felix hominum

long weekend

and the weather looks great, so shut down the laptop and go outside and play - no blogging 'til tuesday

been thinking about a question

that someone asked a while ago:  have you ever suffered for the sake of Christ?  And if not, why not?

rules of the road

A person's skill in handling an automobile is inversely proportional to the amount to junk he has hanging from his rear view mirror.

a whole new category

Every once in a while I figure I need to add a new category to the blog.

There was a commentary on CBC radio  recently.   A retired prof from the Royal Military College offered his thoughts on re-organizing religion in Canada.

I envisage a congress meeting to hammer out a code that would form the basis of legislation to regulate the practice of religion. Like the professional engineer's P.Eng designation, there would then be RRPs (or registered religious practitioners). To carry the analogy to its conclusion, no one could be a religious practitioner without this qualification.

I won't try to propose what might be in the new code except for a few obvious things: A key item would have to be a ban on claims of exclusivity. It should be unethical for any RRP to claim that theirs was the one true religion and believers in anything else or nothing were doomed to fire and brimstone. One might also expect prohibition of ritual circumcisions, bans on preaching hate or violence, the regulation of faith healers, protocols for missionary work, etc.

Now I'm sure there are a few things here that many people would agree with, and of course I'm not certain if the Jewish community would have something to say about the proposed ban on "ritual circumcisions"...

The real eye opener - and the challenge to contemporary church - comes in the next paragraph:

Now what is the point of proposing this? I do it because I am worried that the separation between church and state is under threat. Religion is important in our lives, but it can become a danger to society when people claim that the unalterable will of God is the basis for their opinions and actions. Yes religion can be a comfort and a guide, but we cannot take rules from our holy books and apply them to the modern world without democratic debate and due regard for the law.

This would seem to me to be the exact opposite of the separation of church and state - federally regulated "RRP's".   More to the point, however, is the notion that "God" is not a suitable basis for our opinions and actions.   What exactly is going on here?  What do we make of this?   

hat tip richard

this week at sol cafe

This week at sol cafe we will be looking at the Gospel of Matthew - we're going to be reading through a chunk of it over the summer.  Conversation starts around 5ish at Cafe Dabar on Whyte Ave.   Some of the things that come to my mind -

1 -  How do I/ we read this piece of writing?  What is it "supposed" to be?
2 -  What place does Scripture/ the Bible/ these stories have in my/our life?   How does God use these things to draw me closer to him?  To make me more into what he wants me to be?  Or does He? 
3. - Who is this Jesus?  Does this Jesus line up with the Jesus I already have in mind? 

I'm sure y'all will have more things to say, and Jackie and Shirley are going to get things rolling...

for the locals...

Just getting together a few last minute details on the proposed hiking trip to Mt Robson - if you are interested in going (see link at right) let me know before the end of the week - doing final booking of camp sites etc...

Want to get out of the city? Want to get chased by bears? Want to hear me do my famous moose call?
Open to anyone 18 years and over.

And to answer a few questions: cost is about $130// dates Aug 13-19; and no you do not have to be part of the Anglican Mafia to go - just be willing to put on a backpack & head up the Berg lake trail, & be willing to put up with my infrequent sermonizing along the way...

imitating the sower

You know the parable of the sower - how he goes out and spreads the seed on different kinds of soil?  You know - the first soil is like the hard path, and then the next has no depth, and then the next has thorns & weeds that grow up, and then the last is good soil and it takes root?

I usually focus on the different kinds of soil, and tend to categorize people as the different kinds of soil (which is what Jesus sort of does in his explanation of the parable).

What is often missed is just how generous the sower is - giving away this seed without a thought as to where it lands.  He spreads it everywhere - not just in those places where it is likely to be "successful".  I think we can learn a bit if we try to imitate that sower.  Instead of simply investing our resources, our time, our money, our friendship, our love - in those places where we think we will have "success", what if we simply offered it to everyone, even those we think of (and we mostly all do this) as "hard soil", or "no depth".   After all, I would place myself in those categories on any number of days.

Instead of being "safe investors" let's be exuberant.  We can put the seed only on the soil we think will yield a harvest, or we can, like the Sower, cast it everywhere we go - we might be surprised...

geography and memory

A number of  years ago I was attending a retreat with some colleagues at Star of the North - a local retreat center.   It was a good event, and during one evening session our speaker brought up the book Adam:  God's Beloved  by Henri Nouwen.   It is the story of Nouwen's time of accompanying a young man with disabilities to the time of the young man's death.

At the time of the retreat Alisa was about 3 months pregnant, and we were looking forward to a younger sibling for E.G.  I was fascinated by the "role" that Adam played in Nouwen's life - joy and sorrow and learning from one who could not even speak, and seeing Christ in a way which cannot be described, but only lived.   As the speaker was concluding his talk, a thought was gathering momentum and presenting itself to my mind.

"This child is your Adam".

Every time I visit that place, I hear clearly the memory of that thought, that "voice" if you will, still speaking to me.  It is full of the memory of a truth which is lived, and which is full of joy and sorrow and learning and seeing Christ in a way which cannot be described but only lived.

Sarah Joy was born on July 29, 2001.   

Sometimes I look at the statistics of life expectancy for persons with her disabilities and medical conditions,
and I think about how old I am,
and wonder if I will bury her
and though there is a kingdom in this world
there is freedom in the next

hidden & revealed

"At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will."

What is the place I need to start from with the Scriptures, the Bible, the stuff that we have been given, and told it is the word of God?   Really, before I even begin to think about what the above quote means, I have to come to a place where A] I believe that Jesus said this - that it accurately reflects what he said;  B] given A, that when Jesus speaks, he speaks with some kind of authority which is beyond mere opinion or speculation;  C]  given A & B, am I willing to accept what he says as true and live as such, that is, how do I respond to what he has said?

When I read that statement, I see the contrast between my ability and skills and self confidence - what I can achieve and grasp about God, life, the universe, and what I cannot grasp by my own ability.

A friend of mine now teaches classical philosophy at Acadia University.  Years ago (yikes, I can now say decades ago), we would sit in the grad lounge, or the Seahorse Tavern (that establishment is a post topic all by itself) and talk about things such as these.   He said he finally came to understand the difference between philosophy and faith.  Philosophy does not accept revelation, while faith is dependant upon accepting revelation.

you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants

catching up...

...haven't looked at the ole' blog since Monday - so I'm gonna get one of Antonio's lattes & have a poke around...

start seeing sculpture

“start seeing sculpture”

One of my offices is situated close to the studios of the department of fine arts.  Along the walls I see a perennial poster:  “Start Seeing Sculpture”.  I didn’t fully grasp what the posters were saying until a few days ago.

On the grounds of the Royal Provincial Museum of Alberta there is an exhibit of works by 3 local sculptors.  Drop by and have a look.  The show runs until September, so you have all summer to get there.  I went to the opening last Sunday afternoon.  I had a look around, and I had a few conversations.

In my limited experience of art & lingo, I would have to say that the stuff is abstract – works in metal & steel, perhaps something of a jumble of iron welded together.  My friend Rob Willms and I had a conversation about one of the pieces.  It is a piece made from metal tubing.  We talked a bit about it, and then Rob said  “I think there is a best view of this piece.”  He took me over to a particular spot, and then we looked at the piece again.  Once I was in that spot, I saw something about the piece that I hadn’t seen before.  I had walked around it at least half a dozen times, tried to “figure it out”, had gotten up close and then far away, followed the lines and the contours.  But when Rob invited me to look at it from another perspective, l saw something about the piece that I hadn’t seen before.  Something about how it is put together, and what is going on in it.

I started seeing sculpture.

With apologies to the artists, I have been thinking about that experience as a bit of a parable.  Let’s take the phrase and turn it around to the previous discussion:  “Start Reading Scripture”.  Sometimes the Scriptures, the Bible, can seem a bit like a jumble of bits and pieces, artificially welded together and no matter how much we look at it, walk around it, get up close or look from afar – it just remains a kind of abstract piece – no internal coherence, no sense that we are getting to the heart of what it is, just there on display for a bunch of experts to create jargon about. 

Perhaps, just perhaps, we need someone (Someone?) to come along side and say to us – “try looking at it from this perspective”.

"Start reading Scripture."

revelation

At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son  except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Phrases to Ban V

pre-script - Typepad is all wonky this weekend as they update some of their tools, so their sites may look off for a bit.

"The Bible Says"

I will eventually edit this and add more, but for the time being, I think I will propose a ban on the phrase "The Bible Says".    The Bible does not say.  God says, prophets say, people say, Jesus says, good men and bad men say, young girls and elderly women say...   The Bible does not "say".  The phrase seems to be used as a catch all for "God says", but God is not the Bible.  True, God "speaks" through the Scriptures, but God and the Bible are not synonyms - the two terms cannot be interchanged at will.

When I use the phrase "the bible says", I miss the mark on several points.  I can miss the point that there are many people in the Bible who say a variety of things.  It may be that some of what they say is approved by God, or directed to say this or that by God, and it may be that some of them do not accurately speak on behalf of God.

Recent case in point:  what's his name, Gamaliel, in Acts, says to his fellows - let these guys alone, if this is from themselves, it will fail, but if it is from God, it will remain...  You know, people have called this the "Gamaliel principle".  I've heard it invoked to support any number of specific causes, and folks usually invoke it with the preamble:  "The Bible Says..."  But I need to ask myself the question, who said this, why did they say it, is there any reason to take it as advice that God has given or would give, or is it simply the utterance of a wise and respected elder but beyond that it is not "God's advice to all of us".   Really, Gamaliel says X.  The Bible does not say X.   More later.