Calculated Risk

Just about everything a minister does has risk. The simplest greeting, “How are you doing?” can be responded to in anger or fits of tears. This does not mean that we should not take the risk; it means that we need to manage the consequences.
Here is how I do that.
First, I recognize that I have baggage. I have baggage from previous relationships of all sorts that have left me hurt and believing a pack of lies. These packs of lies create my baggage.
Random tangent, I think that over the years, I have become reasonably good at shedding baggage, both literally and figuratively. In my life I have made major moves that have required me to shed almost all of my personal belongings. Twice in my life I have started completely over in a totally new environment with only 12 suitcases/boxes between me and my girls. I have learned not to be attached to material things. My lounge suite is nice but if God says; it is adios lounge (I hope not again but we will see).
Likewise, the figurative baggage, I have learned to shed by holding on to truth. You see if you hold onto truth, you don’t have hands available to hold onto the baggage. That’s how I see it anyway.
Back on track, to manage consequences, the second thing is to realize that others have baggage. They may not define their baggage like I define mine so will not comment on others baggage but I know that their baggage is likely to contain some untruths or unhealed hurts, or unforgiveness of others or self.
After both of these issues are recognized and are in the open; it is much easier to respond to the unexpected in a calm and loving way. Many times, the loving response is all that is needed to right the situation. Sometimes, I will have to help people offload baggage. How? You might ask. Get them to hold onto truth. But I will save that for a future blog.
PS: I am working risk assessments that include God in the consequences. Keep ya posted.

Historical Jesus

I just read in the newspaper about a convicted perjurer, Jeffrey Archer, who has written a book called, “The Gospel According to Judas”. I wonder if I am the only one that thinks that is funny.

The article went on to say that that the book was co-written with Francis Moloney, a top theologian for the Vatican. So that is where the credibility comes from, I suppose.

The article says that 3 of Jesus miracle stories were left out because it is not generally believed that these particular miracles happened and that they were added later as the story grew.

This article raises several issues for many people. Did the writers of Holy Scripture add a bit? What does that mean for a divinely inspired book? Was it then solely written by humans? Many of these issues are discussed during the study theology. I have my own way through this mess. Not that my view is correct but it works for me.

There are 4 Gospels included in what we have as the Bible. Four written from different times places and people and all having a bit of a different slant because of the context that they were written from. As people this is how we are. News from the tunnel fire in Melbourne is an example. I have seen interviews of several people, all interviewed were in the tunnel but there are differences in their story based on where in the tunnel they were and what was important to them.

Because people are this way does not mean that God did not have a hand in what they saw and recorded. God is amazing that way and inspired people from where they were to write what they saw, in their words, according to their memories. So this means the result may not be exactly historic but the result is what God intended. And we ended up with three miracles recorded that may not have happened but since the miracles are there we can learn about God from them as well.

I am not sure leaving them out benefits the story. Do we want the Bible to be historical for history sake or for the sake of God’s message?

I may read the book at some stage when I have time but until then I am confident that I have just what I need for now.

My daughter Mia added, (we were talking as I wrote this)
“There are two points of view. In a historical sense, people want to know Jesus’ true life, so then the Bible itself is not sufficient. For religion alone, have the stories as they are benefit us because it may give us more insight into God and God’s purpose; something that we can relate to in a religious sense.”

I came home and cried

I am not sure why I cried. Last night I preached. I have never thought of preaching as one of my strengths and usually have some nerves before preaching, so much so that when I step up to preach, my prayer is, "okay God, come do this yourself." Often wishing he would literally do that and not use me. And most of the time things go well.

I am not sure what was different last night. Probably several things; it had been a long week of pastoral care, studies, wedding plans, and I am catching Mal's cold, I am sure this all impacted my emotional state in the end.

The service was beautiful and brought tears to my eyes in a couple of places. Julie Price was worship leader. Michelle Jenkins was praise leaders. Both are professional at what they do. Michelle, really is a professional, as her job is music therapist. Julie does chapliancy work and wonderfully spiritual. I knew without a doubt that God would work through them. I just had to write and deliver the sermon. Which I did.

During pray and preparation, I decided to preach on the "lost son" and a love that welcomes, and all the bits of the service fit together well. The problem for me was when I stood and preached, as I continued, I seemed to wear out. By the end, when I invited people to "get the party started", I felt flat and thought, "Wow, how unemotionally can a person invite others to a party?" By the end there was nothing of me left. If the invite sounded genuine and exciting, it really wasn't me. That is good in one way, cuz it means God answered the prayer to come on down. But I have rarely been left so blah.

People seemed to respond well and hung around and chatted under the 'welcome home' balloons. Several people commented positively and I smiled and chatted too. But when I got home I burst into tears. "I left them flat" I cried; I feared. My husband assured me, that I was the flat one and suggested that it was because I gave of myself that others were not flat. He also suggested that I was a bit sick and tired and should sleep. Sleep is very often good advise.

I slept well and feel pretty good this morning; ready to roll. So now I think, sick and tired, was why I cried. I am thankful that God has given me a loving husband that will not let me take myself too seriously. God was there last night and did what God does. I simply needed to stand up and do what I do and I did. God does the rest. He does it well.

Oh by the way, God very rarely lets me take myself seriously. Just ask me about flashing people on the way to the train or exploding umbrellas.

No end in sight - DRAFT

Like so many others my story begins with, “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor.”[1] With some people this beginning may be the only point of connection to my story and with other people will there will be more connections but nevertheless the story begins with the righteous Aramean and God. It is a long story that begins with plots and subplots of kingdoms and kings, broken relationships and exile yet throughout the story is the presence of God that invokes hope in the people for yet another King and Kingdom.
Years before I was born, though, a character entered the story and a new story line erupted. It parallels the first, in that the people look forward to the promised Kingdom but at the beginning of this storyline people told others that they had met the New King. That is, a man who was God himself, who by his presence in the story, his death, and his resurrection transformed lives and peoples’ understanding of the coming Kingdom. His story was and still is so compelling that unlike most subplots in the story it did not fade with time but grew and spread.
Then I was born; just another random character in the story really, but, I, as so many encountered God and traced my roots to the Aramean. I am in the new story line. My story lives in tension with the other story line. My story lives in tension with the beliefs and storylines of all other people in the world, including the people in my storyline. You see, we all understand the story differently coloured by our own personal experiences of God and influenced by our particular storyline. Oddly enough, it is the same God throughout the whole story and in the entire story up to now, God reaches out to all people and offers a gift – the Promised Land. But how do we understand this gift? How do we journey to this promised place; receive this gift? From the storyline I am in, I must point people back to the man/God character for the answers to these questions. And to stay in my storyline, I must have some idea of what the man/God character did specifically that altered the story; not just altered, created a new storyline, my storyline.
I have no doubt that the man/God wanted to bring a new understanding of God. I do not believe the man/God wanted to end the original storyline. I believe he/He wanted to correct some misunderstandings of God that had developed over time. But his/His words and actions created such tension in understandings that my storyline could no longer live in the original storyline and my storyline was force to break free and journey alongside the original, for better and for worse.
I know that a great deal of time has passed since the man/God character appeared on the scene and that the misunderstandings that the man/God sought to correct have re-entered the story. But like all participants in the story, I look forward to the promised Kingdom so that I can get the story straight.
[1] Deuteronomy 26:5, NRSV

Still looking for endings

My thoughts about endings, the human need to have endings to stories that is, has continued this week. I received an email from my Dad with one question. What did the ancients think about a good death? I assumed (correctly because I called Dad) that he wanted to know what people thought when good people died. I told him that people believed that that they died. They had been fulfilled by living a good life that would be perpetuated in the community's story, either as "story" or though offspring. He thought they missed out, because they did not have the end of the story; that there is hope of ever-lasting life though the resurrection of God's son. I did not see it that way, I felt they believed their story continued. Isn't that eternity? Their story did not end and went on. All right, I know we believe more than that specifically, the resurrection of the body but they still had eternity in mind. I find advantage to their beliefs. Consider this, 'Because they took death seriously, they took life seriously.'(Bernhard W. Anderson, The Living World of the Old Testment 4th Ed, 1988 pg 587). Do I take life seriously? Most of the time, probably...

HOLY SHIT!

This morning my daughter Mia told me a story and gave me permission to blog it. It is a story of the radical ways in which God can speak to us. We often hear God as a "little voice in our heads" in our house. For Mia sometimes it is not such a little voice. She says it yells. Well, we think God has devised a method to speak to Mia more along the lines of 'burning bushes'. Yesterday, she was walking along considering the movie Van Helsing, she was wondering if really bad demons are running around the earth in human form. She also was wondering if God was sending angels in human form to fight these "bad guys". She thought then, "I wonder if God works like that". Just at that moment, a bird did it's thing and covered Mia's arm and foot. She immediately thought, "Oh, I guess that is not how it works" and looked up to see a young kookaburra on a branch above her. She quickly moved out of the way to avoid another surprise attack. As she related the story, she indicated that after this experience she had a great day. That somehow this was "Holy shit" and that God had responded to her, "He does not play the Hollywood game." She is sure that God listens to her thoughts and responds to her questions. For her the moral of the story - look up when you consider the Almighty God.

world without end

It was pointed out to us in formation how we are a people that seem to need an ending to a story. This thought has facinated me since. Why is that? Are we somehow connected to the story?
My soon to be son-in-law blogged a short story that has no ending (find it at http://misterborg.blogspot.com/2007/02/unfinished-stories.html). My youngest daughter read it and was quite upset by the fact there was no ending. There are comments on the post by people looking for the ending. I was not too upset and found it to be an opportunity, the begining of a game "finish the story", that we would use at a recent party. This was the start of the conversation about endings. Do we need an ending? I remember when I was young, a song that we sang every Sunday in church. "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen." Funny how we remember things but that is a tangent. The key words for my reflection. World without end. Is that what we believe? Then why do we seem to desire endings. The song is dated as we no longer call it a Holy Ghost but Holy Spirit. Is the 'world without end' also dated theology? I don't think so. Life everlasting, world without end, true thoughts I to my understanding. So I don't have an answer to the question. But while searching the net for an answer I found another interesting blog http://www.adamnaranjo.com/theology/
To be honest, I like the thought of God's world without end. Maybe I will no longer look for endings.