Deeper shade of grey | grace & age

I

have just seen a disturbing picture. Farah Fawcett. Whoever made the decision to print the picture of this old woman needs to know the effect it has had on me. I lived for Thursday nights and Charley! She was part of my transition into young adulthood. I can close my eyes now and still see that picture of yesteryear that every male between 35-45 has locked away in their memories somewhere. But now?

The plastic surgeons’ knife cut lines of lies into that beauty. Barely noticeable as at first the deception goes un-noticed. There is something inherently ugly in a 60-year-old looking 30. She has been robbed of the beauty of natural aging that speaks of experience, trust and knowledge. Her stretched skin over her cheek-bones speak of inauthenticity. Her distorted lips and chin scream sham, pretence, charade, con. We’ll leave my analysis at the neck-line I think! Where has that beauty gone? Left alone people would have celebrated that unbridled attractiveness, beauty.

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Confessions of a Halloweener

Geoff Ryan asks: why should the Devil have all the good parties?

“To confront the Empire is not to fight against it but to live beyond it.” (seminar leader at Messiah College, May 2002, speaking on living counter-culturally)

“Because we love something else more than this world, we love even this world better than those who know no other.” (C.S. Lewis)

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t is said that confession is good for the soul, so… here it goes. I celebrate Halloween! It’s true, I allow my kids to dress up and go out trick or treating. I carve pumpkins and buy candies to give out to children who come to our door in their spooky costumes. Now having so declared myself, allow me to offer a reasonable defense before the collective wrath of my fellow Christians descends upon my head (or at the very least, piles up in my mailbox).

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Ragamuffin: joy to our city

So there was great joy in that city | Acts 8:8 (NLT)

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e have been going through Acts in our Sunday services and found Acts 8 interesting for us city dwellers. Verse 8 says that joy was in the city. Later we read that the Ethiopian went away rejoicing. Inspired, I thought how could we bring joy to our city?

The chapter tells us how:

• by crossing barriers to others with the Good News (Jews disliked the Samaritans)
• by doing good to others (healing in the name of Jesus)
• by welcoming others not like us (Samaritans)
• by applying the Word (Philip and the Eunuch)
• by caring for the individual and not just the crowd (Philip and the Eunuch)

The choice is ours, of course. We must choose to take the first step… the initiative in sharing, loving and helping. Will you? Will I? Will we?

Ragamuffin appears every Monday on theRubicon. Find past Ragamuffin posts and a bio of Jay Davis here.

Double~take | chocolate

…why does slavery have to ruin things?

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n the desperation that boredom brings; shortly after I returned to Australia in July I signed up with a group of Salvos to help stop human trafficking in the cocoa industry.

I have little interest in the work of social “activists” – people chaining themselves to trees for no apparent reason, and then handing out millions of flyers (I wonder where the paper came from…?). My one fall-in with protestors was when I broke a picket line outside my university. Well, there weren’t very many of them; I have no idea what they were protesting; and they were between me and my Japanese exam. I don’t do “fads”, and I hardly have the resources to invest into every “cause” that comes my way.

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Vox populi #5

Jesus holds us to the earth, the dirt, the poor

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his joke came back to me a couple of weeks ago. It originated about the time I was 7-years-old, and it goes like this, “What is wrong with you if your feet smell and your nose runs?” You are standing on your head. Okay, stop laughing and read on because I want to suggest this is a great posture for mission, standing on your head, or at least upside down.

I have a print on my desk (pictured here as a thumbnail - larger after the jump), and the title of the print is Jesus holds us to the earth seen from the downside up, by Bob Haverluck. Bob is a cartoonist with a passion for peace and justice, and this print is part of a series based on a series of lectures Bob did, “Glory in the Lowest”, a radio play for people without radios. Apart from being very interesting, the print helps us to identify with the “company of the poor” in connection with Christ. In a recent conversation with Bob he explained his inspiration for this work.

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Worship with all your body

by Andrew Evans

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ur motivation for any action should always be to honour and glorify God our Father. Therefore, when we approach physical fitness, we need to approach it in a manner that both honours and glorifies God.

In preparation for this article, I have been reading from books by General William Booth, Commissioner Samuel Brengle, various academic journals and texts and most importantly the Bible. Even though this topic has the potential to make people feel bad about themselves, this is an article that attempts to encourage you to treat your body the way God intended. If you are convicted to change, then listen to the Holy Spirit and change for God’s glory. Or, if while reading you feel you have been faithful with the way you treat you body, praise God, and help others do the same.

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Deeper shade of grey | 5

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have to admit that I am not big on poetry. Even the more worthy stuff makes me shudder and I find my mind disappearing into itself. It simply doesn’t happen for me. I try, but nothing. While people are smiling knowing and truly appreciating the art in words, all I hear is “blah…blah… blah…. blah…” Sorry. Even the jolly stuff with a bit of humour, again nothing - ok I am a poetry philistine!! It surprises me then that I have kept this poem - it makes me smile and grimace.

CHURCH

I go to church and it’s a bore.
Fewer and fewer darken its door.
Twelve-stringed worship leader is in a right muddle,
Wants all to know he’s part of the holy huddle.
Gathered up like a blessed rugby scrum.
Flute, tambourine and hell on drum,
All stand up faces aglow
Adjust the mic, check flies, good let’s go.

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Wise as serpents, gentle as doves

On Christian political engagement

The electoral silly season is upon - or almost upon - many of us. In the US, a year of non-stop advertising is about to begin in order to elect the next president. In the UK, many observers think Gordon Brown will soon seek a personal mandate via a general election. In Australia, they’re in the thick of it with battles underway for a November 10th federal election. In New Zealand things are temporarily quiet as in Canada… although last week the Canadian minority national government was on the brink of collapse.

How do Christians deal with politics (apart from church politics)? What’s the best way to take our understanding of faith into the political arena and to joust in that forum of ideas, whether during an election or any other time?

 

This article - written for theRubicon - explores Christian political engagement. Although many of the references are Canadian, the main ideas and arguments are universal.

 

P. Hill has worked inside and outside of government as both a policy advisor to a Cabinet Minister in Canada and as a spokesperson for religious communities. P. Hill’s current public office prevents him/her publishing such arguments for attribution, hence the pseudonym.

P

reston Manning, former leader of the Reform Party of Canada, is often heard admonishing Christians who engage in politics to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. In his opinion, Christians too often fail in this regard, with the result that their advocacy is ineffective and counterproductive.

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Ragamuffin: 3 thoughts on poverty

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The first response to poverty or human suffering is the emergency attitude of dealing with the symptoms. Huge amounts of food and other supplies are poured into a disaster-stricken area, and those on the giving end believe this Band-Aid approach will, temporarily, deal with the problem. We can’t diminish the importance of this approach to dealing with the plight of the poor, especially since it is positively supported by many scriptural exhortations.

Proverbs 19:7 | “If the relatives of the poor despise them, how much more will their friends avoid them? The poor call after them, but they are gone.”

Matthew 25:37-40 | “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ And the King will tell them, ‘I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

But while works of mercy and charity have an important place, if we do not ask why the poor are poor, we might by playing a part in the problem. We must not destroy local resourcefulness or local farming. We must not cause a continual dependency on foreign or external aid that will not easily be broken.

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Double~take | freedom

… cuts both ways

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didn’t go to church today. It’s funny how almost the only people that can carry on a decent conversation are kids. Everyone is too busy sipping coffee and comparing jewellery they bought at the fair trade jewellery stand they’ve got going. But I have been reading the bible a lot by myself. I’ve been learning a lot about the differences between the old covenant, and the new. In the old was all that stuff about tithing, sacrifices, cleansing and purifying. In the new, God writes his law on our hearts. We live under grace, not under the law. The law can’t save anyone. If it could, Jesus wouldn’t have to die, right?

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