What is God really like?

The theology which informs Jesus’ attitude appears to be diametrically opposed to the theology reflected in the leader of the synagogue. Both would affirm that we must love God with the whole heart and soul and strength and that this needs to show itself in action. For the leader this meant: keeping the commandments. That made sense. Behind it is an image of God saying: I am God. I must be obeyed. I alone deserve your loyalty and service. That also makes sense. The outcome is: we seek to know what God’s commands entail, how they apply, and we keep them. Simple as that! Our devotion is reflected in the extent we take that challenge seriously. I could just as easily be describing what many Christians have seen and still see as the universal duty incumbent on all. Is it not also what Jesus himself would have said?

There is a subtle difference. It runs deeply into our assumptions and attitudes. What is God really like? What if God’s chief concern is not to be obeyed, but something else? What if God’s chief focus is love and care for people and for the creation? Then the focus moves from God’s commands to God’s people and world. It is as though God is telling us to get our priorities right. Commandments, rules, guidelines, traditions, laws, scriptures are also subordinate to that purpose: love. God’s focus is not self-aggrandisement as it is with so many who have power and wealth and want to keep it, but generosity and giving, restoration and healing, encouraging and renewing. When any of these means (commandments, laws, scriptures) cease to be seen in that light, they become ends and we find people in absurd conflicts about whether they help someone in need or obey God. When those become alternatives, something has gone terribly wrong, IF you believe God’s chief concern is caring concern for people.

from http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkPentecost13.htm

What about you?

I wonder, what are the members of your church doing to follow Jesus….a sobering and needed perspective? Do Christians even look at what is happening in our world? How do we as a country treat the poor, our children, the elderly and disabled? Do we vote in the people who will honor Jesus’ command to treat all our neighbors….all of them….as themselves?

This unwavering example of Jesus places upon all Christian ministers the duty to resist the temptation to side with any secular ruling power that exploits and oppresses those they were supposed to serve, keeping in mind Jesus’ option for the poor. I do believe Jesus demands of us to oppose hunger, violence, exploitation, oppression….mistreatment of anyone for any reason. Anything less dishonors Jesus, his mission and the death he willingly died for us.

I read somewhere that it is true that pastors are called to comfort the afflicted, but they also have the duty “to afflict the comfortable.” Didn’t Jesus do just that? We are called to bring good news to the poor and deliverance to the oppressed, not to kow-tow to the wealthy and powerful! Not an easy thing to do at times, particularly with the budget crunch of these economic times. Every time I read scripture when I was serving my churches, I would try to bring Jesus’ words to today’s world and then try to determine what he would say to my congregation.

Believe me, it wasn’t easy at times. But I was not called to be loved, but to serve God and bring Jesus’ word to the church. Hmmm, it wasn't easy at times.

I attended a workshop with ministers and priests from a variety of Christian denominations. As we talked, I learned that most of them were fearful of giving the sermon they felt their congregations needed to hear…..lose their job or lose contributions, they said. What about you?
from http://www.churchpowerpoint.com/C_Pentecost_13_Luke_13.html

A plea for Pakistan

Pakistan Flood Relief Appeal
More than 1500 people have been killed and 14 million people displaced by Pakistan’s worst flood natural disaster in more than 80 years.

SHARE is calling for donations to aid the enormous recovery efforts through the Pakistan Flood Relief Appeal.
Moderator Isabel Thomas Dobson is also asking congregations to have a special offering on Sunday 22nd August. “We are asking for Uniting Church members to pray for the people affected and to please give generously.”
SHARE donations will be sent to the National Council of Churches in Australia to be distributed through its international relief agency Act for Peace.
Donations can be sent to: SHARE – Pakistan Flood Relief Appeal, GPO Box 4355, Melbourne, Vic 3001, or by phoning SHARE’s toll free number 1800 668 426 or visiting www.shareappeal.org.au

What can be shaken

What can be shaken
Reflecting upon Hebrews 12:26-29

The large dusty water-covered ball,
sometimes called Terra,
orbiting in the third position
around mother Sol, is easily shaken.
Great geological forces
built into the planet’s foundations
engender earthquake and tsunami.
Sol herself continues to agitate said sphere
through her powerful and sustained influence
upon atmosphere and ocean.
She creates the seasons of extremity,
of drought and flood and storm.
Having learned to walk erect
and discovering within themselves
the capacity for science and reflective thought,
the dominant inhabitants of globe Terra
are said to be contributing to these processes,
thus increasing the overall shakiness.
These orb-dwellers are themselves
easily shaken and readily alarmed.
Having gathered to themselves
a broad range of commodities
that they now regard as their entitlement;
they are fearful
of releasing their anxious grasp,
lest these much-worshipped idols
be taken away.
They are correct: all that can be shaken
will be removed,
but they do not need to be afraid;
the replacement is said to be much better.

Ken Rookes

Metaphor

radical revolution

Thor and Jesus?

'peace at all costs' has no place here

If there is a place for ‘harmony’ in the teaching of Jesus, it is about unity with God and what God is doing in the world and a sense of solidarity with those travelling that path. In Jesus’ conversation with the ambitious James and John in Mark 10:35-40 Jesus uses the image of baptism to speak of his death. Water, flood, was a disaster, just as a fire storm is a disaster. Jesus is walking into disaster and taking others with him. Matthew’s version of the Q saying spells it out less tactfully: Jesus has come not to bring peace but a sword (Luke has: ‘division’). While Mark sees Jesus entering the treacherous waters of that Jerusalem Passover, Luke directs our attention to family.

‘Peace at all costs’ has no place here. That kind of harmony gilds oppression with respectability and rewards wrong. Instead we face a full scale conflict, taken right into the heart of human formation: the family. The family is being dethroned from its absolute claims. It is not an invitation to the kind of fanaticism which dislocates sectarians from family and friends and all else for obsession with an unrelated cause. Rather this passion springs from the heart of the human condition. It is the passion for love, for change, for justice, for renewal. These are not the fanatical tenets of a cult, but the foundations of hope. So Jesus is confronting the gods of family and warning that this is very dangerous territory.
from http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkPentecost12.htm

By faith

By faith

Strange stuff, faith;
elusive, too.
Across the millennia
we mortals have tried to quantify it
and make it into some sort of device
by which we claim the almighty’s attention.
Then, as if we have a particular right
by virtue of some contractual arrangement,
we use it to force the divinity’s hand
so that he, (historically speaking,
it tends to be a ‘he’), our captive deity
will give us what we require of him.
Thus by faith we pray
earnest letters of request to our santa god,
hang our eager stockings
and wait for them to be filled.

No, that’s not fair; I’m being overly cynical
and I apologise. By faith we see
through closed and prayerful eyes,
and with eyelids opened we peer
beyond earth’s dust; to behold
a tantalising vision of all that could be.
All that is good, and full of virtue,
all that is possible, and full of hope.
This shall come to pass, should enough people
truly trust themselves to the ungraspable
spirit-wind’s unknowable future.
With this faith they whisper their request:
your will be done, and enter into that rare place
where neither life nor death matters;
and where grace is the truest hope,
and all that is possible is love.

© 2010 Ken Rookes

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Amazing Grace