World Vision

My messed up religio-political-economic worldview works well within the microcosm in which I live. Amongst the community of wider society it works less well. And as a global economic model it is completely hopeless. So this is my conclusion:

Today I will stay at home.


[1566:5000]

Consumer Power(less)

A couple of years ago, my wife and I took a trip to London’s West End on a date. We were there to watch a show and we stopped off in a small Chinese restaurant on the way for some dinner. We were quite deliberate in our choice of venue.

It was a small institution, one of many along the street of similar 10ft terraced shop fronts. Inside there was just enough space for the kitchens, a service counter, and eight or nine very small tables. Very little had been spent on internal fittings or decoration.

I don’t write this, in any shape or form, as a call for romantic sympathy, or as a means to raise funds for a charitable cause, but the truth is that people who run establishments like this do not earn very much. They work long unsociable hours, often live in cramped accommodation with young children, speak little English and rely upon help from family and friends because of the relative ruthlessness of both state and market. Because they live month to month financially, they do not experience the simple luxuries of the middle classes; like changing into a second set of ‘socialising’ clothes at the end of the working day; or being able to look far into the future and plan for pensions and healthcare in retirement.

Anyway, our scanning of the menu was interrupted by a mouth-watering chow mein style dish being brought to the table next to us. My wife and I quickly agreed that this was what we wanted, so I asked one of the staff members, who were otherwise chatting those same customers, if we could have “what they were having”.

There was some quiet discussion amongst them until the man finally turned to me with a smile and explained that he was very sorry, but that these customers were actually family friends.

I smiled.

When you graft hard to make a living, and barely have chance to breathe between servicing one customers whim in one hand, one customers complaint in another, and handling state pressures with a third, there seems a sweet smug justice in being able to enjoy something that Money Just Can’t Buy.

[1545:4926]

Sacks (5 of 5): On the 3rd Sector

"For several centuries, western political thought has been dominated by two entities: the state and the market. The state is us in our collective capacity as a nation. The market is us in our individual capacity as choosers and consumers. It omits ‘third sector’ institutions like the family, the community, voluntary organizations, neighbourhood groups, and religious congregations which have in common that they are larger than the individual but smaller than the state. Their significance, and it is immense, is that they are where we learn the habits of co-operation, whether we describe it as reciprocal altruism or social capital or trust. Families and communities are not arenas of competition… they are based not on transactions of power or exchange, but on love, loyalty, faithfulness, mutuality, and a sense of shared belonging."

(from Jonathan Sacks 'A Jewish Perspective' contribution to "Making Globalisation Good", Oxford, Dunning, 2003)

[1529:4877]

Sacks (4 of 5): On Dignity And Independence

“Moral equality is the postulate that all persons have the same intrinsic worth. They are unequal in talents, in contributions to social life and in valid claims to rewards and resources. But everyone who is a person is presumptively entitled to recognition of that personhood” (Philip Selznick)

“The highest degree, exceeded by none, is that of the person who assists a poor person by providing him with a gift or a loan or by accepting him into a business partnership or by helping him find employment-in a word by putting him where he can dispense with other people’s aid. With reference to such aid it is said, ‘You shall strengthen him, be he a stranger or a settler, he shall live with you’ (Lev 25:35), which means strengthen him in such a manner that his falling into want is prevented. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 10:7)

(from Jonathan Sacks 'A Jewish Perspective' contribution to "Making Globalisation Good", Oxford, Dunning, 2003)

[1527:4870]

Sacks (3 of 5) : On Market Power

“In ancient times, wealth and power lay in the ownership of persons, in the form of slaves, armies, and a workforce. In the feudal era they lay in the ownership of land. In the industrial age they were the ownership of capital and the means of production. In the information age they lie in access to and deployment of intellectual capital, the ability to master information and turn it to innovative ends. The labour content of manufactured goods continues to fall. To an ever-increasing degree, multinational enterprises are outsourcing production and peripheral services and becoming, instead, owners of concepts, brands, logos, images and designs. In such an age, immense advantage accrues to those with intellectual and creative skills."

(from Jonathan Sacks 'A Jewish Perspective' contribution to "Making Globalisation Good", Oxford, Dunning, 2003)

[1517:4837]

Sacks (2 of 5) : On Responsibility

“There have been five universalist cultures in the history of the West –cultures that imposed their way of life on others through conquest, conversion… They were the empires of ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Christianity and Islam, and the European Enlightenment. Globalisation is the sixth, the first to be driven not by power or ideology but by the neutral, impersonal forces of the market.

There is a personal dimension to existence. We are not powerless in the face of fate. Every technological advance can be used for good or evil. There is nothing inevitably benign or malign in our increasing powers. It depends on the use we make of them. What we can create, we can control. What we initiate, we can direct. With every new power come control, responsibility, and exercise of the moral imagination. Global capitalism is not a juggernaut that no one can steer. It can be turned this way or that by collective consent. Our aim must be to maximize human dignity and hand on to future generations a more gracious, less capricious world."

(from Jonathan Sacks 'A Jewish Perspective' contribution to "Making Globalisation Good", Oxford, Dunning, 2003)

[1508:4820]

Sacks (1 of 5) : On Co-Existence

“Judaism is that rarest of phenomena: a particularist monotheism. The God of Abraham, according to the Hebrew bible, is the God of all humanity, but the faith of Abraham is not the faith of all humanity. So strange is this idea that it was not taken on by the two daughter monotheisms to which Judaism gave rise, Christianity and Islam. These faiths are both universalist monotheisms, holding that since there is only one God, there is only one true religion, one path to salvation, to which ideally all mankind will be converted.

To attempt to eliminate diversity (by conversion, missionary activity, or holy war) is to fail to understand the dignity of difference. Hence the great command in the Bible is ‘Love the stranger', the person who is not like yourself. Fundamentalism –the attempt to impose a single truth on a plural world- is religiously misconceived. The spiritual challenge is to recognise God’s image in one who is not in my image."

(from Jonathan Sacks 'A Jewish Perspective' contribution to "Making Globalisation Good", Oxford, Dunning, 2003)

[1502:4768]

The Ship, the Shoal & the School

James warns teaching wannabees how large ships “… are steered by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot wants to go …” [Bible:NT:James3]

My understanding of ‘what God is like’ shapes my personal faith, as well as my role in the corporate church, and also my responsibilities in wider society. This understanding, in turn, is defined partly by my own experiences but mostly by the message that I receive from my teachers.

So James’ ship metaphor is significant. It reflects the sad truth that, even so soon after Jesus’ resurrection, the early church was riddled with the desire for power by the control of the message.

Today we have different problems. The thirst to dominate and control the message is perhaps less common (though not extinct). And yet, even though we live post enlightenment and teachings by the likes of Martin Luther are broadly accepted, our dependency on being 'spoon fed' doctrine is frightening.

Maybe it is because the time-consuming commercial pressures and family responsibilities associated with living in a global capitalist society leave most of us without the time or capacity to challenge and filter sound teaching from the plethora of information bombarded at us. Or perhaps a celebrity-style standard set by charismatic speakers leaves us with unbelief that a small word or behaviour from the backbenches could yield considerable prophetic impact.

The difficulty is that, under the ship metaphor, it is impossible to have common direction in ‘our journey together’, but for a Pilot At The Helm.


But this week my thinking experienced a Copernican-style revolution. And it was by a more organic metaphor of ‘doing the journey together’.

Like when a shoal of fish becomes a school of fish.

It’s amazing. How do they do it ?

[1489:4677]

Wolf Chops

One of my favourite quotes is by Benjamin Franklin on the subject of liberty:

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch …”

I have recently been mindful of Palm Sunday and wrestling with the irony of how, in Sunday school classes, our children make ‘palm leaves’ as a craft to learn how Jesus’ entrance was as a triumphant king.

Or was it? The irony being that the Jews who laid palm branches on the road before Jesus were, quite probably, the same Jews later demanding his crucifixion.

And understandably too. Put yourself in their shoes. The hope of a prophecy fulfilled. And then, dramatically not fulfilled. Jesus rode a colt into town, yes, but he did not remove the power of the oppressor. He was clearly not there to bring peace. He toppled their micro-markets and their clever tax avoidance schemes. To replace it with what?

Our own upcoming national elections remind me that, along with hope for a new leader comes hope for a new military strategy, hope for a new financial system, hope for a better system of justice, for a better job or role, for a better way of life for me and my family. For the oppressed, hope for Wolf Chops.

But this is not the Kingdom of God that Jesus brought near as I understand it.

It is not about the Acquisition Of Power, whether for good or otherwise.

In terms of a strategy for service, Jesus teaching is exhausting. In terms of finance, it will leave you penniless. In terms of a social role, it will make you an alien and in terms of military progress it will (to cite Chris Martin’s genius lyrics) leave you sweeping the streets you used to own.

[1454:4544]

Sit Down, Preacher

According to Edgar Dale, we only retain about 20% of what we hear, but around 80% of what we say to others or communicate through dramatic presentation.

So with regard to scriptural nourishment and a sound biblical worldview in individuals; the net result of a prevailing ‘auditorium career-preaching’ culture within church organisations is this: Skeletons on the pews and fat cats behind the pulpits.

And another thought. When people wonder why I appear to not listen and insist on learning from my own mistakes, this is why: we retain around 90% of what we learn through experience

- I am being an efficient learner.

[1422:4488]

The Implications Of Your Worldview

Bugger. The cerebral gyroscope needs a break on this one. Consider it for a brief moment, then get on with your life.


Anyhow, three things that have interested me this week:

A talk about whether Christians should take anti-depressants

An article called "Detoxing from Church"

A proverb that I heard but cannot find. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread".

[1413:4471]

Capacity for Grace

In cricket, when you are out, you are out. Bowled, run or caught. In football, you’re given a second chance; yellow card, red card. In baseball, it’s three strikes before you’re out.

I wonder if there has ever been a baseball player who switched sports to cricket. And if so, how he coped without all of those second chances.

When you’re familiar with justice, undeserved acquittal can be a life-changing experience. That’s biblical grace.

But when such grace becomes an over-familiar norm, justice can be an awfully bitter shock to the system.

Jesus told Peter that, if a man “sinned against him”, he should forgive him, not seven times but four hundred and ninety times (seventy times seven). [Bible:Matt18|B'rC:OJB|NT:NIV]

In my experience, when young children are receiving discipline for doing wrong, how many ‘second chances’ they are given can depend largely on the ‘capacity for grace’ worn by the discipliner.

And whether those ‘second chances’ are too many or too few will surely shape that child’s expectations for the future.

[1398:4452]

Revived And Restored

I am aware that verses, sections and paragraphs from the bible can be read out of their original, or intended, context, and then applied inappropriately, unsoundly, or just very badly.

But recently, Hosea 6 caught my attention.

Over the past few weeks, together with a group of believers, I have been looking at the Apostle’s Creed. And one thing that strikes me is the enormous ‘void’ that occurs between the crucifixion and the resurrection.

On a printed page, it is just a few millimetres of whiteness between two lines.

In the physical, it represents three days that must have been little more than ‘business as usual’ for funeral service sector workers who are familiar with clients living in the public eye.

But in the spiritual, what occurred in this void lies at the epicentre of Christian doctrine.

So I wondered if Hosea 6 might have been a ‘prophetic foreshadow’ of the resurrection. And if so, if it fills in a few of the blanks:

After the second day, God ‘revived’ His people - making us alive.

On the third day, God ‘restored’ His people – bringing us back to his original intention.

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Living In The Questions

It’s good to wrestle, to engage in creative experimentation, to have multiple conversions and to just show up. These and other helpful thoughts blogged by Mark Scandrette.

Jonathan Brink also explores some interesting insights in his posts about Facing The Lion, Re-Framing The Story and The Responsibility of F***ing Freedom .

[1435:4506]

Building Capacity in Others

Fred was struggling to carry his load. So, believing that he might benefit from my experience and extra capacity, I offered to carry it for him.

After a while, Fred became unhappy about the way that I was carrying it.

I tried to explain that the path, both behind and ahead of us, was difficult to pass, and that maybe his expectations were a little unrealistic.

All the same, Fred took it back in search of someone who might carry it in a more satisfying way.

Fred found Jim, who, in the large print, offers to carry the loads of others. Jim is a pretty popular guy. Fred also now feels much better about the way that his load is being carried.

If he had read the small print, Fred would also know that, due to a binding covenant with Jim, most of his load is actually being carried by me.

Beginning to feel a little exhausted, and desiring to pray for neither rest nor strength, I resolve that the most worthwhile thing to do is to try and help increase Fred's capacity to carry his own load.

Although this is not the kind of help that Fred is looking for.

[1411:4462]

Voluntary Alienation

The idea of choosing to be an alien is, paradoxically, alien.

But the notion fascinates me, primarily because it is what I have done.

I didn’t realise that this was what I was signing up for in the beginning. Being knee deep in it was fun. But further in, it seems less fun, if more rewarding.

I am not alone; there are others at various stages of realisation and exploration, but we are not the same.
From where I stand, not only am I an alien; so is everybody else.

Though there is little correlation with geographical movement, alien travel itself can be exhausting. Sometimes I am the visitor and sometimes the visited. These phenomena occur both when I am at home and away.

Sometimes I am gripped by the land formations or the climate. Occasionally I become drawn to the people. And there’s so much to learn from aliens. But layers of protocol, tradition, language and presumption are thick; taking time and energy to shed if an understandable core is to be reached.

Being misunderstood is a garment that I wear. Few see beneath it because the fastenings are complex and there are few hosts who provide adequate facility to hang it up.

Others can adorn lenses to shield themselves from undesirable barriers and boundaries, but that is not a freedom that I have. For me, all are passable. Seeing uncharted thresholds brings me hope and the varied perspectives that I experience lead me towards necessary Copernican style revolutions in my thinking.

Being in this state has so widened my view of others, deepened my understanding of myself and thickened my experience of the God that I believe in.

Looking ahead, I often wish that I wasn’t one, but looking back I wouldn’t have it any other way. For a believer, the self-admission of voluntary alienation is incredibly freeing. If you can handle freedom.

A few thoughts, stirred by James Cameron’s movie Avatar which, amongst other things, touches on the matter.

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