Whinging for change

I am constantly amazed at people who think they are making the world a better place by whinging.

Don't get me wrong, I fancy a whinge as much as the next person, the weather, the traffic, the baggages retrieval system they've got at Heathrow... but whinging is no longer a guilty pleasure indulged in with moderation Nup, it's something to be proud of. We draw attention to problems and say the government should fix it, we'll write a letter or call up talk back radio instead of actually doing anything constructive. So if it's good enough for them I'm going to whinge about people whinging!

This epidemic of complaining was highlighted recently by a couple of young friends of mine. I was told that they were educating their 3 year old daughter in social action. That's nice I thought, expecting that they were encouraging here to share her toys or to be kind to those who are different from herself. No, on a recent visit to the park, Sophie had remarked that the slippery slide was dirty, so they went home and........wrote a letter to the council to ask them to clean the slide.

For heaven's sake, talk about teaching a child to expect a nannystate. Wouldn't it have been a better lesson to the kid if they'd gone home and come back with a bucket of water and a rag and cleaned the slide themselves? There are situations where writing letters and protesting are positive and effective ways of trying to change the system, particularly at a national and global level but it's certainly not the only, nor the most effective way of making a difference in our local communities.

Has advocating for change become a way of whimping out from actually being a change agent? Sadly amongst many of the so called socially aware I think so.

Thank God for the Salvos

Just watched the ABC's program on the Salvation Army Oasis Centre, truly inspirational look at gospel ministry, best public witness of Christianity in Australia I've seen in a long time.

Well done ABC and the Salvos.

Limitless Servanthood

FranIAm left this great quote in the comments section of a previous post and Alcibiades also wants to shout this from the rooftops:

"Isn’t the problem with sexism, not what it says about women but what it says about God? Doesn’t sexism really imply that God is all powerful except when it comes to women, at which point the God who could draw water from a rock and raise the dead to life is totally powerless to work as fully through a woman as through a man?"-Joan Chittister, OSB

Indeed, the restriction of women's roles places a limit on God's ability to work and it seems a shame that there are many who spend way too much time worrying about who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven and who can lord it over (sorry, have authority over) whom rather than getting on with the work to which God has called them, and letting others do the same.

I wonder why there is never any talk of alternative episcopal oversight for those who believe that to exclude people made in the image of God purely on the basis of gender from preaching and teaching and leading churches is ungodly and unbiblical, but it seems ok to demand this for those who refuse to accede to the church's decisions in relation to women bishops in other dioceses.

Staying Positive, a few random ideas.

"O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ..." From the Collect for the Second Sunday after Christmas

There are so many, many times that I read and hear things from members of the church that make me so angry. To avoid imploding, today I have decided to try to think of a few practical, positive things to do to bear witness to Jesus in our city this week.


Support one of the biggest proclamations of Jesus in the world this year and volunteer as a helper for World Youth Day. A great chance to meet pilgrims from all over the world and to commune with brothers and sisters in Christ and participate in a festive atmosphere, hey wouldn’t it be good if it was like the Olympics all over again? Wouldn’t it be great to see people come to know Jesus through this event.

http://www.wyd2008.org/index.php/en/community_involvement/wyd08_volunteers

Support the activities of a broad church. The St James Institute runs a number of courses, why not enrol in one, this interview with Justice Michael Kirby looks interesting.

http://www.sjks.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=237&Itemid=1

If you’re an Anglican man, try to support women’s ministry and enrol in one of the courses of Mary Andrews College (do they let men enrol, I hope so).

http://www.mac.edu.au/coursesnew.html

We need more women encouraged and trained in preaching, so if you’re a woman why not try to find opportunities for preaching or training or attend a church or conference were women teach? I know SMBC run preaching short courses/introductions (I don't know of other, perhaps more suitable opportunities locally, if anyone does let me know). It’d be great to have a significant number of women enrolled in one of these, so Sydney gals leave me a comment or a an email if you’re up for it.

http://www.smbc.com.au/pdf/PreachingEssentials.pdf

Support a caring ministry that preaches the gospel without words. I volunteered with these guys once and the people were truly awesome, but there are lots of others out there as well.
http://www.jesuscares.net/help.php

He is Risen!

He is risen indeed!

Sometimes I think Christians act as though Christ WAS risen. Yes the resurrection happened at a specific point in time but we worship the Living God, He was dead, He is risen and He will come again.

Let’s celebrate the Living God and treat Easter, not as the end of God’s action but the beginning. Instead of focusing all our attention on trying to prove the resurrection or verify the historical authenticity of the bible, let's try to follow the risen Lord.

Jesus never said blessed are those who are biblical scholars but he did say "blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness" and that the law and the prophets can be summed up in Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and others as yourself.

The Outrageous Nature of Christianity

Today is Easter Saturday, that day in which western Christians remember the time that Jesus spent, dead in the tomb. God incarnate has been killed by his own creation. It is a story that has become so familiar that believers and non-believers alike are no longer incredulous. In a later post I will think about the non-believers but for now I want to think about the believers, although to do so it pays us to revisit the oh so familiar tale, indulge me for a moment of time and imagine that you are hearing the story afresh, without all the preconceived notions and baggage that has accumulated over the last 2,000 years.

God spoke and created the Earth and everything within it. In an age in which the Egyptians worshipped cats and crocodiles and monkeys, an enslaved people declared that the Lord they worshipped was ‘one God’ and that he had created everything. Those creatures their masters worshipped and accorded respect and honour, they had been brought into being by the word of the Lord. This was a truly outrageous claim.

Similarly outrageous is the idea that God would come to Earth in human form and would be tortured to death, a punishment reserved for the scum of the Earth. This is not the most outrageous part, though. Christians claim that Jesus rose from the dead, He suffered, was crucified, died and descended into hell BUT on the third day he rose.

Surely this has to be the most outlandish claim of all and yet millions of people throughout the world believe that God came to earth two thousand years ago. In a hick town in a backwater of the mighty Roman Empire, God became man. “Emmanuel”, God with us. God took on flesh and walked among us.

He overcame death to give us a freedom from the weight of sin and despair. As Christians we can say there is hope, we need no longer be weighed down by sin, with Jesus we can have a fresh start. Let us let go of sin and embrace the love of God and love our neighbours, this way leads away from death and towards hope.

So by now the Christians are saying, yeah, yeah we know all this. We don’t need you telling us basic stuff and ghee you missed hammering home penal substitutionary atonement or some other theological point that you consider is the cornerstone of being a Christian. The non-Christians are probably smirking that some people actually believe this stuff.

I believe that Jesus is God, that Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead.

It is such an outrageous belief, that when I meet somebody who believes the same thing, I am amazed that we could let other less important beliefa hinder our fellowship and yet this is what Christians do all the time. We squabble about trivialities whilst we should be united by sharing in the gift of forgiveness that Christ offers. Can we truly believe in Christianity and yet, be uncharitable and judgemental towards fellow believers? Who is so arrogant as to assume that they know God’s revelation fully and completely and that what they choose to emphasise is what God would judge us by? We need to be careful about setting up false Gods whether they be the “church” or the bible. God is God and it is He that is to be worshipped not the bible and not a human institution. You might be surprised at what you can learn and how much fellowship can be shared if you let go of your prejudices and preconceived ideas and just enjoyed fellowship with other Christians instead of judging their theology. I really don't think that entry to heaven is granted via a theology exam.