Half-Hearted Retreating

Just about to head off for our annual staff student retreat. They are usually good things. We get to spend some open time together, hear from leaving students and then pray for each other. But we are also supposed to be retreating. This never quite works for me. I usually end up reading, sleeping or listening to music. I do pray a bit. But not much. Thing is I find most retreats a bit disappointing. They tend not to do it for me. I rarely feel I connect with God in any way different to when I'm at home about my usual routine. My sax teacher reckons it's cos most retreats I go on are too short. I think he has a point.

He was telling me last night that he's been in touch with a Zen master ( my sax teacher's not a Baptist) who reckons he too is due a retreat. We put the Route 66 improv on one side for a while and talked about retreats. He reckons that for him (and many others) the retreat thing only really kicks in round about the third day. Most of my retreats are done by day three.

I'm sure that's partly why holidays tend to do it more for me than retreats. I hardly ever come back from a week or two away without some new insight or fresh excitement. Even when I'm not hunting them down they tend to sneak up on me just because I've taken the trouble to stop long enough for the voices to cease babbling.

Conclusion? This God thing takes time. I for one need to give it bit more. But what to stop?

Hello Again

Easter's past and I'm back from the dead. (Inflated ego me? What do you mean?) Been silent for five weeks now. I did think of claiming it was a lent thing that was so spiritually moving that I just got carried up up and away but some people who read this actually know me. I could do the usual dreary thing and say I've been too busy. Truth is I've just not felt like it. For some reason watching Grand Designs (again) and QI (again) were more appealing.

What caused me to get back in touch with my inner geek and venture once more Neo-like (there goes the ego again) into cyber -world? All sorts of stuff but mainly the fact that I read a book that think deserves a hearty plug. Review-type post coming soon. (I am taking my time cos I want to do it justice.)

This Week's Poll 8/04/08

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Last Month's (!) Poll: Are there any good ethical reasons NOT to be vegetarian 7 votes in total, 6 yes, 1 no. One more vote, I vote no. Or at least I can't think of any. I can think of lots of reasons why I am not a vegetarian, but none of them are good and none are ethical. They are more a matter of the flesh.

Buddhism, Pentecostals and Flattened 7ths

Daibutsu Buddha
Originally uploaded by davidteter

Found myself talking about Smith Wigglesworth during my sax lesson yesterday. Smith Wigglesworth was a Pentecostal plumber from Menston in Yorkshire. Ron, my music teacher, is a Buddhist. Among other things he’s interested in healing. If I remember the story Ron grew up catholic but was disillusioned when his priest couldn’t handle some of his spiritual experiences.

John Drane and others reckon there’s lots of people out there for whom the church just isn’t spiritual enough. Looks like there’s some evidence to support this theory. At least in south Manchester.

Have we Christians spent too long worried about and accommodating to rationalistic, secular, materialism and not enough time just getting closer to God and letting it show?

Dentistry and God Talk

Taking photos distracts me from my mild dentist-phobia.
Originally uploaded by Mollissima!

Found myself talking about God at the dentist’s yesterday. Both the dentist herself and the dental nurse had their questions. Getting caught reading books on evangelism after christendom can lead to some interesting conversations.

The dentist, a practising Catholic, wanted to know the difference between being an evangelical and being evangelistic, “They are not the same are they? Because Catholics can do evangelism but I don’t think they are evangelical.” And, “At the freshers’ fair at uni I was talking to the Christian Union but when they found out I was Catholic they said, ‘Oh no, this is not for you; the Catholic Society is over there’.” Thinks: Catholics doing evangelism? – please God. Thinks 2: When oh when will evangelicals learn to be generous and hospitable?

The nurse told me how she had initially taken atheism for granted but was now developing an interest in God. “People always gave me the impression that God was like a man up in the sky but I reckon God’s everything that’s all around us. What do you think?”

As the novacaine took effect I found myself thinking about David Hay’s research into the spirituality of those who don’t go to church. Apparently there’s a growing readiness out there to speak about things spiritual but a groping after a language with which to do so. It seems that people are uncomfortable with transcendent, anthropomorphic God-talk finding it much easier to conceive of the divine as an immanent presence. Not sure if the nurse was groping towards pantheism or panentheism but I do know it’s hard to give a coherent answer with your mouth full of fingers, cotton wool, vacuum cleaners and instruments of torture.

No Country .. Just Blood

During the last week I’ve been gripped by the two most critically acclaimed of this year’s Oscar nominees, There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men.

Seeing these powerful films back to back is an interesting experience. Interesting and deeply challenging.

There are important differences between the two films: the first has a powerful score, the second virtually no soundtrack whatsoever; the first is a character study, the second is in large part a gripping thriller; the first has a striking opening section with virtually no dialogue, as the second heads toward its ending it leaves action behind in favour of reflective dialogue.

What struck me most though were the similarities. Both films are dominated by superbly realised, deeply menacing villains; both are brutally violent; both have unconventional endings; both are concerned with father-son relationships. But above all both are profoundly pessimistic.

In No country Tommy Lee Jones’s weary sheriff despairs of a world gone wicked as he simultaneously desires and fears judgement on his own life. Blood is an almost Shakespearean tragedy painting a bleak picture of the destructive power of misanthropic greed. The central character hopes to become rich enough to be able to live without other people. “No man is an island” and in the process of becoming truly insular by destroying all who are close to him, Daniel Day Lewis’s ruthless oil man is finally stripped of the last vestiges of humanity.

If this is how our contemporaries see the world, they are desperately in need of hope. In the year of a co-ordinated mission initiative under the banner of Hope 08 is the church capable of painting an authentically optimistic alternative vision? Here’s hoping.

This Week's Poll 01/03/08

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Previous Poll: Is it just a matter of time until the Christian church as whole recognises the validity of committed Gay relationships? 12 votes in total, 8 yes, 4 no. One more vote, I vote no.

I reckon that at least in the foreseeable future, there will continue to be a strong fundamentalist expression of Xnty that will be socially conservative, reactionary even. This is especially true when one takes into account the nature of vigorous expressions of the faith in the developing world. I think however that there is likely to be a strong trend towards embracing homosexuality among mainline denominations in this country. I reckon we will see this even among non-fundamentalist evangelicals.

Of course the poll while ostensibly asking an "objective" question gives opportunity to express personal views, so here's mine. I really hope that the church as whole does give a full and equal place to gay people without out any discrimination whatsoever on the basis of sexuality.

With regard to the various comments: I thinks Catriona is spot on with her historical observations; I didn't us the phrase "Gay Marriage" because many gay people are themselves uncomfortable with the expression believing it to be irredeemably tainted with patriarchal overtones; I reckon Stephen makes a very good point with regard to not waiting until there is unity; it this an issue that is central to the gospel or not? - I reckon Phil and Tim's debate is based on a false antithesis - surely the gospel is both about God's gracious restoration of relationship with individual people and also about the restoration of justice in the society of people. A gospel without one or the other is surely less than the full gospel. Actually I think I would rather express my understanding of the gospel as God's gracious restoration of the whole of creation so that it truly embodies and displays God's glory. This includes (among other things) the saving of individuals and the saving of society.