danger signs

Two of the churches I'm involved with are upper middle class professional. This is very interesting because there is a danger that everything from sermon illustrations to small talk is unreal to anyone else who doesn't have a car or reasonable income or currently owning or aspiring to own property. ( the same applies to singles in a church mainly full of couples!) This Sunday I'll be with a very different group at Yonge Street Mission and looking forward to something different and maybe more authentic and real for me.

I read this week about the Five Signs You're Living Beyond Your Means at Yahoo Finance.
Sign No. 1 - Your Credit Score is Below 600
Sign No. 2 - You are Saving Less Than 5%
Sign No. 3 - Your Credit Card Balances are Rising
Sign No. 4 - More Than 28% of Income Goes To Your House
Sign No. 5 - Your Bills are Spiraling Out of Control

Even something like this is unreal. As I look at my own circumstances 2 and 4 are absolutely true 0 percent saving - 45 percent rent, and actually 25 percent school fees. However 3 and 5 are totally under control. For many of the urban poor all 5 are true. The current financial global crisis seems to be linked to banks encouraging people to live beyond their means whether credit or mortgage. But what is the origins of this? I think capitalism and consumerism are intrinsically linked, actually mutually dependent. Our whole economic system is dependent on us continually spending.

In our postmodern world I think many people are looking for something authentic, something they can see is real. Unfortunately many get caught up in illusions - the suburban lifestyle, settling down. Perhaps we don't only have to get out of the church building and into the community but we ourselves have to be noticeably different.

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Matt 6:24

A Challenge

I'm preparing for a summer conference teaching on "the spiritual life in all its fullness through the story of Jonah". I have written a small skit/drama where Jonah is talking about his Ninevah experience and he sounds like a teenager. (This is in the style of Armstrong and Miller WWII comedy sketches - be warned the language is offensive to some in the Youtube clips.)

Rosanne who is reading it for me commented "You know I think Uncle Jonah on first read sounds irreverent - which shocked me a little - although maybe Jonah really did have that attitude.. was that intended?"

When reading Jonah 4 I find that Jonah knows good doctrine but doesn't really know or understand the why of the love of God. So Jonah seems to me to be immature and like many teenagers inconsistent especially when it comes to authority. I hope Jonah in my drama is a little shocking especially for those who are over familiar with the story because I'm trying to reach beyond a children's Sunday school class understanding.

I believe good art, drama, and music should challenge us in someway and yet for the artist, writer, or composer the challenge is to maintain a sense of the aesthetic. This probably the case in postmodern architecture. The move from Modernism and functionalism to first putting elements including the classical in juxtaposition with each other to now trying to find a new way of speaking. The city is full of examples of this. Go and stand at the North East corner of King and University and you'll see what I mean. Also then perhaps the Lee Chin Crystal at the ROM is the most recent dramatic attempt though the aesthetic has been sacrificed because glass has been replaced with metal.

Did you notice the cellist in the picture? He's playing left handed. Knowing that, you're forced to check the other players. Jonah in the skit is written to do that to ourselves.

The Negative as something helpful

Negative spaces are just as important as positive shapes, so we learn in a drawing class. If a chair is to be drawn, a good instructor will help the student pay attention to the shapes in between the legs of the chairs, or the back rests, as much in the "positive shapes" of the chair itself. In the same way, these artists [New York's avant-garde artists] depicted the spiritual climate by negative shapes, but by doing so they effectively described the shape and influence of the churches they rejected. Their observations serve as an invaluable service for the church, as they gave shape to the spiritual vacuum that pervades our culture today. They are important precisely because they depict an honest spiritual wrestling within empty spaces. In that sense, art can always point to the profound, and, even in perverse disagreements, artists accurately reveal the spiritual vacuum. Makoto Fujimura Refractions 28

Within our talk of worship and music realizing less is more is so important. space created gives a sense of transcendence and that is in one sense what negative space is. Apophatic theology is a a theology of the not. God is so wholly other that being contained or even expressed in words can be a dangerous exercise. Doctrine while important and defining boundaries in which exploration is possible. Perhaps that is why adoration is truly wordless worship of God and where the visual artist and musician come into their own.

Zimbabwe

Reading and trying to keep up with situations around the world I am disappointed by sometimes the lack of seeking details and understanding and sometimes empathy for people in their situations. Compassion is passion together as community is one in togetherness.

Recently I read an invocation to pray and fast for Zimbabwe but it was very detailed invitation with the recognition that life there is very hard. Currently the Zimbabwean inflation rate is 165,000% and over 80% of people are unemployed. The idea of fasting took a new direction for me reading through the list.

To make our fasting particularly relevant to Zimbabwe, we have compiled a list of things that Zimbabweans live without daily. We encourage you to look through the list and pick something to live without ... Electricity, Water from the tap; a shower, Phone service, Internet, Cell Phone, Television, Video Games, Gasoline/Diesel Fuel, Listening to music from stereo, cd player, ipod, Flour, Sugar, Butter, Bread, Rice ... Coffee, Milk, ... Toilet Paper

Somehow I have a feeling this gives suddenly more meaning to our prayers.

Discovering grace

I keep returning to the words serendipity, chance, providence and grace as a recent theme. A recent question in my thinking is how okay is it to ask God for things? Let me add for myself! In prayer it seems much is made of intercession praying for others and less supplication for ourselves. However there is an importance between self-centredness, being selfish, and submission. Just see how this changes the prayer of Jabez. It seems to me submission is acceptance of God's activity in my life which in turn drives a certain spirituality which brings out a desire for change, a hunger for the reality of God.

The last few weeks have brought these things into focus. The inheritance monies I received, sent in Feb and found in June, have allowed the dream electric cello to become a reality. Yes it's really small. Saturday I seriously felt drawn to go to a certain garage sale I saw on Craig's list. I wandered in and found these two Galaxy Audio powered monitor speakers. I recognized them as things I wondered about over 7 years ago but they were too expensive then. But at a garage sale very affordable? A real find or gift.

I'm quite aware at the moment how many people around me find it difficult to share things they want prayer for. Yet interestingly in the early days of Alpha at my church the pastor used to lead in his willingness to be prayed for by the small group. It is less God give me and more God make me more open and willing not just to do but to receive.

When you pray, say: "Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.Give us each day our daily bread. ..." Luke 11:2-3