I’ve been reading Colossians Remixed recently and I find I’m having to stop every page or two to make my own notes. This book has such profound things to say to our culture. Basically, this book looks at what Paul might say to our western culture if he were writing his letter to the Colossians today. One of the issues this great book discusses is how we are so captive to the consumerist culture we live in. Consider this quote, taken from Walter Brueggemann’s Interpretation and Obedience:
“The key pathology of our time…is the reduction of our imagination so that we are too numbed, satiated, and co-opted to do serious imaginative work.”
The authors of Colossians Remixed call this ‘disempowering us from dreaming that things might be otherwise’. Do you ever feel like you’re so busy that you don’t know what to do with all the choices you have? It’s sometimes called ‘choice anxiety’. Or as U2 put it some years ago, freedom looks like too many choices.
Our culture keeps us so busy, so wired, that we never stop to question our lives. As my Dad has said numerous times, “we’re living all wrong”, but we’re either too wound up in getting through each day to realise it, or it occasionally flickers like a dim light in the distance but then disappears again like a ship in the night. The fact is that we have fallen hook, line and sinker for the lie that more ’stuff’ and being busier is what life is all about. And then we wake up one morning when we’re 65 and wonder where our life went.
I’ve said it before, but I find Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:26 to be some of the most timeless ever said – “what will it profit you if you gain the whole world but lose your very self in the process?” (my paraphrase). Deep down most of us know there’s something wrong with the way we live, we know we’re not really happy with our lives, but we feel powerless to stop it or we are paralysed by indifference to it. As Brueggemann says, we are numbed, or satiated to the effect that we are sleep walking our way through life.
A life focused on self and being ‘comfortable in captivity’ (another quote from Colossians Remixed) is an anti-life. Unfortunately much of the middle-class church is just as captive to this cultural numbness as the rest of society. Keith Green, referring to the church in this way, said it was asleep in the light.
Some years ago, Tim Costello wondered if God was actively working against the church. I have wondered sometimes if Tim is right. Like a frog in boiling water, we don’t even know we’re dying.
Fortunately there is a better way, the way of the Jesus, the road less travelled, a life less ordinary, to use a few clichés. But a cliché is a cliché because it is true. Jesus offers, and actually comes through, on a peace that passes all understanding, a joy that transcends our circumstances, and a freedom to be the people we really want to be – giving to others without counting the cost and loving extravagantly because we are loved beyond measure.
Saturday’s Age had a brilliant article by Simon Moyle defending the non-violence of the Christian message, following the disturbing (to say the least!) revelations of Bible verses appearing on weapons that the US military has been using in Iraq and Afghanistan. I feel quite proud of Simon as he was a young lad when I ran a boys club that he was in back in the 80s. Great work Simon. Judging from most of the comments to this article, it has generated a lot of healthy debate.
Check out my review of this latest drama-comedy starring George Clooney. A movie that reveals alot about life, love, relationships, and meaning.
Billed as one of George Clooney’s finest cinematic performances, this movie portrays the life of the ultimate corporate jetsetter. Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, whose job it is to travel around the country firing people. His company is hired by other corporations to do their dirty work of informing staff that they no longer have a position in the company they have been working for, sometimes for many years. As Bingham explains it, “we get people at their most vulnerable and then set them adrift”.
Go to the Reviews page for other reviews.
In December 2009, writer and Bible teacher Tim Chester highlighted a study done by the Family Research Council on the effects of pornography. Now I have to say at the outset that the FRC is not an organisation I would normally recommend. I believe many of the stances they take are far from biblical and reflect more of a right-wing political agenda than the way of Jesus. However I could not ignore this one. While I generally lean to the left on most issues, I do not place myself in any particular place on the spectrum of political views. I am first and foremost a follower of Jesus, and that may take me anywhere to the left or the right, depending on where I believe Jesus would stand.
The fact is that there is nothing good about pornography. It objectifies women, destroys relationships and does not have anything constructive to say about the benefits of morality. And to those who would say that porn has a positive social impact in curbing the desires of men who can’t get it elsewhere and therefore limits the amount of sexual attacks that occur in society, the statistics clearly say otherwise. The following points can also be made about pornography and its effects:
For more articles like this, go to the Reflections on Life page.
Is it just me or is it true that, in light of the recent revelations of the affair of the wife of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, the radio has been playing more of the Paul Simon classic Mrs Robinson? There’s nothing like a good sex scandal to get the media going, especially when it involves politicians.
I’m glad I’ve been hearing this song recently. I just hope that Mrs Robinson herself hears it too. And I hope that it rings true for her. The simple but profound words, “here’s to you Mrs Robinson, Jesus loves you more than you will know” remind me of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8:1-11. Jesus’ words to her were “neither do I condemn you”. While the prevailing (religious) culture want to have her stoned to make a public example of her, Jesus’ way was the way of grace. God bless you please Mrs Robinson…Jesus loves you more than you will know.
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.
It’s a new year and I thought a good way to start it here would be to link to the thoughts of Bono on what the next decade could hold in store for us. Whether you think the decade has just ended or we still have a year to go, leave that debate behind for a few moments and have a read of the thoughts of one of this planet’s more soulful minds (I particularly like his thoughts on the upcoming soccer World Cup and the beautiful game’s ability to bring the world together, if only for a short time).
A couple of weeks ago I volunteered to share on Advent at my place of work. As I studied the passage where Elizabeth greets Mary, I was reminded that the story of the birth of God is not a nice story. We have sanitised it beyond belief – literally. We sing carols like Away in a Manger with lines like ‘no crying he makes’. Really? He’s a baby for goodness’ sake. Babies cry. Don’t get me wrong; Away in a Manger is a beautiful carol but some of it betrays the smelly, shocking, subversive story of the birth of the Saviour.
A colleague of mine has recently spoken about Mary becoming pregnant and the dread she must have been feeling, thinking ‘how do I tell Joseph about this?!’
She probably ran off to her cousin Elizabeth with mixed feelings. She would have had the typical joy of being an expectant mother, but probably more so the dread of how she would explain this to everyone.
I reckon the scene in the picture opposite wouldn’t have been when they first saw each other. If this was a photo, it would have been taken well after Elizabeth had comforted Mary with her sense of joy at the whole occasion. Mary wouldn’t have been smiling much when she first turned up to see Elizabeth.
When we look in a bit more depth at passages like this, we soon see that the whole Christmas story speaks of scandal. As I mentioned, this is not a nice story. The images we have of the nativity are of gentle baby Jesus in the manger with fluffy farm animals gathered around. But consider the story. An unmarried young woman, a virgin, gets pregnant. And then we have the story of her cousin, an older woman, known as being childless. The Jewish culture of the time regarded being childless as a misfortune; it showed that you were cut off from God, and it was therefore grounds for divorce.
Despite all this, we have the joyful outburst from Elizabeth, followed by the even more amazing cry from Mary, known as the Magnificat. Their response was quite different from that of their menfolk. Joseph must have been thinking, ‘what do I do with Mary, now that she’s pregnant?’, and Zachariah was quite literally struck dumb at the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Us blokes tend to be more skeptical than our women and we can learn alot from them.
So, it is into this setting of scandal, disbelief and unspeakable joy, that we have the birth of God. Born in a horse’s trough because there was no room at the inn – rejected from the day he was born. Some years ago, Joan Osbourne asked the haunting question, ‘What if God was one of us?’. She was dead right in her lyrics – ‘just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home…nobody calling on the phone’. The God who is rejected and crucified by a brutal Roman regime is the God who is resurrected and defeats the powers of evil to establish his kingdom – creation reborn. This is what we celebrate at Christmas.
J.R. Briggs has written a very thoughtful and practical piece on avoiding the seduction of consumerism at Christmas. I don’t think we can get enough of this sort of advice. Anything to keep us alert to the real reason for the season.
There’s some great stuff out there on the web if you’re tired of the consumerist madness that characterises this time of the year we call the ’silly season’. I recently came across the website of a group called Advent Conspiracy. They are a group of concerned pastors in the US who want to take us back to what Christmas is really about – the birth of the Prince of Peace, the One who gave himself for all. I love their logo on the left. Such a prophetic message, showing a shopper with a trolly full of goods coming face to face with one of the 3 wise men, come to worship the King. The Advent Conspiracy movement is catching on, as you can see from a map on their website showing others who are doing what they can to celebrate Jesus at Christmas. Here’s what they say about themselves:
The story of Christ’s birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.
So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.
And when it’s all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?
What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?
Welcome to Advent Conspiracy.
They want to take us back to giving in the real sense, back to relationship and love. The slogan at the bottom of their website is quite brilliant. It says ‘give presence’. This clip will give you more of an idea of what they’re about:
[flashvideo file=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkTyPzRzuwc /]
I feel inspired when I hear about groups like this, people who want to steal Christmas back from the ‘Grinches’ who would have us believe that it’s all about how much you can buy. A Galaxy survey in 2008 showed that
“Gen Y[ers]…would spend an average of $245 on their partners, $264 on a child, $65 on a friend and $220 on themselves [and] other Australians said they would spend $189 on their partner, $196 on a child, $35 on a friend and $107 on themselves.”
The same would be true this year, and maybe even more so as business confidence is on the rise again.
I love Christmas. I love it because, despite our addiction to stuff, it gives me hope that there is a better way, a more excellent way, as the apostle Paul put it. The way of love inspires me to subvert what Christmas has become and try to live in a way that honours the babe in a manger who grew up to walk and talk the way of the cross, and then the way of resurrection, the life that is truly life.
The death toll as a result of the Haiti earthquake may reach as high as 100,000. Please give to the 
