Give joy to one person...

Reading this morning's newsletter from the Charter for Compassion (begun after Karen Armstrong's TED talk on Compassion) I saw this quote from their Facebook page which is worth passing on - and acting on!

Last month's most popular quote on the Charter Facebook page?

“Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But I try to work one day at a time. If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. That’s enough. When you see you can do that, you continue, and you give two little joys, and you remove two little sufferings, then three, and then four. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. That is the secret. Start right now.”
~Sister Chân Không (born 1938), Vietnamese pioneer of socially engaged Buddhism

Did you know?

Thanks to Paul and the Prodigal Kiwi blog here's a 4 minute You Tube link that is really "mind blowing". I don't have an answer for the question at the end: "What does it all mean?"

More from Rollins...

As a Postscript to yesterday's post I include here a link given in the back of the book Insurrection to a video interview between Rob Bell and Peter Rollins. It is an hour long - and well worth making the time to watch! Rollins is an excellent - and hilarious - speaker. For me this interview clarified some of the points I was wondering about after reading the book. So even if I don't get to have a Rohr and Rollins  interview,  Bell and Rollins is an excellent combination - even if Rob Bell doesn't get many words in!

Insurrection and The Immortal Diamond!

I've just read two books which, while very different, are essentially making the same point - at least some of the time! That converging point is that living in light of the Resurrection is not about debating an historical event but participating as co-creators of resurrection in every area of life now.

Pete Rollins does this in a deliberately "incendiary" way. Listen to his own short introduction to his book Insurrection: to believe is human; to doubt, divine.

I found this book very challenging - and thought provoking. I'm still mulling over whether I'd go as far as he did on some points but I plan to read more of his writing.


Richard Rohr's book Immortal Diamond: the search for our true self  is written for a different purpose but returns many times to the theme that resurrection life (life lived from the "true self") is a life of participation. "Some of the most exciting and fruitful theology today is being described as the turn towards participation. ...It constantly recognizes that we are part of something more than we are observing something. The turn towards participation now sees that most of religious and church history has been largely preoccupied with religious ideas, about which you could be wrong or right. When it is all about ideas, you did not have to be part of 'it'; you just needed to talk correctly about 'it'. You never had to dive in and illustrate that spiritual proof is only in the pudding. You never had to go to Russia; you just needed a correct map of Russia and the willingness to say, "My map is better than your map," or more commonly, "Mine is the only true map," without offering any corroborating evidence that your map has in fact gotten you there." p108f (italics in original)

Rohr takes the reader more gently on a journey from familiar territory to challenging places that in many ways are similar to where Rollins arrives. With Rohr's book it may feel more like being coaxed out of an old confining chrysalis than Rollins' radical burning of the bridges you've just walked over! I'd love to hear an interview between Rohr and Rollins. I think they would agree on a great deal - but I'm not sure it would be everything.

Both books are well worth reading - but there's a "right time" for everything!

Walking backwards off the edge!

(I'm doing a bit of an archaeological dig into articles and poetry written years ago. Somehow this article seemed to fit with the White Water Rafting of the previous post!)

Walking backwards off the edge!

I must be very careful of the illustrations I use when leading a retreat! Recently I talked about abseiling as an picture of trust and surrender. I was quoting from Parker Palmer whose own experience of abseiling had been a salutary lesson in faith. It was a great illustration - written with humour, yet taking seriously the spiritual challenge embedded in the physical experience.

I suppose I should have guessed that someone would ask me if I'd ever tried it myself! "Well, no actually, I haven't. I watch other people abseiling quite often though - almost every day I walk past a recreation centre where they teach outdoor pusuits. So I can see how safe it is and it looks like fun!" Having put it like that I could hardly back out when my friend admitted it hadn't felt like fun the one time she'd tried it and asked me to go with her to have another try - this time as a conscious expression of trust. So with a slightly sinking feeling I agreed.

Part of me hoped she would just forget about it. After all learning vicariously from someone else's experience is good enough isn't it? Alas, she was serious! A few weeks later we were booked in to actually do it!

Our instructor was great. He found out about us and our past experience - one with a bad experience and one with none! He talked us through every detail of the harness, the ropes, the helmet, the safety rope he would hold and the way to walk backwards off the edge! The only thing left was to do it. His final word was: "Trust the equipment. It will hold you. If you slip, or even just want to pause on the way down I will hold you steady with the safety rope. Trust me!"  We assured him that trust was exactly the name of the game!

And so I walked backwards off the edge  (yes, that is me in the photo!) - leaning out into the harness, letting out the rope at my own pace and looking up at the instructor calling out encouraging words! It was a challenge - especially that first step over the edge. But the equipment and the intsructor were trustworthy and once I knew that from experience it was fun! We had two descents each and left feeling both exhilarated and thoughtful.

Walking backwards off the edge is a crazy thing to do without the right equipment and a competent instructor. When both are there, however, it may be the best way down to a new level of faith. The Christian pathway isn't always through green pastures and beside still waters. Often enough it  leads to apparently insurmountable cliffs and crevasses that seem to disappear into an abyss. We are used to walking forwards seeing the next step and choosing it carefully. Walking backwards goes against our strong desire to stay in control. What's more we are used to walking on the horizontal plane. "I'm not designed for vertical descent," we gasp, as life tips us totally out of our comfort zone. Walking backwards off the edge disorients us. It gives us a stark choice: Trust and descend safely to a new level of being or stay in control  on the familiar flat land.

The faith equipment that will hold us needs to be carefully put on piece by piece before we reach the top of the cliff so that at that "first step over the edge" moment we have confidence in what we are leaning into. Walking backwards means our eyes are free to watch the Instructor who encourages every trusting step and promises to hold us steady even if we slip. Faith is a challenge - and the exhilaration of surrendering to it cannot be felt vicariously. 

While we were abseiling on one part of the wall a group of young children were going down alongside us and we were told that earlier in the day people in wheelchairs had been enabled to abseil too!  Trusting, like abseiling, is not reserved for the mature or the strong. Trusting is about leaning back and knowing you will be held. Sometimes children and the disabled  know more about this than most of us!

(PS In case you are wondering: no I haven't been bungy jumping and I have definitely decided never to use it as an illustration!)

Elephant TV

Thanks to Dale (whose Blog I follow) I have just found out about Elephant TV. As far as I can tell it is a TEAR Fund initiative to have informed discussions about "contentious issues in the Church so that Christians can come to informed and thoughtful conclusions and respect each other despite our differences of opinion." The full panel discussions are available for rent at $1.99 or to buy at $3.99. The previews I've looked at have definitely whetted my appetite. Current topics available: Evolution/Creation; Same sex marriage; Is war ever justified... While browsing the site I came upon an interview with Paul Young author of The Shack. You can listen to the whole interview here by scrolling down past the preview of the session on war which features Dr. Chris Marshall and one of the Waihopai three who disarmed the US spy base here in NZ.

I think this site is a wonderful resource for individuals or groups to hear people respectfully but strongly talking about things which are often the avoided "elephants in the room".

Junk music? Maybe not!

                    "The world sends us garbage. We send back music."

-Favio Chavez Orchestra Director

Thanks to a friend sharing this You Tube link I'm sharing it with you.
It is inspirational and only takes a few minutes to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXynrsrTKbI&feature=plcp

Fire!

With all the devastating fires in Australia - and some here in NZ too - fire is on our minds at present. It is both essential - and dangerous when out of hand. I can't imagine life without fire. According to an interesting Wikipedia article on fire we've been depending on it for 420 million years!

But my real point in this post is a quote from another book I am currently working through: The New Spiritual Exercises in the Spirit of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. by Louis Savary

"Teilhard connects the image of fire with love in an evolutionary prayer: 'Someday after mastering the wind, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.'"








The fire of love is the one kind of fire that does no damage at all no matter how far and wide it spreads. It only takes a match, a spark, a candle to start a fire.
Let's all be fire-lighters of love!

Cardboard bicycle for $20

This post is rather a change from the last one! But I happened on this story on the Yahoo website while checking my mail - and it is really inspiring. It is not only the creative genius of the inventor but his desire to give aid in a variety of ways from his creation. For the whole fascinating story click here.

View Photo

Israeli inventor Izhar Gafni holds his cardboard bicycle as he poses for a photo in Moshav Ahituv, central Israel September 24, 2012. The bicycle, made almost entirely of cardboard, has the potential to change transportation habits from the world's most congested cities to the poorest reaches of Africa, Gafni, an expert in designing automated mass-production lines and an amateur cycling enthusiast, says. Picture taken September 24, 2012. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

My New Year reading

They say you know a lot about a person by looking at their bookshelf. I'm sure that's true! But in our house it depends which bookshelf you look at. Which is really to say that this post is not intended to represent a balanced overview of my reading material!

For Christmas 2012 I gave "hints" about books I would like to receive and was delighted to acquire two of them:

Just Call Me Lopez is a novel about the life of Ignatius of Loyola written by Margaret Silf. Since Ignatian spirituality is the tradition in which I was trained as a spiritual director it holds a place very close to my heart. Margaret Silf is an author and a person I admire. So the combination was irresistible. I'm still reading this one and enjoying the way Silf brings Ignatius (also known as Lopez) "down to earth". The events of his life and the discoveries now enshrined in The Spiritual Exercises are woven together in an easy to read way.

It is in more recent years  that I have discovered the writing and speaking of the recent Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. I am captivated by his ability to speak deeply and thoughtfully on so many topics - from CS Lewis's Narnia books, to the intricacies of the theology of Church councils, to the history of spirituality.
So when I saw advertised a book subtitled The Theology of Rowan Williams by Mike Higton, I was hooked! The title Difficult Gospel is intriguing and is quickly revealed to refer to the difficult-to-believe good news of God's unconditional love - and the implications of that love. Higton is excellent at distilling Williams's often complex thinking into a clarity that is no less compelling and challenging.

I couldn't wait for Christmas for this third book. Brian McLaren is one of my all time favourite writers. Despite its torturously long title, the theme is one I am delighted to see explored by someone who has gently drawn many people into a more and more inclusive faith journey without in any way having to deny their Christian roots. Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road is more readily understood by its subtitle: Christian Identity in a Multi-faith World. 

I am reading all of these books concurrently! On one recent morning both of the latter two books said a similar thing in different ways. That seemed like a strong flag waving: "Take Notice!" The point expressed very simply is this: Instead of saying (and thinking) "Jesus is like God", it is important to say "God is like Jesus". At first glance that seems a bit self-evident . What is the difference? There is a big difference as both authors make clear. McLaren says: "So where the popular approach takes a pre-existing definition of God and applies it to Christ, this alternative approach challenges the preconceived understandings of God and revises them in the light of Christ. This assertion shifts the emphasis from 'what is true of God is true of Christ' to 'what is true of Christ is true of God'. Or, more simply put from 'Christ is like God' to 'God is like Christ'." p130 (Italics mine.)

Mike Higton is talking about Williams' view that many people put obedience to a God they believe can choose to love or choose to command violence, over an understanding of God framed by the life of Jesus where love goes "all the way down". In the first view "power trumps love". In the second view "love trumps power" every time. Quoting Higton: "The word 'God' in Christian theology does not name a being or reality of unfettered power, who has chosen to love - it does not, that is, name a reality in which power goes deeper than love. Rather it names a reality for whom - if I amy put it like this - love goes all the way down. In the Christian picture, God's power always and only emerges from God's love - God's will from God's loving nature - and so love trumps power every time. There is no shadow of power without love in God." p39

I think the sentence I have italicized in McLaren's quote is the heart of what both authors are saying.