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 f