Risky Business

Since arriving in London, my perception of the place has been coloured somewhat by John Caputo’s ”What would Jesus Deconstruct” (Thanks fakeexpressions for this gem!) He starts the book off speaking about the commecial success that’s been made with the “What Would Jesus Do?” slogan, reminding us that its origins are far from the American self satisfied gung-ho christianity that it seems to represent . The original text where Sheldon uses the phrase is ”In his Steps”. A heart-sick tramp in the story confronts a well-to-do church saying:

 “It seems to me there is an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn’t exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don’t understand. But what would Jesus do?” 

Caputo expands the idea further by saying later in the chapter, “ Were this figure of Jesus, who is the centrepiece of this poetics or theo-poetics, to return, what would he look like? An illegal immigrant? A child dying of Aids? A Vatican bereaucrat? And what do we imagine he would expect of us here and now? The questiion calls for a work of application, interpretation, interpolation, imagination and self interrogation and all that is risky business”  

I have wondered in the last few days that were Jesus a face in London, what would he look like? Its made me look at the people around me differently. One can’t help in this environment being slightly envious of the opinionated, overly confident city-slickers who hop on and off the tube in their latest fashion gear with their trendy cell phone, ipod and lap top computer. But whose body/guise would Jesus choose were he to come to London? Would it be the gypseys who walk around with their children asking for money, or the over-weight red head kid? Or maybe the Eastern European at the corner shop?

I am keenly aware that whatever Jesus would do, it would turn our expectations on their head and challenge us to the core .  Even as I approach the idea of working again (oh the reality must kick in too soon I fear) and finding a job, there is a sense of being in that amazing place of being able to redefine my direction. I could do a number of things. Motivation is always deadly apparent at times like this. Do I go for the big bucks or do I wait a bit and think where perhaps the face of Christ is most apparent? Challenging thoughts….and as Caputo says “risky business”.

Four Walls

I just have to look at the M&G website – with its flashing headlines and a million and one things to click on and I start feeling overwhelmed. This information age is hard work. One always has the feeling of running to catch the “Information” bus that’s leaving down the dusty road. 

Sometimes I envy my father who can bearly operate a video machine let alone a computer. On the telephone he tells me how he spent the afternoon watching the sea counting the whale pods!!

Even spirituality seems to have become a whole host of choice and selection. A million books on faith. I feel like I should have read them all to earn the right to an opinion, the right to believe the essentially simple things that I believe. Am I simple in having a relatively simple faith? I ask myself this question. But even then – if I look closely – I realise that simple faith is actually quite complex in the way that it arrived at its simplicity!! Oh dear!

My sister-in-law went to the talk the Dalai Lama gave in Cape Town a while back. She laughed when at the press conference, he basically reprimanded a Capetonian devotee telling him to stick to the faith of his own culture! I can’t help feeling the same way sometimes. We’ve all got so adventurous, I feel we are sometimes losing ourselves in the process.

It was much easier when there were just four walls with a great view!!  

   

I’m sorry, I forgot!

Possibly one of the most pathetic lines in the story of Joseph struck me this week. Joseph has just pulled off a most incredible feat. He interprets the dreams of Pharoah’s cupbearer and chief baker, while they are all in prison. The first guy, he tells will be restored to his position in three days and the second he says will die. Quite out there things to say in the first place but the fact that they came true is even more remarkable – or so one thinks. 

Then comes the winning line. Things happen just as Joseph says they will. The cupbearer (lucky lad) is restored to Pharoah’s house and one is waiting for him to get ol’ Jospeh out the slammer. No go!  ”The chief cup bearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him” 

I couldn’t believe it when I read that. The guy had the power to do something. He just had to say a word or mention it to Pharoah as he poured him a beautiful glass of vino. “Mmmh Pharoah you would never believe what happened to me..” It would even have made a great dinner story. But no – he forgot! He just forgot.

I am struck by how often “I forgot” is my excuse. “I just forgot – it happens, you know!” But maybe I’m missing out on the biggest opportunity of my life in conveniently forgetting. Maybe someone else is…just a thought. An uneasy thought at that! 

Proverbs 3:27 Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.

Outta the Pig Sty!

This morning I looked out the window. I do that every morning but on this particular one it felt like the world had taken a breath in. It had an unearthly quietness and through this stillness a woman was jogging – silently. Quite surreal. But somehow in that ordinary moment God breathed “I am here!”

The moment made me think of Moses and the burning bush. He had just led his flocks to a new place. It was an ordinary day, an ordinary bush and yet somehow God gets his attention. God makes the bush burn and says “Take off your shoes, you are on holy ground.”

I am sure there holy moments every day that we miss because we are just too busy.

A couple of years back I wrote this:

You’re the poetry/ You’re the words that make and move me/ You’re the innocent/ You transform for me the beauty/ Of simple things/ Like a packet in the wind…

Christian Karaoke!

When I brought my cousin to church for the first time, he found the singing thing completely weird. He told me it was like singing Christian Karaoke. When I think about it though – there is something quite odd in it really. We follow words on a screen in a happy sing-a-long. Maybe this is out of place for most people outside of campfires and Irish bars!!

The Psalms encourage us to siiiiing to God in countless places. But how do we do it in a way that doesn’t just seem like a Karaoke session? How do we make it full of meaning and intent? And how do we allow a space where someone new in the group can understand it better?

My squeak for the day!!