...to change the things I can...

I am currently reading a fascinating book: A Beginner's Guide to Changing the World by Isabel Losada. Based on the Serenity Prayer she decides to find out what she can and can't change in regard to the situation in Tibet.

This quote struck me today: "... The landscape was so dramatic and powerful it was hard to mind about the danger. I leapt out, sat on a rock and tried to take it all in. This was Tibet. The land of snows. And the struggle to live and be joyful in this frozen and beautiful land is what has made the Tibetan people who they are. Their faith is not in a God outside themselves who will change their circumstances for them - but is a faith in the qualities within themselves that they have to develop in order to live and be happy in this place. So every day the focus is on peace of heart and mind and the development of compassion. I read once that the Dalai Lama said that Buddhista are good at talking about compassion but Chriatians are better at taking action. This may be so, but in the West it is rare to find people who really have Christ's teaching at the centre of each decision they make. In Tibet it is rare to find people who do not have their faith central to their lives."

Where is Jesus?

I haven't blogged much recently. The unpredictability of life (see last post) means I am about to spend a few days in hospital this week. So the lead up to that has put some other things on the back burner! But this picture is one that often comes to my mind as I watch the news - especially as we hear of benefit cuts and people in Christchurch still without certainty re their homes.

Life is unpredictable...

I've always liked Henri Nouwen's writing and this quote seems well worth hearing again because life is unpredictable - as I have personally discovered once again this past week.
Nouwen on a skateboard seemed to fit the theme somehow! 
(I copied this quote from the Prodigal Kiwi Blog  which I follow - lots of good stuff!) 


“Life is unpredictable.  We can be happy one day and sad the next, healthy one day and sick the next, rich one day and poor the next, alive one day and dead the next.  So who is there to hold on to?  Who is there to feel secure with?  Who is there to trust at all times?  Only Jesus, the Christ.  He is our Lord, our shepherd, our rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our brother, our guide, and our friend.  He came from God to be with us.  He died for us, he was raised from the dead to open for us the way to God, and he is seated at God's right hand to welcome us home.  With Paul, we must be certain that "neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord"  (Romans 8:38-39).”
Henri Nouwen

Pithy and pointed!

Thanks to World Vision daily Lenten reflections for this:

If I hate myself
Underrate myself
Undercut myself
And head-butt myself
Should I still
Love my neighbour as myself?

Cameron Semmens

(from "Give A Man A Fish: making a difference and being the difference", Cameron Semmens, published by World Vision Australia, 2010.)

Being an apprentice

Since my last Blog I have started reading Michael Hardin's book. I'm only halfway so I'll probably add more quotes and comments as I go. Hardin dives into some pretty big arenas. He says: "I have simply tried in this book to reframe orthodoxy in its most generous fashion (to paraphrase Brian McLaren). It seems to me that conversations in both Mainline and Emergent communities require this. Christianity is changing and there is nothing we can do to stop it. it is changing because it is finally being recognized that some theological paradigms handed down to us for centuries and millennia don't really work and are being given up." (Italics mine.)

At first the title of the book really irritated me because I tend to resist exhortations to be "driven" (as in The Purpose Driven Life). But as it turns out I was irritated for the same reason Hardin chose to use this title! He says: "I deliberately played off Pastor Warren's title because I was not satisfied with the assumption that a 'purpose' should push me from behind, as though discipleship was to be a Type-A personality experience. There are certain Augustinian/Calvinist assumptions here worth questioning. I use the word 'Driven' in the more modest sense of traveling with Jesus, journeying through life with him as our chauffeur, if you will. Discipleship seems to me to become a walk of friends side-by-side (John 15:15)."

So having got that straight...! Some thoughts on discipleship as apprenticeship.

"A disciple is more like an apprentice than a modern student. The Master does not expect the the new apprentice to be perfect. A wise Master knows that mistakes will be made. A patient master will watch progress and affirm it. Following Jesus is just like this." Hardin goes on to use Matthew 11:25-30 as a key text for understanding this kind of apprenticeship. This is the well known passage where Jesus invites his followers to "take my yoke upon you... for my yoke is easy...". Hardin says: "The yoke functions to keep the mules from going in directions different than the farmer would have them go. I am told that when a young mule is first learning to plow a field, they team him up with a veteran mule that has plowed the field for many years. This way the younger mule learns how to respond to the farmer's guidance because when the older mule turns, the younger has to go the same way, the yoke making it impossible for him to go another.

In the same way, we are yoked with Jesus who knows the Abba's will. When the Father moves the reins in a certain direction Jesus responds and we respond not by choosing, nor out of our own initiative but simply by submitting to the yoke. The only choice we make is to be yoked with  Jesus. After that it is no longer about choice but about something entirely different. It is about 'trust'."

Putting these images together discipleship can be thought of as:

• a walk of friends side by side 
• being the apprentice to a patient and affirming Master 
• being yoked to the one who knows how to respond to the lightest touch of God's direction

To me this builds a very secure picture  of relaxing and letting Jesus drive!

Reminding people of Jesus

Today I've heard two people speaking - one via a Podcast (James Alison a Catholic theologian and Priest) and the other at Ponsonby Baptist Church where our guest speaker was Michael Hardin (a Mennonite speaker and author). The following are some highlights that challenged me. These are in my own words and recollection - not necessarily direct quotes. You can check out both people for yourself in the links above. Interestingly when I checked out these links just now I discovered that Alison and Hardin both draw from the work of Rene Girard in regard to understanding a non-violent atonement. In fact both know each other's work. Alison has written a recommendation for Hardin's new book. A strange synchronicity when I listened to both of them in one day!

James Alison talked about how often we use the word "faith" to mean something to strive to have more of. e.g. "If I had more faith I could believe God would..." or "If only we'd had more faith this or that might have happened." Another way "faith" is often used is when we talk about "the Christian faith"meaning a set of doctrines or a belief system. Alison suggested that faith is actually a gift that comes from relaxing when we know we are loved and liked by someone. In human terms when we are secure in the love of someone who both loves us and likes us, we relax! We can be who we truly are without fear. When we know we are secure in the love of God who not only loves us but likes us as well, we relax. In other words we are given the wonderful gift of relaxing, trusting - having faith - in that ultimate security. And, as Alison went on to say, from that place we are drawn to behave in certain ways, ways that match the character of the one who loves us.

This is where Michael Hardin's sermon connects. He spoke about radical discipleship. It was, in many ways, a hard hitting sermon because radical discipleship is! It means committing all I am and all I have to the service of following Jesus. That's an easy sentence to say but a complex challenge to live out. The point I want to emphasize is the first sentence in Hardin's sermon: "The world does not need one more Christian." That certainly got us all listening! There are 2.1 billion Christians in the world and at least twice that many hungry and destitute people. Being "Christian" hasn't as yet transformed the world. As Hardin said, he doesn't particularly want people to say when they get to know him: "Oh you must be a Christian." But he would be delighted if instead they said: "Oh you remind me of Jesus."

To me this is where both speakers come to a common point. When I relax into the security of knowing I am loved by God (with all my faults and foibles), I am drawn  to live in ways that respond to that love. That is more likely to remind people of Jesus than if I am trying to "have more faith" or "be a worthy Christian."

Lent begins this week. I am going to make it my Lenten practice to pray that every day I will be aware of living in a way that might "remind people of Jesus".

Spiritual relaxing

Another quote from Beatrice Bruteau's book Radical Optimism which I've featured in the last two Blogs:

"I think most of the spiritual life is really a matter of relaxing - of what Meister Eckhart called Gelassenheit - of letting go, ceasing to cling, ceasing to insist on our own way, ceasing to tense ourselves up for this or against that..."

What an astounding idea: most of the spiritual life is about relaxing! How different that is from all the striving and proving and working harder we tend to think is evidence of a spiritual life. It even sounds different from the exhortations to "surrender" or "let go" which can sound like a pretty stern challenge. Of course Bruteau proceeds to say that it is about letting go - or surrendering if you like. But to see that letting go as a relaxing into the love and wisdom of God (rather than a striving to be "a more selfless Christian") makes all the difference. Why would I want to cling when I could relax? I think it all comes back to love. We cling when we fear that there's no-one there to catch me if I fall; that there's no way to keep safe unless I keep control... But when we know at the deepest level that we are held in divine love it is safe to relax, safe to let go, wonderful to surrender control to the Lover.

More on love...

Another quote from Radical Optimism following on from yesterday's post:

"Love can't be required. In spite of the language in which our tradition speaks to us, you can't really command people to love.

... That is why the abundance of "salvation" has to come first. First, learn to relax the ego-defenses by fully accepting God's unconditional sustaining love; then enter into the Trinitarian Life of shared personal love energies; and finally, manifest that life by incarnating it into the workaday world. To make this last step, of unselfish behavior in the world, the condition for meriting the first step, the reception of God's love, is completely erroneous because quite impossible.

This is where we have made things so difficult and miserable for ourselves. We have tried to make ourselves believe we have to do something we can't do. This is why preaching against sin and punishing misbehavior have so little effect. They don't reach the root of the trouble, the belief that we are not loved, are not safe, don't have enough being.

Our most important task in the manifestation phase of contemplative life is, in my view, to correct this terrible error. We must preach and practice God's abundant, unconditional love. This is the truth of God's nature, the fulfillment of our own nature, and the rescue of our fellow beings."

Salvation through Love

Some of my favourite writers on spiritual growth and contemplative practice often quote Beatrice Bruteau. Until recently I had never read anything of hers myself. I'm now immersed in her book Radical Optimism and I can see why she is so widely quoted. Her chapter Sin and Salvation is eye opening in its perspective on those two central realities of the Christian faith. Here's an extended quote from that chapter:

" It is sometimes said that the root of sin is wanting to be God in your own right. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be divine. After all, there is nothing God wants more than to share the fulness of divine life with us. But it's that "in your own right" that betrays the distrust of any donor of divine life. One who feels this way is convinced that the only way to be safe is to control everything oneself. This isn't pride. This is fear. Terrible, rock-bottom existential fear. And just as love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), so fear arises only from belief in lack of love...

Salvation through Love

It is true, though strange to say, that most people resist being loved. But God is persistent. God is patient and does not give up. God leaves ninety-nine sheep in the fold and goes after the one that is lost until he finds it and brings it back. God sweeps the house clean and searches for the lost coin until she finds it. People who have been hurt are very distrustful; they cannot easily believe that someone loves them unconditionally. They fear it is a trick, or that things will change, or that it's not really unconditional but actually imposes an enormous obligation of gratitude (we encourage that one you know, even while claiming that God's love is unconditional) or that somehow there is a diminishment in being a recipient.

All this comes from not understanding the nature of unconditional, creative love, that is addressed to the true self which transcends all descriptions. And institutionalized religion hasn't always helped us understand. It has often represented God's love, or even approbation, as highly conditioned. This naturally terrifies people. God has to work a long time to overcome these fears, this distrust but this willingness on God's part to wait and keep trying is the divine mercy, or pity. Nor is death a cut-off, after which it is too late and God has to give up. God never gives up, but pursues people forever, hoping to convince them that they are unconditionally loved. This is God's radical optimism!

So I believe that if we try to penetrate this mystery and understand what evil is and how it arises, then we will be in a better position to try to do something about it by offering people unconditional love - the only thing that really works. And even it works only if it is believed and accepted. But preaching against sin, meditating on how bad it is, remorse and punishment - none of these gets at the root of it, the lack of love; on the contrary they increase the stress, the tension, the sense of danger and injury.

We can move from a sinful life to a life of divine love only after we ourselves have thoroughly accepted God's unconditional love. Preaching and meditation therefore should be directed to that. And we should be careful to stress the un-conditional. Not: God loves us if we are obedient, or if we believe, or if we join the right church, or if anything, or as anything, or with reference to anything. And we are not to feel guilty over not fully accepting God's love. That's a back door way of reintroducing the sense of condition."

Do you know what TPPA means?

If not - then you may want to check it out. Here is one paragraph from the January 9th update on the TPP watch site that explains it all and why there are major concerns:


"The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade and investment agreement [TPPA] poses a serious threat to many aspects of New Zealand’s future, but very few kiwis are aware that it is being negotiated, let alone what it might mean. In December 2011 representatives from more 20 groups from trade unions, environmentalists, churches, Maori, IT, authors, public health and development sectors met at a workshop convened by TPPWatch, CAFCA, NZ Not for Sale and TPP Action Group.to discuss concerns about the implications of the TPPA and strategies to promote debate about the agreement."


One of the things that is most concerning is that the details of what this agreement entails are being kept secret. Here is another paragraph from the update:


"Governments remain committed to obsessive secrecy

Leaks of draft texts and papers are the only real information we have about these negotiations. Despite national and international letters from organisations representing millions of people, the 9 governments have agreed that no draft texts or background documents will be released until four years after the negotiations are concluded or collapse. That means no governments can be held accountable while they are in office for the trade-offs they have made. Moves to hold more informal negotiations take away the already superficial opportunities for  “stakeholder” interaction with the delegations. The National-led government blocked a petition for the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee to hear submissions on the likely implications of the agreement."