worshiping at Urban Seed.
I realised early on in the conversation that Campolo would have the last word.....
"Read the parable of the weeds....The weeds and seeds grow up together…..there has never been a more evil time as now, absolutely, but every age and generation thinks this....we must not forget that this is also the best of times to be alive and the gospel is that Christ's fruit and freedom will prevail.....we have cause to party.... more than this even, we MUST celebrate!"
2. The Dangers of Violence
I was astounded that as at the same time I sat and struggled with this passage of scripture from the churches lectionary this week British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in response to the revelations of the presence of militant Islam made the quote. "We will take this evil ideology and tear it up by the roots"
We obviously all feel very passionate and disturbed by this weeks bombings. Thats why I wanted to take time to acknowledge them because this is what a worship space is for.....but whatever we feel Lets hear these words, that capture the sense of outrage and urgency and need to respond decisively to the reality of evil
to alongside the words of Jesus.
In the story the masters first response "The enemy did this......" is instructive.
Dom Helder Camara the radical Brazilian Catholic Archbishop and champion of the poor who popularised the concept of "The Cycle of Violence." Violence breeds violence.....
The master in the story identifies the agenda of the enemy as to create a reaction that will be counterproductive to the owners ulitmate goal.
Antibiotics kill germs but all the good bacteria as well leaving room for re-infection.
Jesus critique of the Pharisee's who cast out one demon only to prepare the ground for re-"occupation" by seven more.
I think we must take these words serioulsy in relation to the reality of current events in Iraq, London, and what it means for us to respond both as a nation and as Christians.
3. Seed Sowing as Active Nonviolence
Nonviolence is spelt without the colon by activists because it means more than simply the absence of violence. Nonviolence can also be understood as an active, postive, dare I say even "militant" response to the forces of evil. It is certainly not passive.
Principles of Indigenous gardening: Dont pull up the weeds, its hard work, you spread bad seeds and turn the soil so they can germinate. Counterproductive, instead plant more good native seeds that have survived in that environment for a long time and let them outgrow the weeds.
Urban Seed's struggle to extend and maintain hospitality to previously convicted sex offenders at Credo Cafe whilst maintaining boundaries and protection of children.
Posted by marcus at 10:48 PM | Comments (1)
"Seedy Mob" # 2: 1 Peter 2
June 27, 2005
Part 2 of my Seedy Mob sermon at Urban Seed:church Sunday 26th June focussing on ideas of community, "Mob" and koinonia!
See below....
Last week we looked at and reflected upon images of church that fire the imagination from 1 Peter 2.
• A newborn infant longing for mothers milk
• Living stones
• Chosen Race, Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation,
I compared and contrasted these images with the idea that’s been floating around Urban Seed of “Seedy Mob”
Last week I focussed on what I thought it meant to be “Seedy”! Like a seed....
• We are small
• We are engaged with the “seediness” of a broken world
• We are ourselves “seedy” (broken,compromised,in need of grace)
• We hold great potential and even greater hope!
Tonight I wish to focus upon the idea of “Mob.”
The image of Mob was first explored at an Urban Seed staff retreat back in 2002 where Mark Brett (Hebrew Bible lecturer from Whitley College) was our theological consultant for the day. Instead of lecturing he simply facilitated a sharing of our deepest theological questions. The ones that haunt us, drive us personally etc.
Interestingly in a room of activists the common theme was not how God works or relates to the world or a desire to do more. The deepest and recurring questions were all about belonging, about dissatisfaction with traditional ways of doing church and a desire for community that is truly capable of sustaining the work and oneself over a longer period.
After the retreat Mark went on to write a thoughtful academic paper on the theological and historical basis of community as embodied at Urban Seed and if you’re keen it’s a very substantial read. Perhaps wisely on the day he left us with the image of “Mob” used by Aboriginal communities (with which he has worked extensively to describe a sense of connection between people.)
“Who is your Mob?” is a fundamental question in Aboriginal culture, a definition of identity that includes but also transcends lots of the categories such as household, blood family, tribe, a connection to land and place, to ancestors, stories, dreaming etc. This image resonated with us much more than “church” in terms of capturing more of our desires even if our reality of our collective life was/is obviously far from that of Aboriginal peoples.
THE NEW TESTAMENT doesn’t use the term Mob. (Only in Mark 5 where it is sometimes poorly translated as referring to the demon from Geresea!!!!!) It only rarely uses the term people or nation. In its place is the Greek word koinonia. This is the Greek term for the most intimate human relationship possible. It is used, for example, for the union of husband and wife in marriage and to describe our relationship with God.
In Romans 15:27 Paul says that the Gentiles have come into koinonia with the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 1:9 he says that God calls us into koinonia with his Son. In 2 Corinthians is the famous benediction, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the koinonia of the Spirit." John writes that the gospel is proclaimed so that "you can have koinonia with us and our koinonia is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ," (1 John 1:3). 1 Peter says that Christians have koinonia with the glory of God (5:1) and 2 Peter says we will have koinonia with the divine nature.
With remarkable consistency, then, the epistles describe Christian experience in terms of community; we are called into community with God and with each other.
By using the same word, koinonia, to describe our relation to God and our relations with our brothers and sisters, the New Testament sets the standard by which religious experience is to be judged. Our relationship to God is to be as close as the most intimate human friendship and our relationship to others is to be as close as the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts. To be authentic, our religious experience must produce an ever deeper walk with God and an ever deeper community of brothers and sisters.
The search for community is not an alternative but is, rather, at the heart of the call of God. Paul's letters deal with more than doctrine; often they attend to very practical details. One such detail was a collection being taken for the poorer churches. The Greek word used to describe this collection was a variant of the term koinonia. Used in this way, koinonia means to be generous, to share. In Romans 12:13, Paul exhorts the readers to "contribute" to the needs of the saints. Timothy is asked to be "generous," (1 Tim. 6:18). Throughout the letters to the Romans and the Corinthians, Paul speaks of the "gift" or "contribution" being collected for the relief of the poor. All of these words are derivations of koinonia.
And so “Mob” has an economic dimension. (A reminder of our offering bucket/trolley up the back.)
Urban Seed: church can be a new way that we give to each other.
The more we give and share with each other the less we are dependent on inherited church institutions, corporate donations and hopefully some of the ‘seediness” we sometimes feel in being engaged or reliant upon sources of income that we would also wish to question.
This sharing makes a group a koinonia. Just gathering people under one roof, just exchanging a common ideology, just eating meals together or working together on a joint project will not create community. Urban Seed has piggy backed on a strong alternative Christian community scene in Melbourne in the 70’s and 80’s which often fell from high ideals into bitterness and rancor because in part the culture thought that community could be an experiment, a trial run without real commitment to each other, and that ideology and common purpose were strong enough bonds to restrain the selfishness of human nature. Not so. Community means participating in, sharing in, serving one another.
Community is an affair of the Spirit, not an institutional structure. Such radical participation in one another's lives can go on in many different groups and gatherings in many different ways. And so at the outset of Urban Seed: church, we have no blueprint. We don’t believe in the blueprint mentality. If there was a single blueprint for successful community life the land would be full of successful communities. Many energetic, talented, creative people have invested themselves in carefully conceptualized community plans that have been torn into pieces in the struggle to put them into practice.
The question is not, what is the right plan? The question can only be, what is the Spirit calling you to now? When a group gathers to seek the Spirit rather than to erect an organization, there is hope for koinonia. When they seek the Spirit in their own way, rather than trying to impose the patterns of others upon themselves, the hope grows. Communities need structure but the structure must grow organically out of the life they are living or else they will build only empty forms, waiting to be torn down or filled with frustration.
We don’t have blueprints but we do have hunches. Urban Seed has 10 years of living and working together and lots of painful stuff ups. Marks and Robyn have had 10 years doing it at Cityside, NZ. We each bring our own previous experiences of church and community. I love Mark Piersons blog title “An intuitive introverts guide to starting a church”. Check it out for more of his hunches.
One of these hunches (and its also true from scripture as well as business) is that structure seems to be a function of mission. Different communities have different callings, do different work and so need to be structured differently.
Urban Seed began in 1995 with a residential community at the Collins Street Baptist Church. This provided much opportunity for koinonia, serving each other and the marginalised of our city, it also produced lots of in-house navel gazing and petty bickering and was often a frustratingly unsustainable short term experience.
In 2001 we looked to build the economic basis of our community. The emphasis shifted to create more jobs and work that shared the economic burden. At this time we also incorporated legally to become a separate entity from the inherited church.
The mission of Urban Seed has emerged as a generalist one, engaging lots of things; culture, politics, corporates, homeless and drug addicts, young people etc. And so we need a diversity of people and structures. We need ressies, we need jobs, but we also need new ways of connecting with each other and God so that others can both join in and continue to be involved in our mission. This is part of the thinking behind this new way of doing “mob”; Urban Seed: church.
It’s not just about structuring for mission however. Koinonia is a two-way street: serving, giving, sharing also means receiving, being cared for, and ministered to. Sometimes people say they want to work, give, share, help and yet their services never seem to build community. Why? Because they never let others minister to them. Serving can be a defense to keep others away.
No community is built by such compulsive servants. We must be willing to minister and also to be ministered to. My gifts and strengths may minister to your needs and weaknesses but my needs and weaknesses must be exposed to give you a chance to minister to me. That's how the body is built up; through a willingness to engage with each others “seediness.”
And so to use another image of church used by Paul we are one body made up of equal, but different parts. Hands need mouths, heads need feet etc etc.
Two extremes must be avoided here. The first is when unity is equated with uniformity. Many religious movements today are totalitarian; the diversity and uniqueness of each person is sacrificed for the sake of the unity of the body. The other is anarchy. Many revival movements have degenerated into charismatic chaos, congregations of loose spiritual atoms where each does their own thing. There is freedom but the unity of the body is lost.
Koinonia is the transcending of these dichotomies; it is not a totalitarian state, nor is it a bag of loose spiritual parts. In koinonia the uniqueness of each member is preserved and cherished but each freely lays down their life in service of others.
In light of this it’s been our hunch to put a structure in place. I have sat around in a number of alternative church experiments where the most unifying spirit in the room is a sense of what we don’t want to be (ie.“the inherited church”) and where everyone looks at each other blankly with no direction forward.
Christian community is crucial today. It is not like anything found in the world: human camaraderie is not koinonia. That's why its so hard to talk about—there are no models in the world for it. The church and the secular state know both anarchistic assemblies and totalitarian structures but rarely, if at all, do they manifest koinonia: where uniqueness, diversity, and individuality are nourished, supported, and valued but where mutual submission, mutual service, and love bind all into one body. This is why we cannot adopt a blueprint or techniques from the world but must allow the Spirit to create koinonia.
1 Peter 2:10 finishes with the line “Once you were not a people.” I believe this to be a powerful image for us who often cast ourselves as lonely activist refugees and questioners of traditional and dissatisfying forms of community.
We are also often cast as individual consumers in a fragmented, urban, capitalist society; “Once you were not a people.”
What better “community” embodies this reality than the one here at Docklands, where one cannot connect with neighbours on other floors due to security measures and the only “koinonia” seemingly created is via when late night TV presenters who almost mockingly get people to turn their lights on and off.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Called to be a Seedy Mob we are to carry out the mission of the old Israel: being the priesthood of the universe, the servant-society for creation. Our form is to reflect our function: characterized by joyful celebration and worship, mutual service of one another, engagement of the seedy world which Christ loves. Guided by the Spirit, koinonia is formed and governed in a way not found in the world—neither an authoritarian system nor an anarchistic cell, but a body bound together by love expressing itself in mutual submission and concern. Thus it anticipates the time when all creation will be part of Christ’s mob, recieve his mercy and radiate his love.
This sermon is based on the article “The Practice of Peoplehood” by James W. Jones
which appeared in Sojourners Magazine, May 1977
Posted by marcus at 02:46 PM | Comments (0)
"Seedy Mob"# 1: 1 Peter 2
June 22, 2005
Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation, Seedy Mob!
My rant at Urban Seed: church last Sunday. (June 19)
royal priesthood, holy nation, seedy mob!
1 Peter 2:2-10
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,"
and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a seedy mob!
Significant week at Urban Seed! The announcement was made that Pieter Keldan wont be returning from his extended leave. A long term ex-ressie, staff member, with a tireless solidarity for broken people, a belligerent commitment to truth at all costs, a break the boundaries creativity mixed with a DIY practical genius that has borne the culture of our Street and Hospitality work through many difficult moments. You don’t ever replace that!
In our “sacred song” in which we sing our “core values” we sing Seeds they grow and seeds they die and during the same week the BUV approved funding for the new “Urban Seed: church”. On both counts I’m gripped with a refreshing exhilaration and a gut wrenching fear and sadness.
As I have often found at our Seeds Bible Gatherings, the discipline of looking to the common readings of the universal church (Revised Common Lectionary) bears fruit, gives solace and insight and this Sunday gave us the images of what it means to be church from 1 Peter. I found them encouraging at the outset of this new venture that is Urban Seed: church and so I want to explore these images and compare them with one of our own.
Some of these images resonate strongly with me.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Like newborn infants the majority of Urban Seeders have been young, certainly in age; for some in the faith; and for many in the discovery of new faith they have found through being re/converted to the Christ who comes to us from the margins and the marginalised. Like an (Urban) seed people have joined us in order to grow in an understanding of salvation that (as it says in the logo) truly engages faith, community, culture, indeed all creation.
Having a wife who is a midwife and children of our own I am struck by the young babe longing for pure milk as a powerful image of determination to survive and thrive, desperation and necessity, intimate beauty passion and focus.
It’s often said that we “punch above our weight” as a small organisation. Anyone who has hang out for any period of time would know this is not because we are highly efficient. We are busy and committed but as a whole I think we DON’T work harder than others. Hopefully this is because we are conscious of not becoming slaves to a works based culture that excludes and hurts many and which we seek to prophetically reform. When it’s been at its best I would suggest that the unique energy and creative charism of Urban Seed has derived from the restless and deep spiritual longing of its people akin to a child looking for the breast.
How’s your spiritual search?
Jesus spoke of the KOG and children, Our need for God is like that of children.
Primal image.Slimy, bloody bundle of life crawling up mums tummy.
Seek and you will find.
The other image, that of living stones, is basically the Urban Seed logo. In the midst of the concrete jungle, Urban Seed was started to bring new life to an inner city church who’s stones have been here since Melbourne began and that has struggled with the weight of its history and institution. Residents were invited to move in with the idea of rebuilding the “spiritual” house; that the stones may live! Perhaps this sense of spiritual house or home has been experienced most around the table at Credo Café where (to use another image from the text) many with no other home have come both physically and spiritually to taste and see that the Lord is good.
At one level it is sad that this gathering isn’t taking place in the old building. For lots of reasons Urban Seed: church has not found its home at Central House. As people of our generation we once again find ourselves in the belly of an inherted church building. Here in a new, old building, again a mission of largely a bygone era in a very changed location, Docklands, struggling to make the connections.
What does this mean?
Looking out over the city on the central house roof during our city walks we make the point that architecture does relfect values. Our meeting places for “church” are no different.Our grandparents built cathedrals, contemporary mega churches look like mega mart, in response some prefer to retreat to private space of house church, lounge room. Emerging church it seems you need a café and a digital projector.
The gospel isn’t abstract truth, it always comes in a cultural package. It incarnates in real places.
The medium is often the message.
Lot of reaction as to where we would locate.
Collins Street
BUV and Corporate buildings in Docklands
Strengths and Weakness of meeting in a place like Mission to Seafarers. But the reminder that church is never just about buildings, locations and methods,
The stones must live! Its about People and bodies, relationships and connections
The seed in the logo is always busting out.
Malvina Reynolds Song:
God bless the grass that grows through the crack.
They roll the concrete over it to try and keep it back.
The concrete gets tired of what it has to do,
It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows thru,
And God bless the grass.
These images may work for us but as you keep reading they become positively dissonant. Chosen race, Royal priesthood, Holy nation.
What springs to mind when I say……
Chosen Race: Nazi Germany, South African Apartheid, Rawandan Genocide
Holy Nation: A George Bush speech about America or Jihad driven Islamic terrorists
Royal : Charles and Camilla
Priesthood: Paedophilia
Perhaps a more easily redeemable image of Royal Priesthood this week is our own Rev. Tim Costello receiving a Queens Birthday award.
These images don’t so easily resonate with the Urban Seed republican sentiment in a post colonial, post Christendom context dominated by the fear of religious fundamentalism. This dissonance is good though because it brings us closer to how I think the initial hearers of this letter may have felt. Perhaps for very different reasons than us but nevertheless.....
Dissonance could well be the aim of the author, making a plea to the small, fragile seedlings of the early church, buffeted by persecution, uncertainty and struggle to re-imagine themselves in radically different categories to that of their own and others perceptions. Even though you feel like a small and insignificant group.
These images of community derive from the Hebrew Bible. In Genesis 12 the word of God lands on a settled villager, transforming him into a wandering nomad. "Go from your familiar surroundings," the Lord tells Abraham. "I will make you a GREAT NATION and through you I will bless all the families of the earth." He was not, however, called as an isolated individual, but rather to be the father of a great people, a nation, a corporate body. Nor was he called for his own sake but rather that through him all peoples would be blessed. The ancient Israelite call was not tribal or narrowly nationalistic but was universal, for the sake of the blessing of all people.
When in Genesis 35 Jacob gains the crucial name of Israel, it is so that a great company can come from him. In Genesis 46, when Israel is called into Egypt, God emphasizes that they are there in order to become a people. Coming out of Egypt, on the first trip to Mount Sinai, God tells the straggling band of fleeing slaves, "you shall be my own possession among all peoples, for all the nations of the earth are mine and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:3-6).
Israel was called into community to be the PRIESTHOOD of the earth, the holy people through whom the blessings of God would flow to his creation. Whenever individuals are called it is for the sake of the corporate call of God, not their individual blessing. In addition, this priesthood does not exist for their sake but for others. The call into community is also a call into service.
The holy people, however, defaulted on their call. The chronicler of the history of ancient Israel who wrote the books of Kings compacts that history into one oft-repeated sentence: "And Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." What was the evil that Israel did? As it is recorded in the book of Kings, they built ivory palaces, enlarged the conscripted army, adopted the medium of exchange of other nations—which included worshipping their gods, and expanded its empire. The people who had spent forty penitential years wandering in the wilderness and learning to trust in the daily providence of God now trusted in their self-constructed fortifications; the energy that once went into forming themselves into the people of God now went into building more elaborate palaces; the time that once went into listening for the word of God now went into bargaining and haggling in the marketplace. God's plan was to call and bless all nations through the seed of Abraham but Israel abandoned the call. Called to be a holy priesthood, they became a paramilitary empire; called to be a servant community, they exalted their hegemony over other nations.
From this one man, Jesus, a new people came. Pentecost was the creation of a new people, the formation of a new Israel, not on account of the flesh but on account of the Spirit. The church, Paul says in the letter to the Romans, is now heir to the promises and the responsibilities of the old Israel. So we find in 1 Peter an echo of Hosea addressed to the new Israel: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you...Once you were no people but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:9-10).
The sign of the formation of the new Israel is that the nations, Gentiles, are coming into the promises of God too. This was the crisis of Paul's ministry—the conflict between the chosenness of the descendants of Abraham after the flesh with their divinely granted Torah and the fact that the Gentiles were receiving the spiritual blessings of God in fulfillment of the equally divine promises of the prophets. Paul resolved the conflict by choosing the promise of a new covenant over the givenness of the old covenant, the Spirit over the Torah, the future over the past.
The call of the descendants of Abraham into peoplehood was for the sake of other nations, but Paul implies that the new Israel is constituted to redeem the whole cosmos. "All things, things in heaven and things on earth" are to be brought under the lordship of Christ (Ephesians 1:10). Christ is to be the head of his body, the church, but this body will someday extend to "everything" so that "God will be all in all" and the universe will realize that it is held together by the lordship of Christ. Not just the church, not just all peoples, but the whole cosmic system will be the body of Christ, will be Christian community. This is the farthest reach of the plan of God which began with the call to Abraham.
Images of the people of God.
SEEDY MOB
Tonight Focus on the Seedy word, next week the mob.
UMU was renamed Urban Seed in 2001.
Big Table: generosity of the hospitality of God, the great banquet parables from Lukes gospel.
Mark 4 The Kingdom Parables
WE ARE SMALL
EF Shumacher’s “Small is Beautiful” economics, design. Very influencial on the Christian community movment in Melbourne from the 70’s from which Urban Seed has grown.
Big Church Welfare industry that has emerged but had little connection with the worshipping life of actual communities of faith.
Creativity and Freedom in being and staying small.
Margaret Mead: “Never forget that a small group of committed dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has”
WE ENGAGE BEYOND OURSELVES IN THE SEEDINESS OF URBAN LIFE
Dorothy Day love relentlessly digging to the deepest roots of a problem, piet
Drug Addicts in the laneway, those on the margins but also with
the top end of town corporates who dont always seem to do business in legit. ways.
Jesus guilty by association with the Seedy people and issues of his time
prostitutes and lepers, Gentiles, tax collectors.
SEEDY AS IN DODGY, LIKE ISRAEL WE ARE COMPROMISED, BROKEN AND IN NEED OF GRACE
Like Israel we don’t always get it right.
Urban Thneed or Truffala Seed? Was the haunting question by one ressie invoking the almost sacred apocalyptic text of The Lorax by that contemporary prophet Dr. Suess. Where the Lorax is the prophetic voice commodification of Truffala Trees into thneeds.
It expressed a concerned that in that making choices to become less dependent on the institutional church for our funding that we were becoming more dependent upon corporatations that don’t share our story and values.
The danger of engagement in the seediness of the world at times seems compromise.
WE HAVE HOPE
Seeds and potential
Sowing Seed in the grounds of despair
Mark 4 the mustard seed The Greatest of Trees where the birds of the air can nest in its shade.
Actually a very political image in the Old Testament, as political as royal priesthood, chosen and holy nations.
Both Ezekiel and Daniel use the image of a tree when speaking of the dominant powers of his day, Egypt and Assyria.
Urban Seed Church, The Seedy Mob is not just a residential community at Central House, nor a lunch and prayer time, recreation club for homeless people, nor a small creative staff team,part of meeting here in this new way is the hope that many different birds of the air can nest in the branches.
Whilst often small any connection that we share with anyone in Christ is ultimately a window into something bigger, that calls us beyond to a vision of the Kingdom/Economy of God where all people are included.
Posted by marcus at 12:00 AM | Comments (2)
John 11:1-45 Lazarus
March 20, 2005
Chocolate Seeds for Lent 2005
Week 5, March 15: The Den, led by Marcus Curnow
Biblical Text: John 11:1-45 Death by Chocolate: The Death & Raising of Lazarus
World Texts: Songs from "O' Brother Where art Thou" Soundtrack
Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Fifth Sunday in Lent
Loosley based on Christ and the Choclaterie: A Lent Course, Hilary Brand, (Darton Longman Todd, London, 2002)_
John 11:1-45 The Death and Raising of Lazarus
Method: Lectio Divina
Listening for the Gentle Touch of Christ the Word (The Literal Sense)
1. One person reads the passage of scripture aloud, followed by another (preferably male/female) as others are attentive to some segment that is especially meaningful to them.
2. Silence for 1-2 minutes. Each hears and silently repeats a word or phrase that attracts.
3. Sharing aloud: [A word or phrase that has attracted each person]. A simple statement of one or a few words. No elaboration.
How Christ the Word speaks to ME (The Allegorical Sense)
4. Play "Po Lazarus" James Carter & the Prisoners, O'Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack
Well, the high sheriff
He told his deputy
Want you go out and bring me Lazarus
Well, the high sheriff
Told his deputy
I want you go out and bring me Lazarus
Bring him dead or alive,
Lawd, Lawd
Bring him dead or alive
Well the deputy he told the high sheriff
I ain't gonna mess with Lazarus
Well the deputy he told the high sheriff
Says I ain't gonna mess with Lazarus
Well he's a dangerous man
Lawd, Lawd
Well then the high sheriff, he found Lazarus
He was hidin' in the chill of a mountain
Well the high sheriff, found Lazarus
He was hidin' in the chill of the mountain
With his head hung down
Lawd, Lawd
With his head hung down
Well then the high sheriff, he told Lazarus
He says Lazarus I come to arrest you
Well the high sheriff, told Lazarus
Says Lazarus I come to arrest you
And bring ya dead or alive
Lawd, Lawd
Bring you dead or alive
He's a dangerous man
Well then Lazarus, he told the high sheriff
Says I never been arrested
Well Lazarus, told the high sheriff
Says I never been arrested
By no one man
Lawd, Lawd
By no one man
And then the high sheriff, he shot Lazarus
Well, he shot him mighty big number
Well the high sheriff, shot Lazarus
Well he shot him with a mighty big number
With a forty five
Lawd, Lawd
With a forty five
Well then they take old Lazarus
Yes they laid him on the commissary gallery
Well they taken poor Lazarus
And the laid him on the commissary gallery
He said my wounded side
Lawd, Lawd
My wounded side
(I like the Po Lazarus song as Lazarus himself becomes a hunted man after his raising immediately following this text)
5. Silence for 2-3 minutes. Reflect on "Where does the content of this reading touch my life today?"
6. Sharing aloud: Briefly: "I hear, I see..."
What Christ the Word Invites me to DO (The Moral Sense)
7. Play "O Death" Ralph Stanley
O, Death, O, Death Won't you spare me over til another year Well what is this that I can't see With ice cold hands takin' hold of me Well I am death, none can excel I'll open the door to heaven or hell Whoa, death someone would pray Could you wait to call me another day The children prayed, the preacher preached Time and mercy is out of your reach I'll fix your feet til you cant walk I'll lock your jaw til you cant talk I'll close your eyes so you can't see This very air, come and go with me I'm death I come to take the soul Leave the body and leave it cold To draw up the flesh off of the frame Dirt and worm both have a claim O, Death, O, Death Won't you spare me over til another year My mother came to my bed Placed a cold towel upon my head My head is warm my feet are cold Death is a-movin upon my soul Oh, death how you're treatin' me You've close my eyes so I can't see Well you're hurtin' my body You make me cold You run my life right outta my soul Oh death please consider my age Please don't take me at this stage My wealth is all at your command If you will move your icy hand Oh the young, the rich or poor Hunger like me you know No wealth, no ruin, no silver no gold Nothing satisfies me but your soul O, death, O, death Wont you spare me over til another year x3
8. Silence for 2-3 minutes. Reflect on "I believe that God wants me to . . . . . . today/this week."
9. Sharing aloud: at somewhat greater length the results of each one's reflection. [Be especially aware of what is shared by the person to your right.]
10. After full sharing, pray for the person to your right.
Note: Anyone may "pass" at any time. If instead of sharing with the group you prefer to pray silently , simply state this aloud and conclude your silent prayer with Amen.
11.Played “Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet” with a powerpoint of slides from the whole chocolate seeds for lent series and the crucifixion.
Posted by marcus at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)
John 9:1-41 Mud Cake Suprise
March 11, 2005
Chocolate Seeds for Lent 2005
Week 4, March 8: The Den, led by Dave Fagg
"...We would eat chocolate and smoke cigarettes and read the Bible, which is the only way to do it, if you ask me ... the Bible is so good with chocolate. I always thought the Bible was more of a salad thing, you know, but it isn't. It is a chocolate thing."
Quote from "Blue like Jazz" a book by Donald Miller.
Biblical Text: John 9:1-41 Mud Cake Suprise (Blind Man)
World Texts: "Chocolat" The Movie (Chapter 11 Serge tries to woo back Josephine.)
Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Third Sunday in Lent
Loosley based on Christ and the Choclaterie: A Lent Course, Hilary Brand, (Darton Longman Todd, London, 2002)_
World Text:"Chocolat" Chapter 11 Serge tries to woo back Josephine.)
"God has made me a new man...... Please Josephine we are still married in the eyes God."
"Then he must be blind!"
Biblical Text:
A chiastic structure used as a basis for sharing personal stories that may connect with the text.
Verses 1-5 Asking why vs. doing Gods work: Sharing stories of our experience of the blame/intellectual wanker game
Verses 6-7 The invitation to be born again accepted: Sharing our stories of commitment and conversion
Verses 8-17 Witnessing to the truth round 1 : Sharing our stories of costly witness
Verses 18-23 The sins of the parents and the child: Our stories of conflict with family and friends over discipleship.
Verses 24-34 Witnessing to the truth round 2: Stories of costly witness
Verses 35-38 Finding Jesus on the outside:Sharing our stories
Verses 39-41 Are we blind? What does it mean to be excommunicated? Sharing our stories.
We used play doh as our "mud/clay" and people sculpted as we read and discussed the interaction of the text and our own experiences.
Good Question/Quote
The "miracle" thus consists of three elements: clay, living water/Spirit, and washing.
Blind people learn to see by allowing themselves to become new creations in Jesus, and by responding to the act of creation by joining the Johannine community, symbolized by the act of washing (as in the footwashing episode, 13:1-20).
Are we bound to the blindness of our ancestors and hence not responsible for our participation in sinful religious and political structures, or do we have the ability to break the cycle of blindness and learn to see?
Wes Howard Brook (via Sojourners Magazine)
Posted by marcus at 07:00 AM | Comments (0)
John 4:5-42 Tim Tams Evermore!
March 01, 2005
Chocolate Seeds for Lent 2005
Week 3, March 1: The Den, led by Marcus Curnow
Biblical Text: John 4:5-42 The Quest for Tim Tams that Never Run Out: (Woman at the Well)
World Texts: "Chocolat" The Movie (Scene 9: Hidden Thoughts and Yearnings)
Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Third Sunday in Lent
Loosley based on Christ and the Choclaterie: A Lent Course, Hilary Brand, (Darton Longman Todd, London, 2002)_
Play Chocolat Scene 9: Hidden Thoughts and Yearnings
How do you react to Vianne’s pagan roots? "The spinning plate, ‘secret ingredients’, “I know your favourite.” approach? Are they marketing ploys or more sinister. Is this an idealised presentation of Mayan tradition alongside a harsh presentation of Christian tradition?
What has made you feel uncomfortable about your interaction with other belief systems? What have you learned from them?
What are our initial responses to the text? Gut reactions? Questions that arise?
Men meeting women at wells is a common ancient story. In fact is is foundational to the story of Israel (eg. Issac Rebbecca; Jacob/Rachel. Gen24/29. Patriarch meets woman>marries>kids>nation)
How is John messing with the master story? What might have been gut reactions or questions for the original hearers of this text?
Ezra 4 provides some history on the roots of the Jew/Samaratin division.
Biblical Scholars have often treated this woman as another woman gone wrong upon whom Jesus has compassion. Is this a fair reading of John’s presentation? Why?
What if Jesus is not talking about her sex life?
With references to "You/r people?"(Greek plural) Is it better to think about the conversation as being between representatives of their respective nations, talking about thier common ancestors.
Is the question of her five husbands talking about her personal life or the 'idolatrous' relationship of Samaria to the 5 other nations represented in 2 Kings 17:24-34? What if the man she is not married to is a reference to the Roman occupation.
She responds not by talking about her sex life but by calling him Prophet. What is the nature of Prophet in the scriptures? (Special signs of personal knowledge of individuals/magic past/future tellers OR political role of keeping the nation true to its spiritual/political uniqueness, naming internal injustice and idolatry and compromise with Israel's realtionship with other nations.)
The ensuing conversation is perhaps not the woman avoiding talk of her personal life but continuing the conversation about nationalism and worship.
"He told me all the things I ever did" (verse 39). Is this Jesus talking about this womans personal life or narrating the hisotry of her/their peoples much like with the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24?
The title given by the Samaratins to Jesus of "Saviour of the World" is unique to this story in the New Testament. A title connected with the worship of the Roman Emperor.
Jesus is presented as greater than the "man" they are currently "in bed with" and has resolved worship divisions via the higher concept of "Spirit and Truth." Jesus is presented as labouring through the Samartin Territory and through his dialoge and her actions the Jew/Samaratin, Male/Female divides are bridged . The Samaratins love it!
Jesus doesn’t just show compassion to a passive woman but they debate titles that are contested between their peoples: Greater than Jacob?, Prophet, Messiah, Saviour of the World.
What contested ideas/ titles would Jesus debate today with a person who was:
Aboriginal
Muslim Asylum Seeker
Iraqi
Pentecostal
Suburban “Soccer Mum”
yourself?
How is the characterisation of this woman as disciple different from that of Nicodemus?
Jesus ‘Laboured’ 4.6 and connects this with the disciples mission "labouring". 4.37
The disciples struggle to get Jesus? Their interest is in survival, food. They forget the abundance of the Wedding at Cana, miss the offer of living water that Jesus is offering. The cant see past the Jew/Samaratin, Male/Female divide.
Think of unreconciled parts of your life, relationships, our world. The seemingly insurmountable Jew/Samaritan divides of our own experience. How has your experience of bearing witness to God’s truth and love in difficult situations been exhausting "labour"; physically, emotionally etc?
What is our experience of living water, resources and hope to continue? Food to eat to do the will of God/ Doing the will of God as food to eat.
With no credendtials (unlike Nicodemus: Teacher of Israel) an outcast woman successfully ‘bears witness’ about a Jewish person her people have never met.
Think of an experience of being evangelised by someone who was different/ someone you least expected.
Posted by marcus at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
John 3:1-17: Secret Chocolate Lover:
February 13, 2005
Chocolate Seeds for Lent 2005Week 2, The Den, led by Marcus Curnow
Biblical Text: John 3:1-17 Growing up and the Process of Change
World Texts: "Chocolat" The Movie
Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Second Sunday in Lent
Loosley based on Christ and the Choclaterie: A Lent Course, Hilary Brand, (Darton Longman Todd, London, 2002)_
Discuss the theme of change in the characters of Chocolat.
For many it meant stepping out from under some form of inappropriate control in their lives. Who did this and what was the process?
What actions demonstrated change?
Biblical Text: John 3:1-17
1There was a man named Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a Jewish leader. 2One night he went to Jesus and said, "Sir, we know that God has sent you to teach us. You could not work these miracles, unless God were with you."
3Jesus replied, "I tell you for certain that you must be born from above before you can see God's kingdom!"
4Nicodemus asked, "How can a grown man ever be born a second time?"
5Jesus answered:
I tell you for certain that before you can get into God's kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. 6Humans give life to their children. Yet only God's Spirit can change you into a child of God. 7Don't be surprised when I say that you must be born from above. 8Only God's Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going.
9"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
10Jesus replied:
How can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these things? 11I tell you for certain that we know what we are talking about because we have seen it ourselves. But none of you will accept what we say. 12If you don't believe when I talk to you about things on earth, how can you possibly believe if I talk to you about things in heaven?
13No one has gone up to heaven except the Son of Man, who came down from there. 14And the Son of Man must be lifted up, just as that metal snake was lifted up by Moses in the desert. [1] 15Then everyone who has faith in the Son of Man will have eternal life. 16God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. 17God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them!
Who is Nicodemus?
Why does he come at night?
What is the context of the passage?
How can one be born again?
What does it mean for Nicodemus to move from darkness to light?
UrbanSeed:church Lenten Reflections
Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation - the ‘wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life - it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch - the Spirit - and becomes a living spirit.” John 3 (The Bible)
Write on a piece of paper any thing that you are ashamed of. Place this paper in a small tray and cover it with soil. Plant the seed in it, water it and over the weeks let it remind you that God forgives you and wants to re-form you from the inside.
Posted by marcus at 12:07 AM | Comments (2)
Matthew 4: 1-11: Chocolate Tempters
February 12, 2005
Chocolate Seeds for Lent 2005
Week 1, The Den, led by Marcus Curnow
Biblical Text: Matthew 4: 1-11b
World Texts: "Chocolat" The Movie
Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, First Sunday in Lent
Loosley based on Christ and the Choclaterie: A Lent Course, Hilary Brand, (Darton Longman Todd, London, 2002)_
What motivates the Comte to his frugal diet? His spiritual, physical, mental health or something else? Think of things you have chosen to 'give up' for a time. What were your motivations? What have you ever given up unconciously? What characters in the film had given up things unconciously?
A story by Frederica Mathewes-Green
I've got an idea for a movie script guaranteed to win an Oscar. We'll call it "Sizzle." See, there's a village in India where all the people think there's something bad about eating beef. It's part of their religion, which says they should repress their desires and hate pleasure.
Then this sexy young cowboy comes to town and opens up a grill. All day long it's thick steaks frying, or maybe some tender filets, and sometimes he dishes up a few racks of barbecued ribs.
Well, pretty soon the fragrance is drifting through the town, and the people can't stand it. They try to resist, but one by one they sneak into the grill and have a little taste. Imagine the close-ups as their eyes water and a little shiny trail of grease slides down their chins. Sure, they feel guilty, but they just can't help it. The village leader thinks he's real holy and rails and rants, but it's no use; that cowboy is so handsome and big-hearted and friendly, everyone can see he's really the hero. He defies authority and sets people free.
At the end, there's this really funny scene where the stuck-up leader breaks into the grill late one night, intending to destroy it, but instead he eats hamburgers till he's sick. The next day, the holiest day of the year, the local guru gives a speech about how they've been misunderstanding their religion all along. All that really matters, he says, is embracing life to the fullest. The movie ends with a big party where everybody chows down on the juiciest steaks ever to kiss a grill.
How does this story make you feel? Why? Is Vianne a brave freedom fighter or sinister subverter of traditional values?
Biblical Text: Matthew 4:1-11
1The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert, so that the devil could test him. 2After Jesus had gone without eating [1] for forty days and nights, he was very hungry. 3Then the devil came to him and said, "If you are God's Son, tell these stones to turn into bread." 4Jesus answered, "The Scriptures say:
`No one can live only on food.
People need every word
that God has spoken.' "
5Next, the devil took Jesus to the holy city and had him stand on the highest part of the temple. 6The devil said, "If you are God's Son, jump off. The Scriptures say:
`God will give his angels
orders about you.
They will catch you
in their arms,
and you won't hurt
your feet on the stones.' "
7Jesus answered, "The Scriptures also say, `Don't try to test the Lord your God!' "
8Finally, the devil took Jesus up on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms on earth and their power. 9The devil said to him, "I will give all this to you, if you will bow down and worship me."
10Jesus answered, "Go away Satan! The Scriptures say:
`Worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.' "
11Then the devil left Jesus, and angels came to help him.
What strikes you about the text? What questions does it spring to mind?
What can we discover about the nature of temptation and our response to it from this text?
Like Jesus, temptations come to us at our points of strength, not weakness. The stronger we are, the greater the temptations. The closer we get to God, the closer the Evil One moves in on us. "The higher the intention, the more demonic the power," Gordon Cosby.How does this resonate with your own experience?
UrbanSeed:church Lenten Reflections
First Sunday of Lent
“There is a threshold, it seems, where either the spirit cracks or some steel enters the soul.” - Graeme Barrett.
Recall when you experienced a difficult situation that called for your endurance.
Talk to God about the ‘cracks’ in your spirit that this situation may have left you with, asking for God’s healing. And celebrate the inner strength and wisdom that this situation has brought you.
Posted by marcus at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)
Chocolate Seeds for Lent: Program
February 02, 2005
Chocolate as a Relisious Experience!
Ingredients
Chocolate
Lenten Narratives:
Johns Gospel
Matthews Gospel
Chocolat The Movie
Mix together for a mouth watering, soul quenching feast.
Meeting each Tuesday during Lent at The Den,116 Little Bourke St, Melbourne, 7pm - 9pm, RSVP 96630699 or...
If you cant make it read and reflect on the journey via the webchat on this blog at www.urbanseed.org.
The Latin name for the cacao plant is Theobroma Cacao: literally “the food of the gods.”
Chocolate production began in South America and was frequently used in Aztec and Mayan religious rituals and banquets. It was mixed into a liquid used to ‘baptise’ young boys and girls and to toast at weddings.
No fewer than seven popes have made pronouncements on chocolate, all agreeing that it does not break the Lenten fast!
In the 1650’s the Society of Jesus issued an act prohibiting Jesuits from drinking chocolate. Embarrassingly they had to rescind as many students started leaving in protest.
Quaker families Fry’s of Bristol, Cadbury’s of Birmingham, and Rowntrees of York pioneered modern chocolate production in the 1800’s.
Seeds for Lent Meetings and Readings 2005
(Readings follow previous Sunday readings of Revised Common Lectionary)
Feb 8: Shrove Tuesday: Pancakes and Movie Chocolat
Feb. 15: Chocolate Tempters: Matthew 4:1-11 (Temptation in the Wild)
Feb22:The Secret Chocolate Lover: John 3:1-17 (Nicodemus)
March 1:The Quest for Tim Tams that Never Run Out: John 4:5-42 (Woman at the Well)
March 8: Mud Cake Surprise: John 9:1-41 (Blind Man Healed)
March 15: Death By Chocolate: John 11:1-45 (Death of Lazarus)
March 22 Holy Week: How to Host a Last Supper
Chocolate Seeds for Lent is an activity of Urban Seed:Church
A Centre for Resourcing Christian Spirituality
Posted by marcus at 12:18 AM | Comments (1)
Credo Beatitudes
December 22, 2004
The "Credo" Beatitudes are a rewrite workshopped by people who attend Credo Gathering, an open church service that occurs before Urban Seed's Open Lunch at Credo Cafe each Tuesday. The anecdotes are true stories that came out in discussion of one beatitude a week over nine weeks in 2004. See below...
Credo Beatitudes:
Jesus’ teaching to a bunch of people on top of a mountain – the Beatitudes
Blessed are the battlers who, through their struggle, are open about who they really are and see the deception of wealth.
They will understand that, in God’s way, there is enough for all.
Those who are grieved by the way of the world, who see that things aren’t right, will be blessed.
Although they will be told to “get over it” they will find hope together.
Those who are compassionate and humble, putting others before themselves, will be blessed. They will understand their place in creation.
“Ya chasin’?” The only real hit is to sort things out with the world around you and God who created you.
A user got ripped off in a deal. Soon after he found the dealer overdosed in the Baptist Place laneway by himself. Although the user wanted revenge in “street justice”, he called the ambos and got help from Credo to keep him alive – not even checking his pockets to steal his gear or cash. This is mercy. Be like this and you will be shown mercy.
People who are honest and open like children are blessed. They will see God.
A drunk man in Credo was abusing people serving the meal when a young streety came up to him and said: “Hey man, this is a good place, it’s a church, it’s not evil.” When the drunk man heard this he gave the streety a hug and settled down.
Those who make peace are children of God.
When you try to do things right, some people around you will think that you’re weird and give you a hard time….
Like Uncle Vincent Lingari who stood up for the rights and land of his people but was laughed at and told that it would never happen. He had to camp out and wait for seven years before he and his people were listened to.
Like someone who has given up heroin and still gets called a junkie and is hassled by the jacks when he comes to town.
Like Jesus who simply loved people and tried to teach them how to live and was beaten and killed for it.
If you persevere, God will reward you with all that is right.
Posted by marcus at 01:33 PM | Comments (5)
Chocolate Seeds for Lent 2005
December 09, 2004
Seeds is a network for creative bible study that seeks to engage faith, community and culture and build connections between our bodies, the Word and the world. After a number of years of lenten abstinence and focus on the Millenium Development Goals (visit last years partnership with the Water Matters campaign)we have decided that chocolate might draw a bigger crowd!!! No seriously, it's an interesting (and yummy!) window into lots of personal and global spiritual issues. Gathering
Tuesday nights through Lent from 7pm @ The Den, 116 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne 96630699.
Commencing Feb 8: Shrove Tuesday Pancake Meal and Movie ‘Chocolat’
Posted by marcus at 02:30 PM | Comments (2)
John 9:1-41 Man Born Blind
November 07, 2004
Jesus Heals Blind Humanity
Resistance is Fertile: Seeds for Lent 2002
Resisting Blindness, Week 4, Credo Cafe, led by David Fagg and Marcus Curnow
Biblical Text: John 9:
World Texts: "Chroming: Whose fault?" The Age Newspaper, 2002
Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Forth Sunday in Lent
Verses 1-5 Asking why vs. doing Gods work: Disscussion on article; Drugs, young people, chroming and blame.
Verses 6-7 The invitation to be born again accepted: Sharing stories of commitment and conversion
Verses 8-17 Witnessing to the truth round 1 : Sharing stories of costly witness
Verses 18-23 The sins of the parents and the child: Stories of conflict with family and friends over discipleship.
Verses 24-34 Witnessing to the truth round 2: Stories of costly witness
Verses 35-38 Finding jesus on the outside (and in the work): Sharing our stories
Verses 39-41 Are we blind? What does it mean to be excommunicated?
Posted by marcus at 01:41 AM | Comments (0)
John 4:5-42 Woman at Well
November 06, 2004
Resistance is Fertile: Seeds for Lent 2002
Week 3, Resisiting Nationalism : Jesus becomes a Samaratin
Credo Cafe, led by David Fagg and Marcus Curnow
Biblical Text: John 4:
World Texts: Reconciliation Australia website
Revised Common Lectionary: Year A, Third Sunday in Lent
Chiastic Structure
4-6 Labour (kekopiakos)
• Jews Samaritans, 2 Kings 17
• Labour
• Drawing – link to Cana
7-18 woman surprised at words/food
• disciples economy vs. Jesus vs. 32, 6:5
• Contrast response of Nicodemus/disciples
• Literal vs. symbolic
19-24 Spirit and Truth
• husbands or morality: John 8
• Marriage as metaphor Jer 2, 2 Kings 17:30-31
• Prophet: personal or public
• Mountain= national identity
• Woman = Mary (2:4 Cana; 19:26 Cross)
• “we who know” jews or johns community?
25-34 Disciples surprised by words/food
• IAM, 1st of 7, to Samaratin woman, disciples miss
• Contrast with Jewish response
• Food and the will of God
35-38 Labour
• Isaiah
• Gathering
• Coming to you
39-42 Epilogue
The Aboriginal Woman at the Well
A contextual re-write based on John 4, Seeds for Lent 2002
Now when Jesus learned that the political and religious bureaucrats had heard, “Jesus is making and baptising more disciples than John,” (although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptised) – he left Melbourne and headed out back to the bush. But it was necessary for him to go through an Aboriginal settlement. So he came to an Aboriginal settlement, near a controversial and contested piece of land. A bottle shop had been built there, blocking a spring that was considered a sacred site. Having laboured on his journey, Jesus was sitting down, it was about noon.
An Aboriginal woman came to get a drink, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Aboriginal woman said to him, “How is it that you, an Anglo- Aussie, ask me, an Aboriginal woman for a drink? (Anglo-Aussies and Aboriginal people don’t share things in common.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him “Fella, you’re obviously not buying, you’ve got no esky, and the spring there is blocked. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestors who gave us this spring, or Burke and Wills? Are you Bush Tucker Man ?”
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks here will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water inside them, gushing up to eternal life."
The woman said to him, "Fella, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty, or have to keep coming here to drink."
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back."
The woman answered, "I have no husband."
Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’, for you have had a number of husbands. (…What between the European colonisers; the missionaries; the welfare bureaucrats; the grog and mining companies;) and the one you have now (…The New World Order & Global Economy) is not your husband. What you’ve said is true."
The woman said to him, "Fella, I reckon you’re a prophet. Our God of the Dreaming gave us a law to respect the land and we lived in harmony with it for thousands of years. You Aussie-Anglos say that Captain Cook found the land for God, King and Country and his new law means you own the land and that this is what people ought to respect."
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when one law will not be held over and against another in order to respect the Creator of the Land. You worship what you call ‘The Dreaming’. We worship that which has been made know to us; for the Creator has revealed salvation through the Jews. But the hour comes, and is here now, when fair dinkum followers will respect the Creator in spirit and truth, for God seeks these types to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit, and those who respect him must show it in spirit and truth."
The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah comes," (who is called Christ). "When he has come, he will reveal to us all things."
Jesus said to her, "I AM the one, here, speaking to you." At this, his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was speaking with a Aboriginal woman; yet no one said, "What are you looking for?" or, "Why do you speak with her?" So the woman left her drink, and went away to the settlement, and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?"
They went out of the settlement, and were coming to him. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." So his disciples said one to another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to complete his unfinished business. Don't you say, 'This is a long term issue, reconciliation is still a long way off?' Fair dinkum, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, they are ripe for reconciliation. Those who reap are receiving wages and gathering fruit to eternal life; so that those who have sown and those who now reap may celebrate together. For the saying is true, 'One sows, and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you haven't laboured. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour."
From that settlement many of the Aboriginals believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, 'He told me everything that I did." So when the Aboriginals came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is truly the Christ, the Leader of the Australian people."
Posted by marcus at 01:54 AM | Comments (1)
John 3:1-21 Nicodemus
November 05, 2004
Being Born Again: Can anything "save" the Governor General?
Nicodemus, Peter Hollingworth and the problem of secret discipleship
Resistance is Fertile: Seeds for Lent 2002
Week 2, Credo Cafe, led by David Fagg and Marcus Curnow
Biblical Text: John 3: 1-21
World Texts: Spooner Cartoon from “The Age” 21/2/2002; Unplugged scene from “The Matrix”
Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Second Sunday in Lent
Our reflection starts with personal story......
Remember a time in your life where someone has asked if you have been “born again.” In the same vein, what’s your experience of John 3:16 and how its been used? Were these positive or negative experiences in your life?
We discuss the emphasis on ‘personal’ salvation; unique, individual, subjective spiritual experience.
The contradictions of US. TV evangelists and politicians gets a mention; how one must have this ‘private’ experience to be elected to ‘public’ office of US President.
As an employee at Urban Seed with Rev. Tim Costello as our Director, I’m regularly asked by concerned Christians of his brother (Federal Treasurer of Conservative Party) , “Is Peter Costello ‘born again?’” We consider how such a term has been used judgmentally to exclude; a way of defining ‘true’ Christians.
We consider people who “so love the world” that they will go to crazy lengths to get the sign saying ‘John 3:16’ on camera at major international sporting events. We consider what is effective communication in our culture and compare this example with the ‘means’ of the incarnation….. “gave his only son.”
We compare the light and dark duality of John’s gospel with the ego-maniacal, entertainment, good guy versus bad guy world of professional wrestling where John 3:16 has been co-opted by ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. Ironically people wear his T-shirts ‘Austin 3:16’ with no understanding of its context.
Our personal texts lead us into the biblical text.
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a leader of the people. He came to Jesus by night….
John goes out of his way to paint Nicodemus in a negative ‘light’…..(or dark as the case is here.) Light and dark ness are juxtaposed throughout John’s story. Can one be a secret disciple? Is private religious experience enough?
No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit.
Beyond simply a personal experience of faith, John’s insistence on being ‘born again’ points to baptism as a communal, public event which asks Nicodemus to ‘change sides.’
We watch and discuss the ‘unplugged’ scene from the movie ‘The Matrix’ and its connections to Christian baptism.
“Welcome to the real world” says Morpheous to Neo. We consider what the cost of leaving one community to join another might mean, then and now, for Nicodemus and ourselves.
Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things.
Central to this passage is a critique of leadership.
Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. So must the Son of man be lifted up, that who ever believes in him may have eternal life……..People loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
The imagery of the biblical text leads us to a text from a current newspaper.
Spooner’s cartoon paints the Governor General, in the robes of an Anglican bishop “lifted up” upon a cross. The cross is large and shines white and bright in the foreground surrounded by stormy darkness and shadows.
On first glance one may think that it refers to his crucifixion in the media. The former Anglican archbishop has been castigated in the national press since revelations were made public of his alleged inaction and indifference to the problem of sexual abuse of children in Anglican schools during his term of office. Like John’s narrative the question of leadership is central. Is the holder of the highest office in our land worthy of the position?
On closer inspection, far from being nailed to the cross, Spooner paints Hollingworth “lifted up” in a large armchair, reading the newspaper. He plays on the women disciples who mourn at the foot of the cross, replacing them with weeping children who seem to be passing by. The archbishop’s “couched crucifixion” now seems to indicate privileged detachment, a concern for ones media representation rather than the ‘true’ suffering of those below.
Peter Hollingworth is in many ways an iconic/ironic “Australian Story.” (His attempt at addressing the issue on the ABC’s TV show of the same name significantly deepened the controversy.) At one time the churches and Australia’s leading advocate on issues of poverty; his appointment to Australia’s highest office by conservative Prime Minister John Howard was met with indifference in a culture prone to cutting down its ‘tall poppies.’ The egalitarian Aussie myth is sympathetic to a ‘champion of the battlers’ but is skeptical of the church; power and privilege; or those motivated by self-advancement. After Hollingworth abstained from the final vote at the Constitutional Convention after an initial republican stance, Rev. Tim Costello was reported to comment, “This man wants to be Governor General.” In his seeming desire to defend the institutional church, his colleagues and his own position, Hollingworth has appeared torn, a vacillating, unconvincing figure. His story has become media parable; a morality play which ‘lightning rods’ many layers of cultural tension.
To what extent does this narrative shed light on Nicodemus and vica versa? The authenticity of Nicodemus’ discipleship is seemingly contested in the gospels and their historical interpretation. Can one have it both ways? We discuss the extent to which Nicodemus’ struggle narrates that of Hollingworth and our own journey of discipleship. We who would honestly seek the cause of Jesus and yet who also long to retain our status, accolades or trappings of success. We seek the autheniticity of the cross but also the comfort of the couch.
“He gave his only son”
The discussion of the current child sexual abuse scandal leads us down another path. Does the churches theology of atonement (of a wrathful God needing to sacrifice his own Son), represent the ultimate ‘child abuse’ on a cosmic scale? We discuss whether such theology is implied in our experience of interpretation of this passage. Has such interpretation contributed to the churches seeming indifference or inability to effectively confront the evil of child abuse within its own body?
For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light so that their deeds may be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that the deeds have been done in God.”
The churches’ reading of the story of Nicodemus has fallen in the time of Lent, a time of self-examination and repentance. It corresponds at a time when the question of leadership is prominent in the national conversation. During the recent election campaign the rubric of “ticker” (the heart/ conviction to lead by making difficult decisions) was prominent.
Ironically at this moment, leaders holding the three top positions in Australian national life; the Governor General, Peter Hollingworth; the Prime Minister, John Howard and the Head of the Defence forces, Admiral Barry are accused of having misled the Australian people.
Whilst it seems “nothing will save the Governor General” over his handling of the abuse of children in church care, false accusations of asylum seekers throwing their children overboard to gain entry to our country are perpetuated successfully for political gain. John’s story of Nicodemus suggests that true leadership, true “ticker,” is demonstrated not by skillfully ‘spinning’ ones way around lies, but by a willingness to confess failure, to change sides, to be ‘born again’.
Open secret about dangers of secrecy Ellen Goodman, Washington Post, Monday, March 11, 2002 …These tales as different as priests and bureaucrats, as different as sexual abuse and government administration, have raised questions about power and secrecy. They've raised questions about leaders who justify secrecy to themselves on the grounds that they are protecting the people they serve -- when they may be serving themselves..… Mark Rozell, a political scientist at Catholic University and author of "Executive Privilege," says about both church and state leaders: "History has shown, time and again, that people in public life claiming to protect the public good by secrets are protecting themselves." Their agenda, their power. I am not offering up a wholesale screed against secrecy. The word itself is morally neutral. In our own lives, secrecy is linked to privacy. Inside government, leaders need a measure of secrecy for, paradoxically, candor, honesty. But secrecy wielded by authority is a powerful weapon against dissent. A secret is by definition unaccountable. In our society the bias is, as it should be, toward openness. Secrecy is, as it should be, required to defend itself. What we, the reasonable public, know this time is that the secrecy allowing sexual abuse and shadow governments leaves us less trustful, less faithful. This is the open secret.
Posted by marcus at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)
Missionary Grow Home
November 03, 2004
My Bioregional Essay from 2000
Posted by marcus at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)
Seeds for Ordinary Time 2001
Seeds for Ordinary Time
Credo Cafe, 2001
August 20 PASTIES, PLANTS & PLACE Marcus Curnow
August27 COMMUNICATION Paul Minty & Naomi Swindon
September 3 HUMOUR Howard Langmead
September 10 FOOD Keith Dyer
September 17 WORK Andrew Curtis
September 24 REST Allison Langmead
October 1 SPORT Dave Fuller
October 8 REAL LIFE Tear Australia
October 15 HOUSE & HOME Dave & Kylie Fagg
Greetings from the Urban Mission Unit. In our ongoing attempts to revitalise church by breathing new life into the church year we would like to invite you to participate in our Seeds for Ordinary Time. In the church year the time between Pentecost and Advent is known as Ordinary Time. Rather than meaning "common" or "mundane," this term comes from the word "ordinal," which simply means counted time.
Traditionally the 33 or 34 Sundays of Ordinary Time are used to focus on various aspects of the Faith, especially the mission of the church in the world. The Lectionary readings focus upon the Synoptic Gospel of the year, however many use Ordinary Time to focus on specific themes of interest or importance to a local congregation. Some churches break up Ordinary Time with a season called Kingdomtide which celebrates Christ’s non--violent rule over all of creation. The focus in this season is often on social justice and action as an expression of the Lordship of God over his people and the world.
Even though we think the Leunig cartoon above says it all and best we just couldn’t resist another excuse to get some people together. Even though you’re living it right now we asked some of our favourite people to help us think about the ordinary issues of life with a focus on ethics and spirituality.
Posted by marcus at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)
Seeds for Lent 2001
November 02, 2004
Invite Blurb and Speakers list for our first Seeds for Lent in 2001
Seeds for Lent 2001
Dear
Having been a friend and/or a participant in the work of the Urban Mission Unit I would like to welcome you to SEEDS for LENT.
UMU exists to plant seeds; through the formation community, relationships with people on the margins, public advocacy and education. Seeds to help us maintain belief in the face of our unbelief during these distracting times. We hope that the seeds we offer here might bring new growth that would revitalise your discipleship, your local community, even the church and society.
Originating in the fourth century of the church, the season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday and climaxing during Holy Week. Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized, a time of study and prayer before their baptism at the celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. But since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. This was also the time when those who had been separated from the Church would prepare to rejoin the community.
These SEEDS FOR LENT are a gift from the Urban Mission Unit to you. In this booklet we invite you to participate in some or all of nine suggested disciplines or ‘seeds’ over the Lenten period. At the back is a pocket of seeds for you to plant. You may want to plant one for each action you undertake. The idea is that it is a symbolic reminder of Gods’ miraculous lifegiving work of love in and around us, even when it is buried deep in the midst of suffering where we cannot see it and have no control (Mark 4:26-29).
You will be joined by members of the Central House and Credo Communities, as well as other individuals and groups who participate in Melbourne’s community based, discipleship movement.
If you are local and able I hope to see you at our gatherings however if you are far away or unable to join us please let us know as even if you can only undertake one discipline/seed we would like to uphold you in prayer during this time.
May your seeds find good soil this Lent.
Much Grace
SPEAKERS for SEEDS GATHERINGS
MONDAY EVENINGS @ CREDO from 7.30pm
.
March 5 : 1ST Monday in Lent
Rowena Curtis: Gospel Spirituality
(Is the 1st woman to pastor Collins St. Baptist in 160 years)
March 12 : 2nd Monday in Lent
Rainer Shack: Vision for the Urban Church
(Is the new pastor of multicultural Footscray Baptist)
March 19 : 3rd Monday in Lent
T.Costello : Why do bad things happen to good people?(Tim is a national living treasure!)
March 26 : 4th Monday in Lent
Colin Duthie : Rembrant, Nouwen and the Prodigal
(Col helps lead Australian Navigators, and hangs out a lot in universitys)
April 2 : 5th Monday in Lent
Merril Kitchen : Mega-Events and Forgotten Women
(Merril is Principal at Church of Christ Theological College)
April 9 : Holy Week Monday
Peter Chapman: The Cross, Political Action & Disciples
(Peter heads up Common Life, a Christian alternative)
Posted by marcus at 01:41 AM | Comments (0)
Seeds: Outward Journey 2000
November 01, 2004
Speakers List for Seeds: Outward Journey 2000
umu@csbc
(urban mission unit @ collins street baps)
invites you to
SEEDS :the outward journey (2000)
an nine week journey with the residential
community and other friends of umu
monday nights
in credo cafe
level one, central house,
one seven four collins street
Aug 7 Mission and Vocation : Br. Darryl MORESCO(OCarm)
Brother Darryl is a Carmelite Friar living in a community in Port Melbourne, responsible for Vocation discernment. August 6-13 is Catholic National Vocations Awareness Week and where would you expect to find Brother Darryl?.....at a Baptist Church of course, sharing Catholic wisdom about vocation to a young(ish), diverse, ecumenical crowd...thats his passion!
Aug 14 The Bible & Reconciliation:
Mark Brett
Known for his black outfits, stylish goatee and his ironic, postmodern angles into the Old Testament, Mark has just completed a book on Genesis which has also been translated into Arabic so Muslims can dialogue with him.
Aug 21 Do Christian’s belive in Calling?:
Peter CHAPMAN
Peter is an UMU board member, he lived in the City for 17 years and started Common Life, a network of people who live by a common rule.
Aug 28 Is God Green?... Faith and Environment: Ross Langmead
Each day Ross rides his bike from his home in Spotswood to Whitley College where he lectures in Missiology, he starts his lectures with songs that he writes himself!
Sept 4 Globalisation :New Jerusalem or McBabylon? How to respond?
Jon & Kim Cornford & Panel
In September the World Economic Forum is meeting @ Crown Casino. After big demos in Seattle and Washington, email linked radicals of many persuasions seem as unified as theyve been for a long time about the need for a response. The problem is they seem divided as ever about just what theyre fighting and whats the best way to respond. Jon and Kim live at Collins Street, heading up public advocacy and education and are part of organising a prayer vigil outside the Casino through the Forum Sept 11-13.
Sept 11 Mission & Family : Rose GOW Throughout the last five years Rose has been on extraordinary journey in FOOTSCRAY. With hubby Greg, she is currently raising their son Joseph whilst sharing life with refugees from Horn of Africa communities.
Sept 18 Discipleship Movements through history... Whatfor TODAY?: Tim needs no introduction. Tim COSTELLO
Reflections on the radical discipleship movement overseas and in Melbourne.
Sept 25 MISSION & CULTURE Barry Watson & Co. Affectionatley known as Bikeman Barry from the UMU Board, Barry was born and bred in the Western Suburbs and likes travelling in the bush.
October 2 ELSALVADOR to AUSTRALIA : A Personal Journey in Solidarity : Michelle Geirk
Michelle is an UMU board member who is currently writing a book on her 20 years of mission and activist work with oppressed groups from Elsalvador to Australia.
Posted by marcus at 01:29 AM | Comments (0)
Gospel of Vic
Inspired by the Cotton Patch rewrites of Clarence Jordan, "The Gospel of Vic" was my attempt to rewrite the Gospel of Mark as a way of processing what was going on politically and theologically in Melbourne, 1999. I wrote it as an anniversary gift for Greg and Elvira Hewson who were living at Urban Seed at the time near the height of the heroin epidemic. It was a pretty tough time.
I interspersed their copy with a bunch of political cartoons I had collected over the course of the year to justify / further contextualise my choices. Its unashamedly rooted in the historical moment of 1999 Melbourne so if you weren't around you'll find some bits bewildering.....a bit like reading the gospels themselves really.
I gave myself the discipline of changing as little as possible to the original text, so some of it reads awkwardly. Since writing it I'm stunned at how things alluded to in my rewrite could be seen to have come to pass....hmmmmm! I'm sure no Clarence Jordan but it was a good and very revealing discipline for me at the time.
Download of Gospel of Vic is now availiable from the Seeds website it includes a short interview I did at the time for a university based Christian street mag.
Posted by marcus at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)
