felix hominum

Bishop Burton/ Kallistos Ware caption contest

over at the Diocese of Saskatchewan blog.  If you are Anglican (and even if you're not) take a break from the serious stuff  check out the photo and offer your, errr, suggestion.

Do you believe in miracles?

I was standing in front of the elevator doors this afternoon, when someone came up to me and told me about a miracle they had experienced.
"Father?" (sorry, I was wearing clericals, as I often do when hospital visiting)
Yes?
"Let me tell you about a miracle that happened to me 15 years ago - how God healed me."

The conversation went on and I listened to this person's story.  It was (if true) a miracle story.  But why should I doubt that it is true?  I came away thinking it was, mainly because it seemed to be within the nature of God to have done such a thing.

Now the reason I am telling you all this is that I was going to post my general weekly sermon notes.  This week we are looking at the story of Jacob wrestling at the Jabbok (Genesis 32:22-31) and the story of Jesus feeding the crowd in Matthew 14:13-21.  Both of these stories involve the presence of God and the action of God in a rather more-than-ordinary way.  I'll probably get around to posting those general sermon notes in a day or two, but what struck me as I was thinking about this encounter is the general question:  do you believe in miracles?

Some people do, some don't, and some are not sure about the whole thing.  In particular, within the church I have run across people who don't think that the Gospels truly report what we might call "physical" miracles - the action of God in an unmistakable fashion to accomplish that which is, from a purely human perspective and power, impossible.

While there are many approaches to this, I want just briefly to mention just one.  We have forgotten all that philosophy has taught us in the past about what, well, what a God is.

Archbishop Henry Orombi in the Times

I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I love the Anglican Communion. So, why did the bishops of the Church of Uganda and I decide not to attend the present Lambeth Conference? Because we love the Lord Jesus Christ and because we love the Anglican Communion.

St Francis of Assisi said: “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary use words.” We believe that our absence at this Lambeth Conference is the only way that our voice will be heard. For more than ten years we have been speaking and have not been heard. So maybe our absence will speak louder than our words.

The crisis in the Communion is serious; our commitment to biblical and historic faith and mission are serious; and we want to be taken seriously.

From here

Orombi is one of the bishops "boycotting" the current Lambeth Conference.

UPDATE:  just came across a bit of an interview sort of article with Archbishop Fred Hiltz at the Church Times blog

UPDATE # 2   And another interview with Fred Hiltz (by George Westhaver) published here

 

Bishop Jane Alexander - letter from Lambeth #2

posted on the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton website

Dear friends

I am sending you another update from Lambeth, I am sure for many of you there may be a feeling that you are not quite sure what is happening here as the press reports are many and varied.

There are many wonderful things, moments when I am sure that we have seen glimpses of Christ in our midst. The walk to support the Millennium Development Goals was one such moment, as were the addresses from Brian MacLaren on Evangelism, and from Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sachs on Covenant. I will try to bring both back to share with you as they become available. There have been great smaller group sessions on MDGs, on being Bishops as Biblical Missionaries – from N.T. Wright, to name only two.  I wish I could express to you the power of the Primate of Japan apologizing publicly to the Church of Korea for the way they had treated them and his call for Christians to be peacemakers; or the sheer joy of the Polynesian singing.

A candlelit pilgrimage around the cathedral provided an oasis of stillness and time to reflect on the many conversations. I think that the main theme of the conference on ‘equipping the bishops for ministry’ has been well addressed in many ways and there is a great richness and depth of experience I will bring home, so thank you to all of you as a Diocese who sent me here. The stories from around the Communion have been overwhelming in both drawing us together as one body in Christ but also, in making us realize the incredible suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world and of the great discrepancy in the distribution of wealth and power. In addition, hearing from dioceses in Africa over and over again of harvests not reaped and crops not sown because of rains that do not come, well that knowledge takes on a new life in our call to prayer and action. Tim and I will never be the same.

This is a conference of paradoxes; we swing from hope to concern every day topic after topic. Yet through it all there is this great thread of worship, the daily offices, Eucharist, Bible study, an incredible prayer team and times for healing. Not one conversation takes place outside that framework.

It feels as though we keep, as a group of bishops, coming close to saying something with one voice on poverty, on ecology and stewardship of creation, I hope that this will surface as a critical voice from this conference. There are 80 million Anglicans in the world, surely if 80 million voices could be called upon to speak together out of the gospel imperative at least one voice would be heard.

And on the issues of Communion and Covenant, what of those? Well the conversations have been intense, respectful and different voices are being heard to some extent. I have not been avoiding talking about these issues with you, we have not come to these topics in our Indaba groups until now, so the conversation is in process. I do not think anyone can predict the outcome. The frustration is not knowing if we will be able to agree in these next few days on the course for the days ahead. We are in a process that is not the usual parliamentary system we are so used to in the West, we are in conversation seeking the Spirit’s leading and waiting on God’s grace. As you can imagine for many of us the process is new and the temptation to pop a resolution on the end because we know how to do that, is tempting but not true to the Indaba process to which we committed.

We understand as a group much better I think, how decisions in one part of the body affect others across a world not just in the Anglican Church but outside it also, affecting interfaith and ecumenical relationships, places of persecution. We have shared one another’s tears and hold up a shared responsibility for all our actions – not just in the area of human sexuality but in our whole life in Christ. Is there any way to come out of this believing that all are trying to be faithful to what they believe they find in the gospel? Can we leave the winners and losers mentality behind? I don’t know.

Please, please pray for us as we continue to struggle. I have not met one single person who has not come prepared to listen to the other – whoever they perceive the other to be. Can we see one another as followers of Christ? How much diversity can the communion tolerate, not just on this issue but on many others?

Archbishop Rowan did a good job of trying to reflect back to us the opposing voices on the rift in the fabric of our communion. He has asked every single one of us to think what it means if this Lambeth is to speak from the centre – not the midpoint between two extremes - but from the heart of our identity as Anglicans aware of living in and as, the body of Christ. As a communion we have to think how much confidence and authority we will place in the communion’s decisions. A covenant approach to our future calls for an expression of mutual and intelligent generosity born of Jesus Christ, the one unique centre. The costs of such generosity may be great for all of us, but can we continue to offer one another and the church life?

…if I am lost tell them I will be found by love (St. John of the Cross)

On Sunday we will add the names of the murdered Melanesian brothers to the roll of Saints and Martyrs of our time in Canterbury Cathedral, please remember them in your prayers.
Robin Lindsay
Francis Tofi
Tony Sirihi
Alfred Hill
Patteson Gatu
Ini Paratabatu
Nathaniel Sado

Pray for us all so that tiredness does not overtake us, the work days are intense and very long often 6.30AM to 10PM. Pray that we might stay focused on the tasks before us.

God of redeeming love
Enfold us in your arms
And meet us in the naked embrace
Of prayerful self-offering;
Touch us, enliven us
And make us whole AMEN
(collect from the Eucharist led by the Anglican church of Burundi)
As I close, I say my night prayers tonight to the sound of the Indian Bishops singing their hymns from the window of the block opposite, one Lord, one faith, one baptism indeed.
I miss you all
Good night.
+Jane

Choir director/ organist job opening

St. Timothy’s Anglican Church (Edmonton) is seeking a Music Director (choir director/organist) to provide leadership in the musical ministries of the parish and its worship life.  St. Timothy’s has a history of music in the liturgical tradition.

Specifically, the Music Director will work with the parish leadership in planning and evaluating the liturgy season by season.  This will include:

• Rehearsing and directing the church choir of about 15-18 choristers;

• Instrumental accompaniment as appropriate;

• Overseeing the maintenance and care for the church organ and pianos.

St. Timothy’s offers annual scholarships to four choral students who help lead the sections of the choir.  The Music Director leads this program in the selection and oversight of choral students.  The parish has an extensive library of choral sheet music which is managed with a computer database.

Remuneration is monthly and based on an average of ten hours per week from, using the RCCO salary grid as a guideline.  Actual hours will vary with peaks in the Christmas and Easter seasons, and lows at other times.   Interested persons may contact the Rev. Joseph Walker at 483-5506;  st.tims[at]shawbiz.ca, or joe[at]shawbiz.ca.

quote of the day - Kyle Strobel

Mine is probably the first generation of children whose parents became Christians in the seeker movement.  The first time I sang a hymn was in college.  I have been saved from facing issues that come with growing up around a lot of tradition;  for example, I have no qualms with redoing everything if that is what is needed.  On the other hand, my lack of tradition has left me feeling my way in the dark even though millions of others have walked the way before me.

Kyle Strobel in Metamorpha:  Jesus as a Way of Life

Windsor Continuation Group: Preliminary Observations to the Lambeth Conference

From the Anglican Communion official website, the entire text is online.  Here is an excerpt from today's proceedings;  the main topics are moratoria and mechanisms (the "pastoral forum) for dealing with the breakdown in the Communion.  I might try to offer some thoughts on this after I have picked some things out of the vegetable garden for tonight's stir fry.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS Part Three A Presentation at the Lambeth Conference

3. How do we get from here to there
The various initiatives set out in Part Two and the Covenant is a longer term process to reverse the trends described in Part One; to restore the sense of trust, fellowship and communion on which we thrive.  In the period leading up to the establishment of a covenant, however, there are urgent issues which need addressing if we are going to be able to get to the point where such a renewal of trust even becomes possible.

The question of the moratoria

• The Windsor Report sets out requests for three moratoria in relation to the public Rites of Blessing of same sex unions, the consecration to the episcopate of those living in partnered gay relationships and the cessation of cross border interventions.

• There have been different interpretations of the sense in which "moratorium" was used in the Windsor Report.   Our understanding is that moratorium refers to both future actions and is also retrospective:  that is that it requires the cessation of activity. This necessarily applies to practices that may have already been authorised as well as proposed for authorisation in the future.

• The request for moratorium applies in this way to the complete cessation of  (a) the celebration of blessings for same-sex unions, (b) consecrations of those living in openly gay relationships,  and (c) all cross border interventions and inter-provincial claims of jurisdiction.

• The three moratoria have been requested several times:  Windsor (2004); Dromantine (2005); Dar es Salaam (2007) and the requests have been less than wholeheartedly embraced on all sides.

• The failure to respond presents us with a situation where if the three moratoria are not observed, the Communion is likely to fracture. The patterns of action currently embraced with the continued blessings of same-sex unions and of interventions could lead to irreparable damage.

• The call for the three moratoria on these issues relates to their controversial nature. This poses the serious question of what response should be made to those who act contrary to the moratorium during the Covenant process and who should make a response.

New Ways of Responding

We make the following suggestions for situations which might arise in different parts of the Communion:

• the swift formation of a 'Pastoral Forum' at Communion level to engage theologically and practically with situations of controversy as they arise or divisive actions that may be taken around the Communion. Such a Forum draws upon proposals for a Council of Advice (Windsor), a Panel of Reference (Dromantine), a Pastoral Council (Dar es Salaam) and the TEC House of Bishops' Statement (Sept 2007) acknowledging a 'useful role for communion wide consultation with respect to the pastoral needs of those seeking alternative oversight'.

• The existence of such a Forum might be included in the Covenant as a key mechanism to achieve reconciliation

• Part of the role of a Forum might be for some of its members, having considered the theological and ecclesiological issues of any controversy or divisive action, to travel, meet and offer pastoral advice and guidelines in conflicted, confused and fragile situations.  There is a precedent in the method of the Eames' Commission in the 1980s.

• The President of such a Forum would be the Archbishop of Canterbury, who would also appoint its episcopal chair, and its members.  The membership of the Forum must include members from the Instruments of Communion and be representative of the breadth of the life of the Communion as a whole.  Movement forward on this proposal must bear fruit quickly.

• We believe that the Pastoral Forum should be empowered to act in the Anglican Communion in a rapid manner to emerging threats to its life, especially through the ministry of its Chair, who should work alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury in the exercise of his ministry.

• The Forum would be responsible for addressing those anomalies of pastoral care arising in the Communion against the recommendations of the Windsor Report.  It could also offer guidance on what response and any diminishment of standing within the Communion might be appropriate where any of the three moratoria are broken.

• We are encouraged by the planned setting up of the Communion Partners initiative in the Episcopal Church as a means of sustaining those who feel at odds with developments taking place in their own Province but who wish to be loyal to, and to maintain, their fellowship within TEC and within the Anglican Communion.

• The proliferation of ad hoc episcopal and archiepiscopal ministries cannot be maintained within a global Communion.  We recommend that the Pastoral Forum develop a scheme in which existing ad hoc jurisdictions could be held "in trust" in preparation for their reconciliation within their proper Provinces.  Such a scheme might draw on models derived from religious life (the relationship of religious orders to the wider Church), family life (the way in which the extended family can care for children in dysfunctional nuclear families) or from law (where escrow accounts can be created to hold monies in trust for their rightful owner on completion of certain undertakings.  Ways of halting litigation must be explored, and perhaps the escrow concept could even be extended to have some applicability here.

Details on the next Holy Land pilgrimages coming soon

As soon as I have a bit of time, I'll be posting the details of our next Holy Land Pilgrimages.  Two are in the works for 2009.  The first will be throughout Israel and Egypt (the life of Christ and the early Christians), and the second will be the sites of Greece and the context of some of Paul's letters and the mission of the early church. 

A pilgrimage to the lands of the New Testament is a journey that changes
lives. When we visit the sites where it all began, we come to understand our
scriptures, our traditions and our faith in new ways. We also have
opportunities to meet the local people, to experience a new culture, to
tour, to shop, and to enjoy a unique trip.

Pilgrimages are planned for 2009, and we invite you to join us on a tour of the Holy Land and Egypt, following  Christ and the first Christians (February 2-21, 2009) and on a tour of Greece, following Saint Paul and the Early Church (November 2-14, 2009). 

Our Holy Land pilgrimage is intended both as an introduction for newcomers
to the region, and as a way for previous pilgrims to deepen their
connection, to explore new sites, and to revisit the region, travelling on a
different itinerary. If you have been before, but would like to return,
possibly with someone who has never visited the Holy Land, then this
pilgrimage is an ideal opportunity. We will Begin in Jerusalem, visiting the
Galilee, the Golan, the Mediterranean coast, the wilderness and other areas,
before continuing on to Egypt, including Sinai, the Eastern Desert,
Alexandria and Cairo.

Our pilgrimage in Greece is a new destination for us, and we invite you to
join with us as we explore this exciting destination. We will visit many of
the sites of the Letters of the New Testament, including Thessalonike and
Corinth, tour the monuments of the ancient world, including Delphi and the
Parthenon, and engage some contemporary Greek Christians as we tour ancient
monastic communities which still offer hospitality to pilgrims. Our visit
concludes in Athens, with an extensive exploration of the wonders of this
city, both ancient and modern.

I'll update this post and put up more details shortly.

The messy history of church councils - McGuckin on Nicea

Graffiti emblazoned on walls, a vicious war of pamphlets, riots in the streets, lawsuits, catchy songs of ridicule … It's hard for modern Christians to imagine how such public turmoil could be created by an argument between theologians—or how God could work through the messiness of human conflict to bring the church to an understanding of truth.

To us, in retrospect, the Council of Nicaea is a veritable mountain in the landscape of the early church. For the protagonists themselves, it was more in the nature of an emergency meeting forced on hostile parties by imperial power and designed to stop an internal row. After the council, many of the same bishops who had signed its creed appeared at other councils, often reversing their previous decisions according to the way the winds of preferment were blowing. They found themselves less in a domain of monumental clarity and more in a swamp of confusing arguments and controversies that at times seemed to threaten the very continuity of the Christian church. To understand the significance of the Council of Nicaea, we need to enter into the minds of the disputants and ask why so much bitterness and confusion had been caused by one apparently simple question: in what way is Jesus divine?

Of course, like many "simple" questions, this was a highly complex and provocative issue. Theologians of that era were almost beside themselves when they found that Scripture often gave very different-sounding notes when they applied to it for guidance. The disagreements this "simple" question provoked made many of the greatest minds of the era wonder to what extent the Christian doctrines of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit were coherent, and even to what extent Christians could trust in the canon of sacred text (which had hitherto seemed to them sufficient as an exposition of the faith).

In many ways, therefore, Nicaea reminds us of the present era. Rather than being a symbol of clarity, peace, and order, it was a call to a difficult focusing of mind across a church that was often as muddled and confused as ours seems still to be.

Read the whole article by John Anthony McGuckin (Professor in Late Antique and Byzantine Christian History at Union Theological Seminary).

h/t to Creedal Christian

Holy Hockey - Stanley Cup used for "private christening"

Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITEA, Sweden - Tomas Holmstrom had his day with the Stanley Cup on Friday, and he let his cousin use it as a baptismal font for a christening.

Holmstrom suggested the idea to his cousin, Robert Sundstrom, who baptized his seven-week-old daughter Alva Felicia during a private ceremony outside Holmstrom's hometown of Pitea in northern Sweden.

"Tomas came up with the idea when we were sitting in his summer cabin kitchen a week ago," Sundstrom said. "Me and my wife thought it would be fun to christen our daughter in such a priceless object."

The only outsiders at the ceremony were the two American security guards who travel with the massive silver trophy in Sweden.

Holmstrom won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings, and each member of the team gets to spend a day with the trophy.

from the CBC

marching against poverty, followed by lunch

Some people are into marches, some are not.  The bishops at Lambeth recently held a march through London.

The march was a bit disappointing. We had hundreds of bishops, but few spectators, even though we went through the heart of London. There were a few who clapped for us, but most looked at us with blank stares--who are these guys in purple dresses? Or with anger for holding up traffic.

- Bishop Kirk Smith (Lambethdaily)

A reporter from the Anglican Journal covered the event as well:

As the sea of purple cassocks passed through Westminster Abbey, the Anglican Journal asked onlookers if they knew what the march was about or if they knew what MDG meant. Most said, “I’ve got no idea, really.”

By the way, after the march, the bishops enjoyed some light refreshment.  Ruth Gledhill of the Times gives us the menu for the lunch after the march against world poverty:

The menu was cold lemon and thyme scented breast of chicken with fresh asparagus and porcini mushroom relish, summer bean and coriander, tomato, basil and mozzarella served with hot minted new potatoes. Pudding was dark chocolate and raspberry tart with raspberry ripple ice cream, topped off with coffee and white chocolate raspberries. To wash it down they drank Pino Grigio or Chiraz or cranberry and elderflower fruit punch. The cream marquee was decorated with a dozen chandeliers down the middle.

I'm just sayin'...

By the way, I read in one of the Brit papers that the Conference is a few million pounds in the hole.

a letter from Lambeth - Bishop Jane Alexander

from our diocesan website:

Greetings to you all from Lambeth 2008.

It is a truly incredible experience to be here; there is so much to tell you and even more that we will explore together over the months to come. 
In this first letter I would like to highlight a few things and commend them to your prayers.

Firstly, we were blessed by the ministry of ++Rowan in a three day retreat for the Bishops, two of which were in Canterbury cathedral. He spoke with great sincerity and depth on the issues facing us in the communion and of the role of the Bishop in the church. To be present in a place where Christian men and women have prayed together for hundreds of years was overwhelming and as we lifted our voices in the Lord's prayer - each in our own language, it was a truly Pentecost moment.  Try to imagine the feeling yesterday morning as we sang the hymn, “I Am the Bread of Life”; we raised our voices (and some of us our hands) and sang "Yes Lord we believe that you are the Christ the Son of God" This is a place of prayer, Christ is active here and we are blessed daily.
Much has been said in the press of the need for decision and outcomes. I would remind you all that this is a long conference and we are being called over and over again to deep prayer, conversation and debate and we are truly waiting on God. As we all know, God's time, kairos, is not always our time, chronos. Therefore, each day we are called deeper into a confident trust in Jesus Christ to be present in all our words and in all our encounters. Please be patient as we present at Lambeth are called to be patient as we work together for a common mind in Christ.

The daily Bible studies have been a time of rich blessing as we consider various passages in the gospel of John and of our own contexts and situations.
By now I am sure you would like something more to give you a taste of Lambeth. I share with you some reflections taken from a variety of sessions and addresses. The following comments are reflections from my own notes but full texts of many addresses are on the Lambeth website.
We are called here to conversation where we acknowledge one to another the importance of this Anglican Communion.  We believe in the communion as an inclusive community but where inclusivity does not equal anything goes. Even as we celebrate unity in diversity, we are challenged to ask ourselves what the limits are of such diversity, and to hold before us at all times the thought that God has called this Communion into being and has a purpose for it. We have been reminded that a divided church cannot with integrity preach a gospel of reconciliation to a broken world.

We are not here to reinforce one another's anxieties, but to fix our hope upon Jesus and to remind each other of the hope of what God has done, is doing and will do, in opening a new and living way in Jesus Christ. We are continually called to look at God's mission in the world and our part in that mission.
Each person at this conference and in the wider communion is called to be a place where God is revealed. For each one of us we ask 'where have you seen the Son of God revealed?' "How did you recognize him?"
I am more aware as the days go by of this precious time together, of being given a glimpse of the breadth and richness of the Anglican Communion and of the many faithful men and women giving their whole life to proclaiming the good news of Christ.

I ask each one of you reading this to please pray, pray for the body of Christ gathered here in Lambeth and for one another at home.
Pray for transformed relationships
Pray for new habits of patience, respect and understanding
Pray that we might be attentive and obedient to the liberating gift of God in Jesus
Pray with confidence that our beginnings and endings are in the hands of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen
+Jane

For readers interested in a view of Lambeth from another Canadian bishop, The Rt Rev Greg Kerr-Wilson has a blog here.  Bishop Greg has been posting highlights from his days at the conference.

Ann Marie in the comments also points us to the daily updates of Bishop George Bruce of Ontario.  His blog can be accessed via the Diocese of Ontario site.

It's just one of those things

which I suppose I am old-fashioned enough to believe in.  Few things can match the pleasure, the fulfillment, of a father teaching his son.  My first experience with a canoe was in the rivers of Nova Scotia.  We had an old red Coleman, probably a 16 footer.  I don't remember much about the J stroke practice or the safety lessons.  I simply have a memory of a voice from the back of the boat:  "Isn't it peaceful here?"  I think that was just before we hits the rocks.

Adam got his very own paddle for his birthday this year.  He is turning 5.  And before those imitation thrills which pass themselves off as adventure get hold of a boy (or a man), he should have a taste of the real thing.  So we practiced some strokes, we did a few tandem  runs to get the feel.  We got to feel how the boat moves when you take a wave broadside, and then the careful explanation and technique of the preferred method:  you take a wave head on.

And then you go solo.

When you are 5 years old and captain of the boat, you can be anything - an admiral, an adventurer, a voyageur exploring the wilds.  You can shout "ahoy" at the top of your lungs.  There is a place where you can go out into the deeper waters, over your head.  It's okay - I'm close by, and it's not over my head.

If you get in trouble, don't worry too much. 
Your Father is close. 
The water might be over your head, but it's not over His.

I hope you will remember that in the years to come.

book review; Carolyn Arends: Wrestling With Angels

Wrestling with Angels:  Adventures in Faith and Doubt was written in 2000 (as "Living the Questions") and released again by Harvest House in 2008.

I first had a taste of Carolyn Arends' creativity a few years ago.  The godparents of one of our kids gave us a copy of her CD "We've Been Waiting for You".  She has a good sense of lyric, melody and storytelling.  Since then a few more of her CD's have graced the felix clan music collection, but this is the first time I have read one of her books.

When we shy away from the Mystery, when we reduce God's vast proportions to a more manageable size, we also limit our experience of wonder (which is doubt's more happily disposed twin).
p 218

Wrestling with Angels takes its cue from the story of Jacob wrestling at the river Jabbok.  The book is a series of stories highlighting various people, memories and events in Arends' life.  In each story there is a kind of encounter with God in which Arends is invited into the mystery of God.  Arends in turn invites the reader into that mystery.  If the book has a theme, it is simply that. She chronicles her own journey of faith with its doubts and crises, its moments of joy and revelation.

Her writing is clear and sometimes poetic without being overly sentimental.  She has a few great turns of phrase.  Some of the stories invite us to consider the presence of God in the ordinary and even ridiculous (Mom falling into the water in The Fish Pond).  Others touch on the mystery of God in the face of family difficulties.  In one chapter, Forget-Me-Nots, she tells in plain and unadorned language the story of a her grandfather suffering from Alzheimer's.  She writes both about the wonder of discovery the holy in everyday life, and the presence of God in the tragic and confused.

I suppose the book is a bit like the person:  a series of chapters which, collectively, are connected and integrated from God's point of view, if not always from our point of view. I think that is at least one of the hidden gems of the book.   Readers looking for a straightforward biography of a "good Christian artist" will possibly be disappointed - it's not that kind of writing. 

Arends points the reader clearly in the direction of the mystery of the Incarnate Christ.  She simply gets us there via a more scenic route than readers of contemporary Christian books might be used to.  And she invites us to consider stepping onto that route ourselves.

4 out of 5

my predictions are

a] that nothing of great interest will have happened at the lambeth conference by the time this post appears

b] at least one local blogger who is unfamiliar with Typepad's "set time of post" feature will be wondering how I am managing to post from a place that is a hundred miles from electricity...

sermon notes for Pentecost 10, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

rough notes:

July 20 2008 Sermon Notes:

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.  And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?'  He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?'  But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.  Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field."  He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;  the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one,  and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.  Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

This week Jesus wraps ups his parables about the seeds, the sowers and the harvest.  In this passage we hear Jesus talk about some rather difficult things.  We have a  farmer who sowed good seed only to have an enemy come and sow bad seeds in among the crop.

Then we have the problem of what to do with the weeds – should they be ripped up or allowed to grow?  And then we have the separation of the harvest:  there is the separation of the wheat from the weeds, of the good harvest from the bad.  And then the imagery Jesus uses is one of stark contrast: 

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

How do we begin to understand what Jesus is getting at?  At the root of this parable is the fact that God takes seriously the difference between good and evil, and therefore, so should we.  This is what the parable is getting at.  Jesus makes known in this parable something that we already know:  that both good actions and bad actions have consequences.

Let’s look at the first part of the parable:  The farmer sows good seed in his field.  God’s intentions for us are good.  But then, Jesus says, an enemy came and sowed bad seed in the field.  And then the good and the bad grow up together.  Now we can take this parable on two levels.   The first level is that there has always been, and will continue to be, a mix of both people who prefer good, and people who prefer evil.  If you doubt that this is true, just spend some time reading newspapers, or history.  Our world has its “Mother Teresa’s” and it has its “Robert Mugabe’s”.  Those are perhaps most obvious kinds of examples.  But the same is true of every kind of community:  there is conflict between good and evil, with people and organizations choosing one or another.

And that brings us to another point which needs to be remembered when we hear the parables:  Jesus consistently tells his followers that good and evil are not somehow forced upon us, rather we make choices one way or another.  The separation of the weeds from the rest of the crop is not an arbitrary decision on the part of the farmer.  Rather, God tells us that we can choose to be with Him, or we can choose not to be with Him.  That is the consistent message of the stories of Scripture and of Jesus in the Gospels:  God never decides to leave us, but we are free to leave God, and if we choose to leave Him, He will not force us to stay.  But if we do choose God, as Jesus said  “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!” 

An often overlooked part of this parable is that the farmer allows the weeds and the crop to grow up together, and does not instruct his servants to immediately go out and pull out the weeds.  The farmer is not too hasty to dish out judgment, and so neither should we.  Sometimes Christians can be a bit to focused on “rooting out evil persons”, where God would rather have us show patience and mercy. 

On another level, the weeds and the good crop is a parable of our own hearts.  We can see in our own lives both good actions and bad actions;  both wise choices and unwise choices; both weeds and wheat.  So how do the words of Jesus, this parable of the difference between good and evil, play out in our own lives?  Jesus gives us an invitation to examine our own hearts.  We all have times when we have chosen to follow God, to make a choice for good, and we have, in the long run, seen the good consequences – either in our own lives in the lives of those we have helped.   And we can all look back to times when we have made unwise choices, when we have chosen the thing which is not good.  Are we willing to allow him to uproot in us that which is not of God?

"I don't read the bible literally"

Do you read the bible literally? 

Affirming that the entirety of Scripture is to be taken literally is a confession of fundamentalism, which is one of the few things our pluralistic society cannot tolerate. Answering in the negative implies that you may not be taking the Bible seriously at all, questioning not only the historical credibility of the crossing of the Red Sea, but also that of the empty tomb. Some questions cannot be answered by a simple yes or no, precisely because some questions are themselves problems.

Tim Gray, "Do You Read the Bible Literally?" Lay Witness (June 2001).
Tim Gray is assistant professor of Scripture and catechetics at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College in Front Royal and Alexandria, VA.

So here are some things from the bible.  Do you take them literally?  I have heard a number of people over the years proudly say "I don't read the bible literally".  As a blanket statement, it's simply unhelpful.  Mostly what I find is that people mean that they don't believe that certain things happened historically. Consider these sayings from Scripture and ask whther they should be taken "literally":

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice"
"love your neighbour as yourself"
"love justice"
"neither do I condemn you"

Okay, so those are just a few examples.  For someone who likes to say "I don't read the bible literally, I would say that you are using the wrong adverb.  More often than not, the person using that phrase either doesn't really understand what it is to "read literally".  I find the what they are really referring to is "reading literalistically".  Tim Gray again:

Most often what our culture means by the phrase "reading Scripture literally," would be more correctly rendered "reading Scripture literalistically," that is, taking each word at face value apart from its literary context. Such an approach drains the life out of language; such readers leech the meaning out of Scripture. For example, a literalistic take on the phrase, "Her eyes are as bright as diamonds," would claim that her eyes provided a similar luminescence as diamonds.

Augustine on the interpretation of Scripture

"Whoever thinks he understands divine scripture or any part of it, but whose interpretation does not build up the twofold love of God and neighbor, has not really understood it. Whoever has drawn from scripture an interpretation that does fortify this love, but who is later proven not to have found the meaning intended by the author of the passage, is deceived to be sure, but not in a harmful way, and he is guilty of no untruth at all." (De Doctrina Christiana 1.36.40)

sermon notes for Pentecost 9, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

rough notes:

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.  Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.  And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow.   And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.   But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  Let anyone with ears listen!"

Hear then the parable of the sower.  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.  As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;  yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.  As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.  But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

The parable of the sower and the seeds is one of Jesus’ best known images.  And I suspect at least one of the reasons it is so well known is that Jesus does us the favour of giving us an interpretation of it himself.  With many of his parables he simpy leaves us wondering what exactly he might have meant, but with this one he calls his disciples together and gives them a private tutorial in at least one meaning.  I say “at least one meaning” because parables are often designed to make us think a bit more – sometimes we get a new insight out of an old parable after we have spent some time meditating on the imagery.  But at least in this case, Jesus himself gives us a place to start.

First we can start with the sower.  Now this sower is fairly generous, some might even say foolish.  He casts his seeds everywhere.  Not just on ground where there is a likelihood of success, but on ground that others might say is just not suitable.  God does not give up on anyone.  And neither should we.  God offers his good news to everyone – regardless of what we think the outcome might be.

Jesus turns our attention however, away from the sower, and away from the seed, to the kinds of soil on which the seed lands.  And Jesus gives his disciples an interpretation of the 4 kinds of soil.  Let me give you a hint as to why I am saying “an interpretation” rather than “the interpretation”.  Parables are stories which Jesus uses to prod us a bit, and they are the kinds of stories and sayings which give us a bit more insight, the more time we spend with them. 

Jesus first gives us a way of seeing what the parable is about:  it is about the ways in which we receive, or do not receive, the good news of the kingdom.  He lays out for us 4 different scenarios:

First there is the seed that falls on the path.  We might, Jesus says, fail to understand what the Gospel is, and therefore it is snatched away from us by the evil one.  What is Jesus saying?  He is simply saying this:  we might mistake other things, even religious things, for the gospel itself.  We may never have really heard what the good news of the kingdom is all about, or why it is even supposed to be “good news”.  Many religious people in Jesus’ day did not understand his Gospel.  And so there are those who do understand what Jesus is about, and so the seed does not grow.

Second, we have the seed falling on rocky ground.  When this happens, Jesus tells us, there is some initial growth and maybe the seed will take and grow, but unfortunately it does not last all that long.  What happens?  Well, Jesus says, as soon as this person realizes that it is not always easy to be a Christian, well, then the enthusiasm wavers, and the seed will die again.  Jesus tells us that the roots were not very deep, and so when anything difficult came along, the plant simply withered.  What is this about?  It is about the depth of our faith.  Shallow faith will not endure.  It might last while conditions are perfect, but when conditions are not perfect, a shallow faith will not stand up.  So Jesus is encouraging us to grow some depth to our roots, some depth to our faith, some depth to our discipleship.

Third, we have the example of the seed which, we are told, seems to take root, and perhaps even looks like it is growing well, but in the end there is too much competition from the weeds, and it gets “choked” out.  What Jesus says about this situation is that it “doesn’t yield anything”.  That is, there may be a plant, but it is producing nothing.  Kind of like having a fruit tree which has nice green leaves, but produces no fruit.  There is life, and some growth, but it does not come to maturity – it does not bear fruit.

The last image is of the seed that completes its intended life-cyle.  It comes to maturity and then itself produces fruit.  It is, I think, worth considering that this section of Matthew is concerned with maturing in discipleship;  I see a bit of this theme in the chapters that follow the mission discourse in Matthew.  Jesus has told his followers about the beginning of discipleship, and now he wants to give them a fuller picture of mature discipleship.

There is another thought we can be entertained in this parable.  In addition to looking at the 4 kinds of ground as 4 “types” of persons (sounds like a Myers Briggs personality test!) there is a sense in which each of us might, at different times and at different stages, be identified with one or another of the situations Jesus describes in the parable.  We may not understand, or we way wither under cares and concerns, or we may have our love for Jesus in competition with other things, or we may find, through no apparent merit of our own, that we somehow have come to a fruituful season in our lives.

Bishop Greg Kerr-Wilson: mission notes from the Crosstalk Conference

Bishop Moon Hing of West Malaysia provided a plenary presentation on the situation for the Church in the officially Muslim setting of their country. It would take some telling to go through the list of policies and laws of the government there which are major challenges.

Some brief examples include that everyone is officially listed by religion with the government,and if for whatever reason someone declares, or signs a form indicating, that they are Muslim, they can never reverse it. If a non-Muslim marries a Muslim, they are automatically registered as Muslim themselves - and any and all children are automatically considered Muslim. If an already married man becomes a Muslim, then upon his death all his assests are seized by the government - as they can only be inherited by another Muslim. Only if his wife declares herself Muslim can she receive his assests - and then all her children are automatically considered Muslim - whether they have any such belief or not - and all the above rules automatically apply to them.

Of particular concern in the context of mission for Malaysian Christians however, is that it is illegal to speak to Muslims directly about Christian faith. If a Muslim becomes a Christian and is found out, they can be executed or, usually, jailed. If a Muslim is caught entering a church, it is also illegal, and if the Church is deemed to have known that the person was a Muslim and allowed their attendance, then the church is shut down by the authorities.

read it all at Bishop Greg's blog

by the time you read this

I'll be a few hours closer to this place

it was always a food I did not trust

Tofu 'may raise risk of dementia'

an interesting (to me at any rate) discussion

over in the comments section at simplemassingpriest

"the rhythm of immediate response denies the place and importance of reflection"

I guess it's the 4th of July - An American Tune

He did yet another variation on Bach, who did a variation on...

quote of the day - Dr Henry Morgentaler

I'm not going to debate whether he should have gotten the award.  What caught my eye was a quote in the Globe and Mail:

"The fact that some people are opposed on religious grounds mainly, well, that doesn't bother me as long as they're not allowed to influence other people by force or by whatever other means," he said.

Globe and Mail
(emphasis added)

I'll gladly give him the "force" thing. 

But "by whatever other means"?  Really?  Seriously?  This has got to be a case of a truncated quote, or missing context, or bad reporting, because otherwise....ummmm... you are against something like this:

Technological advances in fetal screening are presenting parents, and doctors, with enormous ethical, psychological and social dilemmas. Vulnerable, and with limited, biased, information, more than 90% of prospective parents in Canada choose termination if their fetus is determined in prenatal screening to have Down
Syndrome. They may never know there is a world of resources, possibilities and support out there. In spite of tireless efforts from support groups their information rarely reach prospective parents at the time they need it most.

In Canada the recent recommended expansion of screening protocols called for by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Canada has not been accompanied by a call for the expansion of the provision of non prejudicial information which outlines not just the potential medical conditions sometimes associated with Down syndrome but also about the richly rewarding lives possible for citizens with developmental disabilities in Canada. The United States recently called for the re-introduction a Prenatal Diagnosed Condition Awareness Act.

The CDSS acknowledges that in Canada women have the legal right to make decisions about the progression of their pregnancies; the CDSS insists that each individual family be given, without prejudice, information that accurately reflects the realities of a life with Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities.

Canadian Down Syndrome Society

So to live by Dr Morgentaler's quoted code of ethics, if someone comes up and says to me:  "Hey, I am thinking of abortion, because we just found out that there might be some sort of genetic thing happening with the fetus, and we hear that kids with Down Syndrome are awful and suffer a lot and all that stuff  - well, it's just better to have the abortion now",  I should simply keep silent?  I, being a "religeous" person should not be "allowed to influence other people" by "whatever other means", such as giving them information as presented by the CDSS?

Well, I'll have to think more about this.

 

The Goat that changed lives

Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times:

“I am one of the luckiest girls in the world,” Beatrice declared at her graduation party after earning her bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College. Indeed, and it’s appropriate that the goat that changed her life was named Luck.

Beatrice’s story helps address two of the most commonly asked questions about foreign assistance: “Does aid work?” and “What can I do?”

The tale begins in the rolling hills of western Uganda, where Beatrice was born and raised. As a girl, she desperately yearned for an education, but it seemed hopeless: Her parents were peasants who couldn’t afford to send her to school.

The years passed and Beatrice stayed home to help with the chores. She was on track to become one more illiterate African woman, another of the continent’s squandered human resources.

In the meantime, in Niantic, Conn., the children of the Niantic Community Church wanted to donate money for a good cause. They decided to buy goats for African villagers through Heifer International, a venerable aid group based in Arkansas that helps impoverished farming families.

A dairy goat in Heifer’s online gift catalog costs $120; a flock of chicks or ducklings costs just $20.

One of the goats bought by the Niantic church went to Beatrice’s parents and soon produced twins. When the kid goats were weaned, the children drank the goat’s milk for a nutritional boost and sold the surplus milk for extra money.

The cash from the milk accumulated, and Beatrice’s parents decided that they could now afford to send their daughter to school. She was much older than the other first graders, but she was so overjoyed that she studied diligently and rose to be the best student in the school.

An American visiting the school was impressed and wrote a children’s book, “Beatrice’s Goat,” about how the gift of a goat had enabled a bright girl to go to school. The book was published in 2000 and became a children’s best seller — but there is now room for a more remarkable sequel.

Beatrice was such an outstanding student that she won a scholarship, not only to Uganda’s best girls’ high school, but also to a prep school in Massachusetts and then to Connecticut College. A group of 20 donors to Heifer International — coordinated by a retired staff member named Rosalee Sinn, who fell in love with Beatrice when she saw her at age 10 — financed the girl’s living expenses.

A few years ago, Beatrice spoke at a Heifer event attended by Jeffrey Sachs, the economist. Mr. Sachs was impressed and devised what he jokingly called the “Beatrice Theorem” of development economics: small inputs can lead to large outcomes.

Granted, foreign assistance doesn’t always work and is much harder than it looks. “I won’t lie to you. Corruption is high in Uganda,” Beatrice acknowledges.

A crooked local official might have distributed the goats by demanding that girls sleep with him in exchange. Or Beatrice’s goat might have died or been stolen. Or unpasteurized milk might have sickened or killed Beatrice.

In short, millions of things could go wrong. But when there’s a good model in place, they often go right. That’s why villagers in western Uganda recently held a special Mass and a feast to celebrate the first local person to earn a college degree in America.

Moreover, Africa will soon have a new asset: a well-trained professional to improve governance. Beatrice plans to earn a master’s degree at the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas and then return to Africa to work for an aid group.

Beatrice dreams of working on projects to help women earn and manage money more effectively, partly because she has seen in her own village how cash is always controlled by men. Sometimes they spent it partying with buddies at a bar, rather than educating their children. Changing that culture won’t be easy, Beatrice says, but it can be done.

When people ask how they can help in the fight against poverty, there are a thousand good answers, from sponsoring a child to supporting a grass-roots organization through globalgiving.com. (I’ve listed specific suggestions on my blog, nytimes.com/ontheground, and on facebook.com/kristof).

The challenges of global poverty are vast and complex, far beyond anyone’s power to resolve, and buying a farm animal for a poor family won’t solve them. But Beatrice’s giddy happiness these days is still a reminder that each of us does have the power to make a difference — to transform a girl’s life with something as simple and cheap as a little goat.

I invite you to comment on this column on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground, and join me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kristof.

h/t mike