2am

It is currently almost 2am in the morning. I crawled into bed at midnight but haven't been able to sleep. Tonight I am finding rest to be an elusive quarry. Tonight I find my heart set on a restless course. The primary tenet upon which the cause of my stirrings lies, the primary idea which carries the implications that deny me sleep is that, according to the teachings of Christ as I understand them, I am obliged to treat every Christian as brother, sister, mother, or father. I should mention from the start that I disagree wholeheartedly with anyone who would seek to dilute the biblical language surrounding the family of Christ to a mere sentiment. One which lacks any radical demands on our lifestyle and serves only as one more half-understood idea to throw into the confused milieu of warm and fuzzy Christian jargon. I feel that if a fellow Christian should ask me for anything, I should be there and willing as if it were my own brother or sister that made the request. I believe that what unites us in Christ is stronger, more precious, more real, and longer lasting than genetics. I believe that blood is thicker than water, but that the Spirit of God is thicker still. My life is not my own, it belongs to my Father and my family.

 Here's where it starts to get tricky for me. Over half the world lives in poverty. Among that majority there are bound to be countless brothers and sisters of Christ, countless people that I believe Christ has explicitly instructed me to regard as family, not to mention the fact that Christ explicitly teaches in Matthew 25:31-46 that he equates our treatment of these brothers and sisters with our treatment of Him. At this point a picture comes to mind of my flesh and blood, my own siblings, living in the gutter without enough to eat and I choke. I feel angry and distraught and I feel the tears threatening my eyes. How could I not do all that I can to help them? My own flesh and blood. Now, to put things in a little perspective, the absolute poverty line in India is 50cents a day, and no doubt I have many brothers and sisters in India that live on this. That means if I was to spend say $2000 on a new laptop, that I would be spending the equivalent of 4000 days wages for someone in India living below the poverty line. Here is where the idea of being a family united in Christ begins to really hurt. If my brother was living on less than 50 cents a day there is no way on the earth that I would be so callous as to spend $2000 on my own indulgence. That money could feed my brother for years, that money could put my brothers children through school, that money could save my brothers life as well as many other brothers also. I am struck by an idea which calls for an overhaul of my entire lifestyle. For with what I consider loose change, I could drastically change the lives of people whom Christ has called me to love more than I love myself, people whom Christ has told me to put ahead of myself. How then can I justify the money I waste on indulgences? And I don't simply mean the indulgences upon which we would all agree are large and extravagant. For that scale looks very different in the eyes of the impoverished.

 This is the point where I hear the voices of "wisdom" calling me back from the dangerous theological path which this rationale threatens to take me down. I hear statements that involve the words self imposed homelessness, and poverty, and austerity, and I quickly seek to tame and modify my thoughts in order to sidestep a moral dillema that might otherwise ruin me. And perhaps there is some wisdom in these warnings. However, one thing they all have in common is that they serve to frighten me away from a frank and honest appraisal of what scripture requires of me. The fact is that when one examines the enormity of what Christ requires of us, the radical love that it requires, it is utterly overwhelming. The fact is that Jesus was homeless. He had nothing to His name that I can think of except the clothes on His back. Two men of faith, John Leonard Dober and David Nitschman, sold themselves into slavery in order to take the gospel to a slave colony. Our history is full of heroes of faith, sung and unsung, who have not shied from striving for a lifestyle of radical love, one that puts me to shame at the thought of my own.  There are many who will say that to deny myself as much as I can is unnecessary.  That some degree of self-indulgence, or to put it more palatably, one's right enjoyment of God's many blessings, is perfectly appropriate. Whatever the right course in this regard, I know that I am not currently living it. There is a long way to go, and I know that His grace will meet me every step of the way. For now, I will not presume to provide a conclusion, but I hold this thought with an open hand.

May Christ give me the strength to live by the convictions He places in my heart. Amen.

Litany of Humility - Reposted from Andy Shudall's Kiwi chronicles blog (http://www.kiwichronicles.blogspot.com/)

We pray together the prayer of the litany of humility:
O Jesus! meek and humble of heart,  Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being honored ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being praised ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others... Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being approved ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated ... Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being despised...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected ...  Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I.

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That, in the opinion of the world,others may increase and I may decrease

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I unnoticed

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Amen

A boy and his dog - Tuesday, 28 September 2010 at 16:03. reposted from facebook

A few days ago we lost a family member. Gyp, a loyal family dog of about 17 years, died in front of my eyes as me and my dad tried to comfort him as he went. He was well loved by the family, but showed us greater love in return. Although I was only 4 or 5 when he was born, I still remember his mum lying there with a new litter of puppies around her trying to get milk. He was my first encounter with the beauty of new life (apart form my little sister I suppose but I was too young to remember her birth). Now, I have lost a few relatives before, namely my grandad and my nana, but the death of Gyp was my first up close encounter with death, and I saw how undignified it is.

I thank God for Gyp. He showed me such love growing up. He was always keen to chase the cat, fetch a stick, or be rubbed on the belly, and always excited to see me and ready to greet me with slobbery licks on the face and muddy pawprints on front of my shirt. Reflecting on the role that Gyp has played in my life I am struck by the beauty and the precious nature of creation in a new and personal way.

 Now the bible says little about what happens to animals when they die, and i know it is tempting for animal lovers to conclude that because of their great beauty, inelligence, and personality, that they have a spirit and that in some way they are, like humans, eternal. I don't have to much to say on this point as i dont think it's something we can necessarily know for sure. Rather i think that it can distract us from the beauty of creation. There are those Christians who shy away from placing much value on animals. I think this comes from a desire to keep a clear distinction between humans and animals, and the intelligence and personality that animals express sometimes challenges this distinction for some people. Another way in which Christians often undervalue creation is through a misapplication  of end-of-the-world theology, where they justify trashing the planet because God will one day renew or replace it anyway. 

 In both of these i see a common misunderstanding being expressed, that the eternal nature of man gives them some sort of right over nature to use or abuse it in any way they see fit, and also that the temporary nature of creation somehow leaves it void of value and makes it not precious. However, whether temporary or eternal, Gyp had an intelligence, a personality, an energy, and a form that was beautiful and precious beyond my appreciation of it. I am sorry i didn't love him as much as he deserved, and i am sorry to God that i undervalued the precious gift that he was. Some things may be temporary, and their beauty may fade like the grass and flowers that are here one day and wither the next, but they are none the less majestic and magnificent. I do not struggle with the idea that God might create something that is wondrous and beautiful, but also temporary. I marvel at the idea that countless beauties and wonders in the universe have come and gone never seen by human eyes, and perhaps never to be seen. Beauties and wonders that it may be beyond the limited grasp of a fallen man like myself to comprehend. I believe that God has made us stewards over something that is beautiful and precious. Something we have bastardised, marketised, prostituted, cheapened, used, and abused. 

 There is nothing pagan or unChristian about a love for creation. It is beautiful and precious and magnificent because it is made by a beautiful, precious, magnificent God. On the contrary, i am sickened and apalled at how Christian theology can be so twisted to justify the degradation of nature. I think the church should be most horrified at the way we abuse the environment. How can we do this to what God gave us? It's like being given a beautiful painting by a magificent artist and then taking a dump on it. How is it that Christians so often show such an irreverance for creation? It boggles the mind. But i feel i've perhaps strayed from the point a bit. This isn't so much a rant about environmentalism. It's about a boy and his dog. A boy who loved his dog, though not enough, and a dog who loved his boy, perhaps more then he deserved.

 I hope that, whether or not animals are in any way eternal creatures or not, that God might make an exception for Gyp. That when i get to heaven God might see fit in His amazing grace to return Gyp to me. Who knows.

I love you Gyp. Can't believe you're gone.

Reflection on the value of education - Dogging on capitalism: Thursday, 23 September 2010. reposted from facebook

An interesting reflection on the value of education:

"Dear Teacher,

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:

Gas chambers built by learned engineers.

Children poisoned by educated physicians.

Infants killed by trained nurses.

Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.

So I am suspicious of education. My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.

Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.”

- Haim Ginot, 1972

After reading this I think about our own education system, as well as the violence, drugs, and sex portrayed in our"harmless" popular tv shows. Friends, Two and Half Men etc etc. Are we educating our children to be human? It seems like the goals we create for our children are more to do with making money, getting a sexy spouse, being "successful". 

 Does popular culture and education incline us to think of other people, or only ourselves? Where in popular culture is empathic capacity fostered?

 This is perhaps one thing we may learn from other cultures. I recently watched a documentary on Bhutan which showed the effects that globalization has had on the countries happiness and well being. Prior to opening up their borders Bhutan had one of the highest Gross National Happiness ratings in the world. Since the introduction of the western media and values, this status has deteriorated. Despite benefits to the wealth of the population, inequality has increased, crime has increased, environmental degradation has increased, diseases such as cancer and heart issues have increased, television sets are replacing choeshums (altars) in Bhutanese homes, Chortens (buddhist shrines) have been vandalized time and again, graffiti and litter have increased dramatically; corruption, drugs and AIDS have become a reality. In onset of the western culture of capitalism always creates rural-urban migration, a problem which manifests itself in the disintegration of family and community. The family cohesion and support system are fading away. Bhutanese people are increasingly becoming deprived of the social safety net traditionally provided by the extended family. More people are becoming disconnected as evidenced by the increase in suicide rates and drug abuse although the numbers are negligible at the moment. Bhutanese peoples material aspirations are soaring, thus providing a formidable foundation for consumerist society.

 Now, i don't want to romanticize the way the Bhutanese people lived before they opened up their borders, and i don't want to romanticize their religion or suggest in any way that their religion has any claim to truth (being a fundamentalist Christian myself). However, it is clear that their religion and traditions, if nothing else, provided both community and an ethical fabric for their society which is now under threat as capitalist globalization promotes the adoption of the same consumerist culture that we (as well as every other highly industrialized country, and increasingly developing countries as well) live in. I'm not saying that we should combine religion with state (our history has shown what a disaster this is), but my point is more to point out the destructive nature of a consumerist capitalist culture which is based not on community, family, ethics, or religion, but is based on what sells. Sex sells, violence sells, lascivious indulgence sells, the instant satisfaction of all our most base desires sells, and these things are what is shoved in our face every day. 

 However, not only has this consumerist, profit driven, capitalist culture ravaged our own society, but it is also to blame for the mass exploitation of the environment and the Third World. As companies drive for greater profits they search for new ways to cut costs, new sources of cheaper labour and resources, new markets, and more efficient and thorough exploitation of old markets. Big transnational corporations are becoming the most powerful actors on the world stage and, facilitated by institutions of global governance such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, transnational corporations continue to find new ways to further exploit the Third World. 

 Despite all this the system continues. Why? Has television, advertising, and other media really brainwashed us into thinking this is a healthy way to live? That is really benefits us and makes us happy? Are we really blind to the injustices inherent in this system? Even if the system really did benefit us, can we really accept those benefits when they come at the cost of others? Why are we not questioning the system more? Why are we accepting the status quo? Why aren't we trying to change a system which exploits the majority of the world for the "benefit" of the minority? Especially when we can clearly see that it isn't a benefit to minority at all? Is our culture so powerful as to create in us an apathy and complacency so strong that we cannot be galvanised to serious action?

It stupefies me to think that a system that exploits most people and leaves everyone unsatisfied could possibly last, and yet it does.... Oh how much we need Jesus.

Sorry for ranting for so long. If you actually read all of this then thanks and well done!

Love you'z
Chris

Why I can't stomach Coca-Cola

Recently I have been rethinking my stance on boycotting. I'm no longer as black and white as I used to be on the issue. Perhaps without the concerted effort of others, if it remains a personal mission that no1 else is aware of, I am only denying income to those who need it when I choose not to buy unethical products that have no ethical alternative. But I don't know. Still, there is at least one company that I can't stomach.


Below are some of the reasons I boycott Coke. You can find out more at www.killercoke.org, a worldwide movement started by a man named Ray Rogers, Director of Corporate Campaign Inc.

• Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders from their factories in Colombia were killed after protesting the company's labor practices. Hundreds of other workers who have joined or considered joining the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL have been kidnapped, tortured, and detained by paramilitaries who intimidate workers to prevent them from unionizing.

• In Turkey, 14 truck drivers and their families were beaten severely by Turkish police hired by Coca-Cola, while protesting a layoff of 1,000 workers from a local factory in 2005.

• In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by privatizing the country's water resources.

• In Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola extracted 1.5 million liters of deep well water to use in their products. The groundwater was severely depleted, affecting thousands of communities with water shortages and destroying agricultural activity. As a result, the remaining water became contaminated with high chloride and bacteria levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and stomach aches in the local population.

• Coca-Cola has caused Water shortages in Varanasi, Thane, and Tamil Nadu.

• Coca-Cola is guilty of reselling its plants' industrial waste to farmers as fertilizers, despite its containing hazardous lead and cadmium.

• Coca-Cola is one of the most discriminatory employers in the world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American employees in the U.S. sued the company for race-based disparities in pay and promotions. In México, it fired a senior bottling manager for being gay.

• By regularly denying health insurance to employees and their families, Coca-Cola has failed to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa. The company is one of the continent's largest private employers, yet only partially covers expensive medicines, while not covering generic medicines at all.


The goes on and on and on, but i'll stop here. As I mentioned, i'm not dogmatic on boycotting everything unethical. My stance is more that I want to be constantly seeking ethical alternatives, as well as cutting down on my rampant consumption habits, to live a simpler and conscientious lifestyle. Thoughts and comments are welcome :)

Reflections on hope

 It hurts to care. Something I learn more and more as I seek by God's grace to dissolve bit by bit the apathy that cocoons my heart. Love hurts. Hurts like crap. And yet, here is life, and life to it's fullest, to love God with everything, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

 Recently I attended an art exhibition at Wellington Cathedral called "Hope for the Child of War" (look it up, go see it if you have the chance). The artwork was done by kids who live in internally displaced peoples camps in North Thailand. Without exception these kids have all had to flee their villages in Burma as the Burmese army ruthlessly exploits the ethnic minorities in it's own country - with forced labour, violence, rape, and murder. The art itself was made as part of an art therapy initiative meant to help the kids express what they have been through, and what their hopes are for the future. The latter tended to follow similar themes - peace between the different peoples of Burma, or a picture of their village restored and equipped with hospitals and schools. The former were invariably pictures of violence, death, villages burning, soldiers with guns, people lying dead on the ground, and next to their pictures there was often a photo of the kid who painted it, as well as a caption describing some of what they had been through. 


 Some things are worthy of tears I think. Some things demand them. This was one of those moments. But I didn't cry. I felt deadened and depressed. This is worse than tears I think, when you are grieving but unable to have that release. But perhaps my greatest emotion at the time was frustration. I mean, honestly, how the hell are you meant to respond to something like that? To pictures of horrors you can't imagine, painted by children who have actually been through them. I was frustrated at myself, because i felt my emotional response didn't reflect the magnitude of the suffering I had just been enlightened too. I was frustrated at my own impotency and inability to do anything about the suffering these kids have to endure. Despite the paintings of hope that were mixed in with those of suffering, I left struggling with feelings of despair.  


  It is in light of this experience in particular that I have been reflecting on "hope". I realised as I looked at the photos of some of these kids, that many of them still clung to hope, that many had an amazing inner strength, evident in their smile and in their eyes. They had not lost hope, so how dare I? I also realised that my hope needs to grow at the same pace that my apathy melts. Unless is does, I am left depressed and despairing at the suffering around me. Crippled into inaction. In order to be equipped to deal with the pain that caring brings, we cannot let ourselves be content with an anaemic understanding of the power of God's love, with the perfection of God's justice, and the pure incredible-ness of our eternal hope in Jesus Christ. As always, strength, wisdom, and comfort is found in God's word.


 It is astounding how much suffering the apostles went through, and yet still had joy and hope in God. Take Paul, who cared so much about his fellow man that he could wish that he himself be accursed from God, if it would mean his kinsmen would come to know Him (Romans 9:1-5). I am struck by his first letter to the corinthians, the way he speaks about the weakness and foolishness of the cross, and those who live by it. After having told them that the wisdom and strength of God is in the foolishness and weakness of the cross (1 Cor 1), he brings an indictment against the corinthians saying "we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now" (1 cor 4:). Here is a man who lived by the cross. He suffered. It was in the cross and only in the cross that he boasted. He could say that through it he was crucified to the world, and the world to him, and that the scars on his body testified to his devotion to Christ and his willingness to suffer (galatians 6:12-18). And yet, he could write in many places of the amazing joy he possesses. He was, if nothing else, a man brimming with life, and life to the full. What profound mystery of God that a man could exult and rejoice in suffering, his suffering only serving to strengthen his hope and the love of God that overflows his heart (Romans 5:3-5)! I don't pretend to understand all that Paul writes (far from it!), but it is abundantly clear that here was a man strengthened by his own weakness, by full dependency on God, by God's love, and by a hope that is triumphant and unquenchable. The antithesis of myself, a man crippled on the one hand by apathy, and on the other by despair. Paul was a man who knew that no amount of suffering he could endure could ever compare to the glory of his future hope, that even death itself could not separate him from God's love, that death itself has no victory over him whose hope is in Christ, who could look death in the face and say "where is your victory?! Oh death, where is your sting?!" (Romans 8:18, 35-39; 1 Cor 15:54-55). "Be imitators of me, just as i also am of Christ", he said. God help me to live these words.


  And so this is my hope. That I may share this hope with those that don't have it. Or at least, that I may grasp it and be an example of it. I pray that this hope would become so entrenched in my heart that I could face death daily without fear, that whether looking down the barrel of a Burmese rifle, or facing the future without knowledge of where the next meal may come from, or whatever suffering it is that God has in store for me, that I, and hopefully those around me, may keep a wistful smile and a gleaming eye, knowing that death has no victory here.


                   

                            -   "When they come for the innocent without crossing over your body, cursed be your religion and your life" - Source unknown. 

Theological splurge on the authority of men over their wives

Right, so tonight I'm going to have a bit of a theological splurge and talk about the idea of 'ontological equality and economic subordination'. Sounds fascinating huh? Well it is! This sentence has managed to shed light on an issue I have been puzzling over since I first became a Christian, and I thought I'd write something about it to help me process my thoughts.

Perhaps, like me, you have had qualms at times when reading verses like 1 Corinthians 11:3, which states that "Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ". Now, the reason why one might have a problem with these verses is probably apparent to most of you reading this (especially if you're a woman), that is that it seems to imply that men are in some way superior to women, or else that perhaps that men are better leaders than women, or something along those lines. However, I believe that the concept of 'ontological equality and economic subordination' sheds light on another interpretation that doesn't justify a chauvinistic imposition of 2nd rate citizenship onto the fairer sex.

In Corinthians Paul uses simile to compare the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, with the relationship between a man and his wife. Now, we know that the Father and the Son are both fully God, that they are ontologically (in their being) equal, and that one is not greater then the other, either in terms of inherent value or in terms of power or ability. Yet, in terms of economics (and I am using 'economics' in the old sense meaning "ordering of activities"), the Son is subordinate to the Father without being even the slightest iota less then the Father. You might then wonder, "If the Son and the Father are equal in both ability and inherent value, then surely which one of them is economically subordinate is a mute point, arbitrary, doesn't matter? Could not the Father just as easily been subordinate to the Son?". To this I would point out that if that were the case, that is if the Father was indeed economically subordinate to the Son, then He would no longer be the 'father' and the Son would no longer be the 'son'. Implicit in the titles given to either member of the Godhead is the idea that it is in their very nature for the Son to under the authority of the Father. Therefore, the relationship between the Father and Son is not a grudging subordination of the lesser to the greater, but a joyful expression of the inherent nature of both parties.

This analogy is obviously not perfect, as the relationship between a father and son is not completely analogous with the relationship between a husband and wife. However, implicit in the analogy is an affirmation of the ontological equality of men and women, both in terms of inherent value and practical ability, and also and affirmation of the differences in the nature of men and women. In order to understand what this verse is saying we need to completely do away with a cultural or worldly mindset which equates authority with superiority and, once we have done that, delve into the mystery of what it really means to be a man or a woman. Anyway, that's my theological rant for the night, I need sleep!

Selamat malam!
CJ