Les Murray- Post Mortem

I was upstaged in Nottingham
after reading poetry there
by what lay in the porter's room above:
ginger human skeletons. Eight of them.

Disturbed by extensions to the arts centre
and reassembled from the dozer's shove
some might have been my ancestors, Nottingham
being where my mothers family fled from

in the English civil war.
These were older than that migration,
crusty little roundheads of sleep,
stick-bundles half burned to clay by water.

Their personhoods had gone, into the body
of that promise preached to them. What had stayed
in their bones were their diseases, the marks
of labour in a rope-furrowed shoulder blade,

their ages when they died, and what they'd eaten:
bread, bacon, beer, cheese, apples, greens,
no tomato atoms in them, no potatoeines,
no coffee yet, or tea, or aspirin

but alcoholic curds horn-spooned at a fair
and opium physic, and pease porridge.
The thought that in some cells their
programmes might persist, my far parentage,

attracted me no more than re-building
faces for them with wire and moulding.
Unsatisfied to go as a detective
to the past, I want the past to live

with the body we have in the promise,
that book which opens when the story ends.
Being even a sound modern physique
is like owning an apartment in Venice

Jazz is running your fingers over an uneven pailing fence,
rough grain chafes the skin,
still, you wont pull your hand
from that syncopated border

"What kind of literature and what kind of life is the same question," Tom Stoppard The Coast of Utopia

Warnings

"In it's use of signs that move through time and space and which imitate the world beyond performance, seen and unseen, the theatre may well bear a likeness to that sensory mode of divine self-revelation attested in the classic texts of Christian faith. But, at least for the Christian, the theatre will not move beyond likeness to rival, claiming to emulate the Incarnation by summoning spirit or universal will to inhabit it's material signs" Max Harris. Theatre and Incarnation

Artaud on Theatre

The spectator must approach as they might a surgeon
"knowing, of course, that he will not die, but that it is a serious thing and he will not come out of it unscathed...He must be totally convinced that we are capable of making him scream" Antonin Artaud

Could we say the same of a sermon?

Shults and Zizoulas on the future

"The truth of history lies in the future, and this is to be understood in an ontological sense: history is true, despite change and decay, not just because it is a movement towards and end, but mainly because it is a movement from the end, since it is the end that gives it meaning." This is revealed not through analysis of cause and effect, but through the manifestation of the openness of the Father to the Son in the Spirit, which is the basis of the Christian claim that ontology must be understood in terms of communion. For human creatures, this means that being is oriented toward a future in which they share in this communion. This shapes Zizioulas's anthropology and ecclesiology. "The truth and the ontology of the person belong to the future, are images of the future." The church "has it's roots in the future and it's branches in the present."
John Zizioulas in LeRon Shults- Reforming the Doctrine of God (194)

What does this mean for the personhood of people outside the church?

Given our focus on the cross, isn’t it ironic that we are so afraid of one word or event representing many meanings and aspects of reality, that we feel the need to nail one absolute and perfect meaning down.

Heretic by omission

A Sydney rag had a “brief” piece recently, on studies of Jesus that don’t include Penal Substitutionary Atonement. Their main target was those putting forward a Christus Victor model, in which Jesus is victorious over the powers of evil. Which, as a theme, sounds reasonably biblical. Not to our mag
“This is not heresy by denial. It is heresy by omission.”
Apparently those who say anything about Jesus without PSA are heretics. The question has to be asked though, are those who omit Christus Victor heretics by omission too? It certainly seems to be a biblical theme.
Don Carson mentions in this very article “Christians are not at liberty to pick and choose which of the Bible’s teachings are to be treasured”.
Yet unless we are able to entirely plumb the depths of the bible’s teachings, to perfectly encapsulate everything in the entire word of God, every time we speak or write, then surely we will be labelled heretics by omission.
Perhaps this is the claim of those who push an exclusively PSA model, that they have everything wrapped up, and can express the entire truth, completely and fully, all the time.
Ironically a few articles later, the same writer is wondering why he is often called arrogant.

limited tastes of eternity

Over the weekend I was chatting with an Anglican bishop about the town I grew up in. At the moment the Anglican church there is fairly small and without a Rector. The strongest church in the town is the Baptist church (which I also grew up in). Thinking about the strengths of this church, the key one seems to be continuity. There are multiple families in the church who have lived in the community and ministered in the church for years. The people running the youth ministry have been there a long time. The church has plenty of newcomers, but seems to be able to retain people. Whether this is planned, or whether the church happens to attract the kind of people who stay in the area, the people there have history. They are a community that has ministered and lived, laughed, cried and forgiven together. They are a foretaste of the kingdom.
So, how can we be a foretaste of the eternal kingdom, when many in our church are 'just passing through'? Is it possible? I hope so, since I'm only going to be at my current church for another year and a half (the diocese moves you on). Still, I'd love your suggestions, since the temporary commitment thing is quite new to me.
My second question is, what would you do, going in as a new rector in this town? What do you do when there is a reasonably strong church (that isn't too dodgy) in your area? Obviously you don't want to undermine their work, but you probably do want some bums on pews too!

More ripped off Brueggemann

You God who terrified the waters,
who crashed your thunder,
who shook the earth, and
scared the wits out of chaos.
You God who with strong arm saved your people
by miracle and wonder and majestic act.
You are the same God to whom we turn,
we turn in our days of trouble,
and in our weary nights;
we look for steadfast love and are dismayed,
we wait for your promises, but wait in fatigue,
we ponder your forgetfulness and lack of compassion,
and we grow silent.
Our lives, addressed to you,
have this bitter-sweet taste of
loud-clashing miracles and weak-kneed doubt.
So we come in our bewilderment and wonderment,
deeply trusting, almost afraid to trust much,
passionately insisting, too timid to insist much,
fervently hoping, exhausted for hoping too much.
Look upon us in our deep need,
mark the wounds of our brothers and sisters just here,
notice the turmoil in our lives, and the lives of our families,
credit the incongruity of the rich and the poor in our very city,
and the staggering injustices abroad in our land,
tend to the rage out of control, rage justified by displacement,
rage gone crazy by absence, silence, and deprivation,
measure the suffering,
count the sufferers,
number the wounds.
You tamer of chaos and mender of all tears in the canvas of creation,
we ponder your suffering,
your crown of thorns,
your garment taken in lottery,
your mocked life,
and now we throw upon your suffering humiliation,
the suffering of the world.
You defeater of death, whose power could not hold you,
come in your Easter,
come in your sweeping victory,
come in your glorious new life.
Easter us,
salve wounds,
break injustice,
bring peace,
guarantee neighbor,
Easter us in joy and strength.
Be our God, be your true self, lord of life,
massively turn our life toward your life
and away from our anti-neighbor, anti-self deathliness.
Hear our thankful, grateful, unashamed Hallelujah!
Amen.

Kostenberger on Vanhoozer

"Here is Vanhoozer’s theological cast:

The playwright: God

The drama: The history of redemption (Part One)

The script: The canon of Scripture (Part Two)

The dramaturge: Theologians (Part Three)

The director: The Holy Spirit, and pastors under him

The actors: All believers (Part Four)

According to Vanhoozer, the task of the theologian, as the dramaturge, is both manifold and vital. He seeks to help the players and the audience (collapsed into one in Vanhoozer’s proposal) to make sense of the script; he selects the proper edition or translation of the play (text criticism, translation); he researches the play to keep it historically accurate (historical background research); he thinks about the playwright’s intention (authorial intent); studies the play’s production history (the history of interpretation); and collaborates with the director on a compelling and coherent interpretation, paying attention to both detail and larger themes (p. 244). In all this, the dramaturge “works the drama” and serves as the liaison between playwright and director."

ooooo, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Bruggemann on scripture

How we read the Bible, each of us, is partly a plot of family, neighbors, and friends (a socialization process) and partly the God-given accident of long-term development in faith. The real issues of biblical authority and interpretation are not likely to be settled by erudite cognitive formulation or appeal to classic settlement, but live beneath such contention in often unrecognized and uncriticized ways that are deeply powerful, especially if rooted (as they may be for most of us) amidst hurt, anger, or anxiety.Real decisions about Biblical meanings are mostly not decided on the spot, but are long-term growth of habit and conviction that emerge, function, and shape, often long before recognized. And if that is so, then the disputes require not frontal arguments that are mostly exercises in self-entertainment, but long term pastoral attentiveness to each other in good faith. The script of the book is a host and launching pad for the wind among us that the world cannot evoke and the church cannot resist

Ascension Sunday ramblings

Have you ever known someone famous? Have you ever seen someone on TV and thought, hey, I know that guy! And felt that tinge of participation, as though you shared in their acheivement? Thought of when you played together when you were young "yeah, I can see the potential even back then'?
Have they ever drawn you into their world, introduced you to other big names?
Imagine how Joseph's brothers would have felt coming to Egypt. Lowly foreigners begging for food. Leaving a brother behind, bringing another, and then finding out, hey, I know that ruler of this massive rich Empire! Aside from the shame of having sold him to slaves, there must have been a surreal awe and joy.
Imagine how the disciples must have felt, seeing Jesus ascend to the right hand of God. It wasn't as if Jesus was a man, died, came back to life as a man, and then suddenly became a distant God. This was their mate, their leader, their friend, ascended to the highest place. And as they realised that that meant he was God, they must have thought back over their time together, and seen it all in a fresh light. Jesus has entered into the heavens, as a spirit filled man, in an amazing position to say of his friends 'they're with me'
When I was younger I got in trouble for praying "too chummy" with God. God (and Jesus) are to be revered. And rightly so. Yet it is our friend we revere. It is our fleshy friend Jesus. The same bloke who ate fish on the beach is enthroned as Lord. When we look at the ascension we see Jesus revealed as divine, but that has to force us to think of God humanised.

Christians and history

Christians can engage with history, because our beleifs embrace the messy, dark complexity of human existence. Christians beleive in reality. That a real God sent a real saviour to redeem and restore this real world. And so we can approach historical reality, not trying to shape its stories to conform to our pre-determined identity and ideology, but to be shaped, peirced and re-newed by and in it.

Circle of the same

Scot over at Jesus Creed has a wise post about hanging out with people similar to us. http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=2101

bless this mess

Each time I invite people over for dinner, I feel obliged to clean up my apartment. The interesting books stop lying around and find their way home to the bookshelf. Paper of all shapes and sizes is hidden in draws. Colourful towels are no longer draped over chairs. The mandala of acrreted detritus on the floor is sucked up. And I am left with bland carpet, bare walls, functional furniture. An empty space
Is messyness my way of doing interior decoration?
Messyness: the inner urge for creativity and beauty placed there by God himself?
A gift, not unlike the one given to Bezalel and Ohilab?
Will my wife ever accept my artistic talent?

On the streets

This is a song my brother wrote a couple of years back. I still like it

Does he make you feel scared
like a black serpent does
when you walk late at night
he’s asleep on the grass?
Well put yourself in his place, if you can, if you must
who’s the one to feel fearful who can this man trust?

On the streets

Well you’ve got your three meals
And you’ve got your five days
Not to mention four wheels
to cruise those highways
and our fortress protects us like yachts in the bay,
whats he got besides having to face a new day?

On the streets

The stars for his bed burn the mind like the lies that we’re told
Of our forefathers bled for our lives but that tie’s getting old
now the homeless are many while few hoard the riches and hold
And the serpent exists but he’s not on the streets in the cold

Did you ever assume
she took too many loans
in her days as a mother
with the children at home?
Now she’s pushing that trolley with all that she owns
through the city of folly, of fashion, of foam

Through the streets

She was never a mother, and never her mother ever knew
through her father she suffered enough of incestual abuse
to be pushing that trolley since she was thirteen and it’s true
can’t go near now before she is stricken with fear through and through

So she’s pushing her founds
through the lights and the sounds
but it helps to forget
to forget what she’d found.
He was in the fresh air,
dead still all around
his heart full of shame
his own gambled life now

to the streets

And the stars for his bed burn the mind like the lies that we’re told
Of our troops, how they bleed for our lives, when it’s just for the gold
Ask the homeless, they’ll tell you this city we’re in’s lined with holes
And the serpent’s still lurking but he’s not on the streets in the cold

What’s expected in this
most material of place
Is to sharpen your weapons
and harden your face
It’s a shame to our day,
from the day when all races
start running, shake hands,
making plans for some grace

For the streets

-Evan Wells

The title...

By the way the title is from Ecclesiastes 10:1. I consider this a little folly...

Dysphemism

Dysphemism
noun
a derogatory or unpleasant term used intead of a pleasant or neutral one, such as ‘loony bin’ for ‘mental hospital’. The opposite of euphemism

‘” if outsiders they are ‘dirty’ lazy’ and ‘morally unreliable’..... if minorities, they are ‘parasites’, ‘vermin’ and pernicious bacilli......”

“they [dysphemisms] insert the ‘other’ into the universe of moral obligations in such a way that not only does exclusion become justified but necessary because not to exclude appears morally culpable. The rhetoric of the others inhumanity obliges the self to practice inhumanity.”
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace
Dysphemisms are great for shutting conversations down. No one wants to stand up for people who are obviously already to be excluded. Do we use dysphemisms in church? Do we write people off with our language, before we even consider wo they are, or what they have to say?

God is on our side?

Byron's correction for skipping our involvement in the cross, the call to die for our old selves, got me thinking.


Christians aren’t people with God on their side. In fact, are christians even people on Gods side? Like Jacob, christians enter the ring with God. We are people who take ourselves into combat with God, expecting conflict, expecting to lose. We expect God to harm and hurt and scar us as we are. It wasn’t just men who put Jesus on the cross, it was God too. And when Jesus asks us to lay down our lives, pick up our cross and follow him, we lay down our lives for others, and for God. God makes us die to ourselves. That’s gotta hurt. That doesn't sound like he is on our side at all!
But like Jacob, we expect God’s blessing. We will see the face of God and be spared. For christians this combat isn’t a senseless beating, but as God beats the crap out of us, we are less crappy. The scars from what has been removed are necessary. In them we take on our role as God’s people, those who have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.

ps. I realise after my last rant and rave that this doesn't mention Jesus much at all. hahaha

Dead flies

This is a site to collate my thoughts. Hopefully most of it is good, sweet smelling perfume. Of course, there will be some dead flies that may ruin the lot...oh well