Thursday 20 August 2015
Monday 3 September 2012
I Am A Language Learner...
What science people might
describe as a law or process I see in terms of grammar: syntax and
punctuation. My world-view has a
spiritualist intelligence as well, (I have been Christian since birth), but
apart from religion I find points of divergence with the purely mathematical or
logical description of the fundamentals of existence.
Words carry
baggage. The signifier does not always
point to the sign, and indeed the signified may be found from many signifiers. All roads lead to Rome, and many ways lead to
Christ who is the only way to the Father.
Take
“Evolution”. Evolution as a word carries
a particular denotation, but many connotations.
Does the universe display characteristics of evolution? This is a loaded question: what does
“evolution” mean to us as a word, and as a concept? Is evolution another word for “development”,
or “progression” or even “growth”? Then
yes, there is notable development of the natural world over time: we have evolved. Or does evolution mean “development from one
species to another without the need for God?”
Is evolution another word for “Darwinism”, which, like all –isms, has
connotations of its own?
Do I believe
“in Evolution”? I believe that there has
been development in the natural world, but I do not believe that this has
occurred from amoeba to man in the absence of God.
Do I believe
that God created “by Evolution”? Adam
and Eve were not Australopithecus, so
perhaps not. But did God establish a
process of development that has continued for millennia and that there are now
organisms in existence that were not present in Eden? Yes.
I am a
language learner. What my friends the
science teachers describe as laws, and the mathematicians describe as logic, I
describe as grammar. Newton’s apparently
rigid system describes the syntax of the known.
Just as 5-3 does not equal 3-5, (but 5+3=3+5), “dog bites man” is not
the same as “man bites dog”. There is an
order to what we have experienced, but there is also a freedom to experience
more. In this way I think evolution to
be a good word, but I think emergence is a better one. I like words, words are what I do. Emergence describes two things for me:
1. The good
is becoming better, development is a movement forward.
2. What we once
knew in part we now know in greater part and will one day know in full.
The world is
emerging, but so is our understanding of it.
The more the world emerges the more we have to understand, but the more
we work on emergent thinking the greater our capacity to understand. Science has evolved along with the natural
world: wisdom and process have developed and so has the universe.
I like a
“multiple intelligences” view of the universe.
Some see the
universe as a system, with logic and laws
Some see the
universe as a conversation, with grammar and dialogue.
Some see the
universe as a song, with harmonies.
So, was “the
big bang”?
A) An
explosion of matter?
B) A voice
which said “let there be...”?
C) A
resonance like the note that shatters glass, leaving behind a hum which hums at
different frequencies (or notes) depending upon the size of the shards?
If the
universe is a song, like in option C, then for me as a linguist, (a holder to
option B), it is the lyrics that matter more than the melody: but does that make
one of us “wrong”?
And what set
the vibration that caused the resonance (or the explosion)? Whose was the voice?
If Option B
demands a God, then does God-B demand that option? Can a God-B speak God’s Creation into
existence but then not continue the conversation? When did God-B stop speaking if we can see
evidence of “evolution” (and a new creation) taking place even today?
Reflection on The Very Good
Named Day: Day of Days.
Day to worship the Ancient of Days.
Rainbow Day: symbol of the covenant.
Jubilacious Day: testament to the grace of
the Creator.
A Day established by Israel’s God and
unknown beyond Israel’s story.
A Day spoken and written by Israel’s God:
commanded and commended.
A Day to celebrate and remember: to
observe and enjoy.
A Day set apart and claimed as God’s own.
Remember that God is our source: no good
thing arrives without God.
Remember that God is our strength: no good
thing departs without God.
Remember that God is our God: God does not
need our help to be God.
Remember that God is our rest: cease and
desist! and know that God is God.
God stopped on the seventh day and
declared the work of the six days very good.
God stopped with no need to continue; all
that was done was done well, and all that was done well would always be well.
God stopped and declared Sabbath very
good; a testimony to completion and satisfaction, God left nothing undone or
found anything lacking.
God stopped and rested; and instructed
those created in God’s image to act in God’s pattern.
Jesus declared Sabbath a day made for Man.
Jesus declared Sabbath a day made for
physical healing.
Jesus declared Sabbath a day made for
community restoration.
Jesus declared Sabbath a day made for
spiritual truth.
Welcome to Sabbath: the day of tasting and
seeing the very good of God!
Christology teaches that Jesus, a Jewish male, brings salvation also to non-Jews and to women. Is either maleness or Jewishness an essential aspect of salvation?
In our confession that Jesus is the Christ we confirm that there is a divine dimension within the reality of Jesus of Nazareth . But is his essential humanity, as found intertwined with his innate deity, essentially Jewish and male? Could Christ have come as a woman, or a gentile, and still have been Christ? Could the Sophia-Second-Person, incarnate as “Joshua Messiah”, instead have come as “Judith Hokmah” or “Julius Sapientus” and shared our humanity to the same effect? The formal, ancient creeds of the Church hold that our salvation requires a human mediator, and we are assured by the testimony of the gospels that Jesus lived under human conditions , but how were those conditions influenced by the form of his appearing? Sobrino argues that any talk of salvation is a complex concept since it depends on the multiple oppressions and wants from which human beings need to be saved, so how might our faith be different if God had become incarnate in a different human way?
As a historical account of the ministry of Jesus or the life of the early churches the Bible does not tell us how it actually was but how its religious significance was understood. According to Richard Horsley there was no religion of “Judaism” in the time of Jesus; only Judean culture which included a divine aspect. The separation of a religion out of this national culture came much later in history. This immediately raises questions about how we define Jewishness as an apparently necessary quality of the universal saviour, or even as a defining context of the story. Would a Judaism-derived form of Christianity have followed the temple-driven forms of Jesus’ day? Might there have been a Christian hajj in the stead of the great pilgrimage traditions of Judaism had Vespasian not attacked Jerusalem? Is this what God wanted, or is Jesus’ “necessary” Jewishness merely cultural? Alongside questions of religious context, how would a female Christ have been subversive to the patriarchal family and social structures of the time? Jesus as a first-born son had duties which he apparently laid aside to go preaching on the road. Would this have been easier as an unmarried daughter/sister? Jesus was seen as a drunkard, would even a virginal Judith have been seen as a slut? It is the women in Mark’s passion narrative who understand the true nature of Jesus’ work as an act of service . Jesus’ activities seem more easily understood by women, it is female disciples who are the true witnesses and ministers of grace and they are enabled to do so specifically because they are women.
Grey said that redemption encapsulates the yearning of the whole universe for integrity and healing where women have been engaging in the work of redemption for all of humanity through their maintenance of relationships with natural processes . In a similar vein Gutierrez views Creation as the first salvific act and the redemptive work of Christ as both re-creation and new creation . This new creation fulfils the promise of Israel and Judah’s prophets and creates a new chosen people consisting of all humanity. Jesus is a Jew, drawn from the Exodus people, and as such demonstrates the honour of God’s faithful promise. The Chosen are not un-Chosen as God continues to reveal Godself to all of Creation through them: it is important that God chose to use a descendent of Abraham as the incarnated actor of universal salvation. Jesus was born into real history , significant history, and his nationality was a significant aspect of that reality. With divine adherence to the covenants God made with Jesus’ ancestors Emmanuel was engineered to be a descendent of David, (and therefore of Abraham), born in the Promised Land. God’s choice was a cultural decision, not a religious one, and therefore it holds no particular significance for salvation. Jesus had to be a Judean in fulfilment of the promises of God to the Jewish nation, but he did not have to be a follower of Judaism for salvation to take effect.
The personhood of Jesus was important to the first generation of church . The replacement for Judas Iscariot had to come from someone who had known and been with Jesus since the beginning, who knew the story of his life because he had been an eye-witness to the events and present to hear the teaching first-hand. With a move toward creedal faith in later generations the teaching of Jesus became less important and it was his death that was all that anyone needed to know. In the patristic age, where theology was written by pastors, Christology was able to generate the life, faith, praxis and mission of the community at the deepest level of its being . The Jewishness of Jesus was non-essential as his transformative example was interpreted into new cultures from earliest times even though he had to be Jewish for his example to be effective among his own people in his own day. This leads us toward the second question, that of the necessity of Jesus’ gender for the work of salvation, in that we can ask whether Jesus’ masculinity make it easier to interpret the gospel into new cultures. After all no man in leadership at the time of Jesus would want to listen to a woman, especially a foreign woman. Perhaps a woman could have died as universal saviour for all mankind, but would Gentile or Pagan men have wanted to listen to her ideas? Johnson has argued that Christology is the doctrine most used to suppress women in that the imperial tradition that assimilated Christology is patriarchal in nature.
If in a patriarchal culture a woman had preached compassionate love and enacted a style of authority that serves, she would most certainly have been greeted with a colossal shrug. Is this not what women are supposed to do by nature? But from a social position of male privilege Jesus preached and acted this way, and herein lay the challenge....Jesus’ preaching about the reign of God and his inclusive lifestyle lived and breathed the opposite to patriarchy, creating a challenge that brought down on his head the wrath of religious and civil authority .
The heart of the problem for modern women seeking to identify with the story of salvation is not that Jesus was a man but that too many of his male followers have not followed in his footsteps insofar as patriarchy has defined men’s self-identity and their relationships. Strobel suggested that the cross is a detrimental symbol for women in that the self-sacrificing love of Jesus apparently sets an example for womanly submission and meekness in the face of oppression. How much more would this have been the case had the saviour been female? The cross is seen to warrant the exploitation of all women, yet most if not all Feminist writers argue that it is not Jesus’ maleness that is doctrinally important to the work of salvation but his humanity in solidarity with the whole suffering human race, including women. In contrast to the psyche of men Grey notes that a woman’s identity is wrapped up in her relationships, (who is she if not mother/wife? ) and her role in the redemptive work she performs to redeem others . She raises the question of Dostoevsky’s Sonia who enters prostitution to provide for her family and then follows Raskolnikov into exile. She saves them, but who saves her? Christ emptied himself to come to earth for the salvation of the world, but isn’t that what women are supposed to do? The actions of redemption might have been unchanged with a female Christ, but our language around it might be different.
The intent of the Christological doctrine was and continues to be inclusive , even though as an individual Jesus had the particular qualities of masculine gender and Jewish nationality. If Jesus Christ takes the place of humanity as the ultimate sacrifice, then his body becomes a site of multiple identities and the question whether what is not assumed is not redeemed is moot as all is assumed at the cross even if not in life. Indeed Cheng argues that the atoning work of Christ on the cross is actually the end of scapegoating , the blaming and elimination of the innocent outsider by the insiders. The resurrection is God’s emphatic No! to the dynamic of ‘insiders’ versus ‘outsiders’ , including women and non-Jews. The work of Jesus Christ is significant for human beings of all sexes, races and historical conditions. Jesus’ ability to be Saviour does not reside in his maleness but in his loving, liberating history lives in the midst of the powers of evil and oppression. According to Fiorenza it is Gnostic and patristic texts which subordinate women to the role of having to “become male” for salvation, not Paul or Jesus. Paul’s call to the “higher work” of celibacy in ministry actually freed women from the social conventions that a woman must be married to have identity and purpose . Wives should submit culturally to their husbands, even if those husbands are pagan, but single women are freed to submit only to Christ’s law. The gospel of Jesus Christ, a Jewish man, is liberation to all humanity, even Greek women.
Neither Jesus’ maleness nor his religious Jewishness is an essential aspect of our salvation in Christ; however each was a necessary part of the work of Jesus of Nazareth in his life as a prophetic teacher in Roman Occupied Judea. That God became incarnate in the form of a boy in a first century Galilean village makes it important for those of us who are not male or Jewish to understand how the ministry and sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth relates to us, but ultimately the gospel can be seen to be a message of liberation and restoration for all of God’s creation, human and non-human, male and female.
As a historical account of the ministry of Jesus or the life of the early churches the Bible does not tell us how it actually was but how its religious significance was understood. According to Richard Horsley there was no religion of “Judaism” in the time of Jesus; only Judean culture which included a divine aspect. The separation of a religion out of this national culture came much later in history. This immediately raises questions about how we define Jewishness as an apparently necessary quality of the universal saviour, or even as a defining context of the story. Would a Judaism-derived form of Christianity have followed the temple-driven forms of Jesus’ day? Might there have been a Christian hajj in the stead of the great pilgrimage traditions of Judaism had Vespasian not attacked Jerusalem? Is this what God wanted, or is Jesus’ “necessary” Jewishness merely cultural? Alongside questions of religious context, how would a female Christ have been subversive to the patriarchal family and social structures of the time? Jesus as a first-born son had duties which he apparently laid aside to go preaching on the road. Would this have been easier as an unmarried daughter/sister? Jesus was seen as a drunkard, would even a virginal Judith have been seen as a slut? It is the women in Mark’s passion narrative who understand the true nature of Jesus’ work as an act of service . Jesus’ activities seem more easily understood by women, it is female disciples who are the true witnesses and ministers of grace and they are enabled to do so specifically because they are women.
Grey said that redemption encapsulates the yearning of the whole universe for integrity and healing where women have been engaging in the work of redemption for all of humanity through their maintenance of relationships with natural processes . In a similar vein Gutierrez views Creation as the first salvific act and the redemptive work of Christ as both re-creation and new creation . This new creation fulfils the promise of Israel and Judah’s prophets and creates a new chosen people consisting of all humanity. Jesus is a Jew, drawn from the Exodus people, and as such demonstrates the honour of God’s faithful promise. The Chosen are not un-Chosen as God continues to reveal Godself to all of Creation through them: it is important that God chose to use a descendent of Abraham as the incarnated actor of universal salvation. Jesus was born into real history , significant history, and his nationality was a significant aspect of that reality. With divine adherence to the covenants God made with Jesus’ ancestors Emmanuel was engineered to be a descendent of David, (and therefore of Abraham), born in the Promised Land. God’s choice was a cultural decision, not a religious one, and therefore it holds no particular significance for salvation. Jesus had to be a Judean in fulfilment of the promises of God to the Jewish nation, but he did not have to be a follower of Judaism for salvation to take effect.
The personhood of Jesus was important to the first generation of church . The replacement for Judas Iscariot had to come from someone who had known and been with Jesus since the beginning, who knew the story of his life because he had been an eye-witness to the events and present to hear the teaching first-hand. With a move toward creedal faith in later generations the teaching of Jesus became less important and it was his death that was all that anyone needed to know. In the patristic age, where theology was written by pastors, Christology was able to generate the life, faith, praxis and mission of the community at the deepest level of its being . The Jewishness of Jesus was non-essential as his transformative example was interpreted into new cultures from earliest times even though he had to be Jewish for his example to be effective among his own people in his own day. This leads us toward the second question, that of the necessity of Jesus’ gender for the work of salvation, in that we can ask whether Jesus’ masculinity make it easier to interpret the gospel into new cultures. After all no man in leadership at the time of Jesus would want to listen to a woman, especially a foreign woman. Perhaps a woman could have died as universal saviour for all mankind, but would Gentile or Pagan men have wanted to listen to her ideas? Johnson has argued that Christology is the doctrine most used to suppress women in that the imperial tradition that assimilated Christology is patriarchal in nature.
If in a patriarchal culture a woman had preached compassionate love and enacted a style of authority that serves, she would most certainly have been greeted with a colossal shrug. Is this not what women are supposed to do by nature? But from a social position of male privilege Jesus preached and acted this way, and herein lay the challenge....Jesus’ preaching about the reign of God and his inclusive lifestyle lived and breathed the opposite to patriarchy, creating a challenge that brought down on his head the wrath of religious and civil authority .
The heart of the problem for modern women seeking to identify with the story of salvation is not that Jesus was a man but that too many of his male followers have not followed in his footsteps insofar as patriarchy has defined men’s self-identity and their relationships. Strobel suggested that the cross is a detrimental symbol for women in that the self-sacrificing love of Jesus apparently sets an example for womanly submission and meekness in the face of oppression. How much more would this have been the case had the saviour been female? The cross is seen to warrant the exploitation of all women, yet most if not all Feminist writers argue that it is not Jesus’ maleness that is doctrinally important to the work of salvation but his humanity in solidarity with the whole suffering human race, including women. In contrast to the psyche of men Grey notes that a woman’s identity is wrapped up in her relationships, (who is she if not mother/wife? ) and her role in the redemptive work she performs to redeem others . She raises the question of Dostoevsky’s Sonia who enters prostitution to provide for her family and then follows Raskolnikov into exile. She saves them, but who saves her? Christ emptied himself to come to earth for the salvation of the world, but isn’t that what women are supposed to do? The actions of redemption might have been unchanged with a female Christ, but our language around it might be different.
The intent of the Christological doctrine was and continues to be inclusive , even though as an individual Jesus had the particular qualities of masculine gender and Jewish nationality. If Jesus Christ takes the place of humanity as the ultimate sacrifice, then his body becomes a site of multiple identities and the question whether what is not assumed is not redeemed is moot as all is assumed at the cross even if not in life. Indeed Cheng argues that the atoning work of Christ on the cross is actually the end of scapegoating , the blaming and elimination of the innocent outsider by the insiders. The resurrection is God’s emphatic No! to the dynamic of ‘insiders’ versus ‘outsiders’ , including women and non-Jews. The work of Jesus Christ is significant for human beings of all sexes, races and historical conditions. Jesus’ ability to be Saviour does not reside in his maleness but in his loving, liberating history lives in the midst of the powers of evil and oppression. According to Fiorenza it is Gnostic and patristic texts which subordinate women to the role of having to “become male” for salvation, not Paul or Jesus. Paul’s call to the “higher work” of celibacy in ministry actually freed women from the social conventions that a woman must be married to have identity and purpose . Wives should submit culturally to their husbands, even if those husbands are pagan, but single women are freed to submit only to Christ’s law. The gospel of Jesus Christ, a Jewish man, is liberation to all humanity, even Greek women.
Neither Jesus’ maleness nor his religious Jewishness is an essential aspect of our salvation in Christ; however each was a necessary part of the work of Jesus of Nazareth in his life as a prophetic teacher in Roman Occupied Judea. That God became incarnate in the form of a boy in a first century Galilean village makes it important for those of us who are not male or Jewish to understand how the ministry and sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth relates to us, but ultimately the gospel can be seen to be a message of liberation and restoration for all of God’s creation, human and non-human, male and female.
Keeping Sabbath for Twenty-First Century Disciples
In an age where even the Southern Eyre Peninsula operates according to a 24/7 clock it is encouraging to find a practice that endorses a life lived at 15/6. Keeping the Sabbath is God’s idea of a joy-filled, healthy life.
With regard to the Omnipotence of The Creator it doesn’t seem to make sense that God actually required a divine session of couch-veg for restorative purposes, but that is the point. The lesson is that rest is important, so important that God took time out of God’s other work to demonstrate it for us. The message for us is that God might not actually need one day off after five at the chalkface, one umpiring local footy, one doing shopping and house cleaning, and one leading worship at church, but we sure do. Sabbath means taking time out just to be. It is not intended as a day away from paid employment so as to complete household chores and religious obligations; rather it is a day of be-still-ness to spend unweeking so as to reconnect with the delight we can find simply in breathing air.
The best definition I have come across for rest is to first define work and then to rest by not doing whatever work is for you. In Jewish tradition Sabbath is a two part command. It is a day for remembrance and of observation ; both “Thou Shalt” and “Thou Shalt Not”. Thou shalt rest, thou shalt not create. On Sabbath you shouldn’t make anything, be that plans for the week ahead or the creation of anything. On Sabbath you can eat, but you cannot cook. How may I spend Sabbath as a secondary school teacher and a tertiary student? May I read on Sabbath so long as I don’t actually study? Who gets to decide what I may/not read? When Jesus declared himself the Lord of Sabbath and that Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for Sabbath he was saying it is good for me to take time to rest, but not so good for me to get all legalistic about what delineates the sin of “work-related reading”.
A key aspect of Sabbath Keeping for twenty-first century disciples is that it sets us apart as the followers of God because Sabbath is God’s idea. Other ancient religions had festivals but only our God prescribed a weekly day of rest. Sabbath is also a statement of satisfaction: Jehovah Jireh has supplied, Jehovah Ropheka has restored, Jehovah Sabaoth has protected. We can rest because we have faith that God is in control: our rest and our deliberate resistance to rush and worry is a sign of that faith . When we cease interfering we acknowledge the world as God’s world. Sabbath rest is a deliberate session of “taking delight in”, looking back at the work done and finding things to take pleasure in, and to feel contentment and satisfaction. Sabbath is an orientation toward God, not just a day off or a trip to the spa. In keeping Sabbath we imitate our God . Sabbath is a day not just restful and relaxed but to be cosy, snugly, happy and safe within the Father’s arms. Sabbath is a taste of grace, but it is also a test of grace. Am I prepared to have playtime while others are working?
A second key aspect of Sabbath Keeping for twenty-first century disciples is that setting aside God’s day is similar to setting aside God’s tithe. Sabbath is the first portion of the week which directs how the other days are expressed in response to its leading. Sabbath is not about a legal minimum input of hours; rather it is about setting the direction and agenda for what is to follow in the week. Sabbath is a regular, predictable expression of the grace and profoundly deep goodness of God: Sabbath is a structure that mediates grace through creation . Sabbath is central to the way we live; it is the fundamental unit of time around which we define our lives. While days, months, and years are defined by the motion of the planets, a week is defined as the period between Sabbaths. If our week is bookended by Sabbath then our week can be viewed within a blessed framework. Sabbath is a symbol of the covenant, like a rainbow in the calendar. Slaves can’t take a day off so Sabbath reminds us that we live every day as freed people and that we must also be people of compassion who allow rest to our own employees.
Sabbath is most commonly thought of as the day of collective worship, which for most Christians is Sunday. Sunday is perichoresis, joining in the eternal dance with God and with our brothers and sisters on earth. It is a joyful celebration of all that God has accomplished so last thing Sabbath should be is quiet and restrained. Sabbath is a day when we play . We get to pretend, like children, that we are in a different place and doing a different job. We can pretend that we are already in Heaven and that we are surrounded by God’s glory in all we sense and in all whom we meet. We get to play “peace” and imagine for a day that all of the tension and fighting in our worlds is not happening and our world is “on Earth as it is in Heaven”. Sabbath is the day to be curious about Eternity and to go exploring. In the light of all that can be said of Sabbath it is unfortunate that Sabbath has a bad name in many quarters, even in the Church . Sabbath must no longer be presented as a form of headmaster’s detention. Sabbath is “play lunch” as it was called at my childhood school, a time of fun for no other reason than to play. It is not lunchtime requiring supervised eating, neither is it PE requiring disciplined activity. Sabbath is time to have a swing and a slide and to lie on the grass and count clouds and smile and feel freed. It might be for this reason that Shabbat is the practise of Judaism that ex-Jews miss the most . Sabbath is the day when we add value to our hours , even as we cannot add hours to our day.
I have been Keeping Sabbath for twelve months and my Sabbath is Thursday because on Sunday I am busy at church. When I began holding a day apart I didn’t really feel closer to God that I had on any other “day off”, but as I made changes to my practice and mindset I found myself looking forward to my Sabbath. I wrote my own Sabbath liturgy and bought a candle to use as a havdallah. Ultimately I began to feel “unweeked” which was the point.
Sabbath is very much an appropriate practice for twenty-first century disciples living within popular culture, perhaps even more important than it was in Jesus’ more relaxed, seasonal time. It is a practice that focuses our attention on God as provider, source and sustainer, as well as saviour and object of our worship, and takes our attention off money and employment as the sources of identity. Rest and see that the Lord is good.
The best definition I have come across for rest is to first define work and then to rest by not doing whatever work is for you. In Jewish tradition Sabbath is a two part command. It is a day for remembrance and of observation ; both “Thou Shalt” and “Thou Shalt Not”. Thou shalt rest, thou shalt not create. On Sabbath you shouldn’t make anything, be that plans for the week ahead or the creation of anything. On Sabbath you can eat, but you cannot cook. How may I spend Sabbath as a secondary school teacher and a tertiary student? May I read on Sabbath so long as I don’t actually study? Who gets to decide what I may/not read? When Jesus declared himself the Lord of Sabbath and that Sabbath was made for Man, not Man for Sabbath he was saying it is good for me to take time to rest, but not so good for me to get all legalistic about what delineates the sin of “work-related reading”.
A key aspect of Sabbath Keeping for twenty-first century disciples is that it sets us apart as the followers of God because Sabbath is God’s idea. Other ancient religions had festivals but only our God prescribed a weekly day of rest. Sabbath is also a statement of satisfaction: Jehovah Jireh has supplied, Jehovah Ropheka has restored, Jehovah Sabaoth has protected. We can rest because we have faith that God is in control: our rest and our deliberate resistance to rush and worry is a sign of that faith . When we cease interfering we acknowledge the world as God’s world. Sabbath rest is a deliberate session of “taking delight in”, looking back at the work done and finding things to take pleasure in, and to feel contentment and satisfaction. Sabbath is an orientation toward God, not just a day off or a trip to the spa. In keeping Sabbath we imitate our God . Sabbath is a day not just restful and relaxed but to be cosy, snugly, happy and safe within the Father’s arms. Sabbath is a taste of grace, but it is also a test of grace. Am I prepared to have playtime while others are working?
A second key aspect of Sabbath Keeping for twenty-first century disciples is that setting aside God’s day is similar to setting aside God’s tithe. Sabbath is the first portion of the week which directs how the other days are expressed in response to its leading. Sabbath is not about a legal minimum input of hours; rather it is about setting the direction and agenda for what is to follow in the week. Sabbath is a regular, predictable expression of the grace and profoundly deep goodness of God: Sabbath is a structure that mediates grace through creation . Sabbath is central to the way we live; it is the fundamental unit of time around which we define our lives. While days, months, and years are defined by the motion of the planets, a week is defined as the period between Sabbaths. If our week is bookended by Sabbath then our week can be viewed within a blessed framework. Sabbath is a symbol of the covenant, like a rainbow in the calendar. Slaves can’t take a day off so Sabbath reminds us that we live every day as freed people and that we must also be people of compassion who allow rest to our own employees.
Sabbath is most commonly thought of as the day of collective worship, which for most Christians is Sunday. Sunday is perichoresis, joining in the eternal dance with God and with our brothers and sisters on earth. It is a joyful celebration of all that God has accomplished so last thing Sabbath should be is quiet and restrained. Sabbath is a day when we play . We get to pretend, like children, that we are in a different place and doing a different job. We can pretend that we are already in Heaven and that we are surrounded by God’s glory in all we sense and in all whom we meet. We get to play “peace” and imagine for a day that all of the tension and fighting in our worlds is not happening and our world is “on Earth as it is in Heaven”. Sabbath is the day to be curious about Eternity and to go exploring. In the light of all that can be said of Sabbath it is unfortunate that Sabbath has a bad name in many quarters, even in the Church . Sabbath must no longer be presented as a form of headmaster’s detention. Sabbath is “play lunch” as it was called at my childhood school, a time of fun for no other reason than to play. It is not lunchtime requiring supervised eating, neither is it PE requiring disciplined activity. Sabbath is time to have a swing and a slide and to lie on the grass and count clouds and smile and feel freed. It might be for this reason that Shabbat is the practise of Judaism that ex-Jews miss the most . Sabbath is the day when we add value to our hours , even as we cannot add hours to our day.
I have been Keeping Sabbath for twelve months and my Sabbath is Thursday because on Sunday I am busy at church. When I began holding a day apart I didn’t really feel closer to God that I had on any other “day off”, but as I made changes to my practice and mindset I found myself looking forward to my Sabbath. I wrote my own Sabbath liturgy and bought a candle to use as a havdallah. Ultimately I began to feel “unweeked” which was the point.
Sabbath is very much an appropriate practice for twenty-first century disciples living within popular culture, perhaps even more important than it was in Jesus’ more relaxed, seasonal time. It is a practice that focuses our attention on God as provider, source and sustainer, as well as saviour and object of our worship, and takes our attention off money and employment as the sources of identity. Rest and see that the Lord is good.
Wednesday 26 January 2011
Twennysixt a'tha oneth.
On Saturday 26th January 1788 an advance force of Royal Marines and other naval personnel from the United Kingdom of Great Britain invaded the country of the Eora (Cadigal) People. A prison was established at Cadi and within eighty years much of the continent to which “Sydney Cove” belongs had been stolen and settled by further waves of British people and their invited guests.
Is this what “Australia Day” celebrates?
As an Australian of English and convict descent I hope for more from my national day. I feel shame for the treatment of our land’s first people: appalled by the near genocide of the Palawah people of Trowenna, disgusted by the mass murder by the gun/fire/rope/knife/club/sneeze and the poisoned blanket/grain/waterhole, and dismayed by the conditions endured by some of the Koori, Palawah, Lia Pootah, Yolngu, Anagu, and Nunga people with whom I have lived and worked. Reconciliation is necessary; indeed conciliation might be a better word (since there never was a right relationship to break in many places). Let us indeed finish what we started, but not just because Marcia Hines told us to on the tele.
Yet still I hope for more, because I see “Australia Day” akin to “Christmas Day”.
Jesus was not born on December 25th, yet on that day the miracle of Emmanuel is celebrated by billions of people across the world. Many in Australia worship the child, even if only for a dew-eyed moment amongst the tinsel and the paper, when “the true meaning” is referenced. A man who is named otherwise by those who stub a toe or hammer a thumb is remembered on that one day. Jesus was not born so that the Eora would decorate fir trees on Saturnalia, and no-one considers it so.
Australia was not founded on Australia Day, Sydney was. It is a fact of history than on one January evening a foreign flag was planted and a foreign king was toasted as a gaol was established while the indigenous population watched from close by. Australia Day does not celebrate the dispossession of the Eora and the “manly” Dhuwal Peoples, although that particular anniversary is used.
Australia Day is more about 01/01/1901 and 25/04/1915 than about 26/01/1788. Australia Day celebrates the mud armies of Brisbane, and the waist-deep people of Victoria who say “yeah it’s tough mate but Kwoinslan has it worse.” It celebrates the brave people of Christmas Island who risked their lives to save “illegal immigrants” and then wept at their partial lack of success. It celebrates brave diggers who charge Taliban machine-gunners in defence of their mates because “greater love has no man”. It celebrates lonely teenagers facing huge white waves in tiny pink boats. It celebrates people who leave lucrative private sector jobs so as to devote their time and talents to compassionate acts of charity.
And Australia Day is Survival Day. You came, you stole, you conquered. You did not wipe us out.
Australia Day is a date chosen from our pagan past to celebrate our national, holistic future.
It is a day for black arm bands, but also those in green and gold. It is a day for flags bearing the emblems of an empire past, a pugilistic marsupial, and a golden sun above a dark skinned people proud upon a red soil.
In courage, let us all combine to pray and work towards the advance of our fair Australia. (May she and we never be unfair again.)
Is this what “Australia Day” celebrates?
As an Australian of English and convict descent I hope for more from my national day. I feel shame for the treatment of our land’s first people: appalled by the near genocide of the Palawah people of Trowenna, disgusted by the mass murder by the gun/fire/rope/knife/club/sneeze and the poisoned blanket/grain/waterhole, and dismayed by the conditions endured by some of the Koori, Palawah, Lia Pootah, Yolngu, Anagu, and Nunga people with whom I have lived and worked. Reconciliation is necessary; indeed conciliation might be a better word (since there never was a right relationship to break in many places). Let us indeed finish what we started, but not just because Marcia Hines told us to on the tele.
Yet still I hope for more, because I see “Australia Day” akin to “Christmas Day”.
Jesus was not born on December 25th, yet on that day the miracle of Emmanuel is celebrated by billions of people across the world. Many in Australia worship the child, even if only for a dew-eyed moment amongst the tinsel and the paper, when “the true meaning” is referenced. A man who is named otherwise by those who stub a toe or hammer a thumb is remembered on that one day. Jesus was not born so that the Eora would decorate fir trees on Saturnalia, and no-one considers it so.
Australia was not founded on Australia Day, Sydney was. It is a fact of history than on one January evening a foreign flag was planted and a foreign king was toasted as a gaol was established while the indigenous population watched from close by. Australia Day does not celebrate the dispossession of the Eora and the “manly” Dhuwal Peoples, although that particular anniversary is used.
Australia Day is more about 01/01/1901 and 25/04/1915 than about 26/01/1788. Australia Day celebrates the mud armies of Brisbane, and the waist-deep people of Victoria who say “yeah it’s tough mate but Kwoinslan has it worse.” It celebrates the brave people of Christmas Island who risked their lives to save “illegal immigrants” and then wept at their partial lack of success. It celebrates brave diggers who charge Taliban machine-gunners in defence of their mates because “greater love has no man”. It celebrates lonely teenagers facing huge white waves in tiny pink boats. It celebrates people who leave lucrative private sector jobs so as to devote their time and talents to compassionate acts of charity.
And Australia Day is Survival Day. You came, you stole, you conquered. You did not wipe us out.
Australia Day is a date chosen from our pagan past to celebrate our national, holistic future.
It is a day for black arm bands, but also those in green and gold. It is a day for flags bearing the emblems of an empire past, a pugilistic marsupial, and a golden sun above a dark skinned people proud upon a red soil.
In courage, let us all combine to pray and work towards the advance of our fair Australia. (May she and we never be unfair again.)
Friday 21 January 2011
An Act of God
God of the sunburnt country,
Lord of flooding rains,
Sketcher of raging creeks,
Filler of swollen dams;
Sustenance of country communities,
Father of coastal cities,
Architect of mountain ranges
Painter of native wildflowers,
Australia cries out to you for relief.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
Father, the “Acts of God” are what The Church does
In the aftermath of a natural disaster.
You were still God after “the tsunami” and “the cyclone”,
“the storm”, “the earthquake” and “the fires”.
You reign when it hails, and you rule when it bakes.
Remind us, God who is known in the world by the compassion of your family,
That the Act of God is our responsibility.
By your Holy Spirit lead your Church in Prayer;
Guide your Church in service with shovels and excavators;
Sustain your Church in encouragement with tea-cups and fresh blankets;
Protect your Church in all places that remain treacherous and unstable.
We pray for all state governors, state premiers, and state parliaments.
We pray for our Queen, our Governor General, our Prime Minister and our federal parliament.
We pray for all local councils, especially for mayors and shire presidents.
We pray for local churches, for priests, pastors and ministers, elders, deacons, and the individuals who make up congregations. We pray also for bishops, presidents, and those who have care for the wider Church.
We pray for the emergency services, for managers, officers and cadets. For Police, Fire, Ambulance, and the SES, both metropolitan and rural.
We pray for hospitals and medical staff; morgues, coroners, and mortuary staff.
We pray for schools, service clubs, sporting clubs, and all of those places where people find community.
We pray for all people who have lost.
Those who have lost loved members of their family or friendship groups;
Those who have lost treasured possessions, entire houses, complete histories, heirlooms and mementos;
Those who have lost hope, peace, confidence, heart;
Those who have lost faith.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
But we know you are the God of Noah,
and we believe your promise never to destroy the Earth with a flood.
We are not destroyed, but we are distraught.
And we know you are the God of Lazarus,
and we believe that you weep with us even as you know the restoration that is to come.
We are distraught, but we are not destroyed.
Amen.
Lord of flooding rains,
Sketcher of raging creeks,
Filler of swollen dams;
Sustenance of country communities,
Father of coastal cities,
Architect of mountain ranges
Painter of native wildflowers,
Australia cries out to you for relief.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
Father, the “Acts of God” are what The Church does
In the aftermath of a natural disaster.
You were still God after “the tsunami” and “the cyclone”,
“the storm”, “the earthquake” and “the fires”.
You reign when it hails, and you rule when it bakes.
Remind us, God who is known in the world by the compassion of your family,
That the Act of God is our responsibility.
By your Holy Spirit lead your Church in Prayer;
Guide your Church in service with shovels and excavators;
Sustain your Church in encouragement with tea-cups and fresh blankets;
Protect your Church in all places that remain treacherous and unstable.
We pray for all state governors, state premiers, and state parliaments.
We pray for our Queen, our Governor General, our Prime Minister and our federal parliament.
We pray for all local councils, especially for mayors and shire presidents.
We pray for local churches, for priests, pastors and ministers, elders, deacons, and the individuals who make up congregations. We pray also for bishops, presidents, and those who have care for the wider Church.
We pray for the emergency services, for managers, officers and cadets. For Police, Fire, Ambulance, and the SES, both metropolitan and rural.
We pray for hospitals and medical staff; morgues, coroners, and mortuary staff.
We pray for schools, service clubs, sporting clubs, and all of those places where people find community.
We pray for all people who have lost.
Those who have lost loved members of their family or friendship groups;
Those who have lost treasured possessions, entire houses, complete histories, heirlooms and mementos;
Those who have lost hope, peace, confidence, heart;
Those who have lost faith.
Our land is drowned Lord,
The ground is flooded and saturated.
Our energies are spent Lord,
The people are exhausted; wet and disheartened.
But we know you are the God of Noah,
and we believe your promise never to destroy the Earth with a flood.
We are not destroyed, but we are distraught.
And we know you are the God of Lazarus,
and we believe that you weep with us even as you know the restoration that is to come.
We are distraught, but we are not destroyed.
Amen.
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