Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Called Again

Another section from Alan Jamieson’s book, “Called Again,” which has fired my imagination and shaped my sense of deserts of the heart as being fruitful places…(emphasis & additional comment below will be mine, and are for my reflection)…

“In his 1967 text on evil titled the Symbolism of Evil, [Paul] Ricoeur speaks of a point, “beyond the desert of criticism, where we wish to be called again.” This means we might be called by God beyond a profound, deep and wide-ranging critique of the Christian faith [or a marriage, a friendship, a church, an employment situation etc.]. In doing so, he postulates a point beyond criticism [deconstruction], where people can be called on[wards] in their faith [or other life-context] and yet never back[wards] to the types and style of faith [or life experiences & contexts] they left.

The Language of Pentecost

Pentecost Sunday today...a really significant day for me...1988 reaching forward to 2004.

Was struck by this morning's readings - Genesis 11:1-9 (The Tower of Babel) and Acts 2:1-21 (The empowering of the Holy Spirit) - "God is with us, here we find new life." Life is only a word, a look, a touch away because the enabling presence of God in Jesus is with us, right here, right now...

I was specifically struck by the place of language in our lives - the ways in which language divides and separates; the ways in which language and conversation withdrawn breaks apart, builds unspoken walls, and widens the fracture and gap between persons (be the context a friendship, silence between countries etc).

Then there is the more hopeful, pentecostal way in which language brings understanding, conversation, perspective and stories shared; stories both spoken and listened too; pain and joy shared, healing...

Spirit of God, this Pentecost day, open ears, eyes, and hearts; gift language to name; gift conversation and the healing that conversation, at it's best, can bring; gift words of repentance and reconciliation, words that lead to embrace instead of exclusion; gift language which is able to be heard as good news...

‘Instrumentum conjunctum cum deo’

Do you have one of those everyday moments when someone else gifts to you the language, story, and metaphor with which you are to name the realities of your life; those moments when you pick up a book, listen to a song, watch a movie, have a conversation, and your present moments make sense and have meaning? The “waiting” (which Maggi has wonderfully been sitting with for her novena) has been becoming both more painful and purposeful

Life has been really dark, sad, lonely, confusing, and painful for me lately. The metaphors of “desert” and “wilderness” have felt dangerously overwhelming at times, the valleys have been seemingly bottomless, and the perspective of a mountaintop has been a fleeting experience. A number of ‘streams’ have converged to become a flood. Conflict has been both a friend, and a foe to be painfully wrestled with. Like Maggi, I’ve been waiting…My waiting has been silent, alone, deprived of sensory input, but as of this morning I can honestly say that God has been in it for my good; Father, Son, and Spirit continue to be in my wilderness, a wilderness stretching into the distance beyond my vision.

So, it was significant that I picked up Alan Jamieson’s recently published book, Called Again: in and beyond the deserts of faith, this morning.

The Thread of our Lives

There's something rich and hopeful about all Lynne Taylor's blog reflections, but again I want to single one particular post out - Tapestry of love... it's timely for me, it's helpful, hopeful and valuing of that which makes each of us of such great value, and so necessary to the health and vitality of both our church communities, but also our respective friendships, our marriages (if we're married), our families etc. Thanks again Lynne.

"...I was struck by the phrase that says; "I want you woven into a tapestry of love" (from The Message)

And I could imagine the sense of belonging
that could come from people
easily seeing where they fitted
in the tapestry of life, of love, of community.

Ian Mobsby - Finding God & the Spiritual through Contemporary Literature

A wonderful essay by Ian Mobsby. I loved reading it. Thanks Ian.

"...I have been doing a module on my MA on Literature and Pastoral Theology. It has been a great journey through a theology of the imagination as a space for encounter with God. It has focused on the creativity of the human imagination to experience and encounter God. I have been reflecting how much of alternative worship has been moving to the transcendent to enable people to encounter God through the imagination...

For his essay Ian interacted with Douglas Coupland's Life After God. He sees Coupland's book as a good example of our post-modern culture's search for God through the transcendent, and how God's presence can be experienced in spiritual moments.

Link to Ian's essay here.

The Postmodern Parish

The Postmodern Parish: New Ministry for a New Era by Jim Kitchens

"Many of us who are pastors of local mainline churches have long felt that something is amiss in the life of our congregations. It's hard for us to name exactly what is wrong, but occasionally we are aware of a nagging sense that something is just not working any more. . . . Our best efforts at ministry feel like they’re about a half beat behind some new pulse beginning to course through the culture," writes author Jim Kitchens.

This might fill a gap for those who lead and work in mainline congregations.

God's Love

Today, a quote from Brennan Manning's wonderful book, A Glimpse of Jesus. I've been reading, reflecting on, and praying a lot through Brennan's books of late...coming back to him like a prodigal, not having read him for many years.

"...It takes a profound conversion to accept the belief that God is tender and loves us just as we are, not in spite of our sins and faults, but with them. God does not condone or sanction evil, but he does not withhold his love because there is evil within us..."

That is profoundly "Good News" and sadly hard gift to receive...

Richard Hays - 2004 Burns Lectures - Video Order Form

Video order form for the 2004 Burns Lectures delivered by Richard Hays - see my previous post for the lecture details (under "continue reading) - here

Price is extremely reasonable and is in NZ dollars ($) - orders to be submitted by the 28th May, 2004.

Download richard_hays_order_form_videos_2004_burns_lectures.doc

Further information, e-mail: Mary

The Company of Good People

I've been really enlivened by the two latest posts from my friend Lynne Taylor - On self esteem... and stuff and First hot text...

Lynne has real passion and skill for helping people like me locate and relate to God in the ordinary and everyday - the stuff of our lives . She encourages and inspires me to take the substance of my life seriously, after all it seems to me that the arena of our spiritual formation is just that - the things I do everyday, the people I'm in relationship with, my workplace, my failures and brokenness, my successes and the things I do well...everything, as unobvious as that might seem.

Here's a section from her post entitled - First Hot Text... It's beautiful -

I was walking on the beach Collecting sea-glass.

You know, those bits of broken bottle
that have been so tumbled by the waves,
so smoothed by the sand,
so mellowed by all that has happened to them
that they emerge smooth and rounded and beautiful.

I looked at the sea glass
I held it and felt it
and suddenly I thought about Colossians 1
and about the Message translation which says:
All the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe
- people and things, animals and atoms-
get properly fixed
and fit together in vibrant harmonies,

Richard Hays - Converting My Imagination

As previously blogged I went to hear Richard Hays lecturing in Auckland (3-lectures) on the subject. I think it adds something to see, hear and engage with a person, on top of having engaged with their written material. I get more of a sense of who they are and how what they teach and write about is an outworking of that identity, of the ways in which the Biblical story informs, resources, and shapes their sense of being called and gifted to teach.

My only disappointment was there being insufficient time, or appropriate context to “drill down” to some of the practical implications of Richard’s high level theological framework – how might his framework for reading and being shaped by Scripture be worked out at the level of congregational life…given significant biblical illiteracy etc.

New book forthcoming – June 2004