Radiohead

I am inspired to write this as I watch Radiohead from the Reading Festival as it sends shivers up my spine reminding me of when I saw them last summer in Victoria Park. And what a set it was...

15 Step/Bodysnatchers/All I Need/The National Anthem/Pyramid Song/Nude/Weird Fishes/Arpeggi/The Gloaming/Dollars and Cents/Faust Arp/There There/Just/Climbing Up The Walls/Reckoner/Everything In Its Right Place/How To Dissappear Completely/Jigsaw/ Falling Into Place/Videotape/Airbag/Bangers ‘n Mash/Planet Telex/The Tourist/Cymbal Rush/You And Whose Army?/Idioteque

I have to say that tonight's is equally good. It reminded me of Rhidian Brook's excellent thought for the day, which I still relate to, and enclose below...

Thought for the Day, 28 June 2008

Rhidian Brook

This week I was at an outdoor rock concert - something that's now as sure a fixture on the summer calendar as Wimbledon or a Bank Holiday. Half way through a beautiful song by the band Radiohead my friend, who as far as I know has no religious affiliations, turned to me with tears in his eyes and said that he was having a religious experience. He wasn't being glib. Something was happening in that moment; something powerful enough to make him cry, embrace me and for both of us raise our hands in a gesture of abandoned praise. We both knew, without saying so, that we weren't worshipping the band - great though they are - and that this 'something' was about more than just music.

But what was it?

Of course, I can I explain it all rationally: the sonic vibrations coursing down the cerebral cortex, the mass gathering of people and the quantity of beer were all combining to produce a heightened feeling of euphoria. But should I write off what my friend was saying purely on the grounds of it being just a feeling? I think he was experiencing something that many of us do but can't always name - that sense of something beyond ourselves and the feeling of rapture and exaltation that goes with it The music - like stunning scenery or a fine painting - was really just a window through which he caught a glimpse of 'the other', the something beyond the veil of what we can see with our eyes and explain with our minds.

As the apostle Paul - a man who had a spectacular 3D religious experience - once put it: 'since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities can been clearly seen all around us.' In all that is beautiful and excellent, in all that is good, creation shouts and whispers the rumour of the divine.

I think those tears at the rock concert were a response to the same force of divine Love that revealed itself to Paul; but I also think there's more. The theologian Rudolf Otto - who called this sense of 'the tremendous' or the mysterious - 'the numinous' -also said that a religious experience required an ethical dimension. Implying that the full measure of the religious experience was not how spectacular it was - but the fruit it bore. A special effect needs to have a special effect.

When the prophet Isaiah' had his fantastic encounter with God his response wasn't so much wow! but woe: 'woe to me for I am a man of unclean lips' he said. And it's this response rather than the seraphim or the blinding light figure on the throne that makes it meaningful. The experience lead to an instant inner transformation. And interestingly, Isaiah doesn't go and tell people about the vision. He tells them to turn to God, to help the sick and the poor and broken. Or as Paul himself bluntly put it: if you really want a religions experience go and look after the widows and the orphans.

copyright 2008 BBC

A Show of Hands...

I was asked earlier this week if I would like to trespass. Now I confess to you brothers and sisters that I have broken the law before. I have never though broken a law that would see me charged a public order offense. What made the invitation to trespass all the more shocking was that it came from Christian Aid. I had to read the small print...

Christian Aid are organising what is called a Mass Visual Trespass - a projection of text, video and photo messages from members of the public to be projected in a place where Gordon Brown can see them. The trespass is calling on Gordon Brown to help deliver climate justice for the world's poorest people at December's crucial Copenhagen summit and begin to see the world changed.

In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus asks the Pharisees, the crowd, the disciples, Gordon Brown and us what sort of world do we want to live in and are we prepared to live our lives in such a way so that change is brought about in our hearts, heads, hands and indeed into our whole lives.

Jesus is out in the countryside teaching the crowd and his disciples and teachers of the law come from Jerusalem to find him. Why did they go out there? To try to discredit Jesus? To suss him out? Whilst they are there they notice that the disciples are eating without washing their hands.

The disciples are not in breach of the Law by not washing their hands, but they are breaking with tradition. The fact that Mark has the little aside about what the tradition actually entailed, and that he records the Pharisees when they are in conversation with Jesus talking about the ‘tradition of the elders’, might mean that Mark was writing and Jesus was speaking to a crowd that was largely made up of non Jews who will have needed the explanation. Perhaps that is why the Pharisees were there - they had heard that Jesus was teaching Gentiles as well as Jews.

Jesus sidesteps the question about breaking of tradition and instead, he sees really where the Pharisees are at. To Jesus it felt like the importance of these traditions of the Law had become more important than the Law itself. Jesus quotes Isaiah from memory and accuses the Pharisees of teaching others to do as they do - honouring God with words and actions alone but not with holy lives.

Jesus goes on to rubbish the traditions associated with the keeping of the Law, by pointing out how obtuse some keeping of the commandments has become. Jesus refers back to where this discussion began - to ritual cleanliness. What makes someone ritually unclean, asks Jesus - what that person has touched? What they have eaten? What they have done or not done? No, what makes someone unclean, undesirable to God, is what drives the person from the inside of their being, from their heart, not from the exterior world.

In the sort of books about Christianity that I read, over recent years, I have come across the expression ‘radical obedience’ again and again. It sounds good but what does it mean. I have struggled to find a definition. I found one this week this week:

"... To me, radical obedience is obeying God when it doesn't make sense. Radical obedience is doing God's will when our own agenda makes more sense. Radical obedience is not only asking "What Would Jesus Do" but DOING what Jesus did. Radical obedience is denying my flesh while fulfilling God's purpose for me. Radical obedience is heeding the call of God when, by all appearances, it's out of the question. Radical obedience is not compromising even if it means losing friends. Radical obedience is venturing outside my comfort zone no matter how uncomfortable or unreasonable it feels.

Radical obedience demands I do whatever I do so that Christ might be glorified, so that He is the focus of my life, so people see Him and not me. Radical obedience demands I disregard those things which seem to be important to me so that Christ becomes of paramount importance to me..."


The discussion that Jesus had with the Pharisees begins with the washing of hands, and the implications of things that I have touched or not touched have on on my own spiritual wellbeing. I can see how this tradition began and it is a very 21st century one. In an age obsessed with swine-flu and antibacterial cleanliness how we use our hands is a physical and spiritual issue.
The discussion that Jesus had with the Pharisees ends with a call to a radical obedience, as the encounter ends asking questions about not just about my spiritual wellbeing, but about how my whole life honours God.

We live in a world that distances individuals from each other - swine flu aside. More and more new homes are being built for a single occupant. Technology allows us to communicate and shop without interacting with another person. When did you last speak to someone rather than email them? When did you last hold someone by the hand and tell them that you love them? In contemporary culture we need to see each other less and less.

It is all too easy for us as Christians my friends to find ourselves swept up in the traditions of our day from the way we worship to the way we shop. Jesus asks us - do these truly honour God? Who is it, like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day that is encouraging us - our church leaders, politicians, advertisers?

Jesus used his hands in surprising ways to break the traditions of his day with the leper, the syrophonecian or hemorrhaging woman, the poor or blind or even the dead. Touching clean and unclean alike, through the use of his hands the kingdom of God came near.

In a society both locally and internationally that seems to value isolation, how I use my hands indeed my whole self is an act of radical obedience to the God who came to me first in the flesh, in Jesus. How I use my hands shows how my whole being is filled to overflowing with the God who made me and loves me as I am. How I use my hands can not only get behind but begin to breakdown our anti-bacterial, technological and quite frankly increasingly isolated society and see our world transformed in justice and mercy. That beings by building friendships with the lonely, sharing hospitality with the hungry, showing compassion to the grieving, and bringing comfort to the bewildered. But this will only happen if I step out of my comfort zone, out of the traditions that give order to my life, and be radically obedient to Jesus. Amen

How the Future Is Not Like “Hackers”

At the risk (certainty) of aging myself a bit, I say that one of my favorite generational movies is Hackers. It came out in 1995, when the information age was in its nascent stages and the Internet was only understood by a cunning few. The movie presented a (then) present/near future world of computers, hipster technophiles, and computer viruses scandals. It turns out the movie is now a bit of fossil (a really cool fossil, but still a fossil), as the future is not like Hackers. Here are some examples I can think off.

Technology Ages Quickly. Technology indexes the computer age. It is hard to suppress a chuckle when I see characters in the movie get excited about “RISC architecture” or a “28.8 BPS modem.” The low resolution of many of the computers also shocks modern day computer users. Those screens back then could fit into about two square inches of most monitors today –which are now all flat panel, LCD, or plasma or anything but a CRT.

Oh, and the movie had floppy discs. What the fuck?

Nobody goes to arcades. In the beginning of the movie, the characters go to some raverish establishment where they eat greasy food, play arcade games, and discuss how “1337” (leet) they are. While the greasy food and self-gratification remain intimate parts of techie culture, nobody goes to arcades to play videogames.

Instead, people set up their desktops with the latest glowly equipment in their dark apartments/relative’s basements and hook up to the internet to play World of Warcraft. Alternately, they might have several friends over to play Wii, Xbox, or similar console. These are also played on anything other than a CRT.

If arcades do exist, and they are very rare if they do, they exist as internet cafes. They are nothing like what is portrayed in Hackers.

Shows like “Hack the Planet” are not on cable-access TV. At one point in the movie, the characters sit around a couch and watch “Hack the Planet” with metro-sexual hosts Razor and Blade. While I am certain that such shows exist, I am pretty sure they are on youtube. In fact, as far as techie culture goes, I think the television is more or less a dead medium. The most tech savvy people I know only have cable if it bundles with their internet access. When they do watch TV, it is probably Netflix, downloaded movies, or TiVo. The thought of actually scheduling a time to sit down and watch Cable access is unheard of.

Pay phones do not exist. Throughout the movie, pay phones are used not only to make calls, but to dial into the internet at remote locations to do nifty works of hacking. Now, it is quite apparent that pay phones are dead. There is no need to use a tape recorder to hack yourself some long distance calls if you have skype. There is no need to dial into the internet when every third café has wireless internet. There’s no need use them to make calls if you have cell phone –which everybody does.

I suppose if you’re the kind of hacker that knows how to hack a payphone, you have some serious street credibility with hacker culture. Outside of that; who cares?

Hackers do not courageously crusade against evil corporations and government agencies, who attempt to victimize them. The situation has changed over the years. These days, hackers are working for the evil corporations and government agencies.

Thanks for reading.

I would like to say.... I forgot.

In a blog way back December, I talked about how I thought it was sad that we frequently remember the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, but forget V-J day. V-J day, I think is more important because it was the end of war, and the beginning of peaceful -even allied- relations between Japan and the United States.

Well mea culpa, I forgot too.

August 14th was V-J day. I should have been swing dancing in a WWII pilot's uniform.

Wasps...

We have a wasps nest in the eaves of the house. It's been there for a few weeks now. I haven't done anything about it until Peter was stung completely out of the blue by one last week.

This afternoon, the wasp man came to deal with the nest. I have to say that part of me was reluctant to do anything as wasps are hopefully munching on the pests on the runner beans etc. I am also now aware that the nest will die out in the Autumn. And yet, the wasp man came, he sprayed stuff, he left, £45 richer. I hope it does the job. My kids will be pleased.

And yet I feel guilty. The wasps didn't really inconvenience us in any way and they were doing some good in the garden. They have their place in the grand scheme of things... so do I. Yet I am able to exercise power over them - with a little help of course.

In Genesis 1, God gives 'dominion' to humanity over the animals, birds and insects etc. Did what I did demonstrate dominion. Hmmm... perhaps not...

God calls humanity, in Genesis 1, to a stewardship of creation, which hopefully jolts the faithful awake in the face of Climate Change, to modify our lives accordingly - in terms of the big things - recycling, green energy, using less, driving and flying less, etc. Dominion as stewardship though should also govern the way I react in small ways too, such has whether I squash the spider or let it out, or what I do (or not) about the wasp's nest.

In Matthew 6:25ff, Jesus suggests that God loves the non-human creation too. In fact, perhaps more powerfully in John 3:16. Christ came to demonstrate God's love in action to the world, in the world, and for the benefit of the whole world... even wasps.

It may not matter to me too much that I squash the spider or employ the services of wasp man. I may feel no sorrow. They don't matter to me. They are pests...

Pests they may be, but they matter to God.

I am all for changed lifestyles in terms of climate change, and I believe that our response is a human and spiritual one, but...

I realise that my thoughtless 'oh-well-it-doesn't-matter-ness' about spiders and wasps shows my contempt of the God who made them and me.

Lord have mercy.

[She] who does not hate [her] father and mother...

In my idle surfing for an online, free-lance, writing job. I came across and interesting pair of articles. Apparently, a 17-year old Muslim girl, Rifqa Bary, secretly converted to Christianity and then ran away. She traveled from Ohio to Florida in fear for her life.

source

Today, a judge decided that she would stay in Florida with a foster family until she was eighteen. This was due in large effort to written petitions from Christians

There is a dedicated facebook group to the cause. As well as a fan page.

I found this video of the girl as well.


Quite a story.

Good to know that Christians did some good, and so did facebook apparently.

"Saved!" and the Good Samaritan

One of my favorite movies, surely and older movie by now, is the teen satire Saved! which I watched for the first time back in College. I realized then, and I still think now, that movie is not some “anti-Christian” movie. I think of it more like modern day parable of the good Samaritan. If the movie offends you, you should think carefully why.

The Parable

Let’s start with the Gospel of Luke. A lawyer asks Jesus a question, and Jesus answers with the parable.

25And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" 27And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." 28And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE." 29But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Notice how this parable is set up. The Lawyer has an idea of what it is he is supposed to do, but in the fashion of lawyers, he is attempting to be as specific with the letter of the law so he can minimally fulfill the law. The question “who is my neighbor” is only half-way sincere.

Jesus answers:

30Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31"And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32"Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33"But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, 34and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35"On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.' 36"Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" 37And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."

Source

There are two things that we need to realize about this parable. First, is how that lawyer viewed the Pharisees and the Levites. Secondly, how that lawyer viewed the Samaritans.

As good Christians, we all know that a Pharisees and Levites were bad people, but that is our perspective. That little lawyer probably had quite the opposite view. In his day, a Pharisee or a Levite was someone who was revered in the same way we revere successful ministers, missionaries, authors and any other type of clergy are today. The Samaritan, as viewed by the Jewish community at the time, were decidedly outside the fold of the approved, morally-upright, and spiritually approved group. They were derided for the ethnicity and for not worship God in the way approved by the Pharisees and Levites. The Samaritans were considered so dirty, that the Lawyer couldn’t even bring himself to say “the Samaritan” at the end of this exchange.

This is why this parable is so particularly penetrating. Jesus is using this surprise and this scandal to gently push through the lawyer’s half-sincere question about ethics. Jesus is saying quite a bit here. First, goodness is not automatic when you are part of the approved community. On the flipside, doing good is not the domain of a group. Jesus tells the lawyer, who is well aware that he belongs to approved group, to be like that outcast who is doing the right thing. If you know what’s right, stop asking questions and do what is right.

Saved! (?)

If you haven’t seen “Saved!”, I recommend simply scrolling down to the bottom of this review, buying it, and then watching it. Don’t read the spoilers that are about to come.

The story of saved is set up in a similar way that the parable is. The main protagonist is Mary, who is clearly in the approved group of the conservative, fundamentalist, Christians. She is part of the “Christian Jewels” a singing group at her school. Her mom is on every church board meeting and participates in every activity. She knows Pastor Skip, the school youth minister. She has a wonderful pair of Christian friends namely Hilary and Veronica. Those who are outside the approved group are Hilary’s brother Roland and the rebel Jewish girl Cassandra.
The plot takes off when Mary has sex with her boyfriend in order to restore him to heterosexuality. She finds out that she is pregnant and decides to keep both her shame and her pregnancy to herself. Throughout the story, she becomes increasingly withdrawn from her friends and eventually experiences a crisis of faith. It is summed up best when she stares at cross at her school and utters several curse words ending with, “God Damn.”

It is here that we begin to see the failures of the modern day Pharisees and Levites. Hilary reacts to Mary’s despondency out of spite and pride –even outcasting Mary from the Christian Jewels. There are hints of Veronica own sexual misconduct at church camps. Pastor Skip, though not living with his wife, is in a sham of marriage that is blindingly apparent to his own son, Patrick. Her mother shows her lack of openness and lack of assurances towards Mary when Mary begins to reach out. When Mary’s pregnancy is finally revealed, her mom intends to send her away to a “Mercy House.” Additionally, the mother’s own repressed sexuality reveals her ulterior motives for her church involvement. Everyone is quick to judge and slow to understand. The entire Christian cast displays acts of spite, hypocrisy, and shallowness.

Not so with the movie’s two (maybe three?) Samaritans. Cassandra, the rule-defying rebel, is the first to realize that Mary is pregnant. She gently, but persistently, presses Mary on the issue until Mary relents. She and Rolond help Mary go shopping for pregnancy clothes. The group eventually becomes friends. They are later framed by Hilary and others and kicked out of school. On prom night, these two plan an escape for Mary and buy her a prom dress. Patrick, Skip’s son, becomes Mary’s date and is the third person to accept Mary -pregnancy and all.

Who was Mary’s neighbor? It is quite clear in the movie who. Those cynical outcasts show greater mercy and understanding towards Mary than any of the “spiritually approved” group. Like the Pharisees and the Levites, the spiritually upright demonstrate little more than a desire to avoid the issue of the person in need, but going a step further in actually harming Mary.

Regarding the Christians who disliked this movie, I think a call for concern is in order. Such a movie can be dismissed easily as anti-Christian, but this would be missing the point. If Christians feel offended by such a depiction of Christians, then maybe it is time to think about why those depictions exist. Why get upset about such a film or give it a superficial examination about its message? Why not instead see who truly acts as the neighbor and then go and do likewise.?

Thanks for reading.

Initial thoughts on Mark 7 for Sunday

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The sermon on Sunday could be titled 'Faithfulness to God', or 'Lip service vs Heart Service' or 'Going Through the Motions' or something similar. The core of what I will be saying on Sunday is about how we take what Jesus teaches seriously - to heart, to head, to hands indeed into our whole lives.

Jesus is out in the countryside teaching the crowd and his disciples and teachers of the law come from Jerusalem to find him. Why did they go out there? To try to discredit Jesus? To sus him out? They notice that the disciples are eating with unclean hands.

The disciples are not in breach of the Law by not washing, but they are breaking with tradition. The fact that Mark has the little aside, and that he records the Pharisees talking about the tradition of the elders, might mean that Mark was writing and Jesus was speaking to a crowd that was largely made up of non Jews who will have needed the explanation. Perhaps that is why the Pharisees were there - they had heard that Jesus was teaching Gentiles as well as Jews.

Jesus sidesteps the question about breaking of tradition and instead, he sees really where the Pharisees are at. To Jesus it felt like the importance of the traditions of the Law had become more important than the Law - spirit and letter - itself. Jesus quotes Isaiah from memory and accuses the Pharisees of teaching others to do as they do - honouring God with words and actions alone but not with holy lives.

Jesus goes on to rubbish the traditions associated with the keeping of the Law, by pointing out how obtuse some keeping of the commandments has become. Jesus refers back to where this discussion began - to ritual cleanliness. What makes someone ritually unclean, asks Jesus - what that person has touched? What they have eaten? What they have done or not done? No, what makes someone unclean, undesirable to God, is what drives the person from the inside of their being, from their heart, not from the exterior world.

Radical obedience is a phrase I have read and heard Christians use before. It sounds good but what does it mean. I have struggled to find a definition. I found this on another blog,

"... To me, radical obedience is obeying God when it doesn't make sense. Radical obedience is doing God's will when our own agenda makes more sense. Radical obedience is not only asking "What Would Jesus Do" but DOING what Jesus did. Radical obedience is denying my flesh while fulfilling God's purpose for me. Radical obedience is heeding the call of God when, by all appearances, it's out of the question. Radical obedience is not compromising even if it means losing friends. Radical obedience is venturing outside my comfort zone no matter how uncomfortable or unreasonable it feels.

Radical obedience demands I do whatever I do so that Christ might be glorified, so that He is the focus of my life, so people see Him and not me. Radical obedience demands I disregard those things which seem to be important to me so that Christ becomes of paramount importance to me..."

The discussion that Jesus had with the Pharisees begins with the washing of hands, and the implications of things that I have touched or not touched on my own spiritual wellbeing. I can see how this tradition began and it is a very 21st century one. In an age obsessed with swine-flu and antibacterial cleanliness how we use our hands is a physical and spiritual issue.

Jesus' challenge to us through this encounter is one that calls to a radical obedience. We live in a world that distances individuals from each other - swine flu aside - when did you last speak to someone rather than email them? When did you last hold someone by the hand and tell them that you love them? In contemporary culture we need to see each other less and less.

How I use my hands indeed my whole self is an act of radical obedience to the God who came to me first in the flesh, in Jesus. How I use my hands shows how my whole being is filled to overflowing with the God who made me.

As I prepare for Sunday I am left with some questions:

• What does it mean for me to be really (radically) obedient to God in Christ?
• Who or what are the Pharisees of our day?
• What sort of Christianity are they teaching us to live out? What traditions are they asking us to keep?
• How do we use our hands to come to God ourselves and bring others nearer his Kingdom?
  

The Word as a Wordle - Trinity 12B

Here's next Sunday's Gospel reading from Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 as a word cloud...

Life With God

Here is a version of what I said this morning at the Eucharist. At 10am there was a baptism too...! Based on John 6:56-69...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rise to the challenge the advert said. In big bold letters. It made inviting reading, ‘...you’ll engage in life faster and better than most people of your age... you’ll experience things that you never thought possible and go to places that most people only dream about. You’ll learn your capabilities, sharpen your skills, and then push yourself to the limit on a daily basis. You’ll grow stronger physically, mentally and feel a sense of pride that you’ve never felt before...’ Intrueging eh? The and was for...? The US army.

Friends this morning’s reading from the account of Jesus’ life by John, also speaks in the same sort of way of an exciting and engaging life lived richly, diversely, faithfully, divinely and fully.

In this morning’s Jesus begins with some very strange words, words which were destined to shock. In terms of trying to coax people round to his way of thinking, he is not on to a winner here. Not a single mention of challenges to rise to...

Jesus talks about needing to eat his flesh and drink his blood and this providing life. Now to us this sounds rather disgusting. To Jesus’ good Jewish hearers too this would have been deeply offensive.

The book of Leviticus in the Old testament is very clear about what can and cannot be eaten by Jewish people. Only the meat of ‘clean’ animals can be eaten by the God-fearing, but blood can never ever be consumed because the life of the animal is contained in the blood. Talk of eating human flesh and drinking human blood will have taken all of this to a new level. Jesus says, if you find the prospect of eating flesh and blood offensive or difficult try imagining seeing him ascending back to heaven where he was before with God his father. Following Jesus is going to turn our expectations of faith on their head, and to their limit. Jesus is well aware that his teaching can be hard and is clearly turning people off, but what is Jesus actually offering here?

Those who eat and drink Jesus are people who find themselves so completely at one with him, that living the way asks is second nature. Jesus says, if you eat and drink me, I will abide in you. I will be with you always, I will be close by, I will be almost within you. We’ll never be left in any doubt what Jesus would do in any given situation in our complex modern world if he abides in us - we will know him and his hopes and dreams for us so well.

But Jesus isn’t offering just to be some sort of moral compass - should I do this or that? - he offers us ‘life with God.’ Now I am pretty sure that this will not help us ‘engage in life faster than most people of our age’ as the US army promises us. My life moves fast enough thanks. God does offer us a life better than the one we are currently living. It’s not a new improved version of what we are living, only with more time for reading the bible and praying and not financial worries. No, it’s actually an old version of life, and old vision of life, life with God the way He always intended it to be lived.

What does a life with God look like? It is one that acknowledges what Peter does in this morning’s reading - Jesus has the words of eternal life. Throughout the big story of the Bible, God has said again and again ‘I am with you, are you with me?’ God says this supremely in Jesus. But he doesn’t just say it, he shows us what it means and what it looks like.

A life with God is lived by someone who relies totally and exclusively on Him. Not just for food, or protection, or good exam results, or the things we thing we want, but for everything. A life with God is lived by someone who listens to what God says - in the quietness of our own prayers and in what is said to us by God through the pages of the Bible. A life with God is lived by someone who expects their life to change. None of us like change much but if we listen to and live Jesus’ ‘words of eternal life’ we wont just change, rather we will see our lives utterly transformed, completely changed, by God so that we will no longer try to live as Jesus asks us, we will just live it - doing the seemingly impossible - loving our neighbour, loving God, forgiving those who wrong us, and so on.

And yet it is not impossible. Today Ella as you are Baptised, and together as we eat and drink the flesh and blood of Jesus through hearing the Bible read, praying to him in quietness, and sharing bread and wine together, God abides in us. Living with us this way, God promises that ‘...you’ll experience things that you never thought possible... You’ll learn your capabilities, sharpen your skills, and then push yourself to the limit on a daily basis. You’ll grow stronger physically, mentally and feel a sense of pride that you’ve never felt before...’

Ella, this is eternal life. This is life with God. Together as we listen to Jesus, God promises continue to utterly transform us - completely changing our lives for the better - not offering us something new, but rather something old - lives lived fully, richly, and divinely with him the way he intends. Amen.

Old Movies that I Like

I once said that Netflix was trying to steal my time. In truth, it has succeeded. Over the last couple of months I’ve seen plenty of movies and TV shows. Among them, are many “classics” that I really enjoyed. Here is a small list.

The Big Combo This is the first movie I have ever seen that is truly part of the Film Noir category. The movie was low-budget even by 1950’s standards, but the shadows, the camera work, and the characters all made up for it. You really hate the villain and grow to sympathize with the hero. The story had plenty of unexpected twists and turns without becoming cheesy or unbelievable. It was a great watch.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Personally, I think this move might be better entitled, “The Wicked, the Desperately Stupid, and the Morally Tolerable.” I am convinced that when this movie was released the average American had a longer attention span. The movie is slow to start, very episodic, and contains many loooooong draw-out scenes set to music. I do not think if this movie came out today if it would receive such a great following. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this movie as well, and recommend it for anyone who knows how to concentrate.

A Man for All Seasons. I thought this movie was well-cast, and well played. It was one of those movies that you watch and you ask yourself, “Why am I not watching this as a great play?” The relevance of the religious aspect of the film (and Thomas More’s life) go well beyond Catholicism. It asks, “How can a pure and righteous man live in the worldly mess of politics?” The answer is, “he can’t.” This is probably not a great movie for Anglicans or Christians who hope to hold or influence public office.

The Graduate besides the fact that I now understand certain references in the Simpsons and Wayne’s world, this movie demands only one comment. No body’s love life could possibly be more complicated.

Bread and Discipleship

I have spent this morning reflecting on this Sunday's Gospel reading from John 6:56-69. It's a challenging passage. I have read the passage in a Lecto Divina sort of way. Here are some intial observations:

1. Talk of eating flesh and blood - offensive. Clean/unclean laws - consuming blood
talk of having life - what does Jesus mean
2. Talk of bread from heaven - ref to Moses and Manna and God providing for the needs to Israel. More than physical needs though.
3. Bread - basic foodstuff. The stuff of life. Bread of the Presence in the Holy of Holies in the Temple reference?
4. Capernaum - what was the setting? Home of Matthew the Tax collector, Peter, Andrew, James and John. Jesus seems to have centred his ministry in and around here. It was perhaps his adult home.
5. Jesus’ words are spirit and life. Spirit to do with the nature and being of God. Life - life in all it’s fulness. The spirit gives life. The spirit of God. Ruach the breath of God breathed into Adam. Eziekel and dry bones....
6. Ref to flesh being useless - ref to inability of us to attain to the life of God by our endevours. This teaching is difficult! The flesh/spirit diachotomy....
7. Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ What a confession! Experience of Jesus has led to belief - physical evidence has given Peter at least the ability to make the jump between the physically provable about Jesus, to what he and the scriptures say about him. He has made the existential leap of faith...

Also, looking at the Wordle I created, key words are: life, Jesus, disciples, Father, one, believe, live. There is something about the life of faith leading to life lived fully, richly, and divinely.

Back, back, back...

Yes that's right folks. I'm back. Refreshed and ready to get overwhelmed by the expectations of others and by what God is doing amongst us.

We had a wonderful time in Fife - photos can be seen here...

I enclose a photo of the harbour at Anstruther, which I took and inverted. It reminds me of what God longs to do - invert what we expect our lives to be and orient them to his kingdom values.

Happy Days!

The Word as a Wordle

A beautiful word cloud of the gospel reading for this Sunday - Trinity 11 - from John 6:56-69...

Gen X meets the fourth Century or “Who’s afraid of the Incarnation?”

I often lament the perceived exclusiveness of “doctrine” and “spirituality” or between “religion” and “relationship.” It is strange to me that because something is traditional or put in religious terms that is no longer relevant to the contemporary, unchurched, and unsaved individual. Two of my favorite books I think show otherwise. The first was written by a poster child of Generation X. The second was written by fourth century saint. One cannot get much farther apart than that.

Douglas Coupland wrote a collection of short stories entitled “Life After God.” These stories speak to the first generation that was raised without religion. Now, they make up much the professional work force. The current generation of 20-somethings is no more raised with religion than the Gen X’s were. I still find many of these stories heart-wrenching and emotional. One of my favorite quotes is “we have religious impulses – we must- and yet into what cracks do these impulses flow in a world without religion?”

Saint Athanasius was a famous saint of the fourth century. His book,” De Incarnatione Verbi Dei” (On the Incarnation of the Word of God) is seminal classic of Christian thought. Athanasius wrote it to expound on and explain the Incarnation against the doctrines of Arius which denied, among other things, the idea that Jesus Christ was both 100% God and 100% human. Clearly, one does not get more “religious” than this. I found this book incredibly easy to read. I find very little except scripture to be as equally inspiring.

Despite their vastly different cultures and times, both of these authors talk about God using the same simile. One uses it to describe those religious impulses with nowhere to flow. The other uses it describe the dramatic immanence of God in the world.

I was wondering what the ceremony itself would be like –it was like wondering about a coronation- of the old king being dead –long live the new king. I was wondering about trumpeters raising their horns, of the crowds-of the world somehow becoming new again in the process.

-Life After God

Here is the second quote.

For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all. You know how it is when some great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honoured, and enemies and robbers cease to molest it. Even so is it with the King of all; He has come into our country and dwelt in one body amidst the many, and in consequence the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled…

De Incarnatione

These two passages hardly need further commentary. It is as if Coupland says, “I want God to be like a king. I want him excite and inspire us the same way those mythical just rulers do.” St Athanasius says, “God is like a king. In fact, he is the only just and right king. Through the Incarnation, he lived among us and continues to work in our world to this day.”

It should not be said, I think, that religious doctrines and old tomes aren’t relevant to contemporary culture. The parallels here are far too close. The spiritual experiences of Christians are never far from the doctrines we expound.

Clearly, I have shown my Christian hipster stripes with this blog, but thanks for reading.

Strange Sights and Sounds of the Beach Towns

If this really is my last year in California, I do not think I could spend it in a better place.

I live just North of Loyola Marymount now. I no longer will be living on Campus, which is really an "about time" type of change for me. I live right on the corner of highway 1 and am but a few blocks from the beaches. I'm twenty minutes from Venice beach, which is a boardwallk with quite a bit of character to it. Here are some of the things I've seen in the last few days.

An elderly, unemployed, black man who was holding a sign which read "American Citizen: Hire me first" outside of the Home Depot. He held his head high and proudly on the street corner in the sun. The Mexican day laborer where several paces behind him. It is not uncommon to hear of the Church speak of sympathizing with the most alien in your society. Strangely, I was not sure who was really the alien in this scenario: is it those who leave their country to look for work in a foreign one, or is the man who sees so many foreigners he feels alienated in the country of his birth? This is a question well worth pondering.


Some homeless guy in a conversation with a hot twenty something on the Venice Beach boardwalk. Normally, a homeless dude is not the kind of guy you imagine in conversations with really hot twenty somethings in summer clothes. Yet strangely, that is exactly what was happening. She did not seem put off by his presence as they walked down the boardwalk, and was actually responding to what he was saying. I guess there's hope for everybody.

A weathered, but energetic, college kid just trying to get home. He wore a military surplus backpack which undoubtedly held all his current possessions. He was standing at the stop sign where the 90 intersects with highway 1. He looked dirty and had probably slept in the streets. I asked him way he was asking for money. He explained that he came down to San Diego for party, where his wallet was stolen. Now, he was just trying to get back to San Francisco for school. I gave him a few dollars and wished him good luck.

That's about it for now. I'm sure there has been more, but if I have strain my brain to remember, it must not have been that interesting. At this point, the most interesting thing that I could say is paper work telling me I'm hired.

An open letter for supporting my comic

*edited to add "Character's Page" link now fixed*

As I call many of you my friends, I know that many of you have enjoyed my comic. This makes me happy. It has been comments like, “I would make Love to the Uberbean” that have really motivated me to come back with this story. Which returns … well … now.

To get ready for the comeback, I made significant changes. The website is much improved now with both a “characters” page and a “support” page. The original “first strips” I have decided are no longer canon for the comic. If click the “first” button, you will find that it takes you to a storyline much later in the comic’s development and much improved in the artwork. Regarding the artwork, the new comics that are uploaded and ready to go all contain a standard sized box ratio. I did this in hopes of publishing it as a book someday.

The next story is deeply involved and very serious; I intentionally invoked both “Lost” and “Watchmen” as influences for the arc of the story as well as a bit of artwork. It will last six weeks and is my longest story yet. The main character is, Andy –the slightly disappointed pastor’s kid. I am fairly certain that the Uber bean is the only comic on the web that deals with quarter life Christianity.
The short strips that come afterwards are back to humor. The Halloween story I am working on right now will also have humor in it. So don’t worry, the comic will still be funny.

In order to promote this comic, I fully intend to buy advertising space. The first place I intend to buy is at my old favorite and inspiration real life. The smallest set of impressions costs 50 dollars. Yet still this is not money that I have at the moment. This is why I am requesting support.

Anyone who helps me reach the goal of fifty dollars will be greatly appreciated.

Furthermore, I will offer a black and white “preview” of the story to anyone who donates at least $3 to the cause. Finally, people who would like to see their likeness in later strips can donate $15. This donation drive will go until the end of the month.

Thank you for the support. And be sure to check out the character page to learn more about the comic.

Monasticism: Part IV "Light of the World."

We are the light of the world;
may our light shine before all,
that they may see the good that we do,
and give glory to God. -“We are the Light of the World” an old hymn

There is one thing that remains to be talked about in this blog. It is a question many have asked since I began this short series: how is monasticism able to evangelize the world? How does it help fulfill the great commission? Clearly, it seems the emphasis it places on the community of believers, the difficulty to join that community, and the disciplined practices for ethical behavior does not sound like what we know as evangelism at all. This is a very good question. My answer is this: although it may not seem obvious, I believe much of monastic spirituality is essential. Monasticism creates a community worth joining in the first place.

It is best to outline the problem. Often times, the term “Christian” has been dragged through the mud because of what those in the world associate with it. The unsaved have an idea of what a Christian is, and they don’t like it. They’ve seen too much hypocrisy, judgmentalism, and phoniness. One can imagine what the world sees. Imagine them saying things like this:

Those Christians… they always think they’re better than those who aren’t.
Those Christians… they supported prop 8 because they hate homosexuals.
Those Christians… they always talk about marriage and family, but their divorce rate says otherwise.
Those Christians… are always preaching and waving signs when nobody wants to hear it.

I do not need to add to this list anymore. It can go on. Clearly, this kind of behavior hurts efforts to evangelize.

There is a solution that some have posed. We should call ourselves “Christ-Followers” (or something else) instead of calling ourselves Christians. While I am not a stickler about names, I think it is worth noting that simply changing a nomenclature and not changing the actual behavior is not very helpful. It is an attempt to talk ones way out of a reputation that we have behaved ourselves into.

Now imagine a different solution. Let’s imagine that the church in the United States took its energy, its money, and its time out of a lot of the more “public” endeavors. Let’s say we dropped the prop 8 campaign, we cut back street evangelism, worried less about altar calls, and had less outreach over all. Instead, let’s way we put all that effort into to concentrating on our own community. Imagine putting all those resources into helping every Christian confess their own sins, pray more deeply, examine themselves more thoroughly, and then help them develop virtues until they didn’t need rules anymore. Maybe there would be less new people coming in for awhile and maybe even some would leave, but those who stayed reached some of the same level of goodness the monks did.

In this scenario, the world might look at Christians and say things like this:

Those Christians… I never see them get angry.
Those Christians… they go out of their way to help each other so spontaneously.
Those Christians… they never have a lot of stuff, but never seem to worry about money.
Those Christians… they are always the first to admit when they make mistakes.

The point I am trying to make is twofold. First, if our behavior is what puts the world off, than we ought to spend some serious, serious, time reforming that behavior. This takes time, energy, and a deep inward look at ourselves before we rush out to evangelize. Secondly, we should form a community that those outside of the world look at and actually want to be a part of. Instead of doing evangelism as if we’re recruiting for a multi-level marketing agency, why not instead form a community that is so free of the vices that bother humanity that those outside will take notice, look in, and think, “I want to be part of that.”

Please understand, my point here is not to belittle the efforts of those who do more direct methods of evangelism. What I am saying is monasticism provides an indirect –but absolutely necessary- facet to the gem of Christian life. Bringing people into the community is important, but it is a pointless exercise if this community offers little. The community we create must be one which is so good that people will be attracted to it. It will be then only then that we can be light of the world and the city on the hill.

This the end of my monasticism blogs. Hey why not check out that book Doc Ok wrote?

Monasticism part III "How good we can become"

Of all the reasons why I like monasticism, I believe their ethical vision is what attracts me to it the most. If monasticism teaches us anything, it teaches us how good we can be. This was done by conscious and persistent attention to one’s own sins, and a deep desire for perfection. It motivated monks to behave in such a way that we find it difficult to fathom. Their approach, which is broadly termed ‘virtue ethics,’ contrasts with a lot of rule-based ethics that is sometimes taught in Christian circles.

It is not hard to think of the kinds of “rules” that we Christians –all the while talking about salvation through grace alone- often preach. A few might be rules such as these:

”Always give 10% of your paycheck, before taxes, as a tithe.”
“Don’t smoke, drink, or chew or go with girls who do.”
“Occasionally having wine or beer is okay, but if you’re really serious you know that drinking is bad.”
“Tame your tongue by not using the following curse words…”
“Pray and read your bible everyday.”

Many other rules could abound. Some are needed, some not so much. Yet all these “rules” have a common failing: they assume correction action without emphasis on forming correct character. It is if the entire Christian life can be summarized into an exhaustive set of “biblical commands” in which we memorize and then rigidly and impersonally apply to every situation in life. I cannot speak for every Christian out there, but this approach is simply exhausting.

The virtue ethics approach seeks to reform character and then assumes that good actions flow from that. Rather than finding a list rules, it goes deeper and seeks to change the needs, desires, and emotions that cause us to sin and create the list of rules. It begins with the seven deadly sins, recognizing them, and then resisting them. Though there is a “rule” to getting started on this path, St. Benedict rightly considered it only the beginning of perfection.

One great benefits of virtue ethics is that it gives us good habits (the virtues) to aim at in addition to sins to avoid. This is best explained by example. Instead of saying “always tithe 10%” the virtue ethics approach says, “resist the demon of greed. Be free of your enslavement and bondage to material possessions, so that you might have the virtue of generosity.” Instead of saying, “tame your tongue” it says, “pray that the Lord would give you patience in all things. Resist both anger and sadness. From there, you’re heart and your speech will always be pure.” The goal is never to memorize rules, but rather develop the right habits and desires so that rules are simply no longer needed.

Another benefit is that there is such a thing as unity to the virtues. This is not so easily seen with a rules based approach. Let’s say, for instance, that I find myself unable to tithe. Better put, for some reason I cannot be generous. Perhaps
I think back to my week, and I think about the last two times I ate out at a nice bristo. Perhaps I really didn’t want to eat some boring food at home, so I went out and purchased something far more costly.

What is happening here is that because I am not willing to avoid gluttony and strive for temperance by restraining what I eat, I suddenly find myself with less money (a consequence of greed as well) and now I “can’t” be generous enough to tithe. Is there something wrong, intrinsically, about restaurants? Not necessarily, but there is something intrinsically wrong with allowing my desire of tasty food to trump my desire to be generous.

Some may wonder exactly how far this can go. After all, we all admit that we sin and will always be tempted and such –at least until heaven. This is true to a large extent, but I think there is one story of two monks who spent years resisting anger that speaks for itself:

One tells of two old men who had lived together many years and never fought. One said to the other, “let’s have an argument like other people do.” But the other said, “I don’t know how to have an argument.” So the first told him, “Look, I’ll put a brick between us. Then I’ll say, ‘That’s mine.’ Then you say, ‘No it’s mine.’” So the first monk put the brick between them and started the argument: “That’s mine.” The second played his part: “no it’s mine.” The first immediately relented: “Okay it’s yours. Take it.” So the two gave up, unable to argue.”

(From Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism)

This little story –perhaps a parable- is both humorous and incredible in a very literal sense. I suggest though, that Christians think about stories such as these and be inspired. The monastic life, and its approach and practices of virtue ethics, should show us how good we can become.

Thanks for reading.