Soul Thoughts

Faith and relevance in the 21st century

Category: Faith (Page 6 of 11)

Engaging the culture with intelligence and relevance

January 7, 2010 /

Just like Paul in Acts 17, one of our tasks as Christians is to engage the culture where it’s at. Why is it that so much Christian media is so hopelessly out of touch with where it’s happening in society? As film maker Bruce Marchfelder says, we’re answering questions nobody is asking. No wonder Christianity is seen as irrelevant.

Rikk Watts tells the story of being at a party when the conversation inevitably turned to ‘so what do you do?’. Rikk answered ‘I teach theology’, expecting his answer of course to be the ultimate conversation stopper. But then he went on, saying that he was just talking to some people about how the Gospel of John is alot like the movie Terminator 2. The people he was talking to pricked their ears up and asked how so. And so the conversation continued. Some weeks later Rikk was told that these people had turned to faith because they were so struck that the Christian message was so relevant. Not many of us would think that Arnie blasting his away around the place in Terminator 2 would be a good advertisement for the Prince of Peace, but there it was.

Bruce Marchfelder, in an interview with Canadian Christianity, explains eloquently the importance of engaging the culture with relevance and interest. Here’s some of what he had to say:

I think in terms of the industry and so on, we just have to be smart. It’s Paul suggesting to Timothy that you might want to get circumcised because we’re going to be dealing with people of a certain type, and you know what, even though biblically you don’t really have to any more, I think it might be better culturally that we fit. The fact that you show up in a business suit or work out and stay fit so you don’t look like you’re going to keel over on set — it’s natural. You meet the culture where it is. That’s the way we need to engage…we don’t understand that the Lord puts us in these places where we can really make a dent on the universe.

Book Review – 'What Difference Do It Make?'

November 21, 2009 /

This book builds on the extraordinary influence of its predecessor, Same Kind of Different As Me. It tells stories of how readers of that book were influenced by the story of wealthy art dealer Ron, and homeless man Denver, and their initial reluctance and then determined perseverance to bring good news to the poor. The inspiration behind this story though is Ron’s now deceased wife, Debbie, as she struggles and eventually succumbs to the ravages of cancer. Throughout this short but moving account, tales of Debbie’s humility and determination to make a difference abound.

The stories in What Difference Do It Make? are ones of hope amidst suffering, and of resilience in the midst of heartache. What I love about Denver’s story in particular is that he tells it like it is, in his own language. There is no pretence, and no feeble attempts at respectability. It is just Denver, the way God made him. One of the points Denver brings across in different ways throughout this tome is that, if you want to know what it’s like to be homeless, don’t go to a conference on homelessness, but speak to someone who actually is or has been homeless (or better still, spend a few nights on the streets with them).

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Is God still at work in the West?

September 15, 2009 /

Is it really true that, when people travel to what we call the developing world, such as much of Africa, they see God’s Spirit move in powerful and miraculous ways which we don’t often see in the affluent West?

Photo by Craig ToocheckWe live in a time which is the most materialistic in the history of humanity. In our culture, intellect rules. If you’re smart you will go places; if your IQ is not up there you will most likely be consigned to life as a struggling labourer, constantly battling to make ends meet, and having to live out your days in the service of the born-to-rule elite, those clever people who were smart enough to be doctors and lawyers and are now living it up in a great big office. That’s the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) message we have drummed into us every day.

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Book Review – Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus

July 31, 2009 /

Click here to purchase this bookImagine if you could take yourself back 2,000 years and immerse yourself in the world of 1st Century Palestine, in a little Jewish backwater where you were hearing reports of a man who was healing people and making the most extraordinary claims about himself. Imagine if you could follow him on the way for a bit and listen to some of what he was saying, and see some of these things he was doing, these things that had people talking and spreading all sorts of rumours about him. But imagine your disappointment if you had no idea of the meaning of what he was saying; if you were just thrown back in time to try to understand the scandal that this man was creating everywhere he went.

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Some thoughts from Rowland Croucher

July 23, 2009 /

Someone told me once how, in our culture, we don’t seem to seek out the older generation to mentor us. Rowland Croucher is one such elder statesman who has been a mentor to many a burnt out pastor over so many years. Our society needs more people like him to turn to for their wisdom that only comes with the experience of life and a maturity that comes from long days and nights spent in meditation, prayer and contemplation on the vagaries of this life. Here are a few examples of such wisdom:

“Enemies and close friends are the only two groups who will tell you the truth about yourself.”

“Walter Brueggeman said in answer to the question ‘What’s the Old Testament about?: ‘It’s about a God of grace who often breaks the rules God has set for God’s creatures.'”

“Success will feed your ego, but never your soul”

More can be found on his website.

Out of the mouths of babes

July 18, 2009 /

A study of the Gospels will quickly reveal that, for Jesus, physical healing was never enough. Take the story of the woman with the bleeding problem who touched Jesus’ cloak and was healed. My friend and colleague, Siu Fung Wu, says that

“if we read about healings and exorcisms in the Gospels in the light of the woman’s socioeconomic context, we would realise that in almost every case someone was restored from impoverishment and social exclusion to physical wellbeing and fullness of communal life.”

This was the breaking in of the kingdom. But if you want a simple analogy of what the breaking in of the kingdom of God means, and of our role and God’s role, get this from Siu Fung’s 8 year old son:

“It’s like baking something in the oven. You have done everything you have to do, and then you put it in the oven. When the time is right, you take the food out and the job is now fully done.”

Isn’t that fantastic? Out of the mouths of babes comes such wisdom. I can honestly say that, of all the analogies of the kingdom vision that I have read from such eminent scholars as N.T. Wright and Ben Witherington, I have never heard it stated as simply as this.

Our framing story

July 5, 2009 /

Brian McLaren, in his book Everything Must Change, talks about our framing story – the ultimate story we tell ourselves about how the world works. For example, if our framing story tells us that the purpose of life is to have as much stuff as possible and to have the greatest pleasure possible in our short lives, then we will have little reason to manage our consumption. Our framing story determines how we live. Call it our worldview if you like.

framePostmodernism says there is no framing story. What is right for you may not be right for me. Truth is relative. The problem with that ideology is that, as the global village becomes ever smaller and we all realise how much our lives are interlinked, what is right for me also becomes right for you. Take climate change as an example. Climate change is a challenge to postmodernism because more and more people are realising that, if we are to ultimately survive as a species, we have no choice but to have a framing story that says we have to manage our resources better and look after the planet. A philosophy of ‘what is right for you may not be right for me’ just won’t cut it in the real world of climate change. In my post on our addiction to growth I said the following:

“As long as the world remains fixated on the idea that we must grow our economies, we will inevitably fall into the same trap, and probably worse than we are in now.

In the mid-1980s, our planet passed a tipping point. It was then that we started going into debt in terms of the available resources that we have to survive. It was then that we started to consume more than we could reproduce. So while we remain addicted to economic growth, we continue the slide into debt. Our way of living is unsustainable.”

Truth can no longer be relative in a world where we have the choice of continuing our current way of life or making serious changes that will save the lives of untold millions. We can no longer hide behind the warm and fuzzy – but ultimately fatal – idea that there are no universal standards to live by.

Everything on this planet is interlinked. That is the beauty of how God made it. It all works together. David Suzuki, the Canadian environmentalist, describes how, if all of humanity disappeared off the face of the earth, then the rest of life would benefit enormously. The forests would gradually grow back, and relative stability would return to the ecosystems that control global temperature and the atmosphere. The fish in the oceans would recover and most endangered species would slowly come back. On the other hand, for example, if all species of ants disappeared, the results would be close to catastrophic. There would be major extinctions of other species and probably partial collapse of some ecosystems. The functions of the creatures living in the air we breathe, and beneath our feet, all work together to keep us alive. We need to, like our indigenous brothers and sisters did for 40,000 years, pay respect to the land we live on.

Our framing story needs to be one in which we all work together to bring in the kingdom of God – a kingdom of love, of justice, and of beautiful butterflies fluttering majestically over summer flowers. A kingdom where love finally reigns and where all of God’s children, in the words of Martin Luther King, will be able to shout ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’.

Maturity and influence

July 1, 2009 /

I’m reading a very interesting book at the moment called Sitting at the feet of Rabbi Jesus. It takes a look at the Jewishness of Jesus and how it can profoundly affect our faith today. Stay tuned for a review of this book as soon as I finish it. In the meantime, I thought this quote from one of the authors, on talking about discipleship, was quite brilliant and challenging:

“None of us is so mature that we cannot be influenced. The question is: who or what do we want to shape our lives? Even the culture around us will try to ‘disciple’ us if we have not placed ourselves under the transforming influence of Jesus Christ.”

Meaning and wellbeing in the rat race

June 28, 2009 /

As I waited at the bus stop one morning last week, watching both school kids and adults waiting to go to their places of education or work to spend the day, I was once again struck by the thought of meaning in life.

silhouette_business_peopleThe kids were waiting there to go to school to work out what they want to do with their lives, what career path they want to follow. Then there were the adults who had gone through it all years before. It was the expressionless or just plain unhappy looks on the faces of the adults – who used to be just like the school kids next to them – that hit me. They seemed to convey the thoughts of millions of workers across the western world – a wish that they didn’t have to spend another day at this job, that if only they could win the lotto and ‘life could be a dream’ as one recent ad put it.

As I saw this scene played out before me, as it is every day of the working week, I wondered again – is this all there is? Is all those kids have to hope for just about getting their qualifications, landing a job, maybe having a family, living 80 or 90 years and then dying? Is that it? Are they destined to spend the next 50 years just going to work every day and making money? Where is the meaning? Where is the purpose?

I believe there has to be something more. Life is more than the accumulation of possessions and wealth, which we lose when we eventually kick the bucket anyway. I remember a pastor of mine telling me years ago of a funeral she conducted for a friend. A close relative of the friend looked at the body in the open coffin, reflected on the person’s life, and made the strong point that “there has to be something more”. It couldn’t have just ended with the death of her body. Something seemed to be telling her that people are made for more than this. Soon I hope to be able to purchase a new book by Dr. Stephen Ilardi called The Depression Cure. This work looks at the massive increase in depression in the western world in the last 100 years from, not just a cognitive-behavioral point of view, but also from an anthropological angle.

Fortunately this message is slowly getting through in even the business pages of some media. The Age last week ran an article reminding us that the measure of GDP is just one way to measure a society’s wellbeing. Paul Jelfs, the author of the article, explained how the Australian Bureau of Statistics has a number of other indicators, including the Measure of Australia’s Progress (MAP) and the Generic Social Survey. And many readers will probably be aware of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness indicator. Interestingly, according to American Public Media, since “Bhutan glimpsed the rest of the world seven years ago with the arrival of TV and the Internet…happiness [has become] an increasingly rare commodity”. Yet again I am reminded of the relevance of Luke 12:13-21 and the other old words of Jesus – what shall it profit you if you gain the whole world but lose your very self in the process?

Marching on our knees

June 20, 2009 /

I always remember a sermon given by John Smith in the early 1990s in which he talked about the essence of the Christian faith. In decrying the attitude of the strutting, egoistic rock star, he made a comment that has stuck with me. He said that Christianity doesn’t strut – it marches on its knees.

Photo by Leonardo FalaschiniThe journey of following Jesus is completely counter to the culture in which we find ourselves today. In a world where we are told to look out for number one, Jesus says ‘surrender’. The call of Jesus is to run up the white flag. Many misunderstand that command as a call to weakness and letting yourself be walked all over. But it is far from that. It is a walk of humility, a walk, which I have said elsewhere, is nothing less than a facing of reality.

At church a few weeks ago, the song leader invited us to kneel for a song which spoke of surrender. So most of us knelt down as we sang the next song. This simple action changed my whole attitude in the singing of that song. All of a sudden I was in an attitude of genuine worship. For the first time in many many years, I sang with my hands open and my eyes closed. In that place I was no longer just singing, I was praising, lifting God up. And I was offering myself back to God to do with me as He wills. Kneeling during that song helped me to have an attitude of submission to my God. It also made me see how much I demand my own way – how unsurrendered I am most of the time. It was a real eye-opener and something for which I am thankful.

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